Social media is not only a buzzword in several different industries; it is also a powerful force on society and the workplace. The Pew Research Center began tracking social media usage in 2005; since then, the percentage of American adults who use social networking sites has increased from 7 percent to 65 percent. While social networking is most common among young adults (90 percent of those ages 18 to 29), it is also common among other generations (77 percent of those ages 30 to 49 and 51 percent of those ages 50 to 64).
Since most of your employees are using social networking outside of work, it makes sense to use the same type of interactions and technologies when training them. “We learn more when we learn together,” according to the “Harvard Business Journal,” and social media has likely increased our need for social interaction.
Phil Antonelli and John Lane wrote in the spring 2014 issue of “Training Industry Magazine” that “it’s as if social software was designed to support the key aspects of social learning theory.” Social media enables users to observe and learn from each other, which psychologists such as Lev Vygotsky and Albert Bandura believed was crucial for effective learning. Furthermore, social networking can provide easy access to experts when and where their assistance is needed.
Karl Mehta seized upon these ideas when he founded EdCast in 2013. Mehta is a serial entrepreneur who joined Menlo Ventures as a partner earlier that year when his company PLASPAN Inc. was sold to Visa for $190 million in cash. Menlo Ventures’ investments focus on the mobile, social, cloud, big data and advertising sectors, believing (according to its website) that “smartphones, storage, consumer adoption of technology and the shift from traditional to online media” are important trends.
Mehta applied this idea to learning with EdCast, a platform he describes as “the Twitter of education.” EdCast provides SmartBitesTM microlearning and live access to SMEs “to enable millions to become lifelong learners” (EdCast.com). The company announced Series A funding of $6 million led by SoftBank Capital in 2014, and it raised $16 million in its most recent round, led by G.E. Asset Management (an investment arm of one of EdCast’s customers). Other investors include Penta Global, Cervin Ventures and Stanford StartX Fund.
EdCast plans to use the new funding to expand its sales and marketing efforts and continue product development. Currently, it has two tracks: a consumer-focused track that provides mobile access to SmartBites and a curated content feed for business subscribers. Between the two tracks, EdCast has almost one million daily users. Its business user base is growing faster than its consumer base – “at double-digits month-over-month,” according to a TechCrunch article. Eighty percent of those users are millennials; Mehta says members of that generation like microlearning and “are used to learning from outside influencers rather than expecting the companies to train them.”
Following this trend, in September, EdCast launched the 10 Minute Insight Series. Free and open to anyone, it’s a once-a-week series of 10-minute interactive lectures and Q&As by executives, politicians and celebrities. The lineup has included MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga, Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, blogger Robert Scoble, and former Undersecretary of Defense Michèle Angelique Flournoy.
In addition to learning from thought leaders on EdCast’s 15 channels, users can create their own channels and encourage people to follow their work as well. For millennials, who are used to sharing photos, videos and 140-character opinions, such a platform could be very appealing.
In a 2015 article for TrainingIndustry.com, Mehta wrote that “the future of business is a new generation of young, social and online-friendly employees.” These employees have used social media since its beginning, and Mehta stresses the need for companies to “leverage the social-media instinct to retain new employees…by making learning like social media, with seamless user flow, social ecosystems, peer-to-peer learning and rewards.”
Will the “Twitter of education” accomplish this goal? With a million users and $22 million in funding, EdCast’s answer seems to be “yes.”
