Find it here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/204432
There can be no better recommendation to read a book than when its author spots you as a like mind and invites you to read. I am halfway through Julian Stodd’s ‘Exploring the World of Social Learning’ and am keen to spread the word now so that a community of us have something to discuss and share.
Dare I say ‘I wish I’d written this book?’
I not only find myself nodding in agreement but better still in Web 2.0 terms I find I keep wanting to pause to explore a thought or theme further, the subject matter embracing learning, social learning and e-learning – while drawing on a professional corporate learning and development background, which makes a valuable change from an academic perspective on social learning in tertiary education.
I should add a grab here of the couple of dozen books I have read in, on and around ‘social learning’ as I put ‘Exploring the World of Social Learning’ alongside Martin Weller’s ‘The Digital Scholar’, ‘A New Culture of Learning’ Douglas Thomson and John Seely Brown, ‘From Teams to Knots’ Yrjö Engeström and ‘The Now Revolution’ Jay Baer and Amber Naslund via a solid grounding in educational theory that you’d get from Vygotsky’s ‘Educational Psycology’. An intelligent, engaging and practical read that though linear in format – it’s a book afterall – has built into it moments to reflect, explore or do.
I should draw a Venn Diagram made up of three fields: Corporate L&D, Contemporary Theories of Learning and Web 2.0 Social Spaces as ‘Exploring the World of Social Learning’ touched on all three. There is more, which makes it so readable, there are stories that draw you in that intrigue – while you get a sense of who the author is too, just as you get when reading Bill Bryson.
Better than a set of academic papers, that by definition are several years out of date and sometimes a heavy read encumberred by references – and better than the inevitable Dummies Guide to Social Learning, which is certain to appear momentarily because ‘Exploring the World of Social Learning’ has a narrative flow – it is readable, the Dummy guides are not.
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