And an iPad in an apple tree – a Christmas message

So as I celebrate Christmas by downloading the wordpress app for my iPad whilst trying not to spill my mulled wine over it, I find myself contemplating what 2011 will bring. As head of learning design here at willow, the last 12 months have been particularly interesting. Many years of supporting learning strategies have given me plenty of opportunities to make the case for social learning, mobile learning, collaborative learning and on. However as many of my contemporaries will know all too well, it’s been a tough case to make to a nervous L&D world. But with the inexorable rise of high quality mobile content, better devices, innovative app development and greater connectivity, the audience want more from learning. With iPads and alike tucked under their arms, people expect better from their online learning experience and rightly so. Never has it been easier to access a whole variety of sources, experiences, insights and share, discuss and learn from it all with others. This now changes the game – the choice is not ‘do we deliver this topic using e-learning or workshop or coaching’ etc. It’s how do we make it easier for people to access the best stuff, via the best medium, have the best conversations about it, add the best of their experience, take the best into their work and share it with others? Signposting, creating the learning journey, learning paths – call it what you will, but it’s what everyone who has ever had a passion about collaborative learning, social learning, knowledge sharing and truly creating the learning organisation has been waiting for. It’s the conversation we’ve all wanted to have and now everyone is joining in!