We have finally entered an era when a majority of organizations are using social and collaborative tools for learning. I know that it seems like this has been occurring for years now, but — despite all the talk — social learning technologies have not really caught on until recently. According to Brandon Hall Group’s recently published Industry Perspective on social and collaborative learning, 85% of companies are now at least experimenting with the concept. Just a couple of years ago, less than half of companies were doing anything of any significance.
On top of that, nearly three-quarters of companies believe there will be even more focus on social and collaborative learning over the next 12 months. I guess that answers the question of whether or not social learning is really a “thing” or not. And why shouldn’t it be? We’ve been talking for years now that 70% to 80% of learning takes place in informal settings and that we need to connect people to learning in an ongoing, continuous way. These are the technologies that allow this to happen.