What Is E-Learning 2.0?

In our survey on the subject, we defined e-Learning 2.0 as, “The idea of learning through digital connections and peer collaboration, enhanced by technologies driving Web 2.0. Users/Learners are empowered to search, create, and collaborate, in order to fulfill intrinsic needs to learn new information.” For Web 2.0, we said, “The stage of the World Wide Web where the Internet has become a platform for users to create, upload, and share content with others, versus simply downloading content.”

These definitions are fine, as far as they go. The problem is that they don’t really tell anything that designers, managers, and developers in the e-Learning world will find useful.

To provide helpful information to members, The eLearning Guild is publishing a series of essays and a 360 Research Report on e-Learning 2.0. We posted a survey to find out what members’ current practice and future plans look like in this area, and we will publish the results in late September. The essays started last week with Will Thalheimer’s “Evaluating e-Learning 2.0: Getting Our Heads Around the Complexity.” This week, I provide an overview of Learning 2.0, and in the next three weeks, Learning Solutions will deliver four more essays to explore further. (See Sidebar 1 for a summary of these essays.)

Going beyond definitions

Web 2.0, blogging, wikis, and social networks are among the hottest topics in e-Learning today. These technologies have empowered end-users, and highlighted the value of informal learning opportunities as a major part of the learning process.

The fast pace of technology innovation is changing many things including e-learning. The technology changes are forcing us to rethink how we design learning experiences, especially with Internet technologies. We are still in the very early stages of integrating these technologies into our existing design methods and models, and so there are no definite answers, yet.

The new Web and how it grows

There’s an important point that is easy to miss in the frenzy of change. Web 2.0 is not about technology, and neither is e-Learning 2.0. The human element is what makes the new Web work. Without user-generated content, the new Web would be an empty shell of fancy technologies.

But the new Web is not empty. People from all over the world are filling it with digital content. Today’s Internet empowers users with a world of information at their fingertips, as well as the ability to publish their own. The new Web also connects us with other people, facilitates our conversations, and supports collaboration on a global scale.

These connections are spontaneous, informal conversations occurring in real time between Web users from all over the world. They are not formalized, scheduled conversations and collaborative exercises. The Web technologies that make this possible fall into the category of Web 2.0.

The 2.0 class of software on the Web differs significantly from enterprise-class software that Learning and Training departments are used to dealing with. In his article, Mark Oehlert will show you how, as he says, “that sneaky little 2.0 may already be getting inside your organization.” The new software enters organizations from the outside in, through employees’ experiences as consumers.

I’ve provided a personal example of how insidious this process is, in Sidebar 2. You will probably find this example registering with your own experience.

Why is adding family members to a tree the killer app that brings Web 2.0 into the mainstream? Great question! I have no idea. Well, that’s not necessarily true. Based on my experiences immersing myself in Web 2.0 applications over the last few years, I actually do have an idea. Here’s my idea:

1.  The topic is relevant — i.e. it’s all about me, and everything I know about me.
2.  Family ties are a powerful draw — making old and new connections is a wonderful feeling.
3.  Collaborating with family by sharing life’s moments via pictures, videos, timelines, and events is FUN!
4. Consuming information regarding other family members encourages creation and publication of digital content of your own.

Coincidently, these are the main drivers of all things 2.0, from Web 2.0, to Enterprise 2.0, and e-Learning 2.0. The other ideas about why it is successful revolve around the technology and usability of the application, but I will not be going into that here.

Let me summarize this experience. These human elements are being facilitated by technology in an engaging and productive way. When average computer users begin feeling comfortable doing these types of activities online, then we know we’ve reached a tipping point. This is the point at which we all stop using the Web to simply “Google” for information, and start consuming, creating, and collaborating online. E-Learning 2.0 acknowledges these activities as powerful, educational, and learning tools accessible to every computer user, and to the mainstream population at large.

E-Learning 2.0 springs from Web 2.0, but it’s more

E-Learning 2.0 is not just about implementing blogging, wikis, and social networking systems. While simply having the technology available to users is the obvious first step, there is more to it than just installing, and hitting the “On” switch.

Before I explain that, there is another key point that you are going to hear from the other authors in this series. You may find it disturbing. E-Learning 2.0 is already here, and it’s already in use “in the wild” in your organization, without your involvement. Actually, it’s not e-Learning — it’s more like what Jay Cross calls “informal learning.” It is people using Web 2.0 tools and applications to support their own learning. Sometimes I call it “Learning 2.0” to make this clear.

You also should understand that Learning 2.0 does not replace traditional top-down, centralized training and education, including e-Learning 1.0. It extends it. Learning 2.0 also competes with (e-)Learning 1.0 for the time, attention, and acceptance of today’s learners, and of today’s business leaders. Jane Hart’s article will show you this next month.

To a certain extent, Learning 2.0 is disintermediating the traditional Learning or Training department. At the same time, Learning 2.0 can be an ally of Learning and Training departments. By shifting certain learning tasks to the 2.0 path, you can free up resources for better development of formal instruction, where formal makes more sense. Will Thalheimer’s chart in last week’s article may help to clarify this idea. In addition, Mark Oehlert will outline how change management regulates the balance between 1.0 and 2.0.

But now, back to explaining e-Learning 2.0.

There are currently no formulas that guarantee a successful e-Learning 2.0 strategy. But understanding a few key elements will help guide your thinking and understanding of e-Learning 2.0. Here they are:

1.  Web 2.0 technologies support and facilitate informal learning.
2.  Users must be free to publish (Rip, Mix, Feed).
3.  Enterprise Systems must enable content via the five “-ables” (searchable, editable, linkable, feedable, taggable)
4.  Organizational cultures must change.

Informal Learning

Informal learning is nothing new, but e-Learning designers have largely ignored it. However, that is all beginning to change ... slowly. Jay Cross is leading the Informal Learning charge. He maintains that 80 to 90 percent of learning occurs informally outside of the classroom. This should be shocking enough to force some sort of change in e-Learning design, but it hasn’t ,,, at least not yet in any significant way. 

Since we probably spend far less than 10% to 20% of our time in structured classroom situations, it’s probably reasonable to believe that we only gain 10% to 20% of our knowledge from that activity. It’s what we do with the other 80% to 90% of our time that counts. We read and write e-mails and other documents. We chat with colleagues on the phone, and over the cubicle wall. We spend time socializing in groups at lunch, around the water cooler, and during happy hour.

Of course there are many more examples of informal activities and events that occur in our lives, during which we may, can, and do learn, but you get the picture. It’s also important to recall from last week’s article, Will Thalheimer’s list of a dozen instances in which e-Learning 2.0 (and informal learning) can do actual harm.

So how does the complete picture look when we consider both formal and informal learning?

From New to Guru

Everyone, at some point, knows nothing about something. And when that something becomes important enough to know (and desirable enough to the individual), we begin the “New to Guru” process. We start out as a novice, and engage in certain activities over time on a journey to becoming a Guru. At the very least, we become more knowledgeable than we were before. Normally, our goal is to know enough in the new topic to become somehow productive, even if we are simply learning something new for the fun of it.

The basic idea is that, over time, we all rely less and less on formal learning opportunities for a given topic. And our reliance on informal learning becomes more and more important for that same topic. As we travel further towards becoming a Guru in a given topic, our circle of friends and colleagues becomes a vital part of our new learning environment, along with our own independent study and reflection.

This network becomes more valuable than any content we consumed in getting to this point. In fact, at a certain point, collaborating with others may be the biggest part. Creating content is also a major part of the learning process for us, and becomes the content for others who travel the same path behind us. During the entire process we are consuming content, creating content, and collaborating with others. These are the three most talked about activities in a Web 2.0 world, and are the foundational elements of e-Learning 2.0.

Rip, mix, feed

Web 2.0 facilitates consuming, creating, and collaborating online, by allowing us to easily work with digital content. We search for, find, and consume massive amounts of information. We build upon other people’s content by adding our own thoughts, style, and creativity. Then, we share it with others. Put another way we borrow from others (Rip), we insert our own contribution (Mix) and we publish (Feed) it for all to see: Rip, Mix, Feed.

This slogan may sound vaguely familiar to you. In 2001, Apple ran an ad campaign with the slogan “Rip Mix Burn.” There were legal issues concerning the music industry, and so the ad was discontinued. However, the message was clear: use the collections you already own and mix the songs the way you want them. In 2001, that meant taking your favorite songs and burning them onto a CD in the order you wanted them: “Rip Mix Burn.”

Rip, Mix, Feed is the constant cycle of content consumption, creation, and publishing that powers the Web 2.0 world, and is driving e-Learning 2.0 into the enterprise and education. This is a powerful cycle to consider, when thinking about how to incorporate these technologies into your e-Learning solutions. And while people can sometimes abuse blogging systems, they are the perfect content management system for e-Learning 2.0.

The blogging workflow

To see how this works we’ll look at the reflective process of blogging. Blogging is the quintessential Rip, Mix, Feed, and a powerful remix of a classic reflective learning activity ... writing. However, writing alone is restricted to text as the medium for telling a story. Blogging is more about publishing and sharing multimedia elements, with text being only one of the many media selection possibilities.

Bloggers use an arsenal of Web 2.0 technologies to Rip, Mix, Feed. These technologies include everything from photo-sharing sites such as Flickr, to video-sharing sites such as YouTube, and others too numerous to list here. New media Web tools, or applications, are born (and die) every day … which is why it’s more important to understand the fundamental functions and activities that these tools support.

The Rip

In blogging, the Rip is about consuming and collecting content. The RSS Feed Reader is the perfect tool for consuming large quantities of content. You can aggregate, sort, and quickly review all types of digital content in your Feed Reader, from simple text to audio or video Podcasts, and more.

The Mix

Once you’ve been inspired, angered, or in some other way motivated to create, you shift to a new set of tools. Typically, you can type directly into your blog editor. Some prefer to use a word processor, and then cut and paste. But you never forget to link. Linking is a critical part of the Mix process. Your links connect your creation with content that inspired you, or that supports and extends your thoughts.

The Feed

Once you’ve edited your media elements into a post, you Feed. This is the easiest part. It is also the most powerful. The tools, by design, focus on publishing. Not only do they put your content on the Web, but the tools also create the XML file that is the Feed. The readers of a blog subscribe to this feed, receive alerts to your post, and the process starts all over again.

Sharing what you know with others is important to the learning process.

Enabling content

The ability to easily create and publish digital content is the key to Web 2.0, and it is important to Learning 2.0 as well. However, digital content must have certain characteristics to be truly Web 2.0. There are probably more, but the “five ?ables” will get you started. In order for your content to be useful in a Web 2.0 world, it should be:

• Searchable
• Editable
• Linkable
• Feedable
• Taggable

This means that the PowerPoint file filled with your great new ideas sitting on your hard drive is useless to others in your organization. However, that same PowerPoint file, uploaded to a Web 2.0 service such as SlideShare, is one that Google can index — and then it becomes searchable. Others can add comments about your ideas in the file. They can link to the file in a post on their blog, where others reading the feed will be introduced to your idea. To organize your ideas with other similar ideas, you can give it a category name, or tag, for easy organization with other like files.

Implementing open systems within corporate organizations will probably be the most difficult challenge in implementing e-Learning 2.0. There are definite challenges to resolve. Security is at the top of the list. But the cultural aspect of end-users becoming comfortable with exposing their work publicly is another. Younger generations seem to have no problem with it, while older generations may (I suspect, although it would be hard to prove) find it invasive and, at the very least, discomforting.

Despite the obstacles, the benefits of enabled Web 2.0 content are worth exploring as part of what you may implement as e-Learning 2.0 within your organization.

The human element

Social networking is incredibly popular these days. But what exactly is social networking? To many people it is still a cocktail party and business cards. Among groups of technology mavens there are many types of technology-supported social networks. Simply writing a blog, and having a small group of regular readers and commenter’s could be considered a social network. But in general, and in the context of e-Learning 2.0, we are talking about server-based applications that provide a lot of Web 2.0 functionality. Most people think of MySpace, Facebook, or LinkedIn when they hear the word social network.

In understanding what e-Learning 2.0 is, it doesn’t matter which tool you are talking about. Social networking tools make it VERY easy to connect and collaborate with the right people at the right time. Many enterprise social networking tools also support Rip, Mix, Feed by allowing users to upload pictures, create a blog, start a wiki page, or incorporate other Web 2.0 functionality. But the most important part of the social network is YOU.

Within the social network, you are content. You are searchable, editable, linkable, feedable, and taggable. It all starts with your profile. Defining who you are allows others to find you, and know if you are who they are looking for. Others can help define, or edit, who you are by connecting with you or writing about you on your profile. By connecting to you they are linking to you, and that link expands your network. The items you post within the social network become part of a feed that others can subscribe to. Subscribers will receive a notice each time you contribute to the network. By using tags or groups, social networks can organize users into categories. The more you engage with the social network, the more powerful it becomes.

E-Learning 2.0 is about empowering the self-directed end-user. Learning, specifically informal learning, is often a social activity. Social networks have long existed without technology support, but in many cases building up the right connections within your social network can take years. Technology-driven social networking puts the human resources of your organization right at your fingertips. Web-based social networks use the technology of Web 2.0, and the people of your organization, to create informal learning opportunities whenever they are needed.

In his essay at the end of this series, Tony Karrer will provide you with a simple way to get started using Web 2.0 tools to support learning in your organization. His suggestions are very basic, and they are also the most direct path into e-Learning 2.0 that I have ever seen.

Conclusion

E-Learning 2.0 is where Web 2.0 technologies meet informal learning. E-learning 1.0 did an excellent job of automating our traditional educational model, but heavily supported the administrative tasks involved. The new technologies driving the user-generated content culture of Web 2.0 are about the learners, and providing them with more power over the learning process. It is the combined technology and human element that brings us to the point of completely re-thinking instructional theories and methods. At its best e-Learning 2.0 combines the structured elements of formal learning, the self-directed nature of informal learning, and the powerful new technologies of the Internet to support every person’s unique needs on their personal learning journey.

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