Oh! The Places You’ll Go…with Four Square, Gowalla & More You Know

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

Your mobile in hand.
You’ll check in here and there.
Your friends NEED TO KNOW
Through Gowalla and Foursquare.

You earn badges and stickers that don’t mean a thing
Become Mayor of Whoville or maybe the King!

Ok, so I updated and tweaked Dr. Seuss just a bit, but I’m sure Dr. Seuss would have been the Mayor of Whoville and that cafe that serves Green Eggs and Ham! He was all about FUN and GAMES!

So what is all the buzz about “Geo-tagging” “Location-based apps” and “Check-Ins?” Is it just another Farmville-like game to waste the time of so-called adults? Perhaps, but if we take the time to EXPLORE and use our IMAGINATION a bit, we just might see a use… we just might see a fit! (OKAY, so it’s contagious!)

August 12, 2010 | Filed Under Geolocation, Mobile Technology, Social Learning, Social Media, Technology, Twitter | 5 Comments

The Controversy Around the Digital Divide

I grew up with 3 TV channels (not including the mysterious UHF channels which never had anything of value to a kid), I was the remote control. I played records not MP3 files, on my Fisher Price record player. The only phone we had was one with a very long cord that could be pulled into our bedrooms for privacy. I am a digital immigrant.

I hear many people complain about the labels, “Digital Natives” and “Digital Immigrants.” I’m assuming what they really don’t agree with is some of the stereotypes that tend to go along with those labels. Some will say ALL digital natives LOVE technology and ALL digital immigrants RESIST it. Obviously that is not true, but it doesn’t change the fact that there are those born into a landscape of digital technology and those of us who have had to make that mental shift and MOVE.

I am a native to the United States, but that doesn’t mean that I know everything about our great country. There are those who have immigrated over from other countries and I am amazed at those who know more about our history and landmarks than I.

Regardless of which side of the digital divide you were born on, it doesn’t change the fact that we must find ways to continue learning to use the tools of today. My old record player won’t allow me to do all that my iPad will, I watch more videos on YouTube than shows on my television (unless it is in 3D -then our 3D TV delivers the goods!) and my Google Nexus One phone can do just about everything from helping me review restaurants online, making dinner reservations without having to call and be placed on hold. My phone can hail a taxi or talk me through directions to get there all without having to drag my phone into a room for privacy…wait…PRIVACY…what’s PRIVACY? Perhaps that’s yet another thing digital immigrants are struggling with understanding!

@GinaSchreck

Gina Schreck

August 4, 2010 | Filed Under Education, Social Learning, Social Media, Technology | Leave a Comment

Why Your Learning Event Needs Twitter

Most consider Twitter a marketing tool, or probably more accurate is that most consider Twitter a tool for blathering about what you are watching on television or eating for lunch, but I believe it is one of the best learning and post conference accountability tools I have seen.

I recently spoke at a marketing conference that did not set up a hashtag for the conference. As soon as the conference was over… it was over. I did get messages from individuals with questions and some just wanting to share their excitement for implementing new techniques learned at the conference, but what was sad, was the fact that these messages were just between the two of us. There was not a system set up to allow everyone to share their new knowledge and continue learning from each other.

By contrast there are conferences that create a knowledge sharing community before the event even begins and it helps to connect people, allow them to share information with other attendees during the conference (both physical and remote attendees) and once connected, the community continues to share and learn well beyond the event.

So what is the best way to set up your conference community?

1. Create a short tag (# Hashtag) that you and attendees will use to group all tweets. The shorter the tag, the better since it has to fit within the 140 character tweet. To check availability of a certain tag go to http://Search.Twitter.com and type in your desired tag to see if anyone is already using it. Many use initials combined with the year (example #NSA10 or #Devlearn10) but keep it short.

2. Register your hashtag. By registering your tag, people can learn more about your event, the producers of the event and how they can participate. Go to http://WTHashtag.com (what the hashtag) and fill in as much info as possible.

3. Inform your group of the hashtag and encourage them to use it in every tweet that relates to the event or that they want to share with people from the event. You may want to create a short video explaining this. (See episode 34 of Gettin’ Geeky for an idea) You may also want to share tips on using sites like TweetChat to pull only your tagged tweets, or how to set up TweetDeck or Hootsuite with a column for your event tweets.

4. Facilitate the discussion but don’t take over. You can start with some great questions to initiate conversation or post helpful information that attendees will find useful and then let the community continue.

Remember, you are creating a learning and sharing community that should go beyond the one day event. Here’s to BIG ON-GOING learning!

@GinaSchreck

Gina Schreck

August 3, 2010 | Filed Under Education, Social Learning, Social Media, Technology, Twitter | 1 Comment

Session Notes & Links from ASTD (American Society for Training & Development)

Thank you to all the FABULOUS learners at ASTD’s international convention in Chicago. Here is a recap of my session with links and a few of my slides and side rants (thrown in for your entertainment value!).

The title of my session was, “Using Today’s Technology for the Game of Learning!”

If our goal is to engage learners and make learning fun again, it may be time to look for ways to take learning OUT of the classroom and put it into the hands (and devices) of the learners. Let’s get them involved in the process, from telling us what they need, to co-creating content for BIG FUN learning. In order to involve our learners, we have to be willing to step off of our thrown …or podium and remember that WE are smarter than ME!

These are the folks “FORMERLY KNOWN AS YOUR AUDIENCE”

Repeat after me, “I will not stand in front and read BORING powerpoint slides to my audience as if they were mindless idiots!” That mantra, repeated daily, will help you shift from standing up and dumping information to truly engaging the brains of the people in your audience. There are technology tools that can help engage, teach and even thrill your teams as they are learning …even outside the classroom walls BEFORE and AFTER a learning event!

WHY should you worry about changing the way training is delivered in your organization? Well part of it has to do with the fact that our learners have changed! We have 1-yr olds trading stock on e*trade for goodness sake. They are tech-savvy, impatient, have ADHD, and they have a lot to contribute! Here are some statistics:

We need to use some of the tools that are already in the pockets, purses and backpacks of our learners (and I’m not talking about bandaids, chewing gum or tweezers here!).

One of my favorite tools is the fabulous FLIP camera. Get creative and get others in the driver’s seat creating content! Involve customers, vendors, and of course employees! Some of the ideas shared included giving sales teams cameras and having them create a 5 minute learning video to teach the other teams about a new product roll-out. Have a few of your best customers create a short video showing a “Day in the life” of that customer to show your customer service teams what it is like in your customer’s world. Have executive teams or senior members of the organization share 3 things they know now that they wish they would have known when they first started in the industry or at your company. These learning videos can be loaded on your own website or on sites such as YouTube (set to private) or Blip, which allows you to load videos longer than 10 minutes.

Create podcasts within your organization (simple audio recordings saved as MP3 files). Interview team members and capture their knowledge to share with others. Download audio books and have them available on MP3 player for people to check out. And for those of you concerned about the risks and hazards of having these tech tools available to employees, LET IT GO! Reading your training manuals can give people paper cuts and looking at boring Powerpoint can cause brain damage so this is much safer and less expensive than those worker’s comp claims.

Here is a fun video that can provide SOME protection for Tech-Hazards (I showed an edited version of this in my program–this version is RATED PG-13) )

Remember, these are just a few ideas of how to get your learners involved using video and audio files, so be sure to post any of your great ideas in the comment section here so we can continue to share knowledge.

We discussed ways to take geo-tagging apps used for marketing or games such as FourSquare or GoWalla and create learning treasure hunt games. You could leave envelopes at different locations with blog posts or articles in them for learners to find using a geo-location list you give and their mobile devices. By adding the element of competition you will turn learning into a fun and fast-paced race to learn! This is very much like the popular geocaching game for treasure hunters, only the real treasure in your hunt is big nuggets of learning!

For another dimension of fun, you can use augmented reality tools such as LAYER or TAGWHAT to embed pieces of information or content from your learning programs into specific locations. By tagging the content to the location, you can send participants out on a hunt for information using mobile devices.

With barcode scanner apps on many of today’s mobile devices, look for ways to add 2-dimentional bar codes on objects that will provide more information to learners. You can place barcodes on walls within a building that bring the company’s story to life, or provide safety tips to learners. This picture shows a barcode placed on a tombstone that brings up information on the deceased. You can create your own content-loaded QR tag at http://QRtag.net – go ahead and try it–it’s FREE! I think I will be making a t-shirt with a tag on it that takes people to my website ) How can you use this?

With iPads, ipods, smart phones, Kindle readers, and more gadgets popping up daily, make a commitment to learn more about these new mobile learning tools, and do share your ideas here for the rest of us because WE are smarter than ME!

Be sure and check out the Gettin’ Geeky page on Facebook where I always share tech tips for BIG learning and building BIG biz. I encourage folks to post questions there or their own GREAT tech tips!

It was great meeting so many wonderful people this week at ASTD and I look forward to more BIG learning and BIG success stories!

@GinaSchreck
President & Digital Immigration Officer
Synapse 3Di

May 19, 2010 | Filed Under Education, Future, Geolocation, Social Learning, Technology | 8 Comments

Daily Time-Travel in Today’s School

Most kids put away their futuristic tools each morning and enter a time machine to go back to a past that is more and more unfamiliar and irrelevant to them. We call it school. They enter a classroom that looks much like the classrooms of yesteryear, to learn from teachers who are unfamiliar with the future tools or how they are used in the new digital landscape. Many parents of these same children avoid teaching them how to use the new tools out of fear, frustration and intimidation. Where will they go to prepare for their future? Who will lead them?

Wikis, blogs, Google docs, geo-tagging, social and mobile applications, are just a few of the tools that today’s kids use… outside the classroom. They find it odd that they’re told to look through old books for answers when Google has the latest information. They can’t talk with others in class about the answers to a test but as soon as they leave school they collaborate with a global team to solve more complex problems in a 3D immersive gaming environment.

Just do a Google search for “Layoffs in schools” to see that hundreds of thousands of teachers will lose their jobs this year and next. Sadly, many of the younger, tech-savvy teachers are first to go and many of the tenured teachers feel as is the digital divide has turned into a digital canyon that has them on the wrong side. These difficult times call for creative and radical solutions.

As Dorothy said, “We are not in Kansas anymore!” We have entered a new digital landscape that requires innovative thinking. We need to turn everything on its head to find creative solutions, such as reverse-mentoring, where students become the teacher, where teachers become coaches, applying tried wisdom to new problems. We need tools that blow the walls off of classrooms and take the students into environments that look more like the collaborative settings they enjoy when they leave school.

It’s time to ignite the desire for everyone to take action; to change what we know today as “school” and to become more innovative than ever before! We must seek new and creative ways to use more technology tools in our classrooms to prepare students for their future. We must all realize that he tools that built our past will not work to build our future. As learners, we must enter that time machine and go back to the future, where collaboration and teaming skills are critical.

If you had to start from scratch, what would you do different?

It’s about BIG learning! It’s about change. It’s about time!

@GinaSchreck

May 11, 2010 | Filed Under Education, Future, Social Learning, Technology | Leave a Comment

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