It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
ASTD ICE Program Guide Now Available!
The 2010 American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) International Conference and Exposition is almost here! This event is the largest U.S. event in the training, learning, and development industry, and this year it is being held in Chicago, IL from May 16-19. In recent weeks ASTD released the online Program Guide, which includes both the schedule of conference sessions and a map and details regarding the massive expo hall. Element K will be in Booth 233, which is near the cyber center, in the second row on the left as you enter the expo hall. If you will be attending this conference, be sure to stop by our booth and say hello!
Jane Bozarth's New Column: Nuts and Bolts
My friend Jane Bozarth has a new column at Learning Solutions Magazine, called "Nuts and Bolts." In her first two columns, she takes on ADDIE in "When Training Works" and "Principles of Multimedia Learning". Jane writes clearly, sometimes provocatively, but always on topics of great interest to those in the L&D industry. So keep up the good work Jane, I look forward to your next columns!
On Virtual Worlds for One or Many
Clark Aldrich, an industry expert on simulations and the use of games for learning, wrote a brief but helpful blog posting titled "How should virtual worlds that are designed for one person differ than those designed for one thousand?" In this posting he makes clear some key design distinctions for several virtual world scenarios: to be used by one person, one person with a coach, a small group of people (say 3-8 people), or a large or very large group.
The New iPhone OS and Mobile Learning
Bill Brandon of Learning Solutions Magazine wrote an excellent article that considers the impacts for mobile learning scenarios of Apple's recently announced upcoming 4.0 operating system for its popular iPhone and iPod Touch mobile devices. The mobile learning landscape continues to evolve, and even if your organization isn't doing much in this space at present, you are wise to stay on top of the latest developments.
On Micro-Messaging, Micro-Blogging, Social-Messaging, Micro-Sharing
It goes by various names, but so-called "micro-messaging," "micro-blogging," and "social-messaging" is an increasingly popular topic for organizations looking for the latest way to increase internal communications and workforce productivity. Led by Yammer and similar providers, many enterprise organizations are moving beyond the "testing" stage, having found significant value from these "internal Twitter-like" tools. A couple of good articles on this subject recently include:
- “Use Microblogging to Increase Productivity,” in Harvard Business Review, by industry expert and author Jeanne Meister and former Sun CLO Karie Willyerd.
- “Top-10 Use Cases Enterprise Microsharing Will Help You Get Less Email," by Luis Suarez, which provides exactly as the title indicates.
The Latest Insights on Social Learning
I continue to find the flow of good articles, postings, and resources on social learning to be almost overwhelming. So as I did in the last several round-ups, I'll provide some of the latest "gems" for you here.
- “5 Tips for Knowledge Gardeners: How to Grow a Collaborative Learning Community," by Josh Little at Learning Solutions Magazine, provides valuable tips for those embarking on social learning and the use of Web 2.0 tools in their organization. See also what I wrote on this subject a few days earlier in “On the Garden Metaphor."
- ”Plato's Cave 2.0 A New Myth for Adoption," by Rob Paterson, tells a story as a powerful analogy to an organization "going 2.0."
- “Rethinking e-Learning," by Clark Quinn, which makes important points about social learning and more.
- “Difference Between Personal and Professional Uses of Social Media: It's All in Your Head," by Kevin Jones, which provides a brief but excellent description of a problem that I know both he and I face often when presenting on social media, social learning, and Web 2.0 technologies. Simply stated, this is the confusion between personal use of public social media tools and how that differs from business uses of the same types of technology (wikis, blogs, forums, social networking profiles, micro-messaging, etc.) but in an internal-to-the-enterprise context.
- “Enterprise 2.0: Questions Answered, Part 1," again by Kevin Jones, where he launches a new series of blog postings, starting for now with his thoughts on the questions: “What is the big picture for social media in organizations (for E2.0 purposes)?” and “Is social media replacing something we have, or adding a new thing?”
- “Social Learning = New Toolset + New Mindset + New Skillset," by Jane Hart, where she briefly breaks down her previously outlined five types of social learning that occur in organizations by mapping these to what she calls the new toolset, new mindset, and new skillset that each involve. See also her regularly updated webpage on this topic.
- “Agility and Autonomy," by Harold Jarche, which follows Jane's thoughts with comments on one specific new mindset (agility) and one specific new skillset (autonomy) that are critical for social learning to flourish.
- “Social Learning Unleashed," by Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd, who share numerous examples of social learning in organizations, and provide 10 guidelines to consider in "creating, organizing and planning the rollout of an enterprise 2.0 initiative." See also the sidebar article "The Launch of Planet Blue," where Meister interviews Allison Anderson, manager of learning and development at Intel.
Updates from Element K
As usual, I'll end this roundup posting with links to our newsletter service that we launched last year. Each newsletter includes several articles of relevance to the Learning and Development field, as well as updates about Element K events and our latest product releases. You can see the latest newsletters here: February, March, April, and May.
— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com and on Twitter @ThomasStone)
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