- 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!
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