Web Conference Basics

Do you want more details on how to use web conferencing? c|net offers a tutorial that walks you through getting your conference up and running, picking the best software and leading a successful web conference.

How Much CO2 is Saved Through Web Conferencing

iLinc offers a unique tool in as part of their web conferencing software - a green meter! Their green meter is an automatic calculator inside the iLinc Web conferencing software that tracks CO2, cost, and travel reductions accrued by meeting online rather than traveling.

Blogging at Bryan Cave

The Bryan Cave librarians were early adopters of blog software for delivering current awareness information to the different practice groups.

For more information, see Blogging: One Firm's Experience, by Julie Weber and Karen Lasnick.

Training Day: Create a Mystery

Here's one idea for making training sessions more interesting and engaging. "Start with a problem and don't tell the learner how to solve it...just provide "clues" or instruction on methods that might be used and let the learner take if from there." Training Day: Create a Mystery

Ten Tips for Technology Training

While some of the tips and examples in this article are aimed at public libraries, most them are much more universal. It's definitely worth the read.

Ten Tips for Technology Training, by Michael Stephens

Common Craft - Explanations in Plain English

Common Craft "Plain English" videos on basic web topics have become quite popular. They don't use PowerPoint, they don't use screen captures, they actually use pictures and an anonymous hand! Here's just one example, Wikis in Plain English:



Somehow they manage to break down topics into easily understandable pieces. Regardless of your tool of choice for delivery, these videos are worth studying to try to pinpoint how they manage to explain and demonstrate web related topics so effectively.

Change the Way You Deliver Training

Tom Baldwin discusses the shift that he believes is necessary when delivering training to lawyers. Rather than one hour formal training sessions, he suggests short, 10 minute sessions focusing on the most relevant features/functions.

"Partners don't have the time (or desire) to spend an hour learning the latest and greatest tool being rolled out and the misnomer that food will bring them in is also a joke. These guys make plenty of money, they can afford to pay for their own Quiznos sandwich. Associates are equally pressed for time and many of them feel that they can usually pick up whatever new software you put in front of them within minutes. Unlike their senior counterparts, they were practically born with a keyboard in their hand and dismiss the notion that they need training on most anything."

The Generational Divide...

Boosting Teamwork with Wikis

It's easy to create a wiki, but not always easy to get people to use it. Ben Sutton at Rosen Law may be on to something. He offered his employees a $1,000 cash prize as an incentive to use the firm's new wiki.

Rosen chose PBWiki as his platform of choice to replace a much more sophisticated and expensive Lotus Notes platform. All kinds of information is being collected on the wiki including phone lists and case files.

This collaborative creation of a quick and easy Intranet replace and supplement training in that organization.

For more information see: Boosting Teamwork with Wikis (Fortune, Feb. 12, 2008)