D Foster Associates

To follow up on yesterday’s post on Social Networking tools, I wanted to share an article about some of LinkedIn’s new tools.  Basically, LinkedIn is working to allow other sites to embed “in” links within their content so that as you are reading it, you can see if/how you are connected to people, companies, or industries in the article.

Take a minute to think about using that within an online training course where a learner could see who else might be taking the training now, or if they are linked to some of the experts referenced in the course.  This may make more sense when the training is more collaborative using a tool like a wiki than with formally developed and structured content.  When reading information within the wiki, the learner could see their relationship to the people that contributed content and have a better understanding or comfort level of the quality of the content.  They also can potentially make new links with people that are interested in the same topics that they are.

If you haven’t done it yet, join LinkedIn and take a look at their Answers section.  You will see what questions people in your network are asking, and who is providing answers.

Have fun!

I’m a big fan of Social Networking, and feel that it helps create multiple avenues for collaborative learning opportunities. I just found this great article on how to get started with Social Networking. It was a pain to link to on the site, so I have re-printed the whole article here.

Social Networking with Training Wheels
Ten ways to get started with social networking today
By: John Jantsch

Look, I don’t really think that the mySpaces and Facebooks of the world are that important for the typical small business as they stand today. There may be very practical business reasons for some to actually use these and other, what are called social networks, for business gain, but most people that have jumped on the social network bandwagon have found themselves left with a “is this all there is” kind of feeling.
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