Reframing Practice Integrating Social Software Feb 2008

INFORMAL LEARNING & TECHNOLOGY Anne Bartlett-Bragg is a lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney. She is involved with the design, development and delivery of eLearning qualifications and subjects in the Faculty of Education. Email: [email protected]

Reframing practice:

Anne Bartlett-Bragg is speaking at the National Conference in April

Integrating social software to enable informal learning Anne Bartlett-Bragg

Today’s organisational learning landscape is rapidly changing as recent developments in social software applications are being implemented to facilitate the creation of communities and “personal knowledge” publishing. These new additions are enabling people to share, collaborate, build knowledge, network, and learn. Consequently, a shift is happening, away from knowledge being strictly organised and controlled in courses and classrooms towards self-managed, personalised, informal learning environments. Learners are able to restructure their workplace knowledge into areas that are significant to their current needs, available at different times, and with the flexibility to review and contribute to materials when it is relevant to them.

However, implementing social software, where the development of informal learning is the intention, has been characterised by challenges that threaten the effectiveness of the learning strategy and outcomes. This article presents results from my PhD research that will provide the learning and development practitioner with a framework of issues that have been identified as inhibitors to the effective integration of social software.

What is social software in organisational learning? Social software refers to the range of applications that augment group interactions and shared spaces for: • collaboration, • social connections, and • aggregating information exchanges in a web-based environment. Collaborative publishing spaces such as weblogs, or blogs, and wikis have been at the core of the increasingly popular applications in organisations. Podcasts, and the newer version including video or vodcasts, are gaining momentum as a corporate communication method. Social sharing and networking applications are evolving rapidly and drawing substantial attention in the media, particularly publicly available sites like Facebook. Simultaneously, aggregating all the content

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into a personalised space using syndication tools or RSS, provides the learner with the ability to manage their information flow. Specific examples of social software applications can be found on the wiki listed at the end of this article.

What is informal learning? An unambiguous definition of informal learning remains a contested issue in the organisational context where it is generally described in contrast to formal learning. A useful framework for practice proposes that informal learning will occur in workplaces where there is a need, motivation, and opportunities for learning and where the control of learning is primarily the responsibility of the learner. It can be depicted in the following situations in the workplace context: • where it is not a highly conscious activity • where it is haphazard and influenced by chance • where it is an inductive process of reflection and action • where it is linked to learning from others through social interactions (Marsick & Volpe,1999). The Table 1 represents a comparison of strategies and associated technologies integrated into many current organisational learning contexts.

INFORMAL LEARNING & TECHNOLOGY

Table 1: Comparison of strategies and associated technologies for formal and informal learning Formal learning activity

Use of technology

Informal learning activity

Use of technology

Classroom sessions: Structured Time constrained Outcome focused

LMS: Enrolments Records attendance Tracks results Records competence Reports compliance

• • • • •

Networking Communities of practice Mentoring Coaching Learning from experts or advisors

Collaborative spaces – typically asynchronous discussion forums and wikis, synchronous chat or instant messaging, email

Online modules: Self-paced No or little collaboration Structured Outcome focused

LMS: Access Delivery Records progress Records completions Records competence Reports compliance

•

Searching for solutions to problems

Internet (Google) Intranet Email an expert

•

Information distribution

Syndication software/RSS Intranet Podcasts and vodcasts email / listservs

•

Self-analysis or reflection

Weblogs

Inhibitors to informal learning using social software Many factors can inhibit the ability to learn in both formal and informal learning contexts. Informal learning can be directly influenced by the availability of resources (which can include time restrictions, availability of other people, and technology), motivation to learn, and capabilities of the learner. Similarly, the implementations of social software into learning contexts have presented my research with the following additional inhibitors to informal learning which can be categorised into three areas: 1) organisational inhibitors; 2) individual inhibitors; and 3) pedagogical inhibitors. 1. Organisational inhibitors: • Organisational technology infrastructure

Educators and trainers implementing social software are confronted with the challenges of: • determining which applications can be accessed through organisational firewalls; • determining the speed of internet access required – particularly if collaboration is occurring outside of workplaces where network speeds provide a superior user experience to the internet speeds available on personal networks in the home; • considering the range of software applications that are constantly changing, and new entrants, require

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educators to be frequently reviewing their choices for enhanced or additional functionality that may positively contribute to the learners’ experience; • limitations imposed by organisational IT departments on rich media such as graphics, photos, or videos, causing pedagogical strategies to be inhibited to text-only functions, potentially limiting the depth of interactions available to the learners.

All these factors can impact the educators’ choices and limit the learners’ ability to engage in rich social sharing environments.

• Organisational culture: • The strategic learning culture espoused and/or practised by the organisation may restrict the implementation of social software and associated informal learning activities. Software applications that have collaborative functionality or rich media disabled can indirectly or directly present to the learner a culture where the sharing of tacit knowledge and experience is not actively valued. • Furthermore, a training culture that is structurally dependent upon competency and achievement of learning outcomes through regulatory requirements or a focus on measurable return on investment will not endorse the integration of social software and informal learning where outcomes are seen as subjective, difficult to formalise, and the development and capture of tacit knowledge hard to measure. 2. Individual inhibitors: • Digital literacy: Digital literacy is a term increasingly used to encompass both computer literacy and information literacy, subsequently referring to skills related to the use of computers, and the ability to manage, evaluate, analyse, create and communicate in digital formats.

As an inhibitor, both educators and learners are expected to understand and manage the software functionality, such as how to access, login protocols, communication processes, and the access and storage of information. Additionally, searching efficiently, and evaluating the authenticity and credibility of information resources, have become an expected capability for most learners. • Learners: In addition to the capabilities of the learner, as previously noted, inhibitors that have been observed to restrict learners’ ability to participate in collaborative social software environments include: • the learner’s dependency on the educator for direction, which can be related to low levels of digital literacy, pedagogical practices, and organisational culture • anxiety to develop an online identity, sometimes expressed as lack of self-confidence, fear of self-disclosure, invasion of privacy, mistrust of the culture to share tacit knowledge • fear of publicly publishing their thoughts, which can relate to the previous issues, or learners’ confidence in their writing skills to adequately represent their thoughts • learner control – where time management, planning, and structure are noted by learners as issues difficult to embed into study plans or daily work patterns.

3. Pedagogical inhibitors: Educators’ and trainers’ existing pedagogical practices developed through formal studies or influenced by organisational training structures can inhibit the evolution of learners towards participation in social software environments and informal learning activities. Baumgartner (2004) describes three prototypical modes for teaching that provide a valuable framework to review and reframe pedagogical strategies that enable informal learning (Table 2). Educators and trainers intending to foster informal learning environments through the application of social software would be required to perform predominantly in a Mode 3 mindset, remaining cognisant of the need to provide some structural guidance in early phases of implementation within the Mode 2 parameters. Educators and trainers who continue to approach social software entirely from a Mode 1 or even Mode 2 approach will cause informal learning to become structured and formalised, consequently inhibiting the learning conditions made available by the guided strategies embedded in a Mode 3 attitude.

Future trends and implications It is timely to reflect upon organisational learning strategies as organisations espouse the values of informal learning in the workplace. Practices of collaboration, reflection, personalisation, knowledgesharing and networks are being included

Table 2: Modes of teaching Mode 1: Transfer (Directed teaching)

Mode 2: Tutor (Facilitated learning)

Mode 3: Coach (Informal guide)

• Programmed instruction

• Problem-solving

• Complex simulations

• To teach, to explain

• To observe, to help, to demonstrate

• To co-operate, to support

• Production of correct answers

• Selection of methods and their use

• Realisation of adequate action strategies

• To know, to remember

• To do, to practise

• To cope, to master

• Transfer of knowledge

• Presentation of pre-determined problems

• Action in real situations (complex and social)

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INFORMAL LEARNING & TECHNOLOGY

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in vision statements and strategic planning documents. Notwithstanding the importance of emergent technologies as the enabler in these processes, without re-framing practice and becoming aware of the critical aspects that inhibit the use of social software, educators and trainers are not likely to realise the opportunity to incorporate informal learning and integrated communication networks into everyday workplace activities. Additionally, the speed of development in social software applications necessitates an open-minded approach to further enhance informal learning practices. As the new technologies evolve, so do the opportunities presented, with more applications providing sophisticated functionality, yet remaining focused on ease of use. Accompanying these advances are new ways of accessing and distributing information, and potentially new ways of creating learning opportunities. Without re-framing our practice and paying attention to the key inhibitors, integration of social software into existing organisational structures will be likely not to produce the performance promised. It would be a shame to repeat the unsatisfying experience of the early implementation of other learning technologies.

References: This article is based on a chapter to be published early 2008: Bartlett-Bragg, A. (forthcoming 2008), Pedagogical practice for learning with social software, in Hansen, T. (ed), Handbook of research on digital information technologies: Innovations, methods, and ethical issues. Information Science Reference, USA. For more information on social software, refer to Anne’s wiki: http://elearning2.wetpaint.com/ Baumgartner, P., 2004,’The Zen Art of Teaching – Communication and Interactions in eEducation’, Internal Workshop ICL2004, Kassel University Press, Villach, Austria. Accessed online November 2004 http:// www.elearningeuropa.info/extras/pdf/ zenartofteaching.pdf

Marsick, V. J., and Volpe, M., 1999, “The Nature of and Need for Informal Learning.” In V.J. Marsick and M. Volpe (eds), Informal Learning on the Job, Advances in Developing Human Resources, No.3, San Francisco, Berrett Koehler.

Informal learning will occur in workplaces where there is a need, motivation, and opportunities for learning and where the control of learning is primarily the responsibility of the learner.

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Apart from her role at UTS, Anne Bartlett-Bragg is the Executive Director of the Learning Technologies User Group and the education advisor for the Australian Businesswomen’s Network, where she designed the first national mentoring program for young women entrepreneurs delivered entirely with Web2.0 software. She is currently completing her PhD, investigating adult learners’ experiences of developing distributed learning networks through the use of weblogs or self-publishing technologies.

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