Learning 2.0
With the penetration of internet getting deeper, changing demographics (exposure to the internet at a very early age), the advent of mobile computing and the changing social hang-outs - the models for learning and education are changing. The Web 2.0 based technologies are going to have a significant impact in influencing this. While traditional classrooms may continue, the percentage of learning done from the classroom is shrinking. The social hang-out and the collaborative learning models will shape the learning tools and techniques of the future. Ask a new employee on any topic the first thing that comes to mind is “wikipedia”. The next thing is “communities of practice”. This calls for a paradigm shift in the way HR managers approach employee learning, its impact on productivity and how to leverage IT to provide for this learning experience, and also importantly measure its effectiveness.
Besides this, today’s workers’ also need to go beyond the discrete learning approaches, whether it is classroom or e-learning. Employees expect learning integrated as part of the business process they are dealing with. Learning and work have begun to blur. This means that whenever organizations now develop their learning strategy, they need to keep these factors in mind.
The market is flooded with different kinds of technologies – Learning Management Systems (LMS), Collaboration technologies, Office productivity tools, multimedia technologies as well as social computing tools. These technologies form the basic enablers of Learning. However, there is a lack of understanding in deploying these technologies for employee learning as a comprehensive learning strategy, as well as tracking the benefits of learning due to their deployment. The need is to provide a holistic learning model for employees, in all dimensions of learning, use the right technologies in each dimension, as well as measuring the success of the model in each of the dimensions. More on this in the next posting.
