From February 2006 to February 2007, Jay Cross, Harold Jarche, Judy Brown, and Dave Lee conducted online unworkshops on applying web 2.0 tools to informal corporate learning.

Each of the three series of unworkshops lasted a month or two, with weekly sessions online. Timezones were difficult to coordinate (with participants scattered from Israel to Japan).

Now the Unworkshop materials are yours. For free.

Welcome Letter

Welcome to the second series of Unworkshops. You're joining a community that is pioneering the application of web 2.0 tools to informal learning. Judy, Jay, and Harold, our guides and discussion leaders plan to do the utmost to help you get a lot out of this experience. That's why I decided to set out a few thoughts on how we see the world.

People learn by doing. The most effective learners are those who roll up their sleeves and start doing things right away. C'mon in.

Learning is social. Conversation is the greatest learning technology there is. The presentations here will lay out a framework but your real opportunity to learn will be interacting with others. We have an incredible array of experience in this group; all of us are smarter than any of us.

What's the un part about? This is an unworkshop because we are unafraid to break with tradition. Our community is flexible and may get controversial. It's very hands-on. Very personal. Online. If we find a better way to do something, let's do it.

This is real life. You don't need permission. We're not taking attendance. If you can't make it to a session, listen to the recording if you fear you missed something. You won't be graded.

You're in charge. The measure of your success is whether or not you improve your relationships to your job, your family, and your friends. Unworkshops are more about becoming than learning about.

Confusion is healthy. It's impossible to learn if you think you already know everything. Furthermore, uncertainty engages the mind. In our first unworkshop sessions, everyone was rattled in the first two sessions. By the end of the experience, they all felt confident and were amazed by how much they had learned.

Ask for help when you need it. Skype any of us when you see we're free. Of course, we expect you to have tried to figure things out for yourself first. See How to Ask Questions the Smart Way by Eric Raymond.

Join the community. You're an early member of what may become a large club. Call your fellow alumni when you need them. And be there for your colleagues when they need help.

This is beta. Everything is a work in progress, so there's no reason to keep it hidden until "ready." Better incomplete than not at all. The Unworkshop, this wiki, and the state-of-the-art are all ongoing experiments.

Give back. As ye sow so shall ye reap. Karma. Make this wiki an ever more useful resource: add to it, fix it, update it.

Please snoop around the wiki and add to it while you have "beginner's mind."

Conditions for Use

This material is here for you to learn from. Use it but don't try to make a buck off of it.

Exercise caution. Some of the recordings are 18 months old: a dozen years in internet time.

When you find a new resource or a better way to say things, please share. them with the Internet Time Community. We can't support this for free. Call if you'd like to arrange for an in-house unworkshop. Otherwise, direct your questions to the community.

One artifact of the Unworkshops lives on: Tools for building web 2.0 learnscapes. It's on our wiki. Help us keep it current.

FAQ

What are the prerequisites?

This unworkshop will be taught in English. Fluency in standard American English and technical English is necessary.

You'll need to be familiar with personal computers and to know how to use a browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. You'll need an internet connection. You'll also need a headset and microphone.

Most importantly, you need to be familiar with instructional design and how adults learn. This unworkshop focuses on using internet technology to improve human performance and learning. Top

What is the structure of the Unworkshop?

The unworkshop is entirely online, spread over several weeks. You will spend ten hours working with your group and an equivalent amount of time working on your own. Top

What does the Unworkshop cost?

$300 per person. Group discounts available. Top

Do you offer an in-house program?

Sure. We will lead unworkshops for your team, online or at your shop. In-house unworkshops are often centered around live work projects. Top

What software and web services do you use?

• to browse. Firefox (A better browser. Download it.]

• to blog. Blogger (You'll start a free blog with this.)

• to collaborate. PB Wiki (As easy as making a peanut butter sandwich.)

• to aggegate. Suprglu (Piecing your web together. It collects RSS feeds.)

• to meet. Breeze (We'll give you instructions.)

• to tag. Delicious

• for photos. FlickR Top

What's an UNworkshop?

An unworkshop is a learning experience that mixes formal and informal learning. It's very hands-on. Very personal. While it will include some formal webinar-delivered content, the focus will learning by doing and peer interactions. Personal coaching will replace teaching. Top

What will I learn?

Blogs, Wikis and other Web 2.0 Tools is focused on the basic tools of communication and collaboration in the Web 2.0 world and their application to workplace learning. By the end of the unworkshop, you will:

• Create your own blog
• Create a wiki and know how to use it
• Used an RSS aggregator to build a feed of information important to you
• Gain an basic understanding of the principles underlying technologies like Flickr, Del.icio.us and Google Maps. Top

How will I learn it?

Of course, you will learn the way you learn everything - in your own way. We will facilitate your learning by providing:

• Guided tours of the Web
• Demonstrations of key skills
• Rich resources to support your knowledge
• Opportunities to experiment in a safe, supported environment
• Peer feedback from the other learners
• Three individualized coaching sessions
• Free form group interactions with coaches and fellow learners Top

What is Web2.0?

There is debate on whether "Web2.0" is a real shift in what the internet is and/or can do or whether "Web2.0" is just a marketing label slapped on an unrelated group of technologies. For our purposes, the answer to this debate doesn't really matter. The reality is that the technologies we are discussing here are real and learning professionals need to understand how they can be used to better enhance learning. Top