Web 2.0 And E-Learning - What Do They Mean To Me Or My Business?

Does e-learning and web 2.0 sound complicated or hard to really picture if you are not familiar with the terms? Sure they sound complicated if you are new to the lingo, but get used to them because they are going to be around for a while! The reason the business world needs to get use to these two terms is because of the popularity and ranking of each. I challenge you to “google” both and see how many results come back.
Today’s high school and college graduates as well as the pace of technology are moving extremely fast. Most twenty something's are entering the workforce expecting to have online training and hosted software at their fingertips. Why? Well, because they use these tools to study with, to research with, to socialize with and they are a part of their everyday lives. So what do they really mean to business?
Lets look at what “wikipedia” has to say:E-learning: is a general term used to refer to computer-enhanced learning. It is used interchangeable in so many contexts that it’s critical to be clear what one means when one speaks of “eLearning”. In many respects, it’s commonly associated with the field of advanced learning technology, which deals with both the technologies and associated methodologies in learning using networked and/or multimedia technologies.
Web 2.0: Is a phrase coined by O’Reilly Media in 2003 (and later popularized by the first Web 2.0 conference in 2004) in reference to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services – such as social networking sites, wikis, and folksonomies – which facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. O’Reilly Media titled a series of conferences around the phrase, and it has since become widely adopted.
Although web 2.0 is a newer “coined” phrase hosted software is not all that new but both e-learning and web 2.0 are growing at an incredibly rapid pace. Research suggests that the growth rate of hosted online learning trends, are on average 25% a year. This indicates that businesses (small to large) need to really do their due diligence with respect to how popular integrating a web 2.0 training strategy is and how their newer ranks “expect” it as part of an organizations training program. Not only do your younger employees expect it, so do your younger consumers!
The twenty something generation “expect” web 2.0 training at their jobs because they use social media tools that are hosted everyday and so do those customers. The new and future customers “expect” to see a product demonstration online before they buy. The new and future customers “expect” to go online and see and hear a step-by-step guide on how to build their 2 year old's new play kitchen (believe me I could have used that last Christmas!). So you see how web 2.0 (fancy catch phrase for hosted online solutions) and e-learning (web-based training) are the way of our future employee training and customer service? If this makes no sense to business owners and executives out there please let me know how you intend to retain an aging staff and customer while still bringing in a return for those aging salaries, benefits and old customer service programs.