So I was thinking about the perception that these photos give viewers.  I’ll admit I had been quite skeptical that these photos were taken of actual places or people until I realized how they were taken.

In business, employees are often skeptical of strategies and initiatives until the “how” is revealed to them. Reality looks skewed or misguided. But when you take the time to provide a clear picture of how you’ve come to where you are, you can bring things into better focus.

What happens when these images are captured in sequence and strung together? Magic.

His intentional adjustment of the term “internet” is based on the fact that with all of these MMOG’s, individuals are now immersing themselves in the web. The reflection his research has afforded him, that we are the beneficiaries of, gives us a glimpse of how the younger generation (GenY, etc.) views their interactions online. They don’t observe, they don’t just interact. They immerse.

For individuals like me who are at the tail end of the GenX era, I’m certainly comfortable with technology, I blog, I tweet, I even stream video from my mobile phone. However, I wouldn’t necessarily say I “immerse” myself online. As organizations begin to hire these “kids” who connect, learn and play games online, there is clearly a skill set that enables GenY’ers to succeed in these environments. Could these virtual skills be advantageous in our organizations?

How about you? Do you immerse?

On a recent visit to the TED site, I listened to a talk by Dave Eggers. As a writer, he found that he had a lot of down time. He also found that teachers lacked the time to give individual attention to all of the students who needed additional help. He combined these findings and opened a tutoring workshop in a store that sold pirate supplies (for context, watch his inspiring TED talk here).

I’m writing this entry because I found a video case study on the true power of this idea on his website http://www.onceuponaschool.org. Those who were part of the effort found that, although mentors/tutors gave students honest and encouraging feedback, those who needed help had to overcome their own challenges in communicating their ideas as well.

What if we could take this idea into the workplace and create centers of competency within our organizations that gave their time and talent to educate others in the business who needed it? What if we didn’t leave all the work up to the trainers? What if everyone in our organizations felt comfortable communicating their thoughts and ideas with each other?

The concept of mentoring is so simple, but it can get forgotten so quickly.

There is immense power in our organizations. That power is in the people who come into work, do their jobs, and go home. Let’s educate them. Engage them. Involve them.

Watch this video and get inspired.

I was doing some research the other day and stumbled upon a site called “Learnomatic“. Their tagline reads “learning worth sharing”. Sharing…brilliant! For those of us in the learning and training field how often do we think about our learners sharing their knowledge with others? Of course we want those we are instructing to “get it”. But are we also equipping them with the opportunity to share that information?

I think the folks at Learnomatic have struck a cord that we should be considering. Learning is not just about absorbing, but it’s also about giving.

Consider what your learners will ultimately do with the information they’ve received.  Is it worth sharing? What if your learners couldn’t resist sharing the valuable content with as many people as they could? I believe we’d all be better off as  a  result.

We’d certainly be a little smarter.

The live feeds gave quick, short blurbs introducing the new features of the iPhone – Compass, Voice Control, Video Editing, Copy/Paste. They didn’t provide a whole lot of detail on the new features, but instead just informed the audience about what those new features were. As I was discussing this and trying to visualize these features with some of my coworkers, we all found ourselves disappointed. With all the rumors that were circling around the iPhone, we were expecting something much bigger and better! A compass – nothing special. Voice control – come on… all phones have voice control. Video editing and copy/paste – we all knew about that one. Apple just didn’t “wow” us.

Later that night, I watched the “Guided Tour” video for the new iPhone on Apple’s website (http://www.apple.com/iphone/guidedtour). And boy – let me tell you – I was blown away by the new features! Everything that was mentioned in the live feed seemed so much better! They weren’t just talking about an ordinary Voice Control feature – this thing goes way beyond that. And the same goes with all the other features.

During the live feed updates, I was forming my own opinion on exactly what these new features were. I was being told about all the great new features of the iPhone, but I had my own mental picture of what these new features were like, and I didn’t really see how they would benefit me. There was a substantial misconception between what I was hearing and processing compared to what the people at the keynote were visually experiencing. When I watched the “Guided Tour” video, I was able to view, first-hand, the new features of the iPhone. The demonstrations in the video were engaging and intriguing, and allowed me to see the benefits of these new features.

This just proves the power of visuals. All too often, we get lost in what people are trying to explain to us. We try to imagine what we are being told, and we find ourselves forming our own opinions and thoughts – which can result in a number of misconceptions. Apply this to your organization’s strategy. Have your employees been shown visually what the organization’s strategy is? Have they visually been able to experience the strategy in an engaging manner? Or have they simply heard or read about the strategy and left to form their own conception – likely a misconception – of what the strategy is and how it applies to them? At Root Learning, we take pride in bringing your strategies to life through the use of powerful visuals and metaphors, using various forms of media to alleviate those oh-so-common misconceptions.

His talk was all about what motivates us. His central thesis is that the evolution of motivation is biological > extrinsic (reward/punishment) > intrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is when “the performance of a task is it’s own reward”. Or as our CEO Jim Haudan would say, “people like to solve their own puzzles”.

Pink cites scientific studies that support the claim that extrinsic motivation crushes creative problem solving. The nature of the work that we do, which is increasingly non-routine, artistic, empathic big-picture work, requires that we be intrinsically motivated to achieve results.

He lists the elements of intrinsic motivation as autonomy, mastery, purpose. Something that particularly resonated with me are the elements of autonomy. His definition of autonomy is when you have control over your task, technique, time, and team. He cites Charles and Ray Eames as one example of an autonomous creative team. The success and profundity of their work lies within their ability to achieve complete creative excellence through an environment of autonomy, mastery of skills and the guiding light of purpose.

We first talked about the history of learning management — why we put systems in place to monitor and check learning throughout our organizations.  Then we transitioned to a conversation about Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 (not withstanding the new conversations regarding Web 3.0).  During that time I mentioned that the major difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 were a few of the words that headline this post.

Consumption:

When “the internets” first placed content into our crude browser windows, we were amazed. It was like when we were children pressing our noses against the toy store window, dreaming about the possibility of interacting with what felt so far away. We observed and consumed what we saw. But that’s where it stopped.

Interaction:

Then a whole new world opened up! People began to play with this new technology in ways that amazed us. Building sites that were “interactive.” You could type on them, and you could drag objects around the screen. We were interacting with Internet. Awesome.

Contribution:

But then the paradigm shifted. Programmers developed solutions that allowed the common, everyday Joe to write blogs, build communities, and share information with the world.  There are still people who don’t understand that Internet is no longer a passive communication device.  It is a new world of possibilities.

“The future ain’t what it used to be.” — Yogi Berra

This quote has often been used when we’re talking about innovation and the future. But I like to think about the future’s relevance to the past. Since the beginning of time, we’ve always found new ways to communicate. We’ve grunted at each other, we’ve carved images into stones, we’ve inked on parchment, we’ve pressed on keys. Whether it’s Web 2.0, 3.0 or 9.0, these new tools will simply be innovative ways to share information, tell stories, and learn from one another.

Now that I’ve contributed, why don’t you? Be a part of the “contribution” superhighway!

Please stop by our booth #1142, and say hello!

Swing by and say hello to some other Rootsters that will be representing Compass at booth #2240!

• 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.

My family purchased our first computer when I was around 10 years old. The black and white screen was probably about 6” wide and the computer hard drive held only a few megabytes of data. I remember using the computer for only two things: drawing in a paint program and playing a silly balloon game.

Let’s compare that computer with the systems available today. Computers have exponentially more memory and storage capacity and much larger screens – just imagine the impact computers have on today’s youth! Two year old children are using computers to play fun, interactive learning games that teach the alphabet and numbers. First graders learn how to read and complete math problems with engaging software programs. Fifth graders are firing up their web browsers and search engines, completing their research online using resources available on the Internet. Children are growing up on computers and learning on computers from day one, as a normal part of their education. This is something that neither I nor any other adult has had the opportunity to experience. Our parents taught us the numbers and alphabet with magnetic letters on the fridge, or with fun, colorful picture books. We grew up learning how to read with Mom or Dad sitting next to us, helping us sound out words in a book.

So I wonder…as we look into the future, how will the learning style of today’s youth differ from our own?

Will these new learners expect a more engaging, interactive learning experience at school?

Studies have shown that youngsters are spending more time on the computer and gaming than watching TV. Software games and the Internet are interactive experiences for kids, capturing their attention for hours. How will this affect their learning style?

Will they experience better learning results using computers, as opposed to traditional teaching materials (e.g., books, printed worksheets)?

Studies have proven that most people read text 25% slower on a computer when compared to the speed of reading text on paper. This is because as children, we trained our brains to read on paper, where our eyes are oriented to a 45-degree angle. On the computer screen our eyes are oriented at a 90-degree angle, which makes it more difficult to read. If today’s youth are learning to read on a computer, will those statistics change?

Will they enter grade school expecting technology-based learning?

If today’s youth are learning on a computer from an early age, how will they react to lecture-style learning?

Will they expect faster or even instantaneous feedback and results?

I think many will admit, myself included, that because of technology and its capabilities, we often expect instant feedback. Will today’s youth have that expectation as well? When youngsters play a game on a computer, they view the results from the game at the end. If they search for the definition of a word on Google, they get instant results; there is no need for them to pull out a massive dictionary and sift through hundreds of pages to find what they want. How will this affect teachers as they evaluate and score tests, and provide grades and feedback? Also, consider the struggles possible for the future managers of these kids – will these future workers be programmed to NEED frequent performance evaluations to know how they are doing?

Below is a YouTube video I came across that relates well to this subject. It sure is eye-opening!

It would be great to hear your thoughts about the future of learning. Please feel free to let us know what you think about the facts presented in the video or share your own thoughts about how technology will alter learning styles.