Copyright © 2007 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.

Power of the People:

June 6, 2007

Learning Revolution 2.0

Karie WillyerdChief Learning Officer

Charles BeckhamChief Technologist

Sun Microsystems

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Agenda

Considerations

The Changing “Landscape”

Training versus Learning

New World

The Platform

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The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that today's learner will have 10-14 jobs...by age 38.

According to the U.S Department of Labor....1 out of 4 workers today is working for a company for whom they have been employed less than 1 year.

More than 1 out of 2 are working for a company for whom they have worked for less than 5 years.

According to former Secretary of Education Richard Riley....The top 10 jobs that will be in demand in 2010 didn't exist in 2004.We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yet exist......using technologies that haven't yet been invented...

Did You Know?

(Karl Fisch, "Shift Happens." Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHWTLA8WecI)

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Did You Know?

There are over 2.7 billion searches performed on Google each month.To whom were these questions addressed B.G. (before Google)?The number of text messages sent and received every day exceeds the population of the planet.

More than 3,000 new books are published......daily.

(Karl Fisch, "Shift Happens." Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHWTLA8WecI)

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● It is estimated that 1.5 exabytes (1.5 X 10 [18] ) of unique new information will be generated worldwide this year.

● That's estimated to be more than in the previous 5,000 years.

● The amount of new information is doubling every 2 years.

● It is predicted to double every 72 hours by 2010.

Consider...

(Karl Fisch, "Shift Happens." Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHWTLA8WecI)

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Predictions... ● Predictions are that by 2013 a

supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computation capability of the human brain.

● By 2033, when 1st-graders will be just 23 years old and beginning their (first) careers... it only will take a $1,000 computer to exceed the capabilities of the human brain.

● And while technical predictions farther out than 15 years are hard to make....predictions are that by 2049 a $1,000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the human race.(Karl Fisch, "Shift Happens." Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHWTLA8WecI)

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What does it all mean?

...shift happens! We need toprepare!

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PUSH/PULL Learning

Training is something pushed on you.

Learning is something pulled into.

“I love to learn...but I hate to be trained”

Our employees will thrive when given the freedom to decide how they want to learn.

(Jay Cross, "Informal Learning" Available: http://internettime.com/

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The Old World

PUSH

Training

RigidProgram

Mandated

FormalRead-Only

(Jay Cross, "Informal Learning" Available: http://internettime.com/)

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The New World

Performance Support Tools

Classroom Training

Libraries/Knowledge Bases

CommunitiesBlogs/Wikis/Tagging

Experts/Coaches/e-Coaches

Learner

Online Learning

PULL

Learning

FlexiblePlatform

Self-Service

InformalRead/Write

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Users gain more control over their learning and destiny.

The Network Effect

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Characteristics of “The Platform”• Freeform: Only minimal upfront structure• Zero Training/Simple: Any barrier to use means that automatically

fewer people will use the application• Software as a Service: Online software, with its functionality and

information available on any computer, home or work, anywhere in the world

• Easily Changed: If a user can’t easily make the necessary change to the structure or the behavior of a system, he or she must have an expert

• Unintended Uses: Preconceived notions about how an IT system will be used can cut it off from the most valuable uses down the road.

• Social: Enabling just-in-time, freeform collaboration is the key, and so is capturing and publishing the results to be reused and leveraged afterwards by others. Wikis combined with enterprise search do all this automatically for example.

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Search

Search – Users must be able to find the knowledge they are looking for.

● Intranet layouts and navigation aids can help but...

● Users are increasingly bypassing these in favor of keyword searches:

● One or a combination of the words used to find matching web assets.

● Popularized during the early days of search engine development.

● Modern search engines have methods for determining which words in a search string are important and are ought to be treated as keywords.

● Is it easier to find information on your Intranet or Internet?

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Links

Links – Let the internet be built by a large group rather than a small one.

● Links are an excellent guide to what is important and provides structure to online content.

● The “best” pages are the ones most frequently linked to..Google is worth Billions by tweaking their search algorithm to account for this.

● Works best with dense link structure that changes over time and reflects the opinion of many people

● Contrast the Intranet versus Internet● Power to the people to build links

Links

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Links

Authoring – Blogs, Wikis, etc....the knowledge platform shifts from being the creation of a few to being the constantly updated, interlinked work of many

● All employees have something to contribute and most want to have:Authoring

● Blogs and Wikis are ways to provide for authorship and to elicit contributions easily

● Knowledge● Insight● Experience● A Comment

● A Fact● AN Edit● A link...etc

● Blogs - let people author individually, content is cumulative

● Wikis - Wikis enable group authorship, content is iterative

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Tags – Outsource the work of knowledge categorizations to users by letting them attach tags - simple, one-word descriptions.

● The second thing users want most after search is better “categorization of content”

● Many sites outsource the categorization to users:● Flickr for Photos● Technorati for blogs● del.ico.us for website bookmarks

● This categorization system is called “folksonomy” - a categorization system developed over time by folks.

● Opposite of the upfront expert developed categorization scheme

● Actual vs Planned● Makes information more visible to fellow

employees

Tags

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Extension - Use computers to take tagging one step further by automating some of the work of categorization and pattern matching.

● Take tagging one step further...use machines

● Automate the work of tagging and pattern matching

● Amazon “recommendations” are an example of the use of extensions on the web.

● Let's go even further...● Lets provide a thumbs up or thumbs

down or rating service.● Over time we can learn what you find

most interesting and important.● We can then recommend choices to you

based on your past behavior.

Extension

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Signals - Use technology to signal the users when new content of interest appears: RSS, ATOM, etc.

● Even with all the things I mentioned users can still feel overwhelmed.

● So much new content is added it can seem like a full time job to maintain it.

● Users need to be notified in some way when new content is posted.

● Remember...no more push, we need pull....email alerts just overload us...

● RSS – Really Simple Syndication:● Generates a short notice every time new content

is added● Aggregators (Outlook, Thunderbird) periodically

queries sites of interest● Eliminates the need for constant surfing to

check for changes

Signals

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Demo

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Web 2.0 Transforms Instructional Design

• With technology tools, Web 2.0 courses should emphasize individual and group participation.

• Web 2.0 learners are not only information seekers, they are:> Comfortable using technology to add to

content> Used to multitasking, and can move

between multiple forms of media simultaneously.

• Content publishing has flattened.

• Learning consumers have become learning producers.

• Instruction is no longer built around content – learning experiences are now aggregated into evolving content.

The transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 has affected learning in a fundamental way.

More and more, these types of learners expect independence and autonomy in their learning processes.

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Things Learning Organizations can do to enter the Web 2.0 world

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Start small, and start with your own skills: Sign up for 5 RSS feeds. Contribute to a Wiki and a user

feedback site, such as Amazon Start a blog. Tip: easy blogger tools

include: Ecto, W.Blogger, BlogJet

Add some RSS widgets, such as MyYahoo, BlogLines, NewsGator

Link to five other good bloggers Post a YouTube video of under five

minutes on a short learning topic of your choice

Create an avatar in Second Life and fly around. Attend a company announcement

http://secondlife.com

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Progress to Web 2.0 usage in your learning products:

Create 5 wiki sites. Some Ideas: A course design document; give the

URL to SMEs to edit online A learning terms site, for use by those

interacting with the learning function A vision and/or goals site, to create a

dialog about them with the organization

An acronym site, of frequently used acronyms within the company

A course Wiki, for use by learners, with common terms and concepts

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Progress to Web 2.0 usage in your learning products:

Add a good search engine to sit in or connected to your LMS ( We like Google)

Add ability for any users to easily add content..any and all

Add ability for users to tag content or course usefulness.

Add an ability for users to rate users who post

Build a short course that is delivered in Second Life

Let anyone in the company add content

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Progress to Web 2.0 usage in your learning products:

Create a learning group blog, either for use within the learning community or to communicate within the company

Create some easily-taught short learning topics for use in pre-work by a blended-learning course. Post them on an internal site with good traffic.

Build a short course that is delivered in Second Life

Consistently build bite-sized learning Change the licensing model of your

3rd party content

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Questions?

Copyright © 2007 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.

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