If you haven't heard of BitTorrent yet, you will over the next few months/year. BitTorrent is basically a file-sharing protocol...files are hosted on various computers so content access is decentralized, resulting in an efficient means to deliver large files (see this basic intro). BitTorrent gained quite a bit of attention recently with the announcement that it was responsible for 35% of internet traffic. It's also growing in use for for illegal downloading of music/movies/games - a fact that is gaining attention from MPAA. As this article mentions, the movie industry is following the same path as the recording industry did with Napster - kill one part of the system, dozens spring up to replace it. i-Tunes has proven that people will pay for digital content if the option exists. Understanding the needs of the end user...and providing a product to meet those needs is the answer. Unfortunately, MPAA will follow the same "sue them" path that RIAA did. Great way to treat your customers. Why not give them what they want instead?
Some significant blogging news: As many readers are aware, I'm an instructor at Red River College in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada). Several years ago, in my blogging enthusiasm, I tried to initiate a culture of blogging to encourage knowledge sharing. It failed (in the sense that I couldn't convince anyone to start blogging). Recently, RRC hired a new President - Jeff Zabudsky. I'm pleased that he has taken up blogging as a means of communicating with college staff: his blog, the RSS feed. I think it's an excellent way of compressing organizational knowledge flow (and adding a backflow dimension). Thankfully, openness is becoming a more common occurrence in business and society. I believe the defining trait of our generation is openness...not information/knowledge expansion.
I'm not aware of any other president of a large academic institution (RRC has 32,000 enrolments) who is blogging - are you? I've opened comments...please leave information on any academic leaders who you know of that blog.
Corporate Elearning: Technology in the Workplace - Key Issues to Consider Before Committing to Computer- Mediated Instruction - includes discussion on strategy, design, facilitation, and knowledge management.
Great resource - Instructional Design Models (via Joseph)
The person as the portal: "When millions of people carry Internet connections in their pockets, the focus of communications shifts from places to individuals - with significant implications for the way we think of ourselves and the shape of our social institutions."..."Changes in the nature of computer-mediated communication both reflect and foster the development of networked individualism in networked societies. Internet and mobile phone connectivity is to persons and not to jacked-in telephones that ring in a fixed place for anyone in the room or house to pick up. The developing personalization, wireless portability and ubiquitous connectivity of the Internet all facilitate networked individualism as the basis of community."
Blogging in Learning...(.ppt file) broad overview of learning applciations of blogging (good information on new media in particular - flickr, podcasting, furl, etc.). If you are considering implementing blogs as a learning tool, you'll find this presentation useful.
Stephen Downes: 2004 In The Rear View Mirror
Where the Wiki Things Are: "People want to use their tools to support what they want to do, not learn new tools to do what somebody else has decided they should do."
As a parent, I'm often insecure about decisions I make on behalf of my children. This article is a marginally depressing read about the dangers of over parenting and its future impact on learning and development: "Messing up, however, even in the playground, is wildly out of style. Although error and experimentation are the true mothers of success, parents are taking pains to remove failure from the equation." The biggest lessons I've learned in life have come through difficulties and struggles (not through sitting and thinking). A willingness to experiment is so important to growth and development.
I'm partially confused, however, by the strong grade-performance emphasis. Is that the goal of learning (get a good grades, good school, good job)? High grades, at least based on students I went to school with, is not always an indicator of success. For that matter, what is success? Earning a large salary? Contentment? Peace? Ability to live life on life's terms? I'm not sure what it is...but some of the mindsets that this article reveals about parenting and education are unsettling...
I've posted a new article on elearnspace on eportfolios...
Rich Elearning: "Too much of e-learning is focused on the conditioning mindset – provide the cheese crumbs to the caged mouse and he will ‘learn’ to find his way to the exit...Treat learners as humans and they will love you for it; treat them as cogs in a wheel and, well, they’ll just click the Close button!"
Creating a Learning-Driven Culture: "The concept of Knowledge Strategy comes from emerging theories that focus on resources as a key component to maintaining a sustained competitive advantage; one of the most important resources a firm possesses is the knowledge of its individual employees. It follows then that the techniques and strategies used by a company to manage that knowledge, i.e. Knowledge Strategy, is as vital as the resources themselves.
Human Resource Practices generally include training, selection, compensation, employee participation, internal labor market, and recruitment. The link between effective HR and a learning driven culture is actualized in these specific practices: Staffing, Training and Development, Performance Appraisal, Rewards and Compensation because these are viewed as learning enabled human resource practices."
One of the complaints often directed at blogging is that not everyone is a blogger - not everyone has the interest, time or the skills to write for others.
While glancing through Furl's Popular List , I realized how effective it could be as a learning tool. Anyone can use Furl (it simply stores a copy of a webpage in your user folder, so pages aren't lost or links broken). Making connections is a knowledge era skill. Imagine a group of 25 students subscribing to each others online topics of interest (Furl folders can be public or private)...gaining insight into what other classmates found interesting enough to keep.
This reminds me of the mainstream media awakening to blogs last year Extreme Blogging: "Blogs are so last year. The next big thing, according to Web junkies, is the "wiki." What are wikis? They are Web sites that are open for editing by anyone with a browser, without any fancy applications or programming skills necessary."
An opportunity and a competitive threat...depending on your perspectiveSelling Education (via elearningpost): "This concept of "transnational" education, where courses were designed in one country and delivered in another, was not only about the public sector and traditional government-funded universities.
He said there was growing interest from the private sector, and among the speakers would be a representative of a United States education chain which had 150,000 students in 15 campuses in 12 different countries. "
Great audio interview of Stephen Downes by Robin Good. If you're not familiar with Stephen, stop by his website and sign up for his daily newsletter...
Most people in education recognize the value of facilitation as an augment/replacement to lecturing. Facilitation: The Anti-Lecture provides a simple overview of the values of facilitation.
I've posted a new article on elearnspace: Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age.
Overview: Established learning theories fail to account for how learning happens in a digital age. We need a theory that incorporate the elements of network analysis, chaos, complex systems, etc. I'm suggesting that our ability to make connections and recognize patterns is the essence of learning digitally. Learning no longer only resides in a person...it can reside in appliances (digital storage media) or in a network.
This image of blogging speaks well of its application to the learning process: The Network is the Blog: "Just as telephones are meaningful only when connected to the telephone network, so blogs are meaningful only when connected to the blog network...The blog network is made of people. We are the nodes, actively filtering and retransmitting knowledge. Clearly this architecture can help manage the glut of information. More subtly, it can also help ensure that no vital inputs are suppressed because nobody has to rely on a single source."
If you want to expand your source of elearning information, incsub is hosting an The Edublog Awards. Pop by, have a look, pick up some new resources, and vote (elearnspace is nominated in best resource sharing and best technology meets pedagogy categories). I'm surprised that two of my favorite blogs elearningpost and e-Learning Centre aren't listed).
We are now approaching the annual "predictions" phase of technology and elearning. E-Learning Trends 2004 looks at what professionals themselves are saying and doing. Most interesting quote: "To garner insight, Learning Circuits reviewed and compared verbatim answers with those from previous surveys. The result: Workplace learning professionals seem to be more clearly defining e-learning in relation to an actual learning experience. They’re using such terms as Web conferencing, virtual classrooms, simulations, m-learning, and so on--rather than infrastructure and authoring systems, such as LMSs and LMCSs, which were mentioned in previous years."
Cascades and Connectivity: "There is a tendency when a network produces less-than-desirable results to want to suggest that the solution may be found in imposing some sort of control or organization over the network as a whole. The presumption is that a centralized authority will be able to manage what are perceived to be coordination problems within the network, such as the timing of decisions made by individuals in the network. But beyond a very simple network, the difficulties involved in controlling the network become greater than the problems being addressed by the network."
Contrarian finding: Computers are a drag on learning: "Too much exposure to computers might spell trouble for the developing mind." I think it's fair to say that too much exposure to anything (i.e. lack of balance) is potentially negative for developing minds.
Great resource if you're new to wikis: Teaching and learning online with wikis (via Jane)
A Typology of Virtual Communities: "Despite the growing popularity of virtual communities, there is no consensus among researchers regarding the appropriate definition or types of virtual communities. In this paper, a virtual community is defined as an aggregation of individuals or business partners who interact around a shared interest, where the interaction is at least partially supported and/or mediated by technology and guided by some protocols or norms."
Good insight - transferable for reasons why knowledge management/sharing often fails: Participation just isn't on the mind map: "Why does a lot public participation fail?...The mindmapping exercise brought home to me that it may just be that participation is peripheral to the way most people lead their lives. They/we are mostly concerned with relationships - with friends, family, workmates, interest groups and so on. Public officials, politicans and their facilitator helpers are at the edge of vision..."
The truth is - we are consummed with our own stuff. Making an organizations "stuff" a priority is difficult when it's in a completely different world from our daily activities.
Pro-Ams (via Jeremy): "The report defines Pro-Ams as amateurs who pursue a hobby or pastime –which in many cases is an all-consuming passion – to a professional standard. Pro-Ams are involved in ‘serious leisure’, which requires specialist knowledge and a major time commitment."
eLearning is not ePublishing: "e-Publishing isn’t e-learning, and confusion over that is a big problem in the e-learning industry. Rapid development is the latest catch phrase, but all too often it amounts to converting a PowerPoint slideshow to a Flash presentation and calling it e-learning. Here’s a news flash -- reading isn't the same as teaching."
I'm still trying to get a clear understanding of the value of social network analysis in the learning process. I know there's a link somewhere. Perhaps my hang up is that I'm focusing largely on formal education. According to this article, life-long relationships are formed between inventors...and knowledge flows along pipelines established years ago. ""Our work and more recent work on knowledge diffusion demonstrates that knowledge flows along these collaborative relationships, even years after they were formed,"...One implication for executives: Don't lock your scientists, researchers, and inventors in ivory towers. Your organization will benefit by the knowledge that flows to them from outside your company."
Beyond the Electronic Portfolio: A Lifetime Personal Web Space: "The electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) is higher education’s new “got to have it” tool—the show-and-tell platform of the millennium...Imagine a magnificently equipped (with software, communication, search, and multimedia tools), beehive-configured Web space that possesses sufficient organizational plasticity to accommodate the user’s developmental capacities and needs across a lifetime."
Comment: This article suggests that we can extend the concept of eportfolios to allow for a lifelong collection of learning and activities ("multiple cells with flexible entrance points"). The concept is an aggregation of what most bloggers are already doing with various tools: creating a knowledge trail for managing personal knowledge and a history of thought and growth.
Flickr is an online photo management/sharing tool...and it's growing rapidly. A good introductory article: 'Flickr' is in an online photo class by itself.