Government Elearning - Spring 2009 - (Page 31)

1 2 WHAT ABOUT BLOGGING? Beyond podcasts, blogs (Web-based platforms for hosting discussions around specific topics) have emerged as preferred by users of electronic formats. Data from this survey conveys that NNSA employees are only partially familiar with blogs (47 percent have never visited a blog site), and those who have visited blogs only viewed the site rather than contributed to the dialogue. Given the valuable opportunity blogs provide, the Office of the Chief Learning Officer sees them as a way to begin dialogues and ease employees into the use of Web 2.0 tools for their learning purposes. Creating a blog with stakeholders (virtual environment), and then extending the blog dialogue to an event such as a brown bag lunch (in-person), may provide employees with an opportunity to participate and collaborate as desired. Two benefits of incorporating blogs into e-learning are: Creating an interest among stakeholders. One format for blogs is to invite a group of people to contribute to dialogues. The stakeholders could take turns weekly posting an editorial comment and inviting employees to comment. This format is most successful when the original author of the post then returns mid-week to comment on the posted comments of others. Interest measured by amount of comments would indicate the value of creating an in-person extension to the dialogue (brown bag lunch). Increasing trust while building a collaborative environment. Blogs often adapt guidelines such as e-mail policies to avoid abuse. Posting information that may be false is often avoided because of the audience’s ability to question and hold authors accountable. Blogs also are found to be more collegial environments for discussion and lend to more permanence of content (adding an additional benefit of collecting knowledge wealth). Promoting blogs may send a message to employees that they are trusted to share; censorship becomes the exception as opposed to the rule. Fig. 2 - Preference of Web 2.0 Tools SUMMARY NNSA’s OCLO states that one of its primary objectives is to make employees more amenable to learning and make it more valuable to them. Based on the results of the survey, designing learning events that move employees from passive participants to content creators will enable the OCLO to meet its strategic goal while creating a collaborative culture. The OCLO eventually wants to utilize emerging technologies and learning tools (while considering employees’ learning preferences) to create new, more beneficial learning events. These events would offer some familiarity to employees, but would also gently encourage them to expand into The OCLO wants to utilize emerging technologies and learning tools to create new, more beneﬁcial learning events. new contexts and formats. This approach would enable the agency to capture the valuable knowledge wealth of SMEs while motivating other employees to engage in collaborative opportunities of professional development and contribute to the overall collective knowledge of the agency. —This article excerpted from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s “Office of Chief Learning Officer 2008 Survey Results.” Government Elearning! Spring 2009 31

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Government Elearning - Spring 2009

Government Elearning - Spring 2009 Contents Publisher's Note News Stimulus News DOL Expands E-learning Government Service Rating Second Life as Art Deals People on the Move Trendlines Currency and Learning Technology, Part 1 Learning Preferences at NNSA E-learning Goes Public Case Study: Arlington Case Study: BT Group Case Study: JFS College New Products Products Exit Poll Last Word

Government Elearning - Spring 2009

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