We try new tools, adopting some and moving along from others. I initially had some thoughts of Posterous being for some entries separate from my main blog. Upon reflection, anything I plan to write relating to e-learning and distance education belongs on the other one. So, while I will continue to follow others here, you can read my entries at http://TonyRatcliffe.com. Thanks for reading.

Cheers!

One question going through my mind is how formal readers expect Posterous posts to be. The way that I am using this account may tend to make it very informal. In fact, what I am about to write was going to go into a notebook for my later reference, but I feel those are the things that can be here for easy retrieval and, perhaps, for the occasional comment by a reader. Hey, I just remembered I can make it private if I just want an electronic reference for myself.

I'm an amateur (ham) radio operator. I just had a chat on air with a trades instructor that included talking about apprenticeship training and the fairly high numbers that do not continue from one year to the next. This took me back to my MDE research where only 46% of the distance students completed their studies for the year (comprised of those in years 1 to 4, up to 6 months at a distance in their first to third years and 9 months in the fourth) in comparison with 97% of those attending classes on a regular basis in an 8 or12 week period (p. 58). One of the considerations was certainly the possibility of having more interaction with their advisors. Many of us would be recommending online communities to connect the advisors and apprentices during the training, but let's take that further. Could we build Communities of Practice that would not only keep them in contact during the study period but throughout their total apprenticeship training? Could we do the same with those attending classes for the 8 or 12 week periods who have longer times in the field before returning for the next period of training?

The bottom-line to my thought is whether developing Communities of Practice would lead to higher retention in the program from induction to journeyman status. This may well be an area to examine when my research begins. My interest is in workplace learning, e-learning, and technologies.

An interesting Twitter tweet from @miczl: “Has anyone searched twitter to see what students think of #e-learning? e-Teachers might love e-teaching, but students hate e-learning.” This is definitely worthy of further investigation.

This is my second post to Posterous, this time trying it by email.

A blog entry stood out for me yesterday, “Making the Case for Social Media,” from GoodPractice. It addressed social media in the workplace and in learning, so it was very much of interest. My reply is now on the page. Reference was made to questions received by “Tony.” Little did I know at the time that this is actually Tony Karrer, so I wasn’t replying to the original post. This morning, I discovered another blog post, “Big Question - Presenting the Value of Social Media for Learning,” on MinuteBio. I provided a brief comment, linking back to my original response, and from there I found the original article by Tony Karrer on The Learning Circuits Blog. Of course, additional comments are now appearing on all of the blogs.

While I wish I had seen all of the blogs to put it in better context, I’m happy with my response to GoodPractice. I have a more familiarity with names of key players, so a little more digging may be in order next time.