Recommended reading: the cluetrain manifesto
This seminal book, by Rick Levine, Chris Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger was first printed in 1999.
With the rate of change being what it is, it's no longer a new book. It's not even really about learning. Nevertheless, many learning professionals view it as the book that captures and explains what has happened to (among other things) the field of learning in this age.
The book describes the change in the way people interact with business and with one another. Learning professionals often see this as being a causatory factor in the way people interact with learning materials. In fact, it could be said to explain people's changed perceptions of what constitutes learning materials per se... and learning, for that matter!
This book was perhaps the first to use the term 'conversation' to describe what was going on between people via the Internet, thus lifting the lid on what has increasingly been referred to as Web 2.0.
To quote from its flyleaf: "Through the internet, people are discovering new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed." This has presented a challenge to learning professionals. Another quote from the flyleaf refers to book's illustration of the way in which "the Internet has radically reframed the "immutable laws" of business". Parallels can be drawn with the way the Internet has "radically reframed the "immutable laws" of" learning. Users and learners are no longer satisfied with the party line. Nor are they happy to wait until an appropropriate course of study becomes available to answer their questions. Increasingly, the kneejerk reaction is to "google it". Also on the increase is that individuals will generate their own content and add their own perspectives to the mix of what we now call user-generated content.
There have been many books which address the transformation in learning and our understanding of it (and I plan to review a few of those in due course), but when considering where to start a series of book reviews about learning, I was drawn unerringly to cluetrain. Many of the books which followed - books which are held up as landmark publications about the relationship between the Internet and learning - may well have been directly or indirectly spawned by it.
If cluetrain is still on your 'to read' list, and even more if cluetrain has not yet made your 'to read' list, I strongly recommend you get cracking! When you've read it, several later books about learning will suddenly make a whole lot more sense.
Karyn Romeis