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Vanessa Vaile

Personal Learning Environment (PLE) Project - 0 views

ple.elg.ca

PLN PLE evomlit edtech

shared by Vanessa Vaile on 03 Jun 10 - Cached
  • Vanessa Vaile on 03 Jun 10
     
    The National Research Council of Canada's Institute for Information Technology (Learning and Collaborative Group) has started a research and development project exploring the Personal Learning Environment. The project researches how new technologies can be used in a personalized informal learning environment and focuses on two dimensions. The first dimension is the pedagogical: given the new affordances offered by web technologies, how can access to a wide variety of learning opportunities best be managed in an online environment? The second dimension is technical. Given a set of desired types of connections, what technologies can be assembled to best provide seamless access to a large variety of educational resources and services? Existing learning management technology (such as the Learning Management System) is centered on the institution that owns and operates it as enterprise software. With the increase of lifelong and student-centered learning, individuals are more frequently enrolling in learning opportunities from multiple institutions and have a need to manage their learning through an entire career. Thus there is a need for a type of application that is centered on the learner and would constitute the person's personal learning record, portfolio, business and educational contacts, communications and creativity tools, library and resource subscription management, and related services.
Vanessa Vaile

Education and the social Web: Connective learning and the commercial imperative - 0 views

firstmonday.org/...2718

technology PLENK2010 multiliteracies evomlit resources tools

shared by Vanessa Vaile on 08 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • I argue that commercial social networks are much less about circulating knowledge than they are about connecting users (“eyeballs”) with advertisers
  • not the autonomous individual learner, but collective corporate interests that occupy the centre of these network
  • business model restricts their information design in ways that detract from learner control and educational use
  • ...54 more annotations...
  • Just as commercialism has rendered television beyond the reach of education, commercial pressures threaten to seriously limit the potential of the social Web for education and learning.
  • Web 2.0 and online social networking have been the subject of sustained and lively interest among practitioners and promoters of educational technology
  • what is seen as the radical potential of these services
  • Social networking is so central to these new versions of education that a new “connectivist” theory of learning has come to be closely associated with them
  • a theory in which “knowing” itself is seen to be “defined by connections” making “learning primarily a network forming process”
  • described in terms of the liberation of learners from traditional constraints, as allowing them go beyond the classroom, to network “with peers worldwide,” and ultimately, to “take control of their own learning”
  • These visions are above all associated with the “personal learning environment
  • The personal learning environment is envisioned as a set of applications and services — to a large extent, logos and brands — organized around a single user, according to his or her learning and informational preferences and needs.
  • Through these services, the user is to be connected with teachers, mentors and other learners
  • some advocates of these approaches to learning have been raising concerns about the commercial nature of many of these services.
  • “You are not Facebook’s customer. You are the product that they sell to their real customers — advertisers. Forget this at your peril”
  • “This simple reality underlies almost all considerations having to do with these tools,
  • To use these tools is to reinforce, however indirectly, the ‘advertised life,’
  • The question is whether there is a role for higher education to promote ‘safe spaces’ free of this influence.”
  • the business model of commercial social networks is based on advertising, assisted by the data collection, as well as powerful tracking and analysis capabilities.
  • powerful surveillance functions
  • theories of media ideology and hegemony developed some time ago by Raymond Williams and Todd Gitlin
  • constraints presented by commercialized forms and contents rendered educational television a failure decades ago
  • similar structural issues threaten to sharply limit the potential of much newer social media for education and learning
  • Facebook, Google and other Web 2.0 and social networking services are making enormous sums right now from the users and advertisers they attract, and they are in aggressive competition to do this more efficiently
  • The absence of references to advertising (and also to tracking and analysis) in many discussions of the personal learning environments is surprising given the proliferation of logos and brands of commercial services
  • Because advertising is the raison d’être of services like Google and Facebook, it also provides the basis for the design, organization and maintenance of all of these other services and functions.
  • This way of understanding advertising and Web 2.0 draws on critiques of television (and the role of advertising in it) that were articulated decades ago.
  • the goal of these media organizations, he says, is to sell a product, and the product that “the networks sell is the attention of audiences; their primary market is the advertisers themselves”
  • One thing that is different today is that there is no one monolithic audience that forms a generic product to sell to advertisers.
  • An obvious objection to be raised at this point is that Facebook or Google, unlike television, do not have significant control over the content that is used to assemble audiences for advertisers
  • users have a clear choice regarding the kinds of content that they wish to view and disseminate
  • complex and subtle but very effective ways in which advertisers’ interests shape online social contexts.
  • Raymond Williams’ 1974 critique, Television: Technology and cultural form.
  • Williams’ text requires only minor revision to speak to the situation of commercial Web services today:
  • whether there is a role for higher education to promote ‘safe spaces’ free of this influence.”
  • Williams is making the point that the relationship between content and advertising is subtle and insidious, and that it is slightly different in the case of content “made for TV” than for its non–commercial counterpart.
  • “a dominant cultural form;”
  • what is important for the similarly non–commercial content of the social Web is informational design, architecture, and algorithm.
  • operation in otherwise non–commercial programming is registered in terms of sequence, rhythm and flow
  • Users of Facebook are sure to have been struck by the numerous and varied ways in which it cultivates gregarity and interaction, the way in which it relentlessly structures and supports sociality and connection
  • It is common to observe that the term “friend” itself is emptied of meaning by this incessant use and quantification;
  • Facebook exemplifies a way of generating and circulating information that encourages the expansion of interconnections between users
  • The controversy arises from the possible addition of a corresponding “Dislike” button.
  • lowers the psychological barrier to connecting with commercial entities
  • Gregarious behaviour is rewarded on Facebook
  • approval of a resource will draw ever more attention to it.
  • To provide the option of expressing dislike for a brand like Coca–Cola or to disapprove of a newspaper report or an article like this one is contrary to Facebook’s business interests
  • The dynamics here are rather reminiscent of what television of a bygone era had to offer: In both cases, you can either watch (i.e., “Like”) the products and lifestyles being showcased, or simply walk away.
  • “Like buttons” similar to many other connective features of social networks, “are about connection; Dislike buttons are about division.”
  • Similarly, other services will also systematically exclude possibilities for the expression of dissent and difference.
  • Despite the current prominence of social–psychological and connectivist theories, it is easy to make the case that learning is just as much about division as it is about connection.
  • In fact, the consistent pattern of suppressing division, negativity and interpersonal dissent that is central to the business model of social networking services runs counter to some of the most common models and recommendations for online student interaction and engagement.
  • Opportunities for social selectivity, discretion, privacy and detachment are an important precondition for the acts of disclosure and mutual critique, falsification and validation central to these models
  • selectivity and discretion — the “safe spaces” hoped for by Lamb and Groom — are rendered structurally impossible in convivial, commercially–contoured environments
  • Knowledge is not exclusively embodied in ever growing networks of connection and affiliation, and it does not just occur through building and traversing these proliferating nodes and links
  • Education is clearly a social process, but it is probably much closer to an ongoing discussion or debate than an extended feast or celebration with an ever-expanding network of friends.
  • advertising, tracking and analysis functions of commercial social media present, as Raymond Williams says, “a formula of communication, an intrinsic setting of priorities”
  • It only remains to be seen whether this dynamic renders commercial social networking services as fully unsupportive of educational ends as commercial television has long been.
  • Vanessa Vaile on 08 Dec 10
     
    In recent years, new socially‏oriented Web technologies have been portrayed as placing the learner at the centre of networks of knowledge and expertise, potentially leading to new forms of learning and education. In this paper, I argue that commercial social networks are much less about circulating knowledge than they are about connecting users ("eyeballs") with advertisers; it is not the autonomous individual learner, but collective corporate interests that occupy the centre of these networks. Looking first at Facebook, Twitter, Digg and similar services, I argue their business model restricts their information design in ways that detract from learner control and educational use. I also argue more generally that the predominant "culture" and corresponding types of content on services like those provided Google similarly privileges advertising interests at the expense of users. Just as commercialism has rendered television beyond the reach of education, commercial pressures threaten to seriously limit the potential of the social Web for education and learning.
Vanessa Vaile

JOLT - Journal of Online Learning and Teaching - 0 views

jolt.merlot.org/...klein_1209.htm

evomlit webtools SRS clicker behaviorism

shared by Vanessa Vaile on 17 Feb 10 - Cached
  • Vanessa Vaile on 17 Feb 10
     
    tudent response system (SRS) use may provide one solution for transforming the passive and isolated online learning environment experienced by many students. SRS use combined with sound pedagogical practices can create an active learning environment comprised of a collaborative social learning community capable of effectively meeting varied learning needs. Newly developed SRSs have created the opportunity to explore online SRS use. Incorporation of SRS use within behaviorism, social constructivism, and many other pedagogical approaches makes it a tool worthy of consideration in solving pedagogical dilemmas and creating a positive learning experience. Despite a lack of research related to online SRS use, this article utilizes current SRS and online polling research and information to determine the primary benefits and challenges associated with online SRS use.
Beatriz Lupiano

LearningTimes Green Room » Blog Archive » LTGR Ep. #74 - "Nancy White on Comm... - 1 views

www.ltgreenroom.org/88

learningtimes learning podcast specialedition nancywhite greenroom community opinion

shared by Beatriz Lupiano on 27 Mar 10 - Cached
  • Beatriz Lupiano on 27 Mar 10
     
    Special edition podcast previous to their conference in mid-March 2010. Nancy White explains her views on e-communities and f2f communities around the central theme of whether communities for learning are possible and if so, how.
TESOL CALL-IS

VITAE Project Book - 1 views

www.vitae-project.eu/...vitae-handbook.html

teacher-training teachers pedagogy multimedia VSL

shared by TESOL CALL-IS on 18 Feb 10 - Cached
  • TESOL CALL-IS on 18 Feb 10
     
    A pdf book with papers and articles describing pedagogic models and approaches to developing the VITAE e-portfolio "Chapter 1: Teacher competence development - a European perspective, Chapter 2: The VITAE Approach, Chapter 3: Exploring Web 2.0 and Mentoring as Tools for Lifelong Learning, Chapter 4: Guided course development on the basis of an e-learning patterns template, Chapter 5: Fun and Games in professional development, Chapter 6: The VITAE e-portfolio - a catalyst for enhanced learning, Chapter 7: Community-based mentoring and innovating through Web 2.0, Chapter 8: Web 2.0 - Learning Culture and Organisational Change,"
Vanessa Vaile

The Ning Thing.docx - 0 views

docs.google.com/...pub

evomlit tools multiliteracies technology ning

shared by Vanessa Vaile on 06 Jul 10 - Cached
  • good source for information on Ning: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning_(website)
  • Ning was a free-form platform for the development and hosting of open-source social applications
  • Ning pricing structure is three-tiered, as explained here: http://blog.ning.com/2010/05/introducing-ning-pro-ning-plus-and-ning-mini.html
  • ...40 more annotations...
  • ompelling affordances for group collaboration
  • Participants can sign up or sign in and set up profiles for any particular Ning, parts of which carry over to other Nings, achieving familiarity with minimal repetition of data entry
  • crucial components of many educators’ PLNs
  • Nings have c
  • Webheads in Action used to enroll participants in its free bi-annual WiAOC international online conferences in a Moodle, but for the last one, moved the community over to a Ning (http://webheadsinaction.ning.com/). This Ning now has over 350 members.
  • Because Nings were free and robust for collaboration, they were an ideal tool for educators seeking to jump-start communities on little or no funding.
  • Alec Couros sees this kind of thing happening more and more in the crystal ball future and suggests that schools and educators would be better off investing in self-hosting using FOSS, free and open source software (Couros, 2010).
  • general consternation
  • a number of issues
  • One is for how long Internet users can expect free services
  • other side of the coin is the nature of teaching, where hard-pressed teachers with little time and less budget tend to cobble together whatever resources they can muster
  • Monetization is rarely a consideration for teachers and educational technology specialists
  • , whose main aim is to find platforms that will support learning through sharing.
  • The immediate concern following an announcement such at the one issued by Ning April 16 is simply preservation of content stored at the free site
  • sponsorship is available only for “Ning Networks focused on North American K-12 and Higher-Ed ... including Ning Networks that facilitate learning in a classroom, best practices, educator-to-educator collaboration, or parental support,”
  • Pearson, who have offered to sponsor Nings for educators at the Mini level, the lowest level of Ning
  • almost all continents on the planet are excluded from the deal
  • Kevin Hodgson has been writing some interesting posts about the Ning thing.
  • the only reliable alternative to Ning is to host your community yourself, or at a trusted institution
  • http://tinyurl.com/alternatives2ning).  This document remains the most comprehensive source of advice on what to do about replacing Ning that exists anywhere on the Internet
  • Alec Couros (2010) decided to crowdsource some answers
  • back up your Ning
  • there are a number of sites offering Ning-like look and feel which will (attempt to) import your content, or some of your content, from Ning
  • Grou.ps
  • Grouply
  • designed to work as a social-network portal for Yahoo and Google Groups.
  • see: http://webheads.grouply.com/
  • A tool that works well for capturing blog content is Posterous
  • Spruz
  • Wackwall
  • Good and Bazzano (2010) have a good rundown of many of the options listed here
  • another free site that lets you set up a Portal with features similar to those of Ning.
  • another social networking portal which will do much the same thing
  • Other sites encourage you to restart your community afresh
  • Stevens, V. (2010). The Ning thing. TESL-EJ, Volume 14, Number 1. Retrieved on today’s date from http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume14/ej53/ej53int/.
  • Posterous Targets Ning
  • Siemens, G. (2004). Connectivism: A Learning theory for the digital age. Elearnspace. Retrieved June 27, 2010 from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm.
  • Good, R. and Bazzano, D. (2010). Ning Alternatives: Guide To The Best Social Networking Platforms And Online Group Services. MasterNewMedia May 3rd, 2010. Retrieved June 27, 2010 from http://www.masternewmedia.org/ning-alternatives-guide-to-the-best-social-networking-platforms-and-online-group-services/.
  • If you wish to write anonymously on a Ning thing document, you can do so at Alec Couros’s crowdsourced Google Doc here: http://tinyurl.com/alternatives2ning
  • Multiliteracies
Vanessa Vaile

What is the unique idea in Connectivism? « Connectivism - 0 views

www.connectivism.ca/?p=116

connectivism Siemens #evomlit #evomlit11 #CCK11 multiliteracies mooc web2.0 education technology

shared by Vanessa Vaile on 20 Jan 11 - Cached
  • what is the unique idea in connectivism?
  • a new idea is often an old idea in today’s context.
  • what is the new idea in constructivism? That people construct their own knowledge? Or the social, situated nature of learning? Or that knowledge is not something that exists outside of a knower? (i.e. there is no “there” out there)
  • ...30 more annotations...
  • What is new with constructivism today is that these principles are being (have been) coupled with existing calls for educational reform
  • calls for increased learner control
  • From whence does connectivism originate?
  • 1. Tools augment our ability to interact with each other and to act.
  • “carriers of patterns of previous reasoning”
  • all technology carries an ideology.
  • 2. Contextual/situated nature of learning.
  • 3. Social learning theory
  • 4. Epistemological views: all learning theory is rooted in epistemology
  • concept of rhizomatic knowledge and community as curriculum
  • Stephen Downes’ work on connective knowledge valuable.
  • Dave Cormier has been advancing the
  • 5. Concept of mind.
  • 6. We also find a compatible view of connectivism in the work of new media theorists such as McLuhan
  • 7. We also find support for connectivism in the more nebulous theories of complextiy and systems-based thinking
  • 8. Network theory
  • The Unique Ideas in Connectivism
  • Concepts like small worlds, power laws, hubs, structural holes, and weak/strong ties
  • Networks are prominent in all aspects of society, not just education. This prominence is partly due to the recognizable metaphor of the internet…but networks have always existed. As Barabasi states, networks are everywhere. We just need an eye for them.
  • 1. Connectivism is the application of network principles to define both knowledge and the process of learning.
  • 2. Connectivism addresses the principles of learning at numerous levels – biological/neural, conceptual, and social/external
  • 3. Connectivism focuses on the inclusion of technology as part of our distribution of cognition and knowledge.
  • 1) cognitive grunt work in creating and displaying patterns
  • 2) extending and enhancing our cognitive ability
  • 3) holding information in ready access form
  • 4. Context. While other theories pay partial attention to context, connectivism recognizes the fluid nature of knowledge and connections based on context
  • 5. Understanding. Coherence. Sensemaking. Meaning.
  • These elements are prominent in constructivism, to a lessor extent cognitivism, and not at all in behaviourism.
  • But in connectivism, we argue that the rapid flow and abundance of information raises these elements to critical importance.
  • Connectivism finds its roots in the climate of abundance, rapid change, diverse information sources and perspectives, and the critical need to find a way to filter and make sense of the chaos.
Vanessa Vaile

Media Habit - 0 views

mediahabit.typepad.com/media_habit

evomlit multiliteracies sociocultural lens collaborative learning story-telling

shared by Vanessa Vaile on 09 Feb 10 - Cached
  • the most modern communication tools — blogs, podcasts, YouTube — are actually returning us to an ancient form of media, one in which everyone participates on almost equal footing.
  • fundamental human urge to tell our own stories
  • Before mass media, before the written word — for all of human history — story-telling was a shared privilege.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Mass media succeeded in creating a common culture, but did nothing to foster the communities that naturally emerge when people tell their stories to each other.
  • Now, finally, there is a counter-trend.
  • Howard Rheingold framed it beautifully, when he wrote The Virtual Community, nearly 15 years ago: "Perhaps cyberspace is one of those informal public places, where people can rebuild the aspects of community that were lost when the malt shop became a mall."
  • newest digital technologies are returning us to the most ancient form of media — one in which a natural order is restored; our individual stories take center stage
Vanessa Vaile

adVancEducation: Modeling your PLN: Backchanneling with Students - 2 views

advanceducation.blogspot.com/...r-pln-backchanneling-with.html

evomlit Vance PLN

shared by Vanessa Vaile on 09 Apr 10 - Cached
  • PLN, or Personal Learning Network
  • what we envisage involves colleagues sharing information in a social network or community of practice
  • Scott Leslie's nice collection of PLE diagrams: http://edtechpost.wikispaces.com/PLE+Diagrams
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • one of the ten paradigm shifts that I think educators must make as they move into facilitating learning in the 21st century
  • we should be teaching as 21st century life skills: creativity, communication, collaboration
  • The problem is where networks might collide
  • distracting clutter
  • LISTS
  • Edmodo
  • Edmodo
  • Etherpad
  • why we'd want to backchannel with students
  • a classic: http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/
  • This post therefore is yet another example of how a PLN works
Vanessa Vaile

What is a PLN? Or, PLE vs. PLN? : open thinking - 0 views

educationaltechnology.ca/...1156

evomlit #PLENK2010 multiliteracies pln ple socialnetworking twitter

shared by Vanessa Vaile on 23 Sep 10 - Cached
  • I have used the term Personal Learning Network (PLN) dozens of times over the last few years, and have seen it mentioned countless times in blog and microblog posts, and other forms of media. However, I cannot seem to find a solid reference or definition for the concept of PLN.
  • I thought it was appropriate to ask the question to my PLN (or what I perceive as my PLN) via Twitter. I asked if anyone had a definition for a PLN, or if they knew the difference between a personal learning network and personal learning environment (PLE). I received varied responses, and the majority of these are pasted below. To make more sense of this conversation, read these from the very bottom to the top as they are in reverse chronological order.
  • From a simple question on Twitter, I received dozens of twitter replies, direct messages, and email responses. While I am still having trouble defining exactly what this is, I know that what I observe to be my PLN has dramatically changed the way I view teaching, communities, and the negotiation and formation of knowledge.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • 32 Responses to “What is a PLN? Or, PLE vs. PLN?”
Vanessa Vaile

Learning with 'e's: Physiology of a PLE - 0 views

steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/...physiology-of-ple.html

#PLENK2010 evomlit multiliteracies pln ple socialnetworking tools education technology eportfolios

shared by Vanessa Vaile on 28 Sep 10 - Cached
  • functionality of PLEs - the physiology if you will - what is it that learners need from their PLEs?
  • the three main functionalities
  • functionality is exclusive to the personal web tools (PWTs)
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • creation, organisation and sharing of content to a wider range of practices including analogue content, such as newspapers and magazines, realia (visits, real experiences, encounters, conversations) and other non-digital materials.
  • A fourth component, communication - which includes sharing, discussion and dialogue in both synchronous and asynchronous modes, can be represented as an overarching circle within the Venn diagram.
  • key functions of the PLE (Personal Web Tools component) can be managed through a number of tools, and learners each have their individual preferences, all of which ensures that each PLE will be unique to that individual learner.
  • many are interchangable for different tasks and purposes.
  • Note that the e-portfolio sits across all functionalities, and is the most likely tool to be provided by the institution
  • Vanessa Vaile on 28 Sep 10
     
    or what it does for users / learners (who probably won't be a uniform bunch) ... no doubt I expect different things from mine than the average TESOL workshopper or even generic educator. 
Vanessa Vaile

The PLN Staff Lounge - 2 views

the-pln-staff-lounge.blogspot.com

pln evomlit twitter multiliteracies

shared by Vanessa Vaile on 28 Feb 10 - Cached
    • Vanessa Vaile
      Vanessa Vaile on 28 Feb 10
       
      OK most points but re pt #: I need to clean up follower list & boot off spammers. which is better, checking as new followers sign on or schedule regular list purging sessions?
    • Vanessa Vaile
      Vanessa Vaile on 28 Feb 10
       
      next thought. question I could use feed back on: how to use a twitter account for multiple purposes, e.g. professional (whatever that is for someone retired), community, personal, special interest (advocacy, avocation research), etc. Not including elements of personal in "professional" affects voice, makes it too institutional. Tweets are a writing genre and voice counts. 
  • 5) You only ever tweet stuff about your daily life
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • how to use it to build a PLN (personal learning network)
  • My Top Ten Twitter Turn-Off's
  • 1) No profile, or profile picture
  • Your profile tells people who you are
  • If you decide to add a link to your profile, make sure it is not a dead link, an under construction page, an affiliate shop, or a page which launches pop up windows
  • 2) No tweets
  • 3) Hiding your tweets
  • 4) You have lots of spammers following you
  • 10) Being overly-self promotional
  • "Cliff Notes" version of advice for Twitter newbies
  • 7) You are mainly using Twitter to sell or promote something
  • 8) You don't tweet any links
  • Check out some blogs and online newspapers for topical or interesting stories, and use a url shortener such as bit.ly, (http://bit.ly/)
  • Searching for twitter hashtags (#)
  • Some examples
  • 9) You don't interact with other users, or re-tweet other people's posts
  • Twitter is a social media tool
  • collaboration, discussion, and sharing
  • 6) You mainly tweet stuff about yourself
  • the 80/20 ratio (i.e. 80% of your tweets should be about something other than promoting yourself or your blog
  • Karenne Sylvester wrote a great article a while back about how a you can tell a lot about people from what they tweet and how they conduct themselves on Twitter.
  • part of your Digital Footprint
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