One thing I am running into is the need to work up front to socialize the use of the tool. I am finding without the context of “this is helpful and here is why …” learners can be left thinking the tasks are meaningless. So in essence, I think getting to participation requires a significant amount of front loading. This is the same strategy we are trying to employe on campus with our peers. I am hoping it works!

Good post and good link. Thanks for the heads up.

Great points.

I believe that interacting with information is a key component to media literacy in the information age and a valuable job skill to pass on to learners, especially those who have not grown up with technology. Perhaps here at Penn State, information literacy will some day be one of those required components to every major like writing intensive and diversity focused courses are now.

That said, I’ve spent a lot of time easing people into new technology. Some of the ways to do this include: 1) focusing on the tools that they will see as most valuable/relevant to their work or interests; 2) introducing only a few tools (one or two) at time until the are comfortable with them; and 3) making new tools look and feel like old ones (use CSS layouts and color schemes to make a wiki or blog look like it’s just a web page on your site).

Sure number #3 is really just making them take their medicine by putting it in candy, but it it gets
them to take a few bites, what’s the harm?

I completely and totally agree with you. I see this on a daily basis and I work with such a wide range of people that some of them are absolutely on the forefront of what’s going on with social media, but some of them don’t even know what a blog is.

I know the power of these tools and I would desperately love to see everyone jump right in and begin using all of these things, creating content and becoming actively engaged in the participatory culture, but it won’t happen overnight.

I think, as you do, that we need to understand that not everyone is at the ‘creator’ level yet.. but we can help them get there. Little by little, step by step by showing them how and teaching them why.

At the same time, I worry that some might look at this and say that we should be OK with having people stay in “spectator” or “lurker” status. There was a time when being a passive recipient of information might have worked, but increasingly I’m seeing that the really successful folks are those who are comfortable with and literate in these kinds of technologies and ways of working with other people. Not saying that you have to master every tool, but if you aren’t comfortable with creating online content by editing a wiki, creating a profile or commenting on a blog post, I think that eventually you’ll be left behind.

I keep thinking about Dan Pink’s “A Whole New Mind.” He says that if it can be done better or faster by a computer or it can be done more cheaply by someone in a country where labor is cheaper, then that’s work that will leave the US. Being a creator is really about adding value, and as a skill set, that’s increasingly going to be the primary route to the best work in the future.

I’ve come to believe that it’s our responsibility to help people see this and teach them how to add value of their own. It’s asking to break years of habits that they have as passive recipients of information, but I believe that it’s critical to future success.