Thinking openly

Image: osmar01, via freeimages.com

It's finally time to sit back and reflect on the Learning & Skills Group Conference, and I can't think of a better place to start than with David Price's keynote session. This session is particularly important for me since I am involved in both workplace learning and the education system, both of which are experiencing a massive change in the face of technology and the accompanying shift in peoples' attitudes and behaviours. David's book ties in well with a growing number of themes that I have been exploring lately.

For the workplace, we are experiencing a shift in the normal hierarchies, with smarter companies realising that learning has to flow up as well as down. Employees simply have to be trusted to think and adapt in a rapidly changing landscape, one where job security and trust are becoming scarce commodities. Even our relentless drive to get everyone a degree cannot guarantee success, as this actually seems to drive the cost of skilled labour down through the Dutch auction effect. The only skills that seem to have real value are those which are self-taught, and the value of knowledge has changed from economic to social.

The six imperatives of social learning:

1. Do it yourself - we can share information amongst ourselves faster than our institutions can
2. Do it now - immediacy
3. Do it with friends - to share and reinforce learning
4. Do it for fun - playfulness can be used to surprising effect
5. Do unto others - generosity
6. Do it for the world to see - high visibility

There's a lot in common here with the theme of personal learning networks, coupled with a growing understanding of how these diffuse interactions can slowly but permanently change society. In the emerging future, education has to move from pedagogy towards heutagogy, with an emphasis on learning how to learn - content may indeed remain king, but it will be created increasingly by the learners themselves.

With a greater sense-making network around them, people feel more able to take on the 'fail fast and iterate' approach of Google. Companies that operate this way have more in common with the 'machine shop' culture, where learning is social and horizontal, and learners are free to roam and combine their ideas with a 'freedom to fail'.

'Thinking that the role of leadership is to act and make short-term decisions misses out on how well fully functioning human networks can deal with most problems without intervention from above. When managers and executives get involved, they often make things worse for those doing the day-to-day work. This is even more pronounced when those doing the work are connected to their peers in social networks and communities of practice that have established and trusted knowledge-sharing practices.'

Harold Jarche, Good leaders connect

So far, so good, so what?

I've been an Online Learning Consultant for just over a year now. It's taken me a while to get here, and I'm the first one to hold the role in my organisation. Come to think of it, I was the first one to hold the previous role (e-Learning Technician) I had before that on my way up from being a generic Administrator. I thought it would be good to stop and reflect, to get my bearings as I start to ask 'What's next?', but first of all perhaps I should ask 'How did I get here anyway?'.

How did I get here? Kind of by accident really, I just happened to be working in the right department where someone needed to master the technical tools to produce software demonstrations, and I showed a flair for it. After a few years of mastering first WebEx recorder, then Camtasia Studio, Adobe Captivate and Articulate, plus all the different software packages I was demonstrating, and converting briefing presentations to online materials, I finally got offered a development opportunity in doing a Masters degree, and attending the Learning Technologies Conference. Getting back to the world of academia seemed very strange, but after some initial struggles I got the hang of things. Going to the conference was another experience entirely, because here I found the meaning of the elusive 'community of practice'. I've learned the hard way that academic degrees are no sure way to success; you need to create your own identity and find relevant employment.

I've been very fortunate to have the opportunity to do all these things together, allowing me to get the most out of my course. The problem with traditional academic courses is that there's no access to real problems that you need to solve - the course just doesn't have enough doing for you to actually learn anything that will serve you well in the outside world.  Fortunately the part-time course I was taking had enough flexibility to mould around work projects, and I also took to heart the idea of the story-centred curriculum, always seeking ways to push my limits whilst working through the course and make things relevant. The course material became subservient to the narrative of me actually understanding challenges, seeking out alternative approaches, creating solutions and implementing them. Not everything worked so well, but in taking on the challenges I internalised a great deal more than I would have done without context, or without broadening my world-view by by seeking out the feedback of others, particularly through social media.

I've gradually progressed from an under-performing, depressed and frustrated individual to having an irrepressible drive to perform and innovate, and being recognised for having some real leadership qualities. My leadership is not in the traditional management sense, instead it's drawn from personal responsibility for my work, speaking my mind regardless of hierarchy and choosing my own approach. I get a lot more satisfaction from work, and my personal life has improved, with my better self esteem keeping depression in check. My Masters degree is coming near to the end, it's been a long journey with lots of ups and downs, but very worthwhile for getting to grips with the complex, even chaotic, field that we call learning. I still remember speaking to Clive Shepherd at a conference, and saying that I felt I was never sure if I really understood it, or if I was just going mad. Clive simply simply smiled and said 'Welcome to learning.'

So where do I go from here? When asking myself this question, I remembered reading Harold Jarche's blog post 'So you (still) want to be an elearning consultant?' some time ago and revisited this for ideas, along with with the original blog post and article it was based on, for some ideas about where I need to turn my focus. The helpful Venn diagram pretty much sums up my development needs - although I have plenty of cognitive and technology skills, I need to seek out ways of being more directly involved in the business. Most of my remaining frustrations stem from the feeling that most of the important decisions (and assumptions) have been made before I get involved with projects. I'm now actively seeking ways to get more directly involved in new projects from the outset, although I can be limited in choice because I'm already committed - perhaps I'm doing something right then.

Influence and the anatomy of networks

Some interesting thoughts from Bruce Marko, about the different types of influencers in a network, got me thinking about some of the other models I have encountered.

First up is a summary of the types that Bruce identifies:

• Primary: Massive followings, drive traffic & spread messages rapidly; Sometimes hard to gain access & understand how they got there in the first place
• Threader: Own postings can fluctuate, contribute to conversations, can bring knowledge and clarity; More likely to contribute on the fly
• Maker: Has an effect through production of content, ripples spread out through others; Sometimes appear not to engage

Harold Jarche, in his posts The work of many and Twitter and the law of the few, elaborates on the different players in a network identified in Malcolm Gladwell's work 'The Tipping Point':

• Salesperson: Influences people to take action; High Social Capital; Gain influence by knowing what people want
• Connector: Has many relationships; High Creative Capital; Gain influence by sharing with others
• Maven: Deep knowledge in a field; High Intellectual Capital; Can gain huge followings through reputation

Finally, Anatomy of a social network, a post from David Grey, cites the work of Ron Burt.  This identifies two activities for creating value in a network:

• Brokerage: Developing weak ties, building bridges between clusters
• Closure: Developing strong ties, building trust within clusters

Further, there are three dimensions for gauging the power of a node:

• Degree: Number of connections; Potential to interact & connect
• Closeness: Ease of making new connections; Potential to gain access
• Betweenness: Power of link between other nodes; Potential to block or grant access

So it looks like a great convergence of different viewpoints, that strengthens my own understanding:

Primary = Salesperson; High Closeness and Social Capital
Threader = Connector; High Degree and Creative Capital
Maker = Maven; High Betweenness and Intellectual Capital

Thanks to Bruce for getting me inspired :)

Reflections on Harold Jarche's session (LSG13)

Social learning has been an area of real interest for me in the last two years.  I've encountered Harold Jarche's ideas a great deal in that time through his blog and the Social Learning Centre, so it was great to finally see him run a live talk and actually speak to him afterwards.

We normally find that social learning is dismissed as something that is hard to measure and intangible.  Yet increasingly it is the intangibles that make up the real value of our businesses, so let's challenge that assumption, and think about how social learning can fit with organisational goals.  Most of the learning strategies we already use, such as ADDIE and ISD, come from the military, where they also know the value of training people in a social environment - individual members aren't effective unless they are trained to work together, and share their knowledge.

Meanwhile, back in the business, we often find that sharing of knowledge can border on career suicide, because we reward the wrong behaviours.  Whilst this may sound like an unbreakable deadlock, the tide is turning as we move away from standardised work and rely on creativity and innovation.  You can't automate these things, only encourage them through a culture of openness and sharing.  Harold has been a great advocate of these approaches, especially through his 'Seek-Sense-Share' model in the building of online communities, an area that I have been exploring in depth lately.

Some of the problems with organisational learning, and our education system in general, stem from our acceptance of the printed word and the linear thinking that it instils in us.  This tends to reinforce a hierarchical organisation, that we need to combat by encouraging real learning skills within our organisation, such as Personal Knowledge Management.

I'm becoming ever more keen on this approach, although I have encountered some of the problems associated with working across silos, and resistance to different ways of learning.  Seeing Harold's talk has given me some fresh enthusiasm for keeping up the battle!


See also: Learning & Skills Conference 2013 curated backchannel resources.

Backchannel resources from Learning & Skills Group Conference 2013

I've been scouring the Twitter backchannel for interesting resources that were shared before, during and after the Learning & Skills Group Conference, and here is the list that I have after one month:

General reflections and resources

• Blog post and curated tweets from s0ngb1rd
• Blog post from Alistair Cockroft
• Curated images on Pinterest from LearnPatch
• Donald Taylor's Training Ghetto blog post

 

Keynote: Work, learning and living in the future (Gerd Leonhard)

• Conference video on Annotag and YouTube
• My blog post on the session
• Gerd Leonhard's slides, resources and free e-books
• Blog post from Jo Cook
• Curated tweets and video interview from Learn Patch
• Learning Locker link shared by John Curran

 

Track 1

Session 1: Open learning - opportunity or threat? (Steve Wheeler)

• Conference video on Annotag and YouTube
• Blog post and video interview from Learn Patch
• Transformational Learning Model
• How to Change Education

Session 2: The Tin Can API: Connecting the dots with data (Megan Bowe)

• Conference video on Annotag and YouTube

Session 3: Moving to social learning (Harold Jarche)

• Conference video on Annotag and YouTube
• My blog post on the session
• Harold Jarche's Toolbox
• The Cluetrain Manifesto
• Jane Bozarth's Social Learning Bookmarks and 'Show Your Work' images
• Curated tweets of Harold Jarche from Learn Patch

Track 2

Session 1: Ensuring true interaction in live online learning (Phil Green)

• My blog post on the session
• Blog post from Jo Cook

Session 2: Using Open Badges for accreditation (Doug Belshaw)

 

*** Still searching ***

Session 3: The learning design challenge (Julie Wedgewood)
 

• Blog post from Jo Cook
• Blog post from Niall Gavin
• Bitstrips mentioned by Matt Brewer

 

Track 3

Session 1: The seven habits of highly aligned L&D teams (Laura Overton)

• Towards Maturity Benchmark Survey
• Towards Maturity article: Aligning Learning to Business

Session 2: Big Data - a guide for those without a love of statistics (Nigel Paine)

• Longer Lives website
• Harvard Business Review - Big Data: Beyond the Hype
• My blog post on the session
• Blog post from Jo Cook
• Video 'Why thinking is the enemy of innovation'
• Video interview from Learn Patch

Session 3: Mobile devices, learning and the mind (Terence Eden)

*** Still searching ***

Track 4

Session 1: Learning resources: how long is long enough? (Stephanie Dedhar)

• Infographics shared by Stephanie Dedhar: Video production strategy; Online video creation; Video marketing statistics

Session 2: Lessons from the virtual playing field (Ben Betts)
 

• Infographic on Games Based Learning

Session 3: The Tin Can API workshop - putting the Experience API to work (Megan Bowe)

*** Still searching ***


Slideshares from Learning Technologies Summer Forum

Stephen Walsh, 'From ADDIE Men to Mad Men'
Charles Gould 'Diary of a Next Generation Learner'