A Fourth Grader Wikipedia Update

I just wanted to relate something that I think shows the power of a Wiki in general and Wikipedia particularly.

My son, in 4th grade here in California, was assigned a research report on the California Gold Rush and decided to focus his report on the different routes taken by the 49ers. He used a variety of different resources and particularly used the California Gold Rush Historic Maps from the David Rumsey Map Collection. There is one map in particular that has an incredible description written in 1849 of the different routes: Map of the Gold Regions of California, Showing the Routes via Chagres and Panama, Cape Horn, &c. If you are into maps, this is a fun one to drill down on to see the description.

Of course, my son read the Wikipedia California Gold Rush page (it comes up first in Google). It had a paragraph on the routes, but it didn't include the route through Mexico. It did point us to a detailed article on the California Trail. Because it was rather limited about the routes, my son added a sentence about the route through Mexico and added the Map to the Wikimedia Commons and added the map to the article and added a link to the collection of maps on the topic.

Now 4th graders doing the same project will be able to find that same wonderful primary source.

It's actually somewhat rare that a 4th grader has a primary source like the map, so it's quite a nice little legacy to leave behind. Actually, I don't remember having anything as cool as that to study when I was in school. It's quite remarkable when I think about it.

And it shows the beauty of a Wiki and Wikipedia.

Blogging - I'm Pushing Harder Now

For people reading my blog for a while, if you had been at my recent ASTD presentation on eLearning 2.0 - you would have heard a much stronger appeal for learning professionals to blog as compared to a gentler push that I was giving last fall. When I asked The Big Question for October: Should All Learning Professionals Be Blogging? and then posted some of my thoughts in Should All Learning Professionals be Blogging? while I suggested that YOU should, I didn't push. In my summary of the responses to the Big Question - Top Ten Reasons To Blog and Top Ten Not to Blog - I again didn't push all that hard, though there is an obvious bias.

The reason that I find myself pushing harder is that I believe the evidence is mounting that it's an incredible personal learning practice.

Take a look at what Janet Clarey had to say after her first 100 days - Debriefing myself…a noob’s experience after 100-ish days of blogging:

There is a palpable difference between reading/lurking and writing that I had not fully anticipated. The difference is in the learning experience. If I were to return to a corporate training job I would blog and get others blogging. Culture be damned!

Personal Work and Learning Environments (PWLE) - More Discussion

I've run across a few different posts talking about Personal Work and Learning Environments which I have tentatively started to call PWLE - pronounced p-whale.

Tom Haskins in PLEs are power tools and Cammy Bean in Be the Node tell us:

So all the talk about tools and maps has struck me as odd. How do we quantify or control something that is so unique to each of us? For me, I add -- why bother? Just do it.

The reason why I think it's worth us talking about tools and maps and basically what is your PWLE (p-whale) is that it's helpful for us to figure out how to support our own personal work and learning. This is much like all the discussion around personal productivity tools, but in this case it is more focused on research oriented work that requires learning as a component of the activity.

Michelle Martin has a wonderful post - The Psychology and Skills of Personal Learning Environments and it's definitely worth looking at some of her earlier posts on the topic that you can find through the link. Michelle also expresses concern around the focus on tools:

What I've noticed in the conversation about PLEs is that there's a lot going on around trying to get a handle on the tools for personal learning and how we use them. There's a great deal of discussion about whether or not a PLE should be a single tool or a collection of tools loosely joined.

And points us back to Stephen Downes and the skills that we need to learn to be successful in this new world. That's a great point by Michelle and a fantastic list by Stephen:

Here he talks about the skills that we should be learning for success in this new world in which we live:

• Predicting consequences
• Reading for deep understanding
• Distinguishing truth from fiction
• Empathy
• Creativity
• Communicating clearly
• Learning how to learn
• Healthy Living (which isn't fear and anxiety-based)
• Valuing Yourself
• Living meaningfully--as in having a purpose in life.

But I think we need to add to this discussion more around the specific kinds of actions that we take as individuals on different types of tasks and how this relates to our PWLE (p-Whale).

We can use a models from the PKM world like the PKM skills from Steve Barth:

• retrieving information
• evaluating/assessing information
• organizing information
• analyzing information
• presenting information
• securing information
• collaborating around information

Or something more along the lines of Jeremy Hiebert's:

• Collecting
• Reflecting
• Connecting
• Publishing

I believe there's quite a bit of commonality among the kinds of tasks we deal with (at an abstract level) and we need to help each other figure out how we can effectively and efficiently work through these tasks as individuals, as work teams, as part of a larger ecosystem. This is talked about a bit in Personal and Group Learning Using Web 2.0 Tools - which is something I often refer to during presentations.

Bottom line for me - the discussion of process, tools, skills is very helpful and the more specific people can be, the better. I also am finding myself ever more convinced that we are discussing basically the same thing being discussed in PKM circles and even some overlap with productivity. I'm not quite happy yet with PWLE (p-Whale) as a unifying term - but I prefer it to either PLE or PKM because both of those seem to be taken; somewhat limited in their scope and also seem to imply separation from day-to-day work. One key here is Knowledge Work is Not Separate from Learning.

Tips on Developing a Wiki Community

Found via Stephen Downes - Tips On Developing A Wiki Community.

E-learning 2.0: Fact, Fad or Fiction?

Found via Donald Clark's Images, Crowds, Cognitive Bias, eLearning 2.0, & Networks - E-learning 2.0: Fact, Fad or Fiction?

I've not had time to read through this nor give any thought to it. But what I found ironic was the suggestion at the bottom of the article to send an email with your thoughts. How 1.0? I hope the rest of the article is better than that.

eLearing 2.0 - Great Response and Some Feedback

I did my eLearning 2.0 presentation at ASTD 2007. There were over 200 people and it was standing room only. Someone told me that lots of folks couldn't get in. Lots of good energy in the room. The audience was about half very new people to training and eLearning and the rest had varying levels of experience. Most of the audience wasn’t familiar with social bookmarking. About half were familiar with blogs and Wikis, but very few had any experience.

By in large feedback was VERY positive which is gratifying. I took suggestions from the LCB Big Question - PowerPoint: What is Appropriate? When and Why? and PowerPoint More Questions to heart and tried to improve my presentation.

Some of the positive feedback was:

Tony should be a KEYNOTE SPEAKER

and they did write it with all caps. And

Best info I have ever heard!

Those are maybe a bit over the top, but there was certainly quite a bit of positive feedback among the participants. And there was clear energy in the room. But also some strong skeptics. Which, if you believe Seth Godin, means you likely are doing something right.

But there was also quite a bit of constructive criticism too, which is always what I spend my time on. I try to digest it and figure out what I can/should do different going forward.

1. Tried to Cover too Much

Many people said that I tried to cover too much and didn’t get enough into how/where/when to apply eLearning 2.0 approaches. That’s a completely valid criticism. In 75 minutes, it was impossible to both introduce the tools to people who are not familiar with them and discuss in any depth where they apply. One really good suggestion was to break it up into two sessions:

• eLearning 2.0 Introduction
• eLearning 2.0 Applications

I did something along these lines (two presentations) at ASTD TechKnowledge 2007, but many people came to the Applications presentation without having attended the 101 presentation. I would love to know that everyone coming into the Applications session know the content covered in the Introduction session.

I’m excited about doing an eLearning 2.0 Applications Session. I’m thinking about structuring it around three levels of application:

• Individual - You
• Work Group – Your Team
• Organization – Your Job

I’m going to be working on this: figuring out great examples that are highly relevant; maybe looking for a co-presenter; searching for sources.

At the same time, I’m going to struggle with what is best to present in 60 or 75 minutes. I think there’s a fantastic keynote presentation in there about the eLearning 2.0 Revolution – but it can’t get into a lot of the detail that I also love. I think there’s a couple other 60 or 75 minute presentations that will have slightly different focus. Go through the tools faster. It’s hard. I’m still going to have to work on this.

2. More time for Discussion / Questions

Some of the questions in the feedback –

• What about intellectual property rights?
• Any issues w/ content quality?
• You didn't get back to implications in education.
  

3. Handouts

The conference hadn’t printed enough handouts. At the start of my session I told everyone that I would be happy to email them a copy and that I had made some changes and if they wanted those changes, just drop me a card and I would email them. And I will.

In the feedback, many people complained about running out. They also complained about the changes. The changes were relatively small – I still kept all the same links – the outline didn’t change. Still many complaints came in about that.

4. Speaking Style

I speak very fast. Some people are okay with that style, but international audience members had a hard time following me. I hadn’t considered that 20% of the audience would be international. Of course, that’s going to be a big conflict with my issues of time.

Other issues of speaking style:

• Remember to repeat all questions.
• Waved pointer too fast
  

I want to thank everyone who spent time giving feedback. There were a lot of evaluations. And those who spent the time to write down a thought or two – positive or constructive is greatly appreciated.

Of course, what would be even more gratifying is to see comments and blog posts from people in the room. Did anything actually happen at the end of the discussion? Out of ASTD TK 2007 and the eLearningGuild, I know at least a few people have taken my presentation to heart. Let's see if that's true with ASTD.

Just saw this - ASTD Internation 2007 - Sunday, June 3rd 2007
and this - Here at ASTD...first session reviews...Ruth Clark and Tony Karrer...
and this - eLearning 2.0
and - eLearning 2.0

Cool that these came up so fast.

Off to ASTD in Atlanta

I'm heading out to ASTD in Atlanta tomorrow after I do a keynote tomorrow morning here in Los Angeles for the ASTD eLearning Bootcamp. I hope if you read this and you are going to either one, you will introduce yourself.