Newsletter of the Society for Technical Communication, San Francisco Chapter
February/March 2010
| Newsletter of the Society for Technical Communication, San Francisco Chapter February/March 2010 |
Dr. Quinn has been working in learning technology innovation in the business, education, government and non-profit sectors for more than 30 years. His presentation to the STC San Francisco chapter meeting in February focused on how to put eLearning 2.0 into practice. The session covered a wide range of topics including blogs, wikis and more, and the role they play in organizational execution and innovation.
Web 1.0 focused on producer controlled and generated content. Today, with Web 2.0, anyone can get content on the web, and much of the content is user-generated. For example, SAP has an external support community with users contributing content to support one another. With Web 3.0, content will become system-generated.
There are five critical components or attributes to content. Content must be:
How does this relate to learning?
Nicholas Negroponte has said, "Incrementalism is the enemy of innovation." Put another way, true innovation does not come about as a result of incremental improvements to existing, established technologies. In reality, we need to adapt and work in a world that is essentially chaotic. Consequently, execution will not be enough any longer, and we need to do more. Our ability to create new products and services requires not only learning but continual innovation. Training, using prepared learning materials and research are insufficient. Innovation requires improved performance, communication and execution. All of this involves integrating the talents of dispersed individuals. These people need space, time and freedom to experiment, but also require a networked world to exchange ideas, experiment and communicate with others.
What is the organizational role of a public journal? A blog can be a personal journal, but it can also serve other purposes. For example:
What is the organizational role of a dialogue? It can provide a shared understanding of differing points of view to allow the organization to move forward. So, organizations can benefit from a forum which can provide:
What is the organizational role of collaboration? Collaboration can lead to innovation. Innovations are the product of team collaboration, not individuals. Wikis can be used for:
If used effectively, wikis can greatly reduce:
Dr. Quinn's presentation also covered additional areas such as portals, media files, profiles and RSS feeds and readers (aggregators). RSS feeds can help an organization determine what information needs to be tracked. Profiles help to identify who in an organization has specific areas of expertise. In addition, organizations are utilizing tools like Instant Messaging (IM) and Twitter. IM can be very effective in quickly answering questions, coordinating schedules and providing status. Twitter can quickly reduce the time needed to collect expertise in specific areas. For example, Dr. Quinn recently had an Oracle-related question and was able via Twitter to connect up with an Oracle expert in just a few hours.
In summary, Dr. Quinn's presentation covered key tools and technologies supporting eLearning 2.0, facilitating knowledge management and collaboration, both within an organization and with external partners and customers. We hope that Dr. Quinn returns to a future STC San Francisco meeting for more discussion on this critical topic for technical communication. You may reach Dr. Quinn directly at:
clark@quinnovation.com
1-925-200-0881
Quinnovation.com
Blog: learnlets.com
Twitter: @quinnovator
Jim Kirk is relatively new to the world of technical writing. He has been a Program Manager at Cisco Systems for almost 11 years, and prior to that held a variety of marketing and sales positions in telecommunications. He can be reached via e-mail at cptjaskirk@gmail.com or cell phone, 415-730-3731.