In my checking up on the latest news on EduSpaces I discovered that it will be continuing. I had accepted its coming closure rather too quickly, having become habituated to the constant change that happens on the web. Like any near loss, the threat of EduSpaces disappearance caused me to reflect on why I value it so much. For me, as someone who values communication possibilities and is rather limited in terms of howto knowledge of technology, EduSpaces, or Elgg, as it was when I joined, taught me to blog, gave me a community and helped me understand the dynamics of social networking.
Here is what I said in the Discussion about EduSpaces closing:
- Elgg created me as a blogger, and gave me a space that I had nowhere else, a space where I could write about what fascinated me and actually receive responses that weren't blank stares and dismissals, a space where I didn't have to dumb-down my thinking and musing. I have "Friends" who feel like real friends, and I have corresponded directly with some and even met one. My sense of the world opened up because of Elgg, and I found the Community Blog structure a real help for a course I ran a number of times. (Way better than Blogger, but that's another story.)
I am sad that EduSpaces, formerly called Elgg, is going. I believe it had a special space in the theoretical and practical post-secondary educational use of the web. It was ahead of its time in many aspects, especially with its distributed social network, and its educational portfolio function. In the Community blog I used for courses, students provided their pictures or images to represent themselves, which made recognizing the author of an individual post visual and easy. The ability to add files, made it useful for student work being "handed in" and for MP3s being added for oral/aural work.
I am grateful to Dave and Ben, the volunteers who made it possible, and allowed me the space to grow.
The only constant is change, and this seems especially true in the web world.
I am glad EduSpaces is still here; I know I would have lost contact with many of my Eduspaces 'friends'. I feel a bit guilty that I moved so soon, and that I am probably going to desert the replacement blog I set up.
Here is the link to my most recent post - http://www.commun-it.org/community/vinall/weblog/663.html - on the importance of using (and teaching students how to use) Styles when writing academic papers, and on the Innovate article on managing academic research using Zotero.
