Will Richardson has put together "a basic reading list for people interested in getting their brains around the Read/Write Web and the changes it's bringing about specifically related to education."
I just noticed this at CNET news - they are connecting their stories using a network-like map to show how they relate to each other. Great idea.
I will be offering a series of short-courses (4 - 5 weeks each) on learning technologies over the next several months. Please email me if you would like information - I'll forward complete descriptions and registration fees (the courses can be taken individually or as a series).
This would be amusing if it wasn't so silly: Blogging on the Clock - "Blog this: U.S. workers in 2005 will waste the equivalent of 551,000 years reading blogs."
In related news, workers will continue to waste even more time performing functions such as breathing.
Northwestern University has some excellent information and resources on complex systems.
Jay Cross highlights similarities in between the work he has been doing with informal learning, Stephen Downes has been doing with Elearning 2.0, and I've been doing with connectivism.
From the continued files of "the world is flat" - E-Tutoring Broadens Bounds of Outsourcing: "It's called e-tutoring — yet another example of how modern communications, and an abundance of educated, low-wage Asians, are broadening the boundaries of outsourcing and working their way into the minutiae of American life, from replacing your lost credit card through reading your CAT scan to helping you revive your crashed computer."
Connectivism presentation (with audio) - I've uploaded my presentation from University of Manitoba (done in Articulate).
Flock, which according to this article is a "cutting edge Firefox-based Web browser...which integrates next-generation Web technologies such as RSS content feeds, blogs and bookmark and photo sharing..." is now available for download. I spent some time playing with it - looks promising. The biggest value is the integration of tasks that I'm currently performing with a variety of different tools.
PowerPoint copy of a presentation I delivered at University of Manitoba today: Connectivism and Web 2.0. I'll upload an audio section soon to clarify some concepts (especially the notion that we exist as nodes on our own network...and that networks reflect back on themselves as filtering nodes...and that thinking and cognition exist in space and time).
Elearning 2.0. After an exploration of the current state of elearning and trends, Stephen details Web 2.0 and how it extends to elearning 2.0. To reduce the article to a sentence: "In the world of learning, what this means is having learning available no matter what you are doing."
Beginner's Guide to Del.icio.us - if you haven't played around with the process of social bookmarking, this simple tutorial helps. Much like blogs, wikis, and RSS resulted in a shift in thinking about what it means to communicate, share, and collaborate, the concept of collaborative bookmarking/tagging is influencing how people organize and access resources. As with many recent tools, the process is easy (wikis and blogs are very simple to use)...but understanding the concept and implications can take time. Basically, I started blogging before I understood what it was and what it meant. I came to understand blogging during the process of using the tools and connecting with others. Too often, I see people trying to understand new tools without actually using them.
Semantic Networks and Social Networks - Stephen brings together two contrasting aspects of learning networks: the content/semantic web) and the social/connections. Parts of the document are technical. The conclusion: " The semantic web and social networking have each developed separately. But the discussion in this short paper should be sufficient to have shown that they need each other. In order for social networks to be relevant, they need to be about something. And in order for the semantic web to be relevant, it needs to be what somebody is talking about. Authors need content, and content needs authors."
Stephen and I had an informal discussion on this subject during a Finnish elearning conference.
Emerging Technologies (.pdf) (via Stephen) - a very comprehensive overview of the state of learning technologies. This report covers all the key areas - VoIP, blogs, wikis, standards, pedagogy, eportfolios, podcasts, etc. The buzzwords will keep you twitching for days...:).
Will Richardson links to a Thomas Friedman editorial: Changing Education: "We have shifted the emphasis from content alone to making use of the content" on the principle that "knowledge can be created in the classroom and doesn't just have to come from the teacher."
Africa's cellphone explosion changes economics, society - this article explores how cellphones are providing new opportunities for disadvantaged people in third world countries. Some wonderful oppotunities for learning...the tools are in their hands...the uses will follow.
Blogging 101--Web logs go to school: "Like other teachers bringing blogging into the classroom, he [Clarence Fisher] thinks the online journals will spark students' enthusiasm for computers, writing and opining."
- Technology is disruptive. Often, unintended consequences emerge as information is freed. As with anything, it's good and bad (not in itself, but in how it's used). Google Earth - Criticism: "Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam has joined the list of government officials charging that the geographic details provided by Google Earth's satellite imaging program pose a security risk."
Integrative Portfolios: "...a 10,000 foot overview of electronic portfolio practice at the beginning and a bit about the conceptual design of the Open Source Portfolio at the end."
I'm too much of an idealist. I would love to see learning begin with connections, not content...and for LMS' to be banished only for the most basic forms of knowledge transfer (compliance training, for example)...and for designers to create a dynamic environment (not course!) in which learning would occur. However, reality sets in. Most often, life doesn't permit ideals. Instead, we need to balance technology, resources, needs, work conditions, etc. So in that spirit, here's a short article on Best Practices for Hosted Learning Solutions.
The Feedbook: "The feedbook is a collection of feeds (including podcast, blogs and someday soon hopefully vlogs)... This would make up the main ‘textbook’ for the course. The students would not be getting a textbook positioned from a single instructor from last year or even a couple of years ago, but a collection of essays written right now about changes that affect the current issues in education. The instrutors can add their own flavour to the course in their own blogs as well as modeling blogging as good educational practice. "
Blogs: A Global Conversation (.pdf) - master's thesis on blogs - covers much territory - from history, to growth, to making money, roles (connectors, hubs, mavens), etc. Most interesting is the notion of global (aggregated) conversation.
Simply put, networks are beautiful. Valdis Krebs provides a link to various network visualizations: Visual Complexity. There is pattern in all we do...
Boost your brainpower: "In more than 80 clinical trials, Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at King's College London University, found that workers distracted by phone calls, e-mails and text messages suffer a greater loss of IQ than if they'd smoked marijuana."
Big news in the elearning space: WebCT and Blackboard merge I've put together a pocast of my views: My Take: WebCT and Blackboard. Slashdot dissects the merger as well.
Update: Stephen posts a list of blogger reactions to the merger.
Think of this in light of "instructor knows all" approach to learning: Can you tell blogs from 'real' news?: ""Traditional media don't have the time or resources to cover all stories," says Joff Redfern, a director in Yahoo! Search. "We want to offer an alternative perspective on news outside of what the mainstream media has to offer." "
Google has released a feedreader. I've been using bloglines until now, but I'll have a look at Google's offering. (A feedreader is basically a program that allows you to aggregate various webfeeds from sites that offer RSS formats of content. It's a great way to keep track of a different websites and blogs).
Blog Guide Book (.pdf) - fairly comprehensive guide - though more involved than what many new bloggers require.
Poscasting for Knowledge: "Currently podcasting is very much one-way broadcasting, true it lowers the barriers and access to radio sound bites, but there is limited feedback opportunity and almost no interaction. Affordances for annotation, commentary, refutation and analysis are missing or serial at best."
Writing as a group is becoming more important. Some very simple tools are available to assist educators in refocusing their activities to allow for group work: Collaborative writing tool - writely, writeboard, wiki
I just listened to an hour-long presentation by Blackboard on LMS' and open source. After exploring Sakai and Moodle, they presented Blackboard as the most desirable solution in large, complex implementations (I was shocked! :)).
First, it's important to note that LMS' are acknowledging some viable open source options. They are at least trying to enter the conversation. Unfortunately, the conversation is like listening to a new kid who just moved to the neighborhood. In their previous residence, they were "cool". Now they're trying to convince everyone in the new neighborhood that they are still cool...based on the fact that they used to be cool. The new environment isn't really interested in that discussion. Play our game...not yours.
The entire presentation was focused on two things: money, and implementation challenges. If I adhere to their assumptions, then they presented their case well. However, I'm at odds with their core statements of what it means to learn. In the end, it's very likely that, in North America at least, there isn't a large cost savings between open source and proprietary software. But as an educator, that's not my concern. I'm concerned about the learners. And their learning. This wasn't mentioned at all. I know administrators are cost and implementation focused, but I would hope that they also see the instructors and learners as stakeholders in the process. A bad solution, well-implemented, still sucks.
Why not ask learners what they want? Or faculty? If Blackboard, D2L, and WebCT are genuinely interested in meeting learner needs, then engage us (as faculty and learners) in a legitimate discussion. Once you listen to what we need/want, rather than telling us what you'll do for us, we can begin to partner. As of yet, I haven't received many consulting projects with LMS vendors...:)
Architecture of virtual spaces and the future of VLEs - great presentation by Scott Wilson tying together personal learning environments, new technology, and the concept of open vs. closed systems...
Gartner Highlights Key Emerging Technologies in 2005 Hype Cycle: "Gartner today released its 2005 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, assessing the maturity, impact and adoption speed of 44 technologies and trends over the coming decade."
Comment: All the good stuff is here: podcasting, P2P voice, blogs, wikis, RSS, etc.
People don't know they're using RSS: "...a new Yahoo! study done with Ipsos Insight whose headline conclusion is that 27 percent of the people use RSS but don't know that they're using it."
...and there is really no reason why most people should care what it is, as long as they are using the functionality. Most web users don't know they are using HTML, flash, javascript as they happily use online resources...
Neat, online tool for mindmapping (uses tags and keywords to link to others): Mayomi. Simple interface. Quick to get started.
...and in contrast to yesterday's post: Web 2.0 != a check: "...enough already with this Web 2.0 nonsense. We are doing the same thing we always do when “new” has “newer” come along. We hype the snot out of it and crap all over the ‘old stuff’."
...from Stephen: "I'm just about finished posting these "What is Web 2.0" articles in this newsletter."
As we are still in the "trying to figure out what it means" or "trying to give names to ideas we understand only as thoughts" stage, I will keep linking to articles like this: What Is Web 2.0
Learner-created learning: "I have always been convinced that one key to future success in web-based learning lies in the notion of the prosumer. Prosumers produce what they consume, and it seemed to me back in the mid 1990’s that creating their own content was something that people really enjoyed doing."
Comment: I would extend the concept slightly and state that the real value of learning is not even in the content itself...but in the dialogue and connections formed while working through the content.