Harold, from a workplace perspective you probably are correct, from a theoretical perspective, in stating that the course-driven learning arrangement needs to come to an end. Social media cannot be pigeon-holed into a formal learning environment.

What will hold it back is the two-headed snake of legal concerns and past precedent. By legal concerns businesses rightly or wrongly have to worry extensively about the message communicated to employees regarding the business and its processes. At the very least they will require a base line on which all informal learning will spring from. It's the "corporate line."

This leads to the snake's second head, how is that corporate line delivered. Compliance, legal, and upper management are not going to be content to just put a memo, or, if they are early adapters, an audio/video message from the CEO, and let the worker bees to view it or not. That's where the infamous LMS comes into play. They will want to track who has seen/heard the message and they want a test to ensure the message sunk in (at least temporarily). We are creatures of habit and, as a result of the industrial age, we have come to the conclusion that formal training is the only way to deliver that message.

Sorry, but I don't think the classroom/elearning model is going away any time soon. To turn that model over to lawyers or compliance people is asking to turn out even worse material. Believe me, I know. I work for an training and development firm that let its IT department develop computer compliance training using "rapid development" tools. It was the most painful instruction I ever received. Pages of PowerPoint slides converted to a captivate file. Lots of jargon and legalize that meant nothing to me. As an instructional designer could I have done better? I would like to believe so. If I can at least weed the garden of the unnecessary materials and keep what the end user needs to know then I think I have done a service.