I've been having fabulous conversations about using SharePoint. SharePoint is so flexible and the documentation for it is so big and diverse, that a big part of my goals have been to understand the different ways that training organizations are using SharePoint. In my post SharePoint Examples there are some great examples in the comments. I've had conversations with several of these folks in more detail and with a few others. In this post, I wanted to capture some of the patterns of use of SharePoint that seem to be emerging.

Personal InfoCloud « LinkedIn: Social Interaction Design Lessons Learned (not to follow) - 2 of 2 | Main SharePoint 2007: Gateway Drug to Enterprise Social Tools Overview The last couple of years I have had many conversations with a broad selection of mid-sized to large organizations. What follows is a collection of snippets from those conversations regarding Microsoft SharePoint 2007, most are not publicly attributed as they were not intended to be “on the record”. Some of these are customers of mine or potential customers while others are conversations I have had, but all having the similar discussion about social tools in the enterprise.

I’m including posts from December 2008. Top 20 eLearning Technology Posts for 2009 12 eLearning Predictions for 2009 Top 100 eLearning Items LinkedIn Guide for Knowledge Workers Collaboration Tools Twitter as Personal Learning and Work Tool Top 99 Workplace eLearning Blogs Twitter Conference Ideas Using SharePoint How to Download YouTube Videos eLearning Conferences 2010 Tool Set 2009 LMS and Social Learning Business of Learning Web Conferencing Services eLearning Costs

I thought I'd kick off this year by posting a series of posts on topics related to tools and methods for work and learning. But I'm worried, because while I just got through writing about my concern in Using SharePoint that learning organizations seemed to be making the same mistake of Not Preparing Workers for Web 2.0 . Setting up a SharePoint for a community or work team is very different from teaching them about Personal Learning . It is our personal and professional responsibility to Improve Personal Learning - A Continuing Challenge for Learning Professionals

Unfortunately, these will be even worse than Sharepoint, the solution you already hate. Unfortunately, you can ask all you want, you will still be doing a lot of work with LMS products this year. Prediction #10 => Knowledge Worker Skills - Just Beginning in 2008, Big in 2009 The discussion of knowledge work skills is going to be BIG ... The Big Question this month are Predictions for Learning in 2008 . Here are my predictions, but realistically they are more about trends in eLearning and eLearning Software .

Interesting post by Jane Bozarth - The Myth of "Best Practices" . A "best practice" is best only in the precise, specific context in which it exists. … What works in my marriage won't necessarily work in -- and may even damage -- yours. Even if moved from one situation to another very close one, the odds of transfer being made with practice intact is nil. How do we address those who pressure us to produce a list of, or abide by, "best" practices? The comments are also interesting but focus primarily on the word "best" vs. "leading"

Adoption in the Enterprise - It's Personal Adoption Pendulum As I do presentations where I discuss Tools and Methods for Knowledge Work , I find myself wondering about adoption levels of these tools, and the following pendulum definitely describes how my feelings swing back and forth: Social Software Deployment Levels Over the past few years, there's definitely been greater deployment of social software in the Enterprise. And I'm certainly seeing a lot of SharePoint. Deployment vs. You can find all sorts of interesting resources via eLearning Learning around Adoption .

So, here's a bit of a compilation of some of the things I've been talking about in my blog which points to some of the major trends in learning. Environmental Changes Some of the common trends I discuss in presentations are: Decreased L&D budgets Faster pace Increased workforce mobility Shorter job tenure Increased job fragmentation - fewer numbers in any one role Constant increase in complexity Greater concept work Need for faster proficiency Changing expectations for learning The bottom line is that Learning and Development

Last week at ASTD TechKnowledge , I did a keynote on Work Literacy and eLearning 2.0, For example, we still teach Cursive Writing instead of Touch Typing to kids. Improve your Work Literacy I would highly encourage going through the recent series of posts all about Tools and Methods for Work and Learning : Work Skills Keeping Up Top-Down Strategy Better Memory Information Radar Processing Link Pages Network Learning Collaboration Twitter as Personal Work and Learning Tool Search Browser Short Cuts Work Skills Workshop Keynote Links

Strategy (15) PWLE Not PLE - Knowledge Work Not Separate from Learning (15) Corporate Social Bookmarking Tools (14) Corporate Learning Long Tail and Attention Crisis (13) Test SCORM Courses with an LMS (13) 90-9-1 Rule aka 1% Rule in Collaborative Environments (13) Social Conference Tools - Expect Poor Results (13) Instruction eLearning 2.0 and Quality (11) Social Learning Objects - Flash Cards (9) Learn Trends 2008 (9) New Work and New Work Skills (8) Concept Worker (8) Online Conferences and In-Person Conferences (8) Searching for