#astd2013, Hijacking technology to increase participant engagement with @larrystraining

It is always a pleasure to sit in on Larry Straining‘s presentations. He puts a lot of time and energy into making the presentations unique and informative; this presentation was no different. He began by encouraging us to tweet to #tu314 during the class. 

Straining pointed out that students are already bring the technology into the class. What we needed to do was change focus from external tasks to in class tasks. During the presentation, he focused on five tools commonly used that could be used in the classroom:

1. Twitter
2. Facebook
3. QR Code
4. Foursquare
5. Pinterest

Although, having nothing to do with technology, I really enjoyed his use of spider graphs or radar charts to assess participant tool usage . Basically, he had us plot out our usage of the various tools on one of these graphs and reassessed our positions at the end of the workshop. At least, I think he did; I had to depart early from the presentation.

Twitter

Straining started his talk on tools by focusing on Twitter. He began by discussing the Twitter backchannel. A backchannel is a way to follow a conversation relevant to a specific topic. Often the topics are filtered through the use of a hashtag or other keyword.

In the case that Twitter is being used in a classroom setting, participants can be grouped by pairing Twitter users with non-users so that everyone has an opportunity to participate. Twitter does not require a smartphone, it can be used on a feature cellphone by using the 40404 number. Twitter can also be used on computers. 

Twitter can be used prior to a session as a means to assess skill level and set expectations. During a session, it can be used to poll participants, assess understanding, and receive instant feedback. Twitter can also be used post session to continue the conversation and follow-up on questions.

Straining conducted a novel exercise to demonstrate the amount of information received on Twitter and the importance of filtering. He had all participants (over 100) stand up and simultaneously begin telling him about themselves… pure chaos. And then, through questions about a hobby, he was able to filter down the participants until he was able to listen to only one or two people. In this way, he was able to better follow the stream of information. He pointed out that a hashtag was used as:

• identifier
• filtering
• sorting
• reference
• searching

Straining also showed off some tools to get the most out of Twitter. Again, SAP Web 2.0 was used to engage with the backchannel. He also demonstrated

• Tweetdeck
• Hootsuite
• Tweetchat

He recommends using Alt-Tab to switch between presentation and Twitter tool while giving a presentation.

Here are some final thoughts on using Twitter in the classroom. First of all, Straining believes a backchannel is useful for a course or presentation. During virtual sessions, he recommended a facilitator monitor the backchannel thus freeing up the presenter. Finally, he pointed out that you archive the backchannel for later follow up.

Facebook

Straining moved on to Facebook, LinkedIn groups, Google+ and similar tools as a way to organize student activity and build community.

QR Codes

The last section I had time for was QR codes. Straining pointed out that if students have a cellphone with a camera, they then have ability to use QR codes. Naturally, a QR code reader has to be installed.

When creating QR codes, he recommended using bit.ly to shorten the URL which results in more easily decoded QR codes. Also, test QR codes on different devices and with different QR code readers.

Straining has a wealth of ideas for using QR codes. He quickly recommended using them to link to surveys, quizzes, reviews, polls, videos, how to videos, lectures, guests, etc. You can also use them to distribute lecture notes, copies of presentations, reading material, source data, etc.

You can get more ideas from his book, Learniappe: 111 Creative Ways to Use QR Codes.

Unfortunately, this is where I had to leave. This was another enjoyable and informative presentation from Larry Straining.

#astd2013, Social Media for Trainers by @janebozarth

The last presentation on day two was with Jane Bozarth, and it focused on using social media in a training environment both in class and supporting the class. During the presentation, she encouraged us to tweet to #astd2013 and #m209. She also provide a link to resources supporting her presentation.

Bozarth has two books on the subject: Elearning Solutions on a Shoestring and Social Media for Trainers.

To begin her presentation, she polled us about our experiences with social media: I don’t get it, I check in once in a while, I actively engage, and I engage, create content, drive discussion.

She then moved on to discussing Web 2.0. She pointed out that Web 2.0 was Web-based, more than one person was putting stuff on the server or site, it is often free, and was often user-done and not dependent on IT. Social media, specifically,  was content that invites and allows others to participate.

There are benefits to using social media for learning and teaching:

• social learning / informal learning
• relationship building / community crowdsourcing
• knowledge management / transfer of learning

 ”Email is a place where information goes to die.”

One bit of advise that got a chuckle out of me was “IT folks do not set policy.” However, in my experience, they certainly think they do.

Using social media to support learning can help change the traditional model of training where you have training events periodically given throughout the employee’s lifetime to continuous learning across the lifetime. Social media can be used to support classes or be used to deliver a class. We need to look for opportunities for people to use social media tools in a learning setting. For example, have class take notes in a Google doc.

We should also be using social media tools to help build learning communities.

Social Media Tools

Blog

A blog is free idiot-proof Web page. It is password protected and moderated. A blog can contain pictures, videos, and links. Participants can also post and respond to comments.

Bozarth showed some learning blogs in action:

• 23 Things - an online library course to teach librarians how to use different social media tools.
• Teaching English in Japan

She asked u,s how many had a mobile phone? It was almost 100%. She then asked how many of us had a camera on our phone. She wanted us to use the cameras in a learning setting.

Wiki

A wiki is a password-controlled Website where groups of individuals can collaborate and create content. Everyone can access and edit the wiki. If you are concerned about the changes, you can also be notified when a change is made. Bozarth highlighted Library Success as a great example of a learning wiki. Here is an example how I am using a wiki to support learning.

Facebook

Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ are useful sites for building community because they are easy to use. Bozarth pointed out that “No one asked me how to upload a picture to Facebook.” She also noted that Facebook is block on local computers (government and schools) but not on phones. Again, why are we blocking them?

“No one asked me how to upload a picture to Facebook.”

Twitter

Twitter is a great tool to interact with learners. It is useful for quick unstructured sharing. But unfiltered, it can be like drinking from a stream. She recommended first getting involved with Twitter chats, and recommended #lrnchat, #edchat, #blogchat, #KMrs, and #PTChat.

This was another fun and informative presentation. So far, I have been very pleased with my ASTD 2013 conference sessions.

#astd2013 Twitter 201 for Trainers with @kellaprice

Well, the ASTD 2013 conference has just finished and I am still working on blog posts from the first day. I promise that I will post everything I have. Now to the post at hand.

On Sunday afternoon, I sat in on an intermediate Twitter presentation given by Dr. Kella Price. While I was very familiar with the topic, I was pleasantly surprised with the number of new tools I learned about. From the very beginning, Price encouraged us to tweet to the hashtag #SU313 (for the class) and #astd2013 (for the conference). If we also included @kellaprice, we would be eligible for a book drawing.

• More than 111 Twitter Twips
• Twitter for Trainers

Price pointed out that using Twitter in a training or teaching setting could increase participant interactions. She added that 77% of top companies use twitter to help communicate with employees and clients. With Twitter, you can build your brand and personal connections. There are a number of reasons for using Twitter as well as best practices for the classroom. Here is Price’s list of 5 1/2 best practices:

1. Maintaining visibility

2. Rally support

3. Showing Twitter love

4. Sharing unique content

5. Tweet what you see when you see it.

5.5. Be concise

Followers

Price talked about the importance of both followers and following. She gave ideas for finding people to follow and advocated following these groups:

• potential clients
• existing clients
• colleagues
• hashtags

For the ASTD folks, you may want to explore the Twitter users within the ASTD Chapters.

One way to find followers is through promoted tweets, which will earn a 22% increase in message recognition. However, there is a cost per engagement.

Managing Twitter

By simply using Twitter, it is easy to become overwhelmed. It is important to use third party tools and lists to help filter and manage the influx of information. With lists, you can filter the Twitter stream to only see what a select group of people has to say. To see your reach, you can examine lists that you are a member of. You also have the ability to subscribe to and follow the lists of others.

Price recommended using a link shortener like bit.ly. Not only does bit.ly shorten your url or link for you, you can also customize the link to something more friendly. Bit.ly also keeps basic metrics and lets you know if your folks are using your materials. Finally, you can bundle links for easier distribution.

Using Twitter is a training environment

Price provided a number of great suggestions for leveraging Twitter in the classroom.  Prior to the session even beginning you should:

• Ask for twitter account names and add them to a Twitter list
• Establish a hashtag for the class or session
• Develop and distribute a list to the class
• Put Twitter handle on name badges
• Provide a Twitter tutorial and assignment prior to class beginning
• Begin pre-session communications with Twitter

During the class, Twitter can be used in countless ways; however, if you are going to use Twitter while you deliver a PowerPoint, here are some tips:

• Key points on the slide should be tweetable. In other words, they should be less than 140 characters.
• Use tools like Sap Web 2.0 to place tweets on slides.
• Schedule tweets to be delivered at key moments during your presentation. Again, Sap Web 2.0 allows you to schedule tweets with a change of a slide.

Twitter Tools

Price talked about a number of Twitter tools. As I mentioned, I have a few new ones for my toolbox. Although, she primarily used PowerPoint to give her presentation, I especially liked how she weaved Twitter into PowerPoint slides with SAP2.0.

Twitterfeed

Twitterfeed is used to post blog updates to Twitter accounts as they are posted. With Twitterfeed, you can automatically distribute posts from a favorite blogger. Here is a tutorial.

Tweetdeck and Hootsuite

Both Tweetdeck and Hootsuite are third party tools that you can use to manage your Twitter feeds. They work similar in that you can watch your direct feeds, mentions, and individuals you are following. You can also create feeds based on a search query, hashtag, or list. If you have more than one account, you can post to a single account or as many as you wish. Finally, you can schedule tweets for future release.

Watching hashtags, lists, or search queries

There are a number of great third party tools that you can use in a training environment to watch a hashtag, a list, or a special search query. Price talked about Tweet Chats. Tweet chats are regularly scheduled events that use a hashtag. By watching the feed at the designated time and date, you can easily participate in the discussion. In addition to Tweetdeck and Hootsuite, here are some recommended tools:

• Tweetchat - Note: You can simply add a hashtag and go, an account is not necessary.
• Tweetreports
• OneQube

Paper.li

Paper.li is a great tool to curate your content into a daily or weekly newspaper. In addition, it will alert others if they are included in your paper. I have written about Paper.li before, here are some of those posts:

• Why I am a fan of getting my news with Paper.li
• 3 ways to use RSS feeds to keep your knowledge fresh

Twibs.com

Twibs.com is a listing of businesses that have Twitter accounts. It is possible to list your own business on this listing.

ManageFlitter

ManageFlitter provides you with detailed analytics about your account and helps identify when to post Tweets.

Interactwive

Finally, Interactwive allows you to run Twitter contests. You can use a combination of parameters to select a winner. You will also have to pay to use this service.

Dr. Kella Price gave a great presentation, and effectively demonstrated a number of possibilities for the classroom. Even though I am a very experienced user, I walked away with quite a bit. Follow me at @skrabut. 

Sharing your conference learning notes with Evernote

I just ran across a blog post by Nicholas Provenzano entitled, Sharing with #Evernote at Conferences #ASCD13. I personally think it is a great idea to share conference notes with others. Provenzano is advocating for writing your notes in Evernote and sharing the link to the notes on Twitter.

I have been collecting conference notes in Evernote for the past two years. I also keep training notes for Webinars that I attend. It is not difficult next step to share what I have been learning with others through a link to Twitter or even in blog posts.

In the next couple of months, I will be attending ASTD-ICE, ACE/NETC, and WYTECC conferences. I will be experimenting with this idea. Stay tuned.

It is time to do a a social media spring cleaning

Spring Cleaning

With spring right around the corner, it is a good time to do a little social media spring cleaning. Here is are some suggestions for knocking the cob webs from your social media sites.

Facebook

Facebook continuously adds and removes features. Here are some ideas for both your personal profile and fan pages.

• Review your profile settings. Click on your name in the upper right corner and then on Update Info button under your cover photo.
  • This is a great time to ensure your settings are how you want them.
  • Is it time for a new profile picture?
  • Are you featuring the people you want to feature? with the right relationship?
  • Have you included your education and work information? While certainly optional, this is a nice way to find old friends.
  • You should also update your philosophy, arts and entertainment, sports, and activities and interests.
  • Finally, you should review and update your contact information. Are all your social media sites interconnected?
• Review your profile privacy settings.  Click on the “gear”  in the upper right corner and then click on Privacy Settings.
  • Review each of the settings, and adjust them to where you feel comfortable.
  • Once you have updated your privacy settings, select Apps from the left hand menu and clean out all of the applications you no longer use.
• Review your “friends” and lists. Click on your name in the upper right corner and then click on Friends.
  • This a great time to purge your lists of those names unfamiliar to you or individuals that you wish to drop.
  • Lists are a great way to manage your Facebook views. From the Friends link, you can create new lists by clicking on the Create a List link.
• Review all of your Fan pages. Go to your fan page and select Edit Page from the admin panel.
  • Starting with the Update Info. Is your Basic Information Current? This is a great time to make any updates.
  • determine how you want to post to the page, and when you want to be notified of activity on your site.
  • Review and update the Manage Permissions settings.
  • Is it time for a new Profile Picture?
  • You can also identify with pages and page owners your would like to be Featured.
  • Have you considered adding additional admins to help manage the load, you can do this through Admin Roles.

If you take time to go through this list for your Facebook pages, your site will be considered spring cleaned.

Twitter

When cleaning up your Twitter accounts, yes, I have multiple accounts, I recommend attending to three basic chores: removing inactive users, create lists to manage the individuals you are following, create Twitter newsletters to keep you informed, and update your profile.

• Removing inactive accounts. Sometimes it is time to cull the herd. There is a very useful program to identify users who are just not active with Twitter, it is called Untweeps. I personally set it for 90 days to give users the benefit of the doubt. Select the accounts you want to remove and submit the results.
• Create a list to manage users. Lists are a great way to manage conversations on Twitter. You can create a list to follow users around a specific them. Check out this post to learn more about creating lists.
• Create Twitter newsletters to keep you informed. I have found Twitter newsletters using paper.li to be a great way to stay informed. Here is more information about Twitter newsletters.
• Update your profile. You should take this opportunity to update your profile.  Log into Twitter, and select Profile then Edit your profile.  At this point, you can update your account information, password, mobile phone settings, notification settings, profile information, design and connections to applications. It is always a good idea to review which applications are accessing your accounts. Naturally, revoke access to accounts you no longer use.

With four simple things to do, you can have a squeaky clean Twitter account.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an important networking tool, but like most tools it needs to be cleaned and oiled. Here are some things you can do to keep LinkedIn servicing you needs.

• Update your profile. When is the last time you reviewed your profile? Have you changed jobs or responsibilities? Have you updated your profile picture? Have you updated the new skills feature? Have you been published? What about your education? This is also a great time to update your Web sites, Twitter accounts, and interests.
• Examine the groups you are following. Are they serving you well? Are there some you should drop because they are inactive? This may be a good time to join some new groups.
• This is also a good time to reach out to those you worked with and ask for a recommendation.  Speaking of recommendations, you should also review your contacts and take a moment to hand out some much deserved recommendations.
• Update your settings. To locate the Settings link, move your cursor over your name in the top right of your home page. Here you can update your email preferences, group preferences, applications that you use, and your basic account information.
• Update the applications you use. Under the More tab, you have an opportunity to add or delete applications you way want to use. Some applications are extremely beneficial, I personally use seven of them.
• Finally, it is time to review your contacts. You should purge your contact list of names which you are unfamiliar or who simply do not use LinkedIn. Focus on the contacts who will help you succeed and who you help to succeed.

Diigo

Diigo is a great tool for managing favorite links… at least, in my opinion. I only have a couple of suggestions for spring cleaning Diigo: update your profile, update your tags, update your network, and update your groups.

• Update your profile. This is a great opportunity to update you profile. Click on your name that the top of the screen and then select Profile. Review and update your information under the Basic, Interests, Privacy, Me elsewhere, and Picture tabs.
• Update your tags.  I personally have 817 different tags. In some cases, I have a basic name and a plural of that name; it would be useful to consolidate. In other cases, I have only one or two bookmarks under a tag; again, it may be good to consolidate. To edit your tags, go to My Library and then click on Edit next to My Tags.
• Update your network. Click on My Network and see if your network is serving your needs.  This is a good time to search through your contacts and add new ones, or look the individuals you are following and drop them if they are no longer beneficial.
• Finally, update your groups. Look at your groups, again, are they beneficial to you. If not, enter the group and Quit group. Perhaps you have new interests, this is a great time to search out and follow new groups.

Google+

Google+ is another great tool for keeping abreast and discussion issues. I only have a couple of suggestions for spring cleaning Google+: update your profile, update your tags, update your network, and update your groups.

• Update your profile. Take a moment to review an update your profile. Click on your name that the top of the screen and then select View Profile. Then click on the “gear” and choose settings. Review and update your information such as who can interact with you, how you will receive notifications, manage apps and circles, and profile information. Update your image as necessary.
• Review your Circles.  Check your circles to see if you are benefiting from the individuals you are following. To do this, click on Find People button on the left hand menu, and then the Your circles tab at the top. Click on a circle to review its membership.
• Update how much news you wish to see from each circle. Click on Home and then click on a circle name from the tabs provided at the top of the news list.  Adjust the slider to control how much news you want to have appear from that particular circle.
• Finally, update your communities. Look at your communities, again, are they beneficial to you. If not, enter the community, Click on the Actions dropdown menu, and Leave Community. Perhaps you have new interests, this is a great time to search out and follow new communities.

If you have completed these tasks, you have gone a long way to cleaning up your social media presence. If you think I missed something important, please leave a comment.