Buy or Lease?

If given the option, do you buy or lease?

I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you have had some conversation with someone at some point about the pros and cons of leasing. What I don't know is if the concept of leasing a car or house or office is one that brings you comfort or concern.

I like ownership. I generally feel comfortable with the risks involved and like the sense of attachment that comes from making the decision to buy something. But, my opinion has been altered a little with the current economic landscape. Leasing can remove the obstacle of needing that initial investment and it can also allow a person the ability to more easily change her mind if a mistake has been made or use of the item is only temporary. So, what's that got to do with online career counselling?

Leasing came to mind recently when I read a facebook post from a cousin of mine. It was the end of his first semester of college. In it, he was complaining about the fact that he'd spent $500+ on books at the start of the semester and was offered just $4 at book buyback (been there/done that). The debate among his "friends" was centered around whether or not the $4 was actually a good deal. Was he going to use those books enough in the future to out weigh the costs of shelving, storing, and moving those books over the coming years. I wonder if he would have been better off renting them through http://www.chegg.com/ or another book rental company?


How we store and display our photos, buy our music, and receive our news is leaning more, if not completely, toward a subscription type model. As a result, how people are creating and accessing educational content online is changing as we speak. Not only is access to technology driving this change, the users may have little initial investment and be hestitant to make the commitment that comes with ownership. It begs the question -are clients going to be willing to own the content they seek, the resources they access, or the expertise they tap into or will a subscription model better meet their needs?

Are you asking clients to lease or buy when they work with you?

Rekindling Connection

After a 18 month hiatus, I am glad to be putting fingers to keys again in our e-Career Landing Blog. Our blog took a back seat to the start up of new projects, increased service demands due to the economic downturn, my Doctoral studies, and tending to our young families. While time is always a precious commodity, Jane and I are excited to create more space for our blog and re-engage with all of you who were following us and to welcome new readers who are keen to ponder the potential use of online spaces in the delivery of career guidance and development services.

I am currently developing the research study for my Doctorate at the University of Sheffield. My working title is “Facilitated Online Career Services: Understanding and evaluating the experience and effectiveness for adults”. I am really interested in ways that facilitated online services can support adults in their career identity development and life-long career transitions.

Also upcoming is my participation at the NCDA-IAEVG-SVP International Symposium this June in San Francisco. I will be an active discussion member in “Techniques and Technologies for Career Development” and will be presenting a round-table paper entitled “e-Career Services – Engaging with clients through online career counselling”.

This past Fall I had the chance to present my research and exchange ideas about facilitated online counselling at the IAEVG conference in Wellington, New Zealand. I was excited to learn that my session in Wellington reached the top ten list! This pitcure of me is taken in the Hawke's Bay wine region.

I was also honoured with an invitation to speak at the Canadian Forum of Labour Market Minister's symposium where I talked about e-career services as a new method for reaching and serving Canadians. My presentation is available here.

I continue to meet more and more people who are keen to explore online practice and what it can mean as an additional career guidance service. As we talk more about the use of online spaces in career development, it will be important that some over-arching service definitions develop. Right now terms such as Web 2.0, ICT, online, and virtual can be found in many publications and conference programs; but depending on the intent, design and type of interaction sought, the essence of what is being discussed can vary greatly. Although I am keen to explore many of these topics, my passion still lies in facilitated services. Here’s a definition I’ve been developing for this:

Learning and counselling that takes place using an online space, where the helping relationship occurs through the use of synchronous and a-synchronous communicaiton. Individuals have control in accessing and completing their development program 24/7 while also engaging in a purposeful and interactive process with their career facilitator to create meaning, grow personal understanding, and implement change.

I’d love any comments or feedback on how this definition fits for you.

Over the coming days and months, I look forward to sharing my research and ideas I’m pondering and making links with others who are interested in this field. I hope that you will find time to share your comments too!

Here’s to ongoing online presence!

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?

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?

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.

"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

Why e-Career Landing?

Are you a stairs or an elevator person? I have to admit that I love elevators. Unless a physically superior friend is with me, I’ll choose the elevator every time. I have even been guilty of taking the elevator at the gym! When I do have to take the stairs, it’s not surprising to know, the landing is what gets me through. You know the landing, that platform between flights where you can secretly catch your breath or, in my case, stop and pretend you have to tie your shoe before changing directions and tackling the next flight of stairs.

Over this past decade I, along with my colleagues at Training Innovations, have been climbing what has felt like a huge flight of stairs. Fueled by a curiosity, motivated by client needs, and sustained by access to new technologies, I didn't mind there was no elevator to take us to the top of a new practice. As far as our research showed us, we were among only a few career practitioners birthing the practice of e-career counselling. That meant, forging ahead and building a new path – step-by-step.

I still love landings. Times when we can pause and reflect on the steps we’ve taken in research, steps we’ve taken in design, or steps we’ve taken in forming best practices. It’s in those moments when we can take a deep breath, celebrate, and gain energy to tackle the next flight.

After thinking about it – landings of all types are pretty cool in my book. Afterall, the landing is my favorite part of an airline flight! Once safely on the ground I’m either on an adventure or just home from one. I've had the opportunity to be sharpened by career practitioners from many different worlds - college career centres, private practice, HR offices, and high schools. Each one on an adventure to understand clients better and the world of work.Then there are those landings created as conversion sites or gathering places to collect logs before processes them. New ideas - pile them on. Best practices - pile them on. New tools or techniques - pile those on too! This gathering place is cleared for all to benefit from those commodities. e-Career Landing is for pioneers in career development looking for a place to land during your adventure, refuel during your climb, and gather new insights. We look forward to your visit and to hearing your story of e-career counselling.