One week down, twelve to go…
First, I want to say, “wow!”, I’m impressed with the crew we’ve got! I enjoyed reading your introductory posts and am blown away by the breadth of experience and perspective we’re lucky enough to have with us. I’m looking forward to learning lots from you!
The end of each course week is Sunday (midnight Vancouver time). You’re welcome to start posting your contributions to the next week following that, and it may be unwise to be posting about the previous week after then. For groups who will be hosting weeks, please aim to post your material on Sunday afternoons and evenings, which will become our informal transition time.
During the first week I jumped in several times to edit some of your posts if you forgot to select a category, but from now on I won’t do that (unless asked directly), so please continue to pay attention to the vital contexts of your posts, ratings, reviews, etc, as explained in the Participation Guidelines. For example, if you don’t get the Category right, people might not ever find your post, and if you don’t get the right settings for Comments vs Ratings, you’ll have an awkward combination of stuff appended to your post. Except in very unusual circumstances, please select only one (1) category for each post you make. In a fully tuned version of this system most of this bother would be automated away, but I’ll ask you to be attentive simply for the added value I’m hoping it can hopefully offer to our work together. And most of you followed the instructions as given while a few took your own paths – this is exactly what you should expect, and allow for, in a social/professional system. As in open real-world society, we need people who operate by their own rules, and it is always better if they consider the risks as well as the benefits.
I also noted that a few haven’t set any featured image with your posts – please think about how much that featured image contributes to the appeal of your posting. Perhaps have some fun with an AI-Artbot to generate an appropriately eye-catching image. Our platform is meant to be a ‘professional network’, so not having an identity, and not preparing your posts appropriately for open professional publishing, will reduce your impact.
The context for this coming week is the W02: The Global Marketplace category. In our first week we explored your raw opinions about emerging markets, so this week we’re zooming out to explore what ‘expert’ sources think, and from a global perspective. We’ve assembled a small library of recent research reports and market projections related to emerging technology markets (these were used to populate the poll we just completed). You’ll also explore what a “customer” is with respect to educational technologies and what a “venture” entails.
Your primary activity for this week is called Opportunity Horizon, which is to provide a critical perspective on sources in the Market Projections Forum, your second exercise in professional content curation. Try to get your reviewing done a few days before the end of the week so that the most valuable reviews can be recommended up before we move on to Week 3.
Your secondary activity, as it will be throughout the course, will be to “share” something new and valuable that you’ve found on your own. For example, the Emerging Market posts last week are only a starting point – are there any topics with reputable research predictions that are missing, or could make the poll stronger? For this week, the Market Projections are again a starting point. Are you able to find additional sources – credible market projections pertinent to learning technologies and this audience – that should be posted here, in the same format? Every week there will be similar opportunities for you to add ‘professional value’. What do I mean by this? It isn’t about finding something, or anything: ask yourself while searching and before posting how well your peers will appreciate this new source. If it is just average, or just noise, don’t bother as it will only hurt your professional standing in the long run. It is relatively rare that you will find something new that is of exceptional quality – wait for that before your post. The exercise of your professional judgement while searching is the learning benefit relative to each week’s assignment. You might not ever find anything worthy of sharing during the course – that’s still brilliant because you’ve learned lots and you haven’t distracted you peers with anything less than something that you consider is exceptional.
It’s not too early to start thinking about your A1 and A3 assignments, the topics of which are highly flexible so that you can make them strategic to your professional interests and objectives. I’l be happy to discuss any preliminary ideas you might have.
With respect to A2, please make sure that you’ve completed the Emerging Market Poll by the end of day today (Sunday) – you will get your team assignments early on Monday…
Have fun this week!
David