Freedom to Learn and Pursue One's Expertise - Tip #71

I am proud to share that in a few weeks, Training Magazine Network will release a new first-of-its kind member service. Our research confirms this is brand-new. We call it Path to Expertise or Path2X.

According to Judith A. Hale, Ph.D., CPT, ID (ILT, JA+): 

I am humbled by the experience and learning during the Path2X platform creation and making it available to our members. Thanks to everyone who has helped make this vision a reality.

Please watch a brief video.

Path2X has these key elements.

1) Power of the Prompt Questions

With over 90,000 TMN members asking questions in their search activities, we curate and share these questions with the whole community. These prompt questions get crowd-sourced. We refer to them as, "exploratory thinking," "thinking aloud" or "intense curiosity." As the saying goes, "the solution is possible if we ask the right questions."

It's challenging to formulate these questions and if we reuse and repurpose all of them including the search results, it would save time and add more context to the learning.

2) Freedom to Learn One's Interest Areas

We allow members to follow their interests and passions openly through access to unbundled and unrestricted sources of content.

Training magazine is a 40-year-old company. It has developed the best-of-breed resource materials in the world of training. Yet, the breadth and depth of knowledge required by learners surpass our present capabilities to provide this to our members. So, we unshackled our thinking,pushed beyond our current boundaries and uncovered a path for learners to have far-reaching access to varied learning.

We published guest blogs - now 50,000 and growing each day. Our learners deserve to enjoy the abundance of open content from all other sources.

3) Ripple Effects of Insights

Encourage real-time insights noting, sharing and tracking.

Savor the moment. As members go through all types of content that they find interesting through the help of a powerful search engine, they are constantly encouraged to record their insights as it happens. The key idea is to allow them to document what they find interesting at the moment.Their learning preferences and interest areas are captured by the system. This provides them a unique perspective of their pursuit of expertise.

In TMN, we capture the ripples of insights, those small and micro instances of learning - as they happen. While in webinars, reading white papers, watching videos, etc. members can quickly record the ripple of their insights. They also share and view other members' insights.

4) Trending and Patterns of Insights are Predictors of Expertise Areas

Articulate your expertise/digital tracker.

I like the book Show Your Work by Jane Bozarth. It suggests a profound change of our outlook. When we share our work, we actually learn a lot better. I recall a story from a toxic waste company client about how they apply "Chalk Talk." After each training they ask participants to use chalk and blackboard (may be flipcharts, white boards and markers) to talk about what they have learned.

This is a powerful self-learning process that enables the learners to articulate what they know and correct themselves along the way. Let's call this the digital tracker.

At TMN, we allow members to capture trends and patterns. They discover, learn and track what they are good at and they show it off in the "Trending Report."

5) Celebrate and Stand Out as Experts and Specialists

Feedback to self, peers and significant leaders.

Mobile apps and digital watches are so good at this. Their entry into the market is by providing people immediate/instant feedback - whether they are walking, running or consuming calories. The key is feedback for people to correct and achieve their goals. In the Path2X (Path to Expertise), our members achieve this through Path2X eShare.

TMN members can share with friends, peers, leaders and if they wish, in the world of social media like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. We encourage TMN members to announce and celebrate their accomplishments.

What is the single most compelling Benefit to TMN Members?

The new world of learning is open, limitless, abundant and exponential. It is our ardent hope that TMN members experience first-hand this new learning environment. As they discover possibilities, gain insights into their expertise and interest areas and showcase their achievements, we strongly sense that members will eagerly pass on this breakthrough in learning environments to their own learners - helping them to learn better and faster.

Join The All-New TrainingMagNetwork.com. Preview the video again, click here.

References 

Gerald O. Grow. Teaching Learners To Be Self-Directed. Florida A&M University, Tallahassee. 

Jane Bozarth. Social Media for Trainers: Techniques for Enhancing and Extending 
Learning. John Wiley & Sons, 30 Jul 2010

Ray Jimenez, PhD
Vignettes Learning
"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"