Wiki Happiness

Have you seen this? I found it yesterday on Beth Kanter's blog. The graphic was created by Chris Rasmussen. I heard Beth speak earlier this week at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits annual technology and communications conference. She uses online social media to raise money and awareness for nonprofits. I also went to a workshop entitled "Digital Youth, Analogue Adults," which was quite enlightening in many ways. Among other things it helped me to understand that the way I have been teaching my technology classes is not especially helpful to people who don't think globally. That's not a digital divide thing so much as a difference in learning styles that crosses generations, I think. I always need to understand the whole system in order to learn how to do my little part in it, but some people just find all that extra contextual information overwhelming. I'm thinking of offering some of my classes again with that particular learning style in mind. The powerpoints and handouts from all the workshops are are posted on the MNCN website, and Beth's blog is a treasure trove of good resources. The graphic above illustrates one manifestation of the difference in the ways digital natives collaborate on line (with wiki happiness) and the cumbersome way that digital immigrants, or (analogue natives) use the net to collaborate. Besides, succinct illustrations like this always give me a little buzz! :-)