Social Media IS the next learning platform…

So this is most certainly a debatable topic, but would a good blog post be without a provocative headline? However, if we were all really honest with ourselves, we would have to acknowledge a few facts;

• Twitter is growing exponentially (source)
• 1,762,754,497 tweets to date (see the current number)
• Facebook continues triple-digit growth in groups (source)
• Nearly 150 active social networking sites (source)

These trends are not likely to change. Information is now flowing at a dizzying pace.  The ability for some to produce  and share small pieces of learning with the entire online community is occurring right now. These tools are available  free on the web.  I believe the greatest asset for organizations today will be how they harness this information for the greater good.

The difference between 1980 and 2010 is that technology is far more available for consumers than for organizations. The speed at which new technologies are being developed and deployed by small niche companies is more rapid than ever.  I can now create my own social network, in about 10 minutes. In decades past, this technology would have been far too expensive for everyday people to purchase, let alone understand.

As long as employees have access to the Internet, they will continue to use the tools they use every day, which are available for free.  The challenge is how to bring these technologies into the enterprise.  All of us in the learning and training space are watching, trying to determine if, how, and when these services will affect our organizations, and more important, how they will be used. We need to become keenly aware of the tools people are using in their daily lives, because these are the tools that our society is using to learn and share knowledge.

So, are the days of a structured, rigid, learning environment coming to an end? Is it possible that a fluid, flexible, and rapid method for sharing information could challenge its structured and process-driven ancestor and ultimately change the way we learn? Time will tell. As our CEO, Jim Haudan, once said, “Dialogue is the oxygen of change.”

Let’s all breathe.