So, knowing there are a million books on social media, I was wondering if there were any books on social learning. So, I opened the Kindle app on my Android phone, went to the Store link and typed in “social learning”. Instantly, the 2009 book The New Social Learning popped up. I read the reviews, which were all excellent, then bought it with Amazon 1-Click. Thirty seconds later I was reading it. The whole thing from wondering if there was such a book to reading the first words in the book took less than five minutes.
The question is: will I finish it?
Things like Amazon’s 1-Click make it easier than ever to access learning resources – but there’s no app that will make sure you actually use them for as long as required to learn whatever it is you got them for. For example, do you have any books, CDs, DVDs, manuals, web links or any other learning resource, now gathering dust even though you didn’t achieve the learning goal for which you got them? I know I do, and I bet I’m not alone.
Don’t blame the books
I bet millions of people set learning goals, get resources, start using them and then abandon them without achieving the goal. I also bet that, the harder and longer the goal, the more learning resources that end up on the “I’ll get to it later” shelf.
The problem is too many people try to learn on their own and, just like the many who try exercising regularly on their own, they abandon it.
What if they – what if you – could easily connect with others to use those learning resources together to achieve your goals together? Even if your final learning goals are different, the same learning resource might be a step you can help each other take toward both your goals. (This builds on the idea I discussed in my post Why You’re Not Learning Everything You Should ?)
Do you connect with others to help each other achieve learning goals?