Ian MacLeod : Activity

Enough Double Posting - I'm Over at Blogspot

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 20:47:07 GMT

I 've been blogging for a while over at MachIanations - (http://machianations.blogspot.com/ if you want to cut and paste). I was trying to double post here as well, but seems to me that it's just simpler to link over to my other blog.

So if you really want to see what I have to say - c'mon over to MachIananations -see you there!

Ian

Is E-Mail Dead?

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:16:17 GMT

I recently asked my learners if they could only have one of either e-mail or instant messaging (IM), which one would it be? The answer across a total of more than 120 learners was almost unanimously in favour of IM.

When I asked them why they made their choice, I got several answers:

"E-Mail is too slow..."
"IM is more like a real conversation..."
"I always get an answer with IM. Some people ignore e-mail.."
"IM is easier to use..."
"It's easier to share files with IM..."
"IM is on every computer. My E-Mail client isn't..."

Interestingly enough, I have always seen e-mail as an asynchronous tool, and IM as a synchronous one. Many of my learners actually use IM in an asynchronous manner, leaving it open all the time and getting back to a conversation when they can. This use of IM was reinforced by a friend of mine who has told me that her children so the same thing.

The lack of immediacy and not knowing if anyone was there at the other end of the "conversation" seem to be the two biggest reasons why e-mail is falling out of favour. Now that there are secure, business quality IM systems on the market , it will be interesting to see if e-mail is truly a technology that will go the way of the dodo, to be replaced by the more immediate and intimate IM tools. Hmmm...

My Next Textbook - Google Notebook

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:15:06 GMT

I have seen my next text book and it's Google Notebook. If you are educator using any online resources you need to check this out (run, don't walk to the nearest computer). Google Notebook allows you to create and share "notebooks" - and with the available Firefox extension, it's simple to add content from any Web page (and yes, remind your learners about copyright, intellectual property, attribution, and the Creative Commons licensing types). All content in a notebook can be edited and updated as well. Web 2.0 at its best.

I see using a Google Notebook like this:

Create a notebook, either on a general course title or a specific topic
"Seed" the notebook with whatever required information you see as important for your course
Make the notebook available to your learners, making them responsible for its maintenance
Use the notebook to augment/replace text resources
At the end of the course you have a collaboratively created resources that is much more relevant to your learners than any text book could ever be

There you go - a current, topical, no cost alternative to expensive, heavy, out-of-date text book. I can't wait to try it out...

A Pilgrim's Web 2.0 Progress...

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 18:43:18 GMT

It's been some time now since I began exploring the use of Web 2.0 tools and technologies. Here are the tools I've used so far and what I think of them

NetVibes - a RSS aggregator and so much more, NetVibes literally has thousands of feeds, module, podcasts, events, and tabs that you can add to your own to create an amazing "learning Portfolio" of customized information. You can also share your feeds etc. with others through NetVibes ecosystems. My favourite Web 2.0 tool by far, I will be using NetVibes in my learning environments in the future.
Blogger - If Blogger isn't your favourite blogging tool, try Wordpress, several of my friends use it. Blogging has to be the most powerful Web 2.0 tool, and is probably the most used one. I will be using blogs with my learners in the future.
Wikispaces - one of many sites that allow you to create your own wikis, I am using wikispaces now with learners to create custom learning spaces online. Wikis are a great educational tool and they add to the collaborative nature of any learning environment, particularly if you have the learners maintain the wiki.
Flickr - I'm into digital photography, and Flickr is a great way to organize and share my pictures. It also has potential as a learning tool through the creation and display of slide shows and picture collections (and I am sure all sorts of other ways that I haven't thought of yet). My Flickr collection is here.
Second Life - not strictly a Web 2.0 tool, Second Life has incredible educational value through experiential learning, service learning, and simulation (among others). I think that the use of Second Life is limited only by the imagination of the users.
Yahoo Pipes - I've just started looking at Yahoo Pipes, but I love what I've seen so far. As Yahoo says you can use Pipes to "rewire the Web" creating custom mashups, allowing you to create your own custom view of the Internet. I think that this tool has great educational potential and I will be exploring it further.
Remember The Milk - allows you create and see online tasks and to-do list that you can keep private or share. Would be a useful online tool for keeping track of course deliverables due dates.
Eventful - tracking and creation of events in your neighbourhood and around the world, eventful has some educational use for tracking and reminding learners of events, conferences and important academic dates
Boxxet - another tool that allows you to create customized "box sets" of feed and information. It has loads of pre-built boxxets or you can create your own.

These are the main tools that I've been exploring, but I have also taken a look at several others that could prove useful to you. These tools are:

Suprglu - an aggregator like NetVibes, it allows you to create your own custom view of the Internet
Your Minis - like NetVibes you can create custom tabs of feeds and widgets
Vyew - collaborative conferencing similar to Elluminate. We currently use Elluminate, and Vyew has much the same look, feel, and capabilities
Photobucket - a photo storing, organizing, and displaying service like Flickr
Vidavee Graffiti - a tool that allows you to markup and customize the appearance of videos

I've looked at many tools as my meandering Web 2.0 journey continues, but these are the ones that have left an impression with me. One thing that I have concluded so far is that with Web 2.0 tools you need to select the ones that work for you and use those, not try to use them all just because they are there. The journey continues...

Virtual vs Reality

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 13:27:03 GMT

Increasingly I find myself using virtual environments and virtualization tools in my education practice. We are using tools like VMware and Microsoft's Virtual Server and Virtual PC to create customized software environments that allow for the learning of specific IT skills without worrying about impacting on the college network. We are using tools like Elluminate to meet and deliver learning across distance and I'm increasingly using Web 2.0 tools to expand my learning environments beyond the college walls.

I am also spending time in Second Life where I have met people from allover the world and developed friendships that I value no less than those I have in the real world. I may never meet my Second Life friends face to face, yet I value their friendship, knowledge, and advice no less than my "real" friends. I have met people, seen and done things, and learned so much in this virtual environment that I would have never done in the real world due to time, space, and logistical restrictions.

For me the boundaries between the virtual and the real have faded - together they make up my world, my reality. I firmly believe that this combination of virtual and real spaces is the learning environment of the future. So if I see you in the hallway and ask you if that's flexi-hair that you're wearing, please forgive me...

You Sit Still While I Instill

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 13:25:30 GMT

This question was posed to me last night - "How do education administrators help faculty and students break the habits of stereotypical F2F classrooms (”you sit still while I instill")?"

So how do we? is it the place of administrators to do it? If it is how do they do it? Hmmm...

I'm going to start from the premise that the days of the "sage on the stage" have been replaced in adult education by the "guide on the side". We facilitate learning. I certainly know that is true in my practice. More and more my job as an adult educator is to help learners learn to learn as much as it is to "teach" any particular piece of content.

Breaking the habits of the F2F classroom is difficult for both faculty and students - it is all that many of them have ever known, and it is safe and predictable. As a learner I simply have to sit there as an empty vessel waiting to be filled with knowledge - no fuss, no muss, and not a whole lot of effort on my part.

Well sorry to tell you learners, but those days are over - you are responsible for your own learning and it takes work. We will help you learn, but ultimately it is your choice whether you do or not.

To help you learn we need to be creative, get out of our own "silos" and get support from our administrators that allow us as faculty to become innovative and interesting, creating learning environments that work. For this to happen administrators and faculty need to work together to explore and use educational resources and technologies that allow for learning to happen wherever it needs to - education without boundaries.

So we get you out from your comfortable rows of desks and into groups, the community (service learning has so much power), using technologies and tools that you master and learn with, and develop your life-long learning skills that will allow you to become discriminating learners ready to seize any learning opportunity that presents itself.

That's how we will break the habits of the F2F classroom - by breaking down the walls and expanding the horizons of ourselves and our learners, by really believing in and supporting education without boundaries...

CASE - Copy And Share Everything

Sat, 10 Feb 2007 13:23:39 GMT

I have been having a lot of discussions lately with friends and colleagues about the sharing of information and the issues of information ownership and privacy. As an adult educator (I help adults learn and occasionally have been accused of being an adult myself), I spend most of my time finding information and sharing it with friends, colleagues, and learners. I also create lots of things that I either freely share on paper, post to the Web, or make available electronically. The question that seems to be rearing its ugly head though is this - do I share or do I worry about my privacy and IP rights? Hmmm...

Well my answer is, and I have come to this conclusion with the help and wisdom of my best friend who is much smarter and wiser than me, and by talking with many other great friends and colleagues - I use the CASE method - Copy and Share Everything. If I create something that I make publicly available I KNOW that it will be shared and re-distributed. So, I just know that all of my "stuff" will be shared. That's what I love about Web 2.0 - the community of sharing thoughts, ideas, and materials - what better tool can we as educators have? I have mo expectations of privacy or ownership - if I share something it belongs to the community of learners who use it.

Am I concerned about ownership and my IP rights? Well, for those few things where I might be there is the Creative Commons licensing options, and so far I have found them to be very cool.

So, if you see something of mine, and it's useful, please feel free to use it. It would be cool if you would drop me a line to let me know what you did with it and if you improved upon it, to share it back with me. Now that would be a community of learners...

Wireless Distractions

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 23:08:37 GMT

There has been a lot of discussion in a group that I belong to about all the distractions in the classroom now thanks to wireless technologies - cell phones, iPods, laptops, etc. Some think it's a big deal that their learners "aren't paying attention to them", others, like me not so much.

Most of my students are, supposedly, as Mark Prensky calls them, "digital natives". There has been a lot written on these digital generation and their ability to multi task, that their brains are wired differently to receive multiple information sources simultaneously unlike us "digital immigrants" with our analog minds that move at the speed of clay tablets and papyrus and quill. I have discovered however, that very few of them can actually handle more than one digital input at a time, and are easily distracted from task.

There is a reason for this - they are, in fact, NOT true digital natives - those are still in the K-12 system and they are represented by children like the young son of a friend of mine who taught himself to play the piano by watching a video from You Tube. This glaringly obvious glimpse into reality was made clear to be my a very wise new friend from Second Life, John2 Kepler (his avatar's name - I will let him introduce his "real" self if he chooses) who possesses great insight into the minds of our learners today. My current students are not digital natives, but they have all of the digital tools. For many of them this creates a great deal of angst. Try asking them to use chat or a wiki as a learning tool - many don't know what you are talking about. There is a lot more to being a digital native than surfing the Web, IMing friends, and listening to MP3s all at the same time.

And as for the original thought...are all of the digital distractions in our classrooms a bad thing? Why aren't our learners paying attention to us? Is it bad faculty or bad learners? Should I as a faculty member be upset if my learners aren't paying attention to my brilliance?

Let's see - the answers are - 1. No, not necessarily unless they distract those learners who do want to learn; 2. Some are paying attention and some are not, but ultimately they are responsible for their own learning, so it is THEIR choice; 3. I don't think it's bad learners or bad faculty, but perhaps both parties need to adapt to the new digital age; 4. I refer you back to No. 2 - adult learning is the responsibility of the adult learners - if they choose not to learn, that is their right. It's my job to provide them with a learning environment (with their input) that will engage them and allow for, most, but not all, to be successful as learners. So, no, I should not be upset if learners don't pay attention. Does that mean that I am not upset when that happens? Well, that's another story...

Blog Your Learning

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 22:27:27 GMT

A very wise friend of mine has coined the phrase "blog your learning". Now, I had to think on that for a minute. Blog your learning? What does that mean? Well then I had one of those "AHA!!" moments that strike once in a while and provide instant clarity for me.

Blog your learning - it seems so clear now. As we learn, we tend to share our learning with others. Now that I'm doing most of my learning online these days whether exploring the use of Web 2.0 technologies, immersing myself in virtual worlds like Second Life, reading other people's blog, wikis, RSS aggregators, or simple Web pages (remember when a simple Web page was cool?), the best way for me, it seems, to share my learning is in a blog.

So my plan is to do just that dear reader - I will share what I learn with you through this blog. With any luck you will get almost as much from reading it as I get from writing it...

Who Owns An Idea?

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 22:18:27 GMT

I've been thinking a lot lately about this question - who owns an idea? It's becoming increasingly important for me as I use more and more Web technologies in my teaching practice. This means I'm blogging, posting to wikis, using aggregators, creating Web sites and using other tools and technologies to make resources available to my learners (and pretty much anyone else who can work a browser). These resources all originated from an idea (usually someone else's).

Now, I've always been a "sharer", giving resources and other materials I've created to learners and fellow faculty - I post all of my exercises, projects, assignments, and handouts to an internal repository that any faculty member can get to and I encourage people to use them if they work for them. I have a background in curriculum development, so I am used to many people using my work products, and while I have pride in my work, I do not have a great deal of "pride of authorship" meaning that I am not particularly attached to the work I create and if it's of use to you - go for it and use it (although I would appreciate attribution where required :-)).

I got thinking about this issue for two reasons - I've been listening in on a education list where this has become a hot topic - with the ever increasing use of the Web in education and the with the attitude of many that what is on the Web is "free", many people are not sharing in order to keep ownership of their materials. This results in a loss of really good resources and learning opportunities. The second reason came this week while I was attending a college workshop discussing among other things, the sharing of work to increase the body of knowledge of the college as a whole. A point was raised that a staff or faculty member's desire to retain their intellectual property rights might conflict with this sharing environment.

I guess the question for me is who owns an idea - is it the original thinker or is it the larger community that debates the idea, forms it, and benefits from it? Hmmm...