Ten Top Tips for Fingertip Learning

Steve Barden of Epic Consulting provides some top tips on how organisations can prepare for and manage their fingertip learners ...

1. Know what ‘fingertip’ means

It’s about how and where learning is delivered. It’s fingertip if:

• it uses informal and social learning techniques
• it’s just-in-time, just-enough
• it’s personal – not just business.

2. Know what ‘fingertip’ is not

It’s not about just providing a link to Google or any other public search engine, because we all know that it takes some skill and luck to find what you want quickly. It’s not fingertip learning if it’s:

• unstructured
• not signposted
• not searchable across private and public domains (federated search is the mature way)
• not possible to filter to the required information in 3 or less iterations.

3. Utilise the ‘power of many’

• Capture non-learning information exchanges, provide a summary of key points and add them to the resource search
• Bring peers together across the world
• Provide wiki to share and structure best practices
• Peer review and references counts a lot in helping a learner choose what they need to learn

4. Look to evolving your learning culture to a more mature, personal approach

The days of buying monolithic catalogues and systems has passed. The more mature way is to facilitate performance by integrating knowledge, learning and performance resources:

• consider the workplace training needs first, deliver them last
• provide the overview and rationale as a training nugget to create engagement and motivation
• ensure coaching and support is available to develop the knowledge when it is needed

5. Avoid information overload

Remember the half-life of knowledge is rapidly shortening and it’s more about ‘know-where’ than ‘know-how’ (knowing where to find information is more important than knowing information).

Therefore:

• Chunk content so it's easy to digest
• Avoid unnecessary use of text, animation and sound
• Keep the interface free of gimmicks

6. Motivation is all - give ownership to the learner

One-size-doesn’t-fit-all. What really encourages learning is the opportunity to explore, reflect and digest – but not necessarily in that order.

• Allow users to assess their current level of knowledge and see the gaps or targets
• Provide options for how the gaps are addressed
• Treat them as adults when planning their lessons
• Remove all possible barriers to access – that is, technical, procedural, time and place

7. Foster social interaction

The digital natives are here, now. Don’t prevent them exploiting the techniques they use to communicate in their everyday lives to build better learning environments. Both actual and virtual networks build a powerful learning culture - whether they are fully structured or not. Learning is about creating as well as consuming.

• wikis and blogs don’t have to be anarchic – they provide a route for peer collaboration that doesn’t rely on same time and place
• Use the technology to connect the expert to all the people who want to interact with them
• Build confidence and trust in the technology by emphasising good role models and rewarding innovation
• A learner can exponentially improve their own learning by plugging into an existing network

8. Recognise that the device should not be the limiting factor

When considering what can be delivered to wireless, handheld devices - although this may be better called stylus learning - the point should be about delivering what is really needed and when. Don’t be PC (nor Mac).

• Use your nuggets
• Strip out the unnecessary
• Create for a (platform) independent state

9. Think outside the box

That is, the computer box. Learning and knowledge rest in diversity of opinions. It also rests in diversity of media. Use podcasting as a means to deliver and reinforce information, convey opinions or bring life to industry news.

Even in the box, learning happens in many different ways. Courses, email, communities, conversations, web search, email lists, reading blogs, etc. Courses are not the primary conduit for learning.

• RSS and aggregating software really can bring useful information to attention – takes the pressure off the fingertips if it is brought not sought
• Tag clouds and folksonomies (where users create and affect the organisation of the content structure) - bring democracy to which information stands out from the crowd (e.g. lessons learned database).

10. PLE is the only three letter acronym to remember

Personal learning environments are the future and that’s why fingertip learning will flourish. Go on, try some now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_personal_learning_environments