Learning 2.0: Part 3: Learning 2.0 Toolkit
This is the third post in my series on Learning 2.0. In part 1, I talked about the key ideas in web 2.0 that are important for learning. In part 2, I looked at RSS aggregation and talked about why it is so important. In this post, I will look at the three key components in what I call the Learning 2.0 toolkit:
- Weblogs and wikis
- Podcasts
- Aggregators
Weblogs
Blogs are perhaps the best known of web 2.0 tools. A blog, or weblog, is a new kind of web site that is easy to update. Data is entered into a simple form (usually with the title, the category, and the body of the article) and then submitted. Automated templates take care of adding the article to the home page, creating the new full article page and unique web address for the page – known as the permalink – and adding the article to the appropriate date- or category-based archive. Blogs differ from static web sites in several important ways. The biggest difference is what I call “linkology.” Blogs are about links. Bloggers’ have a propensity for linking and new services can search links, blogs and other platforms readily lead the searcher to further sources. Blogs are about posts, not pages. These posts or “items” help organize Web content into clean, crisp chunks that have vital metadata associated with them, like the date of publication, authorship, categories and tags. Linking among posts is the connective tissue that makes the blogs an important social network on the web.
Wikis are much like blogs but they serve a different function. A wiki, which is the Hawaiin term for “fast,” is server software that lets users create and edit web pages. Wikis differ from blogs in that while content on blogs is cumulative, content on wikis is iterative. On a weblog, the author or authors add content in reverse chronological order. On wikis, content is added by anyone and then can be edited by anyone. An article on otters on wikipedia can be modified or updated by anyone who wants to change its content.
Weblog Structure
RSS Aggregators
RSS is the most important new development for interconnecting the tools and services of intranet 2.0. RSS, or really simple syndication, has become the language of syndication of content between the all systems on the web. An RSS aggregator or news aggregator will most likely become the new user interface to the intranet. An aggregator is a type of software that retrieves syndicated web content that is supplied in the form of a web feed (RSS, Atom and other XML formats), that is published by weblogs, podcasts, video blogs, and mainstream mass media websites. The aggregator provides a consolidated view of content in a single browser display or desktop application. RSS is the new pathway for information flow on the web. Users now have better control over what reaches them and how it arrives.
With an aggregator, subscription channels are called RSS feeds. The “SS” in RSS stands for Site Summary because that is typically what a feed contains – a summary of what is on a blog or web site. When something new – an article, a photo, a podcast – is published, it automatically goes out in the RSS feed. If the aggregator is tuned – or to use RSS language, subscribed – to that feed, it collects whatever is in the feed. In terms of the user experience, RSS aggregators can be thought of as “Tivo” for the desktop. You subscribe to a set of channels through which information will flow. Aggregators can subscribe to feeds from every major media outlet and of course the huge blog universe. But feeds are not limited to blogs and news.
Aggregators can also subscribe to a feed that lists the new books available at your library, or the latest changes to a company’s policy manual, or the houses for sale. A feed is just an envelope and the possibilities for what it can receive in that envelope are limitless.
RSS provides an essential framework that organizes web content into clean, crisp chunks (known as items) that have vital metadata associated with them, like the date of publication, authorship, categories and tags. RSS is increasingly becoming the “language” of intranet 2.0. Data that is captured in many of the 2.0 services discussed in this article can be syndicated and re-circulated inside the enterprise using RSS. When Microsoft’s new Vista operating system comes out later this year, more and more enterprises will be compelled to convert their data to RSS so that it will be supported by the operating system.
RSS can easily operate behind the firewall, and this means many things for the next generation of intranets. People inside the organization can assemble personalized views of information they believe is critical to their performance. People can even go so far as to write simple lightweight programs where they very easily filter, combine, share and republish information to support specific business processes. This also means a proliferation of information feeds that need to be managed. Enterprises will need to rapidly import smart, user-driven aggregation schemes to manage the flow. New library systems are being developed that allow editors or librarians to build collections of feeds and podcasts and assign them to groups. At the same time, users should be able to submit and tag feeds and podcasts for distribution by the library system. These new information ecologies will drive the need for new user interfaces. Instead of a one-size-fits-all portal, people will access information on the intranet through the RSS aggregators discussed above. RSS aggregators can be thought of as “portals on the fly.” The same data can be viewed in a million different ways depending upon the needs and preferences of the individual. These new kinds of “home pages” sometimes called AJAX desktops because they use AJAX as in the user interface. They are being rapidly adopted outside the firewall.
Podcasting for Learning
Less than a year old, podcasting is bursting out of its incarnation as do-it-yourself radio for teenagers and geeks into a powerful new medium for training and learning for business. At the Otter Group, we started podcasting a year ago and have found it to be a simple, innovative, and exciting new medium for teaching and learning. Podcasts are simple to produce, accessible with one-click through Apple’s iTunes Music Store, and once published, available any time/anywhere for consumption — including on the treadmill, commuter train, and in your car.
Podcasting behind the firewall is rapidly emerging as a powerful new means of delivering training and learning. At one financial services firm we are advising, we have started a podcasting series, through which senior executives will lay out the firm’s areas of strategic focus. Experts from within and outside the firm will provide market overviews and competitive intelligence to help learners define opportunities for innovation. Discussion of the issues raised then continues on the learning network with continued input by executives. This year we are giving each participant a new video iPod for collecting and viewing all of the program materials. It turns out that it is less expensive for us to buy iPods for everybody than to give them thick binders filled with printed materials and CDs. They much prefer the iPods, and once they’ve got them, we have direct distribution channel for all kinds of multimedia materials–all of which is mobile–a huge advantage and times saver for this group.
We have started to build a library of publicly available podcasts on topics of interest for business. Our most successful podcast features Josh Weiss, professor at the Harvard program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Josh has been working with us doing elearning programs on conflict resolution. As part of a simple experiment we started last April, Josh began to capture his knowledge of negotiation in a podcast series called the Negotiating Tip of the Week. So far we have 40 episodes in this series. It is available through the podcast area of the iTunes music store and it has been downloaded over 100,000 times. Now we are packaging these podcasts on iPods for corporate customers and making Josh available to coach and counsel negotiators. Instead of spending his time teaching repetitive material, he can spend time doing much more valuable things.
These three tools make up a simple, convenient, lightweight tool set for Learning 2.0. In the next part of this series, I will look at three case examples of how Learning 2.0 can be used to support personal, process, and enterprise learning.
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