Using Productive Failure to Learn BIG

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No more reading about “how to use today’s technology.” It’s time you try a little productive failure in order to start moving forward. Ok bare with me here as I go a little academic on you Remember, after all, I am first an educator and communicator with with a thin layer of Goofy Geekiness to help the learning go down. (Kind of like the sugar-coating over a valium– meant to keep you awake to learn something and then it will seep down into your brain as you sleep.) Hmmm I digress, but I see a new marketing slogan coming!

Back to productive failure. Michael J. Jacobson, Professor and Chair of Education at The University of Sydney, is an international expert in the fields of the Learning Sciences and Computer Supported Collaborative Learning. He is one of the top researchers exploring learning in the world of 3D virtual reality. Jacobson says students learn more if allowed to do something challenging where they will most likely have a hard time being successful. When they cannot do it, students are engaged and guided through ways to solve the problem. Sure it’s setting them up for failure, but it’s productive failure.

Recently I took a video-editing class at the Apple store, where I got my MAC, and realized that I had engaged in productive failure to make a huge leap in my learning. I had been playing with some editing tools on the MAC without really knowing what I was doing. I got frustrated when I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t able to find any of the movie clips I was loading. In the class, Rob, my instructor, guided me through a discovery process to find out that I needed to organize the clips differently. I GOT IT! I knew what he was talking about and immediately saw the application.

Back in time, we know that people learned new skills through aprenticship programs and learning on the job. But once education was institutionalized, that all changed. We now sit students (both kids and adults) in classrooms, put the sage on stage to feed them information and then give them a test to see if they remembered any of it. Sadly much of corporate learning is still done this way.

What we don’t know using this method is whether or not the student can actually DO the task or USE the skill learned. The student has head knowledge but doesn’t know how to apply the learning, and when they do go back and try to implement, they become frustrated and revert back to what is comfortable.

Now let me step out of the academic and into your world (unless your world is the academic world, then you can just stay in your seat). So many people are talking about ways to use technology in our businesses and in our learning environments. But most people attending the class are listening to the sage on stage and taking notes. Some are sitting on webinars watching screen shots. When the learner goes back, they don’t always remember how it was done and many get frustrated and quit. It’s time to dive in. It’s time to start doing and stop reading about it. What is one new technology tool that you keep reading about but haven’t yet taken a stab at?

Don’t worry about being perfect with it or having to set everything up perfectly before you start! Just start. Sure you may fail at parts of it, but when you do … fail productively!

If you want to see the outcome of one editing class, check out the latest Gettin’ Geeky episode! I would love to hear what you are going to attempt! Let us know here in the comment section. If you have questions on how to get started on it, let me know…Let’s Learn Together!

Gina

@GinaSchreck

March 9, 2010 | Filed Under Social Learning, Technology
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If Someone is Selling You the Easy Button Don’t Waste Your Time!

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I’m really tired of people whining, “It takes too much time to use Facebook or Twitter in my business.” (Be sure and read that with a very whiny voice!) Everyone wants the easy button, the purple pill, the silver bullet, the quick fix, but when it comes to authentically and effectively engaging your target market, IT TAKES WORK!

Now I know many internet marketing folks who will disagree with many things that I say when it comes to staying away from auto-following people and sending automated messages welcoming every new connection with a fake smile and a FREE product pushed in their face…okay so I’m a bit cranky as I write this. Let me get more coffee.

Okay, so in my humble opinion (or IMHO for those of you who, like me, have a hard time with whole words any more), SOCIAL media or SOCIAL marketing, is about…. well, being SOCIAL! I like to explain to people that when you fire up a Facebook Fan Page or launch your Twitter account, you are inviting people in for a cocktail party. You start some conversations and move to different parts of the room, always moving, adding to conversations and connecting people as you go. The way most people approach their social media launch is to invite everyone over for the party and then they go back to doing “real work” or worse, they go to bed.

I don’t care what industry you are in. It could be the pet industry, the canoe outfitting industry, the professional speaking or education industry. It’s still a SOCIAL networking environment. And yes social activities do take time. If you go to social networking events through your local chamber of commerce or leads groups or association meetings, you have to take time to walk around meeting and chatting with people. You might spend 1-3 hours, chatting, shaking hands and exchanging business cards with people (many of whom you will go back and ask yourself, “Who was this?”) and perhaps have 5-10 really good connections. That is time consuming and very limiting when it comes to the number of people you will connect with.

Through the use of social media, you could connect with hundreds, or thousands per day if you spent that same 1-3 hours. You can meet and learn from smart people who are in your industry, in your geographic region or in other areas that interest you…all at the same party. And when you share your expertise and provide great content to those who are interested in your information, Google rewards you. You will start showing up more often in places where your topic is being discussed. Your tweets and Facebook posts will be pulled when someone is looking for an expert in your arena.

Now there are many people who will tell you just connect to 10,000 totally random folks, because everyone is a possible customer or good connection. They will sell you automated tools to just collect Twitter followers and send auto messages to be successful in the social media world. While there may be some truth, depending on what you are selling, I believe that if we spend just a bit more time adding some filters-whether they be filtering out REAL people versus SPAM BOTS or people who are not wearing clothes-we would have a better network, or a better chance of people staying engaged at our cocktail party. So I say pass on the EASY BUTTON and grab a cocktail. There are folks to talk to here~

If you disagree, let’s hear a good argument-give us some examples! If you want to join in the cocktail party, tell us about yourself or join me on Twitter @GinaSchreck

March 6, 2010 | Filed Under Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter
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Hiding the Facebook Apps without Hiding the Sender

(1 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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We have discussed in the past how to hide the updates of someone who is too chatty or posts every detail of their private life on Facebook without completely UNfriending them–I mean you may have to send your mother a message occasionally!

But what about all of the game apps that folks are playing and cluttering your Facebook stream with? You can now hide the particular app (can we say FARMVILLE!!?) and still see other posts from the sender. Here is the latest Gettin’ Geeky episode explaining it for you in 3 min ~ So grab an ear of corn and take a peek.

March 4, 2010 | Filed Under Facebook, Gettin Geeky, Technology
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Unless You’re a Rock Star Your Facebook Page Should Shouldn’t Have Your Name

(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)

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We all get Facebook friend requests everyday (well…except for those 4 of you who are still not on Facebook) and we most likely look at and accept many of them. We get invited to events and ignore most of them since they are being held 8,000 miles away (you CAN target who you send those to, you know…but that is another blog post all together). We even tolerate those pleas from farmers everywhere to help them plant their corn or put mud on their pigs, but when I get a Fan Page request that just says “Become a FAN of Bob Smith” I ask WHY?

What will I gain by becoming a FAN of YOU? Now don’t get me wrong- I manage 4 fan pages myself, and I believe every business and entrepreneur should have a fan page (now just referred to as a PAGE), but if I sent out a request to my friends, colleagues, and clients asking them to become a fan of GINA SCHRECK, I don’t even think my mother would become a fan (partly because I still haven’t mailed her birthday present).

If you are a celebrity, like Vin Diesel (who has 7.5 million fans on his page) or Michael Jackson (who has over 11 million fans on his page) or you have reached ROCK STAR status in your career like, Bill Gates….okay never mind that example, like Gary Vaynerchuk (who has over 39K fans), then you will have no problems getting folks to join your fan page, but until you reach that status, you might want to consider naming your PAGE something that tells me what I will get or benefit from becoming a fan.

It is a lot of work to market your fan page-people are just getting too many requests for connections, to click BECOME A FAN, unless you tell them WHY they should. If your fan page is “Frazzeled Parents of Teens” you will get thousands of parents joining you. If it is “Clean Houses without Lifting a Finger” and you provide tips on getting my daughter, the Schrecklet, to stop leaving her clothes in the middle of the floor, I am clicking that JOIN button so fast my fingernail will break. Do you see the difference?

HEY BECOME A FAN OF ME

Give me an inkling of a clue as to what kind of information you will provide IN THE NAME OF YOUR PAGE, unless you are only after those who already know you. It will just make it harder to virally grow your fan page audience.

So what do you do if you have already named your PAGE, Joe Cook? Well, the bad news is once you name a PAGE you CANNOT change it. I would suggest, unless you already have hundreds or thousands of fans there (which would indicate you are on your way to ROCK STAR status), create a NEW page. Ask your fans to join you there and explain that you don’t want to confuse people with your personal profile and your page being the same name~or you could explain that you ate some really bad Chinese food the night before you created your first page and it caused delusional thoughts of touring with Barry Manilow and Rod Stewart.

Like always I love arguing…I mean having deep discussions with folks here, so share your thoughts and opinions, and if you have a fan page…go on PROMOTE IT HERE YOU ROCK STAR! I’m going for some Chinese food!

Gina (no last name needed…it’s like Cher!)

Manager of

GETTIN’ GEEKY

My VSTA (Virtual Speaker’s & Trainer’s Association) BRAND NEW PAGE!

YOUR SUCCESS

MARRIAGE MECHANICS

February 23, 2010 | Filed Under Facebook, Social Media
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Speakers and Trainers are a CHALLENGE to Event Planners

(1 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)

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I am attending a great conference today, The Virtual Edge, which is going on physically in Santa Clara, California and also being webcast and brought into several virtual platforms so that people can attend from all over the globe.

A planner from Disney was on a panel and he said that one of the challenges to pulling off successful virtual events is “Getting presenters or trainers up to speed with the technology. Most are not there.” This really hit me and made me sad to think that professional speakers and trainers are seen as a CHALLENGE to pulling off successful events using the latest in technology.

Experts are Chasing the Bus

As professional content deliverers, we need to be leading the way, not chasing the bus! Whether it is webinars, teleseminars, live video-streaming, or virtual world events, it is time to get out front and lead the way. Quit being one of the challenges.

If you need someone to walk you through any of this give me a Tweet- a Facebook shout out or even an old fashioned email or phone call! We hold regular MeetUps in our virtual world campus where you can practice as you learn to grow your biz–ask me for information on My VSTA (virtual speaker’s and trainer’s association)