Sibren Fetter :: Blog

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A few days ago, the British OU quietly launched their new open platform called Platform. It promises to allow users to ‘chat, chill, and connect’, but I could find very little of that. Indeed, it looked more like a copy of the BBC news portal than a social site, and even when diving into the inner spheres of the Platform, where the student societies are located, it only redirected to other sites. So I was unable to find any of the mentioned experiences.

Weblogs, now an integral component of present-day pedagogy, are not, it seems, part of the Platform. The section dedicated to them gives the impression of a carefully selected branded business information column, not the vivid, frank, and sometimes plain stupid bottom-up reports by the community.

Maybe it is too early to judge, but the social promise in the title still needs substantial realisation to lift this beyond a mere marketing site.

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Is this the future or has the past reached the Web?

Experimental 3D site Barcinski-JeanJean provides visitors with a stunning immersion experiense. You need a pair of these cool retro red/blue specs to view the 3D scape. It’s worth, though, to spend the time finding these in your attic, because the site incredibly combines Flash design and mouse navigation, hyperlinks and 360-degree panorama photography to give you absolutely realistic immersion.

The potential for education is enormous, if the immersion factor can be transferred to museums and art galleries it may even save a few field trips. The only downside: after three minutes viewing I could not get up from my chair for another three minutes due to cross-eyed vision (or was it the amazing experience)?

Hallo
I have uploaded on elgg community site new language pack for Georgian language.
Dear Administrators, please look http://community.elgg.org/pg/plugins/highlander/read/9324/georgia
and add it to eduspaces too.
Thank you much in advance!!!

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New figures from search engine analysts show that we use the search engine increasingly and overwhelmingly for navigational queries: for finding, not for finding-out.

My bookmarks, for example, whether in any of the multiple browsers or in Web services like del.icio.us have become so disorganised that I cannot find things anymore. Rather than revisiting them and cleaning out tags, dead links and the now inadequate folder structure, it is more efficient to vaguely remember what the site was about and google it. It is no coincidence that Google Chrome merged the search box and the address bar.

Navigational queries can take different shapes: you might type in ‘apple’ and expect to get swiftly directed to ‘www.apple.com’. Or, you might search more semantically like ‘geotagging photo site’ or ‘online video editing’.

So what does it tell about us, learners and users of technology? Have we become dependent on Google because we failed to learn? - failed to learn to organise our information properly, failed to remember what apparently had enough relevance for us to revisit? Did the convenience of the search power of these tools make us complacent and lazy to train our memories to learn and remember?

Has the ability to post by email been removed? I've used it in the past, but not for ages & was trying to test it - and had forgotten what random address I'd set up. I can't find where I entered the details, though, now.

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A rather gloomy vision of the technology-enhanced future is already emerging. School children in Japan are apparently being tagged with RFID devices to prevent them from playing truant. Omnipresent nano-technology is being heralded as the next revolution in ubiquitous computing. So-called “Smart Dust” will make it possible to produce computational networks that are not noticable to the human senses.

Of course, scientists always create technologies to make life better for human kind, n’est-ce pas? Still, it makes you wonder, why the military is advancing such developments to detect snipers in urban warfare. And why, a hygiene company has created an RFID soap dispenser, so workers can be checked to have washed their hands after they’ve been to the toilet…

“AUSOl :382143.1 badges (e.g., RFID devices) or using biometrics that allow recording mechanism 61 to differentiate the actions of different persons using the soap dispenser. In another embodiment (not expressly shown), signal mechanism 51 and/or recording mechanism 61 may be located remotely from the marking mechanism. This configuration may be desirable where a person monitoring hand washing (e.g., restaurant manager or parent of a young child) desires to have the signal and/or recorded information presented at a location other than where the soap dispenser is placed.” (Patent description here)

Is this what we can expect from education in the next generation? Puppet drill, where you are monitored not to step out of line? Do these Japanese school children and the hygiene workers comply?

The government will surely protect our freedom to choose, our self-determination, and our privacy, no? Protection, my hole, have you ever thought of where the protection is that comes with the Data Protection Act and privacy laws?

O.k. we might life longer, but will we be free to choose how?

Eduspaces seems to have a flaw.  You can only add to it.  How can I delete a community that I created?

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Designing learning opportunities for mobile devices is becoming fashionable, and slowly but surely takes off to be taken serious. New mobile devices like the iPhone or the N95 have much improved browser capabilities and therefore provide a platform for a good student experience. Additionally, connectivity beyond WAP has enriched the presentation and communication possibilities.

Mobile devices, however, are different to desktop and laptop. This does not only refer to limited screen estate. Designers need to take a whole new approach - not just redesign web content for smaller screens. It is best to take mobile devices as a totally new medium of delivery. Built in technologies like cameras, WiFi, text and mic can support contextual interactivity and networked learning. Designers of mobile learning, therefore, should see-hear with their users’ eyes and ears.

Rather than resizing your content to fit and work on mobiles, it is best to take advantage of what mobile technologies really stand for: contextualisation, personalisation, localisation.

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I was invited to a workshop for this interesting project, in short called VCSE. I struggled a little with the terminology and the scope in the beginning, having difficulties understanding what was meant by Virtual Campus and by Sustainable Europe. More accurately it reflects a subject network of university departments involved in Sustainable Development studies.

Sustainability is a big issue all over Europe and concerns virtually every part of our lives and our environment. Their short explanation of sustainable development went like this:

“Only creating development would mean that we could now live a good life, but already know that our children will suffer for it - natural resources such as fossile fuels will have been exhausted. On the other hand sustainability without development is not enough either as this means everything remains as is - and it can’t!”

VCSE establishes a network of university departments as nodes for local and regional networks, each of them with their own speciality, e.g. water management or energy. These hubs are then interconnected Europe-wide and offer students remote study options.

There is nothing particularly new about it, but it is good to see that university studies link up and share expertise across borders for the benefit of students and professionals.

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HEFCE has announced GBP 5.7m of funding for projects opening up quality resources for teaching and learning in Higher Education. I cannot help feeling the irony of yet another junk of money being thrown at something that has yet to prove that there is demand.

After the Hewlett foundation funded MIT and the OU with substantial multimillion grants for their respective Open Course Ware initiatives, this looks like another attempt to stimulate free sharing of educational resources and courses. But, why should it be any more successful and sustainable than previous versions?