e-learning 2.0 challenges for organizations

Organizations and institutions that follow the traditional system of knowledge sharing and instruction understand the limitations of this system in terms of building effective resource pools and leveraging organizational knowledge and skills. A system driven in majority by rote learning, page turners and curriculum-centricity rather than focusing on the learner and growth through harnessing collective insights, is destined to be less effective as an organizational tool.

Additionally, it is also very clear that learning through experiences, shared knowledge and collaborative insight, in collaborate and competitive situations, is a very intuitive form of learning. This is the social constructivist method.

Social constructivism is based on specific premises about reality, knowledge, and learning. Social constructivists believe that all reality is constructed through human activity. Social constructivists believe knowledge is also a human product, and is socially and culturally constructed. Learning is a social process for social constructivists because they believe that meaningful learning occurs when individuals are engaged in social activities. Social constructivist approaches can include reciprocal teaching, peer collaboration, cognitive apprenticeships, problem-based instruction, web-quests, anchored instruction and other methods that involve learning with others.

Whereas the social constructivist approach is an important development, the cognitive and behavioral theories also have their strengths. I believe that leveraging components of both is critical to ensuring higher effectiveness of learning. This is the first challenge facing the organization.

The current state of technology and learning design, whether in HR Management Systems or Learning (Content) Management Systems or Knowledge Management solutions, addresses the administrative side of learning much better than they do the learning aspect! Due to this lack of focus on the collaborative content and learning experience aspects, these systems do not attack the problem holistically. This is the second challenge facing organizations today.

The third challenge that is faced by organizations is the availability of technology components that can integrate with existing systems and learning content / learning experiences seamlessly to leverage e-learning 2.0 capabilities.