National eXtension Initiative

A newly redesigned homepage for the eXtension Public Site was released today along with some several miscellaneous performance improvements and features in the Ask an Expert application.

The Public Site

The continued growth in the number of eXtension Communities of Practice strained the existing homepage layout as more and more communities were added to the Resource Areas section. We realized that the page design would need to change to accommodate all the new communities. At the beginning of this year we began a process of examining how the current homepage was being used by site visitors and used that information to guide the design process.

The new homepage design, launched today, includes a new “accordion” navigation to display Communities of Practice, a rotating listing of sponsors and partners, a tighter focus on listed events in the immediate future, a stronger visual impact to distinguish the homepage from interior pages, a direct link to Ask an Expert, an expanded list of featured articles and an expanded recent articles, FAQs, learning lessons and news listing.

Ask an Expert

The Ask an Expert question assignment interface has been sped up. Additionally, when searching for someone to assign a question, the information in the expert profile view has been expanded to include an ordered and easy to scan list of expertise areas. Some tooltip views are so large that they get cut off the page, this will be addressed in a future release; however, to view the full profile you can now click the expert’s name and their profile will slide open below.

Another change can be seen on Ask an Expert profile pages. Profiles now include a listing of all open (unanswered) questions assigned to that person. Here’s a list of open questions as seen on the Assignment Dashboard. Click on an expert’s name to see what else they might be assigned.

The full text search for related AaEs/FAQs when answering a question has also been improved. Now, the search results are more accurate and you can even search by ID number of an AaE/FAQ if it’s already known what existing answer will be used to answer the question.

Helping communities examine public issues — such as land use, water quality, education, food access, health care, and economic development — can be challenging to Extension professionals. Without question, many of these issues can be complex and can cut across a range of academic disciplines and public values. They can result in contentious discourse that causes rancor and fragments communities. Reaching consensus on how best to address these public issues is tough work. If you or other Extension professionals are faced with working with communities struggling with contentious issues but haven’t got a real grasp on how to work side by side with citizens, organizations and leaders to help them deliberate and act on matters of importance then this is the webinar for you!

We’re developing an eXtension professional development community of practice (PDCOP) so Extension professionals can gain the set of skills, competencies, and experiences needed to effectively employ citizen-centered approaches as a core part of their Extension activities. If you are searching for tools that will strengthen your portfolio to help engage the public in community dialogue, deliberation, and action strategies that can assist residents in making sound public choices amid uncertainty and conflict this community of practice is for you.

During the webinar we will cover the basic architecture of using dialogue and deliberation as a tool for citizen-driven problem solving and we’ll solicit your input for how best to design user-friendly materials and present them in a way that serves your needs.

This webinar will be presented twice for your viewing convenience – April 23 at 3 p.m. ET or April 29 at Noon ET. More information will be provided in the April eXtension UPDATE, or for more information contact Dr. Wynne Wright (wrightwy@anr.msu.edu). Stay tuned.

eXtension staff recently traveled to Washington, D.C. and met with USDA administration, National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) leaders, National 4-H Council leadership, and staff from the Office of the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Military Community and Family Policy (MC & FP).

NIFA: Approximately 40 National Program Leaders attended an eXtension update focused on eXtension use, Communities of Practice, Be Grow Create (institutionalization of eXtension,) technology enhancements, professional development, engagement and partnerships. The audience was especially interested in support for the eXtension infrastructure, strengthening Communities of Practice, use of social media, and overall growth and development of the initiative.

USDA: Molly Jahn, Undersecretary of Research, Education, and Economics; Carol Kramer-LeBlanc, Director of Sustainable Development in the Office of the Chief Economist, and Colien Hefferan, Advisor to the Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) were but a few of the USDA leaders who participated in a discussion and presentation about the eXtension initiative. They were interested in the development of a national delivery system, opportunities to serve international audiences, and how Communities of Practice work and engage with the public.

National 4-H Council: Council leadership was interested in how eXtension is using social media to engage audiences, training and professional development opportunities, the development of 4-H related content by Communities of Practice, potential revenue streams, and corporate development opportunities.

Military Families: The staff at the Department of Defense were interested to learn how eXtension works, how to participate and how to engage with Communities of Practice. Later discussions focused on how eXtension can help serve the needs of helping professionals, those in the military and on bases that assist military families and youth on a daily basis. This is a new partnership in the making!

Do you use instant messaging? Do you have an account on a social media network? What about having a Google or social book marking identity? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, then here is a follow-up question: Have you registered any of those identities with your eXtension profile? If not, this is a reminder that you can make it quite easy for your eXtension ID holding colleagues to discover your identities by registering them.

To do so, go to https://people.extension.org and click on the tab that says “My Profile”. Scroll down slightly, and you will find a section titled “My Social Network Identities.” Click the “edit” link just to the right of the section heading, and a list of 21 different social media systems is shown. If you have an identity on any of those systems, click the “add” link associated with each one and fill in the requested information.

Now, do you want to find colleagues so you can start messaging or following them? Just click the Find Colleagues tab at the top of the page, and then the “by Social Network” link just below the heading. Clicking on any of the systems listed will display the list of people with accounts on those systems along with their identities. For example, over 390 people have registered Facebook accounts; it is a good bet that you know some of them.

Just remember that Extension work is enhanced through networking with your colleagues. Make it easy for them to find you.

If you are teaching or taking courses from one of eXtension’s online course sites (campus.extension.org or pdc.extension.org), you may be interested in joining a couple of Moodle-related communities in people.extension.org. One of those communities, Moodle Users, is primarily directed to those teaching courses using Moodle or who are considering doing so. This community provides an email-based social network through which members can raise questions of each other or offer creative ideas of ways to effectively teach using Moodle.

A second community, Moodle Advisory Committee, has now been created by the Moodle coordinator as a means of gathering feedback on how eXtension has deployed this online course system, learning if there are any modules/features that course teachers would like to see available, seeking advice if/when there are deployment policy questions, soliciting ideas for training, and otherwise just listening to other ideas or suggestions our users might have. The primary business of this community will happen through periodic web or teleconferences.

If you are interested in either or both of these communities go to https://people.extension.org, click on the Communities tab, search for “Moodle,” and select the “Join Community” link.

In February, 325 news releases were posted to 31 content areas:

45–Personal finance
34–Families, food and fitness
33–Gardens, lawns and landscapes
28–Corn and soybean production
26–Entrepreneurs and their communities
25–Family Caregiving
16–Parenting
13–Beef Cattle
12–Horses
9–Organic Agriculture
7 each–Dairy, Agrosecurity and Floods, Bee Health, Food Safety, Ag Energy
6 each–Science, Engineering, and Technology; Home Energy
5 each–Wildlife Damage Management, Child Care
4 each–Cotton, Animal Manure Management
3 each–Military families, Diversity across higher education, Geospatial technology, Goats, Integrated pest management in and around structures, Wildfire, Swine, Drinking water, Small meat processors, Land use planning

Thirty-seven institutions provided 325 releases to eXtension:

25–North Dakota State University
22–University of Missouri
18 each–North Carolina Cooperative Extension, Ohio State University
17–Iowa State University
16–University of Georgia
14 each–Kansas State University, Oklahoma State University, University of Arkansas, University of Illinois
12–University of Wisconsin
11–Michigan State University
6 to 10 each–Penn State University, Texas AgriLife Extension, Louisiana State University, University of Florida and Florida A&M, University of Kentucky, University of Nebraska, Mississippi State University, University of California, Utah State University
1 to 5 each–Montana State University, Rutgers University, Purdue University, Washington State University, Alabama Cooperative Extension, Cornell University, New Mexico State University, Oregon State University, University of Minnesota, Virginia Cooperative Extension, University of Arizona, Clemson University, South Dakota State University, University of Nevada, University of New Hampshire

Lynette Spicer retired from Iowa State University Extension but will continue to post and write news as an eXtension staff member, working part time in that position. Contact her at lynette.spicer@eXtension.org. Information on all eXtension staff is at http://about.extension.org/wiki/Staff.

Land O’Lakes/Purina has renewed its sponsorship for eXtension’s HorseQuest Community of Practice for $25,000. Critter Control, Inc has renewed their sponsorship for the Wildlife Damage Management Community of Practice for $5,000. Both entities enter their second year of support for eXtension with these renewals.

For more information on eXtension Corporate Development contact Betty Johnson at betty.johnson@extension.org.

The Better Kid Care America Community of Practice recently launched at http://www.extension.org/child%20care with content from a team of early childhood professionals who are passionate about young children. They are committed to supporting quality child care nationwide, and dedicated to helping child care programs improve their quality. eXtension also has two new Communities of Practice:

Plant Breeding and Genomics will develop continuing education content for practicing plant breeders, their staff, and allied agricultural professionals. Leads are David Francis, Ohio State University and Deana Namuth-Covert, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Cooperatives will communicate to users about cooperative principles and functions, and share decision tools, case studies and other research based information. Leads are Madeline Schultz, Iowa State University and John Park, Texas AgriLife Extension.

For more information about eXtension’s Communities of Practice contact Craig Wood at craig.wood@extension.org.

In April 2009, Ben MacNeill, eXtension User Interface Designer, developed a way to access Community of Practice (CoP) content information using Google Analytics (GA). In short, Ben found a way to add top-level CoP categories to the urls for pages in the public website, so that they can be searched in GA.

CoPs are now able to access their content using Google Analytics . In fact, GA can be set-up to send you a report on your data on a regular basis. Ben has done three 30-minute professional development sessions on how to access CoP content information using GA. CoPs may want to check them out.

Introduction to Google Analytics
http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p76122646/

Evaluate Your Content with Google Analytics
http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p46295255/

Advanced Google Analytics
http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p89736337/

If you have questions, or need access to Google Analytics, please contact Ben MacNeill at ben.macneill@extension.org or Mike Lambur at mike.lambur@extension.org

eXtension’s professional development opportunities are open to all Cooperative Extension faculty, staff and employees. No pre-registration is required. Please share this announcement with others and encourage them to pick a topic and try it out!

SPECIAL TOPIC
Understanding Social Comfort to Improve Social Tool Adoption
by Thomas Vander Wal

March 24, 2010
2:00-3:30 p.m. Eastern Time

http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/Learn

There are three elements around social comfort to keep in mind when selecting and using social computing tools to interact with others: social comfort with people; social comfort with tools; and social comfort with subject matter. These components of social comfort contain factors that cause unease with most people outside the early adopters and those with technical ease with these tools and services. Thomas Vander Wal will discuss each of these three components of social comfort to help move social tools more toward mainstream adoption.

Thomas Vander Wal is Principal & Senior Consultant of InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. (http://infocloudsolutions.com/about.php) In Thomas’ more than 20 years as a professional in information services and web he has worked in many industries and in many roles. He has always been the problem solver and the person who can see the big picture and put it into details to get it accomplished.

Thomas coined “folksonomy” in 2004 as part of his interest with how a novel approach to tagging aids a person re-finding information and is also used to augment other information structuring methods so to help other people find information. Thomas also presents and provides training at many conferences, workshops, and in-house events. Thomas presents and leads discussions at many events across the U.S. and Europe on a broad range of topics including: folksonomy, Personal InfoCloud, social software, information architecture, design, web standards, ubiquitous computing (ubicom), tagging, and designing for use and reuse of information across devices.

This session will be broadcast and use your computers speakers for audio, not your phone. Audience interaction will include opportunities to use built-in chat capabilities. Plan to join the session 5 minutes before the starting time. The session will be held at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time (1:00 p.m. CT, Noon MT, 11:00 a.m. PT, 10:00 a.m. AT; 8:00 a.m. HT) (For all Extension)

30-MINUTE SESSIONS

This month we are offering 30-minute sessions on a several topics including two on Second Life, two on using the Ask an Expert widget (back-to-back sessions), Moodle, and the next in our series on using Google Wave. 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 p.m. Eastern Time (1:00 p.m. CT, Noon MT, 11:00 a.m. PT, 10:00 a.m. AT; 8:00 a.m. HT) unless otherwise noted.

* March 11 at 2:00 p.m. ET, a 30-minute session on Navigating Second Life: If there’s so much to see, how do I find it and how do I get there? By LuAnn Phillips, eXtension. (For all Extension)

* March 23 at 2:00 p.m. ET, a 30-minute session on Beginning with the Ask an Expert Widget by Aaron Hundley, eXtension (For all Extension) How to use the 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 widget-tracking feature that allows you to name the widget and monitor questions coming from your site. Also learn about the widget routing capability that will allow you to have questions routed to you from your widgets. Also check out a demonstration of how the new Ask an Expert follow-up feature works. This session will introduce you to the Ask an Expert system, the Ask an Expert widget, 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.

* March 23 at 2:30 EDT, a 30-minute session on Discussion of the Ask an Expert (AaE) System and Widget by Beth Raney, eXtension Professional Development Leader and Aaron Hundley eXtension Software Engineer (For all Extension) This is a session aimed at experts who have been answering questions in the Ask an Expert system who would like to have a discussion around Ask an Expert. This will be an open format allowing and encouraging everyone to participate. Topics for the discussion can range from AaE strategies for answering questions to discussion about the AaE tools.

*March 25 at 2:00 EDT, 30-minute session, Introducing Second Life Viewer 2.0 with interactive web on a prim and flash integration. The long awaited “easier to learn” Second Life browser has been released in beta test version, including provocative new multimedia capabilities that can greatly enhance the educational experience. Take a look at what it can do and let’s talk about how eXtension can repurpose content to leverage this new capability. (For all Extension)

* March 30 at 2:00 p.m. ET, a 30-minute session on Moodle Showcase by Jennifer Jahedkar and Susanna Coppernoll, Texas AgriLife Extension. Tour a real live Moodle course from the eXtension site, and hear how it came together and how it’s being used. Learn how real people are using Moodle and why.

* March 31 at 2:00 p.m. ET, a 30-minute session on Staying Organized in Google Wave by Kevin Gamble, eXtension. This is another in our series on using Google Wave in your workgroups. We will take you through all of the steps to staying better organized: folders, navigation, tagging, and constructing and saving searches. Get this part down– and you’ve mastered Wave. Attendees should have a Wave account. If you need an account, send your Gmail address to kevin.gamble@extension.org for an invitation. (For all Extension)

OTHER SESSIONS

* March 10 at 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET, Diversity Issues in the Digital Age, presented by Dr. Kayt Sunwood, University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Inclusion matters in the rapidly diversifying digital world in which we live and work. Explore the challenges and opportunities that gender, age, cultural, ethnic, and a veritable rainbow of diversities present in our Web 2.0 world. You’ll come away with resources and strategies for leaders, managers, and communicators to transform the rhetoric of inclusion into the practice of equity. Dr. Kayt Sunwood, manager of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Women’s Center and coordinator of eLive sessions for the Math in a Cultural Context: Lessons Learned from Yup’ik Elders project will lead this exploration. Kayt holds a PhD in Curriculum and Instructional Technology from Iowa State University. There will be discussion so all participants will connect with their phone. (for all Extension) This Professional Development session is offered in partnership with the ACE Leadership & Management SIG.

* March 18 at 3:00-4:00 p.m. ET, IT Budgets in Crisis by Floyd Davenport, Information Technology Officer, Iowa State University Extension. Allocated funds supporting IT services have slowly diminished for a number of years with the culmination of the recent financial crisis requiring additional and significant reductions in State funds. How do you plan to sustain your services during this difficult economy? While there is no magic solution to this crisis, it is more important than ever to fully understand your IT budget in the context of the services you provide. Discussion topics will include budget components, alignment, budget health, revenue, sustainability and possible budget strategies. The presentation will target 30 minutes, but I would like an open discussion to follow and the opportunity to share information and ideas. (For all Extension) This Professional Development session is offered in partnership with the ACE Information Technology SIG.

* March 22 at 2:00-4:00 p.m. ET Extension 2.0: Harnessing the Power of Blogs to Expand Programming Potential & Impact, by Jamie Seger, Kara Newby, Mark Light, Jerry Thomas and Andy Kleinschmidt all of OSU Extension. This session will answer the why/how/when/where of blogging. Also learn how to utilize online statistical tools to capture feedback and impact your blog is having. See the Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=306247235249 This session will be broadcast and use your computers speakers for audio, not your phone. Audience interaction will include opportunities to use built-in chat capabilities. Plan to join the session 5 minutes before the starting time. (For all
Extension)

SECOND LIFE
Second Life is an immersive 3-D virtual environment, inhabited by over a million users from all over the world. You can learn to use Second Life to meet with colleagues, to create 3-D models that would be too expensive or impossible to make in reality, to provide guest speakers for a real life group, to teach using role play or group problem solving, to make content in your subject area available to a worldwide audience. This is an emerging and transformative technology, much like the early days of the Internet, and is expected to change the way most people experience web content within the next five years.

In Second Life, you will find that eXtension has a virtual fairground, a model county office, projects in development on assistive technology, turf grass, pest management, and more. In Teen Second Life, we have Bailey Island available for any 4-H educator to use for programming. Each month eXtension hosts several community events in Second Life. It is best to spend two or three hours orienting yourself to the Second Life environment before attending an event. You should know how to walk, sit, chat, use voice, and teleport.

Instructions for entering Second Life are here:
http://collaborate.extension.org/wiki/Cooperative_Extension_Second_Life_Educators

LuAnn Phillips, Second Life educator, is available to assist you, and can be reached at luann.phillips@extension.org or by instant message to Thynka Little in Second Life. Please consider joining the Facebook group “Cooperative Extension Second Life”.

March Second Life Events:

* March 11 at 2:00 p.m. ET, a 30-minute session on Navigating Second Life: If there’s so much to see, how do I find it and how do I get there? By LuAnn Phillips, eXtension. Join using web conferencing at http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/Learn (For all Extension)

* March 12, Second Life Meetup — 11:00-12:30 SL time (Pacific), 2:00-3:30 p.m. ET. Meet at the Virtual County Extension http://slurl.com/secondlife/Morrill2/181/172/24. Second Life Meetup: Scavenger Hunt to practice search and navigation skills

*March 25 at 2:00 p.m. ET, 30-minute session Introducing Second Life Viewer 2.0 with interactive web on a prim and flash integration. The long awaited “easier to learn” Second Life browser has been released in beta test version, including provocative new multimedia capabilities that can greatly enhance the educational experience. Take a look at what it can do and let’s talk about how eXtension can repurpose content to leverage this new capability. Join using web conferencing at http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/Learn (For all Extension)

Add these dates & topics to your calendar, and plan to join us on for one or more of these sessions in March!!

TO PARTICIPATE in any of the sessions held in our Web Conferencing Center…
1. Five minutes before the start time, go to our Web Conferencing Center meeting room at http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/learn.

2. You will be presented with a login screen that has an “Enter as Guest” option.

3. Enter your first name, your last name, and your institution/university, then click the “Enter Room” button to join the conference.

4. To hear the audio of the workshop and participate in the Q&A portion of the workshop we will be using a built-in teleconferencing capability of Adobe’s Connect Pro conferencing software. Once you log into the meeting you will be presented with the option to enter your call-back number, your phone will automatically be called. After entering your number you will be automatically called and joined into the audio portion of the Web conference on your phone.

EMAIL LIST:
If you or a colleague would like to get notices about upcoming professional development sessions offered by eXtension, go to https://people.extension.org/communities/learn and Click “Join Community.

RECORDINGS:
Recordings of many past professional development sessions can be found at the main eXtension wiki at http://about.eXtension.org/wiki and scroll down under Professional Development heading and find “Recordings of eXtension Professional Development Sessions”, or search on the word Recordings.

Looking forward to having you join us to learn something new in March!!