Carol RozwellWhile listening to an interesting program from the BBC on the use of social media for learning Learning Curve, I was struck by connection between learning and collaboration discussed by many of the interviewees. To paraphrase, “the real learning occurs when people talk about the content.” In another time, we might have called this exchange a knowledge transfer of business expertise. Today, it’s more likely to be called social learning. Or just collaboration.
Why do I make the point if it is obvious? We see learning leaders struggling to articulate the value they bring to the organization. We see collaboration teams ask about the ROI of social software. It seems there is an opportunity to collaborate on how to quantify the value of social interactions that make an organization better prepared to deal with change.
Category: Uncategorized Tags:
5 responses so far ↓
1 Matt Shandera August 25, 2009 at 10:24 am
Carol,
I completely agree! More over, I have always found the separation of “social learning/collaboration” and “social media” a bit off. The reason being, the idea of social media is to connect and facilitate communication between multiple parties around some central idea or content. The net outcome of which is always a form of learning, either an exchange of knowledge, creation of ideas or change of mindset (influence).
Over all, social media / learning / collaboration software really isn’t new at all. Its just a tool expanding practices humanity has done for thousands of years. Communication, Collaboration, Learning.
Now, we are just opening up the audience to anyone and everyone.
- Matt
2 Carol Rozwell August 25, 2009 at 10:43 am
Thanks for your comment and glad to know my remarks resonated. I suspect you will like my upcoming report on social software tools to tap the collective. It’s planned for release mid-September.
3 Armen Jagharbekian September 1, 2009 at 1:45 am
Carol,
U mentioned a very important point, indeed this shows how effective WEB 2.0 can be for learning industry.
4 Jennifer Hogan November 28, 2009 at 9:13 am
Great post, Carol.
It really resonated with me, as I have spent 15 years in education as a teacher or administrator.
Teachers have always understood that if a student can “say it” or teach someone else, then the student really “gets it.” They also understand the value of collaboration in the learning process.
For some reason, teachers can be the last to understand (or try to understand) the value of social media as a tool for deep learning and valuable learning experiences.
I think if teachers would see social media as a way to invite “the world” into the conversation, they may have a different view of it. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, the conversation is not limited to the time or physical constraints of the classroom. Students can begin to stop compartmentalizing their learning into “math class” or “English class” and see it as a progressive, intertwined, life-long endeavor.
I agree with the comment that Matt made, “Its just a tool expanding practices humanity has done for thousands of years.” I hope that more teachers will recognize this!
-Jennifer
5 Carol Rozwell December 4, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Jennifer, good to hear from someone who has been there, done that. Certainly the concept of learners learning from each other disrupts many traditional approaches to education. But perhaps once teachers get over that fear, they will be willing to explore new approaches to learning that teach differentiating skills, not just facts.
Leave a Comment