Tech4learning

Team-building's Gone Digital

I was excited to receive "50 Digital Team-building Games", as here is a book that combines some of my business-world passions - learning technologies, social media and leadership and management development.  

This is probably the first book that considers not only the application of learning technologies to a learning requirement, but considers first and foremost the aims and objectives of a targeted soft skill area.  Yes, this book is aimed at team leaders and members, but I was able to read it from the standpoint of a trainer and see how the various exercises could be dovetailed into a soft skills training programme.

I thought this would be a book I could dip in and out of (an easy-to-use table at the start helps to pinpoint which exercises will be of interest), but actually, having started to do that, I realised that I would get the most benefit from it by returning to the start and reading it cover-to-cover. I've reviewed other books before about how one might use technology to support a learning need, but this book is different.  You can't skip through it. The exercises need to be digested in detail, so that the subtleties of the learning outcomes can be realised.  As the trainer, you will also need to be fully conversant with how each exercise is run, as many of your learners may be using the relevant technology for the first time. Actually, getting people more familiar with Web 2.0 technologies is often a secondary objective for many of the exercises.

So what is covered?

After a good introduction on how to use the book and its contents, the first chapter looks at icebreakers, including using Twitter, chat windows, online whiteboards and - flavour of the month, Pinterest.

In the second chapter, the focus is on communication skills, including how to get an audience to interact with you as the facilitator.  So reference is made to techniques such as getting people to Tweet or text questions throughout a session; filming answers and posting to a site. For those using web-conferencing tools, mention was made of using raise hand tool (and chat window) and two new ones for me - online tangrams and PowerPoint karaoke.

The topic of building trust is covered in chapter three.  Ideas here including using Google Docs to create a trust grid (potentially quite a challenging exercise), a very useful link to an online version of the Johari Window and how to use webcams to practice the techniques of matching and mirroring.

Shared Google Docs and chat windows were featured too in the next chapter about improving performance.

Chapter five is all about problem solving.  Two digital exercises stood out here - an online version of "Move One Line/Add One Line" and a chat window version of the popular game "Survivor".

Creativity and innovation is the focus of chapter six.  Here mention was made of online mind mapping; using iPads to film breakout presentations with each group tasked to make a short film on certain topic; and using an app called Goose Chase for a cell-phone based scavenger hunt.

The important team-working skill of collaboration is addressed in chapter seven.  This includes how different teams can work better together. Online games such as "Office Move" and "Mergers and Reorganisation" are described here, along with a version of "Broken Squares".  You're also introduced to two useful tools Timely.is (a tool that only publishes Tweets when it believes they will have the most impact) and Coveritlive.com (a live-blogging platform).

The author's organisation runs team-building games that use GPS technology, so this forms the basis of the two exercises in the next chapter entitled "EPIC Team Building".

The final chapter looks at Closers.  Included in the different ways to end a team event are using Twitter to acknowledge team members actions and to gain a commitment to change.

The appendix to book offers instructions on how to get connected with some of the more popular technology tools referenced in the previous chapters.  

This is the first book of its kind where I actually felt that the use of technology would assist in achieving the training goals in a meaningful way.  Yes, you'll need to consider the culture (and technical expertise) of your audience in some cases, but overall, I found a lot of valuable content here.

Structured Collaboration with Noddlepod

It occured to me, as I was preparing this posting, that even if you're a small enterprise or just a sole practitioner, the explosion of Web 2.0 tools and apps has really opened up the range of opportunities to take full advantage of the benefits of social media for learning. It's probably actually easier to get started than for the larger corporates.

If you're the sort of person that likes structure when it comes to learning and organising content, then Noddlepod might offer a good solution.

Noddlepod allows you to facilitate an online learning group or workplace project team using a clear tree structure.  The leader (or administrator in Noddlepod's lingo) puts "pins" into the tree and from these - what are essentially - sub-headings, group members can post materials and tasks and comment on those of others.  The tool can also be used to organise events.

It's easy to filter the different content types and to follow the flow.  The vendor highlights the fact that you can easily see where your contribution fits in with those of the other members, through the use of colour-coding.

Links and attachments can added to items too and those attachments are also archived away in a resources library.

And with all the activity that could be happening within the pod, it's easy to keep up-to-date with e-mail alerts.

Make Meetings Matter - yaM (Yet Another Meeting)

Noticed a banner add for yaM and thought I'd share this web-based service with you.  

Their short promo video is probably the best way to kick things off.

The highlights for me are:

• The realtime abilty to collectively create and confirm the meeting agenda.
• Collaborative note taking.
• A priorities analysis tool to graphically rank your projects based on their importance and urgency.
• A collaborative SWOT analysis tool.
• A pros and cons brainstorming whiteboard.
• A meeting minutes creation tool.
• Other tools to enable a cost benefits analysis, product analysis and consensus development.
• Integrates with Outlook and can work alongside Skype and WebEx.

Another Solution for iPads in the Training Room - RabbleBrowser

I can't recall publishing two postings on my blog in one day before and certainly not in such quick successsion, but literally a minute or two after I blogged about Idea Flight, the folks at Float Mobile Learning got in contact via Twitter to tell me about their soon-to-be-updated iPad app, RabbleBrowser for iPad, with an Android version in the pipeline, which will help penetrate the tablet market.

RabbleBrowser allows a trainer to lead what Float call a "group browsing experience". Essentially, they can lead a largely unlimited group through a web browsing session, where they control what everyone sees.  Learners are also able to share websites that they find back to the trainer.

The app also has features to permit multi-user private chat - I'm asuming more for groups on the same wifi network, but not necessarily in the same room; saving and editing of bookmarks; and the ability to communicate onwards via e-mail, Facebook and Twitter.  You can also print via AirPrint.

The update promises integration with DropBox, "document sideloading" and photo sharing.

The current version of RabbleBrowser is available in the iTunes App Store for two dollars.

iPads in the Training Room - Idea Flight

Professional Manager magazine has a section reviewing business-targeted apps and I was particularly interested to see the one for Idea Flight, as I've long pondered how iPads could be used more in face-to-face training.

Idea Flight is an iPad app that allows a meeting leader (aka trainer) to share a presentation or documents with a group of up to 15 users (trainees) over a wifi network.  But as meeting leader or "pilot", he or she is in full control so, just as you would find with a web-conference, they can control what each user sees. So there is no skipping ahead to take a peek at what's coming later on.  But at any time, the leader can "unlock" the documents to allow free access.

Files can be accessed via Dropbox, iTunes file sharing, e-mail, or Keynote and as you deliver your session, everyone can use their device to take and then share accompanying notes.

The app is free for users, though the meeting leader (or pilot in Idea Flight's world) needs to make an in-app upgrade purchase.  An enterprise version for larger organisations and educational establishments is available for about 10 dollars.

If your audience are from different organisations, then a clever interface with LinkedIn allows the group to instantly connect for networking after the training session.

This would certainly save lugging a projector around and might well deliver a much more focused training session than having the group stare at a large projection screen, whilst secretly flicking ahead through a workbook.

 

Audio-based Collaborative Learning

A long, long, long time ago - so long, I think it's fallen off my blog - I remember reviewing a learning platform that was based around asynchronous discussions, but where group members would leave short voicemail messages, that would - over time - build on the audio postings of others.  I seem to remember this site was well organised visually, so you could easily follow the flow of the conversation with all its twists and turns.

Today I stumbled upon something along the same lines, although the conversations are organised in a more linear fashion.

Voxopop is also a discussion forum that uses audio instead of written contributions. Members become part of TalkGroups which discuss topics of interest.  These conversations can be public or - fortunately, for potential corporate users - kept private. Members can keep track of the conversations in which they are interested by setting up so-called watch lists and can also subscribe using an RSS feed.  You can even set things up so that iTunes automatically delivers the latest audio postings to your MP3 player. You record directly into the website, so you'll need access to a microphone. 

You can search for interesting public TalkGroups and discussions and then sign up to start your own TalkGroup, or to join an existing group.  

Not surprisingly, this site is popular for foreign language training and I could easily see an international company building groups where learners were coached by native speakers in the target country.  Another discussion that gave me ideas for further uses was for business interviewing skills.

These examples are clearly well suited to a platform that focuses on the voice, but there's no reason why the discussions couldn't be more "tutorial group" style, where it's what you say in relation to another topic that counts.  This would therefore be a good tool for continuing those all important conversations after a training event, especially where attendees are spread across different time zones, where "real time" discussions might prove problematic.  Participants could even use the system to share their pre-training objectives before meeting face-to-face or virtually for a group training session.

 

Getting to Grips with Social Media

Let's think....passing fads that became persisting features:  e-learning, blended learning, virtual worlds for learning (oh wait...rewind....actually, the jury is still very much out on this one - don't get me started!) and mobile learning (nudging towards a tipping point).  So what about social media?

Tweeting, blogging, Facebooking (is that a verb?) and wikis may still cause blank and puzzled looks when mentioned at gatherings of training professionals, but maybe with some good education, more of us may start to "get it".

A new book, "Social Media for Trainers" may well just do that.  This is another Kindle book I bought. Now when you look at the paperback version, with nearly 200 pages - and corresponding price tag - you may be dissuaded from adding this to your library.  Even on a Kindle with its percentage progress bar, it's not easy to tell how weighty this book may be.  But when you get going, it's an easy and fast read and I was left pleasantly surprised by how much it covered and, unlike other books on the same subject, how practically focused this book was.  If you don't think you understand social media - and are fearful these are technologies you won't be able to master - then this book should give you a confidence boost.

The first chapter introduces the basics (and history) of social media and outlines some reasons why you would want to use them in training.  The graphics highlighting how social media can support informal learning and create much more "natural" and effective training solutions were particuarly useful. The author promotes social media as ways to facilitate learning, extend the training experience, provide practice opportunities and support learners.

The following chapters each cover the main social media channels in a similar format.  For each of Twitter, blogs, Facebook and wikis, you get:

• an "in a nutshell" overview
• a more detailed explanation
• a suggested trainer viewpoint
• a discussion of the advantages and disadvantage of each in training
• a statement of why you should use each instead of and in addition to something else
• some getting started steps
• lots of practical - and realistic - suggestions for using each within learning and development programmes

I have to say that the chapter on Twitter is one of the best pieces of writing I've seen on this particular tool and the copious number of examples of use for training prove how underrated this media could be if ignored.

The sixth chapter skims through some of the other more popular social media tools such as Google Docs, YouTube, social bookmarking, Skype and free virtual classrooms.

The final chapter looks at the bigger picture in terms of how social learning is regarded at the organisational level and what it looks like in practice.  On my Kindle, I highlighted an excellent paragraph introducing the concept of your "personal learning network" (PLN) - a great concept for that group of people you turn to when you need an answer or help solving a problem.  Social media is directly having an impact on the nature of our PLNs.

There is also a discussion of communities of practice and "268 words about knowledge management".

I also liked the distinction between formal and informal learning in terms of "how to do things" versus "how to get things done" - a subtle, but excellent distinction.

The book finishes with a useful checklist for getting started with social learning and advice for selling the change, by being part of that change.

I would recommend this book to all trainers to read, whatever your current plans may be in this area.

 

Social Network To Go

I was browsing in my local computing/electrical shop over the weekend and noticed a boxed software package called SocialGo that offered the ability to create your own social network and host it free-of-charge for six months.

Intrigued, I Googled on my iPhone there and then and this post is the result of what I found.

SocialGo can also be accessed online and for free for a basic start-up package.  There are also two paid-for versions, each offering a range of additional features, including the ability to use your own website name, remove advertising and incorporate audio and video chat.

Your members can have personalised profiles and compose their own blogs.  Site visitors can message each other in a variety of ways and members with similar interests can form their own sub-groups.

Forums, video sharing and event organisation are other standard features.

If you're looking for an alternative to Ning, then this would be a good starting point.

Learning and Teaching Online with WizIQ

The traditional learning management system has never faced more competition from alternative learning platforms.  Even the VLE variants have to keep an eye on the increasing range of free or low-cost new entrants.

WizIQ - in their own words - enables teachers and learners to collaborate through:

• Virtual classes - the platform offers a free virtual classroom, which is actually feature-rich.
• Online tests - using a simple quiz creation tool.  It only offers multiple choice or essay style question choices.
• Educational content - you can quickly upload a wide variety of document types into an online respository, which you can share with your learners or even use within the virtual classroom.
• Contact network - you can reach out to new learners via the so-called LearnerConnect network.

All of the above is free, with some limitations, which can be removed by upgrading to the Premium version.

I'll Show You in a Jing!

There is now seemingly no end to the number of free programs available on the web that allow you to create screen capture movies. 

But Jing, although free, comes from TechSmith, the provider of the popular tool, Camtasia.

You can quickly capture still images, or as is more likely, short video clips of on-screen activity, with up to five minutes of audio narration.  That duration limitation actually encourages you to keep things short and sweet, which I encourage.

You can also add annotations to your screen shots to help focus the viewer (learner) on the aspect you want them to observe.

When it comes to sharing your content, you can publish this to TechSmith's screencast.comsite - you get 2GB of space - or you can publish to your own website, blog or reach out to your audience via Twitter.

If you upgrade to the Proversion, you can add a video feed from your webcam too.  Video quality is also higher and you can compress the finished output to a more efficient size.  You can also share your content to a wider range of sharing websites, including YouTube, and your movies won't have to carry Jing's branding.