Learning and Development Roundup (vol. 9)

It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)
 
Videos from recent L&D Industry Conferences
Did you miss some or all of the major conferences in the Learning and Development industry in the month of November? Well, the good news is that a few of these have made some video content available for free:

• Elliott Masie's Learning 2009 - Provided are videos of many of the "keynote" sessions. Great stuff!
• The eLearning Guild's DevLearn - Provided are a summary video of the event, plus a recording of the webinar delivered on Dec. 18th that highlights five of the 30 demos from DevLearn's "DemoFest."
• LearnTrends - Provided are nearly 20 videos from this online "virtual conference."

Looking Back on 2009
The December "big question" from ASTD's Learning Circuits blog was "What Did You Learn About Learning in 2009?" This has by now generated over a dozen response postings, including items from top industry bloggers such as Tony Karrer, Karl Kapp, Michael Hanley, and others.

And over at Tony Karrer's eLearning Learning site, his list "Hot Topics for 2009" and the many links to articles from throughout the year make for an interesting read. The top eight areas are:

1. Twitter
2. Social Media, Social Networks, Social Learning, and Informal Learning
3. Google Wave
4. SharePoint
5. Video
6. Mobile, Mobile Learning, and iPhone
7. Changes in Design and Instructional Design and our Roles
8. Webinars and Virtual Classrooms

Tony also provides a review of his predictions for 2009, and grades himself A-F on how he did for each.

Looking Ahead to 2010
Bersin & Associates has released their annual report, "Corporate Learning and Talent Management Predictions for 2010" (free, registration required). This includes 12 predictions, which Mr. Bersin summarizes at their blog here.

Bersin also posted in December on "Discussions with our Research Members: Five Topics to Watch for 2010" in which he described five big issues that they see emerging in 2010.

Jeanne Meister has also provided us with a top five,  with her posting at New Learning Playbook titled "Five Words To Describe Corporate Learning in 2010." The five words are not a surprise (Social, Mobile, Collaborative, Engaging, Fun), but read her post for her insightful explanations for why she chooses each.
 
And finally, Jay Cross shares some words of wisdom for 2010, nearly two dozen classic quotes that he describes as follows: "The following ideas help me get out of the daily rut to renew my commitment to make the world a better place. Perhaps they’ll move you, too."  A quick but very motivational read!

A New Journal
Late in 2009, a new and valuable resource joined the ranks of the many journals, magazines, and blogs available to L&D professionals. This new resource is a refereed journal named Impact: Journal of Applied Research in Workplace E-Learning, and it comes to you from ElNet, the E-learning Network of Australasia. All of the contents from the 200+ page inaugural issue are available for free download online, so take a look!

When Will 3D Virtual Worlds Really Take Off?
Koreen Olbrish shares some very sensible comments about 3D Virtual Worlds and when they will finally go mainstream for learning and other uses. Read her posting "Virtual Worlds 2.0…a few humble predictions."

The Latest Insights on Social Learning
Every day, more industry experts and bloggers speak and write about the importance of "social learning" and "enterprise 2.0" -- I've done so many times here at Element K Blog as well. Here are some of the recent highlights you don't want to miss:

• "Web 2.0 and Change Present Challenges to Many Learning Executives," by Rex Davenport. An interview with Jay Cross.
• "Come Together, Right Now" - Jay Cross' latest column in the December issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine.
• "Enterprise 2.0: A Parallel Meritocracy," by Venkatesh G. Rao and Janet Clarey in the Oct./Nov. issue of Elearning! magazine.
• "Using Social Media to Counter Budget Shortfalls," by David Coleman in the Oct./Nov. issue of Elearning! magazine.
• "Leverage Online Discussions," by Kendra Lee, on pg. 18 of the Oct./Nov. issue of Training magazine, where she provides six helpful tips.
• "Boomers 2.0," by Margery Weinstein, pgs. 48-50 of the Oct./Nov. issue of Training magazine.
• "Social Media and Networking Journey," a series of blog posts at Kevin Jones' Engaged Learning blog, where he covers a range of social learning tools.

Updates from Element K
As usual, I'll end this roundup posting with links to our newsletter service that we launched earlier this 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: November, December, and January.

—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com, and on Twitter @ThomasStone)

Learning and Development Roundup (vol. 8)

It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also previous editions at the archive page.)

ASTD Employee Learning Week is December 7 - 11
The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) is again celebrating employee learning in organizations with their Employee Learning Week (ELW) program December 7-11, 2009. As their website indicates, "Employee Learning Week is an awareness campaign highlighting the important connection between learning and achieving organizational results." Learning and training are more important now than ever before, as "the growing skills gap and the increased need to compete in today's economy require organizations to develop a knowledgeable and highly skilled workforce." See their list of ideas for how your organization can get involved and read about the ways that dozens of your peers celebrated ELW in 2007 and 2008.

Celebrating 50 Years of Four Levels
There is another celebration going on in our industry, a birthday of sorts for a key L&D industry model: Donald Kirkpatrick's Four Levels Model for evaluating the impact of workforce development initiatives. The November issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine focused on this, starting with the great article "The Kirkpatrick Model: Past, Present and Future" by Jim and Wendy Kirkpatrick.  Additional articles in the same issue include "The Father of the Four Levels" by Daniel Margolis, "Simplified ROI: Measuring What Matters Most" by Howard Prager and Susan Vece, "Emerging Issues in Measurement" by Jeffrey Berk, "It's Time for Measurement Strategy" by Chris Moore, and finally a closing column by Donald Kirkpatrick himself "Same Model, New Challenges." For anyone who either wants to get up to speed with learning measurement and the history of the Kirkpatrick model, or is in the middle of implementing any sort of evaluation or ROI-measurement system, this issue is a goldmine.

Two Key Recent Industry Reports
The L&D industry has seen several new and important reports released in the past few months. ASTD recently announced their 2009 State of the Industry report, "a comprehensive look at the training and development investments, practices, and trends for 2008." This report for ASTD members provides data for from 301 organizations, including members of the ASTD Benchmarking Forum and ASTD BEST Award winners.

Also, industry analysts Ambient Insight have released their latest study, "The U.S. Market for Self-Paced E-Learning Products and Services: 2009-2014 Forecast and Analysis."  Their press release notes that the U.S. E-Learning market will reach $16.7 billion in 2009, with demand growing by a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4%, with revenues reaching $23.8 billion by 2014. I highly recommend that you read their free executive overview.

2009 Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards Announced
Also announced recently were the 2009 edition of the Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Awards. Element K is proud to have garnered two of these coveted awards: Best Custom Content (Silver) for the course "The Green Grid Measures and Metrics" and Best Innovation in Learning Technology (Bronze) for our incorporation of Web 2.0 collaboration tools into the KnowledgeHub LMS to support informal learning. Selections for the Brandon Hall Awards are based on potential impact, applicability, ease of adoption, and overall value for learning professionals.

Learning Circuits Big Question:  What is the Value of Social Media for Learning?
How do I communicate the value of social media as a learning tool to my organization? That is the question that ASTD's Learning Circuits asked the L&D blogging community for the month of November. As always, the "big question" generated plenty of interesting responses, including perspectives from folks such as Jay Cross, Jane Hart, Karl Kapp, Clive Shepherd, Clark Quinn, Tony Karrer, and many others. If you are trying to convince others in your organization (or yourself!) of the value of social media for learning, this series of blog postings is a great place to start.

Jane Hart on Five Categories of Learning
Most people recognize the high-level distinction between what is called Formal Learning vs. Informal Learning. In considering how social media can be used for learning in an organization, Jane Hart wasn't comfortable with just these two categories, so she set out to get a bit more precise in how we conceptualize the learning that occurs in our organizations. She arrived at five categories, which she named at her blog as follows:

• Intra-Organizational Learning (IOL)—Keeping the organization up to date and up to speed on strategic and other internal initiatives and activities.
• Formal Structured Learning (FSL)—Formal education and training like classes, courses, workshops, etc. (both synchronous and asynchronous).
• Group Directed Learning (GDL)—Groups of individuals working in teams, projects, study groups, etc. Even two people working together in a coaching and mentoring capacity.
• Personal Directed Learning (PDL)—Individuals organizing and managing their own personal or professional learning.
• Accidental & Serendipitous Learning (ASL)—Individuals learning without consciously realizing it (aka incidental or random learning).

While its not likely that this set of acronyms will catch on in our industry right away, I think Jane has done us all a great service in clarifying these five distinct concepts. Jane's colleague Harold Jarche then assisted by providing a useful visual of these five concepts, that clearly identifies each on a grid representing Individual, Group, Organization on one axis and Undirected, Self-Directed, Directed on the other axis. Then Jane took her analysis a step further and provided dozens of examples of how social media can be used for each learning approach. This mapping of examples to concepts is a great resource for you as you consider learning in your own organization, and how best to blend the use of social media tools.

Harold Jarche on Train Speeds and Bridging the Adoption Chasm
Harold Jarche's blog had several great postings this week, and I'd like to draw your attention to two of them. First he draws your attention to an analogy found in Alvin and Heidi Toffler’s book, Revolutionary Wealth, which compares various societal structures and institutions and their willingness to change. This is very instructive given the amazing pace of change facing L&D professionals today. He also wrote about the need to bridge the chasm between early adopters and the early majority, and provided an insightful table that suggests the average current stage for many of the Web 2.0 and other new technologies L&D professionals are integrating into their learning programs. Where is your organization in the practical adoption of some of these innovative learning approaches?

David Mallon on Back to Basics in 2010
And finally, at this time of year most magazines, bloggers, and others will set out to either give a wrap-up look back at the year that was, and/or make some predictions about what we might expect in learning and development in the year ahead. One of the first to do so this year is David Mallon of Bersin & Associates, in his blog posting Back to Basics in '10. After noting the tough year that was 2009, Mallon notes that "The learning industry as a whole seems to get that it has reached a point in its history where it must evolve or face rapid obsolescence."  He then clarifies what he means by "back to basics" as "cutting through the distractions, asking ourselves hard questions about where and how we can add the most value to the organization, and optimizing our processes to leave no possible question of underutilization or inefficiency." He notes that L&D departments need to be focused on two key questions: "Are we truly working on the right things to help the business get where it needs to go? And, are we as good at the business of learning as we must be in order to succeed?" In discussing these two questions, Mallon argues that a focus on social learning is anything but a distraction, but rather a means to get "back to basics" by giving the L&D group a way to better enable informal learning. In other words, given that informal learning has always been around, isn't it high time you took the reins and started to better support and enable it?

Updates from Element K
As usual, I'll end this roundup posting with links to our newsletter service that we launched earlier this 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: June, July, August, September, October, November, and December.

—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com, and on Twitter @ThomasStone)

The 2009 Edition of Top 100 Tools for Learning

It was March of this year when I last highlighted the great work that Jane Hart does on behalf of the Learning and Development industry. So it is high time that I give an update, and Jane has provided me the perfect excuse as she recently announced the final results of the 2009 edition of her survey of Tools for Learning. The final list of 100 top tools was compiled from the contributions of 278 learning professionals worldwide—from both education and workplace learning—who were each asked to provide a list with descriptions of their top 10 learning tools (broadly defined). As always, Jane provides her valuable data in multiple formats, this year providing both a SlideShare presentation that walks you through the list one tool at a time, as well as a complete listing from 1-100.

So what learning tool tops the chart? It is one that will come as no surprise to those who have discovered its power and value: Twitter. I have several times posted here about the value I and many others in our industry get from Twitter on a daily basis, so let this top ranking serve as a wake-up call for anyone reading this posting who hasn't yet given Twitter a serious try. I'll note also that Twitter didn't just come in first place, it did so by a very wide margin! Here are the top 10 tools for 2009, with the number of votes each received.

• 159    Twitter
• 95.5   Delicious
• 79.5   YouTube
• 79      Google Reader
• 78.5   Google Docs
• 69      Wordpress
• 64      Slideshare
• 56      Google Search
• 54      Audacity
• 54      Firefox

Jane's full listing table provides the rankings for each tool in the 2008 and 2007 survey results, which allows us to learn that, for instance, Twitter has climbed the list from 43rd place in 2007 to 11th place in 2008 to finally taking the top spot away from Delicious (which had been first in 2008, and second in 2007). The growth of YouTube—not just in terms of the number of videos it serves up daily, but in how people perceive it—is evident by its climb from a modest 18th place in 2008 to 3rd in 2009. And another big climb is evident for SlideShare, which went from 31st in 2007 to 20th in 2008 to 7th in 2009. Outside this top 10, a few other tools rising sharply from 2007 to 2009 include Ning (31 to 11), VoiceThread (101 to 19), Jing (unranked to 20), and Google Apps (101 to 38). Jane also gives her own review of the biggest gainers and losers in this year's survey results, and separately wrote to highlight 10 of the tools that made their first appearance in the list and that she thinks "are useful, innovative, cost effective, and certainly worth considering for 2010."

Jane further provides a useful alternate approach to organizing the results: by category. Here, she separates the tools into 27 different categories, such as blogging tools, micro-blogging tools, presentation tools, productivity tools, and so on, allowing you to quickly see the top-X in each category.

You can also view the complete list of the professionals who participated, and read their individual top-10 lists—a great deep dive for those of you who closely follow particular industry experts. If you are curious, you can see my top-10 listing, which was posted very early in 2009 (I was the third person to participate this year.) 

As if doing the annual survey exercise wasn't enough, Jane also maintains an overall tools directory which this year has topped 3,000 different tools!  As Jay Cross recently remarked at his blog, I don't know how Jane does it!

If you find these resources as valuable as I do, be sure to send Jane a note to thank her for her hard work in creating and maintaining these and the many other resources at her website: Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies. It's great stuff!

— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

Learning and Development Roundup (vol. 7)

It's time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also volumes one, two,  three, four, five, and six).

The Future of the Training Department
I'll start off with the most provocative item in this roundup, a blog posting from Harold Jarche titled "The Future of the Training Department." Jarche begins with a whirlwind tour of the history of training, why it developed as it did, why it made sense and worked well enough, and so on. But then along lines similar to columns and postings written by his colleague Jay Cross over the past year, Jarche notes that the world has changed and that people in organization's "training departments" had better change too, or potentially face extinction as such. Jarche's thoughts on this subject, like those of Cross and others, are provocative to say the least, and should be a wake-up call to any learning leaders who are changing very slowly or continuing to do basically the same things they have always done. While you're at Harold's blog, see also his many other excellent posts from this past month, especially his "Increased Complexity Needs Simplified Design," which makes several valuable points about informal learning.

Low-Costs LMSs Do Exist
The August/September issue of Elearning! magazine included an article by Jerry Roche titled "LMSs for Less Than $20,000." In these tough economic times, where everyone is being asked to do more with less (or in some cases making the tough decisions to do less with less), understanding how to maximize value from your Learning Management System is critical for learning leaders. The article starts by noting the absolutely critical point: The trick is finding an LMS that meets your needs, while not buying more LMS than you need. In other words, hitting the sweet spot while spending as little as possible. With this as the context, the good news is that in some cases, a low price tag no longer equates to less functionality than you need. Some low-cost LMSs now include not only basic tracking of e-Learning, but also features such as ILT classroom management, advanced reporting, and even collaborative Web 2.0 features such as forums, blogs, wikis, and more. Element K's KnowledgeHub LMS is one such platform that provides all of these and more. While many in the industry know of Element K for our award-winning e-Learning and print ILT courseware content, in recent years we have spent a lot of effort into building out our KnowledgeHub LMS platform, so we are pleased to be included in this article's listing of low-cost LMSs you should be considering.

If you are in the market for an LMS, another good recent resource to share with you is Clive Shepherd's posting on "The 21st Century LMS," which includes a PDF of the results of a recent gathering of the eLearning Network, and in particular their activity to "identify what was required in an LMS that was fit for the 21st Century."

Don't be Scared to Evaluate
In the August/September issue of Elearning! magazine, Diane Valenti wrote on the importance of evaluation in "Scared to Evaluate? Return on Learning Is Your Lifeline." After introducing the subject and posing the normal difficult questions regarding training ROI, Valenti describes a good example of the role that accountability can play in driving ROI: it can be the extra push users need to apply what they learn from training to their actual jobs. She notes that ROI doesn't always need to be calculated, but does when training "is the solution, in whole or in part, to a specific business challenge. Such challenges could include an increase in customer complaints or employee turnover, a drop in sales or profit margin, or even a lack of leadership bench strength." She then walks the reader through the three high-level steps of determining ROI: determining the benefits of training, determining the costs of training, and finally calculating the value of the training. For each, step she gives useful examples to help anyone new to this process. A recommended read for both novices and veterans alike: you definitely don't need to be scared to evaluate!

Big Question: New Presenter and Learner Methods and Skills?
The latest "big question" at ASTD's Learning Circuits blog is "New Presenter and Learner Methods and Skills?" The list of more focused questions can be pretty well summed up with two concerns: multitasking and backchannel. That is, how can trainers and presenters best handle the inevitable multitasking and backchannel chatter that occurs during their classes and sessions? And what are the best practices for us on the other side, as learners and audience members? As a conference speaker myself, I've certainly been thinking about this a lot lately, especially as the phenomenon that is Twitter has made live-backchannel discussions a reality at almost every presentation at every conference. The response postings to this "big question" come from great industry bloggers including Tony Karrer, Clark Quinn, Clive Shepherd, and others. See also Karrer's additional posting highlighting some of the salient points raised by everyone else.

A Corporate Social Media Use Example: SabreTown
The September 2009 issue of T+D Magazine, in an article titled "Letting Go" (ASTD membership required), provided another good example of using social media technologies in a corporation, this time from Sabre Holdings. The center of their application, SabreTown, revolves around employee-completed profiles, complete with areas of expertise, and online discussion boards. When people ask questions, the system notifies the people it considers to have the most relevant expertise, an innovative way to drive conversation and knowledge exchange. The article details numerous best practices and lessons learned at Sabre, including the following and more:

• Maximize the value of the system by making sure it is used to the greatest extent. In particular, the advice given suggests keeping it simple, making the tool easy to use for all, not worrying about making it perfect technologically, building it to mimic how people already communicate (e.g., Q&A), and not letting it lose its meaning by building it into something larger
• Promote behavior that will increase trust in the system.
• Seed the system with questions and answers for the first month or two by selecting some people to "overuse it."
• In communications about the system, keep returning to its value.

The article notes that SabreTown is credited with substantial savings for the company, including $500,000 in direct savings in the first year. But, based on strong anecdotal evidence, that figure doesn't come close to representing the total savings they are seeing. A truly impressive case study!

New Whitepaper: Social Learning Introduction
Harold Jarche recently announced a new whitepaper, "Social Learning Introduction", from the new "idea lab" group Collaborative Enterprise. A group-authored whitepaper, each writer gave their unique perspective on the question: "How would you describe social learning and why is it important for today's enterprise?" Included are insights from Clark Quinn, Charles Jennings, George Siemens, Jay Cross, and eight others. 

22 Power Laws
Dion Hinchcliffe wrote an outstanding article at ZDNet.com titled "Twenty-Two Power Laws of the Emerging Social Economy." Definitely a good read, possibly one of the most thought-provoking things you will read all year. Some of the "laws" he covers will be well-known to you, such as Moore's law, the Long Tail, the Pareto principle, or even Metcalfe's law. But many of the others will be new to you, so I strongly recommend you read this article and consider which of these "power laws" are a major driver for your organization. And for additional reflections, see also Tony Karrer's comments on Dion's article.

Updates from Element K
I'll again end this roundup posting with links to our newsletter service that we launched in June. 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: June, July, August, September, October, and November.
 
—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

The Modalities of Blended Learning

In the July issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine, Cushing Anderson reports some interesting data on the various learning modalities that comprise "blended learning" in organizations (see "Cost and Availability Drive Modality Mix"). The subhead for his article states quite clearly a point I've been making throughout this year in my presentations on how to blend the latest technologies with traditional formal learning, namely that "CLOs are increasingly trying to apply the right delivery option for the content, audience, and environment." (Emphasis mine.)

The data that Anderson reports comes from the latest web-based survey administered by IDC to Chief Learning Officer magazine’s Business Intelligence Board (BIB) on a "variety of topics to gauge the issues, opportunities, and attitudes that make up the diverse role of a senior training executive." This latest survey provides data on "learning modalities and how they are evolving," with nearly 300 BIB respondents sharing their thoughts.

Some key results from the survey include:

• Classroom training represents the delivery option most used, though cost has driven its use down in the past year.
• Both synchronous and asynchronous e-Learning have seen the most rapid growth, in part due to cost savings.
• For many organizations, asynchronous e-Learning has also seen growth because of the increased convenience.
• A significant number of organizations are using formal, on-the-job (OJT) training as a key component of their overall education programs.
• Due to lack of available content and complete technology solutions, portable learning technologies did not gain traction as much as some had anticipated.
• More than 60 percent of CLOs selected the modality for their blended offerings based on the availability of modalities. The value and potential of blended learning continues to be constrained by the availability of content in a variety of modalities.  

What training and learning modalities do you have available for your learners, either from internal sources or from your learning partners? Do you have the headaches of dealing with multiple vendors for your learning programs that require different modalities, or do you have a partner that can provide content and support for classroom training, various e-learning modalities, and performance support tools?
 
—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

Results from Masie's Survey on Learning Systems

The MASIE Center has released the summary results of a 69-question survey conducted earlier this year on Learning Management Systems. The survey participants were from the Learning CONSORTIUM and from their Learning Systems Roundtable held in mid-April. There were 199 responses received, and as Elliott notes, "The data provides interesting insight into how the world of Learning Systems is evolving." I can't briefly recap all that is interesting in these results, but I will draw attention to just a few items:

• Only 50% indicated that they thought the Learning System they purchased was the correct one for their organization. (Question 9)
• 66% indicated that if they had the resources, they would replace their current Learning System. (10)
• 44% indicated they plan to upgrade or change their learning system in the next 6 months or 1 year. (21)
• 50% indicated they were implementing Web 2.0 tools. When asked which ones, the results were Social Networking 74%, Wiki 68%, Blog 66%, Chat 47%, Other 19%. (22, 23)
• Inline with what I've noticed over the years, only 23% manage to the SCORM 2004 standard, while 77% have stayed with SCORM 1.2. (24)
• Even with the dissatisfaction of many respondents with their Learning System software and/or vendors, 85% still believe the benefits of having a Learning System outweigh the costs. (40)
• 68% of organizations develop learning content through a combination of in-house development and external development.

And finally, when asked what is the most important business need that their Learning System does not support (question 55), the number one response was Collaboration at 32%. This is good news for Element K, as we added wiki, blog, and forum functionality to our KnowledgeHub LMS nearly a year ago.

For an additional perspective on the LMS world, see the ASTD Learning Circuits report from earlier this year, which reports on survey responses from their readers.

— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

Update on Twitter for Learning Professionals

Did you know that Element K is now on Twitter? We started using Twitter as an organization in late June, and you can follow us via the account "Element_K," which can be found at http://www.twitter.com/Element_K. Through this account we are sharing links to interesting industry articles, blog postings, resources and more, as well as announcements about Element K webinars and other happenings.

Beyond that news, back in February I wrote a posting here at Element K Blog—"Twitter, Twitter, Tweet, Tweet"—intended to help people in the L&D industry get started with Twitter. Since then, of course, Twitter has exploded in popularity, brought on in part by celebrity and media attention, but also by very legitimate uses of Twitter, ranging from its role in political events, to its corporate use for marketing, customer service, and even sales, to its use by everyday working professionals as a powerful information gathering tool. It's this last use-case that I still think is important for learning and development professionals to take seriously.

With that in mind, and because it comes up at every industry event I participate in, I wanted to provide another posting on this topic. Refer back to my earlier posting for a basic introduction and valuable links for more information—there are many more I could share that have come along since, but you only need so many "Twitter for newbies" articles to get you started.

More importantly, I wanted to provide an updated list of leaders in the L&D field that you might consider "following" on Twitter (most, but not all of whom, use Twitter regularly). For each, simply visit http://www.twitter.com/username, such as http://www.twitter.com/Element_K:

• Element_K (that’s us!)
• ThomasStone (that's me! Thomas Stone of Element K)
• AndersGronstedt / Anders Gronstedt
• arossett / Allison Rosset
• billbrandon / Bill Brandon
• bjschone / B.J. Schone
• bschlenker / Brent Schlenker
• cammybean / Cammy Bean
• c4lpt / Jane Hart
• cliveshepherd / Clive Shepherd
• CushingAnderson / Cushing Anderson
• Dave_Ferguson / Dave Ferguson
• da5idm / David Mallon
• dmetcalf / David Metcalf
• Downes / Stephen Downes
• dwilkinsnh / David Wilkins
• edwsonoma / Ellen Wagner
• emasie / Elliott Masie
• gsiemens / George Siemens
• grantricketts / Grant Ricketts
• GuildMeister / David Holcombe
• gwoodill / Gary Woodill
• hfisktwit / Heidi Fisk
• hjarche / Harold Jarche
• JaneBozarth / Jane Bozarth
• jaycross / Jay Cross
• jclarey / Janet Clarey
• jcmeister / Jeanne Meister
• Josh_Bersin / Josh Bersin
• judyb / Judy Brown
• KevinDJones / Kevin D. Jones
• kkapp / Karl Kapp
• KoreenOlbrish / Koreen Olbrish
• lancedublin / Lance Dublin
• maggiez99z / Margaret Martinez
• mcookebersin / Mike Cooke
• mobilemind / Tom King
• moehlert / Mark Oehlert
• Quinnovator / Clark Quinn
• RayJimenez / Ray Jimenez
• Stevehoward999 / Steve Howard
• tonykarrer / Tony Karrer
• twerner1952 / Tom Werner
• WillWorkLearn / Will Thalheimer
• writetechnology / Michelle Lentz 

No doubt I am missing several key people, but this is a good list to get you started (Not seeing someone you are looking for? Try the much larger directory of people in the L&D field who are using Twitter provided by Jane Hart's excellent Connexions Directory.)

Consider also the following industry organizations and magazines that are on Twitter, as many provide valuable links and news as well:

• astd / ASTD's primary account
• ASTDPR / ASTD Communications
• Bersin / Bersin and Associates
• BHallResearch / Brandon Hall Research
• CLOmedia / Chief Learning Officer magazine
• TrainingIndustr / TrainingIndustry.com
• TalentMgtMag / Talent Management magazine

You would also do well to look up any regional L&D-relevant groups that you belong to or would like to keep tabs on, such as regional ASTD chapters. Many of these are now using Twitter, and I'd recommend following them to see what they are sharing.
 
Happy tweeting…or is that twittering?

— Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

Everyone is Talking About Social Media

Without a doubt, the topic of social media/Web 2.0 tools continues to be the hottest topic in our industry today. For starters, Jay Cross has long been pushing learning leaders to mature in their scope, and better focus on and enable informal learning in their organizations. His latest column for Chief Learning Officer magazine, "Informal Learning 2.0: Sustaining the Corporation in the Network Era," is as always a good read. And the same issue also includes "When the Bird Tweets, Does Anyone Learn?" by Bill Sherman, who, amongst other points, presents the rise of social media for learning in the context of a third-generation instructional design model.

Recent issues of T+D magazine have also focused on this critical area. The July issue included "Social Networking: A Force for Development?" (login required) by Marjorie Derven. Then the August issue takes it up a notch with "Learning Gets Social" by ASTD President and CEO Tony Bingham (also available as a podcast.) The subtitle for this article conveys the message nicely: "A powerful force—unlike any in history—is altering the learning profession's landscape." After spending time reviewing what he considers to be aspects of the Gen Yers/Millennials, Bingham focuses on the disconnect between informal learning's prevalence and the L&D budget dollars spent on enabling it. And he correctly notes that utilizing Web 2.0/Social Media tools is one way to enable informal learning. Full of great quotes from others in the industry and research results, this article is a must-read for learning leaders in the industry, particularly those who are not yet convinced of the importance of social media for their organization. Indeed he closes with the following rallying cry:

This is the learning profession’s opportunity to be a game-changer—a paradigm shifter—and in the process, successfully position our organizations and ourselves for future success. …In the learning profession, we’ve never had the opportunity to broaden our impact as we do today through informal learning. People are demanding it, the technology is driving it, and the economy is requiring it. The pieces are there, and now is the time to connect those pieces to create a learning masterpiece that meaningfully demonstrates the critical importance of each and every one of your roles.

See also the ASTD news release (PDF) by Bingham, dated July 30, which includes a summary of key takeaways from the recent ASTD report “Transforming Learning with Web 2.0 Technologies."

It is great to see ASTD, "the world’s largest association dedicated to the training and development field," encouraging its members to understand the importance and impact of social learning.

And finally, here are some other highlights from the many industry leaders and experts talking and writing about web 2.0 / social media's increasing importance:

• Tony Karrer is paraphrased in Bingham's T+D article, and for more of his thoughts on this subject, see his posting on the need for learning professionals to avoid becoming marginalized in their organizations.
• An exciting video, Social Media Revolution, made the rounds recently on YouTube. You can see this video, along with some key points and commentary, at Tony Karrer's posting about it.
• Clive Shepherd provides key takeaways from Jakob Nielsen's research on the use of social media in enterprises—so-called "Enterprise 2.0." Both Clive's posting and the original research summary by Nielsen are worth reading.

—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

Learning and Development Roundup (Vol. 4)

It’s time for another edition of the Learning and Development Roundup! (See also volumes one, two, and three.)

On Learning Evaluation and ROI
To start things off, I want to link back to my two most recent postings here at Element K Blog, on the “Increasing Discussion for Learning Evaluation and ROI”: see both Part 1 and Part 2. There I link to and briefly comment on one research report from the eLearning Guild and five articles from Chief Learning Officer magazine and Training magazine. If you only have time to read one of these items, don’t miss the article by Jay Cross and Jon Husband in the July 2009 issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine.

New Skills for Learning Professionals
The "Big Question" posted at the beginning of July — New Skills for Learning Professionals — at ASTD's Learning Circuits blog has by now generated a wealth of responses. Included are postings from such notables as Jay Cross, Harold Jarche, Jane Bozarth, Clark Quinn, Tony Karrer, David Mallon, Ray Jimenez, and many others. If you are looking for work in the learning and development industry, or are just concerned about keeping your career skills current, check out the many responses these experts have provided.

Also on this topic, Clive Shepherd posted a good presentation he developed titled "The E-Learning Skills Gap." Watch this presentation and note Clive's new "SkillsJourney" project mentioned at the end, something I think all learning professionals will be eager to keep tabs on!

On Stepping Up When Layoffs Hit
Generally speaking, I find the columns in each month's Chief Learning Officer magazine tend to be amongst the must-read content in our industry. The July issue's were all good, but I wanted to draw your attention to two in particular. First, Elliott Masie's column titled "Time to Step Up: Learning's Role During Layoffs," covered a topic I'd never really put much thought towards: What are the roles of the learning department during layoffs? No doubt having had an opportunity to reflect on this during the recent economic downturn, Elliott offers up lots of good advice grouped under three headings: skill documentation upon departure, internal reskilling, and decisions and reassignments.

On Avoiding Death by Slide Deck
On the other hand, Bob Mosher wrote his column "More Death by Slide Deck?," on a topic I have spent a lot of time reading and thinking about over the years: making the most of the virtual classroom. I've participated in many great webinar, virtual conference, and virtual classroom events — both as a presenter/instructor and as a student/attendee. But I've also experienced many less-than-great virtual events too. He covers admittedly obvious tips, best practices for session design, and recommendations for the time between the virtual classroom events.

An Outstanding New Blog: Social Media in Learning
Back in March I wrote a posting here titled "Top Learning Tools from the C4LPT" which highlighted the great work of Jane Hart in organizing a wealth of information and links in the Learning and Development industry. If you haven't checked out her site, I encourage you to read my description of it and then check out her work.

Recently, however, Jane has started writing a new blog named "Social Media In Learning Blog." Jane's tireless efforts to stay on top of the L&D industry, coupled with her expertise in this particular area, have immediately made this blog arguably the best of its kind. Get caught up on the posts you have missed so far, and then add this blog to your feed reader or check it out regularly to learn how social learning tools can and are being used in learning and development contexts.

Learning Apps in Facebook?
And speaking of social learning, Ryann Ellis wrote a good posting for ASTD's Learning Circuits titled "Tech Tool: Facebook Applications for Learning," which provides three lists of "applications that represent some of the ideal tools Facebook has to offer online learning." The lists are separated into tools for instructors and administrators, for learners, and for everyone. This is a good place to start when thinking about potential uses for Facebook in your learning programs.

Social Learning…and Instructional Design?
With social learning and informal learning being all the rage these days, Karl Kapp pauses to remind us of the many benefits of sound instructional design. See his blog posting titled "What are the Results of Following an Instructional Design Process?" where he provides a good starter list, one that could be handy if you ever need to defend why time and resources should be spent on sound instructional design (rather than simply pumping out PowerPoint slides and calling it e-Learning, for instance).

Even better than his original posting, however, is the exchange that took place in the comments at his blog, between Karl and Janet Clarey of Brandon Hall Research. Janet raised questions about what role instructional design (or any kind of formal design) has in the areas of informal and social learning. Karl gives good responses, including concrete examples of ways you can add some measure of design to work or learning uses of blogs, microsharing tools, and more. It's definitely worth reading this exchange, in addition to the original blog posting.

Updates from Element K
Lastly, I'm going to start ending these "roundup" postings by providing a link to our latest E-Learning Newsletter. This is a service we started in June, primarily for our customers, but available to anyone. 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: June, July, and August.

—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)

Learning and Development Roundup (Vol. 1)

There are many great sources of information in the Learning and Development industry, from several high-quality magazines, to dozens of outstanding blogs (see my RSS overview posting), and now the steady stream of links, ideas, and conversations from industry experts and practitioners on Twitter (see my posting about Twitter and the L&D industry).

In fact, typically the problem isn't lack of information but lack of time to keep up with the latest news, trends, and advice. With this posting I'm introducing what I intend to be a regularly recurring feature of Element K Blog, tentatively titled the "Learning and Development Roundup." The idea is to recruit lots of my smart colleagues here at Element K, ask them to send me their biggest takeaways from what they are reading and seeing in the field, and I'll act as a funnel to organize the information and post it here in a consistent format.

With that said, this first installment is entirely from my own recent reading and research. Here are the items from around the L&D industry that I hope you didn't miss in the past six weeks or so:

Elliott asks "What keeps you up at night?"
At LearningTown, Elliott Masie asks another provocative question, and thus far has gotten 60 responses from L&D leaders and practitioners. These ranged from questions of keeping training relevant to skills needed today, increasing the value of the L&D function in your organization, weathering the economic recession, challenges with specific projects, and much more.

Jay Cross' latest two CLO Magazine columns.
Jay's February column "Get Out of the Training Business" was one of his most provocative yet. After giving a recap of his views of the salient history leading up to the present, he provides the "pitch I’d offer the most senior person I could get a hearing with." This begins with "Next week, we will close the training department. We are shifting our focus from training to performance. Any remaining training staff will become mentors, coaches, and facilitators who work on improving core business processes, strengthening relationships with customers, and cutting costs." Read the rest of his column to find out the rest of this radical (or is it?) pitch, and for more along these lines, see also "The Future of the Training Department" by Jay Cross and Harold Jarche.

In his March column "Internet Culture" Jay is a bit less provocative, but just as insightful. He begins by noting that the Internet is so pervasive that Internet values are cropping up all over the place in real life. He then describes nine Internet values that will have relevance for corporate learning now and in the future: peer power, authenticity, transparency, perpetual beta, the long tail, connections, asymmetrical productivity, loose coupling, and ambient find-ability. I strongly recommend this article to learn Jay's thoughts on each of these.

ASTD Learning Circuits Blog's "Big Question" for March: Workplace Learning in 10 Years.
This posting asks the following set of questions: "If you peer inside an organization in 10 years time and you look at how workplace learning is being supported by that organization, what will you see? What will the mix of Push vs. Pull Learning; Formal vs. Informal supported by the organization? Are there training departments? What are they doing? How big are they as compared to today? What new departments will be responsible for parts of workplace learning? What will current members of training departments be doing in 10 years?" With over two dozen response postings, there is no shortage of opinions and insights. Who will be right? Be sure to bookmark this page and check back in 2019.

And to really stretch your mind for what might be coming in the future, see the Microsoft video that Jay Cross noted in response to this Big Question.

Clark Quinn's blog posting "The Future of Failing Formal"
As Clark notes, this post is adding to the controversial debate kicked off by Saul Carliner's response to the March "Big Question" described above: "Long Live Instructor-Led Learning" at eLearn Magazine. (I recommend reading Saul's article first.) Clark gives his frank opinion of weaknesses of the various formal learning modalities, and then concludes as follows: "By and large, lots of formal instruction isn’t worth the resources it took to develop, or the learners’ time. Saul’s right that there’s a role for formal, but it needs to be better in many ways…and it shouldn’t be isolated from informal. I believe that formal learning ought to have an elegant segue from formal to the broader learning community, rather than in isolation. Yes, formal is part of the full spectrum, the full ecosystem, the full learnscape of solutions. But the ‘classroom’ shouldn’t be the standard bearer. We aren’t calling for the death of formal instruction, we’re calling for a) acknowledging and incorporating informal learning, and b) death of the classroom as a ’showup and throwup’ or ’spray and pray’ proposition."

ASTD Learning Circuits article "E-Learning and the Economy"
In February, Learning Circuits asked readers how their learning departments were "adapting to these difficult economic conditions." Consistent with other such surveys, we see an increase in e-learning: 71% were considering e-learning as a way to extend the learning function during the economic downturn. A second question asked what technologies or approaches will you be increasing/decreasing use of, and the top vote-getters are also those that you can make a good cost-savings argument for:

• Web conferencing/virtual meetings for travel cost-saving reasons. (66%)
• Use low-cost Web 2.0 technologies, such as wikis and blogs. (66%)
• Re-use existing content, such as creating e-learning via PowerPoint conversion. (65%)

See the full results for the data for many other areas, such as mobile learning, the use of games and simulations in learning, coaching and mentoring, and more. And see also my recent blog posting on Elliott Masie's recent industry "Barometer" survey.

—  Thomas Stone (Tom_Stone@elementk.com)