Blogging: Build your professional reputation

Martin Weller describes the benefits of blogging for university faculty in Encouraging educators to blog. In doing so, he made some excellent points about improving and expanding the professional reputation of faculty. One point seems particularly relevant to Extension professionals--both at the local and state level.

If your subject area is not one widely engaged with blogging then this represents a good opportunity to establish yourself as one of the lead experts.

He also describes two benefits of blogging in the context of teaching.

• Link to teaching – the type of content used in courses is increasingly diverse, and one model for including up to date information is to have feeds from a number of blogs incorporated in to teaching material.

  Eating our own dog food - increasingly students are encouraged to use blogs in courses, and so we should be demonstrating how they can be effective.

Of course, Martin also has other excellent posts on social networking and education. An everyday, modern learning experience describes a series of conversations that included blogging, email, and Facebook. Some of the conversations involved people who trusted and professionally respected each other, though they had never met. Some of the conversations involved the professor and a student. Informal learning led to formal learning.

The most compelling observation was:

iv) I didn't feel like a student or a teacher at any stage, it was a peer dialogue, through which learning occurred.

Martin describes this example as trivial. It is not trivial. Through conversations that included respect, each person guided another to look further, to learn something new, and to dig a little deeper. In my opinion, that is not trivial. Although the learning is and will not be traditionally or structurally measured, this process of learning is important.

Note: Beth Kanter for providing Martin's link on Idealware: Blogging Online Webinar: July 24.

Hierarchy for Bloggers

Daily Blog Tips post offers an interesting view on the Hierarchy of Successful Bloggers. The hierarchy describes the Blogger (the new kid on the block), to the Established Blogger, the Expert, and then the Guru.

Although the hierarchy describes bloggers who are self-employed, this progression makes a lot of sense in how Extension professionals can become known for their areas of expertise.

Importance and Influence of Conversations

Although conversations tend to be casual and free flowing, they can be quite powerful. This post is about how one individual influenced a few of us. Then how we have influenced others through other conversations. The most interesting common thread is that we were unaware how we influenced our peers--these were just conversations.

When we were having dinner after a meeting, Kevin Gamble was trying to convince the others at the table to blog. He did not know that I was already considering blogging and that this conversation was very helpful to me. The most important point made during the dinner conversation is "everyone has something to say."

From this dinner conversation, Ben MacNeill returned to blogging. Larry Lippke started blogging. I started blogging. Beth Raney has not started blogging yet, but she fully participates in our online conversations, by sharing her knowledge, interests, and expertise by using Twitter and del.icio.us. She is powerfully influential in a quiet, subtle way.

After taking a hiatus from blogging, Mitch Owen said by seeing our new blogs, he developed new incentives to blog again. As a result of his and mine conversations and reading colleagues' online conversations, Greg Parmer has returned to blogging.

Then in June, at the end of the ACE/NETC Conference, four of us--Greg, Brian Webster, Jonathan Davis and I took a hike to the top of Sandia Peak. I barely remember the conversation about blogging, but something about the conversation tipped Brian into blogging. And, Wow! he says he already has a list of 50 topics he wants to blog.

My point in describing this stream of adoption is that you never know when and how you can be influential. Conversations--both face-to-face and online--are extremely effective.

One more point, the blogs mentioned in this post offer an array of topics, perspectives, insights, and opinions. Like blogs, in general, what we discuss and how we share our knowledge and our opinions give insights into who we are, how we work, how we communicate, what is important to us, and how we make decisions.

Welcome to blogging and more conversations Brian!

Results of the Pew Internet Survey on Broadband Access

Pew Internet and American Life Project survey, released June 6, 2007, finds that in the United States

• 47 percent of adults have home broadband access.
• 15 percent of adults use dial-up connection.
• 71 percent of adults use the internet at least occasionally from any location.
• 29 percent of adults do not use a computer at home, school or at work.
• 40 percent of African-American adults have broadband access at home.
• 29 percent of Hispanic adults have broadband access at home.
• 52 percent of adult in urban areas have broadband access at home.
• 49 percent of adults in suburban areas have broadband access at home.
• 31 percent of adults in rural areas have home broadband connections.

The most interesting point in the survey is the correlation of broadband access at home and wide range of online activities. The tables and explanation are on page 10 and 11 of the report.

Getting Started in Conversations

Where and how do Extension professionals start using social networking? The simplest advice is to "pick a spot" and jump in. Most of these tools are very easy and there are few barriers to entry and few barriers to exit. Kevin Gamble says "be the ball" because it is in the process of learning that you begin to understand the benefits of social networking for YOU.

While Amy Gahran's advice is to do some homework before you start blogging, her advice is also very relevant to any Extension professional who is new to social networking.

1. Seek. Find pertinent blogs in your area expertise and interest. Beth Kanter showed us how to do this in an eXtension web training conference, titled “Ten Steps to Web 2.0″. Watch the archive from May 24 or the archive from April 24.

2. Lurk. Read the blogs and create news feeds in Google Reader or some other news reader. While aggregating feeds into one place will make your reading experience more efficient, it also "exponentially increases the amount of new information" you process. Learn "How to Use Google Reader" (also see the archived web conferences on using feeds) to efficiently keep up with the constant flow of web content.


3. Converse. Although you are not blogging, learn to comment on other people's blogs. I often think about what impact Extension would have if our nutrition specialists and agents contributed research-based information on a regular basis on some already-very-established nutrition blogs. Certainly, there are lots of opportunities to contribute without blogging.


4. Share. When you find useful blogs and pages, share the information with others. Of course, you can share them locally, but why not share them globally in a bookmarking site, such as del.icio.us (there are others--see Wikipedia's list)? See eXtension's archived web conferences on social bookmarking.

Even if you never author a blog, by following and contributing to existing conversations, you will a) learn new knowledge and ideas, b) advance the knowledge of others, and c) share what you learned with others. Isn't that what Extension professionals do?

Internet Security Presentations

As the result of great response from our internet security presentations during ACE/NETC 2007, we have posted the PowerPoint presentations to Slideshare. In keeping with the theme of the conference, we named them: "Dark Alleys of the Internet, Part 1" and "Dark Alleys of the Internet, Part 2--Do the Right Thing".


If you want to teach your own clientele and staff about internet security, you may want to use all or some of Part 1.

Part 2 gives suggestions to network administrators to make it easy for users to use the Internet securely.


Enjoy, edit, add, and share these presentations.

In case you are wondering, we have also sent these presentations to ACE to be post on their site.

Extension in Web 2.0

The Virtual Extension Specialist in Journal of Extension is a good start to introducing the change in Extension's role on the Internet. According to Charles Ray, the virtual Extension specialist creates a web site that serves a focus, takes on the identity of the website, uses a web site as the primary contact, abandons paper print focus, becomes a lead of navigator of information for clients, and continually builds the web site as the Extension program.

Charles Ray and his colleagues should be congratulated for producing a comprehensive web site that provides continuous changing information that is meaningful and helpful to the wood products industry. In describing the virtual Extension specialist, Ray's most important points are that:

1. we do not guard our information,
2. we generate our information for the web, not for print media, and
3. we should not we depend on ourselves to generate information.

Extension is Not the Only Expert
Jason Young describes this last point best by saying it is impossible for us to know everything.

"There is always someone that knows more than I do about a given subject. And only by those sharing what they know am I able to successfully accomplish many of the tasks placed before me. Sure, I have to know a fair amount, I have to have the fundamentals, but I can no longer be successful in the business I’m in based solely on what I know.

...Information always finds a way to be known."

Jason ends his post with a reason that local agents should also join the Web 2.0 world with "It isn’t about what you know, it’s about what you can figure out."

Content can be created and is created by anyone. Content creation is about inclusion. We are not the only experts. Seeking knowledge from other Extension professionals, other land grant faculty, other University (non-land grant) faculty, other experts--such as health professionals, community leaders, horticulturalists, bankers, etc., and citizens is imperative for keeping our knowledge current, solving problems, and providing education.

Sharing and Collaborating in Web 2.0
Rather than carefully controlling the flow of information, we should be willing (and able) to open information systems so we can both 1) seek knowledge from various sources and 2) "share far and wide our knowledge".

Sites like Penn State Wood Pro (I could name several others, including the eXtension web sites) have produced valuable information and become a central hub for information in a topic area. Today, there are many technologies that provide Extension professionals (not just specialists) to develop web sites like Penn State Wood Pro.

But, more importantly, there are new web technologies that can move Extension into a more collaborative and community presence, adding value and depth to our knowledge and our ability to share knowledge. Extension colleagues (and a few government professionals) around the nation are using eXtension's wikis to collaborate and mesh information. A few Extension professionals have edited entries in Wikipedia. The eXtension web sites also include opportunities for online communities to communicate through chats and "ask the experts".

Many Extension web sites are "come to me sites". Most Extension web sites produce information in a way that was intended for print. The Web 2.0 era has created an environment where internet users are more social and find useful information through their social contacts on the web. They expect more interaction, more linking, and more dynamic products. They expect to get information in any form. They want learning that is interactive and inclusive. They too want to share their knowledge. They want conversations.

Listed below are some popular, and useful, social networking tools, that Extension professionals should be learning and using:

• Blogs: on your site, Blogger*, Typepad , or WordPress
• News Readers (Google Reader)
• Wikis: on your own site, eXtension*, or Wikipedia*
• Document sharing: (Google Docs and Spreadsheets)
• Photo sharing: Flickr*
• Video sharing: YouTube*
• Slide sharing: Slideshare*
• Bookmark sharing: del.icio,us* or Digg
• Social networking: Facebook* or My Space
• Presence technologies: Twitter* or Jaiku,
• Instant messaging: AIM*, MSN*, Jabber* (chat.extension.org)
• SMS text messaging (text messages on your cell phone)
• Virtual communities-Second Life* Look for Morrill Island

(Note the technologies marked with an * are ones that I and several other Extension professionals are participating in.) There are others. Leave a comment for those I have left out.

These web technologies provide opportunities to share knowledge, receive feedback, learn, have conversations, and build relationships in multitude of ever-changing online communities. This way of sharing and creating knowledge creates a "go to them" web presence.

The web now is no longer about directing our information, it is about collaborative augmentation, remixing and assembling information into forms that the original authors never pictured (paraphrased from Jason Young). A product that has been added to, changed, and remixed by many is a better, more easily understood, and richer product than its original.

Although there are many examples, the YouTube video Shift Happens and its Slideshare version which is a presentation on the globalization from an educational standpoint is an excellent example of a product of inclusion and sharing. Karl Fisch created the original as a presentation for in-service training for teachers at a high school.

As the result of sharing and repackaging the product (by many), the video and presentation is extremely effective, informative, and useful. It has been viewed 2 million times. AND, it still can be remixed, changed, and specialized for your specific needs. Karl Fisch has announced that there is now a wiki where people can reference materials, add more facts, improve the information, and continue the conversation about Shift Happens. (If you have not watched the video --watch it!). This is a wonderful example where one person had an idea, produced it, shared it, and through the process of sharing it, the product became more meaningful and useful.

Information AND knowledge are commodities.

To fully participate in Web 2.0--in the flat and seemingly chaotic web structure--we have to remove some of the constraints we have, like the traditional modes of operation of controlling our content, communications, and presentations. The traditional form of teaching from one instructor to many students does not effectively work with Web 2.0 participants. To try to control communities by feeding them information is futile. We are wasting our time to create only "come to me" environments. We, Extension professionals, will be much more effective by joining, participating, contributing, sometimes leading, and forming online communities.

Extension in Web 2.0
Larry Lippke asked a few months ago, how do we deliver education in the flat world? and how can we make sure that we satisfy the structure of higher education and the new opportunities of the non-hierarchical structure of the flat world? We have to change our philosophy about controlling our information. Learning Management Systems, evaluations and assessments have their place in Web 2.0. We have to rethink these systems and change them so that they fit our needs in the flat web world. We cannot change the flat world to fit these systems.

The future is where virtual Extension professionals have an online identities and Extension has online presence in organic-forming online communities.The Extension professionals contribute through many different social networks their knowledge of unbiased, research-based information. The Extension professionals are sometimes leading, always sharing, and always learning.

The Web 2.0 is not about a change in technology, it is about a change in philosophy and a change in the way we operate. It is about openness, communicating in flat sense, linking, sharing, and participating in a "go to them" kind of world.

Extension's Wikipedia Entries

The Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) is the first Extension state program to have an article on Wikipedia. Check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama_Cooperative_Extension_System. The article covers the program areas, structure, and history of Alabama Extension. While extensive, the article remains a work in progress.

Additionally, if you have not already seen it, you may want to glance at Cooperative Extension in Wikipedia.

Jim Langcuster who wrote the article tells me that he has also created a Wikipedia article on the historical panorama of Alabama agriculture.