Wednesday, May 16th, I had the honor of being a facilitator for the Corporate University Professional Development Network (PDN) of the Chicago Chapter of the American Society for Training & Development (CCASTD). The evening’s theme focused on the topic, Social Media, Mobile Technologies, and Social Learning: How are they being used?
Equity Residential hosted the event in their corporate offices, and Naomi Berkove, Learning and Development Manager at Cannon Design, and co-moderator of the PDN, kicked off the evening. Naomi welcomed more than 40 attendees who came to participate in the discussion. The topic was the brainchild of eLearning and On-line Education Consultant, Danny Ortegon. Danny also organized and led the event that evening.
After providing some context for the meeting, and presenting a few definitions on Social Media, Mobile Learning and Social Learning, Danny introduced Carolyn Haug, Assistant VP, Learning and Knowledge at Equity Residential. Carolyn set the tone for a lively discussion, sharing examples of the collaboration tools her organization is currently using—and piloting—to connect and interact with Equity Residential’s internal and external communities and stakeholders. Carolyn cited technologies like Yammer which her organization uses to share knowledge internally and diminish the management of increasing volumes of emails. She also noted their intranet, ERNIE, is a growing more interactive to support internal collaboration and productivity through blogging, and Google Site to help manage projects. Social Media sites she referenced included Facebook pages created for each of the property sites, LinkedIn being avidly used and YouTube channels to promote the lifestyle associated with each of the company’s managed properties. There were other applications Carolyn touched on as well, including Foursquare and even Pinterest.
We then began a rotating round-table discussion focused on the following themes:
- Performance Improvement/Change Management
- Social Media for Learning
- Mobile Learning
- Strategy/Implementation
I facilitated the table discussion on Social Media for Learning. The first group was interesting—most participants at this table did not, shall we say, embrace Social Media. There were, however, some personal experiences like downloading an application to a mobile device to learn something on PowerPoint, for example. Surprisingly, a medical doctor, there to accompany his wife, an Instructional Design student, shared how he’s using an app on his iPhone for collaboration on patient diagnosis. Suddenly the table dynamics changed and the discussion centered on the practical application of the doctor’s need, the discovery process and shared learning that took place within his medical community. Just as the discussion grew lively, the group had to switch to the next topic.
The second and third group of professionals seemed a little more experienced using Social Media and collaboration tools in the corporate world. Each shared his or her knowledge of industry gurus, links and sites with the others around the table. Several were furiously capturing the nuggets of information being referenced—some with pen and paper; others on iPads. Social learning—in practice—right before my eyes.
So, what did I learn?
- Many of us are still overwhelmed by the pervasive chatter of Social Media and struggle to determine what tools to use, why and when.
- Cool applications and tools don’t cut it—practical need is where it’s at for adoption, generally through a grassroots movement.
- Corporate organizations are beginning to consider new positions like “curator” for the content developed by the communities on collaboration sites.
- Embedding Social Media into a corporate culture requires a Sponsor and Change Management.
- Social Media is not Social Learning and vice versa.
With regard to that last bullet, the definitions and references Danny shared helped to distinguish our terms:
- Social Media (SoMe) may be defined as online software tools used to post, communicate and share information, pictures, websites, text, video, for “personal purposes”. It can include Public Media sites (YouTube, Wikipedia, Slideshare, Blogs, etc.) as well as Social Networking sites (FaceBook, Twitter, and LinkedIn). In general, Public Media sites are used to create, collaborate, comment on, and share information or content, and Social Networking sites are used to build a network of connections or colleagues. — paraphrased from Jane Hart and C4LPT
http://c4lpt.co.uk/janes-articles-and-presentations/the-social-learning-revolution/
- Social Learning refers to all learning that happens socially (with others) both social media powered and not socially powered (delivered). It has also been described as Communication and Collaboration to support learning and performance as the “moment of need”. It has further been described as something that people have always done either on the job, but SoMe tools and Mobile devices have served to accelerate everything. — paraphrased from Jane Hart and Jane Bozarth
http://c4lpt.co.uk/janes-articles-and-presentations/social-learning-is-not-a-new-training-trend/
- Mobile Learning involves using personal devices (smart phones, mobile phones, tablets, and other devices) to design and deliver specific learning content to support learning and improve performance. Mobile content can be text, graphics, video, audio, pictures, calendars, and can be formal or informal
— paraphrased from Clark Quinn, “Designing mLearning”, 2011
“mLearning is the use of mobile technology to aid in the learning, reference or exploration of information useful to an individual at that moment or in a specific use content.” — http://floatlearning.com/2010/04/mlearning-is-not-elearning-on-a-mobile-device/
Our industry is changing. As practitioners, we need to recognize that learning is a process, design for more collaborative learning experiences, and incorporate the available and emerging technologies—when they make sense—for performance support; not just strictly design course modules for a training event. As learning leaders, we need to enable the evolution, encourage the creativity that facilitates learning as a process and measures success in terms of performance.
Let’s continue the discussion. What are you doing with Social Media in your learning organization? Any insights on designing and developing mLearning? We look forward to your comments and feedback.