"Eventually you could have local campuses becoming places where MITx students seek tutoring, network, & socialize—reclaiming some of the college experience they’d otherwise have lost.

Phil thought this sounded like college as a giant coffee shop. I agree. Every education would be ad hoc. It would be student-directed toward the job market she’s aiming for.

This trend toward…coffeeshopification…is changing more than just colleges:

Book Stores Will Shrink to Coffee Shops…

The Coffee Shop Will Displace Most Retail Shops…

Offices Become Coffee Shops…Again…

What Doesn’t Become a Coffee Shop?…

…houses of worship…

What will remain other than coffee shops? Upscale retail will remain…[for] experience…Restaurants remain. Grocery stores remain.

Brick and mortar retail stores will be converted to public spaces. Multi-use space will be in increasing demand as connectivity tools allow easy coordination of impromptu events…"

"What is needed quite urgently is a new approach to helping those in the workplace do their jobs, or do them better – in more effective, efficient and relevant ways in the modern workplace. An approach that is NOT about designing and delivering courses, but is about working with individuals and teams at the grass roots to both encourage and support continuous learning practices as well as to identify more appropriate solutions to business and performance problems through non-training interventions."

"…true social learning has a few important characteristics…this is where the 'new' social learning is different from old…non-negotiable criteria to dub any learning as social:<br />
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1. Democratic: To me the classic example of social interaction is gossip at a watercooler. Gossip emerges from the ground up…doesn't need someone to lead…crowd decides the agenda…the conversation…Learning is truly social when individuals can decide what they want to learn & how they wish to collaborate on it.<br />
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2. Autonomous: …it moves by itself & is not controlled by a facilitator…facilitator can help make the flow of the interaction smoother, but in no way does the facilitator become responsible for the direction of these interactions…<br />
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3. Embedded: …it's about life in general…not a separate exercise…'just in time' learning.<br />
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4. Emergent: …structure emerges from the natural interactions of a participating group. A big problem w/ enterprise social learning is the desire to structure before you start…"

“Social constructivism views each learner as a unique individual with unique needs and backgrounds. The learner is also seen as complex and multidimensional. Social constructivism not only acknowledges the uniqueness and complexity of the learner, but actually encourages, utilizes and rewards it as an integral part of the learning process.”