Learning in a social workplace

Today I read Jane Hart's "Learning in a social workplace" I found it to be of great interest. I love the idea of the smart worker.

Also I read Jane Hart's Pick of the month. Marcia Connor is noted on this list discussing what social learning IS NOT

“Instead let me list 10 Things Said About Social Learning … that you shouldn’t fall for.

Great stuff. Love learning to be a smart worker!

BSOL: A Session on Blogging

Today I delivered a session on blogging to members of Brisbane Seniors Online. I found the participants totally engaged with the topic and brim full of questions.

The session slides can be viewed here. Blogger has a wealth of tutorials for beginners here.

A big concern from the questions asked was privacy. Privacy around who could see the blog, who could view one's profile, how to moderate comments. Google has a Privacy Policy here. In it they explain:

• What information Google collects and why they collect it
• How Google uses that information
• The choices Google offers, including how to access and update information

A couple of articles on privacy that may be of interest:


 The eGov AU blog is also a good source

These links were published in 2005 but are still pertinent

Sharing Yourself Online: Privacy While Blogging

Blog Safely  

Social Media News can be found here a great place to learn all things social media from monthly stats on Australian's use of the various social media to infographics on top 10 brand pages on Facebook.

Creative Commons can be found here. Creative Commons is an international non-profit organisation that provides free licences and tools that copyright owners can use to allow others to share, reuse and remix their material, legally.

My blog can be found here, where I share my thoughts on social media for workplace learning and development and personal learning/knowledge networks.

Social Media Use in Australia

It's really interesting to see the statistics on the various social media Australians use. Notice how Blogspot/Blogger is third whereas WordPress.com is 6th.

Social Media Statistics Australia – August 2012

1. Facebook – 11,500,000 Australian users/accounts (up slighly – as reported by Facebook Australia Cheif, Liam Walsh) – 13 million UAVs according to Google Adplanner (users logging in from multiple locations – home, work, school etc).
2. YouTube – 11,000,000 UAVs (steady)
3. Blogspot – 4,000,000 (down 10,000)
4. LinkedIn – 2,200,000 (steady)
5. Twitter – 2,114,000 (new formulae, see calculation below)
6. WordPress.com – 1,600,000 (steady)
7. Instagram – 1,283,500 using Facebook estimate, see calculation below (475,000 UAVs)
8. Tumblr – 1,200,000 (steady)
9. TripAdvisor – 960,000 (down 100,000)
10. Flickr – 820,000 (steady)
11. Pinterest – 620,000 (steady)
12. Google Plus – approx 600,000 (see calculation below).
13. MySpace – 390,000 (steady)
14. Yelp – 192,000 (new entry – yelp.com.au and yelp.com AUS figures)
15. Reddit – 150,000 (steady)
16. StumbleUpon – 110,000 (down 20,000)
17. Digg – 77,000 (steady)
18. Foursquare – 63,000 (steady)
19. Delicious – 30,000 (down 3,000)

Thanks to Social Media News for the above data

Why Use Social Media

Recently I presented a half hour session on 'why use social media', focusing on Facebook, to members of Brisbane Seniors Online (all are people over 50). I have included below my notes for the session. Interspersed are my thoughts, comments in Italics, as the session progressed .

What social media do you use? And why?

Who uses social media? Which ones do you belong to?
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, Picasa, Flickr, Tumblr, WordPress, Blogger, Delicious, Google Reader

I was very impressed with the number of people who use social media. The bulk of participants indicated they were members of Facebook but Twitter and Google+ also rated.

Why have you signed up to these sites? 

To keep in touch, share opinion, thoughts, join interest groups, meet like minded people.

The most well known would be Facebook. Today I’ll focus on staying safe and reducing risk while enjoying the benefits of engaging with others on Facebook.

I didn't ask this question, I was feeling a little pressured to get on with the nuts and bolts.

Value of Social Media

What value have you found in joining Facebook?

On joining Facebook I found I could look up people I know and connect with them. This was very valuable, especially when those people I knew lived interstate or overseas. I was very excited about this and spent quite some time searching for friends.

The other thing I valued was the ability to join groups or 'like' pages. At last count I have liked over 150 pages (it's very hard to keep up!). Groups have diminished in their use and in fact I have left most of the groups I joined.

I didn't really discuss this either, again felt need to get to nuts and bolts of presentation.

Risks & Security issues

Risks - Passwords

Recently LinkedIn was hacked and millions of passwords were stolen. This hit the social media circuit quickly. I immediately changed my password based on my knowledge of creating a strong password. I also found the following table (I’ve only reproduced 5 but there were 30 listed) of the most commonly used passwords:

Ranking Password Phrase Number of Times
1            Link                          941
2            1234                          435
3            Work                         294
4            God                           214
5            Job                            205
Source: http://www.bsacybersafety.com/protecting_yourself/safepassword_article.cfm

And the most popular password? is password

In preparing for this session it was fortuitous for me that LinkedIn was hacked, resulting in various sites publishing on worst passwords used.

How to create a secure password: 

Words that are in the dictionary shouldn't be in your password, but unusual characters should be.  For example, experts say a safe password should include at least one or more of the following:

A lower case letter — a, b, c, d …
An upper case letter — A, B, C, D….
A number — 0, 1, 2, 3…
And a special character — @, #, $, &…

Names on your Facebook page -- such as your dog's name or high school mascot -- shouldn't be in your password, either.
That of course makes remembering your password a challenge, but here's a trick that security professionals recommend:

Think of a sentence that you can remember, and take the first letter of every word in the sentence as your password. For example: My daughter Julie was born on November 1 would yield a password of "MdJwboN1."

Throw in an exclamation point at the end to show your love for your daughter, and you have a pretty strong, unique password.

Privacy - what level?
On Facebook privacy can be open to everyone so everything you do is accessible by anyone or closed so everything you do is accessible only to friends or even selected friends.

Most of the time you would want your friends to see your stuff but sometimes you might not want some of your friends to see something. There are a number of ways you can set up your privacy in Facebook.

One of the things I’ve done is to disable the option where people can search for me – I did this on purpose because I want to control who I want to friend. This has not been too much of a problem but every now and then I’ll find out that someone tried to friend me but couldn’t find me. This could also become tricky if someone I search for has done the same thing!

Who do you want to see your stuff? 

Why would you want to show some of your stuff to some of your friends and not others?

In my case, I may want my Tassie friends to see something but not my other friends (especially if it's something specific to Tasmania).

I've set up Lists and grouped my friends under:

Close friends; acquaintances; family; Qld friends; SA friends; Tassie friends; the other groupings are used for the pages I've liked.

When you have grouped your friends in this way you can then send notes to a group or a couple of groups depending on what your status update is.

Security - Privacy

On Facebook, the way you maintain your privacy can be as open as everything you do is accessible by anyone or as closed as everything you do is accessible by selected friends.

Most of the time you would want your friends to see your stuff but sometimes you might not want some of your friends to see something. There are a number of ways you can set up your privacy in Facebook. 
One of the things I’ve done is to disable the option where people can search for me – I did this on purpose because I want to control who I want to friend. This has not been too much of a problem but every now and then I’ll find out that someone tried to friend me but couldn’t find me. This could also become tricky of someone I search for has done the same thing!

Who do you want to see your stuff? 

I found the participants to be engaged and very interested in this subject. I am looking forward to more sessions. I think my next one will be on blogging.

My parents came along to the session and while my Dad is a computer user my Mum is not. I think Dad found it interesting but Mum was soon bored and keen to be doing something else!

Links of interest:

http://wolfram.org/writing/howto/password.html How to pick a Safe Password
http://mashable.com/2011/11/17/worst-internet-passwords/ 25 Worst Passwords of 2011

Making the most of social media

I have moved out of training and development. One of my new roles is to maintain relevant information on the website and to maintain and coordinate branch social media operations - very excited about this.

As a pre-cursor to my online work I've been reading and gathering likely sources of information/knowledge and in the process developed this:

What prompted this mapping was information from the Fundraising Authority. It really hit a cord with me. What do you think?

My Personal Learnings ....

I have started using Delicious. I didn't realise what the feed did until yesterday. What a great way to gather Tweets of interest along with links to peruse at my leisure.  Yesterday, I spent time exploring a little more Delicious and this was my find. The Feed (once set up) lists all my Tweets, Re-Tweets, Favourites and how fabulous to go to Delicious to search the re-tweets and favourites to read, absorb and learn.

What's your favourite find?

Qld Premier Announces Skills & Training Taskforce

Excerpt from Media Statement:

Joint Statement:

Premier
The Honourable Campbell Newman
Minister for Education, Training and Employment
The Honourable John-Paul Langbroek
19/06/2012
Premier announces Skills and Training Taskforce
Premier Campbell Newman and Education, Training and Employment Minister John-Paul Langbroek today announced the Skills and Training Taskforce, honouring another 100-day election commitment.

The Skills and Training Taskforce members are:
Members:

The appointed members are:

• Michael Roche, Queensland Resources Council (Chair)
• Daniel Gschwind, Queensland Tourism Industry Council
• Warwick Temby, Housing Industry Association
• Matthew Martyn-Jones, Australian Industry Group
• Alex Livingstone, Growcom
• Gary Black, National Retail Association
• Pat McKendry, Careers Australia Group
• Claire Field, Australian Council for Private Education and Training
• Michael Ravbar, Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union

Official Members:
Official members include representatives of key Government agencies, as follows:

• Julie Grantham, Director-General, Department of Education, Training and Employment
• Jon Grayson, Director-General, Department of the Premier and Cabinet
• Helen Gluer, Under Treasurer, Department of Treasury and Trade 

If you want to read the fill statement go here

URL Shorteners

I have recently read a couple of blogs on the frustrations of URL shorteners especially since Twitter automatically does it. Harold Jarche and Tom Spiglanin have both written on this.

Tom's blog drew my attention in particular, which you can read here.

Harold's blog discusses the etiquette of URL shorteners, which you can read here.

What do you use and have you experienced Tom or Harold's problems?

Social Networking - webinar on Facbook

Today I attended my first ever Webinar, hosted by Adult Learners Australia on: ins and outs of social networking online.

Robyn Jay is the presenter and provides a general overview but with a focus on Facebook.

Think of a social network that YOU are a member of?
- group or club
- purpose - why are you a member
- how do people join
- are there rules
- how are they determined
I used the example of belonging to the Tango group - joined to learn to dance, meet new people and have fun.

Moderator (Robyn Jay): Hi everyone - looking forward to the session - would love to know where you're from

Me: Hi Robyn, I'm in Brisbane

Melanie:Are you in Vic?

Melanie: Ah thought so with the footy metaphot

Bernadette: Hi Robyn, I am from Wyndham Community and Education Centre in Werribee. Bernadette

Moderator (Robyn Jay): Hi Bernadette

Melanie: I am in Sydney,

Moderator (michael chalk): Feel free to use the text chat to ask questions at any time..

Me: Good afternoon Peter

Peter & Denise: Hello from Denise & Peter in Brisbane

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] please ask questions in the text chat at any time, Robyn happy to be interrupted too.

Bernadette: I am in a local writing group as I like writing. Purpose is to share ideas and activities.

Jill K: NING and Facebook

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] there are often unspoken contracts underlying your social connections online.

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] the web expands our reach for connecting with like-minded souls. It's more likely we'll find people with similar interests online.

Me: is it more likely that we decrease the diversity of thinking when we connect with like-minded souls?

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] Ning is a social networking space like facebook, often used in education.

Nina: we at Morrisons are currently trialling YAMMER

Me: Nina - what do you think of Yammer?

Jill K: http://www.nodepression.com/profiles/members/ has over 20,000 members!

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] your online profile is often the basis of your introduction to a group.

Jill K: circumspect...

Melanie: it can easily take on a life of its own

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] What we write online stays online - persistently. Flippant comments can expand out of proportion without face-to-face expressions.

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] important to be mindful of group dynamics within these contexts.

Melanie: Instagram now also owned by facebook so will be integrated there now I guess

Pinterest useful for sharing things of interest with others possibly better than Delicious. Can connect Facebook to Pinterest

M Vincent: Sounds good - I am learning more which is great

Jill K: But you pin to Facebook don't you?

Moderator (michael chalk): http://pinterest.com/ yes that's right.

Peter: very handy information, nephew used last week while visiting from qld.

Peter: instagram, that is

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] underpinnings used to be around "tags" (especially flickr & social bookmarking) and also "RSS" (aka feeds or headlines).

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] underpinnings now around common interest groups and selective or thoughtful publishing. Thinking about who would be interested in the information (hashtags in twitter can extend your message to other forums).

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] need to avoid flooding people with information they won't like. (Really? What a good idea!)

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] levels of engagement, from "Like" to comment or even 'share'/ 're-tweet'.

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] motives to join facebook could include: stay in touch with family & friends who aren't into public blogging, twitter etc.

Deb: Only joined facebook because we started using it for work. Not sorry- keeps me in touch with lots of people that I don't have time to see.

Me: now that I'm away from my family find it very useful

Jill K: Most of my 'friends' don't post they just lurk

Me: that seems to be the case for me too Jill

M Vincent: keep up to date with family, what's going on but I am not a very active user

Me: although lurking is a good way to get a feel of social media

Janet Bromley: I use FB to connect to Family & friends and keep up with organisations in my area of interest.

Sue: I'm a "lurker"

Jill K: Perhaps we could start a group of chatters rather than lurkers...

M Vincent: me toii

Me: hehehehe Sue

Nina: I've liked other community houses and I like to see what they are up too. As well as post our Morrisons up dates

Peter: another lurker

Melanie: Oh thanks you this is what I have really needed!!

Me: take the plunge ... stop lurking!   

Jill K: I NEED that slide!

Jill K: Also known as your 'wall'?

Me: or timeline?

Me: that's what I really like is the push from a site to my newsfeed

Jill K: So can we engage with a PAge?

Nina: morrisons, https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/CGEA-Morrisons/188234854559967 FB page

Me: yes, you can write comments (some don't have this on)

Jill K: Can you post there?

Nina: yes

Deb: Do groups show up in newsfeeds?

Me: I've found you need to 'promote' groups to your favourites just like any page likes

Jill K: SO which should a Learn Local have - Page or Group?

Me: page

Melanie: so it is really a discrete place that doesn't reveal all the other things on your facebook page

Me: you may have to adjust your privacy settings but yes

Me: i opted to set up a professional identity separate from my personal identity but finding this troublesome

Melanie: can you set up a group from your own account or do you need to set up a new account in fB

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] Page for promotion of your organisation. Group for courses or conversations.

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] Switch on your critical examination when "apps" appear in facebook. Read the fine print, check the privacy implications etc.

Moderator (michael chalk): [tech] cough "adBlocker" for firefox or chrome. Stops the ads.

Jill K: Yep - if you're sick of seeing ads for menopause products - put your year of birth down 20 years!

Melanie: LOL Jill

Moderator (michael chalk): Good point Jill, change your age, and watch what happens.

Me: good idea Jill

Moderator (michael chalk): [tech] http://adblockplus.org/en/

Moderator (michael chalk): [Tech] "down arrow" near your name lets you change privacy settings.

Moderator (Adult Learning Australia): Setting to allow or disallow friends of friends to share

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] Robyn's slides available on the ALA site here for later https://ala.asn.au/events/global-connections-the-ins-and-outs-of-social-networking-online/

Jill K: YOu shouldn't need to create a new FB account - just change the email details...

Me: deactivate account?

Nina: I have deactivited an account before

Me: under account settings

Peter: ok

Jill K: You can archive but it's still hanging around...

Nina: but if you accidently log in again it reactivites it

Moderator (michael chalk): Someone took them to court over this because it was horribly impossible.

Me: you can download all data and then deactivate

Moderator (Adult Learning Australia): From Facebook help: http://www.facebook.com/help/search/?q=how+do+i+delete+my+account

Moderator (michael chalk): [Notes] rather than 'unfriending' you can filter their feeds via "hide story" or "subscribe to only important".

Jill K: FB, Youtube and texting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd520wZZGDE&feature=relmfu (common sense media)

Moderator (michael chalk): @Nina, i have separate facebook accounts for social / work life, because we were starting a FB page for work.

Tribes, Institutions, Markets & Networks

Harold Jarche posted this video and intrigued I watched it. 

The video is about TIMN:

T = Tribes (clans, kinship groups, monoform, oral age)

I = Institutions (hierarchical, bi-form, print age)

M = Markets (competitive, trading, banking, companies, tri-form, electrical age)

N = Networks (civil society, quadri-form, digital information revolution)

There were a couple of things that grabbed my attention:

Sees society moving from Rights toward thinking more about Responsibilities

The rise of the Third Sector (non-profits, community groups and organisations). The left are focusing on commons - physical and knowledge/information. The right thinkers are talking about stewardship but haven't linked it to networks yet. 

TIMNs is an exercise in futurology to archaeology.

Two final points:

1. nowhere near end of history as thought by companies in tri-form period.

2. looking at mathematics of social evolution 

Interested in your thoughts on this ...

LinkedIn: An analysis ...

Over the past little while I've become a regular user of LinkedIn, especially during my unemployed period. In that time I looked for people working in my location in my area of expertise. I also looked for groups discussing issues, new ideas, etc in my area of expertise/interest. The groups I joined have been of great interest and benefit to me in developing my personal knowledge management/network learning.

While my new job didn't come through LinkedIn the possibility is there.

The following Infographic provides a really good overview of what LinkedIn offers to its users.

Do you use LinkedIn? What have you found particularly useful?

What I've been reading ...

I thought I would share with you the posts I've read over the past few days (from Google Reader, Twitter, etc)

The first comes from Learning Solutions Mag which discusses how people can be very excited about a new innovation (be it technology or something else) when other people find it scary ...



This blog discusses an organisation's lack of hierarchy. Could be scary for someone like me who likes working in a structured workplace, however, I can see that it could work well for some businesses.

Anne's Spot on serendipity:

Serendipity helped me discover people, concepts,  and ideas that I would have never known before

Anne reflects on her experiences of using social media. I find her experiences quite similar to my own.

Harold Jarche is always a good read. I like the way he talks about personal knowledge management/networked learning. He's been working in this area for many years and for me is my mentor. This read is about why he blogs.

Like Harold, blogging has become a means of making sense of my personal knowledge management/networked learning plus it enables me to share my thoughts with you, my dear readers.

Why do you write a blog? Who do you connect with to learn serendipitously from? How do you 'sell' social media to others without scaring them?

A Twitter Attack

Yesterday, a person I follow on Twitter was hacked and then I was! The message:

I foolishly tried clicking the link and that must have been the go ahead for the same message to be sent from my account to all my followers. Yuk.

A kind follower alerted me:

I've now changed my password and hope that this is enough to stop the hacker. 

And then I noticed the following tweets:

What the ...? I have no interest in weight loss (the bottom tweet is mine though and has nothing to do with weight loss!)

Have you had the same or similar experience? What did you do?

My Personal Network of Learning

You will remember that over the past few months I've been learning about Social Learning. Within that I've discovered Personal Knowledge Management or Network Learning. Harold Jarche has written extensively on this idea and has become one of my mentors on this journey (although he doesn't know it).


Harold has shown me that I've been developing my own network of learning without knowing that that's what I was doing and I expect you, my dear readers, have been doing the same.


Harold talks about using social media and social learning to do three things: Seek, Sense and Share. This is how I understand what he writes.


Seek: this is where I look for others in my industry who are thinking, writing and discussing the various issues, ideas that I'm thinking about. Thus, tools such as RSS feeds, social bookmarking are very handy. In my case, I've been using Google Reader to access information and discussions on elearning, freelancing, small business, writing and social learning. At present I subscribe to 33 RSS feeds and right now I have over 400 unread items which tells me that I've not kept up with the feeds or it could be that I need to re-examine the feeds I subscribe to and ditch those that are not serving my personal learning.


Sense: is where I make sense of what I've been reading. There are a number of ways that this can be done. Blogging, discussion through Groups on LinkedIn, commenting on other writers/thinkers who are talking about my various reading. I have a blog : workplace learning & development which has been very useful in helping me understand my reading and to share with my readers. Groups on LinkedIn have also been a great source of discussion, especially when others think differently and offer another perspective I may not have thought of otherwise. 


Share: is where I can share my thoughts, opinions (tentative - always open to change) and ideas with those in my networks on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+. I really like Harold's idea of sharing the various blogs, comments and discussions that come my way on my blog, that is collating what I've read over a week and then offering my own assessment or opinion on each.


Wonderful stuff. Click here to view Harold's perspective on Personal Knowledge Management.


What I would like to know from you, dear reader, is what do you do to keep up to date or Seek information in your area of expertise? How do you Sense the information that comes your way? What makes you Share any blog, article or comments with others?

How LinkedIn can Help Your Business ...

By the way, have you wondered how LinkedIn can help your business? Thanks to Jennifer Bishop a member of How to make social media work for you (managed my Leila Henderson) I read this and I am excited at how useful this information is for my business.


The stand-out for me was how Groups have been a wonderful source of discussion, learning, connecting and sharing.


Do you feel the same? Do you think you'll do anything with this information? Let me know in the comments - I'll respond.

Twitter ... why tweet?

I'm pretty sure I'm preaching to the converted but I can't believe it took me so long to join the conversation. I've known of twitter probably since it began but until now didn't see how useful it could be. Since joining, my personal learning network and my personal knowledge management has expanded.

I joined twitter, not because I had been persuaded it was a wonderful tool for short, witty conversation, sharing links and videos or keeping up with the latest news but because I saw that most of the people I follow on Facebook, Google Reader and Blogs had twitter accounts. I suddenly felt I was missing something.

Now I'm addicted. At present I have 37 followers (this is more than any other social media I'm involved with and I'm quite impressed) and I follow 81 tweeters. Those I follow fall into 3-4 broad categories: News; Australian politics; Social Learning (e-learning, informal learning, workplace learning); Climate Change; and some well known Australian/American/English identities.

The big thing about twitter is that your tweets are restricted to 140 characters. Surprisingly 140 characters is quite a bit of text:

Though users can answer the prompt, “What are you doing?”, tweets have evolved to more than everyday experiences, where links are shared

The above represents 139 characters, so your tweets can make sense, be very witty and clever. The core premise of twitter is responding to: "what are you doing?" as indicated above but tweets have become so much more than that. Have you seen tiny urls? they came about because of twitter's restriction to 140 characters, so now most links shared on twitter is shortened to enable understandable text with the link.

It's easy to sign-up, go to twitter.com click sign-up and follow the prompts. During the sign-up process you will be asked to follow suggested tweeters (up to five) - I found this a bit annoying and didn't realise I could skip this. On the other hand when the process finished I was receiving tweets which was quite rewarding. Also, you can adjust who you follow later. I've found a short video that takes you through the sign-up process.

Mashable.com has put together a Twitter Guide which covers all things twitter such as, how to retweet, what hashtags are for, favourites and so much more.

I found this article provides insight into: why twitter? Essentially, tweeters like how twitter ignores barriers of class, age and locale, the 140 character restriction which means more thought is put into each tweet.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest where does twitter fit into social learning? For me, twitter has broadened the reach of my personal learning network (PLN). A PLN is a great way to connect with people in your area of work, to learn what they're doing/thinking and to contribute your thoughts. A wonderful form of social learning.

And to quote from one of my PLN mentors/coaches: "Twitter is a wonderful tool for sharing quick ideas, links and articles. It offers the user access to industry experts, authors, like-minded practitioners, fellow hobbyists and yes, celebrities. ... A great place to find help or advice" Jane Bozarth Social Media for Trainers.



If you do take the plunge, find me @anniemonline.

How many Social Networks is enough? & which one to use?

19/4/2012 Update: Mashable have a link to a wonderful infographic on which social network should you use? Covers Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+.

So, now I need to decide which social network to use for which purpose. I've been finding lately that I want to move away from Facebook as a business tool. I'm preferring Facebook for personal use although I do have a Facebook page (Office Administration Worker - used primarily for training and assessment of business administration trainees); Twitter and LinkedIn have been fantastic sources professional development, connecting with experts in my fields of interest.

What's your favoured social network and why?


7/4/2012
I just read that Pinterest is now the No. 3 Social Network in the US behind Facebook and Twitter. This caused me to wonder how many social networks do we need or want to use?

Currently I use Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Picasa, Flickr, Delicious, Blogger, WordPress, Social Learning Centre, Mighty Bell and LinkedIn. I'm not necessarily a regular on all of these networks but I am an everyday user of Facebook, Blogger and Twitter.

I found this website: Entrepreneur which doesn't provide a definitive answer. It does say that managing your social networks is key. So depending on what, where, when, how and why will see one using some social networks over others.

I also found on Wikipedia a list of social networks - a bit mind boggling

Just counted: 11 social networks ....

One thing I'm good at ...

I've just joined Mighty Bell and have joined the Teacher 2.0 community. In doing so there are a number of exercises I've been asked to complete.

1) write down at least one thing that you are good at, that is, a talent that you have.


Now this gives me pause ... what am I good at? 


I'm good at teaching people how to use computer software (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Publisher, Internet Browsers - IE, Google - and become comfortable with the computer), social media (Facebook in particular, Skype, Google+, Twitter). I get such a buzz from seeing people gain confidence in using a computer and using it for their purposes.


2) write down something(s) you love doing or something(s) you love learning about.


I love writing and with Blogs I've taken to writing to three of them! Recently I decided to re-learn how to crochet and went off to an evening session which I enjoyed tremendously.

My first effort! I kept losing stitches which as a knitter from way back was quite distressing. I turns out I was reading the pattern incorrectly.


3) Think about or write down how the Internet has impacted your own personal learning.


The Internet is such a vast place. I've been using the Internet since 1994 and have watched how it has changed over that time. Until Web2.0 came about I found it not much different from searching my folders on the computer. Now I've taken to using Facebook, Twitter, Skype, Gmail, Google Reader, Google+ all of which have impacted on my learning. I discovered people discussing the change to 'social learning' and how that will change how learning and development is delivered in the workplace - my area of interest. This has been quite recent and has provided me with lots of food for thought with regard to my own approach to learning and development.


4) Understanding the Personal Web Presence


Here I'm learning about managing my online presence. An example can be found here.


More food for thought. Maybe I should put more pages on my workplace learning & development blog ... 


5) Building my own Personal Web Presence


Using this blog I'll be adding and re-working this site.


Stay tuned!

Social learning in action

I stumbled upon this very interesting video on how a student uses social media tools to put together class work.

You can read more here.

Have you seen this in your work experience? If so, what did you think?

Life long learning ... MOOCs

I've been reading of MOOC in various places I visit on the Internet and today I've found out what MOOC is:

Massive Open Online Course

I can't remember where I first saw it but today I found it here. It started with me looking at e-portfolios and clicking on a link to:

Participate in the Preparing to be a self-directed learner experience

Well, this has opened up possibilities, especially since I've been looking at how social media can be used for workplace learning. I love that Stephen Downes explains how to start through the use of such tools as blogs, twitter, de.licio.us, facebook. Some of these I'm already using for thinking about what I've been learning (blog) and sharing this plus links on twitter and facebook.

Now de.licio.us helps you find cool stuff and collect it for easy sharing. Dig into stacks created by the community, and then build your own!

I love that this also ties in with life-long learning and self-directed learning. I am a self-directed learner. I enjoy how I can be wrapped up in one area of learning and then discover another area worth pursuing.

Links I found from MightyBell: 


Ken Masters: A brief guide


Stephen Downes on MOOCs ... treat learning as the formation of connections 


Self-Directed Learning: This site supports teaching self-directed learning (SDL) and becoming a self-directed person.


Now I'm off to build my cool stuff on delicious!

What do you do with all your passwords?

With all the accounts I am a member of, remembering the various username and password iterations has become a little bit of a nightmare.

I'm now searching for an application that will look after this for me. I was prompted by an article I read on the Mashable website called Say Goodbye to Username and Password Logins and Hello to OneID. Here the developer describes his frustration of excess usernames and passwords so he came up with idea of OneID.

On the OneID website there is more information on how it works. As I understand it, once I've installed/signed into OneID I can develop my 'digital identity' to ensure an easier, more secure way to sign in or pay online. My worry is, while OneID says my digital identity is private and I'm the only one who can share this with whomever I like, OneID has this stored somewhere on the web. What I haven't been able to find is information on what is done with that data. There are reassuring words around only I can access and share my digital identity but ...

Another application, KeePass, is sounding more like it (at least for me):

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).  

And having a quick look on the features page I find I'm feeling more reassured. KeePass doesn't store registry or ini files on my system and is portable - I can store it on a USB! 

There appears to be many password management options:

Five best Password Managers from LifeHacker: 1) Sxipper; 2) KeePass (as discussed above); 3) RoboForm; 4) 1Password (Mac); 5) Firefox's Password Manager

Four Open Source Password Managers to Keep Your Passwords Safe by makeuseof: 1) KeePass - not really discussed as seen as most well known; 2) Clipperz; 3) Yadabyte Passwords; 4) Password Gorilla and 5) Universal Password Manager

Just a very quick round up of what's out there for keeping passwords safe. What do you use? How has it worked for you? Do you use an online or desktop based one? Would love hear your thoughts.

Bringing to life statistics?

Hans Rosling brings to life data on life expectancy and wealth.

A fantastic use of technology to bring to life an often boringly (if that's a word) delivered subject.

Have you done something like this? If so, what was it and how was it received?

Learning Social Media

Today I've been looking for websites that provide learning on social media. Here are some of the sites I found:

Kommein

Mari Smith

Jane Hart

70:20:10

I feel like I've been living in a vacuum. I've recently been learning about how to use social media for workplace learning or social learning or informal learning. Today I viewed a video on 70:20:10

which prompted me to do a search on 70:20:10.  Out of the first few items listed from 36Mill

I found one article going against the trend: Let's Kill a few Learning Holy Cows. It was great to see an opposing view and it has given me pause for thought.

I've included some links to various articles I discovered:

Charles Jennings: 70:20:10 Learning Approaches; Through the 70:20:10 Looking Glass; Structured Learning; 8 reasons to focus on informal and social learning

Allen Tough (the original author of this idea) Why Adults Learn

Neil Perkin: the 70:20:10 Model

Have you used 70:20:10 in business or learning? What did you like/not like?

LearningZealot: If you answered No...

I just read this article and am impressed with the writer's astute questions
LearningZealot: If you answered No...

To-Don't-List

I've just been reading some work by Daniel Pink, an author, his most recent book: Drive: the surprising truth about what motivates us (I haven't read this). I'm reading the Flip Manifesto and in that he talks about how we often write to-do-lists and get a buzz from crossing items off the list when they are done but what we rarely do is write a to-don't-list. This kind of list is used to identify those things that distract us from doing our job.

Here's my list:

Don't go to sleep after 11pm
Don't respond to emails as they arrive

I'm sure there is more I could add but it's a good start!

What would you put on your to-don't-list?

Stubborn or Independent?

If find myself, now that I'm settled in Brisbane, back in the looking for work mode. If you've been reading my recent posts you know that I've been studying Social Learning in the workplace and how social media is used to do this. From this I've learned that my social media networks or connections are people I could contact who could help with my search, however, I feel quite hesitant to do this. Cold calling or emailing, even if I'm connected on sites like LinkedIn, is not something I'm very fond of.

I'm feeling a little disappointed that I haven't been offered an interview although I've only been seriously searching for about a month! And because I've had a few 'thanks but no thanks' emails I'm feeling less confident in what I have to offer a prospective employer. I'm also wondering if my age is an issue (not that I put my birth date on my CV, by the way) but that doesn't stop me from wondering. Yes, I'm in the latter years of my working life which means I have a depth and breadth of highly valuable skills and experience.

Because of this I'm trying to work out how to attract the attention of the recruiter. In my last job I did a lot of recruiting and I know how boring it can be to read through the enormous amount of applications that come through, especially when you're trying to find in the cover letter or CV anything that relates to the selection criteria.

I'm currently signed up to SEEK and have spent some time looking at their tips on 'killer CVs' and cover letters, some of which I'll certainly take up. I receive daily email alerts for possible jobs but to be honest, none fill me with passion or excitement. I haven't made face-to-face contact with any recruitment agency - is this wrong? I'm beginning to think it's time to arrange an appointment with a couple of recruitment agencies.

At present I feel like I'm in a weird place where I don't quite know what I would like to be doing but recognise that I need to find paid work. It's like I'm waiting for that 'dream job' to fall into my lap. Ha, as if ...

It's interesting to note that when I applied to Brisbane Seniors Online for a volunteer position, I got an instant response and am heading off to meet the people next week. So this gives me heart that my skills and experience are valuable!

In the meantime, I'll keep looking for that dream job!

Your thoughts and/or advice will be gratefully received.

Others discussing Social Learning

Social Learning - What is it? 

Charles Jennings - 70:20:10

Harold Jarche - Social Learning for Business

So, what is social learning?

You might say that social learning is something we all do and have done since we were babies.  In some ways it seems silly to see this as a new thing ... it's not. However, social learning in the workplace has not been very well captured by organisations learning and development departments as they have been focused on formal training. You know, a training needs analysis is conducted, analysis is made of organisation wide training needs as well as the individual's training needs. A training plan is developed and implemented. And hopefully, staff performance will improve. Think again. An organisation will be lucky if 20% of their staff implemented what they learnt in a formal training setting.

In fact, 80% of learning is informal, that is, learned on the job through conversation, observation and practising. It's no wonder there's a growing recognition of this.

So, what is social learning?  Frederic Domon provides a fairly good definition:

Social learning can be viewed as the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes while connected to others (peers, mentors, experts) in an electronic surround of digital media, both real-time and asynchronous.

As does Harold Jarche and Jane Hart:

Social learning happens everyday – naturally and continuously – both inside and outside of training and education as we converse with our friends and colleagues. However, the use of social media to support the social aspects of learning is now increasingly being referred to as Social Learning.

When I first came across this concept it was like a little epiphany for me. I'd been feeling discontented with the formal approach to training taken by the Vocational Education & Training (VET) sector through training packages, although I have to admit, that recognition of prior learning (RPL) does attempt to address a learner's current skills and experience no matter where it was learned.

However, it doesn't address how an organisation can move from a hierarchy to a 'wirearchy':

http://www.jarche.com/2010/02/a-framework-for-social-learning-in-the-enterprise/

Jon Husband’s working definition of “Wirearchy” is “a dynamic two-way flow of power and authority, based on knowledge, trust, credibility and a focus on results, enabled by interconnected people and technology”.

As a learning and development practitioner, have you identified this phenomenon? If so, what have you done to facilitate or enhance this to improve workplace performance? Do you think there's a need for L&D professionals to take this on?

2012 ... My Social Learning

I have been very interested in the shift from formal training to what Jane Hart calls 'Social Learning'.

I find her writing and thinking on Training and Development in the workplace interesting and well worth following.

This year, my focus will be entirely on learning as much as I can on this very new subject and then incorporating it into my workplace practices.

I will aim to regularly post my thoughts and ideas on Social Learning for your feedback, comments and thoughts.

What prompted me was Jane's latest blog post, where she quotes:

Up to now, for many organisations, Social Business has been about social media marketing and engaging customers, but as IBM explains …

“A Social Business isn’t just a company that has a Facebook page and a Twitter account. A Social Business is one that embraces and cultivates a spirit of collaboration and community throughout its organization—both internally and externally.”

 Her words ring true. With my learning I want to be someone who assists businesses to embrace and cultivate a spirit of collaboration and community in their organisation.

Another blogger, Harold Jarche, is also worth keeping tabs on. He too is writing about the shift in the Learning & Development departments.

Stay tuned ...