Yammer

Yammer

One of my colleagues exposed me to Yammer last week. I have been very pleased with it. It is a “twitter like” application that allows you to follow others with common interest. It is designed for companies and businesses. You are only connected and allowed to follow people that are in your company. An official company email is required to gain access. This site allows you to create a profile, join groups, upload a profile picture, and follow people. It alerts you instantly on your desk top with updates and conversations that are occurring between the people and groups you are following. For example, I participated in a webinar on Tuesday and after the webinar there were some extended conversation that occurred using Yammer regarding the topic. People also recommend a conference that google was holding at our companies head quarters that week. I was unable to attend due to the weather, but would have otherwise. User also ask technical or business questions. It is an easy and extremely fast way to share information. Yammer also needs business approval so proprietary information may be shared. Some challenges are that yammer can be overwhelming. If you are following a lot of people then you are constantly getting updates which can be very distracting. I would recommend going into account and manage your display settings if you do not want to see constant updates. Here is a link to a website that offers best practices for yammer. I found it very helpful. [] In the classroom this could be used by students doing group research. Students would be able to share useful links and websites in real time without distracting other classmates. Training for teachers and students using yammer is minimal. It is easy to use and the features are very similar to instant message and other social media tools. A 10 minute demonstration during a faculty meeting or in the classroom would be sufficient instruction. Providing students of teachers with the above best practices link will help as they explore yammer on their own. Overall yammer improves communities of practice and productivity within the workplace and school.