training departments are holiday companies...
I've just been reading Steven Downes riff on e-learning 2.0.
He hits my personal nail right on the head with this argument:
"The reason organizations have training departments is so that learning needs can be identified and means for assisting workers in meeting those needs be assembled."
"What you are saying is something like, "You have to join a tour group and be told where to go." And you are defending this by saying, "Otherwise, you would simply wander on your own and be lost." But the latter is a mischaracterization of my position. What I am arguing for is the choice, and not some particular outcome of the choice. A person could choose to join a tour group - and many do. But many don't - just look! - and the recommendation that people need to be told to join a tour group seems odd and unwise. Or as I would characterize it, undemocratic and unfree."
That's a fabulous analogy. I mean, a tour-guide and organised tour is really useful if you're in a completely new environment, but if you've been to cities before, or speak the language, etc. just give me a map and let me wander...
...I might even find something new, and share it with everyone!
Now (stretching the analogy) - I'll still need a plane to get there, maybe a book and some tools to record my visit.
That's how training department should work - full, directed learning for some, and just the transport arranger and tool provider for others.
I love that analogy.
Update: this is bloody excellent article - a must read (well, from about half way down):
"If we analyze each one of the web 2.0 technologies, particularly as they are applied to learning, we will see that they are each of a kind. They give people a voice. They allow people to make choices. They expand individual capabilities and capacities. They reduce the amount of direction, and increase autonomy. What we get in web 2.0 is a freer and more democratic web, one where people can read and listen to each other, at their their own pace and in their own way, instead of to AOL and the New York Times (though these too remain among the choices). And, importantly, that's why people are taking to these technologies."
