Following on the NIACE digital inclusion conference, we have set up a few ‘guides’ on current Internet usage. It’s really just to see if by providing a simple ‘how-to’ get involved with the social web, we can begin to build adult education related networks, if at all!

The ‘We Share…‘ series will be an ongoing thing and hopefully beneficial in understanding some of the barriers that practitioners / tutors etc face when learning how to the make the most of the social web in an educational context.

Okay, so we’ve started to find some useful / poor / interesting / pointless websites and information contained therein. So what’s the best way to keep track, manage and share them with others? well that would be social bookmarking. Using this tool (and there are a few variations out there, see the list at the bottom of this page) it is possible to manage everything you find on the Internet and usually it’s as easy as clicking a button and adding a few words. Because a whole load of other people are doing the same, then the system becomes even more useful by rating the best and worse that’s out there. There are so many benefits to using social bookmarking that it’s best to just get in there and try it out.

Let’s have a look at Delicious. All you need to start is a valid email address, you may already have one, you may have one or two. Ever thought of having one simply to sign up to all these services? as a kind of gateway? Anyway, back to Delicious. Again, we don’t want to tell you how to use it here, they do it much better than we could on their help page, so head over there to get started.
You can find all our bookmarks on there so add us into your network and we’ll do the same. similar to how we did on twitter. It’s up to you whether any of our bookmarks are of any use to you, but in any case, please let us know how you get on. Remember, it’s all about the conversation.

A few Social Bookmarking sites

Delicious

Stumble Upon

Furl

Using a search engine is the most obvious way to try and find stuff online. Trouble is, there is so much of it out there. The trick is to put a bit of thought into your searching. By learning how to search for things you will find your information a lot quicker and easier. Then it’s a case of organising what you have found, finding and learning about the best tools to do this and of course, sharing what you’ve found with others (which we will cover in other parts of the ‘We Share…” series). This is the social web in action.

There are many ‘How To’ tutorials on searching the Internet and more specifically, Google. We have provided a few of them at the bottom of this page. Probably the best one is Google’s own. Have a go, see what you think. Then try the others and see how they compare. By all means, leave us a comment with your opinions or if you have any questions. If haven’t already joined Twitter, come and discuss it there. As long as you’re having a go and talking about it, that’s what counts.

Just a quick note that Google has now become much more than a search engine, but for our little experiments, the searching will do for now.

Using google web search

GoogleTutor

Google Guide

Here is ‘The social web’ as defined on Wikipedia.

The Social Web is currently used to describe how people socialize or interact with each other throughout the World Wide Web. Such people are brought together through a variety of shared interests. There are different ways in which people want to socialize on the Web today. The first kind of socializing is typified by “people focus” websites such as Bebo, Facebook, and Myspace. Such sites promote the person as focus of social interaction. To do this a profile is constructed by each user. In many ways the profile is similar to a passport.

The second kind of socializing is typified by a sort of “hobby focus” websites. For example, if one is interested in photography and wants to share this with like-minded people, then there are photography websites such as Flickr, Kodak Gallery and Photobucket.

There are also two ways in which people socialize with each other in the Social Web. The most general and most common type is always at a distance and only on the World Wide Web. In such socializing there is never face to face personal contact. Much of the socializing on Flickr is sharing of photos and making comments on the photos of others. However, where Flickr members come from a common local geographical area, then they are inclined to get together physically for a common photoshoot. This exemplifies the second type of socializing through the World Wide Web: that which leads to real physical contact. Typical examples of the latter arose historically from social networking both within and outside schools and colleges. Facebook’s origins are in the facebook of college students from Harvard University.

The Social Web may also be used to refer to two different, yet related concepts. The first is as a description of web 2.0 technologies that are focused on social interaction and community before anything else. The second is a proposal for a future network similar to the World Wide Web.

In terms of digital inclusion and adult learning, this can be the thing that currently ties everything together. Get involved with the social web, find the relevant networks and start sharing resources, news, applications - anything you like really.

There is a lot of stuff out there and it can be tricky knowing where to start. We like to get people using this stuff straight away so as we’re here, maybe we can get things going using a simple online application called ‘Twitter‘. This application is best described by the blurb on their website…

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

You only need an email address and password to start using Twitter and it’s really easy. Once you have registered, go to our twitter page and click ‘Follow’. We then get a message telling us that you are following us, we’ll follow you too. From then, we can send each other messages or ‘tweets’ about anything at all. In this context, it could be about learning resources and how to find them, other social web stuff, answers and questions..etc. From ‘following’ us, you can also follow any other relevant Twitter user and so we start to build our network of people who know stuff! probably more importantly, we start the conversation. It’s best understood by example so go get yourself a twitter account and we’ll show you where things can go!

http://www.twitter.com/

After the last NIACE event I wasn’t enthralled by the prospect of more of the same. Fortunately, me and Jon took away some valuable stuff linked to what we’re trying to do with We Share Stuff. Funny, really as what we’re doing is what most of the conference speakers seem to be hinting at. In an Adult Education sense, there seems to be two main issues. How do we train the teachers / tutors / deliverers in the ‘new’ technology and where is the money coming from? Herein lies the problem. Because it seems most of the providers out there have always stuck to the same methods, applied to the same funding streams, delivered the same content, ticking the same boxes and chasing the same targets. We’ve mentioned before how the Internet is disrupting traditional ways we learn things. Well, it’s also disrupting the way we teach and the way we fund the stuff too. There are many good examples of teaching / learning via new technology already out there. How we develop and define the networks where these examples can be shared by learners / teachers, is a key point. As these networks for learning / teaching develop, by their nature, they become more sociable and other stuff apart from learning / teaching, is shared. This is where the blurring of content / discussion happens, the whole ‘mash-up’ thing that is spawned by Internet noodling (I can’t think what this should be called!), doing its thing again. So suddenly we find these social / educational / community networks blending into something new and maybe raising the potential of funding from alternative streams… community, creative industry and educational etc.
My point is that the Internet is really shaking things up, and providers need to be tuned in to what is happening. From what I heard yesterday at the conference, i’m not sure how many providers really know what’s going on or how they can make the most from it.

We ran the first Internet surgery on Sunday, and while it was quiet, we still managed to discuss some stuff and throw out some ideas to those who attended. We have decided to make the surgery a fortnightly affair which gives everyone a bit more time to promote / organise etc. The next one will be on Sunday 7th December, same venue, The Red Couch cafe, Erdington from 11:00 am.

An event took place in London on the 17th November, organised by NIACE and focusing on opening access to adults. While the event looked at media, in the broadest sense, all of the morning speakers were very keen to stress the importance of the digital role. There were many facts and figures, research undertaken, stressing the point that it’s about the people, not the technology. In all, plenty of things that we already know. The speakers made their points, the audience nodded in agreement and everyone went home.

I’m sorry to be critical as I’m really supportive of NIACE’s aims, but this whole conference approach really needs shaking up. I spoke to a number of participants at the conference each of whom commented that they hoped to learn something from the event, take back something they can use. The only participation came during the afternoon sessions (knowledge cafes!) but this was really limited. The event speakers did a round table discussion about their own projects. NIACE announced a new project that they have provisionally entitled ‘TV Club’ where adult learners, or groups gather to discuss a specific TV programme and discuss the production methods behind it. Rachel Thompson, Senior Development Officer for NIACE spoke about the possibility of including ‘websites’ in the project too…

The conference didn’t offer wi-fi access but then again, I was the only one slightly puzzled by this apparent ignorance of current technology uses, so it wasn’t really that surprising. Throughout the event, I was online using Twitter to update colleagues on key parts of proceedings and to find out further information on the speakers and their projects. A bonus of being in the Twitter world was that I was able to keep in with another ‘key’ conference that was also on that day. I was hoping to use it as an example of current social media, but the conference just wasn’t that ‘engaging’ and that was a big shame.

Overall I was quite concerned about the lack of knowledge on current digital trends and how they can be harnessed. Maybe this will be addressed at the Digital Inclusion conference, also hosted by NIACE next week. I’m hoping it will definitely be addressed at the Digital Mentor workshop happening today. Which would have been the cooler option to attend this week. But i’m glad I attended this conference. It’s one thing to get excited about advances in the tools and roles, but another thing entirely in recognising the gaps, pitfalls and barriers.