Social Media, Me, and the Way I Interact

Posted on November 16, 2009 by Tricia Ransom

So, I’ve been pretty immersed in Social Media, mainly Twitter, since this summer. At first I didn’t get it…no, not at all. It was too much – too much information, too many people, too much time. But after I learned how to control the flow of information, I got it. I’m addicted!

So, why am I writing a blog post about this? This weekend my husband and I met up with a new set of friends. He met Michelle on Flickr (here is her flickr site), and they had a lot in common, so the three of us met up in real-life. We hit it off and then over the weekend, we met up with her and her husband and had one of the most enjoyable afternoons I can remember having mainly because I already knew her through Twitter and Facebook and Flickr. Here is Michelle and her dog:

 Michelle and her dog

It appears I’m now more comfortable conducting my friendships over the computer rather than in real-life.  Why is that and when did it happen? I’m not too sure, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it allows me to maintain close friendships with a geographically diverse group of people. On the other hand, I’m never sure what my friends look like, unless they post a picture. Does anyone other than me find that odd? I like to physically place my friends when I’m talking with them on the phone – what room they’re in, what they’re wearing, are the contacts in/out, that type of thing. It makes me feel more like I’m there. I don’t get to do that now, and I haven’t really played around with Skype.

 My parents aren’t on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, or IM — just email — and I find it difficult to keep up. I’m constantly having to email conversations and photos and news to them. And when a friend tells me that they’re not on any of those sites, my first thought is “Well, heck. How do you expect me to keep in touch? Phone calls? With what time?” Maybe that’s why I like these so much – I can communicate with others on my terms and in my time. I don’t have to try to schedule a time when we’re both available and free from distractions. I can just put stuff out there, and my friends can respond if they choose to…or not. It feels empowering to me.

I’m still trying to get comfortable with the fact that I’m comfortable with this new technology. I guess that I’d thought that changing the entire way I communicate with people would be the result of a huge internal shift and debate. But instead, there was no debate, just a realization this morning that this is the way I prefer to talk. Will this last? Who knows.

By the way, here is a pic Michelle aka Loonachic took of me and hubby this weekend. 4104706716_6f621195bd_m

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Social Media

Posted on August 11, 2009 by Tricia Ransom

I’m writing a series of e-learning for my company on Social Media. More than any other training that I’ve created or written, this has really got me thinking. Where is this going?

I remember a few years ago when I first got into the L&D field that CBT (computer-based training) was becoming all the rage. Remember how we used to take pdf files and put them on a CD ROM and mail them out to users? But, this was revolutionary! For the first time in decades, there was a new way of learning – one that didn’t involve a human guiding your through your learning experience.

Just as we were starting to realize that for all of the apparent cost-savings of CBTs, the learning experience was terrible, along came WBT (web-based training), or e-learning. The internet was growing, and L&D was growing right along with it.

However, as we noticed with CBTs, a lot of WBT was really horrible learning experiences…we’d adapted to the flash and glitz of new technologies, but we hadn’t adapted our methodologies. Actually, now that I come to think of it, most ILT (instructor-led training) that I’ve been to has been pretty grim as well! Who doesn’t have the horror stories of the SME who “ums” their way through the session…or the person who just reads Powerpoint slide after slide to you with no further explanation!

So I guess the question is – are we going to take our bad habits of the past and move them into the future? Social Media, as I’ve learned, is here. It may not be here long, but it’s here, and there is no ignoring it. So how do we use it to make good training? Personally, my preference right now is to use it to extend the training experience — create communities of practice. Think of this — instead of using the Parking Lot for unanswered questions, can we Twitter them to the community to get an answer real-time? Rather than slaving over a how-to manual that is out-dated before the first class, can we have the learners use a wiki to build the training materials as they learn the material? And to update the material as changes happen? 

In corporate America, most learning happens over the cube wall — and Social Media is ideal for learning professionals to harness that informal learning and use it! Why should we re-create the wheel when it’s being passed over cube walls and through emails? 

I’m still in my learning stages of Social Media, but as work teams become more diverse and remote, we need ways to help them function as teams, learn as teams, and to interact with each other. And that is what Social Media gives us.

I’ll let you know how my Twitter and LinkedIn courses go, and if we even try for Facebook.

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Web 2.0 Technology and Training: Are They Compatible?

Posted on July 29, 2009 by Tricia Ransom

I’m writing a course on how to use LinkedIn for recruiting and sales, which means I’m spending a lot of time on LinkedIn. One of my most favorite parts of that website is the Answers section where people post questions, and the LinkedIn community answers. And that is what got my juices flowing for this post.

I’m enthralled by the use, or non-use, of web 2.0 and web 3.0 technologies and the training profession. I came across a question by Jaime Stone, a Director of Learning & Performance Solutions at Adayana. Jaime asked,

“What is the future of learning? Will emerging technologies change the face of our practice? Are you leveraging Web 2.0 and virtual technologies to reach your audience? If so, what have you learned?” click here to see the answers.

Are web 2.0 technology and training compatible? Ask 5 people in the field, and you’ll get 5 answers. First, let me begin by saying I don’t think stand-up facilitation is going anywhere. People are always hungry for face-to-face time with others. However, we have to be realistic and factor in the often prohibitive cost factors of instructor-led training (ILT). No longer are all the employees in one building, one city, or even in the same country — so travel (either the instructor or the participants), meeting space, printing, and a myriad of other incidentals add up.

Web 2.0 can help alleviate some of the costs associated with traditional ILT. And, done properly, web 2.0 can also help make training more interactive and more of a community or team project than the traditional web-based training (WBT) model of a person alone with a computer.

So why don’t we use web 2.0 more? I think that often we, as the training profession, are afraid to try out new technologies. Remember how long the acceptance of WBT took? We also have to contend with IT departments as well as security concerns and leadership. Each of these groups may have different agendas and concerns with using social media — overload on bandwith, confidential information being leaked, people playing rather than working. Sounds rather like the concern with email and instant messaging years ago, doesn’t it?

But the larger question, to my mind, is whether or not social media and training are compatible. Of course they are. And yet they’re not. No, I promise I’m not dodging the issue! I think the answer is, “it depends”.

Let me explain: Many people like to learn in a group, learn from others, and share what they are thinking. This is especially true of the millennials. When distance separates people in a class, social media is a wonderful opportunity for bringing people together.  Also, people are becoming more and more used to searching for information themselves. In fact, they have been trained to expect that the information they need is quickly available and accessible to them via computer. Social media is perfect for creating a community of knowledge that lets the information and thoughts and ideas of many to be shared, even real-time in the case of twitter. Finally, as training professionals, we have to admit that we don’t have the time to create, test, edit, schedule, and then push out courses. Changes happen too quickly — often information in courses is obsolete before the training occurs. Social media can allow the courses to be developed and taught as changes are happening, by the people who are actually doing the changing.

In other words, the training profession may have to undergo a fundamental shift in how we look at our role. I see us as no longer being the font of all wisdom and knowledge pushing courses out to the masses. Rather, I see us a managers of a constant stream and flow of information, helping it to stay true to its course, and factual, but not the dispensers of information.

There is a second part to how I see our new role, and it is also the reason why I think web 2.0 and training may not be compatible. We will have to become teachers of web 2.0. Whether or not we like it, understand it, or want the changes, they are happening. And it’s up to us to teach others about those changes. We need to educate our learners and leadership and sponsors on the benefits of web 2.0.

We also need to have a strategy in place for implementing social media training. As I’ve, and so many others, have learned, you can’t just create a blog or wiki and say, “we’re now using web 2.0!”.  We need to push people to use it, use the early adopters as role models, and encourage others to learn new ways of learning. We need to have a plan in place to make sure that wikis are updating with emerging knowledge, that blogs are posted to, that comments are moderated and encouraged.

It’s hard, but without that plan, web 2.0 is doomed to being associated with lackluster training just as WBTs have been for years.

I know this is a long post, but I think it can be summed up by this: all of us – L&D people, learners, leadership, everyone – need to learn a new way of learning, and we need to embrace it. Whether or not it’s web 2.0 or 3.0 or something that doesn’t exist yet, it’s coming. And we need to be open for it, and ready with a plan.

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Twitter – How do we use it for L&D?

Posted on July 9, 2009 by Tricia Ransom

Hello there,

I haven’t been posting as much as I would like. Actually, as you can see, it’s been over 6 months! Where does the time go?

One of the courses I’m developing for my job is on how recruiters can use Twitter effectively. In order to write it, I’m learning twitter. I must say, this is one of the hardest softwares I’ve had to learn. The mechanics are easy, but it’s the concept of it. Why would anyone be interested in what I have to say in 140 characters or less?

I’ve been promised that the more I play around with it, the easier it becomes. Although I’ve had an account for about a month, today was my first tweet, and it was agonizing! I couldn’t decide what to say. Eventually, I sent a shout out to twitter-land, and am going to promise myself to tweet about once a day. 

My husband, Jimmy, is using twitter to drive people to his flickr page of phototravel1. He follows a woman who works for the Chicago Tourism Board, and when she tweets one of his pictures of chicago, his hits on his flickr page go up over 500%!  I can see it working, and one of the recruiters in my office has successfully used twitter to help her staff a project overnight.  

So here is my question that I’m struggling with. How do we use twitter for L&D? As a sort of micro-wiki for support within an organization? To tell people about new learning offerings? To push people towards areas, sites, blogs, and articles that have the information they need?

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The Economy Hits Home

Posted on December 12, 2008 by Tricia Ransom

So by now, most of us know that the economy isn’t doing as well as we would like. I know that intellectually, but now it’s really beginning to hit home. My husband’s son lost his job, and now two people from my department have lost their jobs too. So, I guess the question I need to answer is “how do I feel about this?”

You know, I thought I would be a lot more anxious and stressed-out. I mean, there there is a good chance that I could lose my job within the next year too. But I’m not. I know that I have good qualifications, and I know that I am good at what I do. I also know that I have options. If I lose this job and

Interestingly enough, I just ran across this article in McKinsey Quartlery: Upgrading talent: A downturn can give companies a chance to upgrade their talent.  Be aware that you need to register, but that it’s free. In summary, the article states:

Cost cutting during a downturn is often necessary to ensure a company’s current profitability and future competitiveness. Rather than freezing all hiring and employee-development programs, companies should use this period as an opportunity to upgrade talent and better engage existing staff. This means reinvesting a percentage of the capital liberated from cost cutting into, for example, selective recruiting and development programs and in efforts to safeguard the culture and to redesign jobs so that they are more engaging to the remaining employees.

And this is exactly the approach that I think we need to follow more often.

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