Chatter - a new way to learn?

One of the cool aspects of working with clients online is we interact with them in their own environment. In most cases, they are using their own computers, in their own homes, surrounded by their own families and stuff. This is particularly cool because so much of a client's research and work is done on a computer and online. Being a support and engaging the client in that setting can really increase the relevancy and timeliness of the interactions.

I was thinking about this particular benefit this weekend as I was texting a friend. This friend and I keep in touch through our periodic and random texting. We give each other those 150-word-or-less updates on where we are or what we have been thinking at any given moment. These seemingly unimportant comments do sometimes paint a bigger picture. Every once in awhile I look back at my cell-log to this friend and get a kick out of the journey I've been on.

Millions of Internet users are playing with this concept through the use of Twitter and other social networking tools. Apart from viewing "tweets" of some more prominent CEOs, I hadn't found a personal or professional use for Twitter.

Then I came across a new little application called TwitterCamp. It allows a user to display a number of Twitter profile pages simultaneously. I believe it was positioned as an application that could be used to capture the buzz at a conference. But it got ME thinking about career counselling and microblogging for the first time.

While so much of the work a client does is on the computer, much of it is not. For instance, what goes on for your client just before he goes into an interview? And how can those sporactic and somewhat disconnected thoughts for the busy mom with kids be captured? Maybe encouraging clients to communicate in bite-size ways in their real-world context can help paint bigger pictures.

Random texts, tweets, and microblogs can look like a lot of chatter. But is there something that can be learned, captured, understood by all the chatter? What can our clients learn about their patterns, anxieties, interests, and values by collecting their reflections and actions in this way? Is it a new way to learn?

Avatars - what can they offer you?

The other day I was thrown off completely when I heard my mother say, "My avatar has red hair." I was stopped in my tracks wondering when, how, and why my mom starting having an avatar? Apparently it's for an online bridge gaming site and she loves it! She called her avatar her alter-ego.

A week or so later, I was looking over my husband's shoulder as he signed into his fantasy football site and I got a glimpse of his avatar. Now, his actually looks just like him, complete with glasses and his standard blue shirt.

To me, creating an avatar is sort of the animated version of playing with paper dolls. Depending on the site or software you're using you can have dozens of body types, facial features, hair colour, clothing, and accessories to choose from. Put together, along with a personal screen name, you can create an image that represents yourself in a 3D virtual world.

If you haven't explored 3D virtual worlds and considered their educational and counselling impact, you can check out some of the most successful: Second Life is a popular social world. Most recently you will find that commerical businesses are setting up real stores within this virtual world. Whyville is a virtual world designed specifically with youth in mind. Active Worlds is another that makes it easy for users to create their own virtual world and avatars.

Avatars certainly aren't a new phenomenon. Today large numbers of online tools and communities are using them to give users ways of expressing themselves online. I have found it interesting that my mom has used this opportunity to have the hair style and earrings she'd never actually wear in real life. Meanwhile my husband worked hard to ensure his avatar matched his real self perfectly.

Both my mom and my husband were participating in entertainment activities. However, their approaches got me thinking about how they might use the avatar experience if they were learning online. Would their approaches change if they were using an avatar to explore their real world career path in a 3D virtual world? Would this temporary paper doll exercise give them the freedom to step into their alter-ego? Or would they make attempts to replicate their current reality?

ASTD (American Society for Training & Development) has set up its own virtual island in Second Life. Check it out as you consider how you could support your clients in self exploration, self expression, communication, visualization, or even interview prepartion using an avatar?

See the clip for more details or follow the link to go directly to the island. ASTD Island

Questions of Access...a decade later

In 1999, when I first stepped into the conversations about eLearning, I couldn't read an article or interact with another practitioner without having much of the conversation be dominated by the concept of access. Questions raised were:

How will clients access computer technology?
Which clients will have access to the Internet? Which won't? What speed?
What browser will they be using? Operating System?
How will issues of literacy or computer skills impact engagement?
How will clients receive adequate technical support?

At that time, many practitioners considered eLearning risky to students or clients who might already have educational disadvantages. The distance between a practitioner and a client was often viewed as an insurmountable barrier to overcome. Sure many clients had the equipment and skills to thrive online, but it was feared that the great technical divide would only increase as more education and training took place online.

I walked the conference halls with other colleagues. The back drop was big corporate eLearning platforms promising great return on investment. Bells and whistles wowed us, but only made those access questions even more real. Big price tags were clearly present. What seemed to be missing were those educators, counselors, and instructional designers who knew the client, who knew the educational challenges...not just the bottom line. As more online communication tools have gotten into the hands of educators and counselors, it seems some fear has dissipated.

Today, unlike a decade ago, a new reality presents itself and the conversations about access continue. Interestingly, the questions are often the same. This time, however, it's not with barriers in mind. Instead, the questions are asked with a drive to reach new learners, expand the traditional walls, and create possibilities in new locations.

I've recently been inspired by the eLearning Africa Newsportal. Arguably one of the places challenged most by the access questions, Africa stands to benefit from this shift in thinking.

Check out their One Laptop Per Child project. You can visit this portal for developments in Africa or enter the conversation by joining as one of their Facebook friends.

In this decade we can ask ourselves...what do we currently view as a barrier that with a slight shift in perspective we might see as a way to reach, expand, and create new possibilities?

Storytelling

Career literature, today, continues to discuss life-span career theories and the impact of the “boundaryless career” (Arthur and Rousseau, 1996). More commonly in our work as practitioners we are setting the stage for our clients to author, re-author, and re-construct their own career story. Language is the vehicle for telling the story, understanding the story and making meaning.

I recently read an article linking new media’s roots to ancient oral storytelling. In it, the author discusses the flexible and evolving nature of creating a story in the new media space recognizing that “rather than being permanent and immutable, the webs allows people to pick their way through information, change it, respond to it and to create in concert with others.” This made me think about career identity – it too is flexible and changing – impacted by many influencing factors.

This is one of the qualities of online spaces that I really like. When writing out one’s perspective, it becomes “thinking that can be stopped and tinkered with” (Gage, 1986). When recording and sharing a video, the story is captured as a moment in time that can be reviewed, examined and, potentially, re-articulated. These new media offerings provide creative options for clients and practitioners to capture the unfolding life-span career story of individuals.

Check out the Centre for Digital Storytelling http://www.storycenter.org/ or their story sharing site http://storycircles.org/. You can use this site, for free, to store public or private videos. Get creative – think about how you might use this as a counselling and development strategy with your clients. Don’t forget to come back and post a comment if you try this – so we can all learn together!

Rethinking

The creativity of a Kansas State University professor recaps our influence on information, text, content in the Web 2.0 world.

As career counsellors, we have to simultaneously consider how we experience and influence the web AND how our clients are experiencing and influencing the web.

The design of career services online must take into account the power a client has to drive his or her own experience with whatever content we use online. At the same time, our designs should integrate ways for clients to realize new meaning in their lives through the creation of their own content.

The professor said it best...it's going to take some rethinking.

Unleashed!

We know that our clients are online – surfing, chatting, Skyping, socializing, blogging, and vlogging. They are registering for classes, paying bills, selling stuff, buying stuff and getting driving directions. They are planning vacations, “googling” the names of old friends, updating their virus software and downloading music. They are following sports, following politics, and following reality TV. If it works for them – they are doing it online.

Whether we are involved with them online or not – their career choice, outlook, and management ARE impacted by the energy of the online world. How we approach the design of our online career services must take into account that our clients are no longer in the top-down, expert knows everything state. You see, in an effort to help clients not feel overwhelmed by information we might be tempted to narrow their searching, focus their chatting, and limit their socializing?

But what if we didn’t? What if we designed our online services to expand, in fact, unleash the potential of web 2.0 for making sense of this new world of work?

Unleash– it is such a scary word for those of us trained in “classroom management”. But it is a beautiful word when you think of its alternative – Contain. Contain the information. Contain the interaction. Contain the creativity.

Here is our challenge. Our online services need to release clients to explore, create, collaborate in untold numbers of situations but also create space for summarizing, reflection, and application. Here’s the bottom line – there is no one way to go about it. So – unleash yourself!

Just when I get a little overwhelmed by pace and volume of information out there, I get wowed by another cool tool. Here is one I have come to appreciate. It is the social bookmarking site - http://del.icio.us/.

"If we could just put it online..."

Look around you and consider something in your office or home that just plain works for you. Form and function come together in perfect partnership and simply meet your needs. The colour, the dimensions, the weight looks and feels just right AND it works! I was asked to consider this question years ago. It is still, hands down, my old sweatshirt. I got this favourite sweatshirt in college. And while it has certainly lost some of its original "attractiveness", I still love it. For me, for my needs, it represents perfect design.

What makes a good design?

Asking this question is key when you are considering e-career counselling. In an effort to reach more clients and geographically distributed clients, many practitioners find themselves uttering the words "If we could just put it online". As a career counsellor, I don't mean "information technology", but the "information" and "processes" that we work on with our clients.

Here are 11 essential questions for considering the initial design of your "it".

1. What do you want to achieve with "it" online?
2. What is "it" - information? activities? chats? email? videos? group forums?
3. How much is there of "it"?
4. How do you want "it" to look?
5. Will "it" all be online or will some of "it" be face-to-face?
6. What do your clients expect from "it"?
7. How will your clients engage with "it"?
8. How will you communicate with your clients about "it"?
9. Who will support clients to make meaning of "it"?
10. How will you evaluate that your clients understand "it"?
11. Where will "it" be stored and secure?

Technology, with all its bells and whistles, opens the doors to fun new ways to support career development experiences for our clients. Using those bells at the right time, for the right reason is design.

I'll be honest, I can't wear my sweatshirt anymore without thoroughly embarrassing my son. So, I'm looking to redesign it for future use. Check out this link to put your old sweatshirt to good use. http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf808493.tip.html