Jane Hart on Social Media & Workplace Learning (Webinar Summary)

Posted by ann.shea | Filed under Better eLearning, Corporate Training, Global eLearning, Learning Resources, Learning Trends, Social Learning, Social media

Social Media and Its Impact on How We Learn in the Workplace webinar #sociallearnJane Hart is a luminary in the realm of social learning. Besides being the founder of  the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies (known as C4LPT) she is highly active in social media and a conduit for many communities of learning. This week she presented a compelling webinar open to the community at large, Social Media and Its Impact on How We Learn in the Workplace. It was a golden  opportunity to hear Jane share her insights and elaborate in real time on how social media, information access and learning that form that basis for her upcoming book on the topic.

For those who may have been unaware of this free webinar hosted by Citrix, or who perhaps were unable to log in (the webinar was filled to capacity…15 people named Mary on one call!), or distracted by Mother Nature’s upheavals in the U.S. Southeast (hurricane threats in Florida and rampant earthquake activities were carrying on simultaneously), I’ve attempted to capture some of the content shared.  Comments, corrections and observations are appreciated!  Highlights shared by other webinar attendees can be discovered via the Twitter feed on the hashtag #sociallearn and everyone will soon be able to enjoy the graciously shared, recorded version of the webinar. Jane Hart has already made the slides and links to information available. (8/29/11 update: the recording of the webinar is now available…Visit https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/824105584.)

Social media is a phenomenon that affects L&D in ways similar to but also distinct from other company departments. A fundamental trend that underlies the need for corporate L&D departments to rethink their role in organizations is the consumerization of learning, which describes how users of content and technology today are circumventing L&D departments for more immediate access to information and answers, with estimates that as many as 2/3 of employees are working around training and development resources to access solutions. (You can read more about the consumerization of both learning and IT on Jane’s blog post Workplace Learning: Beyond Training, which will also take you to other compelling article related to Jane Hart’s webinar, such as her evolving essay and basis for upcoming book: The changing state of workplace learning: and social media’s part in it.)

It’s critical to become aware of the growing need for change within  L&D – to move from a focus on training to one of supporting the wider learning and performance needs of employees. There is some resistance and fear of uncontrolled access but to the question, So do we ban social media?, the answer is clearly, No, we need to embrace it. Let employees bring their own devices and improve their lifestyle and welcome all kinds of learning approaches.

Trainers can observe and understand how social learning happens, its benefits and develop ways to support learners as they use new tools and channels. They can help those who aren’t already users get on board. It’s not just Millenials using these tools but people of all ages. Tech- and web-savvy workers, high achievers who are self reliant, flexible and adaptive. Jane calls them “Smart Workers.” And they use social media for a number of activities besides just learning.

These 4 categories of use allow them to:

  • Find & use content on the Social Web
  • Create and share on the Social Web
  • Join and build networks & communities
  • Improve productivity

More on the profile Jane Hart has dubbed the Smart Worker:

The Smart Worker is aware she learns continually as she does her job, and knows she needs to learn continuously to survive. While she recognizes value of training, she also knows it won’t teach her everything. She needs to have access to the web. She has a busy life, and doesn’t have time for all the traditional training methods like workshops, conferences and ongoing courses. She wants to learn on the job.

Jane continued with observing that in training, we need to learn how to help people learn within the work flow. Organizations are starting to accommodate this need and are taking courses out of separate systems and making them available on the internet. For example, people are taking content out of the confines of the LMS, and using alternatives such as SharePoint, a collaboration software from Microsoft designed to make content management, search, and sharing simpler. In Jane’s words, “We need to think about providing access, however you define that…Any more than one click is too far away,” as users don’t want to grapple with complex interfaces.

Acknowledging both genders, Jane continued to explain the Smart Worker wants varied media access to his problems’ answers, and wants it immediately, so instead of going to an LMS and looking for a course, he turns to YouTube, Wikipedia and SlideShare, and similar places where people have already freely provided the answer. Jane advised training professionals that in terms of content, we can find answers here to what learners want, and how they prefer to consume it: Simple short answers, video, audio or text; Content in terms of job aides or performance aids instead of courses; Chunking, and creating information in smaller content.

A question for the audience was, Do you encourage people to use these types of resources? How do you help people find trusted sources? Some examples she gave included both top-down solutions and more grassroots bottom-up ones:

  • Top down: Dare2Share, a project in the UK established by Peter Butler, director of learning at the BBT, which incorporates podcasts, RSS feeds, blogs, and more (Jane encouraged people take a look at the video on YouTube).
  • Bottom up: Intelpedia, set up by one Intel engineer, called up people to contribute collaboratively, and is one of most well known wiki-type repositories.

While most people normally go to co-workers for work-related questions, Smart Workers have wider scope of people to consult in their personal and professional lives. Each person has their own favorite network resources; some like Facebook, or prefer LinkedIn, and Jane herself uses Twitter to connect to an extended community. Besides the public network, there are many private ones for sharing.

Jane Hart’s own Social Learning Community is based on the free social platform for companies called Yammer and is useful for both workplace learning and education professionals to connect and share. Expanding on the change role of the L&D professional,  she noted trainers have an important role in teaching people how to connect with people and use networks safely and confidently, as well as how to respect confidential issues in their use of Social Media.

Hart also touched on coaching and mentoring through technology like Skype and conferencing tools like GoToMeeting, noting that mentoring is a much more effective way to transfer tactic knowledge that can’t be transferred through training.  In addition, especially in the case of understand how to use social media, reverse mentoring [and co-mentoring?] can occur for knowledge exchange. Social media means everyone can buddy up with someone else to share, creating wider and deeper participation.

Another observation regarding social media and social learning: Learners don’t like moving back and forth between content and community, but prefer that learning be embedded in the community.

Jane has set up a collaborative platform for such a community called Share&Learn. The site, now at over 850 members, initially had included daily assignments consisting of readings and other activities as framework but the real value came in the sharing and become part of the wider learning community.  As a moderator, she has modeled her involvement  on the adage of being a “Guide on the side, rather than sage on the stage,” and notes after a while the community took on a life of its own.  She advised that learning platforms need to be able to allow users to set up groups ad hoc without requiring authorizations, to enable users to share quickly with colleagues. Learning in these cases is not just a collection of aggregated feeds or blogs.

Again Jane Hart explains the the role of trainers is emerging as a role that helps users with personal knowledge management and managing the often cited “information overload,” sharing the observation by NYU telecommunications professor Clay Shirky, who said “…there is no such thing as information overload, there’s only filter failure…the normal case of modern life is information overload for all educated members of society.“  Trainers can use tools like webinars to share not only externally but also to share internally with a less formal training approach.

The webinar concluded with Jane reiterating that as the Smart Worker constantly tries to improve productivity, finding tools and using tools for both personal and work productivity, it’s L&D evolving role to help them in this process and help all workers become Smart Workers. These tools benefit employees both as individuals and teams.  Some of these tools may just improve certain elements of the work flow or the whole process. As observed by Daniel Pink in “Drive,” self performance and the ability to grow and develop has a huge effect on individual motivation, and L&D’s function is to help people perform better, they need to let go of the perceived need to control access to information. Instead of focusing on things like test results, training functions should measure application of learning on the job.

Fielding some questions from the audience, Hart addressed the concern commonly expressed about controlling access to correct information. She provided the example of Wikipedia, in which the community corrects misinformation quickly, and noted also moderators can be used if required, adding that Peter Butler had no issues at all. An example of this is on Jane’s own blog, where a reader adds comments that are not necessarily helpful, and alert members of the community come forth: http://janeknight.typepad.com/socialmedia/2010/06/specialistvconsultantsvdiy.html

In answer to another concern, What if employees are reluctant to share?, Hart assured you can find those who will be willing to share/collaborate and contribute. You can’t force or enforce social media, but build you can on it, and others will come around as they gain familiarity.

She advised, the next time someone wants a course, see if answer is already available. In total, we should think of ourselves as in a new role, not merely trainers but as performance consultants. I think trainers are due for this elevated status.

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Permalink | Comments (0) | Aug 23, 2011

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