Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Self-directed Learning Puts Experts At Your Fingertips


If you ever feel as if the demands of your job and your industry are moving too fast to keep on top and maintain your sanity, you're not alone.
Rapid technology changes, worldwide competition and increasing demands from employers can make even the most confident worker a bit shaky.
That's why self-directed learning is gaining momentum. Workers can find online resources to learn about everything from project management to marketing, helping them learn when the time is best for them.
Instead of taking days or even weeks to try to figure out a problem on their own, they also can tap into an online expert to give them information in a matter of minutes or hours — for a fee.
"I don't think schools are going away, but new tech provides another option to learn," says Ken Howery, a PayPal cofounder and now founder and partner with Founders Fund.
Last year he was part of a $2 million investment in an education start-up called PopExpert.
PopExpert provides hundreds of experts that meet one on one through video sessions and charge a per-hour rate for services. But PopExpert goes beyond job skills, also targeting workers' well being.
Howery says he personally uses PopExpert meditation instructor Kenneth Folk.
"I have worked with Kenneth in person when he's in San Francisco, and nothing is as good as in person," Howery says. "But still, video is way better than a phone call."
Folk is listed on PopExpert as available for instruction at $125 a session. But other sessions, such as meeting with a productivity expert, may cost only $37 for the first session, the site reveals.
For Satya Twena, fashion entrepreneur and fine milliner in New York City, the decision to tap into a social media-expert from PopExpert came about after she realized that her in-house social-media hire wasn't delivering for her business.
The expert Twena chose spent about an hour researching her company's social-media strategy and met with her online to show her how she could put in place a better social-media effort.
"I found out what we were not doing. By finding this expert, I believe it (read more here)

1 comment:

Will Truex said...

Self-education is important. I didn't know you could pay experts for quick info.