Helen Keegan :: Feeds

Ottawa

We in Canada have been going through an interesting political situation recently, and so it's an exciting time to be visiting Ottawa amid all the chaos. I've been glued to the news ever since last week - I've always been a bit of a political junkie and the current situation just has me enraptured. If you're outside Canada you may not find it so interesting, but I must say, right now you cannot call Canadian politics boring. Stephen Downes, Flickr, December 3, 2008 [Tags: Canada, Flickr] [Link] [Comment]

How PLEs Make Sense to Me - Intro to Emerging Tech Week 3

Dave Cormier responds to clarify some of the reportage on this - and others' - views on virtual and personal learning environments. "This idea of life long learning being connected to the platform is one that I continue to feel stronger about the more that I work on these topics. If people are continuously working in a walled garden like moodle, they are going to have to make separate copies of the work if they consider it worth keeping." Dave Cormier, Dave's Educational Blog, December 3, 2008 [Tags: Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

Three Things I Believe About All Students

Vicki A. Davis identified three things she believes about all students: first, that every student has a purpose, second, that everybody benefits from a plan, and third, that schools make a promise to children to do right by their future selves. My take is a bit different. First, students don't have a purpose, they have to find it in themselves to make one. Second, that's it's better to have a strategy than a plan, because we all know the saying about the best laid plans. And finally, students would be wise not to count on the promises of schools, because they have over the years made too many promises to too many people and won't be able to keep them all. A lot like governments and our banking system. Vicki A. Davis, Cool Cat Teacher Blog, December 3, 2008 [Tags: Schools] [Link] [Comment]

Edublog Awards Nominations

OK, so the edublog awards nominations are out. I honestly don't know what they were thinking this time around - there's something like twenty or so nominees in some categories (and I'm not sure what to make of the result that this website is not among the twenty or so considered for best individual weblog - it's not sour grapes, I'm just bemused). Also, there has been confusion about the rules; people have been posting their nominations on their weblogs, as requested, but apparently you must also fill out a form - this was new to me today and new to a number of people out there (I've been sending them URLs they've missed). And I can't find the weblogs posting the sites that actually appear on the nomination rolls. I do have some nominations, so if you can find them (or anything) in the list of nominees, be sure to vote. Meanwhile, Doug Johnson has written a post on ranking, awards and other nonsense and then a follow-up today on poking the wasps' nest. Meanwhile, and finally, the best place to find new edublogs is not the Edublog Awards, espite the population increase - it's right here, as it has always been. various Authors, Edublogs, December 3, 2008 [Tags: Ontologies, Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

It Seems I'm Always Too Slow When It Comes to Grading

Brian Lamb relays responses he received from a request for feedback on an alternative grading structure for essays. He proposed a system of incentives to encourage students to hand in work early. An inventive response: "We're changing our point of view: we're telling them that we grade not only the final product (the video) but the amount of social conversation it triggers." And we're waiting with bated breath to find out where he will be next week. Brian Lamb, abject learning, December 3, 2008 [Tags: Online Learning, Video, Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

My Experience with OLPC in Tuvalu

Leigh Blackall ventures into the south Pacific to conduct a workshop using the OLPC XO laptop computers and encounters difficulties. As one commentator summarizes, "The author points out serious flaws with the Sugar interface and the OLPC software that have not been fixed, even in the latest builds, though they have been known for years: The interface is too slow; The Journal metaphor is confusing and only partially implemented; Networking and collaboration are flaky; The touchpad is flaky; Standard Linux applications (like Firefox) do not run, despite the Linux core of the operating system." Leigh Blackall, Learn Online, December 3, 2008 [Tags: Operating Systems, Portable Computers] [Link] [Comment]

Put Your Lectures Only Easily and for Free with Panopto

Pretty basic technology, but it's hard not to see something like this becoming standard. "Basically, the PowerPoint slides are synced with the video, and you can move up or down in the slide deck, with the video syncing automatically. Students can annotate your slides. You can add secondary video feeds or screen capture." Daniel Lemire, Weblog, December 2, 2008 [Tags: Video] [Link] [Comment]

How Can Institutional Processes Better Support Flexible Learning?

This question has been coming up a lot in Britain (there seems to be much less discussion of it at an institutional level elsewhere - maybe I'm just missing it). Scott Wilson asks how institutional processes can support new learning. He'd like to see them more able to support smaller and on-demand courses, personalized coursework, recognition of prior learning and new ways of learning. See also this post from Phil's JISC CETIS blog. Scott Wilson, Scott's Workblog, December 2, 2008 [Tags: Great Britain, Personalization, Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), Web Logs] [Link] [Comment]

Pownce Closes, Moves to SixApart

The graph in this post makes the reasoning perfectly clear. Pownce never came close to catching up to Twitter. Now I don't regret ignoring all those Pownce invites that cluttered my in-box. At least they're leaving with class, providing an application that allows users to download all their data and connections. See also the Blog Herald, Mashable. Bryan Alexander, Liberal Education Today, December 2, 2008 [Tags: Twitter] [Link] [Comment]

Expressing IEEE Learning Object Metadata Instances Using the Dublin Core Abstract Model

Mikael Nilsson writes, "I've finalized an early, but readable, draft of the mapping from IEEE LOM to the DC Abstract Model. The mapping is presented using the DC-TEXT syntax for DCAM." People are invited to submit comments to the DC-IEEELTSC-TASKFORCE list. Mikael Nilsson, Dublin Core, December 2, 2008 [Tags: Dublin Core, Metadata] [Link] [Comment]

Dispatches from the (Family) Front Lines

So just a couple of quick education centered observations about this past weekend, spent with various family members from both sides:

First, one of my tribe is a teacher at one of the top 15 high schools as listed in the current version of Connecticut Magazine. It’s a very well off district that sends a high number of it’s graduates to college, a good number of them to the “best” schools in the world. Over the years, he’s been hearing my spiel about technology and the Web, and he and a couple of his colleagues have been dipping their toes into the social tools waters with varying degrees of success with one very notable, very positive exception. So here’s the news: almost all of it is being done pretty much under the radar with very little discussion, investment or support of technology of any kind in the classroom. Most of the professional development is centered around the learning theory author du jour, and the focus of all of it is maintaining or increasing test scores. In other words, it’s pretty much all about trying to do better what we’ve been doing all along, assessing it all the same way, and hoping for the same result. There is little or no talk of “21st Century” (or whatever you want to call them) skills or literacies in terms of global collaboration, networking, connecting and problem solving.

My other story deals with a third grader on Wendy’s side of the family. She came to visit over the weekend and at one point she pulled out a little red workbook and started doing problems in it. “It’s homework,” she said, adding that she had six pages to do over the weekend. Later, when she was done and had left it open on the dining room table, I flipped through it a bit and saw page after page of pretty basic math and word problems and (fill in the blank). When I closed it, I finally noticed the title: “Preparation for the 3rd Grade New Jersey ASK Assessment.”

Oy.

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The Dawn of Eduprog

"This genre defining movement perfectly reflects a domain that generates questionable "concept" specifications of baroque complexity (cf. FRBR, IEEE LOM) and application profiles and reports the equivalent of extend guitar solos (cf. DC Description Set profile & UKLOM Core, from the eduprog back catalogue)." See also Brian Kelly. Lorna Campbell, Lorna's JISC CETIS blog, December 1, 2008 [Tags: Great Britain, Edupunk, Dublin Core] [Link] [Comment]

Standards for Technology Enhanced Learning

Passing along a request for input from Erik Duval. He postulates: "The main issue is no longer that we do not have sufficient standards. Rather, we have maybe too many and, more importantly, we don't make use of them in very advanced ways... Tools are lacking or too much let the standard shine through, rather than focusing on the user experience." Feedback is welcome. Also, see his snowflake number paper. Erik Duval, Erik Duval's Weblog, December 1, 2008 [Tags: Experience] [Link] [Comment]

Wii Remote Theremin

OK, I get it now. The Wiimote is a sensor (see, you miss basic points like this when you don't actually get your hands on the technology - and yes, I've asked NRC for a Wii for Christmas). And you can attach it to a computer. Lock it in place and move the infrared LEDs around. And so, "In an ingenious geek-out that's almost too perfectly suited for TED, designer Ken Moore presents a much-anticipated hack of the Nintendo Wii Remote: a theremin." Ken Moore, TEDBlog, December 1, 2008 [Tags: Wii, Wikipedia] [Link] [Comment]

Deconstructing the Work Literacy Learning Event

Not long after George Siemens and I launched our Connectivism course, Michele Martin, Harold Jarche and Tony Karrer launched their own Work Literacy structured in a very similar manner and using Ning as the aggregating agent (we used my own gRSShopper). Harold Jarche posted his reflections a few days after the course ended. The current post is Michele Martin's reflection. Interestingly, their experience was almost exactly the same as ours. Martin adds a list of things she'd change for next time: a shorter course, more consistent structure, more explicit sharing of responsibilities. See also Tony Karrer on the course design. Michele Martin, The Bamboo Project, December 1, 2008 [Tags: Traditional and Online Courses, Connectivism, Experience, RSS] [Link] [Comment]

Understanding Knowledge, George Oates, Flickr and Building Learning Communities in School

Two things stand out in this post. One is the obvious statement of the lessons that can be learned from the success of Flickr as a content storage site - "If we are genuine in building a learning community then we need to reduce all the telling people what to do stuff and rark up all the opportunities for belonging - the contributing and participating stuff." The second consists of observations of the differences between keynotes at the National Digital Forum and typical educators' conferences. "The NDF2008 keynotes were notable for their focus on real achievement. The NDF keynoters had all done the stuff they were talking about. ... Conference circuit junkies, (e) learning futurists and prophets didn't get a look in at the NDF08 conference." Well, hrm. Where does that that leave me? Written software? Check. Built online courses? Check. Built a learning management system? Check. Taught in classes? Check. Taught online? Check. Real projects at work in the real world? Check. OK, she must be talking about the other keynoters and e-learning futurists. Right? Artichoke may have a point, but as always, it's better to name names than to paint with such broad tar-brush strokes. Artichoke, Weblog, December 1, 2008 [Tags: Schools, Traditional and Online Courses, Online Learning, Learning Communities, Online Learning Communities, Project Based Learning, Flickr] [Link] [Comment]

Digital Age Learning Matrix

Louise Starkey looks at new technologies from the perspective of theories of creativity. Obviously, there are many more descriptions of creativity than are contained in this short paper, but I think that the case is made that a model of "creativity in the digital age" can be used to characterize the use of different technologies for different types of learning, creating a "digital age learning matrix". Louise Starkey, Teaching in the digital age, December 1, 2008 [Tags: Online Learning] [Link] [Comment]

Blackboard Now Suing USPTO

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Blackboard, which successfully sued Desire2Learn for a patent infringement earlier this year, is now suing the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in an attempt to force it to abandon its review of the patent enforced in the court case. This creates what is known in logic as the fallacy of petitio principii. The court ruling presumed the correctness of the USPTO. Now the USPTO is being required to presume the correctness of the court ruling. See also Patently-O, from D2L, and the suit itself. Michael Feldstein, e-Literate, December 1, 2008 [Tags: Desire2Learn, Patents, Copyrights, Blackboard Inc., Patents] [Link] [Comment]

Brainify

Murray Goldberg, the person who created WebCT, has sent news of list latest creation to what seems to be every edublogger. "Brainify is an academic social bookmarking and community site for university and college students... Collect and share the academic websites that other students found useful in their courses." The interesting bit is that, if you add a resource, you own a bit of Brainify, which you collect as your share of the 30 percent that will be given back to users should the site ever be sold. Various Authors, Website, December 1, 2008 [Tags: Academia, Blackboard Inc.] [Link] [Comment]

VLE Debate: Where's the Debate?

This is one of those 'debates' live the ones they have on TV, where everybody involved comes from the same side. So of course there was "broad agreement" that while "a single institutional monolith is unlikely to find favour with most learners (students, teachers, administrators)... neither is the completely disaggregated approach of consuming feeds produced by a wide range of tools using an equally wide range of PLE components." Having just completed a course that amounts to such a disaggregated approach, I am left questioning this broad agreement. George Roberts, Weblog, December 1, 2008 [Tags: Video] [Link] [Comment]

Harder Vs. Smarter

"The biggest problem with U.S. public schools is ineffective teaching, according to decades of research." So writes Amanda Ripley in Time Magazine. The 'decades of research' appear to be a fabrication. My take: the greatest barrier to education is poverty and hardship. But instead of actually addressing poverty and hardship, a certain segment of society prefers to deflect the issue by blaming schools. And especially teachers. So we hear, over and over, that the unions prevent administrators from firing incompetent teachers. But this is not plausible. As I wrote yesterday, teachers are fired all the time, and on the flimsiest of excuses. So incompetent teachers can be fired. So it's not the teachers. It's the poverty. Still. Doug Noon, Borderland, December 1, 2008 [Tags: Schools, Research] [Link] [Comment]

When an Economic Crisis Hits eLearning, What Do Managers Have to Say About It?

OK, first things first, we as a community have to learn not to preface everything with the phrase "In these troubled economic times..." or some such mantra. Not only is it the sort of thing where hearing it over and over makes it true, it is the sort of thing that is not helpful, because the economy has not changed materially since before the crash. This is important to understand, because what it suggests is that the loss of wealth was of wealth that did not exist in the first place - it was largely fictitious wealth created by (shyster) credit markets. Real harm will be caused, though, if we act as though nothing is of value any more. We need to, for now, continue creating, selling, producing and consuming. But we also need to retool, because our economic patterns are not sustainable. The only way out of this is to replace, in relatively short order, fictitious value with real value. We don't do that by pulling in the reins, managing conservatively, being 'fiscally prudent'. GM cannot save its way out of bankruptcy; Nortel cannot improve its $0.00 stock valuation by cutting back. We can, all of us, build an environmentally responsible, socially just, and progressive market economy based on fairness and humanity. Real value, produced by real people. To proceed in any other direction will most certainly unleash substantial and needless misery throughout what will have formerly been called "the developed world". Inge de Waard, Ignatia Webs, November 28, 2008 [Tags: Push versus Pull] [Link] [Comment]

Stephen Downes On Modularity (or Learning Objects)

Considers some things from my Future of Online Learning article - in this post (to which I reply) my position on the modularity of learning objects, and in this post, the idea of 'course creation kits' rather than courses. Also well worth reading from the same author is this much lengthier post on my discussion of learning communities. Robert Hughes Jr, Open2Learn, November 28, 2008 [Tags: Learning Communities, Online Learning Communities, Learning Objects] [Link] [Comment]

Why's It Called Second Life When There's Nothing Alive There?

"Wandering around Second Life today is like visiting Blackpool in February; all sad empty shops, deserted car parks and the stench of loneliness - and the opportunity to buy a fake cock for two quid. Occasionally - very occasionally - you'll chance upon another depressed lump of sub-humanity, wandering aimlessly and wondering what wrong junction they had taken off the M6 motorway of their life to end up somewhere so desolate." Via Andy Powell. Paul Carr, The Guardian, November 28, 2008 [Tags: Second Life] [Link] [Comment]

SWORD Facebook Application and Social Deposit

What is a "social deposit"? You had to ask. "Being able to deposit from within a site such as Facebook would enable what I'm going to call the Social Deposit... the social deposit takes place within the online social surroundings of a depositor, rather than from within a repository. By doing so, the depositor can leverage the power of their social networks so that their friends and colleagues can be informed about the deposit." Bloggers, of course, have had this for a long time; in Facebook the marking of a blog post is called "posting anote", and users of Twitter, del.icio.us and other social networking services have long advertised their lengthier content to their friends. The only thing different about a repository is that it's a "deposit", which may be saying something. Pete Johnston, eFoundations, November 28, 2008 [Tags: Assessment, Twitter, Google, Learning Object Repositories, Web Logs, Blogger, Networks, Books, Marketing, del.icio.us] [Link] [Comment]