Officially Open

You may (or may not) have heard that last Wednesday was the official opening of the PSU World Campus island in the virtual world of Second Life. We’re using this space to give our online students their own ‘campus experience’ just like students on Penn State’s other campuses. If you ask undergraduate students the one thing they’ll always remember about Penn State, you’d have trouble finding a student on a physical campus that would mention anything at all about their courses, classwork, or ANGEL. They all mention things like The Diner, the creamery, and football games. The things they take with them from Penn State, are the social/outside the classroom things where they connect and meet other students. Using a virtual space like Second Life gives us a way to provide those sort of experiences for our students, too.

On Wednesday we spent a little over 12 hours meeting with students, colleagues and co-workers in Second Life. There were students from the US, Spain, and France, all ‘meeting’ each other for the first time.  Two of our students actually learned that they live very close to each other in Virginia and had no idea!  It was a wonderful time and really helped the students feel like a part of World Campus and a part of Penn State.  They said things like, “It is incredible the way a student can be involved with this university”, “I think it is an incredible environment ..I can interact with many people that live hundred of kilometers away from me”, and “I’ve been to several colleges over the years (including another major university in Ga Tech) and they always made me feel like just a number even when I was actually living on campus…Penn State feels more like a big extended family”.

The Penn State World Campus space in Second Life is a space for all of us – not just our students.  If we think about our co-workers in extension, located all over the state, or our telecommuters working outside the Outreach Building, or colleagues located all over campus, meeting in Second Life is an incredibly convenient, inexpensive way to connect with each other.  Having a community of Outreach employees, students, and even Penn State alumni having conversations and learning about each other starts to build a community of people that truly care about their experience and about Penn State.

The Popular Crowd

Doesn’t it seem like lately, there’s more and more discussion about twitter followers, being popular, and how to NOT be boring online? Maybe it’s just me, but I swear that every day I think I see more blog posts, tweets and discussions about this and I honestly just don’t get it.

It frustrates me to hear people talk about how many followers they have – there are people out there that seem to obsess over this and make a big deal about people un-following them – why? Why is that a concern for you? I guess I could understand it if you were a company and people were deciding not to listen to you – you might want to think about what your message is or how you might better engage your audience, but if you’re just you? Just a normal person like everyone else.. why does it matter how many twitter followers, or Facebook friends you have? Why is that important to you?

Just a few days ago I saw at least three different comments about how if someone isn’t listening to you, you must be ‘boring’ or not ‘worthy’ of being paid attention to. The other day on twitter I followed someone that I thought I could potentially learn something from and was greeted with an auto-response follow asking me if I’d seen a specific blog post on how to get more followers. It irritated me so much that I immediately unfollowed. It is NOT about the numbers, folks.. it’s about connections, networks, learning, growing, and listening. It’s about having conversations and expanding your perspectives. It’s about collaborating and interacting with each other. This is not junior high school – it’s not about your popularity.

Chris Brogan had a fantastic post today about exactly this sort of thing – perfect timing. Here’s an excerpt:

“I think people get confused by numbers. I am followed by 33,000 folks on Twitter. I had 245,000 unique visitors last month. I’m #6 in Advertising Age’s Power 150, #68 in the Technorati Top 100. Numbers, numbers, numbers. I think that’s part of the problem.

Because, even though I use those numbers as a gauge of what I’m doing here, what I spend my time and attention on is making connections. Many hours out of every day go into making relationships with you. Look at any given page of my twitter traffic. Realize that I’m my own #1 commenter on this blog. I spend hours every day answering email and phone calls from folks who often times want nothing more than to connect.”

Read the entire post here.

When I commented yesterday on twitter about this sort of thing, I received a response from a new follower that basically said “yes, but most people ARE boring!”. I just don’t agree with that. I think every single person on this planet has a unique story and if we had the time to listen to them all, I think we’d be amazed at how fascinating we all are.

So please, can we move past the numbers and popularity game and just try to treat each other with respect and consideration knowing that it’s not about winning – it’s about connecting and learning from each other.

Reunions and Awakenings

It’s been twenty-two years since I graduated high school (holy cow it seems insane to say that!), and this past weekend I spent a few hours with some of my closest high-school girlfriends.  We’ve met a few times in the last several years, usually over a holiday when most of the girls from out-of-town would be around visiting with their families.

The last time we met was four years ago at my house and it was a fantastic evening. Two of us were pregnant at the time and we spent hours and hours catching up, eating great food, and laughing at stories we all had to share. It was really special and made me so glad to reconnect with friends I’d spent so much time with in high school.  I’m sad to say that this time was much different.

This time much of the talk was technology-related and I guess that’s to be expected when you look at how much has changed in our culture in the last several years, but what surprised me is that I was surrounded by a group of people that were so negative about technology and how it’s being used today.  Some of the comments made were about Facebook with one friend asking, “Is it like email?” and “Is it like chatting?”.  Other friends complained about cell phones and how they hated feeling like people could call them all the time. Another friend went so far as to say that soon children would be born with only thumbs because all kids do these days is text.  Also heard that evening, “Aren’t you glad we didn’t have cell phones and camera phones when we were younger? I’d have HATED for all we did to be captured!”.

I tried to explain Web 2.0 and what it’s all about and how important it is, and why they should care, but I’m fairly sure no one heard me. I tried to explain Facebook and why they might want to be there and connect with others, but I don’t think they ‘got it’. I tried to tell them that younger kids today prefer texting to emailing and chatting because it’s mobile and they can stay connected wherever they are, but I don’t think they cared.  It honestly made me frustrated, confused, and sad. I left the party wondering when my friends changed and why they no longer seemed to care about how the world was changing around them.

I think that we forget that not everyone knows about how things are changing. Not everyone has a Facebook profile, or a text messaging plan. Not everyone knows what a blog is, or RSS. I didn’t even mention twitter because I was afraid their heads might explode or they’d come after me with fire and pitchforks.

When you’re as immersed in the culture as much as we are, it’s so easy to forget how far others are outside of this circle.  When you read books like The Rise of the Creative Class, it saddens me to feel as though I’m leaving my friends behind.

My friends are intelligent people. They have full-time jobs, they work with teenagers, they have children, they’ve graduated from prestigious schools and work for wonderful companies.. and they don’t get it.  If *they* don’t get it.. how many others don’t get it either.  How can we help them to understand and see the benefits if they’re so far behind that they don’t know the difference between email and IM?

We’ve talked previously about ‘invitations’ and how important it is for us to invite people to participate in our online communities, but more and more I’m thinking we need to dig a little deeper than that. I think we need some serious hand-holding, demonstrating, and mentoring to bring people into this conversation.  We owe it to them to not let them fall behind.

Educause 2008 – Crafting a Campus Identity: First-Year Students, Residential Life, and Social Networking

Notes from this session at Educause 2008:

How are today’s undergrad students using social networking applications are part of their campus lives?
How might student use impact recruitment and retention?

Today’s Students:

Net Gen students use a variety of technologies to structure and organize their lives – for entertainment and communication
These students have high expectations regarding networked campuses
It’s unclear how well student technology use translates directly to teaching and learning (Wagner, 2005)

Today’s Institutions:
Struggling to meet students high expectations regarding technolgy
Institutions increasingly using Web 2.0

Horizon Project’s Call for Scholarship recently identified social networking tools as a possible education tool for building learning communities (October 2007).

30+ years of research has built on Tinto’s findings that student persistence is related to social and academic integration (1975)
Students have showed that web-based collaboration tools can increase retention in courses (Fisher and Baird, 2005)
Others have found that online social networking can increase social engagement (Lento, Wesler, Gu & Smith)

Most students start w/ MySpace but then transition to Facebook because it’s “simpler”, it’s “what college students use”.

According to presenter’s study:
63.4% of students log into a social networking site several times a day.
Only 32% of students indicate that they use a mobile device to connect to a social networking application.

Discussion related to getting students involved in the social network before they even arrive on campus so they can begin to connect with each other and make the transition easier. Students have joined Facebook groups/MySpace groups related to their residence halls.

“Does Your Preferred Social Networking Site Improve or Enrich Your Non-Academic Life at ASU? – 70.3% of Facebook Users from survey said ‘yes’”

Some students may feel like an outsider if most other students do not use their preferred social network.

All University Day – A “Virtually” Fantastic Event

Penn State University recently celebrated “All University Day”.  This day brings together students from all of Penn State’s campuses and recognizes those students and campuses during the halftime celebration of a Penn State football game.  Penn State World Campus participated in this event and ten of our amazing students traveled from their homes in Texas, California, South Carolina, Virginia and Pennsylvania to spend the weekend with us here at University Park campus.

Our students arrived on Friday afternoon and evening and we welcomed them with a tailgate featuring local BBQ, great conversation, and the opportunity to mingle and meet World Campus staff members and the Nittany Lion himself.  Saturday’s events consisted of a rehearsal for the halftime celebration, a tailgate for all the participants, and a fantastic football game between Penn State and Illinois that evening.

This year’s event also featured something else – a virtual component. For the first time, All University Day was also celebrated in a virtual world.  Penn State World Campus now has a private area in the virtual world of Second Life and the All University Day celebration there consisted of a virtual tailgate, guided tours, a live musical performance from a former World Campus student, and the opportunity for students, staff and faculty to meet and mingle with each other.  Throughout the course of the day, visitors included Penn State faculty members, staff members, World Campus students, prospective students who were considering attending Penn State, and Penn State graduates. It was truly an amazing day and wonderful experience.  Hours after the “official” event concluded in Second Life, several staff members and students remained watching the Penn State vs. Illinois football game online while discussing the game with others in Second Life.

Second Life and education have been hand-in-hand for years and this environment certainly provides us with the opportunity to learn and experience our learning in ways not possible in the physical world.  These virtual spaces are not limited to classes, however, and Penn State World Campus plans to use Second Life as a way to provide our students with a way to connect with their education in a very different way.  Online students face different challenges than resident students not the least of which is developing a sense of belonging and pride in their campus experience.  Creating a virtual campus space for our students is the first step in personalizing online education, unlocking the power of informal learning and connections, and building a community of learners.  We’re looking forward to meeting you there.

[cross-posted to Terra Incognita]

Learning about Learning Spaces

Today was the second day of the ELI Fall Focus session on Learning Spaces. Today was great because we got to hear a lot about how to think about designing spaces that facilitate learning, what’s on the horizon, what’s happening in Second Life and there was great discussion among everyone.  Focus sessions that are limited in size are, I’m sure, disappointing for the folks that weren’t able to register before it closed, but for the attendees it’s a really wonderful thing because you can have small intimate discussions and really have a chance to meet and talk with colleagues. It’s been a wonderful experience.

Because I’m not a faculty member, IT professional, librarian, learning designer, administrator, computer programmer, or web designer, I sit in a very unique position. I can listen to conversations about many areas and then try to put myself in a situation to examine, evaluate and experiment with how those things can translate into virtual spaces or communities. More often than not, it’s easily adaptable and perfectly appropriate and having the opportunity to be sort of the “center of the wheel” allows me to talk with people in all different areas of learning and learning design and experiment with scads of fantastic tools.  I love being in that position. I adore being the girl who tries the new technologies and experiments with new tools. Don’t get me wrong, diamonds are definitely this girl’s best friend, but a new Macbook Pro runs a close second place for me.

I found myself having some really interesting one-on-one discussions today with many people but the one that really resounded with me was when someone came up to me and thanked me for presenting Second Life in the way that I did. He mentioned that he’s heard of Second Life many times before and understands that you can “do anything” in that space including have a classroom in the sky, but just the very thought of that was too overwhelming and kept him from thinking about Second Life as something he could truly use in his teaching.  He said that by simply talking about Second Life as another “tool” for communication in much the same way we use email to communicate, it helped him to feel less anxious and overwhelmed by it.  I wonder how many others feel this way and how many other people we could engage by just changing the way we talk about things or present things.

I certainly know that people are passionate about things they love. I am passionate about Second Life and virtual community and I think that is evident when I speak about it. I think the audience can tell I love these things, but I wonder now, how many times I maybe missed an opportunity to connect with someone or engage them in the conversation because I was *too* passionate about it and left little room for them to begin to envision how they might make these spaces their own, in their own way.

I had a discussion a few days ago about Second Life and the statement was made by someone that they had no idea why anyone would want a traditional office in Second Life- they said it was “beyond them”.  I explained in that discussion that some people need, want, and feel comfortable in those ‘traditional’ spaces. Do I think that it’s a great idea to take a class into Second Life plop them down in a virtual classroom and show them powerpoint slides the entire semester? Absolutely not. I do, however, think that when we’re talking about and introducing these technologies, we need to remember, always, that nine times out of ten we are ahead of the curve on these things and we need to slow down, take a step back and think about what we could do to make these new tools less overwhelming and show people how they can potentially use the tool for their own needs.

I think another reason that those ‘traditional’ spaces are important in Second Life is because that’s what people are used to and I think those can be a fantastic ‘entry’ point for people just starting to use the technology. We need people to feel comfortable in a space before we can expect them to really use it and enjoy being there – this is exactly what we’re talking about in designing physical learning spaces so why would we want anything different in a virtual one?

One speaker yesterday used a quote that I loved. The quote was from Henry Ford and he said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” I think sometimes people have no idea what they want, because they don’t know about the tools. We can teach them about the tools but what’s just as important is helping them feel comfortable learning them.  We can do that too.

We Should Really Talk More

So I arrived at Tampa today around noon and was able to attend the keynote session, but I think the discussions that I had with people individually today proved to be the most beneficial thing I’ve done so far, and I have no doubt that over the course of the weekend that will continue to be the case.

Just based on the few conversations I’ve had today with folks from other universities and businesses using Second Life, I really feel like all of us.. and I mean *ALL* of us need to spend some quality time together. Talking. Listening. Learning.

My position is unique in that while I’m the social networks adviser for the online campus of a large public university, I am not tasked with figuring out how those tools would work in a classroom setting. I don’t have to base decisions on pedagogy, curriculum, or evaluations. I have the freedom to use and explore new technologies with the goal of learning if and how they can be used to build a stronger community of online students, faculty and staff.  While this freedom is something I certainly am beyond thankful for, it does make conferences like SLCC a bit challenging because I feel as though I am here representing an educational institution and therefore the educational track is where I should be, but at the same time so much of what is being talked about in the educational track is based on instruction and courses and getting buy-in to teach courses in SL that I really don’t feel it’s solely where I belong.  Don’t get me wrong, I am so thrilled that so many people are using SL in education and that so many more keep learning about it and making efforts to pave those roads and start using this really powerful tool to help us rethink what a classroom might be – I applaud each and every person taking that step. It’s not easy to be the first person on a campus trying a new technology, learning how to use it and making it happen with limited resources and even more limited support from administrators.  Having workshops and sessions related to getting started and ‘best practices’ are invaluable and providing them is something we have to do.  In my position, though, I’m not sure I get the most benefit from these sessions and so I find myself perusing the scheduled sessions for this weekend and thinking that perhaps the session in the community track on Open Source would be a better fit, or perhaps a session on how to create machinima to better promote our Second Life projects might be something I could learn a lot from.  So I think that this weekend I will pick and choose from all three tracks and meet some new people, learn some new things, and have a different perspective when I return.

I think that’s what I’ve gained so far in just the few short hours I’ve been here: the realization that we all need to communicate more. Business needs to sit down with education and talk.. REALLY talk about what’s going on with education these days.  Education needs to sit down and talk about how to create community and what that entails and education also needs to listen to business and think about what we can learn from them. I’m not just talking Second Life here, I’m talking big picture.

Big topics in education now are the ideas of open educational resources and the sharing of information. Openness, Innovation, Collaboration – all hot topics and yet I sat here today and listened to corporate people ask me if we’re keeping social networking internal and how we’re going to ‘authenticate’ and basically control the discussion and keep things amongst ourselves.  To me, that’s completely missing the point.  The point is not to keep the discussion among ourselves but to open up our community, discussions and content to the world so that everyone can participate, learn, and contribute.

Our world is changing, slowly.. but it’s getting there. It’s not about keeping things closed, and guarding our secrets. It’s about opening up, sharing, and trusting that doing so will make us a better stronger community with new and creative ideas of how to collaborate.  I heard some doubt and negativity today in discussions of interoperability and the idea of combining virtual worlds with each other and having one truly connected metaverse, but I also sensed hope. People want to dream, but they’re afraid.  We need to stop guarding our secrets and start opening up and dreaming a bit.

The Future

I was watching the start of the Democratic National Convention the other evening and was lucky enough to catch John Legend’s performance. I think he’s so amazingly talented and it’s always so inspiring to listen to him perform, convention or not.

Anyway, the song he sang had a line in it that said, “The future started yesterday, and we’re already late.” and I thought about how powerful that message was, especially in relation to technology and what we do on a daily basis.

There are times, I’m sure, where all of us feel as though we spend so much time explaining to people *WHY* they should take advantage of all of these new tools and technologies we have at our disposal, that we are losing ground and losing time.  I know that I personally feel sometimes that what we *NEED* to be doing is a mile in front of what we actually *are* doing and I feel as though I spend a lot of time keeping my eyes on the competition out in front of us while yelling behind me “HURRY UP!! COME ON!! We’re going to lose them!”.

I do, however, realize that not everyone is ready or as eager for change as others. Some people feel very comfortable and very safe with the ’status quo’ and will only change when forced to by something outside their control. Some people are hesitant, or frightened of the unknown and what it will mean for them.  We need to understand that. We need to recognize that fear, and help them work through it. We cannot, however, afford to just let them stay where they are. We cannot “save ourselves” in this. To make change and to be strong as a community, we have to help others move forward too.

We need to show them how to use RSS, why twitter is beneficial in creating community, and how to create their own blog. We need to demonstrate and explain the benefits of using a wiki, or why a Facebook page allows students to connect with you on a more personal level. We need to create virtual environments and encourage everyone to participate. We cannot afford to leave anyone behind. We owe it to them.

“The future started yesterday, and we’re already late.” – John Legend

What meeting?

One of the rabbit holes that I jumped down today led me to this blog post entitled, “The Meeting Never Happens in the Meeting” that talks about the value of the conversations that happen outside the traditional ‘formal’ structure of meetings and how we should really consider how beneficial these sorts of social conversations really are.

The blog posts talks a bit about virtual environments and team collaboration in those spaces but when I first saw the title of the post I immediately thought about twitter and our local Penn State community.

I’m sure that you’re all sick to death of me talking about twitter but I really do feel that this one simple little tool has changed everything for me in a professional development and social sense.  At a recent work event, a friend sitting right beside me was someone I’d been chatting with informally on twitter for a few months but had never met in person.  There was already a familiarity and conversational ease that existed because of those informal chats via twitter.  I’m not saying this is different than the same sorts of meetings that occur online first before meeting in real-life, just that in this instance the tool was twitter.

Now, that being said.. those of you from the Penn State twitter crew know exactly what I’m talking about when I say that I honestly believe that if I weren’t on twitter and connected to the people that I’m connected to in my local community I would not be as effective at my job. I would not have the same knowledge, I would not be involved in the same collaborative projects and I would not have the same personal connections to people that work at other campuses and in other departments.  Twitter has changed *everything*.

I also strongly feel that people not involved in these local twitter discussions are missing out on great conversations, personal relationships, and problem-solving discussions that are taking place *only* in this venue.  In essence, the meeting is happening outside the meeting. We’re meeting on twitter day in and day out, and we’re having casual informal snippets of conversation that are changing our day-to-day lives.  The important stuff is happening on twitter, the formal stuff is happening in the structured face-to-face meetings.

The important stuff is the informal stuff. The off-handed comments about a particular musician that someone hates, the requests for recipes, the mention of a project that someone is working on that then leads to a discussion and collaboration on that same idea, the requests for help or advice from someone trying to decide what purchase would be best, or the sharing of the birth of a child – these are the powerful things. The things that change us as people and as a community. These are the things that feed our spirits and help us work creatively and collaboratively. This is our community. Join the meeting.

What’s an eight-hour work day look like?

I’ve been reading some things here and there lately about flexibility in work hours and how we should probably rethink that whole idea of an eight-hour work day. I’d certainly say that, at least in some professions/positions that should be a thing to consider.

I’m certainly not saying that I think flexible hours will work in every situation, but I do think that expecting someone to sit at their desk from 8am until 5pm and be completely focused on work during that time and then leave at 5pm and ignore work until the next morning at 8 is ridiculous in this day and age.

When we’re connecting with students, working on projects and using our gorgeous Web 2.0 tools to weave our community magic, and eight-hour work day is a thing of the past. If I’m adding students on Facebook at 10PM and writing on their wall and joining groups they’ve asked me to join, I’m still at work.

The problem for me is that I *love* my job. I have no desire to turn off the lights at 5pm and ignore all of it until 8am the next day. It’s not how I function. I’m constantly connected, constantly interacting (unless I’m sleeping, but that doesn’t count – and actually my iPhone is about 1.5 feet from my bed during that time as well and if I wake up in the middle of the night, the first thing I do is check email and twitter), and I love that. I love social networking and community building.

Now, if I’m not at my desk at 4PM because I have to run my very active and athletic 14-year old to practice, is that still frowned upon? Is it still a bad thing to “leave work early” when in fact, I never leave work at all.

What’s an eight hour work day look like? I have no idea. I can’t remember.. it’s been so long since I’ve seen it.