Social Bookmarking

It's time Brockwood had a place to store all those great links that we find.
I've talked about Social Bookmarking so have a look there if you want some detail.

(I've tagged the post with Social_Bookmarking to make it easy)

I tried creating a Talkbrockwood account but it didn't make sense.

I looked at StumbledOn

But I didn't understand it.

(Some one should try Digg and report back)
I've used Delicious for a while now but it's my personal non-Council account.
Eventually I'll share some link that is of no use to us in our jobs.
(Association of Backyard Metal Casters anyone?)
Or I'll share something which I should 'coz it's offensive/illegal/scary/fattening etc.
(Don't click this link whatever you do)

So I've created a Delicious account for geoff.power@sheffield.gov.uk .
I've exported my personal one and imported it into the work one.
So there is lots of e-learning, education and evaluation stuff already there.

So here it is

Geoff Power's Delicious Home Page

The Discussion Group Is Launched

I've created a Google group to invite discussion from the Business Support community within Sheffield City Council and our wider customers.

As with this blog there are decisions to be made when creating it.
Some stuff is seemingly trivial but probably will turn out to be desperately important.

"Name your group"
I've no idea where this will appear until I've created the group or what relevance it has. I did a quick search for "BaSS Induction Training In Social Care" just in case 58 porno sites use the same phrase.
Nothing unacceptable/illegal/immoral appeared

"Create a group email address"
Seems that we get an address whether we want it or not.
I picked "BaSSInduction" google added "@googlegroups.com"

We also get a web address http://groups.google.com/group/BaSSInduction
(which you can't visit - see below "Choose an access level")

"Write a group description"
This seemed really important - it's probably the first thing after a title that people will see.
You get 130 characters to say everything.
Good practice for my brevity.
Here's what I came up with
"Sheffield City Council's Workforce Development Unit currently offers induction training for Business and Support Staff (BaSS) who work in the Council's Social Care services.
We want to review this training and also extend it to our customers outside the Council.
Please help us by joining in here. "
(I've got one character left!)

Nudity Warning
This is the next decision I had to make (not just a way of waking you up)
I didn't tick the box which would make people declare their adulthood.
We've said elsewhere that we anticipate anyone joining in so we must try to make the content universally acceptable.

"Choose an Access Level"
Google offers 3 levels

1. Public - definitely not.
   This group is for a specific group on a specific subject.
   All and sundry are not welcome to add, change or view the content


2. Announcement-only - nearly but it still allows everyone to see the content


3. Restricted - The one for us.
   I'll invite people via their email addresses and no one beyond those people is allowed in.

Authoring for e-learning

Well I completed the authoring training for e-learning,very interesting but difficult at times for someone of my limited word processing skills.
What I have found is that downloading the authoring tool to my personal computer at home has made the whole thing a lot clearer.
I have made the time at home to "play" with the system,tried different things and generally become more comfortable with the notions and ideas of putting things together.I am now part way through completing a package for food hygiene training.
The whole e-learning/social media world at Brockwood seems to gathering some momentum at present,which I feel is good.
I will keep this blog updated on my progress.
Peter

alright!!
i did that authoring course years ago and really enjoyed it
found time to write a rudimentry e-learning course which never went anywhere and then changed jobs and lost any momentum i had
it occurs to me that momentum is REALLY important in this....before using a blended learning approach becomes a habit you've got to make yourself do it
after the LeTTOL course me and geoff went on, i stopped, became wrapped up in other things and now feel de-skilled........it's upto me to become "skilled" again, but i wonder whether that skill is as much about familiarity and, as i said, habit, rather than simply knowledge
thoughts??
bob

Authoring e-learning

Well I have just completed two days of learning on how to author and publish e-learning.
Very interesting course but also very heavy.What it clearly illustrated was that e-learning is no quick fix,it takes time to produce,check and then consider how its going to be published etc.
In the whole aspect of social media/e-learning what I am learning is that it is a very complicated area and one that is far more in depth than I ever considered it to be.
The social media site appears to have become a little becalmed at present,we need to get people contributing,any thoughts on how are more than welcome..
Peter

Update on My Blog Learning Experience

Well I have finally made it back to Brockwood.
I keep having brief conversations with Geoff my co blogger,we really in my view now need to set some time aside to progress the whole function of this blog and social media in general.
I have learnt so much about the functions of blogs and I really now want to see this thing become a huge success.
The latest problem we have encountered is the settings on the computers this had somehow been changed so that access was restricted,luckily Geoff managed to find his way round the problem.I am due to attend a two day learning event on authoring via the learning pool this I hope will help me to gain a further understanding of the process of social media and e-learning.When I have attended this event I hope to be publishing e-learning events etc.I will keep the blog updated on my progress.
Peter

My Social Media Experience Update

Well after another very busy week I have finally made it to 5-40pm Friday evening.
This is my first chance this week to engage with our blog I am actually doing this from home because work is so busy at present.
This raises a very interesting question in relation to the use of social media if we are to engage fully with this new venture we will need to carefully consider the allocation of time to ensure that posts on the blog are moderated in timely fashion and questions raised are also dealt with in an appropriate time scale.
I have briefly mentioned the use of the blog with colleagues in social care management today(6/8/2010)and they appear to be very enthusiastic about the whole social media notion.
I think the time is close when we need to carefully consider our next steps,I don,t want us to fail in this venture due to lack of time.