I hope you all enjoyed our first session.
1. Please answer the poll question at right: What's your favorite tool?
2. Please add a comment (click on "x comments" below). What do you see as opportunities for and challenges to using blogs or wikis (or other social tools) with your workforce and content? How would you overcome the challenges?
After seeing the examples you presented, I can see some potential for the portions of our workforce that have access.
ReplyDeleteI am concerned about the perception of management - if a user is in a blog or a wiki, they're NOT really in 'training'.
W Craig
Thanks Craig. I haven't heard this particular concern about management before -- tho' it's common enough when discussing, say, Facebook. I would point back to the idea that we are getting documentation this way as possible potential of worth. Also, in these particular examples, we're not talking about a huge jump from discussion forums, which are pretty standard tools for online courses nowadays.
ReplyDeleteIn my organization folks are always asking for formal training whether or not that is the appropriate solution. Coaching issues are often mistaken for training issues. We have been attempting to address such issues with more creative, non-training solutions. Social media could provide us some useful tools for guiding both coaching and self-study opportunities. However, I am in a somewhat conservative industry (financial services), and currently our policy does not allow employees access to so me tools while at work. I'm told they are beginning to review that policy... Yvette
ReplyDeleteYvette: You're right -- social media can be a great way to provide help that's not-quite-formal. The bigger problem you describe -- an organization that thinks training is the answer to every problem -- is very common. Here's something I wrote about that awhile back. Hope it helps. http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/articles/442/
ReplyDeleteJane
I work for the Ontario government so restrictions are tight - especially when it comes to social media. The good news is that internal social media have been built - wordpress, buddy press and wikipedia. The bad news about that though is that it is isolated from the real world, so it's a bit like working in a vacuum. I do see an opportunity though to branch out our training and facilitiate conversations among students about topics and classes (in-class or online). Help training become more of a two-way street. For this I think I see more value in doing it in social media at large that we are "allowed" to use - rather than in our virtual social media space.
ReplyDeleteChristina
We use a Sharepoint system as a "Home page," so for myself I know our employees are using it, the difficulty is in getting them excited about reading what we put on there. It becomes almost routine to just click past the updates and new posts. The content isn't ground breaking, and they do need to know it but there is a disconnect.
ReplyDeleteWe know that the staff knows how to use it, they just aren't using it as well as they could, so we need to try new things!
I agree with Tyson, one of the biggest challenges is getting employees to see the value in reading and sharing content. Not having enough time in their daily routines is often the excuse I hear. There are definite opportunities out there for trainers to promote and demonstrate the possibilities that social tools can offer organizations.
ReplyDeleteI am an avid user of a blogs (although I currently use it for personal use)and I can see the value in presenting information with a blog for my department/organization. I liked seeing the various ways blogs are presented/set up... not in the original format of a long discussion.
ReplyDelete