Engaged Learning

The Democratization of Learning

Apr 29, 2008 Wiki, collaboration

Recently I interviewed a number of employees at my company to see how they use our Social Learning platform. There were a number of things that I was able to take from those discussions which I continue to write about. One of them is the ‘ownership of information.’

We live in a world of posession:

“If I create it, it is mine. I own it. If it is wrong or is destructive, I must correct it. If it is right or produces good results, I take the credit.”

“If you create it, it is yours. You own it. If it is wrong or is destructive, you must correct it. If it is right or produces good results, you get the credit.”

Times have changed. Information is now mass produced. Unlike land or a physical object, information is much more free flowing, and in most regards it is not exclusive to anyone. I can know the same thing you know. If I think of something, do I own that thought? What if you think of the same thing? Who owns that thought, that information at that time?

The information we create is ours:

“If I create it, it is ours. We own it. If it is wrong or is destructive, we must correct it. If it is right or produces good results, we take the credit.”

“If you create it, it is ours. We own it. If it is wrong or destructive, we must correct it. If it is right or produces good results, we take the credit.”

Why is this? Let’s ask the question, “Why do we have working meetings within organizations?” (as opposed to informational meetings.) Because it gives us the opportunity to get together and talk and share. Suddenly, my thoughts and information and experience, and your thoughts and information and experience, and another’s thoughts and information and experience, when combined together become more powerful, more effective than if they were taken alone. Instead of adding them together, when we combine them we multiply them and the answer is much more powerful. Suddenly, the information becomes ours - not mine or your’s or the other person’s. But we all own it. We all are responsible for it.

Social Learning creates a repository of information and learning. Who owns the repository? The company or organization or the group. Who owns the information in there? Every member involved. Even as I write this, it ceases to become ‘mine’ the instant you take it in to your mind and apply it to yourself. You probably have some thoughts about this concept. Maybe you can add to it. If you can, I recommend you share your thoughts with us using the comments.

This is how Social Learning works. If you can add to it, correct it, clarify it, please do. We learn from each other this way. The information becomes more correct, more relevant the more we all add our insights into it.

So if you see some information that is incorrect in a wiki, feel empowered to go in and change it and correct it. If you have a question about it, use the comments and the owner will be notified. Hold the discussion in the comments. That way, when someone else has the same thought you did (and someone will) they will see the logic of why you and the other person decided to present the information in the way you did.

This is the Democratization of Learning.

Some people have mentioned that they feel badly if they change the information because it may make the creator look badly. If we really feel that way, are we saying that everyone should look infallible? Are you? If this was about them, or if it was about you and the egos in play we might have a different discussion. But this has nothing to do with you or me or how this makes us look. It has to do with learning - how we make it more relevant, accurate, applicable. When that is the goal, egos no longer matter, only the learning itself and what we can do with it.

Suggestions:

• When you see a document that is not well formatted, take a quick minute to format it for better, quicker reading by others.
• If you see information that is wrong, correct it.
• If you see that you can add to the information, do it.
• When you find information that is old, update it.
• Correct mispellings.
• Verify information with those who have created the information.
• Add your voice in the information.

We all own it. We all are responsible for it.

Learning at CA

Apr 17, 2008 Social Learning SIG, eLearning Guild Annual Gathering 08

CA has a TON of people to help learn - mostly customers. Their group wanted to extend beyond the classroom,

What they did:

• Went to one LMS, instead of many
• Implemented an eBook platform
• Standardized the virtual classroom
• Integrated podcasts, vodcasts and Learning Collaboration

They needed something that used SCORM, ahighly configurable, moderated discussion threads, blogs, wikis and RSS Feeds, a resource library, subscription options, chat and virtual classroom, tagging and full-text search capabilities, training centers, wrapped and transitional (pre-post learning) learning and it had dto enable push and pull of information.

For the tool they chose: Q2 Learning’s: xPert eCampus. It looks customizable from a UI perspective. It does not have the ability, however, for the user to customize what they want.

Best Practice Tips:

• Use the ADDIE model - identify business and learning needs up front
• Involve stakeholders from the beginning
• Make use of RFPs and Test-case scenarios
• Used seasoned Project Managers
• Evaluate the effectiveness during and after
• Be able to use templates in your tool
• Over communicate
• Crawl before you walk, walk before you run, run before you fly

They won the Bersin & Associates Learning Leader for 2007.

Tips & Tricks - What should you be looking at when you choose a tool?

• It needs to map to real human interactions - people like to interact with people. There are levels of

He states the conversations are THE core business process - particularly ‘Sustained conversations for action.’

Affordance is the word of the day: The features that ‘call you’ to do certain things. A coffee cup calls you to grab the handle. Question: What are the affordances for sustained conversations? (Great thing to think of and evaluate.)

Ha, he just labeled Jive’s Clearspace as a Social Networking platform linked with Facebook instead of a Collaboration platform. Interesting. (UPDATE: I talked with him afterwards and found out that he misspoke - he meant to say NING, which would be correct.)

What is the difference he shows?

Community platform:

• Small Town mentalilty
• Norms & Practices
• Real Names
• Read all new
• Email participation

Social Network

• Large city mentality
• Anonymity
• Avatars
• Report Abuse
• RSS Feeds

Four different key Affordances:

• Conversation: forums, blogs, wikis, IM , chat, webmeeting,email, attach files and pictures, track and read new material, RSS, Discussion reads as transcript, post in discussion, reports on utilization by forum and person, lenear & branching discussions.
• Content: Attach files to posts, resource library, Full text search, tagging, rating, version control, check in/out
• Community: Profiles with photos, Online status, directory, personal home page, endorsements, share photos/videos, reputation management (rating the file and that goes into their rating)
• Corporate: Enterprise architecture, role-based management, multiple sites, interoperability

They built a custom connector between this tool and their LMS. What usage are they tracking? The conversations and linking them to the courses. Interesting… I am not sure why it is being tracked.

Personally, they lumped Jive in as not fulfilling these and I completely disagree (AGAIN, SEE UPDATE ABOVE). I do agree with the “Four different key Affordances” however. These are all parts of the evaluation you will need before you start choosing a tool.

Stefan Sagmeister - The Keynote Not Related to Learning

Apr 17, 2008 Social Learning SIG, eLearning Guild Annual Gathering 08

OK, his picture is scary.  But I am assuming his keynote will be much more pleasing! (NOTE: after writing this, this has very little to do with learning at all.  So you might want to skip it unless you want to waste some time…  but my synopsis is at the end.)

Rotting bananas, pig cars, tiled portraits, life sayings…

First, he shows us how he creates personal logos off of pictures.  They are computer generated graphical shapes.  Using for personal, corporate, product branding.  Also there is music that is generated that, from the example he showed, sounds like my 5 year old was playing on the piano.

Socially Responsible Design: Inflatable graphs, kind of like my kids bouncing on those big inflatable toys.  You know what I am talking about?  Also, vehicles shaped like pigs.  One bus turned upside down on top of another bus (signifying topsy tervy). Both of these to show how extreme they feel US military spending is.  Way too political for me in a speech like this.

Every 7 years he closes the business and does an experimental year (Would love this!).  One of the best chefs in the world is only open for 6 months a year.  The other 6 he explores - there is no pressure.  A lot of people have some time on Friday morning.  Or the Google 20%, etc…  he does a yearly thing.  During this time he came up with a new thought.  Interestingly, his clients, when he came back, they were very willing to give him jobs still.  One, he was given a six page spread in a magazine to do with whatever he wanted.  He created a collage of interesting textures and colors and shapes saying “Everything I do comes back to me.”  Another one: The city of Paris gave him a billboards to do the same thing.  “Trying to look good limits my life.”  He said creating these is much more fun than action scripting.  I would agree!  Another, “Everybody thinks they are right.”  With Esquire magazine in Tokyo they said you can do whatever you want.  So they took a picture of them peeing the message.  They sent it in and didn’t hear anything for a long time.  But eventually they were told that that Nissan felt they were peeing on their car (in the picture).  So they redid it for Scotland with inflatable monkeys.

His second 7 years itch/break starts this year, which he will do in Indonesia.

Now he is waxing about our reaction to 9/11.  Then he throws up newpaper/magazine pages, one with some bare breasted ladies.  Please.  Know your audience.  Quite inappropriate.  Maybe that is socially OK in Austria (where he is from), but it is not OK here in front of 1000 people wanting to learn about learning. Personally I believe it is never OK.

One of his quotes is “Complaining is silly.  Either act or forget.”  At least he is doing that.  He is acting about with what he believes and that I admire.
OK, I am done with this one even though he is still going.  It was interesting art, form and great sayings of life, but too political, too little linkage to learning.  Overall it was interesting, but not what we (at least I) would have like to have seen.  It was good sprinkled with other stuff, but nothing of learning.

I have a personal philosophy.  “Why settle for good when you can have greatness?”  That goes for everything.  Now I am not so naive to realize that everything I do or will be involved in will be ‘greatness,’ but I expect it, I strive for it and do the best given the constraints.  The choice of Stefan as a keynote was only on the level of ‘good’ with some objectional things thrown in.  Why settle for that?  Understandably, sometimes you don’t know what you have until you get it, thinking it would be different.  I trust that this was the situation here.  But those are just my thoughts.  I am sure others thought it was great.  I just couldn’t.

Maybe for a different a different perspective, visit Kerry McGuire’s blog globetrottingkerry.wordpress.com. We are sitting right next to each other doing this.

(NOTE: I know I said was done, but… His next life saying was “Low Expectations are a good strategy.” Funny, huh?  Or not?)

Espresso Learning

Apr 17, 2008 Social Learning SIG, eLearning Guild Annual Gathering 08

I don’t drink coffee or any of its incarnations, but the Espresso Learning packed a punch.  I had no idea how exhausted I would be after three, forty minute session, back to back to back!  But I wanted to thank everyone who came to my Social Learning table.  We had some great discussions.  If you have not already, join us for more discussions on the Social Learning site where we can gab more.  Ask some questions, get some answers.

We hit A LOT of topics.  The basic question was, “How do I start?”

I hate to keep people in suspense, but it is late. I will post more tomorrow - I think.  I get to end the conference with my 13-year old son hanging around with me and then… a trip to the Magic Kingdom!  Gotta love a day like that!

The CLO View - Bob Dean

Apr 17, 2008 Social Learning SIG, eLearning Guild Annual Gathering 08

Bob Dean is the CLO of a leading C-level talent search firm.  He is here to give us his view of the learning field.

He is looking for a Talent Development System (TDS - a term he made up).  It should be out of the box, not like an LMS (although that could be part of it), but overall talent, not just traditional learning.  Online performance reviews, position descriptions, etc.

ROI keeps him up at night.  It is important but is often overstated.  Alignment is more where it is at - what is the strategy and overall priorities and then align them.  Having a head of talent (CTO) over it all.  Does he ask for an ROI?  No, they are too busy.  He would rather have ROV (Return on Visibility) getting the C’s as part of the learning.  Those companies with a strong grapevine, the ROI would be trumped by the speak in mid to small businesses (his has 1800 employees) and he  feels this way.

How does he assure alignment as CLO?  Being a business person gives you a fundamental background.  “The 6 Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning” he says is fabulous - the handbook for CLOs.  Very practical.  This has been his bible for alignment.

He also stresses that designing a complete experience is key.  He wants to drive behavior change through learning.  Align yourself that way.  Not through other metrics.  This is more than a 2 or 3 day program.  Continuous Development Experiences (CDE - another new one he made up).  Align, commit to change, and engage beyond leaning forward but you want them to jump in and get involved.  This is true blended learning.

Social Learning?  He sees it very positively.  University students were telling him that email is dead.  But he would be bullish on podcasting & vodcasting.  He would love to see his company go all iPhone.  Search the internet, watch video, he wants them to do it all.

Q: (Again) K-12 is broken and poses a certain use on the kids.  How do you see that affecting the CLO and learning in a corporation.
A: Is actually impressed with what they have turned out.  But use Blackboard, they have about a 90% penetration and they use one platform.  There are benefits because of it.  But then they are hired and see companies limping along and they will not be real impressed.  The more teachers are competent, the more the students will be.

Q:
A: We look for competencies, credential and experiences when looking for executives.   Fit and stick.

Q: How do you get stick?
A: Tell me about your experiences, transitions between jobs,  how you worked  in your  cultures.  Walk them through a career journey - stuff you can’t get off a resume.

Q: Of those who sell LMS and went into talent and those who sell talent and then add on an LMS, which is going to win?
A: Those who started with talent.  They have the basis.   It needs to also have a career development history.

Q: Where is simulation and games going?
A: As a parent watching children with technology - we spend A LOT on technology for the kids - we notice that they are engrosed in simulation everyday.  He loved aviation.   His kid said that it was the most powerful use of the Internet because there was a whole environment around the game.  Now he has a job in the aviation industry.

Q&A with John Patrick

Apr 16, 2008 Social Learning SIG, eLearning Guild Annual Gathering 08

Contact button on websites is for them, not for us.
SMS, IM, Twitter - they are all channels.  But email it is reliable. He uses X1 which continuously indexes your mail.  He thinks email is the killer app.  Interesting.  I don’t agree, for a million reasons, but hey.

Q: Where does search fit in?
A: Everywhere.  People think Google will take over the world, but it was IBM a number of years ago.  Searching is becoming vertical.  Zillow for real estate.

Q: Is it ever going to get better in 3rd world countries?
A: There is no third world, it is all one world.  But everything is built on open standards.  The internet brings them together.

Q: What do you see as the future of work (as it is going faster)?
A: It is empowerment.  Some people accomplish a lot, some a little.  Studies consistently show that those who work from home spend more time working and are more effective.  A lot of companies still don’t buy into it.  “If I can’t see you, you aren’t working.”  That is from the 1800s.  Long-term, I see it as encription and biometrics and they will be rewarded for working.

Q: How does the younger generation learn?  I am questioning the K-12 model
A: That is why homeschooling has taken off - parents are recognizing this.

Day 2 at eLearning Guild Annual Gathering - Morning Keynote

Apr 16, 2008 eLearning Guild Annual Gathering 08

We had a great Breakfast Bytes session this morning with Mark Chrisman talking about Social Learning.  It is amazing how many people want to learn about it, but don’t have a lot of information or know where to start.  It can be scary!

And now, the keynote speaker, John Patrick on the Future of the Internet and what it means for learning….

He estimates that we are only 5% into what the Internet has in store for us - it is in it’s infancy.  The Internet is about PEOPLE, not business, students, etc.  It empowers us.  Expectations rise every day.  Billions of people, trillions of devices.

THE POWER OF THE CLICK: End-to-end solutions; click here to call; the Opportunity is huge.

He points out a lot of discrepancies.   We are where we were about 100 years ago.  RE: Health, we don’t demand the information our health.  We can do it with email, but if we get a blood test with one Dr. the other Dr. does not know about it and can rarely use it.

He is giving us some great regular information, but is not relating it to learning.  He has good humor, but the learning aspect, so far, is lacking.

(Here we go…) Government has been supportive of the internet, but don’t know much about it and have feared to regulate it, which is to our advantage.  IRS/taxes are a great example.  They have supported learning - it came from learning.

The internet helps people learn how to learn.  Schools and libraries will change.  Home schooling is taking off (we home school our bunch as well).

The choice that has to be made is are we going to accomodate (and tolerate) the internet, or are we going to embrace it as the primary communication mechanism and give them choices and make it easy for them to get access to data, whenever they need it, wherever they need it, with whatever device they need: On demand.

In 2001-2002 there was a Bubble, but it was not an Internet Bubble.  People believed that revenue meant getting $$$$ from investors.  They were solving problem that were not really problems.  What is different today?  We realize the Internet is the tool.  We are back to the real world and investors are much more savvy.

Most important:

• Fast: Outside the US is better - the lobbyists have slowed things down.  Outside the US the governments are realizing that the Internet is a good thing. (Personally, I think we are tripping over ourselves be regulating it too much, even though it doesn’t seem like it.)  Look at Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand.
• Always on: WiFi and WiMax: reality exceeds the hype.  He is talking about EVERYTHING at home (every device: the front door, air conditioning, toaster, laundry) is connected.
• Everywhere: When people say, “I’ll go look on the Internet.”  But where is it?  Usually it is on your computer.  It should be where we are - It is wherever I am.  The mobile Internet is, according to John, the ‘next big thing.’  Opera makes browsers for devices.  Move it from the desktop to your belt.  “Long Distance” is what?  In miles or milliseconds?  Try 1-800-Free-411.  Texting is huge in Europe and Asia - business execs are using it.  The real power is in business.  (How to bring instant updates to health care - There is a lot there…)
• Natural: Between people,
• Easy
• Intelligent
• Trusted

How to Survive:

• Think Outside in - Listen to the people
• Think Big, Act Bold, Start Simple, Iterate Fast
• Anticipate the evolution of the Internet
• Build a framework for Choice and Services
• Partner to the hilt
• Get a taste of the Net Attitude: talk to the kids

Marc Rosenberg on Ensuring Business Alignmnet - LMC

Apr 15, 2008 Social Learning SIG, eLearning Guild Annual Gathering 08

His questions to us on a scale. The first of the three is a one, the middle is a 3, the last a 5. What is your organization like RIGHT NOW, not what you want it to be.

• What is your purpose?
  • We give a wide array to cover everything
  • We recommend programs
  • We target only the most critical needs
• How do you know you are successful?
  • Pre/Post testing
  • Track learning, usability (level 1)
  • Impact on organizational performance
• How do you define your e-learning
  • Formal instructional solutions
    Blending workplace tools, resources in training
    Focus on Non-formal
• Sponsorship
  • Told there is support of e-learning
  • Sr. Leaders support and provide funds
  • Sr. Leaders take proactive strategic view and make a part of how they run business
• Hearts and Minds?
  • Making assumptions of e-learning
  • Lots of roll outs
  • Culture - long term

5-11 points - weak alignment; 12-18 - moderate alignment; 19+ High alignment

• What is our focus? Performance or results?
• Do we have a broader view of learning in the workplace?
• Do we focus on Champions, Communication, and Change.

14 barriers to performance (too many to list) Make sure learning solutions exist to solve problems. Only 4 of the 14 can be helped by Learning. This is basic a Performance Technology outlook, more systematic, not as narrow as view of Training and Learning.

Ask these questions which will guarantee alignment:

1. Who is it for, and why? Where are they?
2. What is the Content and the Context? What should it solve?
3. How deep should it go? We can’t give EVERYTHING!
4. What type of learning do we need? Do they have to memorize, perform a skill, reference something?
5. How much time is available? Not so much for development, but how much time for delivery?
6. How will it be delivered? By now, it should be obvious.
7. What are the metrics? Your client defines this.

Our role today is some education, a lot of training and little information. Our emerging role is some education, less training and much more information. Learners just want the information now. Something that is stable and unstable content. When you go online to learn something, can you imagine going through objectives before finding what you learn?

We need ILT and keep Online Training. This is blended learning. Add (a) Knowledge base(s) and performance support tools, Communities of Practice. Today’s elearning is all of this put together. Training is not always the solution. We need to embrace the new technologies and approaches into our mix of solving organizational problems. These last things make up the Informal workplace learning. Add them altogether and you have true blended learning.

The three Cs of a strong learning culture.

• Champions. Many initiatives fail because of lack of champions. Beware of business leaders who say that LOVE learning and then they act differently, watch out:
  • Give directives without any money
  • Assign work to people who are overloaded or don’t have a clue.
  • Refuse to learn about learning
  • Refuse to tell their boss anything about it
  • Leave it to the team to make all the decisions.
  • Don’t assign deliverables or accountability
  • Don’t understand the role of t raining.
  • Approve other initiatives that undermine learning
  • Suggest that using the web at work is disruptive.
• Communications: We use marketing, themes, branding, events for awareness: Newsletters, informal meetings, policy websites, FAQs, trainings for understanding; Success Stories, leadership presentations and involvement, manager presentations, coaching and testimonials for real adoption, to win the hearts and minds of executives down to the front-line people. If you only do the first, usage will be high and then drop. Those in the third camp, who prefer to use it, they will sing the advantages and alignment is easy.
• Change - 9 things you can do to manage resistance:
  • Balance change management
  • Set proper expectations and incentives
  • Build support at all levels, including the front-line
  • Implement change management before the change itself
  • Commit to sustain the change long after initial deployment.
  • Early adopters may not be your most important audience.
  • Understand resistance and inability to change - they are different.
  • Recognize that implementation is not behavior change. Behavior change takes time.
  • Think big, start small, scale fast.

Leading Change - a book he recommends.

If your clients know what they want but they can’t define the problem, how will you solve it? You can’t! You have to figure out what the problem is. Remember that they are clients - we should be telling them what the solutions is, not them us.

Certification is good, but it should not matter where you get the information (focusing on the delivery) but instead on the performance.

“The worlds greatest technology fails if you are not aligned with the workplace, culture, objectives.”

SUN & Collaborative Learning

Apr 15, 2008 Social Learning SIG, eLearning Guild Annual Gathering 08

How do people get information? Brandon Carson, the facilitator from Sun Microsystems, gets it from Google. Most people, however, go to peers. It is about the relationships they built. Executives get their information (almost 100%) from direct reports or peers. We need to open it up to forge relationships.

37% of the worlds information is sitting on Sun product. 1/2 of their work force does not work in an office. They can work on a Mac, Windows, or other machines. What ever they want. Average age of the employee is 43. In the average age new hire was 23. This is causing some chaos. Net Geners are having a big impact on things. they are used to informal, social relationships. There are 14 million in colleges and universities and they are coming to work for you. They expect, freedom, collaboration, mobility, fun, innovation and customization. As learning professionals we need to give them more ways to get to information.

He just showed a two exchange text message his daughter and friend did - oh my goodness. I didn’t understand it at all! But it was fine for them.

Learners are changing learning. We expect a richer, more social interaction. Technology can help with that learning.

Brandon put up a blog post that had links into the intranet. Instantly, he was getting comments saying “you can’t do that!” The community was watching and corrected him.

Their executives are saying, “Why aren’t you doing the 2.0?” to everyone, including their I.T., while others’ are saying, “Why are you doing it?”

The New Hire Process

Objectives:

• Smooth they onboarding process
  • Reduce Frustration
  • Increase speed-to-competency
  • More than just benefits information
• Present Sun as a cool place to work

60% are onboarded in Santa Clara, the other 40% Webex in to get the information.

Their model:

• Create an ecosystem of mutual trust and engagement
• Build in understanding and flexibility
• Foster an environment that helps participants develop shared experiences

Four behaviors of the learner:

• Attention: Want them to be interested in it. Their home page is vivid, high-resolution with images. Get some emotion going in. Good UI techniques. It is themed with iconic navigation with action verbs: Accelerate, Participate, Learn, Explore, Play. It is tied to Google analytics. The left to right works, it is the second most visited page besides the home page. It is public (http://learning.sun.com/newhire) - the sun wanted it that way! Open to the world for prospective employees.
• Motivation: Arouse them to action to share information. Learners are motivated better, usually, by short-term goals. But if they are too easy, you lose them. You must have FLOW. HALO designs you for 30 minutes of Flow. He shoots for 2-3 minutes
• Participation: Encourage them to engage. He was hired to create learning games. Within a game, you must have a story. The one he shows is more narrative based.
• Retention: Of course
  • Show meaningful context
  • Present evidence and credibility
  • Remove invasive user interface clutter
  • Remove irrelevant visuals
  • Strip out jargon and corporate-speak
  • Remove barriers to content - the games are not linked to the LMS.

And the Collaborative Learning Environment pulled them all together.

Get out of the way of the content!

What worked:

• Great new gateway for all new hires and potential new hires
• Redefines the learning landscape at Sun
• Is a first iteration of a CLE within Sun

What didn’t work:

• Wiki platform is complex and hard to design to - Wiki markup killed them. Search was really big for them - everyone goes there first.
• We still don’t have a unified learning management / content management system
• Not many people are playing the games

Design tips:

• Consider committing to a moderator as a job description
• Build an environment of trust
• Set learning goals for individuals and teams
• Be prepared to deal with problem behavior

Question: How many people are tagging content?
Answer: Not many people without prompting (Oddly enough, we are not having that problem. I wonder what the difference is?)

Social Learning at Ebay

Apr 15, 2008 Social Learning SIG, eLearning Guild Annual Gathering 08

After the scrumptious lunch, it is eBay time!!

Support: 80% is through email, 15% is chat and 5% is phone.

This will not be an overview of tool, but the practical implementations of the strategies. PERFECT! That is what we need, more talk of this.

A big key is Albert Einstein’s thought that the we need to think differently to get ourself out of the situation.

The presenter grabbed a volunteer and quickly hammered her with addition questions and at the very end hit her with “What is your favorite vegetable?” 90% of people say carrots are their favorite vegetable in the U.S. In China it is cabbage. But if the Chinese move to the U.S. within three months it becomes carrots. Interesting. Under pressure we conform to the norms.

• Speed - We need speed!
• Resources - dwindling
• Change - always happening

We need to think differently! But with pressure we don’t take the time to reflect - it becomes a luxury. What pushed eBay to do something different? Survival. They were asked: Have you every thought about going into ‘training bankruptcy?’ What kind of freedom would that give them? Then they started thinking, what would we do differently?

90% of eBays resources were on formal learning, but about 80% were happening informally. They were starting to feel irrelevant because they were really not a part or helping with the real development. How can we become knowledge farmers? What a great way to look at it! I love that! Not training professionals, but knowledge farmers. Hmmmm.

Their definition of Learning 2.0 is not about the instruction but creating multiple learning paths. Let everyone contribute what they know. How can we enable everyone to share that information? Find pockets of excellence. People do not learn in isolation.

Her Six Steps were:

1. Become Aware: One of the biggest obstacles is… (get ready) the training department. That is a lot of what I am seeing as well.
2. Benchmark:
3. Define end results: How do you align to the major goals? They did through customer relations and employee retention.
4. Make Friends (I.T.): I might also add Legal, HR.
5. Obtain management approval: Who are the key influencers?
6. Start Small: Do a pilot and gain the support. Get some successes and bring it back.

eBay had the technology already. They just had to use it the right way.

(Speaker Switch)

They thought that Learning 2.0 was based on a blog, or wiki, or… very technology based. But after looking at it they tried to take Learning 2.0 into a formal setting.

They decided to take a conference concept they called ‘eBay Learn!’ Instead of an expert facilitator (where they were disengaged and the lack of higher level learning), they changed it around. They looked at the learning objectives and made them challenged-based. The facilitator hands out challenges to groups and they work on these challenges together with multiple learning path. The facilitator had to make sure the learning paths were enabled. The different groups collaborated their own way.

Example: instead of Outlook training on ‘here is what a file menu is…” the challenge given them was to ‘book an appointment and a room.’ They went out and found the information from the internet, each other, etc. They also wanted them to find new resources.

They also created a trading journal. Before, this was class on something that is behavior based. Difficult to do in a classroom, evaluate or share information. Later, the participants all created blogs and at the end of each day they wrote. The facilitator went in and read them. They read each others. It was very successful for them.

New presenter. This guy works with the new hires of call center people. His class ‘would not disengage.’ (What a great problem to have!) Then he would pull them out 1:1 and quiz them. They did really well!

Learner needs:

• Share Knowldege
• Access Information
• Provide Feedback
• Collaborate efficiently
• Broad awareness of topics
• Group Problem Solving

Similar to SLATES, they say that the structure needs to be:

• Feedable
• Searchable
• Taggable
• Linkable
• Editable
• Voteable
• Reportable

For new employees, the have a list of ‘objects’ they need to learn about. SMEs can quickly update the information in a wiki.

They are also using video podcasts (vodcasts). Their people listen to the podcasts while doing other work. (information, basic just so they know, not to be evaluated). If they hear something they rewind a little and pay attention, then go on. Interesting!

What can you do today?

• Create a blog, wiki, etc…
• Make friends with someone in IT
• Begin with early adopters
• Identify informal learning opportunities
• Integrate Learning 2.0 ideas

Model what they do in the informal settings in the formal learning settings. This is a great way to merge the two which has been VERY DIFFICULT for most organizations. I haven’t seen a good mix of the two yet, but they have done well.

Question: Have you seen improvement in performance?
Answer: Not yet, but we are early in implementation. But they are gathering data.

They have one team working with copywrite violations. One person on the team was worried about that. She was walking by some cubicles and heard one person tell another some incorrect information. Had she not been there, she would not have heard it. A wiki, however, captures it. Whenever she updates it RSS updates them and everyone will have the correct information.

Great session!

Keith Sawyer on Innovation in the Learning Organization

Apr 15, 2008 Social Learning SIG, eLearning Guild Annual Gathering 08

Here with Dr. Kieth Sawyer on Innovation - Lance is interviewing him.

Innovation can’t come from a database. But there needs to be person to person interation, even on line is OK. But that is the problem with KB. Steel Case has white papers on how to create the layouts/organization for maximum collaboration. He has done a lot of research on how to create innovation and then integrating (more lately) the Web 2.0 angle and how that helps. His book tries to understand it all.

The fundamentals of innovations still hold true, but the internet compresses it and speeds it up - more innovation more quickly.

Very interesting stuff that I am REALLY interested in!

OSS communities are not innovations. For the most part they are copies of the original work. I just asked what the definition of ‘Innovation’ is, because it seems to be nebulous. His answer didn’t help. He said that Linux, for example, is not an innovation (it is a copy), but then my question is that at what point it is an innovation? How many things are truly and innovation?

The Learning Organization which has innovation probably would not have a certification at the end, not like traditional org. It is more fluid. Of course there needs to be some sort of measurement, but not like they are today.

What should us training professionals be thinking about? Creativity: Be collaborative and open and share. The tendency is to be possessive and own rather than to open it up. It helps every part of the organization. Innovation: Focus on what is supported by the science of learning rather than the wizbang stuff. Don’t spend money on the technology unless there is a way to get benefit out of it that other ways cannot provide.

Lance Dublin at eLearning Guild Annual Gathering

Apr 15, 2008 Social Learning SIG, eLearning Guild Annual Gathering 08

Holy Cow! Life without an extension cord is tough (yet, refreshing…) Thankfully, work FedExed it to me. (NOTE TO SELF: don’t pack after midnight.)

I will have to catch up on the things that I missed (sans electricity) but I will start with Lance Dublin during the Learning Management Colloquium part.

We are talking about Social Learning (although he didn’t term it that - in fact there is A LOT of talking about that here). Informal is nebulous. It is difficult to get our arms around because there are too many ways to learn. But he says we can get them around the ‘Non-Formal’ learning. We are always learning in ‘Context’ but we can’t learn it.

This is turning out to be an introduction rather than getting deeper into the strategy, which is what I thought. It is still good information, however - we have to start somewhere.

Talking about the difference between there being an expert and now EVERYONE is an expert. You have the information, you share it. Put that all together and you have a TON of information - Correct? Sure, you are living the experience - but it will be from your perspective. Is it wrong to do that? No way. I share my perspective, you share yours we come up with

What was the first podcast? He says “War of the Worlds” - the first one that created major behavioral change.

Downsides of Wiki? Could be wrong! Really, what is new. That totally contradicts above at first glance, but it isn’t? I am not going to answer why, maybe you can tell us why you think so, or think I am wrong.

His kid has the Champions League video game and is learning about market economics and hasn’t played a single bit of soccer yet. He is trading players, negotiating with agent, building his team. What has he learned? Not how to play soccer!

Non-Formal is: Mobile, Immersive, Collaborative (and one more I missed).

BTW, is collaboration in school cheating? Or is it collaboration? Just thought I would throw that question out.

eLearning Guild Notes

Apr 14, 2008 Social Learning SIG

I will be live blogging from the eLearning Guild’s Annual Gathering. EXCEPT I forgot my power cord for the laptop. I feel naked! But the guy next to me let me use his just for a bit.

If you are here, join me for a “Breakfast Byte” discussion on Social Learning. I will be leading that discussion on Tuesday and will be leading another on integrating SL in an organization on Wednesday during the Learning Management Colloquium.