This Tuesday I’ll be speaking at the Association New Media Summit hosted by Peach New Media. My topic is Learning 2.0, and as I have been working on the presentation, I’ve been trying to come up with a brief way to explain why I think it is such an important concept – one that goes right to the heart of strategy on the social Web.

The image above is how I usually illustrate “Learning 2.0″ as it plays out in the world of traditional education and professional development. (If you are viewing this on e-mail and can’t load images or otherwise do not see the image, click through to the original post.)

In the world of Learning 2.0, walls between classrooms break down. There is not the sort of teacher-student hierarchy like you find in traditional, formal education. Rather, everyone is a student, and everyone has the potential to be a teacher. What drives the connections – the arrows in the illustration – is a desire to learn and a desire to share expertise. These are, I believe, very basic human desires, and all the new tools of the social Web – blogs, wikis, social networks, etc. – help us satisfy these desires in ways that were never possible before.

It’s important to recognize that this dynamic isn’t really all that different from what you find across the social Web as a whole. Here, for example, is how connections across the worldwide user base for the photo-sharing service Flickr mapped out just a few years ago. It’s the same sort of thing as above, but on a massive scale:

Why do people make these connections? In the case of Flickr, the obvious “social object” is photos: people connect with each other because they have photos to share and they want to see other people’s photos. A similar thing happens with videos on YouTube.

Aside from the obvious social objects that exist in these networks, I’d argue that there is a higher level object – call it a “meta” object, if you want to get academic about it – that often drives interaction: namely, learning: People in these networks are learning from and about each other, and the core objects – photos and videos – help make this possible.

Important caveat: To accept this argument, you’ll have to get past the idea that “learning” is equivalent to formal education. I’m talking about learning in a fundamental, psychological sense.

And here’s the thing – if you understand that learning in this fundamental sense can be a highly effective glue for holding social networks together, you can focus in on maximizing the network’s potential for providing valuable learning experiences. You can use an understanding of learning to drive strategy.

Perhaps not surprisingly, one of the most effective ways to engender learning in the informal, psychological sense of the word is to provide for formal educational objects within the network. Articles, videos, tutorials, etc – these are often great catalysts for the informal learning connections that generate value in a network.

I think there are great opportunities for membership organizations to leverage formal educational activities as a way to generate more value within their social networks, and conversely, to make their formal educational offerings more valuable by making them more social. That is part of what I will talk about at the New Media Summit.

I also think there are interesting ways that an understanding of learning can help commercial organizations cultivate customer communities and even create new, revenue-generating products that leverage Learning 2.0. Stephen Covey certainly understands that. So does Brian Clark.

Bottom line: Learning 2.0 is woven into the fabric of the social Web, and vice-versa. I think a Web strategy that doesn’t take it into account will most likely leave many opportunities on the table. What do you think?

Jeff

P.S. – If this is a topic that interests you, you may also want to check out the free eBook, Learning 2.0 for Associations.

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“Learning” is at the heart of my particular hedgehog concept here at Hedgehog & Fox as well as in my general approach to consulting with organizations.  When I say “learning,” I don’t (necessarily) mean “education,” and these days, I hardly ever mean “formal classroom-based education.” I mean the act of acquiring new knowledge in any way, shape, or form, whether formally or informally. When people are truly learning, they tend to be highly engaged, and that has important implications not just for what we traditionally think of as “education,” but also for nearly every facet of organizational strategy. If you want to engage your stakeholders, it can be a big help to know a thing or two about how learning works.

Learning 2.0 blends traditional approaches to learning with the newer tools and approaches of social media. The combination is quite powerful, as it infuses the possibility for continuing personal and organizational growth into the “aways on, always connected” culture in which we now live. My view is that an understanding of Learning 2.0 is essential not just for educators, but for anyone who hopes to engage productively with communities of users on the Web. This includes, for example, marketers, customer support providers, issue advocates, and as the recent presidential campaign so clearly demonstrated, politicians.

At this point, in my opinion, too much of the thinking and writing about Learning 2.0 is centered on traditional academic and professional development activities. But for those who can extrapolate and think innovatively – and I know my readers here fall in that camp – there are great ideas and dynamic new strategies to be mined from some of the Learning 2.0 conversations going on out there right now. Here are a few places where you may want to dig around with an eye toward innovation:

• Learning 2.0 for Associations
  This being my blog, I’m going to take the liberty of recommending a free Learning 2.0 eBook I put out at the beginning of this year. The contents are relatively high-level and basic – it is intended to be an introduction to the topic -but I think it makes the overall potential of Learning 2.0 approaches clear.  I also did a session recently with Boston Conferencing on Learning 2.0. This draws on a lot of material from the eBook, but also offers some new thoughts and examples. BC’s Dave Will does a good job of asking questions throughout the session and I also answer quite a few from participants at the end. It does have a price tag to it (none of which comes to me), but I don’t think you will be disappointed.
• Work Literacy and DevLearn
  This year’s DevLearn conference has a big focus on 2.0. I won’t be at the conference, but true to spirit, there are a number of ways to follow DevLearn online (a great example for those of you who want to blend social media with your events). Also, in the lead up to the conference Michele Martin, Tony Karrer, and Howard Jarche did an excellent job of pulling together the Work Literacy Ning site as a community for exploring Learning 2.0. Technically, this was a 6-week effort, but initiatives like this never really end. The accumulated conversations and resources are still there, and people can add to them over time.  I have, by the way, started a group their for Membership Organizations. I encourage you to come join me.
• Connectivsm and Connected Knowledge
  For a deeper investigation of all of the many issues that come with learning and knowing in a connected world, check out the Connectivism & Connected Knowledge course being led by Stephen Downes and George Siemens. Like Work Literacy, this is a time-based offering, but I think it too will live on beyond the boundaries of time. A tremendous amount of wisdom has accumulated within the course site (which itself is a great example of blending various social media and more traditional Web-based tools) and across their are inumerable postings across the blogosphere that are tagged with CCK08.
• Social Media Classroom
  Howard Rheingold, well known for his association with The Well, The Whole Earth Catalog, and for his best-selling Smart Mobs, recently launched the Social Media Classroom & CoLab. This is a free, Drupal-based platform that integrates a range of social media tools in a highly usable fashion. Perhaps more importantly for the purposes of this post, the site also is home to a growing list of resources and a community that is engaged in discussing the impact of social media on learning and society.

That’s just a quick list. There is plenty more out there, and all of the resources above are full of links to other resources. If you haven’t been thinking much about Learning 2.0 yet, I’ll go our on a limb and say you will probably be compelled to in 2009 – it’s coming of age. So, check out these resources, and I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Jeff Cobb
Hedgehog & Fox

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I’ve finally had a minute to check out a brief white paper from Clever Zebra titled Virtual Worlds: The Essential 7 Point Quick Start for Meetings Professionals (registration required). While I take issue with Clever Zebra’s view that “World of Warcraft is not a Virtual World,” the paper does offer some good, brief insights into why meeting planners should consider virtual worlds as an option.

I mention the Quick Start here on Hedgehog & Fox both because the content is of value and because this represents good execution of a white paper offering as a marketing strategy. The two points are, of course, tightly related. White papers that offer quality content may seem a bit old-fashioned in the Web 2.0 world, but they remain a very effective marketing tool (particularly if the content is about the Web 2.0 world

On a related note, check out Amy Smith talking briefly (just a minute or so) about virtual worlds at the recent American Society of Associations Executives annual meeting (via Acronym):

Virtually yours,

Jeff Cobb
Hedgehog & Fox

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