Adventures in Technology with Explorers, Skeptics and Cowards

There have always been explorers, from Magellan, Columbus, and Amelia Earhart to modern day adventurers like Robert Young Pelton, John Goddard and Jeff Corwin. And for every explorer there is a crowd of people shouting, “You are wasting your time! You are chasing a delusion! You are following a path to destruction…” (Okay, never mind, that was what my friends and colleagues have said to me!) Skeptics abound where explorers dare to dream, and the other crowd that gathers is the cowards. Those are the ones who say they will go AFTER the path is laid, After the path has been proven safe and AFTER there is a safe number of other cowards to walk with.

Exploring new business models or learning methods is no different. It takes an explorer to go first, to try new technologies, to dare to fail…or succeed! How many times have we heard, “Twitter is dead!” “No one will ever attend a serious business meeting or class in a virtual 3D environment!” “Facebook is on its way out and it is not a business tool!”? More times that we can count. The future depends upon those who will venture out into unchartered waters. Those who embrace the unknown or unproven to try something so radically different that others whisper as they walk by, “She’s the crazy one who has students using their cell phones in class!” “He’s the one who gives his product away for free and thinks he will make money…and what’s up with a name like Google?”

Last week I spoke at an event on a technology panel and a woman approached me after and said, “Isn’t all of this just hype? I mean Facebook is for teens to play games and talk about hating their parents. Businesses shouldn’t be wasting their time with these when there is real work to be done.” After I suggested anger management classes to her, I started to explain that we can no longer do business the way we used to do, and the new world of business requires new tools and then I stopped. I realized she would not be persuaded by such a lunatic as I. She would need to wait safely on that other side of the digital CANYON for the next covered wagon to come and get her. Ironically, that same day we read that Facebook reached an important milestone for the week ending March 13, 2010 and surpassed Google in the US to become the most visited website for the week. Yep, sounds like a waste of time for sure.

What waters must you cross to reach the new world in your business? Who is telling you it can’t be done? Who is saying they won’t follow you? Remember, the future is already here, but only the explorers are bold enough to enjoy it! There are oceans of opportunities waiting…are you an explorer, skeptic or coward?

Share your thoughts on exploring new worlds in your business or industry. Where is going? What are you doing to prepare?

Twitter: @GinaSchreck
Facebook: Gina Schreck
Second Life: GinaSchreck Denver

March 25, 2010 | Filed Under Facebook, Future, Marketing, Second Life, Social Learning, Technology, Twitter, Virtual Worlds | 2 Comments

Using Productive Failure to Learn BIG

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 | Leave a Comment

Speakers and Trainers are a CHALLENGE to Event Planners

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)

February 22, 2010 | Filed Under Second Life, Second Life Events, Social Learning, Virtual Worlds, Webinars | Leave a Comment

What Can I Learn by Hanging Out with Weird and Crazy People?

Have you ever noticed that people who are super-intelligent are somehow always a little bit weird or odd? Okay, some are a lotta-bit weird and odd! There’s that old adage that says, “There’s a fine line between genius and insanity.” Sometimes I look around and feel like I am the only normal one in a room and other times I feel as if I am the one who is mad. Most people would agree that I am definitely the weird one!

The great thing about hanging out with people who are very different from you is they see things very differently. They see solutions to problems that you dismiss as unimportant or even impossible. Their brains connect dots that you can’t seem to find.

While watching one of my favorite vodcasts “The Stuff of Genius” I learned about Norm Larsen born in 1923 in Chicago Taught himself chemistry and wanted to create a substance that would displace water and prevent corrosion The first 39 attempts failed. But the 40^th attempt to create a great Water Displacement formula was a success and became WD-40 (Water Displacement 40^th attempt). Now come on…would I have even thought that we needed this product? I mean, rust can be quite lovely! Would I have persevered for 40 attempts? Surely not.

WD-40 invented by one CRAZY guy!

What can I gain from hanging out with someone like Norm? Aside from really quiet door hinges, I might start looking at my world for problems that others have given up trying to solve. Maybe I would dig out a project that I shelved 3 years ago to see if there was a new idea that is sparked. Even reading books by authors you disagree with causes you to stretch and dig deeper to either confirm your own beliefs or discover some common ground you share. How about all those social networking sites you belong to? Do you only follow people on Twitter that are in the same industry as you? Does your Facebook account look like an association directory? Sprinkle in a few people who are DIFFERENT.

Go on find some oddballs to hang out with this week. Read blog posts or a magazine in an industry TOTALLY different from your own. I know…CRAZY!

Need an oddball to open your mind? Im available at http://Twitter.com/Ginaschreck

February 15, 2010 | Filed Under Facebook, Social Learning, Twitter | Leave a Comment

Second Life Biz & Education Meet Ups-Schedule of Events for February

Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Here is a schedule of events coming up in the next few weeks! I hope to see you at one of them! To join in, simply click on this LINK. If you already have a Second Life account you will be asked if you’d like to “teleport” to the location. If you do not yet have an account set up (it takes approximately 10 min) Click the same LINK and you will be guided through the process of selecting your “starter” avatar and creating the account, after which you will be placed in the meeting location (our campus). No need to start at Linden Labs main orientation- simply come a few minutes early and we will get you ready to FLY!

IMPORTANT: We use voice at all of our meetings, which means we all have headsets on that allow you to use Voice Over Internet (VOIP–like Skype). A simple USB plug in headset is all you need. If you already have a headset, just plug it in BEFORE you start to log in. If you do not have a headset..no worries, you will be able to hear us talking and you can participate using chat. If you have any quesitons, please don’t hesitate to send me a Tweet or contact me via email Gina (at) Synapse3Di.com

January 27, 2010 | Filed Under Second Life, Second Life Events, Social Learning | Leave a Comment

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