Daily Bookmarks 06/06/2009

  • Directory of free online courses, sorted in categories including art, science, computers, and instructional design.

    tags: e-learning, education, art, technology, instructionaldesign, science, free

  • Tech companies can provide snacks for their employees without worrying that people will spend all day gorging themselves at the snack bar. So why don’t companies and schools trust that if they give people access to social media that they won’t spend all day on Facebook? I like the analogy here.

    tags: web2.0, socialnetworking, education

    • This issue is all about trust. Schools don’t trust students or teachers to do the right thing. Companies don’t trust employees. but the problem lies not with the technology, but with with setting expectations and ensuring those expectations are met. When a company blocks access to social media, it is blocking access to its own future growth and when a school blocks access to social media it is blocking access to a student’s future growth.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

4 thoughts on “Daily Bookmarks 06/06/2009

  1. For all that I’m not as enamored of Twitter as many others, I do have to admit that I found your post today through somebody’s Tweet. I’m definitely finding new people I didn’t know about, and that’s a good thing.

    Our entire course development team works virtually; I hadn’t met anyone I work with for the first 9 months on the job. The father of one of my coworkers always asks her how our manager knows that she’s being productive when we’re not in an office and can’t be watched. She’s repeatedly explained that it’s pretty obvious whether the work gets done or not–if the course content isn’t ready by the beginning of the semester, everybody’s going to know.

    I think it’s a similar issue with social media; if you evaluate people by their results, allowing sites like Facebook isn’t a problem. But it’s much easier as a manager to look at hours and time on task or any number of more superficial standards. Best Buy’s Results Oriented Work Environment is a great idea, and I hope it spreads as others see the value. Unfortunately, I think many businesses will continue to be locked down. As more social media is accessible via cell phones they’ll lose the battle though. That may be the tipping point–when everyone has a web-enabled phone and don’t need to worry about a corporate filter. Then maybe we’ll have some better conversations about results and productivity.

  2. Christy, so nice of you to save my little post on the Snack Bar. Discussed this very topic with my siblings at a family gathering this afternoon. They all work in corporate jobs, and they all think that the workplace has no room for social media. I think I did very little to convince them otherwise. But time will tell whether or not I’m on the right or wrong side of the discussion.

    BTW, keep up with the Twitter. I didn’t “get it” either at first, but I’ve found it to be a very useful tool from time to time. One quick example, through Twitter I found a social media pro in a nearby town that I wouldn’t have likely found any other way. He’s been a great resource for me to continue learning about all of this stuff. I’m @billgx on twitter.

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