Recently I've been talking about Audio Blogging and joining in a conversation with Alison Simmons about how it might be used. You can find this discussion just here: Why Audio Blogging?
Alison asked the question: "...have you ever incorporated audioblogs into your training sessions?"
Which I haven't. But one of the ways, I have used audio is to build up an online news channel for our Learning and Development department. It's hosted as part of our eLearning site. News items can be posted to individual users or groups of users based on their role, location, seniority etc. Here we put news stories on new courses being launched, new eLearning courses, information about development and very occasionally (however I'd like to do more) interview clips.
Imagine the future where all our business managers have these smart phones, with the ability to "subscribe" to an audio news channel of relevant information, sorted into categories, subjects, topics and dates etc.
Here's what the HR one might sound like.... (an example only, names taken out to protect the innocent!!)...
Ady Howes HR News Audio Example 17th Feb 2014
Ady
Comments
Hi Ady
Glad to hear you've been getting some good feedback on this :) I think having an organisational wide news channel could be wonderful! Let me know how this progresses.
I work for a social housing landlord (if you trace the company back many years we originate from council housing), we are spread across quite a large area with lots of offices & depots. We have office based staff & tradesmen who are rarely in a building.
So to be honest I think we'd struggle with a news channel currently. However, we are going through a merger & as of the 1st April we will become a new company under a new name with an even bigger geographical remit. We are closing offices & trying to have a "main headquarters" and then just a few small offices in areas where necessary. With the merger we're having a massive overhaul of all systems (including IT), so there is definitely scope for this to be explored. If I'm successful in getting/keeping a job I'll defo make a suggestion of it.
I suppose the key is making the news clips accessible. Putting it on the front page of the Intranet (which is the first thing that appears on the computer once you log in) could be a wise move. Also, I've noticed that there are tvs in some of the new office so could potentially have key items scrolling along the bottom.
Defo something to think about :)
Hi Jill. Sorry it's taken me a while to reply. It's great that you love this approach and since we've been using it, it seems to be popular with many people in our organisation too. We're finding more and more support departments are also wanting to use this as an "additional" channel to communicate their messages too. I know I originally posted this from the viewpoint of a HR news channel, but just imagine how this would work as an organisational wide news channel.
Just out of interest, what type of organisation do you work in and how would you see something like this working there?
Ady
Yeah sure, it's not a stand alone thing & needs to be backed up with other information but i think it's just a great approach. Like you said in your Audio blogging blog it's more personable that the written word too :)
I really like this idea Ady!