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.

Identity, Responsibility and Moderation

(Graphic from Fred Cavazza used by virtue of Creative Commons licence)

We've decided that we needed a seperate identity.

• talkbrockwood

This to use in a social media sphere so it's not Geoff or Peter.
It's talkbrock talking!
So a continuous identity can be presented and individuals are "protected"
We also decided that we would have identities of our own.
So, according to the Councils e-communications policy, we shouldn't,

• Participate in chat rooms or forums unless this is authorised and is explicitly on behalf of the Council.

We got authorisation by emailing our supervisor with details of where and what and asking if it's okay.
How do we use these two identities?
(BTW that is a question - answers/discussion in comments please)

Now with have the dynamic duo being talkbrockwood but we don't know who's responsible for what and when.
Do we need duty rota's, job descriptions... probably.

This post was prompted by an anonymous comment - which is still waiting for moderation.
With 2 of us in charge we could have a discussion and decide to publish or not.
Soon, there may be 4 of us.
Not as easy then.
With the whole unit it would be impracticable/impossible

Finally I've got to moderation.
We must use the e-communications policy/ codes of conduct to decide whats acceptable.
(if you haven't got some sort of acceptable use policy - get one)
That deals with the easy stuff - if the contribution is offensive or illegal.
What about irrelevant or stupid stuff?
Whose irrelevant?
Whose stupid?

(Geoff)

E-Safety, Codes of Conduct And Professionalism

(this image is from the National Education Network)

The next step in the development of our first project was to consult the e-safety guidelines from Becta.
I couldn't find the risk assessment document that's referred to in the Cambridgeshire documents so I consulted the Council's E-safety officer.
(Your organisation should have some one with similar responsibilities)
Over to them.

"I do agree that you cannot rule out children being involved if you are using social media. The involvement of children does open up the whole discussions of how you keep them safe, moderation etc. etc.

There are guidelines for Professionals working with Children and Young People or their Families in Sheffield which is included in our E-safety Protocol for Digital and Interactive Technologies which you may find useful. This can be downloaded from our website at http://www.safeguardingsheffieldchildren.org.uk/ from the E-safety link in SSCB/Service. "

I also ferreted around for other useful stuff to help us decide what we need to do.
Here's that research

The link above leads to Delicious which is another social media or Web 2.0 site.
I classify ('tag') and share websites I find, then I can use the tags to find other sites that other people have tagged.
It's like having one big favourites with endless different folders.
Here's an explanation from The Common Craft people

Blog posts can also be classified ('labelled') to make the blog easier to read.
I've labelled all the project posts 'Project' and you can select just them to read.

(Geoff)

The Business Of Blogging

So what is this blog thing and how do we use it?
Traditionally a definition is a good place to start.

• The Wikipedia Entry
• What about in education?
• This is an oldy but goldy on a learning theme

So we seem to have started with three objectives.

Journal
We'll try to record what we did so that our colleagues can follow us.
We also need some record for our own use - why and when did we do that?
If this was a working group or another sort of meeting we'd publish minutes/action plans etc.

Research Service
I'm trawling through all sorts of stuff to find the gold.
So other people don't have to.
Here's an example of some one doing the same.
(he's included links that I rejected - you'll have to judge)

Community
Our colleagues will come, find out what we are doing and contribute.
Intially this will be workmates, but anyone is welcome.
Experience suggests this will be the hard bit.

Geoff

Social Media My Journey

Hi,
Well Geoff is really encouraging me to engage wholeheartedly with social media.
What have I learnt,social media is not as straightforward as I thought there appears to be many protocols and such things to abide by.I accept that they are there to provide protection in the huge world of the internet,but I do find it confusing.
I have learnt how to post items to the blog,fairly obvious because I am using it.We need to try now and push the blog into a wider audience.
My vision is to a have social media function where all workers in health and social care can join discussions ask questions and generally interact with our social media,
Peter

Questions Please

Hi ,
If you have any questions in relation to food hygiene or manual handling this blog is the ideal place to ask them.
Please ues this blog we want your opinions.
Peter

Our First Project

The Fine Details

Now that we know what we're doing.
We've set off on our first project.

Consulting Support and Admin Managers on Induction Training

A lot of what we intend is being guided by documents kindly shared by Cambridgeshire County Council thru IDeA Communities of Practice.
Here's a very specific link to the Social Media discussion that's going on in there.
Here's the Cambridgeshire documents.
If you want to see them there you'll have to register.
(not a bad idea)
(For Brockwood Staff they are also @ g:\...\Resources\Social Media)

From their process document.

1. Think about what you are trying to achieve, the audience you intend to reach and whether social media the best/preferred means of engaging with them.
   
   • What
     We currently offer an Induction programme for non social care/work staff within Sheffield City Council (SCC) Social Care services. This programme needs review and we would also like to find out what demand might exist outside SCC.
     
   • Who
     All the business support managers within SCC, Sheffield Health and Social Care Trust (SHSC), independant, private and voluntary (IPV) sector, carers, employers, service users etc etc.
     We do not want to constrain this list unless we have to.
     
   • Whether
     The list above is large and disparate.
     Experience says everybody on it will be difficult to contact.
     Brockwood needs to become comfortable with social media.
     Three good reasons to try engagement with social media.
     
   
   
2. If you intend to engage with children and/or young people, or believe they may be an audience of that content refer to step 3, otherwise proceed to step 4.
   
   • We don't think so but if the list is unconstrained we could be.
   
   
   
3. Ensure that you first refer to the BECTA e-safety guidelines and complete the associated risk assessment proforma.
   
   • So just in case thats our next step

(Geoff)

Pete And Geoff Learn Social Media

Grand design


Peter Allen and Geoff Power met to further Brockwood Park's Social Media involvement.
Setting some Terms of Reference seemed a good idea
(we pinched the questions from Cambridgeshire's Social Media Guide thingy
- more of that later)

What are the objectives of the project/campaign?

• To create an interactive and participatory information service for Social Care staff in Sheffield
  

What audience are you intending to target?

• Everyone working in Social care in Sheffield
  

Why use social media/networking as opposed to existing channels?

• Because those existing channels are to slow and don't reach all our customers easily.


• We expect these new media to solve these problems.

How would the given site/tool achieve those objectives?

• Most of our customers have or will have shortly internet access. We don't know 'til we try

Are others within the organisation already doing something similar?

• The Social Media workshops have yet to produce real useful stuff.
  So we'll get on with it anyway informing all we can on the way.

How will the success of the project/campaign be measured?

• Any increased flow of information or opinion will count as success. We refuse to constrain ourselves with absolutes.

Who will be responsible for managing and moderating that channel?

• Brockwood staff - in the first instance...


• The E-learning Project group.


• Bob Levesley


• Geoff Power


• Sarah Pack


• Peter Allen

(Geoff)