January Professional Development Opportunities from eXtension

eXtension's professional development opportunities are open to all Cooperative Extension faculty, staff and employees. No pre-registration. Please share this announcement with others and encourage them to pick a topic and try it out! You may find both the 30 Minute session topics and the 1 hour sessions useful in your work ... please see below.

If you would like to receive professional development announcements from eXtension via email each month, join the Learn Community at people.extension.org

30 MINUTE SESSIONS

This month They are offering "30 Minute Sessions" on a several topics including SlideShare, Ask an Expert, the Ask eXtension widget, Wikipedia for Extension, and more about Search Engine Optimization. "Give us 30 minutes and we'll teach you something useful!" These sessions will be held at our Web Conferencing Center at http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/learn and your telephone. Plan to join the session 5 minutes before the starting time. Each session will be held at 2:00 Eastern Time (1:00p CT, 12:00p MT, 11:00a PT, 10:00a AT; 8:00a HT) unless otherwise noted.

* January 13 at 2:00 ET, a "30 Minute Session" on the new Ask eXtension Widget, by Aaron Hundley, eXtension Software Engineer. How to use the new Ask eXtension widget to receive and answer questions directly from your county Extension web site or Extension-related blog. This widget adds question asking capabilities to your site, but uses the power of the eXtension Ask an Expert and FAQ systems to assist you in answering. Take questions from your clients, and use the 40,000 questions in the FAQ system to assist you in providing a timely and accurate answer. Check out the new widget tracking feature that allows you to name the widget and monitor questions coming from your site. Also learn about the new widget routing capability that will allow you to have questions routed to you from your widgets. This session will introduce you to the new tool, show you the latest features developed, and will discuss what is necessary to begin using it immediately in your own county sites and blogs with helpful tips. (for all Extension)

* January 22 at 2:00 ET, a "30 Minute Session" on SlideShare for Collaboration and Online Learning, by Kevin Gamble. Slideshare (slideshare.net) is like a YouTube for the sharing of presentations. Agents and specialists are always looking for ways to share their slide shows, and Slideshare is an easy, powerful, and free solution. It’s also an effective environment for fostering online learning. This session will show you everything you need to know to get started with SlideShare, and discuss how this technology can be used for collaborative work across the Cooperative Extension System. The session will highlight some new capabilities with direct PowerPoint integration and the newly enabled support for Keynote. It will also show you how to use the Extension specific group space. (for all Extension)

* January 27 at 2:00 ET, a "30 Minute Session" Wikipedia, by Kevin Gamble. Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit has become the world's preeminent source of information. It's nearly 12 million articles (2.6 million in English) have been collaboratively written by volunteers. The operation of Wikipedia depends on Mediawiki a custom-made, free and open-source software. This session will focus on how this vast knowledge-base came to be, how to work with Mediawiki, and how you can begin editing and contributing to Wikipedia articles. A special focus will be on how to use Wikipedia to enhance Extension educational programming. (for all Extension)

* January 28 at 2:00 ET, a "30 Minute Session" on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Part 2 by Terry Meisenbach, eXtension Communications & Marketing Leader. Content discoverability on the internet is critical today and eXtension is working closely with Fleishman Hillard and several Communities of Practice to make content more visible to search engines like Google and Yahoo. This 30-minute session will continue the discussion on the keyword analysis process, linking strategies, and what can be done to make content more discoverable. (For all Extension).

OTHER SESSIONS

* January 14 at 2:00-3:00 ET, Discussion of the book, "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" by Patrick Lencioni, led by Terry Meisenbach, eXtension. Terry would like to encourage you to read the book before the session and chime into the discussion. I'll echo Terry's encouragement. I read the book over a recent weekend and recommend it to anyone who would like some ideas for enhancing teamwork. If time doesn't allow you to do this, do join us anyway. (for all Extension) This Professional Development session is offered in partnership with the ACE Leadership & Management SIG.

* January 26 at 2:00-3:00 ET, "Understanding and Using Creative Commons" by Anne Adrian, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, and Deb Coates, Iowa State University Extension. Sharing and obtaining information on the Internet is extremely easy. However, it is confusing to know what products you can use and which are restricted. You may want to share products, such as pictures and presentations, but don't know how to share with appropriate license or copyright. In the past, sharing products meant that you gave away your products with no control or that you restricted control of the distribution of your products by full copyright (all rights reserved). Creative Commons licenses provide options between the extremes of giving your rights away and all rights reserved. This session will describe Creative Commons license options, describe how to use Creative Commons licenses, and how to use products and content that are licensed using Creative Commons. (for all Extension) This Professional Development session is offered in partnership with the ACE Information Technology SIG.

Information presented here is provided as a general information resource. Any mention of commercial products is for information only; it does not imply recommendation, endorsement nor support by Extension IT.