ItsDevelopmental - content + technology + people

Take note of what the kids are doing online

Some research carried out by Childwise and reported on by the Guardian shows what children are up to online. Nothing surprising in the fact that children are web savvy and are using it in a way non web-savvy parents just do not understand.

Aside from increased usage of the web, what is really interesting is the use of the web for networking and collaboration. Messaging, social networking and blogging are the norm for many children.

The way they use the web will have a direct and disruptive influence on the workplace - especially workplaces that do not allow social networking!

I recently had a chat with a 20 year old who showed me how he collaborates online. It was a great insight into ways of doing things that seem so alien to my workplace and probably many others too.

Employers need to get their heads around this and very quickly as there is a new breed of worker who has new skills, attitudes abnd aspirations.

Facilitation skills a must for managers

Back in December I attended the first of three facilitation workshops at Bath University management school. My aim is to develop skills as a facilitator to use as a manager taking a team through change. Maybe one day I will become a facilitator. Who knows?

The workshop was great. Twenty people from a range of backgrounds who worked well together.

The main theoretical framework was that of group theory (see Wikipedia definition on groups). We worked through the 5 stages of group development - forming, storming, norming, performing and ending.

We split into groups and then carried out tasks to demonstrate each of these stages. Our group covered storming, the point at which a group shapes its identity, so we staged a conflict. It was all good fun and we managed to get our point across to the rest of the group.

More training tools

Great list of free tools for trainers on Training Zone. Check out the additions in the comments.

Next job for me is to start tagging theses tools propoerly. There seems to be a huge range of free training tools online.

Your laptop is your office

Many thanks to Adam for spending some time with me yesterday to show me how he works online.

The key thing is that Adam uses his laptop as his office - his screen is divided into different spaces and each space (window or whatever you want to call it) runs applications he needs to work and do business.

He pointed me to the key tools he uses and suggested PC versions as I am not a Mac user. Here are some of the basic tools he suggested using.

• Google gears

• Twhirl

• Windows Live writer

• Google talk

• An RSS reader to synch with my mobile - in my case I'm looking at Feeddemon to synch with my google reader

• An email viewer so I can manage all emails i have in a variety of accounts - Gmail

• And then there are tools to link delicious to blog posts and other tools

And as I won't be buying an i-phone Adam suggested an Nokia N95.

Adanm described his way of working as a continuous partial attention lifestyle.

A guide to online PR and social media

Thanks to Andrew for this. Travel Weekly was having a discussion on how we PR our storiesand Andrew provided a couple of links. One on online PR and one on social media.

Really useful thoughts for any business.

Trainer tools: features and benefits games

Couple of good ideas on TrainingZone.

Video: UK pay settlements for 2009

Interesting look at what we can expect on the pay front for the year ahead (low pay rises, basically). I like the fact Sheila Atwood explains the outlook in easy to understand language.

Sheila is XpertHR's pay and benefits editor. Xpert HR collects data from 1,500 employers across all sectors in the UK. 

UK recruiting bodies merge

Thanks to Nicki for this story about the  Forum of Professional Recruiters and Association of Professional Staffing Companies merging. Recruiter should link news alerts back to their site. tut, tut.

Full story on next page.

The CIPD is on MySpace

Well, well. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development is on MySpace . Galleries weren't working when I visited but some useful content about the institute and how to get into HR and training.

Managing the cost of training

Interesting article.