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!

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