Here at OSU Extension we’re on the cusp of selecting a pilot group of internal students (cutting edge OSU Extension Professionals) to test our ability to teach Knowledge Economy programming via Web 2.0 tools. More information about the program can be found here. An initial source of inspiration came from the Otter Group and their work with the American Library Association (see this link for more on Kathleen Gilroy and the Otter Group). As I’ve repeated for the last year or so, the librarians continue to impress me with their experimentation with newer technologies to reach audiences (see an older post here and a new one here).
We’ve also developed a fairly detailed LOGIC model to measure our longer term impacts. I’ll share more of this as we move ahead. Based on our instructors’ training bootcamp I’m expecting this to be a messy but fun experience. More updates as we move ahead. I’d really like to hear more ideas or input from other Extension Professionals (or other fields for that matter) on related programming.
Back in August 2005 I wrote this post about Educause’s fact sheet series. I’ve been trying to put together some fact sheets for a blended e-learning project and went back to Educause. Actually, I simply went back to my blog, searched and then re-read my old post with the links. Talk about easy knowledge management. Anyway, the series (actually called The Seven Things You Should Know about ___ series) has continued to grow with subjects like Creative Commons, You Tube, Facebook and others. Each has a tight focus that describes the tool and how it can be used in educational or learning settings. Highly recommended.
I just added a post to new blog at our OSU Extension Knowledge Economy Website. The site is still under construction, but we hope to have more blog postings soon. The post describes a power point presentation that serves as a good intro to the Knowledge Economy. The whole KE (Knowledge Economy) concept is pretty critical right now but is also hard to describe to people. Hence the neatness of the presentation.
CNN.com has an interesting news post today that discusses the differences in the use of instant messaging (IM)between current teenagers and baby boomers. No surprise that the kids use IM more and e-mail much less. The reverse is true of boomers. This dovetails much of the work done by Pew Internet Study. More reinforcement of the need to consider differences in work styles and alternative ways of reaching this generation of youth.
eXtension has announced 10 new Communities of Practice. Here is the link to the complete list, including the existing COP’s.
I mentioned earlier that Ryan Schmiesing and I are starting to work on a youth collaborative software project. This means that I’m doing spurts of research on the subject. One area of information that I’m collecting compares current youth generations to older adult generations. So I was really interested in this Business Week article about
Millennials serving as interns (found via Tom Peters’ blog). It’s an interview of an entrepreneur that hired summer interns and takes 3-4 minutes to read. The culture clash is interesting, and I still wonder how much of it is generational differences versus typical kids working for typical baby boomer adults. Two key differences that I do think are real: A generation that knows nothing of the cold war and that take multi-tasking as a way of life.
I’m especially interested in the group of youth called the Digital Native generation. This is the generation that grew up in a complete digital lifestyle and knows nothing different (I picked the term Digital Native up from Glen Hiemstra’s new book Turning the Future into Revenue. Glen credits Marc Prensky with coining the term – see this article by Marc. See also p. 15 of the Glen’s book for more information). Another interesting term is “Mypod generation”– from Myspace and iPod - two tools that almost every teenager understands. For more on what the newer digital savvy workers expect, see this article from the September 2006 issue of Optimize. What we need to understand is this is the only life that many of our youth have experienced. Hence our efforts to look at both Extension youth and adult programming to better understand how youth use social collaboration software. Extension can play a key role in helping both the youth (via understanding the pros/cons of social software, the consequences of what they post, understanding job and other life skills) and adults (to actually better understand tools like Myspace, how club and other advisors can use the tools, and how to work with mixed generations of co-workers and citizens).
Kathleen Gilmore at the Otter Group has a post about a simple mix of Web 2.0 type tools that a teacher friend is using to help coordinate learning in her middle-school classroom. All of the tools are easy to use and could be incorporated into a number of Extension programs. For example:
- A 4-H club or event
- Any educational program that is ongoing and involves the need for sharing of information
- Various teams
- Program planning groups
I use basecamp and delicious fairly frequently. All of these can be accessed for free (Basecamp in limited format). Simple ways to use simple tools to connect and empower people. Extension professionals could find many ways to use these tools.
Ryan Schmiesing (Associate Director, 4-H Youth Development at Ohio State University Extension) and I are in the early stages of developing potential programming about youth using social software. We (Ryan is actually the lead on this) are very interested in curricula for youth, parents and advisors, and how to conduct 4-H related activities on these mediums. The current hot medium is of course myspace. So it was with interest that I found this post by Andy Carvin at learningnow.com. Andy opines about some future trends for the upcoming school year. In particular I find the discussions about the future of myspace and DOPA very interesting. See also the comments that are posted. We need some good, accurate information on social software platforms that youth are using. What are the true risks? What is good public policy (read the Wikipedia article on DOPA and decide for yourself if there is a generation gap)? What do youth need to know about the sites (for example, that anything a youth posts on their or others’ sites will be permanently around in cyberspace. Even if they delete the posting. Imagine a future boss or college admissions officer doing a google search and what can be found.)? How can we use them as tools and resources? Lot’s of opportunities for research, programming and curricula for Extension.
I blogged earlier this year about the
NETC (National Extension Technology Conference) conference in Florida (see the posts here, here, here, here and here). Next year’s conference is held jointly with ACE (Association for Communication Excellence in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Life and Human Sciences) in Albuquerque, NM on June 15-19. I strongly recommend the NETC tracks to anyone interested in current and future technology uses and applications in Extension. I’ve never attended ACE, but would love to see an agenda. The conference site is up and running. Be sure to see the video podcast about the conference. Session and track information has not yet been posted.
My concluding NETC 2006 notes. This was a very good conference, reminding of a smaller version of NACDEP’s conferences. Here are some of my random thoughts:
- My goal at most conferences is to approach each session and learn how people develop their programs, ideas, etc. Not just to learn about the specific program. This always seems to give me insights and generates ideas that are often very different from the actual topic being discussed. NETC is a good conference for this rule of thumb.
- I came away from several sessions more convinced that we need more work on web based training. Particularly on video. Iowa State seems to be a leader in this role, with Penn State moving strong in that direction.
- How does increased connectivity change things? Are we preparing our websites and other web content to be downloaded to mobile devices?
- Economics will drive us to develop more web-based educational tools. There is some good preliminary research out there that can help us be better at educational design for this media. We need to focus more on reviewing and adopting it versus just throwing programs together.
- Extension systems continue to use only a small portion of their technology capabilities. There are several systems that could lead to more collaborations and better interactions with our clientele. For example, Basecamp and delicious for sharing and project management. Podcasts and blogs to reach clientele when they want the information. And wikis as a collaborative writing instrument. Why not involve systems specialists from several states to jointly write training materials collaboratively?
- A recommendation that I plan on sharing with my director is to consider post-program debriefings. As an administrator I plan on doing this more often. It simply is taking 30-60 minutes to briefly meet with attendees from the conference to find out what they learned, their accomplishments, where the field is headed and what impacts and/or recommendations do they have for OSU Extension and me. A quick and easy way to add value and leverage the time the participants have already committed.
- Lastly, the Florida folks did a great job of getting wireless access for the conference. My ideal conference that focuses on information sharing would go like this: 1.) have each presenter submit their presentations in word and/or power point prior to the conference. 2.) post these as downloads on a conference website. 3.) I would relish the chance to be able to open the downloads during the presentation and take notes, click on hyperlinks, etc. during the presentation. I’m guessing that most attendees currently would not do this, but I sure would.