Recently, the spoof news channel NewsBiscuit featured a story on a 20-year-old girl who had to abandon herattempt to reach the South Pole after becoming cut off from social networkingsites for 72 hours.

The experience was described as"chilling", with particular challenges including the inability to seeher smart phone screen due to the Arctic sun and having to pitch her tent threetimes an hour in order to see if she had been tweeted by Stephen Fry!

We may laugh at such an obvious spoof but, inreality, our dependence on all things digital is not that far from the truth. Iremember the Vodafone network going down several months ago and BlackBerryusers had a similar experience just a few weeks ago. In both cases, thereaction for many was a feeling of isolation bordering on panic!

Taking this observation further, I believethere is a real danger of becoming so dependent on social networking and otheronline activities that we miss out - not just in our communications with othersbut in the actual 'doing of activities'. The Internet, for example, is such abeacon of knowledge that it takes away the need to actually 'do' something.

A well-known mountaineer and Everest guideshared with me his frustrations recently that some of his charges seemed to bemore concerned with being able to tweet and update their blog from base campthan preparing for the experience of climbing the world's highest mountain andone of the true wonders of the world.

So how does this relate to training?

This might go against current thinking but Ibelieve the dangers of focusing too much on social networking and online toolsare the same here, acting potentially as a diversionary tactic that takeslearners away from actually doing something rather than letting them just focuson the 'knowing' .

This, in corporate parlance, is called theknowing-doing gap. Why, for example, do so many companies and individuals knowwhat they have to do but rarely actuallydo it? The same applies intraining.

Certainly, I can see many of the benefits andtransformation potential of the growth of social networks and gaming intraining. There is the increased empowerment among learners, the interactivenature of the learning, the potential cost savings, and the knowledge that isbeing transferred. And there's no doubt that they are on the rise. Cegosresearch has shown the take-up of serious games in training increased from 15per cent in 2010 to 24 per cent this year.

The fact remains, however, that, for all the benefits,social media and gaming should not obscure the fact that training is ultimatelyabout doing rather than just knowing. You may be the master of the universe andyour thumbs a blur as you undertake the latest educational game but, if there'sa corporate battle in the real world, do learners have all the skills they needto succeed?

I know that I'd prefer to go into battle withsomeone who has demonstrated what he can do in the classroom or in the workenvironment rather than on the sofa playing a game or at the click of a buttonon Twitter or Facebook.

In a way, this is almost a clarion call for aback-to-basics approach to training. While I am not a luddite and see many ofthe benefits of embracing new online tools, it's essential that the training focusstill remains on acquiring new knowledge and then having the opportunity toreinforce it through practice and the art of actually 'doing'.

We all know that this is often easier saidthan done and one of the greatest challenges in training is transferring that'Aha' moment you experience and utilising it in the workplace. My concern isthat too great a focus on social media and gaming, and the need to know andeven to be known, might make that all-important link even harder to make.

I'll leave you with the words of ourvaliant, 'plucky' 20-year-old explorer who had to turn back from the SouthPole. She continues: "'I really want to do something with my life,something that will make people sit up and take notice... and inspire them tofollow me on Twitter."

Francis Marshall

01 Dec 2011