This presentation deals with social learning and social media and the possible use of social learning tools to enhance employee engagement. It was presented to public service

1. Talk background
• A talk on social learning and social networks given by
Bryce Biggs at a Public Service Trainer’s Learning
Network workshop held at the Elangeni Hotel, Durban
on 26 and 27 September 2012.
• Bryce can be contacted on: biggs@associates.co.za or
Skype: bryceb45
• Every effort has been taken to acknowledge all
intellectual property and sources. If there are any
omissions please feel free to let me know.
• Backgrounds, themes, slides mainly from
www.slidegeeks.com. Great value and great materials.
• Check slide 17 to see the reason for the goldfish theme.

2. An interaction with Bryce Biggs
Use of social networking and other
electronic media: its influence on
learning in the 21st century

3. What we will talk about
• A brief visit to learning theory (groan here)
• A provocation to return to at the end of our
session “All learning should be/must be/is social”
• The scale of social networks in South Africa
• Moving to social learning
• Some of the (many) tools to facilitate [social]
learning
• A key facilitated social learning outcome
(engagement, engagement, engagement)
• COPs (communities of practice)

4. Teaching/ learning models or theories

5. Yesterday?
Tremendous feats of memorisation
(“Some scholars it is said could memorise 300 000
traditions.” from “Ideas: A history from Fire to Freud” by Peter
Watson)

6. Some responses to yesterday
– Does Education teach us to memorise
information, instead of understanding it, or is
memorising important for future use?
– No more memorising in schools – Yes, Really!
– Never memorise something that you can look up
in a book
The first two quotes were found in an Internet
search (23.09.2012) the third is from Albert
Einstein (letter to Josh Winteler, 1901)

7. Today?

8. Tomorrow?

9. Learning models/theories
Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful. Box & Draper, 1987

10. A brief (partial) visit to learning theory (1)
• Argyris Double loop learning
• Bandura Social learning theory
• Bruner Constructivist theory
• Gardner Multiple intelligences
• Knowles Andragogy
• Lave Situated learning
• Piaget Cognitive development
• Rogers Experiential learning
• Rotter Social learning theory
• SchÖn Theories of action
• Siemens Connectivism
• Skinner Operant conditioning
• Wertheimer Gestalt theory

11. Putting it all together

12. Some call it connectivism ….

13. Transition and evolution
http://projects.coe.uga.edu: Diagram ex Ireland, 2007: Connectivism, George
Siemens

14. Some call it 21 st century
learning …

15. http://www.teachthought.com/learning/9-characteristics-of-21st-century-learning/

16. What if we just call it social learning?

17. All learning should be/must be/is social?
Social
learning
Traditional
teaching

18. What is social learning?
• Bandura’s Social Learning Theory posits that people learn
from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling.
The theory has often been called a bridge between behaviorist
and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses
attention, memory, and motivation.
• http://www.learning-theories.com/social-learning-theory-
bandura.html

19. And again ….
• The main idea in Julian Rotter's social learning theory is that
personality represents an interaction of the individual with
his or her environment. One cannot speak of a personality,
internal to the individual, that is independent of the
environment. Neither can one focus on behavior as being an
automatic response to an objective set of environmental
stimuli. Rather, to understand behavior, one must take both
the individual (i.e., his or her life history of learning and
experiences) and the environment (i.e., those stimuli that the
person is aware of and responding to) into account.
• http://psych.fullerton.edu/jmearns/rotter.htm

20. One perspective ….

21. Heart, head, hands: turning learning around
We see here another form of education emerging – one
that we are often too fearful to embark upon as it requires so
much letting go, so much trust in the child. In effect, the model
we are accustomed to is turned on its head as learning begins
by capturing the heart.
Through experiencing and having the opportunity to
have a sensory experience with a topic or subject, a child will
develop an affiliation and personal connection for the topic.
However it happens, its captures the heart.
From an article in the Natal Witness by Joanne
Madgwick, September 2012 (edited extract from her book
Learning Through the Senses)
Emphasis added

22. And a story ….

23. Story of a burned 3-year old
child
• Anice (her mother) said Pippie had formed an
amazing attachment to Dr Ridwan Mia, the
surgeon who led the operation to replace her
skin. “Her favourite [moment] is still to see Dr
Mia. She loves him to bits and, when I can’t
get her to fall asleep, I play her a voice-mail
message from him and she is out.”
• Article in the Sunday Times, 23 September
2012

24. So … if we are going to do
social learning … what do we
draw on?

26. At the heart of social learning are
two of the greatest disruptions in
human history – from atoms to
bits; and, from local to global: at
least in part through the medium
of social networks

27. Atoms to bits
• As more and more of what we “consume” becomes
virtual or digital we are moving or transforming
atoms to bits. Some “stuff” may never become
digital or virtual. But much/most of the added
value in a product/service will. Education is the
next frontier where the atoms of most products e.g.
books, lecture materials, lecture presentations will
become bits.
• (Nicholas Negroponte was the person – in the
1990’s – who coined the phrase “Move bits, not
atoms.”)

28. Local to global
• Much has been written about
globalisation. And that’s not our topic
for today. But social networks are
helping us globalise and are
increasingly a key element of the
social learning process.
• So let’s look at them next (largely
through a South African lens).

29. Mxit (South Africa)
• Total Mxit Users: 9 350 000
• Penetration of population: 19% (estimated)
Source: World Wide Worx and Fuseware, August 2012

30. Facebook (South Africa)
Total Facebook Users: 5 356 800
Position in the list: 31
Penetration of population: 11%
Penetration of online population 101%
The largest age group is currently 25 - 34 with total of 1 607 040 users, followed
by the users in the age of 18 - 24.
N.B. Because Facebook does not measure mobile-only usage among those who
have registered via their cellphones, the full extent of its penetration is
significantly understated: primary research by World Wide Worx shows that 6.8-
million people access Facebook on their phones.
Source: socialbakers, September 2012: percentages rounded off

31. LinkedIn (South Africa)
• Total LinkedIn Users: 1 837 150
• Penetration of population: 3.8% (estimated)
• Penetration of online population: 35% (estimated)
Source of total users: socialbakers, September 2012

32. Twitter (South Africa)
• Total Twitter Users: 2 430 000
• Penetration of population: 5% (estimated)
Source: World Wide Worx and Fuseware, August 2012

33. YouTube (?)
• South African statistics not available?
• Fifth most visited site by South Africans after Facebook, Google, Mxit,
Wikipedia
Source: Mapping Digital Media: South Africa, March 2012
A R E P O R T B Y T H E O P E N S O C I E T Y F O U N D AT I O N S

34. From news.com.au

35. Of course ….. social learning delivery
is not just about social networks

36. Pick your social media platform
Comment &
Reputation
Social
Bookmarks Crowdsourced
content
Pictures
Live Casting- Blog Platforms
Video and Audio
Blogs/Conversations
Wiki
Blog communities
Music
Social Micro media
Events
Media Life streams
Documents
Specific to
Twitter
Video Aggregation
SMS/Voice
Video Social Networks
Location Niche Networks
Customers
Service Networks

37. A short – and incomplete – tour
of some of the many
platforms/opportunities for
social learning

38. Social networks

39. Social networks – and groups

40. Learning platforms
A South African Moodle site

41. Resource websites

42. Guides on websites

43. More resources (for COPs)

44. Yammer – a free enterprise social network

45. Platforms

46. Your own platform page

47. Platform tools

48. Platform guides

49. More platform guides

50. And then …. A final question …. Can
social learning help us tackle one of
our biggest challenges in any [South
African] organisation today?

51. Engagement … today’s number
one organisational challenge.
And how social learning could
help

52. What is engagement?
• The individual’s investment of energy, skill, ability, and eagerness in
the work performed. Engagement includes “involvement” and
“commitment” yet goes beyond to include observable behaviors such
as:
• Attention to task detail
• Commitment to assignment completion
• Involvement in special projects
• Communication willingly, effectively with others
• Demonstration of personal/professional improvement
• Initiation of problem-solving and/or conflict resolution
• Innovation regarding processes and procedures
• Tim Wright as quoted in www.hrcapitalist.com
• Bold emphasis added

53. Some factors impacting
engagement and some
measures of it

54. Analysis across the UK Civil Service shows that
the three themes with the strongest relationship
with engagement are: leadership and managing
change, my work, and my manager.
Leadership & managing change
My work
My manager
Pay and benefits
Employee
Learning & development
engagement
Resources & workload
Organisational objectives & purpose
My team
Inclusion & fair treatment
csps: 2011: horizontal yellow lines show relative strength of theme

55. Civil Service People Survey 2011 (UK)
90%
70%
50%
30%
10%
Range of scores for each organisation
Level of engagement: United Kingdom civil service: 97
organisations: dotted red line shows median percentage (56%)

56. “Leadership and managing change” is the
strongest driver of engagement (csps)
12
between 2010 and 2011 (%) 10
8
Change in engagement
6
4
2
0
-2
-4
-6
-8
-10 -20 -10 0 10 20
Change in leadership and managing
change score between 2010 and 2011 (%)

57. Engagement levels in Sub-Saharan Africa
Gallup Inc., 2010

58. Extract from Gallup engagement survey
Feedback, recognition, and positive relationships – these kind of
workplace conditions are fundamental enough that they can serve
as focal points for leaders in a broad range of contexts and cultures.
The positive outcomes consistently associated with employee
engagement – for organizations and individuals – suggest it is one
yardstick by which we can measure progress toward greater
productivity and personal fulfilment for workers worldwide.

59. So where does social learning come in?
Opportunity/challenge Social learning response
• Involvement in special projects • Wiki
• Demonstration of • Enterprise social network
personal/professional
improvement
• Innovation regarding processes • Shared online creativity/change
and procedures management course
• Leadership development • Course management site with
appropriate courses, blogs,
wikis, videos, etc.,
• Change management skills etc.(Moodle?)
development
• Effective onboarding
• Newbie wiki/astonishment
• Etc.
• Etc.

60. How we as trainers can help,
and go on helping

61. COPs

62. What is a community of practice?
• The third form of learning, Communities of Practice (CoPs), was coined in the 90's by
Lave and Wenger (1998). "Communities of practice are groups of people who
share a concern or passion for something they do, and learn how to do it better
as they interact regularly" (Wenger, 1998).
• While there are other definitions, communities of practice (CoPs), so defined, are tied
intrinsically to social learning theory. They self organize; cut across organizations,
time zones, countries, and disciplines; and exhibit engaged co-learning. This
compelling description links the CoP structure of to social learning capacity.
• A community of practice is not just a Web site, a database, or a collection of best
practices. It is a group of people who interact, learn together, build
relationships, and in the process develop a sense of belonging and mutual
commitment. Having others who share your overall view of the domain and yet bring
their individual perspectives on any given problem creates a social learning system
that goes beyond the sum of its parts (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002, p. 34).
• Emphasis added
www.joe.org/joe/2008june/a1p.shtml

63. A closing thought
• As trainer’s in the Public Service (and in the service of
the public) we need perhaps to be focusing a lot of our
efforts at the top and at the bottom of the employee
pyramid.
• At the top we need to be helping public service leaders
to implement existing frameworks that enhance their
leadership qualities and help to buffer them from
political interference and temptation; at the base we
need to be recruiting, selecting, and inducting people so
the Public Service becomes increasingly an employee of
choice and not of last resort.
• Social learning mechanisms can help us at both these
levels