Social Media And Learning

November 12, 2009

Inthis article, I’m featuring a wonderful interview with successfulsocial media expert, Jane Hart. She provides compelling reasons toimplement a social and collaborative environment as part of workplacelearning. You can read more from Jane at her blog, Social Media in Learning.

Coach: You were an early adopter of using social technologies for learning purposes. What motivated you to jump in?
Jane: Using social technologies has just been anevolution of my experience and interest in learning technologies for along time now. I was an advocate of computer-based learning in the 80s,then early Internet/web-based learning in the 90s, social learning inthe 2000s is just another step along the path

Coach: What are your criteria for defining a technology as social?
Jane: One that allows people to share (experiences or resources) or collaborate (in many different ways).

Coach: From a cognitive perspective, how does learning through social media differ from structured and self-paced eLearning?
Jane: Social learning can still be structured i.e.,take place within a formal course environment. The difference withsocial learning is that it supports conversation and discussion andlearning from one another, whilst “traditional” self-paced learning isabout learning from a computer without reference to others—it’s justcontent, content, content. We are all social beings, so social learningis a more natural way of learning.

Coach: Do you think the knowledge and skills acquired through social media and technologies should be measured? And can it be measured?
Jane: “Learning” per se shouldn’t be measured in anorganizational context, it is the new “performance” that it bringsabout. Sometimes that can be measured by a positive change in speed oroutput or productivity, sometimes not. Sometimes it is important tojust recognize the other intangible benefits that occur. I think wehave become rather obsessed about measuring everything—coursecompletions, test scores, etc. With social learning comes the need tothink about new ways of measuring success. （随着社会学习的到来，需要考虑用新的方式来测量学习是否成功）I think that is going to bedifficult for many L&D professionals who have become used tomeasuring learning in a Learning Management System.

Coach: In your consulting work, what social technologies have you found to be the best for promoting learning?
Jane: Many different ones! In fact I don’t think it’sabout the separate technologies. It’s about having a toolbox containinga number of different social technologies at your disposal in order toselect the most appropriate one(s) that address a particular learningor business problem. It might just be one tool—it might be a number.For instance, I am currently running a formal programme where the groupis using many different technologies to share and collaborate—socialbookmarking, discussions, wikis, blogging, file sharing, etc.

Coach: Can you describe the advantages of the social media environment, Elgg?
Jane: Exactlyto do what I have mentioned in the previous answer. Elgg provides aprivate integrated suite of social media tools—within a seamlessenvironment for individuals to use for their own personal learning andfor groups to use for formal or informal learning purposes. Elgg allowsorganizations to take advantage of the benefits that socialtechnologies have to offer, and yet not worry about some of the issueswith using public social media tools, namely privacy and security ofdata, muddling of personal and organizational identities in public, andthe overwhelming number of tools (with their own separate logins andinterfaces) that need to be supported by IT departments.

Coach: What typical obstacles do managersand learning professionals face in trying to convince organizations toadopt social learning technologies?
Jane: Senior managers are clearly concerned by theissues mentioned in the previous answer and that use of public socialmedia tools by employees might cause embarrassment for theorganization. They also think “social networking” is a trivial activityand compare it with Facebook. I have for a long time stopped talkingabout social networking in an organizational context as it comes with alot of unfortunate “baggage.” I do talk about social andcollaborative platforms, social learning environments or networks orcommunities. Those terms are much more acceptable and accepted bysenior managers.

Coach: Do you have suggestions for how they can overcome these obstacles?
Jane: Demonstrate the value of social technologies forlearning by installing a private and secure social learning environmentso that the benefits can be experienced by the organization.

Thanks, Jane!

Do you incorporate social technologies in your learning strategy? Tell us how below.

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