il 2006: Helene Blowers on Learning 2.0
If you haven’t already heard of or checked out Learning 2.0, go now! During her half of the session, Helene talked about this learning programme (note: it’s not a “training” programme!) as a way to introduce staff to new technologies, encourage them to take responsibility for their own learning, and reward them for taking the initiative to complete the 23 self-discovery exercises. She said that a good way to think about it is as a summer reading programme or “play” programme for staff. Learning 2.0 at PLCMC did not include workshops or training sessions and was all about self-directed learning.
I furiously took as many notes as I could during Helene’s session because this is something I’d love to do at my library! Here are some of Helene’s “lessons learned”:
- Build the programme for late bloomers: don’t expect everyone to jump on board from the get-go, so make sure the programme can accomodate those who want to get in on the fun later!
- Allow participants to blog anonymously.
- Communicate weekly using 1.0 methods: Helene sent emails to the participants every Monday and Friday. Makes sense because not everyone will be comfortable with RSS (and blog feeds) early on.
- Focus on discovery and encourage challenges: Helene recommends making the exercises easy enough for everyone but with enough of a built-in challenge for those who want to take things further. This will also encourage staff to use each other as resources and work through the exercises together.
- Remember that it’s not about acceptance and doing it right, it’s about exposure. Not everyone will love every tool they experiment with and that’s OK. Learning 2.0 is about exposing the participants to the tools and technology, it’s not about making them love all those tools!
- Give your staff permission and time to play: the programme would simply fall apart without both!
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