Social Media for Working & Learning

YouTube is 5 years old!

Yesterday, 23 April 2010, YouTube celebrated its 5th birthday.  Here are some postings about this occasion:

1. Mashable's posting, Happy Birthday YouTube reminds us that YouTube now serves over 1 billion videos per day.
2. Patrick Barkham The Guardian in YouTube: Five years on says: "YouTube has changed the world. It has also brought us breakdancing babies and a host of back-bedroom celebrities. So what's next for the world's third-biggest website?"
3. A few days ealier, Techcrunch reviewed the Top 10 videos of all time

Here are some other useful YouTube resources I've collected over the last few years

4. 100 best YouTube videos for teachers, John Costilla, Classroom 2.0, 14 August 2009
5. The machine is (changing) us: YouTube and the politics of authenticity, video of Michael Wesch, YouTube, 16 July 2009
6. Thanks to YouTube, professors are finding more audiences, Jeffrey R Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, 9 January 2008
7. 80+ videos for tech. and media literacy, Alec Couros, 21 May 2009
8. 10 things you can learn on YouTube, Associated Content, 22 July 2008

And here are a couple of interesting learning sites that make use of YouTube:

9. Learn a Language on YouTube
10. YouTube EDU - aggregates all the videos from more than 100 institutions of higher education around the US.

My Top 10 Social Learning Blogs

What is blogs.com?

"Blogs.com is a new site from Six Apart that collects the best blogs and posts from around the web. You can quickly and easily find blogs by category and topic or read daily blog roundups of some of the best blog content around the Web. Top 10 Lists from celebrity bloggers and influencers also help you discover new blogs, and everyone is invited to create their own Top 10 lists to share with the community."

Blogs.com asked me to contribute my Top 10 Social Learning Blogs, so here it is ..

Top 10 Social Learning Blogs

These are some of the key sources that I enjoy reading and that provide me with information and inspiration about social learning and networked workplace learning - in the widest possible sense.

Recent Top 10 lists appear here, and include

• Top 10 blogs to read to avoid looking like a social media fool
• Top 10 Google Android blogs
• Top 10 Social gaming blogs

From Ning to Elgg?

Yesterday, Techcrunch posted, in Ning's bubble bursts ... that Ning had just announced that ...

"it is killing off its free product, forcing existing free networks to either make the change to premium accounts or migrate their networks elsewhere".

This is BIG news for many groups that have built up large networks on the Ning platform.  They will obviously be looking for a new place to go.

Readers of this blog now that for the last year or so I have been helping organisations implement and customise their own social environments using the open source Elgg social engine.  This way they can provide a private, secure "walled garden" environment for their people - and they also own their own data and content.

Our own social learning environment - SoLEARN - is also powered by Elgg.

If you would like to find out how we can help you set up your own  Elgg-powered site (and migrate any users), pleae visit out Social Learning Platform/Environment page.

Do you want to improve or transform workplace learning?

I came across the diagram below when I was reading a posting by Will Richardson.  Although it is taken from Cisco's Learning from the Extremes (PDF) document about transforming schools, it is very relevant to workplace learning too, and particular with regard to the use of social media. 

However, I believe it is important to realise that simply by implementing social media tools you won't transform learning; although they will certainly go some way towards helping to improve and supplement workplace learning. 

In order to reinvent formal learning ALSO requires a re-thinking of the existing provision of formal learning, but to go further and to transform learning requires a complete NEW mindset in understanding the role of "learning" in an organisation, -  and to appreciate that, as my colleague, Harold Jarche in the Internet Time Alliance says "learning=working; working=learning".

Both Harold and I have already written about the new mindset required for networked workplace learning,  my table at Social Learning = New toolset + new skillset  + new mindset summarises some of the key considerations, and Harold's posting, Agility and Autonomy, expands on the two key issues. 

So do you just want to improve workplace learning or transform it? 

200+ articles and resources about using Twitter for learning

One of the most popular pages at my C4LPT site is my collection of resources, articles and postings about the use of Twitter for learning - both in education and workplace learning and working - which I have been putting together over the last few years, and which I drew upon to create my recent How to use Twitter for Social Learning guide

There are now over 200 resources on the list and I am constantly adding to it , so if are looking for a list of useful resources, this is the place to start.

If, however, you prefer a more structured approach to finding links, and want to see them in context, then select the relevant specific page(s) of the How-to guide from the Contents page.

200+ articles and resources about Twtter for learning

Google Buzz buttons

If you are a Google Buzz user, then Google have announced they have now created a couple of buttons:

• one to share post content to Buzz, as in the example below

• one to follow you on Buzz, as in the example below

Follow on Buzz

To find the buttons, go towww.google.com/buzz/stuff

Google Docs enhancements

Today, the Google Docs blog anounced preview versions of the new Google document and spreadsheet editors and a new standalone drawings editor, all built with an even greater focus on speed and collaboration.

Enhancements include

• a better document editor
• a faster spreadsheet editor
• a new collaborative drawing editor

To get a taste of what’s new today, check out their video:

Google Docs ranked #5 on the Top 100 Tools for Learnng 2009.  You can find what learning professionals think of it here

Social Learning = New Toolset + New Mindset + New Skillset

In my State of Social Learning in the Workplace I identified 5 types of (social) learning that take place in an organisation, as well as how social media is being used in each. But for social learning to be successfully implemented in an organisation it is not just about adding in the new tools or platforms but also about acquiring a new mindset and new skillset  - by both learning professionals and individuals.  See the chart on the New Toolset, New Mindset, New Skillset page

 

Twime Machine - browse your old tweets

One of the problems with Twitter is the ephemeral nature of the tweets.  It's pretty much: here today, gone tomorrow!  But Twime Machine lets you easily browse through your old tweets, and read what you said ages ago.

Twime Machine

Many more Twitter apps in the Learning Tools Directory]

Mobile Twitter - for Blackberry and iPhone

Yesterday the Twitter mobile blog announced an official "Twitter for Blackberry" app.

Find out more at the posting (link above) or download at blackberry.com/twitter.

The Twitter blog also reported that they've

"entered into an agreement with Atebits (aka Loren Brichter) to acquire Tweetie, a leading iPhone Twitter client. Tweetie will be renamed Twitter for iPhone and made free"

So. lots of mobile Twitter activity, and as the blog posting goes onto say:

"As we work to provide the best possible Twitter experience on all of the major mobile platforms, momentum will increase dramatically."