Welcome to the age of immediacy. In Learning in the Age of Immediacy: 5 Factors for How We Connect, Communicate, and Get Work Done, learning strategist Brandon Carson argues that these five edge technologies are here to stay.

Today, seven in 10 American adults are social media users, with Facebook being the most widely used platform, followed by Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Twitter. With so many employees already using social technologies in their personal lives to connect with one another and share and gather information, it's only natural that many forward-looking companies have leveraged social media for learning.

Google the term disruption and you will find many results. Lets start with a few definitions so were all speaking the same language Futurist Eric Haseltine says any one of four conditions can usher in a disruptive innovation: In the early 1600s, a spectacle maker, Hans Lippershey, invented the telescope (at least in the Western world).

To bring some clarity to this topic, the Association for Talent Development (ATD) surveyed 596 talent development professionals, finding that 38 percent currently use microlearning and another 41 percent plan to start within the next year. The majority (92 percent) of those whose organizations currently use microlearning indicated that they believed their use of microlearning would increase in the future.

To show that virtual classrooms are well-established and thriving, the Association for Talent Development and the Institute for Corporate Productivity, surveyed talent development leaders about their use of virtual classrooms with instructors and learners interacting in real time. The new report, Virtual Classrooms Now: Using Technology to Reach Todays Workforces, found that nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of organizations use virtual classrooms for employee learning.

Talent development functions are increasing their focus on self-guided development, which makes user-generated content learning content created by employees and shared using social mediaa natural fit for their needs. Instead, they build cultures that emphasize trust, teach employees how to share meaningful content, and formalize policies that clearly spell out expectations for social media use.To better understand the strategies and practices talent development leaders are using to leverage social learning effectively, the Association for Talent Development (ATD)...

The argument: Social collaboration tools make it easier and cheaper for employees to learn from one another. Most everyone is on social media, so it makes sense for talent development functions to consider using these platforms to engage employees in the learning process. But is it as simple as instructing learners to sign on to a platform to ask and answer work-related questions? Do employees truly learn this way?

At Accenture, talent development uses cutting edge technology to support human interaction.Accenture now has six regional learning centersin North America, Ireland, Spain, England, India, and Malaysiadozens of high-tech connected classrooms, and mobile learning in the pocket of every Accenture employee. At every level, and in every location, the latest advances in telecommunications and electronics are embraced, but always to serve human interaction, not to strangle it.Tech and touch are the yin and yang of the companys learning and talent development strategy.

University Health System (UHS), a nonprofit based in San Antonio, Texas, operates a nationally recognized acute care teaching hospital and a network of outpatient care centers. Hernndezs philosophy is simple: Employees are the organizations greatest resource and learning is critical if UHS is to achieve its mission of delivering quality care, efficiency, and a great patient experience.

Leveraging learning technologies is not an L&D strength, two independent studies conclude.

Without highly skilled leaders, organizations cannot build and execute sound business strategies, create and maintain competitive advantages, attract and retain qualified talent, or achieve and sustain peak market performance. Providing those leaders with relevant content and data they can readily apply in their daily work is driving talent developments exploration and deployment of learning through direct, hands-on experiences that are likely to produce immediate, high-performance results.Experiential learning is an umbrella term encompassing learning that...

Investments made to learning technology companies in 2015 were the highest in the history of the ed tech industry by an extraordinary margin, according to new research. The whitepaper reveals that global investments exceeded...

The argument: M-learning needs to be part of your current learning strategy. It's worth the time and effort. Sure, your workforce is probably already mobile. Many employees are using mobile resources to get information they need to do their jobs. Does it make sense for you to provide a more specific solution for them via mobile? Will it justify the resource allocation required? Will you see both short- and long-term improvement in performance? Going mobile is top of mind for many learning organizations today. Is now the time to go full throttle?

In a mere five years, learning will look dramatically different from what it looks like today, and organizational learning and development functions arent prepared to meet the needs of tomorrows learners. To find out what actions learning functions can take now, ATD and i4cp interviewed several leaders of learning functions that are actively imagining and preparing for the future.

As a senior talent development executive, you have a lot on your plate. Strategic planning, budget reviews, meetings with employees and clients (the list goes on)—all of which are paired with a constant stream of emails, text alerts, and phone calls that demand your attention. Amid all this noise, staying focused can be tough. But you can use the very technology that seems to zap your focus and interrupt your workflow to improve your focus and increase your productivity. These apps can help senior leaders maintain focus in an "always-on" world.

For a time, the landscape for learning seemed to have reached a steady state: Traditional instructor-led training remained the go-to option for priority programs, alongside classic coaching and mentoring initiatives for one-on-one (personal) development. E-learning courses, supported by a learning management system, provided self-directed alternatives where scalability or cost concerns dictated. Nagging questions about usage and impact remained, with some resources grossly underused and key metrics on such areas as leadership pipeline remaining stubbornly...

MOOCs: Expanding the Scope of Organizational Learning is an ATD and the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) research report designed to explore the currentand anticipateduse of MOOCs in the business world. ATD and i4cps survey of learning professionals found that 22 percent are currently using MOOCs in learning and development efforts.

Spending on learning programs continued to be a priority for organizations in 2015, according to the Association for Talent Developments 2016 State of the Industry report, which is sponsored by The Training Associates and Bellevue University. The increased investment was accompanied by learners receiving more learning hours and efficient distribution of content and offerings across workforces. Recognizing that these formal learning hours do not capture the valuable development experiences that are embedded in daily work, this year the State of the Industry added...