I'm starting a new thread to focus a discussion on the use of social media in a very designed, deliberate way to achieve a specific learning objective (see
definitions). I posted two documents from the Learn Together project experiment we did on WJ in March: a
summary of what we did and a
toolkit for creating a learning cohort.
I just found this interesting conversation from the business world trainer perspective:
Social learning: are we missing the boat?. It's an active topic among that segment of learning professionals.
This comment from Bill Sherman hits a nerve:
Here's my thought. We'll see course designers and companies implement social learning as the "new thing" and expect it to solve all the organization's learning needs. This approach will fail (in some cases spectacularly) and many people will form a the equally-hasty opinion that "social learning doesn't work." At that point, we'll ride down the Trough of Disillusionment.
But, some of us will ignore both the hype and the disillusionment. We'll look at the tool and say, "hey, this could be powerful. Let's figure out how to use it effectively." We'll tinker around, individually in our ID workshops and with like-minded folks until we find solutions that work.
I'd like to hear about other designed social learning projects that you all are "tinkering" with. The power of this group is to help us all find those solutions that work.
...Betha
