Emphatically Recommended Reading #4: “10 Trends for Workplace Learning (from the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2015)”

Our fourth (and final pre-symposium) Emphatically Recommended Reading™ ties to technology thread of the symposium.

As with the other Emphatically Recommended Readings, it was challenging to make a pick, knowing there are lots of great options, but we have settled on one for the last recommendation we’ll share before the symposium–and you’ll be glad to know it’s timely. And really glad to know it’s short. 😉

At the beginning of October, Jane Hart, the founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies (C4LPT), one of the world’s most visited learning sites on the Web, published “10 Trends for Workplace Learning (from the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2015)” on the C4LPT blog. In the piece, she outlines ten trends she sees important for those dealing in workplace learning, based on her Top 100 Tools for Learning 2015 list (the ninth such list she’s compiled).

If you’re thinking of objecting that you don’t deal with workplace learning, consider two things:

1. Is that really true? While you might be a step removed from the workplace, we bet a lot of the learners in the field or profession your association serves use your education offerings as part of their workplace learning.
2. Hart focuses her trends on tools for learning (which she defines broadly as “any software or online tool or service that can be used for your own personal learning or for teaching or training”)–so there’s a lot to be gleaned about how individuals are using technology to learn, whether in the workplace or beyond.

As you read through the trends (and Hart is from the UK, so you should read the post to yourself in your best British accent), think about this:

• What technologies does she mention that you’re unfamiliar with? Pick one that piques your interest, whether for personal or professional reasons or both, and learn more about it. (And we’re going to provide a structured activity around this idea of tool exploration within the week.)
• What might the trends and technologies Hart highlights mean for your education business? What are the implications for changing how you’re doing something or adding something new (or stopping something you’re currently doing)?

We hope you enjoy this final pre-symposium reading–and we look forward to continuing the Emphatically Recommended Readings™ post-symposium.

As a reminder, these are the three earlier Emphatically Recommended Readings™:

• Make It Stick: The Science of Effective Learning
• “Blue Ocean Strategy”
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion