Nikki Massaro Kauffman: Comments

Comment on "The Time Has Come..."

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:12:59 -0500

There are many, many reasons to be sharing our work like this. I act as a trainer for part of my role at the university but I don't have all the answers nor do I find much joy in trying to reinvent the wheel! I am learning too and I often look to my networked resources for answers that I need. Something caught my eye in one of my feeds this morning that relates to what we're talking about: networked, peer-to-peer learning and something called "personal learning networks" - what a great way to say it! Here's the post by Robin Good:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/personal-learning-networks-why-peers-are-better-than-classmates/

Incidentally, there is an effort to foster an online community extending the ITS training workshops I often find myself referring people to. I am sure you know about it but thought I'd mention it:
http://technologytraining.psu.edu/

- NATALIE FRANCES HARP

Comment on "The Time Has Come..."

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:45:04 -0500

Yeah, the link would be good, huh? https://wikispaces.psu.edu/display/facdev/Home

- CAROL A. MCQUIGGAN

Comment on "The Time Has Come..."

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:43:48 -0500

Here's the collaborative space for our current projects.

- CAROL A. MCQUIGGAN

Comment on "The Time Has Come..."

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:35:38 -0500

Carol, you raise a great question.

I think the idea of sharing content with ourselves is absolutely similar to the conversation around OER.

If we can't built a community of trust around between departments, how can we begin to think about OER and opening content to the world (or convincing faculty to do so).

Even Wikispaces itself is currently not accessibly to the public except by FPS account if you set up your space to allow them. At best, that leaves out members of the training community who want to open their content up to the outside world. At worst, that leaves out those of us who serve a community of people who may not have access accounts (extension?).

I know this will come in time and the folks at ET have been absolutely wonderful to work with in giving me some modifications I have asked for in the past. So putting the content out there now was not such a leap of faith for me.

Nikki

P.S. Feel free to share your Wikispaces URL here if you'd like. I would love for those of use who are using Wikispaces this way to share. Eventually I would like to look at some share tagging and aggregation, but until then...

- Nikki Massaro Kauffman

Comment on "The Time Has Come..."

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:20:14 -0500

Thanks for your work toward this effort Nikki! When the work we do is for the good of our entire University, why should it be hidden? It's a new, and I think, better way to work - making our work more visible with the opportunity to make it more collaborative and available for continuous improvement. If others can benefit from it, how cool is that?! The faculty development work I've been doing with colleagues around the university is completely open within PSU's wikispaces. I haven't seen the downside of this effort yet, and don't expect to see one. Don't you think this conversation is similar to the discussion around OER?

- CAROL A. MCQUIGGAN

Comment on "The Time Has Come..."

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:17:54 -0500

Thanks for commenting, Brian.

Robin Smail and I have a presentation prepped that we are currently without venue to air, but the general philosophy is this:

We should consider what we are doing to be public unless there is some good reason not to. By going the other way around we lose valuable opportunities to collaborate within the University and with other institutions. But it goes deeper than that: Hiding our work promotes an unhealthy air of distrust and of competition.

By the time we realize we need to make our information public, the process for moving the information is too cumbersome.

Nikki

- Nikki Massaro Kauffman

Comment on "The Time Has Come..."

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:47:33 -0500

You are so on the right track on this one. As someone who has learned the hard way about the value of technical documentation, I tend to take very copious notes about process when I'm likely to repeat it later. I happen to now do that in a Wiki.

Earlier this week, I saved a colleague in another unit significant time and effort by sharing my notes in my (siloed) wiki with him.

Your post has made me think I should publish those notes (installing Trac and SVN on RHEL with PSU authentication) to Wikispaces for the good of all.

- Brian Panulla

Comment on "I Think I Have a Metaphor Problem"

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:26:26 -0500

A very powerful tip that was given to me was your metaphor might be strong but the strongest one will be your audiences own.

The trick then becomes eliciting it.

With regards to doing it too often only do it enough to make your points clear. Good communication is about clarity after all . . . like fine crystal :) (couldn't resist)

Regards

Stephen
www.edenchanges.com - your address for inspiration and development

- Stephen Hart

Comment on "I Think I Have a Metaphor Problem"

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 11:01:33 -0500

Interesting post! I'm thinking of using metaphor as another way of knowing in my research. What do you think about metaphor as a way of sharing your personal philosophy about the topic you're presenting? Do you think it has a role there? Having your audience think of their own metaphor for the topic can also be revealing as a way to heighten awareness of the issues related to that topic.

- CAROL A. MCQUIGGAN

Comment on "Remember Ryan Ballas. Get to Know Everyone."

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:45:44 -0500

Oh, Nikki. Your memories are beautiful and your words are so profound. Ryan was always quietly there; I do miss him. Thank you.

- Patty Gruneberg

Comment on "If All Else Fails, IT's the "Other Duties as Assigned" "

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:29:39 -0500

Thanks for sharing your post, Natalie. As always, enjoy the useful resources you send my way!

- Nikki Massaro Kauffman

Comment on "If All Else Fails, IT's the "Other Duties as Assigned" "

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:50:36 -0500

Nikki,

Your post reminds me of a post I made a while back on the ID&D blog describing Andrew Fairbanks' talk about the workplace and workforce of tomorrow. To paraphrase myself paraphrasing Mr. Fairbanks, one of the key skills professionals need in today's workplace is a basic understanding of IT capabilities, regardless of their actual profession. Here's the post in full: https://iddexchange.worldcampus.psu.edu/?q=node/492

- NATALIE FRANCES HARP

Comment on "In Honor of Terminated Projects"

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:51:17 -0500

Great point. There are sayings, old cliches, that cover this. "Don't throw good money after bad" "Cut your losses."

One of the worst things (for an organization) is to get so personally wrapped up in any given project that perspective is lost. I wonder how much money would be saved, time found, and painful I-told-you-sos averted if people would stop attaching their personal worth to projects that don't have a snowball's chance in hell. There is nothing wrong with admitting a mistake, or even just admit circumstances have changed. Anything to get out of a losing proposition.

- Michelle Weaver

Comment on "The Jerk's Paradox: Social vs. Antisocial"

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:35:59 -0500

The No Asshole Rule is one of my favorite books, one of the few truly useful books on how to hire good people. Much of it reminded me of that saying "Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clear to the bone". You can train skills, but you can't untrain asshole-ism.

I'm a big proponent of workplace civility and of behaving in ways that engender cooperation and a pleasant work enviroment, but sometimes "Bite me" really is the only appropriate response. I think it's recognizing when civility is no longer the right option that is so important.

- Michelle Weaver

Comment on "Engagement: A Trickster's Guide to Starting an Avalanche"

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:16:11 -0500

YES! I'm a trickster, too. The way to build a community is to come up with fun ways to make people want to be part of it. You're excellent at that. I think gimmicks are a perfect door opener, a way to attract people to a group who might otherwise have stayed far away. If you can't get people interested in your cause, you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of creating real momentum.

- Michelle Weaver

Comment on "Remember Ryan Ballas. Get to Know Everyone."

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 12:08:52 -0500

Dear Blog Readers,

I wrote this post back in mid-April and barely three months later, I am already faltering at times in the task I set before us.

As fate would have it, Ryan Ballas befriended someone long ago who, not knowing of his passing, came to this blog to get the sad news and emailed me. From someone I have never met before, I learned more about what a great person Ryan was and how even after his death, Ryan keeps bringing us together, refusing to let us forget our purpose.

I came back and reread this blog, realized I need to recommit to my purpose, and I hope you will too.

Thanks, Friend of Ryan. Thanks, Blog Readers, for joining us.

Nikki MK

- Nikki Massaro Kauffman

Comment on "One Maverick + Podcast on "Cognitive Surplus" = Extra Effort"

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:07:21 -0500

There are so few places that really understand how to communicate their missions clearly enough for staff to feel comfortable standing behind the mission.

- Michelle Weaver

Comment on "One Maverick + Podcast on "Cognitive Surplus" = Extra Effort"

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:06:43 -0500

Michelle, I officially joined and added the book to the list! :)

- Nikki Massaro Kauffman

Comment on "Death by Committee; Contraception by Silo"

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:04:58 -0500

I agree, Mark, that part of the reason we have redundancy is that someone's whole workday is devoted to it. That's a scary thing to face.

Who would like to be the one to admit that the job they are doing doesn't need to be done? What would happen to that job? Would the person have to *gasp* learn something new?

Sometimes the people who have been somewhere for years feel a sense of ownership over their positions. "I've stayed here all these years because I'm comfortable with what I do, and who are you to come in and try to change it?"

Sometimes it's because they've spent too much time and money going in one direction and are afraid of admitting that while the decision they made was the best at the time, a better one would be to cut and run in a new direction.

Anyway, I feel your pain on the Word docs and would love to see a day when we all could be working out of wikis. After all, think of all that redundant space alone on mail servers, in attachment folders of individual machines, and on backups just devoted to multiple versions and multiple copies of collaborative copies that could have been centralized in a wiki!

- Nikki Massaro Kauffman

Comment on "Death by Committee; Contraception by Silo"

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:43:49 -0500

Needs assessment. Good point. Who needs what we do? Why do they need it? What is the ongoing value of that need and what is the value of the benefit gained by having it? Is it greater than zero? Can it be served better in another way? Is it already being served better in another way and what we do is redundant? Is the redundant service justified because it provides something not present in the existing service? Would it be better to add that to the existing service?

Here is another thing to think about...

When does the tool we provide become the end in itself? When did people first say, "My job is to create a Microsoft Word file?" They do that, you know. I get Word files in email — all the time — that would be better served as a web page on a wiki with an RSS feed, but aren't, because it is somebody's job to make that word file.

How do we stop our services from getting to that point? Where the needs assessment shows that the tool is needed because it is somebody's job to use the tool?

- MARK H LINTON