How to Teach the Public About Social Software Instructor: Beth Gallaway An Infopeople Workshop Summer 2007

This Mini-Demo Is Brought to You By the Infopeople Project Infopeople is a federally-funded grant project supported by the California State Library. It provides a wide variety of training to California libraries. Infopeople workshops are offered around the state and are open registration on a first-come, first-served basis. For a complete list of workshops, and for other information about the project, go to the Infopeople website at infopeople.org.

Workshop Overview Working with Adult Learners Teaching Social Software Teaching Bookmarking & Tagging Teaching RSS, Blogs & Wikis Teaching Social Networking Apps

For Everything You Teach Why? create a reason What? give them the facts How? let them try it What if? let them think how they would use it let them teach it to others

When Teaching… During a demonstration explain what is happening point to things on screen Make mistakes experts have problems, too Ask questions to: verify knowledge get them thinking

Things to Watch: Eye contact Volume Explained jargon Clarity of explanation Hands on Checked for understanding

Teaching Tips Watch for “yes” or “no” questions “What questions do you have?” NOT “Do you have any questions?” Wait 5-10 seconds Reply unconditionally Repeat the question for the group

More Teaching Tips Put your hands behind your back Have extra exercises to give to fast studies Recognize simple things can be a challenge Create excellent handouts

Tips from Students Be patient Repeat yourself Say things in several different ways Use analogies Use humor Whining & cheating allowed Have fun

Question for the Group What is social software?

Social Software is... Any website where you create a username, password and profile Sites that allow you to contribute by uploading or posting your own content for rating review and remixing

Benefits of Social Software No one knows everything but everyone knows something Creates connections between people Other???

Question for the Group What are the issues with teaching social software that we need to address?

Social Software Assumptions Everything is meant to be shared (“public” is the default)‏ Everything is meant to be critiqued (commenting “ON” is the default)‏ Everything is meant to be remixed (Creative Commons is the default)‏

del.icio.us Flickr LibraryThing Bloglines PBWiki LinkedIn Eons Social Software Apps

Questions for the group What might the public want to do with this application? How might you describe this application in a sentence or two? What 3 things might you focus on in a class on how to use this application?

Thank You! Contact Beth: informationgoddess29 on most social software networks