Even though humans are naturally social beings, our educational system has, for hundreds of years, treated learners mostly as individuals.

Individual exams, individual achievements, individual grades: The individual has been emphasized in virtually every aspect of training and education, while the social aspects have only recently been introduced – and initially often only through the instructor-learner relationship (with the instructor exercising power).
This system has worked for so long because the person in power (the teacher, trainer, instructor) was the main storehouse of societal and organizational knowledge, which needed to be “transmitted” to students.

This no longer has to be the case! Via technological breakthroughs, the tsunami of information rolling over us in the 20th and 21st centuries has completely changed the landscape of learning. Experts (the teachers) can no longer keep up, even in their own fields. The only real solution is for experts and students alike to learn basic skills (including information search and evaluation skills) and then obtain information when it is needed.

“Just-in-case” learning has transformed to “just-in-time” learning.

A new report by Brandon Hall Research senior analyst Gary Woodill, Ed.D., gets into this transformation by examining the meaning and practices associated with the social aspects of learning in this exciting new world of self-serve, social, and mobile learning.

This report, “Understanding Social Learning in Organizational Settings,” will answer some basic questions you and your organization may have about social learning:

• What is social learning?
• What social and learning theories have shaped social learning over the years?
• How can social learning theory and social media be successfully united?
• What three major “game changers” in learning technologies have occurred in the past 10 years, transforming “e-learning 1.0” to “e-learning 2.0”?
• In what ways do people network and collaborate on projects?
• What obstacles remain to using social media and implementing social learning?

And much more…

The report ends by highlighting additional resources Brandon Hall Research provides related to social learning and social media.

If you’ve ever asked any of these questions, or even if your organization is just starting to get curious about incorporating social learning into your training program, then don’t delay! Get social, and pick up this report right away.