I've been meaning to once again update readers on some of the latest work from industry expert and fountainhead Jane Hart. I'll start by noting that she has quietly kicked off her annual Learning Tools Survey, wherein she asks industry experts and practitioners to list their top ten tools for learning (broadly defined). I've participated in this survey since 2007, and have already updated my personal list in her index. You can join in as well by visiting the 2010 page. And back in early December I commented on the results of her 2009 survey—see my posting The 2009 Edition of the Top 100 Tools for Learning.
Her tools survey is interesting on its own, and it has generated a massive tools directory that Jane dutifully maintains for all of our benefit. But her focus on learning tools only scratches the surface of her productive output. For the rest of this email I want to focus on a part of her website that has had a few names, but she is now calling the "Social Learning Academy". It is a collection of very well-written web pages and resources for those in Learning and Development positions (whether in workplace organizations or higher education) who need to get up to speed on social media in the context of learning, that is, what is often called "Social Learning."
If I were to suggest an order to read her introductory pages, I'd go with the following:
- Introduction: What is Social Learning?
- What Do We Mean by Learning?
- From e-Learning to Social Learning
- The State of Social Media Today
Jane also provides a very detailed comparison of four popular, public social networking tools: Facebook, Twitter, Ning, and Elgg. This is a great place to start and for some use cases in the workplace, these tools themselves will be directly useful (marketing, customer service, and even various learning contexts). Most organizations will of course also want to consider a range of other platforms that provide Web 2.0 / social media technologies, including but not limited to:
- Your current or future LMS. Which Web 2.0 / social media tools does it provide your organization? Which are on their roadmap and when do you expect them to be available to you? For instance, in September 2008 Element K's software-as-a-service LMS, KnowledgeHub, added wikis, blogs, and forums, and we have additional collaborative Web 2.0 tools on our roadmap.
- Enterprise applications from Microsoft or IBM. SharePoint 2007 added wikis and blogs, and IBM's suite of tools includes social components (notably their Quickr and Connections products).
- Additional suites and platforms. Depending on your needs, you might want to consider suites such as Jive, SocialText, or an open-source toolset such as Liferay, each of which provide a range of Web 2.0 / social media tools.
My advice: if you are investigating social media tools for your organization, use Jane's comparison chart not only for its details about the four tools she focuses on, but also as a starting point for the kinds of features you might want from your LMS vendor or other enterprise tool providers!
And finally, if you are looking for a wide variety of examples of the use of Web 2.0 / social media tools in organizations—well, Jane has you covered there too! See her page listing Social Learning Examples in the Workplace.
Keep up the great work Jane, and know that it is much appreciated by everyone taking on the challenge of realizing the benefits of social learning in their own organization!
— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com and on Twitter @ThomasStone)
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