Full Circle Associates

I made a really great chocolate Guinness cake last night, and I was trying to figure out how to weave it in with the rambly theme of my blog. After all, this isn’t a food blog, as much as I love food.

I had tweeted that I was going to make this cake in celebration of our finally naming “the book,” and I was amazed how many people wanted the recipe. I kept sending the recipe url to people who tweeted in reply.

It is interesting what captures our attention, what stimulates us to want to experiment.

Is it the chocolate? The Guinness? The cake? Cooking? Food? In any case, the interest prompted me to blog about the cake. Oh, and the cake is really good - though I’d suggest using a little less butter. I added some grated unsweetened coconut and I’d suggest adding some chopped, roasted pecans as well. I substituted mascarpone for the cream cheese in the icing (because that’s what I had on hand) which makes a subtler icing. I think I’d prefer the cream cheese!

What gets us moving beyond our customary habits and patterns?

Recently many people have complained they have not been able to hear me properly on VOiP or telephone calls. I swapped headsets, but with no discernible result. (My telephone is also VOiP.) When I talked on my phone with out headsets, sometimes it made things better, sometimes it didn’t. My son has some fancy-pants headsets he uses as a gamer, and I was going to try them, thinking perhaps the mic plug on my computer was the problem and that might help me figure it out. But I just procrastinated finding a definitive solution. There were too many other things on my to do list.

Then in the mail a box arrives with a Polycom Communicator 100s, courtesy of a conference call company I use. It is not something I would have bought myself (pricey) and it is like a speaker phone, so intuitively I would have thought headsets would be better. But because it was here, in front of me, I tried it. And wow, it worked pretty darn well with my initial test calls.

The cake? Someone blogged about it (and darn, I can’t remember where I saw it) and my curiosity was piqued. I love chocolate and my husband enjoys his Guinness. But if the idea had not shown up in front of my, in my business, I would have never sought it out.

In our busy lives, sometimes it takes a ping, a tweet, a box in the mail, to pull us out of our traditional trajectories and get us to try something new. And what a wonderful and productive, chocolately surprise that can be.

What brought your head up for a new view today?

Warning - this is a venting blog post!

For nearly four years my dear friends and colleagues John Smith and Etienne Wenger and I have been writing this thing that became a book. You’ve heard me periodically obsessing about it here in my blog. Writing communally is one of the hardest and most rewarding practices I’ve ever done, especially when done with smart, diverse people. It is both heaven and hell. It is almost unending. But the end is in site.

We finally picked a title. FINALLY. FINAL-FRICKEN-TASTICALLY. What started out as Stewarding Technology for Communities, (site to be renamed today!), then veering around many ideas, including the recent “Digital Nests” theme, we landed today on something that both brought the warmth and natural world and a metaphor that works with the topic of the book.

So drum roll pleasssseeeee!

“Digital Habitats: stewarding technology for communities”

Now, I dare ask, what do you think?

I could not resist searching for a few Flickr creative commons images for the post … not intended as book images, but just … just… because I CAN!

Haworthia viscosa in habitat

Linda Lane's Habitat

Flickr Creative Commons Photo Credits:

• martin_heigan
• wonderlane

Thanks, Scot McCloud for 5-Card Nancy

I love this because

a. it is visual

b. it is named NANCY!

c. it gave me something fun to blog about when I’m crazy busy

d. I can imagine all kinds of variants. I can see creating visual narratives when trying to learn something new (for the Knowledge Sharing Workshop F2F in Rome in 2 weeks?)
Thanks for twittering about it Rachel!

From Tom Munneke, comes 9 minutes of joy. If the world is getting you down on this monday, spend 9 with Max.

Max Explores

IMG_6058

Originally uploaded by Choconancy1

Here is an idea that has been “hatching” for the new book…. What do you think?

Here is the third in a series of guest blogs I did for Darren Sidnick, reblogged here with his blessing!) focused on CoPs in a learning context –> From: Darren Sidnick’s Learning & Technology: Community - because without people, you just have a pile of content. Or worse… nothing!

Part 1 is here.

Part 2 is here.

Community - because without people, you just have a pile of content. Or worse… nothing!

This is the third post surfacing a bit more about Community, Domain and Practice mentioned in the series on communities of practice (CoPs). This time we’ll “go social” and talk about the community aspect. From the “no duh” perspective, there is no community without people. Here is Wenger’s explanation of Community in the context of CoPs.

The community: from http://www.ewenger.com/theory/
In pursuing their interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other. A website in itself is not a community of practice. Having the same job or the same title does not make for a community of practice unless members interact and learn together. The claims processors in a large insurance company or students in American high schools may have much in common, yet unless they interact and learn together, they do not form a community of practice. But members of a community of practice do not necessarily work together on a daily basis. The Impressionists, for instance, used to meet in cafes and studios to discuss the style of painting they were inventing together. These interactions were essential to making them a community of practice even though they often painted alone.

Right off there are the practical implications of Community in the context of elearning.

These questions might give you pause - and for good reason, but lets also look at the benefits of community. From a learning theory perspective, a lot of learning is social, meaning it happens between us, not always as a solo activity. In fact some of us seem to need social learning more than others. When Etienne Wenger and Jean Lave coined the term communities of practice, it was part of their work on understanding learning and the importance of social learning. Again, from Wenger:

Social scientists have used versions of the concept of community of practice for a variety of analytical purposes, but the origin and primary use of the concept has been in learning theory. Anthropologist Jean Lave and I coined the term while studying apprenticeship as a learning model. People usually think of apprenticeship as a relationship between a student and a master, but studies of apprenticeship reveal a more complex set of social relationships through which learning takes place mostly with journeymen and more advanced apprentices. The term community of practice was coined to refer to the community that acts as a living curriculum for the apprentice. Once the concept was articulated, we started to see these communities everywhere, even when no formal apprenticeship system existed. And of course, learning in a community of practice is not limited to novices. The practice of a community is dynamic and involves learning on the part of everyone.
From http://www.ewenger.com/theory/

Community as curriculum — for me, that is a pretty juicy concept. So let’s just end this blog post at the edge of the cliff. What does that mean to you? How might you imagine your learners as community and thus as a way to extend and deepen your curriculum?

Lest I be accused of taking everything too seriously, I want to remind everyone that today is Talk Like a Pirate Day. To track the action, check out tlapd08 - twemes.com. For the wikipedia version - of course - here.

I had to call the plumber and order a new toilet this morning. He was a bit confused by my “Arrrggg” and “Aye.” At least my husband greeted me this morning, pinching one eye shut and arrrrrging at me.

Now, back to work, or walk the plank!

(Hat tip to John Smith)

Read the comments on this post Blog comments that make you say “wow!” | BlogHer (which of course, I found because Denise linked to me otherwise I would not have seen it because there are not enough hours in the day.) How do you feel about comments?

People ask me if comments in blogs are important. If you want to connect to others, and hear what they think, then they are. There are also terrific blogs that either have comments turned off, or create an experience where we don’t feel compelled to comment. For instance, people who post things that are just so darned complete and full cause me to simply take it in. And shut up!

Comments, like linking to other people, is an act of reciprocity. Give and get. So if you want comments and links, go forth and comment on things that others post - things the inspire, move you, make you want to offer a different perspective or just thank them for something they wrote that matters to you. And link, link, link to the beautiful work of others. Even ones that haven’t fully emerged yet - keep them on your radar screen!

Photo Credit:

http://www.linkbacklove.org/

(And grr, now all my right aligned photos are not right-aligning!)

No, I’m not offering advice to Jon Stewart of the Daily Show, nor to Connan O’Brien, nor Oprah. What I’m talking about is an alternative method to boring presentations. It is called the chat show or talk show format. It brings panel presentations a step closer to life. I’m still a strong advocate for more participatory forms, but if you are forced to put something “up front,” this is an option.

First, for a full description of the method, check out this page on the Knowledge Sharing Toolkit:kstoolkit » Chat Shows

Second, read a story of this method in action from Michael Riggs.

Finally, inspired by Michael’s post, I thought I’d share the tips I had for hosting one of these little gigs. I am often asked to be the host, so here are some of the things I try to do. (Yeah, sometimes I fail!)

Re Hosting skills — I agree that a good host is really crucial, so much that I like to run practice groups with potential hosts to give them experience, have the test group offer peer feedback and switch roles (host, panelist, audience) and offer those perspectives.

The key things we have identified around the host role are: (hm, I should blog this)

• Study up on your panelists so you can give a brief introduction that focuses on th relevance of the guest to the topic at hand - not everything they have done.
• Remember, you are there to help everyone learn something and to make the panelists as successful as possible.
• Create a comfortable, welcoming context. I like to sit in chairs without a podium or table and instead have an informal coffee table (with coffee!) in front of the chairs which are arranged in a semi circle so each panelist can see each other and the host. I usually suggest the host sits in the middle to allow good eye contact.
• Think in advance of good questions that aren’t yes/no questions, and are specific enough so that the panelists don’t have to give long preambles. Questions that go right to the heart of the matter being covered.
• Use follow up questions to elicit details and specifics. Interrupt politely to do this if needed. Don’t let people ramble. It does no one any good.
• Face the panelist who is speaking. Turn your body, REALLY face them, and listen very carefully. When you are clearly listening, speakers are more willing to let you interrupt and this can be the moment to help the speaker focus.
• DO NOT promote your ideas or story. You are the INTERVIEWER, not the SUBJECT of the interview.
• Make sure everyone gets fair airtime. This does not mean EQUAL airtime, but that each person’s idea or point has been clearly presented.
• Summarize briefly during and more fully at the end.
• Allow speakers one final SHORT comment that you frame by asking a specific “wrap up” question. Don’t say “is there anything else you’d like to say.” Uh uh.
• Where culturally appropriate, use humor. I recently hosted a chat show with a “bigger than life” chat show personality and we had fun with it. It was a more informal gathering, so it was in the appropriate context.

On an unrelated note, why does the picture show up nicely right aligned in my Wordpress composition page, but then show up at the top when I post? It used to work so nice until the last WP update. Sigh

This is a reblog of a guest blog post I did on Darren Sidnick’s Learning & Technology Blog: What the heck is a Domain and why should I care? (CoP with Nancy White). I’m republishing them here with Darren’s blessing! Part 1 is here.

What the heck is a Domain and why should I care?

In the first in our series on communities of practice, (CoPs) I briefly mentioned Community, Domain and Practice. In this blog post I want to dive a little deeper into Domain. Because Etienne Wenger does such a great job of defining domain (and he really helped me understand it) I’ll start with his definition, and use his definitions later for Community and Practice as well:
The domain: from http://www.ewenger.com/theory/

A community of practice is not merely a club of friends or a network of connections between people. It has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest. Membership therefore implies a commitment to the domain, and therefore a shared competence that distinguishes members from other people. (You could belong to the same network as someone and never know it.) The domain is not necessarily something recognized as “expertise” outside the community. A youth gang may have developed all sorts of ways of dealing with their domain: surviving on the street and maintaining some kind of identity they can live with. They value their collective competence and learn from each other, even though few people outside the group may value or even recognize their expertise.

So Domain is what we care about together. It is what is important enough for us to make time to participate, to learn these crazy online tools if that’s how our community connects, and makes us prioritize it over the many other things we have in our busy lives. So it has to matter! So if a learner is taking a course because they “have to”, we need to think carefully about if a community is the right approach.

Domain is not static
Domain is also one of those things that seems obvious at first — we are interested in learning about how to become entrepreneurs — but ends up being a bit more subtle. In large communities, there may be a big, overarching domain, with smaller, more specialized subgroups. In some communities, the domain may be relevant for only a short period of time and then the community naturally comes to the end of it’s life. The domain may shift when new people join or initial core members leave. Not all domain’s are “eternal!” So the first lesson about Domain is that it is not static and it has to reflect and respond to the interests and needs of the member. So we might start a CoP on entrepreneurs coming out of a business course offering, but it may turn out that the core of the group is really interested in marketing for small businesses, or developing a horticulture business. Then you get to that “ignition” point where the interest and passion is sufficient to get the community going. That “commitment” that Etienne describes in his definition. Over time, the domain focus might shift again — and responding to that shift is critical for community sustainability.

Community and personal identity
Domain also has to do with something else important in communities of practice: identity. The domain gives the community as a whole an identity, and it also is part of the identity of individual “members.” Shawn Callahan from Anecdote often says a useful test of a domain is to be able to identify with it personally. So in a community of entrepreneurs, you would say, yes, I’m an entrepreneur. But it may have a lot more personal meaning if it was “yes, I’m own a small horticultural business” and thus the more specific domain has more meaning.

So if you are thinking about a communities of practice approach with your e-learners, ask yourself, what might be the domain of my community? Try it out on some of your learners. See what they tell you. If it resonates… keep going. If they look at you like you are crazy, keep refining your ideas about domain WITH them. Because after all, it will be THEIR community. If you do this little experiment, leave a comment here and share a story of what you learned!

Here is another story about domain: http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.com/2008/07/communities-of-practice-and-bulldozers.html

Flickr Photo Credit:

Uploaded on July 10, 2008
by ideaideai