Putting web 2.0 to work

In a short but impassioned online piece, David Henderson bemoans the inertia prevelant in ‘corporate America’ in relation to it’s apparent lack of adoption of web 2.0 for business advantage. Having presented on eLearning 2.0 (in relation tpo how web 2.0 tools and technologies can be useful for L&D) I recognise this. What I would say is, and especially for communicating with learning folks, is that there is an absolut eneed for someone (e.g. a consultant) to explain to them what is out there, what it does and how it can be stitched together to deliver value in a learning context.

The piece has a couple of neat diagrams (nabbed below) – read the post here

Conversation by Brian Solis

 

Web 2.0 by Rodrigo Vera

ELearning Guild report: eLearning 2.0

My favourite eLearning group, US-based The ELearning Guild, yesterday released their latest 360 degree report. This time the focus is upon eLearning 2.0, a subject that is close to my heart being in the serious game and immersive simulation space myself.

I have copied some descriptive text below – find out more at http://www.elearningguild.com/research/archives/index.cfm?action=viewonly2&id=134&referer=

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Published Date: 09/23/2008

E-LEARNING 2.0

Learning in a Web 2.0 World
by Steve Wexler, Jane Hart, Tony Karrer, Michele Martin, Mark Oehlert, Sanjay Parker, Brent Schlenker, and Will Thalheimer

Overview
People that read the Guild’s 360° Reports on emerging technologies often express the following fears:

1. The emerging technology will obsolesce what they do now;
2. The emerging technology will be difficult to learn;
3. It will be difficult to convince colleagues and management that they should embrace the emerging technology; and,
4. Not embracing the technology will lead to certain doom.

Our comprehensive research and analysis from industry experts should allay concerns over the first three items. Indeed, the use of traditional classroom instruction is actually *up* from a year ago, so e-Learning 2.0 approaches are not going to replace instructor-lead training or e-Learning 1.0 approaches anytime soon. As for the fourth item, while the language may be somewhat extreme our research shows that organizations that ignore incorporating Web 2.0 approaches for their learning initiatives may be doing so at their own peril (at least according to Guild members’ survey results).

The Big Boys move to 2.0

It seems that all of a sudden the established players in the eLearning world are waking up to learning 2.0. The question, though, is do they really understand it and are they truly serious….or are they simply jumping on the bandwagon after seeing the success of much more innovative and smaller companies around the world.

SABA have a free whitepaper available entitled “Learning 2.0: Using Web 2.0 to Create Effective Informal Learning.” You can get it for free by registering at the following URL (albeit you may have to pretend that you really want to buy a new LMS!:

http://www.saba.com/offers/20080804_web20_whitepaper_uk_webcast/reg_getinfo.htm

Overview (from SABA web site):

“While the size of the workforce is declining in North America, Europe, and Japan, the span of generations within the workforce is increasing. For the first time we have five different generations working together. Each generation is made up of a group of people who were born at approximately the same time and considered as a group having shared interests and attitudes. Therefore, the people collaborating and competing with each other in the newly flat world are multi-dimensional and these various dimensions must be accounted for in order to maximize individual and organizational performance.”

Don’t miss these key takeaways!

1. Create a blended informal and formal learning model to meet the needs of today’s multigenerational workforce
2. Understand the use of Web 2.0 tools, such as wikis, blogs, video capturing and editing applications, and virtual worlds for informal learning purposes
3. Use technology for just-in-time information, accelerated time to competency, extended global reach and increased resource productivity