There has been a lot of talk about informal and social learning vs. formal learning. There is so much about it on the internet, that we wonder sometimes if formal learning has any sort of place in the future of learning at all. The fact hasn’t change, formal learning will exist in the future. There are a variety of reasons for it; but let’s just quickly delve into it a bit. With service industries ending up as major consumers of learning, the focus on knowledge is more pronounced, I sometimes feel it is the one key influence affecting the level of service a company can offer and profit from. The knowledge life-cycle is shortening, in some cases, products such as cars took five years or more to develop and roll-out.

As technology continues to infiltrate every corner of the K-12 educational space, mobile learning is slowly but clearly emerging as the ‘future’ of learning. Know how you can leverage this to teach effectively. Continuing the mLearning thread, it would also be of benefit for you to know the possible reasons why your well thought mLearning strategy could fail. Furthermore, you can learn some tips, techniques and best practices for developing mobile web apps.

On the eLearning front, learn how you can overcome the cultural barriers to the adoption of eLearning, how DSLRs can help you in making engaging eLearning videos and how you too can attain the balance between formal and informal learning. Find all this and more in our Weekly Digest – a collection of top 10 links from the week gone by, each accompanied by a quick brief.

Learning as we knew it has undergone (and continues to undergo) a sea change. Today, we have new forms of learning like – blended, informal, social, mobile etc. And these new forms gain more momentum as we shift into a world were time and attention spans are both shrinking. Learn about some of these new approaches here.

For those of you who have been bitten by the iPad bug, we have included some cool apps. Besides this, we also have some tools that will help you in mobile app development.

Read it all here in our Weekly Digest – a collection of our top 9 links from the week gone by, each accompanied by a quick brief.

Need to quench your thirst for the latest in learning, technology and media links further? You can dig into our previous lists here

The Centre for Performance Development has released the results of their Learning & Skills 2011 survey – which was held both at the event and online. Read more about it on the survey page on their website. The survey asked people to put blue or orange m&ms in various jars representing the L&D activities they expected to do more or less in 2011. Blue for more and Orange for less. Scientific isn’t it!

We have said this before and are saying it again; informal learning is the new ‘learning’. This is not to say that informal learning would act as a replacement to the formal mode of learning, but it is the synergy between these both that produces effective growth. Based on this premise, we have debunked some of the common myths of informal learning. Also, we help you assess this new form of learning in a new light.

From informal learning, we go on to talk about learning as the new work, eLearning testing, novice and expert thinking, tablets and more.

Read it all here in our Weekly Digest – a collection of our top 9 links from the week gone by, each accompanied by a quick brief.

Need to quench your thirst for the latest in learning, technology and media links further? You can dig into our previous lists here

The Internet is going ga ga about it; the mobile lovers can’t seem to get enough of it; the Apple fanboys have already bought it; while the rest have been writing about it. So what is the deal with iPad 2 that had led to a mania of sorts? We give you the lowdown on this new tab – find all that you need to know before spending your dollars on it. More on tips and tricks that will help you get the most out of your iPad, digital story telling and the future of the tablet.

Speaking of the iPad, the growth of mobile devices has led to an increase in social and informal learning. Know how you can evaluate this new form of learning effectively. Also, find interesting reads on eLearning and technology sprinkled finely throughout this post.

Read it all here in our Weekly Digest – a collection of our top 16 links from the week gone by, each accompanied by a quick brief.

Need to quench your thirst for the latest in learning, technology and media links further? You can dig into our previous lists here.

As people increasingly embrace social media and new technologies with open arms, social learning, informal learning and blended learning continue to gain a strong foothold in an organization’s learning palette. We have scouted the Internet to help you know how.

And, how could we possibly end this post without mentioning the iPad? Besides the latest scoop, news and stories, you can also find tips, tricks and tutorials to help you get the most out of this 9.7” wonder.

Find it all here in our Weekly Digest – a collection of our top 20 links from the week gone by, each accompanied by a quick brief.

Need to quench your thirst for the latest in learning, technology and media links further? You can dig into our previous lists here.

Learning is fast turning Social, Informal, & Mobile.

That’s the message I’ve been hearing loud & clear from Learning Technologies 2010. While what’s being said in most of the sessions isn’t entirely new to us, it does reaffirm the direction in which things are going. The level of participation in these areas was clearly visible at the event which is a good sign. Adoption, after all, will happen only when L&D professionals start making some sense of it in first place.

Here are some highlights from the Day 1 sessions I attended:

Interesting numbers about the Social media and mobile computing revolution, while we wont really vouch for the numbers, Gary goes to great lengths to provide sources and substantiation for the basis of his calculation.