Discuss.

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In a Learning 2.0 world, where learning and performance solutions take on a wider variety of forms and where churn happens at a much more rapid pace, what new skills and knowledge are required for learning professionals?

As Harold Jarche and Jay Cross have already addressed the “learning” part of the discussion with informative and illuminating posts on the topic I’m going to talk about the business aspect of the “performance” element highlighted in The Big Question.

Now read on…

I strongly believe that to survive and maybe even prosper in these leaner economic times, those of us involved in L&D need to understand that we are also business people. As in any enterprise, we are connected to our customers and clients through a variety of sophisticated and interconnecting partnerships: with organizations, with vendors, with the board of directors, with employees, and ultimately and most importantly with learners.

Our product is our special expertise in learning and development (and all that this entails), and our market is more competitive now than it has ever been. I would assert that if, as a trainer, you feel that you are somehow shielded from the realities of business in the early 21st century, you probably won’t have much of a career in five years time.

Enterprises need e-learning. The pace of organizational change in most companies requires a constant refreshing of skills and the continual development of new competencies. In many organizations, not choosing e-learning as a method to deliver key training initiatives usually means it will not be delivered at all. To remain competitive, enterprises need to:

• Provide continual, up-to-date training and professional development
• Distributable to knowledge workers across multiple delivery channels
• Implement scalable training solutions
• Ensure plan is developed and deployed within a matter of months, rather than quarters or years
• $$$ Demonstrate economic viability $$$

Learning professionals should heed their organizations’ strategic and business imperatives, align with them, and deliver appropriate solutions to support them. To make this happen, my view is that learning professionals need to have (or should develop) the skills and expertise to perform in the following domains:

Sadly none of this is sexy, but it’s what I believe you need to accomplish to be successful in this domain.

In meetings in my organization I have been known say that being a learning & development professional is a bit like running a truck company. It’s my job to get stuff to the people who need it, and to be honest my customers don’t really care how it gets there, once it arrives on time and it good shape. To extend the analogy, I could argue that Web 1.0 e-learning was like a sports car – it looked great and made a big impact wherever it arrived, but it was quite impractical, required a lot of TLC and maintenance, and while it may be high-performing on the (one-way) racetrack of the information superhighway, try maneuvering it around the multi-storey car park of most organizations’ networks.

Web 2.0 is without equal at delivering vast amounts of information. It is an accessible, multiplex environment, so data can move back, forth, left, right – wherever it needs to go. Learning 2.0 leverages this facility exceptionally well, because communication of knowledge, skills, and expertise, is at the heart of training and learning.

Learning professionals who have supplemented their educational expertise with broader business skills have positioned themselves to add value to their enterprise facilitating their organizations’ performance requirements, and their customers’ learning needs. And that is a win-win situation. 

–

In a Learning 2.0 world, where learning and performance solutions take on a wider variety of forms and where churn happens at a much more rapid pace, what new skills and knowledge are required for learning professionals?

As Harold Jarche and Jay Cross have already addressed the “learning” part of the discussion with informative and illuminating posts on the topic I’m going to talk about the business aspect of the “performance” element highlighted in The Big Question.

Now read on…

I strongly believe that to survive and maybe even prosper in these leaner economic times, those of us involved in L&D need to understand that we are also business people. As in any enterprise, we are connected to our customers and clients through a variety of sophisticated and interconnecting partnerships: with organizations, with vendors, with the board of directors, with employees, and ultimately and most importantly with learners. Our product is our special expertise in learning and development (and all that this entails), and our market is more competitive now than it has ever been.

Enterprises need e-learning. The pace of organizational change in most companies requires a constant refreshing of skills and the continual development of new competencies. In many organizations, not choosing e-learning as a method to deliver key training initiatives usually means it will not be delivered at all. To remain competitive, enterprises need to:

• Provide continual, up-to-date training and professional development
• Distributable to knowledge workers across multiple delivery channels
• Implement scalable training solutions
• Ensure plan is developed and deployed within a matter of months, rather than quarters or years
• $$$ Demonstrate economic viability $$$

Learning professionals should heed their organizations’ strategic and business imperatives, align with them, and deliver appropriate solutions to support them. To make this happen, my view is that learning professionals need to have (or should develop) the skills and expertise to perform in the following domains:

Sadly none of this is sexy, but it’s what I believe you need to accomplish to be successful in this domain.

In meetings in my organization I have been known say that being a learning & development professional is a bit like running a truck company. It’s my job to get stuff to the people who need it, and to be honest my customers don’t really care how it gets there, once it arrives on time and in good shape. To extend the analogy, I could argue that Web 1.0 e-learning was like a sports car – it looked great and made a big impact wherever it arrived, but it was quite impractical, required a lot of TLC and maintenance, and while it may be high-performing on the (one-way) racetrack of the information superhighway, try maneuvering it around the multi-storey car park of most organizations’ networks.

Web 2.0 is without equal at delivering vast amounts of information. It is an accessible, multiplex environment, so data can move back, forth, left, right – wherever it needs to go. Learning 2.0 leverages this facility exceptionally well, because communication of knowledge, skills, and expertise, is at the heart of training and learning.

Learning professionals who have supplemented their educational expertise with broader business skills have positioned themselves to add value to their enterprise facilitating their organizations’ performance requirements, and their customers’ learning needs. And that is a win-win situation.

–

In a Learning 2.0 world, where learning and performance solutions take on a wider variety of forms and where churn happens at a much more rapid pace, what new skills and knowledge are required for learning professionals?

As Harold Jarche and Jay Cross have already addressed the “learning” part of the discussion with informative and illuminating posts on the topic I’m going to talk about the business aspect of the “performance” element highlighted in The Big Question.

Now read on…

I strongly believe that to survive and maybe even prosper in these leaner economic times, those of us involved in L&D need to understand that we are also business people. As in any enterprise, we are connected to our customers and clients through a variety of sophisticated and interconnecting partnerships: with organizations, with vendors, with the board of directors, with employees, and ultimately and most importantly with learners. Our product is our special expertise in learning and development (and all that this entails), and our market is more competitive now than it has ever been.

Enterprises need e-learning. The pace of organizational change in most companies requires a constant refreshing of skills and the continual development of new competencies. In many organizations, not choosing e-learning as a method to deliver key training initiatives usually means it will not be delivered at all. To remain competitive, enterprises need to:

• Provide continual, up-to-date training and professional development
• Distributable to knowledge workers across multiple delivery channels
• Implement scalable training solutions
• Ensure plan is developed and deployed within a matter of months, rather than quarters or years
• $$$ Demonstrate economic viability $$$

Learning professionals should heed their organizations’ strategic and business imperatives, align with them, and deliver appropriate solutions to support them. To make this happen, my view is that learning professionals need to have (or should develop) the skills and expertise to perform in the following domains:

Sadly none of this is sexy, but it’s what I believe you need to accomplish to be successful in this domain.

In meetings in my organization I have been known say that being a learning & development professional is a bit like running a truck company. It’s my job to get stuff to the people who need it, and to be honest my customers don’t really care how it gets there, once it arrives on time and in good shape. To extend the analogy, I could argue that Web 1.0 e-learning was like a sports car – it looked great and made a big impact wherever it arrived, but it was quite impractical, required a lot of TLC and maintenance, and while it may be high-performing on the (one-way) racetrack of the information superhighway, try maneuvering it around the multi-storey car park of most organizations’ networks.

Web 2.0 is without equal at delivering vast amounts of information. It is an accessible, multiplex environment, so data can move back, forth, left, right – wherever it needs to go. Learning 2.0 leverages this facility exceptionally well, because communication of knowledge, skills, and expertise, is at the heart of training and learning.

Learning professionals who have supplemented their educational expertise with broader business skills have positioned themselves to add value to their enterprise facilitating their organizations’ performance requirements, and their customers’ learning needs. And that is a win-win situation.

–

As you’ll know if you’re a regular reader of the E-Learning Curve Blog, I use a range of content authoring tools to create elearning courseware. Primus inter pares is Camtasia by TechSmith. About two weeks ago, I downloaded and installed the trial version of Camtasia 6, which is a little unusual for me; in the past I have just bought the upgrade as soon as it was released.

This time it was a different: I heard discomfiting rumors over the Net that the functionality profile had changed, specifically that FLV had been replaced with MPEG4 as the asynchronous video streaming format in v6 of the product. As someone who relies on Adobe Connect to deliver much of my content to learners this was not good news, as Connect’s support for MPEG4 isn’t great. With this bit of news in mind, I decided to download the Cam6 trial to evaluate the latest version of the product.

As part of the evaluation experience, TechSmith’s Adam Stevenson contacted me (and a lot of other users no doubt) to ask me to contribute my experiences using the trial version of the product. Info is collected on a daily basis using a simple Google Docs form, and it enables TechSmith to capture users’ experiences with the trial including rants, raves and anything else you want to tell them. I think that this is a very positive (and obvious and sensible) way for software development companies to be connected to their current and potential customer base. In my view, their approach enables the development of a virtuous cycle between user and software provider which has the potential to benefit both parties – and ultimately learners, who should be the focus of our activities.

In the past, my experience has led me to be cynical of “we care a lot” exercises by organizations – sometimes I get the feeling that my well-considered comments end up filed in the circular filing cabinet – you know, the one marked Trash, or worse in electronic limbo at the bottom of someone’s To Do list, never To Be Done.

So what’s different this time?

Check out this post by TechSmith’s Betsy Weber on the removal of FLV:

We’ve been listening to your feedback on our Forums, through our product feedback form, Twitter, Facebook, and via email. And, one of the things we heard after releasing Camtasia Studio v6 was that you wanted us to put back in support for the FLV video file format.

Well, I’m happy to report that we plan to release an update to Camtasia Studio as soon as possible and we will put back the FLV option. Our goal is to have Camtasia Studio v6.0.2 available to you by March. There will still be support for MPEG-4 in Camtasia Studio as well.

I think that, my friends is what we call a win-win situation.

–

As you’ll know if you’re a regular reader of the E-Learning Curve Blog, I use a range of content authoring tools to create elearning courseware. Primus inter pares is Camtasia by TechSmith. About two weeks ago, I downloaded and installed the trial version of Camtasia 6, which is a little unusual for me; in the past I have just bought the upgrade as soon as it was released.

This time it was a different: I heard discomfiting rumors over the Net that the functionality profile had changed, specifically that FLV had been replaced with MPEG4 as the asynchronous video streaming format in v6 of the product. As someone who relies on Adobe Connect to deliver much of my content to learners this was not good news, as Connect’s support for MPEG4 isn’t great. With this bit of news in mind, I decided to download the Cam6 trial to evaluate the latest version of the product.

As part of the evaluation experience, TechSmith’s Adam Stevenson contacted me (and a lot of other users no doubt) to ask me to contribute my experiences using the trial version of the product. Info is collected on a daily basis using a simple Google Docs form, and it enables TechSmith to capture users’ experiences with the trial including rants, raves and anything else you want to tell them. I think that this is a very positive (and obvious and sensible) way for software development companies to be connected to their current and potential customer base. In my view, their approach enables the development of a virtuous cycle between user and software provider which has the potential to benefit both parties – and ultimately learners, who should be the focus of our activities.

In the past, my experience has led me to be cynical of “we care a lot” exercises by organizations – sometimes I get the feeling that my well-considered comments end up filed in the circular filing cabinet – you know, the one marked Trash, or worse in electronic limbo at the bottom of someone’s To Do list, never To Be Done.

So what’s different this time?

Check out this post by TechSmith’s Betsy Weber on the removal of FLV:

We’ve been listening to your feedback on our Forums, through our product feedback form, Twitter, Facebook, and via email. And, one of the things we heard after releasing Camtasia Studio v6 was that you wanted us to put back in support for the FLV video file format.

Well, I’m happy to report that we plan to release an update to Camtasia Studio as soon as possible and we will put back the FLV option. Our goal is to have Camtasia Studio v6.0.2 available to you by March. There will still be support for MPEG-4 in Camtasia Studio as well.

I think that, my friends is what we call a win-win situation.

–

• Should workplace learning professionals be leading the charge around these new work literacies?
• Shouldn’t they be starting with themselves and helping to develop it throughout the organizations?
• And then shouldn’t the learning organization become a driver for the organization?
• And like in the world of libraries don’t we need to market ourselves in this capacity?

Should workplace learning professionals be leading the charge around these new work literacies?
The short answer is “Yes, with an if…”. Long answer is “No, with a but…”. Yes, learning professionals should be at the forefront of orienting and guiding knowledge workers in the use of read / write Web technologies. Knowledge work is, at it’s heart, about problem-solving, and knowledge workers are employed to utilize their skills to find solutions to organizational challenges. We can say that knowledge workers are performing at their optimum when they:

• use their deepest skills
• work on many projects at the same time
• know how to allocate their time
• can multiply the results of their efforts through soft factors such as emotional intelligence and trust (Francis Fukuyama, Manuel Castells).

If Web 2.0 technologies enable knowledge workers to undertake these tasks, I believe that it is in the remit of the learning and development arm of knowledge organizations to support this.
However, given that any such learning interventions are undertaken within organizations, there is a corporate responsibility to ensure that any learning initiatives to support learning about Web 2.0 technologies be endorsed by board-level approval of the program with all that entails, which should include

1. recognition for the initiative
2. acknowledgement that it may be difficult to capture metrics on knowledge worker performance enhancement attained through these technologies by more traditional assessment techniques
3. that the learning programs themselves will probably be non- or informal in character, as these Web 2.0 technologies are by their very nature, non- and informal
4. implementing Web 2.0 technologies will probably require substantial investments of time, expertise and capital.

Finding solutions to these challenges is difficult, and many organizations may not understand that this domain is too new to be properly understood at this time.

Shouldn’t they be starting with themselves and helping to develop it throughout the organizations?
In my experience, the “throw it over the wall and see where it lands” approach is a non-starter. While learning professionals are typically highly-motivated individuals who expend personal time and effort staying “ahead of the curve” in terms of their own skills and competencies, a “viral approach” to learning in this domain can only have success if the learning professional in question is highly influential within an organization (and probably a C-level executive).

For a “footsoldier” to attempt to modify work practices within a large organization would meet high levels of resistance, particularly from managers who have no desire to change production processes that probably work very well, given the potential disruptions entailed in transitioning to a more collaborative environment.

Shouldn’t the learning organization become a driver for the organization?
Most learning professionals would say “Yes”, most execs would (probably) say “No.”

In my view, organizations function best when the organization’s business goals are aligned with their learning goals; ideally the two should support and drive each other. If learning professionals can persuade the executive team that a Learning organization is an Earning organization, then they will usually receive the support to operationalize innovative learning initiatives.

Like in the world of libraries don’t we need to market ourselves in this capacity?
Yes, yes, and yes again.

If you are familiar with the 1989 motion picture Field of Dreams, you’ll know the mantra of one of the lead characters is “if you build it, they will come.”

Yes, if you build it (the learning initiative) they will come.

…But only if they know it’s there.

I believe that it is the responsibility of learning professionals both in an individual as well as in a departmental capacity to broadcast what they do and they services they offer at every opportunity. Without resorting to spin, lies, and weasel words, the only way your voice will be heard in the bustle of the marketplace (whether internally within an organization or externally facing) is to “say it loud, and say it proud” about your learning and development offerings and services.

Use what ever resources are at your disposal to do so, and don’t forget that as a trainer, you’re probably in a position to influence a wider range of individuals in your workplace than those in any other department, except perhaps for Human Resources and ICT.

–

• Should workplace learning professionals be leading the charge around these new work literacies?
• Shouldn’t they be starting with themselves and helping to develop it throughout the organizations?
• And then shouldn’t the learning organization become a driver for the organization?
• And like in the world of libraries don’t we need to market ourselves in this capacity?

Should workplace learning professionals be leading the charge around these new work literacies?
The short answer is “Yes, with an if…”. Long answer is “No, with a but…”. Yes, learning professionals should be at the forefront of orienting and guiding knowledge workers in the use of read / write Web technologies. Knowledge work is, at it’s heart, about problem-solving, and knowledge workers are employed to utilize their skills to find solutions to organizational challenges. We can say that knowledge workers are performing at their optimum when they:

• use their deepest skills
• work on many projects at the same time
• know how to allocate their time
• can multiply the results of their efforts through soft factors such as emotional intelligence and trust (Francis Fukuyama, Manuel Castells).

If Web 2.0 technologies enable knowledge workers to undertake these tasks, I believe that it is in the remit of the learning and development arm of knowledge organizations to support this.
However, given that any such learning interventions are undertaken within organizations, there is a corporate responsibility to ensure that any learning initiatives to support learning about Web 2.0 technologies be endorsed by board-level approval of the program with all that entails, which should include

1. recognition for the initiative
2. acknowledgement that it may be difficult to capture metrics on knowledge worker performance enhancement attained through these technologies by more traditional assessment techniques
3. that the learning programs themselves will probably be non- or informal in character, as these Web 2.0 technologies are by their very nature, non- and informal
4. implementing Web 2.0 technologies will probably require substantial investments of time, expertise and capital.

Finding solutions to these challenges is difficult, and many organizations may not understand that this domain is too new to be properly understood at this time.

Shouldn’t they be starting with themselves and helping to develop it throughout the organizations?
In my experience, the “throw it over the wall and see where it lands” approach is a non-starter. While learning professionals are typically highly-motivated individuals who expend personal time and effort staying “ahead of the curve” in terms of their own skills and competencies, a “viral approach” to learning in this domain can only have success if the learning professional in question is highly influential within an organization (and probably a C-level executive).

For a “footsoldier” to attempt to modify work practices within a large organization would meet high levels of resistance, particularly from managers who have no desire to change production processes that probably work very well, given the potential disruptions entailed in transitioning to a more collaborative environment.

Shouldn’t the learning organization become a driver for the organization?
Most learning professionals would say “Yes”, most execs would (probably) say “No.”

In my view, organizations function best when the organization’s business goals are aligned with their learning goals; ideally the two should support and drive each other. If learning professionals can persuade the executive team that a Learning organization is an Earning organization, then they will usually receive the support to operationalize innovative learning initiatives.

Like in the world of libraries don’t we need to market ourselves in this capacity?
Yes, yes, and yes again.

If you are familiar with the 1989 motion picture Field of Dreams, you’ll know the mantra of one of the lead characters is “if you build it, they will come.”

Yes, if you build it (the learning initiative) they will come.

But only if they know it’s there.

I believe that it is the responsibility of learning professionals both in an individual as well as in a departmental capacity to broadcast what they do and they services they offer at every opportunity. Without resorting to spin, lies, and weasel words, the only way your voice will be heard in the bustle of the marketplace (whether internally within an organization or externally facing) is to “say it loud, and say it proud” about your learning and development offerings and services.

Use what ever resources are at your disposal to do so, and don’t forget that as a trainer, you’re probably in a position to influence a wider range of individuals in your workplace than those in any other department, except perhaps for Human Resources and ICT.

–

If you’re a regular reader of the E-Learning Curve Blog, you’ll know that I include archaeology and the study of ancient cultures among my personal interests. Recently I posted on the 2008 Stonehenge dig, and today I’d like to talk about the return voyage of the Viking longship Havhingsten fra Glendalough (Sea Stallion from Glendalough) from Dublin, Ireland to Roskilde, Denmark.

The Sea Stallion is a Danish reconstruction of Skuldelev 2, one of the Skuldelev ships. According to tree ring dating, the original ship was built near Dublin circa 1042.

The original ship was built with oak from Glendalough, Wicklow, Ireland, hence the ship’s name. The reconstruction was built at the shipyard of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde from 2000 to 2004.

In the Summer of 2007, the longship made the voyage from Denmark to Dublin – a journey of exceptional endurance on the part of the boat and the crew, and fraught with a certain amount of danger, given the lousy weather we had in Northern Europe last year.

If you saw these lads coming 1,000 years ago, it was time to pack up and leave… quick!

After wintering in the Collins’ Barracks site of the National Museum of Ireland, the Sea Stallion is due to set sail for for her home port today.

Thanks to Web 2.0 information sharing tools and technology, you (and I) can share the journey with the crew via their daily blog and video podcasts, play a Viking Attack game, as well as follow the voyage via Google Maps live GPS tracking as the boat and her crew as they make their journey back across the North Sea to Denmark.

Bon voyage…

If you’re a regular reader of the E-Learning Curve Blog, you’ll know that I include archaeology and the study of ancient cultures among my personal interests. Recently I posted on the 2008 Stonehenge dig, and today I’d like to talk about the return voyage of the Viking longship Havhingsten fra Glendalough (Sea Stallion from Glendalough) from Dublin, Ireland to Roskilde, Denmark.

The Sea Stallion is a Danish reconstruction of Skuldelev 2, one of the Skuldelev ships. According to tree ring dating, the original ship was built near Dublin circa 1042.

The original ship was built with oak from Glendalough, Wicklow, Ireland, hence the ship’s name. The reconstruction was built at the shipyard of the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde from 2000 to 2004.

In the Summer of 2007, the longship made the voyage from Denmark to Dublin – a journey of exceptional endurance on the part of the boat and the crew, and fraught with a certain amount of danger, given the lousy weather we had in Northern Europe last year.

If you saw these lads coming 1,000 years ago, it was time to pack up and leave… quick!

After wintering in the Collins’ Barracks site of the National Museum of Ireland, the Sea Stallion is due to set sail for for her home port today.

Thanks to Web 2.0 information sharing tools and technology, you (and I) can share the journey with the crew via their daily blog and video podcasts, play a Viking Attack game, as well as follow the voyage via Google Maps live GPS tracking as the boat and her crew as they make their journey back across the North Sea to Denmark.

Bon voyage…