http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2007/12/01/youtube-priva

This is an information video from the Canadian Government. I think that it does reasonably well in terms of alerting people to the sort of information that they may be making available, without necessarily causing them to never put anything on the Web ever again.

Via: Nellie Deutsch’s facebook page.

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2007/12/07/user-centric-

Several people have been talking about Ning recently - it’s come up in discussion with my students - “egrommet” has used it with his students, Josie noted that several of the nominations for this years Eddies were Ning based communities.

I’m just not sure about Ning. I find it irritating that I have to login to each community, as well as in general. If I look at “My Page” in each community, while some things are core to all (e.g. the photo), others seem to need to be set in each community. While this can be useful in some ways; it’s also annoying to have to enter the same details again and again. The ideal would be the ability to enter general info on my “Ning Profile” page - and then to alter particular bits for particular communities.

The “My Page” also seems to have a blog - again, one per community - and the summary of posts that apply to that community.

It strikes me that Ning is very much community centric. So, while you can have several groups in a community; you can’t easily have an overview of your activity in several different communities. It reminds me of WebCT - having discussion boards/ blogs per unit - without an easy way of seeing all of your work at the same time.

Eduspaces (Elgg powered) and Facebook, on the other hand, seem to be far more user centric. I can see on my Blog page (Eduspaces), or my Profile page (Facebook) everything that I & my friends have done.

From an Educational point of view, I think that it’s important to have that easy access to the personal overview. Because of the unitisation of the curriculum, many students find it quite difficult to see how one unit relates to another. WebCT doesn’t enable an easy overview - whereas something that’s more User Centric can.

While it can be useful to have that separation between aspects of ones life - integration is also important.

I guess that the ideal Social Networking site would allow the ability to have a (private) view of your personal activity in all areas - while a public view that could, if wished be customised for particular communities.

I think all three have their strengths in the way that they work - but all three have limitations.

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2007/12/07/edublog-award

The 2007 eddies are just round the corner … this time they’re happening in Second Life - though there are some alternatives. The latest news, as well as the locations are listed on the Edublog Awards Blog.

There are quite a few more categories than last year - some nominees are the same as last year, some are new. Ning seems to be very popular this year.

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2007/12/11/reconsidering

Henry Jenkins looks again at the “Digital Immigrants/ Digital Natives” debate. Jenkins points out:

Talking about youth as digital natives implies that there is a world which these young people all share and a body of knowledge they have all mastered, rather than seeing the online world as unfamiliar and uncertain for all of us.

while acknowledging that part of the ongoing use of the phrases is simply because no-one’s managed to develop a better one. He goes on to discuss some of the (negative) implications of the use of the word “Immigrants” - that it could potentially be seen as inferior/ that digital immigrants aren’t really needed. He comments:

Yet, I worry that the metaphor may be having the opposite effect now — implying that young people are better off without us and thus justifying decisions not to adjust educational practices to create a space where young and old might be able to learn from each other.

… and starts to wonder about “digital multi-culturalism”.

The (current set) of comments are worth reading too; supporting Jenkins discussion of the use of the terms, while recognising that they make a good starting point.
For me, I guess if I am a digital immigrant; having started with a ZX81 and gone via several other systems, to be now using a range of Web2.0 tools (though not yet got Vista on my PC) - well, I must have been on the digital “first fleet” !

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2007/12/12/funded-facebo

Tony Hirst looks at some tools that allow integration between Facebook and courses. While he comments

One thing we are wary of doing with the app is intruding on the student’s social space; so finding useful things for users to do in the app without making it seem like we are forcing VLE functionality into Facebook is one of the thing’s we’re thinking around…

I’m still not convinced. I know that several universities are starting to look at Applications to allow users to view some University material, but the more I think about it, the less I think it’s a good idea.

I can see Facebook as being useful for groups of students to informally talk about work, as they might in the coffee shop, but do they also want their timetable on the notice board in there…

I’m going more and more down the theory that it’s good for informal discussions, but then to get students to transfer the skills they have developed into a more work centred setting.

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2007/11/28/creating-comi

Susan Sedro has listed a set of sites that allow the creation of comic strips. I’d not even known such tools existed. At the moment, I’m not quite sure what I could use them for, though I’m sure I’ll think of something.

Encouraging students to visit the Tutor Centre/ ASK / The Library perhaps.

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2007/11/28/theres-no-mon

Alex Iskold (Readwrite web) looks at people in the “Long tail”, primarily from a financial point of view. He makes several useful points; that those that join the blogosphere (much the same as Second Life, or any real life community) often have to work much harder to gain the same respect/ money/ whatever, than those who were there at the outset.

There are some useful comments - some have commented that not everyone starts to blog purely to make money. Quite possibly it’s the minority. Others have commented that minority interests (e.g Educational Bloggers) have a much smaller community base. So though they’re still in the “long tail”, it’s not nearly such a mammoth beast.

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2007/11/28/asterpix-inte

Having just worked out how to get my “Freeview” player going in Second Life, I’m now wondering if I can include a video from Asterpix. Even if I can’t, I can see uses for this particular tool.

Via Vicki Davis:

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2007/11/28/evaluating-e-

Graham Attwell has posted a report he wrote covering the evaluation of eLearning. It was a project that ran from 2002 - 2005. (It’s worth keeping those dates in mind when looking at the comments on

Stephen Downes’ site).

I’ve not read it totally yet, though from what I’ve seen so far, it’s probably more aimed at evaluating an eLearning course, rather than a bit of eLearning to be used to support a face to face course (e.g. the sort of software my students are designing). I’m also quite keen to see how the ideas fit into, say SecondLife, or a highly discursive type course (rather than one that has lots of Flash/ video / etc based resources).

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2007/11/30/10-semantic-a

Richard McManus has posted a list of 10 Semantic Apps to Watch. They’re just about all new to me; the only one I’ve heard of is Talis; and I’m not sure even that really counts, as I merely thought of it as “something the library have”.

The “bottom up” aspects are interesting; particularly the “Annotate the Web” and “Academic”. I’m not quite sure which of the tools he mentions fit into either of those categories.

A few other apps have been mentioned in the comments - some of which I have heard of; and even, in the case of Quintura used.

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2007/12/01/youtube-priva

This is an information video from the Canadian Government. I think that it does reasonably well in terms of alerting people to the sort of information that they may be making available, without necessarily causing them to never put anything on the Web ever again.

Via: Nellie Deutsch’s facebook page.