Expertise? Sources, please!

One of the things I've been asked to consider in my current class is my view of expertise on the Web, and how it compares with how I consider expertise in face-to-face environments. A few things in particular come to mind:

• As an undergrad, I majored in English, and have a bit of an obsession with writing. Now it's true, I miss a comma here and there, but I also have a sense of pride in constructing an effective sentence. With this in mind, I have to remember that good writing does not mean someone is necessarily an expert on their shared subject matter. In face-to-face settings, I have to remember not to equate effective public speaking or proper elocution with expertise. (Note to self: There are plenty of polished idiots in the world, both on the Web and in f2f situations.)
• Expertise takes different forms. There are classic bibliographies and reference lists, but I also believe that a person's experience can be a type of expertise. I have a great deal of experience using synchronous eLearning platforms that I have acquired over the past ten years, and this has enabled me to mentor others. This, in my book, equates to expertise. Going back to bibliographies and reference lists, I think there are undending opportunities for individuals to misuse credible sources, in both web and f2f settings.
• Now more than ever, I will look at a person's source material when referenced; I'll ask for a source if one is not cited. It's important to me not to perpetuate misinformation - if I pass along information that I have not personally verified, I share my source along with it so that others can look it up if they desire.

How do you verify information you receive? Or do you? As always, interested in your thoughts.

Socially antisocial?

Facebook has some very popular games that I've been "researching" lately. Okay, I'll just admit, I'm totally addicted to a couple of them. After repeated invitations from friends to be their "neighbor" on FarmTown, I decided to check it out. It is quite fun to design a farm, plow, plant, and harvest crops, and grow the farm into my personal creation.

While most of the game play is solitary, you can involve other farmers in your farm activities (they profit from doing so). You can have roughly twenty neighbors, who can plow and harvest for you, and water your plants as well. If your neighbors are unavailable, you can head to the marketplace, and enlist the help of other farmers. These individuals - essentially strangers - can be added to your "buddy" list in the event you'd like to work together again. So, it happens from time to time you become friendly with one of these people and want to add them as a neighbor. The catch is, you can only add Facebook friends as neighbors. In one case, I have added a farmer as a friend and neighbor, and it's been fun getting to know someone who lives in Saskatchewan, Canada.

The reason I mention this is because I have for some time felt as though social networking and Web 2.0 technologies (along with other technologies) are changing the nature/definition of friendship and what it means to be social. Last week, while on a business trip, I posted a request on my friend Jessica's Facebook page to please water my plants while I was gone. She knew that I was referring to the plants on my farm, but to others, the context wouldn't have been obvious. Are we really becoming virtual neighborhoods and increasing our sense of community? or are we watering it down and confusing friendship with acquaintanceship? I can see arguments for each, and would love to hear your thoughts.

Demo of Synchronous eLearning

As part of my recent produsage project, I have committed to provide a sample synchronous eLearning experience for interested parties to join. As such, I set up an event using Saba Centra, a virtual classroom technology I've used extensively.

Please use the information below to join next Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. Attendance is limited to 25, which I don't expect to exceed.

Important note: I recommend joining 15 minutes early as a small file may need to be installed so that you can run the software needed to join. Additionally, you MUST have either a computer headset with a microphone or a built-in computer microphone to speak during the event, as all audio will be conducted through the internet (using voiceover Internet protocol). If you do not have a computer microphone, you can interact via a built-in text chat feature, but you won't get to experience the technology in its fullest potential.

Here are the details:

Topic: Synchronous eLearning in ActionMeeting ID: JLS266368
Date: Jul-28-09, 7:30 PM (GMT -04:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Duration: 1h 00m
Host: Alisa Jacobs
Meeting Password: sync
Description: An introduction to Synchronous eLearning will be given, as well as opportunities to interface in this environment.
To attend the meeting, use this link:https://na1.centra.com:443/GA/main/0000001450bd00000121e7c921ccbbff
Attendees may also enter the event by going to the URL below, and entering the event ID.URL: https://na1.centra.com:443/main/Customers/4V66T1Z9Q1XC7Q4BV7QB
;Event ID: JLS266368Event Password: sync

I welcome any questions, and look forward to your participation next week - though it's not necessary to RSVP, I'd like to know in advance if you plan to attend. "See" you soon!

If I build it, will they come?

Unless you're a programmer creating a brand new technology for social networking, creating an educational opportunity using Web 2.0 technology is a pretty easy process. Easy in actual work, that is - not in thought process. Planning and selecting the appropriate technology are important steps, as is defining the goals for the user experience. How will people use the site/tool/etc? What will they learn? Of course, it's entirely possible the creation will take on a life of its own - in fact, maybe it's better if it does.

Now that I've defined the Twitter site as carefully as I can, and have a plan for it, it's time to see who comes to the party. I hope you will: http://twitter.com/Sync_eLearn_101

Don't miss the poll!

I've decided to do weekly or bi-weekly polls on here on different topics of interest. I'll leave the current poll about Twitter up a few more days - please take a minute and share your thoughts!

Adventures in Twitter, and more to come!

All week long, I've been thinking about my first produsage assignment for class. We're to create a learning experience using Web 2.0 technologies, so that people can not only learn from what we create, but contribute to it as well. After knocking around many (and I do mean MANY) ideas, I settled on one. It feels a bit experimental, but I think that keeps with the spirit of the assignment - to put something "out there" and see what happens. I guess that's a trait all of these technologies have in common - the uncertainty of what will catch on, and what will quickly become passe.

So, given that my target audience includes fellow students in my instructional systems program, I've decided to create a Twitter ID to share concepts about synchronous eLearning. We devote a lot of attention to asynchronous eLearning, as the vast majority of our program takes place through asynchronous media. I, however, do a great deal of work in synchronous eLearning environments, and really find it to be an effective and perhaps underutilized delivery method for learning programs. That being said, I have sat through truly dreadful synchronous eLearning events, and wouldn't wish them on anyone! My goal through this experience is to get people discussing synchronous eLearning - concepts, platforms, activities, best practices, and more. I'll tweet about the basics, and share articles that I find illuminate some aspect of this delivery method. Additionally, I may occasionally blog about my experiences here, and I'll tweet a link to any followers. Interested? I hope so! Check it out: http://twitter.com/Sync_eLearn_101

Blogs and wikis and work - oh my!

The Learning & Education team at my workplace, of which I am part, likes to be on the "leading edge," rather than the "bleeding edge" of learning technologies. By this, I mean that although we want to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to the use of newer technologies to enhance learning and performance management, we also recognize that there must be a sound business case for inclusion of these new tools. Additionally, we must be able to ensure that use of new technologies will not impact our compliance with the many, many regulations that govern the accounting profession.

For those reasons, our use of wikis and blogs has been pretty limited. We have team wikis that support the use of learning technologies (makes sense, right?), because that information falls into the safe zone, and is accessible only by those of us in the L&E group. A series of coaching videos were produced last year, with real staff playing various made up roles scripted to discuss very realistic coaching sessions. These videos were accompanied by a blog written by one of the characters - so, it was fictitious, but also very realistic. I liked the inclusion of this piece to the overall series rollout. So far, we've really only tapped the surface with the use of these tools.

Although not technically a blog or wiki, we do have team sites that can be used for collaboration. On these sites, a team can post notes, documents, schedule meetings, and such, and these have been helpful in allowing all members of a team to contribute to different tasks. I do feel these sites are being somewhat underutilized, possibly because they exist outside our firewall (for the purpose of collaborating with clients as well) and many people don't yet have a comfort level that the sites meet our requirements for information security. Any breach of confidential information would be devastating to the firm's reputation, so we definitely err on the side of caution. I think that our leadership and staff need slightly better education when it comes to understanding what's safe and what isn't in the technologies we use. Perhaps then we can move ahead and seize the opportunities we have to increase our use of these tools.

Alisa Jacobs, Web 2.0 Produser Looking for a Niche

"In dealing with the future, at least for the purposes at hand, it is more important to be imaginative and insightful than to be one hundred percent 'right'." - Alvin Toffler, Future Shock

This quote, from the opening chapter of Axel Bruns's Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage, is one I hadn't read until this past week. I open this post with it because it illustrates where I've gone wrong thus far as a produser, both in my professional and personal work. I've long been the kind of person who wants to master something before demonstrating it to another person. My father tells a story of my reluctance to begin speaking as a child (no laughter, please) until the day I was sitting on the top of the chest freezer in the garage - I was nearing two at the time, I guess - and asked him, "What are you doing now, Daddy?" And then I was off, chattering away like, well, like I do now, I suppose.

As a professional, I have spoken at a conference on use of virtual classroom technology. I also present occasionally to my colleagues, discussing technologies I've researched, best practices I've recognized, but I am beginning to think that my contributions are not enough. I know that whenever I prepare for a presentation, or ready a job aid to post to our community reference database, I always learn something new. I want to ensure whatever I'm putting up is the best possible content I can offer at the time. This blog is no exception.

The other challenge I think I've run into repeatedly is that I don't have a narrow focus of what I want to contribute. I like Facebook in particular because I can share just about any kind of content. I do like this blog because it has a scope - the exploration of Web 2.0 technologies. But I myself am such a "jack-of-all-trades, master of none" type person that my energy goes in many different directions. I think a cooking blog would be fun, but I also love movies, music, and books. Some people combine topics successfully in their products, but I haven't yet decided how, or if, I want to do that. And yet, if I wait too long, anything I add may be irrelevant.

So, to a certain extent, I'm already a produser - and though I grapple with the pronunciation of that word, I like it: one who uses as well as produces content. I think my current exploration will increase my understanding of these various technologies, as well as help me identify where I want to add my two cents.

Diigo, Wikipedia, and Web 2.0

So as I mentioned last time, one of this week's goals is to familiarize myself with Diigo ("Dee-what?" is what I was still thinking about an hour ago.) It's been an interesting hour, and while I'm a long way from fully understanding the best uses of this tool, here's what I've learned so far.

Diigo provides a little widget (called "Diigolet") which sits in your browser favorites. When you access it, it doesn't launch a new page, but provides tools you can use on your current page to highlight, add sticky notes, etc. Sort of like Track Changes for the Web, plus the ability to create a personal bookmark list.

So I installed said widget and began to visit a couple of my favorite pages. I'm a major movie fan, and there was something I wanted to look up on www.imdb.com, so I went there first. I couldn't really think of any of the tools I wanted to use while doing my search, so I moved on to Wikipedia. As no immediate topic came to mind, I typed in "Web 2.0," accessed the Diigolet, and voila! sticky notes and highlighting magically appeared from past readers of the page. It appears reading the page was an assignment to introduce a class to Web 2.0 (and perhaps Diigo as well, given the "Can you see this?" sticky note I encountered.)

In this setting (Wikipedia), it appears that Diigo could be used as a breadcrumb trail while researching, particularly if you think you're going to need to refresh your memory, or maybe use the source for another purpose in the future.

I did happen to think of one thing I might use Diigo for on www.imdb.com, which is highlighting things I might want to see on a particular actor or director's profile. I really like the two films I've seen by Mira Nair - "Monsoon Wedding" and "Vanity Fair" - and I remember there's another I want to see, "The Namesake" (great book, by the way.) So, I've gone back out there to Mira Nair's page, highlighted "The Namesake" and added a private sticky note - other Diigo users out there will thank me for not cluttering their view, I'm sure. While I was at it, I bookmarked the item as well with a note to see the movie, since I'm not sure yet if the bookmarks will be more useful to me or the highlighting.

Now, if IMDB would simply add buttons saying "Add to Netflix Queue," life would be even better!

Diigo is an interesting tool, one which I will continue to explore and fine tune my use of in order to figure out how it suits me best. I'd be very interested to hear how you, dear reader, are using it as well.

Article on Learning 2.0

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with the eLearning Guild, nor do I agree with everything they write. I do, however, find some of their articles thought-provoking, which is the reason for this post.

The July 6 edition of their Learning Solutions eMagazine has an article titled, "The Challenges of Integrating Learning 2.0" that I am finding interesting. You can become an "Associate" member free, which will give you access to this article, and many others you might find interesting (www.elearningguild.com). For those of you who are not familiar with the term "Learning 2.0," here's a snippet from Chris King's article:

"For the purposes of this article, “Learning 2.0” means the tools and techniques of
instructional design built upon Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, social bookmarking,
wikis, Podcasts, and social networks. It can be informal learning facilitated
by social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn. Or it can be delivery of information
in short chunks to learners needing on-the-job support via the venerable
blog and Podcast. Learning 2.0 can utilize the “wisdom of the crowd” to select
from the best e-Learning courses or trusted sources of information. It can even
mean employing a virtual classroom instead of a physical classroom."

So, this is definitely relevant to my exploration of the Web 2.0 technologies, and perhaps yours as well. Although this article has a bit of a slant towards corporate education, the concepts can be applied to many different settings, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts about it.

Twitter and YouTube - supporting learning

One of the requests of the class this week is to become familiar with Twitter, Diigo, Flickr, and YouTube and to think about how to best use them to support learning. Since I already have some familiarity with Twitter and YouTube, I think I'll begin there.

I see Twitter as being extremely useful for teaser campaigns - putting down a couple of lines to pique the interest of your followers, then posting a URL to the full story. Right now, if I were to see a tweet about learning about Diigo, I'd probably check it out, because it's completely new to me, and I appreciate first-hand user advice. The biggest limitation I see with Twitter is the length of the message it can convey. 140 characters isn't a lot, and multiple tweets within a few minutes REALLY annoy me! I've contemplated turning off mobile notification for that very reason - I have a couple of friends who seem to do no work! (I really like the related feature for Facebook, where you can specific between which hours you'd like to receive mobile notifications - no middle-of-the-night messages for me!)

As for YouTube, I think it's wonderful for brief instructional videos. As I mentioned in one of the class posts last week, I have viewed videos on YouTube that helped me learn to toss pizza dough as well as make a better Pad Thai (my husband wholeheartedly approves!) It really brings brief procedures to life in a way that instructions on a screen simply don't. And I know, I've written LOTS of them. Now, it happened in my case that the videos I viewed were also more interesting subjects - cooking works well in video, and some things don't.

Now, time to go brush up on Flickr (wonder what my password is, it's been awhile) and explore Diigo.

In virtual exploration,

Alisa

Experience to date with Web 2.0

Web 2.0 technologies are something I've been playing with for some time. I have the privilege to work with a group of people who are always considering how to be on the leading edge - not "bleeding edge" (use of new stuff without an appropriate application) - of learning technolgies. The average age of an employee at my company is 26, at last count, so it's important for us to leverage learning technologies appropriate to our demographic. However, our first job is educating this group of employees, so there must be ample research conducted or already available that indicates its value in education for us to invest in the use of new technologies. As such, I would say that I am more of a leader than a follower, though I have not been the earliest adopter of things historically - I've been tweeting for roughly three months at this point, although I've known about Twitter for about two and a half years.

Currently, I use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Yammer, Pandora, and Picasa in day-to-day life. I have used Wikis and blogs, and as I like to write, I see blogs as something I'll have time to enjoy more post-grad school. I understand the technologies teenagers talk about, and yes, I text. Lots. I have wondered if putting a page for my dad's pet store in California on Facebook might improve his business, and I have to figure out how to explain it to him - he eBays, which isn't bad for being 65 and now owning a computer until somewhere around the age of 55, but social networking is a different idea altogether to him (why don't you just call people if you want to talk to them?)

From the class I'm currently taking on Web 2.0 Technologies, and their use in learning and performance, I'd like to learn how to better anticipate the application of emerging technologies to learning needs, and how to identify which of the new things developed are going to have staying power, and which are just a blip on the way to something else (HD DVD, anyone?)