I'm a big fan of Clay Shirky's book Here Come's Everybody . I even had two copies, because I have won a copy, but I organised a photo search competition in the social media training of this week. This was fun by the way, I had selected a picture from flickr under the tag web2.0. It was harder for the participants to find that picture online than I had expected. First of all everybody was searching in google images, not in flickr. Secondly people started searching using the words in the picture, not on tags. Clay Shirky says that "social media do not get socially interesting till they get technologically boring ". In other words, the major revolution in the way we work together and share information and learning will only occur if everyone is handy with the technology, so everybody is at ease twittering, blogging, around. I am very curious to know how the world of coaches and trainers will change.
It always strikes me that the marketing and media people seem to be more at the forefront of embracing and experimenting with social media. But why not trainers and facilitators? This continues to be fascinated me. On the one hand it could be that trainers (like teachers) like to be seen as the authority on a particular discipline and it is easier to shine in a face-to-face training situation than online, where you are more equal. On twitter you are one of the group, in a room you are in front as trainer. It is also possible that trainers and coaches enjoy the face-to-face dynamics in a group and are good in handling that dynamics. They may be convinced that this would not work online. Or that trainers are more often socially-oriented, less interested in technology. They may perceive social media as something technical. (you don't have to be technical, but they may think so ..). Any ideas?
Are you a trainer and want some inspiration? This wiki Beth Kanter are already some ideas such as using Google Forms for evaluations, Delicious for an online small library, Wiki as a central place for a training group, and Twitter integration as a back channel .. I have received the book by Jane Bozarth for social media trainers today, so I will promise you a bookreview soon!