http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/04/webcameron-blogs-from-space/

On Saturday the Guardian covered both “Webcameron” - and the Anousheh Ansari’s Space Blog. By Tuesday it was reporting that the original Webcameron site had been spoofed. Anousheh’s blog seems safe at the moment.

Blogs are getting more and more mainstream - and, as such, spoofing is only going to increase as well.

This year we are getting the students on the KMET Unit of the MSc eLearning Technologies here at Portsmouth to use Elgg as their blogging environment - rather than Blogger, which we have used in the past. 

I had hoped to have Elgg set up here at the University, though this hasn't happened yet, so we are using Elgg.net - which does have the advantage that there are other communities that I hope students might find, join and benefit from. I'll be mainly posting to my main blog - as that is what other people (outside the University) know. One advantage of Elgg is that anything that I post there can be mirrored here (though things that I post here stay just here).  

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/09/elgg-

Josie Fraser has posted about an interview with Dave and Ben. Though she’s called it “Elgg Spaces”, it’s actually about far more than just Elgg spaces. It covers much of the current situation of Elgg. As some of you know, I’ve decided to move the MSc Students from Blogger to Elgg. I’d hoped that we’d have had Elgg set up at the University of Portsmouth before term started, but it wasn’t to be, so we are using Elgg.net. can’t entirely decide if that isn’t, in fact, a bad thing, as it will give the students the opportunity to join other communities, as well as the one that I want them to use.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/09/scree

Robin Good reviews Citrix’s GoToMeeting. It seems to be a pretty impressive tool, though not Free, so perhaps not ideal for students to experiment with. He also links to a post he made a few days ago, which has an overview of what he feels are the differences between “Screen sharing” and “application sharing” - and all the associated features. Some are totally free, some definitely low cost (e.g. $0.10/participant/meeting), others are $30+ a month.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/09/world

WorldCat About a year ago I found a service called redGreenLight - which allowed me to create a list of books etc., and to link my account to the University Library - so that I’d know if we actually had the books that I was interested in. It would also create a correctly formatted bibliography - which could have been useful.

From what I can tell, though they are recommending WorldCat as an alternative, pointing out that it has more features than RedGreenLight did, so far I’ve not been able to work out how to transfer a bibliography - nor how I can create an account. I did search for a book, and found through entering my postcode that there is a copy at Oxford Uni (66 miles away), then quite a few more in the US - a few 000 miles away. I’ve checked - and that particular book isn’t one we’ve got. The next test was a book that I know we’ve got. That also found that the nearest copy was 66 miles away - though this time in Campden, rather than Oxford. There are, apparently, only two copies of The Weblog Handbook in the UK. Which I doubt somehow. Oh well, it is still in beta. They can but improve it!

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/10/geota

Flickr now enables you to geotag images. I can see so many ideas for this, for our students to get to know where each other lives, to increase sociability by enabling them to discuss travel/ where their relatives live.

On another note, for VSO volunteers, gap year travellers or whatever, it’s a good way to emphasise where they are and what they are doing.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/10/how-t

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: How to search Google Educational Video. It will be interesting to see what will happen now that Google have bought YouTube - as Educational isn’t currently one of their categories.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/10/scien

Science GCSE with online exams Last week the QCA reported  that GCSE coursework was going to be curtailed to stop students using the Internet inappropriately, though Science isn’t mentioned explicitly.

There could, however, be good reasons for having all the students in this new course doing their course work in “controlled conditions” - as that will ensure that all students have access to the same IT conditions - those that don’t have computers at home won’t be disadvantaged. While it could be argued that for all coursework those that have computers at home have a clear advantage over those that have to go to the library/ internet cafe, clearly online submission of coursework, generation of videos etc., is a step up from researching information and creating a Word Document with it in.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/10/gootu

The BBC have a summary of a range of blog postings about Google’s acquisition of YouTube. I personally think that Jupiter Research’s comment

YouTube’s got nothing tech-wise that umpteen other user-created video sites can’t replicate. But they do have brand cachet, and, for now, audience. That’s what Google’s getting for its $1.65bn.

sums up rather well why Google have made the move, given that they already have Google Video anyway.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/11/zoter

The Next-Generation Research Tool Someone emailed me about this - I suspect in relation to the comments I made about WorldCat recently. It looks to be very useful - apart from the fact it only seems to work with Firefox 2.0 - which is in beta. I’ve installed it on my laptop - and intend to have a play over the next couple of weeks. One slight problem was that though I put it in a different directory to Firefox 1.5, they seem to be using the same profile, and not all of the 1.5 extensions that I have work with 2, so, starting 2 I get a list of 1.5 extensions that don’t work, starting 1.5 I get the information that zotero doesn’t work. Hopefully it won’t take long for the other extensions to be updated.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/11/the-g

Slashdot has a discussion about the fact that all of the patents that covered gif have now expired. I suspect that it won’t have much impact on the graphics world - especially as .png is finally becoming more used. It’s going to take a long time for people to stop using .gif in favour of .png (and, I suspect a long time for some people to start using .gif rather than .jpg when the former is more appropriate for the particular setting!)

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/11/meebo

I’ve just installed the meebo me widget - so that people can, in theory, chat to me via the webpage. I’m not sure how the firewall will cope, though it has let me talk to myself between the laptop & PC - which are on different parts of the network, though clearly behind the same firewall. (At least, I suppose it’s the same firewall!)

I will, of course, have to remember to login to meebo & out when I don’t want disturbing!

Added:

I drafted this post a couple of weeks ago, and it’s been sitting in the “draft” pile for a while. I’ve since decided that though the concept of meebo is good, the implementation isn’t ideal. The problem arises in that I have to go to the meebo page to login, and then to remember to leave the page open the whole time that I want to use it. So, I’m going to remove it from the side bar, as I just don’t think that I’ll have it working. (It also takes a while to load) The concept is good, just not feasible right now. If I were able to reduce it to an icon in the tray (much as MSN and other IM tools can be when logged in), then I might revisit.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/12/women

Vicki Davies (Cool Cat Teacher blog) and 3 others are planning a live EdTech Talk on Sunday - aimed at, well, Women who’re using Web 2.0. They have set up Women of Web 2.0  because

we just feel there is a need for a feminine voice in Web 2.0 discussions and haven’t really seen a lot of inclusion of women in some things. Because so many teachers are women, we just think it is important that a female voice be included.

So, they are intending that it will focus on using the tools of web 2.0 in an exciting (and educational!) way.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/13/asses

The Scottish Education blog has a list of Web 2.0 tools and how they might be used for assessment. I’d forgotten about Netvibes, it’s like a rather more powerful Google Personal

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/16/googl

Google For Educators This is Google’s latest idea, they’ve also got a Newsletter for teachers etc., Most of the tools are those that I’m already using, but clearly with this and Google Literacy they’re trying to get into the education market.

I’ve also recently been looking at Windows Academic Live - I think I prefer the presentation of results to Google Scholar’s, though I’ve not yet compared the actual results for what both are finding.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/16/exper

I’ve recently started a .4 secondment to the ExPERT Centre ((Excellence in Professional development through Education, Research & Technology). It’s one of the two Centres of Excellence in Teaching and Learning  (CETL) that we have at Portsmouth. I’ll be looking at a number of things, but blogs, online communities and other related matters are likely to feature!

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/16/world

A Welsh school is staying open - for just two pupils, making the cost per pupil around £45,000 - or roughly twice Eton fees…

I saw another report of a school that was threatened with closure, so a parent teacher alliance was developed to save it. Local schools are wanted - we just have to consider the cost …

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/16/redef

Christopher D. Sessums is attempting to (re) define “blog”. He suggests that given that blogs are used in more and more diverse ways, should they infact be given different names.

The replies that he’s had generally point out that “blog” is really a technology - and then you have to look at the way it’s used. That said, I think that people will still call the artefact a “blog”, but accept that there are many ways to use it. Afterall, the word “book” conjures up a range of images, from plastic coated bath time books for babies, to The Book of Kells, from learned tomes on arcane subjects to best selling novels …

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/17/blog-

Britain’s biggest blog is the current version of the Mass Observation Archive (1930s) which attempted to get people to observe everyday activities etc.

The National Trust director said:

“It would be fantastic if hundreds of thousands of people take up this opportunity for mass online participation… and make it the biggest blog ever.”

Historian Dan Snow added that it wasn’t necessary to record “exciting” events.

“What we want this to be is a detailed account of people’s normal lives when they’re doing nothing out of the ordinary; what they did when they got up, what they ate, how they got to work, what they did at work.

“It’s those mundane details, those boring details that will seem extraordinary to people hundreds of years in the future.”

The difficulty of course, will be getting involvement from the full range of the population. The blog is on the History Matters website - who have a range of other activities. (Let’s hope that they are advertising them other than on the internet…) As a range of organisations - such as the National Trust, are involved, they’ll hopefully have a range of ways of publiscising it.

History Matters website:

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/17/insta

I’ve just been trying to sort out some of the software etc., on my PC.

BuddySpace An OU project that uses the Jabber network. It tries to place people on a map - which can be an office plan - or a map of the globe. Can’t use it at work (I thought it was because I’d forgotten my Jabber details), but it uses the *wrong* ports.

FlashMeeting. Another OU project - this one does work in the University (or it did last year when I tested it). This time it’s got video feeds. They’ve links to yet another project - one that I’ve not tried - Hexagon which sounds really promising.

Meebo. I’ve already blogged about Meebo. Good idea, but in reality not that practical (for me).

GroupWise Messenger. We’ve recently had our email system at work changed to Groupwise - so we get groupwise messenger as well. Not sure it’s that much use, as it only works with people in the system - i.e. other staff. I’d rather something that I can use with the students and people outside the university.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/19/the-c

The complete work of Charles Darwin online - looks fascinating.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/24/how-t

John Gladding  (A list apart) has some good pointers for setting up an online community - though this particular article is really thinking about social (informal) communities, many of the points he makes can be applied to more formal learning communities.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/24/subti

Ben Werdmuller has an example of a subtitled Google Video. It seems to be easy to do, though probably not as flexible as things like Magpie. But, it’s a start.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/27/firef

I’ve been having a look recently at Firefox 2.0 (despite deciding how much I like Flock) in part due to the fact that Zotero only works with Firefox 2. I’ve used Procite for keeping references in for a while now, but it seems that the University is keen to encourage staff to move to Endnote. I’ve started to have a look at it, and while you can’t import directly from a webpage, as ProCite can (but only if you have the web page open in a very ancient version of Netscape), I think that I could get used to it. It seems a bit easier, so less options to have to worry about!

However, both ProCite & Endnote are limited to the university system. That’s where Zotero comes in. It will let you export data in a format that Endnote can import (RSS seems the best from my albeit limited tests so far). One feature of Zotero that seems very useful, is that though all 3 of them can save the URL to the page, it’s only Zotero that can create a snapshot of the page - essentially by saving the HTML & images on the page (though not videos, but it’s a lot better than having nothing!).

A USB  stick with Firefox 2.0 / Zotero / MoinMoin (or similar) / Open Office could be a pretty powerful student tool I think!

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/27/%c2%b

» Personalisation in electronic environments Josie Fraser gives a good overview of where we are, and, more importantly where we could be going with personalisation in electroncic (learning environments). She looks at a range of differing levels of personalisation and control that the learner can have over the environment, and sees a difference between a “learning environment” and “learners environment” - the latter having the degree of personalisation. Early in the paper, she comments on the difficulty inherent in attempting to offer personalisation at the institutional level pointing out:

provision which attempts to pre-determine what personalisation might mean without allowing for flexibility risks excluding and failing to accommodate learner’s needs.

Students are coming into futher and higher education with diverse experience in their use of “Web 2.0″ type tools, some often associating them with personal activities, and not realising their potential in their learning. At the institutional level, we have to encourage students to use the tools with which they are familiar, to explore new ones, while supporting those to whom all this is new. We have to find a way to enable students to use tools that offer networking and collaborative facilities (where appropriate), yet are suited to their personal needs.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/28/slood

Second life meets Moodle. Intriguing. Via Stephen Downes

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/30/rss-i

One of the things that I’ve been doing with the ExPERT centre is looking at the WebCT site -to see how it can be improved. One issue that struck me was the news page. It’s not that interactive. So, I initially wondered if it was possible to have an RSS feed from WebCT, but have realised that WebCT’s just not made that way.

So, I realised I’d have to feed into WebCT. I started off using UBCWiki: WorkshopRSS. The problem was that the RSS feed generator no longer existed. Pink Flamingo suggested an alternate generator, but I couldn’t get that to work. Another person on the WebCT discussion boards pointed me to the instructions at Georgia Southern University - after a slight blip (I think their server was down), I was able to generate feeds into WebCT from both this blog and an Elgg one.

The reason for wanting to do it, by the way, other than to prove that I could, was so that I could have the news on an external page & then those that are used to RSS can add it to their feedreader & those that aren’t can use WebCT to read it.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/31/strin

Towards a String’n'Glue Learning Environment I rather like this - it’s simple -and, if you have a look at the example page, it seems quite easy to build up your own. It’s where having HTML skills comes in useful - there isn’t a tool (yet) to let you build it up - you have to at least use some form of code editor.

I can see definitely see that it has uses.

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/31/googl

I’ve mentioned in the past, tools like Google Spreadsheets and Google Docs, as a way of collaborating on Documents. I’ve just discovered from a couple of conversations with people that if you want to collaborate using them, they both work slightly differently.

Google Docs (which, was originally Writely and thus outside the Google empire) requires that the invitees have Google accounts prior to invitation. So, anyone who’s got a Gmail a/c has one, as has anyone who has signed up with a non-gmail address to a Google service. If you’re setting up a shared spreadsheet, (which was developed by Google), then those that haven’t got Google accounts are invited to create them. It’s a bit confusing if you aren’t aware of that difference.

(Makes me wonder though how John and Jonathan got on when they got 50 students to all work on the same Google Doc in HUCID … did they really have to invite the lot?!)

http://www.tech.port.ac.uk/staffweb/duke-wie/blog/2006/10/31/efoun

eFoundations: The importance of being open I have just found this blog - Andy Powell is discussing some of the JISC tools (in particular JORUM and JISC IE), and comparing them to freely available tools (such as SlideShare, Flickr etc). He makes some good points, both about the “Reinventing the Wheel” syndrome, as well as the simple fact that sites like Slideshare seem to have a lot more resources than JORUM.

He points out that JISC IE and JORUM don’t appear to encourage participation in the way that Web 2.0 tools do, though he’s not quite sure why.

The comments are also well worth reading, as the commenters have made useful points.

I located this post (and the whole blog, which is one I’m going to add to my Bloglines account) through CoComment. That’s a site that tracks blogs and other sites that you have made comments on - and you can see who else has made a comment on the same site(s). It’s rather like the “My Activity” tracking found in Elgg.