What does « socialization » mean?

We have mentioned that individualization of learning was a condition for its success. But individualization does not imply isolation. Each human being needs contact to maintain his motivation, consolidate his knowledge and practice his skills. By « socialization », we mean « relations with the others » in the broad sense of the term.

Social learning can be viewed as the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes while connected to others (peers, mentors, experts) in an electronic surround of digital media, both real-time and asynchronous. —–Marco Kelting, IMC

Against isolation

There are several ways, more or less directive, to break the learner’s isolation: stand-up sessions, distance tutoring, exchanges with collaborators, experts’ support, etc.

Online learning allows any learning to get trained at his/her own pace but it must, by no way, isolate him/her from the others! The collaboration functions are thus an alternative to get in touch and to have experiences and knowledge shared by all the involved parties. —–Elodie Primo, MindOnSite

Social learning is absolutely becoming a reality.  Informal or social learning has always occurred at the water cooler, across the desk, etc.  Now technology can enable this across time zones and geographic boundaries. —–Bas Kramer, Outstart

Online tutoring is a success key-factor within the deployment of an online training solution. Regardless of the quality of the online learning programmes, the learner is alone in front of the screen. He must be allowed to easily contact someone qualified in case of questions left unanswered at the end of his online learning session. —–Eric Malalel, Lynx Online

Communities and social networks

The explosion of social networks (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) has developed the idea that such systems could play an important part in the learning processes. Reality oscillates from skepticism to research for right practices.

Social media is undoubtedly one of the most important tools we have for learning. It helps us learn in the way that is most natural to us: by asking a question and receiving an answer. However, it only works well when used in the right way. —–Maria van Vlodrop, CertPoint

Most of our customers adopt a cautious attitude towards this approach which consists in integrating or establishing connections with ‘’socials tools’’ such as Facebook or others. Really contrasted points of view are sometimes expressed by the different companies and are often a mirror of the fields of activity within which these companies are evolving. —–Jean-Pierre Pelé, Technomedia

Social learning enables to learn from peers. In our platform, we provide tools within which the learner is set at the core of the learning process like blogs, wikis, diaries, groups and assessment by one’s peers. The learner is no longer passive, he is led to take an active part and to actively give his own opinion. —–Emmanuel Clemot, Blackboard

e-Tipi enables to form a community of practice around a course. It is a very useful solution to maintain exchanges beyond a learning session (experience feedback, practical application, content evolution, regulatory watch…). As they are based on human experience, the communities of practices are a field favourable to informal learning. —–Pierre-Henry Amalric, XPERTeam

vendors are focusing on developing a social networking capability to support communities of experts, enabling learners to gain and share knowledge in a collaborative environment. —–Erik Finch, SumTotal

Shortcuts: Introduction | SaaS | Open Source | Content Management | Talent Management | Adaptability | Accessibility| Individualization | Socialization | Special Thanks