Social Media Burn-out? You're doing it wrong!

I totally borrowed this from TechCrunch!  But I just couldn't title it any better than they did.  I hear about social media burn-out a lot and I just don't understand it...personally.  Read the Techcrunch post here.  

I am still continually amazed that I can have a thought, and using a device that fits in my pocket, capture that thought, or real life experience, in text, photos, videos, or even just audio and automatically upload that content to a magical space that allows others AROUND THE WORLD to see, or share my experience, in near real time.  Not only that, but anyone can CHOOSE to engage with me and my thought or experience.  This is the most amazing thing EVER!  And I actually feel quite sad for anyone that does not experience the same pure joy that I feel every time something magical happens because of this cycle of learning.

Social media is simply becoming part of life.  It would be really easy for me to say something like, "ya never hear people saying I've got face-to-face socializing burnout".  The reason why that isn't even an argument is that people actually DO burn out on friends, family, co-workers, etc...even before social media came along.  This should not surprise anyone.

The reality is that you engage, and you disengage, and then you do it again, and again, and again.  Each person's need to engage is different from everyone else.  This is critical to understand when you are implementing social learning within your organization.  Please save yourself the misery of failure and DO NOT hyper formalize HOW people engage with whatever system you choose to implement.  And DO NOT make participation mandatory or connected to pay or anything like that.  Social anything needs to be authentic, period.

Learn more about everything SOCIAL with Mark Oehlert (@moehlert), host of the Social Learning Camp at DevLearn 2010.  Mark has some amazing content planned and rumor has it there might be some exciting news and attendees available at the camp this year.  Good times!

DevLearn 2010 Conference and Expo - November - San Francisco, CA

Social Networking Annual Data - comScore

Data can tell amazing stories. Just listen to Hans Rosling from the TED conference and you'll get what I mean.

ComScore has released their data on Social Networking today and it's pretty incredible. Facebook.com has increased 270% since June 2006. I knew the buzz was growing about it over the last year and so I tried it out. Now I'm hooked. Its LinkedIn and Facebook only for me.

Okay...maybe I still Twitter a little bit ;-)

Facebook - the next Operating System?

Facebook buys Parakey
Facebook has just acquired an Operating System. A WHAT? Why in the heck, would a social networking company buy an OS company? From INSIDE FACEBOOK

So what they also get are the 2 brains behind the creation of Firefox. Firefox's incredible flexibility and openness is what made it attractive to the Facebook folks. Facebook opened up to developers and now it has blown away the competition. Firefox did the same and grew quickly as the #1 alternative to IE.

eLearning and Social Networking
When I talk about social networking apps being something to watch in the eLearning industry, this is what I'm talking about. Remember, its about the people, NOT the technology. The PEOPLE are hanging out at Facebook, so if you want to get connected with people and become productive get into Facebook.

Why are people hanging out at Facebook? Because that's where their friends, and colleagues are hanging out. And why are they there? Because there is a ton of stuff to DO! And a ton of stuff to get you connected to the people who like to do what you DO. Doing is important and its much more fun to DO stuff with other people who like to do it too.

Social Networking in Plain English - Yeah!

These guys keep crankin' 'em out. I love it!


Social Networking is also Social Learning. I think deepest learning comes from human connections and Social Networking tools make it easier than ever to connect to the people you want to learn something from, or with whom you are willing to learn with, together, collaboratively.

Before there was online social networking I remember reading business books about the power of the "rollodex": Important successful people ALWAYS had a massive rollodex. At the time I remember thinking about the dozen or so people that I had on a piece of paper in my school notebook. Yikes! This isn't going to cut it I thought. But how the heck am I going to get to know more people? And that's where the thought ended and it was probably around that time that I decided to go back to school.

Enter, the web! And now Web2.0! My life is very different and I feel like I know a ton of brilliant people that I could email, chat, or call about any of the cool things I may be doing! I love this stuff!

eLearn Magazine - CoPs: New Learning Models

Communities of Practice: Addressing Workforce Trends Through New Learning Models

Some good quotes from the article above:

"Organizations would be well-advised to shift budgets and resources from formal learning settings to informal situations where the majority of learning actually takes place."

"Organizations need to recognize that to attract and retain millennials, they have to eliminate hierarchy and corporate bottlenecks, open up internal communications, and provide ongoing training and development opportunities."

"While email and collaboration have become the norm in most offices, social networking-style technologies are quickly becoming a very real possibility for even the most conservative public sector organizations."

My thoughts: This article is a good primer for understanding the fundamental change occuring across the internet and how Communities of Practice are fast becoming the tool of choice for enhancing/improving DEEP learning within and across job business functions. There are many online technologies and tools that can begin to support CoPs, but it's important to remember that it's more about the people than the technology. The technology simply facilitates improved connections between those who have information and those that need information: Learning to learn by finding the right people (resources) with the right knowledge (information) at the right time (place).
This is a very simplisitic look at a very new and complex issue impacting the training/learning world. However, this little article is good one to send around if you are trying to get the conversation started with your boss, or the boss's boss.


UPDATE 4/30: Repaired the link

Socially created Quizzes - XplanaZine

The more and more I get into the OpenSource Learning project with the Masie Consortium, the more I see the incredible possibilities.

XplanaZine has taken the social networking idea in the world of quiz creation. Cool! I hadn't thought of that yet. Multiple people helping to craft the perfect assessments instead of random content experts writing their own and trying to be tricky...or worse funny. I'm sure you all have taken a quiz where the last choice is always something completely off-the-wall, or goofy...Yikes, I've even written a few of those in my past.

"According to educational psychologists, the problem with most quizzes is that they do not encourage active learning. Further, some test-makers focus on trick questions and they fail to cover all the instructional content. Thus, badly constructed quizzes do not really assess the knowledge they claim to be measuring."

This is really good stuff! However, apparently I don't have access to www.xplanaQuiz.com but I'll be it's really cool ;-) (I think its the corporate firewall I'm currently connected too)

2 Quick links: 1 great video, 1 great graphic

1) from elearningpost - MIT Video John Seely Brown
2) from Dion Hinchcliffe - Social Media Goes Mainstream

Joining the LMS conversation from e-Clippings

I'd like to get in on the group think over at e-Clippings. The new thoughts on what learning widgets and LMSs might be like is very interesting to me. I've long been thinking about the Learning Dashboard. The Google analytics view is a great example of dynamic data presentation. It doesn't matter WHAT the data is, so why not load something like that up with the typical tracking data we want in an LMS? Student history? Content Viewed Path/History? Certifications? Lists of others who have viewed the same topic?

The concepts being explored and exploited in Web2.0 apps will no doubt blend into Learning. Its a natural progression that is simply going to take some time, but it will happen. Remember, its always been about the people, NOT the technology. Web2.0 tools simply support the connects and the data presented simply improves the quality, and quantity, of the human connections.

Who knows, really, how it will look. But one thing is certain in my mind: Closed off Exclusive Social networks - Blackboard-style are NOT going to fly...at least not very far.