Jane's Pick of the Day

10 steps for working smarter with social media

I’ve just finished a webinar for the UK-based Learning & Skills Group.  The script for my presentation together with images of the slides I used can be found here: 10 steps for working smarter with social media

Sapling Learning, Frequency, Revuuit, College Textbooks & GetMyTablet

I receive lots of emails from individuals as well as  companies who have set up new e- or social learning businesses or produced new (or updated versions of) products/tools for education or workplace learning.  Unfortunately, I am not always able to review them all individually, but today I thought I would briefly mention five different resources that I’ve recently been emailed about:

1. Sapling Learning – an online homework solution for science for higher education and high-school markets
2. Frequency – a real time social video platform to simplify the way people discover, watch and share video online.
3. Revuuit - an online system for streamlining the process of gathering SME feedback.  You simply upload a PowerPoint file, invite people to review it, and wait for their feedback. They can see the slides, the instructor notes, and  each other’s feedback as they enter theirs. At the conclusion, you receive a PDF report of everyone’s feedback by slide, making it easier to make the changes, store the feedback, and distribute the feedback with the new updated PPT file.
4. College Textbooks - a free service, allowing you to easily compare prices of any book among major online bookstores worldwide, and find a price which is 30% – 95% off the market list price
5. GetMyTablet – an application that creates a chalkboard on your computer, and allows anyone to write onto it, in realtime.  You can also put architect plans, biology diagrams, etc on the whiteboard, and write on top of it,  and teach remotely.

DeweyDigger

Another resource from the hand of Dan Weaver, Dewey Digger

"Explore knowledge via the Dewey Decimal Classification; just clickety-click".

Choosing the right social and collaboration platform

Yesterday I gave a short webinar to the Learning & Skills Group. Don Taylor, Chairman, asked me to talk about how you choose a social and collaboration platform, as he thought this would be a topical discussion in the light of some people's concerns with the changes at Ning. 

So this webinar looked at 10 criteria for considering such a platform (and used Ning as my benchmark), then I gave a tour of 3 very different platforms, and finally compared them against the 10 criteria I had listed up front.

The first question that was asked after the presentation was how it all fits together with other systems in the organisation, and in particular the LMS, but it also seemed clear to me that many participants were still focusing entirely on creating and managing e-courses , rather than thinking about how they could support learning in all forms that take place in the organisation.

So since this is very much my view and the angle from which I approached this presentation, if you haven't already read my article, State of Learning in the Workplace Today, I would recommend you do so before viewing the presentation, since it summarises how I, and many others, believe that workplace learning is evolving. 

The presentation appears below, and sites mentioned in the presentation as well as other supporting resources appear  on the manin C4LPT site on this page.  I am also about to create a short whitepaper on this topic that incorporates the slides and my notes, so let me know if you'd like a copy, when it is ready.

Choosing the right social and collaboration platform

View more presentations from Jane Hart.

3 resources

Today I am posting about three completely different resources that readers have emailed me about:

E-Learning Technology Network

Omer Oz told me about the E-Learning Technology Network that he has created for e-learning professionals from around the world. 

TeacherZone

Andrew Joseph emailed me about TeacherZone; this  is a free resource for teachers, and has thousands of free math video lessons for Grades 3-10.

Sortfix

Arya Schellemberg wrote to tell me about SortFix, and explained that this is a " new search engine that combines a very friendly and easy-to-use interface with powerful algorithms that help improve the search and lead you to accurate and relevant results. Also, it gives you the possibility of retrieving results from Google, Bing, Youtube, Twitter and Image Search all in the same place".

Some Google Buzz bits and pieces

Have you got going with Google Buzz yet?

If not, here are some ideas to get started

• My Google Buzz is here, and I'm using it mainly to share items from Google Reader.  Although I've currently connected to my Twitter account too, I'm reviewing that as I'm trying not to duplicate my activities on Twitter and Facebook as much as possible.
• I've set up a 140 University Buzz - more visually interesting than Twitter
• How to get started with Buzz
• How to keep things private
• Some ideas on how to use it for learning

If yes, here are some other bits and pieces I've come across

• Buzz2feed - Create an RSS feed for your Google Buzz account
• Buzz2Twitter - sync your Google Buzz to Twitter (but watch you don't put your items in a loop!)
• Buzzrr - a Google Buzz counter
• Buzzzy - a search engine or Google Buzz.  Find out what's buzzin'

February 2010 Update

Here is this month's round up of tools and articles added to my website:

Tools added to the Learning Tools Directory in February 2010

• Tools added to the Learning Tools Directory in February 2010

My Top 3 favourite tools this month

• Google Buzz - Google's new way to share resources and conversations
• Buzzzy - a search engine for Buzz
• Twitlk.com - a background for your Twitter profile of those you follow

Articles/postings added to Reading Lists in February 2010

Here's a text cloud that shows what the key trends this month were - if you couldn't have guessed!

• Articles/postings/reports added to my Reading Lists in  February 2010

My Top 3 favourite articles this month:

1. A framework for social learning in the enterprise, Harold Jarche, 24 February 2010 (in Social Learning)
2. Where social learning thrives, Marcia Conner, Fast Company, February 2010 in Social Learning)
3. Google Buzz Has Completely Changed the Game: Here’s How, Ben Parr, Mashable, 14 February 2010 (in Google Buzz)

If you want to keep up with news as it happens, here's how

• Follow me on Twitter - @c4lpt
• Follow me on Google Buzz - c4lpt.JaneHart
• Become a fan of the C4LPT Facebook Fan page - C4LPT

[Image: Desktop wallpaper calendar, February 2010 by Eli Burford, via Smashing Magazine]

UPDATE: Wordle is currently offline, so I have removed the link to the text cloud image

Synchronising networks (Twitter, Facebook & Buzz) #fb

In my previous posting about how I was using Twitter, Facebook and Buzz, I mentioned that I initially synchonised postings across the 3 different networks -  to see how that worked for me. 

I've had a few enquiries asking me how I was doing that, so I thought I would point you to the relevant pages of my Guide to 140 Learning where I list the tools I have found to do this:

• On the Synchronising networks page I list some tools that link networks together, so that the same tweet/message appears automatically on different networks.  These tools are useful where one of these networks is your primary network and you wish to sync with another.   What you have to watch out for, though, is putting your content in a loop, where it constantly moves around the networks as it is re-synched!
• On the Managing accounts page I list some tools that let you send the same message to multiple accounts/networks at once, and additionally, tools that let you schedule messages to networks.

Does anyone have any more to add, or want to share their experiences of using them?

Twitter and Facebook and Buzz! Oh, my! #fb

I have been spending quite a lot of time recently on Twitter and Facebook and Google Buzz (oh, my!) as I work on my resource: 140 Learning: A Guide to Using Twitter, Facebook and Google Buzz for Social Learning, which is coming along quite nicely.

However, this has also allowed me to reflect on my own personal and professional use of these 3 social networks.  Originally I tried to synch postings across these 3 sites, so that they were pretty much the same, but I am now finding I am using each of them quite differently (although there is still some overlap) - more about that in another posting - and hence am reorganising my online activities because of this. 

So in this posting, I just wanted to mention that as part of my reorganisation, I have now set up a C4LPT Facebook Fan page, where my professional activities on Facebook will be focused.  (Note I will still be actively maintaining my Twitter account as well as my Google Buzz feed!).

This Facebook Fan page is still in its infancy, but I am hoping that "fans" can help me extend it into more of a learning community space, so if you are on Facebook, come and join us!

Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies on Facebook

Backchatter - a game about Twitter trendspotting

See my Social Media in Learning blog posting