Social learning?
Tiffany Fary, writes a guest blog post on Janet Clary’s blog titled Social learning vs Communities of Practice. The post has been tweeted n times.
Her blog post presents a misleading contest between the two as communities of practice is probably the most well-known concept in social learning theory. The core principle behind communities of practice is that learning is a social journey. A practice in a community of practice – especially a practice of any depth – requires a sustained history of social learning.
Tiffany highlights the problem when she says
When it comes to the terms “Social Learning” and “Communities of Practice”, many people in the corporate learning realm are confused, myself included.
“Social Learning” – along with “Personal Learning Networks” – are being cranked up in HR. Social learning is being used as though it referred to social media by people like Jane Hart of C4LPT.
Jane’s social learning handbook sees social learning as a social media revolution where
… everyone can have access to the Social Web and a range of services and applications to support their own as well as their team’s learning, performance and productivity.
Tiffany Fary, in the same blogpost, sees social learning as
What do *I* need to know and who knows how to answer this quickly? Knowledge is primarily consumed or pulled from experts.
Her description is slightly broader than Jane’s as social learning is
leaning in the wild, via conversation, social media and the learning 2.0 technologies.
Whoa!
Social learning – and communities of practice – have been around a lot longer than social media. They have probably been around even longer than conversations – homo erectus junior was only grunting while he watched homo erectus seniors make and throw spears for hunting.
It’s just that social learning (and communities of practice) have become helpful ways of understanding how we know and learn at a time in history when solving complex problems problems needs more and diverse perspectives. Convening those different perspectives in pursuit of getting better at doing things is proving more helpful than the belief that we we merely transfer knowledge for people to apply.
Social media offers all sorts of new ways to convene – and make heard – different perspectives and voices. At the same time many more people are using social media to get just-in-time info, instant answers, feedback or perspectives. Social media is making it even more important that we get better at understanding the processes behind social learning.
So in response to Tiffany’s invitation to understand the difference between some of the terms we are using, I make this offering:
- Social learning is a view on how we learn i.e socially in interaction with each other.
- Social networks, personal networks and communities of practice are different ways that social learning manifests itself.
- Social networks (a bunch of PLNs) refer to connections and relationships between people that are used as a resource for solving problems, sharing knowledge and making more connections (1)
- Communities of practice are a learning partnership between people who use each others practice as a learning resource (1)
(“Promoting and assessing value creation in communities and networks: a conceptual framework” by Etienne Wenger, Beverly Trayner, Maarten de Laat, forthcoming paper for the Open University of the Netherlands)
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Hi Bev,
)…
I liked very much this post. It’s very interesting and clear.
I didn’t understand the meaning of PLN (sorry but this all terms aren’t current to me, yet!
All the best and keep the good work!
Hello Vera… thanks for passing by and commenting. PLN stands for Personal Learning Networks. This is a buzzword mostly used in Education and Human Resources referring to the social network you build around you and that you can draw on for information or help.
See you again!
Hi Bev,
I’ve been reading about social media and I’m confused about something: are PLNs and PLEs the same thing?
I’d like to know your opinion.
All the best!
Vera
Hello Vera… PLE is a personal learning environment. It could be that it’s also a network. Network refers more to the people or places you connect with. Environment refers more to the space you create for it to happen.
Bev
Thanks, Bev! It helps a lot!
( )s
Vera
Thks Bev,
Very useful. I’ll keep passing by!
Thanks Bev,
It is good to get some specific definitions of terms. Your post has made me start thinking at a deeper level about the subject.
I am really interested in these theories. How can I get a copy of your forthcoming paper?
Can you recommend any other good papers/texts about social learning and CoPs?
Many thanks,
Chris
So sorry, Chris… I missed this message. I can certainly send you a copy of the paper when it’s done. And if you send me a message by email (bev@bevtrayner.com) I can send you some others by Etienne Wenger that could interest you depending on what your context is.
Bev, I’m so glad I came across your blog. I can’t remember how I linked to it (one of the perils of multi-tasking and micro blogging), but I actually commented on Tiffany Fary’s post to thank her for introducing the topic; it’s very important for HR professionals to understand how employees are using their networks to learn. Your commentary above has more succinctly and clearly explained the topic at hand, so I truly appreciate your additional commentary and hope to be able to reference your post in my next article submission (with your permission, of course).
As I mentioned in my comment to Tiffany, whether an individual is attempting to solve a problem or learn how to more effectively operate in their role by using PLNs or CoPs, technology simply offers a means to an end. You state that Social media is making it even more important that we get better at understanding the processes behind social learning, and I couldn’t agree more.
Some want the shiniest new thing while others are totally resistant to anything new (much less shiny), and BOTH miss this point: as learning professionals, we must do everything within our power to enable LEARNING! Your employees are already learning informally/socially, so you need to ask yourself if you are giving them tools to empower accurate, timely access to information. For example, are you encouraging the meeting of a CoP using a brown bag lunch series? Are you allowing access to subject matter experts? Are you openly publishing information created by SMEs to avoid “wheel recreation” for every question posed by the masses? If you have multiple locations worldwide and a company culture that will allow, are you developing the capacity for employees to interact online that can be scaled across your organization to allow interaction between experts from multiple countries with varied backgrounds?
I’m fascinated by what I’ve read in articles and heard at conferences. The hang up in most organizations seems to be the ‘social learning’ or ‘learning 2.0′ component. More than one expert has pointed out that we have successfully implemented the telephone and email, so why should anyone scoff at how new technology can be used to make Corporate America even more productive?
Thanks again – Brandon (@BdotW)
Thanks for finding my blog, Brandon. And for your comments.
I agree, getting people to link horizontally is important. The successful companies (e.g. Google, Apple, Amazon) don’t treat their employees as semi-skilled workers satisfying customer demand through a series of bureaucratic processes. Rather, they treat their employees like knowledge workers who are invited to take up the challenge of delighting the company’s customers. And linking people across the organization is crucial for that to work.
Hope to see you again!
I couldn’t agree more, not only does linking people across the organization lead to greater engagement (aka better retention), but it also can help prevent the “brain drain” when boomers leave the workplace (I saw a stat recently that 11,500 people are hitting 65 every day now).
If linkage also leads to the transfer of this critical knowledge (whether horizontal or top-down), then you’re hitting two birds with one stone!
You’re right. I hadn’t thought of that, but it’s an important point. If the boundaries of the organization are not the deciding factor for learning, then when people leave the organization they are not necessarily leaving the learning system.
Thanks for that insight!
Thanks for getting back to me. Much appreciated.
Senior moment going on here. I thought I had missed your previous comment!
Great write-up on social learning. Learning has always been a social phenomenon. We always learn from environment or people around us. In the e-learning world the knowledge is shared via web of information. Having a social aspects to it will increase the engagement of the learner. We at myklassroom.com – a startup focused on soical e-learning are trying to bring in interactivity in the learning process, apart from providing tools for collaboration, we don’t bring in quality content sourced from best content providers(universities, blogs, wiki or youtube).
Thanks for coming by Natraj. I don’t know why, but I’m not getting notification of these comments – about to check that out.
Do you think that bringing in social aspects is enough? Or rather, what ISN’T social?