In another infamous “Twitter learning moment”, we were directed by @durff to an engaging Ustream presentation broadcasting live from the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives (unfortunately, this hasn’t been archived, but we’ll post it when it becomes available). The focus of the panel discussion was on the use of Social Networks in the business world, and the discussion generally addressed the idea that professionals should be “fluent” in the use of social networks (like Facebook and Linkedin, Twitter (increasingly important), Ning — but not MySpace) for professional networking. The term “purposeful networking” was brought up in the Ustream presentation, and tweeted by @durff and replied to by Stephanie (@ssandifer):

Durff @ssandifer purposeful networking – things that make me think
ssandifer @durff So much content here for a high school level 1/2 credit course in “purposeful & professional online networking”
Durff @ssandifer yet those who graduate will need skills to communicate, connect, and collaborate in these online networks
ssandifer “purposeful networking” could/should be considered a 21st Century literacy.
ssandifer @durff @kolson29 And we continue with malpractice by NOT prepping kids for this…

The idea of purposeful networking has been discussed many times in the world of business, but somehow hasn’t become a matter of importance in mainstream education. In my post This is IT – Why Web 2.0, Aaron Strout of Mzinga was mentioned for posting a job and requiring applicants to apply through social media rather than the traditional resume. Wesley Fryer wrote a post this week titled Web 2.0 in the Enterprise which details the webinar “Web 2.0 for your Business” from Irwin Lazar, Principal Analyst and Program Director for Nemertes Research. The post is excellent and a must-read for educators. Some of the notes in the post include this:

“We are living in an information society now, and we have to react quickly to news and trends
– brokers, real estate agents have certainly seen this in the past few weeks
– need to be able to process information, share it, aggregate it
– agility: the ability to react quickly to change
– agility is key in the 21st century business environment“

This increasing use of networking in the business world leads us to believe that purposeful networking is an essential skill for students today. The ISTE National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S) states standards for technology in education today, but doesn’t actually mention networking as a skill. The closest standard is under Communication and Collaboration where it states “interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.”

As this post was being written, I asked Aaron Strout (via twitter) about essential skills in business and social media today. He responded in less than 5 minutes and we were able to have a phone conversation about this. (note: Aaron and I have never met, he works in Boston, I in rural Wisconsin – this networking would NOT have happened without Twitter.) Aaron is the Vice President of New Media at Mzinga, a company which believes, “that companies can use their existing communities of people – their employees, their customers, their partners, and their shareholders – to solve their business needs and provide real value to the business.” While this company is obviously on the cutting edge of social media, adoption of Web 2.0 technologies and online interactions, it’s a clear indicator of the future skills that our students will need in future professions.

Aaron and I spoke about how networking and Web 2.0 skills are essential for anyone entering (or already in) customer service, marketing, product design and recruiting, to name just a few fields (I would argue that education should be included). For those in public relations, things have changed – rather than releasing information directly to the mainstream media, now the mainstream media often looks to bloggers for the most current trends and information. Isn’t blogging a skill that professionals should have? As Mzinga itself is recruiting through social media (as are various other companies, several tweets/day roll across my screen with the words “we’re hiring”) and LinkedIn and Facebook are becoming more and more popular as a professional networking platforms, wouldn’t “purposeful networking” be a valued skill in our students?

While it’s more common to find younger candidates with the necessary skill set for social media, Aaron was telling me about a meeting he was in recently in which they were discussing the need for more younger people in nonprofits. He mentioned that someone brought up the point that it isn’t necessarily a distinction between young and old, it’s a distinction between connected and unconnected. This is really interesting as the terms “digital natives” and “net generation” are being thrown about with abandon in education and the media. I did an unscientific poll recently of my twitter network and found that the average age of the people who follow me on twitter (226 of the 370 or so) is 39.6 – while this was a very casual survey, this is a pretty clear indicator of the fact that social networking is not only for the under 25 demographic.

One distinction is how the different age groups use networking. As Aaron pointed out, most younger professionals are coming into the workplace very comfortable with the concept of social media because they’re already using it informally – for interaction with social groups. In my experience, and evidenced below, the older demographic uses networking more for professional purposes. There are obvious reasons for this, but the implication is that “purposeful networking” is a skill not gained strictly through the use of social networking sites. There are levels of interaction in networking, and although transparency is becoming more accepted and valued, there is still a line between the strictly social use of networking and professional. Aaron describes how he’s fine with seeing the real side of prospective employees on Facebook profiles and twitterstreams because it gives him a better picture of who people are, but in our opinion and experience, networking is much more than simply posting information about yourself on various sites.

There are several great pieces about the topic of different generational uses of networking on the Wikinomics blog – “A Digital Generation” and “GenX and the Real Talent Crunch“. The bit that was most intriguing was this, from “GenX and the Real Talent Crunch“:

“What’s more, as Dan points out in his recent post “A digital generation?,” Gen Xers have mastered productive uses of the Internet to a much higher degree than the entertainment-focused Net Gen, and are the true drivers of technology innovation.“

This is where purposeful networking as a 21st century skill comes in. When I “asked Twitter” for the skills necessary for success in social media and business today, here’s what came back:

skydaddy @kolson29 Same as always: Be professional. Follow through. Take less and give more than is expected of you.
dpenrose @kolson29 Of course, being able to communicate effectively, time management, flexibilty, a generalist, a minimalist, innovative, workaholic
krusk @kolson29 How about authenticity? It’s becoming more important online, and I think that translates to the offline world as well.
andykatz22 @kolson29 relationship builder, finger on the pulse, multitasker
LaurieShuls @kolson29 I’d say that you need to find creative ways to comm with this niche media – no phone calls – converse via tweets, FB, etc.
LaurieShuls @kolson29 I’d also note that you should read EVERYTHING, I track all of my contacts, their personal blogs, etc. so we’re in constant contact
smheadhunter Networking doesn’t just get you a job – it gives you a network to make your next job successful

As shown in these answers, networking IS a skill and needs to be taught as such. Other terms that are thrown about in education are netiquette and digital citizenship, but too often these are focused on online safety, which although a concern, isn’t the same as purposeful networking.

One of the issues facing educators who are trying to bring about the use of these tools and tackle the issue of purposeful networking in the classroom, is that most educators are not in a field that is making use of these tools. Many educators have not had careers outside of the classroom. Those educators who have had other careers are most likely unaware of these changes that have been occurring in the use of technology in the business world if they haven’t worked outside of the classroom in the past five years or made a concerted effort to stay connected. Additionally, the education profession historically has been a profession of “isolationism” despite recent efforts to establish Professional Learning Communities within schools. Developing a system-wide understanding of the need for the use of these tools is challenging, but essential if we hope to prepare our students with the skills they need to communicate, connect, and collaborate effectively and professionally in this increasingly connected world. Networking is extremely powerful for connecting educators and students to professionals outside of education – the challenge in education today is breaking down barriers and allowing students and teachers access to the sites and time in the school day and curriculum.

Potential solutions for overcoming these barriers include everything from teacher externships in fields related to their content areas, systemic change in practice at all levels of the system to include the use of Web 2.0 and social networking tools, and integration of 21st Century literacies/tools across the curriculum. At this time, educators should make efforts to connect with fields related to content areas, whether in their own communities or globally. Networking tools give great opportunities for this. Just one example of this is the ability to connect with professionals in various fields through twitter, which has been an invaluable tool for seeing new trends in the business field. It would be equally beneficial for educators in all content areas. Networking, whether physically or online, is essential for staying current in the world for which we are preparing our students.

How do you reach beyond your profession to stay connected?

What are your solutions for breaking down the barriers to allow purposeful networking to become a part of mainstream education?

Edited with more input:

lisarokusek @kolson29 great post on networking – along with purposeful I would add mindful….it implies a plan, respect, and presence in the present (added 8:45 a.m. 3/28/08)

Edited to include additional resources:

“Google Generation is a myth, says new research” – JISC (added 9:00 pm 3/28/08)
“Fact or Fiction? You Tell Me!” – Sue Waters (added 9:00 pm 3/28/08)
“Digital Natives or simply Digital Dilettantes” -  John Larkin (added 9:00 pm 3/28/08)

If Facebook can make Scrabble (Scrabulous) cool, why not keyboarding? I’ve discovered that 2 of my favorite keyboarding activities can be added as Facebook apps……………one step forward for the cool factor of business ed, right? Well, probably not, but this geeky teacher can dream, right?

Check out Fingerjig and Typing Master for some touch-typing practice or for use with your students – my students love Fingerjig (and make fun of me for being excited that I can add it to Facebook). They don’t love the Typing Master test as much, but that’s because it’s “too hard”. A great endorsement in my book!

We were yet again unable to get through the filters to visit some of the sites I planned to, but that didn’t stop us from having an excellent discussion about the technologies that are popular with students today. The parents in attendance were unfamiliar with web-based email, so I gave a demonstration of how to set up a gmail account. This was actually an excellent introduction to a discussion on how easy it is for anyone to create a new identity online, as well as how easy it is for students to create their own email accounts at home. The gmail demonstration led to a demonstration of instant messaging, which the parents were also unfamiliar with. I just used the chat feature available in gmail and sent out a cry for help to three members of my PLN asking for some sort of response to help with the demonstration. I was lucky enough to get a response from @brunsell - thanks Eric! It was very interesting to describe something that has become so much a part of my online life – the parents kept asking “why do you do this?” and “why would my child want to do this?”. These were excellent questions and led to a great discussion on setting limits on time online and the distraction factor of instant messaging.

In an attempt to demonstrate social networking without being able to access MySpace and Facebook, I showed the parents Classroom 2.0 and my page there. I think everyone in attendance was a bit shocked at how much information I put out online, as well as the fact that my picture is plastered everywhere. This led into a discussion on how I use social networking for my profession, and giving more information is necessary to gain credibility. I, as an adult, have the choice to offer this information as I see fit. Our students and children should not be given the choice – it’s the same as all of the other rights that come with adulthood. We also discussed parents putting pictures of their children online and whether that is appropriate or not – the parents in attendance were of the opinion that it’s not ok, and I explained that although I don’t put pictures of my children anywhere other than my invite-only online photo albums in Snapfish, many other parents DO make their photos public, and it’s a personal choice.

I look forward to working with parents more in the future, and it would be interesting to see how it would be different if there were more tech-savvy parents in attendance. It would definitely change the tone and level of the discussions, but I worry that the parents with less experience would be apprehensive about asking questions in that environment.

You can see the resources from the workshop on the Parent Workshop wiki.

1) Add me to your del.icio.us network – I’m kolson29. I tag everything worthwhile that I read, but I have to warn you that my tagging needs work. I plan to tackle that soon, I promise!  You can also add my del.icio.us feed to your aggregator.

2) Follow me on twitter – kolson29. I tweet many of the articles that I’m reading or resources that I find. If for some crazy reason you think I have REALLY great stuff to say or resources to share, you could do a tweetscan for kolson29. I’d be honored

3) I am constantly updating my Parent Workshop wiki with links to social networking resources. I just added a section for educational uses of social networking. Right now the wiki is geared toward the sessions I’m leading at my middle school, but after that I plan to just keep adding to it for interested educators and parents. Please request to join if you think you have great stuff to share! If you are interested in just finding out about the new stuff when it’s added, you can create a wikispaces account and then visit the space-wide notification page to sign up for email notification of changes. If you don’t want to create an account, you can visit the notification page linked above and grab one of the feeds for your aggregator.

4) If you want to contact me, you can email me at kolson29@gmail.com or through the contact form on the About page on this blog.

I’m always looking for resources, so if you are on del.icio.us, add me to your network (see above) and tag links for me – I’d love you for it! Many of the resources I use for blog posts, in my courses, or on my wiki are from members of my PLN – thanks to you all

FRONTLINE: growing up online | PBS via kwout

(Frontline – PBS)
As many educators and parents are aware of, PBS has been airing a show titled “Growing Up Online” on Frontline.  The tagline on the site right now reads “Just how radically is the Internet transforming the experience of Childhood?” and I think that really sums up my feelings.  You really MUST watch this, it’s our responsibility as adults to join in the discussion about how our young people are growing up and becoming ready to enter adulthood.  I’m not going to describe the entire show, I’m not going to critique it, I just want to put a few of my thoughts out there……..

• I have to come to terms with the good/bad sides of most things that my children will encounter when growing up, and not ban potentially useful or harmless experiences because of my fear
• I need to learn even MORE about the issue than I currently know
• All teachers should be required to watch this
• All parents should WANT and need to watch this
• The problem isn’t the internet or social networking, it’s the lack of education about the topic on all levels from government to parents
• I’m doing the best that I can to stay up to speed with the changing world both as an educator and parent…………….it feels like a losing battle

You can watch the episode online RIGHT NOW (just click here) if you missed it – I’d love your thoughts, they might help me get my mind around some of the issues raised……..