Social Learning SIG - Push vs. Pull and How RSS Changes Learning
Sep 26, 2007 RSS, Social Learning SIG
Let’s bring this meeting to order. Welcome everyone. Sit back and enjoy the Social Learning ride (of course, you do realize you will have to drive some, don’t you? Unless the car breaks down…)
Let’s say I was behind a car and you were in front of it. I pushed it and you pulled it. We get the same result, yet are doing two opposite things. So it depends on which side you are on. Let’s take it from the learning professional’s perspective.
You have spent months (plus) creating training curriculum. Now, you need results (RIO). So you pull people to your training. Haven’t we all been there? They sign up through an LMS. We market our offerings. We try to convince managers why their people should attend. We create training and the people it is intended for may not want /can’t attend or don’t feel the need. Rather they may feel forced to attend, or they don’t have enough time to make it, or they were just hit with an unexpected project or… often we pull them to the learning. They feel like they are being pushed into learning - not alway, but sometimes.
Let’s turn that around. What if we were able to push learning to them and they pulled what they wanted, when they wanted, how they wanted?
Now look at it from the learner’s perspective. You want to learn about (fill in the blank). You could go out there, pulling information to you. This is the traditional way of getting information, no matter what that information is. In the early days of the internet, as an example, for you to get the industry information you wanted you needed to visit your favorite sites. On each one you would look for the information you were interested in. This might take some time. You might also come across information you didn’t want and would skip over it. And some days when you went looking you didn’t find anything useful. Oh well. Keep looking…
Well break those shackles which bind you! You don’t have a lot of time in a day to search and not find anything. For you to go searching for the latest information and not find it is not acceptable.
Let it be sent to you. This is one of the the SEVEN requirements for Social Learning. Unfortunately, (cliff hanger approaching) that is for another time. But I bring this up for a very important reason: for us to learn from each other in this SIG we must be able to get the information when we want it. We must let the information be pushed to us. You don’t want to check the blog every day to see if there is a new post. WASTE OF TIME. Instead, let the blog inform you of when there is new information and then tell you what that information is. If you don’t have time to read it right then, you want it waiting for you when you do have the time.
In this context, it is called RSS. I have written about this before on this BlogCascadia post. The best explanation, if you don’t know what it is (and even if you do) is found in this video.
For you to feel a part of this SIG you must RSS yourself. Here is what you will need to do:
- Go get yourself an RSS Reader. Personally, I use two readers. The most useful to me is the web based Google Reader. I also use Feedreader - a little app for the desktop. Here are some more web-based and application readers. There are pros and cons to all.
- Go here, here, here, here and here. (Ha, that was fun!) Sign up for their RSS feeds. (How? Watch the video mentioned above.)
- From those, find some others and sign up. You can always drop some or add some as you read them.
- Comment on this post. Tell us a) what reader you chose and what you think about it and b) what other RSS feeds you signed up for. If you find one, share it - we want to know as well!
The heart of this SIG is #4 - sharing. Tell us all what you think. Don’t shrink at the task! Agree/Disagree. Have any questions? Comment. Let’s hear it!
Announcing The New Social Learning SIG
Sep 18, 2007 Learning 2.0, Social Learning SIG
About a month ago I presented an introductory ‘Learning 2.0‘ to a sold out crowd at the E-Learning SIG. There was a lot of interest afterward – they wanted to further understand what it is, why it is, and how to use it in learning. Even though it is ‘electronic’ and it is ‘learning’ we felt that there was enough of a difference, and demand, for it to warrant its own SIG (Special Interest Group through the local chapter of ASTD).
Some have called this ‘Informal Learning’, or ‘Collaborative Learning.’ I used to call it ‘Learning 2.0.’ We are so new in this space that there isn’t one definitive name for it. We felt the ‘2.0′ nomenclature would limit it, just as Gateway 2000 changed their name to Gateway in (essentially) 1999, so we dropped that. ‘Collaborative’ is a term that not many people can nail down well in this context. ‘Informal’ sounded, well, too informal. ‘Social’ captured the essence and can easily be understood. And so it was…
This SIG will be run very differently than traditional SIGs. Instead of meeting in a physical place, we will meet virtually. The official spot is on BlogCascadia, although it will also be posted here at Engaged Learning. There will be other areas where it will appear and where we will have interaction, but that is for another time.
Because of the virtual nature of this SIG, those who participate need not be only from the Portland, Oregon area. We encourage anyone, where ever you are in the world, to join us on our Social Learning journey. Feel free to forward this to coworkers, colleagues, friends, foes (no pets, please) and anyone else you might feel benefit from this. As a major theme you will see, the more we involve, the more we will learn from each other.
What is our format? That will be somewhat fluid, but there is a method to the madness. I will post a new discussion one to two times a month. It will have some theory, talk about how to apply the theory, some tool discussions and a call to action to get you engaged. I highly encourage comments and postings of what you have found, here or at BlogCascadia. Let us learn from you! Don’t hold back! Social Learning is NOT about hording information. Let it free! Share it with us as we share with you and we will all be stronger for it. We will also host webinars which will feature the incredible knowledge and experience of industry experts who will help guide us through this wonderful world. Details on this piece is will be showing up soon.
Next week will be the first of real posts. They will all begin with ‘Social Learning SIG – (TOPIC)” and will be tagged with the “Social Learning SIG” tag on the right so all the SIG posts can be filtered. Although I will lead the discussion, I intend to be more of the facilitator, starting off the discussion and helping to guide it, with all of you providing the real good stuff we will all learn from.
Want to discuss something specific? Let me know – comment and let’s get the topic going. Have any questions? Comment on this post and I will answer. You can answer, too.
I really look forward to this. Again, please pass on to any (and all) others and let’s enjoy! See you around (virtually).
The Fear of Social Learning
Sep 11, 2007 Implementation, Learning 2.0
(You really need to click on the pict above to get the full effect.)
What is it? Why are so many so fearful? Andrew McAfee wrote a thought provoking post exploring the idea.
When I talk to other learning professionals about a move from structured, formal learning to a non-formal learning environment using these principles, the reaction is the same.
“But we can’t just let anyone create content.” “What if the content is wrong?” “What if the content is poorly written?”
After digging deeper what I have found is a fear of loss of control over the content. But that is only a symptom. The real fear, as far as I can tell, is one of not understanding the ‘what’ and ‘why’ behind the concept. Once we understand it, we are much more likely to see its application. So many people admittadly ‘don’t get it.’ Honestly, that is OK. It takes time. It takes experience. Just like my son who didn’t ‘get’ how to convert yards to inches on paper, he needed to experience it. Once he did - Got it. It makes sense. We have all had those moments. I haven’t seen more people have those type of moments since high school calculus.
When I approached my company with the E2.0 concept, it blew up in my face. Resistance was extreme. Then, I came in the back door and used an online project management service which uses many of these principles. I (covertly) helped them, through experience, learn what I was talking about. All of the sudden I was a hero (sans cape) and they are starting to embrace my original thoughts.
Teach the ‘whys’. Better yet, get them to experience the ‘whys’. These concepts are not (often) driven from the top down as just about everything else is. Because more frequently this comes from the bottom up, from the users, it is from the underground and is immediately suspect. The control is gone. This is all human nature: One can’t control what one doesn’t understand. And it might be that we, in the end, don’t want to control it, but at least we want to understand. Help others understand and you will have an ally.
