Social media learning the fountainhead of possibilities

As we take off from where we left in earlier posts about learning: - learning has to be like harnessing the flowing river of knowledge that has been there for long.The only regret being that we have ignored it saying it is only for geeks and celebrities who get mileage through publicity, but we cannot ignore the plethora of tools that social media has empowered us with so that we are a part of a global community, that thrives on invention and novelty.

The pursuit of getting involved is the basic concern of any learning professional and many headways have been made by moving learning grounds from classrooms to virtual environments.The example of Ajab in Junagadh where the dilapidated state of school did nothing to hamper the spirit of learning for the children there. Check this link for this motivating story

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-03-19/ahmedabad/31210420_1_online-classes-class-x-exams-ajab

Most of the times the learning often encounters the biggest hurdle and that is of self motivation and self direction. Getting the learner to participate or rather planting the seed of desire in the learner to want to participate is the greatest victory achieved.

Enter Social Media. This medium of learning has made inroads into the very basic traits of a community that is to participate, cooperate and remain connected by means that were impossible to imagine even a decade ago.

For a very long time training modules have so been constructed that the learning profession has been trying to find the ideal environment in which we can ‘Get learners to’ participate. Suddenly, here was a learning podium given to us for nothing, but better still, most learners were already participating and contributing to these new online communities.

The paradigm has now certainly shifted because creating the right environment is no longer the primary focus; now the focus is on nurturing the community within the environment that  technology has served us in a platter.

Social learning is not new to us we have had iterative learning from the stone ages where we learnt by copying the apes, but what made us a race to stand apart is to add new technologies and dynamics to the essential skeleton of invention.

Also our brain being so wired that we lean towards adapting ourselves the newer and sleeker module when logically explained the benefits of the same. Social media is a term to debate on if it really is a gaping hole in the security of information leaked or a right tool to harness the capabilities and empower the individual. In any case I believe that social media is like the internet of yesteryear. Internet has now opened so many ways of meeting people, linking organisations that our world of opportunities has expanded exponentially; yet at the same time, the world is getting smaller every day as the barriers of physical distance are eliminated.

Social media has achieved through human beings what internet had then done with machines. Definitely, we at AttendByVideo.com have empowered this very thinking in our protege’ of ABV smart* where we link your talent and question to the right expert and allow us as humans to come closer to banishing our imperfections and become a more perfect race.

Looking forward to see and learn from this vast community of experts !

Talk, Discuss, Learn, Act - Welcome Social Learners!

Most often a travel to south Indian has truly made me realize the way to eat from plantain leaves and how to only use your fingers and not the entire palm in the process of doing so!!

Nearly every eatery that we stopped by, offered us food on the leaves and I was amazed at how dhoti clad men with their pristine white shirts managed to polish off their meals by licking their fingers and yet not spilling one drip of rasam or sambhar on them, it is a tact and one that involves a lot of looking into, studying the way food is eaten and practicing it a few times till you get it right.

As I ventured into this adventure I realized I had to primarily unlearn to be conscious, to be quick with my reflexes (involving mixing and slurping down the served food) and also multi-task by keeping up the conversation with my friends and use my inactive hand to gulp water, refuse more helpings and water down my meal with the sweet kheer. But a few messy stained dresses and unfinished meals down the lane I’m now quite a pro….what got me thinking in this process is that be it in an organization, or an area of personal interest the only thing that pushes you forward is the will to learn socially and adapt accordingly.

Many a time’s experience is our private store house of knowledge that we have accumulated through years, exactly in the same manner that the eating off plantain leaf is discussed. Experience helps practice information and successful practice leads us to become experts in that field. Where experience fails we try to quiz around through social media circles like Google and YouTube to come up with answers and in the process we still continue to Learn. Discussions with our peer groups or sharing hours of debates over a cup of tea have been culture signs that we as a race love to exchange ideas, learn from other views and yet grow in our knowledge.

What technology has done is empowering this very knowledge with discipline, now wisdom is reined and what an ocean of it is available to dip our pails in! Social media has given us the choice to seek beyond our limited familiarity and explore the answers that could be still expanding our probabilities. Google can throw up very relevant information to the slightest of doubts born by you, LinkedIn and Face Book help us maintain ties that earlier would require extensive travel and expenses, yet they also help us leverage  them in ways unknown to us till now.

So that brings us back to square one, learn we have to and if we complain or grumble the world will not stop to ask why not?, instead we have to learn to learn  to keep pace by attempting the new and trying out ways in which we can up the quotient of our learning experiences.

At AttendByVideo.com we attempt to learn newer experiences while sharing them across the globe and also fuelling personal growth in the process. It is true that only education can guide us to a brighter more knowledgeable world. Join us in empowering knowledge, share, innovate and spread the good word.

Learning –A new curve on the face of change

Life has its way of surprising us with its quests and the way we deal with situations that spring upon us unexpectedly. Most of the times we look up to what we have gained and the learning in itself often brings’ a smile on our face as more often than not wisdom is a fascinating name!

Back then in our time we had no Facebook to keep us in touch with our friends and no iPads or iPods’ but that didn’t take away the fact that we kept in touch with our friends who mattered, no matter how far. Perhaps not as frequently but we sure did ok, so did we thrive by making our own music with old tins and drums but we enjoyed our jam out anyways. The only meaning I could see out of this was that we could ride a cycle fearlessly on the road more often than the children of this age can, but then we also learnt than when we invested in people we gained lifelong relationships.

Speed that is what this age relates to, everything be a relationship professional or friendly has its own orbit of focus and that is remarkable. We did enjoy schooling and old words of wisdom passed down as folklores but then the world is much more than only stories, learning in this age is so much more stimulating, exciting and above all enthralling. The children of today have to know all about their world and probably of some other worlds and their stories of evolution as well, so the way they have lapped up information in terms of newsletters, through internet and social networking is amazing! But the question that lies uneasy on the shoulders is, “Is it really enough?” How much can be relied on the information amassed, the mind will always question once shown multiple probabilities that would there be one more alternative.

It is in the nature of curiosity that we attempt to dwell further to seek answers, perhaps a method where experts could team up and answer the required question, a solution that could be more personified & steeped in the progress to attain the correct answer and finally that elusive key in the ocean of uncertainty that will free the mind from all inquiry. Yes, the advent of time and the facelift of change is here perhaps learning just got a makeover and how! AttendByVideo.com has made that probability come alive for fishing the right answer by connecting to that useful expert whose exclusivity is now accessible to all. Sure we have come a full circle from dealing with playing truant at schools to actually challenge an entire school of thought!!!


Here one such free session for you all reader : 

Setting & Achieving Goals - Roadmap to Success

http://www.attendbyvideo.com/topic/5110-Setting-Achieving-Goals-Roadmap-to-Success

Dump Incompetence, Embrace Aptitude

"As you probably know, all the good product names have been trademarked by companies who are competent."
"Competent? How are we going to compete with that?"
        - Dogbert and Wally (Dilbert Comics)

That quote on the Dilbert series stands absolutely true, no one can compete against competence and so the need of the hour in a knowledge marketplace is truly only competence. So how does one come to recognize it or better still give up years of inability to pursue knowledge with higher gains?

Within the current set up discontent will be shown by dysfunctional processes, many a times what you hear is an answer that will never lead to a solution.  The common excuse being “That’s how we have been doing”, rather than “Maybe there is a better way of approach”.

Some pointers to that would be vague objectives and arbitrary deadlines, meaningless solutions from ineffective management, unintended consequence: worsening morale.

Where as in an enlightened and open knowledge place you get to choose your skills matched and honed by the subject expert that you evaluate and choose. Your satisfaction can only shine in a more enlightened environment, as here the emphasis is on permitting the seekers to achieve excellence, and on providing them with appropriate techniques and tools. In effect, the systems are subordinated to the seekers, as their feedback is valuable and so is their contentment.

Sometimes we invest in knowledge bases that are more data gathering stations rather than facilitating knowledge transfer, so the quest for choosing your expert never arises. As the people writing the documents never exactly understand what knowledge seekers really want or looking for as solution.  Are the content producers the real experts? Do most seekers even know who the experts are? The typical result: knowledge pushed out in this way is not very valuable and certainly not to those with the best skills and knowledge.

So how exactly does an expert get chosen from a multitude? We would expect that if the rules which an expert has acquired from years of experience could be extracted and programmed, the resulting program would exhibit expertise. Again this infers that: “The matters that set experts apart from beginners, are symbolic, inferential, and rooted in experiential knowledge. Experts build up a repertory of working rules of thumb, or "heuristics," that, combined with book knowledge, make them expert practitioners.”

We would like to invite all subject matter experts out here on AttendByVideo.com , to expand their horizons of learning and sharing.