Monday, June 19, 2006

Informal Networked Learning; IT or Training responsibility?

I haven't blogged in a few days.  I've been re-evaluating my need to blog.  I love reading Harold Jarche, Jay Cross, Mark Oehlert, and so many others in the learning blogosphere.  I sometimes wonder if I'm actually adding to the conversation, or simply screaming, "yea! What he said!".  And then I begin to wonder if I've gone in a different direction from my original intent for this blog:  Corporate learning, not simply learning.  The path I've taken over the last 10 years is much like Harold's ("Yea, what he said!")...
"My initial experiences in the learning field were from the point of view of methods of instruction (how to get subject matter across to captive students) and later, the systems approach to training (from which flows instructional systems design or ISD). Later I became immersed in human performance technology, and found it a good method to analyse certain aspects of organisational performance. HPT ensures that training, which is costly, isn’t prescribed unless it addresses a verifiable lack of skills and/or knowledge. Even HPT itself seems to be too constrained for me now."
And my thoughts for the future are right in line with Jay's ("Yea, what he said")...

"Exactly! We've got to get away from courses and into ecologies. It's the platform, not the program. It's pull, not push. It's more important to establish a healthy, productive learning environment than to keep running in the hamster-cage of knocking out one course after another. I call these learning environments learnscapes because I've yet to hit on a better term for the design, play, and nurturing involved in pulling this off. You can no more "control" learners than you can command plants to grow."

I'm tired of running in the corporate hampster cage.  I see the web as it is evolving before our eyes, and I think, "THAT'S what I want for my kids, and THAT is changing everything in the world of work".   There are some incredible opportunities on the horizon.  But I see many in Corporate training either just not interested, or too averse to change and ignoring it.
I see IT groups having the technical skills, resources, and charter to implement the tools supporting informal learning and I wonder how long it will be before training managers realize that their current training budget is impacting <20% of the learning and performance improvements within their organizations, while IT is getting all of the kudos for supporting improved communication, and job performance impacting the remaining 80%.  And I suspect those numbers will only get worse as corporate IT departments embrace Enterprise2.0.  It won't be long before the only "courses" being taken are the ones mandated by a higher authority.  Oh, wait...that's how we get them to do it now.

2 comments:

Tony Karrer said...

Brent, I'd suggest to anyone that blogging is an incredible way to keep yourself learning and thinking. Even "Yeah, what he said" is worth doing because it forces you to process and distill what other people are saying.

And, beyond that, yes, you do add to the conversation. I've certainly received valu from posts you've done relative to my posts. Even if it just says "yeah".

Harold Jarche said...

I think that your view, working within a corporation, is valuable, especially to those of us on the outside.