You have developed a fantastic new way to engage your audience. You open your session and things get off to a great start. People are engaged and you are having one of those fantastic days where everything is going right… for about 20 minutes.  Then it happens. Your audience starts to remember that their jobs are still going on outside of the training room.  You see someone shift, lean into a pocket and pull out their BlackBerry. Then another person reaches into a purse and grabs their iPhone. It’s a chain reaction.  Some are courteous and try to hide checking their device.  Others are blatant about it; either way, the outcome is the same. The first domino has been tipped. You’ve lost your audience’s attention. The message you are trying to convey gets blurred, shifted or all together over looked. 

Sometimes people are checking time-sensitive information that requires immediate attention… but that’s just sometimes, other times it’s just a habitual reaction.  (Think about how quick you are to grab your mobile device throughout the day.  Have you ever reached into your pocket because you felt it vibrate, then check your screen and… nothing… the phantom vibrate!  I know you have, at the Social Classroom we certainly have too!)  This is the world we live in.  Many of your learners are becoming addicted to information; we are surrounded by it.  We check our email, our Facebook, favorite blogs and sites, twitter, yammer, flickr, wikis, so-on and so-on, and many people check it throughout the day. 

Higher Ed teachers can certainly relate to this also.  Students are pulling out cell phones during lectures and classes all the time.  What’s worse?  In most college classes, students have a laptop in front of them.  Are the students only taking notes?  Of course not, so what are they doing?  Checking email, shopping Zappos, seeing what’s hot on Digg and checking out a friend’s photos on flickr, while tweetdeck and twirl are ringing in the background.  Sound familiar?  Of course it does.

So, what can you do to stop it?  Not much, so why try?  So many HR professionals, trainers, instructors and professors alike try to create rules and structure around this.  However, keeping someone off of the sites on their computers doesn’t keep them off of them all together.  They are accessing these social networks on their personal devices as well.  So rather than fight it, what results might we have if we actually encouraged it? 

What if we took a poll at the beginning of the training session and inquired what the learners needed to check on throughout the course of the training session.  What if we incorporated this time into the agenda?  If we know that these things distract learners, we need to give folks time to check it (get it out of their system) and then come back ready to learn.

What if you took it one step further?  What if on these breaks you asked them to search for something.  (Naturally, you want to make this relevant to your subject matter, but this is certainly possible.)  If you are training on something that may be perceived as dry material, like compliance or regulatory content, why not have learners search social networks for anything related that made news in the last few days.  If you are training on sales concepts, try having them search for sales sites and blogs that have some relevant information that they can bring to the class.

The possibilities are limitless.  The point is, rather than trying to stifle your learners, encourage them.  Bring the learning to the places they are.  Have fun with it; you may be surprised at the results!

Happy training and teaching!

According to a recent survey by Jobvite, many large companies and recruiters are using social networking to recruit and research potential job candidates.  “LinkedIn (76 percent), search engines (67 percent), Facebook (44 percent) and Twitter (21 percent). Respondents reported that 24% of candidates disclose their social networking presence when applying for a job.”

These recruiting tactics shouldn’t be exclusive to larger organizations!  If you work for the smaller company, a start-up, your own company, even if you are a state employer, using social networking in the recruitment process can help you get the kind of employee that you are looking for! 

Let’s discuss two things you can use social networking for:  First, finding the candidate and second, researching the candidates.

Finding the Candidate

Many of us have used LinkedIn to maintain existing professional connections.  LinkedIn is the most popular social networking site for recruiting for the obvious reason that it is designed for business professionals.  But don’t just limit your candidate search to LinkedIn.  Does your company post on Twitter?  Who is following you?  Is your competition on Twitter?  Who is following them?  Search twitter for hashtags and keywords that relate to your industry.  You can also search Facebook for specific job titles, employers, colleges, etc.  Once you identify a candidate on Facebook or Twitter, you can click on their profiles, find out what information is available and then cross search for them on LinkedIn. 

In the conversations that we’ve had with folks in HR departments and in smaller companies, many people just don’t know how to search for the right candidate, or aren’t sure if it is appropriate to reach out to them out of the blue. As for reaching out to your prospective candidate, depending on how active you are in LinkedIn (how many connections you have and how many groups you are a member of) you may be surprised at shared connections you have!  Don’t be shy!  A simple thing to remember is: if you are afraid to scare off the candidate by reaching out to them, you never had a chance to get them anyway.  Just reach out to build the connection, you have nothing to lose!

Now, to search for the right candidate…. That part is simple!  Take a look at this video regarding LinkedIn searching:

Researching the Candidate

Whether you found your candidate through traditional recruiting practices or through some of the above-mentioned techniques, you will want to do some research on them.  Sure, your background check and calling references will prove to be informative, but you may be amazed at what you can find out about job seekers through some simple searches in social networks.  Check the big social sites: Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.  Start your search by the email address that is on the resume, then search by their name combined with their geographic area.   You will know a “red flag” when you see it.

This sure seems like a lot of work, why would you want to do this?  The real question you might ask yourself is: can you afford not to?  Top recruiting firms and large organizations are using these concepts to find the best candidates for their open positions.  Any recruiter will tell you that the best candidates are often the so-called Passive Candidates that aren’t actively seeking new opportunities.  You can use social networking to find them, recruit them and ultimately to help your organization grow! 

Happy Recruiting, Social Classroom!

(See the 2009 Social Media Survey by Jobvite that was referenced above: http://recruiting.jobvite.com/2009-social-recruitment-survey.html)

First, The Social Classroom aims to be, itself, a classroom of sorts for people that are looking to use social networking and web 2.0 to improve their organizations.  The focus will be on everything EXCEPT for how to use Social Networking to market your product or generate sales.  (If that’s what you’re looking for, there are about a million “gurus” and “experts” for that, so have at it!)  But what else can you use Social Networking for in your organization?  Can you use Social Media and Networking for talent management? For employee engagement?  For performance management?  For training and development?  For assessment and evaluation?  For professional and leadership development?  To maximize the potential of your staff, colleagues and even your organizational leaders?  At The Social Classroom, we believe that you can and we will explore ways to do those things!

This blog will also explore social networking is from the perspective of those in front of the classroom itself.  The Social Classroom is interested in how educators, trainers and facilitators can use social networking to engage learners.  This will primarily focus on training and development in the workplace but will invariably cross over into higher education and even into the K-12 arena.  Topics regarding mobile learning, education 2.0, instructional design and e-learning will all be covered right here!

Our goal is to work together with you; to share ideas, concepts and information. With any success at all, we will be able engage both working professionals and learners alike.  We hope to inspire and empower people to use new ideas and approaches in order to accomplish their personal and professional goals and ultimately shape the futures of their organizations and communities. We welcome your feedback and input, thanks for reading!