Opening up the playground vala2012
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http://www.vala.org.au/vala2012-proceedings/vala2012-session-10-reid Technology is the backbone of our libraries. Keeping up with the pace of change in emerging technologies is the challenge. It’s time to reassess how we spread emerging technologies throughout our workplaces. The success of the "Learning 2.0" programs around the world points to informal learning as being the way forward. Staff are increasingly being told to 'go and play' with emerging technology. This paper will explore the barriers and enablers of informal learning in libraries. It provides real-life examples of how to overcome barriers and create an environment conducive to spreading emerging technologies.
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Opening up the playground vala2012
- 1. Flickr 2009 stefan Opening up the playground Library staff and play
- 2. Flickr 2009 stefan 3 things to take away…
- 3. Flickr 2011 Stefan 1. People – spread the virus
- 4. Flickr 2011 Stefan 2. Environment – grow the virus
- 5. Flickr 2010 stefan 3. Workplace learning continuum
- 6. Summary People. Environment. Workplace learning. Flickr 2009 stefan
- 7. Secret! Swinburne University 2011 Incentives Flickr 2009 stefan
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Helen – introduction\n\nLibraries are changing and the role of those who work in libraries is also changing – well duh – we all know that. \n\nIt can be a little be daunting when you just get your head around one new gadget or software and someone else at work is raving about some new tool or program they are using. You get the feeling that you are never going to get a handle on all these new things.\n\nSo how do we keep up – we have all been told to just go and “play” or we have told others to just spend some time “playing” with a gadget or software to get the hang of it, but it isn’t always easy\n\nFor some of us it may have been a long time since we have played with anything and we especially don’t “play” at work. For some we need more direction to learn, or we need a set of instructions or playing for the sake of playing doesn’t make sense, we need to understand how this fits in with what we are doing at work.\n\nBut it is important that we continue to learn, to have a go, experiment, evaluate, and play to support the spread of emerging technologies in our work places\n
- \n\nHelen\n\nThere are a number of factors that can help encourage staff to engage with new technologies:\n\nthey are people,\nthe environment and \nthe workplace learning culture. \n\nWe will be looking at these is some detail and providing you with some real life examples of how to encourage play in your workplace. \n\nBy the end of this presentation you will have at least three strategies to help you spread emerging technologies throughout your organisation. \n\nI’ll handover to Kim to take you through the first 2. \n
- Kim:\n\nCluett, L., J. Skene, et al. (2011, April 3 - 6). "Infecting professional staff with the emerging technology &#x2018;virus&#x2019;: how the leadership game has changed." CCA-EDUCAUSE Australasia 2011. from http://ocs.arcs.org.au/index.php/educause/ccae2011/paper/view/155.\n\nHoward, Z & Ryan, D 2010, Replacing the watercooler: Connecting through enterprise microblogging, viewed 20 November 2011, <http://www.vala.org.au/vala2010-proceedings/vala2010-session-11-howard>.\n\nSpreading emerging technology throughout an organisation is dependant on a number of conditions being right. \n\nHaving people who can and want to help spread emerging technology is a big plus. \n\nDr Lisa Cluett from University of WA refers to these people as infectors. Within each organisation we need different kinds of infectors to spread the emerging tech virus. These people need to be nurtured so the emerging tech virus can incubate can grow and spread. Libraries can provide the right conditions to spread the virus and I am going to give you some examples.\n\nInfectors may not always come from within your area. One of our liaison staff Madeleine Breuwer is working with Dr Birgit Loch an academic from Swinburne&#x2019;s Faculty of Engineering and Industrial sciences to research the use of tablets in teaching. It is a very exciting project. Madeleine works closely with Birgit because not only is she the Faculty liaison librarian, they both belonging to a University-wide educational technology research group. \n\nTogether they are spreading the emerging technology virus through the University by researching, writing and publishing about educational technologies. They are sharing their findings with others, through Yammer (the enterprise microblogging website) and in face-to-face meetings where people present short, sharp sessions on their educational tech research. \n\nWithin our staff at Swinburne there are a number of super-infectors who have extensive networks and an enthusiasm for emerging technology that is infectious. Staff are encouraged to play and share. Recently when our license to Elluminate an online classroom environment expired the Deputy University Librarian, Gary Hardy found an open source solution. He beta tested it with a few people in the Library and then for much of 2011 join.in it was used Library-wide for telephone/webconferencing (join.in) conferencing. It demonstrates that at the highest level of Library management there is a desire to innovate, a willingness to play/experiment and a commitment to enable the spread of emerging technology.\n\nAfter hearing Zaana Howard and Darren Ryan&#x2019;s paper about Yammer at VALA2010 a few Swinburne Librarians started their own stealth project using the enterprise blogging software, others from outside the Library started to join the conversations and then start up their own groups. The University&#x2019;s elearning leaders became active in spreading the yammer virus and now there are 602 Swinburne members on Yammer and 24 groups. The interactions on Yammer are terrific we learn so much from each other. Lots of connections have been made and a lot of the conversations are around emerging and educational technology. \n\nI can&#x2019;t talk about the spread of emerging technology without talking about Twitter. Many librarians are active on Twitter and have established robust PLN&#x2019;s or personal learning networks. The networks that I belong to are always eager to share links, ideas or ask questions, challenge people about all sorts of things including emerging tech. As a result of a twitter post by @catspyjamasnz (Joyce Seitzinger) I have started playing with the new social network Path and undertaken to learn more about digital curation and a tweet linking to Nathaniel Louwren&#x2019;s (a teacher in Wellington) blog I have started geocaching. I mentioned on twitter and found out that Birgit Loch is a very experienced geocacher. She offered to give me a geocaching 101 session over lunch. Helen also has an interest in geocaching and she joined us. We found some caches around our Hawthorn campus. One of the caches we found was a multi-cache which required treasure hunters to take a tour around the campus to locate the treasure. Making a game or treasure hunt out of orientation using smart devices what a good idea. Something to consider for library orientation perhaps. \n\nMost of the learning I have mentioned here is informal and Helen is going to talk about different workplace learning approaches soon. \n
- Kim\n\nConditions to spread emerging technology include:\nSupport at all levels of organisation\nProviding opportunities to get together informally to share/connect \nand often short, sharp sharing sessions are more effective than longer formal sessions\nDon&#x2019;t rely on one expert. It&#x2019;s a bit of a burden for one person to be the technology expert for the whole library, instead encourage informal learning amongst peers.\n\nCluett suggests taking a book club approach. Get people to pick a technology that the group can get to know. The concept is similar to the approach taken by UTS Library. I spoke with Sophie McDonald who facilitates Mobile Mondays at UTS. \n\nMobile Mondays ran for the first time in 2011. It ran over 7 weeks. Essentially once a week at lunch time (1 hour) staff explored different technologies including ebooks/readers, photo sharing apps, video making and sharing apps, difference between mobile websites and mobile apps, barcode scanning apps and productivity apps. In 2012 they are exploring geolocation, Augmented reality, music apps other exciting emerging tech. \n\nThey have in-house tech support. Tablets and readers that can be borrowed by staff and students and they use idevices for roving reference. These conditions help to enable the spread of emerging technology. Mobile Monday&#x2019;s provide a sandpit or &#x201C;structured playtime&#x201D; where peers can learn together in a supportive, safe environment. \n\nIf you think about kindergarten. There are stations or areas set up for different kinds of play. There is the dress-up corner, reading corner, a chance to play with play dough, lego or water, outside play and so much more. \n\nThese areas are carefully constructed and planned to encourage different types learning and play. What we are advocating is creating time, space and the right conditions for staff to participate in some structured, informal play. However, there is also a place for more formal workplace learning, Helen will talk to you about the workplace learning continuum. \n\nThanks.\n
- \nHelen\n\nThe research suggests that around 80% of what we learn at work is done in an informal way&#x2013; in contrast to the formal learning we do by attending staff development workshops or training. This means that we learn from those around us, copying others, listening to others, experimenting with others. \n\nSo if you can imagine a continuum, with formal learning such as university courses, 2 day training courses held away from the workplace to informal learning at the other such as the hints you pick up on how to screen dumps from the person who sits next to you at work. For some of us, learning by sitting in a room and being taught by &#x201C;an expert&#x201D; is how we prefer to learn, or maybe it is by being given a workbook to work through at our own pace, or maybe it is by just getting in there, experimenting, by trial and error. Everyone is different and that needs to be recognized. \n\nThe value of the experimental end of the this continuum is beginning to be recognized as it hasn&#x2019;t necessarily been done before. In the area of emerging technology, where there isn&#x2019;t always time to develop a formal training program, or isn&#x2019;t appropriate to do so, we need to encourage this experimenting, this playing\n\nAnd to do this we need to set up the right culture, one that encourages both learning and sharing. \n\nFor some people who prefer a more structured approach to learning the 23 things project that has been taken up by a number of libraries around Australia and is perfect in providing tasks to direct a person&#x2019;s learning. \n\nAt Yarra Plenty Regional Library in Victoria, Christine Mackenzie implemented a staff development program that not only included the 23 things program but also included a road show where the management team presented new technology in a forum that was open to all staff. They also set up a staff development program that promoted skills in learning to learn and adapting to change. A culture of learning has resulted.\n\nAt Swinburne the use of Yammer has been supported and encouraged to provide groups within the library to communicate and share easily. This has meant that groups such as the liaison staff who work across our 5 campuses have been able to share more and work more collaboratively and efficiently, a plus for the library as a whole. The involvement with Yammer within the Swinburne environment is that our super infectors in the library have connected with others around the university and we have raised the profile of the library in the area of emerging technology and it has meant that we have been included in more discussions around the implementation of technology that we may have been in the past. \n\nThe State Library of Victoria last year sponsored a visit from Steve Hargadon from the United States who is a Social Learning Consultant for Elluminate/Blackboard Collaborate and the founder of the Web 2.0 Labs. His belief is that you cannot expect educators to teach "21st Century Skills" if they aren't experiencing the benefits of these technologies personally, and that the surest way to improving education is to help educators become "lead learners" and in a position to influence their students and public policy. He spoken at a Teacher 2.0 workshop however the same view can be held for us in libraries. We can&#x2019;t expect library staff to participate in 21st century communities without being willing to be lead learners.\n\nSo we need to recognize that learning not only occurs by attending a certain number of staff development activities throughout the year but also everyday in the workplace. And we can do this through including the need to take time to explore and play in our staff development plans, in our strategic plans and in our individual performance plans.\n
- \nHelen\n\nSo we promised you 3 things to take away and they are:\n\nPeople: find the infectors in your organisation &#x2013; are you one of them? Look beyond your immediate department. How can you encourage and use these people to spread their learning to others\n\nEnvironment: can you find a way to allow staff time to share, time to explore, is there a new technology such as Yammer that you can support that will promote an environment of exploration. Do you allow staff to try (and sometimes fail) with something. It might be clearing the way with the IT department, committing some resources to purchasing some hardware, allowing a pilot program with some software.\n\nWorkplace Learning: Everyone needs to recognize that how we learn in libraries is varied and that keeping current and playing can be as valuable as attending a 1 day off site session on using Word 2010. Recognize this as part of the library and individual plans\n\nAnd as a personal plug: I am exploring the area of how we can support staff to keep current with emerging technologies as part of my PhD studies and would be interested in talking to anyone who believes their organisation is doing it well, or is trying something different, or just want to chat about their ideas on the topic\n\nAnd Kim and I want to leave you with one final hint to help spread emerging technology through your organisation&#x2026;.\n
- Helen\n\nDon&#x2019;t be afraid to introduce bribery&#x2026;. Sorry, &#x201C;Incentives&#x201D;.\n\nRecognize the fantastic job those around you are doing to help you and others in your organisation keep learning.\n\nThank you\n\nQuestions\n