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.

This time around we focus on the basics – learning and its right mix. We talk about the changes in the key drivers for blended learning, some fundamental characteristics of training to be followed, and the pros and cons of eLearning. And while we are on this, how can social learning and game-based learning be left behind? Read an exciting case study in social learning and learn about some games and game-related projects that are already making a difference.

Today, I’m going to adopt a contrarian view. We all know social networks promote learning; while the mechanisms aren’t documented or well-understood, that it works isn’t in doubt anymore. But we must ask, are the ‘social media/networking systems’ out there promoting this learning? Or does it happen in spite of these systems? Sure, lots of companies want to replicate ‘Facebook’ behind the firewall; safe from prying eyes, but open enough for employees to freely express themselves. They hope that by just implementing such a system learning will ‘happen’; does it?

It’s been quite an interesting week on the Google front, with the launch of one new service after another. The one making the biggest waves (if you pardon the pun) has been Google+ (plus). Having wrangled an invite, I used it for a couple of hours. These are some first impressions.

It shouldn’t be surprising that I’m making lots of comparison to Facebook which is the defacto social networking standard right now.

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.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we’re continuing to explore game mechanics that are apt for learning. While I mentioned three that are a ‘must-include’ in a learning game, the ones I’m about to mention two that aren’t quite at that level. However, adding these makes for a certain of gaminess in the interaction mix.

1. Levels – Yes, the ones we’ve seen in pretty much all games. Levels are essentially a method that all an increase in the difficulty of game-play. The better you do at one level, the higher the likelihood you’ll make it to the next. In commercial games, extra game-features or capabilities are unlocked as you progress through levels. As an example, being able to unlock more sophisticated ‘combos’ in a fighting games.

Continuing my unintended series of posts about Learning Games, I’m moving the focus to some game mechanics I try to include every time I try to design a game that’s meant for learning. While you will almost certainly encounter these in commercial games, I’ve seen some learning games fall flat because the designers are ignoring some fundamental mechanics. When designing a learning game, you’ll want to build these mechanics into the design. Some are quite obvious, some not so.
I’m covering three I think are really important, but will follow up with another post that lists some more next week.

As our services in game design and development advance, we’re often asked how ‘social gaming’ paradigms can be used in learning games. My instant response to those would be ‘yes’ it’s possible; but faltered on further details. I’ve been doing some thinking about social games; what makes them tick. Some thoughts:

We must bank on the capital sins – wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony; while these are ‘no no’s in the real world, social games seem to capitalize on them to a large extent. When designing a social learning game, I’d definitely want to include one or more of these in some way or the other. It’s great to use the weak moments during game-play to push elements of learning value/content through to the player. Social game developers and studios use these to monetize their product, as learning designers we can use these to capitalize on learning.

In continuation to our weekly roundup of the best links shared on Twitter and Facebook, here is a collection of our top 15 links from the last week, each accompanied by a quick brief.

1. Taking Cues From Industry: Using Casual Games For Learning At DAU
The use of games in education and training is quickly becoming a mainstream practice. This article talks about Defense Acquisition University (DAU) where games have grown from being closely aligned with both the learning objectives and the context of the acquisition workforce to the launch of the first Department of Defense casual gaming site.
Read it here

It was an exciting moment when Tom Werner of Brandon Hall started announcing the names of the winners for various categories in the online ceremony for the 2009 Excellence in Learning Technology Awards.

We were informed that the UpsideLMS was a finalist in three categories and we were waiting to find out what award we were going to win.