Content Becomes Its Own Context

“How much of our training budget goes to things that have nothing to do with ‘learning’? Why does the LMS cost more than the whole L&D department? How many organizations invest in more authoring tools and asset libraries than they do in people who know how to use them to design more effectively? Why have we fragmented learning into shards of ‘objects’ rather than craft whole, robust learning experiences? We’re supposed to be in the learning business, not the ‘object’ business.”

More: http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/1070/nuts-and-bolts-content-becomes-its-own-context

Metaphors

"How would different beliefs about learning affect our practice? What is the prevailing belief in your own work culture? In thinking of my own past and present workplaces, and the types of instruction I’ve most often been asked to build or facilitate, the belief seems most often to be that learning happens as people acquire discrete pieces of data—which we hope they’ll apply as needed. This in turn affects the way in which the instruction attempts to tap into prior learning and tie to other, related pieces of instruction."

For the full article, see: http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/1054/nuts-and-bolts-metaphors

The Pinterest board referenced in the article is at http://pinterest.com/janebozarth/learning-teaching-metaphors/

Assessing the Value of Online Interactions

In looking for value in online interactions, try to get past the idea of a magic metric. I can’t tell you that my spending x hours on LinkedIn and tweeting y times per day will get you the result I got in the example above. I can tell you that my choice of when, with whom, and how to engage is what helped drive that result.

For more, including an overview of a new framework from Wenger et al, see: 
http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/1019/nuts-and-bolts-assessing-the-value-of-online-interactions

Unlearning

One of the givens in working with adult learners is the importance of helping them access prior knowledge and building on what they already know. But what if that prior knowledge is no longer useful, or the skills no longer applicable, or it was never very accurate in the first place? 

See more in this month's "Nuts and Bolts" column: http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/1000/nuts-and-bolts-unlearning

Narrating Our Work

"By sharing what we are doing and how we are learning, we distribute the tacit knowledge otherwise so hard to capture; invite feedback and encouragement from others; invite others to learn with us; document our work and learning for future use; and tie our learning to the efforts of others. Here’s a true story about physical rehab turned learning turned hobby turned community of practice turned two successful businesses, all via informal, social means. And all within six months."  

See this month's "Nuts & Bolts" column:  http://www.learningsolutionmag.com/articles/984/nuts-and-bolts-narrating-our-work

UPDATE 2026. In a server move the new owners of the Learning Guild deleted a good deal of old content. That column no longer exists. Luckily I still have all my files.

[Leader Here’s a true story about physical rehab turned learning turned hobby turned community of practice turned 2 successful businesses, all via informal, social means.  And all within 6 months.]

 

Narrating Our Work

There’s a lot of talk among the social/informal/curation-interested learning set, of which I hope I’m considered an active member, about the idea of narrating our work. This has become decidedly easier over the last decade given the many new tools available for it. By sharing what we are doing and how we are learning, we:  distribute the tacit knowledge otherwise so hard to capture; invite feedback and encouragement from others; invite others to learn with us; document our work and learning for future use; and tie our learning to the efforts of others.  Here’s a true story about physical rehab turned learning turned hobby turned community of practice turned 2 successful businesses, all via informal, social means.  And all within 6 months.

Self-directed informal and social learning. I have an acquaintance from my hometown, Gloria Melton Mercer, who became a Facebook friend some time back. Gloria, a retired elementary school art teacher, needed surgery on her dominant hand in October 2011 and was told she’d need to find a way to rebuild her strength and dexterity. Thinking, “You should mix something fun with something you need to do, right?” she decided to teach herself to create elaborately decorated bakery-style cookies (learner identifying own needs; taking ownership of learning; choosing own solutions).  Gloria started with YouTube videos, many provided by bloggers whose work she then followed (self-directed learning).  A lot of her learning was through practice and trial-and-error (experiential learning). And along the way she decided to share her project with her Facebook friends (because that camera on her phone is really easy to use; Facebook makes things so easy to post; she wanted to solicit feedback; she thought it might be fun to share her work; she had learned from others who shared theirs).  Many photos included comments about what she was learning, and how (narrating her work and learning out loud).  

A community of practice (CoP). Then:  As Gloria became familiar with the videos and blogs, she developed a growing awareness of an existing active community of people with similar interests. She began engaging with some of the bloggers, asking questions and sharing her own answers.  Gloria’s daughter Marlo and Gloria’s friend Whitney, seeing Gloria’s creations on Facebook, decided they wanted to learn, too.  Soon they started sharing what they were learning; all were participating with the explicit mutual goal of getting better at their new craft (per Etienne Wenger, this is the very definition of a community of practice).  As they worked they emerged as contributing members of a true community of practice, with  production of artifacts (recipes, actual cookies, and pictures of them), a repertoire (libraries of cutters and techniques mastered, like cartoon characters and airbrushing, and a specialized vocabulary with meaning mostly for other cookie bakers). The repertoire included another classic mark of community, members developing own in-jokes and references.  As they went along the rest of us watched, encouraged, suggested cookie ideas, and commented .  Eventually Gloria became a full participating CoP member as she began teaching others.

Real Application to a Real Workplace. Now? Gloria continues to work on her technique, but cookies remain for her only a hobby. Marlo started and operates Coastline Cookies in Midlothian VA, USA. Whitney started and operates Beach House Cookies in Virginia Beach VA, USA.  The “roi” of this informal, social learning experience? I guess you’d need to ask Marlo and Maria to hand over their books. They have businesses where before they had none, and they both report operating at a profit only a few months in.

Here’s how it looked:
October 2011-January 2012: Gloria learns basics from YouTube videos, then finds that many of those posting videos also have blogs and Facebook pages. “I found a company called Karen's Cookies that showed how to make cookies and decorate them. I figured she would give me correct information if she wanted people to buy their supplies from her (evaluating credibility of information). Karen’s Cookies site posts some of her favorite blogs. Many of the bloggers also have Facebook pages. I made a special Facebook list for these, so I can watch each day to see the latest cookies.” In January Gloria begins posting pictures of her early efforts, which she called “trash”, but reports that where cookies are involved, even hungry husbands like “trash”.  

Figure 1: January 3, 2012, making trash

Figure 2: January 10. Cookies are no longer “trash”. Gloria offers comments about her learning.

 

Figure 3. January 13: Gloria’s feeling confident enough to make cookies for family gifts.

 

Figure 4.  January 18. Gloria says she still can’t make her hand and icing “do what she wants.”  Gloria’s daughter Marlo, 125 miles away, joins in, as does Gloria’s friend Whitney. Gloria describes the need to “stop and stand back” when learning to decorate.

Figure 5. February 2012:  Marlo and her husband Mike begin taking orders for cookies. Marlo obtains a business license and Coastline Cookies is born. Marlo says: “After the experience with the Valentine’s Day cookies Mom and I were both hooked. We would spend hours out of our day watching videos and reading blogs and calling each other to share what we had learned. We still do!”

 

Figure 6. Gloria tries her hand at using the airbrush.

 

Figure 7: April 2012:  Gloria is turning out gorgeous cookies by the dozen.

 

Figure 8. Gloria begins teaching others.

May  2012: Marlo learns web design so she can launch and manage the Coastline Cookies site  http://www.coastlinecookies.com/

Figure 9. July 2012. Marlo’s Coastline Cookies company  is already a huge success.   

 

Figure 10. July 2012. Whitney’s Beachhouse Cookies  is likewise doing well  http://www.beachhousecookies.com/index.html

 

And Gloria continues to learn new techniques and share as she goes, while the rest of us remain on the lookout  for new, interesting cookie cutters.  Her new special interest is in learning better ways of photographing her final product.

Figure 11. Gloria moves on to learning about heat guns, quilting, and cookie photography.

There are so many lessons to be gleaned from this case:  The social aspect of publishing your learning, getting feedback and encouragement from friends, and helping other friends as they learn;  the fact that enthusiasm can be contagious; the willingness to share and not keep everything to yourself; the real way that knowledge is shared; the organic ways that networks grow.

And more to be learned here:  that learning often spawns the desire for additional learning (like web design and photography);  the futility believing  we can ‘capture’ knowledge as discrete pieces of data in a spreadsheet; that ‘generations’ has nothing to do with anything; the ways in which social technologies can accelerate learning and give it geographic reach; and the value of a community truly committed to improving practice. 

This is social learning. This is informal learning. This is narrating our work.

So the concluding question: For Gloria this was a hobby, but for Marlo and Whitney it has become full-time employment. How can we encourage others to narrate their work?  What support or tools would enable that?  How about the repair technician who figures out a new, quicker workaround? Or the restaurant chef who develops a new technique? Or the software engineer who…? Or the paralegal who….? What opportunities are we missing?

"Selling It": Encouraging Change

This month's "Nuts and Bolts" column takes on a common problem: sometimes in our enthusiasm we may be creating the very resistance we're trying to overcome. "What we find cool, others find intimidating. What we find useful, others find threatening. What we find magical, others find scary. And sometimes the very benefits we tout are exactly what others fear." 

Blog Book Tour: Karl Kapp's "Gamification of Learning and Instruction"

Blog book tour stop 3: I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advance copy of Karl Kapp’s new book, “The Gamification of Learning and Instruction” (Pfeiffer) (also see the book's Facebook Page) just in time for a long plane ride. What a delight! In an age when there’s so much confusion about this in the field, Kapp offers a timely, common-sense view of realities and possibilities.  Among my own frustrations are those in L&D (and, ahem, marketing) who are swept away on tides of badges and points without really understanding the instrinsic motivation and factors critical to successful, meaningful gamification.  (More about that? Take a look at the incredibly popular new game Draw Something, in which the only "rule" is an implicit one and successful play requires collaboration, not competition. Fifty million downloads within 50 days of release. And there isn’t even a winner, ever. )

Kapp pitches the book at just the right level, making material relevant for more experienced gamers as well as for those to whom all this would be rather new.  Several chapters offer basics about game elements and play, while others offer reviews of theory and research regarding games for learning, player types and patterns, and snapshots of ways games can support workplace performance of particular types of tasks. Chapters open with  questions, which provides a nice advance organizer for the information to come.

The author has called in some big guns in terms of expertise, with Alicia Sanchez providing a chapter-length case study from Defense Acquisition University, and a chapter on virtual reality games from expert Koreen Olbrish.   I love that Chapter 11 is written by high school senior Nathan Kapp, the author’s son, who  brings a particularly relevant perspective as  he “has been playing video games his whole life."

This is an excellent resource for those seeking to make sense of the gamification craze and apply gamification principles to create better learning experiences. 

How Can We Know What We Don't Know?

Last month's "Nuts and Bolts" column "Buy or Build? and hte decisionmaking folwchart included there, sparked an interesting comment from a reader: " Sometimes organizations go to great trouble and expense to build (often inferior) eLearning in-house becasue they don't really know what their other options are." I explore this further in this month's column:   How Can We Know What We Don't Know? 

eLearning: Buy or Build?

So often I see organizations struggling to develop eLearning in-house when, really, outsourcing would result in  a better product that's really less expensive in the long run. This month's "Nuts and Bolts" column for Learning Solutions Magazine explores this: Buy or Build? 

What Does Learning Look Like? This.

3 Birds, One Stone

Bird 1: I do lots of workshops on using social media for learning, and I struggle to help participants see the possibilities of using images rather than text-based approaches in their work. Thanks to email and discussion boards, we tend to fall into "comment here, post there, respond to that" kinds of interactions. But now, with so many workers armed with cell phones, nearly all of which have decent cameras, there are so many more possibilities for using images and video in our work. A plus: This can level the playing field for people with low-literacy or second-language issues.


Bird 2: I struggle with helping learners recognize when they are learning. They think of it instead as "solving a problem" or "getting an answer". They don't say, "Gee, I'm a motivated, self-directed adult learner, and I think I'll become more mindful of that." They instead say, "I'll just Google 'spreadsheet tutorial' and see what I find." And if they don't recognize when they're learning, it may just not occur to them to share their new learning with others, or mention it to the boss, or include it in their weekly status report. 


Bird 3: My whole career I have struggled to help managers and HR Directors and supervisors and workers understand that "learning" rarely looks like "school". Because of their experience with education, they believe learning happens at tables (or in front of a computer) while an expert talks. 


One Stone: 
This morning (thanks to Dan Pontefract @dpontefract sharing something via Valerie Irvine @_valeriei, who were posting this, the brainchild of Jeffery Heil @jheil65 -- that's how Twitter works, see?) I ran across the most wonderful big stone that hits squarely on all 3 birds: being mindful about learning, while showing what it really looks like, all done via sharing photos on Pinterest on a board called "What Does Learning Look Like?"  


Fabulous answer to a fabulous question. And worth much more than 1,000 words. 

From Traditional ID to ID 2.0

I have an article in the new issue of ASTD's T+D, "From Traditional Instruction to Instructional Design 2.0". It's excerpted here if you'd like to take  look. Some highlights:

Social learning is learning with and from others by moving within one’s culture, workplace, and world. It’s often unconscious and unintentional, and it often looks more like solving a problem or working together to make sense of something. Social learning is how most of us learn most things: through living in our cultures and interacting with others there. It’s how babies learn to talk and how we learn the basic rules of getting along on the playground. It’s all around us every day, from water cooler conversations to asking a co-worker for an opinion.

What are some ways to help support the new learning as people work to implement it? Some ideas include

• an online leadership book club to sustain learning beyond the confines of the organization’s structured leadership academy
• a networking group for graduates of a particular course, which can be a great way to support transfer of new learning from the classroom event
• a dynamic, evolving frequently-asked-questions webpage for new hires, created by new hires, or a webpage with tips from top sales staff
• a wiki for group projects
• a site for “critical incident” discussions related to training topics such as customer service or ethics
• a microblog-based live chat for all the leaders in your organization, or all leaders in the pharmaceutical industry, or all leaders everywhere
• a Twitter hashtag assigned to your training sessions so participants can tweet key points and takeaways to those who were unable to attend.

Check here for the excerpt, and the actual publication for the full text. 

Social Learning and Etc.: In Conversation with Jane Hart

Jane Hart and I got together to talk about social learning, social media, change management, and measuring engagement in online communities. Here's the recording: Her audio's not great so she let me do most of the talking. I didn't do anything to cause that-- I promise.

Not Everything Requires "Instruction"

New "Nuts & Bolts" column today: Watch for opportunities to quickly solve a performance problem or encourage use of a new idea, approach or tool. Warning: this may not have a thing to do with your job.