For this week's Web 2.0 Wednesday activity, we're going to tie in with our ongoing series on using blogs for learning.
Your task is simple--share your favorite blogging for learning activity. You can do so in comments here or write your own blog post to share. If you blog about it, be sure to use the "web2.0wednesday" tag and then leave me a link here in comments.
Looking forward to seeing what you have to share. . .
Maybe it's the economy. Maybe it's the nasty turn the American Presidential campaign is taking. Maybe it's that I'm feeling a little stressed out from the different projects I have going on right now. All I know is that I think we could all use a little love this week, so here's your project for Web 2.0 Wednesday (a day early, unless you're "down under").
Do a Digital Favor for Someone
Yes, I know, it might be better to do a something nice in "real life" , but since this is weekly activity is all about social media, we're going to do something digital. Here are a couple of ideas to get you started:
The list could go on, but I'm sure you guys are more creative than I am. Feel free to do more than one thing, too.
If you blog about it, be sure to tag it with web2.0wednesday. And if you'd like, leave me a comment here--I'd love to hear about what you do.
This could be fun. Let's spread the love and let's spread it all week, not just on Wednesday. Now go forth and be a good digital citizen.
Over on the Work Literacy: Web 2.0 for Learning Professionals Ning where we're on day three of the course, one of the more active forum discussions has been on getting value out of LinkedIn.
Fortunately for us, Tony Karrer is a whiz at using LinkedIn to find expertise and he's recorded a couple of excellent screencasts to show the rest of us how it's done.
For this week's Web 2.0 Wednesday activity, we're going to use what Tony's been showing us to search for expertise. All of us have something we need or want to learn more about and Tony's strategies offer some great ways to do this.
If you do the exercise, please let me know, either in comments or by blogging about it and tagging it with "web2.0wednesday" and "workliteracy." This is one of those knowledge worker skills we all need to develop, so I'll be curious to see how it goes.
One of the newest things on the learning landscape, I've noticed, is the use of comics. Dan Pink's career guide, "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko," is one example, and I've also seen some comics designed to teach you things like physics and chemistry. With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to devote this week's Web 2.0 Wednesday to making a comic.
You can use any topic you like, although something related to learning would be nice. If you have artistic skills, you can blow us away by actually drawing your comic and then scanning it for the rest of us. However to get the full Web 2.0 experience, try one of these comic generators:
Note--I haven't tried any of these out, so can't vouch for which is easier, etc.
As usual, when you post to your blog, be sure to tag it with "web2.0wednesday." Also feel free to drop your link in comments.
For this week's Web 2.0 Wednesday activity, I'm turning to an interesting post by Steve Woodruff, where he says:
People often question if they “need” a personal brand. Here’s the news - you already HAVE a personal brand. The only questions are, what is it? And are you projecting it effectively?
When people see you, think of you, and relate to you, words and images and feelings come to mind. That is your personal brand. If people who know you think “friendly,” “diligent,” “kind,” when they see you and talk about you, you are well on your way to possessing a positive personal brand. Of course, you can easily see the flip side of this as well…
So, you have a brand. Do you know what it is? What distinguishes you from the teeming hoards of humanity? What are you known for?
This suggests, accurately, I think, that our brands are not necessarily made, as much as uncovered. That is, we're already creating a brand by how we behave, what we write about online, etc., so the question is, what brand are we projecting? And if it's not the brand we want to sell, then what do we need to do about it?
Here's how we're going to turn this into a Web 2.0 activity. There are a few possibilities for you to pursue:
No matter which method you choose (or come up with one of your own ideas), be sure to leave me a link in comments when you post. Also tag it with "web2.0wednesday." Have fun with this!
One of the beauties of Web 2.0 is that it gives you opportunities for online interaction on a 24/7 basis. That's also one of its curses. The combination of broadband and interactive tools like Facebook, Twitter and blogs means that many of us are spending a LOT of time socializing and doing things online.
For this week's Web 2.0 Wednesday activity, I'd like to us do some reflecting. Here's the assignment:
Either in a blog post or in comments here, tell us how you manage your time online.
- Are you a multi-tasker or do you try to stay focused on one activity at a time?
- Do you use particular tools or techniques to keep yourself focused and on task? What are they?
- What kinds of challenges are you facing in managing all of your Web 2.0 tools and toys? Have you found that you're sacrificing other parts of your life for your Web 2.0 fun? Is this a good or a bad thing?
As always, tag your post with "web2.0wednesday."
For myself, I can tell you that right now I'm looking for some ways to get out of my multi-tasking mode. This just doesn't work that well for me, but being online somehow draws me into it. It's like when my kids were little and they couldn't go to sleep because they were always afraid they'd miss something. But you know what, sometimes you need the rest. So one of my goals is to do a better job of managing that. I may have to go on the low information diet. I'm also considering disabling my wireless connection for periods of time so that I can't go online so easily.
I'm curious to hear what you have to say about all of this. How are you managing your time online? Am I the only one who is going into overload lately?
Starting in September, I'll be working as lead instructor for the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington's Future Executive Directors' Fellowship program. We'll meet once a month for some intensive face-to-face sessions, but we'll be facilitating our learning in between classes through a special Ning network we've set up. This has me thinking about online icebreakers, so I thought that would make a great Web 2.0 Wednesday activity for the week. Here it is:
Come up with an online icebreaker that uses one or more Web 2.0 tools.
I'm thinking, for example, that I could have people upload a picture to the Ning network that they think best represents them. This is also something that could be uploaded to a group in Flickr.
Or I could have the group write a blog post about themselves (also through Ning), but if you weren't using Ning, you could have people post an intro to your blog through comments or through Posterous. You could also have people respond to one of these icebreaker questions. In my case, I could do this through a Ning forum, but it could also be done through a blog or wiki.
Icebreakers are something we can use for a class, as I'll be doing, but also to build community through our blogs. I could see, for example, adapting one or more of the online icebreaker activities here as periodic blog posts or as memes.
Lots of ways to use icebreakers, so let's see what you come up with. Feel free to leave a link to your activity here in comments. Also remember to save it to Delicious with "web2.0wednesday" tag so it will show up in our feed.
A couple of additional updates. . . .
Winner of the Web 2.0 Wednesday Logo Contest
As you can see, it looks like reader Dan Callahan won the Web 2.0 Wednesday logo contest. Congratulations, Dan, and thanks to everyone who contributed a logo to the contest!
More on Polls from Sue Waters
Last week's activity invited you to play around with polls. Sue Waters did a couple of great follow-up posts you may want to check out, including this one on why and how bloggers use polls and this one on dealing with polls in RSS feeds.
For this week's Web 2.0 Wednesday, we're going to have a little fun with polls, which thanks to the joys of advanced technology, can be embedded in just about anything. You're actually going to have two opportunities to play with polls--first by participating in one and second, by creating one of your own. Of course, as always, what you choose to do is up to you.
Participate in a Poll!
Last week I asked for you to play with some online graphic and logo generator options to create a Web 2.0 Wednesday logo. We had several entries, so I set up a wiki page that includes all of them, along with a poll for you to vote for your favorite. So your first task is to go to the wiki and place your vote:
As Web 2.0 Wednesday activities go, it doesn't get much easier than this, so please be sure to cast your vote!
Create Your Own Poll
If you're feeling like you want to delve into something a little more advanced, why not create your own poll? Two tools I've used are Poll Daddy (which I used for the logo contest) and Vizu. Both work well for simple polls and are easy to embed into a blog or wiki. If you have other suggestions, feel free to post them in comments.
As for what you want to ask in your poll-that's up to you. I've found that people tend to respond better to fun kinds of questions or to topical issues that seem to be making the rounds. And if you're looking for some general how-to's on online polling, this tip sheet (PDF) has some decent info.
That's it for this week. Don't forget to vote for your favorite logo and if you end up creating a poll, leave me a link in comments for it.
I admit that this week's activity is a little selfish, but hey, sometimes that's how I roll.
Here's the deal. I'd love to have a logo we can use for Web 2.0 Wednesday activities, so I'm thinking that crowdsourcing is a good idea. And here's how we can tie it into Web 2.0 Wednesday:
Of course, if you have other Web 2.0 tools you want to use to come up with a logo, then feel free to use them.
Once you have the logo, send it my way. Ideally I'm hoping for several contributions and then we can do a poll to see which one people prefer. Of course, if we don't get any entries, then I guess we'll be logo-less for awhile longer. :-)
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!
On Monday, I blogged about some potential tools for "on-the-road" learning, which I'm defining as learning that takes place away from your desk.
For this week's Web 2.0 Wednesday task, I'm going to build off that post and ask you to use a Web 2.0 tool to share some "on-the-road" learning. Some potential ideas:
I'm sure you'll come up with even more creative options than I've thought of here. These are just to get you started.
If you've been wanting to participate in Web 2.0 Wednesday, but don't have a blog of your own, this might be a good time for you to take the plunge using Posterous. Here's how:
If you post on your blog about this activity, be sure to tag with with "web2.0wednesday." You can also feel free to leave a link here in comments. Looking forward to seeing what we come up with this week. . .
