Learning 2.0: Everyone is trying to figure it out...and someone boldly proclaims Twitter to be dead

I’ve been reading tons of posts lately on “Learning 2.0.” Folks have been talking about “Web 2.0” since 2004 – it’s taken the learning community until 2009 to get onto the band wagon. The big question everyone is asking is, “How can we use Learning 2.0/Web 2.0 to facilitate informal learning in our organization and enhance the formal stuff we do?” Interesting to me that the question is HOW and not SHOULD WE. (Okay…I know opportunities exist to leverage it – but I think people are trying everything without fully evaluating which options are BEST.)

Thus far, there doesn’t seem to be a huge consensus on what works, though there are lots of folks trying lots of things. One interesting post I came across today detailed a pilot project where a university professor decided to make use of Twitter a requirement for his Shakespeare class. He does a nice job outlining is pilot – and documenting the results he got.

His students were less than impressed by it. One big comment I noted as I reviewed his results was that, for most students, their preference was for Facebook. They weren’t resistant to social media tools for learning – just having to ADD another tool onto one they already used daily.

Any implications for corporate training?

I think so. I’ve long been concerned that we’re so gung-ho on using Learning 2.0 that no one is stopping to ask 1) how much is too much, and 2) what’s most viable and least intrusive to learners. People only have so much time. We want their social learning to be meaningful – not a burden. My biggest sensation after attending the MarchSALT conference was that people are trying everything…and finding that even our digital natives (those in their teens and 20s) aren’t embracing nearly as many tools as folks imagined they would.

I’d love to see a robust discussion of what works and what doesn’t. I’d particularly like to hear from LEARNERS THEMSELVES. That was the power of the Kingston University pilot. They spent a lot of time gathering data from the learners to find out how they perceived Twitter as a learning tool. There’s lots of learning designers who are raving about the potential – but less data from the perspective of learners who have leveraged Web 2.0 as part of a learning experience.

Let’s hear from the learners!