Meetings are boring. So let's fix them.

Embedding games-based learning practice into teaching has been an interest of mine for some time, but why restrict it to teaching?

Inspired by Nic Whitton's post on Making Learning Engaging and Alex Moseley's post on embedding games methodologies into a conference session, I wanted to see how far you could push the idea of making 'work' more engaging by learning from games. To save you any background reading on the topic, we have previously identified six key elements to motivation in games-based learning:

Community - Competition - Completion - Creativity - Puzzle Solving - Narrative

Applying these elements to a few days in the office, this is the list of ideas I have so far, a mixed bag, I would love to build on this and come up with a real set of tools that could easily be used. I don't want this to be a gimmick that is only implemented by games fans, I want tools that help people cooperate to reach desirable conclusions in an efficient, enjoyable way. Is that too much to ask?

Level 1 - Easy
Ideas that can be implemented without special equipment or too much convincing

1. You don't get free run of the refreshments on arrival in the meeting room. Tea & biccies become available as a reward for completing the first 3 agenda items complete - it's important this isn't a time limit, it's reaching a goal.
   
2. A points based reward system for contributions (newbie - bronze - silver - gold stars as seen on most discussion forums) but applicable easily to most electronic channels (and less easily to face-to-face channels)
3. Or provide physical rewards for activity. A little badge for being on a particular project team, or even smarties to represent each online contribution presented when the group meets face to face.
4. A 'swear jar' in the office for committing whatever crimes are considered punishable. Like accidentally forwarding emails to people who weren't supposed to read that, or double booking yourself and wasting people's time.
5. Halfway through a meeting or conference, everyone stand up and change the dynamics by changing seats.
   

Level 2 - Medium
Requires colleagues to want to try new ways of working, a little effort!

1. Anthropomorphisation. In our case, we name our servers after Terry Pratchett characters, which mean we can talk about with personalities and genders, and amuse ourselves associating characters with server functions. "Cheery seems to have had a rough night, she couldn't get up this morning, but Carrot is ok..."
2. In an email/twitter/comment exchange members must include an agreed category (e.g. animal names) into each of their responses. This removes the tendancy to yak and forces more consideration than usual into both writing and the reading.
3. When working in smaller groups reporting back to the main group, make it competitive. Prizes not required, just the honour of being best, and promoting the recognition of good work.
4. Use games as analogies to demonstrate concepts rather than powerpoint. I'm a fan of using Lego to demonstrate social networking.
5. Apply a Reading-ease/Fog-Index measure to all reports. Anyone circulating work of unnecessary fogginess is given press-ups according to how verbose it was! (the press ups aren't enforced but serve as a reminder that you're not speeding things up).
6. A light hearted recognition of topical dress according to the days work/meeting topic. e.g. a tie with numbers on it for budget meetings.
7. Use anonymous personal reposnse system (PRS) or other voting devices to take impromptu votes of agreements or gather unplanned feedback from the table. We do it with students, why not with each other?

Level 3 - Hard
Requires kit and software that may or may not exist and big changes

1. Have the conversation take place in turns played alongside a game (electronic or physical). We are currently finding Carcassonne on the iPhone a good way of holding a conversation and you make your turn and type your message.
2. You don't have to be you. In some cases, maybe you feel strong enough to be a Warrior, or in others you want to be a diplomat. Easier online, but could work in meetings too, take roles, develop avatars and then it's ok to not do exactly what they expect.
3. In an online environment where you can see who is logged on, build an extra feature that allows you to virtually 'shoot' other logged on members. Suspect this might encourage people to log in regularly to join in - and they might well read and participate while they are there.
4. Add a puzzle-lock on each new email/post. You can't read it until you complete it - adding a challenge so the content is the reward.
5. Some kind of monitor for who has 'possession' of a meeting, ie who has had the most voice-time. If that ever gets to over 75% for one person, then the is not a productive meeting.

Social Media for Learning, Social Media for Marketing - what can we learn about control?

On the Social Media Marketing course I attended this week, I was struck by the rewards and challenges for marketing that paralleled the same issues in Education.

I'll start with an example (thanks to @reachstudents for this). Do a Google search for "student experience Nottingham" and you get something completely outside the marketing departments careful control of search engine optimisation:

The top hit there is this (unofficial) student produced YouTube video with 52,000+ views:

Now as it happens, although not the message the university would have chosen to put out, it's positive about the university - and indeed (by criticising Nottingham Trent) is says things the marketing department could never have done!

One of the key things for social media marketeers to understand is the need to give up control. The whole point of social media is that your customers will comment and respond in any way they like, and your best response is to accept this - the worst response is to attempt to control it. (Google 'nestle remove greenpeace video' for evidence of this backfiring!)

And when we talk about using social media in learning, indeed the changing of nature of education more generally, we always end up talking about the lecturer giving up control. I've struggled with understanding how the role of the lecturer is changing as we move to this model, but I find that considering the three social media marketing elements I discussed in my previous post allows us to draw parallels putting the lecturer in the role of the marketeer:

Aims: In marketing you are usually trying to increase and encourage customer engagement with your produce/service, whereas in education you are doing the same - but for the subject area you are teaching.

Value: As the marketeer using social media you are offering customers knowledge, new content and customer support - this maps easily to the role of the lecturer.

Audience: In marketing you tend to go to where you know your customer is, or do your best to drag them where you want them (usually your site). In education you have more freedom to use the platform of your choice, as your learners should(?) do what you tell them if they want to complete the course - but it would be wise to understand what social media your learners use already to maximise effectiveness.

What do you think? Can we learn from marketing to move education forward? Is there some aspect of social learning we can use to provide clever marketing opportunities? I'll let you know...

Social Media Marketing - tips for success, and what not to do!

I attended a one-day course yesterday, presented by Luke Mitchell from @reachstudents on Social Media Marketing. With Luke's permission here is my summary of the day (part 1!).

The day worked around consideration of a triangle of Aims, Value and Audience.

Aims: We first considered what we were trying to achieve (ranging in our case from contacting old alumni to promoting events and new schemes).
Value: We then thought about what we had to offer (knowledge, new content, customer support etc). If you have no value to offer you are probably wasting your time.
Audience: And finally considering who we were marketing to, and where they might be. The consensus is that most undergraduate students are on Facebook, with pockets using other sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn etc.

The secret to social media marketing is to find a method of marketing that matches all three of these; you have to have something to offer to someone and know what you want out of it. Once you know this you can match the most appropriate social media. This is best illustrated by a pair of case studies where companies got this very right (and very wrong!).

1. Habitat - how to make Twitter uses hate you by getting the etiquette all wrong

Habitat decided to use Twitter to raise awareness of special offers. They employed an agency to help increase visibility of their tweets, and the agency decided to use trending topics to boost views. Only they happened to use hashtags which had nothing to do with habitat. Like hashtags relating to the Iran election (#MOUSAV) for example.

image reproduced from: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/103334

The Twitter community reacted very badly to this, accusing Habitat of spamming them. Habitat tried to make the problem go away by removing all the tweets, but the internet doesn't forget that quickly. For more on this case study read socialmediatoday. Clearly Habitat did not understand the codes of behaviour of their chosen medium and by trying to 'Black Hat' they were trying to cheat the medium.

2. IKEA - How to get users to drag their friends to your Facebook profile

IKEA knew their audience were on Facebook, and wanted to get them enagaged with their new store. Their store manager created a Facebook profile, and posted photos from the catalogue - then they opened a competition. Whoever first tagged themselves or one of their friends in the photo (ie tagging yourself as a chair) won the item.

image reproduced from: http://www.opedefeijao.com.br/2010/08/24/sensacional-as-20-melhores-campanhas-de-midia-social/

The photos then started appearing in users streams on updates, encouraging more and more friends to visit the page. Users were effectively promoting Ikea personally, and signing themselves up to a mailing list.

Ikea had something to offer - prizes, and knew exactly how to engage their audience. The best way to learn more about this case study is to watch Ikea's video about it.
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We discussed many more examples on the course but these two I think illustrate the risks and rewards of social media marketing nicely.

Both cases stemmed from a marketing agency having a novel idea of how to use the existing technology, and doing a copycat is never as effective as being the first, so I don't suggest you copy what Ikea did. I don't believe you can teach people how to have novel ideas, so I'm off to think of something cool to do on Twitter that no one has tried before...hmmm...

Society, Play and Education

[my summary of the photos below]
Boys play with soldiers and guns because they need to fight for their country. Girls play with dolls houses because how better to train them for the future role as wives and mothers? At least that was the norm until the late 18th century when there was a realisation toys and games could be educational as well as just miniature versions of their parents daily lives. Since then things have moved on, and with the input of child psychologists, toys of today can train our children to be moral, educated members of society. Is that asking a lot from lego?

The photos below are from a visit to Scaplen's Court Museum in Poole this summer. The Museum is usually only used for local school's education programmes, but is open to the public at certain times in the summer to explore their education and play collections:

There is a great traditional classroom with wooden desks, inkwells and slates and sand trays for the kids to practice writing.


After the school room, you move into the two main 'play rooms' - as the sign puts it:

"explore the way in which play has been developed and exploited according to the social thinking of the time"

Toys through the ages - nothing electronic in sight.

Here are the posters around the room taking you though the centuries, and the history of play: