(This is a guest post by Tracy Linden.  She has always had a deep passion in ensuring quality education is available for all who want to attend college. Tracy understands all online colleges aren’t created equal and for the past few years has helped spread the message of the level of education, convenience and opportunity Online University can provide students.)

Two words: social media. How many times have each one of us heard those words in the past few years? Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, LinkedIn, Digg, StumpleUpon and the list can go on and on. These sites have become to many– a part of everyday life and language and no one can deny the truth that social media sites are everywhere and millions of people are using them more and more every day.

The number of active social media users has skyrocketed. Just five years ago, researchers at the Pew Research Institute conducted a survey asking adults who use the Internet: if they use social media and if so, how. Surprisingly, only 5 percent claimed to be using social media. However results from the same survey conducted last year showed that number was up to an alarming 65 percent.

With Facebook and Twitter being the two giants for new media connection; one particular  group is using social media more than ever — students and professors at online universities and traditional four year colleges. Students are drawn to social media accounts and fan pages because they act as blank canvases for student-faculty and student-student interaction. A student can post a message on a professor’s or student’s Facebook page or Twitter account and receive a quick response. In some instances it’s faster than picking up the phone or typing an email.

Reasearch shows just how engaged students are becoming using these social sites.The National Survey of Student Engagement polled freshmen and seniors at participating colleges using five different benchmarks: academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, enriching educational experience and supportive campus environment. The research gained from the 17,000 students from 40 different colleges, proved when students are actively engaged on their college campuses beyond the classroom, they “ learn more, think more critically, and gain an appreciation for diverse perspectives.” The study also showed students were most engaged in learning with each other when they were preparing assignments, working on projects and directly after exams.

Professors and students aren’t the only ones banking on the effectiveness of educational engagement; colleges also use social media sites as a means of communication in order to tell prospective, current and former students what’s going on with the institution. The primary use of these pages is to help students learn about the university and keep in touch with current and past students. These university pages help prove that over the years companies have learned that social media is where there customers are, and that is where they need to be too.

It would be silly for students not to relish in the joys of no longer having to deal with late night desperate attempts for one of your classmates or professors to answer their email or phone call to get help with a assignment or a study question. Social media breaks down barriers for students. It allows the professor to be available in a less formal environment and fosters communication as students can ask questions and receive answers to questions in and outside of class. Thanks to social media, colleges no longer need to wonder what it is their students are doing, or what they are thinking– all they have to do is go online.

From onlinephd.org

Engaged Learning as a blog has not been receiving much love lately.  This is because I have been spending more time blogging at vinJones.com.  Here, among other things, I am creating short videos that help us reevaluate how we work.  They are meant to be able to be shown and discussed in your meetings at work.  10 minutes of open dialogue can make a huge difference.

The people who follow vinJones.com and use the tools provided there are the ones who want to change the world of business.  They are not content to let the mediocre and the status quo dominate nor do they “just want a job.”  They can see and feel a different world ahead of them.  One that is better in a million different ways.  But it means breaking out of the normalcy of everyday life and doing something extraordinary.  Working differently.  Thinking differently.  Acting differently.  I believe you are they.  You think on a different plane than most people.

Every post.  Every graphic.  Every video.  Every thought.  Every writing.  Every meeting.  Every endeavor is meant to change the world – either directly or indirectly by empowering others to make change.

We help each other by sharing, inspiring and acting.  We bring light to the issues and create the tools to inspire these kinds of people.  People may think we’re crazy – that we can’t change the world of business.  But you are the geniuses, the ones with the inspiration and courage to act and make the change.

Wherever you are in the world, vinJones will support this group of like minds and actions.  Prepar to be bold.

Among other topics, you can learn the top ways in which we can fail at anything “Social,” including Social Learning.

Please join us.

In this post, I cover the content of the session I gave at E2.0, complete with some of the videos (5 in all) that gave me inspiration.

Starting tomorrow (Tuesday, June 28th) I will talk about one E2.0 failure a week.  Then I encourage everyone to talk about how we can avoid it and what we might do if we get stuck in the situation.

We learn a ton from our failures, and I hope you can join us!

(This is a crosspost from vinJones.com)

(For the Challenge, skip to the bottom)

Attending last year’s Enterprise 2.0 conference was a great experience. I learned a ton, met friends I had never met before in carbon, and left feeling invigorated. But there was a nagging feeling – it was all too perfect.

The sessions and keynotes were all about how great this was and how successful everyone had been. But I knew those were not the full stories. Having worked on Social Business for a few years, I had made my share of mistakes and had made a partial living off of fixing the mistakes of others and I learned a ton from these experiences. Why should a conference be any different? Why can’t we learn from each others’ mistakes? Was there a huge fear of failure?

So, when the call for presenters went out, I decided to talk about failures. I had some I could share, and I was sure I could find others so it didn’t turn into a “Kevin Failure Show.” I was wrong. As I started compiling stories I realized that there were very few who were willing to talk about their failures. But I had to go forward and the only failures I knew where my own or were from organizations I had worked with – and I didn’t feel like I could rat them out.

My first thought was, “I don’t have THAT many failures I could share!” Wrong again. It was amazing how many times I had failed. Not catastrophically, but even in small and simple ways.

My sweet wife was concerned. “Will it look like you are a total failure? Will they understand that you are really good at what you do?” I assured her it would be just fine. But this meant I had to be very open and transparent about my mistakes. This really is not an easy thing to do (mentally).

While creating the content for the session I learned that all of us make very few huge failures, but instead we make many small ones, quickly learn and adjust and turn them into wins. And the more I thought about it, the more mistakes I could name off. Soon, there were so many that I had to figure out which went into the presentation, and which I would merely mention and not explain.

The day of the presentation came. I was scheduled for the first time slot immediately after the keynotes. Arriving a bit early, I set up as I watched attendees pour in to this huge room. Susan Scrupski (queen of the Social Business Council) came up and said, “Have you seen the line to get in?” I had to go see this. She was right and it was long. By the time everyone had filed in, this large room was full.

I mention this only to point out that the reason they were there was not because of me, but because of the topic of failure – there were many others that felt the same way I did – a nice validation of my thoughts, but now the pressure was on (I didn’t want a live failure of a presentation on failure!). They wanted to learn from the mistakes of others so they would not repeat it.

In another post I will go over the content, but there are a couple things I did in the session that were kind of fun. The day before, during the workshops, I made the above video, and that is how I started it off. Immediately after it was silent, everyone waiting for me to start. I stood there, quietly for a moment, and then said, “Hi. I’m Kevin and I have failed.” A few giggles followed. I had planted four others in the audience who, in turn, stood up and introduced themselves and said the same thing. It was a Fail Flashmob or an FA meeting (Failures Anonymous). Then I went on to talk about the nature of failure, followed by examples of failure and how they could be overcome.

Time was running out and I had MANY more in the hopper (just in case time went long). I didn’t expect to explain most of them, but just use as examples. Later others told me that as I blew through the last 20 or so, they personally recognized each one and realized that we fail all the time, but we recover.

(Link to the presentation.)

At the very end I issued two challenges to the audience. The first was to share their failures and not be afraid to talk about them. The second was to join me in discussing them after the conference has ended.

And so I invite you as well. Each week I will post an Enterprise 2.0 failure on the vinJones.com blog and encourage you to answer these two questions: 1) how can we avoid it and 2) if it still happens, how can we correct it? I have enough for a half year’s worth and by the time that comes around, we’ll all probably have that many more again.

The response after the session and for the next three days was wonderfully overwhelming. Thank you to everyone who tweeted during the session, blogged (Nigel Danson, Steve Radick) and wrote articles (SearchCRM, CMSWire), came up and talked to me about it and referred to the session in subsequent sessions. I wish I could thank you all individually. I am truly humbled by the response.

So please join us. The more perspectives we get each week, the more we can learn from each other and be better we will be at what we all love to do. I hope to learn from you next Tuesday with the first failure!  (I promise the posts won’t be nearly as long

Challenge Vault is a project I have been working on for about 8 months, and it is finally time to make it public!

The passion behind Challenge Vault is detailed here, with video for more explanation.  But in essence, there are two sides:

1) The business side.  There was a hole in the ability to create online challenges quickly, easily and for little cost.  Engaging customers with a product or service is the best form of marketing.  But up until now, creating an online challenge was a difficult, expensive task – one that only the larger companies could pay for and pull off.  Challenge Vault now makes this easy and inexpensive for any company or organization.  Each challenge page & associated answer can be themed with a company’s brand with a background image and banner ad.

2) We all build off of each other.  Because the Internet has opened our view worldwide, the opportunity to build off of the best – wherever they may live – has grown a tremendous amount.  Challenge Vault is all about getting off our duffs and creating something new and innovative.  This is the really exciting part to me.

The beautiful part about for businesses is that when a player accepts a challenge, they get their friends to vote for them so they can win.  How do they do that?  Facebook, Twitter, email.  This is free advertising for the business or organization.  They create the content centered around your brand, they distribute your brand through their social media channels, and they encourage others to do the same.

There are a TON of ways Challenge Vault can be used with great results:

• Build a challenge around a brand name, like Mo’s Restaurants.  They have had the same radio jingle since the 70′s and need a new one.   The winner will get a dinner for four and the jingle will be played on the air.
• A recording artist could challenge his/her fans to write lyrics to which the artist will write the music.
• Looking for a particular talent and need a pool of people to choose from?  Put up a challenge to complete a certain task.  From there you will receive entries of people who have the necessary skill, and a pool of potential applicants for future projects or positions.
• Challenge chapters of your organization to come up with the best new slogan, or design, innovative idea, or…
• Create a video involving your brand and stop half way.  Challenge your customers to finish the video.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg.  I have come up with MANY more uses that would engage customers.

What about price?  A non-themed challenge is free and always will be.  Normally a themed challenge – adding a background image and banner ad – would cost, but as I am more focused on getting usage, even that is free for now – but not for too long.

So if you want to take advantage of this and really engage your customers, members, students, family members, friends or any other group, jump on right now and create your challenge.  If you need help, let me know and we can put together the perfect challenge!

I hope you have as much fun with it as I do!

Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.

(This is a crosspost from vinjones.com)

My wife says I have multiple personalities.  In this one area, I might agree.

I am very “by the book”.  And yet, at the same time I could care less about the book.  At NASA, a civil servant was assigned to me to keep me out of trouble because I was stirring up the pot (it is actually part of my role, but that’s another story).  But at home, we have a number of rules we all (not only the kids) need to follow.

This dichotomy started me thinking about rules.  Why do we have rules?  And the rules I refer to can be in any form – laws, company policy, rules at home, etc.  After whittling it down, I came up with two reasons we have rules: Consistency and Trust.

There are some things we MUST have consistent.  Eating is one of them.  It is a principle that must be followed, or we die.  How, where, when and what we eat – that is another matter.  So in this regard, we are all “by the book” on eating for our nourishment, yet there are many books to follow to tailor it to our specific circumstances.

When creating a process at work, very often our main motivation is for consistency.  If it is a rudimentary function that doesn’t take a lot of brain power, it works well.  But if it even takes slight problem solving or judgement, strict processes start to fall apart.  All it takes sometimes is one variable to change and our perfect process goes from efficient to ineffective.  From there we have an internal struggle between what we SHOULD do and what process/policy says we OUGHT to do – between doing what is best or doing what the policy/procedure says.

We have all been there – which do we follow?  Our natural minds pull us toward adapting, yet the corporate side of us tells us to conform.

This video explains some more of these opposites.

TEXT

Why do we make rules?  When I talk about rules I mean laws, company policies or procedures, sports rules, chore charts for our kids or anything like it.

First, you have to have a goal.  Unless you have a goal there are no need for rules.  You can do whatever you want and get whatever result you get!  Just ask the Cheshire Cat.

But let’s assume we do have a goal – we make rules based off of two factors: trust and consistency.  This video, is about consistency.

(CONSISTENCY) Think of a button.  We design it to consistently perform a function and achieve the same result.  So, within the mechanics of a button we build the rules by which this button operates.  And it works like a charm – until it breaks.

The great thing about consistency is that it’s constant.  We can consistently rely on it.

But as we all know, the only constant… is change.

Change is the point where consistency should end, or at least be reevaluated.  But instead, our primal desire to keep the consistency grows stronger.

Imagine you have a process that works perfectly.  In time, however, one factor changes.  It could be a new person joins the team, a change in cost savings, new technology, new goal or the culture of your company changes slightly.

Suddenly, the process doesn’t work as well as it did before.  Instead of trying to accommodate the change, we try to force the same process because we know it works.

Now add up a number of changes like this over time, and what happens? All to quickly, the perfect process is getting in the way of actually doing the right thing.

And we have all seen bad processes.

Rules, processes and policy, by their very nature, are meant to be consistent in an ever changing world.  They are not meant to change.  Do you see the problem here?

Let me be clear here – Consistency is not a bad thing.  In fact it is often very needed.  When launching the Shuttle, NASA MUST be consistent in their checks to ensure safety.

The trick is to identify what can change, and what should not.  True principles don’t change.  How we put them in to practice, does.

For example, taking an occasional break from hard work is a good principle to follow.  How and where and when you take that break, that’s a practice that can change.
Mental exercise: Next time you follow a rule ask yourself if you’re following it because of consistency.  If you do that consistently, you will constantly find discrepancies.  And maybe you can become a constant source of positive change.

****
And unless you want to ruin your car’s engine, it’s a good idea to consistently checking the oil.

I unfortunately know that one from experience.

(This is a repost from vinJones.com)

This is a video I have promised to do for some time.  It is in response to those who won’t even consider social technologies with their organizations – now or in the future.  I have heard about all of the excuses – and for the most part I don’t buy any of them.  They range from “Our culture won’t support it” to “It is a waste of my time” to “We have better things to focus on.”

It’s like saying, “This new thing called the phone is nifty and all, but we don’t need it.”  You don’t know it yet – but yes you do.  And eventually it will come.  The question is, when will you allow it?

Most don’t dive in because of two factors: Fear of the Unknown and Fear of Change.  Now, honestly, it is FEAR?  They may not label it that, but I believe so.  Social Technologies for this group are unknown and they usually don’t want to know anything about it because of their incorrect preconceived ideas – they actively resist it.  They also think that everything at their company is working well enough.

So did Blockbuster and Borders.

(Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a picture of parachute pants without stealing a photo.  Oh well.)

TEXT

Do you remember parachute pants?  They were cool for about a month and then they suddenly weren’t cool anymore.

Bell bottoms were in style for longer, then they were ugly.  Now, renamed as “flair” they are cool again.

Same thing with thongs.

But some things never lose their usefulness and don’t go out of style.  Like toilets. And door handles.  And, unfortunately, fruit cake.

And ever since we started using it, social technologies within organizations – no matter what we have called it – has has only proven to be more and more useful.

For those who haven’t taken it seriously yet – it’s time.

For many people, just the name “social networking” scares the bejeebers out of them.  Why?  I have found two main reasons: fear of the unknown and fear of change.

Fear of the Unknown –  There are so many factors with this one.  But the way to overcome it is to try it out and prove your theories right or wrong.  You just have to jump in.  Or you could continue to do nothing about it.  But with as big as it’s getting, I wouldn’t recommend that approach.

Fear of Change –  Now, believe me, I get it. Changing the way you work is not an easy thing to do.  You’re comfortable with what you do and how you do it.  Much like everyone was comfortable 1903 with the way they travel, even after the wright brothers made some crazy flying contraption.

Only hearing about why you might want to use social networking in your company will only sink so far into your brain.

It isn’t until you actually try it out.  That is when the AH HA moment comes, and it all starts clicking.

Kind of like my son who would never think of kissing a girl.  But I guarantee the AH HA moment WILL come.  I just hope it doesn’t come too quickly. But I hope it comes quickly for you.  Well, not the kissing part, the social networking part.

So the only way to figure it out is give it a good sustained try.  Don’t just quit after a week of lame attempts.  Find someone who knows and understands all this social stuff and ask them what you might start with.  Then, let the clicking begin.

MY SON: Why would I ever kiss a girl?
ME: Oh, that’ll come.

Making a an exciting change (at least for me), I am moving over to vinJones.com – a new blog I have just created.

There were posts that I wanted to write that don’t fit in to the topic of this site.  I wanted to explore new veins of thinking, try new things and branch out a bit (including creating videos).  But I didn’t feel I could do that here because of the confined (although fantastic) topic.  So I will be transitioning to vinJones.com as time marches on.  Everything here will be reposts from there, but not everything there will live here.

So I would humbly suggest getting your notifications from the new site, as it will be more comprehensive.

I am not sure what will happen to Engaged Learning in the future.  It may fade out, it may become  a collection of posts from people in the Learning world, or morph another way.  But for now it will continue on until further notice of a change.

Thank you to all who have read and commented and have helped me learn and expand my thinking.  I hope to see you over at vinJones.com!

(Notice the title is a bit leading…)

A week after I wrote the original post, I lived it.  As I said near the end, “Count on change.”

The press has been covering the Tuscaloosa tornado heavily (from what I hear from others outside of the area) and for good reason – it was huge.  The smaller ones aren’t getting much press.  There just isn’t time to cover them all.  But one scene of destruction was in our town.  In fact, only three miles away from my home.  After we came out of hiding in our basement with another family, it was pretty dark.  No phone, electricity and not much movement from our neighbors.  We knew trees had fallen in our neighborhood, but didn’t know what had happened elsewhere.

After getting the kids in bed, we went to the bishop of our church.  He said that everyone was accounted for except for above highway 53.  So my wife Kelly, my oldest son and I went to check on them.  Because it was so dark, even with headlights we could only see right in front of us.  But what we did see was unbelievable.  A direct, sweeping hit to neighborhoods.  Powerlines on the ground.  Buildings only a heap of wood, steel and brick.

The second story was lifted up and placed in the back yard while the first story was swept away.

When we reached a friend’s neighborhood, we wondered why there was so much debris on their street.  We soon learned that the tornado hit immediately behind their home, completely wiping out homes and leaving others only partially standing or as a frame only.  Some whole levels of homes were in the streets or in the back yard.  The stories we heard were incredible.  Thankfully, all of our friends and those in our church were spared.  There were surprisingly few lives lost in comparison to what could have happened.  Yet for those who lost loved ones, I know this is a very difficult, tragic time.

From then on, it was a non-stop recovery effort.  The outpouring of volunteerism the following days has been unbelievable.

My family, like all others, was out of power (and still are as I write this from a generator powered laptop), and without access to any local conveniences like grocery stores.  For a family of 10, that might be pretty scary, but it wasn’t.  We cooked all of our food on the BBQ & dutch oven.  We had plenty of candles and flashlights.  We have three months of regular food stored, one year of food and supply storage, plenty of water stored so our needs were met.  This enabled us go and concentrate on those who needed it instead of trying to only meet our needs.  The only major thing we were lacking was a generator to keep our refrigerators and freezer going.  But friends lent us one.

A neighbor’s brother’s family’s home was completely destroyed (as were many others – picture below).  We spent the days helping clean up the mess the tornado left behind.  Then we came back and fixed dinner for us, our neighbors and the brother’s family – 20 of us all together.  Those were great times we will never forget.  Laughter, good company, the kids playing guitar and piano in the candle light and having fun.  Not once did the family complain about the loss of their home.  They were a great inspiration.  Life is about family and friends.

The owners of the home in the foreground (now a heap) hid in the home in the background and were saved.

Whole neighborhoods were wiped out.  One in particular was less than affluent.  The homes were not well built.  Instead of a home being destroyed, the homes were scattered all over the place.  Acres of jumbled sticks.  During the days we tarped damaged roofs, chainsawed trees off of homes and out of yards and driveways, and helped families look for their personal belongings among the pile that was once their home – all in a rush before the rains came.

I learned so much from this experience – and still am.  There are a number of questions I have needed to answer, including,  ”If life sent me a jolt, would I be ready?”  ”If that jolt affected others, would I be in a spot where I was taken care of to go help others or would I be a burden on them?”  After this all calms down, they are questions I will need to reevaluate.

Today it is raining, so little work can effectively be done.  What personal items that were not found and picked up already are certainly ruined now.  We still don’t have power and may not for days.  But we are OK and very blessed to be spared.

There is a LONG recover ahead – years worth.  But we are in it for the long haul.

Our safety can be wiped out in an instant on many different levels and in many different contexts.  But if we are prepared, not only will we not fear, but we will be able to be of service to others.  My purpose is not only survive, but thrive.