With the advent of hand-held computers in the form of tablets and phones, and the subsequent invasion of social media channels, the future of learning is evolving quickly. The rows of desks in a classroom with a teacher doling out knowledge as they think students can handle it is quickly heading to extinction. Learning has become ever present and more widespread! We learn from Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, news apps and the plethora of channels that come directly to us.

What does this mean for the future of learning?

Not only is learning becoming increasingly pervasive, with the evolution of these types of devices, learning will become personalized and contextual. As devices become more affordable and able to collect, synthesize and analyze expanding amounts of data, they will become an even greater part of our learning. Add to this new types of data collection by these devices (sensors, GPS, biometric scanners, etc.) and that informal learning will more and more become curated to our interests based on our interactions with our devices.

Formal learning presently accounts for about 10 per cent of our learning. To stay relevant, it will need to compete with all the informal learning taking place, while at the same time giving credit for all related informal learning. This will mean Learning Management Systems (LMS) will need to be fully mobile and mimic the informal learning modes and the global social interaction capabilities of devices. They will need to present authentic personalized learning while evolving new types of recording, evaluation and collecting assessment data to determine the effectiveness of the total learning experience. These assessments will increasingly consist of reflection, self-assessment and peer-assessment.

The LMS of the future will be a curated, data driven knowledge platform that monitors all formal and informal learning on an individual basis.

Kevin Henderson is manager of content creation at Velsoft Training Materials.