I spent the morning attending something called “HootSuite University”.
If you’ve never heard of it, don’t worry. It isn’t in the Big Ten, Big East or any other conference and it has no teams of any kind. It doesn’t even have a mascot.
The fact that it doesn’t have a campus should come as no surprise either.
HootSuite is a very good bit of software that is definitely Web 2.0 (For those of you not paying attention, Web 2.0 is in large part about the idea of doing things exclusively via the web, or in this case, via software that is accessible via a web browser (like Internet Explorer (yuk), Safari, Firefox, Chrome, etc., etc.)
It is often referred to as “Cloud Computing” because you don’t have the software on your computer, it actually “lives” on the great “cloud” of data that is the internet itself.
HootSuite is a client for being on various social networks, like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Linked In, and the like. Why HootSuite is a big deal is that it lets you monitor and post to these various social networks–all at the same time. While this may sound like no big deal at first, for those of us who have to manage being on several of these networks for big portions of each day, with different “identities” like one for personal use, one for work stuff, and so on–having all of that on one screen, accessible from almost any computer or even a smartphone–HootSuite is a very big deal.
You can also use HootSuite (yes, its free) for just keeping track of one Twitter account if you wish. But given that it has a whole lot of unique features and options that make it very handy for those of us who are multi-tasking the social networks as part of our work, it is a very powerful tool. And given that HootSuite does more stuff that a large model Swiss Army knife, you do have to spend some time learning all of its features to get the most out of it as a “power user”.
To help with that, the creators of the program came up with “HootSuite University”, an online learning community that you can pay a reasonable “tuition” into, to take training on the HootSuite program, watch lectures about how different people and companies use the program, and communicate with other students.
Of course the idea of online learning isn’t new, there are hundreds of different virtual “campuses” on the internet, many from traditional outlets of higher learning and even more from newer name who have combined physical classrooms and virtual classes to become rather large concerns.
The University of Phoenix, which seems to be all over the place, has its name on the stadium in Phoenix (as in Arizona) where the Super Bowl was played. Clearly they are making a few dollars.
HootSuite University is of course, a far less ambitious undertaking. But the end result is similar. Teaching people a new skill is always going to be needed. For busy people trying to live their lives, finding the time to learn something new is often nearly impossible. Thus where online learning fills a huge need. The training is available anytime, it works at each individual’s own pace and it is cost efficient.
Just how “online learnin’” will continue to change the face of education on all levels in the future, is anybody’s guess. But my little experience of attending “HootSuite University” reminded me in a profound way of how much about the way we learn is changing–and just how much our future will depend on embracing and extending these new ways of learning? Well that might just be the key to our survival.
Now armed with my newly conferred “degree” of Social Media Consultant from HootSuite University, I’m going to spend the rest of the weekend celebrating.
?<a href=”http://learn.hootsuite.com/social-media-consultants/805″> <img alt=”HootSuite Professional Certified” src=”http://learn.hootsuite.com/cert.php?id=805&code=8d4fm8AF3s” width=”80″ height=”80″> </a>