Engaged Learning

Twitter’s @SLQOTD Format Change

Sep 11, 2009 Social Learning SIG, slqotd

If you have been following @SLQOTD on Twitter, you know that for the last month or so we have been slacking off and not posting questions every day.  With everything we have right now, we cannot keep up.  Which, overall, is a good thing, but we want to keep SLQOTD going because it has been a great learning tool.

FORMAT CHANGE

There are almost 1000 followers of @SLQOTD.  We all have questions about how to best implement and manage Social Learning in our organizations.  Instead of pushing these questions out every day from one source, let’s let YOU, the followers, do the asking.  You have almost 1000 people who are interested in Social Learning with different experiences and skill sets and levels.  Ask the question any time you want.  Let us all answer.

Dave and I will continue to post questions as they come up – just not every day.  But feel free to ask as often as you want and at any time.  Do this by sending a DM to @SLQOTD by starting your tweet with ‘dslqotd’ (sans quotes).  Everyone will get the question and anyone can answer.

SLQOTD lives on!

Tags: slqotd, Twitter

Where Has All the Accountability to Learning Gone?

Jun 12, 2009 slqotd

SLQOTD’s Blog Project asks: “How does SL change the lrnr’s accountability to learn? How can an org encourage lrnr acctblity?”

WARNING:

<rant>

When was it ever NOT the learner’s accountability to learn?  When did someone (or something) take that over?  My answer?  NEVER.

photo credit: That Erum Kid.

CASE IN POINT: Schools – public or private, it doesn’t matter.  Who is accountable to make sure that the child learns?  It is the parent.  (Technically, it is at first and then it slowly switches to the child as they gain more maturity, but that is another post in and of itself.)  Most parents automatically hand over the responsibility to learn to the schools.  Yet the accountability never changes – it stays with the parent.  But in transfering the responsibility to the schools, they feel they have transfered the accountability as well.  Then, when their child does not get the education they think they deserve, or the school ‘does them wrong,’ the parents blame the school for their child’s lack of education

Over time, the schools have taken on this fake sense of accountability.

I call this the “Subsumption of Accountability.”  This is when the accountability to do something (in this case, learn) is placed incorrectly on the wrong person or group.  Or when that person or group incorrectly takes on the characteristics of accountability from someone.  They don’t actually take FULL accountability, but it seems as if they do.  But in the end, who suffers when accountability fails?  Not the person who has subsumed it, but the person to which it rightfully belongs.

</rant>

Did you follow that?  I have a book I have started to write on that because it is one of my passions.  So I may have totally lost some people because I glazed over a topic that goes WAY deeper, but I hope it makes sense.

Back to the original question – how does social learning change the accountability for the learner to learn?  It doesn’t.  It may change the responsibility in that they don’t assign it out to the company and instead take it themselves, but it does not change the accountability.

And this is the point we need to drive home.  Sometimes an organization subsumes the learner’s accountability to learn, weakening the learner’s accountability, drive and passion and full responsibility.   So what do we do?  Give it back.  Stop taking it.  Allow the learner to take charge and understand that THEY are in charge of their learning.  Fully.

Tags: accountability, responsibility, school, social learning, subsumption of accountability

SLQOTD Blog Project: Learning is like Breathing

May 29, 2009 slqotd

Here is my SLQOTD Blog Project response: SL happens all around us at all times – like breathing. How do we take adv. of it?

This question first came up when Dave Wilkins and I were doing our last podcast.  We were talking about how we learn all the time, but those in the learning profession ignore that piece and focus on creating elearning, for example.  So the original question was: SL happens all the time – now what?

FIRST, we have to recognize that it happens.  Too often we ignore that it exists.  Or maybe, even worse, that we feel that we can’t do anything about it, so it isn’t even on our radar.

It is time.  Our job is to enable learning, enable performance improvement.  Yet if we ignore the most fundemental, basic ways that we learn, we are doing a disservice to those very people we claim to support.

During #lrnchat on Twitter last night, there was some discussion on learning and training: @marciamarcia: We still seem to be neglecting any mention of helping people learn how to learn or liberate their self-direction. #lrnchat.  Are we helping others to learn what they need/want to learn, or are we forcing learning that they don’t want?  Sure, they may need some of the latter, but what about all that they REALLY want to know?

But, truely, it happens ALL THE TIME.  Learning is ALL AROUND US.  How do we help others with that?  It isn’t by creating a course on it.

I think of homeschooling my own kids.  There are things they NEED to learn. But what about those things they are really interested in?  We point them to the resources.  We make learning available.  We hook them up with the books, sites, people and other resources.  We don’t try to give it to them in nice, neat little packages.  That is like saying, “Oh, you are running and need to breathe heavily?  Here let me give you this breath.  And this one.  And this one.”  Instead it is, “Here is all the oxygen you need.  Oh, and here is some more I found.  Breath away.”

(Another favorite tweeet of mine was from @ hjarche: if I had to develop a lot of learning “stuff” last people I would hire would ID’s (sorry) – artists, writers would come 1st #lrnchat.)

Tags: #lrnchat, blog project, breathing, slqotd

SLQOTD – Blog Project & Delicious

May 26, 2009 Twitter, blogging, slqotd

In this “All About Social Learning Question of the Day” post:

- BLOG PROJECT

- DELICIOUS TAG

****************

BLOG EDITION

SLQOTD has been a huge success, with almost 800 professionals following on Twitter.  But, alas, 140 characters can only go so far.  And there is much more wisdom in those noodles of yours to share.  So, to stretch minds and words and advice, we are announcing the SLQOTD – Blog Project.  This is how it works:

• On Monday morning (or first business day of the week), along with a regular SLQOTD, a topic will be posted on Twitter (#slqotd.b).
• If you would like to participate, write a post on your personal blog answering the question or giving feedback.  You will have Monday through Thursday to think about it and post it.
• On Friday, the SLQOTD will ask for answers to the Blog Edition.  Everyone then tweets (to ‘d slqotd’) the links to their post responses.
• If you read a great one, comment to SLQOTD so everyone can see which ones you love and why.

It is that easy!  We hope many people take the opportunity to write the post and share with the group.  Talk about targeted learning!  For this first week we will put out many notices about this on SLQOTD.  Please forgive the redundancy, but we want to reach as many people as we can.

DELICIOUS TAG

If you see an article you would like to share with everyone, please tag it with ’slqotd’ in Delicious.  We want this to be a HUGE repository for us all specifically on the topics we love to tweet about!

April Social Learning Question of the Day Archives & the 100th @SLQOTD Today!

May 11, 2009 slqotd

http://tr.im/kQjQ

That is the link to April’s archive of the @SLQOTD.

Oh, and by the way, the 100th SLQOTD on Twitter was asked today.  Articulate sponsored it and is giving away a free Engage license to one person who answers today’s question.  So jump on board and answer!

Tags: articulate, slqotd

Overcoming Objections to Social Learning – One Week at at Time

May 9, 2009 SlideShare, Social Learning SIG, objections, slqotd

Last year at DevLearn I presented a session about the top 15 objections to social learning and how to overcome them. It was a GREAT session. In fact, it was where Dave Wilkins and I met and where we started doing the podcasts, webinars, Social Learning Question of the Day on Twitter and other projects.

A couple of weeks ago, Dave and I did a similar session, but as a webinar. There were over 200 people that attended. We thought that was good and we were happy with that. Then Dave took the webinar, slides and audio, and put them on SlideShare. Over these last two weeks, to our surprise, the webinar was viewed OVER 1400 MORE times! We are blown away!

Obviously, there is a need for this. So, to fulfill the need, we will be taking one objection a week and discussing it on the Social Learning NING group. It will give more people more space and time to give suggestions, voice concerns and really network ideas together.

So come join the 230 other people in this network.  Tell us your real live objection here, and we will add it in the mix.  Then put in your two cents (or more if you would like) for each objection.  Together we can get some fabulous perspectives and solutions!

I have embedded the webinar once again just to give you a feel for some of the topics we will be talking about.

Here’s to solving all our problems (or at least a few of them!).

Tags: 15 objections, ning, objections, Podcast, SlideShare, social learning, webinar

Social Learning Question of the Day E-Book

Jan 5, 2009 slqotd

OK – so it is more of an e-pamphlet.  I took all of the questions and repsonses from December’s @slqotd and put them into an e-book.

One downer of Twitter is that it is difficult to go back and see or archive the tweets.  This will help us to have a reference.  I hope you find it useful!

If you have not joined us on the SLQOTD, please follow, we will follow you back and then join the discussion.  See you there!

LINK TO SLQOTD’s E-BOOK for DECEMBER

Tags: ., e-book, slqotd, Twitter