The first Digital Learning Network Meetup brought a broad mix of people together who were both interested and intrigued by the potential of learning technology in their professional contexts.
We had people there from big business; from a charity; from education; those who ran their own businesses; and those from within the learning tech industry itself. We discussed and debated today’s empowered digital learner and how we might capitalise on how people currently use the web to ‘learn’ to better engage the learners we were all responsible for.
I initially set this group up to learn and be inspired – and I certainly felt my views broadening during this Meetup. One really interesting challenge was in that web-search doesn’t necessarily mean a ‘learner’ being at the mercy of the entire web but often directing their attention to sources and communities that they know serve their needs – i.e. developer communities. It was then suggested that we might want to train effective web-search to our people.
We discussed technology for technology’s sake. For example, how organisations might introduce a tool like Yammer and not seek to solve problems for those who would ultimately engage with said-tech.
We talked about how reflection was still required in order for content to become learning and also about the potential of teaching what’s been learnt via blogging or by creating content that’s then shared with peers.
But one of the more powerful debates was around how employees can’t be trusted to freely contribute to the creation of online resources because organisations inherently mistrust their people: “Imagine if somebody made inappropriate content visible to others…!?”
On the other hand, imagine if more employees contributed resources of great (and perhaps niche) value. How much more valuable – and valued – could ‘learning’ technology then be?
Join the Digital Learning Network for information on this and future events.
David James is Chief Learning Strategist with Looop and a seasoned Talent Management, Learning & OD leader with nearly 20 years of experience in the field. Until recently, David was Director of Talent, Learning & OD for The Walt Disney Company’s EMEA region.
Looop help their clients all over the world to digitally transform their L&D and capitalise on how people really want to learn today with a platform that is renowned for its extraordinary levels of learner engagement.