Group items tagged

a blog post by Maish Nichani with PebbleRoad, 12/21/2009 on collaboration. Because they work on developing the technology, they use examples of well-matched technology and developed collaboration cultures and one "idiot" poorly matched tech/culture example.

Connected Learning, a new research-driven initiative was introduced at the Digital Media and Learning Conference 2012. This blog post by Jackie Gerstein discusses its essence and includes TED video of Henry Jenkins and separate video of Mimi Ito. See excerpt on core values and principals of connected learning: At the core of connected learning are three values: Equity - when educational opportunity is available and accessible to all young people, it elevates the world we all live in. Full Participation - learning environments, communities, and civic life thrive when all members actively engage and contribute. Social connection - learning is meaningful when it is part of valued social relationships and shared practice, culture, and identity (http://connectedlearning.tv/connected-learning-principles). This initiative is being driven by the following design principles: Shared purpose - Connected learning environments are populated with adults and peers who share interests and are contributing to a common purpose. Today's social media and web-based communities provide exceptional opportunities for learners, parents, caring adults, teachers, and peers in diverse and specialized areas of interest to engage in shared projects and inquiry. Cross-generational learning and connection thrives when centered on common interests and goals. Production-centered - Connected learning environments are designed around production, providing tools and opportunities for learners to produce, circulate, curate, and comment on media. Learning that comes from actively creating, making, producing, experimenting, remixing, decoding, and designing, fosters skills and dispositions for lifelong learning and productive contributions to today's rapidly changing work and political conditions. Openly networked - Connected learning environments are designed around networks that link together institutions and groups across various sectors, including popula

article by Tim Wu in NYT weekly magazine, June 3, 2014 in Culture. Maintaining your brand The euphemism is "sharing," but Klein would probably just call it selling a personal brand, whether you consider yourself the pretty young thing with literary tastes and a traditional side, the family man who brews his own beer or the tough lawyer with a sense of humor. It can be nice to share, but brand maintenance takes constant work and demands consistency. A serious self-brand should have some presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Foursquare, Google+ and Tumblr; keeping it all up can feel like working as an unpaid intern for a Z-list celebrity known as Oneself. excerpt Any old-timer will tell you that anonymity online is nothing new, but how things originally were. There has, of course, always been an anonymous culture, usually tied to deviancy or dissidents. In the '80s and '90s, anonymity was indelibly linked to online culture, concurrent with getting at stuff that was otherwise hard to find or illegal. It was kind of the point really, to go where, as one early adopter wrote, "no one knows you're a dog." It allowed users to escape to a place with few restrictions, where you could say things, and maybe do things wholly without social consequence. In the early days, there was no need for any consistency with the rest of your life, and that's what was so great about it.

White paper by Shawn Callahan, Mark Schenk, and Nancy White, April 21, 2008 on Building a collaborative workplace "THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP Leadership is a keystone for establishing supportive collaboration cultures, especially in teams and communities. This is based on how leaders mainly embed their beliefs, values and assumptions in the fabric of their organisation. There are six main behaviours that leaders display that mould the organisation's culture.[3] What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control on a regular basis-are they paying attention to collaborative strategies and behaviours from team, community and network perspectives? How leaders react to critical incidents and organisational crises-are they sacrificing long-term goals for short-term fixes which sabotage collaboration? Does fear of connecting to the larger network keep them from tapping into it? How leaders allocate resources-are they investing in the collaboration capability? Is it attentive to all three types of collaboration? How leaders express their identity through deliberate role modelling, teaching, and coaching-as our leaders collaborate, so do we! How leaders allocate rewards and status-are your leaders rewarding individual or collaborative behaviours? Or both? How leaders recruit, select, promote, and excommunicate-are collaborative talents sought and nurtured?"

Excellent blog on valuable July reads by Jane Hart led me to this blog post by Thomas Handcock and Warren Howlett, July 29, 2014, CEB Blogs, a very good discussion of building productive learning cultures. They recommend three steps: 1. Right size opportunities (which on the surface sounds fine but then they say that the "best organizations limit learning opportunities to those that are most relevant to employees and impactful for the organization but then rely on their (HR's) determination of learning needs (how do employees express their learning needs in this scenario? how does it support ownership and spontaneity beyond annual surveys? Of course they are talking about BIG corporations.) and "learning maturity" which sounds condescending to me) 2. Advance the organization's learning capability (most of this rings truer to me than #1 but it may be that my perception of what they say in #1 is slanted and hypersensitive). Here they talk about "teaching employees how to learn." "this lack of learning aptitude is primarily a capability issue, not a matter of employee motivation." 3. Foster shared ownership of the learning environment (which overcomes much of my objection to what they say in #1)

Interesting and VALUABLE links-rich how-to blog post by Wade Foster at Zapier, a distributed company, June 27, 2013 on managing remote teams. Identifies excellent resources elsewhere assembled by practitioners in remote work places. Identifies three key things: team, TOOLS (great list for work team), and processes for success. Team--hire doers, hire people you can trust, trust the people you hire, hire people who can write, hire people who are okay without a social workplace Tools--Campfire for virtual office; Sqwiggle, a persistent video chat room that takes a picture of you every 8 seconds which people can see on their computers and instant video chat; email, Trello for joint to-do list; GitHub for issues and pull requests; iDoneThis for daily digest of accomplishments--notes that "it is great for personal use as well because it can help build habits." Also Chrome profiles, LastPass Enterprise, Draft for easily versioning drafts, and Google Docs, Hello sign (for signatures without hassle of scanning, etc.), and Google Talk Processes--everyone does support on regular schedule to stay close to customers; a culture of shipping, weekly hangouts, weekly learning, monthly one on ones, culture of daily feedback

"Updated February 2013 Adopted by the NCTE Executive Committee, February 15, 2008  Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the 21st century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities, and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Active, successful participants in this 21st century global society must be able to Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology; Build intentional cross-cultural connections and relationships with others so to pose and solve problems collaboratively and strengthen independent thought; Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes; Manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information; Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts; Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments."

blog post by Megan Conley/Emily Wilson, SAP Business Innovation, 12/22/14. Could have been written by us. Excerpt: "How can your business make sure it doesn't disappear? The answer may surprise corporate learningyou: Create a business culture that fosters life-long learning. Encourage employees to be students throughout their career Although this advice seems like a no-brainer, only a small number of companies are actually making this transformation. Fewer than 10 percent of businesses worldwide have succeeded in creating a learning culture. Yet, 70 percent of executives believe learning and development is a key part of business strategy."

love this page on using a tool for continuous learning, leadership and culture development

Open Culture website--lists all kinds of free online courses; should we link to this site or somehow study these to see which ones we might recommend to WLStudio learners?

Reactions to badges for the hyperlinked library MOOC by Brian Kelly. He found all the badges he was awarded for various tasks: join a tribe; send a friendship request, accept a friendship request, update his MOOC avatar, plus, another badge just for receiving 5 badges. He found all this badge awarding for these simple tasks "cheesy" and that the system was patronizing him. However, he does acknowledge that it may motivate others. He also brought up the issue of cultural diversity. This MOOC has participants from all over the world. How will they find badges?

Reactions to badges for the hyperlinked library MOOC by Brian Kelly. He found all the badges he was awarded for various tasks: join a tribe; send a friendship request, accept a friendship request, update his MOOC avatar, plus, another badge just for receiving 5 badges. He found all this badge awarding for these simple tasks "cheesy" and that the system was patronizing him. However, he does acknowledge that it may motivate others. He also brought up the issue of cultural diversity. This MOOC has participants from all over the world. How will they find badges?

Interesting org that strives to foster a deeper understanding of gender and its intersections with race, culture, class, sexuality and other aspects of social identity. This program provides opportunities for women to explore career and life choices in multiple disciplines that enable them to excel and realize their full potential. Connects students with each other and to a strong supportive network of critical thinking, intellectual curiosity, problem-solving and leadership skills.

Although mostly for high school and college students, WILL has an international program and offers some wonderful learning opportunities.

Four principles of Conscious Capitalism--higher purpose, conscious leadership, stakeholder orientation, and conscious culture--part of a national nonprofit to reorient business and achieve greater success

by Rahul Bhargava in the summer issue. Nice article on effective use of data for organizations. He stresses that "to use data effectively, orgs need architecture - people, process, and technology-driven structures that support the effective and intentional use of data to further their mission - for data management, data security, data culture, and data use." Nice use of graphic icons to simplify most sections.

by Rahul Bhargava in the summer issue. Nice article on effective use of data for organizations. He stresses that "to use data effectively, orgs need architecture - people, process, and technology-driven structures that support the effective and intentional use of data to further their mission - for data management, data security, data culture, and data use." Nice use of graphic icons to simplify most sections.

blog post by Belinda Gannaway, NixonMcInnes, Creating Meaning in Business. 8 Ways to Spot a Collaborative Organization.

article by Galinsky and Gino

Blog post by Lisa Lane in her (Online) Teaching Blog, June 25, 2011 She reviews Pink's book on A Whole New Mind. Excerpt: "Accumulation -> Meaning Pink says the predominance of the baby boomer mentality means that the goal of accumulating meterial goods is changing to the desire to find meaning in life, a kind of "post-materialism"." For each chapter on these aptitudes, Pink provides resources and tips to develop your own brain along the new lines. Thus we go from theory in Chapter 1 to a series of storied examples, then each chapter ends with self-help advice. (It's already pretty light - I find it very funny that there's a "Summarized for Busy People" version available.) But the mental yoga commercial was a distraction from the main idea. What's significant here is that right-brained, big picture, contextual, design-based thinking will likely be increasingly respected in our culture.

A client of mine is closing in on his 61st birthday - He's a baby boomer. He's also embarking on an amazing journey, leaving a sort-of safe corporate job to jump back into the start-up pool. Risky? You bet. But informing his decision is the knowledge that he is a [...]

Post by Katie Salen, July 26, 2012, Leveling Up project at Connected Learning Research Network. I like this emphasis on individual and collective gains in connected learning networks. And how connected learning is "value additive." Excerpts: "Further, because connected learning, as a model, advocates for experiences that offer low barriers to entry and information, social supports for learning, and diverse opportunities for the development of interest and expertise, it must also advocate for outcomes that are both individual and collective in nature. It is no longer enough to develop metrics and pathways for individual outcomes; we must also find ways to recognize outcomes produced by groups or communities and provide pathways for collective participation. Or so our hypothesis goes." As a community, the members of Ravelry produce knowledge and expertise, projects and products with academic, civic, and peer value. The welcoming nature of the site and the mere existence of the thousands of groups it hosts are mechanisms inviting participation and the development of shared knowledge. Conversely, the environment provides individuals with opportunities to acquire social, economic, and cultural capital, to learn domain-specific content and skills, and develop metacognitive skills and learning dispositions. Unlike models of learning that center solely on individual outcomes and competition for zero-sum resources and rewards, like those seen in most schools, Ravelry exemplifies how connected learning is value-additive, elevating individuals and collectives in an integrated way. High-functioning connected learning environments are characterized not only by engaged learning at an individual level, but by high quality content and standards and collective purpose that is shared by all participants.

Look at the reference to Open Culture which has 500 courses available free for people to take online.