How I use Facebook (Social Networking and learning, 1)

I’ve been thinking about how social networking can be used for learning for a while now! The only problem is that I’ve been thinking about it by myself (which sort of defeats the object of social media!). So I thought I would put some of those thoughts on my blog as a first step. At the same time, Ben Tomkinson (who works in my team at Ufi learndirect) is looking at social networking, how other training providers and companies are using it (what can be learnt from this), and how Ufi learndirect might use it (though we already have some exciting things on the go).

As this will probably be a series of blogs, I will start at the beginning. How I use social networking sites and what I find useful. I find you need to understand the social web fairly well before you can then go on to thinking about learning solutions. I’m no expert but I have spent considerable time interacting on the social web (just ask my wife how annoying this is!!)

I’m on Facebook, Linked In (business networking) and Twitter (micro social networking). I know this sounds draconian, but my first step was to tell my friends that they could only interact with me via Facebook (yes, we can still meet face to face!! I’m talking about online here!). This blog is about Facebook.

What I found is that email communication is a poor man’s social network! Why do email when you can social network?

The two big things (for me in any case) is……
1) I do not want a million friends on Facebook!! My security is set so that only friends can view my Facebook page. I reject most people. I just want my friends (or those friends I have lost touch with accidentally!). I’ve rejected my Grandma’s invite to be a friend as at her age I don’t think she should know what I get up too!! I’m thinking of her health of course! Seriously though sometimes I don’t want all my family on my Facebook site! To solve this, I am thinking of having two pages - one for my inner circle and one for the rest. Also I’m aware that many people meet new people on the web (I do this more via specialist communities of practices or blogs. Some of these communities of practice are via Facebook. They are called “Groups”.)

2) Social Networking via a laptop is a bore and is so yesterday!! Mobile is so much better! You can organise your life, view your friends updates, update your status, upload photo’s all via your mobile. I have my mobile with me 24/7. I’m only online via a laptop for 5-10 hours a day (you may gasp!!)

I feel there is still a blog or two about social networking in general. But I promise that in future blogs I will discuss what can be potentially applied to learning. Also I’m very much aware that I’m quite into online social media. Others will not use it in as deep or rich way that I do! Others may use the social media in a deeper way than me! Though I do feel that what was once the preserve of the early adopter, the geek and the young is widening out. That you can look at some aspects of how geeks and the young use social media and in some cases see what the future is.

Help please!!! Could you let me know how you or your friends use social networking (or why you hate it!). Just put a comment on the blog (I know many of you prefer to email me with comments, but it would be great if you could share your views. Anonymous comments are fine!)

That’s the end of the blog………..PS. But read on if you want a more detailed list of what I like about Facebook (the same goes with the other sites):

• Your friends know what you are up to. You know what they are up to (without millions of phone calls or texts!!). I update my status fairly regularly on Facebook (where am I. What am I doing. If it is vaguely interesting that is!). I put pictures on Faceebook (but mostly via mobile phone. You take the pic and send it to your Facebook site. It’s so easy. To be honest I really can’t be bothered to link my camera and upload pic’s via a laptop!). You don’t have to email or speak to friends - you can just be!! You interact when you want rather than think that you have to phone someone because you haven’t spoken to them for a while!
  Likewise I can keep track of my friends and what they are doing. All this is aggregated into one page (you don’t have to go into individual friends pages; though I do sometimes put messages on their “wall”)
• Organise my social life. It’s much easier than email as you can chat to everyone (or selected subgroups) at once. I also instant message via Face book.
• There are lots of widgets on Facebook developed by third parties. Some of them are fun where you can compare your interests with friends (eg. Music, films, IQ!) and do quizzes etc etc
• Share your favourite clips and videos
• Groups: I belong to groups on Facebook (eg. Tottenham Hotspurs, Springsteen and some learning groups). This is great. Companies should go where their customers are (as this is easiest for the customer).
  

PPS. Starter for 10. A list of questions I think we need answers to during any research. Do you have any to add??
1. How do people use social networking sites in their everyday lives. What may happen in 5 years!
2. How are training providers or tutors/lectures using social networking sites (case studies). How are companies using sites for communications/engagement with staff and customers. What can we learn?
3. What do the “experts” think social networking sites could be used for in relation to learning. How can it be used both in formal and informal learning (and structured vs. unstructured learning). Can it also be used as evidence for assessment? How is it blended with often linear (!) elearning courses.
4. What is the difference between a network (social network) and a community (a community of practice)
5. What are the pro’s and cons of using social networking sites for learning (eg. you should go to where your learners are; are there security issues)
6. What are the pro’s and cons of building your own community of practice outside a social networking site. (How do you build your own community? What are the Critical Success Factors to building a community of practice. There is now quite a bit of science out there to this!). Perhaps this is a separate piece of research?
7. What is the social networking functionality to Learner Management Systems. How can social networking sites (or community or practice) be integrated with a LMS?

The new digital divide: those that can and can’t use web 2.0 (the “competent learner”)

At the recent EFQUEL (European Foundation for Quality in eLearning) forum in Lisbon, the delegates enjoyed the presentations around web 2.0, informal learning and social collaboration. These methods seem to be changing the way people learn. However, they were very concerned that many lecturers/tutors and some students could not use these new web 2.0 tools.

In the roundtable question and answer session, I answered a number of questions around what I call the “new digital divide” (see the above 2 minute You Tube video! or go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkEo_CZUek4). The old digital divide was around access to a computer and the web, while the new digital divide is between those that can use web 2.0 and those that can’t. Those that can’t use web 2.0 will increasingly be at a significant disadvantage (web 2.0 is around social collaboration and user generated content. It is amazing how much you can share, interact and learn from the various “How to…..“ guides, from Wiki‘s, blogs, RSS feeds, communities of practice etc).

As a society, we need to ensure that people have the skills to be a competent learner with web 2.0. We need to teach people “how to learn”. In a way this isn’t a new concept as a good teacher will always nature competent learners.

At my company (Ufi learndirect), we hope to produce new resources or courses to help people become a competent learner in the web 2.0 world (in order to explain web 2.0, how to use it and how it can help you learn). This will hopefully help to overcome the new digital divide and help learners to use the web for lifelong learning (it will also help people to learn with learndirect as we increasingly incorporate more and more web 2.0 tools into our curriculum).

Please do email me at dsidnick@ufi.com if you would like a copy of an (internal!) report on the “Modern Digital Divide”. This was written by Ben Tomkinson who works in my team at Ufi. It’s a really good report which outlines how the digital divide has changed. As a result we need to change our solutions to the issue.

That’s the end of the blog (!!), but please continue to read if you want a flavour of Ben’s report.

PS. The original term “digital divide” emerged in the mid 1990s to describe the gap between those that own a computer and those that don’t (the term then changed to describe those who had regular access to the internet and those that don’t). It was felt that those who do not have access to the internet will be disadvantaged and that society/government needed policies to bridge this divide (75% of “hard to reach” people/those that are socially excluded are also digitally excluded).

The digital divide is reducing (now 64% of the population are online). The issues are changing rapidly - it is not just about access to the internet, there is a different rural vs. urban issue (more about cost and speed than access), the male/female divide has disappeared etc. There is still a digital divide with the disabled in particular, with older learners (though reducing!) and those that have severe multiple barriers (eg. a combination of many areas including, low skills, debt, drugs, homeless, unemployed). In addition, some middle class/wealthy people don‘t want to use the web for various reasons. It is no longer a working class vs. middle class split (see http://darrensidnick.blogspot.com/2008/04/how-online-are-lower-skilled-learners.html).

The new digital divide for me is between those that can use web 2.0 and those that can’t.

I hope that Ufi learndirect will be able to help bridge this gap. But I also hope that Government’s (UK and EU) can shift their policy. Much of Government policy still seems to address the digital divide of the mid 1990s rather than the digital divide of 2008.

PPS. The other hope is that web 2.0 is meant to be intuitive. I don’t fully subscribe to this at the moment, but hope that one day it will be!!! Web 2.0 is certainly easier to use than web 1.0!!!

Is technology a faster horse?

When the car was developed it was seen as a faster horse. What has actually happened is that the car (a new technology at the time!) has fundamentally changed the way we live and the way we work. Changes due to the car, include radical change to the way cities are designed, people can work miles away from where they live and leisure/travel has altered. Culture and communities are different due to the car.

In terms of learning, it is often said that technology is the “it” and not the “how” (ie. it is an enabler). I’ve said it myself! So too do many colleagues.

I am now thinking that I was wrong! We are witnessing fundamental change to the way we live and also how we learn. We are only at the start of the revolution.

I’m trading in my horse…………..

Web 2.0: “What research evidence is there that learners want web 2.0 to help them learn?”

This was the question posed to me after my presentation at a recent British Institute for Learning & Development (BILD) event. I gave an acceptable answer, but you know what it is like you always think of a much better answer later! Well, here is my second attempt.

Before, I attempt to answer the question, what is the definition of web 2.0? According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2) :

“Web 2.0 is a term describing the trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.”

Well back to the question about “what research evidence is there that learners want web 2.0 to help them learn”.

Now I used to be a researcher and speech writer to some UK Members of Parliament. So having this political training in mind (!!), I should tackle this by posing a different question and discussing the general issues (!!)………

“People are using web 2.0 in their everyday life and have embraced it. What evidence do you have that they do not want it to help them learn?”

There is a wealth of evidence to support the view that Web 2.0 has changed the way young people collaborate, socialise and create user generated content (eg. TGI surveys etc), and that these behaviours are starting to spread across different age groups. People are using web 2.0 in their everyday life. Why wouldn’t they want to use these tools for learning?

These web 2.0 behaviours are migrating into the world of learning. Universities are increasingly integrating web 2.0 stuff (particularly collaboration and user generated content) into the way they deliver learning. For example, many universities are hosting all copies of lectures on their website (Metropolitan University believe that podcasting lectures has increased grades), encouraging students to post self generated content, students are collaborating via social networking sites (Henley Management School are using a business networking site Linked In, while Cranfield uses You Tube), using mobile devices to access short guest lectures, using web 2.0 to replicate help bridge the gap between classroom theory and the workplace (eg. Warwick) and there is uproar when the campus wi-fi goes down for only a few minutes (students are that dependent!). (The FT elearning Supplement, March 2007)

I understand that if you ask many lower skilled learners or learners that are new to the web, they would look at you blankly if you asked them if they want web 2.0 to help them learn. Ufi is conducting some “action research” in a particular curriculum area which embeds many elements of web 2.0. We’ve had some focus groups demonstrating some of the features and getting feedback. What the focus groups show is that when lower skilled learners actually see materials which use web 2.0 tools they are very positive and believe it will help them learn. The trick is to get the right blend of web 2.0 stuff at the right time using good instructional design. This is the real learning curve for all training and learning providers out there (it is easier said then done! We are all only at the start of this journey…..). For more information see the PS at the end of this blog.

Web 2.0 is also changing the nature of informal learning (ie. formal learning covers training programmes, workshops, mentoring, while informal learning covers learning via network, on the job, manuals/instructions or through taking your own initiative). The barriers between formal and informal learning seem to be breaking down. People want information or training when they need it (“just in time”) not in long training courses. Behaviour on the web show that people are using google, You Tube, Wiki “How to…..” and various other sites to gain access to tips and solutions to their issue immediately. I believe this trend of using web 2.0 is changing the way we live and learn. Surely our learning institutions should keep up with their customers? Why wouldn’t people want schools, higher education and adult education to use web 2.0 to help them learn?

End of blog…………..but you can read on for the PS!!!

PS. Here is some more detail from Ufi’s Action Research in a particular curriculum area which embed many elements of web 2.0 (please bear in mind that this is from Focus groups so it highlights trends rather than facts!). At the usability stage of the action research, the focus groups were shown mock up resources and web frames. There was……..

*Strong endorsement for an interactive and engaging style of learning: “I especially like the downloads, video clips and visual aids, as this helps you see things more clearly and gives you a better understanding”
* Learners liked the short learning resources which utilised a mix of different media (Learners like the video style of learning – it is easier and preferable to just reading)
* Learners were happy to receive virtual support from their tutors as well as face-to-face support
* Learners wanted a site that was current, updated regularly and contained information/views from both experts and peers
* Wiki’s, communities/forums and rating resources were well received, but blogs were not. Oh dear (!!). But, perhaps this isn’t a criticism to all of us bloggers out there (!!). Learners said they didn’t feel they would have the time to contribute to their own blog.


PPS. Thank you to Sara Bingham and Kelly Golding Smith for their comments on the draft blog

My presentation at BILD event – using technologies to meet learners needs (health warning!)

Last week I presented at a British Institute for Learning & Development (BILD) event in London on harnessing technology (http://www.thebild.org/)

My presentation was on the Ufi learndirect story. It discussed how learndirect’s learning and technology offer has changed and innovated since 1998. The changing offer depended on two main factors – how our learners use technology and the UK Government’s skills agenda.

Now rest assured that I could think of nothing worse than writing a propaganda blog about my own company (I always try to give an objective view based on the evidence).

HOWEVER, the feedback from delegates was that they (genuinely!) found the presentation informative and thought provoking. Delegates said that the majority of best practice on elearning and technology came from universities, colleges and small providers so it was refreshing to hear about what has worked (or not worked) from the world’s largest elearning company (….outside China). So he’s my take of the 5 stages of learndirect (I used the above timeline as the basis of the presentation).

Background: The concept of learndirect was the result of a Policy think tank (the IPPR) paper into skills. Ufi learndirect was formed in 1998 (started operating in 2000) with a mission to improve the skills and employability of the UK workforce via technology (particularly focused on lower skilled learners). learndirect has 250,000 learners a year, 770 learning centres, 600 online courses and 85% brand recognition. Our learners undertake 10 million hours worth of online learning a year.

2000 – short courses launched
The offer: Around 1000 short courses were launched via a Learner Management System (LMS), alongside mass marketing.

What was innovative? The mass scale in terms of courses, numbers and LMS! (the LMS has 99.8% uptime). To the thousands of people that had a bad experience of a formal classroom, elearning gave them back their confidence. They could learn in an informal atmosphere at their own pace and at any time.

Learndirect was ahead of the game via online learning. Remember that in 1999 only 1 in 10 of the population was online, only 7% of Board directors saw the web as strategically important and the web was the preserve of young, rich and male.

2003 – Skills for Life offer (there are millions of adults in the UK without the literacy and numeracy skills expected of a 16 year old).
The offer: Everyone said that Skills for Life could not be delivered online (plus that eAssessment would not work). Learndirect now delivers 58,000 Skills for Life Tests a year and is the largest provider in the UK with high quality ratings.

What was innovative? The learner journey was innovative from:
Engagement: mass engagement of hard to reach learners via innovative campaigns for the first time in the UK
Initial Assessment: sophisticated diagnostic tools that identifies exactly what the learner needs to learn (the learner would not have to sit through a whole College term, but would just learn the areas he/she needs). This is real personalised learning.
Elearning content: learndirect hires the best experts to write the content (much like Harvard or Oxford compete to hire the best academics, learndirect can tap the best of breed experts out there). The courses uses the best instructional design.
Esupport: tutors are available for 1-2-1 support (it is essentially like having your own tutor)
Test: robust online testing on a mass scale

All this was via a Learner Management System that coped with 250,000 to 500,000 learners a year, that very very rarely broke and could collect a massive amount of data per learner to fulfil the UK Government’s audit requirements.

2006 – Employer offer around Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and short courses
The offer: Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and short courses. NVQs would require a new skill from learndirect as they require assessment of work based competence. More businesses were online by 2006, but many did (and do) not know about elearning (more about that in a future blog!).

What was innovative: The standard areas of the learner journey are similar to Skills for Life, but the Initial Assessment is a “smarter” profiler and course builder and the assessment is a mix of ePortfolio’s and real people (Assessors!)

The benefit of this innovation is that Ufi learndirect has busted the myth that NVQs could not be delivered online (learndirect now delivers 6000/7000 NVQs a year). However, there is much more work to be done on improving the ePortfolio and on the interaction between the web and the Assessor.

2008 – Employability (the skills required to help you get a job or to get a better job)
I won’t go through the whole story here, but just to say that learndirect has added mobile learning and games based learning to the employability offer. The world is so different to that of 1999 – this has made the innovation possible. Now 64% of the population are online (90% are online via broadband), and many lower skilled learners are online.

The future – web 2.0
During my presentation, I spoke about how people were learning via the web. Now many learners are now creating, owning and sharing their own content. They want to network and collaborate and want personalised learning. A one size fits all model no longer works (does the teacher always know best now?). We discussed my iGoogle Homepage - see blog http://darrensidnick.blogspot.com/2008/03/please-dont-tell-me-that-i-have-to-use.html
- and how this sort of behaviour would change learners expectations now and in the future. I also discussed some of the areas that Ufi learndirect were working on – the flavour of things to come.
This includes more online, virtual learning, resources (not just courses), vibrant communities, expert content mixed with self generated content. All exciting stuff for the future. Though I can write the words, these things only come alive when you hear me speak with passion and excitement about web 2.0 and uses for learning!

Anyway, I’ve now written the blog I never wanted to write!! I found it boring to write (as it’s all second nature), but I know many of you wanted to know the learndirect story and how we have continually strived to use new technologies to help learners learn. If you would like more info or demo’s, please email me.

After the presentation, there was a really good question and answer session. One of the questions was “what research evidence do you have that learners want web 2.0 to help them learn”. That’s for my next blog!

Call to RSS arms! (plus Brazil!)

Last Sunday I watched the final of Brazil’s football cup at the Maracana stadium in Rio. I was a little nervous (not only have I always dreamed of going to probably the most famous stadium in the world; the place Pele used to play in front of 200,000 fans), but also I had a number of high tech gadgets on me. My Lonely Planet guide advised me not to take anything valuable to Brazil!!! I was therefore surprised to see a magnitude of expensive mobiles, cameras and camcorders everywhere I looked. It seems that everyone is using technology to make their lives easier and for fun.

This got me thinking about how we can all use technology to make our lives easier and for learning (I had to get a link in somewhere!!). Most people subscribe to my blog by email rather than by RSS feed (though RSS feeds are much better).

My call to arms to you is to set up a RSS feed. See if it helps you!! I think you will find it will…….. What is a RSS Reader? Latest news, podcasts, blogs and latest info on websites can be aggregated via what is called a “Reader” ie. You don’t have to keep visiting loads of websites. On one screen you can view all the latest information that you need (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS).

I don’t know what I would do without my reader (a great deal of my job related learning is via my Reader). I have 7 main categories which cover both work and my personal interests: learning & technology (see image - this includes all my favourite L&T blogs and news); general technology (consumer plus latest web mkg news); education & training; football; running; finance (for my limited stocks!!) and news.

I’ve spoken about my grandma in previous blogs. Now for my father!! My father is new to the web this year. He set up a Reader in 30 minutes (he found this easier then setting up an email account). My dad uses a reader to keep abreast of the latest sports, news and for learning. To tell you the truth the real reason he set one up was because he is a big Spurs (football fan). He stands in a newspaper shop every day reading the football headlines from every paper (let‘s hope I‘m not like this when I retire!!). Now he doesn’t need to go to a newspaper shop as he can see not only 10 newspapers, but 50 all through a Reader. My father now also uses his Reader to track several other interests and to continue his lifelong learning.

So, my friends, this is my call to arms to you…………….why don’t you set up a RSS feed!!!

There are three simple steps……
1) Choose a reader. I use a google reader (www.google.com/reader), but there are many others out there (eg. http://www.bloglines.com/)
2) Set up an account (this takes 3 minutes)
3) Click the red RSS button on your favourite websites, news sites, blogs and podcasts in order to add these feeds to your Reader. If you have several different types of feeds, then organise them into categories or folders.

Have fun………

The future is Moodle

I must have a craze about Learning Management Systems at the moment. Last blog for a while on LMS! All the research reports show that the one dodgy area of learning and technology relates to sales of LMSs. They have been steady or declining for a while. Many organisations are moving over to FREE open source LMS. By many accounts, an open source LMS (called Moodle) is now number two worldwide (after blackboard). Over 100,000 organisations use Moodle. The Open University has invested £4.5M and it’s worldwide reputation in Moodle.

On a whole range of functionality, evaluators have rated Moodle as good or better than proprietary LMSs. It’s number 1 with Colleges and universities. With companies or some training providers (eg. work based learning providers), it requires some adapting. Even so, I believe Moodle must be seriously considered. I’ve heard some arguments against adapting Moodle, here’s my reply………..
1) Moodle is best to create a learning environment around traditional classroom style delivery. This is changing quickly. The Open University has invested loads to widen the functionality. It’s better than investing in a proprietary system which you may need to change again! The whole world can help improve Moodle – you don’t have to do it all yourself or tie yourself into a proprietary system.
2) I can develop Moodle or get an elearning company to develop it for me, but the Moodle editorial board could delete it. You do need buy in from the editorial board. I don’t think this should bother organisations as you do need some governance otherwise it is like a football match without a referee! Editorial boards are common on the internet, especially as tools become more professional (eg. see Wikipedia)

The one mistake I hear repeated from training providers is that if they use open source as part of their service, they won’t be able to make money. Rubbish. We now have the first £1 billion open source company.

I love open source stuff. Let’s all use open source as much as possible.