Engaged Learning

I have never been a fan of 'STEPS', as in 'The Seven Steps to a Great Marriage' or 'The 5 Steps to Unstoppable Growth." For the most part, they are marketing titles that thinly vails the actual complexity. Each step might be made up of 5 substeps.

'The Seven Steps to Great Training' or anything like it might help the beginner with some place to start, but as they get into their project they will quickly realize that they must rely heavily on one step, somewhat on another and not at all on yet another. Up until now we looked at learning as a manufacturing environment. We expect to put information in the beginning, have it go through modification, and then come out looking like training which will work for all participants.

The new model calls for a different understanding. Information is not put in through a funnel, it flows in from everywhere. It is contributed by the consumers. The traditional producers of knowledge become the facilitators rather than the creators and keepers.

Suddenly you have more knowledge coming in from every direction. We have not set ourselves up for this type of information influx. But it is a model we can take advantage of if we focus on the need.

No more is knowledge created by steps (or process).







But is is coming from everywhere...

Enterprise 2.0 and Learning 2.0 are explicitly intertwined. Below is a slide show on E2.0. Think about how L2.0 fits in with this.

Labels: Enterprise 2.0, learning 2.0

Those who are baby boomers were educated by people who knew what the workforce was like. They were preparing them for real jobs. When they were young they heard what their jobs would be like and most of the time they were right. Not that they picked a job when they were young and stuck with it until they were older, but they had a solid picture of what the world was like.

My generation, GenX, was educated the same way, only when we got there, the world was nothing like we were told. Modern technology changed everything. The jobs we were educated for were still around, but the way we do them did not exist then. They were not even thought of. In fact, when I was young I thought I would pretty much have the same job when I was an adult. Instead I have been laid off three times through acquisitions and major down-sizings. Not something that was foreseen by my educators.

Fast forward to today. We now recognize that when our children enter the workforce and really get into their career, we have no idea of what that will be like. Sure, there will be finance people, managers, educators, scientists, doctors, lawyers. But the way in which they will perform their job has not been, and cannot be, identified - because it doesn’t exist yet.

So how do we prepare others for the future?

Yesterday my 12-yr old son called me at work, wanting me to help him with a math problem - probability. We talked about it and I led him through it. Because I could not show him anything, it was difficult. Had we both been hooked up to a net meeting I would have easily been able to do it. But instead, when I got home, we talked about it.

I asked him, “Have you ever had a glass of gasoline?” Of course he had not. “Why,” I asked him. Because it is not good for your body. “But I never told you not to drink it.” True, but he knew that if he put harmful things into his body, there would be an adverse reaction. I talked to him about principles - in mathematics, formulas. X= ? and Y=? If you know the formula, you can plug any numbers in there for similar problems and get the right answers every time. That is like life. If you know the principle behind it, you can be put into any situation and know what to do. He would know, for example, not to drink gasoline.

This is one of the major ways we can prepare others. Sure, teach them the basics, teach them the three Rs. Then, teach them how to lead, how to solve problems, how to recognize patterns, how to analyze those patterns, how to put a plan in place and execute against that plan, how to work with others and collaborate.

We have no idea what the world will be like in a few years. If you look at the last few years, everyone, even those that cannot afford it, carry cell phones. That has changed so many different aspects of our culture, let alone has large, previously stable land line phone companies more than a little worried.

And with us, we should be a little worried - no anxious. Anxious to find those things that will prepare others and ourselves for a world that we cannot predict a world that holds great opportunities. We must learn the principles - the formulas - and learn how and when to apply them.

Labels: formula, GenX, prepare

This makes a great case for need for engaged and personalized learning. It was chosen the #1 PowerPoint by SlideShare.

Labels: Shift Happens

I created this for a presentation I am doing for Learning 2.0.

Mission statement for Learning 2.0
Learning 2.0 will:

• Enable learners to be the creators
• Be the catalyst for learning collaboration
• Offer just the right amount of information at the time it is most needed
• Allow and encourage learners to take control of their learning

I think that about covers it - but I still reserve the right to add more. Let's just consider this version numero uno.

Labels: collaboration, learning 2.0, mission statement

Richard Nantel, the CEO of Brandon Hall Research, posted a blog entitled, "Learning to calculate the area and circumference of an irregular shape" I feel with some modification this post could be called, "Training - The Stumbling Block?"

One of Training's goals is to disseminate information to those who need it when they need it so they can use it. But, so far, most of the knowledge that Training has been in charge of is under their lock and key. It is collected, analyzed, formatted, delivered and made available by them. Up until now, not a model. But today learning is changing. We don't learn the same way we used to. My informal learning at home is VERY different than the structured learning at work. What if we were able to shape and loosely structure the non-formal learning? What if we were able to not only facilitate it, but encourage it and fan the fire?

Granted, we couldn't track learning like we have been. (If they learned information but we can't track it, did they really learn it?) We will need a new way. This way will follow, in my opinion, commerce. How do potential customers learn what is the best product or service for them to buy? How do they track this? How do they encourage consumption?

If we do not give our 'customers' what they want and how they want to learn, we just may loose them and they may find another way to get and share the information. That may be good or bad.

Labels: Brandon Hall, Euan Semple, Richard Nantel, stumbling block