by Frank Girolami

We humans are wired to seek interaction with other people. Complex language and reasoning powers support your interactive nature. Your brain can retrieve and store unlimited amounts of information from everyday interactions and use that information to think, analyze, and solve complex problems. Today’s Internet is a global venue for productive interactions.

The Interactive Web

Evolving interactive Web tools have adopted software versioning nomenclature. Think about how you used the Internet in its early days. You browsed and searched to read and learn; thus using your eyes and your brain. That was Web 1.0.

Web 2.0 tools added ears and a heart to your interaction with the electronic world.

• E-mail is a fast & easy communication.
• IM is a portal for real-time conversations.
• Blogs allow the sharing of personal ideas and feelings.
• Wikis provide a place to collaborate with others.
• RSS feeds bring subscribers the latest news through an automatic e-mail or posting.
• Video webcasts and podcasts add another dimension.

Looking forward, Web 3.0 tools add arms and legs to your Web Interactions by making information more accessible through wireless and mobile systems.

Connections and Productivity

Workers are connected to others and to information by organizational charts, adjacent cubicles, phone lines, the Internet, help desks, subject matter experts, libraries, teams, customers, suppliers, incoming and outgoing information, family, friends, and other means. Nodes are the point of intersection between those seeking information and the information source—and workers are constantly seeking information!

Business-critical Web-based tools are about increasing interactivity, thereby raising productivity and return-on-investment (ROI). Increased organizational effectiveness depends on a support system that helps workers make connections with the people and information they need. Enter Web 2.0 tools.

Businesses are currently using Web 2.0 communication and collaboration tools to share information, strengthen communication, and build learning communities. Investors’s Business Daily reports most companies have invested, are testing, or are considering investing in Web 2.0 tools.

© FPG Resources, LLC. Permission granted to STC members to use within their organization.

by Frank Girolami

Blogs are an important part of today’s Internet. Some add to the collective body of knowledge, others are for fun. Some are long, others short. Some are professional, but others are personal. Some are topic/niche specific, while others are merely a collection of random thoughts.

Self-Directed Learning

Given that learning is more important than ever, using blogs is one way to fuel personalized professional growth. As an important informal learning tool, blogs represent the shift from classroom-based learning to self-directed network learning. They , blogs are a wonderful example of how learning occurs all the time and at any time. In his blog, Tom Haskins states, "… bloggers are self-directing their own learning process, monitoring their own progress, synthesizing their own meaning, and constructing idiosyncratic mental models."

Blogging as Learning Activity

Bloggers form a topic-centric community of learners for the sake of learning, support, and dialogue. Blogging involves three primary actions: reading, writing, and commenting. Writing a blog isn’t necessary, but people are surprised how much they learn from reading and commenting. After all, this cyber-interaction with others stimulates the necessary reflection that could lead to possible improved performance.

Not only are blogs topic-centric, they are also learner-centric because the learner’s actions and desires are a fundamental key to professional growth. The learner decides what to read. The learner shares experiences and resources. The learner stimulates discussions. With those thoughts in mind, this type of learning may be for the intrinsically motivated.

Getting Started as a Blogger

There’s a big Internet out there. If you want to join the ranks of blog readers, where do you start?

• First of all, Google is a great learning provider leading each of us to valuable information. If you’re interested in training and instructional design, key phrases like training blogs, instructional design blogs, and e-learning blogs are helpful.
• Many blogs also provide links to other blogs, so follow the trail. Take a look (warning! shameless plug ahwarning!) atinvite you to look at The FPG Notepad, which provides links to many blogs.
• RSS (real simple syndication) feeds serve as a distribution system for updates and postings. RSS requires a simple add-on at the author’s end and a receiver subscription to the feed. Once established, the receiver automatically receives notification through services such as Bloglines or Technorati, and even via personal pages such as MyYahoo and iGoogle.

Why Bother?

Since many STC members work in the learning field, we should be at the forefront of self-directed learning, let alone interacting with other learning professionals. Blogging is an excellent tool for reflecting, learning, interacting, and becoming members of a community of practice. It’s our actions that can serve as a model for accountants, project managers, nurses, and many other professions. You may be surprised at the synergistic outcome.

Further Reading

Common Questions and Some Thoughts Around Blogs and Blogging

Top Ten Reasons to Blog and Top Ten Not to Blog

Blogs and Community: Launching a New Paradigm for Online Community?

© FPG Resources, LLC. Permission granted to STC members to use within their organization.

by Frank Girolami

Late in 2006 during my own personal study about informal learning, I read two interesting posts by Tony Karrer about using Web 2.0 tools for informal learning. A colleague and I discussed the idea of forming a short-term learning community to study informal learning using the tools set forth by Karrer. We developed a plan, secured a posting tool, and recruited participants.

The Tools

IM: Chat tool facilitated the initial group discussion to select research topics.

Wiki: A Hawaiian word meaning fast and/or quick, a wiki is a body of writing maintained by a community of users. The community is willing to add, edit, and remove content as necessary. As the fastest way to get text online, wikis organize and share up-to-date information. PBWiki was our wiki host.

Social bookmarking: Sites such as del.icio.us and Yahoo MyWeb allowed members to bookmark and share access to useful links. Once the links were bookmarked, members posted links to the bookmarking sites on the wiki. These social bookmarking sites also allow user to work with their bookmarks from any Web-accessible location.

The Plan

1. Four to six learning professionals will use Web 2.0 tools to test a learning model and increase knowledge about informal learning. The test period will be four to five weeks long.
2. Members initially posted topics/questions about informal learning to a master list on the wiki.
3. Through group chat, participant selected 1-2 topics to for their study.
4. Participants had 10 days to research the first topic and post their findings on the wiki.
5. Participants had five days to read the posted entries and submit questions to the author, who had a week to respond.
6. Participants repeated the cycle with the second topic.
7. Participants came together for a face-to-face meeting to reflect on both the learning and the process.

Conclusions

• Wikis are a simple-to-use tool for collaboration.
• The smaller the group, the more critical the role for each member. One member dropping out or not contributing has a greater effect on a smaller group.
• Having a person familiar with basic code is helpful, but not required.
• Social bookmarking is an interesting and useful tool.
• Finding willing participants wasn’t easy. With access to 60-75 names involved in training, we received only a few inquiries. I still wonder why so few learning professionals were interested.
• We planned a face-to-face meeting as a reflective wrap-up. In retrospect, meeting as a group at the beginning would have served as a kickoff, allowed each of us to link names and faces, and clarified the process and expectations.
• As one would expect, each of us had different level of self motivation and commitment. Again, having the initial kickoff meeting may have reduced the gap.
• Each of us had different formats to post our information. Interestingly, this is something we didn’t anticipate, but may be one future groups may want to discuss.
• Receiving feedback and question from other team members is paramount. As a whole, our team stumbled here. Again, a kickoff event may have helped.

In the end, the experiment was practical, useful, and a positive learning experience. This informal learning wiki is password protected, so please request a password from frank@fpgresources.com if you’re interested in visiting the project.

Further Reading

The Consolidation of Collaboration

Personal and Group Learning Using Web 2.0 Tools

Personal Learning for Learning

© FPG Resources, LLC. Permission granted to STC members to use within their organization.

by Jean Fudge and Tom Staubitz