To direct clients to the Kern office, is it more polite to say "please enter from the rear" or "please enter from the building's backside" 6 months ago
While I am amazed by the potential that many web2.0 tools offer, I find that I am sometimes unable to see the utility of certain tools that are created. My thoughts about Twitter, at least initially, were not too positive. Twitter is a social networking tool that allows people to send short messages (140 characters) to everybody in their network. I couldn’t help but wonder the point of such a tool, not just for learning but also for social networking. But that was before I stumbled upon Jeanne C Meister’s blog . According to her, Twitter ‘..marries the mass appeal of blogging with the speed and ease of text messaging.’ I guess it was this statement that liberated my views about Twitter.
Meister has explored the use of twitter for learning in her blog post- Twitter: Can We Use This As A Training Tool? In this post she shares demographical data on the usage of Twitter. As most users fall in the 18- 24 age group, Twitter is ideal for younger learners at the work place, the ‘Millennials’. She also suggests some interesting ways in which Twitter can be used as a learning tool. Her next post- Feed Back From Users Of Twitter As A Training Tool, carries more interesting ways in which Twitter can be tapped for work place learning.
Meister is an active user of Twitter and her twitter feeds , which update people about her latest blog posts and her latest initiatives, certainly seem to tap her social network to its maximum potential.
I guess it again boils down to how innovative we are in using the tools that are available to us. It is also important that we study our work/learning requirement and accordingly use tools that are available to us. For more on this, read Tony Karrer’s post Top-Down Stategy: eLearning Technology. Also, most web2.0 tools are not created with a learning objective in mind, they are created for sharing, collaborating andpublishing content, ideas and thoughts. Its up to educators and instructional designers to study the affordances of these tools and tweak them for the purpose of learning. For more on this, read an interesting post by Geeta Bose – Are Web2.0 tools designed to support learning?
This post is in response to a blog post by Archana, a colleague of mine. Her blog post, Speak Out is a good example of blogs that record one’s learning in the work place. It’s a great resource center, especially for newbie IDs such as myself, to plow from. It would probably be a good idea to read her post, ID close to extinction? to make sens of this post.
Dear Archie
I started to write a comment to your post, but it grew long, so I decided to make it my blog post for the day
Just to add to what you’ve said in your post, I certainly don’t think that ID is headed towards extinction, but I do believe that our role is evolving. And as in any other process of evolution, I think our role is becoming more sophisticated, subtle and complex.
While a lot of people (potential learners) are aware of web 2.0 tools such as blogs, social networking forums, video casts etc, they are yet to realize the learning potential of these. Web 2.0 tools, at least in the Indian set up, are largely still looked at as tools for entertainment and for maintaining a social circle. Why else would companies and educational institutions restrict their use? Therefore, I think an instructional designer’s role will certainly involve exploring and pushing learners to realize the learning potential of these tools.
Also, there are several web 2.0 tools today, which can be quite overwhelming fromlearner’s point of view. Researching these tools and matching them to learner and course needs is also an important aspect of our role. I for one believe that an instructional designer armed with her background in studying a learner, the learning environment and the course requirements is the best judge of the most appropriate tools. For more on this, follow the comment thread to an earlier post of mine- Learner2.0- two videos.
Therefore, I guess our role is changing from facilitating learning to what I see as a larger task of facilitating the construction of a Personal Learning Environment.
Given below is an account about using social networks for trouble shooting at the workplace. The article is written by Ashim, the computer geek god at Kern, whom everyone turns to in times of crisis. When you’ve read his piece, you will notice that despite being a ‘techie’, his methods of finding solutions/help are actually quite simple, something that even all of us lesser beings can adopt .
His account has actually made me re-think my ideas about a techie. Suddenly, they don’t seem such an intimidating lot after all. What perhaps sets them apart, is their ability to evolve very quickly on the world wide web, adopt new tools, revamp their personal learning environment. Knowing about new internet tools is one thing, but leveraging them on an everyday basis to trouble shoot, requires one to think out of the box and be willing to experiment. It’s my hunch that the learner 2.0 will be able to do this with extraordinary ease, once s/he opens up to the possibility of using his/her play tools for learning.
———————————————————————————————
Since I work mostly on Windows (read:metaphor for life), I face problems all the time like sudden crashes, unexpected reboots and virus attacks.
For instance last month, some office computers were infected with a virus called protecfile.vbs. This guy made all XP machines do silly things like- not letting access any folder and making the CD drive pop out suddenly. And the in-house anti-virus could not detect it.
As ‘geek’ and ‘google’ go together, I started searching for the solution on the internet. There are a number of places where you can find solutions to such problems. In fact, you can find solutions to just about anything- but more of that later.
Google led me to a Social Network for Q&Acalled Yahoo Answers. This site facilitates a dialogue between people who have a problem and people who have the solution (to that problem). There are categories like Arts & Humanities, Computers & Internet, Environment, Pets, Politics & Government to name a few. And I was lucky enough to find how to kill the virus.
Sometimes if I don’t find the solution to a problem here, other tech-forums like annoyances.org, techrepublic.com, experts-exchange.com (not free) work the same way. But they are too boring to look at (websites of 1.0?).
Personal Blogs
Another way I use is to read blogs of geek gods. They are gracious enough to write about the ways in which you can remove the virus without calling the ‘hardware’ guy.
There are other sites that I find interesting for solving problems.
I also try the good old YouTube. One might think that most videos there are harmless fun. But rummaging there, I found some pretty interesting things to satisfy my big/small curiosities. People have uploaded videos of video game walkthroughs (if you are stuck at a difficult level and want to know how to beat it), magic tricks (adding more content here)
Google acts as an interface for these Q&A social networks, forums and blogs. So, one does not have to go to each website to look for a solution. But it helps to know the site names to identify which ones would be most useful when they come up in Google search results.
Flickr is an online photo-sharing site, owned by Yahoo. Flickr has a variety of social networking features that support the sharing of pictures. Users can upload, edit, share, tag, and comment on pictures. With prior permission, users can also print images uploaded by others or use them to create cards, photo books, calendars etc. Typically, users join groups that cater to their interests, and share images within these groups.
I came across two instances where Flickr is used in interesting ways. The first instance involves a group that calls itself Tell a story in five frames. As the name suggests, members of the group try to narrate a story through five photographs which are displayed in succession. The group interprets the story only through the title that’s given by the creator. The comments, discussions and critique that follow are constructive for everybody. Danse Macabre was my personal favorite, but there are several other innovative visual stories that will find here.
Another instance where I thought Flickr was being used creatively was when I came across Beth.h’s photostream. Beth uploads photographs of paintings and uses the note feature to point to her observations of the painting. Some of the notes have a link which leads the viewer to expert opinion, or to more information about a particular aspect of the painting. Several people have used Flickr’s comment feature to discuss their views about the picture.
Now how can these ideas be adapted into a training or a learning set up? Well, there’s a lot that can be done, especially while teaching a process, which requires visuals to enhance learning. Take for instance the process of laying a table- a learning situation in the hospitality industry. In the absence of a live demonstration, this could be taught via a string of images. The note feature can perhaps be used to point out to the various cutlery and their positions on the table. Alternately images could be used to test the learner’s observation of either a live demonstration, or a video, by being asked to arrange the set of five images in the correct order. They could also be asked to pick the correct image from the set of five images, or name the cutlery they see in the picture, using the comments feature. Flickr is a free service, so this whole exercise costs close to nothing. And choosing the right images and uploading them, is a one time effort. Additionally, as Flickr images can be downloaded on mobile phones, a lesson in laying the table can be learned while on the move. In my opinion, it’s important to restrict the number of images to ensure that the chunk of information is brief and focused.
YouTube videos have been my gateway to understanding web2.0 tools and their application in the learning sphere. Here are two of my favorite videos that really drive the point home! Although both of them speak about learning in a university, I think corporate learners, especially of the younger generation will relate to these videos. These videos are independent of each other and were not made to be viewed together. But I felt that they complimented each other when viewed in sequence.
The first video was created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University. The video speaks about the current day learner, the learner 2.0, and the tools that s/he would rather use for learning.
This video, depicts a learner 2.0 at work, using tools that best match his learning style.
My previous post on Blogs for workplace learning was about blogs being used in a formal training space. Blogs in such a scenario tend to rather formal and controlled. But blogs can also be used for informal learning. By informal learning, I am talking about learning that happens while working on a project, surfing the internet, or maybe even chatting up with colleagues over coffee. A lot of us choose to surf the internet when we aren’t actively involved with a project. But a lot of that learning stays passive, since we neither reflect on the information nor share it with our team mates. Such information is of little use. It’s a bit like having a passive vocabulary. You may know of several words but never use it to enhance the way you express yourself.Similarly,information that you pick up while speaking to your colleagues or the experience you gain while working on a project stays passive unless you share it with others, express your opinions on a public forum and read what others have to say about it.
In short, there is the need to manage the information that we access from the internet. And by manage, I mean document, reflect up on and share. Blogs can play a vital role for this purpose. They can be used to share useful resources and are an ideal platform to record and share your project related experiences. Blogs can also be used to reflect on trends in your area of work and discuss them with others in your field either via the comment feature or through group blogs or links to their personal blogs. Undoubtedly, building a network of people across the globe is an add-on of maintaining a blog.
With the internet becoming a read-write web the number of websites in the world wide web is overwhelming. Sometimes accessing information on something specific can be quite a task. Blogs can come to the rescue in such a situation as well. Instead of using a search engine, you could access information via a set of reliable blogs that are constantly updated. Tags come very handy in these scenarios. For instance, if I wanted to access information on web2.0, I could look for blogs maintained by tech geeks, who like to stay posted on the subject. I could then access all their posts about web 2.0, via the tags left behind by the bloggers. Chances are, that my task will be much easier and faster and I will have a good collection of videos, case studies, information on the latest internet tools, and discussions debating the pros and cons of the evolving internet. Using a search engine would have not only been tedious, but the information that I collect may not have as up to date and dynamic.
It’s also a good idea to have a collection of blogs that you read on a regular basis to stay updated on the latest trends in your field. A bit of research will help you spot a set of reliable blogs that cover various aspects of your field. For instance, as an instructional designer from India, interested in using new internet tools for learning, I may want to follow a set of blogs maintained by a few seasoned instructional writers across the globe. I may also want to follow a few blogs that focus exclusively on the evolving internet, and a few more which track the learning trends in corporate India. Once I have identified the blogs I want to follow, I need to ensure that I periodically read them, since they are likely to be updated very often. This task can be made much easier by using aggregators such as RSS feeds that save you the trouble of opening and closing several sites, which may or may not have been updated on a given day. Social Bookmarking is another great tool to manage the information you collect on the internet.
So that’s about using blogs for workplace learning. Sure hope the last two posts have thrown up some ideas. If you’re new to blogging and want to know how to get started with them, watch this video by Lee LeFever. His Plain English videos are a great way to learn about web 2.0 tools.
I have been on the lookout for case studies on the use of blogs for learning. I came across several interesting and innovative instances of blogging in a school/university set up, but I haven’t been as lucky with workplace learning. Interestingly though, I found that several school/university blogs could actually find similar application in the workplace. This post will reflect on how some of these ideas can be migrated to learning in a corporate set up.
For starters, blogs can be used either in a structured training set up, or it can be used for informal learning, where employees stay updated with the latest in their field by following a set of blogs. These form a part of their Personal Learning Environment. But I’ll come to the latter category of blogs in my next post . This post will look at a more controlled and formal use of blogs, the kind that can be used in a training program.
Trainer blogs:
Trainer blogs can be used to disseminate information. Useful links (to other blogs), quick announcements and assignments can be posted on a trainer’s blog. The trainer can also use his/her blog to document the material used for each class, so that it can be used either by trainees who were absent for session or by future groups of trainees. Also, if trainees are aware that content is being recorded, they may actually spend their energy listening or participating in the class instead of jotting down notes. Trainer blogs could also be used as a forum for discussion, where the trainer could blog about a specific issue or simply throw open a question and get trainees’ to share their opinions on it. The trainer blog also gives space for learners to ask questions, and those questions remain public and can be accessed by everybody taking the course.This mode of blogging is also particularly useful when the trainer gets to meet students only for a few days in the year. The blog then becomes a great way to enhance a course and constantly stay updated on what more his students require in terms of information, tools and guidance.Lawrie Phipps from the University of Leeds did precisely this to overcome the difficulty of being unable to meet his research students very often. You can read about his experience of using blogs in the class room and can access his blog at this link: https://elgg.leeds.ac.uk/elg010/weblog/
Therefore, a trainer blog functions as a Learning Management System (LMS), only much easier to use and access. But this is still a very limited use of blogs.
Learner Blogs:
A more dynamic way to use blogs, is to have learners maintain blogs, where they can post their reflections about the course in general, submit written assignments, and throw open discussions of their own. The current day learner constantly looks for feedback, and wants his/her work to be read and discussed. Blogs are an ideal platform for this kind of learning, it takes away the need for an instructor to evaluate a learner’s work. Instead, learners can read, comment and discuss each other’s views, which encourages discussion-the spirit of blogging. The trainer then has to only monitor groups of blogs on a periodic basis, to ensure that learners are constantly updating, exchanging and evaluating their ideas. These also work well for online courses, where there is no class room to bring students together at one point.
I came across an interesting research paper by Jeremy B Williams, titled Exploring the use of blogs as learning spaces in the higher education sector.While the first part of the paper speaks about blogs in general, their origin, and the nature of the tool,the latter part carries an interesting study of a blog being used in an MBA class. The results of the online questionnaire that followed the study is worth a look. The study concludes that students found the use of a blog to be very effective learning and teaching aid. It also gives some direction about how blogs may be effectively used in a class room.
Several companies restrict employee access to social networking sites, web based email and chat services. In fact, quite a few companies even block access to the internet, forcing employees to use a rather restrictive intranet facility to communicate with one another. Such extreme caution seems only natural, given the fact that security is a major liability in any internet based transaction. Gossip, harassment, and the loss of privacy and confidentiality are just some of the obstacles to be faced in allowing employees access to the internet in general and web 2.0 tools in particular.
The abuse of technology has always been a fear that we’ve had to combat. But ignoring powerful technology because is can be used for the wrong means doesn’t seem the right way ahead. At least that seems to be the attitude that IBM has towards social media. Playing well with others, is an interesting report that I came across in the Wall Street Journal archives. I was quite amazed that IBM employees were using wikis, blogs, virtual worlds and social book marking, to enhance their learning and services, back in 2007. The report also speaks about the measures that IBM takes in order to safeguard security, privacy and confidentiality.
I am currently exploring a concept called Personal Learning Environments. Interestingly, I ran into the idea while making a presentation titled ‘Learner 2.0′. I was trying to look at web 2.0 tools and was trying to convince my audience about web 2.0 tools being most suitable for the current day digital learner who is connected to a network of people at all points in time, via a mobile phone or a PC. I focused on ideas like collaboration, sharing, publishing, and multitasking, which are second nature to the our learner. Web 2.0 tools, which rest on a similar philosophy, are therefore the most natural web tools to be used for the current day learner.
All was well until I stumbled upon Graham Attwell’s paper which speaks about Personal Learning Environments. Attwell is rather critical about institutions trying to control internet based learning through Learning Management Systems and Virtual Learning Environments. He points out that merely reproducing class room learning using these tools, makes these environments sterile. It is important that we allow learners to play an active role in deciding what they must learn and how. And such a move will give way for a Personal Learning Environment, which is usually an aggregation of several desktop and web services. More importantly, we must recognise such infromal learning as a mark of the learner’s competencies, therefore look beyond qualifications that come with formal learning.
Although Attwell does not speak of developing Personal Learning Environments to the exclusion of more formal learning spaces, I couldn’t help but reflect on the changing role of educators/ learning solution providers such as myself. Also, if we were to recognize informal learning, measure it in some sense, aren’t we formalising it? But these questions apart, I do think that educators and trainers must create an awareness about the possibilities that new technologies can provide. Learners can certainly choose their tools but exposing them to these tools will certainly be a part of our changing role.
I think one way to do this is by collecting and sharing Good Case Practices of companies and educational institutions across the globe using a variety of tool sets to enhance informal learning amongst their employees and students. Over the next few weeks, I am going to be posting about such instances. If you know of any good case practices or have interesting opinions about the ones I post, please feel free to share them.
For a more clear and simple introduction to Personal Learning Environments, watch this video made by Graham Attwell.
You could also watchthis interview of Graham Attwell to get his views on using new technologies for learning, the reactions of educational institutions to these, and the use of these technologies for workplace learning.
