Social media and social networks, to say the least, have become one of the most common ways for people to communicate. Just about everyone — even your mom, probably — has connected somehow with someone else through as social-media tool.
Read moreSocial learning a lot of us hear a lot these days — we know, vaguely, what it is, and we know that it's happening, whether we like it or not, every day. And yet the vast majority of our money and energy goes toward formal training programs, not these social, off-the-cuff initiatives. Why is that?
Read moreThe first post I wrote here was called Critical Skills Learning Professionals Need Now, back in October 2010. Since then, I've been on a quest to help people in the learning and development industry continuously learn new skills and stay current. Fueled by a personal quest to avoid professional stagnation and a desire to see our...
Read moreSocial Learning is a term that is rapidly spreading throughout the learning and performance field. It’s also a phrase that is on the verge of being completely perverted by the same community.
Read moreArnold Palmer, one of the original kings of golf, had a saying, “Your worst putt is better than your best chip.” In other words, if you are off the green, you are better off putting from the fringe or light rough than chipping. So it is with any new initiative or project. In this spirit,...
Read moreThere is an exciting case study in the August issue of Chief Learning Officer Magazine about how Coldwell Banker uses social learning to get to the learning that is occurring most closely to the actual work in the organization. Realizing that discussions in the classroom often stay in the classroom, Coldwell Banker implemented social learning that relies mainly...
Read moreSometimes creative ideas hide in the darkness, and we, as designers, can fall into a routine of producing the same types of designs that we always do, using the same formula, and the same process. This leads to ho-hum programs. Sometimes we need to inject something into the mix to get new ideas flowing.
Read moreIf asked to picturing mentoring in action, you’d most likely imagine a seasoned, grey-haired veteran out to lunch with an eager 20-something, sharing his or her hard-won business wisdom. But is this the same image you’d get if you asked a member of Gen Y (aka, the Millennials), who, after all, actually make up the...
Read moreEach week, a group of learning professionals gathers for at Tweet chat called #lrnchat to discuss issues and ideas in the workplace learning space. I try to join the sessions as often as I can because it keeps me in tune with what forward-thinking individuals are doing in training, e-learning, and instructional design.
Read moreThe evidence is overwhelming. We're becoming more mobile and more dispersed. Devices are becoming simultanteously smaller and more powerful. And the younger workforce that will eventually replace the baby boomers has grown up using mobile devices more than notebook and desktop computers. The Economist describes this shift to a more mobile lifestyle as a new...
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