In pursuit of a better way: sounds like we need an Angel

With the heightened awareness of politics, due to the recent american presidential election, I'd like to borrow and re-engineer in typical web 2.0 generation style a phrase from the political world - "it's all about the learning, stupid....."

http://tonysuess.com/2008/02/14/angel-lms-prepare-to-be-impressed/



And my point is... Technology can be a massive hinderance to learning. Usability (Interface and functional design), technological robustness and reliability for both learners and learning designers (teachers) is vitally important. Perhaps the use of Angel is a better option in combining the administrative needs of a higher education institution, the learning needs of the students and the learning design needs of teachers - Well Tony Seuss seem to think so. Not have used angel myself i am nevertheless impressed with Tony's observations in his blog post.

Bob, weave and procrastinate, but you can't hide

from the fact that - Web 2.0 is the future of education

It's always good when you find someone respected in the field (Steve Hargadon) who tells it how it is (will be)!!

The beauty of Web 2.0 tools is that they are simple for staff and students. All it means for Staff is a tiny little bit of up front effort in thinking about how web 2.0 tools can be applied effectively to their teaching situation. Miracle results will not happen overnight, but immediate benefits can be seen.

Web 2.0 tools do not replace current methods of teaching, they enhance existing teaching and learning methods. Variety can be added to learning tasks increasing the enjoyment for both students and Staff.

The best way to learn about web 2.o tools is to use them as a student, as a lifelong learner. Institutions can help teachers to speed up the process of integrating web 2.0 tools effectively into there armoury of teaching and learning tools by offering short courses firstly on technicalities and secondly on good pedagogic practices.

Vote for Web 2.0 and be on the winning side!! (and you'll enjoy it). If you are not sure of web 2.0 - I'd say you need to give it a chance, look out for workshops run by Richard Hall and your e-learning faculty co-ordinators. Check out the DMU blackboard e-learning staff support site for other good background information.

Passion Based Learning

I came across this very interesting and simple philosophy on self education and the creation of your own Personal Learning Environment (PLE).

I think this philosophy is there in abundance in the work of the inspirational Vicky A. Davies (One cool cat teacher, in fact the coolcatteacher). One of her recent posts that i found particularly enthralling is The Twelve Dreams and Goals for 2008.

mobilicious

Couple of links that suggest maybe that the era of m-learning could be coming of age.

The mobile web takes off
Why i miss my iphone

YouTube

For Your information Professor Michael Wesch says "Yes, you can (& should) use YouTube videos in the classroom". Read more....

Presentation: YouTube in/on/of/for the Classroom

Cool CatTeacher Blog

Follow on from the Economist Education Debate on social networking and recent posts related to Facebook, Vicky Davies, author of the cool cat teacher blog hits the nail squarely and firmly on the head in making the point that for educators it is about educational not 'social' networking.
Educational Networking not Social Networking

Google Calendar

Among the many useful products that Google now offer i have just found the Google Calendar.

Colleagues may find this useful on a personal level. But also it would seem to have many benefits for use with students, staff in your department, external contacts, research teams etc etc.

With email, screen pop-up and SMS mobile notifications you can ensure you are constantly prompted of important events throughout the working and non-working day.

The most influential blog of the year - Edublog Awards 2007

Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?

An excerpt from the blog:

If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write.

Extreme? Maybe. Your thoughts?

90 days free use of online Survey Software

I use surveyshare to quickly create online questionnaires and surveys. I find it very easy to quickly create and administer. If you would like a free 90 day Trial then all you need to do is take this survey.

YouTube and iPhone Survey

I have not brought this to your attention for this reason, but if you enter my email address in the first question i might get a free 90 days use of surveyshare (smackenzie@dmu.ac.uk.) As i am already an annual subscriber and will continue to be i don't know whether it will apply for me.

cheers Steve

Reasons to use Ning

A useful article, that outlines some advantages to using a Ning network for teaching and learning. similar advantages are available for organizations who wish to create a 'learning' network.

social-network-instead-of a VLE

Students 2.0

Social Bookmarking - Are you doing it, if not why not?

Some views on the benefits of social bookmarking that may be of interest. Specifically of interest may be reasons why teachers and students should join a social bookmarking site and a discussion of strategies for managing Social Bookmarking learning activities

Social Bookmarking - Reasons and Strategies for use

Let us know what you think!

Facebook Research

Some Research on Facebook for your reading:

Bumgarner

Give me a 'learning' network anyday

A few of the following thoughts crossed my mind as a title for this blog. What is the point of this blog? (not in a sarcastic way), what is the purpose of this blog? I ask these questions because i am wondering whether another vehicle i.e a ning social networking site would be a far far better option to better foster debate and discussion on the many interesting blog entries that are posted.

My assumption is that a lot of the blog posts are initiated to stimulate interest, discussion and maybe illicit a response. The comment feature i believe is inadequate to encourage debate and don't think it has really designed for that purpose.

If this blog is just about relaying information then this can be done just as easily on a ning social network environment with all the added benefits of further developing arguments and discussions.

I don't know what the dynamics or the chemistry involved are but these easily created personalized ning social networking sites have an interface that seems to encourage interaction and collaboration amongst its participants.

If as part of the project this blog is a stipulated part of the disseminating of information then my view is that with the advent of social networking the blogging approach has been superseded by a much more flexible, usable and multifunctional option - the personalized 'learning' network.

Web2.0: Security, Privacy, Safety & Legalities

This is a mini response to Richard's "The great Blackboard Facebook mash-up: part two". The issues that Richard refers to in his post have been occupying my thoughts to recently.

I must admit i find myself being a bit blaze about the situation because the massive educational advantages are so strong that it seems criminal not to leverage these fantastic tools to best advantage. With all the talk of security, safety & legalities it's got the whole 'health and safety legislation' feel to it where for either honest or obstructive reasons the most important aspect of education the learning is stifled and creativity nullified.

That said, we at DMU just like any other organisations need to stop skirting around the issue and really identify what the problems are. Are there issues - well let's nail it down one way or the other and start developing some policies - i think i working group needs to look into this.

So where is the security threat coming from? is it from Hackers or from the organizations that are providing the service. I am just about to post messages in various learning networks i am involved with along the lines of "have you ever experienced i case of hacking into your social networking site, wiki or blog". This threat is often spouted, but i have not heard of this being a big problem at all.

So with regard personal data, contributions, data tracking of activity, my question is who is the real danger from? Strikes me that if my first theory is not a big problem then the threat comes from the organizations offering the web 2.0 services.

So institutions like ourselves need to scrutinize privacy policies of sites like blogger, facebook or maybe just google and yahoo! We might find an unpalatable truth that there is not a great deal that can be done, and then choices have to be made.

One choice is creating your own social network with a trusted partner or in house, which can achieve a lot and be effective, but this will not get away from the isolationist approach that will deny access to the world and vice versa.

wrapped up in all of this are personal privacy, security and safety of individual students and the many legal issues that will be faced by institutions and individuals. So do we blaze on ahead with no regard, shy away from the educational advantages or develop a policy that can address any concerns?

ps: on the specific point about retrospectively deleting comments - if you withdraw from a site. If you make a comment, then that's it part of history done - it's part of the conversation - would be a bit strange to me to retrospectively keep stripping comments out when people leave a site. This is one of the issues that students need to be aware of - it is difficult to take things back, comments, photos, videos etc - so be careful about what you are doing?

Learnadoodledastic: Community Building, Learning Networks and all thatJazz

I meant to publish here in the first place, please see link below: A few interesting links on community building, social networks, the power of web 2.0 and my views on DMU and the creation of a learning network.

Learnadoodledastic: Community Building, Learning Networks and all thatJazz

Britt Watwood's Posts - College 2.0

Book Review of Palloff and Pratt's Building Online Learning Communities. I think this is a sweet review with pertinent analysis and comment. What do you think?

Britt Watwood's Posts - College 2.0

Burnout

An issue that is of importance, especially if online learning is not given due respect and consideration in any faculty or institution delivery strategy

Exploring burnout among university online instructors: An initial investigation

Betty Collis Seminar - "Wikis: Flavour of the month or the tool that can change learning.

Heather and i attended this seminar which was organised by Leicester University as they come to the end of their first year of the Phase 1 Academy e-learning pathfinder HEI's.

Betty explained the build up to the seminar by recapping her two previous seminars related to the subject matter. These were I) the identification of a pedagogical approach that could be classified as a "Contributing Pedagogy" (which was not necessarily about any specific technology) and ii) six different surges of technology which all had claims to be the surge (technology) to 'make a fundamental change' to the way we learn. Betty explained how she has over the years used the 4E model to predict whether these new technologies would have a significant impact.

This lead to the main purpose of the seminar, which was to use the 4e Model to predict whether wiki's could make a significant impact. Using the 4E Model Betty was optimistic that wikis could play a significant part in the way people learned. The 'rider' however is that it all depends on the context and she suggests applying the 4e model to your own situation and organisation will have a bearing on how successful wiki implementation can be.

The thrust of the model is that the practitioner should rate the new technology ( in this case) the wiki, for it's educational effectiveness, ease of use and user engagement ( no rating scheme was suggested). If the sum total has a high rating this is a good start, but the next factor is whether the environmental factors, such as technical support, institutional enthusiasm, innovative culture, leadership etc etc also have a high rating to facilitate the successful introduction of wiki technology.

She cited as a very good example was the wiki at 'Shell' the petroleum company, which has over 40,000 workers/users that contribute enthusiastically and voluntary in a number of different ways to make effective use of the wiki resource. Betty also run through many different examples of successful wiki implementations in a teaching and learning context.

Overview

For me the seminar highlighted two main points.

1. Academic Staff are getting advice and encouragement to use wikis for teaching and learning activities, which is fine, but there is great value in the wiki as a professional development tool. This probably needs a lead from the top and a cultural change in the way things are done - If an academic group has the opportunity to step back and re-assess the way they could share work, share knowledge and share tasks in a collaborative, contributing, learning ethos there may be an opportunity to benefit from the power of the group.
   
2. Apart from the value of any learning that takes place in a wiki learning task, for students the use of wiki's could well be an important transferable skill for use in their own professional development and future work collaborations.
   

Leaving the learning aspect aside another point to ponder and was reinforced from some of Betty's examples is that:

• Wiki's are a good organisational/ administrative tool.

Another Digital Resource

Well Nick you have started something now. Another resource for teacher training. Just to say that it all these resources are probably best deployed after preparing the way via discussion. For the non-technical it might be overwhelming. The point is that all this web2.0 stuff is not that hard to implement. If teachers truly want to use these tools and help their students lack of technical knowledge will not be a good enough excuse for me. That said we all need guidance (and time to learn) on these new emerging technologies.



Many thanks to my friends at Insync, Kassy and Jane for bringing this to my attention via the blog thoughts on live online learning.