Continuing on with the Friday series that – each week – features an LMS that kicks ass, I’m pleased to feature Meridian KSI. I spoke with Roy Haythorn, Vice President of Operations for Meridian Knowledge Solutions, LLC. Let’s find out what’s new at Meridian KSI.

Q: Hi Roy. I know you’ve been incorporating some social media tools into your LMS. What is Meridian KSI doing with social media?

A: Roy Haythorn – Online communities and blogs are two of the biggest social media tools that Meridian has made a part of its LMS. One of our customers, which serves a statewide audience of K-12 educators has used our LMS to teach grade-school teachers how to be better instructors. To do that, they’ve set up more than 134 online community rooms in our LMS. Science teachers from across the state will, for instance, create and use a community room as part of an online or face-to-face course they’ve taken. At last count, I think 30,000 teachers had access to the system. The size of the online community rooms range from two people to an entire school district. It’s great stuff, and it brings teachers together on their own schedule to swap what works and what doesn’t, or just reinforce what they’ve learned.

Q: What drove your decision to incorporate social media tools into your LMS?

A: Roy Haythorn – We’re careful watchers of the marketplace. We watch trends; we have a lot of technophiles on the team who play with the latest tools. Some of these tools make sense for our customers, others are simply interesting. When social media tools caught our attention, we asked: How can we make use of this stuff with LMS technology in order to push the evolution of learning? That said, there are a lot of products, features and functions coming into the LMS market that, honestly, have no value to a learning and development pro. Instead, we take a “learning-first” approach to LMS development. And by that I mean every new technology Meridian looks at has to promise real value for training and development, or we don’t waste R&D dollars on it.

Q: It’s the time of year for predictions. If you could predict what LMSs will look like in three years, what do you see?

A: Roy Haythorn -  No guarantee it’ll happen in three years, but I’d like to see all LMSs tightly integrated with portals. That way, users can grab pieces of LMS functionality, such as ROI for learning, from their portal while the LMS simply operates in the background. In other words, end users have no idea they’re even using an LMS. People won’t have to sign on to an LMS in the future and stay within that system to do their learning. Instead, the LMS will be launched by way of a portal, and users will interact with the LMS from other applications.

Q: Do you have any examples of your vision?

A: Roy Haythorn -  One example would be a plant manager tapping a materials planning tool inside SAP or Oracle. Once there, he finds he doesn’t remember how to run the program. So he clicks on a link that’s labeled “Learn More,” and from behind the scenes the LMS launches a three-minute course on the topic via a simulation.

Or, perhaps, an engineer is performing a safety audit. As she’s performing the audit, she demonstrates her proficiency and it is tracked by the LMS via her hand-held device, which then delivers an online assessment. Depending on how she does on the test, the LMS either records a passing grade or prescribes learning for a gap in her skill.

Q: Are you seeing any difficulties in the incorporation of social media among your current customers/potential customers?

A: Roy Haythorn – These tools aren’t always used to the fullest by our customers. Frankly, some buyers fear that social software makes it more difficult to communicate, not less. They see social software as the purview of co-eds, gamers and nerds. Many potential buyers balk at the value of exchanging know-how in this way. In fact, they believe social software makes controlling a message or providing a consistent set of instructions impossible. They may believe the flood gates of information will open if you give everyone in a company an equal voice. When you look at tools like Facebook, Twitter, Yammer and an array of other social networking software for exchanging know-how, our challenge is to prove the success that businesspeople are having with these and other social networking tools. And, if we do that, then we’ll pique the interest of customers.

Thanks Roy, well said. I especially can relate to your last answer. It seems one of the greatest barriers we face today in the L&D field is change management.

Readers, feel free to ask Roy any questions you may have.

Prior LMSs in series:
Cornerstone OnDemand
Generation21
GeoLearning

(Meridian KSI was a sponsor at our IiL08 conference in September)

Continuing my Friday series featuring LMSs that kick-ass, I’m pleased to profile Latitude.  Latitude is a pure LMS so you may be wondering why the heck are they featured here. Well, because they kick-ass for their view of the role of the LMS. They feel the best way to address social, informal learning (powered by social media)  is not to integrate it into an LMS. Instead, they bolt the LMS on an existing CMS. (An example of a CMS would  be a website like iGoogle which can be personalized and widgetized). So the CMS is the front end, not the LMS.

I spoke with Kurt Crisman at Latitude about this.

Q: What ( if any)  social media tools is Latitude incorporating into their LMS?

A: Kurt Crisman – Incorporating social media tools directly into the an LMS assumes that is the best way to achieve the benefits of these tools for both formal and informal learning. However, LMSs are really better at managing prescribed learning, either mandated or suggested from the top of the organization. The benefit of informal learning thrives in a peer-to-peer environment. Tacking on social media tools to an LMS might not create this environment. Investing in LMS development to repurpose it into something it is not–a flexible web portal–might not be the most cost-effective either.

Latitude’s approach to developing a learning portal that creates a peer-to-peer, individual-driven learning environment depends on current existing technology, such as the Ektron 400 content management system. With features like WYSIWYG editors, Content Management Systems (CMSs) provide content management and rapid content update capabilities with a minimum of effort or technical expertise required. Many CMS solutions offer portal capabilities like personalization or the ability for users to customize their portal with content of interest to them. This content usually comes in the form of off-the-shelf widgets, including Web 2.0 gadgets (blogs, wikis, forums, chat, etc.) that can be used to build out your web site.

In other words, the software application to create the ideal learning portal is the CMS and LMS. The flexible CMS with the existing off-the-shelf technology should be the front-end, not the LMS. While the LMS might still be used by administrators to manage prescribed learning and as the delivery mechanism for web-based training content, the user should meet their learning, both formal and informal, through the CMS based learning portal. Access to LMS content through the portal can occur by using web services to integrate the LMS with the CMS.

Another advantage of this approach is that it does not require scrapping an existing LMS investment to implement social media for learning or being unable to use those tools if scrapping an existing LMS is unpalatable. Basically, Latitude’s delivers a learning portal solution that makes all of the social media tools available.

Q: What drove your decision to include social media tools as part of your LMS solution?

A: Kurt Crisman – The need to include social media tools in a learning management solution has been market-driven. Informal learning is being seen as a more effective way for individuals to find out what they need to know when they need to know it. The success of Google and the adoption of the social media tools makes them a familiar vehicle to acquire and transfer informal knowledge. As a result, customers are looking for these tools in their learning management solution to solve the learning challenges that their formal training has not.

Q: If you could predict what LMSs will look like in three years, what do you see?

A: Kurt Crisman – Just as people now tend to talk about Human Capital Management systems, of which the LMS is only one part, learning portals will be the consolidating factor for formal and informal learning. Some vendors will integrate LMS and CMS functions. Some LMS vendors will add CMS functionality to their offering. CMS vendors may develop modules with basic LMS functionality for their platforms.

Q: What difficulties are you seeing in the incorporation of social media among your current customers/potential customers?

A: Kurt Crisman – It’s a new approach for customers, so a more phased approach is required. For example, we have one customer where phase one is linking from the LMS that users are familiar with to the CMS where they can personalize their dashboard, use a Google search tool, and participate in forum discussions to exchange knowledge. A tighter CMS/LMS integration is scheduled for the next phase with more social media tools, like a Wiki.

Great stuff Kurt! Thanks. As with other LMSs featured in this series, you’ve given readers another interesting way to view learning, the LMS, and social media.

Prior LMSs in series:
Cornerstone OnDemand
Generation21
GeoLearning

Of all commercial LMSs, I probably have the most hands-on experience with GeoLearning‘s various products and services having managed an enterprise implementation several years ago. It was a multi-phase implementation (LMS, LCMS, Talent Management) that went off pretty smooth and the team at GeoLearning was great to work with. I found them very responsive even when I was a giant pain in the ass. I’ve been to their beautiful home office in West Des Moines, Iowa but didn’t get a chance to meet Will Hipwell who is GeoLearning’s Senior Vice President, Marketing & Product Management at that time although I’ve communicated with him by email many, many times. (I will always think of Will as “Super Will” because of my ‘super’ phase after watching ‘Superbad’ the movie and the super way that he picked up on that in our correspondence).

Anyway, GeoLearning’s LMS is pretty super too (AWESOME transition, huh?). Actually, it kick’s some ass and I talked to Will about that. Continuing my series of email interviews about LMSs that are doing innovative things with social media, here’s the scoop on what GeoLearning is up to.

Q: What social media tools is GeoLearning incorporating into their LMS?

A: Will Hipwell- GeoLearning’s GeoEngage module facilitates Communities of Practice (CoPs), enables social networking, and provides access to Web 2.0 technologies like Chat, instant messaging, email, file sharing and uploading, resource library, blogging, wikis, discussion groups and RSS feeds. These are all integrated with our LMS platform so that informal learning can still be tracked, managed and measured as easily as more formal training programs. Clients like Cabela’s and Computer Associates are using these tools to great success because they enable learning to occur with the flexibility and at the speed their marketplaces require.

Q: What drove your decision to incorporate social media tools into your LMS?

A:  Will Hipwell- On-demand learning is critical to an organization’s overall learning strategy success. The extremely brisk pace at which job roles, individual responsibilities, the marketplace and even whole companies change and evolve make is absolutely necessary that learners can access just-in-time resources. Organizations and employees can no longer wait for the planning, creation and rollout of formal training programs. The world just moves too fast. To be successful, companies must be able to incorporate on-demand learning opportunities, just-in-time training, on-the-job-training, as well as the technologies that enable informal learning like blogs, wikis and instant messaging. In this “free market of learning”—just like the free market economy—learners (consumers) will find the best solutions to their learning and development challenges.

Q: If you could predict what LMSs will look like in three years, what do you see?

A: Will Hipwell: Over time the LMS will increase the number of touch-points it has within an organization but at the same time become increasingly invisible to those who use it. The LMS will become more of a behind-the-scenes application that won’t require you to login or explicitly go to access or attend a learning event. It will become more seamlessly integrated with the workplace and will  be increasingly accessible via mobile device, and even recommend different learning activities based upon just-in-time experiences and the context of a challenge or need faced while on the job.

For example, a call center employee might access just-in-time tips for dealing with a customer call on the same screen where the interaction is taking place. The interaction can be tracked as both a successfully closed customer interaction (a business metric), as well as a learning opportunity that becomes part of the individual’s overall training record (and associated LMS data point). In this type of situation, informal learning, Web 2.0 and social networking tools become more and more valuable.

Q: What difficulties are you seeing in the incorporation of social media among your current customers/potential customers?

A: Will Hipwell - In some cases, clients and prospective clients are either unaware of what 2.0 technologies and/or are not entirely sure how they can be practically implemented in the workplace and provide value. Another barrier is the perception that collaboration tools with “silly names” like blogs and wikis can be time-wasters, or they are associated with people wasting time on Facebook or MySpace.

Me: Thanks Super Will. That time-waster barrier is a huge one. It’s kind of frustrating – not seeing the collaboration but seeing the “silly named” tool. (I wonder if that’s because it’s sometimes pitched to management that way?) BTW readers…I’ve attached a nice checklist on collaboration and blended learning requirements that Will sent along. Enjoy!
GeoLearning’s collaboration-and-blended-learning-requirements-checklist

Prior LMSs in series:
Cornerstone OnDemand
Generation21

I received the following question via the Google Talk widget on my blog:

“I saw the ad for the Multi-Generational report you did. I like the alternative viewpoint that maybe the multi-generational thing isn’t a big deal as it is being discussed at all the industry trade shows. I am not yet buying into the idea that we need to create Facebook, SecondLife, learner-driven content (e.g., wiki, texting) type learning simply because the younger generation learns that way.”

That last part – basically the idea that we need to use “2.0″ tools and technologies because young people learn that way is something I hope no one buys into. People across generations expect rich, collaborative learning which may or may not be enabled by Web 2.0 tools.  Don’t you? I don’t want to listen to this & then respond. Train, learn. It’s content-centric.

I want learning that is social. Don’t you? I want some structure – maybe contextualized concepts – that allow me to construct my own meaning through interactions with others. There is still structure. Guide, learn. It’s learner-centric.  I’m doing that now. I try to construct my own meaning based on the question. Your responses will further guide me.

I think this is the struggle. How to make e-learning less content-centric and more learner-centric. Short answer: quit trying to control everything. Quit trying to elicit a specific response. Be a guide. For everyone. Being a Web 2.0-enabled guide depends on your environment. However, they are conducive to social learning. And people expect that. Don’t you?

If you buy this learner-centric environment enabled by the Web 2.0 tools that are so shiny now, where does that traditional e-learning course you’re working on fit in?

The growing footprint of the LMS into the ‘DIY’ space that is 2.0 is counter to the ideology behind edupunk, a term that surfaced in the past week or so, attributed to Jim Groom. I’m just getting up-to-speed on edupunk (it’s been morphing in my aggregator 10 days or so it’s like ANCIENT now) and thought I’d share my thoughts here because frankly, when I read Groom’s post about the same “vultures of capital” (LMS vendors) I’m writing about, I felt like a nasty old boil on the butt of an edupunk. (you ARE thanking me for the lack of a visual)

Why? In mid-May, I published a report: How LMSs are Incorporating Social Learning Technologies. In the report, I wrote about the idea of learning 2.0, how user-generated content changes things, how we can think differently about corporate training and introduced some of the technologies (wikis, blogs, social networks). I also summarized the developments of several LMS vendors in the area of social learning technologies. There has been a lot of interest in the report and in social media in corporate training in general where, like higher education, LMSs are part of the DNA.

So, as I’m reading all the edupunk posts, the question I seek an answer to is this: is the edupunk ideology saying that the use of social media in commercial learning management systems is an assault on the very philosophy of learning 2.0?

Ideologies shouldn’t be rigid should they? Rather they should be adapted and used in pragmatic ways don’t you think? If you’re a trainer embracing learning 2.0, who gives a rats ass where it lives. Any of us can come up with endless examples of innovative technologies that have been commercialized.

Anyway, here’s more stuff on edupunk. You probably know that the edublogosphere encompasses both higher ed and corporate learning. The edupunk term originated in the higher ed area so much of the criticism here is about Blackboard , the staple LMS of higher ed. But the conversation is the same in both worlds.

Some reading from the last 10ish days to bring you up to speed:

Jim Groom, The Glass Bees at bavatuesdays. Also Permapunk, Murder, Madness, Mayhem is so EDUPUNK

I don’t think our struggle is over the future of technology, it is over the struggle for the future of our culture that is assailed from all corners by the vultures of capital. Corporations are selling us back our ideas, innovations, and visions for an exorbitant price. I want them all back, and I want them now!

Mike Caulfield’s, Edupunk and A short explanation from a terminal smasher (or Blackboard as an access control company)

There’s a couple reasons why I find the term useful, but the most important is that it captures the cultural revulsion many of us feel with the appropriation of the Learning 2.0 movement by corporations such as Blackboard. Learning 2.0, like punk, is a DIY movement. Like punk it favors technical accessibility over grand design.

And to people like us, Learning 2.0, if it is to remain relevant, must not be relegated to the dustbin of “features” or “products”. It’s neither a product or a process, but a way of approaching things, of which products are only one of the results.

David Warlick, What’s this about Edupunk?

It seems to be a rejection of recent moves, among corporate contributors to the education community, to insert aspects of Web 2.0 applications into their products.

As we continue to promote the use of a more participatory information landscape for learning environments, I think that we should be explicitly promoting this DIY aspect — a sense that the information can be shaped and controlled by professional educators, and that sharing this control with students can be an appropriate, information-abundant, learning pedagogy.

I do not have any real objection to corporate embrace of these tools. We’re all trying to make a living.

What worries me, though, is school officials hearing the buzz, and thinking that they can buy their way into the crowd, rather than learning their way in.

D’Arcy Norman, on edupunk,

But, the key to edupunk is that it is not about technology.

It’s a movement away from what has become of the mainstream edtech community – a collection of commercial products produced by large companies…

It’s about individuals being able to craft their own tools, to plan their own agendas, and to determine their own destinies. It’s about individuals being able to participate, to collaborate, to contribute, without boundaries or barriers.

And it’s not new.

I’m not about to suggest that technology isn’t important or relevant to edupunk – of course it is. But only as an enabling piece of infrastructure. Technology can empower individuals, amplify actions, and connect communities. But without the edupunk philosophy underlying it all, it’s just a bunch of technology. Uninteresting and irrelevant.

Alane Levine The Stump Thunk the Punk Stunk

I’m all for celebrating and playing up the DIY spirit of things, always have been. Yet I’m a bit wary of the pointing and prodding of “this is EDUPUNK” and “she is so EDUPUNK” — to one extreme it might be seen as an air of exclusiveness…

Doug Belshaw, Are you an ‘Edupunk” I’m not.

an ‘Edupunk’ movement is not the answer. Why?

1. It’s a group, not a network – i.e. 1.0 not 2.0 (OK, so I know you reject labels…)
2. It harks back to a time when either I wasn’t born or was very, very young. I have no meaningful connection with the metaphor you’re trying to use.
3. It makes any members of the movement sound vaguely violent.
4. It seems to have the assumption behind it that we (either individually or collectively) have the answers, when actually we’re learners like everyone else.
5. Most Web 2.0 apps are free, and I’m at liberty to pick and choose them at will and use them how I want.

Stephen Downes, Introducing Edupunk and The Obligatory Edupunk Post

It doesn’t really matter whether the term ‘edupunk’ has any staying power, what matters – to me – is the awareness of the idea that it at least, for the moment, signifies.

Ken Carroll

Am I the only one to find this Edupunk meme ridiculous?

Brian Lamb, Punks hate hippies

But reading the many posts, pro and con, that have so rapidly proliferated has me asking questions about how we practice this profession.

• Are you troubled by how power and money are manifested in society, not to mention our classrooms and our educational institutions? Do you feel like the human race can continue as it is?

• Do you think that learning is a basic human right function? Are practices that gratuitously withdraw learning into a circumscribed domain apart from the rest of the world inhumane and counter-productive?

• Are you committed to practices that place as much power in the hands of individuals as possible, while making sharing and collaboration as easy as possible? How much of what we presently license out are we already able to do ourselves?

I don’t have an acid test for how those questions must be answered. But if you are engaging those issues honestly and directly, then I want to party with you. And I don’t care if its EduPunk or EduStringQuartet that defines the aesthetic.

Dennis Coxe, Edupunk, the new generational battlefield

Professional organizations looking to use Web 2.0 tools to enhance learning need to step back and be willing to relieve control to the learners. Provide them with the resources (videos, podcasts, computer-based learning, monthly seminars, and the tools to create their own content) and let them construct their own learning at their own pace and let them talk about it.

And finally, just to wrap it up with a bow, a URL was registered by James Farmer for Edublogs on May 29. It is not live yet I guess.

Following all the conversations, I’d call myself an edupunk. I’m beating the drum for a new model of learning and teaching. And I write about it, for a fee, for the people that buy LMSs. Deal. Unless you’re a volunteer or independently wealthy, you’ve got a money trail. It doesn’t mean you are a part of the problem.

Is the use of social media in commercial learning management systems an assault on the very philosophy of learning 2.0? Hell no.

One last thought…The Sex Pistols turned out to be a commercial phenomenon manipulated by their manager. I’m just saying. Also…in the movie Edupunk, I would like to be considered for the role of Nancy Spungen, despite my advanced age (which may actually help me in that role.)

]]> http://janetclarey.com/2008/06/04/if-an-lms-writes-a-press-release-in-the-woods-does-anyone-but-the-edupunk-read-it/feed/ 25 http://janetclarey.com/2008/05/13/social-learning-technologies-and-lmss/ http://janetclarey.com/2008/05/13/social-learning-technologies-and-lmss/#comments Tue, 13 May 2008 16:56:14 +0000 Janet Clarey http://janetclarey.com/?p=610

My personal goal at Brandon Hall Research is to provide information people need to make good choices. Information like what learning technologies and tools to buy, how to implement them, best practices, how to develop a strategy, and the identification of trends in the industry.

I try to accomplish that through many delivery channels (KnowledgeBases, published reports, Webinars, conferences, workshops, blogs, email, Skype, Twitter, Facebook, social networks, experiments, etc.)

My newest product is about social learning technologies and LMSs.

Over the years I’ve followed LMSs as they morphed from administrative tools – learners and learning events are tracked, e-learning is served up, and reports are generated – to systems that incorporate the entire talent management life cycle (hire-to-retire) and now, for many systems, toward more integration of social learning technologies. Many do so much more than “manage learning”  it’s hardly fair to call them just an LMS.

The research I do here at Brandon Hall Research has morphed too. So, I’m pumped to launch this new product in a printable format and as a service, on an interactive website. I’m very much looking forward to having more personal communication with Brandon Hall Research library members and clients.

(This post is part of a Working/Learning blog carnival hosted at Manash Mohan’s blog: Life, The Universe and Everything about eLearning and Content Development)

What are social learning technologies? Someone asked me if they are the same as “social media” and “social networks?” For sure there’s a whole lotta “social” going on. It’s easy to get confused.

My definition of social learning technologies includes networking and, in the context of human systems, connections among people. Instructional content is shared among connected, networked people. It is interactive and collaborative.

The platforms of social learning technologies include text, images, audio, and video submitted via blogs, social networking services, podcasts, wikis, video, VoiP, and others. The social connections are made with information published on the Internet. People find content, share it, and interact with it.

Have you noticed how quickly social learning technologies are changing the way we learn at work?

The “old media” of workplace learning are one-way lectures, binders full of information, the static Intranet, and even static e-learning courses. The “new media” of workplace learning are online networks where connections among individual learners support learning. These can be, and often are, blended with other formal learning activities. But it’s not all about “new.” The old and the new co-exist. I think it’s important to remember that.

Consider these quotes from a presentation I ran across:

• “[This Device] appealed at once to the eye and to the ear, thus naturally forming the habit of attention, which is so difficult to form by the study of books. Whenever the pupil will not fully understand [it] will have the opportunity of enlarging and making more intelligible.”
• “[These instruments are] not uncommon, but are little resorted to by the teacher.”
• “The teacher almost knows as little how to use [it] as his pupils.”

They were talking about the chalkboard! The new social learning tools we talk about are just as “disruptive.”

It’s helpful to view this disruption through the eyes of the learner. This is a re-run slide show from a prior post:

| View | Upload your own

When you look at the new 2.0 learner, don’t think it’s out with the old in with the new. Your challenge is to utilize the best and most useful aspects of your current learning environment while adding those social learning technologies that support learning.

I think these new social learning technologies require rethinking pedagogy by rethinking instructional strategies, delivery channels, and styles of instruction.

What do you think? Are social learning technologies changing the way you learn at work?