CivieBlog

Reduce Searching Start Talking

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I just saw When Knowledge Management Hurts …

Professors Martine Haas from the Wharton School and Morten Hansen from INSEAD, for example, examined the use of internal knowledge systems by teams of consultants in one of the big four accountancy firms trying to win sales bids. They measured to what extent these teams accessed electronic documents and how much they sought personal advice from other consultants in the firm. They figured that, surely, accessing more knowledge must be helpful, right?

But they proved themselves wrong; to their surprise they found that the more internal electronic databases were consulted by these teams the more likely they were to lose the bid!

So I naturally looked at the citation to read the details … Does Knowledge Sharing Deliver on Its Promises?

In a study of 182 sales teams that were bidding for new client contracts in a management consulting company, Haas and Hansen found that using personal advice from experienced colleagues can improve work quality.

"We find that using codified knowledge in the form of electronic documents saved time during the task, but did not improve work quality or signal competence to clients, whereas in contrast, sharing personal advice improved work quality and signaled competence, but did not save time," Haas says. "This is interesting because managers often believe that capturing and sharing knowledge via document databases can substitute for getting personal advice, and that sharing advice through personal networks can save time. But our findings dispute the claim that different types of knowledge are substitutes for each other. Instead, we show that appropriately matching the type of knowledge used to the requirements of the task at hand -- quality, signaling or speed -- is critical if a firm's knowledge capabilities are to translate into improved performance of its projects."

There is considerably more detail here, but this certainly calls into question the idea of creating large knowledge bases. It may even call into question sharing of Effective Patterns. However, my findings indicate that using Data Driven approaches ensures that you arrive at effective sharing, but it's certainly different to share patterns as opposed to sharing additional codified knowledge.

What is hugely important out of this is the reminder of the limits of codified knowledge and that Conversation Learning is essential but that there are limits to what should be shared and how effective that sharing can be. Still, I've come to believe the most important Knowledge Worker Skill Gap is the Leveraging Networks Skill. I've discussed this many times in Value from Social Media and Networks and Communities.

The research would seem to suggest that it's more than just an uneasy feeling after searching, but the reality is that you likely are missing things. You really do need to have that conversation.

The bottom line is to reduce the amount of time you spend search and spend more time talking.

This does make me wonder what this means for professions that focus on helping to create codified knowledge?

20:42 | 0 Comments

Using Online Sticky Noticeboards

Người đăng: TuyenCvie Nhãn: activities, e-learning, online learning

For the last few days I've been playing with WallWisher a handy tool for creating online noticeboards that you can add sticky notes to.

You can see a wall that I created here with some notes about Web 2.0 Tools for EFL ESL Teachers.

It's very easy to create your own noticeboard, just click where it says 'Build a Wall' and you'll see a new wall with some options on it that you need to complete. Basically these are:

Uploading an image
Choosing colours
Adding title and subtitle
Creating your password
Deciding who can see and add to your wall

Once you have done this you just click the big 'Done' button and you are almost ready to start adding content to your wall. Before you start to add content you'll need to check your email account where you should find your password. Then you just log in to your wall and double click on the wall to start adding the sticky notes.

The sticky notes are quite simple, you just add some text and you can either link to an image, a video or a web page.

The nice thing about this is that when users click on the link it opens in a pop up browser over the wall. This means that you can use your wall to focus students access to sites like flickr or Youtube and stop them drifting into other content. It also means that you can use the wall to set up specific activities and get your students to post their responses on the wall (as long as you have selected 'Everyone' to allow others to post to the wall)

So how do we use this with students?

We can create video tasks and get students to post responses to the wall by leaving it open for everyone to contribute. Here's a wall that I created about Ramadan. This wall has been left open for anyone to contribute to.
We could use the wall to collect different links to various resources around the web for students to explore, a little like a web quest or treasure hunt.
We could give students a theme and get them to create their own walls based around that theme.
We could get students to create fan walls based around a favourite band or celebrity.
You can use the wall to collect and share resources like this one on IELTS
You could use the wall to set up video or image based activities. Here's a video activity that I have set up for teachers based around a Mr Bean Video. Feel free to contribute.
This activity uses an image to get students to practice using present continuous.
You can use the wall to create debates. You can do this either by posting your own contentious opinions or using videos from sites like BigThink.com and get students to respond. This could be a way of dealing with sensitive issues and enabling students to be able to express opinions that they might not feel comfortable doing in the classroom. Here's an example
We can even create grammar walls and get students to post what they know and examples of different verb tenses or grammar points.
We could even get students to post their wishes on it using third conditional.
Or last but not least we could use it to notify our students or parents of homework assignments and keep them up to date with what's happening in class.

What I like about WallWisher.

It's free and easy to use and requires a minimum of registration info
I like the way the links open in a pop up over the page
You can embed the wall into a blog or website
Your wall produces an RSS feed which can make it easy to keep track of what is being added
Students can get involved and post brief comments or create their won walls
It can be used collaboratively
Great way to create easy online learning tasks
It looks nice

Things I'm not so sure about

It would be nice to have a few more controls about who posts to the wall. At present it's either only the creator or everyone! Would be nice to be able to invite people to post to it.
I'd also like to be able to add / embed more than one link into a sticky note so that you can include an image or video and a link to a site, but you could get round this by adding more than one sticky.
Would be nice to have a bit more control over how the embedded wall appears in a web page. Here's what mine looks like.

Well I hope you like WallWisher and find it useful. If you have other ideas for how to use it please do post comments and links.

Related links:

Best

Nik Peachey

00:51 | 0 Comments

Hot List - April 1, 2009 to April 11, 2009

Người đăng: TuyenCvie

Coming back after a week of being mostly disconnected I'm woefully behind on email and even more so on my reading. Luckily, I have a short cut to seeing the stuff that is generating interest across most of the top eLearning bloggers. So, here's the hot list for April 1 - April 11 via eLearning Learning ...

Top Other Items

The following are the top other items based on social signals.

Steve Hargadon: Web 2.0 Is the Future of Education, April 3, 2009
web2.0 education technology learning collaboration elearning trends nscc_learn.
SMBs and Social Learning Technologies, April 2, 2009
Here are slides from the presentation I did yesterday. The session was hosted by SumTotal Systems. SMBs & Social Media (Sum Total) View more presentations from Janet Clarey . Some notes: Polls: Most attending work in L&D with some HR, IT, and learning services providers Most attending work in organization with 2000+ ee’s but several were SMBs (under 2K ee’s for this presentation) Current learning delivery channels primarily ILT classroom and ILT online as well as a fair amount of self-paced e-learning.
Top Tools for Learning 2009, April 4, 2009
As mentioned in earlier posting, this year I am building two lists - Top Tools for Learners and Top Tools for Learning Professionals based on contributions received. Although this year's activity has only been open for a few weeks we are seeing some clear leaders.
Beware of Social Learning Backlash, April 11, 2009
I’m finding out that the old adage, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” has some major significance when it comes to introducing social learning (specifically, social learning tools) at an organization. In fact, even worse things can happen if you don’t market your offerings correctly… When introducing social learning tools and concepts, it’s easy to get excited and anxious to share our findings.
Build a Learning Portal Using WordPress, April 3, 2009
I’ve written before about learning portals and how they can be a great way to improve access to learning materials for users. I wanted to provide a more in-depth post that shows how you can create your own learning portal using the freely available content management system, WordPress . So, let’s get started… Refresher: What is a portal? (This paragraph is from a previous post .) A learning portal is a web site that contains links to all different types of learning and training materials for employees at an organization.
Here’s An Easy Way to Create Whiteboard Lectures for Your E-Learning Courses, April 7, 2009
I’m a doodler. It helps me think. When I present or talk to people I like to use a whiteboard. I feel like I’m better able to get my ideas across as I map them out visually. Not only does this help me express my ideas, it kind of forces me to lay them out in a manner that’s easier to understand. Dan Roam talks about this in his book The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures . He shares his ideas on how to tell your story visually.
How to Find Pictures for Your eLearning " Engaged Training, April 2, 2009
Engaged Training My Ramblings about Training, Leadership, and Learning Home Subscribe Entries (RSS) Comments (RSS) Recent Posts How to Find Pictures for Your eLearning Social Learning: A Heart Issue What Are Some Good Survey Questions for Social Learning Adoption? Does Certification Mean One Is Qualified?
The Twitterprise - 2009 is about our Corporate Cultures, NOT the Technology, April 9, 2009
I follow @marciamarcia on twitter...and have done so for a while. Totally forgot that she also writes for FastCompany . Sorry, Marcia ;-( She wrote an EXCELLENT article titled "Twitterprise: Bringing Whole Selves to Work" . So much great stuff in it that you must follow the link to get it all in. The reason I like the article so much is that it truly gets to the heart of all this 2.0 stuff. After the honeymoon buzz of new technologies wears off, we are still left with the realies of dealing with the people in our organizations.
Learning Twitter Chat!, April 6, 2009
Blame it on Marcia Conner (@marciamarcia), who’d been participating in Twitter chats for journalists and editors. She found them educational, and prodded a couple of us that maybe we should create the same sort of thing to talk about learning. We visited a few other chats, and it seemed worth experimenting with (it’s our duty, after all!). One thing led to another, and here we are: The first learn chat happens *this* Thursday , 5PM - 7PM PT, 8-10 PM ET. What do you have to do?
Changing how people and organizations interact, April 5, 2009
Jon Husband has recently published a paper, What is wirearchy? In case this is a new term, the definition of wirearchy is posted on the top right of my site. In the paper, Jon starts with the origin of the framework: In that context of ubiquitous impact, reams have been written about the erosion of the effectiveness of command-and control as the dominant model for leading and managing purposeful organized activities in business, education, government and governance, politics, culture and the arts … all the areas in which humans act together to create and get things done.
My Prerequisites for IDs, April 6, 2009
Ellen Wagner is a learning industry analyst with a passion for sustaining innovation and accelerating enterprise adoption of technologies for education, training and performance support. This is her blog. My interests in this ongoing discussion about instructional design competencies are both professional and personal. I have always been drawn to the way that one can structure, direct and produce a learning experience very much in the way that one can construct a museum exhibit, or art-direct a photograph, or write a screen play.
Social Media Goals, April 2, 2009
I spent yesterday touring the Web 2.0 expo (part of the time with fellow miscreant Jay Cross ), and it led me to think a bit more about social media tools and approaches. After touring the floor, having lunch, and touring the floor some more before the keynotes, my reflections have to do with hybrids and implementation. We were prompted to visit Blue Kiwi , which is probably the leading European social media platform. Talking to them, and the others there (Vignette & Lithium) has me reflecting more broadly.
ScreenCastle, April 6, 2009
Here's another online screencasting tool, that caught my eye. The reason it headlines with "One click screencasting" To launch the screencast recorder and record a screencast directly from you browser, just click the button on the right of the screen here : ScreenCastle [67 other screen capture or screencasting tools on this page of the Directory of Learning Tools] ...Tags: Tools.
Here’s What You Need to Know About Mobile Learning, April 1, 2009
Every few years it seems that there’s some hot new trend in the world of training. Right now it appears that mobile learning is all the rage. The world of mobile gadgets is converging with an always available wifi network. This gives us instant access to all sorts of information which fits in well with on-demand training. Since this part of the industry is so new to many of you, I thought it might be best to hook up with an expert in the industry to learn more. So I called one of my mentors and a real pioneer in the elearning industry, Dr. Werner Oppelbaumer, to pick his brain.
Chatting, April 10, 2009
Last night we held the first #lrnchat , a Twitter learning chat. As mentioned before, it was an idea from Marcia Conner based upon her previous experience with other chats and enthusiasm for Twitter. It was an interesting experience, with it’s plusses and minuses. There were great topics, and some interesting technical issues. The latter first: I finally ‘graduated’ from TwitterFox (a plugin for Firefox , and a great way to start Twittering) to TweetDeck, an AIR application.
Conceptualizing the Performance Ecosystem, April 9, 2009
So I’ve been playing with rethinking my Performance Ecosystem conceptualization and visualization. The original had very discrete components, and an almost linear path, and that doesn’t quite convey the reality of how things are tied together. I believe it’s useful to help people see the components, but it doesn’t capture the goal of an integrated system. I’ve been wrestling with my diagramming application (OmniGraffle) to rethink it. My notion is that systems, e.g.
Climbing the collaboration curve, April 8, 2009
Jon Husband sent me the link to short post by John Seely Brown, John Hagel, and Lang Davison on The Collaboration Curve. Everybody knows about network effects: the value of a network increases exponentially with the addition of each new node. ( Metcalfe’s Law .) Imagine what can happen if those nodes are people. Each new node gives them more opportunities to learn and to perform better. When people are actively pulling in learning resources rather than taking what’s pushed at them, the value of the network goes turbo, an effect the authors call the collaboration curve .
Model learning, April 8, 2009
On Monday, a hearty Twitter exchange emerged when Jane Bozarth quoted Roger Schank “ Why do we assume that theories of things must be taught to practitioners of those things?” I stood up for theory, Cammy Bean and Dave Ferguson chimed in and next thing you know, we’re having a lively discussion in 140 characters. With all the names to include, Dave pointed out we had even less space! One side was stoutly defending that what SMEs thought was important wasn’t necessarily what practitioners needed.
Push the Reset Button, April 11, 2009
Charles Jennings made a comment on Corporate Learning Trends that got me thinking about the need for a reset of the whole training function: Baldwin, Ford and Weissbein’s research (20 and 10 years ago, respectively) showed that the USA spends around $100 billion on training every year, but only about 10% of the expenditures result in transfer to the job. I’m sure if the research was re-run today the results would be similar, whether in the US, in Western Europe or anywhere else, for that matter.
Community Portals, April 3, 2009
Looking back at lessons learned from community portals (2005) I would say that the transactional portal is the only one that still makes any sense to me: Transactional: sites which are accessible, complete, thoughtful, and coherent; and with more than one type of on-line interaction (e.g. payment, application, consultation, bookings). RSS has blown up the content-only portal funded through advertising but the wide adoption of Twitter is giving content publishers a new push mechanism to get eyeballs to their sites.

Top Keywords

2009 (177)
Twitter (31)
Social Media (22)
Learning 2.0 (9)
Friendfeed (3)
Social (54)
eLearning Conferences (2)
Harbinger (2)
PWLE (2)
Media (35)
SWF (3)
Web (55)
Performance (28)
Drupal (3)
Learning (113)
eLearning (55)
Help (46)
PLE (4)
Informal (25)
Support (31)
Adoption (9)
Software (28)
Online (46)
Trends (14)
Presentation (23)
Business (32)
SharePoint (4)
Informal Learning (20)
Training (44)

18:45 | 0 Comments

#1 Social Learning Models and LMS and Social Learning

I've changed the title of the first post to make it more enticing. While it talks in terms of SharePoint, really the patterns described relate to all different types of tools.

#2 Conversation Topics

Maybe while I'm out you could take me up on this and start a dialog on one of these. For example:

24. A long, lost blog post that needs to be revisited.

80. A search tool other than Google that I use, when and why.

86. Hip learning trend during the past that was way over hyped.

99. How I find blog topics

#3 Data Driven

I firmly believe and have seen how this approach to performance improvement really does move the needle. I'm still not sure why there's not more discussion and adoption.

#4 - Examples of eLearning 2.0

Wonderful set of examples of what people are doing out there around social learning and eLearning 2.0.

#5 - LinkedIn Connection Approach Rethought

Take my vacation as an opportunity to walk up to me and introduce yourself in the biggest networking cocktail party in the world. I'm frankly not sure why you are reading this and are not linked to me on LinkedIn or for that matter following me on twitter - @tonykarrer.

#6 - Corporate Learning Long Tail and Attention Crisis

Newspapers are failing by the day. We need to pay attention to that and recognize that we are publishers as well. Or at least we are right now. As work continually moves towards concept work demand for publishing will decrease and enabling tools, providing support and providing skills training will increase. The fat end of the long tail and the loss of attention is a critical issue that I'm not sure we are really ready to come to grips with. Can we file Chapter 11 for our training department?

#7 - Second Life Learning Videos

I still like these videos. They really show some of the power of virtual worlds for learning. Can you point me to a few more more recent videos that show this kind of thing?

#8 – PWLE

A bunch of posts (via eLearning Learning) all about the PWLE. It's a PLE, but emphasis is on concept work. And I still believe we need to be leading the charge around helping employees in our organizations figure out a rationale PWLE?

#9 - Social Grid Follow-up & ASTD Follow-Up

These are both follow-up posts to recent presentations. Both of these I thought were pretty good.

20:56 | 0 Comments

Top 100 eLearning Items

Người đăng: TuyenCvie

Using eLearning Learning, I thought it would be interesting to go look what it thinks are some of the top items of all time.

20:45 | 0 Comments

News Commentary Curation Distribution

Người đăng: TuyenCvie

The post The Future of the News Ecosystem pointed me to the Stephen Johnson Picture shown above. While I don't necessarily believe that things are nearly so linear, it is a good picture of the kind of flow, enhancement, filtering that happens.

This was great to see and think about with the launch of several new Topic Hubs:

Like earlier topic hubs, they rely on News from bloggers and web content from other sources as indicated by bloggers. The commentary layer is very light in that it only occurs as part of coming up with hot lists (Hot List) Curation is aggregation, group filter (social signals) and lightweight editing (selection).

There's definitely an open question of what makes sense in what case as described in Aggregation Types.

In these we consider some of the differentiation among the various forms of aggregation:

Centralized content or distributed content. Do they pull all the content into the central site or leave it distributed on the original source?
Organization and Access - how do they organize the content. Human tagging? Automated? How do you access it?
Editorial Distribution - Single person, small group or widely distributed control of what comes in and what is best?

In this case, it considers different forms of distribution separate from the forms of curation. I'm going to need to think through how to best categorize this, but I like the picture.

While I'm on it, great post - Feed Standardization Will Commoditize Feed Aggregation, So Let’s Create The Semantic Web! by Nick O'Neill. While he's talking primarily about feeds of updates, e.g., facebook, twitter, friendfeed, etc., I think this applies pretty well to aggregation more generally:

As we move toward a standardized way of presenting feed stories to aggregators, the value provided by the aggregators is essentially commoditized.

At the end of the day, value is maximized through more efficient custom filtering services that the users can participate in creating.

Participate is somewhat a loaded term. Really participation can be automatic or manual. But the point that part of filtering can be based on user activity is a good thing to consider. What's missing from the picture above is the consumption side of things. Part of consumption is likely personal filtering as well.

20:02 | 0 Comments

CivieBlog

Reduce Searching Start Talking

The bottom line is to reduce the amount of time you spend search and spend more time talking.

Using Online Sticky Noticeboards

Hot List - April 1, 2009 to April 11, 2009

Top Posts

Top Other Items

Top Keywords

Top 9 Posts You May Have Missed

#1 Social Learning Models and LMS and Social Learning

#2 Conversation Topics

#3 Data Driven

#4 - Examples of eLearning 2.0

#5 - LinkedIn Connection Approach Rethought

#6 - Corporate Learning Long Tail and Attention Crisis

#7 - Second Life Learning Videos

#8 – PWLE

#9 - Social Grid Follow-up & ASTD Follow-Up

Top 100 eLearning Items

Top 20 Posts for Q1 2009

News Commentary Curation Distribution

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