Applications Outside Education?

I'm a business education teacher and have been recently questioned by administration about the use of 2.0 tools (Google Docs vs Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, as well as blogging) in my classroom. My reply is that I'm exposing the students to tools that will be used in the workplace, since of course, this is my content area. Now I need your help with my documentation of this:

How are all of these 2.0 tools (any you can think of, and specifically blogging and collaborative documents) being used OUTSIDE of the education world? How is the business world using them? I'm going to do my own research on this, but I highly value your expert input!

Tags: blogging, business, collaboration, help, tools

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Permalink Reply by Sue Waters on December 21, 2007 at 3:06pm

Well I would give them a copy of Wikinomics to read and then point them to information on how the BBC uses them.

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Permalink Reply by Durff on December 21, 2007 at 5:12pm

There is a manufacturing firm near us that uses videos they produce to promote their services to potential clients. Those applicants for jobs at this firm will have one up on others if they have produced videos.
Global firms are holding client meetings within Second Life to avoid travel expenses (I must be in the wrong field!)

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Permalink Reply by Alice Mercer on December 23, 2007 at 2:03pm

I left the business world before 2.0 hit, but I have a brother-in-law who works for a large software company that would be recognized, but I'll leave nameless here. This is what he does, and some of the tools that he uses, and some other tools that can be used...

He is in a work group that is literally spread all over the globe (India, South America, Europe). They use AIM at his workplace for chat. Email is still a critical communication tool.

Text messaging on cell phones

Presentations, which tend to be too long and text heavy. He for one would like to see them have better content, and design. Look at Dy/Dan's blog for tips on how to improve your slideshows (and your students to improve theirs).

Collaborative projects lead to collaborative documents. His workplace does not yet use wikis, but when he describes projects, I think they will be working towards this, and very soon.

This is a quick list, I'll add others if they come to mind, and after talking to him over the holidays.

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Permalink Reply by kolson on December 23, 2007 at 7:30pm

Thanks much for these replies! I haven't had much time to work on this due to holidays and all, so I really appreciate all of the input given already............

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Permalink Reply by Sheila S. Beck on December 30, 2008 at 4:00pm

I am now working as a Google Application Specialist in a school district after retiring from an electronics company with 36 years service. I worked in a global environment in every aspect of business implementing an ERP system.

Collaboration is a must !! Being able to work on a document together or alone (if you are in a different time zone) is a big part of being on any global project.

Working on presentations together for training and for updates is another area of collaboration.

When using word (or better-Google Docs) and a process or procedure is developed, being able to create it, change it and work on it together and publish one VERSION when it is complete is another way to use Google Docs.

Google Forms created from the spreadsheet function allows you to grab information quickly and it is captured in a spreadsheet. It can be used to identify everything from what flights and times people are arriving for the project site, expenses they incurred on a trip, the status of their project waypoints, etc......

I could go on...... Contact me if you want more detaisl!! Keep up the good work...the biggest question most employers are having today about graduates is "Are they ready to work?" Just knowing the software is not the answer....execution and application must be what is taught!

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Permalink Reply by MJ Page on January 5, 2009 at 9:54pm

Hi Kolson,
I also teach business and recently started a wiki that may be of interest
http://smartbusinesseducation.wetpaint.com/
I have to give your question some thought and will send you some info. but what a great opportunity to have students create a surveys using Google forms to gather and evaluate their own data on how area business owners and employees are using different technology. they can contact either business or parents and friends to find out about technology skills in the workplace...

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Permalink Reply by Joanna Phillips on January 6, 2009 at 9:04am

With your report, you might want to include the following (just to put things into perspective):

At a teacher’s conference in 1703, it was reported that students could no longer prepare bark to calculate problems. They depended instead on expensive slates. What would students do when the slate was dropped and broken?

In 1815, it was reported at a principal’s meeting that students depended too much on paper. They no longer knew how to write on a slate without getting dust all over themselves. What would happen when they ran out of paper?

The National Association of Teachers reported in 1907 that students depended too much on ink and no longer knew how to use a knife to sharpen a pencil.

According to the Rural American Teacher in 1928, students depended too much on store bought ink. They did not know how to make their own. What would happen when they ran out? They wouldn’t be able to write until their next trip to the settlement.

In 1950, it was observed that ball point pens would be the ruin of education. Students were using these devices & then just throwing them away. The values of thrift and frugality were being discarded. Businesses & banks would never allow such expensive luxuries.

X-rays are a hoax.
Lord Kelvin, Scottish mathematician and physicist, former president of the Royal Society, 1897

Radio has no future - Lord Kelvin, Scottish mathematician and physicist, former president of the Royal Society, 1897

When the Paris Exhibition closes electric light will close with it and no more be heard of.
Erasmus Wilson (1878) Professor at Oxford University

The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty - a fad. The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Horace Rachham (Henry Ford’s lawyer) not to invest in the Ford Motor Co., 1903

Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.
Marshall Ferdinand Foch, French military strategist and future World War 1 commander, 1911

What use could this company make of an electrical toy?
Western Union president William Orton rejecting Alexander Graham Bell’s offer to sell his struggling telephone company to Western Union for $100,000

Television won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.
Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox - 1946

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Adams on January 8, 2009 at 1:46pm

I am taking a class right now for my Master's degree that has actually led me to this site. Some of my required reading talked about companies that are using Weblogs and wikis for a variety of purposes. I'll give you a direct quote from the book, hope this helps!

"And IBM, one of the most successful companies in history, is transforming the way it connects and communicates. As of mid-2007, Big Blue was running over 20,000 internal wiki sites, 26,000 blogs, and over 400,000 of its full- and part-time employees were participating in "Blue Pages," IBM's own MySpace-type social networking system." Another quote that I think may help... "Now, hundreds of corporations including GM, Coca-Cola, Sun Microsystems, and Apple have blogs and wikis, and many CEO's are beginning to catch on to bloggin as well." (Richardson, pg. 4)

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wiks, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

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Permalink Reply by Gail on January 27, 2009 at 11:51am

Google Docs have been blocked by our district due to the ability of students to get through the filter to other IP addresses. Does anyone know of a fix for this?

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Permalink Reply by Mike Hourahine on January 30, 2009 at 7:45am

I would also check out "Grown Up Digital" by Don Tapscott. It covers many areas where these types of tools are permeating throughout the world as the so-called "Net Generation" enters more and more into the workforce.

For Google Docs specifically, you can also point out that Apple and Microsoft are aggressively building their own responses to the popularity of Google Docs. Check out Office Live Workspaces from Microsoft... soon to have full Word and Excel functionality available on the web. See http://www.apple.com/iwork/iwork-dot-com/ for Apple's version.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Hourahine on January 30, 2009 at 10:48am

LOVE how you're using Yammer, Greg. I've been struggling with the best tool to manage and share the constant flow of information in an organization. Blogs can be a little overkill for some, email is not open enough, etc. Never really thought of using micro blogging organizationally. Thanks for sharing!

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Permalink Reply by Cindy Seibel on January 31, 2009 at 4:47pm

Hi Kate.
Your discussion was on the front page this morning, and this afternoon I saw this on Twitter: From @WestPeter: Enterprise 2.0: What models are emerging? The results from a 70 case-based research http://is.gd/hWG2 (Int J Knowledge & Learning)

Hope you find the link useful!
Cindy