Wednesday, November 7, 2007

eLearning 2.0 Presentation with Tony Karrer

I attended my first day of DevLearn and needless to say ideas are bouncing around my head like a pinball. This is my attempt to get it all out before I forget. The first workshop of the day was eLearning 2.0, presented by Tony Karrer.

I’m currently researching Wiki’s for my organization so I was going into this presentation hoping to come out with a lot of ideas of how they can be used. Tony provided some great information regarding Wiki’s and the audience had some great examples of how they are being used at their organizations.

A couple of Wiki ideas I walked away with:
· Honey Pots - I loved the idea of creating “honey pots” in the Wiki so that only certain areas can be edited. I had some concerns about using a Wiki to communicate policy and other HR related information without having control of what is edited. By using “honey pots” I can restrict editing access to the sensitive information while allowing access to other areas.
· Help Function – At my organization we recently rolled out a new point of sale software program and this seems like the best format for a help feature. The application is home grown and constantly in development. Feature creep is my worst enemy. A Wiki seems like it would be a great way to keep the organization updated on all of the changes. Our internal tech support staff is constantly coming across new “FAQ’s” and this seems like a fabulous option because they would be able to add the FAQ’s on their own.
· Meeting Agenda – Using a Wiki for a meeting agenda is a great way to collaborate on the content of the meeting. A wiki would allow each contributor to edit the agenda. This is much better than emailing around several versions of a document.

At this point I have more ideas of how to use a Wiki then I have time to implement. I am hoping to implement the Wiki in phases in hopes that I can prove its value and be freed up more time to work on it. Now I need to find a way to see an example Wiki(s) from other organizations and if possible talk to somebody who was involved in implementing a Wiki at their organization.

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