Getting MESSAGES BACK and STARTING/CONTINUING/DEVELOPING CONVERSATIONS

To continue my previous post Getting the MESSAGE OUT and Getting MESSAGES BACK – About Blogging as a Tool and Tools in General [i], I’d like to tell you a story about a PKN (Personal Knowledge Network) journey I recently took.

To frame this PKN experience, I should preface it by giving you some context: I am interested in Learning in Organizations, both “Learning Organizations” AND “Organizational Learning”. In researching the topic, I found/discovered Jane Hart, Collaboration Consultant and founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies (C4LPT), one of the world’s most visited learning sites on the Web.[ii] A webinar ‘junkie’, I attended a GoToTraining Webinar on Social and Collaborative Learning in the Workplace given by Jane Hart (August 2012)[iii] and added her blog, Learning in the Social Workplace, to my Outlook RSS feed reader.

This story demonstrates how discovery doesn't necessarily occur in chronological order.

1. It starts with Hart’s blog post “How do we deal with unwilling corporate learners?” (September 22^nd), which responds to Schlenker’s blog comment:  “The truth is, there are no learning problems in corporate settings. There are only people unwilling to learn” (September 20^th). Hart’s post develops a wonderful matrix of self-directed/directed and willing/unwilling learners, which I just had to share with the Metaliteracy MOOC.
2. My blogging juices get flowing and I write my “Getting the MESSAGE OUT” post (September 25^th) which is fueled by Hart’s ideas. I agree with Schlenker’s other blog statement: “Learning is about People, NOT technology” and need to follow up on his observation that “people still don't take advantage of new technologies for learning” and that “so many workers choose to leave their learning in the hands of others.”
3. More on the topic from Clark Quinn (another blogger in my RSS feed and, like Hart, a member of the Internet Time Alliance): “Being explicit about corporate learning” (September 25^th) [unfortunately, AFTER I had posted mine]. Quinn observes that “the ability to be a self-directed learning is a skill issue” and that “learning-to-learn or meta-learning skills may or may not exist in any particular individual” which can be explicitly developed while willingness to learn is a question of responsibility and attitude. [The issue of attitude is one Quinn addressed back in April 2006 and he hyperlinks back to that earlier blog post.] He concludes by coupling learning environment with culture: “Learning has to be explicit, safe, valued, modeled, and expected. Learners need to be empowered with tools, coached, and formatively evaluated.”
4. I now feel the need to chronicle the way ideas are shared, thoughts are developed and connected in an asynchronous environment through blogs. And, knowing that an image helps, put this mindmeld into a graphic.

The end of the saga leading to this post.

So, dear readers, I ask you: 

• Is it the technologies? 
• Is it attitude? 
• Is it willingness? 
• Do you see yourself in some of these observations? 
• Do you feel the tools are empowering? 
• Or overwhelming? 
• Are you comfortable with asynchronicity? 
• Do you agree that this is part of metaliteracy?

REFERENCES:

Hart, Jane. "How do we deal with unwilling corporate learners?." Learning in the Social Workplace. N.p., 22 Sept. 2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/blog/2013/09/22/how-do-we-deal-with-unwilling-corporate-learners/>.

Herzog, Kate S. "Getting the MESSAGE OUT and Getting MESSAGES BACK – About Blogging as a Tool and Tools in General." Beyond Information Literacy. N.p., 25 Sept. 2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://beyondinformationliteracy.blogspot.com/2013/09/getting-message-out-and-getting.html>.

Quinn, Clark. "Attitudinal Change." Learnlets. N.p., 20 Apr. 2006. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://blog.learnlets.com/?p=40>.

Quinn, Clark. "Being explicit about corporate learning." Learnlets. N.p., 25 Sept. 2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://blog.learnlets.com/?p=3506>.

Schlenker, Brent. "Welcome back..." Corporate eLearning Strategies and Development. N.p., 20 Sept. 2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2013. <http://elearndev.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/welcome-back.html>.

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[i] Herzog, Kate S. “Getting the MESSAGE OUT and Getting MESSAGES BACK – About Blogging as a Tool and Tools in General http://beyondinformationliteracy.blogspot.com/2013/09/getting-message-out-and-getting.html

[ii] Hart is a prodigious and knowledgeable blogger [see her “Quick Guide to Blogging Tools”  http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/quick-guides/quick-guide-to-blogging/],  author of the Social Learning Handbook, surveyor of “The Top 100 Tools for Learning” (results of results of the 7th Annual Learning Tools survey http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/ will be released 9-30-13) and author of “A Practical Guide to the Top 100 Tools for Learning,” which describes the essential features of each tool. I could go on extolling her accomplishments…but it suffices to say she IS one of my role models.

[iii] You can see Hart’s slides at http://www.slideshare.net/janehart/social-collaborative-learning-in-the-workplace.