Last week I attended a tweet chat hosted by the #LDinsight team (L&D Connect) to support an INSPIRE session being run at Learning Live.
This is a weekly online chat hosted by fellow L&D professionals focusing on key topics in L&D and runs at 8-9am every Friday.
For those people who have never attended a Tweet Chat or aren't on Twitter this probably sounds like a very strange thing but it's a great example of using Social Media to connect and learn from others.
So what happens?
People from around the world communicate via Twitter using 140 characters and a # (hashtag) in this case #LDinsight and answer questions that the host posts.
There are different formats such as asking a different question every 10 minutes or just chatting around a topic generally for an hour. Either way they are open to anyone who wants to join in and anyone can search the #hashtag and see what has been discussed.
They are great to help you build up your network and connect with those in your field.
Once the chat has finished you can curate and save any tweets and post them in a Storify for example and then share with the world, or in this case the DPG Community :-)
I've embedded the Storify from last weeks chat below and I'd love to know from you the same question.
How are you using Social Media for interactive learning?
Replies
Interesting to see the conversation Mike. Thank you for sharing that.
Do you mean "helping other people to learn" when you say "interactive learning"? ( as opposed to learning yourself? - sorry to ask, but I'm not really familiar with the term.)
and by "social media", I presume you mean 2 way comms online such as blogs with commentary or discussions, rather than articles or youtube videos that are just posted - or do they count as well, as they are designed to be shared socially?
I go online and look all over the place to find articles, discussions, videos, blogs so that I can learn myself, to give me ideas to discuss with others as well as food for thought (I love thinking!) and to help me develop materials and ideas for my own training delivery.
I sometimes comment on other people's discussions if I think I might be able to help someone to have a new/different/broader perspective from my experience of a subject.
I also frequently share by forwarding things I have found to some of my Learning network - colleagues and friends - to help them learn at the same time as I learn. ie if I find something that I either enjoy or think they would enjoy, I forward it, usually with a note to indicate why I think they might find it useful or interesting.
I have recently joined a real life L&D group that meets quarterly (CIPD Gloucestershire branch Special Interest Group) which I have found a very valuable use of my time in terms of learning and sharing. Very different to social media which tends to rely on the written word a lot.
I have to take baby steps in my workplace regarding the use of social media. I share it with my own team members as I want them to learn from what I learn and as I learn. I also share articles with the bigger business on the company Yammer site, but this is hugely under utilised sadly.
We don't yet have a completely open learning culture where I work. There are a number of staff who want to learn but if I give them what I think are useful links etc they sometimes feel cheated! Some staff are beginning to get the idea though. Baby steps and patience needed. Culture change can take a couple of years at least.
:)
Apologies for the delay Alison it's been a manic week at DPG HQ with all the Pathway password changes.
Thanks for your thoughtful reply and I think you use the tools available here within the Community to both share and interact really well. You get involved in other content that is shared and add your own opinions and experiences which are hugely valuable and valued. For me this is interactive learning - in fact let's face it ALL learning is interactive where it's with a person through a conversation or reading a book or experiencing something new. Social media purely allows us to do it in a variety of different ways.
I think you're point about what is classed as social media is interesting, I see everything I use that enables me to connect with others as social media through words, images, video and has to be two way communication otherwise it's just broadcasting. Social commentary/ interaction is key to this and you can use social media in real time like this tweet chat or write a blog and someone can comment 5 days later. The point is it's open and the option to get involved in their....you can choose to be part of the conversation or not....if you don't it doesn't mean the conversation won't be there.
Your approach to sharing at work is very similar to my own experience at RBS - I would always share some blog, article or video with my colleagues and started to blog myself. Regardless of how long it takes and how hard it is to see if this adds value for others you must continue....it will not be going un-noticed and your can and will build a reputation as a sharer and someone who adds something different.
Your brand is yours....you can be associated with being a sharer, a collaborator, a thought leader, an expert in L&D/HR thinking, some one who is open, trusting and encouraging and I believe that using social media can support this massively. Internally on Yammer sites or externally on things like LinkedIn and Twitter. Power of association.
All learning is interactive in someway and social media is purely another channel to help us do this and help others to do this as well. Keep engaging, keep nurturing and keep encouraging Alison. Small steps but it is very much an evolutionary process. Change will come :-)