VI International Seminar on Open Social Learning (VII): Meta-Learning: Process of Learning in the Network Era

2 December, 2009

VI International Seminar of the UOC UNESCO Chair in e-Learning

Meta-Learning: Process of Learning in the Network Era. Jay Cross, independent consultant, founder and CEO of the Internet Time Group LLC, Berkeley, USA

Notes from the Open Social Learning, organized by UOC UNESCO Chair in E-Learning and held in Barcelona, Spain, on November 30th and December 1st 2009.

Value has migrated to intangibles. Companies about ideas, people predominate over products in the stock markets.

Learning can be analyzed under different perspectives: sociology, pedagogy, technology used, etc. 80% of learning in corporations is informal, is observing what other people do. Retained learning is insignificant. But in order to change behavior in corporations, learning should advance in such percentages.

The business ecosystem is very complex; employees are in the middle of a cloud of elements. Employees are like learners in a lifelong learning cycle, from pre-hires, novices, etc. to olders and alumni. Now learning and work are becoming undistinguishable one from each other, and our employees are not keeping up with the fast changes in corporations.

We are in a team work age, people work in teams, learning is not learner centered, is group centered.

Q&A

Instead about talking to trainers in corporate learning, why don’t talk to employees? They should be learning further than just doing their work.

Good organizations offer employees opportunities in order to develop their skills and careers. It’s good for the people but it’s also good for organizations.

The whole thing about teams is not new, what are you trying to introduce here?

VLEs and other tools still think of individual learners, not groups. And groups are variable, we need to support learning in teams, but not the way “wisdom of teams” does.

What about managers, do they get the idea?

Every CEO says “people are the most important” but? They neglect social learning, they rely on complex solutions rather on simpler but more effective ones, like using a Wiki for internal knowledge management system, for example, thus reducing time looking for staff. Participative systems can improve the way companies manage knowledge they generate inside.

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