I've been playing a lot lately with Netvibes. The more I play, the more possibilities I see for learning, advocacy, marketing and customer service. The ability to create and share tabs is what really got me excited. It means that you can essentially put together a customized dashboard of information and materials and then share that with other people. If you know how Netvibes works, then scroll down to where... Read more →

I'm working through the concepts and implications of ePortfolios for both learning and career/professional development. Some questions and thoughts that are emerging for me. . . (note--this is very raw) Purpose ePortfolios can serve a number of purposes. They can be used as a record of learning, for job searching, for personal and professional development, as a way to manage your online identity. Many of the issues below are influenced... Read more →

Via Doing Well by Doing Good comes a great video in which Seventh Generation CEO Jeffrey Hollender asks a question that all nonprofits should be asking themselves: "How can we expect an organization to reach its full potential if we aren't ensuring that our staff are reaching their full potential?" That's a really profound question, I think, especially for organizations that are built upon the knowledge and skills of their... Read more →

A few days ago, I posted about my personal learning environment and how I'm using a variety of web-based tools to manage my own learning. Since then, I've been doing a lot of thinking about the whole concept of personal learning and how that relates to "staff training and development," what I consider to be more institutionally-driven training. In addition, thanks to a mention in Stephen Downe's excellent OLDaily, a... Read more →

Awhile ago, Allan Benamer of the Nonprofit Tech Blog talked about nonprofit staff as knowledge workers and how technology and work processes need to support staff whose value comes primarily from their ability to make effective use of knowledge and information in working with customers. If we're to fully capitalize on the promise of a knowledge network, then staff need to have the tools, resources and supports necessary to truly... Read more →

I wanted to share with you a project I've been working on demonstrating how to use RSS and Wikis to support a job search. Whether you're a nonprofit staff person who wants to use these tips for yourself or you're a nonprofit that helps other people in their job search, this could be a good resource for you. I think it could be particularly helpful if you work with clients... Read more →

Kathy has an interesting post on why the U.S. is falling behind in preparing math and science workers for the future. Her point is that the educational system we've set up doesn't teach people the skills that they actually use as mathematicians, scientists and engineers. There's a focus on a rote/drill and kill, problem-solving by recipe approach that has nothing to do with the kinds of right-brained, holistic, design and... Read more →

While reading through Dan's site, I came across a link to Chillcasting, which bills itself as "downloadable solutions for stress." Basically, for a very reasonable price, the site sells mp3 files that you can download to your computer, i-Pod or mp3 player. So when you're feeling stressed, for $6, you can listen to one of several recordings guaranteed to activate your relaxation response. What struck me about this was the... Read more →

I do a lot of work with youth employment and training programs. One of my major clients is Job Corps, which operates mostly residential training programs for economically disadvantaged youth all over the country. I've also helped design U.S. DOL-sponsored youth training programs in local areas working with smaller, community-based organizations. In the years that I've been working with youth programs, I have been consistently saddened by the lack of... Read more →