Group items tagged

how co-producing answers to problems in a community has a well-being dividend, too.  Rowan Conway, RSA, 11.30.15 

interview with Rosabeth Moss Kanter, September 2012, Harvard Magazine on business ecosystems and how they thrive with connections between large and small businesses, education and business, turning ideas into enterprises, and cross-sector collaboration

Types of online learning communities include e-learning communities (groups interact and connect solely via technology) and blended learning communities (groups utilize face-to-face meetings as well as online meetings). Based on Riel and Pollin (2004), intentional online learning communities may be categorized as knowledge-based, practice-based, and task-based.

Essay written by Heather Kenyon for the Tampa Bay Times, 2.13.13, on the shortage of people with the desired IT skills. Found this via the Encore LinkedIn group. What I find particularly interesting is the employers' desire for critical thinking, communication skills, and "professional curiosity" mentioned below. Nowhere here does it mention the middle aged or older worker; I guess they might have the critical thinking, communication, and curiosity, but not be able to master the IT skills through PD and DIY learning? Excerpt "Topping IT employers' wish lists were candidates who have at least 3-5 years of relevant work experience, bachelor's degrees and capabilities that go beyond the latest technical competencies to show an aptitude for continuous learning and multiple skill acquisition. These include critical thinking and communication skills as well as professional curiosity, which employers seem to find in short supply in the available talent pool. "

Good definition of social media vs. social networking from Huffpost Books by Fauzia Burke, 10/2/2013. Defines social media as the content you upload, and a one-to-many communication method. You own the content you share and have to produce it yourself. Social Networking, on the other hand, is engaging your audience with sites like Facebook and Twitter. Social Networking is about creating relationships, communicating with your readers, building a following. It is important to listen as much as talk with social networking so it becomes a sharing, and conversation-rich communication.

Written by Yuhyun Park , the chair of infollutionZero Foundation. Great graphic of the digital literacies children must learn as "they spend, on average, 7 hours a day in front of screens from television and computers to mobile phones and various digital devices." He defines these skills as Digital Intelligence, or DQ: Digital Safety (behavior risks, content risks, contact risks), Digital Security (password protection, internet security, mobile security), Digital Emotional Intelligence (empathy, emotional awareness/regulation, social and emotional awareness), Digital Communication (online collaboration, online communication, digital footprint), digital literacy (computational thinking, content curation, critical thinking), digital rights (privacy, intellectual property rights, freedom of speech), digital identity (digital citizen, digital co-creator, digital entrepreneur), and Digital Use (screen time, digital health, community participation).

Look at this page of online learning communities for different gatherings of educators--the numbers of members, who's running them, where they are located, etc. It's a virtual constellation of learning networks/communities. Could WLS directory look like this someday?

In looking for words that generate community, I found this informative article on online communities I think we need to remember as we proceed. I also notice the author used "grow" community. I am happy with that if you believe that is the best verb.

blog post by Kurt Mackey at MongoHQ, a distributed company, on working remotely and how hard it is to come up with an effective system for engaging workers. It is a work in progress. Need firewalls between personal life and work life--sound has to be managed for one thing. Mentions the blending of in-office staff and remote staff and a 'standard' for everyone to use the same collaboration tools, be available via the same channels, and produce documentation of interactions that are important to share. Has a whole section on the practical (and the tools they use to communicate) prefer async communications! Have a central work tool (Compose to record what is being produced each day); day to day communication in Hipchat, use pre-reads to meetings on a Wiki that get updated on Hackpad during the meeting, open mailing lists, Sqwiggle for face time, and Google Hangouts, too. Final recommendation is to "keep iterating" to build a remote friendly culture.

"Now, new research finds that women are more likely to trust and value information found in online women's communities than other social networks or websites. In a survey of over 2,000 adult women commissioned by iVillage, a massive online community for women from NBC Universal, respondents said they valued time spent in women's communities three times more than social networks (45% vs. 15%) and almost twice as much as portals like Yahoo and AOL."

Great post on Resource Link, October 19, 2011, on value of twitter to professional learning community building. Found it via my Twitterers. Research has identified six 'common patterns of participation' for users of Twitter: Sharing Knowledge and Resources - sharing links to blogs, images or video clips of interest. Monitoring Educational New Sources - sourcing professional readings and research Digitally Attending Important Conferences - sharing thoughts and reflections from professional development sessions or conferences. Encouraging Reflection - engaging in a reflective conversation with others Gathering Instant Feedback - turning to Twitter as the first point of call when needing answers about their practice Mentoring Colleagues - turning to Twitter to find a digital mentor for yourself or a peer. (From Ferriter, W. M., Ramsden, J. T., & Sheninger, E. C. (2011). Communicating and Connecting with Social Media. Bloomington: Solution Tree Press.) How to get started: 1. Set up a Twitter account 2. Find people to follow 3. Learn some hashtags #_____ 4. Manage your posts

Interesting background on the difference in communication styles between women and men by Susan C. Herring, professor of information science. Conclusion seems to be that women like "walled garden" communication styles, such as those used in Facebook or blogs where antagonistic comments may be controlled or eliminated, women are less assertive about establishing their knowledge nuggets and tend to be more suggestive and open to different interpretations of 'facts' than men are.

Reflection blog post by Nancy White on 1.9.13 on her Project Community course that she co-taught at the Hague. Offers many insights including this jewel below on what the learning design must bring together: "The other aspect of the design was to bring three elements together: sense making discussions about the subject matter (synchronously in class and asynchronously on the class website), insights from weekly "guests" shared via 5-10 minute videos (to bring a variety of voices), and action learning through small group experiences and team projects. I know there are strong feelings about team projects, but building collaboration skills was part of the course learning objectives, so this was a "must do." And we spent time talking about the how - -and reflecting on what was and wasn't working as a vector for learning these skills."

Phased process for moving communities from one platform to another by James Davidson, June 30, 2016, CMS Wire--start with user profiles, then group structures/pages, then content

A really wonderful look at community engagement--how to measure, make it happen, etc. Rachel Happe, Community Roundtable.

Interesting book. Chapter 17 - Computer Networks of Global Civil Society begins with a suggested charter document of human communications.

Simple but true tips for managing virtual groups--can use free tools to communicate; essential to communicate clearly in writing and to really READ emails/proposals; and weekly meetings--if only to check-in--boost momentum and esprit de corps. By Ilan Mochari at Inc. writing up Scott Berkun's lessons learned at Word Press when he was managing a virtual team.

interesting article by Joe Romiecki at AssociationNow citing Lindsey Starke and her online community work at Professional Photographers of America.

Learning forward is a professional teachers organization dedicated to improving teaching that impacts student success. They have recently created standards that include professional development standards where learning communities are the focus of continuous improvement to engage in inquiry, action, research, data analysis, planning, implementation, reflection and evaluation.

Ridiculous blog post drawing on book "The Online Community Blueprint" by Katie Bapple, Joshua Paul, and Katie Oakes, on having an online community. It annoys me because it never mentions purpose, it's more a "build it this way, and they will come."