This topic has generated a lot of feedback on the blog and in the Twitterverse.  Here is a review of some of the talk that has happened.

WH Says:

(WARNING – this is an unusually long post for me.  And, as Mark Oehlert pointed out recently, I echo Mark Twain‘s quote, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” )

Blended learning is now inadequate – it is only mediocre.  Let me explain why I think so.

Blended learning assumes some characteristics.  For example, here is the Wikipedia definition:

The instructor can also combine two or more methods of delivery of instruction. A typical example of the delivery method of blended learning would be a combination of technology-based materials and face-to-face sessions used together to present content. An instructor can begin a course with a well-structured introductory lesson in the classroom, and then to proceed follow-up materials online. The term can also be applied to the integration of e-learning with a Learning Management System using computers in a physical classroom, along with face-to-face instruction^[1]. Guidance is suggested early in the process, to be faded as learners gain expertise (Kirschner, Clark and Sweller, 2006). (Bolding added.)

What do you notice in there?  The paragraph keeps mentioning the title “instructor.”  I don’t know about you, but when I think of blended learning I think of combining ILT with a job aid with some online training with a podcast – or something like that.  Part of Elizabeth Israel’s class, Getting your Sales Force Productive with True Blended Learning, which was presented at DevLearn08, was described this way:

This session will show participants the various rapid e-Learning development and deployment learning solutions one company developed and implemented using Articulate, Camtasia, and Captivate. You will walk through how using Live Meeting sessions, toolkits (self-study), and case studies increased performance and readiness of the sales and technical sales teams. This real-life session focuses on the design, development, implementation, and effectiveness results of creating a true blended learning environment. (Again, bolding added.)

Again, all very focused on creating and delivery from an instructor point of view.  Before I go on, I want to point out that I am in no way against this.  I was not able to go to Elizabeth’s session – which I think is a great topic.  So please don’t misunderstand me, but do understand this: It has its place, but by itself blended learning is not complete.

Being a big proponent of learning using social media, I must fully admit that this, too, is not complete.  It must all be taken in together.  But this time with a different view.

I was recently listening to a podcast entitled, “Is Innovation Withering on the Vine?”  It was part of the “Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Series” by the Stanford Technology Ventures Program.  In there, Judy Estrin, author of “Closing the Innovation Gap” talked about the essential characteristics of innovation.

During the presentation she talks about an ecosystem.  Not the one us business people might refer to, but one a biologist would think of.  And this was her definition.  Ecosystems are:

Communities of living organisms that interact dynamically with their environment.  And one very, very key thing about this is that for an ecosystem to sustain life, it must be in balance.”

Later she says, “The ecosystem is a combination of the organisms and the environment.”

KEY: Living organisms; environment; balance.  They all play together.  Translate this into learning.  Unlike a traditional blended learning environment where those who learn are fed from one source, a learning ecosystem balances those organisms (people) with the environment (organization, culture, tools).  When we think of it this way we suddenly realize that we all rely upon each other to learn.  I am accountable to ‘stay alive’ and not be forced to rely upon one ‘hand’ to ‘feed me.’  Rather, I interact with all the organisms as necessary, within the environment.  Sometimes the actions of us organisms changes the environment and culture as we start relying on each other and use the tools in non-conventional, but extremely useful ways.

Rather than creating a training department or curriculum, we should be thinking about all the ways learning can happen within an organization and apply the correct ointment where necessary.  Sometimes it will be an ILT.  Sometimes it will be eLearning.  But more often than not, it will be people teaching people of which the training department will have nothing to do with except to help create the environment.  Sometimes it is the role of mother nature to create that environment and step back and let the organisms figure it out.  We must learn to do the same and then be amazed at what they can do.

So really – what is the difference between blended learning and creating a learning ecosystem?  Blended learning takes on the funnel mentality.  All knowledge must funnel through the learning department’s people, systems, processes, packages and must be measured in standard ways as it goes through.  If it does not route and measure in these ways it is out of our circle of influence.

In a learning ecosystem the environment is created so that learning just happens.  It is a part of work rather than separate from it.  It includes traditional blended learning when appropriate (for each piece does not lose its significance) but the funnel, for the most part, is gone.  Formal learning intersects with social learning intersects with informal learning intersects with traditional learning…

This changes the environment in the eye of those who create the environment and in the eyes of the organisms.  Instead of, “I am going to learning” it is “I am always learning.”  Just as your heart beats and your lungs fill up with air, you know they are separate functions but one cannot live without the other.  They work toward the same goal.  Both very necessary but playing different roles.

We must strategically create learning ecosystems within our organizations where formal courses of all kinds, social interactions using all mediums and all types of informal learning blend together.  Creating this environment is much more strategic on so many more levels.  Think about accountability of learning.  Think about ownership of content.  Think about distribution channels.  Think about measurement.  The game changes because the goal and the path to get to the goal changed.

Done correctly, the ecosystem goes far beyond merely existing, always trying to keep up but never fully realizing its potential. Instead it will thrive – totally interconnected with it’s environment.  It is a holistic approach to learning.

Instead of being a subculture unto the larger, it is wholly integrated so that the learners don’t make a choice to learn, it’s just a part of what they do. Again, like breathing or the beating of the heart, it just happens and is not a separate event. At times they won’t know it is happening- other times they will. But these times will be more rare, so interconnected will be their learning. And the learning ecosystem will thrive by creating the culture which understands it’s more subtle needs and will adjust as necessary.  It will take more than the learning department.  More than an executive blessing.  It will take, and will affect, everyone.

In the modified words of Benjamin Zander (a ‘must watch’), “How would you act, what would you say, what would you do if you thought that learning happened at discrete times and in discrete ways and you controlled it.  Now how would you act, what would you say, what would you do if you felt learning happened by everyone ALL THE TIME!”

This may have been way too philisophical, but it really hit me when I listened to that podcast.  We finally have the tools to create full learning ecosystems, whereas before we only were able to influence a part of it.

In Sean Kearney’s session entitled, “The Bionic Brain: Learning, Technology, and Social Networks” at DevLearn, he asked, “How many of your learning organizations are a barrier to learning?”  Almost every hand in the room went up.  And that was from the people – the experts – who run the organizations!

I dare you to create these ecosystems of learning in your organization.  Think on a more global scale than you have before.  Don’t get caught in doing the same things for the same old reasons.  Do the same things, do more, change more – create that true balance between organisms and environment in which a learning ecosystem thrives.

Image via Wikipedia

• Watch this short video which features Seth Godin and think about this question: Why does the person who you want involved in social learning care?
• The webinar from last week recorded.  Yet, I can’t get it to run.  Technical (maybe user?) difficulties.  When I get it worked out I will post it.  I am getting the below error.  Anyone know what this is about?  (Click on it for a more clear view.)

• Sign up for this webinar.  I attended last year and learned some great stuff.  It is after the eLearning Guild’s DevLearn 08 so you should have time.
• Speaking of DevLearn, I am getting excited to go and learn and meet new people, meet those I know only online and see old friends.  Make sure you and I meet if you are there.
• Honestly, I don’t have very high expectations for my session.  Not that it won’t be GREAT but it is at the worst time (last day, last time) and at the same time as a second of a two part series on pretty much the same thing.  Oh well, we will still have fun and learn a lot from each other!