Digital Learning as 2017 Closes

December is always a crazy month – a lot to do in a short time.  It is also a time for reflection.
One of the topics high on my list to reflect upon is:  where are we with Digital Learning?  For me, this has been a journey over a couple of years with a bit of turmoil, lots of innovation and change.  But, wow, exciting!  I feel that I am in the center of the swirl.  Time to look at all those colors and take stock.
Personally, I have seen some of my opinions shift this year.  Chiefly, I see the value of a blended content solving multiple needs.  I see how addressing the moment of need is critical and how we can build skills, knowledge and drive engagement while meeting learner expectations.
I recently reviewed a slide on the modern learner that Josh Bersin, Founder and Principal of Bersin by Deloitte, presented a couple of years ago.  It placed learners in the center of an overwhelmed, busy, impatient environment, looking out to the  new world.  Josh created that in 2015 and it is even more true today.  Our audience has new expectations.  As learning professionals, we need to let go and guide self directed learning.  OK, great, but how?  How do we respond to the plethora of content; how do we deliver to the learner’s expectations; how do we blend what we know (ILT, VILT, elearning) and the new (micro, informal, external)?  How do we still build skills?
That brings me to the new digital learning world.  A place where we can do all of that and more.  We can do it better with these strategies:

• Curate:  Find, filter and blend the best content
• Personalize: Deliver the right solution to the right person
• Aggregate:  Whitelist, blacklist content. blend modalities and allow machines to help
• Engage:  Pull tacit, informal knowledge from people within the company
• Context:  Put knowledge where you need it, when you need it.

I could write pages on each of these bullets.  I love to talk about  how you integrate them and make them work to create the learning environment you need.  Yes, there is tech involved, but there is a whole lot more.  In the past several years we have evolved.  We see the disruption and we have a strategy.  
Corporate Learning has moved into digital learning and we are all stepping up to new skills, new ways of operating and new strategies.  
It is going to be a fun 2018!