Understanding Today's Learner

Part Three: Learning and development professionals as Learners 2.0

The results of The eLearning Guild’s member survey showed that usage of Web 2.0 social media varied across the levels, frequency, and breadth of engagement. Figures 1, 2, and 3 provide the percentage of members undertaking a number of key activities at Reader, Participant, and Creator levels (defined earlier in this article) on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

Figure 1 Guild member use tends toward the Reader level.

Figure 2 Only about a third of respondents are Participants.

Figure 3 The smallest group of respondents report that they are Creators of 2.0 content.

These charts show that, on average, on a monthly basis, eLearning Guild members are primarily Readers/Consumers (80.1%), whilst just over a third are Participants/Contributors (38.1%) or Creators/Producers (36.3%). However, there is a significant difference when the results are sorted by age. For example, see Figure 4 for the effect of age on participation. (For further breakdown by age and gender, see The eLearning Guild’s 360° Research Report on e-Learning 2.0. Also see “Web 2.0 use across three+ generations” in the Best of the Blogs list in this issue of Learning Solutions.)

Figure 4 When the survey data on participation is sorted by age, it appears that respondents over 30 are less likely to be Participants in social media.

This suggests that a large number of Guild members have a long way to go before they can consider themselves as highly engaged with the tools as the new breed of learners that they now need to serve.

So to what extent did the interviewees feel it was important to understand and experience these new tools and technologies? All interviewees, without exception, felt it was very important for learning and development practitioners to keep abreast of new learning approaches and technologies, but the extent to which they felt they needed to be actively engaged with social media varied.

Conceptual understanding

A number of the people I interviewed felt it was only necessary to have a conceptual understanding of social media, through reading about new tools and technologies, attending conferences and networking events, and finding out about best practices, strategies, and techniques.

Hands-on use of tools

Many others to whom I spoke thought it was important, if not “absolutely essential,” to have hands-on experience of the tools. Ellen Owen believed you can’t make a proper judgement unless you have tried a tool or a technology, and Nicola Avery felt it was important to get an understanding of “the good, the bad, and the ugly” of particular technologies. Misty Campbell-Olbert felt that learning and development professionals should use these tools in their daily lives: “The more practice they have with a new technology, they will begin to see the benefit of using that technology.”

Use the tools in their own practice

Others still considered it vital to use social media in their own professional practice, either as personal tools or as group tools within their own teams. Marcel de Leuuwe, for instance, felt that demonstrating how to use a tool in your own practice was the only way to get people to understand it.

One learning and development professional from Australia went further, when he said that practitioners must be personally involved, and passionate about the approach. They must be early adopters, and be seen as a champion of the cause. “Web 2.0 is something you do, rather than something you learn in a formal learning. You just need to get out and do it,” and by that he meant, “Sign-up to blog feeds, join social bookmarking networks, write regular posts on your blog, and contribute to wikis.”

Charles Jennings summarised all this when he said that learning and development professionals need to be the “poster children” in the effective use of new learning approaches and technologies.

So how can members become poster children? Take a look at Sidebar 1, where you will find some suggestions on getting started with social media, and then go experience what it is like to be a new learner today.

In summary

Today’s new breed of learners are proficient users of Web 2.0 tools and technologies, who want to see the new social and collaborative approaches which they underpin in all aspects of their life — whether it be playing, working, or learning. Although some organisations are struggling to implement these new tools and approaches, it seems that the most successful e-Learning 2.0 implementations or, at least, movements towards e-Learning 2.0, are being promoted by passionate professionals who are highly engaged with Web 2.0 tools and their ethos, and who themselves are one of this new breed of learners.

The message for Guild members is clear; they will have to become immersed in these tools if they stand any chance of driving change within their organisations, and keeping up to speed as new learner demographics change.

(Editor’s Note: Because of the age of this article, many of the items in this resource list are no longer available online. Those that are still available in late December 2009 may return 404 (Not Available) at later dates. In order to simplify maintenance, we have removed dead links from the list. If specific articles are still needed, we suggest that readers try entering the desired url at The Wayback Machine (http://www.archive.org) to see whether the Internet Archive still has the original.)

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