"The Art of Online Facilitation" assignment

Rypple.com is an online program that is supposed to allow organizations stay on track, set goals (for themselves & each other), schedule 1:1 meetings, say thanks, etc.  To also give timely feedback to help employees succeed.

When I first saw the video demo I thought this was a great tool that would work great for our department as we struggle to find ways to give timely feedback to our staff.  This is a challenge mostly because with our shift work it can be weeks (or longer) before we see some of the staff.  So, if it is specific feedback about a specific call the opportunity has been lost if the feedback comes too late.

I also liked the idea of "kudos/thank you's" in a public way as I feel this is something that we can all improve on.

You can make groups that can only see what's in their group.  You can also have private or public conversations/goal setting/etc.

So, I signed up & invited the other people in our Professional Development Department.  This all seemed to go smooth & we've been posting a few test posts just to see how it all works.  Recently I tried to add some of the staff I am responsible for to test this out.  I've tried three times now to add them, and they are not recieving the email from Rypple inviting them to join.  I've contacted our IT department to see if it's getting caught in our spam filters, and the emails are not there (but previously I was able to invite people from my department the same way....so the spam filter shouldn't be affecting this).  I've also posted a question in Rypple's forum asking about this, and just received an answer today.  The answer I got made sense & I actually figured it out over the weekend (it's just too hard to explain if you are not familiar with Rypple!).  So now, I will need to add those "tester" staff members to try it out over the next few weeks.

One other thing about their reply (Even though it was almost 2 weeks after I posted my question)....they apologized for their delayed response, but actually asked me to explain my thought process for how I was trying to add people.  They stated that since it wasn't clear to me that I couldn't add people the way I was trying....it meant that this was their fault for their site not being very clear.  So, even though I wasn't very happy with such a delayed response from them....the fact that they actually want to understand my thought process to improve their website (of which I am only  using the free version) was nice to know.

Currently for feedback we always try to do it face to face, but realistically this isn't always possible...so email is usually how it works.  I don't think Rypple will change the feedback a lot, as they will have to sign in to view it....but I do think it will be better in some ways.  The feedback will remain on their "page" on Rypple for them to see each time they log in. 

Another reason I think it will be a good change is for setting up 1:1 meetings.  They can see on their profile what date the meeting is set up for & be able to prepare for it.  Right now we don't give them any time to prepare...we usually just decide that day that we will meet with them.  It's harder for them to bring up anything they want to discuss without preparing for it.
Also, if you have something to share with your entire group....you can write a post for them all to view.

A fun tool that Rypple has is "badges" or icons that you can use/attach to any comments you make about people (thank you's, feedback, etc).  Makes it a little more interesting than just straight forward posts.
Other than this, I don't think there are any other elements that are "retrieved" from older elements.

There are a few things that I can see the staff not enjoying about Rypple....the biggest one is that it's one more username/password that they have to remember and that they have to check regularly.  We already have so many work related usernames (payroll, company email, training site, etc).
It will take a little bit of time and learning for the staff to get comfortable using the site as well (because I'm still having trouble navigating the site!!).

I don't think that Rypple will completely dissolve the "old" way of providing feedback (i.e. emails or phone calls), but I think it will be a nice way for people to be able to review the goals set out for them and what feedback has been given in the past.  Right now there is no way for them to review this, as it is stored in our files in tour office.

We have always tried to make sure that we give our feedback face to face with our staff.  It is important for many reasons that can't be shown in an email or phone call.  Tone of voice, facial expression, reading their expressions based on the feedback, etc.  This is one of the things I want to make sure we don't lose if we start using Rypple for feedback.  It will be easier to just post the feedback/goals onto Rypple for the staff vs. actually setting up a 1:1 meeting with them.

Prezi

Pediatric Assessment Triangle on Prezi

Check out what I learned today!  Found this from an Articulate blog.  We use Articulate a lot at work for our online training/education.  I quite enjoy using it.  Found a tutorial on how to embed a Prezi within Articulate. 
Had no idea what a Prezi was....so googled it & found it & made one (a VERY simple one!) just to see what it is like.
There are lots of examples/samples on the Prezi site of some elaborate presentations.

Oh....and since I couldn't find a Creative Commons image for this triangle (which is part of the pediatric training course we teach), I just made my own using paint.net.
That's why it's so ugly & choppy.  I just wanted to try out this tool & not worry so much about those details...yet!

Enjoy!

Tagul "cloud"

Found this really interesting site today that allows you to "link" tags (not sure if that's the proper "lingo" or not!!).
This site allows you 20 free "clouds", then you have to pay (not sure how much though).
There are lots of neat features...shapes, fonts, sizes, colours, directions, etc.
A few limitations I found already are:
1) Any tags that were 2 words (i.e. "Sask Protocols") I had to make as one word. The forums state you can make 2 word tags with their "API format" which looks like coding to me (& is beyond my expertise!!).
2) All of the tags link to google. Again it appears with this API you could link tags to different sites which would be great. So, I just had to make sure that what I wanted them to find in google by testing it out first.

All in all, I quite like it!

igoogle

I've set up an igoogle page....which apparently was already there with my gmail account!
I was so happy to learn about this tool and RSS information as it was annoying having so many pages to check in the morning (twitter, my blog, blogs I'm following, news, etc).
With igoogle I've been able to add almost all of my "pages" to this homepage. Twitter, Delicious, my blog, Google Reader (which has all of the blogs I'm following & Delicious & I think Twitter), news, weather, etc. There are so many options of tools to add to this page!

Haven't been able to add LinkedIn, but honestly not really sure what to do with that page anyway! I'm "connected" with a few people, and a few groups.....but not really sure where to go with it now?

Map of Europe trip 2009

View Europe trip 2009 in a larger map

How to make interactive You Tube lessons!

Read through this and it sounds super cool!  Haven't had a chance to try it out yet (finding too many cool tools at once!).  Will hopefully get to try it in the next day or so & will let you know!

http://www.knewton.com/blog/edtech/education-edtech/2010/12/15/how-to-make-an-interactive-lesson-using-youtube#

Rypple....looks really cool!

I found this site/tool online today & I think it could be great for our use at work.

Here is a link to a 10min video on how it works:

http://love.rypple.com/entries/264095-a-quick-intro-video-to-rypple

Basically, there are 3 functions of it:

1)       There’s a kudos/thank you board that everyone can view.

2)       There’s a feedback and goals section.  You can get anonymous feedback from anyone that you are connected with, and you can also give them private feedback (the website is secure, so no concerns that way).

3)       There’s a section to connect with your “team” to set goals for them, plan meetings, give feedback, etc.  I thought this would work great for our crews….we could let them know of their upcoming reviews/one on one meetings (so that they can also think of things they want to discuss with us), give them real time positive feedback, set goals for them.

I've invited the people in my department to join, and am also planning in inviting a few of the staff that would participate willingly to try it out for a few weeks.  Quite excited about the possibilities with it though!