The Five Digital Learning Types

The future of learning will require us to break away from the current one-size-fits-all mold and move to more customized learning.

People want to grow, develop and learn, in effect, they want to change even though they don't realize it. But it is often the organization which stops them. Continuous learning and training become more important in the digital era due to increasing paces of changes and the exponential growth of information. Learning taxonomies try to explain the levels of learning and identify the domains/types of learning. The goal of learning is to sharpen skills and build professional competency. Learning is situational, and the learning styles can be rationalized and diverse. it could be multidimensional, dynamic, interactive and integrated.

Adaptive learning: Organizational learning is enabling employees to constantly learn so that the organization does not only 'earn enough from today,' but 'thrive in the future.' It, therefore, means to ensure that the organization knows the tasks and knowledge required to 'sustain' itself and create an environment and systems to support those tasks being done by employees. Individually, to thrive in the ever-changing business dynamic, adaptive learning becomes one of the most important capabilities for digital professionals to compete for the future. Seasoned persons in life become aware when some of the long-acquired knowledge is no longer applicable in certain situations. You have learned to no longer apply that knowledge in those specific cases. This is unlearning. And then, relearn the updated knowledge for gaining insight on the changing circumstance. Collectively, developing people capability and systems capability raise different "learning" issues, learning organizations are comfortable with complexity, ambiguity, uncertainty, paradoxes and they have a penchant for candor. High organizational learning relates to high response in recognizing and addressing system constraints.

Social learning: Social learning is a concept wherein learning happens through networking on social learning platform, you can learn anytime from anywhere. Such informal learning or virtual learning becomes complementary to formal learning and is emerged as the most popular learning method nowadays to make the learning experience more user-tailored and fun. A learning mind is always in the search for new things and a new way to learn! The emerging digital technologies such as social platform provide a flexible way to learn, share and collaborate. At today’s business dynamic with the information explosion, digital professionals have to adapt to a faster learning method and be truly convinced that online learning is the key option to learn anytime from anywhere and make learning a lifetime habit. In fact, digital tools and apps make learning informal, but more cost-effective and interactive.

Experimental learning: Learning is exciting because your subconscious sees the potential. When people leave the inside box thoughts and standards to seek additional knowledge and experience, they are stepping outside that box into unfamiliar territory, exploring resource, and practice experimental learning to discover the new landscape or fresh views. As we grow, knowledge is acquired and accumulates within us. Learning is how to apply knowledge through experiences, or simply, learning by doing. To encourage experimental learning, a learning culture is something that must be ubiquitous in the organization, and this is not an easy task. In a positive working environment, people focus on the learning opportunities offered by assignment, rather than on the status quo that goes with them. Errors/failures can then be seen as opportunities and drivers for learning and improvement - and not reasons to blame and punish.

Integral learning: = Interdisciplinarity + Synthesis: Digital organizations are socio-technical, it’s important to integrate information and knowledge management, explore the breadth and depth of knowledge, its prospects and practice to improve the collective learning capability in the organization, synthesize knowledge and shape digital insight and foresight for gaining perspectives on how to build the business competency. Synthesis is necessary to summarize understanding of the part of problems and to transfer information about it to others, form a connected whole, and ensure contextual understanding. Practice integral learning means how to frame the bigger thinking boxes, to work not just within the box, but across the multiple boxes, and approach problems via multifaceted way, technically, scientifically, philosophically, psychologically, and sociologically.

Generative learning: It’s the learning style that enhances the 'capacity to create.’ Learning is not just about absorbing the knowledge, it’s even more important for learning to creatively disrupt. It needs to encourage creative disobedience and constructive criticism. It is important to build a creative team, having people with the cognitive difference, diverse background, experience, and capabilities so that they can complement with each other’s viewpoint and skills for both generating ideas and implementing them smoothly. Organizations and their people learn through their interactions with the environment. They act, observe the consequences of their action, make inferences about those consequences, and draw implications for future action. In other words, try to digitally connect key resources and assets in the context of the idea, reaching innovation hubs and clusters across the digital ecosystem. In doing so, you can create a shared context for learning and co-creating. That, in turn, will further fuel more collaboration in innovative initiatives, inspire critical thinking and independent thinking, recognize opportunities, update knowledge, and build new capabilities and skills all the time.

The future of learning will require us to break away from the current one-size-fits-all mold and move to a more customized learning platform to really encourage people in strengthening their strengths and pursuing their interests. Building a learning organization is not and cannot be a goal or a vision. It is at best a collection of attributes which one would like to see depending on the "WORLDVIEW" about what a learning organization can be or could be. Still, learning is a means to the end, not the end itself.

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