Social Network Learning: Final Reflection

Course Reflection

I learned many aspects of social network learning that I am going to apply to my professional practice as a corporate trainer and instructional designer. The main idea that I learned in EDTECH 543 is that people can learn and retain so much more from each other, than they would if they only learned alone. Social media learning allows people to share knowledge with their peers in an efficient manner, even when they might face time or geographic barriers.

In this course, we learned about Personal Learning Networks. PLN's allow individuals to connect to sources of learning that suit their own personal learning goals. We formed our own personal learning networks within the course in order to research and collaborate on projects. It was a great experience to learn and work with other professionals. My team was outstanding and we worked very well together. That experience encouraged me to form a small network of my own in my professional life. I am now connected to a handful of open sources, such as the Association for Talent Development's discussion forum, for learning more about professional training and development.

We also learned about communities of practice. According to Etienne and Wenger, "Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly" (2015). I immediately related this to my job. I am responsible for the product training and knowledge of our sales reps in the field. I am developing a plan to facilitate a community of practice where the reps can share knowledge and learn from each other via a private LinkedIn group. Since the reps are spread across the country, this will allow them to "meet" wherever they are, ask questions and share ideas. I also learned that moderating a community of practice like this is not as simple as creating a private group and saying "have at it". It takes a lot of planning. Social network learning requires the instructor to set up guidelines for the community and also think about how to motivate learners to engage, since informal training is not always mandatory.

Overall, I enjoyed how we actually used the platforms that we were learning about throughout the semester.  I now use my scoop.it page to curate content for my job. Attending four webinars, and reflecting on what I learned from them, has helped me in my own practice as well. I had not given much about attending webinars for professional development much thought prior to completing that particular module.

Blog Self-Evaluation

I believe I've earned 70 out of 75 points for my blog. I did a lot of reflection about what we learned in each module and that is evident in my posts. I also wrote about the application of the ideas we learned as well as how each assignment impacted my own learning. I could have referenced resources more often in my reflections, thus the deduction of 5 points. 

References

E., & B. W. (2015). Introduction to communities of practice. Retrieved December 03, 2016, from http://wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/ 

Social Media Policy for a Tech Company

I work at a small tech company, around 300 employess, in the Midwest. I am a training specialist and instructional designer there. Our company uses social media for internal communication as well as for external marketing purposes. For this assignment, I looked at current social media policies at large tech companies such as Intel. The guidelines I have created are a compilation different rules, suggestions and guidelines from the policies that I read. They are not specific to my company, but they are designed to apply to any tech company.

 To ensure stakeholder feedback on these policies, the following steps would be taken.

1. A draft of the proposed policies will be released to stakeholders, including employees, so that they can preview them.
2. Feedback forms will be made available to all via Google Forms. 
3. Feedback submitted will be reviewed by HR director and upper management and considered during final revision. 
4. Once the policy is made official, the employees can provide ongoing feedback through proper channels. 

Social Media Policies

1. Be transparent: If you make an endorsement or recommendation about the company's products/technologies, you must disclose that you work for company. If you do not have a company handle, then use "#iwork4company" in your postings. Using a disclaimer in your bio or profile is not enough per the FTC.
2. Be yourself: Stick to your area of expertise; only write what you know. If you publish to a website outside of the company, please use a disclaimer like this one: “The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent the company’s positions, strategies, or opinions.”
3. Be up-to-date: If you are leaving the company, please remember to update your employment information on social media sites.
4. Don't tell secrets: Never reveal Intel classified or confidential information. If you are posting your job description on LinkedIn, be sure not to reveal confidential product information. If you’re unsure, check with HR. Off-limit topics include litigation, non-published financials, and unreleased product info. Also, please respect brand, trademark, copyright, fair use, and trade secrets. If it gives you pause—pause rather than publish.
5. Don't slam the competition (or company): Play nice. Anything you publish must be true and not misleading, and all claims must be substantiated and approved.*
6. Don't overshare: Be careful out there—once you hit "share," you usually can’t get it back. Plus, being judicious will help make your content more crisp and audience-relevant.
7. Add value: There are millions of words out there—make yours helpful and thought-provoking. Remember, it’s a conversation, so keep it real. Build community by posting content that invites responses—then stay engaged. You can also broaden the dialogue by citing others who are writing about the same topic and allowing your content to be shared.
8. Always remember: that anything posted in social media can go viral, no matter what your privacy settings may be, so be sure you’re only posting content you would feel comfortable showing up in your boss’ inbox, your coworker’s Twitter feed or the front page of a major news site.
9. Play nice: We're a global community of many types of people, who all have the right to feel comfortable and who may not think what you think, believe what you believe, or see what you see. So, be polite and respectful in your interactions with other members.
10. Press pause: If you are about to publish something that makes you even the slightest bit uncomfortable, then don't. Take a  break and come back to it later.

References:

Channel 9 Doctrine. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2016, from http://channel9.msdn.com/About/

 

Intel Corporation. (n.d.). Intel Social Media Guidelines. Retrieved November 03, 2016, from http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/legal/intel-social-media-guidelines.html 

Lauby, S. (2009, June 2). 10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy. Retrieved November 2, 2016, from http://mashable.com/2009/06/02/social-media-policy-musts/#iAxWeioaukqX 

Meister, J. (2013, January 7). To Do: Update Company's Social Media Policy ASAP. Retrieved November 04, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeannemeister/2013/02/07/to-do-update-companys-social-media-policy-asap/#56b59219a10d

 

Using Social Networking and Social Media as Teaching and Learning Strategies

While I was conducting my research, I learned a significant amount about using social media in my subject area of corporate learning and development. It was hard to find a lot of content about success stories about businesses that included social media and/or social networking in their employee development programs. This is most-likely because this trend has just taken off in the past few years. Although the quantity of articles was not abundant, the quantity of great ideas was. I learned how large companies, such as Adidas and Intel, used social media as a very large portion of their training programs. For example the Adidas Group Learning Campus replaced classroom-only training programs with social and interactive online-learning offerings, which are open to everybody and accessible 24/7. Another example of a successful social media learning platform is Blue Corona, an inbound marketing, analytics and optimization company. They use several social media tools to channel training, both formally and informally. Its Facebook Page is used to post interesting, informational articles that employees come across. Moreover, the company has a wall of short YouTube videos that provide great information for new employees. The learning platform ideas I learned about ranged from Facebook groups to Twitter hashtags and content curation websites. This all tied together with what we had learned in previous modules of EDTECH 543.

This applies directly to my job as a training specialist. I am responsible for the product training that our (mostly remote) sales representatives receive. This new way of training via social media not only convenient, but it's effective. It is also fun. It allows employees to learn with each other and also to learn from each other. As a first step toward applying what I learned, I have already begun to develop a LinkedIn group, a community of practice, for our training and sales teams at my company. Here, the team can ask questions, discuss ideas and share relevant info. I will moderate the page and to make sure the procedural answers are correct and share useful training resources. I am also thinking about creating a YouTube page with video tutorials that can be accessed and discussed.

All of these success stories and social media programs I learned about can be found on my Bundlr content curation page.

PLE Diagram and Reflection

Reflection Part 1: Self-Reflection

I built diagram, using the Collecting-Reflecting-Connecting-Publishing Model. When looking at my own PLE, I realized that I am connected to others in many ways. I honestly did not give much thought to how many different networks I was a part of. Something that I learned was it that I do not use these networks to educate myself as much as I should. I also learned that I need to contribute and add value to these networks as a contributor. The main thing I learned from creating this diagram was, by categorizing the communities, I can more clearly see how they can be used for learning.

As for the design of the diagram itself, I put the computer in the center because my PLE is an online environment. I used arrows to show the direction in which content moved between me and my connections. I grouped the communities by their function, based on the C-R-C-P model. There was some overlap with communities. For example, Blogger is a community for both publishing and reflecting. YouTube can be a community for collecting as well as connecting with others via comments. I wanted to keep my diagram neat and clean and so I used small icons and spread the four different categories across the map.

Reflection Part 2: Comparative Analysis

After I posted my own diagram, I took the time to compare my own PLE diagram a handful of my classmates' PLE diagrams (Mary C, Jasmine Q, Terry S, and my two PLN group members, Linda M, and Kristen T).

Differences:
The main difference that I noticed was that different models for the creation/organization of a PLE were used. I used the Collecting-Reflecting-Connecting-Publishing model. Others used an input and output model or Communicating, Creating, Collecting, and Connecting model.  In looking at others' PLE's, I did not think to add email to my diagram. I guess that means that I take email for granted in terms of it's usefulness as a learning tool. Other networks that people had in their PLE's that I did not include Flipboard for magazine articles, VoiceThread and Slideshare for publishing slideshows and Pinterest for sharing all kinds of ideas.

Similarities:
Although the models varied, there was a lot of overlap among all of us in terms of the social networks that we use to connect and share within our PLE's. For example, everyone had Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. Most people included an RSS feed for collecting, although there was a variety of RSS aggregation tools used. Other common tools were blogs, YouTube and Skype.

Live, Real-Time Professional Development

Webinar #1: Using Student Response Systems: Creative Applications, Advanced Features and Tips for Getting Started

Key Learnings: This was a webinar event held by my company and it was hosted by one of our distinguished educators, Dr. Christopher Willey of the University of Surrey in the UK. The main topics were creative applications such as peer instruction and game-based learning. I learned that educators are able to use clickers technology to conduct think-pair-share type of activities in their classrooms. I also learned that game-based learning with clickers added a value to classes by increasing student engagement. The host, Dr Wiley teaches music education at the University of Surrey in the UK and he showed us how the use of clicker technology in his classes increased student interest as well as performance.

Evidence:

Webinar #2: Scenarios & Simulations: Bring Meaning to e-Learning

Key Learnings: This professional development webinar was hosted by Training Magazine and feature the speaker Ethan Edwards. I learned quite a bit from this webinar about the effectiveness of scenarios, simulations and games in e-learning. Edwards explained how simply delivering content over the web does not maximize understanding for the learner. He explained how scenarios and simulations engage, provide context, challenge and provide feedback to the learner.

Evidence:

Webinar #3: Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation: Do you REALLY Know the Four Levels?.

Key Learnings: This was my favorite and most relevant webinar. The Kirkpatrick Model for evaluation is the standard for educators and trainers. I learned an exceptional amount about setting goals for learners, providing them actionable feedback, and giving them the opportunity to provide ME with feedback on my training sessions and methods. The best part about this webinar was the ability to communicate with other training professionals about how the webinar concepts apply to real life. The webinar was also interactive and engaging with polling offered to participants prior to each section. That is something that I can add to my own webinars to make them more effective.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #1: #digcit

Key Learnings: This Twitter chat was not a fruitful one. It was supposed to be live from 7-8pm on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month. I “joined” the chat last night and found minimal tweeting and sharing. In fact, my two contributions (evidenced below) made up most of the chat. This was disappointing and a waste of my time. It was supposed to be a discussion on digital citizenship for educators. It appeared to be a place to advertise websites and other live Twitter chats.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #2: #SatChat

Key Learnings: This was a great chat to join. The topic was college readiness. It was a great learning experience to hear ideas from educators from across the country, grade levels and content areas. Although I am not a teacher, I work in higher education with college faculty from colleges and universities all over the world. It was helpful for me to gain understanding from k-12 teachers on how they are preparing their students for the next level. This insight increased my knowledge of where students are, in terms of readiness, when they get to college. I think this will help me prepare faculty members to use our audience response technology with these students who are new to college.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #3: #SunChat

Key Learnings: This Twitter chat was much like #SatChat. It was a stream of educators Tweeting answers to a main theme question. The theme for this particular Sunday chat was “actionable feedback”. The really cool thing about that theme was that it tied in with the Kirkpatrick webinar on evaluation levels 3 and 4. I participated by sharing a great article on the topic and also by responding to the question. I learned so many new ideas about how to provide and collect actionable feedback.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #4 - #BFC530

Key Learnings: The question for this daily, 15-minute chat among teachers was how to keep students engaged in a world of distractions. This was a very brief “good morning session” to get educators ready for a new day in the classroom with some encouraging words and great ideas. I did not really learn much from this because there really was not time for much back and forth between participants. It was, however, a good way to kick off a new week.

Evidence:

Live, Real-Time Professional Development

Webinar #1: Using Student Response Systems: Creative Applications, Advanced Features and Tips for Getting Started

Key Learnings: This was a webinar event held by my company and it was hosted by one of our distinguished educators, Dr. Christopher Willey of the University of Surrey in the UK. The main topics were creative applications such as peer instruction and game-based learning. I learned that educators are able to use clickers technology to conduct think-pair-share type of activities in their classrooms. I also learned that game-based learning with clickers added a value to classes by increasing student engagement. The host, Dr Wiley teaches music education at the University of Surrey in the UK and he showed us how the use of clicker technology in his classes increased student interest as well as performance.

Evidence:

Webinar #2: Scenarios & Simulations: Bring Meaning to e-Learning

Key Learnings: This professional development webinar was hosted by Training Magazine and feature the speaker Ethan Edwards. I learned quite a bit from this webinar about the effectiveness of scenarios, simulations and games in e-learning. Edwards explained how simply delivering content over the web does not maximize understanding for the learner. He explained how scenarios and simulations engage, provide context, challenge and provide feedback to the learner.

Evidence:

Webinar #3: Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation: Do you REALLY Know the Four Levels?.

Key Learnings: This was my favorite and most relevant webinar. The Kirkpatrick Model for evaluation is the standard for educators and trainers. I learned an exceptional amount about setting goals for learners, providing them actionable feedback, and giving them the opportunity to provide ME with feedback on my training sessions and methods. The best part about this webinar was the ability to communicate with other training professionals about how the webinar concepts apply to real life. The webinar was also interactive and engaging with polling offered to participants prior to each section. That is something that I can add to my own webinars to make them more effective.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #1: #digcit

Key Learnings: This Twitter chat was not a fruitful one. It was supposed to be live from 7-8pm on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month. I “joined” the chat last night and found minimal tweeting and sharing. In fact, my two contributions (evidenced below) made up most of the chat. This was disappointing and a waste of my time. It was supposed to be a discussion on digital citizenship for educators. It appeared to be a place to advertise websites and other live Twitter chats.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #2: #SatChat

Key Learnings: This was a great chat to join. The topic was college readiness. It was a great learning experience to hear ideas from educators from across the country, grade levels and content areas. Although I am not a teacher, I work in higher education with college faculty from colleges and universities all over the world. It was helpful for me to gain understanding from k-12 teachers on how they are preparing their students for the next level. This insight increased my knowledge of where students are, in terms of readiness, when they get to college. I think this will help me prepare faculty members to use our audience response technology with these students who are new to college.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #3: #SunChat

Key Learnings: This Twitter chat was much like #SatChat. It was a stream of educators Tweeting answers to a main theme question. The theme for this particular Sunday chat was “actionable feedback”. The really cool thing about that theme was that it tied in with the Kirkpatrick webinar on evaluation levels 3 and 4. I participated by sharing a great article on the topic and also by responding to the question. I learned so many new ideas about how to provide and collect actionable feedback.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #4 - #BFC530

Key Learnings: The question for this daily, 15-minute chat among teachers was how to keep students engaged in a world of distractions. This was a very brief “good morning session” to get educators ready for a new day in the classroom with some encouraging words and great ideas. I did not really learn much from this because there really was not time for much back and forth between participants. It was, however, a good way to kick off a new week.

Evidence:

Live, Real-Time Professional Development

Webinar #1: Using Student Response Systems: Creative Applications, Advanced Features and Tips for Getting Started

Key Learnings: This was a webinar event held by my company and it was hosted by one of our distinguished educators, Dr. Christopher Willey of the University of Surrey in the UK. The main topics were creative applications such as peer instruction and game-based learning. I learned that educators are able to use clickers technology to conduct think-pair-share type of activities in their classrooms. I also learned that game-based learning with clickers added a value to classes by increasing student engagement. The host, Dr Wiley teaches music education at the University of Surrey in the UK and he showed us how the use of clicker technology in his classes increased student interest as well as performance.

Evidence:

Webinar #2: Scenarios & Simulations: Bring Meaning to e-Learning

Key Learnings: This professional development webinar was hosted by Training Magazine and feature the speaker Ethan Edwards. I learned quite a bit from this webinar about the effectiveness of scenarios, simulations and games in e-learning. Edwards explained how simply delivering content over the web does not maximize understanding for the learner. He explained how scenarios and simulations engage, provide context, challenge and provide feedback to the learner.

Evidence:

Webinar #3: Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation: Do you REALLY Know the Four Levels?.

Key Learnings: This was my favorite and most relevant webinar. The Kirkpatrick Model for evaluation is the standard for educators and trainers. I learned an exceptional amount about setting goals for learners, providing them actionable feedback, and giving them the opportunity to provide ME with feedback on my training sessions and methods. The best part about this webinar was the ability to communicate with other training professionals about how the webinar concepts apply to real life. The webinar was also interactive and engaging with polling offered to participants prior to each section. That is something that I can add to my own webinars to make them more effective.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #1: #digcit

Key Learnings: This Twitter chat was not a fruitful one. It was supposed to be live from 7-8pm on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month. I “joined” the chat last night and found minimal tweeting and sharing. In fact, my two contributions (evidenced below) made up most of the chat. This was disappointing and a waste of my time. It was supposed to be a discussion on digital citizenship for educators. It appeared to be a place to advertise websites and other live Twitter chats.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #2: #SatChat

Key Learnings: This was a great chat to join. The topic was college readiness. It was a great learning experience to hear ideas from educators from across the country, grade levels and content areas. Although I am not a teacher, I work in higher education with college faculty from colleges and universities all over the world. It was helpful for me to gain understanding from k-12 teachers on how they are preparing their students for the next level. This insight increased my knowledge of where students are, in terms of readiness, when they get to college. I think this will help me prepare faculty members to use our audience response technology with these students who are new to college.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #3: #SunChat

Key Learnings: This Twitter chat was much like #SatChat. It was a stream of educators Tweeting answers to a main theme question. The theme for this particular Sunday chat was “actionable feedback”. The really cool thing about that theme was that it tied in with the Kirkpatrick webinar on evaluation levels 3 and 4. I participated by sharing a great article on the topic and also by responding to the question. I learned so many new ideas about how to provide and collect actionable feedback.

Evidence:

Twitter Chat #4 - #BFC530

Key Learnings: The question for this daily, 15-minute chat among teachers was how to keep students engaged in a world of distractions. This was a very brief “good morning session” to get educators ready for a new day in the classroom with some encouraging words and great ideas. I did not really learn much from this because there really was not time for much back and forth between participants. It was, however, a good way to kick off a new week.

Evidence: