Let’s get serious about new learning technologies – Learning at the speed of work/life

Lance Dublin (blog) gave a session today over Elluminate talking not about the systems that we use for delivering content, but rather how we learn using the new technologies that are out there. Here are some notes and refections (denoted by the -). He did flub on a few points – Apple doesn’t have an official blog (the one that he showed was a fan blog) and WordPress is for blogging, but it does have a wiki plugin. Overall, this was a nice continuation of the first session on “what’s hot and what’s not” that also took a look at games as simulations that provide “hot” learning environments.

The world is getting faster and deeper in terms of the volume of content that is out there. Dublin believes that technology is there to enhance technology, and though the types of technology have changed, the essential ideas behind learning (ala Bloom’s) are still the same. Technology has allowed us/the world people to reach outside the formal training world. – On this point I don’t think this is something that is entirely new, in the past there have been many vocations that are “learning all the time” eg the trades. In the past, I would think that it is more the case that you are what you do, and only in the years after the wars did this really change as people all of the sudden wore one hat at home and another at work. Perhaps this is a bit over simplified. I think it might be that in the past, a smithy for example worked below or beside his house, so work was at home. We are now returning to a world where the essential tools (communication tools essentially) are present everywhere, even if they are not in the same context as your professional use.

This access to information is what is welding the work and learning world together. There is still great value to taking time out of the workstream to learn (off campus conferences 🙂 ). Part of this is the “natural state”, but because there are four generations of workers in the workforce, there are different needs and with the increased differentiation of work tasks, one size certainly won’t fit all when it comes to learning, but informal learning is going to work for a great majority of these groups.

Technology wise, the Internet is becoming a platform, something that is going to essentially change what we even think about learning – it has gone from a library to a “way of being” as you can shop, talk and learn all online.

• Blogs/Vlogs, one of the “spawns” of this new Internet, a way to share with the world what you are thinking and inviting comments. Blogs are linear, controlled, but easy to access. It takes the production away from the instructional designers and gets “right to the point” without the overhead of larger productions that formal content creation can take. – Learning wise these are ideal ways to get to the point very quickly.
• Wikis are a communal body of knowledge that invited everyone to contribute and comment, so they are one step beyond blogs. They are great for communal documents – The content is subject to mob rule, we just have to hope the mob is fair.
• ‘casting is an extension of radio (think of War of the Worlds as the first podcast), but, again, it has a very low cost of entry. The important thing here is the content and the delivery (quality) of the material. It can also be very immediate as well if you are using learning objects (think museum tours or as in the presentation sports training/prep)- I think audio podcasting is truly the best way to go for education as you can passively grab content and we are classically trained to learn through the oral media as it suggests that there is another person there, emulating the best learning environment – the social learning environment. It’s not the best way to learn for everyone, but I’m sure that for all those kids multitasking out there. I’m listening to the Elluminate screen cast, not watching while I write this and I’m usually listening to DPN/Disney and CBC podcasts at work as it’s not really easy to get CBC in the office and the net admins frown on streaming radio.
• RSS is a way that you can share a wide range of ideas in a”pure” form and in a way that it can be shared through services like Digg, Pipes (not mentioned, but it’s there as well) and other social sites. The content is pushed out to those who want it as it becomes available.

All these technologies are about getting the hurdle of formal spaces out of the way, as well as ignoring the technology. – This is a great idea, but there are so many people who are still locked into Web 1.0 that us designers have nothing really to worry about. Us designers are still important because even though all these tools are out there, there are many that still need a guide as they emerge from 1.0.