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This article first appeared in TrainingZone on 7 September 2011, but is reproduced here for those who don't have a TZ account. During social learning month, Jane Hart will be providing some weekly articles curating some key resources about social learning. 1. Social learning has become the latest trending concept in the learning world. Although there have been, and there will be, many articles providing a definition of what social learning is all about, I think this article by Dennis Callahan sums it up, and makes it quite clear - social learning is like gravity - it's just there all the time.

Do you find that your employer is resistant to incorporating social learning tools to enhance the business?  Maybe, we just need to communicate the value better. First of all, let's get on the same page with what 'social learning' even means. Wikipedia defines social learning as:  learning that takes place at a wider scale than individual or group learning, up to a societal scale, through social interaction between peers.

The New Media Consortia has been publishing their annual Horizon report on trends in higher education for ten years. To celebrate that effort NMC brought together 100 thought leaders in education for a three day convocation in Austin.  The group identified 28 megatrends in education and released a press release that documented the most important first 10.  Here from their press release (NMC) A wide lens was aimed at the world around education, and that lens had a uniquely global focus. What interested the group - which represented 20 countries from six continents - was what trends are truly international? Which are impacting learning and education worldwide, from the most advanced countries to the poorest?  From these discussions, 28 hugely important metatrends were identified. The ten most significant are listed here and will be the focus of the upcoming NMC Horizon Project 10th Anniversary Report:

It's tempting to get caught up in every new practice or technology that comes along in learning. Here's how to assess when and why they're right for your business

Here are three of the developing topics that combine social with learning - and should be worth integrating in your business during this year.

"Collective intelligence is a growing trend that seeks to exploit the computational power of millions of users You have probably done it but maybe you didn't realise. Or maybe you did it on purpose, but it was a game. What is it? Collective intelligence, or "human computation", is a growing trend that looks to harness the wisdom of the crowd to solve problems. Today, enormous computational power is distributed among millions of users, and the internet offers a means to connect it, explains Prof Barry Smyth, professor of computer science at University College Dublin."

How do you manage a workforce that is both nomadic and collaborative? In a 24/7 always-on- and-interconnected world, do we need to rethink the industrial-workplace social contract that's based on hours worked and being on-the-job ? Join Harold Jarche to discuss how these and other trends mean a shift to perpetual Beta, where learning is the work.