News Edition 6
Past Editions
| Interviews |
| Traditional learning formats are rapidly at risk of becoming irrelevant |
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(@americalearning) The boundaries between work and play are blurring. Through the phones in our pockets we can instantly connect to limitless information, and we never switch off. The organisations of the future know this is how people learn today. They encourage individuals to own their learning, to find and use knowledge in ways that suit them best. Brightwave helps people and organizations to understand how new technologies can do unexpected things – things we couldn't even have imagined before – to help people learn smarter.
Brightwave pursues a vision of personalized learning drawing from digital trends outside work. Can you explain to us the scope and implications of this vision? Charles Gould: Technology has rapidly improved access to knowledge and expertise in recent years. This can and should be applied to knowledge inside the organization for the benefit of both employer and employee. The way social media, smartphones and user-generated content have been adopted in many aspects of our lives has opened new channels for learning inside and outside work. We believe many other new tech trends will have relevance to how we learn and perform at work in the future. These could well include concepts like playlists, micro-blogging, online communities and content curation as well as developments in wearable and immersive technologies. However, education and learning industries have been sluggish in exploiting technology with the 'course' still the prevailing format. There's a role for innovative and entrepreneurial companies to help change that.
What are your recommendations for using social media to create personalized learning experiences? Social learning communities are evolving rapidly. New skills of community management and curation will become part of a toolkit for learning and development professionals. Cultivating a successful community where people can share knowledge and learn for themselves requires a range of tools and techniques. A flexible, adaptive platform that supports groups of interest, sharing and peer/manager recognition is vital but other recommendations include:
What are the keys to develop informal learning processes? Informal learning happens. It always has. But being able to capture, reflect on and share informal learning is becoming easier through technology. The value of this informal learning is being recognized more than ever. It's encouraging, for example, to see many professional bodies recognizing informal learning experiences as valid for continuing education credits. Adopting new learning technologies that support the Tin Can Experience API will facilitate informal learning experiences, but encouraging and openly recognizing the value of informal learning must come from senior management.
How to capture and harness the true value of informal learning? The first key is to make it as easy as possible to capture informal learning experiences as they happen. Taking a video at a conference, recording a meeting, clipping a website - these can be done instantly and stored for later reflection and sharing. This informal learning can demonstrate evidence of learning to a manager or valuable expertise to colleagues, stimulating discussion and development of ideas.
How the digital revolution transformed the way we learn? What's interesting is how the digital revolution has transformed the way we learn outside of the usual places and formats of learning. The classroom and the lecture are still prevalent at schools, universities and training departments. Yet we consume and use far more knowledge online and it's instant, relevant and compelling. So the big impact is the way in which traditional learning formats are rapidly at risk of becoming irrelevant.
How is the Tin Can API transforming online learning? The Tin Can Experience API means that all sorts of learning experiences can be captured, codified, reported and analyzed. This won't just unlock far more knowledge that can be used to improve productivity and generate value. It will also affect areas such as talent and performance management with analytics that help match people, skills, roles and career development.
What are the main trends and challenges for online learning in 2015? For me there's one big trend that will continue: that learning is increasingly woven into the flow of work, both inside and outside the workplace. Web and mobile technology simply reduce the gap between knowledge source and knowledge user. So, there’ll be more sophisticated uses of social learning. Tools that enable rapid content creation and curation will advance and we'll see Learning Management Systems be replaced by Total Learning Systems that support informal and social learning as well as pre-designed courses. I'm also looking forward to seeing if and how wearable technology and augmented reality start to become used in earnest.
October 2014
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Interview with Brightwave's CEO Charles Gould, a pioneer and innovator in using technology to support total learning. Recommendations for using social media to create personalized learning experiences, keys to develop informal learning processes, Tin Can API transforming e-learning and main trends & challenges for online learning in 2015.