Group items tagged

Introducing Edupunk The concept of Edupunk has totally caught wind, spreading through the blogosphere like wildfire. This post summarizes several recent posts and offers something like a definition (I would like to think that true edupunks deride definitions as tools of oppression used by defenders of order and conformity): "edupunk is student-centered, resourceful, teacher- or community-created rather than corporate-sourced, and underwritten by a progressive political stance. Barbara Ganley's philosophy of teaching and digital expression is an elegant manifestation of edupunk. Nina Simon, with her imaginative ways of applying web 2.0 philosophies to museum exhibit design, offers both low- and high-tech edupunk visions. Edupunk, it seems, takes old-school Progressive educational tactics--hands-on learning that starts with the learner's interests--and makes them relevant to today's digital age, sometimes by forgoing digital technologies entirely."

SmartPen as Digital Ethnography Tool Mar 11th, 2009 by Prof Wesch This little smartpen from livescribe just might revolutionize my note-taking in seminars, discussions, and ethnographic interviews. If you have never seen it before, check out some of the demos on YouTube. In short, it records audio as you write and links what you are writing to the audio (by recording what you write through a small infrared camera near the tip of the pen). When you are done recording you can actually tap the pen anywhere on your page and the pen will play the audio that was recorded at the time you were making that specific pen stroke. Students are already sharing lecture notes in the community section of livescribe.com. As recording devices become increasingly embedded into everyday objects the days of protecting lectures from being recorded seem numbered.

Almost the first thing that gets built when anything needs management is a good measurement system. It allows tuning, enables detection of deviations from norm, and gives feedback on the effect of changes and initiatives. Communities of practice are complex creatures, and thus their measurement is not simple. The number of perspectives that can be used is enormous. At the same time, the availability of data for each of them is very different, and the temptation to use subjective management impressions is high. So the history of CoP management is full of references to indicator-building, to attempts at significant reporting, and to a wide variety of more or less objective measurements. But we have not found a coherent, complete set of measurements that could be used to consistently evaluate not just one CoP, but a set of them, and eventually even to benchmark different ones, along most of the lines that can be affected by management. So we've attempted to put forth a simple, practical list and brief explanation of straightforward indicators that can be implemented in most CoPs, and especially in those with an online component. The first result of it is the linked white paper, but it should not be the last one.

Acceptable Use What am I allowed to write on my blog? You can write about anything that you like on your blog - a great night out, an idea for a project, or your favourite food! However, you must bear in mind that the University has strict regulations about the use of computing facilities, which all users are required to accept before they are assigned a IT Services username. They cover authorisation, copyright and defamation. Disciplinary procedures are in place to deal with breaches of these regulations. The regulations incorporate conditions for acceptable use of the national academic IT network, JANET. There is also a code of conduct that covers use of the public work areas and connection to the campus data network. For more information see the Sunderland Blogs terms and conditions. Also note that your blog is not an official means of communication with the University or any member of the University. If you wish to discuss something with your tutor or the counselling service, for example, you must get in touch with them via email, telephone, or in person.

"Sakai is an alternative Learning Management System, similar to WebCT. Brock evaluated WebCT and alternatives such as Sakai for use as Brock's primary Learning Management System (LMS) starting in the 2009 academic year. A Pilot of Sakai with 50 courses and 27 instructors was conducted for the 2007 academic year. Instructors had the option to include the course that they were teaching in this pilot. Sakai is a free and community source based product that offers a different take on learning on-line. Moodle, which was also being evaluated in a smaller scale is a free open source option. A representative advisory group was struck to co-ordinate the pilot and help shape the decision. Please feel free to leave informal feedback below. This group conducted a pilot and submitted the results (below) to the University Senate and the Provost and Vice-President. A decision was made by the Provost and Vice-President based on this information to implement a Sakai-based system as Brock's Primary LMS."

"Networks grow from separate nodes, to a hierarchical organization where one node manages the connections, but the true power of a network is unleashed when every node knows what the goal is and the nodes coordinate to achieve it. It is this unleashing of the power of the network that we want to facilitate. But if you build it, they may not come. Networks take nurturing. Using the gardener or landscaper metaphor, yesterday I said that networks need seeding, feeding, and weeding. "

" All Things in Moderation | E-moderating | 5 stage model The 5 stage model This model, how it was researched and developed, is explained in much more detail in chapter 2 of the book. Here's a summary: Individual access and the ability of participants to use CMC are essential prerequisites for conference participation (stage one, at the base of the flights of steps). Stage two involves individual participants establishing their online identities and then finding others with whom to interact. At stage three, participants give information relevant to the course to each other. Up to and including stage three, a form of co-operation occurs, i.e. support for each person's goals. At stage four, course-related group discussions occur and the interaction becomes more collaborative. The communication depends on the establishment of common understandings. At stage five, participants look for more benefits from the system to help them achieve personal goals, explore how to integrate CMC into other forms of learning and reflect on the learning processes. Each stage requires participants to master certain technical skills (shown in the bottom left of each step). Each stage calls for different e-moderating skills (shown on the right top of each step). The "interactivity bar" running along the right of the flight of steps suggests the intensity of interactivity that you can expect between the participants at each stage. At first, at stage one, they interact only with one or two others. After stage two, the numbers of others with whom they interact, and the frequency, gradually increases, although stage five often results in a return to more individual pursuits."

Fabulous, clear screenshot videos on Bb 7.2 gradebook & assessment & feedback. Hurrah.

"exploring informal education, lifelong learning and social action"

The key goals of The Commons on Flickr are to firstly show you hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer. You're invited to help describe the photographs you discover in The Commons on Flickr, either by adding tags or leaving comments.*

How to Use Twitter as a Twool iStock_000000372006XSmall.jpg I may get more value out of Twitter than anyone else on the planet because I use Twitter as a tool-specifically as a marketing tool-for my website Alltop and my book, Reality Check. If the concept of using Twitter in a commercial manner interests you, keep reading. If it doesn't, then you can continue to send and receive tweets about how cats are rolling over and the line at Starbucks.

Looking to spur wiki adoption? Want to grow from 10 users to 100, or 1000? Applying patterns that help coordinate people's efforts and guide the growth of content, and recognizing anti-patterns that might hinder growth - can give your wiki the greatest chance of success. Wikipatterns.com is a toolbox of patterns & anti-patterns, and a guide to the stages of wiki adoption. It's also a wiki, which means you can help build the information based on your experiences! Beyond this site, there are many other additional resources.

Express Yourself, Share Your Life, Connect with Friends Online You can use LiveJournal in many ways: a private journal, a blog, a discussion forum or a social network.

13 Twitter Tips and Tutorials for Beginners by Darren Rowse on April 18, 2009 in Twitter for Beginners Just starting out on Twitter? Looking for some Twitter Tips to get you started?

When Tweeting Less Can Help You be a More Effective Twitter User by Darren Rowse on November 4, 2008 "How much do I need to Tweet each day to build a successful Twitter presence?" I get this question a fair bit from new Twitter users and while I think Tweet frequency is an important topic (one I'll cover in a future post here at TwiTip) I think that there's another more important aspect of successful use of Twitter that I've not heard many people talk about… Silence….. (cue the crickets and tumbleweed). Regular tweets may well be an important part of successfully using Twitter but one thing that I've found equally important is regularly 'not tweeting'.

good intro for twitter for journos Twitter Basics for Journalists & Recovering Journos On Saturday, at the annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists, I gave a talk to an audience of mostly journalists explaining the basics of blogs, social media, and search visibility. People had lots of questions, more than I could get to in the session. I was getting stopped in halls, at parties, and even in bathrooms, to be asked things like, "Does it really make that big a difference if I blog under my own domain?" (Answer: Yes!) OK, I don't mind answering those questions. That's really why I went to this conference - because I know that journalists (many of whom are facing potential layoffs, or who have already been laid off) are in dire need of online media awareness and skills. So I'm going to do a bunch of posts answering questions, because it's more efficient to do that via blogging. This is one of those posts. By now you've probably heard about Twitter, the social media service that allows you to publish posts of 140 characters max. What Twitter does, in a nutshell: This service allows you to receive posts ("tweets") from other Twitter users whom you choose to "follow." Likewise, other Twitter users can choose to follow you. When you follow someone on Twitter, their tweets show up in reverse chronological order in the "tweetstream" that scrolls down the Twitter home page when you're logged in. The effect is somewhat like an ongoing Headline News version of what's happening in the minds and worlds of people you know or find interesting.

Facilitator Qualities and Skills These online facilitator qualities and skills started with the the QUALITIES FAQ created by the Group Facilitation Listserv GRP-FACL@CNSIBM.ALBANDY.EDU. I took the qualities posted to the list, then sorted them alphabetically. After letting them set, I started sorting and adding in context for online facilitation. I'm looking for sets of qualities and patterns. What do you think is important in the online context? What is less important? What is missing?

Join the world's first and largest social networking site dedicated to education and educational technology. Launched in 2004 and with over 20,000 members there is something in here for everyone interested in education.

Digital Citizenship April 15th, 2009 Introduction: Out of Control A spectre is haunting the classroom, the spectre of change. Nearly a century of institutional forms, initiated at the height of the Industrial Era, will change irrevocably over the next decade. The change is already well underway, but this change is not being led by teachers, administrators, parents or politicians. Coming from the ground up, the true agents of change are the students within the educational system. Within just the last five years, both power and control have swung so quickly and so completely in their favor that it's all any of us can do to keep up. We live in an interregnum, between the shift in power and its full actualization: These wacky kids don't yet realize how powerful they are.