My Final Project

For my final project, I created a private web site that links to a wiki, a spreadsheet in the clouds, and a group photo site for a group of women that take an annual ski trip together each year. The web site houses private information (like phone numbers and addresses) and historical information (that doesn't change), and it serves as a portal to the files and sites that group members will want to edit or add information to.

Historically, the group has used emails to plan the trip, but this means there are literally hundreds of emails – some with key information, some with comments about this information, but many others that are simply friends socializing. It’s overwhelming to simply keep them all, let alone find the one which has the information you are looking for when it comes to making decisions. I can’t tell you how often we re-send information because someone can’t find it. This year, one of our group changed jobs (changing her email address) and lost all the information we had shared. This class got me thinking that there had to be a better way to house the information so it is easier to store the information and more easily find exactly what you are looking for.

The web site is a private site, so you won't be able to open it up and use it, but I've included a picture of it (below). Anyone can see our wiki, so feel free to take a look if you are interested.

Another Blog's List of Collaboration Tools

A recent post on the eLearning Technology blog provided a huge list of collaboration tools that he experienced at a Learning Trends session. I haven't tried them, but just the size of it was amazing to me. I had no idea there was so much software out there aimed at helping people collaborate.

Aviva's Doing It

If you haven't already seen it, check out Shameer's blog post about how Aviva is setting up wikis for its employees to use and starting an Avivapedia as a knowledge management-type system. That's great. Nice to see a company that's not afraid of how people will use this type of technology.

Another Blog's Post about Second Life

I was going back through this year's big questions on The Learning Circuit Blog and came across one about Second Life. It was interesting to read the situations people feel it is most appropriate for and what kind of islands they would create. Check it out.

I liked Steve Churchill's comment on 6/30 about using it for simulations. I can really see that! Alex Heiphetz (who apparently works for a company that helps people get into Second Life) did a nice job of laying out his thoughts on 6/10. He also advocates using it for interaction as opposed to presentation.

My Podcast

Here's a podcast I recorded about customer loyalty ...

Google Site Discoveries

I'm creating a web site for my final project and have discovered a few things others might find helpful ...

• There doesn't seem to be a way to rearrange the pages on the site map. If you accidentally forget to create a new page and mark that it should go below your home page, it becomes your first page and the only way to correct that is to delete the page and start over.
• Regarding collaborators and viewers: Viewers are just what it implies - they can look at the site, but that is it. Collaborators can edit pages, but they can't invite new people to the site or change the appearance -- they can simply update page content, add links/images, etc. Only the owner can determine who has access to the site and how it looks in terms of themes, colors, side bars items/gadgets, etc.
• Is a private site really private? Yes. Only people who are currently on your sharing list can access the site. Others get a message telling them they are restricted from viewing the site. I also tested removing a member to see if her access changed and it did. One minute she could get in, but once I removed her from the sharing list, she got the "access denied" message.

Exploring Second Life - Using it to Train

Prior to last week, I had always thought of Second Life as purely social. I've never been "in world" but from what I had heard, it seemed like more of a game than anything else. Then I started hearing that people are making a living by charging for things in businesses that were set up in Second Life. Hmmmm. Then I heard people were wanting to set up training centers in Second Life. For the life of me, I couldn't see how that would work.

Last week I visited one of these training centers and it was ... interesting.

They had built a building, complete with spiral staircases, as student lounge, a library and classrooms. Through your avatar, you went to the center and participated in synchronous training. Students could use both verbal and typed "chat" to communicate, ask questions, etc. Quite impressive. They even showed us a team building activity where avatars solved problems together with the restriction that they could not speak, much like an activity we do in a classroom team building session.

There certainly appear to be many possibilities.

But there are also some limitations.

First, participants have to be able to work their avatar. One student who was part of the demonstration had been in Second Life for 6 months and she still had trouble raising her hand and walking from one place to another. When it came to "teleporting", another student had to take her along because she wasn't good at that either. It made we wonder to what degree the technology could be distracting to students -- will they be splitting their attention between what they are trying to learn and how to operate their avatar. We run into this challenge with any new technology, but in this case, it seems perhaps a little more complicated.

Second, there is the whole Second Life environment. Let's face it, there is some pretty adult-oriented content out there that is just not considered appropriate for a business/professional environment. Making sure your participants don't accidentally get somewhere they don't want to be would be important. And making sure others who want to be inappropriate don't get into your space in equally important. They recommended making sure you locate your center in a G or PG area of Second Life would help, but the risk is always there. A more certain way of controlling who comes to your center is to pay for an invisible island, but you still have the risk of your students getting into places they don't want to be and possibly unsure how to get back.

The person hosting us admitted that many things he was doing in Second Life could be done more efficiently in other delivery methods, but to him, the great advantage was have one place to access all training - the training center in Second Life. He didn't have some training offered in a classroom, some online via Web-Ex-type technology, some via self-study on a website, some as reading, etc. Everything people needed or wanted to do was at his Second Life training center. All they needed was an avatar to access it.

And while I have not yet been in Second Life other than as a tag-along to this host's avatar, people who are in that space say they really do feel like they are there "in world" -- that they are much more engaged in what they are doing than when they are in a synchronous online training session. But they admit that what they are participating in (social things) is more engaging that a lot of training anyway. They can't say for sure that attending a facilitated session that basically mimics Web-Ex training would really be different in Second Life.

It was very cool. It certainly has potential. But as I said in my earlier post, I'm wondering where it will be in 10 years. Will it really replace all training? Or will we figure out that it is great at some things and not so great at others? And in that case, will it just be one more place to go for training instead of my host's dream of one place for all training?

Exploring Second Life - Have We Seen This Before?

I attended an online session today about how company's (and colleges) are using Second Life for training. Interesting. Overall, I was impressed. But in some cases, it seemed like they were force fitting training to the technology instead of fitting the technology to the training needs and objectives. In a few cases, the technology seemed to make the training much more difficult than it needed to be.

Ten-fifteen years ago, synchronous online learning came on the scene. Many companies jumped on board and it was going to replace all classrooom training. As we now know, it did not. Like any delivery method, it has its strengths and its weaknesses, and good trainers select it because it fits the needs of that particular training. And we don't attempt to use it for things that it will not support well.

My prediction is that Second Life will follow the same life cycle. Companies and trainers are jumping on board and talking like it is appropriate for everything right now. But it probably isn't. We'll realize that in the next three-five years and it will become yet another tool in our toolbox.

A good tool. But still one of many.

If you are interested in learning more about why and how IBM is using Second Life for training, read IBM's Other Reality: A Real-Life Tour in Human Resource Executive Magazine (Dec 2007).

The session hosts mentioned another article from ASTD's Training and Development Journal (August 2007), but you have to be a member to access those archives so I can't provide a link here.

Delicious Left a Bad Taste

I was so excited about Delicious after our last class. I imported all my favorites and meticulously tagged each one. The next day I opened the group tagged as "college" to get to a web site, but it didn't contain college shortcuts. One was a golf tag. One was a photo tag. One was an AHS tag None of them were college tags. I opened another folder only to find the same problem. All of my tags had somehow changed. Hmmmmm.

Assuming it was operator error, I re-did everything - carefully following the instructions from my class notes and double checking it all and making sure I saved the tags. I closed and re-opened my internet. Everything was fine. Good.

But the next day ... it was scrambled again.

After four tries, I've given up! My delicious tags won't stick and it's leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

Has anyone else had this problem? Or do you have any suggestions?

Just say ... yes!

I've read postings on a few blogs about the trials and tribulations of trying to expand the use of technology in a corporate environment. And I've experienced some of that myself. First, it's the IT department -- you can't let that stuff behind our firewall! Or my favorite: people won't use it for work; they will just waste time playing on it. Then there is upper management and their need for control -- we can't let people post information without having it reviewed and approved! Finally, there is the legal department -- uncontrolled information can cause all kinds of legal problems.

My experience in this class has taught me anything, it has taught me that using technology takes a lot of time. Time to locate information. Time to write it. Time to read what others wrote. Why do we think that so many people at work have so much extra time that they would "waste" it just playing with technology?!

Yet they all say no to technology. No. No. No.

Today I got a yes.

My boss and I were talking about broadening how we deliver training and she agreed that podcasts would be great for our claims associates who spend so much time driving. She sees it as something we should definitely pursue.

She said yes.

Wow!

The Class So Far ...

Tomorrow we have class again, so this seems like a good time to take stock of what I've done so far ...

• Wikinomics - Very interesting. After reading it all, I've discovered a number of technology-driven ways that individuals and businesses are collaborating. I'm really fascinated by peer production and ideagoras. I like the concept of bringing experts from all over together to solve problems or accomplish a goal. I'm still trying to figure out how all these people find each other -- even the books success stories often talk about "stumbling upon" the right web site -- but it's obviously working and I'd love to be part of something like that.
  
  Wikinomics and Learning/Performance: Clearly learning takes place in many of the collaboration methods mentioned in the book, but most of it is informal and self-directed. The learner is truly taking responsibility for whatever he/she learns. I don't see a lot of strong ties between the concepts in the book and the more formal training we provide our employees.
  
  
• My Blog - I've decided I'm not really into blogging. It truly is a journal - more one-way that I had thought before I started the class. Keeping it current takes a lot of work, and I never was good at journals! But I like the idea of processing the class in one place -- it makes things much easier to keep track of than having all kinds of separate papers. I've blogged about the book, other blogs, the things I'm exploring as homework, and other things related to technology and learning. I've chosen to stick mostly to class content or work-related topics because that's what this blog is all about. I can create another blog if I want to get into other topics.

• Other Blogs -- I linked to some blogs I found interesting on the right side of my blog and mentioned some of them in my postings. There certainly are a lot of blogs out there about learning and performance, and I think I will enjoy watching some of the ones I've discovered to see what they're talking about. But keeping up with blogs takes a lot of time! I doubt I ever become a true follower of any one site. I've noticed that a lot of "consulting" companies are using blogs as part of their web sites/PR efforts, but they seem more like the old-fashioned newsletters. Many are only updated once every 7-10 days and I'm guessing that some staff member is assigned to come up with and write about a topic for the blog.
  
  I have a co-worker who has a blog and typically uses it to journal about what he learns at conferences or in a magazine and how it relates to our work. I like the fact that he only blogs when he really has something to say and if you go to his site, you know it's going to be work-related. And it gives him one place for all his notes. I take notes at conferences, but a year later (when I need them) I'm not sure what I did with them!
  
  I have a cousin who participated in the Olympics and used a blog to journal about her experiences. I didn't realize it was a blog at the time, but now that I'm more "educated", I realize that's what she used. It allowed us to keep up with her exciting trip and how she was feeling without forcing her to answer a bunch of emails every day, all of which would have asked the same things! I never commented on her blog because I didn't know I could, but I'm guessing other people did and that kept it all in one easy place for my cousin.
  
  
• My Classmates' Blogs -- I've followed and commented on a few of my classmates' blogs since our last class session. I feel like I do know each of them a little better based on what they have chosen to blog about or by the comments classmates have made on my blog postings. We have some interesting people in our class! I've learned a couple of things. 1) Don't leave questions in your comments -- blogs are really one way and no one ever answers them! 2) It's hard to comment on things you really don't know about. That's probably why many sites are about a specific topic/area of interest -- followers probably share that interest and are more likely to know about and comment on your postings.
  
  Blogs and Learning/Performance: I'm disappointed because I came to this class thinking that blogs would be a great way to keep training alive after a class session - that people could share their ideas through blogs. But that's not really the case - everyone can't make a blog post and it's hard to follow and keep track of comments. A blog really isn't a discussion forum and that's what I was looking for. But that frustration led me to explore bulletin boards, and I found those to be more of what I was looking for.
  
  
• Podcasts - I found it hard to choose a podcast - there are a lot out there! Downloading them was easy, but getting them to my iPod and finding them later was confusing -- even though they aren't music, they are under the music menu. That doesn't make sense to me! But it probably says a lot about what the designers of the iPod thought it would be used for and how far beyond that we have gone. I found that I enjoyed listening to political commentary and news on my daily walks with the dogs more than listening to just music, so I'm sure I'll continue my subscriptions. The only downfall is that I have to remember to download them first -- that takes a little planning. I blogged about how podcasts let me multi-task just like those NetGeners!
  
  Podcasts and Learning/Performance: I am excited to learn more about creating a podcast because I see a lot of opportunities for this in our company. We have thousands of employees who spend half their time in their cars. If they have to complete training, they end up doing it at night at home. Their driving time is not productive time, but they can't avoid it. We could put training content out there as podcasts and they could listen to it through their radios, making their car time more productive and giving them more work/life balance.
  
  
• Three Things to Explore - I explored the Net Generation, Wikipedia and Bulletin Boards.
  
  >> Net Generation - These people are going to be challenging and interesting to work with. They will both amaze people and frustrate them. The thing that I need to remember most as an instructional designer is their amazing ability to multi-task and the counterpoint that they will become easily bored with traditional approaches that "take it slow." During my exploration, I blogged about being a digital immigrant, the NOW generation, how education makes a difference in how they use technology, and how group characteristics don't apply to all individuals in that generational group.
  
  >> Wikipedia - Wow! I cannot believe this concept works and I'm impressed by the result. I would still love to figure out how they got started -- how they got people to contribute and edit it. I will definitely be using it as a resource in the future. I blogged about how I was pleasantly surprised by Wikipedia and how I still have questions with no answers about it.
  
  >> Bulletin Boards - I really like this concept and think it has some real potential as a way of creating learning communities after training events. It allows multiple people to post ideas and questions and everyone can comment on everything. In fact, I think it would be a better collaboration tool for this class than our blogs! You could organize it by class topics and people could add postings to the areas that interested them. And when people have questions, everyone could see them and hopefully someone would give that person an answer. Click here to read my posting about bulletin boards.
  
  
• Participating - This can be scary! I don't always know what I'm getting into and I'm not always sure what "creating an account" means. I've found it easiest and "safest" to participate in blogs even though I don't really like them that much. I used a wiki with a group of friends trying to find a date to go out together - that worked well! I've looked at Skype, Delicious and StumbleUpon, but I'm not sure I understand any of them yet. I like my podcast subscriptions - those aren't scary at all.
  

And there is more to learn! See you in class tomorrow!

Exploring Wikipedia - Some Big Questions Left Unanswered

The more I read about Wikipedia, the more impressed I am, if not by the ease of use, but by the shear number of people who contribute and how well it is organized. There are project teams in many corporations that only wish they could operate and cooperate as well as this almost totally volunteer project does.

I get that people just start writing about things and others contribute. I understand that people with strong interests or good credentials use RSS to signal new content they can then review, edit and add to. I'm not sure how all the links get made, but I assume it's by those wonderful volunteers. I'm amazed at how well all these contributors follow the unpublished rules about how to organize and present information. And I'm impressed that there are only 5 people that earn money working for Wikipedia - you'd think there were many more!

My biggest realization: These people are passionate about their topics. Passion is a key ingredient for peer production. They have to love contributing to for the simple joy of doing so. Having grown up with a generation that was focused on "me", it's amazing how people will contribute their time, almost anonymously, to make things like Wikipedia and Linux possible.

But my two biggest questions remain unanswered:

• How did they get started? I can't find a lot of information about this, but I'm very curious to know how they got their initial contributions. How did they let people know they existed and what they were trying to do? How did they generate that passion?!!??


• How do they monitor it? In several places I've read about how they freeze or remove entries that are inaccurate or inappropriate or fail to meet their standards. But HOW do they do that? It seems to me that it would be an overwhelming task for 5 staff people. I'm sure they get alerts for new or changed content, but still ... there are a LOT of changes everyday and I don't see how they could possibly keep up with it.

A co-worker says I may never find the answers to my questions because the unwritten code on the Internet is that you don't write about yourself. You don't "brag." You let others write what they think is important about you.

So ... I may never know! But I'm still impressed.

Multi-Tasking with Podcasts

I love the news. But I'm not always in front of my TV at 5:00 and 10:00. And I'm not always listening to the radio "on the 8s" to hear the news. Broadcast news just isn't always convenient.

A podcast is different. You can download it now, and listen to it later. When it's convenient. Even when you're doing something else.

Tonight I didn't get a chance to listen to my news podcast or walk the dog until 9:30. But I accomplished both by 10:00.

I'm really liking these podcasts.

Exploring Bulletin Boards - Better Collaboration than Blogs

Before I started this class, I thought a blog would be a great addition to some training -- a way to sustain discussions after the class had ended, a way to keep in touch and keep the message alive. Once I got into blogging, I discovered it wasn't the pandora's box I had hoped for. Blogging was more of a guided discussion -- the leader has to continually post new things and followers can't bring up new topics, at least not very easily.

I wanted a blog where anyone could post ideas or questions and everyone could respond to anyone's ideas. That doesn't seem possible, at least not with the free blogging software.

Then a co-worker introduced me to bulletin boards. That's what I was looking for.

The person who establishes a bulletin board can set up topics as an initial structure - much like a wiki. But once the board is up and running, the members can add topics and create postings just like the owner. The board grows and evolves based on the members knowledge and interests. A couple of boards we looked at had "General" or "Misc" pages where people could bring up topics not even related to the purpose of the board. We were looking at a Science Fiction board and there were "General" posting about Hurricane Ike, the World Series and the Presidential election. People on these boards go there because of a common interest, and once they bond with other members, their friendships expand to areas beyond that one common interest. Nice!

If you want to see what a bulletin board is like, check out the Armour Archive and StarDestroyer boards. These were obviously started for people with a specific area of interest, but just look at all the things they share and talk about. They even teach each other how to make armour -- yes, the kind they wore in King Arthur's time!

I could see this being very valuable as follow-up to some training classes. I'm currently working on a cultural change initiative. Obviously, this is not a one-and-done thing. We are very dependent on leaders keeping that message alive. We're asking them to do things that they aren't used to, so they're not sure how to do it. No matter how hard we try to anticipate what leaders will need so we can cover it up front, the reality is that once this gets rolling, leaders will come up with questions we never dreamed of. They will also see successes that are worth sharing. They will have ideas that we didn't. A bulletin board would be a great collaborative forum to sharing all of this and creating a supportive community of leaders.

Too bad our IT "security" isn't buying the whole bulletin board concept yet.

Guess we'll just keep trying.

Exploring the Net Generation - Everyone is Still an Individual

A comment to one of my previous postings about the Net Generation was a good reminder ... while generations as a whole may take on various characteristics, not everyone in the generation takes on every characteristic that is ascribed to that generation.

Some research I found interesting labeled Net Geners as consumers who (because they are typically still young) are good at spending their parent's money. The comment pointed out that this particular Net Gener had worked 4 jobs so he did not have to ask his parents for money to go to college. I'm sure there are many like him. But there are obviously many who are not like him as well.

My daughter is a Net Gener in many ways, but she's never used or read a blog and didn't know what a wiki was. I'm sure there are many like her ... and many for whom blogs and wikis are part of everyday life.

I work with a Gen X'er who is into blogs, wikis, bulletin boards, online gaming -- you name it. He's on FaceBook and has everything imaginable on his cell phone. He's an X'er, but he acts more like the Net Generation.

I'm one of those lucky people born between generations. I'm not a Boomer, but I'm not truly an X'er either. When I look at descriptions of these two generations, I see myself in both and I can remove myself from both.

We need to remember that when we describe groups (generations), we are generalizing. It's natural to do so, but when we meet a member of that group, we shouldn't assume all the things we've heard are true about him/her. Individuals will always be unique.

Good Thoughts on ROI

We've been striving to put more measurement around our training -- to demonstrate our impact and ultimately our worth. It's a difficult challenge, but one worth pursuing. I enjoyed this blog, which put a practical slant on this whole issue.

Exploring the Net Generation - Education Makes a Difference

Ran across some interesting stats on the Net Generation. A study by the U.S. Department of Commerce looked at computer use by kids ages 5 to 24. When they broke it out into smaller age categories, their results did not vary significantly from group to group -- 20-25 % only used a computer at school, 50-60% used a computer at both home and school, 8-10% only used a computer at home, and less than 15% never used a computer. But when they compared 18-24 year-olds who were in school against those who were not in school, the results were surprising to me: only 4.4% of those who were in school never used a computer but 45.4% of those who were not in school never used a computer.

Internet use varied quite a bit between the age groups. Not unexpectedly, 61.1% of 5-9 year-olds did not use the Internet. That percent declined with each older age group, but still 15% of 18-24 year-olds did not use the Internet. What about those who were not in school? 48.5 % did not use it.

Amazing how a generation who grew up on technology stops using it when they are no longer in school. I wonder why?

Exploring Wikipedia - Pleasantly Surprised

So ... I finally made time to visit Wikipedia. I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised. I compared it to the online version of Encyclopedia Britannica and there really wasn't any comparison.

Wikipedia was easier to search and had far more links to additional information. And getting back to the original information once you used these links was easy. I entered a number of searches and always came up with something useful and the headings made it easy to skim and find information.

The thing I really didn't like about Britannica was the ads. They were distracting and irrelevant. Getting logged in was a hassle. It was slower, had fewer links to additional information and very few headings. To be honest, it was harder to find what you were looking for in this traditional power-house of encyclopedias.

So now my curiosity is peaked and I'm hoping to find out more ...
How did Wikipedia start?
How did they get people to contribute in the first place? And how do they get people to continue to contribute?
Do they have any idea how much it changes each day?
How do they check for accuracy? (They must if they can compare their accuracy to that of Britannica)
Did they set up empty pages with topics in the beginning or what? I can't imagine how it came to have so many topics in it!
Who figures out all those links?!?!!!

I have always dismissed Wikipedia because people questioned it's accuracy. Now I'm kind of amazed by the whole thing.

Exploring the Net Generation - Maybe it's the NOW Generation

Net Generation, Digital Generation, Generation Z, even the Silent Generation -- they are all names for a very young and saavy group of kids. Yes, kids. According to Wikipedia, the oldest members of this generation are teenagers and it's youngest are yet to be born. Personally, I liked the name Generation C, with "c" standing for many things: click, content, connected, computer, community, creative and celebrity. The interesting "c" that wasn't mentioned ... collaboration.

My favorite Wikipedia entry was that members of this generation "are active consumers, with a high degree of influence over their parent's purchasing decisions." Oh, how true. I have two members of this generation in my household. They are very good at spending my money and I have to admit, I am very good at making sure I consider their needs before my own. I'm not sure what technology has to do with that spending issue, but it is an interesting characteristic.

The other characteristic I found interesting was that a number of kids in this generation have sleep issues from being awakened at night by text messages. In fact, universities are looking at issues this generation faces due to "mobile phone addiction." I had never thought of it as an addiction, but it is true that the teenagers I know are very dependent on their phones, primarily as a social connection. And yes, I can believe that some participate in text message exchanges at very late hours, even on a school night. I haven't asked, but I bet my own kids would have to admit to that!

This is a generation of immediacy. What they want, they get, and they get it NOW.

It's OK to say, "I don't know."

ASTD has a blog called Learning Circuits. Apparently each month they post a "Big Question". It might be a blog to look at periodically to see what topic they are exploring.

What I found intriguing in terms of blog design, was that this owner encouraged people to post answers on their own blogs, then link to those. What a great way to expand the number of blogs we are aware of in a given field! Since the question is a learning and development question, it is very likely that the blogs you will be linked to are related to that, too.

This month's question asked for advice for people who are new to e-learning. I like the idea of one person who answered with a posting in his blog. His first suggestion was to create a "To Learn List", then prioritize it and knock it off one by one. This is not unlike the challenge Robin gave us in class - to identify 3 things we want to explore in more depth and go learn more about them.

Too often as we get older, we think we are supposed to have all the answers. We don't want to admit what we don't know for fear of looking "stupid." But hiding our ignorance has just one problem: it really does make us stupid!

I listened into a panel discussion with a group of high school students talking about how they used technology. The thing that struck me about these kids was how willing they are to ask questions and share information. Information is not power to them ... it's something to be shared. Ask them how they learned about facebook, graphing calculators, wikipedia, cell phones, texting, the Internet ... almost anything, and they will tell you they asked a friend or a friend told them about it.

What a refreshing approach. If you're curious, just ask. If you found something interesting, tell others.

Hmmm. That's what a lot of blogs are all about.

This just proves I'm an immigrant!

One of the e-learning blogs I have found is taking an interesting survey about "technology" of the past. If you're as old as I am and did any kind of research as part of your bachelors or masters degree, you'll do well! Go to his blog and take the survey yourself!

Exploring the Net Generation - I'm an immigrant!

I 've always thought of myself as a native. Afterall, I was born and raised here. But this week, I found out I'm an immigrant. To younger people, I'm the one with an "accent" that I may never get rid of. I am ... a digital immigrant.

Part of our homework was to explore three areas of interest to us. One of mine is the Net Generation - the younger generation that grew up in a digital, networked world. As part of that exploration, I read an article by Marc Prensky called "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants."

I enjoyed his labels of "natives" and "immigrants" and found that a lot of his analogies rang very true. Kids today are natives -- they have always known and used digital technology. They speak the language and don't even think about "how" to use technology ... they just do. People like me are immigrants. We may be facinated by technology. We may learn to use it. But for most of us, it will always seem a little foreign and to the younger generation, I will always have an "accent." This accent includes things like printing my email, editing a document on paper rather than on screen, bringing someone to my office to show her a good web site instead of sending the URL, or calling someone to make sure he got my email. To natives, these accents are hard to understand and when I think about it, I have to laugh. My accent really doesn't make a lot of sense and I can understand why my kids just shake their heads.

Digital natives have never seen or used carbon paper, so they don't really understand why we "cc" someone. They don't know what it means to "dial" a number -- they've never seen a rotary phone.They can't imagine pouring through magazines and reference books at the library and creating 3x5 cards with information for your research paper. They can't imagine a world where you only called home once a week from college because it cost so much or having to write your best friend a letter and wait a week or so to get a response. They can't imagine losing touch with someone just because they moved.

Theirs is an instantaneous world with information at your fingertips. They are used to receiving lots of information at a very fast pace. Instant messaging and instant access - that's what they grew up with. They are used to multi-tasking. They study with the TV on, the text messages flying, an iPod playing, and they still get an A. They are used to being networked. They socialize online and in person or by text. They prefer random access. And games. They thrive on instant gratification and rewards. And why not? That's what they are used to.

I am not.

I want to slow it down. I like my peace and quiet. I like concentrating on one thing at a time. I get lost while surfing the net. I prefer to place my shopping order by phone, even if I found the item on a web site. I like to unfold the newspaper and read it. I tend to call and leave a voicemail when I could send a text. I'm just starting to use the online directory instead of a phone book. And I signed up and went to a traditional seminar (lecture) to learn about how new technology is impacting how students and this new generation learns. Just listen to my accent.

I am an immigrant.

But I'm working to lose that accent.

Open-phone tests?!?!!!

Went to a seminar on how technology is changing the way we learn today. Interesting. But one proposal he made has caused me more thought than most: the idea of open-phone tests for students.

The speaker (Marc Prensky) encourages teachers to allow open-phone tests where kids can use their cell phones to call people and get answers. They can have someone tell them the answer or google it. And if the student's phone is linked to the Internet, he/she can google it themselves! Oh, and if you can't get a hold of anyone outside the class -- just call the kid next to you and see if he has the answer.

I was really with him when it came to allowing and encouraging students to use technology and collaboration to learn. And I agree that projects and activities are often the best way to assess whether a student truly understands and has learned something. But there are some things that we need to know for ourselves. It's not about being able to FIND the answer -- it's about KNOWING it. And if you are taking a test to measure what YOU know, I don't think you should be using technology to "cheat." I mean, why make the students fill out individual tests if they are really collaborating to complete it?

But if you do accept that being able to find the answer is as good as knowing it, then why limit students to cell phones? Why not allow students to use ANY resource -- iPods, computers, books, etc.?

I guess I just think that collaborative test-taking takes the concept a little too far.

If you want to know more about Mr. Prensky's thoughts, check out his web site.

What about truth?

Once again, the authors boast about Wikipedia and it's accuracy. I find that funny because when you go to Wikipedia, you never know if it's true. You can hope, but the fact is that anyone can write anything.

That's one of my biggest concerns about the internet. There certainly is a lot of information available, but can it all be trusted? My experience says, "No." Anyone can set up a web site or blog and they can say anything they want. Truth, and especially verification, are not a requirement.

We don't like to admit it, but there are people who enjoy rumor and gossip. They would say something sensational just to get (and see) a strong reaction. There are people who can't accept that they are wrong - they believe if they repeat something often enough, it will become true. But it doesn't. There are people who just get it wrong. Their information may be old or incomplete. It's not intentional, but it's still not true.

Collaboration is great, but how will you know who to trust? Who is concerned about making sure web content is true?

Now that's what I'm looking for!

I really liked the information about TakingITGlobal. I liked hearing about a blog that wasn't just social or editorial. I'd like to know more about it. But going back to a question from an earlier posting ... how in the world would you find a blog like that? Seems like you would just happen onto them and that doesn't seem very efficient.

I could see this type of blog working within a company. I'd like to see one in my company where people with similar concerns or visions (but from different departments) could get connected and start working on solutions. A lot of big companies suffer from silos -- this type of blog could break people out of their silos and companies might find they are making huge strides by connecting their experts and interested people.

What happened to ownership?

I find it interesting that the book so cavalierly dismisses the whole idea of copyright. Several times it talks about the music industry dilemma as though it is an inherent, human right to be able to copy and use something anyway you want. I guess I believe in people's right to earn a living through what they create. But if Napster is really "right" (which the authors suggest) and it's OK to download and share music for free, then artists and recording studios can't make money producing that music. They would actually lose money because it costs money to make the recording.

The "economy" the authors keep promoting doesn't seem like an "economy" at all. Everything is free. The book mentions the author who writes books and posts them on the internet -- never sells them. So ... how does that guy pay his bills? The book also mentions the company that downloaded copyrighted material and sold it for a profit. Legally, that's stealing, not collaborating. The authors' collaorative economy would seem to create a lot of broke people.

Companies With No Walls

In the book Wikinomics, authors Tapscott and Williams put forth an interesting future -- a global economy where the walls that divide business are gone and mass collaboration is the norm. Right now, this is hard for me to believe. It's difficult to believe that our capatalistic society will ever reach the point where companies open the doors and post their most valuable information to generate collaboration. How will anyone make money? Are they suggesting that an employee of one company may openly collaborate with a competitor to solve the competitor's problem? It's just hard for me to fathom that world.

But collaboration is a trend. In the book Unnatural Leadership, authors Dotlich and Cairo identify four trends that support less traditional leadership. One of those is that "constant collaboration will be the norm."

The world that Tapscott and Williams describe may happen ... someday. But I think that someday is a long way off.

However, between now and then, I do see an increase in collaboration, especially within companies and between companies that are not competitors. People from FedEx may help a moving company work out a logistics problem. And blogs may be the way that collaboration happens. But I don't see those same FedEx people helping UPS. I don't see consultants "giving" away their knowledge for free on a blog.

At this point I probably have more questions than answers ...

How do people locate blogs like the ones described in the book? The blogs I see are full of personal musings, stories and opinions. They are not problem solving, collaborative tools.

How can companies use blogs to promote collaboration between departments that don't otherwise work together? How can they promote these blogs so people find them and contribute to them?

How can we use blogs to stimilate learning and the application of learning beyond the classroom? It could be a great follow-up tool. I can see using a blog to group problem-solve after a class. THIS seems to be the world I can see sooner rather than later.

But how?

I have more read and more to learn.

Getting Started

I'm actually a little scared to be tackling emerging technologies. A week ago, I didn't even know what a blog was and now I have one. But I don't really know how to use it. Or who will read it. Or WHY they would read it. Class starts on Friday. I have sooooo much to learn!