Employee Learning Week Recap - Thursday, December 10th, 2009 - Social Learning Statistics

The following list is a recap of how we celebrated Employee Learning Week on Thursday, December 10th, 2009:

EVENT: Virtual Training World - Social Learning Statistics from Session 2: Social Learning
 
AHA moments:

• Social media applications - more than just a trend - Facebook 350 million, LinkedIn 54 million, Twitter 50+ million, Blackboard 20 million users - Gen Y / Millenials are not the only users.
• According to the data below, even the WW II (Silent Generation) is getting in on the act - mostly because they're keeping up with their grand and great-grand kids. Utlimately, the reason doesn't matter. What's the AHA? Use of social media apps is fairly common and on the rise - across generations. To keep up, we need to design learning using models our audiences are familiar with - so social media apps should be part of our training toolkit.

Links at the bottom of the image:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/14/linkedin-flying-high-with-50-million-business-users/

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/facebook-asks-more-than-350-million-users-around-the-world-to-personalize-their-privacy-78861127.html

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/01/11/a-collection-of-soical-network-stats-for-2009/

Social media apps are important for supporting social learning. Social learning is more than just technology - it's revolutionizing the way we learn - from K-12, to higher ed, to workforce training & development.

Therefore, what are the implications to the learning profession? How must we - as learning professionals - change? evolve? adapt?

 QUOTES:

• "It's [training] not about measuring pounds of flesh trained any more." - Tim Hill, Blackboard
• "Scary statistic: 60% of your employees could be ready to leave when the economy improves." - Julie Norquist-Roy, CornerStone OnDemand

In other words, the metrics by which we - learning professionals - are evaluated have changed (and are changing) dramatically.

This is true of the organizations who employ us and the audiences we serve.

People now expect the organizations they work for to play an active role in their professional development. They expect growth opportunities.

Organizations expect us - learning professionals - to design & execute these types of talent development strategies.

Can you see how your function does or does not serve learning & organizational strategy?

VIDEO: Wikipedia. Think about the implications of collaboration (and collaborative technologies) and the democratization of knowledge - globally - on the learning profession.

Consider: If information is free - and freely accessible - and people leverage technologies to naturally collaborate, what is the future of the classroom? In an age of social media and social networking, and if we - as trainers - are no longer needed to act as experts, then who are we? and what is our role?



RESOURCE: A Conversation with Ed Gordon - A discussion about partnerships to accelerate innovation in education and workforce development and to integrate talent development strategies with economic development.

Convergence. It's happening with or without our consent. Insisting on old models & mindsets - conducting training the way we've always done it - is a recipe for your own extinction.

How are you rising to the challenge? Post in the comments below.

~ Trish Uhl, PMP, CPLP
CEO, Owl's Ledge LLC
http://www.cplpcoach.com/
Twitter: @trishuhl | @cplpcoach