In the emerging view, learning is not just a transmission of “substance” from teachers to learners through a variety of pedagogical strategies. Many professionals now describe learning in terms of communication of ideas between people within a community.
Traditionally, educators treated knowledge acquisition as an individual activity focused on content. This lives in sharp contrast to the notion that learning is a social event where learners construct knowledge, which is the fundamental premise upon which the concept of “social learning” stands.
Enter Web 2.0 technology — particularly trends in peer-to-peer sharing and collaborative development. Societal norms are shifting, especially in how we learn. Web 2.0 has altered the characteristics of the learning environment, making the concept of social learning that much more possible.
The application of social learning in the workplace seems obvious, if not natural. There are already signs of great promise and high expectations for some of the Web 2.0 technologies that support social learning. However, there are many challenges to making this possible for an organization wanting to build learning communities. We present here a look at the barriers to social learning in the workplace, and the best practices (tips, tools, and theories) for addressing these obstacles.
Social learning is rooted in social constructivism
Many e-Learning professionals found that employing a Learning Management System (LMS) did not resolve all the issues around teaching and supporting the workforce. As a result, some have decided to move into social learning. If this is a new term to you, the basic premise this: humans learn in a social context — therefore, being able to converse and interact with others in a group is important for learning. According to a recent study by Richard J. Light at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, “one of the strongest determinants of students’ success in higher education — more important than the details of their instructors’ teaching styles — was their ability to form or participate in small study groups. Students who studied in groups, even only once a week, were more engaged in their studies, were better prepared for class, and learned significantly more than students who worked on their own.” (Please see the References at the end of this article for all citations.)
The concept of social learning has roots in a social constructivist approach, where learning is a self-directed, problem-based, and collaborative process. (Bang and Dalsgaard) Through involvement in activities, learners must attempt to solve a problem according to their own process. Another source explains:
"The individual determines how to proceed based on his or her unique needs, perceptions, and experiences, distinguishes known from unknown, identifies resources available to support learning efforts, and formalizes and tests personal beliefs."
(Hannafin, Land, and Oliver 1999, p. 119)
Resources are information assets: media, people, places, or ideas. However, such resources are not learning materials until learners actively use them.
“For learning, resources must be contextualized to determine situational relevance and meaning. Resources also need to be re-contextualized to enable the use of information gleaned from various resources. Once contextual meaning has been established, information becomes organized as knowledge, operating in a larger context of meaning encompassing relevant patterns, biases, and interpretations."
(Hill and Hannafin 2001, p. 38)
Because self-direction and problem-solving are critical to the learning process, the ideal environment for learning is open-ended (Land and Hannafin, 1996). That is, learners receive direction to a problem, and to tools they can use to solve problems. They may solve the problem on their own, or in collaboration with other learners.
The impact of Web 2.0 on social learning
In his Techlearning blog of March 5, 2008, Steve Hargadon identified trends spurred on by the “two-way” nature of the Internet. These are trends that have significant impact on learning and education. According to Hargadon, there is a “new publishing revolution” arising from a shift in content creation for the Internet. At first, the Internet was a one-directional presentation medium where users received and read passively. Now the Internet is becoming an interactive platform, also known as Web 2.0, based on contribution and collaboration. Blogs, wikis, file sharing, social networking, and other forms are revolutionizing how we create online content.
As a result, the amount of online content available is beyond comprehension. Social networks like Facebook and MySpace boast 250,000 and 300,000 new users per day, respectively. Content contributors number in the tens of millions daily, according to Forrester Senior Researcher Jeremiah Owyang. There is a “tidal wave of information.” It is an unenviable task to filter through the content postings, and to sort out the contributions that are worthy of attention.
In his blog entry, Hargadon discussed how he replies to questions that people ask about content overload. His response reflects how social networking and social learning flow into one another naturally, as social constructivism suggests they will. He said, “It is in the act of our becoming a creator that our relationship with content changes, and we become more engaged and more capable at the same time.” In other words, by participating we learn to become.
Participation also shapes how people make choices, which reflects what they learn. Smart retailers already use this fact. For example, reader reviews at Amazon.com significantly influence consumer reactions to a book and subsequent purchases. Moreover, Amazon tracks its users and their behaviour, and a kind of dialog ensues. Data collected from a shopper generates a list of books, DVDs, music, and so on that he or she might not have considered. Other companies also use consumer feedback in developing products to bring to market. These examples illustrate how knowledge acquisition, development, and innovation are shifting toward a collaborative model.
If participation is key, the collaborator is king or queen. Wikipedia.com, the online “open source” encyclopaedia, is an exquisite example. Trusted authority on a subject no longer depends solely on academic research and study, but also on transparent and collaborative scholarship. Wikipedia has challenged the supremacy of commercial encyclopaedias. Collaboration gives way to innovation, through the application of knowledge from one field to another.
Wikipedia content creation begins with “peripheral participation.” Anyone can create a new entry, or modify existing ones. This is an adaptation of the “apprenticeship” approach to open source software development. (Brown and Adler, 2008) This open-source approach allows transparency in both the content, and the authoring. Readers participate in deciding which information is reliable or important.
The age of content on demand is coming, if it isn’t already here. Why waste your time on a product, or on content that almost suits your needs? Why hold on to a “build it and they will come” mentality? It is possible, with today’s social networking tools, to find a subject matter expert to work and collaborate with in the development of “relevant” and “just in time” content.
Recent initiatives that apply these principles to learning are interesting. One such offering provides a marketplace environment (a “Software as a Solution” approach). It centers on the social aspect of learning, and on the creation and exchange of knowledge, rather on maintaining courses and tracking users.
Social learning in the workplace
The evolution of the Internet has yielded stunning results in learner performance. Eventually, it will affect the structure of educational institutions. But how does this translate within corporate walls? Can business organizations adopt social learning in the workplace?
In his introduction to a 2005 issue of Executive Thought Leadership Quarterly John Chambers, Cisco’s Chairman and CEO, had this to say:
“We believe that a new focus on productivity is emerging based on adding value to the exchange of information. This next horizon for productivity is based on interactions within functions, between functional business units, and across partner and customer organizations. Internally, we need to enhance interactions among engineering, sales, and support. Externally, we need to optimize interactions with our suppliers, partners, and customers – interacting in ways, and at levels, that we haven’t done before to add the greatest value possible.”
Other companies are likewise making strides in this direction. Microsoft offers its Office-based sharing technology, SharePoint. IBM implemented the use of blogs (26,000 registered), wikis (100,000 users), social bookmarking (DogEar), and social networking tools in their organization. IBM even owns 50 islands on Second Life for use in orientations, classes, and meetings!
Change is inevitable. We see that technology continues to evolve, along with how people connect and contribute to the creation of content within virtual communities. We either adapt, or fall behind. In his January, 2008 paper, David Wilkins explores the importance of supporting social networks in the workplace, or “Workplace Communities.” Wilkins reviews social learning on the job in terms of improving employee development, performance, and growth, as well as its effect on workplace innovation.
Wilkins shows a number of ways in which workplace communities support employee development, performance, and growth. They provide a mechanism for apprenticeship models, connecting less-skilled workers with their more experienced colleagues through social networking technologies. Communities can add an “Ask an Expert” feature to their network, to make it possible to leverage the expertise of individuals or groups.
Communities foster ownership of learning, according to Wilkins. The social aspect of communities can facilitate the “meeting” of content consumers with content producers through social networking. Perhaps, as in Wikipedia, the consumers may participate and contribute in the dialogue about the content, enhancing its original value.
“This social aspect of content provides an avenue for additional social networking and mentoring opportunities, and further empowers the workforce by providing opportunities for them [the consumers] to contribute, resulting in significant increases in the volume of content. This has the dual benefit of helping with both retention and productivity, while also moving the organization toward a deeper, more ingrained use of learning and knowledge.” (Wilkins, p. 6)
Communities allow for the generation of a range of content types that appeal to different learning styles, levels, and objectives. Online resources include blogs and wikis, audio, and video. They may also include traditional learning courses and materials, and typical Office documents. Through sharing information, the workplace community provides access to immediate, relevant, and appropriate content suited to the needs of the individual. An extension of traditional training and development modes, communities offer a fluid way to support employee performance development and efficiency.
Another way that workplace communities can improve company efficiency and productivity is by strengthening organizational networks and connections. Communities can foster and leverage existing primary relationships between employees within the company, and open up other tiers of connection. In so doing, employees form new primary social networks, especially among those with remote ties. This enables “information to flow between groups with different interests, facilitating innovation through fresh perspectives, new ideas, and greater diversity.” (Wilkins, p. 11)
Best practices to meet the challenges of workplace social learning
Social learning in the workplace sounds great on paper, but what does it mean when it comes to implementation? There are some practical challenges to adopting social learning in an organization (Brogan, 2008) such as:
- Productivity and efficiency
- Firewall, security, and bandwidth issues
- Intellectual property
- Confidentiality
- Policies
- Participation, or lack thereof
A significant barrier to encouraging social learning in the workplace is culture. This affects most of the challenges listed above. The following are some of the tips and best practices for laying the foundation of social learning in the workplace.
Responding to productivity and efficiency concerns
- Educate the decision makers and sell the value, by giving presentations on Web 2.0, social networking, and social learning
- Find a champion. It’s an uphill battle, and you need all the help you can get. The more champions you get, the greater the number of people you have to promote it.
Avoiding firewall, security, and bandwidth concerns
- Be specific. Make sure you identify the blogs, wikis, and other sites you want to request access to, and provide a business case relative to your job.
- Make sure you develop, or collaborate in the development of, an acceptable-use case based on sound business principles and risk management.
- Take small steps. Do not overwhelm the decision maker with a long list of requests. For every step you take, make sure you take stock of how it helped you achieve your desired results.
- Inform the decision maker that the system administrator can track the sites employees visit.
- Wanting video and audio could be a problem. Can you purchase them, and house them internally?
Intellectual property
- Make it clear who owns the content so there are no doubts on ownership.
Confidentiality
- Instant Messaging (IM) is a red flag for many organizations for fear of breach of confidentiality. In addition to delivering instant results, make sure you point out that the technology also allows for logs and monitoring. If you intend to use IM for learning, knowledge management, innovation, connectivity with clients, partners, or suppliers, monitoring capability will be very important in your case.
Policies
- A good starting point is to check out what others have done. IBM Social Computing Guidelines are an example worth reviewing.
- If it is a question of accuracy or quality of content, then set up “safe zones,” clearly marking controlled vs. unrestricted pages (that is, official vs. learning). Limit the number of authors, and keep track of who they are. Do not allow anonymous authoring or editing
Participation
- Find a focus. Define a topic and duration to give participants a starting point, a structure, and an obvious place to start. Think about starting your blogs, wikis, etc. on common support issues, or Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).
- Set up a meeting place, and an agenda to get content started; this could be either real or virtual.
- Create pages that people are likely to update, such as common support problems
- Integrate blogging, wikis, and so on, as part of the job description
Conclusion
It is not easy to incorporate social learning in your company, even when it seems like the obvious natural evolution in a learning organization. Some companies are just not ready for it. The culture of an organization determines its readiness to move forward and bring transparency into the system.
Success requires free flow of ideas, and support by stakeholders, for communication between networks. It takes time to establish these conditions, and a carefully thought-out plan is essential. We believe that the examples and best practices we’ve provided here will help organizations to move forward.
Resources
Bang, Joergen and Dalsgaard, Christian. “Rethinking e-learning – shifting the focus to learning activities.” In Sorensen, E.K. and Murchú, D. (ed.), Enhancing Learning Through Technology . (2006) Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing.
Chambers, John T. “Productive Interactions.” Executive Thought Leadership Quarterly. (2005) Article retrieved from http://tools.cisco.com/dlls/tln/page/media/publications/detail/nl/2005/issue-31
Brogan, Chris. “Challenges of Social Media in the Workplace” (January 9, 2008) chrisbrogan.com Weblog entry retrieved from http://www.chrisbrogan.com/challenges-of-social-media-types-in-the-workplace/
Brown, John Seely and Adler, Richard P. “Minds on Fire, Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0.” Educause Review, Volume 43, Number 1 (January. 2008). Retrieved from http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Review/MindsonFireOpenEducationt/45823?time=1218055054
Hannafin, Michael J., Land, Susan, and Oliver, Kevin. (1999). “Open Learning Environments: Foundations, Methods, and Models.” In Reigeluth, C.M. (ed.), Instructional-Design Theories and Models: A New Paradigm of Instructional Theory, Volume II (pp. 215-239). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hargadon, Steve. “Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education” Techlearning blog, March 5, 2008. Weblog entry retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/blog/2008/03/web_20_is_the_future_of_educat_1.php
Hill, Janette R. and Hannafin, Michael J. (2001). “Teaching and Learning in Digital Environments: The Resurgence of Resource-Based Learning.” Educational Technology Research and Development, volume 49, number 3, 37-52.
IBM Social Computing Guidelines: Blogs, wikis, social networks, virtual worlds and social media. (2008) Publication retrieved from http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html
Karrer, Tony. “Web 2.0 Applications in Learning,” eLearning Technology , March 3, 2008. Weblog entry retrieved from http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2008/03/web-20-applications-in-learning.html
Owyang, Jeremiah. “ Social Network Stats: Facebook, MySpace, Reunion,” Web Strategy by Jeremiah, January 9, 2008. Weblog entry retrieved from http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/01/09/social-network-stats-facebook-myspace-reunion-jan-2008/
Wikipedia, Legitimate peripheral participation. (2008) Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legitimate_peripheral_participation
Wilkins, David. “How Workplace Communities will Transform Your Business.” (January, 2008) White paper retrieved from http://www.mzinga.com/a/download.asp?description=how+workplace+communities+will+transform+your+business|mzingawp-workplacecommunitiestransformbusiness.pdf (Registration required)
