As a part of my new managerial role I will be collaborating with the School’s Digital Literacy Managers to plan, develop and deliver 2 new staff development curricula.  One of these will be for admin staff, and will concentrate on improving their Office skills.  The other is for academic staff, so will look at boosting their general digital literacy skills with a view to making them more technologically savvy. There is no doubt that these programmes need to be developed as soon as possible.  There is though the eternal problem of how to get this target audience engaged.  Once again, staff are being asked to squeeze something else into their already painfully packed schedules.  And let’s be honest here: learning how to use technology isn’t the top of everyone’s must do list.  Usually, it ranks in popularity about as much as cleaning a septic tank So on Wednesday, when I went to a Digital Practices Speed Networking / Knowledge Cafe session, I grabbed the ubiquitous piece of flip chart paper* that had been put on my table and, with the help of 2 other technical-minded attendees, we looked at how we could build curricula that would be attractive to staff at a variety of levels.  Importantly we discussed at length the knotty problem of getting staff to engage with this.  This is what we came up with: Give staff dedicated time to work through and complete their training. If the courses are merely something you’re supposed to work through in your own time,it runs the risk of being seen as being ‘just another thing I have to do’, with no real value.  If time is set aside in which to complete it, then from a psychological viewpoint if nothing else, it appears to be important. Linked to this, make them aware that by investing time in training now, they will save countless hours in the future.  Going back to the admin staff again (because there are some good black and white examples of what they can and can’t do and what would help them), it will be a lot easier to keep placement records in one database than 35 separate spreadsheets! Allow staff to ‘jump on and jump off’ at points that suit their needs and levels.  One size does not fit all, and forcing all admin staff to learn how to set up a simple SUM function in a spreadsheet (for example) when many of them are already at a level above this is unhelpful and reeks of sloppy and apathetic planning. It’s a start, and though it doesn’t even begin to look at the content of both curricula (that’s for another meeting with the Digital Literacy Managers and a whole pad of flip chart paper) it does start to look at an issue that is often ignored or awkwardly pushed to one side, and one of my favourite hoary old sayings: build it and they will NOT come. Carrots and sticks are fine.  Telling staff that ‘they have to do this course’ is fine.  But that isn’t going to win anyone over.  Make staff feel nurtured - and get hem to realise that this is something that will actually properly benefit them.  Maybe do sessions before work with free breakfast.  Stuff like that… * There is a small piece of me that finds that giving a group of people who work in digital practice / technology enhanced learning sheets of flip chart paper on which to record their thoughts is a bit…well..ironic? 

In this article, I’m featuring a wonderful interview with successful social media expert, Jane Hart. She provides compelling reasons to implement a social and collaborative environment as part of workplace learning. You can read more from Jane at her blog, Social Media in Learning. Coach: You were an early adopter of using social technologies for learning purposes. What motivated you to jump in? Jane: Using social technologies has just been an evolution of my experience and interest in learning technologies for a long time now. I was an advocate of computer-based learning in the 80s, then early Internet/web-based learning in the 90s, social learning in the 2000s is just another step along the path Coach: What are your criteria for defining a technology as social? Jane: One that allows people to share (experiences or resources) or collaborate (in many different ways). Coach: From a cognitive perspective, how does learning through social media differ from structured and self-paced eLearning? Jane: Social learning can still be structured i.e., take place within a formal course environment. The difference with social learning is that it supports conversation and discussion and learning from one another, whilst "traditional" self-paced learning is about learning from a computer without reference to others—it’s just content, content, content. We are all social beings, so social learning is a more natural way of learning. Coach: Do you think the knowledge and skills acquired through social media and technologies should be measured? And can it be measured? Jane: "Learning" per se shouldn’t be measured in an organizational context, it is the new "performance" that it brings about. Sometimes that can be measured by a positive change in speed or output or productivity, sometimes not. Sometimes it is important to just recognize the other intangible benefits that occur. I think we have become rather obsessed about measuring everything—course completions, test scores, etc. With social learning comes the need to think about new ways of measuring success. I think that is going to be difficult for many L&D professionals who have become used to measuring learning in a Learning Management System. Coach: In your consulting work, what social technologies have you found to be the best for promoting learning? Jane: Many different ones! In fact I don’t think it’s about the separate technologies. It’s about having a toolbox containing a number of different social technologies at your disposal in order to select the most appropriate one(s) that address a particular learning or business problem. It might just be one tool—it might be a number. For instance, I am currently running a formal programme where the group is using many different technologies to share and collaborate—social bookmarking, discussions, wikis, blogging, file sharing, etc. Coach: Can you describe the advantages of the social media environment, Elgg? Jane: Exactly to do what I have mentioned in the previous answer. Elgg provides a private integrated suite of social media tools—within a seamless environment for individuals to use for their own personal learning and for groups to use for formal or informal learning purposes. Elgg allows organizations to take advantage of the benefits that social technologies have to offer, and yet not worry about some of the issues with using public social media tools, namely privacy and security of data, muddling of personal and organizational identities in public, and the overwhelming number of tools (with their own separate logins and interfaces) that need to be supported by IT departments. Coach: What typical obstacles do managers and learning professionals face in trying to convince organizations to adopt social learning technologies? Jane: Senior managers are clearly concerned by the issues mentioned in the previous answer and that use of public social media tools by employees might cause embarrassment for the organization. They also think "social networking" is a trivial activity and compare it with Facebook. I have for a long time stopped talking about social networking in an organizational context as it comes with a lot of unfortunate "baggage." I do talk about social and collaborative platforms, social learning environments or networks or communities.  Those terms are much more acceptable and accepted by senior managers. Coach: Do you have suggestions for how they can overcome these obstacles? Jane: Demonstrate the value of social technologies for learning by installing a private and secure social learning environment so that the benefits can be experienced by the organization. Thanks, Jane! Do you incorporate social technologies in your learning strategy? Tell us how below. Related Articles: Podcasts for Learning Using Wikis for eLearning Post from: The eLearning CoachSocial Media And Learning Share this on LinkedinTweet This!Email this to a friend?Share this on FacebookShare this on del.icio.usStumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUponAdd this to 100 bookmarks

Its that most wonderful time of the year in the education business.. . Black History Month.  I love the history of my people and how we have helped to mold and change the landscape of this great country.  I, however, dislike being black during Black History Month in my school building. There are 84 certified/licensed […]

Was taking measurements in my room and couldn’t help snapping this pic. Imagine what we could do with a screen that large… This is my preferred location for a "campfire space," for now.

Kudos to the eLearning Guild for last week's exceptional inaugural mobile learning conference in San Diego. Having been actively following mobile learning developments during the past 6 years or so (and wondering what it would take to tip this obvious,...

It’s conference time, and in the next few months I’m going to be popping up in several venues around the UK and online. The first of these happened on Friday, where I delivered my first keynote address and workshop of the year. Truro College were holding a Technology in Learning conference as part of their staff development programme and invited me down to talk to staff and to show them some of the tools I use. I don’t need to be asked twice to go back home, and the idea of presenting at my old college’s rival institution sort of appealed to my naughty side. My keynote, called ‘The Tech Commandments’ looked at some of the things I’ve noticed over my years in technology enhanced learning, and combined this with some of the issues staff face when embedding technology in the classroom. The overall message I wanted to give teaching staff was that they mustn’t feel pressured to have intimate knowledge of every tool and gadget and then take on too much. That they should, initially, stick to what they feel comfortable with, then use it when it enhances the subject and not because they feel obliged, or even pressured to shoe horn something into a lesson. That, despite this, they shouldn’t be afraid to try something new every now and again. And that if it goes wrong…which it will at some point…well the world keeps on turning and nobody has died. The ‘Quick Wins’ workshop I followed this up with looked at a range of free web tools that I use, I like, and I want others to know about. All are free, all have enhanced my *sessions, and Kahoot and Padlet went down really well (see below). Take a look below. Next month I’m delivering a workshop at the annual RaPAL conference in Birmingham that’ll look at patient stories, then in June I’m doing an online presentation about my experience of the FutureLesrn MOOC I finished last month, then it’s the annual JISC TurboTELapalooza in Bristol. I’ll be doing a couple of slots there, but can’t remember what I’ve agreed to do them about. There’ll be more about them here as they happen. *maybe not the PechaKucha…

I’m the Technology Liaison in my school building.  I was asked to take on this teacher leadership position near the end of the school year last year by my principal. At the time, I thought, this would be cool, it will look good on my resume and I can apply all this stuff I’ve been […]

My new classroom was emptied today (more pics in the set linked above). Floors will be cleaned and waxed. We’ll have to be careful working / painting in the room afterwards but it’s nice to have the floor preparation complete. All on the first official day of summer recess. #offtoagreatstart

For years, educational institutions have bought in various voting systems. You know the ones I mean: they come packed in suitcases with dated-looking voting pads and dongles that require blutooth connectivity and software licences that cost 100 quid a pop. They can take ages to set up (from the quiz author’s perspective) and then take ages to set up (as far as setting up the voting pads, dongles and batteries). They often don’t work, usually because the teacher who wanted to use it had not been given any training in the software required to author their quiz, so the questions didn’t display the right answers, or too many right answers, or no answers at all. And more often than not (in my experience), the dongle doesn’t work or has gone missing or only 5 of the voting pads do work. And as the institution can often only afford one set of voting pads and 2 software licences, only 3 teachers can actually use it BUT they have to book the hardware out 4 months in advance.If that all sounds rather negative, I apologize. But in my defence, I went to a TurningPoint demo once, and the guy showcasing his own company’s system had to abandon the demo after question 3 because the pads failed. So I am not particularly trusting of the effectiveness of these bulky and pricey systems. And that’s why Kahoot is brilliant.  Kahoot is a web based quiz / survey / voting system and its first plus point is that students provide their own voting pads via their smartphone, tablet, laptop or any web enabled device. Students open their device’s browser, go to Kahoot.it and are given a PIN number generated specifically for the quiz they are taking part in. They type in the PIN, and are then invited to type in their name or a nickname. Having done this, they are connected to the quiz, and as soon as the required number if players have logged in, the author of the quiz or survey can start.  It may be easier to bullet point my excitement from hereon in: After signing up to a free account, users navigate a very simple interface to set up their survey or quiz. So it’s ‘I only discovered the Internet 6 months ago and I can use it’ easy. Yes - a free account. This costs nothing! Video-based questions add a great visual dimension, and YouTube films can be embedded as simply as copying and pasting their URL to the question’s set-up screen. Points can be allocated for correct answers. I used this feature at a staff development day a few weeks ago and asked participants to break into teams for an after lunch, Kahoot-based ‘pub quiz’. Each team appointed a captain who used their mobile device as the team’s voting pad and gave themselves a pub quiz team name. Good to see people still use ‘Norfolk and Clue’ as a team name, though my favourite will always be: ‘Let’s have a big hand for Jeremy Beadle’… Responses can be downloaded to an Excel spreadsheet. Great for looking for patterns of answers and then gauging whether a question / quiz is too easy or difficult. After discovering it by chance, I introduced Kahoot at the end of last year to a group of PGCE students. One of these students used it in his ‘beginning research’ session a few weeks ago as an icebreaker (and a sneaky way of introducing qualitative research). I went to the session to provide technical support (there were bandwidth concerns regarding 60+ students using the same broadband connection at the same time), but - and here’s a first - nothing went wrong. Better than that, when the quiz was over the audience let out an audible groan of dissapointment. Better THAN THAT - as I walked out of the lecture theatre, I overheard several incredibly positive comments. That’s why I decided to run with it at the staff development day. That and the fact that I didn’t want to lug 3 suitcases of voting pads down to the town centre. But also, because I wanted the school to see what a cool tool it was and consider using it in their own teaching. And that they have! I asked one lecturer who went on to use Kahoot with a group of his students if he’d be prepared to send me his students’ responses. He did, and here’s a selection of what they said about using Kahoot for a study day revision quiz: "Kahoot really helped at the end of the session. It was a really good recap/ revision tool. As there was so much information to remember from the sessions it was good to have a fun reminder at the end rather then just leaving for the day and fogetting half the information it had learnt. I found it a good way to test what I had learnt and the subjects I might need to do some futher reading on to improve my understanding." "It was a nice way to end the day and showed us what we remembered from the previous days. And showed what we need to research more into." Here’s my favourite, because it links directly to something I believe in completely: that we learn better if we’re enjoying ourselves: "Yes because it was fun. Fun things are hard to forget!" Before I sign off, one other thing.  Kahoot is simple, bright, colourful and - yes, I’ll say it - the design is clearly aimed at children and young adults.  This often puts teachers and lecturers in the further and higher education sectors off, as they think that using anything like this with adults could be seen as patronising.  So let me finish up with this one thought: I do not recall signing  agreement as soon as I hit 18 that declared that I was going to forgo anything colourful, bold or simple in favour of turgidity, monochrome and complication.  I do not feel patronised when I watch ‘Scooby Doo’ or ‘Doctor Who’.  I enjoy, among other things, ‘alphabetti spaghetti’ and ‘Freddo Frog’ chocolate bars.  I think that I should be allowed to have fun and be childlike even at my advanced age.  And I think that just about everyone else feels like that too.

Do you have a training or information need that could benefit from a social media strategy? Understanding the universe of options can help you match your need to the best approach. So here are descriptions of ten applications representing different social media technologies that promote learning. Many of these tools and services are free or have a free trial period, which can encourage experimentation. Each tool fulfills at least one of these criteria: encourages collaboration; enables user-generated content or input; provides a way to share; and facilitates informal or formal learning. Be sure to do additional research and comparison with similar products prior to making a selection as this is just a small sampling. (Listing is alphabetical.) Audacity Category: Podcasts Although podcasts are a one-way form of communication, they enable the creation of user-generated content. Podcasts are fairly easy for anyone to make and with the free downloadable software, Audacity, it becomes an inexpensive option. Podcasts are a great medium for distributing an organization’s content and expertise because they can be played on hand held devices and computers. Users can record and edit audio with Audacity and it runs on most operating systems, including Mac OS X and Windows. Key features include recording through a microphone or mixer, digitizing recordings from tapes, audio editing, importing and exporting audio files, effects and quality adjustments. For details on how to create a podcast, see How to Create Your Own Podcast on About.com. Dimdim Category: Interactive Webinars and Live Presentations The forward thinking folks at Dimdim created an application that is completely in the cloud. Think of it. Users do not have to download or install software to participate in a presentation or webinar. This flexibility and ease of use could encourage impromptu learning events and meetings that can be set up in a moments notice, increasing the informal learning opportunities within and outside an organization. Users can share voice and video, display online PowerPoint presentations, documents, share their screen and show web pages, making annotations along the way. The collaborative feature lets participants get in the act with capabilities for marking up documents as well using as a shared, multipage whiteboard. Dimdim has an open source version so developers can integrate it with other software. For example, there is a Moodle module for starting a Dimdim session directly from within Moodle. It  also integrates with a few open source eLearning tools. There are several pricing models for using Dimdim, including a free plan with full functionality for smaller groups. Edublogs Campus Category: Blogs Blogging to teach others is common in the public domain, but not so within an organization. Edublogs Campus is hoping to change that. This software provides a way to centralize and manage blogs within an institution by hosting them all on one domain. Although Edublogs seems focused on academia, its also ideal for other types of organizations due to its centralized control, privacy options, security features, custom branding and support. In terms of promoting learning, employees could use blogs to write first-hand accounts of case studies, lessons learned, project debriefings, travel tips and cultural customs. Internal experts could blog about their areas of proficiency. Blogging could help an organization’s knowledge quotient explode and is definitely something worth exploring. Elgg Category: Social Networking Platform Elgg is a social networking engine and publishing platform for running your own social networking site on a public or private server. It’s a free and open source application with templates and plugins for enhancements. Elgg is an aggregate of many social media technologies in one platform. Users can create and join groups, connect with friends, display a profile, blog and microblog (similar to Twitter). In terms of content, people can add pages, upload presentations, documents and multimedia files as well as tag the pages. This makes Elgg an ideal platform for learning and collaboration. For example, a large organization with geographically dispersed offices can use Elgg on an internal server to introduce employees to each other and to share internal knowledge across offices; employees can use Elgg to create online study groups; and nonprofit organizations can build communities of common interest where members learn from each other. Google Collaboration Tools Category: Collaborative Resources It would be difficult to create a ten-list without mentioning some of Google’s continually evolving Google Collaboration Tools for Education and Business. Google has created a compelling infrastructure for a variety of collaboration tools. Some of the tools relevant to collaborative learning include: Google Docs (word processing, spreadsheets, forms and presentations); Google Sites (team website creation); Google Video (add comments, tags and ratings); Google Conversations (for integrating discussions) and Google Wave (combines email, Instant Messaging, Wikis and photo sharing), which has limited availability at the time of this writing. The key advantage to Google Apps is that all the software runs in a web browser, so that users with permission can view and edit the documents. The collaborative environment this creates encourages people to share knowledge and learn from each other, to engage in peer review and to generate content in a collective manner. MindMeister Category: Mind Maps One way to learn and solve problems more effectively is by visualizing information. MindMeister provides a browser-based service for creating mind maps through an intuitive interface. These diagrams can be used during brainstorming sessions, as a way to explain concepts, for information organization and for creative problem solving. Mindmeister’s mind maps can be used in a collaborative environment, as well as saved and shared. When two or more users collaborate on the same map in real-time, all changes are replicated in a color-coded format so everyone can see updates instantaneously. Mindmeister comes with several pricing plans, from the basic free plan to a premium plan with enhanced security. TalkShoe Category: Talk Shows Think of TalkShoe as a way to have your own radio talk show. This is a free web-based service in which anyone can create, join or listen to live interactive presentations, discussions and conversations. Talk shows can be recorded, making them available as podcasts later. Talk show hosts control the process and participants can just listen or join in by talking or via text-chat. For informal and impromptu learning, you can browse through their list of current and scheduled shows. To create your own workplace learning, you can schedule events on TalkShoe and then publicize them. Would you like a colleague to teach a course with interactive comments from a broader community? Would your organization benefit from a question and answer session with an expert, an interview with an author or a panel discussion using expertise outside of your organization? Then a live talk show may be for you. Hosts have control, but should be prepared to manage participants, who can join from anywhere on the Internet. VoiceThread Category: Multimedia Presentations VoiceThread is a tool for having discussions around media, such as a presentation, video or image. Participants watch or listen and then comment by telephone, web cam, microphone, text or by uploading a file. Users can then delete and re-record a comment, as needed. A small photo or drawing of the participant is then displayed around the media. To listen to comments, click the photos or the Play button. Although this approach to discussion does not facilitate real-time conversations, it does promote collaboration and threaded discussion. For example, someone could propose an idea or a pilot presentation and solicit feedback from colleagues. Or a staff member could create a starter learning event that gets enhanced by the knowledge distributed around the organization, added as comments. VoiceThread features include control over which comments are shown, embedding the conversation to any web page, drawing on the presentation while creating a comment, ability to create groups, privacy options and support for most accessibility standards. VoiceThread has a professional version for businesses that provides features for secure sharing and management of threads for staff and clients. Wikispaces Category: Wikis A Wiki is software for creating and editing interlinked web pages. Wikispaces is one of the more popular wiki applications, with its reputation for ease of use and varied pricing models, from free to Private Label. Wikis promote collaborative learning and information sharing because anyone with rights can add content to the system. Imagine software experts adding their top tips to an organization’s Wiki after a new software roll out or asking experienced project managers to write up a "lessons learned" page at the end of each project. Wikispaces features a WYSIWIG editor, widgets for enhancements to other services, ability to upload multimedia content, discussions, RSS and email notifications, revision tracking and security options. If you’re looking for a completely free and open source Wiki for a large installation, check out MediaWiki, which is the downloadable software that supports Wikipedia. And if you’re willing to do some comparison shopping, see the amazing WikiMatrix to compare a long list of Wikis. Yammer Category: Microblogging Who would have thought that 140 characters of text could be so powerful? Yet microblogging has become a revolutionary way of streamlining communication. Twitter, the most well-known microblogging platform, is highly public—an issue for many organizations. Yammer is a compelling solution to this problem, as it provides a secure enterprise microblogging platform. It’s a simple means for social sharing within an organization and can become a surprisingly virile form of messaging, collaborating and discussing. At its most superficial level, Yammer can keep other employees abreast of the projects on which their colleagues are working. As participation grows and employees post their profiles with job titles, expertise and background, Yammer can develop into a social network with potential. This could transform an organization of isolated employees into a rich network of approachable contacts. As discussions grow to include questions, content links and information dissemination, content can be searched and serve as an organization’s knowledge base. Yammer seems to be a simple way to engage and to open communication across an organization. Related Articles: Social Media And Learning Using Wikis For Learning Using Podcasts For Learning Post from: The eLearning Coach10 Social Media Tools For Learning Share this on LinkedinTweet This!Email this to a friend?Share this on FacebookShare this on del.icio.usStumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUponAdd this to 100 bookmarks