These are some audio files to go along with my 'Getting Started with Blogging and RSS' tutorial. In the online tutorial you will find all (and more!) of the web addresses I refer to in the audio. You can listen to one or more of the audio files, and you don't necessarily listen to them in any particular order. I prepared them for the June Mini Online Event held by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework's 2005 Networks Project.
Enjoy!
Session 1: What is a Blog? How Can I use one? (5:57 min:sec, 1.4Mb, MP3 format)
Session 2: Setting up a Blog in Blogger (4:09 min:sec, 974kb, MP3 format)
Session 3: What is RSS? What will it do for me? (4:33 min:sec, 1.1Mb, MP3 format)
*Session 2 has been uploaded, but I will need to wait until I have ftp access to upload the other ones.
Notes on a presentation from the Collaborative Learning Conference 2005
Enterprise Use of RSS for managing information by Kathleen Gilroy (from The Otter Group )
Prefers the term 'learning network' to 'learning community' – as believes the tools we are using currently to communicate online are better suited to network functions than communities.
Dissatisfaction with CMS tools that they were using, so discarded them in favour of blogs and RSS. Advantages- simplicity and convenience, ease of use. Talked about own use of RSS Aggregators - within the business about 30 blogs exist, so is an easy way of keeping up with what is happening in the business and had cut the email load by about 30%.
In 2004 started to use in elearning for clients. RSS Radar - aggregate from a wide variety of sources according to set criteria - eg from search engines. Used for blog with Year 8 Students as they built a kayak as a class project. Piloting a Blogging and Enterprise RSS project for Merrill Lynch blog post here http://www.ottergroup.com/blog/ELearning/_archives/2005/3/15/437148.html . Otter Group was brought in originally to provide an elearning solution – they moved from a content delivery system to supporting performance of course participants. Through this they observed a dramatic improvement in quality of participation and volume, which they attributed to the visibility given to students ideas (mostly) and also ease of use of system (less). Good business outcomes came from the program overall – more and better product development ideas that then were actually implemented, development of a high performing group.
Enterprise RSS - installed on a server behind the firewall. integrate with email, web, pda, cell phones. aggregates information from wide variety of sources and distributes according to rules. Enterprise can set rules about which information is available to staff to choose from, and also staff can add other sources – eg own blog, other web resources etc
Productivity is increased through:
- better information aggregation and routing
- more targeted and personalised information distribution
- better sharing of knowledge and learning
- better tracking of information and sharing.
Comments:
Benefits I see largely for workers whose roles are enhanced through the availability of information and news, i.e. Knowledge workers. Application for learning could be best for a workflow learning situation? Is this system an implementation of workflow learning or e-performance support or something else again? Fully searchable, have multi-user blogging - great for small workgroups eg project teams. RSS Radar - one Oz example for education is the Edna resource searches in RSS. Replacement for sequenced learning programs? - delivery of learning objects through enterprise RSS system - for linear, information transfer approach to learning. In combination with the use of individual or small group blogs this may be OK, but not on its own. So this system has a wonderful potential for distributing and sharing information - which may lead to learning. In the discussion following Nancy White’s keynote, there was debate about what constitutes learning or membership of communities as opposed to simply reading information from a particular source. I would like to see Kathleen's point about using the system for sequenced learning fleshed out a little more to get a handle on what is in these learning events. Are there associated tasks, what support and facilitation is wrapped around them?
My notes from the Nancy White Keynote in the Collaborative Learning Conference 2005 run by iCohere.
Nancy's presentation contained possibily more questions than answers - prompting some reflection on my part.
...........
In the online environment we have a merge between what we know and what we imagine - eg what we get from someone's introduction and what we imagine about them.
Online world is full of great possibilities and small annoyances
In online communication we are trying to rewire very established communication patterns. Written communication has sped up - email is quite different to writing a letter and the slow pace of return.
What are the competencies that people need to communicate online?
What was it that you found it familiar when you first went online? - Remember the lost feeling when first online. In the online world the traditional barriers have disappeared or moved, and continue to move.
"moving information faster does not always facilitate faster meaning making" - overload, not the skills to make meaning, misunderstandings, etc
Emergent practices = they are not in place, still evolving
7 competencies for Online Interaction:
2) Online communications - fast scanning and comprehension, pattern recognition, image and sound creating skills
daily writing helps with fluency, vary your diet - reading writing drawing mapping etc "through the looking glass"
3) Learning with others - tools tend to be designed for a group but used individually, network helps filter, amplify, conveners, facilitators, community builders and investors (Ben Ramalingan ODI UK) - talking about network in terms of loose connections between people. "reciprocity starting with me"
4) Facilitation - rather than telling people what to, we are facilitating people to do things. Flow is fragile in the internet world. Convening Conversations - interaction between local and global - often the action arising from online interaction are local in their situation.
5) Intercultural antennae - need to keep our eyes above and below the water. live and work and play with different people in different places, look inside and outside
6) Tolerance for ambiguity - OK with not being sure or in control, ok not knowing the answer, move forward without certainty, not closing on what has come before, but looking for what is to come.
7) Ability to switch contexts. 'Outsiderness' [further notes from discussion] * In distributed communities, it is easy to feel on the margin because we don't have enough of that informal negotiation of role and status (status not in a controlling sense, but in a membership sense)
* People who belong to many communities (multi-membership) find less time to develop their identity in any one community
* Human beings are insecure!
8) Living across Domains - need to be an engineer, economist and artist all at once. Need to have understanding other's roles and issues.
Finally 1) - Self Awareness - the grounding competency
Using Bloglines (or How to keep up with dozens of blogs everyday) from Preetam Rai. This resource includes lots of screenshots which I always find helpful.
"Update: Already getting lots more tips from friends. I will keep updating this post.
Thanks to all who commented and linked to this post.
I follow about 80 blogs on a regular basis. I read about 10 online news sites. I am following some Flickr sites and some Yahoo!discussion groups too. If I were to go to each of these sites every day, it would take up lots of time. Also, I might go to some blog and find that it is not updated. It would be good to have a service that keeps track of all our favorite blogs."
"Welcome to Designing e-learning
Introduction
Using e-learning tools and resources in online, campus or workplace settings
This site shows the many ways you can use e-learning to engage learners, provide flexibility and improve quality in vocational education and training (VET). It can be used as an individual guide, or as a resource for professional development and training sessions.
This site has four sections:
* Gallery of Strategies
an A-Z showcase and guide to adding the 'e' to learning programs
* Learning Design
show-and-tell stories of successful e-learning, plus guidelines
* Assessing Online
a comprehensive step-by-step guide for VET professionals
* Further Information
useful sources to help you move on."
informal learning @ the informal education homepage
This looks like a rich resource. I'm sure I've been to this site before but could not find a reference to it on Toolkits, so here it is (again possibly).
Learn More Now
by Marcia Conner for Fast Company
"Still think learning means school? Expand your definition of learning to include conversations with your peers and your children, from books, articles, informal networks, Internet searching, television, and what you learn through trial and error. Use everything that happens in your world as a resource to learn more now.
Picture a company cafeteria with overhead projectors, pads of paper, and pencils on all the tables. Is this the sign of an organization in desperate need of more conference rooms? No, it's the cafeteria at Siemens Power Transmission and Distribution, designed by senior managers to help employees capture what they learn during casual conversations and impromptu knowledge-sharing sessions."
link to Job Aids For Everyone : A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Job and Task Aids
link to Mentoring in the Workplace
link to The Manager's Pocket Guide to Effective Mentoring
link to The Step-By-Step Guide to Starting an Effective Mentoring Program