To the research mobile

Been getting my Web 2.0 (f)utility belt together, because it is time to start working on the final research element of my elearning technologies course. So far, my kit involves Zotero for storing articles ready for citation.

The main problem is it isn't web-based (and I've tried moving libraries between different machines before and it gets quite messy) - so I'm going to be using a new tag in my del.icio.us account - Msc08.

I can then import that into Zotero and use the plugin to export the citation to my word processor, the excellent Neo Office (Open Office for Mac).

I've also set up a Twitter hashtag #msco8 to track any thoughts that crop up as I'm going around my daily life - one of the great things about Hashtags is it gives you the added advantage of a digital memory for Twitter, great things memes.

I also set up a tumblr log to keep track of a number of RSS feeds, at the moment just tracking edupunk as a general term. Not quite got it right yet as the Dapper RSS feed I created for a Flickr tag keeps returning empty values. I'll have a crack at a Yahoo pipe next.

Question: web 2.0 + learning community=edupunk?

After reading about Edupunk via Stephen Downes, Jim Groom and Martin Weller I'm quite intrested in the idea of exploring how students can use Web 2.0 tools to support their own learning - PLE /Loosely-coupled teaching/ Edupunk. The idea of choosing your own tools and even having some suggested by your tutor (thanks Emma and Terry) appeals to me greatly.

The ability to form an ad hoc toolkit, with different tools for different jobs seems a logical way forward to me - because learning doesn't happen in the classroom. That's where ideas are presented, or even some would say constrained.

Community matters

The added advantage to using Web 2.0 tools is there is also the potential of support from a wider community that uses them - something I'm finding a lot with my social web weapons of choice.

There are a lot of very generous people who are happy to share, and who are interested in engaging with things sent to them in return. So - here we go: can a group of learners using Web 2.0 tools (I'm pretending Web 3.0 isn't on the horizon at this early stage ;D) develop/become part of a learning network?

Or am I looking at tools and ways of fostering a learning community, or even can I encourage my learners to become edupunks? Not really the research question I'm looking at, but gives an idea of what I'm thinking at the moment.

Time to go and do that lit review.