The Reinvention Economy

The skills you need today, are not the skills you need tomorrow.

We are entering an unprecedented era of accelerating change, and learning what to learn and when is the key to staying relevant. Since publishing my thoughts on Linkedin on and the Totara Learning blog …I thought I would re-post here for posterity. I look forward to your comments.

I had the pleasure of meeting Ray Kurzweil back in 2012 when he spoke at the Learning Technologies Conference in London. He’s described as an author, entrepreneur, futurist and inventor — I remember him from his Kurzweil digital piano days where he applied AI techniques to produce real-sounding synthesised instruments, but he has since become a key influencer in our wider understanding of technology and its impact on our society. He made a key observation that due to the accelerating and catalysing effect of technology we will experience the equivalent of 2,000 years of change in the next 100 years. The force of this change is becoming increasingly visible as industry sectors, economies and political systems are being reshaped, seemingly in real time before our eyes.

We are in a continuous cycle of reinvention — we have entered the reinvention economy.

This has a huge impact on organisations and the workplace environment. Richard Foster, a lecturer at the Yale School of Management, found that the average lifespan of an S&P company dropped from 67 years in the 1920s to 15 years today. It was not that long ago that Kodak owned the photography market — it is no more. Nokia dominated the mobile phone market. It failed to adapt and innovate as Apple (and then Google with Android) entered the market and changed all our expectations of what a smartphone should look and feel like. This cycle is turning again as technology moves away from the touchscreen and more towards more natural and visual language conversation. Samsung is wobbling, the Nokia brand is re-entering the market — the only thing certain is the uncertainty. It comes as no surprise, then, that a massive 95% of learning professionals want to respond faster to today’s changing business conditions (Towards Maturity Benchmark Report 2016).

There is an increasing and persistent pressure to reinvent our products and services, our organisational structures, and ourselves at an unprecedented pace. And as that cycle shortens, the ability to learn and relearn becomes absolutely critical to survival and staying relevant, as is the means to rapidly transfer that learning into productive action. We are in a continuous cycle of reinvention — we have entered the reinvention economy.

The conditions that demand reinvention

With exponential change, you may not notice much at first. Technology has tinkered with the edges of traditional business models, societal design and human behaviour. But now those small changes are being replaced by fundamental shifts in the way the world operates. The effects of Google and Facebook on our ability to connect with information and people are well documented, but in many ways have only just got started. Newer-wave technology companies such as Uber and AirBnB reduce redundancy and inefficiency by allowing more of us to leverage existing assets (cars, accommodation). This is already leading to significant changes in employment patterns and challenging regulatory status quo. The next wave of AI-driven automation will only have deeper implications for how we define work and the economic frameworks needed to sustain our societies.

In the world of work, organisations are finding that technology is transforming the way they can organise themselves. Hierarchical structures are being replaced by interwoven networks where everyone reports and shares with everyone. People can occupy multiple job roles and work across silos. This is essential in order to operate at a competitive pace. This clearly has implications for employees who need to understand the numerous roles they are undertaking, and the necessary competences that they must maintain to be positively productive. Leadership and management need the means by which to nurture, build and redistribute high performing teams, bringing together complementary skillsets to meet specific goals, while remaining vigilant and responsive to changing circumstances.

When change is now business as usual, it is essential that flexibility and control is retained.

Not only that, the very definition of employment is changing. Many companies now are ‘porous’ by design. Their workforce is made up of armies of stakeholders that are not necessarily directly employed. This is challenging everything from the sustainability of government taxation revenues to workers’ rights and benefits. It also challenges how these stakeholders stay optimally productive. As the definition of an ‘employee’ continues to blur, the need for continuous and effective learning technologies only grows.

Staying relevant

While there are newsworthy trailblazers, the larger majority of organisations are in danger of being left behind. They need simpler ways to respond positively to market change, to reorient the skills of their employees and stakeholders (such as their reseller and freelance communities). To achieve this, they need tools and technologies that they can shape around their own needs. When change is now business as usual, it is essential that flexibility and control is retained. Unfortunately, when it comes to procuring enterprise technology platforms, many lack this fundamental ability to support rapid, cost-effective change in a sustainable manner. Indeed, many businesses find themselves locked in, contractually and functionally, to systems that are no longer fit for purpose, and are acting as a drain on their ability to respond positively to a changed marketplace. This seems particularly true of the talent and learning management providers, as clearly characterised by the very low satisfaction levels continually expressed — as few as 30% say they are happy with their learning platform.

Out with the old, in with the new

The traditional — let’s call it ‘old world’ — model no longer cuts it in this new world we live in. Too many organisations find themselves delivering out-of-date training in a style and pace that does not engage their learning community in any useful or productive way. In the worst examples, training intervention is seen more as an interruption to productive work. Reframing learning design so that it produces resources and activities that naturally support productive workflow is more likely to have a net positive benefit to the business. Offering true blended learning experiences that are personalised to the needs of the individual means fundamentally moving away from generic, one-size-fits-all ‘solutions’. These are more accurately described as ‘one-size-fits-none’, and rarely deliver tangible benefits in isolation.

This equally applies to the learning platform itself. Proprietary software — whether offered as Software as a Service or On Premise — are too often ‘one-size-fits-none’ solutions. The feature set is fixed and not easily extended or integrated with other existing systems once finally in place. It is not uncommon to hear of two-year implementations with eye-watering price tags, which are then repeated 3–5 years later once the equally inflexible long term contract expires. The new world demands fresh thinking every 1–2 years, so we can see that this procurement/implementation cycle is just not fit for purpose going forward.

To stay relevant demands the freedom to learn, the freedom to procure well-supported software that remains in the control of the business, not the vendor.

The alternative is to invest in technology that is fundamentally open in nature, both in software and contractual terms. Open software can be extended and integrated much more readily with other systems. Yes, this comes with implementation costs, but by avoiding licence costs and working with a much more flexible and supportive community, the overall cost of ownership becomes dramatically lower. In a world where you need to change direction more frequently, the investment in open source software platforms remains accumulative — you can cost effectively reintegrate, extend functionality (and benefit from others’ extensions too over time) and relocate your implementation completely in line with the needs of your business. Indeed, you, the business, is in control, not one single vendor. With a rich ecosystem of partners committed to supporting open software platforms, you can tap into alternative services and skills that align with the business as it changes.

Reinvention demands greater agility and nimbleness of organisations, their employees and stakeholders. The Towards Maturity Benchmark Report 2016 revealed that 54% of top learning organisations are successfully cultivating agility (encouraging conversation, facilitating connections, tailoring learning to individual needs) compared to just 20% of other organisations, showing that this should be a key priority for businesses looking to stay ahead.

To stay relevant demands the freedom to learn, the freedom to procure well-supported software that remains in the control of the business, not the vendor. Those organisations willing to embrace this wholeheartedly increase their chances of living longer than the current 15 year average.

Education needs to adapt – this time it’s personal

I'm back

Well it's been a while since I posted to this blog. I'm planning to get back into the habit of capturing what I think are important stories, technologies and trends that will impact how we learn and how we improve the design of learning experiences, both online, offline and in between. And by "in between" I refer to what is going to be a powerful merging of virtual and real environments. As always, this will be felt first in how we entertain ourselves - in the world of film and games primarily - but it has huge implications for education and training too. But more on that another time.

A focus on efficacy

The major change for me this year has been to dive into the exciting world of adaptive learning, working with CogBooks, a pioneer in the field. The potential for using algorithmic machine learning to deliver a personalised learning experience for each individual is finally being realised. I've long been interested in how technology can impact efficacy and it has often fallen short. But with adaptive technology we can finally deliver what I clumsily call (for now) a Continuously Improving Learning System. Students can receive immediate, pertinent guidance tailored to their needs, together with targeted feedback from teachers and tutors based on the students' learning behaviour. Equally, educators can review course content based on learners actual patterns of use and uncover areas for improvement and extension that will better support overall outcomes for students going forward.

I've written a separate blog piece for Nesta on the topic which is reproduced below and on the CogBooks blog too, for good measure.

Most importantly, please do let me know what you think will be the impact of adaptive learning. There are many views on how best to harness this technology to best effect. So please do share them.

------------------------------------

Education needs to adapt – this time it’s personal

As technology continues to influence the pace of change across nearly all sectors and avenues of life it brings with it the challenge of how to stay productive. How can you ensure your learning and training keeps up with this level of change? Fortunately, we now know much more about the learning process and how best to support people to acquire knowledge and skills.

In recent years it’s become clear that optimising learning to meet individual personal needs, and freeing educators from the constraints they face, is vital.

At CogBooks, we work with education partners in both the US and UK to deliver adaptive learning that allows students to work at their own pace and to the depth they need. By gathering valuable feedback and insights on how learners engage with activities and content, we can ensure they receive timely and targeted support. This keeps them confident and motivated, which in turn reduces dropout rates and maximises achievement. Analytics on how a student has behaved or reacted can also help pinpoint ways teachers can improve their courses for future students.

The move to an evidence-based model, designed to deliver a personalised learning experience at scale, will transform how we educate and train. Yet, unlocking this transformation will require a deeper embrace of technology to fundamentally re-shape our education practices.

This is not wishful thinking. We are already seeing this rapid and disruptive innovation cycle in other sectors (for example retailing, health, entertainment, technology to name a few) and it is now coming to education.

And this goes beyond the current generation of MOOC online course, most of which have garnered a lot of attention in reaching large audiences, but are just at the very beginning of identifying how to successfully sustain engagement and deliver a genuinely personalised learning experience. We need an inclusive approach that uses technology to catalyse the efforts of both faculty and learners together to bring about a real step change in outcomes.

We are already seeing movement towards this deeper goal. In the US, CogBooks is working in collaboration with Arizona State University and NBC Learn, funded by the Gates Foundation, as part of a $20 million initiative to develop Next Generation Courseware. Based on mastery learning principles and learning science the aim is to improve the postsecondary success of more than 1 million low-income students by 2018.

In the UK, the publication earlier this year of the Further Education Technology Action Group (FELTAG)report called for the inclusion of a 10% online component in every publicly-funded learning programme from 2015/16, with incentives to increase this to 50% by 2017/2018. This is an opportunity to apply technology that supports better learning outcomes first, moving beyond the simple replacement of existing offline learning activities.

Elsewhere we are already seeing the adoption of adaptive learning methods gathering pace. Educational publishers are revisiting their textbooks and associated learning products to move from a largely static, linear experience, to create stimulating adaptive versions that respond to students specific needs. For example, the awarding body and examination board, OCR, has taken the full curriculum of GCSE Computer Science and created an adaptive learning course. This enables students to work through course materials at their own pace and receive automated support when they need extra help. At the same time, teachers can track the exact progress and capabilities of each student and target the most appropriate support for their class.

Elsewhere, universities are redesigning their own course content to offer a more blended and flexible experience for students on their degree programmes. This is a real opportunity to offer new non-campus based learners access to alternative qualifications from a quality higher education institution. This can help bridge the gap in expectations between employers and education providers regarding graduate readiness for the workplace. Increasingly we are seeing a demand for education that focuses on skills that can be applied more readily and directly when moving into employment.

Looking forward, this is an exciting opportunity for educators at all levels to design new and innovative learning experiences that can meet the accelerating demands of the world around us.

Have chance, will learn

EdSurge reported this great story from Ethiopia that demonstrates further the power of the motivated learner:

HAVE CHANCE, WILL LEARN: Amazing preliminary results reported by One Laptop Per Child around a bold experiment happening in rural Ethiopia. Several months after dropping off solar-powered Motorola Xoom tablets, 20 first grade-age children have managed their way from finding the on/off switch to hacking the preventative software installed by OLPC. No instructions. No guidelines. No teachers. Just a single technician to retrieve data from the devices each week. "Within four minutes, one kid not only opened the box, found the on-off switch … powered it up. Within five days, they were using 47 apps per child, per day. Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs in the village, and within five months, they had hacked Android," reported OLPC’s founder, Nicholas Negroponte at the recent EmTech Conference. Results are hardly conclusive, but the development raises interesting questions around how and why we plan learning objectives (teacher control group anyone?). The story reminds us, too, of Sugata Mitra's experiment of giving village children in India access to a computer via a hole in the wall. For now we'll simply smile about the new learning opportunities enabled by technology.

I'm sure Negroponte will be referring to this again when he keynotes at Learning Technologies Conference, London in January 2013.

#SLCONF 2012–Social Learning in action

Last Thursday I attended the #SLCONF Social Learning Conference in London. It largely practiced what it preached – in that it proved to be a highly social discussion and effective forum for sharing ideas and experiences with an experienced group of professionals and practitioners.

Good use was made of alternative formats and seeding conversation between groups. I think the fact that this was a relatively small group of people (80 odd?) helped ensure that everyone had a voice and an opportunity to contribute.

You can find Martin Couzins review of the event here which covers the key presentations made by Nick Shackleton-Jones (BBC and BP experiences), Tim Drewitt (Eversheds) and Priya Banati and Clare Norman (Accenture). Also Jon Ingham’s audio review of the event.

Ben Betts facilitated a session on Mobile Learning which managed to yield a list of 96 Mobile Learning App Ideas. Not all unique by any stretch, many already covered by existing apps out there, but it demonstrated that there is a real appetite for mobile learning support. There was a subsequent discussion around the difficulties of developing for mobile given the fragmented platforms and software environments, as well as the typical corporate security challenges currently raised by most IT departments. This led to the question of tools that can simplify this process, and Epic’s GoMo Learning platform struck a particular chord, given it’s ability to enable non-technical people to build learning apps – both web and native apps – to all major platforms (Apple iOS, Android, Blackberry) and form factors (smartphone, tablet, whatever next comes along).

Twitter adds value

I was an active user of Twitter to capture key points and contribute my own ideas as they arose from the discussions which I will summarise here. In conferences where this type of immediate social sharing and reflection is welcomed and integrated within the format, then it can add value for all participants and the wider virtual audience. By breaking down the traditional “lecture” format of most conferences, a much more interactive experience is provided for the those present, while offering virtual observers the opportunity to contribute further references and comment that can be fed back into the live event. Indeed, I benefitted immediately as a late train meant I physically missed the first 15 minutes but could contribute straight away with those tweeting and could enter the debate in sync with the room.

So what were my main contributions? Italics indicate some additional explanatory notes:

@shackletonjones talking about #sociallearning and his struggle with understanding what really underpins effective #learning

Emotion is key element #learning RT @bbetts: @shackletonjones I'm a fan of the affective context, check it out http://www.aconventional.com #slconf (Nick is right to focus on the emotional connection to lasting learning impact and memory formation)

70:20:10 model misused and misunderstood. Agree with this.

#informal #learning driven by culture. However technology beginning to influence culture. (Just see the effect of social media on the Arab Spring, marketing/advertising, entertainment and increasingly as the primary medium of social interaction especially amongst young demographics).

@shackletonjones another video you can't live without!youtube.com/watch?v=0d3oc2… (How to peel Garlic in less than 10 seconds) Nick shared a video related to breakfast cereal.

50%+ millennials are contributors not just passive consumers - key difference to productivity generated by #some #sociallearning (what this  means is that we are on the cusp of a big surge in creative productivity that if harnessed appropriately will lead to a huge acceleration in innovation itself but more importantly its real world application and sharing of what works and what doesn’t).

Focus on content generation strategy - need to foster contributors. Go to where the activity already is. Integrate. Seed & excite. (a pithy shorthand for acknowledging the need for some quality content and contribution that will stimulate a wider audience to participate in an authentic and sustained manner).

BP theHub being demo'd - seeded with 800 video clips from across the organisation globally. Works on iPad as well. Good reach. (good example of the Seed & Excite principle).

Unisys found that 3 min leadership videos generated more behaviour change than a 5 day exec training programme. Properly evaluated. (Will now follow this up with Nick for the full case study).

Learning styles brought up and @shackletonjones rightly doesn't believe in it. (that old chestnut came up again…so I promptly clarified…)

Learning PREFERENCES exist but the way we learn most effectively is broadly the same for everyone. The rest is about individual habits, skills, motivation (emotional engagement). (asked the wider HR community for comment)

Thx for retweet see my blog for more http://larsislearning.blogspot.com RT @CaribThompson: #slconf Lars mantra @larshyland "Less learning more often" (A long standing truism which is only getting more and more relevant)

For those interested I mentioned Lynda Gratton book The Shift - how the world of work is changing. (This book demonstrates the forces in the world that are changing the way in which we work, collaborate, communicate – namely the shift to the East, the disintermediation and connectivity of technology which circumvents traditional hierarchical models.)

@mikecollins WARNING social netWORK AHEAD http://bit.ly/zneyoL > quite apt this is published today given the great stuff coming out of #slconf (good contribution from Mike Collins at RBS Insurance injected into the discussion even though he wasn’t physically there.)

Discussed permission and context key to successful mobile learning support - Just in Time, context sensitive and valued content. #mlearning seen as supplementary to other learning support. (There is always a need for a variety of methods delivering interaction over an extended period of time – another of my mantras – Campaign not Course  comes to mind. People liked this at the event.)

Content, Connection, Collaboration, Community - Accenture model for building sharing culture #some #sociallearning (as Ben Betts pointed out “a lot of Cs”)

Accenture case study and book here #slconf

 

In Summary

A good conference which had the courage to allow a less structured conversation to emerge, collectively generating a lot of practical value amongst the participants.

If you also attended, I’d welcome your comments on this post.

Kraken awakes...slowly

iBook Author 3D version?

Well I awake from a blogging slumber in time for what should be one of the most vibrant Learning Technologies Conference and Exhibitions. The world appears also to have finally awoken fully to the benefits technology can bring to learning and training. Particularly when you take a more fundamental step in redesigning the whole experience so that the technology is at the heart of your solution not just an add on.

The past year has been a busy affair. A large part of it was leading the consultancy, design and delivery of Business Link's My New Business service on behalf of Epic. This provides substantial online learning support for those entering self employment and starting up their own business ventures, a growing band of people as the world economy continues its shift into a new era. You see the free service here - I'd welcome all feedback. You can also read a good article summarising the project by Alex Reeve, who led the Business Link e-learning content team.

Also 2011 saw some good progress on Retenda, an innovative learning reinforcement platform I've developed. More on that in the future.

In terms of knowledge sharing, the year saw me focus more on Twitter as a social Learning tool. It's a great way to quickly assimilate and share useful links to all sorts of digital resources. It's proved a great tool for me and I hope my followers. But I'm ready again for a longer form stint of article writing now. A step at a time though - from micro-blogging, to midi-blogging perhaps. Then see where we get to.

See you at Learning Technologies and Learning Without Frontiers. If you can't make it join in on Twitter using this hashtag - #ltuk12  and #lwf12.

Augmenting reality - technology is going invisible

Here's my article, just published on Trainingzone as the headline story, exploring how augmented reality and mobile technology promise to radically improve learning effectiveness. Would value your comments and feedback.
--------------

The pace of technological innovation continues to surprise. This week reports suggest that, in theory at least, it will be possible to create new materials that divert light around themselves to render objects invisible. The magical cloaks of Harry Potter (also in the news this week), no longer seem so far-fetched.

The technology of today, however, is also striving for invisibility. It's getting smaller, more integrated and embedded into the world around us. As a result the way in which we interact with it is changing in fundamental ways. This Christmas, one of those must-have gifts is Kinect, the add-on for Microsoft's X-Box game console. Kinect drops the need for a physical controller meaning the user can play a game simply by waving their arms, hands, legs or any other body part for that matter. The reported levels of engagement this generates are profound as the suspension of disbelief, so core to game-play, is deeper and more sustained.

This gesture-based control is all around us, on our smartphones, tablets, touchscreen laptops, TVs and as things develop, on any appliance or surface that needs a communications interface of some sort. But that's not all, technology is becoming wearable in the form of heads-up display glasses that let you watch movies on what feels like a virtual 52" TV screen, cameras that record everything you say and do, storing it in your 'life-cache' or streaming it straight to Facebook for all to enjoy. All this breaks down the barriers between real and virtual worlds.

In fact we can 'augment reality' with applications on our phones that can automatically annotate the world around you (as seem through your camera lens) with useful, contextualised information that helps make better sense of your surroundings and so inform the choices you make. While many of these applications (Layar and Google Goggles are two such examples) are entertainment-oriented and aimed at promoting social sharing or marketing, the additional potential for learning and performance support cannot be ignored. For example, a neat barcoding technology called QR codes, can be used to tag a physical space and with the simple process of pointing your camera phone at the code can automatically call up information stored online that is relevant to that physical place. This is a great way to help new staff navigate around their new workplace, to provide specific health and safety advice for instance or explain how shared equipment works (removing paper jams from the printer perhaps?). Direct links to short 'show me' videos or photos can quickly answer problems or questions and save time for all concerned.

 

As technology becomes transparent – invisible even – we can seamlessly integrate it into our everyday actions, providing valid access to supporting information and guidance. For example, BMW created an intriguing proof of concept video demonstrating how a car mechanic can use heads-up display glasses to guide them through maintenance procedures on a car. The benefits are tremendous as it means a mechanic can service a wider variety of models and handle what are increasingly complex engine systems. It reduces the pressure for "just-in-case" training and emphasises "just-in-time" support. Much of this is not conceptually new. For example I was involved in a similar project in 1992 for Iveco to design a very similar performance support system for truck mechanics which used video to show how to dismantle, fix and reassemble engine systems. What is different is that the technology now is faster, connected, cost-effective, mobile, even wearable.

 

The smartphones and games consoles of today set new precedents for those of us working within learning and development. We can start to break out of the relatively static classroom and design learning support that is location-aware, tapping into shared expertise at the time it has most context and give immediate support on actions taken. This immersive experience is more memorable, actionable and potentially removes the issue of training transfer back into the workplace – there is no need to transfer as you are essentially already there.

 

The design implications are significant and challenge the more structured approach to instruction. Indeed game design offers a powerful motivational model that encourages repeated practice and mastery. Levelling up and achievement systems successfully compel us to try and better ourselves each time. Some of these game environments are becoming incredibly rich and sophisticated, and are hugely effective learning environments, accurately simulating specific real world scenarios.

It is no coincidence that the military, medical and aviation fields are leading in this area given the life and death nature of their respective fields. But as the technology becomes more accessible, this is spilling into other areas such as construction, health and safety, customer service, performance management, contract negotiation and other real-world, complex interactions that many more of us engage in. These simulations don't necessarily have to involve high end 3D graphics and complex artificial intelligence. By using technology to augment the real world around us, we can even more realistically recreate specific situations to test and train responses, working together with the support of other peers and experts, even if they are not physically present alongside us.

 

This is not to say this is entirely for the better. There is always a need for balance and blend. But being able to economically extend our support beyond the natural constraints of the scheduled training event in a classroom can deliver far more effective learning experiences and deliver significant performance improvements to the individual and organisation as a whole.

No pain, more gain? Research supports "less learning more often"

Many years back, I coined a phrase that neatly summarised my view on how to change current training design and delivery practice so that it can dramatically improve effective learning and performance. My phrase?

"Less learning more often" 

(click to read the full article)

Is it happening? Well, it's beginning to it seems. We are clearly recognising that the concentrated, content-heavy course delivery model often fails to transfer effectively to competent performance in the workplace. A new approach that favours little and often, campaign over course, interwoven activities is, counter to many people's current beliefs, far more effective. Not only that, new research at Northwestern University suggests this new way of training could reduce by at least half the effort previously thought necessary to make learning gains.

The research also may be the first behavioral demonstration of meta-plasticity, the idea that experiences that on their own do not generate learning can influence how effective later experiences are at generating learning.

"Prior to our work much of the research into perceptual learning could be summed up as 'no pain, no gain,'" says Beverly Wright, first author of a study in the Sept. 22 Journal of Neuroscience and communication sciences and disorders professor at Northwestern. "Our work suggests that you can have the same gain in learning with substantially less pain."

The Northwestern researchers found that robust learning occurred when they combined periods of practice that alone were too brief to cause learning with periods of mere exposure to perceptual stimuli. "To our surprise, we found that two 'wrongs' actually can make a right when it comes to perceptual learning," says Wright. What's more, they found that the combination led to perceptual learning gains that were equal to the learning gains made by participants who performed twice as much continuous task training (training which by nature of its repetition and length often is onerous).

The findings hold potential for members of the general population with an interest in enhancing perceptual abilities -- for musicians seeking to sharpen their sensitivity to sound, people studying a second language or physicians learning to tell the difference between regular and irregular heartbeats.

This is great news for my me and my son as it means our intuitive, supposedly "lazy" approach to guitar practice, appears to be pretty effective!

 In my own article I referred to some earlier research which supports this further:

Back in 2001, the American Psychological Association published (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 2001, Vol. 27, No. 4) some interesting research. It concluded that practicing different skills in concentrated blocks is not the most efficient way to learn. While focusing on a particular skill leads to a short term boost in performance during the period of training, this leads people to over-estimate how well they learned the skill they practiced and results in poorer long term learning. This has the potential to fool trainers and trainees into believing that the apparent progress made during the training will be sustained in future performance back in the job. In fact, for long-term retention, practicing skills that are mixed with other tasks (contextual-interference practice as the researchers call it) results in better learning.

This has far reaching implications for most training design. It clearly points away from focused training on single skills and concentrated repetitive practice and suggests we design learning experiences that are deliberately interwoven among other tasks, requiring people to actively recall and then practice the new skill over longer time intervals.

As we acquire a better understanding of these learning processes perhaps the wider L & D world will be able to bite the bullet and accept that a more fundamental change in approach is needed. And hey, it looks like learning these new ways may be less effort than you first thought.

The catalyst to accelerated learning and performance

Here's my article just published on Trainingzone, recorded here for your comment.
-----
Lars Hyland explores how social tools can be harnessed to deliver a more engaging and effective learning experience.

• The experiential divide between using online technology externally and internally within organisations
• Using the crowd to accelerate learning and innovation
• Three ways to begin nurturing self-learning, self-motivated communities

It seems not a second goes by without some form of social media clamouring for our limited attention, whether it is on our desktop or smartphone. The speed at which we have access to the latest news and information is now literally instant (I assume most of you will have by now experienced the spooky nature of Google Instant search, if not give it a try). The irony is that while this may be true for us as internet consumers, in a workplace context the pace and access to available knowledge and tools is often much slower, hidden behind confusing interfaces and bureaucratic barriers. As a result it can lose much of its value when it comes to that crucial moment of application. 

The experiential divide

The learning management system (LMS) can often fall into this trap, struggling to be perceived by its intended audience as valued learning gateway, instead relegating itself to a distributor of tracked learning events, typically compliance related. Clearly this still plays an important role but perhaps, like plumbing, the LMS should be invisible and increasingly vendors do allow more distributed access to the valuable content it holds. However too often users are forced to engage with systems and content that just doesn’t sustain the required motivation to learn and apply as intended.

This experiential divide is beginning to create real tensions, as employees look for and find ways to circumvent sanctioned communication channels. Many of these are social tools (such as Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin) and the very fact that these are being proactively searched out and used suggests that organisations are missing out on huge productivity benefits.

Crowd Accelerated Learning

A worldwide exemplar of the catalytic effect of social learning is TED (www.ted.com). TED has grown from a fairly exclusive gathering of thinkers, artists and experts sharing their latest thinking in 18-20 minute talks. Under the stewardship of Chris Anderson, TED opened up access to these using online video which has led to vast, self-fuelled growth in participation through an extended network of TEDx events held around the world. This experience has led Anderson to notice a definite acceleration effect in the learning process for those involved – he calls it Crowd Accelerated Learning or Crowd Accelerated Innovation. As more and more people around the world create videos sharing their expertise/skills/latest thinking which in turn is inspiring others to be better. As a result, he reflects on the wider implications this has for education and training:

“We’ve actually got to bring back real creativity and find a way of nurturing that in the education process. In the age of Google the notion of having to cram all these little brains with facts is bonkers. What’s needed is to build skills like how do you stimulate people to ask the right questions? How do you stimulate people to have a meaningful conversation? To think critically? What are the lenses you give people to think about the world?”

These are big questions, and are just as valid to consider within organisations, teams and across your own professional network, as it is on a societal level. Consequently, as learning professionals we need to be mindful of what behaviours social media can catalyse within our own domains of influence, and determine what these mean for how we design learning experiences going forward. A more specific example is Jove (www.jove.com) an online Journal of Visualised Experiments aimed at the scientific community. It uses videos to show in detail the method and results of experiments. This sharing is rapidly accelerating innovation as there is less duplication of effort and the community builds on each others efforts in a healthily collaborative, yet positively competitive basis.

So how can we foster similar virtuous circles within our own communities? Well it would be misleading to say it is easy, especially when working within a corporate culture that may have deep-seated aversions to sharing its knowledge and capabilities in a more open fashion. But here are three suggestions on how and where to begin nurturing self-learning, self-motivated communities.

1)      Start with the new joiner experience

New employees can be catalysts for wider culture change across your organisation. Delivering a social learning experience as a backbone to your onboarding experience can dramatically reduce the time to competence, reinforce best practice behaviours (sidestepping accepted common practice), while allowing new staff to much more rapidly build their professional networks across the organisation. One US insurance company redesigned the onboarding experience for their underwriters which included active participation within an online community across an eight month period, including weekly assignments, online coaching and shared experience roundtables. This resulted in a drop in attrition levels from 50% to 10% and crucially, each successful participant was underwriting $40 million of business, which previously would have taken nine years of experience to reach. That has the capacity to be truly transformational in terms of business performance.

2) Think “campaign” not “course” in all your designs

When designing a training experience break it down into a more extended campaign of activities that are aligned with opportunities to practice and share the results with a network of peers, mentors and experts, transferring learning into active performance. Putting a social thread throughout the programme can help identify those who need additional encouragement and support and enable those who can move faster to build their expertise and experience at their own pace.

3) Bring staff and customers together in a shared learning experience

Social learning can be used to cut across silos and bring fresh thinking to communities. The most radical approach is to open up to the customer and involve them in the learning process of improving your products and services. Providing a forum for listening, contributing, explaining and reaching a new level of shared understanding reinforces both customer loyalty and staff engagement. Starbucks has had tremendous success with its My Starbucks Idea (http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/) site where customers can contribute ideas for improvement and see them being seriously evaluated and implemented. This concept can be taken inside the organisation too. We all have internal customers and using similar tools to draw out what really makes a difference in real and perceived levels of service focuses limited time and resources on what matters most. This could transform your standing within the organisation.

Opening up

So as Chris Anderson of TED says, it is time to “invite the crowd, let in the light and dial up the desire”. In other words, leverage social tools and techniques to open up access to knowledge and expertise, remove unnecessary barriers and nurture a community that sees the powerful value of creating and sharing. A more fitting definition of accelerated learning, don’t you think? 

Memes, genes and by Jove, the future of learning

Dutch biologist Gerard Jagers op Akkerhuis from Radboud University Nijmegen predicts that the next the next step in evolution will lead to a life form in which the transfer of the blueprint by means of genes is replaced with the transfer of knowledge and collective experience by so-called ‘memes’.

In Jagers’ view:

Memes are codes that determine the structure of the brain. In turn, the structure of the brain determines someone’s knowledge. In this way, memes are carriers of brain structure and the corresponding knowledge, just like genes are carriers of protein recipes and the corresponding cell physiology.

The next life form will not necessarily develop by means of biological evolution: as far as Jagers is concerned, a machine that shows intelligent behaviour based on a neural network fulfils the definition of life. If this system can then also pass on its memory to the next generation then this involves a new step in evolution.

Consider this alongside some of the recent genetic research that is uncovering the influences on our ability as organic beings to learn more effectively. For instance, this recent report on the RGS14 gene. Apparently, switching off this single gene in mice unlocks a part of their brain that is otherwise inactive, boosting learning and memory.

Other research reports on how increasing the production of this same gene can dramatically improve visual memory. In experiments, mice could remember objects they had seen for up to two months - ordinarily the same mice would only be able to remember these objects for about an hour. Clearly, it remains to be seen if the same effects are achieved in humans, but the indications are positive.


By Jove - what are the implications?

The implications of both these developments suggest we are entering a new era of dramatically accelerated learning that is likely to be boosted by both our interventions at the genetic and pharmaceutical level, as well as our application of technology. Where these converge nicely is in a site called Jove. As the site defines itself:

The Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) was established as a new tool in life science publication and communication, with participation of scientists from leading research institutions. JoVE takes advantage of video technology to capture and transmit the multiple facets and intricacies of life science research. Visualization greatly facilitates the understanding and efficient reproduction of both basic and complex experimental techniques, thereby addressing two of the biggest challenges faced by today’s life science research community: i) low transparency and poor reproducibility of biological experiments and ii) time and labor-intensive nature of learning new experimental techniques.

This is a fantastic resource which is dramatically accelerating knowledge transfer within the scientific community. Now imagine this happening in all other knowledge domains. TED is a major catalyst in its own right (I have an article coming out that discusses this next week) and I am sure others exist already in many other fields - let me know if you know of any so I can compile a list.


Thinking about Jagers proposition further, our methods for storing and sharing knowledge and skills online using ever more sophisticated cloud-based tools surely is leading us towards on a deeper dependence on technology to pass on our memories to future generations. The recent bleating about how technology threatens our children minds (Greenfield again) misses the point - the horse has bolted and frankly is evolving rapidly into a far faster animal that we cannot yet recognise.

12 years of your life for 4 years of knowledge - a good deal?

Michael Feldstein has written a thought-provoking post on Xplana.com which "provides direct-to-student productivity tools that enhance the student learning experience". Xplana is an attempt to support individuals in their learning, which is a broad trend that will be highly disruptive to current educational models, certainly in Higher Education. The economic climate and availability of access to internet resources (while still not universal) sits in stark contrast with the student experience on offer in most educational institutions (and even corporate training for that matter).

Charles Jennings commented questioning the content-centric view of learning rather than an experience-centric view.

I suspect we need to redefine what “content” is. Certainly, the emphasis on complex, pre-packaged content (textbooks, e-learning tutorials etc) must shift to a more fluid, flow based model of content. In many respects, this is what informal, social learning embodies – the short comment, prompted reflection, trying things out, taking action – all intertwined with your daily life experience. Tools that can help nudge, structure, catalyse that experience will come to the forefront as we genuinely take more individual responsibility for our learning – as we won’t be able to rely on traditional institutions to provide the right support in the immediate future. Here in the UK, it’s reported that we will have 200,000 students not getting access to University education despite appearing to have the right grades and while the integrity of that process is an another debate, it looks like a growing contingent of students will avoid fees and the relatively glacial pace of learning on offer within the traditional route, and will take a very different path that is much more under their control and personalised to their needs.

As David Mitchell, a comedian, in the UK reflected (I paraphrase), “The education system provides 4 years of knowledge taking a leisurely 12 years to give it to you.” To which I might add, by which time you’ve forgotten most of it and with the remainder you’re still left unclear how to apply it in a useful and productive way.

Things can only get better…in the end.

Education As We Know It Is Finished

So says Clayton M. Christensen and Michael B. Horn in Forbes magazine. As authors of Disrupting Class, a useful manifesto on how innovation will change "the way the world learns".

There is a growing head of steam around changes to education systems around the world, largely driven by budget cuts. My hope is that the opportunity is grabbed to more deeply re-think how we use learning technology to fundamentally shape the learning experiences that we give children, students and trainees alike. Unfortunately, there is plenty of evidence to show that existing institutions are simply trying to keep their operational models in tact and cut back rather than transform.

As Christensen and Horn put it:

Many schools have framed the looming cuts as a threat to how they operate--even though the teaching force has grown by 10% since 2000, while student enrollment increased by only 5%. But others are seeing the hardship of the moment as an opportunity to transform what they do with the implementation of online learning. Pressured by not only widespread cuts but also increasing demands for accountability, these innovative leaders recognize that online learning is a key reform for doing more with less.

On a similar vein, in the Independent today the UK Government is announcing a wider adoption of two year degrees. This is, I think, a good thing and long overdue. As the article points out:

Dr Terence Kealey, vice-chancellor of the private Buckingham University, the first in the UK to offer a standard two-year academic degree, said: "Many more people are suited to two-year courses than realise it. In future, instead of a gap year, people may work for two years and then take a two-year degree when they are a bit older. The advantage is that they are earning in year three. We should allow people to choose what they want. But two years is a very cost-effective option."

He cited new research by the University of Staffordshire suggesting that two-year students achieved an average grade increase of 0.75 of a point, turning a 2:2 degree into a 2:1. "The normal argument for a three-year degree is that you need a long, four-month summer break for deep thoughts. No other human activity requires that. On a two-year course at Buckingham, you still have 12 weeks holiday a year and you don't lose your train of thought," he said.

I have to agree. It's not appropriate for all areas of study - particularly where access to specialist equipment is needed - but huge savings can be made to both students and institutions by properly re-thinking how this learning experience is delivered in a more flexible, accessible and genuinely meaningful way.

Now, the reactions that accompany this news seem to think this is a bad idea. Baroness Greenfield is quoted as saying:

My own view is that university courses are about developing the ability to criticise, think and put things in a wider context and to apply what you are learning to other aspects of life. If you are focussed on ticking boxes, you may not be able to see the wood from the trees.

Someone who is not an academic might resent this but academic study is not a nine-to-five job. All the best ideas come from reading around a subject, reflecting and bouncing ideas about. If university education is about inspiring the next generation, then I believe two-year degrees will prove to be a false economy.

While she makes a good point about developing critical thinking, context and reflection skills, her conclusion that this can't happen in a shorter period than three years misses the point. Everyone has - through the internet - better access to knowledge and skills development than ever before. We have accelerated our abilities to make intellectual connections and so already have the tools in front of us to learn what we want faster and more effectively, both through digital content and access to peers/experts where-ever they are in the world. By fundamentally reformulating university education around this reality I actually believe you can achieve MORE in less time. And in an austere climate, students will also be pleased to hear it doesn't need to cost them anywhere near the level of debt they are being asked to take on.

The power is finally shifting towards the consumers of education. Students can - and I think will - vote with their mouse (or touchscreen gesture) in favour of learning experiences that genuinely support their work and learning aspirations. And they should be able to take as long or as little time as they like to achieve it without unnecessary millstones of debt clouding their future.

"Online trainings not so successful" - lively debate on LinkedIn

Apparently, the log might be the most effective learning technology ever invented. Read on to find out why...

There is a discussion in the group Learning, Education and Training Professionals Group on Linkedin which appears to have taken on a life of its own. With nearly 600 posts, it represents an interesting cross section of what can be quite polarised views on the success (or otherwise) of learning technology as compared to classroom methods.

Some interesting points have been made on the way, and I've also weighed in with some views along the way. Given that you have to be on Linkedin and a member of this particular group to see it, I thought I'd share my last response to a comment posted that said:

No matter how hi-tech we are or how good the CBT/Online Training is, nothing replaces the "real time" of a live instructor who interacts with the student. The relationships fostered in the classroom training session for exceeds the few dollars saved by not contracting with a live person. In the 90's, at Lifeway Resources, we spent millions on then hi-tech video training through satellite transmission. In the end, all we did was spend millions on no training. 

In the words of a great Greek teacher, "the best classroom is me seating on one side of the log with you siting on the other exchanging ideas".

Here's my response:

One-to-one tutoring and support can be highly effective. But it doesn't scale very easily. With new technologies that enable wider interactive access to expertise it is feasible for one good teacher to effectively reach a wider audience than "one". As soon as the numbers of students rise, a teacher/trainer has to juggle attention and that leads to compromise - mainly in depersonalising the learning experience.

As a result a great deal of classroom teaching/training is simply ineffective even with a good quality instructor. Unfortunately there is a shortage of good instructors, so many students' experience is reduced to just making it through the session either in a state of boredom, confusion or anxiety. That can't be right.

With the technology now at hand to many (but by no means all) of us in the world, we can reach more people with a consistent learning experience, even if it lacks some level of personalisation. That too though is changing. A well designed CBT/e-learning experience can be highly engaging, impactful and result in behavioural change, just like a well designed face to face lesson. The key is the quality of the design, not the technology or medium used.

So, yes, it is easy to waste millions on technology when the case for deployment has failed to be made. But we waste billions on a now outdated model of education/training that is hugely inefficient, de-personalises the learning experience and results in unintended behaviour changes that are of suboptimal worth to employers and society as a whole.

We can - and should - think more deeply about how we change. As change we must if learning and development professionals (and educators for that matter) are to remain relevant in the future.

While a log would do for the Greeks centuries ago, I'd say the internet - and all the great array of interaction and collaboration it brings us - is the long overdue upgrade. Indeed the great teacher of the future might say:

"the best classroom is me sitting on one side of the blog with you sitting on the other exchanging ideas. In fact, why sit? We can exchange ideas any time, any where."

Actually, they probably wouldn't even use the word classroom at all...

What do you think?

Waiting for Superman: calling the education crisis

The people who brought us An Inconvenient Truth – raising awareness of the environmental challenges ahead of – have turned their attention to the US education system. The documentary ‘Waiting for “Superman”’ directed by Davis Guggenheim intends to pack some powerful punches about the state of the public school system while providing a call to action.

Below is a neat little animation that trails some of the desperate statistics underlying the problem that the film brings out:

TakePart: Participant Media - Waiting For 'Superman' - Infographic from Jr.canest on Vimeo.

While this focuses on the US, there are clearly parallels with many of the problems we face here in the UK. I’d like to say we should view this as an early warning of things to come, but that time has clearly passed. 

Just today the Guardian has highlighted how Higher Education is beginning to seriously face up to its deep structural flaws. The Open University is attracting many more young students than ever before. While the trigger might be avoiding what will be hefty debts by choosing a cheaper, more flexible option that allows them to balance work and study, they are pleasantly surprised to find it is a more conducive and supportive learning environment. They shouldn’t be surprised. The OU has pioneered a model that will dominate in the future (see Donald Clark’s posting for more on this). The good news is not only will it deliver a better education for our students, it can be achieved on significantly LESS public funds. A real win-win which if only this was whole-heartedly embraced could simultaneously work to reduce our national debt while also producing a more confident and productive generation that knows that work and learning go hand in hand in a future where accelerating change is the new normal. They can all be Super(wo)man.

Coffee fuelled brains – explains media hyperbole?

A new study published today suggests that drinking five cups of coffee a day could reverse memory problems seen in Alzheimer's disease. But actually it doesn’t. The article on the BBC website goes on to report:

"This research in mice suggests that coffee may actually reverse some element of memory impairment.

"However much more research is needed to determine whether drinking coffee has the same impact in people.

"It is too soon to say whether a cup of coffee is anything more than a pleasant pick me up."

So the effect of this reportage is misleading. The headline is memorable (“Coffee ‘may reverse Alzheimer’s’”) which is at odds with the detail at the end of article. The behavioural take away is more than likely “I know, I’ll make sure I drink more coffee” legitimising an existing habit based on largely unproven evidence. At least this report nullified itself in one place, rather than selectively quoting from a study to support its own baseless argument.

I’m picking on coffee in this instance, but this is just one of many examples where the media report on research studies exaggerating the conclusions and leading with speculation.

That said, there are exciting developments in the field of neuroscience and our understanding of brain chemistry that should lead to genuine treatments and supplements that support memory and improve our capacity to learn faster and perform more effectively.

A diet of HDL cholesterol, blueberries and coffee may be part of the answer. But beware you don’t still end up doing stupid things albeit faster and with more energy.

Learning the LINGO

I had the privilege of speaking at the INGO E-learning Conference at Oxfam House, Oxford today. Fellow speakers included Clive Shepherd, Jane Hart and Rob Hubbard. There is a growing interest amongst charities and other non governmental organisations in more effective and efficient approaches to learning and development. When you have staff, volunteers and other representatives spread across the globe, often in hard to reach areas with little infrastructure and tight budgets it can be a real challenge to provide sufficient training support. E-learning is clearly of value in these situations but also it has to be flexible in its design and delivery to avoid just becoming an expensive white elephant.

Talking of elephants, I gave the audience the benefit of my “elephant in the training room” message – that despite best efforts, much training is delivered by the wrong people, to the wrong people, at the wrong time in the wrong way. What is the result? No learning, no value gained by the individual or the organisation they serve. E-learning is no different – too much of what people experience is plain dull, ironically hard to access and use and similarly lacks relevance. Design is crucial to the success of a learning experience, online or offline. This does not necessarily mean spending large amounts of money on high production values (although that can be sensible and appropriate). Instead, it is developing a more elusive skill – smart selection of design treatments/concepts, clear, energising writing and the appropriate use of media that fit within your project constraints (time, budget, technical).

I used my IMPACT framework to illustrate how e-learning design can be more effective and impactful than the “slide-ware” many people default to creating and even more people have to endure. We can all do much better than this and I’m optimistic that as technology supported learning becomes ever more mainstream, good design will be recognised and valued. After all, the objective is to change attitudes and behaviour in our learners for the long term – and that’s worth dedicating the right level of investment of skill and resource to achieve isn’t it?

LSG 2010 - Elvis comes to mind

As the King put it:

"A little less conversation, a little more action please"

That pretty much summed up the reactions to many of the sessions during what was a vibrant and buzzy event this Tuesday in London. While there was much enthusiasm demonstrated with regards to the future potential of simulations, the shifts in informal/formal learning provision and a welcome emphasis on long term retention (my long time favourite Ebbinghaus), I sensed a bit of a disconnect between theoretical vision and practical application.

It's important that we try and share more concrete examples where possible and demonstrate real examples in action - as this I think makes it more tangible and achievable. There continues to be more than a little ironic that these sessions are delivered in a lecture format, with powerpoint and limited levels of interaction.

The most valued aspects was the informal conversation between sessions - a common aspect of most conferences and traditional training sessions. So it would be good to find an even better balance that creates even more opportunities for the LSG (and wider L&D community) to connect, communicate and collaborate.

In that sense, the King was not quite as visionary: this new social media driven world tends to favour conversation - but it should not be at the expense of action - and ultimately productivity and performance.

For an alternative take, check out Cheryl's blog post of the event to learn more about frogs (!).