The Learning Circuit’s Blog Big Question for December is “What did you learn about learning in 2008?” It’s good to reflect, and using the end of the calendar year is a traditional time. Consequently, I trolled back through a year of blog posts. Whew!
I saw several recurrent threads, but the strongest one is on learning to learn. I think we’ve seen more focus on that this year, particularly with Tony Karrer & Michelle Martin’s Work Literacy effort, and a lot of the discussion at the Corporate Learning Trends conference (most recently). It’s a theme that appeared in Marcia Conner‘s presentation, in looking at what to do in tough times. What impressed me is how much it’s been taken on in many places and in many forms, after Jay & I were pushing it several years ago (circa 2003-2004). I’m thrilled, of course.
It’s also a theme that characterizes the TogetherLearn thinking, where it’s about helping people help themselves, but not taking the self-directed and learn-together skills for granted. Which segues nicely into my second learning, which was about social learning. I knew about the importance (having been steeped in Vygotsky in grad school), but it hadn’t hit home quite as viscerally as this year, and I’ve become more than a convert, in fact an evangelist, about the opportunities, both formal and informal.
Interestingly, I’m also beginning to see the emergence of mobile social, and I see that mobile was another recurrent theme in what I talked about this year. I see more opportunities, and convergences, particularly my revelation about mobile web. Twitter, for instance, is social, can be mobile, and can be a powerful learning experience.
So, my personal learning was getting more deeply into the whole elearning 2.0 area, and it’s impact back on strategy, mobile, and even games. And the clear implications that we’ve got to focus on learning to learn skills. There’re some new thoughts brewing, of course, and maybe that’ll play a role in my predictions for next year. But that’s another month’s big question.
