Blogs are a great way to get learners actions on the job shared with other learners OR give them a place to ask questions that others can answer. Here are a few things to think about as you’re setting one up for training you’re planning.
Once, only teens and techies had blogs. Details from last night’s date and opinions about the latest video games filled these first Web-based logs, which started popping up around 1999. Today, more and more businesses are joining the blogging world. What began as a mere pastime has become a valuable promotional tool and internal communication vehicle for firms of all types and sizes, from small entrepreneurships to Fortune 500 giants. They’re a great way to build community with learners.
Think you can’t get your learners to blog what they’re doing with their learning? There’s built-in motivation for people to participate in blogging: They get credit for their ideas. A blog is essentially a repository of a person’s intellectual capital – a record of their thoughts, observations, contributions. Blogging is a way to protect the most important brand of all: themselves.
If you’re wondering what blogs look like, they’re essentially Web pages with some common characteristics: commentary, sometimes lengthy, but often only a sentence or paragraph per issue; hyperlink connections to other Web pages, discussion threads, a search-engine function, forms, software, people.
Weblogs can trigger a rich chain reaction of ideas and possibilities from others, which is why they hold such great potential for learner retention. Give individual employees within a company a weblog, encourage them to document their best ideas and personal experiences, link them, add search capabilities, and it’s easy to imagine that at least some innovation will arise from the ordinary. “Blogging is a train-of-thought technology,” says Scott Dinsdale, executive VP of digital strategy at the Motion Picture Association. The trick is to capitalize on the mental energy that’s unleashed by blogging.
Corporate cultures will need to change if blogging is to fulfill its promise as a tool for collaborative knowledge. There’s a “reluctance to open the floodgates of letting opinions fly around and not be able to control that,” Andy Chen, a blogger, says. Good point. There’s little reason to invest in this democratizing application if strict authority remains the status quo. On the other hand, companies that blog need to be prepared for the bad ideas, disagreements, and general dissonance that might also be generated by the system. “If there’s anything blogs aren’t, it’s succinct and direct,” says Dinsdale. The down side of blogging for knowledge management/learner retention would be this: hours wasted recording, reading, and responding to low-value meanderings. There’s a risk of getting bogged down in blogs.
Some of the best ideas for making blogs successful places to capture ideas are found in a few blogs on blogging. You can learn more about blogs for reinforcing learning by participating in a blog yourself: K-Logs discussion group. Email discussion group that discussions klogging for KM. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/klogs
Excerpts from Rotarian Magazine 11/07 and Information Week
As defined by Wikipedia, a Wiki is “a computer software that allows users to easily create, edit and link web pages. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites, power community websites, and are increasingly being installed by businesses to provide affordable and effective Intranets or for use in Knowledge Management. One of the best-known wikis is Wikipedia.”
The first wiki was started by Ward Cunningham in 1995. He coined the term wiki from the Hawaiian word for fast. The first wiki was called WIkiWIkiWeb.
The use of Wiki’s has recently only exploded in the enterprise as collaborative software. Initial uses were for project communication, and documentation. Now wikis have been expanded to enable knowledge management across groups, departments, or the entire organization.
Candeos has adopted a wiki to share knowledge about collaborative learning and training 2.0. We also use the site to highlight our capabilities, interesting projects and expertise.
I found a really interesting video that the folks at Common Craft put together explaining how wikis work in simple terms.
If you would like us to discuss how wikis can be used to drive knowledge management and productivity in your organization, drop me a note.
We have embraced rapid e-learning development tools like Articulate Presenter and Engage with outstanding results.
Recently, one of our clients called us with a request. They needed to develop a capabilities presentation to show to a major potential client in two days.
We were able to design, storyboard, shoot and edit video , develop, test, revise and deploy this presentation in less than 48 hours. The client, Eliassen Group, a large training and staffing firm with offices throughout the US and Europe, had this to say:
“This is a great effort in a very short span of time, under tight deadlines and with limited background relevant to the subject matter. I’m impressed! “– Jeff Rogers, Senior VP of Sales
Perfect!!!!!
Thanks for the work on this. This presentation is a great example of the value add that we could provide to them moving forward. — Josephine Scrofani, VP - Training and Consulting Services
October 17, 2007 at 1:35 pm · Filed under Podcasts
Designing High Performance Blended Learning
In this podcast, we welcome Ove Jornaes, a long time training industry leader, technologist, instructional designer and consultant. Recently, Ove shared some of his insights on high performance blended learning in our Training 2.0 Trends blog and I thought it would be valuable to have him share them with our audience. Ove and I will discuss his real world experiences with:
Increasing learner engagement and course completion percentages using media, interactivity and real-time subject matter expert facilitation.
Developing and implementing best practices for instructional design and program delivery.
Reducing course development time from several months to three weeks and the associated costs by 500%.
Drastically reducing video costs through guerrilla video production techniques.
Using rapid e-learning development tools like Adobe Breeze to reduce design, development, and deployment costs.
The importance of Collaborative Learning tools like blogs, discussion board and instant messaging in developing this next generation of business leaders.
If you want us to show you how you can achieve some of the same results with high performance blended learning, let me know.
Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to speak with some clients in the financial services industry. As many of you know, their industry is incredibly complex, highly regulated, constantly changing and most importantly, touches almost every person in the world.
They all face a common challenge….. How do you keep your employees, who are spreadout all over the world and constantly in a whirlwind, up to date, in compliance, and armed with the right information to share with customers?
For many years, this industry relied almost exclusively on traditional classroom training…and lots of it. Given the time pressures that are endemic to this industry, how can employees do their jobs and be available for all of this training? I read an interesting article from ASTD the other day that spoke to how one firm, Capital One, addressed these challenges.
Capital One first decided to undertake a series of surveys and focus groups to find out how their employees likes to learn. What did they find?
According to Michael Walker, Manager of Learning Services, “it was a consensus that our associates are so busy that they just didn’t have time during the average workday to get to the classroom.”
So…what did Capital One do? ( The didn’t say NO!)
They bought ipods for their learners and created a suite of podcasts for learners across their entire company.
For example, their finance group, offers a classroom training program on Earning Calls, with a collaborative twist. As part of this program, Capital One created several podcasts with sample earnings calls that attendees had to listen to before the training session as part of their preparation. During the classroom session, they were expected to discuss and analyze the information they learned from their podcasts. This allowed trainees to arrive at the session better prepared. Also, they found that retention increased as the podcasts allowed each learner to absorb the information at their own pace.
Podcasts can also be quickly created and deployed to accommodate the changing regulations and fast paced environment in the financial services industry. You don’t have to wait for the next training course to take place to get updated. Plug in your ipod, synchronize and away you go.
Matt Schuyler, executive Vice President of Human Resources, had this to say about those who participated in Capital One’s podcast program:
“Their productivity is up, so literally, we’re making more revenue and income with fewer employees. Their learning is increasing as measured by their ability to take on stretch assignments, new roles, broader responsibilities, and so forth. And, I guess people vote with their feet. We have waiting lists for this program. We can’t distribute the courses and tools fast enough.”
If you’re in the financial services industry, maybe you should consider adopting some of these collaborative learning strategies to enhance and improve your traditional training offerings.
We have had a lot of discussions in our podcasts about how we need to change our approach to training the emerging generation of new business leaders…using podcasts, instant messaging, social networking, blended learning, blogs, wikis, video. Well today, I saw an eye opening commercial on ESPN Sportscenter….
In this commercial, for Verizon Wireless’ ESPN MVP, they interview someone who was named the “MVP” of the off site training session because he was” having trouble staying awake” at a corporate training session. There are rows and rows of people in a dark room, with the Powerpoint slide show going.
The “MVP” is using the light from his phone to check game scores and his Fantasy Football team….
Hopefully, you and your company can soon be in a position to offer these young leaders something more valuable than getting the game from their mobile phone or ipod? Let us know how we can help.
September 14, 2007 at 11:52 pm · Filed under Trends, General
This week, the whole team has been working heads down pulling together an interactive presentation on collaborative learning. We’ll preview it next week so stay tuned.
During our research, we saw an interesting presentation by the Gronstedt Group to the ASTD Annual Conference, In this presentation were some great examples of what companies like IBM and EMC are doing with collaborative learning We thought we would share these with you:
At IBM, they have completely embraced collaborative learning, with:
5,000 podcasts
3,400 blogs
70,000 people using wikis
2,000,000 podcast downloads
They estimate their annual savings to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
For an example of some of IBM Podcasts, click here.
EMC has adopted podcasting as the way to train their global sales force and customers. At EMC, they produce 5 - 10 new audio / video podcasts every week. Many are extremely entertaining. To see more , click here.
James Hunsiker, Manager of Sales at EMC says ” I’ve never seen the field organization so enthusiastic about learning”
If you’re interested in seeing if collaborative learning can work for you organization or one of your colleagues / clients, we are offering a complimentary assessment of your training efforts to see if collaborative learning can work. To schedule this, give me a call at 781-953-4510 or click here.
( Every week, we’ll share with you an example of how our clients use Training 2.0 in real life to drive productivity, efficiency and results from training.)
Today, I am sitting at my desk, trying to wrap up some things before the weekend. Cell phone off, phone on service, e mail shut down, head down. All of a sudden, my on demand instant messaging widget came to life.
It was one of our clients, looking to find out how to access one of our podcasts. He tried my cell, office phone and sent me an e mail. He didn’t have my yahoo, AIM screen name. What could he do? He needed this information now..
Easy
He went to our blog and sent me an on-demand instant message using a widget by a company called meebo . Without even breaking concentration, I said hello, sent him the link he needed, and within seconds, I was back to my work and he had what he needed.
What happened here was that our client needed information from me, the subject matter expert. Traditional methods weren’t working. Thanks to On Demand Instant Messaging, one of the key collaboration technologies that are part of Training 2.0, he was able to get and I was able to provide this information immediately.
September 4, 2007 at 9:41 pm · Filed under Podcasts
Training the Emerging Generation
In this podcast, we welcome Mary Cornetta-Brown, President of Cornetta-Brown Associates. Our topic today will be Mary’s presentation at the ASTD Annual Conference : “Are you Ready to Train the Emerging Generation.” In this interview, Mary will discuss:
1.) The 4 generations of learners in the workplace today
2.) Who are the generation of emerging learners
3.) The Top 5 Training Needs of the Emerging Generation
4.) The Importance of Collaborative Learning in developing this next generation of business leaders.
Mary is President of Cornetta-Brown Associates. She has over 19 years of experience as an organizational development specialist, leadership transition coach and consultant. Her clients include Fortune 500 companies, universities, non-profits and venture capitalists. Prior to her consulting work, Mary was the Vice President of Human Resources at International Data Group, a leading global provider of information services on information technology. Mary holds a degree in psychology from Boston College and received a Certificate in Human Resource Management from Bentley College.
If any of you have teenagers in the house ( and I do) you can certainly agree that instant messaging is huge.
According to TechWatch, a survey by Media Metrix shows that there were 339 million visits to Instant Messaging Services like MSN, Yahoo, and AIM in May 2006 alone. It is estimated these users will send billions of IM messages
Well, for teens trying to communicate, it makes sense ( although frankly I tell my daughter that picking up the phone is a lot easier…oh well, at least it doesn’t tie up the phone line!) , does it have an impact on the future of training?
Absolutely
For the next generation learners, using IM is as automatic as the baby boomers picking up a telephone. They communicate and share information over IM. Although it might not always be productive, it is a clear part of their culture.
How can we apply a collaborative technology like IM to driving training results and effectiveness… we can.
In traditional training, learners generally only get to interact with a instructor (subject matter expert) during the program. You can use IM technology to host a pre-class exchange of ideas, a post-class follow up or an on-demand exchange when learners have follow up questions
You can also setup instant messaging rooms that focus on a particular topic ( like training 2.o) and that could have more than one expert.
One of the drawbacks of instant messaging is access. Many business users dont have IM accounts, or have difficulty in using the technology.
On this blog, you can see an instant messaging widget, provided by a company called meebo. With meebo, you can conduct a chat session with a subject matter expert with anyone who visits the web page. You don’t need to have an account with MSN, Yahoo to take advantage of this important collaborative technology. We expect to extend this capability to everyone who contributes to our bog and to host regular chat sessions with these experts.
So go ahead…if I’m online, send me a message and we can chat. Experience training 2.0 technologies for yourself.
Building High Performance Blended Learning: 
In this podcast, we welcome Mary Cornetta-Brown, President of Cornetta-Brown Associates. Our topic today will be Mary’s presentation at the ASTD Annual Conference : “Are you Ready to Train the Emerging Generation.” In this interview, Mary will discuss: