Via Christine Martell at Blog Cascadia comes this learning framework from Ray Jimenez on choosing social media for learning. It's based on Ray's reading of Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research. Ray points out that the tendency in using social media for learning is to force creator status on everyone: The tendency in early adoptions of social networking in learning is the over emphasis on learners... Read more →

One of the first things you learn as a trainer is that you have to anchor new knowledge in previous knowledge. That is, for people to understand new concepts and develop new skills, you have to start with what they already know. I've been doing some thinking about how to help staff make connections between new media and the older tools they already know how to use. In a long... Read more →

Three months ago we started the Building a Better Blog Ning network. After three weeks I was still enamored with the community. Things were going well, we had a lot of new members. All was right with our little corner of the digital world. Then we hit a wall, which I blogged about a few weeks ago. Site activity was way down and we began struggling with ways to continue... Read more →

The other day I referenced an article on teaching the basics of Web 2.0 by using Facebook as the example. Last night my 15-year old was asking me about my Netvibes account and I was explaining that it was a way for me to be automatically updated when new information was added to my favorite blogs and news sources. "Oh--like the News Feed in Facebook," she said. Exactly. What also... Read more →

I've talked here many times about the difficulties in teaching people about the concepts and tools of Web 2.0. I've lamented how difficult it can be to help people understand RSS or wikis. The Common Craft videos have begun to fill that gap, certainly, but as Facebook becomes more and more mainstream, Aidan Henry points out that Facebook is Bringing Web 2.0 to Mainstream: Those who live in this (Web... Read more →

In a public service to Bamboo Project readers, via Amit Agarwal of Digital Inspiration, comes this 10-question McAfee quiz. Can you tell the fake websites from the real ones? What about the scams? Like Amit, I was a Tightrope Walker, scoring 7 out of 10, which according to McAfee suggests that I should be a little more careful in my web habits. This also means that I'm planning to download... Read more →

Via Neville Hobson, highlights from a new report from the Pew Charitable Trust, "A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users": 8% of Americans are deep users of the participatory Web and mobile applications Another 23% are heavy, pragmatic tech adopters – they use gadgets to keep up with social networks or be productive at work. 10% rely on mobile devices for voice, texting, or entertainment 10% use information gadgets,... Read more →

Robin Good has another great article today on Educating the Net Generation. Ironic, given my previous post on the digital divide. I completely agree that many in this new generation of kids are a different breed, with different approaches to learning and that schools need to learn to adapt their teaching protocols accordingly. But I also think that characterizing all learners as being this net savvy obscures the very real... Read more →

A few weeks ago I mentioned the idea of doing a 23 Things Remix for Learning Web 2.0 in Nonprofits. Well, in my "spare time," (ha!) I've started building a 23 Things Remixed Wiki to do this and I think I'm ready to "go public." A couple of comments: The primary audience would be nonprofit staff who have little or no exposure to Web 2.0 tools. Like the original 23... Read more →

Earlier I wrote about creating a climate of learning within your nonprofit and mentioned 23 Things, a series of mini lessons designed to help staff get comfortable with Web 2.0 and social media. This morning I noticed this article on 101 Great Blog Posting Ideas to Make Your Blog Sizzle in the nptech del.ico.us feed and it occurred to me that many of them would make great mini exercises for... Read more →