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What is “Social Learning”?
"Learning would be exceedingly laborious,
not to mention hazardous, if people had to
rely solely on the effects of their own
actions to inform them what to do.
Fortunately, most human behaviour is
learned observationally through
modelling: from observing others one
forms an idea of how new behaviours are
performed, and on later occasions this
coded information serves as a guide for
action.“
Albert Bandura
Social Learning
Theory, 1977
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How Do Social Interactions
Contribute to Learning?
Individuals can
Discuss
Learn new perspectives
Learn new concepts
Spread knowledge
Collaborate
Network
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Is “Social Learning” the Same as
“Experiential Learning”?
Social learning
Learning from others’
experience
Experiential Learning
Learning by doing –
experiencing oneself
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Social Media in Learning – Some Facts
20-30% organizations worldwide already using
social media tools for learning
20-30%
Source: eLearning Guild research
76% organizations intend to explore social
learning76%
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Reference link: http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/twitter/
Social Media in Learning – Some Facts
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Social Media vs. Social Learning
Social Media is not Social Learning
Social media can be leveraged for social learning
Social learning encompasses many other aspects
that lead to informal learning
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Benefits of Social Media to an
Individual (Professionally)
Network with colleagues
Brainstorm
Trade information
Collaborate on ideas
Just-in-time solutions to issues
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Benefits of Social Media Learning to
an Organization
Greater collaboration between employees
Higher dissipation and retention of knowledge
Opportunity to identify and nurture talent
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The Big Question
Is “social media learning” a
“One-size-fits-all” learning solution???
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Adopting Social Learning Through
Social Media
Facebook: Create closed groups to share learning content,
assess knowledge, share ideas, hold discussions
Twitter: Share industry updates, JIT updates, information;
connect learners, hold discussions
YouTube: Create channels and upload video content, curate
and create playlists
LinkedIn: Connect with other professionals, share experiences,
hold discussions
Other popular social media tools: Google+, Whatsapp,
Pinterest
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Social Media Tools Ideal for eLearning
Blogs
Podcasts
RSS Feeds
Webinars
Mind Maps
Collaborative Tools (Google, Zoho, Office 365 etc.)
Discussion Forums
Instant Messaging applications
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Challenges Posed by Social Media to
Organizations
Productivity and efficiency
Firewall, security, and bandwidth issues
Intellectual property
Confidentiality
Content
Participation
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Overcoming the Challenges
Productivity and efficiency – Create awareness
Firewall, security, and bandwidth issues – Build business
case to address concerns
Intellectual property – Define ownership
Confidentiality – Log interactions
Content – Curate and moderate
Participation – Encourage and motivate
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The Advent of Corporate Social
Learning Platforms
Facebook-like tools
Curated Twitter feeds
Internal knowledge
repositories
Instant messaging
Discussion forums
Curated media libraries
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Making the Most of Social Learning –
Examples
Canadian
telecommunications
company
20% savings on
training cost in the first
year of shifting to
social learning
Global IT firm
Uses internal social
media tools to connect
sales workforce
Welcome to this webinar on “Social – The New Age Learning Paradigm”.
What is this “Social Learning” that we keep hearing about?
Albert Bandura formulated the Social Learning Theory, which encompasses concepts of traditional learning theory and the operant conditioning of B.F. Skinner.
Basically, social learning is learning that happens due to social interactions between individuals and groups, and learning that occurs due to environmental conditions.
There are many ways social interactions are conducive to learning.
Man, being a social animal, needs to interact with others. And, during these interactions, learning takes place. One can discuss issues, ask questions, put forth one’s own perspectives and learn new ones, learn new concepts, and even educate others with one’s own knowledge. People get an opportunity to collaborate on ideas to form new ideas. Also, social interactions help grow networks, thus increasing one’s circle of influence.
Does that mean that social learning is based on one’s experiences?
Social learning draws mainly from the experiences of others. For example, a blog post describing a harrowing experience someone might have had staying at a particular hotel leads to social learning – you’d learn not to visit that hotel!
Experiential learning, on the other hand, is learning that happens when you experience what is being taught – be it a process, an experiment, or a phenomenon.
Social learning, though still in its infancy, is catching on. According to an eLearning Guild research, 20-30% of organizations worldwide have already adopted social media in the learning plans, while a whopping 76% are interested in experimenting with it!
Here’s another interesting titbit – an authoritative survey of top eLearning tools has ranked Twitter as the top tool for six years in a row!
Before we proceed, I’d like to make one important point – “social media” and “social learning” are not the same thing.
Social media can be considered one of the tools that contribute to social learning – by itself, social learning comprises various other aspects which mainly revolve around inter-personal communication and interaction, as well as the power of observation.
How do employees benefit from having access to social media tools? For one, they get to network with their colleagues, thereby opening up opportunities to brainstorm, trade information, and collaborate on ideas. Instant messaging and discussion forums enable them to discuss and resolve live issues.
Organizations, too, benefit largely from the use of social media tools by their employees.
Employees collaborate better, thus increasing productivity. While employees interact, knowledge is shred and a more informed workforce evolves.
Another angle to it is the opportunity to identify talent – when employees share ideas, it’s impossible not to notice where the bright ideas are originating from.
That brings us to the big question – is social media learning a one-size-fits-all learning solution?
The answer is a simple “No”. Every form of learning solution has its strong and weak areas. Social learning has its place in the sun, and can complement formal learning. However, it cannot replace other methods of learning, be it classroom training or eLearning.
One thing is for certain, though – in today’s world where people meet online more often than they meet in person, using social media as a learning tool is not something you can afford to disregard completely.
An easy way to overcome the challenges is to acquire access to a corporate social learning platform.
Having recognized the importance of social media in learning, corporate social learning platforms have mushroomed to address corporate concerns.
Corporate social learning platforms permit restricted access to social networking sites, allow administrators to curate content, and restrict communication to within the organization. This gives employees unfettered access to organizational resources, knowledge banks and even encourages productive networking. These SLPs, as they are known, can integrate with your existing intranet to give your employees instant access to a world of knowledge. In fact, we have our own social learning platform, the NiceLMS, which is a powerful social learning platform which tracks not only compliant eLearning assets, but also ppts, pdfs and video. We’ll discuss our social learning platform in a subsequent webinar.