ETC Final Project

For the final project for this class I used Yammer with my trainers to see how they can use this resource both at work and at home.  Though I would love to show you the work that they did within the site I would not risk the confidentiality since this was done using company assests and that would be a violation of company policy.  The use of Yammer as a social learning tool is slow to start as many trainers will only use this when they are at work and time allows.  Here is a video that explains why I think social networking in the workplace will be the next form of communication.

There is a little trouble embedding videos so here is the video.

Or you can click here to see the video in a different site.

1.     Target Audience- Part time classroom trainers from four different departments

2.     Materials-  Internet access, company emails

3.     Objective- Assess their facilitation skills and class management skills.

4.     Procedure- Surveyed trainers for next development session and started a group for them to communicate in

5.     Web 2.0 Tool- Yammer.com

6.     Social Participation- group chats and learning after classes. 

7.     Making Connections- four different departments all have different issues but situations have occurred at different times.  Group allows them to ask questions and discuss solutions.

8.     Create- Solutions to questions and reflection on personal classes

9.     Reflection- After classes allowing time to reflect through a post about how they felt about the class and feedback.

The use of Yammer as a tool has only started and as the months go by the trainers will continue to use Yammer as a way to communicate when they don't have the luxury of face-to-face time with each other.

PE5 – Yammer

Hello from Yammer.  I hope these posts don't find you odd that these posts are close together but a lot has been accomplished and learned since the last time. I ended fairly in early in the dive into this program.  I can start to see how useful Yammer could be if it was able to be used to its full potential as a company's sense of community. 

Since there are plenty of educators reading this I will crack my knuckles and try this.  To be a little selfish I will say there has been time to think if I could/would be a teacher how would I want to do it. So this blog will serve two purposes to write out a dream I guess and to tell you how Yammer with in a school would be successful to both teachers and students.

I work in a high school teaching.  I can have groups that would include all teachers with in my department.  From there we can work on group projects or put a question out to the group that can't meet at that specific moment. 

 If I'm teaching a class and a question came up that I didn't know the answer I could ask the group and if someone is there to help out.  I could wait until the end of class to check and reply as students are changing rooms.  If students are allowed to participant as part of school you can place them in groups.  You have control of the groups so only those that you allow in will be invited.  You can even delete the groups once the year is over or project is over. 

Creating a Group

Inside the groups you can create polls or discussions about what the current lesson.

I still think there is plenty more for me to learn as I try Yammer out more.  I think this will be the method I choose for my project as a way to keep my groups together and since and additions can be sent out by email it can enhance the conversations since one post can start a conversation. 

I think that's a wrap for me tonight.   I will continue to look at Yammer and lets see what else I find useful.

PE4 – Yammer

Social networking is a nothing new to the world these days.  As personal connections are made through sites like myspace and facebook the corporate world networking has taken its time finding a networking site that would work for its employees. Yammer.com is a site that connects you to the coworkers in your company.  When you go to the site it asks you for your work email.  Yammer is only available to those with a company email.  Those with yahoo.com or hotmail.com are redirected to sign up with a email that contains a company name as the domain to the email. 

Upon logging in to the yammer it starts to look familiar if you have used other social networking sites, specifically it resembles facebook.  From here you can view all the coworkers that are next to you or across the globe from you.  You can follow coworkers to stay up to date with what they are up to.

Many of the posts I have received are based around one of my coworkers and the threads that he has responded to.  Depending on the size of your company topics can be discussed around any topic.  Has this become the new water cooler?  For some it can be but Yammer can be used for other functions.  Like Facebook there are groups and communities that you can belong to.  Whether it is your work department or an interest you have you can create a group to create connections. 

That is as far as I feel like digging into today.  I will be using the groups section as part of my CBR project and we will see what happens.  The next post will be interesting as I try new things in this social networking site.

BP7

I recently wrote about a project management tool called getSmartQ.com  Below is a little video that has my reasons I found this site useful.

BP4_getSmartQ

A common concern in the workplace or any project is organization with all parties involved.  With that in find it hit go2web20.com to try and find a web 2.0 application that could assist with this.

getSmartQ is marketed as a way to visualize your workflow.  The most interesting part of the site is that you can view a demo and see how you could potentially use it in your own environment.

Choose your role

In the demo you can view it from the role of the project lead or group member.  The nice thing that the site is that you can tailor the workflow to what you will need.  If there is testing involved or approvals that need to be taken you can add it into the workflow to ensure that all those points are tracked along the way.

Workflow Lists

From the workflow list you can select what item you are working on to add any notes or add comments to the progress or what that you are able to see or ask questions to the person taking that item.

I can see the usefulness of this application in many projects that corporations or group work in school.  For corporations it made need to be looked at for security reasons and for the convenience of loading in a new system if the company has a network already.  They do offer a 30 day free trial but for the company I work for it would be better if this was an internal site or a part of another internal application for security and convenience.

Change to items show in yellow

The color coding of changes to items and images that show that someone has made a comment is a nice feature that would be useful for groups that are working on multiple projects at one time.  This will allow you to track where you are in all project work you are involved in.

Overall I would like to see if there is a way to adopt this application into my workplace as a tool to use with project work and within teams.

BP 6

Click here to view my comments on Francine's blog about MIXLR.

BP 5

Click here to view my comments on Stephania blog about Twiducate.

PE3_iMovie

The entire program is a little over two hours but how the program is laid out taking it in smaller sections help. Thanks for the recommendation Rena!

I finished!

So now that I have finished the lesson and begin to write this blog I think back to all the other iMovie projects I have already completed and turned in for course work.  I created more work for myself because I didn't know what I was looking for.  As a learner I need to know background and all available methods of retrieving tools so I can find what works best for me. I uploaded what I think was my best work so far.  Enjoy

I hope you enjoyed my rambling.  Now there are a few key points where I dig at myself.  I know I didn't edit the end where I got up to turn the camera off.  I didn't go back to edit it because that is a part of me and I didn't realize I did that until I turned it in and my group pointed out that as part of their feedback.  I used voice over so I could show the other screen that I recorded using screenflow on my computer as I went through the content of the class. 

Now that I have taken the online course future iMovie projects will have more effects and detail put into it.

From that video I made an edit to the end so you can observe the intended project.

On thing about iMovie I wind very user friendly is that when you want to export the video you have many different options on the ending format.

When you are saving a video you can see what format you will be able to view playback on which I think is a great feature in a world that like to create and trade information through this format.  I will say that iMovie freaked me out as a program because it is visual and it has many options to it that intimidated me but now I have done the training I feel more comfortable with the program and you will see what I do with iMovie very soon. 

PE2_iMovie

Lesson #1- Find a lesson that interests you.

Once you find one you can use this as a gauge to see if you enjoy this learning. If you do watch other session by the same instructor. There was one session I found informative to how I use iMovie.

What I found most valuable was flow of the information.  Every item built on the last and it just made sense.  I guess that's the point as a learner that we strive to meet.  The topic that I plan on using when in iMovie is the voiceover.

Using the voiceover tool

I enjoy being able to visually see my learning. On a computer that is extremely important because we computer is a visual experience for most people.  We enjoy seeing what our screen matched the instructors screen.  (sorry teachers that never leaves the student they enter the professional world with the same mentality if the learning environment) 

Seeing how to conduct a voiceover in the project was very informative to me.  I know I will be back to review this content in the future. 

How to make a movie with only photos was another section I really enjoyed because it explained to how to change how the camera moves on each photo.  Though the first section adding images does a short section on this the next section, making your photos move is a dedicated section to this iMovie tool.

I always wondered how they did that in slideshow presentations and in movies will still images.  Now I know and that is something I will never forget.

I'm just about complete with the learning and therefore the last blog for iMovie.  Fin

PE1_iMovie

My first encounter with iMovie was in month one of my master program. The first assignment was a video bio.  A function that I find great about programs like iMovie and other popular programs are there is plenty of information on the web that will walk you through it.  I a watched a little tutorial on youtube.com regarding iMovie and how to film myself.

First project on iMovie

I don't think it was to bad it was very basic.  The learning plan for this course includes some computer tutorials through Lynda.com. 

Lynda.com; iMovie '09 Essential Training 

I am watching each section to see how he trains.  Since information is only traveling one way how thorough is his delivery with the amount of information I will retain in the end?

The simplicity to the training is what makes it a great resource.  Each section is not too long that you could use this in corporate operational application training.  You leave a session and come back to it in case of operational emergencies. 

Learning screenshot

As you can see in the images that he has the application open so examples are being provided as he is moving through his content.  I didn't find it to be a distraction to the information I was receiving.

BP2_Gwap

Communication is a huge challenge where I work.  Many people believe words have only one meaning when they are spoken.  With this task to find a Web 2.0 tool out there to help me in my professional environment I knew I wanted to find something to help a common problem that is asked by clients frequently and that is how to make my team stronger.  Many people believe that communication is the key for any team to be successful.  How we communicate to each other and how we perceive that communication can lead to many of the conflict that groups come to training needing support with.

I never realized how many Web 2.0 sites are on the web as resources for individuals.  At first glace I felt overwhelmed with the amount of resources.  I knew I had to make find something fun but one that would help me with my goal of the group dynamic.  Gwap was a free website that had some games so I looked around the site to see if it was useful to me.

Once in the site I chose a game to play to see how it could be used in the area.  The game that caught my eye first was Squigl. 

The object of the game is to have the same work association as your partner to gain points.  Both are given the same word and a picture.  From there the two have to trace what the word means to them in the picture.  Once they have traced the image the computer calculates how similar the two traces where to each other and that's how points are awared.

After the points are awarded a new picture with a new word is posted and it continues for 2 min and 30 seconds.

This game is intended to get the partners to think not just about what the word means to them, but also what the word may mean to their partner.  This can be used as a conflict resolution training since words have multiple meaning to individuals.  If have a better understanding of how your work group communicates it will give you a better understanding on how to speak to members of your group by looking beyond your own personal thoughts and how your words may be taken by your fellow co-worker.

BP3_iGoogle Screen Shots

I have never been one to use one site for all my needs.  You could say that I'm not as organized as others but I feel that since I have a computer at work that has all my needs there that my personal internet life could be a little more impulsive. 

Since school is about computers and technology my personal internet life has taken a turn.  As part of learning about emergent technologies our task was to develop iGoogle in a way that will benefit us in the class and to better understand how we can use iGoogle to assist us professionally and personally.


The first page you see is my home page.  Complete with social networking tools that are at your very finger tips. I started this home page in the first class for my master program.  I have added the social networking sites to have it a few clicks away.

My iGoogle Home Screen

The next tab is the FSO tab for all my important school information.  For those times where you just need a little boost I added a motivational quote gadget in to keep me going.  Some times it take a little boost to get through all the work ahead.  We don't always have the profession or group there so this is a way for my to help myself with a technique I know will work for me.

FSO school tab

The CBR tab is for the Challenged based research that I need to complete for my masters program.  This tab has a calendar and to do list that will help keep me on track to work through any situations that may arise from the project.  I also learned from the previous tabs that having access to all my links is a good idea to have.

Challenged Based Research tab

The last tab is for the class I am currently in.  ETC or emergent technologies in a collaborative culture.  It has all required links as listed in the assignment.  :) Yes it is nicer when you are told what to do and include in an assignment.

ECT class tab

The great thing I have learned from this is that you can change any of the gadgets or placement depending on what works for you.  We all live in a world where your parents, boss, government tells you what to do.  iGoogle is a way for you to have total control over what you need for whatever purpose you feel like.  The more you add the better it can help you.  If you are like me and enjoy the impulsiveness of the web I don't think this would be a tool for you.  I you enjoy having all links in one place without having to keep setting you favorites on every computer you work on this is a tool for you because it travels to any computer you log on to that will allow google. (some companies have blocked it as a search engine).

I am optimistic that I will be using this in my internet life for the remainder of my masters program.  Beyond that like most things are uncertain.

BP1_Welcome to my blog post

Hello for the first time.  This is my first blog post and in starring at a blank screen is harder on the nerves than moving the fingers and seeing words form. Now is the difficult part for me what to speak about next. 

I titled my post because that is where I will be writing from.  I walk through the world thinking about training and some of the world around training.  Corporate training is the start of "brainwashing" that's the world I work in and now you will be getting a chance to read from the mind of a trainer in the world. 

Today I made a call to change a reservation for a hotel.  Before the person answers the phone the same message is heard, "For quality assurance your call may be monitored for training purposes."  But this time I get a computer voice asked if I could stay on the line after the call for a survey. So the trainer in me stays on the line and I talked to the reservationist for a few minutes had no problem and answered the survey.

Than I started to think about who really takes the extra few minutes on the call to answer a survey about the service they provided.  This happens to me all the time and for a first post I think you can start to see where things may go from here. All I will say is...

Stick around and you will see.