Many people oversimplify decision-making by casting the results in black and white when the real answer comes in shades of gray.
Ten years ago, the debate was about whether eLearning was better than face-to-face. As eLearning matured, we realized the answer is often a blend of both.
When I wrote Informal Learning, many readers argued that formal learning was superior to informal. In fact, all learning is part formal and part informal. What we shoot for is the best degree of formality in the given situation.
Today’s false dichotomy is social media. Should we allow Facebook, construct Wikis, and encourage Twittering at the office? Will employees fritter away their time? Will our secret sauce be spilled all over the internet? Will people watch porn at work?
Once more, we’re asking the wrong questions. It’s not “Should we or shouldn’t we?” It’s “How much?”
Social media is not either/or. It’s “some.” It’s already happening. Your employees do have smart phones, don’t they? And most have computers at home? This is not peek-a-boo; when you close your eyes, social networking doesn’t go away. Your employees, customers, and competitors are already involved.
Internet agility will separate the coming decade’s winners from the losers. That’s another dichotomy, but that’s the way it goes with life and death.
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JC,
I am currently wrestling with the notions of intentionality and metacognition in the learning sciences. If both of these aspects are an inherent part of learning, then is formal and informal learning a false dichotomy?