You know how I was saying Product Vendor Blogs - Where are They? Well I just ran across a good post: Questions You Should Be Asking Of Your Potential LMS Vendors, But Likely Are Not.
It appears to be by Justyn Howard - Business Development at Learn.com. It's a good post and some good ways to put questions because it forces some issues - like 3rd party relationships - to surface. Hopefully Justyn is tied into product development there, because it can help get some sense of where they believe things are going.
Welcome to the blog world Justyn.
Tuesday, 20 February 2007
Blogs vs. Discussion Groups
The debate about blogs vs. discussion groups is heating up again between TrDev and Blogs vs. Listservs: Which is Better for Community Conversation? (Definitely read Emily's comment.)
If you are interested in this discussion, it's probably worth looking back at some prior posts on this topic such as:
If you are interested in this discussion, it's probably worth looking back at some prior posts on this topic such as:
- Community Blogs - Maybe I'm Finally Getting It
- Blogs and Community – launching a new paradigm for online community?
- eLearning Discussions - An Attempt at Better Discussions in the Blogosphere
- Move from Discussion Groups to World of Blogs?
- Top Ten Reasons To Blog and Top Ten Not to Blog
- I found it inside my blog reader!
- Blogs vs. Discussion Groups or Mis-Understanding Blog Reading and ...
There is still a lot of misunderstanding of what it's like to participate in a community of blogs. It really turns out that the functional capability of the two are fairly similar and you could likely create a very similar kind of conversation in each. However, the two have a tendancy to have different norms/culture emerge.
One thing I have experience myself is that a blog has been a much better personal learning tool than participating in discussion forums. It has also been a much better way for me to connect and build a relationship with other people (bloggers).
Monday, 19 February 2007
Content Value in an Open World
Interesting and quite ironic post that asks - Is Jimmy Wales Worth $300? - Jimmy Wales is the founder of Wikipedia and his talk is "Challenging how knowledge is created." It is ironic to be asking whether his talk is worth money? And, there are some links to his presentations that are quite good in this post:
his presentation on TED Talks, a recent one - Jimmy Wales Gives Talk on Free Culture, Transparency, and Search - from earlier this month, on Cnet (excuse the compulsory Microsoft ad at the beginning) and Vision: Wikipedia and the Future of Free Culture from Fora TV.
But there's also a much bigger question going on whether it's worth going to conferences, events, talks, etc. when there's so much that's freely available.
Another Reason to Blog
Just saw Wendy's post - Blogging as Therapy ... I should go back and update: Top Ten Reasons To Blog and Top Ten Not to Blog.
Over the past few months, I've become more convinced that all of us should be blogging as a personal learning tool.
Over the past few months, I've become more convinced that all of us should be blogging as a personal learning tool.
Is the Big Question Half-Full or Half-Empty?
This month's Big Question - What Questions Should We be Asking? - Dave Lee just told us that there are 102 Questions. The original genesis of this question was a combination of my continual desire for Better Questions for Learning Professionals and an experience I had at a session where I heard a question that I thought was fantastic.
What I've realized through this process is that I've simultaneously really enjoyed seeing what people believe are challenging questions that we face today and simultaneously been disappointed with the questions. What I was hoping to see were questions that I wanted to discuss with people at the next conference or in the next big question. See things that people really were finding as a challenge. Instead, I feel like I'm seeing a lot of philosophical, big, narly questions that I have no chance (and no interest) in trying to answer. Or when I see a question that I don't know what to do with it.
Before I reached full depression, I went back and re-read the questions that were the genesis:
Why do I like these questions?
What I've realized through this process is that I've simultaneously really enjoyed seeing what people believe are challenging questions that we face today and simultaneously been disappointed with the questions. What I was hoping to see were questions that I wanted to discuss with people at the next conference or in the next big question. See things that people really were finding as a challenge. Instead, I feel like I'm seeing a lot of philosophical, big, narly questions that I have no chance (and no interest) in trying to answer. Or when I see a question that I don't know what to do with it.
Before I reached full depression, I went back and re-read the questions that were the genesis:
"How can I help my organization improve the quality and quantity of
conversations?" and “How can I create informal learning experiences for new
managers in my organization?"
Why do I like these questions?
- There are lots of possible answers.
- I feel I can learn from other people's answers.
- An interesting discussion is likely to emerge from the question.
- I think the answers may hold actionable suggestions.
I truly could imagine asking these as a discussion question in a session at a conference or as a future Big Question. I'd likely get lots of great ideas and discussion. And the discussion is not just theoretical mumbo-jumbo - the answers are things I can probably apply or can help me learn to do my work better.
What I'm wondering is whether people who are reading or participating in this month's question are finding a similar challenge? Are these questions helping you? If not, is there something better that I should have asked at the start?
Numbers and Informal Learning
Donald Clark has been discussing in the LCB The Numbers Behind Informal & Formal Learning and also on TrDev. I'm a little surprised that Donald didn't correct the graph which shows that 67% of learning comes from informal - which is based on some faulty analysis. I won't bore you with the details, but the basic answer is that no one has really accurate numbers on the amount of learning and amount of spending on these two things.
So, while there's a debate going on in terms of what the amount of spending vs. amount of learning going, I think that somehow the more important point is being missed. I guess I would ask:
If you are spending all your time building courseware and not considering a variety of other strategies, then you are missing a golden opportunity.
So, while there's a debate going on in terms of what the amount of spending vs. amount of learning going, I think that somehow the more important point is being missed. I guess I would ask:
How much time do YOU spend working on improving the informal learning in your
organization?
If you are spending all your time building courseware and not considering a variety of other strategies, then you are missing a golden opportunity.
What Bloggers Do
Tom Haskins has been writing (Reflective Moments, Why I blog?) about blogging and pointed out that bloggers are:
- thinking out loud
- sorting out our minds in public view
- displaying what we're thinking
- saying what we have in mind
This is a really good capture of what happens when blogging. One thing I recently realized is that when you use the term blogging and bloggers - many people think of someone else. The reality is that we all can (and should be) bloggers: Top Ten Reasons To Blog and Top Ten Not to Blog.
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