Technology Trends and Their Impact on the Way We Live, Work and Learn

Editor's Notes

• #7: Before we can begin our discussion on creating a social learning hive, it is important to differentiate between the terms Social Media and Social Learning. First of all, One is a noun and the other is a verb. You can’t do ‘social media’, but you can ‘social learn. These social media tools include internet applications that provide the capabilities for blogs, microblogs (e.g., Twitter & Yammer), file sharing (e.g., Flickr & SlideShare), Virtual Meeting Places, (e.g., Adobe Connect & Elluminate), social sites (e.g. Facebook) and wikisHowever, it should be not assumed that user will be able to socially learn by having a facebook page or Twitter account (social media examples) It is important for organizations to provide the right opportunities to help their employees understand how to socially learn as well.Jane Hart is correct when she opined, “true social learning is an integral part of working, not separate from it.” But, providing access to social media tools in the workplace does not constitute social learning. Those social media applications and technologies need to be worked into both the learning cycles of an organization as much as it has to be embedded into the workflows of common business tasks.Social (interpersonal) learning as the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes while connected to others (peers, mentors, experts) in an electronic surround of digital media, both real-time and asynchronous ”Social learning is about learning through your interactions with others and through the knowledge and expertise of others.” * Not Institutional or Course Centric – Informal Learning People learn best from one another and social learning keeps employees engaged with social media tools to connect, collaborate and innovate which will increase employee productivity and effectiveness* Dave Wilkins, The Social Enterprise Blog