Updated Oct 22nd: Proposal for #Lote3, Matera 29 Oct – 3 Nov.
Content for the #unMonbook: Guide to Make Meaningful Projects Happen
I am my own resource” (Making a Living Session, Lote, Strasbourg)
A highly informal session for advice giving and sharing how we go about learning new skills and new tech tools, to use them in our work.
Keeping up with a highly flexible, but fast changing (online) environment. When working remotely and/or travelling a lot, we spend more time in skype calls than in office meetings; we have little idea about what memos are, but we circulate shared online documents or pads all the time. We have (already) gone from consumers to being ourselves producers of mass media (you tube videos : exhibit no.1). If you are living on your own skin the above, then you probably know that the pace at which new technologies and tools are used comes with a need for an ever increasing need to upskill ourselves. Working with super smart and tech savvy Edgeryders this happens to me all the time!
It’s not just a question of adaptability or flexibility, it has to do a lot with efficiency as we are racing against time (the Internet never sleeps!) and working with limited resources.
Why keep up? I would argue the investment we make to teach ourselves new tools is deeply personal. We know from Edgeryders research and past Living on the Edge sessions that the aspiration is to do work for which we are intrinsically motivated. We are learning new skills not because it says so in a job description (it seldom does if you’re not accountable but to yourself), but because we’re highly vested in our work/ project/ startup, in better supporting our team by going the extra mile to make things happen. What we gain in autonomy through lack of supervision or hierarchy, we might be losing in hand holding and step-by-step support…
Output: I’d like this session to turn into a collection of our personal strategies to deal with new (web) technology and the ways we incorporate it in our work.
Examples of things you may have learned and could share (open list, add your own…)
- How do we go about learning:
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video making and production?turned into a session of its own! -
basic visual design? working with templates, remixing but also creating our own
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interactive tools: for example for visualization and mindmapping, info graphics, crowdsourced maps… ?
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html or php coding to tweak your website/blog?
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free marketing tools deployed professionally? eg facebook analytics to drive more engagement
-any other skills you learned and can tell about.
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- What strategies do you know that actually work for time management when you need to allocate learning time parallel to or simultaneously with work time?
- Does ageing in the digital make it more difficult to catch up and how do we cope with this? As food for thought: is there an expiration date for us online workers needing to master technological tools?
I’m curious what you think and if you’re interested.. For a session like this I imagine [Ola] or [Charanya] might be, as they previously had essential input into learning and how we are equipping ourselves with skills within and outside formal learning environments. Also, maybe [Jonathan Sundqvist] has some thoughts on time management as he seems to be tracking his time on the social web?