The Bamboo Project Blog

Borrowing from the Library to Support Workplace Learning

Joyce Valenza is a librarian rockstar who also happens to be the head librarian at my daughter's high school. A recent post she wrote for the School Library Journal on strategies for teaching and using social media showed up in my Twitter feed the other day. It turns out there are were some cool ideas in it that I think would translate well to workplace learning. A couple of that jumped out at me. . .

Moving Beyond One Trick Single Search

Students aren't the only ones who need to use search engines to get their work done. Most cubicle dwellers these days need to sharpen their search skills and Joyce has some good advice and resources. Check out her Categorized Search Toolkit with links to tons of search engines and videos on running searches. (Here's another great list of search resources and an excellent post from Tony Karrer on doing better searches. And here are some Google lesson plans on search to check out).

Also don't miss Google Wonder Wheel. It's a search option that allows you to  display Google search results in a mind-mapped sort of visualization that makes it easier to see relationships and drill down into related terms. Very cool, but you may need to check it out to see what I mean. (For more visual search engines, check out this post on 4 options)

Joyce also describes some of the strategies she uses to support her learners' search efforts that I think translate well to the workplace. For example, she sets up Google Customized searches to query targeted sites and address specific needs.This could be set up  to search key best practice resources or for social searches of Twitter, blogs, and other resources related to company or occupational keywords.

While we're on the subject of search, she also teaches students about some people-finder search engines to assess and possibly address their digital footprint and online "personal brand." This is something many workers need to learn how to do and should be part of any organization's orientation training, I'd argue.

Personal Information Portals

I firmly believe that one of our developing roles in the learning world is that of digital curator. There is just so much information and people need help in identifying good sources and pulling it all together, something librarians do very well.

Joyce helps students develop "personal information portals" using tools like iGoogle PageFlakes and NetVibes. These are simply feed aggregators that can be customized to include RSS feeds to blogs, news feeds, videos, etc. related to particular topics. I think of them as "dashboards" for collecting information on a particular area of interest into a single page that is automatically updated.

In the work world, this means that we can create customized pages with RSS feeds related to any topics we want. Picture, for example,  a "leadership" information portal with the feeds for key leadership blogs and resources embedded into the page. Or a "management" portal that includes great supervisory/management feeds. These can be shared with others via email, IM, etc. Here's an example of a UK Hospital Management Page--note that there are tabs for different departments. And here's another example for university staff to keep up-to-date on leadership issues. Note that these can be just one page in a larger personal information portal that workers could set up for themselves.

Related to this idea, I've been using Delicious to support many of my clients, setting up tags for various projects and continuing to add to the resources even after my work has finished. It takes me less than a second to add the project tag and is a great way for me to continue to add value and support learning long after I've gone. And for those who use PageFlakes, Netvibes or iGoogle, subscribing to the Delicious tag feed puts these resources right into their own personal information portal.

Telling Digital Stories

Increasingly we are seeing that digital story-telling is a powerful strategy for learning. As instructional designers we can use stories to illustrate key points, especially in designing e-learning. Storytelling is also a good way for learners to process and reflect on learning, particularly in support of reflective practice and communities of practice. Stories also help us to remember things. Joyce has a nice library of digital story-telling resources that could be used in a work setting. Alec Couros also has some resources that he got from his Twitter network.

Wikify Your Handouts

This is a strategy that I've been using for most of the courses and workshops I do--putting all of my "handouts" into a wiki. Actually, my wiki IS the handout. It's the easiest way for me to share links, videos, photos, documents, etc. related to my topic. I don't waste paper and people can keep adding to it after we're done. I can also embed the Delicious tags that I set up for the training and continue to add after the learning event is finished.

Joyce does a version of this with the subject area pathfinders she's set up for students to explore different topics. Here's one I did recently to support a project on implementing social media to support a youth project. 

Many other interesting ideas in Joyce's article that could potentially be adapted for your situations. I strongly encourage giving it a read.

An Introduction to Netvibes: Alex Miller's Screencast

If you've been around the Bamboo Project for long, you know that I'm a BIG fan of Netvibes. It's the backbone of my personal learning environment and I also see a lot of other uses for it, both personally and professionally. It's easy to use, has a great interface, and is much more than simply an RSS feed reader.

But reading about it is never as good as seeing it. Which is why I'm happy to share with you Alex Miller's quick screencast on Netvibes. It shows you the basics, including how easy it is to add a feed, the tabs feature of which I'm so fond, and how you can share tabs with others. She recorded it using Jing, which I've been hearing a lot about lately, but haven't had a chance to try. If you've been considering Netvibes at all, I highly encourage you to check out Alex's screencast. It's an excellent use of the next three minutes!

The Rise of the Do-It-Yourself Portal

In the past few days, I've found a number of new portals online. I'm starting to wonder if we can't learn a thing or two from what's happening.

First, via Eisenblog, came Open Learn University's portal, created by Stuart Brown in Netvibes to support OU students and instructors.

Then I find Crimson Connect, the student-run Harvard University portal, developed in the wake of student dissatisfaction with Harvard's "Official" website. (Take note--if you don't create a useful website for your organization, someone else might take matters into their own hands).

And finally, last night I see that Impactiviti has launched a Training Bloggers portal using Pageflakes, featuring feeds from some of the best bloggers in the training and development space. This on the heels of two other portals they've created--Pharmacentral for the pharmaceutical industry and the Marketing Bloggers portal for marketers.

So why should we care?

First, take a quick look around each portal. Harvard's includes access to email and Facebook, shuttle schedules, Boston weather, feeds to student clubs, athletic events and activities, the library--even dining hall menus. Open Learn University's portal has video lesson feeds, feeds to each of their departments, and a keyword search of their content. The Training Bloggers portal includes feeds to several different categories of T&D blogs, pre-selected for quality.

Think about how these types of portals could be used in the nonprofit world:

• Create a "cause-related" portal that includes feeds to related blogs, audio, video, etc., as well as a calendar of events, etc. I've written about this before and I'm really seeing the possibilities now.

• Create portals to support better conferencing. A few weeks ago, I was thinking about how to improve the conference experience. Portals are another option. Imagine sending an email out to all conference participants with a Netvibes or Pageflakes portal link that includes feeds to weather, newspapers, events, etc. in the location where you'll be holding the conference. It could also include a calendar of events and feeds to the wiki pages I suggested that you use to develop the conference agenda and get the conversation started. It could also include access to MySpace and Facebook modules, audio and video feeds on related content, email, etc. This can also become a way to follow-up on a conference, by adding feeds to those bloggers who are blogging the conference.
  

• Create an organizational portal for staff and volunteers and make it the start page for staff so that they can be updated daily on what's happening in the organization.

Putting together a portal is really not that difficult. It's a matter of finding the content you want to include,  setting up the tabs in Pageflakes and/or  Netvibes and then sharing them with the world.

You can see how other people are already doing it. Tony Hirst blogs here about how he created the predecessor to the Open Learn University portal.  PC World  has an article about creating a Netvibes portal or you can check out this screencast that will give you the basic elements of setting up and configuring an account and using tabsharing. If you're interested in Pageflakes, then this tutorial can help get you started.

The tools are there. Many people are already using them. It's just a matter of us figuring out how to use them on an organizational scale to create value for various stakeholders. As I watch what other people are doing with these tools, I can't help but feel that we may be missing something big if we don't act soon.

Making the Most of Netvibes for Learning, Advocacy, Marketing and Customer Service

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 I start describing some of the ways I think it could be used. If you have no idea what Netvibes is, then read about that first so that the rest of this makes some sense.

What is Netvibes?
Netvibes is a personalized start page. On it, you can include RSS feeds, bookmarks, calendars, to do lists, "sticky notes," email, etc. It's similar to  Yahoo or Google start pages, but to my mind is much more versatile. There are a ton of modules you can put on your pages, you can organize and color-code your materials and most importantly, you can create customized tabs.

This is what a Netvibes start page looks like

• 

A few key features I want to highlight.

Tabs
As I've said, Netvibes allows you to create tabs. They're similar to file folders that you might have on your desktop. Like a file folder, you can name each tab anything you want. Which means that depending on your preferences you could have tabs that correspond to:

• Topic areas that interest you
• Work vs. personal items
• Projects that you're working on
• Different job functions
• Advocacy areas for your organization
• Events

Modules and Resources for Each Tab
Within each tab you can include:

• RSS Feeds--virtually anything is available via RSS. You can subscribe to newspapers and magazines, blogs, Google Alerts, de.licio.us and Technorati tags, updates to wikis, videos, podcasts, Flickr photos, To Do lists (like "Remember the Milk"). Just about any online resource you can imagine is available through RSS.

• URLs--depending on how you're using your tabs, you can have URLs to project sites, commonly used sites, documents, etc.

• "Sticky Notes"--With the "Web Notes" feature, you can create a digital Post-It note to stick anywhere in your Netvibes. This means you can "jot down" ideas and reminders and include them in your tabs.
  

• Access to email and social networking, including IM, Meebo, MySpace, Facebook

• Calendars

• Maps and weather

You also have the ability to color code items within each tab and to add a variety of other modules created by users.

Tab Sharing
What really got me thinking about the possibilities of Netvibes was the fact that they now offer tab sharing. This means that I could create a tab that corresponds to a particular project, event, learning area, advocacy area, etc. Then I can load it up with related RSS feeds, URLs, videos, podcasts, "to do lists," notes, etc. After I've created my customized tab, I can put the code on my blog or website for others to copy. Or I can share it via email or chat.  With tab sharing, I can make life a whole lot easier for a lot of people because I've done the work for them. I've gathered relevant links and resources and put them into a module that they can easily add to their workspace, integrating it into an existing tool.

Right now, there are more than 3,500 tabs developed by other Netvibes users available for sharing, so you could certainly start there. But what interests me is how we could set up tabs customized for our own organizations, learning, etc. and then share them with others.

So some possibilities . . . .

Getting a New Hire Up to Speed
Picture this. You've been hired to start a new job at an environmental advocacy group. Before you start your job,  your manager asks you to set up a Netvibes account (if you don't already have one). You set up your account and check your email where you see that your manager has sent you an Orientation tab. This tab includes links to your organization's wiki where the new hire paperwork has been stored for you to download and complete. There's also a link to the organization's Ning social network that you can visit to set up your profile (including a photo) and then "meet" your co-workers before you start.   It also has a link to a welcome video from the organization's Executive Director, and there's a sticky note embedded in the tab that lists a few things you should bring on your first day, as well as contact information for your manager should you have any questions. Pretty cool, huh?

For Staff Training and Development and Project Management
I see a few of possibilities for this one.

• Staff could set up tabs based on their interest areas that include links to the best blogs and resources, tools, etc. Staff would be encouraged to make copies of these "learning modules" that they've created. These could then be stored in a central repository (a wiki?) and be available for co-workers to download when they wanted to explore a topic. Staff could start with a sort of "master template" of resources that are particular to their job function, organization, areas of interest, etc. and then customize from there. If they customized the tab, they could add their version to the repository. When they're finished with it, they could delete the tab from Netvibes.
  

• Training staff could also set up tabs based on needs identified either by staff or their managers. The tab could include links to training materials, instructional videos, etc. Again, it could be maintained in a central location as its own learning module. It could also be emailed as needed.

• If we wanted to get really daring, we could share tabs between organizations so that access to the modules would be expanded.

• Another option--set up a tab for each project you have going on. Include a To-Do list, a calendar, links to resources. Send it to your staff who can then add items to it as they work on the project and be able to update themselves in one location.

For Advocacy/Marketing
A few things that occurred to me:

• Create a netvibes tab related to particular advocacy topics--global warming, homelessness, whatever. These tabs could include things like feeds to tagged articles, links to research, and a "To Do" list of items the user can do to move advocacy forward. It could also include links to an advocacy guide, to Flickr photos, to a video on a topic related to your advocacy area, to your organization's blog or website--the list is pretty wide open. Then make the tab available on your site for download. Or email it to new people on your mailing list as a free service.

• Do the same thing for a particular event. Create a tab. Include links to registration materials, Flickr photos you've tagged, your blog, etc. Create a "To Do" list of things the person should do to prepare for the event. Include a map and a weather forecast feed (if it's an outside event). Make it available to people who are interested. Keep updating information and they'll be able to use the tab before the event to get prepared and after the event for you to share follow-up info.

Services to Customers
I think there are a lot of possibilities here, too. You just need to think about what kinds of tools, services and information your target customers might like to access in one location and then create a customized tab with those options. For example:

• For those organizations that help people find employment, you can set up Netvibes to support job searches in different occupational areas. Create tabs with feeds from various job search sites, links to video on how to interview and to sites on how to write a resume, etc. I wrote previously about this idea here.
  

• If you're an association, then create a tab that is useful for association members with links, feeds, etc. not only to your resources, but to other information and resources that association members might find helpful.

I know that there are other ways to provide this information and resources to people. What sparked my imagination here was the ability to customize a tool that other people are already using, rather than doing something that's completely separate from their current processes. Even if a person had to sign up for Netvibes specifically to access your tab, they're still doing so through a tool that they can use for other purposes. To me, it's like giving someone an addition to their Swiss Army knife, rather than expecting them to grab a new tool each time they have a new task.  I think it makes it much more likely they will use the tool.

As always, feedback welcome.

UPDATE--To see how this kind of tab sharing could work, check out my post on nonprofit management resources. I created a Netvibes tab to go with it that you can access at the bottom of the post.