Have you ever been to a big event and seen lots of exciting methods and tools for sharing knowledge, facilitation and collaboration being used?
Have you ever wanted to learn how to use some of those tools and methods being used so you could apply them in your own work?
Did you realize that watching them being used is not always enough to learn them properly?
Well the Share Fairs that have been organized over the past two years have recognized this need and have included in their programs opportunities for learning and being trained in some of the key tools and methods used both in the preparation of the events but also in the running of the various sessions at the event. And the AgKnowledge Africa Share Fair is no different!
Dubbed as “Day 0”, a whole day before the start of the main Fair activities, is dedicated to learning and training activities on key knowledge sharing tools and methods that are and can be used in Africa.
To kick off the day, an opening session will introduce the concepts of knowledge sharing, knowledge management, ICTs, facilitation, social media, online collaboration and networking and more.
This opening session will also be a time where participants are given guidance around identification, choosing and implementing the right tool for their particular stage of work and to help achieve a particular purpose or goal they may have. Very often we hear people shying away from the use of innovative tools and methods due to the “overwhelmingly long and constantly increasing list of tools and methods” from which to choose.
Different tools and methods can and should be used for different kinds of activities and for achieving certain aims. This session aims to help people link the tools and methods they will explore and learn with real needs, activities and goals they may have.
The main training sessions will take place in two blocks of two hours each-one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The main categories of tools and methods being introduced are:
- Social and Collaborative Media
- Popular Media
- Google Tools
- Face to Face Knowledge Sharing Methods
Within each of these categories a number of sessions were designed, for which participants
can sign-up before the event:
- For those interested in Social and Collaborative media hands-on sessions on Blogging, Collaborative Writing, and Academic Social Network (Mendeley) tools will take place
- As always there is a high demand for learning how to make use of forms of popular media so sessions on radio/audio recording and sharing, film/video recording and sharing or journalistic reporting are on offer too.
- A group from Google will be running two interesting sessions. One will focus on Google geo products, including Google Earth, Google Map Maker, Fusion Tables and more, while the second session will showcase more communication and collaboration tools, such as Google Apps, Books, Gmail and Voice.
- For some brushing up on face to face knowledge sharing methods an interesting, combined session has been designed. Starting with an ‘open space’, participants will not only learn that method, but be able to suggest and schedule the various other KS methods to be learned in the session.
But since many of these tools and methods can and should work together to help make our knowledge travel-it is key to learn how they can be used to support, complement and enhance each other in moving your content around. The final session of the day will be an open session on ‘How to make your content travel’.
To end the day (and start the night!) an open session on ‘creative communication’ will be convened and this promises to be lively. This session at the end of the day allows people the opportunity to share, observe and participate in creative forms of communication such as drumming, singing, dancing, storytelling or whatever else people bring forward.
Important! For all Share Fair participants, please sign up for the different sessions using
this form.
Picture courtesy
luc.iana
