Ever wondered what collaborative learning is? I’ve always had a few thoughts on what it could be and maybe took a logical guess or two but never quite understood why its so important to learning organizations and how they can be effective for learners. So I took it upon myself to ask the expert herself, Miss Hadley Beeman (@hadleybeeman on twitter).

After you’ve listened to my interview with Hadley, you might be interested to listen to my interviews with Learning Pool’s “Customer of the Year Award Winners in 2009″ to get a more practical and better understanding of the effects of collaborative learning from a community or users point of view. I worked with LP earlier this year and was thoroughly impressed with how highly LP’s customers spoke about LP.

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So this was my first ‘gig’ at a conference. Have to say I was really shaking in my heels but glad to say I manage to pull through it with the support of a wonderful group of people who were very supportive and interactive throughout my session. Thank you to all who were there in my session. I really enjoyed talking to you all.

Digital Democracy has been working for two years with the Burmese community in Thailand,Bangladesh, India, and China as well as with resettled Burmese populations in Indiana, Washington, DC and New York. D2 staff have published and presented research on Burma with an emphasis on technology use by displaced Burmese groups. In addition to Burmaʼs borders, we have conducted research in Cuba, Armenia, Mali, Zimbabwe,South Africa, and Israel.

I met Peter while I was in NYC attending the Participation Camp (PCamp) and Personal Democracy Forum 09. Its funny how it might seem that I just bumped into him on the street but actually we were on our way back from PCamp and walking towards the subway when I asked Peter if I could do a quick video interview with him. And he was kind enough to agree to do so eventhough the rain was starting to pour ! (Thank you Peter!). We talked about alot of different things.

So, a few weeks ago I was in Olympia attending the Building Perfect Council Websites ’09 (#pcw09) to conduct a workshop on social media (which was alot of fun by the way ! ). While I was there, I managed to interview Robin Christopherson (Head of Accessibility) and Diana Robinson (Sales and Marketing Manager) from AbilityNet . I’m hoping to gain more knowledge on accessible websites as I go along. So hopefully LGEO Research will feature more news on AbilityNet in the future to keep local authority website developers up-to-date on how to make their websites more accessible.

Watch the inspirational ‘Us Now Film’ that will give you an indication of things to come in future governance. Enjoy! A must watch.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE WINNERS!

I didn’t manage to grab all the winners due to the time constraint, but please enjoy the videos I have managed to capture with these well-deserved winners!
Best Learning Pool Community Member …

Sarah Reid (NHS)

Fiona Legge (Cheltenham Borough Council)

Susan Richardson (Burnley Borough Council)

Stephen Cross (Hillingdon Council)

Diane Sims (Kirklees Council)

The three cool guys from Solihull Council

Turn up your volume to listen to questions please!