The intercultural exchange of image-making has evolved a long way since my attempts at embracing copyleft [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft ] the rise of Creative Commons [ http://creativecommons.org/ ] the latter bit of OPL [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Content_Project ].
I can recall students of mine at the time were trying to get their heads around copyright and I was concurrently trying to get my head around copyleft -) It made for interesting conversations.
[ http://www.gmpx.com/messages/8888.html ] was leading to the Printonline mash experiment I did with my students and I managed to retain the main project site in non-paid internet land until recently way after I canned my Bigpond account. I'll now have to re-load the printonline exhibition images as part of my Flickr account for those involved.
Here's another example of a web based site I canned ( repeatedly requested them to remove from the internet ) a long time ago. I wonder how many other novice users face the same issue. Short of contacting the Mobile Industry Ombudsman what can i do to remove it from the iprimus servers ?
On the subject of image-in-web generation today I discovered the t-salon blog and the fancy widgets being spun [ http://www.t-salon.net/2006/04/photos-better-than-words-for.html ]
I notice that the http://www.poque.jp/ widget is driven through http://nucleuscms.org/. I contacted these guys a year ago regarding hosting a solution for the education department - the reply was a scoffing 'good luck' reply.
Has anybody any idea how to make sense of the poque widget other than through Babelfish ?
Is it similar to what Flickr offers or is it more complex ?
Sunday, April 30, 2006
Printonline : Poque : NuCleuCMC : Question
The intercultural exchange of image-making has evolved a long way since my attempts at embracing copyleft [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft ] the rise of Creative Commons [ http://creativecommons.org/ ] the latter bit of OPL [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Content_Project ].
I can recall students of mine at the time were trying to get their heads around copyright and I was concurrently trying to get my head around copyleft.
[ http://www.gmpx.com/messages/8888.html ] was leading to the Printonline mash experiment I did with my students and I managed to retain in non-paid internet land until recently way after I canned my Bigpond account. I'll now have to re-load the printonline exhibition images as part of my Flickr account for those involved.
On a similar track today I discovered the t-salon blog and the fancy widgets being spun [ http://www.t-salon.net/2006/04/photos-better-than-words-for.html ]
I notice that the www.poque.jp widget is driven through http://nucleuscms.org/.
Has anybody any idea how to make sense of the poque widget other than through Babelfish ?
Is it similar to what Flickr offers or is it more complex ?
I can recall students of mine at the time were trying to get their heads around copyright and I was concurrently trying to get my head around copyleft.
[ http://www.gmpx.com/messages/8888.html ] was leading to the Printonline mash experiment I did with my students and I managed to retain in non-paid internet land until recently way after I canned my Bigpond account. I'll now have to re-load the printonline exhibition images as part of my Flickr account for those involved.
On a similar track today I discovered the t-salon blog and the fancy widgets being spun [ http://www.t-salon.net/2006/04/photos-better-than-words-for.html ]
I notice that the www.poque.jp widget is driven through http://nucleuscms.org/.
Has anybody any idea how to make sense of the poque widget other than through Babelfish ?
Is it similar to what Flickr offers or is it more complex ?
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Monitisation : Education
Does monitisation of mobile learning = the re-socialisation of the curriculum ? More cool sites and great networking opportunities.
Moblogging
Some quotable quotes from 2005 when we were all bright eyed and bushy tailed.
Blackall, Leigh 2005 :
" A while ago, people in the TALO eGroup were discussing how moblogging seems to carry little evidence to being a powerful teaching and learning tool, simply because at the moment it is mostly being used as a social tool...
It just occurred to me, while I was trying out moblogging to Flickr that perhaps proponents of the 'moblogging doesn't have much to offer in education' thinking are mistaken when trying to find examples of 'moblogs for specific educational contexts and outcomes'. If only because it is a clear example of trying to make the new paradigm fit the old...
You know all those ideas of life long learning, learning in life, life is learning, holistic learning and otherwise age old fights to get education to recognise that learning happens everywhere - well moblogging is part of that everywhere. So if you truly can't see the educational contexts and outcomes in moblogging, then you're understanding of and educational context is too narrow and old school.
Even if all a student uses moblogging for is little more than documenting social aspects of their lives, such as a photo of self sitting in class, photo of friends at the canteen, photo of teacher picking nose, then they are all examples of that person building an identity and personal affiliation around their learning context. If a teacher can inspire moblogging's use in assignment work and research - then great!
But sticking with the personal social use for a moment, if educational organisations, individuals, teachers aren't willing to accept the whole student (and their everyday moblogging) into their teaching contexts, then they are restricting how much 'real life' a student can bring into the classroom, therefore taking away motivation, relevance, and the importance of social settings in the school, not to mention opportunities to understand more about the people they spend so much time with....."
Kylie Rowsell 2005 :
" Having worked with heaps of kids on this moblogging thing, I have a fair
bit of faith in it. However, we all know that we should select our tools. We select the ones that work, that are easy to use and that we like.
I get very frustrated at didactic folks saying "You've GOT to use THIS
thing I found". Its not respecting the person at the other end - how can I recommend a tool without knowing the nature of your work?
As such, only some will like moblogging. Only some kids will like it. In my experience, the results of moblogging are much 'softer' that 'normal' units of competency. The information, computer, internet and social literacies are really
engaged. Folks forget they can't write too good, or that they don't like
computers. The barriers (like a good facilitator) disappear.
But each group is different. Different tools work on different groups. One group recently completed end of year surveys, which are handed out by the Adult Basic Ed teacher. Of the whole year, of all the topics covered and assignments etc, the
thing they liked best was the 3 hour moblogging session. Over a whole year. 3 hours.
The blogs were awesome - I feel a longer term moblogging 'subject' (4
lessons over 4 weeks) would do freaking wonders for this particiular
group. I can see a gazillion other applications. I don't think we have any really good, educational examples of 'hard' outcomes in a moblog from the engageme project.
I think some of the moblogs created during this project are not moblogs
to show as examples of educational moblogging. I wish I had a teaching position so I could get some going. We as facilitators have learnt an enormous amount about how to make moblogging 'work' in our context. If only I knew then what I know now!
It is our responsibility NOT to overwhelm our peers with our latest
'thing'. Rather to recommend something (only one at first!) that might open the
IT doors for them. Asking someone new to understand moblogs in one minute is going to make their brains melt, in many cases (as they are overworked and under
pressure, like many of us). ......"
mlearning : more definitions
Which one of the following do you think I authored ?
"....Mobile learning otherwise known as ‘mlearning’ is learning that is complemented by the use new and emergent mobile communication technologies such as mobile phones, personal data assistants, handhelds, wearable devices or laptops. ....."
"....Mlearning acknowledges social computing as a participatory, interactive and valid form of e-learning incorporating new and emergent mobile communication technologies. "
".......Mlearning at its extreme, is the ability to receive learning anywhere, anytime and on any device; it in a sense represents a coming together of eLearning systemswith mobile – and in particular handheld – computing."
".....mLearning is about learning in the environment, community and workplace, and about learning directly in the course of real world engagement and in real world time frames."
"....Mobile learning otherwise known as ‘mlearning’ is learning that is complemented by the use new and emergent mobile communication technologies such as mobile phones, personal data assistants, handhelds, wearable devices or laptops. ....."
"....Mlearning acknowledges social computing as a participatory, interactive and valid form of e-learning incorporating new and emergent mobile communication technologies. "
".......Mlearning at its extreme, is the ability to receive learning anywhere, anytime and on any device; it in a sense represents a coming together of eLearning systemswith mobile – and in particular handheld – computing."
".....mLearning is about learning in the environment, community and workplace, and about learning directly in the course of real world engagement and in real world time frames."
Human Centred Infomatics
Even the title scares me cause that's where my head is at. I'm completely dismayed with my current situation at present ( mostly - good stuff happens sporadically amongst it ) and now acting on what that could possibly be somewhere in the near future.
I know what i'm exploring is contentious ( mobility in ed) but I think it has real and lasting educational pedagogical resonance.
At last ( well....i can reacall talking about this with Tim Burn's ten years ago when i was using my lap-bag Nokia in an art performance at Curtin University ) I've got an upper ed. reference for what interests me.
Human Centred Infomatics
I'd better interested in knowing how this correlates with the creative domain of education and participatory creative arts. I'm begining to think that it's that i've somehow landed in the wrong sector to explore it - at the moment.
I'm reading the PHD dissertation for Anders Albrechtslund and other stuff from his blog / web;
Quote :
" Working title: Digital Surveillance and Computer Ethics. An ethical investigation into digital surveillance focusing on mobility, intelligent agents, and the body.
Project period: February 1, 2005 to January 31, 2008.
The purpose of my PhD project is to investigate the digital surveillance, and my ambition is thus to develop a framework for ethical discussion. The investigation will focus on mobility, intelligent agents and the body, which are three areas that are becoming increasingly important within surveillance studies and with it computer ethics. My thesis is that new digital technologies and practices within these pivotal points bring about changes, which make necessary new thinking concerning central concepts as privacy, the public domain, and security.
Mobile surveillance: Surveillance is no longer fixed to certain places. This is because digital information and communication technologies today are predominantly mobile thus making surveillance likewise, and this makes it difficult to avoid being surveyed, which contributes to the breaking down of the dichotomy between the private and the public. In other words, private life, work life and consumption seem to be blending and the movement from stationary towards mobile technology is presumably not complete.
Intelligent surveillance agents: So-called 'intelligent' technology is progressively being used for surveillance purposes. The prevalence of the Internet has brought about numerous intelligent agents to assist us in our everyday life. But to assist us the intelligent agents must also keep us under surveillance.
Biometric surveillance: The systematic surveillance of the modern world has primarily been carried out using sources external to the body (passports, etc.). In the digital society the body is both the object and the source of surveillance through different biometric practices thus making the body a readable 'text' or an absolute 'password'. In this way biotechnology has become information technology.
Of course, these pivotal points overlap and, to me, they altogether form an interesting and relevant field of research. If we are heading towards a mobile surveillance society where surveillance practices are biometric and carried out by intelligent surveillance agents, then the dichotomy between private and public can probably not be maintained in its current structure.
Today, a 'publicizing of the private' and a 'privaticizing of the public' seem to take place, and this movement will have societal consequences leading to un-charted ethical scenarios. In my view it is therefore necessary to rethink central concepts as privacy, the public domain and security in order to evaluate the ethics of digital surveillance.
http://anders.albrechtslund.net/
End Of Quote.
I know what i'm exploring is contentious ( mobility in ed) but I think it has real and lasting educational pedagogical resonance.
At last ( well....i can reacall talking about this with Tim Burn's ten years ago when i was using my lap-bag Nokia in an art performance at Curtin University ) I've got an upper ed. reference for what interests me.
Human Centred Infomatics
I'd better interested in knowing how this correlates with the creative domain of education and participatory creative arts. I'm begining to think that it's that i've somehow landed in the wrong sector to explore it - at the moment.
I'm reading the PHD dissertation for Anders Albrechtslund and other stuff from his blog / web;
Quote :
" Working title: Digital Surveillance and Computer Ethics. An ethical investigation into digital surveillance focusing on mobility, intelligent agents, and the body.
Project period: February 1, 2005 to January 31, 2008.
The purpose of my PhD project is to investigate the digital surveillance, and my ambition is thus to develop a framework for ethical discussion. The investigation will focus on mobility, intelligent agents and the body, which are three areas that are becoming increasingly important within surveillance studies and with it computer ethics. My thesis is that new digital technologies and practices within these pivotal points bring about changes, which make necessary new thinking concerning central concepts as privacy, the public domain, and security.
Mobile surveillance: Surveillance is no longer fixed to certain places. This is because digital information and communication technologies today are predominantly mobile thus making surveillance likewise, and this makes it difficult to avoid being surveyed, which contributes to the breaking down of the dichotomy between the private and the public. In other words, private life, work life and consumption seem to be blending and the movement from stationary towards mobile technology is presumably not complete.
Intelligent surveillance agents: So-called 'intelligent' technology is progressively being used for surveillance purposes. The prevalence of the Internet has brought about numerous intelligent agents to assist us in our everyday life. But to assist us the intelligent agents must also keep us under surveillance.
Biometric surveillance: The systematic surveillance of the modern world has primarily been carried out using sources external to the body (passports, etc.). In the digital society the body is both the object and the source of surveillance through different biometric practices thus making the body a readable 'text' or an absolute 'password'. In this way biotechnology has become information technology.
Of course, these pivotal points overlap and, to me, they altogether form an interesting and relevant field of research. If we are heading towards a mobile surveillance society where surveillance practices are biometric and carried out by intelligent surveillance agents, then the dichotomy between private and public can probably not be maintained in its current structure.
Today, a 'publicizing of the private' and a 'privaticizing of the public' seem to take place, and this movement will have societal consequences leading to un-charted ethical scenarios. In my view it is therefore necessary to rethink central concepts as privacy, the public domain and security in order to evaluate the ethics of digital surveillance.
http://anders.albrechtslund.net/
End Of Quote.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Steven Parkers Cool Reflections
Again I'm really taken with Steven Parker's honest approach to blogging his thoughts on the resitant core for blogging with teachers and the value of network learning for younger people in comparison.
It really is important to consider , I believe, that we have a generation of 'consumers' that we work for who are struggling to better understand that we have two other generations co-creating without fear nor favour. The critical participatory web is what matters to me.
I dont watch televeision. I'm not joking !
I'm constantly building and mucking around with things and destroying things and re-creating and co-creating and so on because that's what I do ....not because thats what's in or thats whats being followed. Anyway...enough of the self-talk.
I'm liking more and more Steven's take on all of this and I'm soooooooo happy he's in charge of his own domain there in the South east. I dont find his simple ideas confusing and thats what counts for those who need more of the same thing.
It really is important to consider , I believe, that we have a generation of 'consumers' that we work for who are struggling to better understand that we have two other generations co-creating without fear nor favour. The critical participatory web is what matters to me.
I dont watch televeision. I'm not joking !
I'm constantly building and mucking around with things and destroying things and re-creating and co-creating and so on because that's what I do ....not because thats what's in or thats whats being followed. Anyway...enough of the self-talk.
I'm liking more and more Steven's take on all of this and I'm soooooooo happy he's in charge of his own domain there in the South east. I dont find his simple ideas confusing and thats what counts for those who need more of the same thing.
N93
....and then they released the N93.....looks like that's where its at.Thanks Anne for the lead via ......
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Subversive Discursive
Some questions have arisen.
Could this picture [left] represent the education sectors discussion on any particular contemporary issue at the moment that you can think of ?
Could it be web 2.0 ? Are we ready to engage in the programmable web or are we needing to re-frame this with a set of guidleines, questions, enquiries, case studies, communities of practice ?
Given that educational organisations / institutions / sectors express security, privacy and copyright fears for their communications and content as the web 2.0 unravels, it seems that finding ways to better distribute communication whilst shoring up the risks of loss of IP to the 'corporate' machine as being at the centre of the fear.
Could this endeavour to secure communication with the 'corporation' that provides open access and rapid solutions in time actually lead to de-evolve the didactics of online learning 'delivery' ?
With that in mind I've been reflecting on Leigh Blackall's take-on-my-take on the LMS / PLE topic and contrasting this with Peter Allen's consideration for deletia............... before dementia.
It must mean my egroup poetry bumf has been read, considered and dropped as frivilous late-at-night subversive discursive. Wel that it maybe but it was never intended to be a red herring.
I agree Peter - sometimes my late night rants are a a little rabid .....smile, delete, ignore ...whatever you wish - it's your choice mate........ as is mine to say that you use the term 'sorry' to often.
My contributions to the TALO egroup is to learn from, invigorate and fuel possibilities for discussion with educators - not to take the piss although the code or rhyme and rythmn often is.
Back onto to ed-talk.
To quote Michael C;
"...I like the idea of a distributing learning across a number of services available across the 'net - but it has its risks. - I think it also assumes a high level of competence from your students."
I also like the idea ( I'm still struggling with how to do so in a conservative sector) and I think the risks inherent with NOT distributing communication and content as being far more of an issue.
The risks of web 2.0 are in not engaging with 'it'.
The worlds waiting while we ask questions of it and try desperately to frame it for our own purpose (education) using our own language and box it into our own set of guidelines, rules, regulations , standards and so on. Some of it's needed and an awful lot........ not.
On that note I expect that students given some encouragement / deadline / choice will select / nominate their own distributed web 2.0 learning spaces and it's not entirely the role of the educator to give it rather listen for where it's happening for the student.
MSN spaces maybe banned across certain education sector access points but thats not to say that students are not using it as their primary communication reference point. How does an educator then advocate to gain access to where the learner is growing knowledge ?
Essentially, in my view, learners learn least when competence is a one way street restrained by strict e-learning experiences.
The compotent / not yet compotent cycle of realising an outcome often ignores the real learning occuring within a students head.
More often than not , in my experience, students reach curriculum targets by unchartered means and it's the educator that didnt recognise when the student "got-it" and due to lack of attention abandoned the idea of proving it.
Students never get presented with a voting system for ridding the institution of inneffectual educators....can you imagine it ? More often than not competency rids learning of rhyme and reason.
The task at hand is apparent but in isolation the way we set about teaching how to achieve it becomes a battle of will and only centering on student behaviour shifting. I believe distributed web 2.0 environments are part of the educator's subversive discursive toolkit.
Little snippets of information dropped in amongst the general ICT maybe all it takes as the catalyst for learning ( teaching ?)
Dont you think also that the spaces and places that learners use as not important rather what they enabled as I do?
Reading backwards into the Ulises Ali Mejias blog means I'm discovering an amazing amount of information on Qur'anic hermeneutics, social and distributive software analytics and a host of other juicy bits for future student aggregation....thanks to Brent in the TALO egroup.
Brent's post highlights and unfolds for me the questions that I have of my own "teaching" style - at most the very essence of my own learning paradigm.Brent drops a link and I follow.
These subversive discursive snippets work so well with others for eg. an SMS message that only contains a http: link or perhaps a throw-away comment that spurns others on to investigate.
Botts gives it to us in his 'reading this' and 'watching that' format and Sean Fitzgerald in his cool signatures that contain every known philiosophy and extract for our sub-concious re-rendering long after we turn off the box for the night.
If only students were lead into the teach-and-learn-online environment by these very simple mechanisms ( educators committed to being clever and sowing elements of critical pedagogy repeatedly whereever, from the begining and always without need to follow every lead and track) we would have the answer to half the issues relating to PLE's.
Most of the time the PLE dosent acknowledge the social domains and technical ecologies that students are already highly proficient within - the micro-digital worlds of their phones, their gaming consoles or their chosen online learning suites.
Again, could an e-portfolio better be described as a PLE and could they both weigh nothing and be accessed anywhere anytime ?
I cant ever recall saying anywhere ( please correct me if I'm wrong and I'll answer too it) that a LMS nor PLE's as being a complete waste of time and that these ideas needs abandoning.
They work concurrently and alongside all that web 2.0 purports to provide.
An LMS in some people's opinion serves the purpose for shoring up that is considered by that learning community too controversial for general public dissemination or participatory or contributory intervention.
Why else would no one have acccess to an LMS content or view / read facility ? At the risk of seeming glib, dont institutions benefit most from NOT sharing knowledge ? If a PLE within the LMS points out to a blog then is it that all all three environments simply become part of the one learning experience ?
The "rankism" of the online navigator it seems is more the point here.
The shape of the LMS and the PLE becomes distorted if we acknowledge that the learners is taking control of what is seen and heard in a web 2.0 environ. and how others access what they create ...not the other way around.
Navigational rights or rankisms for bloggers is as Ulises Ali Mejias suggests;
"...the development of information networks dictate[s] that some nodes (usually, those who have been around longer) acquire more importance than others. Contrary to the hype, the blogosphere is not very 'flat' or democratic. The way for newer bloggers to gain attention is through the recognition granted to them by more established bloggers."
This attitide may upset a few that blogging flattens things a little but I agree.
Blogs ( according to my partner ) are often egalitarian if only in the language being used or the ability to comment.
Most of the time I scan through other's takes on a topic of contention, say perhaps PLE's or LMS or web 2.0 and it's the little gems that accompany a persons articulation of their position that wakes me up and keeps me going for the day.
Brent makes the point ;
"...Whether that discussion forum is on Google or Moodle is hardly the point here it seems - it's that the 'institution' owns one and a 'corporation' the other and ... well, it's about here that I kind of get a little confused "..
I like that bit because it opens up another avenue for critically analysing the role of corporation within institution and the stuggle many educational settings now face with the realisation that dis-aggregation of learning resources will have to occur if they are to meet the benchmarks for uptake expected a decade ago.
That follows on from the read-write web idea which could in an educators context simply be re-phrashed to learn-teach web.
The technocratic shape-shifting in education policy to acknowledge this shift in knowledge control ( learner's style ) is as Anne Paterson suggests and as evidenced by Steven Parker , in a tricky and sticky position at present.
Onward we trudge.
Monday, April 24, 2006
Palm Lifedrive E-Portfolios
I'm curious as to whether Helen Barrett believes the mobility of the internet and the ensuing mobile web 2.0 applications that come inherent with the PalmDrive as problematic or an addional bonus for the e-portfolio world.
Is m-Learning Helen's next frontier and where can I feed from for my own 02 XDA PDA ?
Helen's header reads """....I have created this blog to discuss my ideas on electronic portfolios to support lifelong learning. I hope to share some of my concerns about the current direction of electronic portfolios in High Education and K-12 schools."
What about the VTE sector or is that socially unacceptable to talk about ?
Is m-Learning Helen's next frontier and where can I feed from for my own 02 XDA PDA ?
Helen's header reads """....I have created this blog to discuss my ideas on electronic portfolios to support lifelong learning. I hope to share some of my concerns about the current direction of electronic portfolios in High Education and K-12 schools."
What about the VTE sector or is that socially unacceptable to talk about ?
Sunday, April 23, 2006
E-portfolios : Global Discursive
I'm back at the keyboard poring over Leigh Blackall's post which teases apart what he considers to be the underlying attitude shift that would need to occur for educators to embrace the use of the global network to truly grow the online learning eco-sphere. man o' man am i getting tired of hearing that my colleagues are still fighting on the front of awareness.
However, that said, I cast my mind back to five years ago and I must admit my own use of social networks which interlink by manner of association and interest were not lacking in interest rather in making the shift from LMS fishtraps bobbing in the waters of the knowledge world.
I do think Leigh's right.
It's all about "....the difficulties we all have trying to convince others of the benefits blogs, wikis... web2 ... what networked learning is and could still have for learning in general." Great comment and concurring with my working role, that of my discussion with friends and family and that of my professional integrity and beliefs for education ethos in general. I get more blank looks than any affirmative nods lately and get sick of dumbing down everything in an attempt to solicit some recognition of what I'm on about.
Graham Wegner puts his points forward as part of his immersion into what an LMS may look like in the future and the current state of play for those contemplating how such a concept of an always acessible e-portfolio could look like. It appears Graham also struggles with dispelling the myth that blog = poo amongst his colleagues ....i dont envy his position as he grows his own in a primary education context. Phew !
Nick Noakes [Wednesday, February 15, 2006v ] on the other hand gives us this gem for considering what the web mash of a global e-portfolio might look like ;
".....Now with our online identities being spread all over the net, in comments in various blogs, flickr, del.icio.us, etc., and at various events, we need a way to bring these together simply and quickly. And we need to visually show (semantically, socially and genealogically) our journey, trajectory and identities all in one ... something that aggregates and connects our learning into one visual interface for our lifelong personal portal (side track: I think this means we would need to be able to tag our own comments, not just our posts)....."
If we take Leigh's perspective on resistance and disenchantment and that of Graham's and Nick's whilst mixing it with that of say Iverson you'll see that ( at least i do ) a correlation in the taxonomy of retrieval, the manner by which the links and semantics make sense for the future.
Users on any open online learning environment could have a multi-view ever-evolving e-portfolio simply by hitting the global e-portfolio portal search function for the term 'mobology' and have presented for them a chronologically ordered entry for every aspect of my online presence right back to 2005 when i first started using that 'tag'. This gives me the view that our repsonsibilities as educators is maybe that of ensuring ( as Graham Wegner suggests ) that students find cool and memorable ciphers and signs to 'recall' their learning from where-ever they were at whatever time it was in the past. The portals for displaying such waress are ever increasingly hand held .
if Google WAS doing it's job wouldnt we have everything we'd ever done digitally available through their search facility ? Damn that would be fine if it was able to be in secure mode.
I replied to Graham's comment in my blog with reference to e-portfolio's stating that ".....I liken the formative and academic pursuit of collating, uploading and aggregating my blog posts, interactive writing and mobile blog data as none other than fornicating with naive catalytic elements in a reactive soup of electronica. E-portfolio for me is the conversation we are already having."
I stand by that.
Softwares for e-portfolio's SHOULD NOT be developed rather the taxonomies for retrieval enabled in each and every learning environment that we enrol our students / learners in. It's obvious that the operational / pedagogical / philosophical shift would be immense.
Get it ? How hard would that be to achieve ?
Learners need open courseware and protected windows through which we can view their learning and they access it all anytime. Learning management sytems need not be anything more than those needed for adminstration and enrolment procedural formailities - not for learning ware.
I'm of the firm opinion that all the above is possible if this discussion amps up a notch and that the e-portfolio's discussion come to grips with ;
- the always on and interoperable stability of the www
- the needs of learners and not that of software / hardware developers
- the apolitical stance ( and conservative ) that educators adopt when faced with students who seek interoperability not sustainability
- users wants verses operational needs
- the sensitivities of those who live building closed systems to 'protect' their users from unwanted communication
I'm intrigued ......Have we escaped the behaviourists yet or will the connectivists have their day ? Can an e-portfolio be invisible and weigh nothing other than a memory for a key term ?
Saturday, April 22, 2006
E is not for Eccie
Graham and my grief.
E-portfolios started for me back in 1995 when I asked my lecturers for the annotated versions of my electronic generated assignments in electronic format and not hand written scribblings which I'd no idea of what they attempted to converse with me doing so in the first place.
I was told my assignments were printed ( hard copy to shitty recycled / reprinted A4) and the 'copies' deleted because their floppf disks were already full.
Given that I believe students need the ability to gravitate their learning laterally, e-portfolios as a concept border on the ridiculous, especially considering the lack of ability most educational institutions have with acknowledging that students are developing electronic conciousness in the first place.
Given that server storage is so damn cheap ( and that IT boffins are little more than noggins with the right passwords and logins) it would seem that the whole issue rests in the value students work warrants in the first place.
After all - isnt it ticks that make the wheels click ?
E-portfolios started for me back in 1995 when I asked my lecturers for the annotated versions of my electronic generated assignments in electronic format and not hand written scribblings which I'd no idea of what they attempted to converse with me doing so in the first place.
I was told my assignments were printed ( hard copy to shitty recycled / reprinted A4) and the 'copies' deleted because their floppf disks were already full.
Given that I believe students need the ability to gravitate their learning laterally, e-portfolios as a concept border on the ridiculous, especially considering the lack of ability most educational institutions have with acknowledging that students are developing electronic conciousness in the first place.
Given that server storage is so damn cheap ( and that IT boffins are little more than noggins with the right passwords and logins) it would seem that the whole issue rests in the value students work warrants in the first place.
After all - isnt it ticks that make the wheels click ?
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Rise Of The Machines
I refer to Bott's take on how the onset and 'rise-of-the-machines' is affecting him - so to speak.
Excerpt from his blog post today....
> ...........the more i toy with technology and experiment with its place in the classroom, the more i am seeing a change in the expectations i have of my own performance. once upon a time, back in the dark ages before the rise of the machines, i was quite happy to rely on a few word processed pages of notes, maybe an overhead or two, and gratuitous use of the white board as resources for my classes. i was perhaps even (at times) happy with using text books. but now technology gives me more options and so i want to use those options fully. i want to podcast and vodcast and create videos for mobiles and use every web 2.0 tool available to me and i want to do this all the time. and trying to achieve this is killing me...........<
I concur. ....sort of. I think educators are in a constant state of pedagogy and technology flux. I cant really remember a time when i was comfortable with any particular medium for realising knowledge dissemination and least of all with ICT's.
In fact my 'blackboard' days came after my wyte-board days. Somehow i've missed the electronica of 'boarding' and jumped into handhelds and the more I know the more i realise I dont know.
Seems strange but I actually feel like we are on the verge of a cataclysmic change in the way all of it occurs - teaching, learning and construction of both by organisations that claim fame to the name game....and charge for it.
Excerpt from his blog post today....
> ...........the more i toy with technology and experiment with its place in the classroom, the more i am seeing a change in the expectations i have of my own performance. once upon a time, back in the dark ages before the rise of the machines, i was quite happy to rely on a few word processed pages of notes, maybe an overhead or two, and gratuitous use of the white board as resources for my classes. i was perhaps even (at times) happy with using text books. but now technology gives me more options and so i want to use those options fully. i want to podcast and vodcast and create videos for mobiles and use every web 2.0 tool available to me and i want to do this all the time. and trying to achieve this is killing me...........<
I concur. ....sort of. I think educators are in a constant state of pedagogy and technology flux. I cant really remember a time when i was comfortable with any particular medium for realising knowledge dissemination and least of all with ICT's.
In fact my 'blackboard' days came after my wyte-board days. Somehow i've missed the electronica of 'boarding' and jumped into handhelds and the more I know the more i realise I dont know.
Seems strange but I actually feel like we are on the verge of a cataclysmic change in the way all of it occurs - teaching, learning and construction of both by organisations that claim fame to the name game....and charge for it.
Flat Classrooms.
I'll have to address this comment made in 2 cents worth blog regarding blogging in the Classroom...tommorow.....expect it edited .
".....Classroom blogging is a very flat endeavor. A teacher, who does not understand this, may use it explicitly as a writing tool, giving a writing assignment, and then grading the work based on writing technique. This would not surprise most students who are accustomed to the gravity forces behind teaching from the hill.
But if the assignment is less about the technology of writing, and more about our inalienable need to communicate, involving as much the reading and responding as the composing and editing, then the work flattens out into a classroom endeavor that engages both learner and teacher. The boundaries between the two begin to blur. This is a good thing.""
".....Classroom blogging is a very flat endeavor. A teacher, who does not understand this, may use it explicitly as a writing tool, giving a writing assignment, and then grading the work based on writing technique. This would not surprise most students who are accustomed to the gravity forces behind teaching from the hill.
But if the assignment is less about the technology of writing, and more about our inalienable need to communicate, involving as much the reading and responding as the composing and editing, then the work flattens out into a classroom endeavor that engages both learner and teacher. The boundaries between the two begin to blur. This is a good thing.""
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Web 2.0
I was taken with what Steven Parker had to say regarding the use of web 2.0 technologies in his post at network learning today.
I like the way he's teased questions out from his experience and tried to illuminate the issues facing educators / teachers who find them selves drawn to the web2.0 honeypot.
I would like to add another bit from my perspective of sitting on the other side of the mosquito / fly zapper which is between the honeypot and the open word window.
I find myself learning an awful lot about the challenges that face my peers at work as they try to better understand the shifts in the way communication and technologies are shifting to accomodate the learner - so it would seem anyway.
Everday I learn more and every day I feel more humbled as I better understand how difficult it is for teachers / educators / designers/ managers etc. to engage in this conversation and feel safe about it and want to continue to explore and ask questions - whilst undertaking core work tasks, answering to mandates, meeting budgets, getting leave approval.
The web 2.0 environment I feel poses a great deal of threat to the way in which learning can be evidenced, archived, syndicated and networked with others without the need to rely on the avenues which traditionally contain courseware in intranet style reposition.
The answer i think is somewhere between the term 'complement' and 'implement' - inside vs. outside is long gone in my opinion and I urge others to refrain from using the terms or entertaining the joust.
The world wide web is a soup of 'ins' and 'outs'. So are LMS systems or CMS systems. Passwords, usernames, invites, terms and conditions are all in's and outs.
It seems to be one big intranet anyway so why cant we desist with the us and them and simply say - another place , another space.
The main issue that I hear from people now regarding web 2.0 technologies seems to have the same resonance and repeat gripes with that of the early adopters of open courseware, I've worked with over the last few years within the VTE (VET) sector.
The web became their world and then it became difficult for them to work within that which they were originally conscript to by manner of integrity.
The main issue I hear from people now regarding web 2.0 technologies is not unlike when Windows 95 was released and the issues early adopters of computer generated assignments came up against with the 80 per centile group of submissions that were hand written. Many reverted back to hand writing just to ease the pain.
The main issue I hear from people now regarding web 2.0 technologies is not unlike when my Uncle made the switch from punchcards to floppies at Qantas in the late seventies and the flack-attack and searchlights that shone his way from his peers frightened by his antics. It must have been hard to be eating lunch on your own whilst the other guffawed over the latest ornage and brown formica tabletops that had been installed to house the computers ( beasts) to which they would soon be chained to.
That realisation that the resonance from the past keeps rearing it's long winded echoing epitaph raises for me that fact that Web 2.0 may indeed need some pedagogical interrogation in open forums which juxtapose existing legacy systems and softwares with that of what is being made freely available.
Now. Not in long winded posts in forums.
Debates.Comics. Mobisodes. Flyers. Workshops. Zines. Leaflets dropped from planes over disbelievers and naysayers perhaps.
Anything that lets the issues fall and get to the ground. Whats holding you back ?
If you provide access to a machine that provides you opportunity, freeware, comminication, hope, access and open word of course you must come to expect that it will be accessed. Just because it's free does not mean it's not being mined.
Are we losing our IP to consortiums ? Have we 'lost' access to learning by the fact that it's difficult to retrieve data from that which we pump it readily into? Who does the backups ? How many passwords can we generate and how can we remember them all in a web 2.0 world ? Whats wicked and whats wack ? What brings you as an educator under attack and do you think going this way will win out ?
It seems that open-and-easy web 2.0 often frightens the very punters that seek access to that which would otherwise save their wallet, their sanity and their conscience.
Place that alongside policies and procedural procurement, ethos of organisations seeking to protect knowledge, to contain learning, to meet rising costs and you have a potent mix. What the heck is web 2.0 in an educators world anyway ?
Not only is the term web 2.0 ambiguous but it also fails, in my opinion, to define the inherent style or change in onus on the educator having access to the technologies which govern it's use. Let me try to expand on what that comment means.
Educators need access to investigate the tools.
The internet or world wide web acts as the vehicle for the transition of communication either in synchronous or asynchronous mode.
The sites offering freeware house the 'content' and the agreements between individual and the web 2.0 tool provider are both complex, often mis-understood and if examined carefully ften conflict with the ethos or policies of the very organisation that is employing the individual to deliver !
So what makes it so difficult ?
In the case of educators first coming to grips with content being 'housed' or located anywhere but their own institutions LMS, the issues to do with privacy and security are often the first to arise.
Access to the very technologies that educators are being encouraged to explore within are often difficult to access through the education sector firewalls and any executable components which enable features with these sites are blocked or under review.
Rightly so in many cases.
The question of accessibility by students to such sites falls into the same category.
Students were ( in most cases still are ) completing courseware and depositing this in shared intranet archives whereas the web2.0 environment enables the student to accomplish this task/s and expand on this learning concept by having a myriad of connected sites which blend the learning outcome across many repository points.
This places the educator at risk of connected burnout, chasing links, joining web 2.0 environments simply to gain access to the data or proof that student had completed an assigned task.
Part-time or casual. On the fly. From their phones.
Many teachers / lecturers give up in the foyer of web 2.0 because the designers for such sites fail to provide adequate, simple, easy to understand , front-up descriptions or case examples of success stories with their web provision AND prompt accountable feedback.
Forums are often the last place an educator wishes to sift through to answer a question or find a link.
Questions like ' What happens if their server crashes ?' start to occur.
The concerns of many organisations are entirley valid even taking on this one question. What indeed would happen if the online environment which the educator has ploughed hundreds of hours into has an outage and dialogue and valuable data would be lost ?
eeek!
To take this forward from the begining often means that the educator seeking to employ such tools as part of the connected teaching and learning environment needs to accout for the perspective of the IT gatekeepers.
I feel it will be crucial to the development of web2.0 exploration with education that the answers to the myriad of questions are literally laid out as that - a list of questions with answers accrued in chronological order composed and ordered by educators for educators.
Any number of e-mentoring forums will answer individual or group requests however it needs to be a provision of excellence in a transparent and evolving site that takes the form of a wiki that may achieve this task.
I ask myself ;
Where do my colloeagues employ web 2.0 technologies in their core daily duties as opposed to explorations on an individual level ?
What role do web 2.0 tools / technology / communication have when it is apparent that proprietal ware that education organisations use are bound to politically and by legacy ?
If my learners find it easier to complete tasks and immerse themselves in communication which does not involve web 2.0 environments whats the point of putting myself through so much angst to learn how to blog, add widgets, de-code and syndicate transactions
In many cases the frustration that educators feel trying to engage with such open, free and seemingly wonderful web environments are driving them back to the cc's and the silent-whit-whispers.
All because I forgot to explain that I'm learning too.
Nuff'.
I like the way he's teased questions out from his experience and tried to illuminate the issues facing educators / teachers who find them selves drawn to the web2.0 honeypot.
I would like to add another bit from my perspective of sitting on the other side of the mosquito / fly zapper which is between the honeypot and the open word window.
I find myself learning an awful lot about the challenges that face my peers at work as they try to better understand the shifts in the way communication and technologies are shifting to accomodate the learner - so it would seem anyway.
Everday I learn more and every day I feel more humbled as I better understand how difficult it is for teachers / educators / designers/ managers etc. to engage in this conversation and feel safe about it and want to continue to explore and ask questions - whilst undertaking core work tasks, answering to mandates, meeting budgets, getting leave approval.
The web 2.0 environment I feel poses a great deal of threat to the way in which learning can be evidenced, archived, syndicated and networked with others without the need to rely on the avenues which traditionally contain courseware in intranet style reposition.
The answer i think is somewhere between the term 'complement' and 'implement' - inside vs. outside is long gone in my opinion and I urge others to refrain from using the terms or entertaining the joust.
The world wide web is a soup of 'ins' and 'outs'. So are LMS systems or CMS systems. Passwords, usernames, invites, terms and conditions are all in's and outs.
It seems to be one big intranet anyway so why cant we desist with the us and them and simply say - another place , another space.
The main issue that I hear from people now regarding web 2.0 technologies seems to have the same resonance and repeat gripes with that of the early adopters of open courseware, I've worked with over the last few years within the VTE (VET) sector.
The web became their world and then it became difficult for them to work within that which they were originally conscript to by manner of integrity.
The main issue I hear from people now regarding web 2.0 technologies is not unlike when Windows 95 was released and the issues early adopters of computer generated assignments came up against with the 80 per centile group of submissions that were hand written. Many reverted back to hand writing just to ease the pain.
The main issue I hear from people now regarding web 2.0 technologies is not unlike when my Uncle made the switch from punchcards to floppies at Qantas in the late seventies and the flack-attack and searchlights that shone his way from his peers frightened by his antics. It must have been hard to be eating lunch on your own whilst the other guffawed over the latest ornage and brown formica tabletops that had been installed to house the computers ( beasts) to which they would soon be chained to.
That realisation that the resonance from the past keeps rearing it's long winded echoing epitaph raises for me that fact that Web 2.0 may indeed need some pedagogical interrogation in open forums which juxtapose existing legacy systems and softwares with that of what is being made freely available.
Now. Not in long winded posts in forums.
Debates.Comics. Mobisodes. Flyers. Workshops. Zines. Leaflets dropped from planes over disbelievers and naysayers perhaps.
Anything that lets the issues fall and get to the ground. Whats holding you back ?
If you provide access to a machine that provides you opportunity, freeware, comminication, hope, access and open word of course you must come to expect that it will be accessed. Just because it's free does not mean it's not being mined.
Are we losing our IP to consortiums ? Have we 'lost' access to learning by the fact that it's difficult to retrieve data from that which we pump it readily into? Who does the backups ? How many passwords can we generate and how can we remember them all in a web 2.0 world ? Whats wicked and whats wack ? What brings you as an educator under attack and do you think going this way will win out ?
It seems that open-and-easy web 2.0 often frightens the very punters that seek access to that which would otherwise save their wallet, their sanity and their conscience.
Place that alongside policies and procedural procurement, ethos of organisations seeking to protect knowledge, to contain learning, to meet rising costs and you have a potent mix. What the heck is web 2.0 in an educators world anyway ?
Not only is the term web 2.0 ambiguous but it also fails, in my opinion, to define the inherent style or change in onus on the educator having access to the technologies which govern it's use. Let me try to expand on what that comment means.
Educators need access to investigate the tools.
The internet or world wide web acts as the vehicle for the transition of communication either in synchronous or asynchronous mode.
The sites offering freeware house the 'content' and the agreements between individual and the web 2.0 tool provider are both complex, often mis-understood and if examined carefully ften conflict with the ethos or policies of the very organisation that is employing the individual to deliver !
So what makes it so difficult ?
In the case of educators first coming to grips with content being 'housed' or located anywhere but their own institutions LMS, the issues to do with privacy and security are often the first to arise.
Access to the very technologies that educators are being encouraged to explore within are often difficult to access through the education sector firewalls and any executable components which enable features with these sites are blocked or under review.
Rightly so in many cases.
The question of accessibility by students to such sites falls into the same category.
Students were ( in most cases still are ) completing courseware and depositing this in shared intranet archives whereas the web2.0 environment enables the student to accomplish this task/s and expand on this learning concept by having a myriad of connected sites which blend the learning outcome across many repository points.
This places the educator at risk of connected burnout, chasing links, joining web 2.0 environments simply to gain access to the data or proof that student had completed an assigned task.
Part-time or casual. On the fly. From their phones.
Many teachers / lecturers give up in the foyer of web 2.0 because the designers for such sites fail to provide adequate, simple, easy to understand , front-up descriptions or case examples of success stories with their web provision AND prompt accountable feedback.
Forums are often the last place an educator wishes to sift through to answer a question or find a link.
Questions like ' What happens if their server crashes ?' start to occur.
The concerns of many organisations are entirley valid even taking on this one question. What indeed would happen if the online environment which the educator has ploughed hundreds of hours into has an outage and dialogue and valuable data would be lost ?
eeek!
To take this forward from the begining often means that the educator seeking to employ such tools as part of the connected teaching and learning environment needs to accout for the perspective of the IT gatekeepers.
I feel it will be crucial to the development of web2.0 exploration with education that the answers to the myriad of questions are literally laid out as that - a list of questions with answers accrued in chronological order composed and ordered by educators for educators.
Any number of e-mentoring forums will answer individual or group requests however it needs to be a provision of excellence in a transparent and evolving site that takes the form of a wiki that may achieve this task.
I ask myself ;
Where do my colloeagues employ web 2.0 technologies in their core daily duties as opposed to explorations on an individual level ?
What role do web 2.0 tools / technology / communication have when it is apparent that proprietal ware that education organisations use are bound to politically and by legacy ?
If my learners find it easier to complete tasks and immerse themselves in communication which does not involve web 2.0 environments whats the point of putting myself through so much angst to learn how to blog, add widgets, de-code and syndicate transactions
In many cases the frustration that educators feel trying to engage with such open, free and seemingly wonderful web environments are driving them back to the cc's and the silent-whit-whispers.
All because I forgot to explain that I'm learning too.
Nuff'.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Podmobbing
I'm intrigued with this set up from Stephan Ridgway which seems to network two speakers into an instant conversation space.
The analogue look gets me fired up ( something to do with wires I think ) and I could see how wireless could take this to the next level.
Cool stuff.
Soul Centre
Back after Easter and it's all go. No more chocolate. Makes me grumpy.
Removed the party photo in the blog column header to signify work is back on.
Early on today I got word of cancellation of the Centra7 - SABA enabled and purportedly the first distance networked meeting software around - meeting which I was due to participate in today - the application looked like a stripped down Elluminate and a lot simpler and cleaner which I tend to like - accessible, plain with room to add the flashy bits if needed. Elluminate gave me grief for a while last year jumping between networks and Helpdesks so I ended up loading it to the laptop and then that crashed so I was back to Helpdesks, popups, java windows on hold and all the other issues that go with such applications for online networked learning.
Centra 7 loaded well and three steps later i was set. A bit like Skype really with a few added functionalities. No doubt related - maybe - somewhat .
By the way Skypes' now on the O2 Atom and I'm awaiting a first call. If you have a moment please call. The results may be interesting. I notice me "in-tone" has changed accordingly. Insidious.
Back to the original point. Meeting - SABA Centra.
The meeting was to introduce blogging ( not mobile blogging - yet) as a means of communication between distance education educators in the Health industry - at least that's what I understood from dialogue via email. I'd planned to speak of Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, Drupal ED and the cool i-generation blogspot blog.
I'll have to spend a little more time looking into the Drupal option cause if it can load frelly to my Livingdot server then it's all on ....if it's allowed. Looks clean, neat and interoperable.
By jumping off into my networks links page ( than god I've remembered to add it ....memory...memory) I had a quick peek into the EBN group link and came up with a post from Stephen Downes ( or on behalf of) regarding Cyberdash.
That sums up the mornings meanderings. I've tagged, blogged and TALO-ed
It seems for now this is the new centre for my auto-didacticism. It's either that or go the other way and re-enrol in the Mobile Folksonomies course at Curtin again.
Removed the party photo in the blog column header to signify work is back on.
Early on today I got word of cancellation of the Centra7 - SABA enabled and purportedly the first distance networked meeting software around - meeting which I was due to participate in today - the application looked like a stripped down Elluminate and a lot simpler and cleaner which I tend to like - accessible, plain with room to add the flashy bits if needed. Elluminate gave me grief for a while last year jumping between networks and Helpdesks so I ended up loading it to the laptop and then that crashed so I was back to Helpdesks, popups, java windows on hold and all the other issues that go with such applications for online networked learning.
Centra 7 loaded well and three steps later i was set. A bit like Skype really with a few added functionalities. No doubt related - maybe - somewhat .
By the way Skypes' now on the O2 Atom and I'm awaiting a first call. If you have a moment please call. The results may be interesting. I notice me "in-tone" has changed accordingly. Insidious.
Back to the original point. Meeting - SABA Centra.
The meeting was to introduce blogging ( not mobile blogging - yet) as a means of communication between distance education educators in the Health industry - at least that's what I understood from dialogue via email. I'd planned to speak of Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, Drupal ED and the cool i-generation blogspot blog.
I'll have to spend a little more time looking into the Drupal option cause if it can load frelly to my Livingdot server then it's all on ....if it's allowed. Looks clean, neat and interoperable.
By jumping off into my networks links page ( than god I've remembered to add it ....memory...memory) I had a quick peek into the EBN group link and came up with a post from Stephen Downes ( or on behalf of) regarding Cyberdash.
That sums up the mornings meanderings. I've tagged, blogged and TALO-ed
It seems for now this is the new centre for my auto-didacticism. It's either that or go the other way and re-enrol in the Mobile Folksonomies course at Curtin again.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Touchmap Touchdown
I've fielded a number of concerned emails from work colleagues who seem concerned with the Touchmap application and the apparent / insidious nature of it's nodal updates and semantic links map.
The full working specs are here.
http://www.touchgraph.com/TGGB_FullInstructions.html
We are all aware that Google maybe farming collective knowledge in ever tightening cy-klysmic 'circle-work' and that our babies names maybe one day selected by a Google search 'cause our brains capacity for memory has been replaced with a global franchise search engine.
Hang on.....oh......better Google it......sound familiar?
I've conducted a search of the engines own search and traced information regarding this application back to;
1. http://touchgraph.sourceforge.net/
2. http://deseng.ryerson.ca/xiki/View/Oplm/TouchgraphNotes
3. http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?HistoryOfPatterns
Better get home and eat before I faint.
The full working specs are here.
http://www.touchgraph.com/TGGB_FullInstructions.html
We are all aware that Google maybe farming collective knowledge in ever tightening cy-klysmic 'circle-work' and that our babies names maybe one day selected by a Google search 'cause our brains capacity for memory has been replaced with a global franchise search engine.
Hang on.....oh......better Google it......sound familiar?
I've conducted a search of the engines own search and traced information regarding this application back to;
1. http://touchgraph.sourceforge.net/
2. http://deseng.ryerson.ca/xiki/View/Oplm/TouchgraphNotes
3. http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?HistoryOfPatterns
Better get home and eat before I faint.
Thank Think Thunk
After a couple of days out settling my family into Sydney I've returned to work to a flurry of activity on the mobile learning front......and a mound of emails of course. Thank think thunk blogs reducing email load at last..
We are about to trial mlearning with trainees in workplace settings at CLI and a number of other intiatives which will remain under wraps for a while till it all settles in I would imagine. From experience it's generally around the half way mark in project time that official settlements are reached and statements released for media consumption. A sensible approach considering the fickle ways that technology tests our meddle.
Also, considering the sensitivities of where mlearning sits on the DET NSW sector it sems appropriate that sound case studies need developing before these intiatives are detailed.
Over the weekend I noticed a few movements on the spiderweb with Planiglobe jumping off my posts somewhere via touchmaps , Shozu registration now complete ( hey guys ....any action on a script for my 02 PDA phone or has it appeared on your black list?) , OperaMobile appearing again ( sheesh - better get a handle on this tool), and a new one to me known as LiteFeeds ....sounds familiar and probably is.
I'm holding back on the internet browser cruising as much as possible at the moment ( unless somebody wants to sponsor me - blog post swaps along JoiIto lines would be permissable I'm sure......integrity check here) only because of cost, however I'm sure I'll be an early adopter for the ed. sector in some regards and give in and end up showcasing it for some project development next year. At this pace it might be this year !
Again the MobileEd project caught my eye this morning and I've put aside an hour today to better familiarise myself with this initiative ....especially considering I've taken the plunge back into collaborative blogging via openword with Teemu at the mApplications blog.
I'm thinking ( at this point working in the DET sector with so many edu bloggers using Blogger) that the Blogger format of invites / collaboration better suits where I'm headed with self paced, scalable, mesh-networked, mobile enabled and better still ......access to CSS for free conversation. TALO google group is my primary network and will continue to remain so provided the mobile conversation and pedagogical referencing of such as PART of e-learning occurs.
I picked up some info. on Videora today which appears to convert video for iVideo aggregation and which I'll put my mind to considering the uptake of P2P and YouTube enthusiasts here at work at the moment ( interesting that my PC is not enabled for me to view).
In fact, I think the YouTube videocast feeds ( or something similar) that are usergenerated and then mobile aggregatable ( mobcasts meets mobisodes) are the way of the future ( e-learning goes mobile) never mind where web-broadcasting is at the moment. Technology is not the driver of education , students are, however, technology enables and indeed underpins much of what the term "curriculum" imbeds implicitly and explicitly.
Back to the collective thinktank.
We are about to trial mlearning with trainees in workplace settings at CLI and a number of other intiatives which will remain under wraps for a while till it all settles in I would imagine. From experience it's generally around the half way mark in project time that official settlements are reached and statements released for media consumption. A sensible approach considering the fickle ways that technology tests our meddle.
Also, considering the sensitivities of where mlearning sits on the DET NSW sector it sems appropriate that sound case studies need developing before these intiatives are detailed.
Over the weekend I noticed a few movements on the spiderweb with Planiglobe jumping off my posts somewhere via touchmaps , Shozu registration now complete ( hey guys ....any action on a script for my 02 PDA phone or has it appeared on your black list?) , OperaMobile appearing again ( sheesh - better get a handle on this tool), and a new one to me known as LiteFeeds ....sounds familiar and probably is.
I'm holding back on the internet browser cruising as much as possible at the moment ( unless somebody wants to sponsor me - blog post swaps along JoiIto lines would be permissable I'm sure......integrity check here) only because of cost, however I'm sure I'll be an early adopter for the ed. sector in some regards and give in and end up showcasing it for some project development next year. At this pace it might be this year !
Again the MobileEd project caught my eye this morning and I've put aside an hour today to better familiarise myself with this initiative ....especially considering I've taken the plunge back into collaborative blogging via openword with Teemu at the mApplications blog.
I'm thinking ( at this point working in the DET sector with so many edu bloggers using Blogger) that the Blogger format of invites / collaboration better suits where I'm headed with self paced, scalable, mesh-networked, mobile enabled and better still ......access to CSS for free conversation. TALO google group is my primary network and will continue to remain so provided the mobile conversation and pedagogical referencing of such as PART of e-learning occurs.
I picked up some info. on Videora today which appears to convert video for iVideo aggregation and which I'll put my mind to considering the uptake of P2P and YouTube enthusiasts here at work at the moment ( interesting that my PC is not enabled for me to view).
In fact, I think the YouTube videocast feeds ( or something similar) that are usergenerated and then mobile aggregatable ( mobcasts meets mobisodes) are the way of the future ( e-learning goes mobile) never mind where web-broadcasting is at the moment. Technology is not the driver of education , students are, however, technology enables and indeed underpins much of what the term "curriculum" imbeds implicitly and explicitly.
Back to the collective thinktank.
Thursday, April 6, 2006
Touchgraph.com
This is got to be the coolest way of mapping where it's at for web2.0 and other musings. Well done Leigh....again ;-)
O2 - Specs.
I bought one of these things last month and so far the following has occured.
I turned it on and it crashed within ten minutes of use. I turned the camera on and took a picture, lost it somewhere amongst the default picture bank and switched it off.
The phone then rang and I tried to answer it but couldnt hear them. I tried to call them back but they couldnt hear me.
I soft re-booted and waited two minutes for it to boot back. All my contacts had been wiped. Re-synced and reloaded my contacts. Answered a call, sent an SMS, turned the camera back on and wham the keys collapsed into the side motherboard of the phone. Black screen comes up and blows the $80 Mini SD card to bits. I even saw the blue spark! no bull#@^% !
Anyhow, I send the phone off to the repairer who refused to pay security post their ( I wore the $18 charge) and they took four weeks to return the phone. Wait......that's just the begining.
Get a message from them that they had sent it to Security at work. Nup. Never heard of it. Sheesh . Panic. Sweat. Rant. Bully. Four days later it turns up.
" Oh.....sorry we thought it was someone else...right"
Phew. Rebooted . Recharge. Bloody stylus snaps. Can you believe it. Phone still crashes. Beautiful 2.0 images to my moblog and others , great audio, great reception, geek glitche, cool MP3's, radio , video, toilet....the works.
$1,300 and I reckon it's worth.....hmmm....every bit of it. It's a cool dang funky little bit of technology.
Will I be buying an Mp3 ipod this year ? No.
Will I be buying a digital camera this year ? No.
Will I be upgrading my phone ? No.
New laptop ? Nup.
Pressies for the kids ? Plenty.
Thats my investment for the year. Tell me about yours complete with truthfull product analysis.
Ps. Hopefully this assist you with you yearly budgets and what NOT to spend money on as you build your meshed interoperable learning networks with your students, educators, managers and institute staff.
Wednesday, April 5, 2006
Chickens : Games
Amazing what the results are for researching "games" in leading research engines. Basically it reads game as "game" and poultry as key find. Happenin thang !
Today has indeed been fun and games. What amazes me is the range of ICT environments that we can use easily and the inverse position or the hard luck stories that others use to prevent innovative use of such places/spaces !
Sheesh. How can you win ? Anyway, I'm happy that the mApplications blog and the talkingVTE blogs that have gone up . Trick is in keeping the four blogs and four moblogs running at once !
Ok.......bundle that with TALO reads and a billion sites on the feedreader and the others down the side of this one......no wonder people get scared by the blogospherecity.
More tommorow.
Mobile Solutions, Mobcasting, mApplicators
Last night I was up till 2.30 am prettying up the talkingVTE podcast site and getting it prepared for the 2006 onslaught of podcasts to arrive. You are formally and openly invited to contribute podcasts of no more than 30 minutes in duration ( bandwidth ) for review by the talkingVTE / Casting The Net review group .....especially if it's "low-bro" mashy Skype cast or mobcasts on the run.
My main interest in co-authoring the site is mashing web2.0 API's to grow a cool site ( joy woot !) and in realising a solution as to how "mobcasting" or mobile-casting using EAAC+ can realise education solutions for teachers and students as they build e-portfolios into m-portfolios.
I'll flickr tag a semantic diagram to my Flickr account after meeting Optus today which ellucidates this concept of "mobcasting" in my opinion and will follow Dion's footsteps in putting blue sky theorys into practice by open word.
As Selena suggests there are a growing number of " mApplicator's " out there seeking affordable mobile solutions, foraging through mobile ecospheres for new news, mapping Web2.0 or whatever you want to call it to learning and generally causing havoc with new ideas and concepts. As we move into a MICT ( mobile ICT) era the bigger the onus on mApplicators digging and tagging into institutional havens ( heaven) for the good of students.
Anyone interested in a using a MobileEdText mesh mobile database applicator that turns you phone / PDA into a automated SMS portal distributor ?
Anyone up for podcasting some Skype interviews with me sometime soon ?
Drop a post or comment.
My main interest in co-authoring the site is mashing web2.0 API's to grow a cool site ( joy woot !) and in realising a solution as to how "mobcasting" or mobile-casting using EAAC+ can realise education solutions for teachers and students as they build e-portfolios into m-portfolios.
I'll flickr tag a semantic diagram to my Flickr account after meeting Optus today which ellucidates this concept of "mobcasting" in my opinion and will follow Dion's footsteps in putting blue sky theorys into practice by open word.
As Selena suggests there are a growing number of " mApplicator's " out there seeking affordable mobile solutions, foraging through mobile ecospheres for new news, mapping Web2.0 or whatever you want to call it to learning and generally causing havoc with new ideas and concepts. As we move into a MICT ( mobile ICT) era the bigger the onus on mApplicators digging and tagging into institutional havens ( heaven) for the good of students.
Anyone interested in a using a MobileEdText mesh mobile database applicator that turns you phone / PDA into a automated SMS portal distributor ?
Anyone up for podcasting some Skype interviews with me sometime soon ?
Drop a post or comment.
PodMob Project - Recording 1
Two days ago I interviewed Gary Lienert from Newman Campus of Pilbara TAFE about his ideas on podcasting with students, some of the upcoming plans he has for working with Indigenous students and a few other bits and bobs.
The recording can be manually downloaded at the http://podmob.wikispaces.com site.
The recording is also available directly
http://www.alexanderhayes.com/media/audio/podmob1.mp3
There were issues with connections and so on so we recorded the session individually using Audacity and whilst listening to each other in synchronous mode via Skype. Gary then uploaded the MP3 from his end to my www.box.net site and then I downloaded it to my desktop.
I then uploaded it to Audacity, edited etc. and then uploaded it to my www.livingdot.com account and pointed to it via my http://del.icio.us/alexanderhayes/podcast tagplayer account.
Damned convoluted but it worked !!!
Hope you enjoy the first clunky but clear recording as we track the podmob project from begining to end ( is there ever an end ??)
Cheers,
Alex Hayes
The recording can be manually downloaded at the http://podmob.wikispaces.com site.
The recording is also available directly
http://www.alexanderhayes.com/media/audio/podmob1.mp3
There were issues with connections and so on so we recorded the session individually using Audacity and whilst listening to each other in synchronous mode via Skype. Gary then uploaded the MP3 from his end to my www.box.net site and then I downloaded it to my desktop.
I then uploaded it to Audacity, edited etc. and then uploaded it to my www.livingdot.com account and pointed to it via my http://del.icio.us/alexanderhayes/podcast tagplayer account.
Damned convoluted but it worked !!!
Hope you enjoy the first clunky but clear recording as we track the podmob project from begining to end ( is there ever an end ??)
Cheers,
Alex Hayes
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
Web2.0 Mobile
One of the hardest things to get past as an educator or educational technologist is trying to work with people who really have no idea what you are talking about when you speak of " new and emergent mobile communication technologies' or " eportfolios that that be grown or mapped to via mobile phones and PDA's"
The majority of what I personally come up against is that mobile means rogue or unsubstantial. I also get shuffled out of meetings or stone-walled the minute I speak about mobile however it's not all bad news....much of what I speak of is listened too, digested and then I get invited to speak a little more ! Woot !
Often this ignorance ( to the mobile geek speak ) is not directed rather simply that ......innocent ignorance - struggling to come to terms with SMS messaging never mind how to moblog. i'm talking all levels of management also.
Another massive issue is the perceived costs of incorportaing mobile asset construction and access as opposed to other legacy systems or softwares. Anne Paterson has come up with some way cool strategies to break this conversation down and get things happening with TELCO's etc.
What I'm ( me ) really after are ways to be able to communicate what I'm DOING with students and educators in the field and how mobile communication technologies ( MCT never mind ICT) map WITH existing elearning strategies that institutes, colleges, polytechnics, universitys, schools....whatever already have and pay huge amounts of money to licence and access.
Sure the web2.0 environment has gone nuts but most importantly I'm trying to do my job which is design connected learning environments which incorporate the use of mobile communicate technologies......not write papers on the standards and interoperable / psycho-social / emotional discourse that otherwise threatens to engulf my every waking hour....that part is very important and I try my best to understand which form fits what in tray.
Like Selena Chan and Leigh Blackall and Craig Bottomley and Jo Kay and Stephan Ridgway and all the educators out there trying to get purchase in the world conversation on mobile web 2.0 , I am also trying to do things like discover " how to best access Web 2.0 applications using mobile phones to set up a eportfolio" . What a damn fine idea Selena.
I'm gradually nutting out simple schematic drawings which I'll tag in my Flickr account and when they come up please comment - if you think somethings missing please rant me.
Like Selena I am also trying to get the most user friendly ( & cheapest) option available to apprentices " to build eportfolios using mobile communication access" thats affordable, usable and above all possible. I'm particularly interested in how students in the field can build their internal ( DET based ) eportfolios using their own personal hand held assets ie. moblogging with DET issued pre-paids or something similar......4G phones will have transferrable accounts WITHIN the phone - fan-bloody-tastic!
Saves on all that SIM rubbish which is totally un-necessary peripheral stuff anyway.
At work I'm up against redtape like anyone and standards and report writing and position papers and meetings and budgets and developemental schematics and draft workflows and strategy meetings and committee's and guilds and societies and all the other niceities that engulf the day.
At home I'm up against 'me' time - I spend less than one hour out of work connected to my blogosphericity ( like right ?!)
Working with people to realise these dreams happens by openly inviting others to build networks, resources, communication channels and positive f-2-f dialogue.
I look forward to what this blog might bring into our knowledge field and the skillsets that will develop from networking this way - internationally, virtually, virally and so on.
The majority of what I personally come up against is that mobile means rogue or unsubstantial. I also get shuffled out of meetings or stone-walled the minute I speak about mobile however it's not all bad news....much of what I speak of is listened too, digested and then I get invited to speak a little more ! Woot !
Often this ignorance ( to the mobile geek speak ) is not directed rather simply that ......innocent ignorance - struggling to come to terms with SMS messaging never mind how to moblog. i'm talking all levels of management also.
Another massive issue is the perceived costs of incorportaing mobile asset construction and access as opposed to other legacy systems or softwares. Anne Paterson has come up with some way cool strategies to break this conversation down and get things happening with TELCO's etc.
What I'm ( me ) really after are ways to be able to communicate what I'm DOING with students and educators in the field and how mobile communication technologies ( MCT never mind ICT) map WITH existing elearning strategies that institutes, colleges, polytechnics, universitys, schools....whatever already have and pay huge amounts of money to licence and access.
Sure the web2.0 environment has gone nuts but most importantly I'm trying to do my job which is design connected learning environments which incorporate the use of mobile communicate technologies......not write papers on the standards and interoperable / psycho-social / emotional discourse that otherwise threatens to engulf my every waking hour....that part is very important and I try my best to understand which form fits what in tray.
Like Selena Chan and Leigh Blackall and Craig Bottomley and Jo Kay and Stephan Ridgway and all the educators out there trying to get purchase in the world conversation on mobile web 2.0 , I am also trying to do things like discover " how to best access Web 2.0 applications using mobile phones to set up a eportfolio" . What a damn fine idea Selena.
I'm gradually nutting out simple schematic drawings which I'll tag in my Flickr account and when they come up please comment - if you think somethings missing please rant me.
Like Selena I am also trying to get the most user friendly ( & cheapest) option available to apprentices " to build eportfolios using mobile communication access" thats affordable, usable and above all possible. I'm particularly interested in how students in the field can build their internal ( DET based ) eportfolios using their own personal hand held assets ie. moblogging with DET issued pre-paids or something similar......4G phones will have transferrable accounts WITHIN the phone - fan-bloody-tastic!
Saves on all that SIM rubbish which is totally un-necessary peripheral stuff anyway.
At work I'm up against redtape like anyone and standards and report writing and position papers and meetings and budgets and developemental schematics and draft workflows and strategy meetings and committee's and guilds and societies and all the other niceities that engulf the day.
At home I'm up against 'me' time - I spend less than one hour out of work connected to my blogosphericity ( like right ?!)
Working with people to realise these dreams happens by openly inviting others to build networks, resources, communication channels and positive f-2-f dialogue.
I look forward to what this blog might bring into our knowledge field and the skillsets that will develop from networking this way - internationally, virtually, virally and so on.
Moblogging : Cost Benefits : Social Dividends.
I am really inspired with Anne's Paterson's latest post in her blog about moblogging.
The cost benefits and user experience benefits of moblogging are fairly and squarely laid out here and I must say it's great to "hear" the real issues emerging in discussions which are being referenced and grown out of direct experience.
I'm seraching for some international examples of where moblogging has been used in education tonight amongst other things which will back up Anne's position on this one.
The cost benefits and user experience benefits of moblogging are fairly and squarely laid out here and I must say it's great to "hear" the real issues emerging in discussions which are being referenced and grown out of direct experience.
I'm seraching for some international examples of where moblogging has been used in education tonight amongst other things which will back up Anne's position on this one.
User Centred Learning
Oh my god !
Users at the centre of the learning experience.
Without being too tongue in cheek , shouldnt technology always be on the peripheral edges of reality or are we too heavily imbedded in the tech-realtor in education sectors that say otherwise ?!
It's got me thinking again.
Monday, April 3, 2006
Assessment
Prompted this morning to think of spaces and places to undertake networked learning ( and assessment ) I coined;
>. ...1. submit an observation or evaluation report, or portfolio <
Hey ! That sounds like an invite to start using http://www.moblog.co.uk/ with students.
AND/OR
> 2. demonstrate skills and knowledge in a simulation or role play in the workplace environment <
Excellent - students could load video proof to http://www.youtube.com/ in a private account.....
AND/OR
3. report or case study....<
Cool ! Students and educators could begin an invite only http://www.wikispace.com/ that remains public ( view only) where they collaborate on compiling a report of what they've been undertaking in/out of class.
.........All possibilities and again supplementing existing LMS systems including Janison / Sharepoint and other platforms internally.
Choice !
OLE, Mashups and Ramping Behaviour
I came across this when searching for content on mobile web 2.0 in a schematic form.
I compare this with Derek Wenmoth's systems analysis and with his OLE matrix and wonder at where these three elements intersect.
I compare this with Derek Wenmoth's systems analysis and with his OLE matrix and wonder at where these three elements intersect.
I really feel the pictorial schematic picture plane as far more beneficial for the novice like me trying to get my head around all of this.
IT: Internet as Medium
The internet as a "medium" is not a new phenomemon rather a term to describe the fetish that logging on used to be when we had dialup ( audio) and floppy disks ( tactile).
In response to Ms.Bluebells who speaks of the medium.....
Or, the medium of the internet is an extension of our very existence, interoperating and in some instances replacing that which we physically undertook in a day ie. banking.
Or, the world wide web is actually the collective human conciousness interlaced as electronic nodes which we sit statically attached to, occasionally claiming family time and football matches as excuse to abandon it......leaving it, lonely.
Or, the internet has gone mobile and we are wearing it, tracking our own moves, sending and receiving global transmissions, waving up to it's call, abandoning watches and calculators and cameras and other peripherals, driving through the world by its maps, finding out the latest gigs and cheap meals and where our kids are and who's meshing with whom.
Whatever "it" is, the internet is not a seperate thing to us. We are it.
My rant becomes your rave using it..........and vice versa.
Posted to http://groups.google.com/group/teachAndLearnOnline today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)