I thought I’d try some other way of conveying my thoughts this time around. I created a podcast, instead of writing. Click on the following link to listen.
Last Saturday, Kern Learning solutions organized the second of a series of workshops that focus on using web2.0 technologies to enhance work place learning. This time too we had an interesting mix of participants from Mahindra First Choice, Kotak Life Insurance, Godrej Agrotech, Castrol and ICMR. As established individuals in their respective sectors of work, all participants were extremely vocal and held strong views about training. This made for interesting debates through the course of the day.
The structure of the workshop was a little different this time, with participants having the opportunity to explore these tools in a learning scenario that we had created for them. We started out by presenting a tool set of four commonly used web 2.0 tools- blogs, social networks, videos casts and virtual worlds. Next, we presented a typical workplace learning scenario to our participants, asking them to take on the role of the HR/training team of a company. During this phase, we discussed the draw backs of more traditional modes of delivering training. We also discussed the profile of the current day corporate learner, his need for training that is less structured and more explorative. In the final phase, our participants explored how the tool set that we had visited earlier in the day could be blended into more traditional e learning approaches to deliver training that suits the current day learner better. The participants came up with some great ideas that were not only innovative but also quite feasible to be used at their work place.
As expected, virtual worlds were the most fascinating and most debated of tools. While most participants were captivated by the tool, they weren’t convinced about using it for training. The cost and effort of creating a training space within a virtual world seemed just too over whelming for many. But I suppose what’s important, is that it opened up possibilities. Possibilities that may not materialize in the next one year, but certainly within a larger time frame.The other three tools seemed more plausible to use, and most participants were keen to try them out at their work place.
We wrapped up the workshop with a presentation about Kern, our services and the ROI of adopting new internet tools to support workplace learning. From our experience at the previous workshop, we realized that the cost of adopting these tools is a major concern amongst most companies. We therefore ensured that we spent significant time addressing this issue. The structure of the workshop was also reworked to ensure that the participants had the experience of thinking about these tools in the context of learning at their workspace. Again, this was thanks to feed back that we received from the earlier workshop.
Up next, we hope to run these workshops for educational institutions as well. We also hope to publish a white paper, so that more people have access to our ideas and findings. Plans of designing a more hands-on workshop as a follow up to the first one are also on cards. We hope to keep together the network that we’ve created at both our workshops. The blog therefore becomes so much more relevant.WE not only hope to stay in touch with all our participants through the blog, but also hope that they will see it as a platform to connect with each other!
In an earlier post, I had put in a video made by Michael Welsh, where high school students expressed their views about the current education system being unsuitable for their learning. This is a video, made by Brand Games, that I picked up from Janet Clarey’s blog, where the workforce speaks out its mind about e-learning.
While the video speaks about making e-learning courses that are more engaging and fun, I was thinking along the lines of how web2.0 tools could supplement e-learning and ensure that all the drawbacks of e-learning, that participants expressed in the video, can be addressed.
Virtual worlds are definitely something for us to consider, as they can be tapped for simulating an environment where skills that are learned (either via an elearning module/through class room training) can be put to practical use.
Building a social network of people who support eachothers learning and share their ideas will help in making things more interesting. A group always brings together a variety of perspectives on a topicand can also bring in an element of competition.
Bloging is a great way to get your learners more interested in the topic they are studying. While it gives learners a sense of worth to see their ideas published and read by a large community of fellow learners, it also gives them space to reflect upon an idea for themselves.
Of all the ideas expressed in the video, I liked the one about ‘learning how to learn’ . I think that is the key. As instructional designers and trainers, I think our role is to a) expose learners to a variety of web2.0 tools and b) help them identify those tools that suit them best.
In Jane Hart’s ‘A Guide to Social Learning’, I cam across an interesting draw back of e-learning, the fact that although it is an asynchronous mode of delivery, the material isn’t available to the learner at his workplace, at the moment of crisis. It is in such a situation that a social network of people, who have built a resource of information, will come to the rescue.
It is too early perhaps, for us to think of eliminating all formal learning, be it elaerning or class room based training. But we are certainly at a point in time when we cannot but turn to web2.0 tools to fill in the obvious gaps of formal learning.
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?
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.
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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.
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.
Last Saturday, Kern Learning solutions organized the second of a series of workshops that focus on using web2.0 technologies to enhance work place learning. This time too we had an interesting mix of participants from Mahindra First Choice, Kotak Life Insurance, Godrej Agrotech, Castrol and ICMR. As established individuals in their respective sectors of work, all participants were extremely vocal and held strong views about training. This made for interesting debates through the course of the day.
The structure of the workshop was a little different this time, with participants having the opportunity to explore these tools in a learning scenario that we had created for them. We started out by presenting a tool set of four commonly used web 2.0 tools- blogs, social networks, videos casts and virtual worlds. Next, we presented a typical workplace learning scenario to our participants, asking them to take on the role of the HR/training team of a company. During this phase, we discussed the draw backs of more traditional modes of delivering training. We also discussed the profile of the current day corporate learner, his need for training that is less structured and more explorative. In the final phase, our participants explored how the tool set that we had visited earlier in the day could be blended into more traditional e learning approaches to deliver training that suits the current day learner better. The participants came up with some great ideas that were not only innovative but also quite feasible to be used at their work place.
As expected, virtual worlds were the most fascinating and most debated of tools. While most participants were captivated by the tool, they weren’t convinced about using it for training. The cost and effort of creating a training space within a virtual world seemed just too over whelming for many. But I suppose what’s important, is that it opened up possibilities. Possibilities that may not materialize in the next one year, but certainly within a larger time frame. The other three tools seemed more plausible to use, and most participants were keen to try them out at their work place.
Up next, we hope to run these workshops for educational institutions as well. We also hope to publish a white paper, so that more people have access to our ideas and findings. Plans of designing a more hands-on workshop as a follow up to the first one are also on cards. We hope to keep together the network that we’ve created at both our workshops. The blog therefore becomes so much more relevant. WE not only hope to stay in touch with all our participants through the blog, but also hope that they will see it as a platform to connect with each other! 
Kerning2.0 