Thursday, August 21, 2008

On-line Communities - My thoughts

In these times of rapid and unrelenting change, we are expected to work and be "smarter" than before. Flexibility has become the new chic "F" word. All of our programs, people and systems have to be flexible and in tune with the needs of the community.

Through the Groups and Networks video, Stephen Downes highlighted opportunities for Networks to be effective and offer a range of opportunities for participation. The concept of Networks is underpinned through a flexible approach. As a Training Organisation, our delivery methods should reflect these concepts through our programs however this presents a challenge.

As an organisation we are the newbies of e-learning strategies and very much into Group concepts. The nature of our funding has supported closed groups, passwords and distributed information. This is rapidly changing as we move along the continuum to a Network approach.

Within the organisation, we have many examples of effective communities of practice with our experiences mirroring the Communities of Practice literature as well as the philosophy of Bill Gates. Bill Gates highlighted how the successful organisation of tomorrow is the one that is capable of communicating with itself today. Improving communication strategies has meant more than supplying the infrastructure and systems. Participation has determined the success of the process.

On reflection, we have many informal "communities of practice" throughout our organisation. Involvement in this course will enable us to experiment with different methods of communicating to support these groups.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Introduction To FOC08

I am both excited and petrified as I embark on this new venture with the facilitating On-line Communities.

We have created a moodle with a range of courses including, retail, management and hospitality. Our courses have been developed through the toolbox repository and are serving their purpose however are in need of the icing on the cake. I am hoping that through this course, I will have the opportunities to develop the skills to make that happen.

Looking forward to your help

Cheers
Jan