Social media for learning development and education

While continuing  to develop a series of programmes for trainers and developers CPD I have increased my interest in the world of social media. I consider myself no so much an early adopter, but late in the early adopter camp – the reason for this… lessons I learnt in my early career in the world of engineering.

While working for a defence based company I could not understand why we rarely use modern components, indeed most components had to have been in the market for 2+ years – the reason.. reliability we could not afford component breakdowns because the concept was not proven. This at the time made sense in that context, but it did not dawn on me that this may be transferable learning.

In the early 80′s I had micro computer after micro computer ranging from NASCOM, PET,  ZX80, Amstrad etc.. and many others, then when I got my first IBM compatible I started the chase to have the latest processor and video – as did many others, but  quickly (and expensively) learnt that latest did not offer huge advantages that were tangible, so slowly I have started adopting technology in this arena half a step behind ( for example why dual or quad processors?) most desktop software could not utilise them effectively). It took a while for me to realise the knowledge and learning that I had obtaibed from my time in the defense electroinics sector was transferable to my love of technology!

So with social networking sites and tools,, I look, wait and then explore.

Recently I have discovered a few sites which share their use and I thought others would also find them useful:

http://www.edutopia.org/twitter-professional-development-technology-microblogging

http://monitter.com/

more soon…