Recently I delivered a webinar about Learning and Performance Ecosystems. My understanding of a learning ecosystem is that the ultimate goal is about driving performance and embedding learning not only into the workplace but into the actual workflow. It’s about embracing all types of learning and all types of content in different formats. In the webinar, this prompted a discussion on the challenges of dealing with such an abundance of information. With all this access to information how do we make sure our workforce are accessing the right information.
Our role in learning and development is changing. We are now trying to bring the learning out of the classroom and into the workplace and more importantly into the workflow. We are looking at using systems where people can access content on the fly to help solve problems. We are aiding and assisting the ‘smart worker’.
It’s a wonderful world where we can provide just in time information to people wherever they may be. The only issue with accessing all this wonderful information is how up to date, reliable and accessible that information is.
Our role as learning and development professionals is partly shifting to that of curators of content. Nice new job title eh?
So what’s involved? It’s not really about sharing links or clicking the ‘like’ button a few times. It goes much deeper than that. As a former teacher, creating a meaningful learning experience is what drives my practice. Curating content for learning is the same. Our job as curators is to sift through all the ‘babble’ and find reliable sources. We are looking for quality not quantity.
Now like any good curator, I’ve been sifting through the ‘noise’ and have found some ‘clarity’ with articles that provide a sound overview of content curation and the skills needed.
In the first article by David Kelly, he mentions Rohit Barghava’s; The 5 Models of Content Curation. This model provides a great overview of how to curate content in different situations.
Links to the articles are:
• Is curation in your skill set?
• The art and skill of content curation
Content curation and learning ecosystems are still relativity new buzzwords in our industry. If you have any experiences with either, please share in the comments section below as I’d love to hear more about some real world examples.
Happy curating everyone!