Jack Vinson has an interesting post about a Computerworld article that discusses some positive benefits of multi-tasking related to technology tools. One of the articles comments makes a nice point that much of what is being referred to as multi-tasking is simply switching between tasks.
Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Postive Results from Multi-tasking?
Thursday, March 15th, 2007Revisiting the Educause Seven Things You Should Know Series
Tuesday, March 13th, 2007Back 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.
Better Ways to Communicate Enterprise 2.0…and the Changes Coming in Extension
Monday, March 12th, 2007Rod Boothby at Innovative Creation has a really salient post on communicating Enterprise 2.0. Mainly that we keep talking about what technology does versus the issues or problems that it can solve. Pretty obvious after Rod points it out. And a point that I keep finding myself guilty of falling into!! Here are some quotes from Rod:
“Big companies are slowly starting to adopt Enterprise 2.0 technology. But, selling technology isn’t the answer. And selling technology misses the point.”
And…..
“It is my belief that if you are trying to help people, you need to tell them what problems you are going to solve, and not necessarily how you are going to solve the problems.”
Good points, now I just need to follow Rod’s advice as I put together some of my Extension 2.0 pieces. One key way we are currently doing this is with an internal research project at OSU Extension. More about that program in a few months (We’re currently under IRB review and will distribute the instrument soon, but it’s a system wide census so I don’t want to introduce bias at this point).
I also recommend Rod’s 15 page white paper on Web Office. Here is Rod’s post that contains a link to the PDF of the white paper.
The Time Cost of Maintaining Tech
Saturday, February 24th, 2007Kevin Kelly has a post on his Technium site that really got me thinking. Kevin discusses the additional cost of keeping technology and gadgets going after we have purchased them. Kevin calls this the “true cost of ownership”. I first breezed over the article a few days ago, then found myself bouncing back to it. I was subconsciously adding up how much time I’d been spending trying to get a new computer camera working with both AIM and Skype. Kevin estimates that for every $1 you spend on technology, you will spend a $1 of your time (defined as the cost of a tech person’s time) maintaining it. Kevin also shows some data that indicates that the percentage of time that is spent on maintaining software has almost doubled since the 70’s.
There are several important issues from this post for Extension to consider. Here are a few:
- Has the upkeep time came at the cost of other time? Or is it that we have saved time with the technology and that they increased time is really an investment? I think it is the later, but it still illustrates other needs. See below.
- Skills: What kind of continual training do Extension professionals need to keep up with maintaining and enhancing the technology. Just as important, what kind of training do we need in how to use the systems that we create by having the technology. For example, once I get my camera consistently working with Skype how can I better learn to use the system for various work efforts and increase my efficiency and effectiveness?
- Staffing: Who do we need to support us? What is the role of tech support? What additional skills do we need to look for as we hire educators. Can we share support across Extension systems?
- Equipment: What types of equipment and software do we need? If Web 2.0 platforms become a reality will it save us time? Are there standardizations across systems that we can use?
Some things to ponder and think about. It would be an interesting research project to actually track the economic impact and cost of our time.
Instant Messaging in Extension
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007Our office has incorporated IM into our operations over the last five years or so. This has occurred mainly due to the fact that we are using virtual and distributed office settings. So IM has primarily been an internal tool versus an external tool for us. We use it for our internal operations versus as a means to connect with clientele. Libraries seem to be using it more and more to be more accessible to their clientele. Here is a good post from Bibliotech’s archive about IM use with librarians. It’s from this more recent post that notes:
As of this Fall, 2006, our IM Reference stats at Butler University have surpassed our email Reference stats and are regularly more than half of the number of Reference questions we get by phone. And this is only the second academic year we’ve offered this service.
The first post provides a succinct overview of why libraries need to use IM to connect with their clientele. I’m really uncertain how well (if at all) Extension is using IM. Especially given the changing demographics and technology use of current youth. There appears to be a demand. Any ideas?
Extension 2.0?
Sunday, February 18th, 2007Continued light blogging from me as I’ve worked on several projects simultaneously. Several of these are related to Web 2.0, distributed/virtual work systems and Extension futures research. One recurring item that I continue to see related to Web 2.0 is the new (fill in the blank) ___2.0 of everything. Education 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 are current examples. All feature interesting arguments about how Web 2.0 activities are leading to structural changes in organizations and how we work. Hopefully I will post more on all of these soon. I’m hoping to use the upcoming ESP 2007 call for papers as a deadline to put together a proposal and potential JOE article on Extension 2.0. This would include the opportunities (I think they are great) and some of the hype. Any feedback is appreciated or comments are appreciated!
For now, here is a link to an interesting Harvard Business School case study on the debate about having an Enterprise 2.0 post on Wikipedia.
IM Use by Age
Monday, December 11th, 2006CNN.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.
New eXtension Communities of Practice
Friday, September 8th, 2006eXtension has announced 10 new Communities of Practice. Here is the link to the complete list, including the existing COP’s.
Kids These Days…
Sunday, September 3rd, 2006
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).
Simple Ways to Incorporate Web 2.0 into Extension Programming
Tuesday, August 29th, 2006Kathleen 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.