Recently I was asked for advice from from a colleague in the educational sector in regards to choosing an online tool for a group of educational administrators. He told me they were a group who were not particularly tech savvy and wanted something to help them share practices around school initiatives they were launching within their Board. He saw the platform as an open space where people can think and share their ideas freely. They opened a site on blogspot.com however he added that they may have some money available to pay for a platform with more to offer than blogspot. His personal criteria was that as long as it was the user friendly, easy to manage and an accessible platform available to individuals who not only have varying degrees comfort with using social networking but also have a range of hardware configurations (and firewalls). In sum he stated that “basically I’m looking for the lowest common denominator”. Well his criteria was a bit fuzzy, but without talking with him in person, I offered these suggestions.
I am very pleased with the performance of the Ning Platform for collaboration and networking purposes. So much so, I am recommending this networking software platform for a number of groups I’m working with in York Region. It is a very useful tool for organizations and practitioners wanting to communicate with each other about important issues in their sector. The Ning platform is easy to set up, it’s free, very customizable, easy to administrate and helps create a sense of community among members. Read more…
Some of the best examples of using social media tools come from the corporate business sector. I like to highlight (and promote) how social media tools can be (and are being) adopted by non profit organizations and the educational sector. In this post, I’m showing the extent to which the business world is utilizing these tools and transforming the culture of corporate/consumer learning.
I follow Janet Clarey’s blog at the Brandon Hall Research as she gives great commentary on learning management systems and using social media for workplace learning. Brandon Hall Research provides independent expert advice in the form of published reports and phone consultations on the tools of e-learning; Learning management systems, Learning content management systems, authoring tools, content providers, and other tools that help organizations develop successful e-learning solutions. Read more…
Janet Clarey at Brandon Hall research posted on the new term used for information worker. The Cloud Worker term was created by Venkatesh Rao at his blog Ribbonfarm.com. Vankatesh works at the Xerox Innovation Group, where he leads technology projects that aim to invent the future of documents and information work. I like this term a lot. It has a bit of the mystical or even an aboriginal theme within it yet it is far more dynamic than “information worker”. The Internet is dynamic, fluid, messy, disruptive and layered every which way with networks so information worker just doesn’t do this new field of work justice. I’ve been looking at job descriptions a bit more closely lately as I take on new projects with organizations interested in using social media tools. This title is the best by far. You can read the full description of the Cloud Workers creed at Venkatesh’s blog.
The cloudworker is the prototypical information worker of tomorrow. He overachieves or coasts remotely, collaborates or backstabs virtually, and delivers his gold or garbage to a shifting long-tail micro-market defined only by his own talents or lack thereof. The cloudworker manages personal microbrand equity and network social capital rather than a career. Over a lifetime, through recessions and bubbles, he navigates fluidly back and forth between traditional paycheck employment, slash-work and full, untethered-to-health-insurance free agency.
Jay Cross at his Internet Time Blog, posted about this Wired magazine article written by Kevin Kelly. The article is an exciting discovery for me because it confirms my decision to enter into the consulting field to help others use social media tools to enhance work and learning. My decision to take this direction was based on the personal benefits that I was experiencing. Applying these tools in my community and capacity building work with my own organization and with the networks I participate in have helped me see the potential for organizations and individuals to further their own development. The article is excellent in that it gives a clear description of what we can look forward to in the coming years. Read the full article at Wired Magazine.
Barack Obama is a powerful speaker. He has captivated a nation and the world with his passion and oratory. I’ve been following his path to the White House for some time and am thrilled as is millions of others around the world with his message of hope and inspiration.
Social media tools when combined with transformative stories can be a potent force for bringing about change. Story telling is a tool that can be used to bring about significant changes in organizations and in the behaviors of individuals. Barack has a knack for telling stories that are simple, yet highly charged with meaning and purpose. This is one of many video’s of Barack’s speeches however his story telling at the end of the speech is what captivated me and obviously many others as well.
My favourite resource for learning about story telling for organizational change is Anecdote. They do workshops with groups around the world and story telling is one of their main themes. This story, originating from Anecdote’s web site exemplifies the power of story telling to motivate and inspire people. Have a look at Barack’s story of “Fired Up – Ready to Go”.
I am very impressed with the design and thinking that lay behind this video. I think it’s a great example of using social media to present a story that pushes people to rethink very complex social problems related to power, culture and gender that affects people around the world. The potential for viewers to contribute through financial donations or other forms of contributions is significantly increased after viewing the video. It’s a powerful example of using social media (pictures & text) to communicate effectively and simply to mass audiences. The Girl Effect web site tells and even more detailed story of the changes that can be achieved if resources where put in the hands of girls rather than men.
I had a meeting with Marco Campana, Online Capacity Development Coordinator with OCASI (Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants) a few days ago. I initially met Marco at the Maytree Foundation’s 5 Good Ideas – lunch and learn series. He and his colleague Christopher were speaking about using social media with non profit organizations, a subject that I am extremely passionate about and that has become my new vocation. Marco is assisting many groups across the GTA use social media in their services and his Settlement.org site is a great example of what can be accomplished with these simple and inexpensive (mostly free) tools.
We had a great discussion and Marco helped me immeasurably by letting me know about the Net Tuesday group that meets monthly and discusses common interests and issues related to using social media in non profit organizations. I look forward to continued sharing, learning, refering and collaborating with Marco. I made a brief video that talks about my meeting and also gives me a chance to test out my new Kodack Zi6 camcorder.
CCK08 – Connectivism and Connective Knowledge Course. This post comes from Teach Web 2.0 blog and its really the “homework” completed by one of the online participants. I joined this course a few months back but with my work load and other priorities I just couldn’t give it the energy and attention to get much out of the course. I did follow the newsletter and the writings however and they helped my understand connectivism and connective knowledge. I like this video a lot as it gives like so many of the Common Craft videos a clear understanding of new tools and in this case new understanding of network learning.
As a grand finale for the Connectivism course, George asked participants to respond to the following questions:
1. What is the quality of my learning networks: diversity, depth, how connected am I?
2. How has this course influence my view of the process of learning (assuming, of course, that it has)?
3. What types of questions are still outstanding?
4. How can you incorporate connectivist principles in your design and delivery of learning?
Questions 2 and 4 are addressed in the video below. The presented scenario is definitely not a complete picture of connectivism. I think it’s a good start for a k12 classroom. I view the work with my students as networked learning incubation.
A social non profit is attuned, responsive and adaptive to the complex factors affecting its constituents and communities. In a social non profit there is an alignment between staff, services, governance systems and online communications. Social non profits value learning and innovation and believe in working smarter by using social tech tools to enhance communication, collaboration and learning amongst staff, volunteers, partners and service users. These organizations believe that strategic use of social media empowers staff, improves services and strengthens governance practices.
Recent and Current Projects
Faith Community
• Social Learning & Collaboration
• Return to Rural – Alberta;
• Film Development Council of York Region;
• Delisle Youth Services - Toronto;
• York Region Alliance to End Homelessness;
• York-Durham Association of Museums & Archives ;
• Streetjibe – York Region Youth Poverty Program, Street Kids International.
Contact
brent@socialmediatools.ca
Social Web Partners
I'm very pleased to have a number of very capable and talented consultants as friends and partners that work with me from time to time.
Alain Hurtubise (iAutomate.ca) designs and developments web 2. 0 platforms. Alain has over 20 years experience in web design and enterprise systems programming with large corporations. Alain's passion is paying it forward through his work with me in the non profit sector.
Peter Levesque's company, Knowledge Mobilization Works (based in Ottawa) is dedicated to building the capacity of people to create value through knowledge mobilization.
Mark Holmgren (Mark Holmgren Consulting - Edmonton AB) contributes his extensive organizational change expertise along with an array of social media integration expertise.
Social Media – a definition
Social media are works of user-created video, audio, text or multimedia that are published and shared in a social environment, such as a blog, podcast, forum, wiki or video hosting site. More broadly, social media refers to any online technology that lets people publish, converse and share content online. (via Socialbrite)
Social Learning – a definition
Social learning is participating with others to make sense out of new ideas. What's new about this is how powerful social media works together with social learning.
Marcia Conner, Tony Bingham: The New Social Learning, A Guide to Transform Organizations Through Social Media.
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