It's stale news that the major factor that gives companies the competitive advantage is the quality of their people. It's certainly no more news that majority of the global workforce are knowledge workers. The organization's people, rather than the hugeness of capital owned, is what makes the difference.
Ever wondered how many versions of the iPhone 5 Apple churns out in a year? Just few weeks after purchasing the iPad 3, I felt slighted when I learnt that Apple was about to release the iPad 4 and indeed phase-out iPad 3. "What effrontery!", I'd thought. But really, who cares? So it's obvious that organizations that would survive the fierce competition in the global market are those that are able to attract, retain, develop and engage the smartest crop of employees who have the ability to anticipate the future desires and aspirations of customers and deliver just-in time products that would wow these customers.
What is new, however, is the fact that the way people learn is now different and we cannot continue to depict significant energy in the former ways of learning. Here is what I mean: Some ten years ago, there was a big hype on facilitation as a more effective approach rather than instructor-led learning (often referred to as " Classroom Learning"). Experts emphasized the need to allow learners gain knowledge at their own pace and "teachers" were advised to "guide" the process. It then became usual to go for training sessions where there'll be group discussions, group presentations etc. Teachers prided in being seen as Facilitators rather than Instructors. They were happy to emphasize the phrase "we are all learners as well as teachers".
Organizations went ahead to bring technology on-board and the expression "e-learning" was birthed. Using technology, learners could learn anywhere via their devices. Courses were designed to be taught through computer systems. Individuals could go through an entire course, attempt assessment questions to test for knowledge-acquisition all on computers. More recently, mobile learning (or m-learning) came along as a version of e-learning on mobile devices.
Whereas "Classroom Learning" is also known as Learning 1.0 and e-learning as Learning 2.0, the newest form of learning is Social Learning, alias Learning 3.0.
In their book "The 2020 Workplace", Meister and Willyerd (2010) defined Social Learning as "the acquisition of knowledge and skills through methods that are collaborative, immediate, relevant, and presented in the context of an individual's unique work environment". They went ahead to explain the distinctions among the different evolutions of learning stating that "whereas Learning 1.0 relied heavily on classroom learning and Learning 2.0 added computer- and Web-based training, Social Learning incorporates social media, gaming, real-time feedback, and advanced on-the-job methodologies.
A significant lesson to learn, in my opinion, is that learning seemed to have gone "wilder" by the years. It's no more confined, it is boundless. And therefore, the approach to making Social Learning happen and ensuring it thrives has to be totally different from previous approaches to Learning 1.0 and 2.0.
Mere facilitation of learning is insufficient in a sphere where learning is in itself without borders. In Social Learning, learning in its entire process (from comprehension to application of knowledge and skills) is largely unstructured and not confined to a particular environment, set of individuals. It's wild, boundless and uncontrollable.
So what is the ideal approach to promoting social learning amongst employees? Is it enough to create social media apps, games and the various social platforms? I doubt if that's sufficient. It is important to creat the social learning culture amongst employees.
My Master's degree was taught using an Action Learning approach--a process that aided my appreciation of taking responsibility for my own learning and the learning of other "fellow-travelers". One of my Professors (Judi Marshall) wrote a book titled "Living Life As Inquiry". The book emphasized the importance of sense-making our life-experiences in order to maximize the learning opportunities therein.
Thus, it appears that in "facilitating" and promoting Social Learning-considering its "wildness", realizing it is not restricted to a physical gathering, walled up in a particular setting but occurs via mobile devices, among several people (colleagues, friends and strangers alike), day or night-the role organizations have to play is in culture building. Whereas we once had the opportunity to physically facilitate learning, the necessary approach now is promoting the ideal learning culture of sense-making in our employees.
When employees learn to make sense of their experiences, the ideas they stumble at or share with others on Social Platforms, learning opportunities are unleashed.
Thus, promoting sense-making is the new way to facilitate Learning 3.0!
Sent from my iPad
