Leadership : Love of Learning

[image: anjali]

In this day and age of future field services and industry engagement and pointers and recommendations and capability development and framework initiatives and so on are we forgetting anything in what we have learnt from years of LearnScope with clients, learners call them what you will ?

We are here in Adelaide debating how to realize the mantra - participation , productivity and prosperity……whilst not losing focus on the needs of the individual - building capability with VET providers and within the very infrastructure that we nurture our learners within.

I sit here amongst people who have thrown their whole lives into building the love of learning with students of all ages and persuasions.

There is a recognition that as we ( anyone who’s ever participated in a LearnScope project ) move into another iteration of the Framework in 2008 - 2011 we have a lot at stake in the future process for funding allocations and the very infrstructural changes that will come about with the shift in political climate .

I sit amongst leaders synthesizing how important learner centered models of knowledge aggregation have become in a political climate of industry engagement and cultural shift to outcomes and client output targets. It’s anybody’s guess as to how this will all fall out.

Leaders love learning and thats what counts…..it shows in those who have come in contact with them.

Catholic Ed.

 [image : Catholic Ed]

Catholic Education Commission NSW
Learning and Teaching with Web 2.0
St Mary’s Cathedral
College, Sydney
Monday 2^nd July, 2007
8:30am to 3:30pm

Net-Gen : The Millenials

 

 [image:Uk-Antalya]

Courtesy of Col Masters comes the netGen article that SMH so cleverly disguised as news not so long ago.

Quote: ” ….We now live in a world where information is easily created and shared and where its skilled application is highly valued. This has significant ramifications for education, as the new tools and new ways of thinking necessitate dramatic new approaches to teaching and learning. This directly affects the design of interactive multimedia learning resources…..”

It’s a ray of sunshine amongst a loft filled with IT lizards when someone sends the real thing through devoid and un-fettered of public fear mongering.

deviant

[image : Deviant Art]

It’s not often that I digress….. but in this instance ( and for prosperity’s sake ) I notion and refer you to colleagues of past reknown….who say’s Flickr’s king ?

[image : uk-antalya]

WikiPattern’s, Walk2Web, Kazoo

[image : WikiPatterns]

Some edible grassroots web 2.0 courtesy of our web find guru Robyn Jay;

Kartoo

Web2Walk

WikiPatterns.

 Have fun folks cause they sure will take our visualisations a loooooong way this year.

Blogs As PLE’s

 

 [image courtesy of weblogged]

…..or perhaps PLE’s as blogs. What of wiki’s ?

What would our youngest learners care when it’s all buried in a cell phone ?

I seriously doubt whether either will be of any consequence when my son makes his digital mark in this world.

Are you entitled to take your creations with you anyway when your contracts up as a teacher ? Why bother making the effort for learners ?

For those of you who are averse to use learning management systems or to paying James Farmer to give you alternatives, then why not visit the Higher Ed BlogCon presentation and watch the Camtasia rendition of where James believes it should be going.

The presentation points at the fact that IDENTITY has again come back into the conversational playing field and PRODUCTS that are used to realise learning appears to have fallen back a notch. It’s an interesting notion that students might actually be more concerned about what became of their online interactions and less about what tool was used to be engaged within to achieve tasks …..only to find no evidence of anything even a few weeks after semester re-commencement.

 I’ve got reliable feedback from teachers saying that given the choice between using a learning management system tool and a blog that they’d choose neither.

Makes sense as the same argument existed ten years ago only the brandnames have changed.

 Peter Allen often speaks of this need to respect the content rights of students, in fact he seems to have dedicated his whole life to the cause.

I’m convinced that Personal Learning Environments are anything that students and teachers choose to use and not a standalone one-stop  product  that clicks into the existing CMS. Out of the control of IT departments. Into the hands of those who wish to “control” their own data flow.

 Small pieces loosley glued.

CC Mixter

[image by NSW LearnScope ]

Whilst we are on the topic of copyright, copyleft, attribution and creative commons licensing why not check out CC Mixter who defines themselves as a site where :

“……This is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons, where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want.

Remixers   If you’re into sampling, remixing and mash-ups grab the sample packs and a cappellas for download and you can upload your version back into ccMixter, for others to enjoy and re-sample. All legal.

Podcasters, directors and music lovers    If you’re into music, browse this site to hear some of the great remixes people have built from sampling music on this site, all licensed for use under Creative Commons license…….”

 

[ image by NSW LearnScope ]

I thought I’d mix and attribute some source work from Pabl00 which I  re-mixed using the free open source audio editor Audacity importing and adding my Skype discussion.

I’ve seen this done by hundreds of teachers with students audio excerpts……brings life to a discussion I think.

I then used my audio mix as a backing element for my interview with John Eyles from Waiheke Island, New Zealand who is joining the crew heading to Thailand as part of FLNW2 in early 2008.

Protosphericity

 

[ image by Qwaq ]

Courtesy of Downes Daily….and we have another MMORPS in the running called ProtoSphere.

There’s an interesting introduction using all the correct terminology we are becoming accustomed to such as social networking ecology and problem solving and business solution . What sorts of things first pop into your head when you think of virtual worlds and the implications for networked learning  ?

Perhaps you’d prefer Open Croquet described as ;

” Croquet is a powerful open source software development environment for the creation and large-scale distributed deployment of multi-user virtual 3D applications and metaverses that are (1) persistent (2) deeply collaborative, (3) interconnected and (4) interoperable. The Croquet architecture supports synchronous communication, collaboration, resource sharing and computation among large numbers of users on multiple platforms and multiple devices…..”

Or indeed some a little less robust like Qwaq;

“…..Qwaq, Inc. is creating virtual spaces for the enterprise that enable collaboration in ways that weren’t possible before. Qwaq Forums, the company’s first product, is a secure virtual workspace application that significantly increases the productivity of distributed teams by bringing critical resources together in virtual places, as if they were in an actual physical location. A highly interactive and persistent environment, Qwaq Forums enables users to work, collaborate with others, and identify and solve problems…..”

I suppose it all depends on your bank-roll and less on your blog-roll. I’d be keen to hear from anyone of our NSW LearnScope team members who are exploring domains other than Second Life.

Anything that dosent have an open accord for development makes me question it’s sustainability in the long run…. perhaps that dosent matter ?

SecondLife : AFLF

[image by SLBest Practice]

 A reminder for those enjoying SecondLife comes up again on the hot ticket items list at the AFLF so get on down to see some best practice examples and plug in your headsets and get crackin’ tommorow.

More Flex-E news articles here and here and here.

[image by Fleep Tuque]

 See you there….virtually.

To2 : Rip, Mix, Burn and Learn

 

Peter Shanks aka. ” Shaggy” has come up with - To2 - a definitive and interactive reality for training package resources and content for your review via the Pligg platform.

Peter states;

“What I need now is some early adopters to try it on their own students ( that’s you folks ) and let me know if it’s working, what isnt and what could be improved ”

Give it a go and remember ………………..it’s in Beta so be kind.

If you like what your experiencing  Peter will already know. 

If  you think otherwise test my theory - peter.shanks-at-tafensw.edu.au

Fright or Flight : Copyright of Copyl3ft

 

[image by FortPhoto ]

 We often overlook this tetchy subject and it’s high time that we brought it back onto the NSW LearnScope agenda. In fact I’ve added it as another important category in this blog. it follows on from Leigh and Bronwyn and Janet’s investigations over at TALO and also the excellent article on copyright quoted by Bronwyn Hegarty.

 I suspect that the whole concept of copyleft, GNU and CC is lost to the overtones of liberalised fear mongering that surrounds peoples intellectual property. There seems to be a significant lack in critical and open debate on this topic at present. The stillness is worrying.

After all, anything that a public servant thinks and does is owned by the state ? Every thought and idea and conversation needs to be squeezed through the eye of the copyright council ……..right ?

No one has the right to give away or share content without asking for profit yeh ? Everything including students contributions whether they be thoughts, words or deeds is the organisations content ……correct ?

The subject of copyright is so far removed from reality if we fail to consider the open source movement, the free as in freedom movements and the free content initiatives of the last decade. How many people would we put out of work if we shared our content only asking for attribution ?

Time will tell for fat geese.

Time for unported 3.0 I suspect as others may want an “out” from Creative Common’s when they realise all their work is attributed in a  fast changing IP field.

Champions : Check Them Out !

[ image by NSW LearnScope wiki : Jocks Avatar]

[ image by NSW LearnScope wiki : also see SRidgway]

Two team have kicked off this year in style and grace and a couple of champions are emerging from the gates of the e-learning camp racing out to spread the good e-word in Australia - Stephan Ridgway from the ’ Using the Second Life Virtual World in Teaching and Learning ’ team and also Jock Grady from the ‘ Life Without Barriers Team ‘.

 Both  teams have chosen to remain pushing the envelope over in the NSW LearnScope MediaWiki. Teams have the choice of this location to build their project plans and also the NSW LearnScope wikispace.

It’s an either / or online open web publishing situation, giving team Managers and Facilitators as well as all team Members the ability to share information easily and explore new ways of communicating with others.

FlickrVision

[image by NSW LearnScope]

FlickrVision is a new visual web-pulse generator which closely aligns it’s aesthetics with TwitterVision .

Pop-Fly

 [ image by PopFly MS]

A Microsoft product that promises;

1	Popfly Creator is a set of online visual tools for building Web pages and mashups.
2	Popfly Space is an online community of creators where you can host, share, rate, comment and even remix creations from other Popfly users.

Why the FCK ?

 

[ image by bru76 ]

There is an end to the use of the FCK editor in sight……in fact it’s gone. No more. We wont be using it in our mediawiki.

It was a corruptable.

I’ve just been speaking with San Francisco based company called SocialText who are adamant that Jimmy Wales from Wikipedia is on their board of Directors and is looking to integrate the Social Text visual editor with that of the MediaWiki platform. Your guess is as good as mine as to the timing and whether it solves our issues.

The conversation came about by my test of the SocialText site - http://www.socialtext.net/alexanderhayes

Is it any different to Confluence and what are the advantages of mediaWiki over the other two solutions ? Is it something to do with the attribution process for user generated content ? Is about open vs. closed ?

As we struggle through the retraction of corruptable editor muckups in our NSW LearnScope wiki we reflect on a week of what matters most for NSW LearnScope teams - the ability to muck in and get started on spreading the good news and the good oil about what’s occuring here in Australia for those doing similar elsewhere in the world. The platform is almost irrelevant….the ability to get content  connectable the most important factor.

The focus is on the ability to develop open learning resources to share and to collaborate THROUGH content and the real learning that comes about with imbedding concepts and platforms with an open web publishing ethic in mind. I think many people have just gone about their business without really giving any thought to it till content and sites have started to dissapear.

Complementing this issue of ours for the last 96 hours is the major debate on how to share content without losing the intellectual property values bestowed ……. individuals contribution and what becomes of collaborative content.

We are creating content that’s imbued with a Creative Commons 2.5 Share Alike - non Commercial derivative licence in our NSW LearnScope licence where we network teams and their links and articles related to events etc……..but are we using the right licence ? Whats our intent ? What would happen if a commercial interest of a team was being comprised by our licensing arrangement ?

One of the things that comes to my mind is the purpose behind LearnScope -  inherent with  issues related to how bring e-learners into the world of online learning and how not to lose those who are forging away at the edge, pushing boundaries and bringing rich media back to the troops.

Take for instance “our” own Leigh Blackall.

 He’s pushing his way forward with contestable IP and imbedding innovation in his own organisation there in the land of the fluffy white sheep…………. as well as appearing from his desktop in an myriad of online speaker roles. Any guess at how many he’s scheduled to perform this year ?

Chase up some of the links below…..some amazing thing happening out there with the WebHeads group.

 Web Heads In Action - WIAOC2007 - audio recordings

http://www.webheadsinaction.org/wiaoc2007/Presentations

Leigh Blackall - Keynote ( somewhat jumpy and broken up but happening…….. )

 http://streamarchives.net/node/42

Leigh Blackall -  WikiEducator Notes.

http://www.wikieducator.org/User:Leighblackall/Open_educational_resources_and_practices#Copyright

Also worth chasing;

Global reporting

http://www.globalreporting.org/AboutGRI/WhatWeDo/

FutureLab : Research

 

Apart from the web 1.0 front end that needs a serious overhaul  there are some interesting research articles coming out of FutureLab  including;

Learning with handheld technologies
By Fern Faux, Angela McFarlane, Nel Roche, Keri Facer

Learner voice
By Tim Rudd, Futurelab; Fiona Colligan, Educational Consultant; Rajay Naik, English Secondary Students Association (ESSA)

Games and learning
By Richard Sandford and Ben Williamson

Designing technologies to support creativity and collaboration
By Keri Facer and Ben Williamson

Designing educational technologies with users
By Keri Facer and Ben Williamson

The Week After Induction Day : Tech Nightmare

Last week was the week of hell for the tech-head side of Alex Hayes. It was a week of colourful language, accelerated hairloss and a host of pained phone calls to team members.

Firstly, the DNS  ( how the internet points to our website ) for NSW LearnScope dropped off and hence our website including our wiki and all else dissapeared - just as everyone was getting revved up and into the wiki edits for their team pages.

 Cringe. Curl up and cry.

Next came the news that for some strange reason , our automatic billing for our domain space ( storage ) was not working. That meant that the website crashed ( not viewable ) yet again and we were left with an embaressing web sign saying we were out to lunch. However……..

I now admit I am an internet addicted and network inter-dependent educator. This series of events has raised ( yet again ) a number of strategic web-design / mintenance things for me and hopefully things that you are taking into consideration also when you create your teams web spaces and places such as these five things;

1. If it is going to go down, your website ( web spaces amd places ) will do so at the worst possible moment and when you most need it to work. Technology is bound to let you down in public therefore dont be fully dependent on it and if you are, always have a plan B ready to roll.

2. The internet is not the same as an intranet.The people you depend on are not going to shoulder any of the blame so be careful who you point at when things get tough. You never know when you might need them to assist you to get things connected in the future. Dont burn bridges.

3. If you pay for it what happens when you have finished your project ? Who will pay for it and what happens if you dont ? Dont embaress yourself by failing to remember to pay hosting or ad-free status and let it unfold for you in the future. Remember - many sites  have histories and dont forget ………….when you might.

4. Backup, backup, backup - you cant afford to waste those countless hours. Dont rely on the platform as the disclaimers usually void themselves of any responsibility.

5. The spaces and places you use now and forget about dont go away. Keep  a careful record of what your creating and a list of your passwords in a protected space. If someone gets into your spaces they can assume your identity. Be careful to map your digital journey.

 Most importantly it’s opened up acceptable and new avenues (as a result of the heated discussion) for NSW LearnScope teams to document their project plan and learning journey. This flurry and folly has also brought to the attention of others how much we value NSW LearnScope data and information. There are many hard questions to answer and strategic directional discussions regarding web content still to be had.

A heartfelt apology to those for whom it inconvenienced. I wont say ” it wont happen again”.

I’d rather court ……….how can we avoid this happening again ? Is web 2.0 really all that it’s beaten up to be ?

Team 003 Web 2.0

[ image : nswlearnscope ]

The web 2.0 team here are keen to let you all know about their thoughts on the use of web 2.0 technology in the VET sector inherent with concerns for privacy, safety and copyright.

Listen to the podcast below

Imbedding Innovation : Server sided or world provided ?

 

In this blog post I seek to engage you in conversation as to how we can imbed the use of social networking technologies such as a wiki ( referred in this instance and not restricted to open web publishing ……..nor as a bird ).

How can we imbed the use of this concept in  organisation psyche and more importantly how do we use / examine the strength based position of enabling individuals to build their own spaces, open to the net if required or desired ?

Themes

How do we acknowledge and grow an open web presence whilst maintaining what we do best as teachers and educators, ensuring  that the explorations into the range of many options are supported by our respective employers ?

How do we ensure VET projects are a knowledge building exercise and not a number cruching tedium ?

What considerations must  project managers / facilitators take to ensure interaction with others with ease online  ?

A big ask I admit…….. but lets have a look into what’s bothering me at the moment and hopefully you’ll have some sound ways to assist in answering what would otherwise ride on unanswered.

The Role of Community

We are facing a dilemna here at NSW LearnScope, mainly centred around how to service our Community using the best possible online and accessible technologies.  

I say ” Community” as it’s a huge collective bunch of individual and team spaces, involving many and diverse VET organisations of all persuasions, with multiple authors and a host of  world wide networked learning models of interaction and learning.

Complex indeed.

This Community also includes people’s online personal spaces and places  and that’s where the onus on this conversational piece exists. Answering questions as to how we can minimise personal risk, make correct judgements as project managers and offer sound advice whilst seeking innovation and finding ways to imbed such efforts in practice without getting crucified in the meantime by well meaning colleagues.

Risks Inherent with Open Web Publishing

We are endeavouring ( at risk ) by way of demonstration and by our own modelling of the use of a wiki to support those investigating ways  to imbed their wiki-innovations in their organisation IT infrastructure - growing the concepts of collaborative knowledge sharing and open web publishing.

Change management practices which enable developments to actualise at foundational  infrastructural level is a frustratingly slow process and this is progressing at an infinetly slower rate that the uptake of e-learning ideas by business and non-educational sector stakeholders.

At stake,  ( worst case scenario ) is countless thousands of hours of online interactive learnin peppered around the globe on a myriad of platforms way, way outside of the policies and agreements between educators and the contractual obligations as employees within organisations and in some instances as public servants and departmental management employees.

At stake ( best case scenario ) is the organisational infrastructural acknowledgement ( I’m including everyone in here including small business startup’s through to consortium and corporate level ) of such learning spaces and places, the equitable access to such places and in some instances the support needed to explore ways to complement existing open web publishing with that of intra/inter enabled web developement business initiatives.

What do teachers Want ?

Feedback from years of interaction with those with their nose to the coalface suggest that educators want open web access, lack of intervention and some acknowledgement.

Some want an open web environment to work within, some closed, some off shore and many want it in-house with ability to do all of the above. How do we support the latter as we have achieved the first two for decades ?

The issue and the needs of teachers seeking spaces to interact within has driven many to contemplate what LearnScope has supported with access to time to explore new and emergent options. Many questions are now directed at the Framework as they are seen to be at the forefront for extolling change and to uptake new technologies.

Ok….so whats the issue with OWP ?

The issue of open web publishing ( anything that can be seen via the internet ) involves Senior Managers, CEO’s and Directors and anyone else falling in line.

The issues of OWP affects everyone in the organisation and fools would ignore or deny that such things exist in their organisation.

The power of the social web , the currency of collaborative knowledge development and the ways of working in a new and increasingly online world of education are in the here and  now and will continue to push their way into every aspect of an organisations working process. Educators are using them and thousands of sites with teacher/student interaction proliferate across the internet.

How best do we contain these many sites ? Can we gain understanding of educational best practice as a result of acknowledging them ? What are the implications for an organisation actually acknowledging the  learning occuring as a result of the use of open web environments ? Should these sites and online interactions by individuals outside of the intranet be even considered as part of an organisations working practice ?

What has LearnScope contributed to this conversation ?

LearnScope has provided funding to organisations in the VET sector to enable educators to engage in professional development training since 1998.

This opportunity to take time out and explore new ways of working with clients has proven in many instances to be instrumental in changes to organisational uptake of e-learning. LearnScope teams have explored,  engaged and continue to engage clients using new and emergent technologies.

Some would argue that this has placed a demand on educational support services to acknowledge and in some instances provide access to information that supports such change.

LearnScope pushes VET organisations nation-wide to examine whats working, what is not, what can be done to effect change and which e-learning and infra-structal support systems are geared to embrace what educators and learners choose to use to grow knowledge and create / complete courseware.

In fact, LearnScope has in my estimations changed the lives of many project team members including those who became associated with LearnScope as a result of the infectious knowledge sharing that occurs as a result.  The investigation into the use of new and emergent e-learning technologies with clients has spread to include national and international participants from all walks of life and all education sectors. This means that what’s been explored in NSW LearnScope is having effect on other sectors by the very nature of the innovations being imbedded as a result of a work-based action learning investigation.

There’s that word again - imbeded….what does it actually mean in this educational context ?

In recent years NSW LearnScope teams have been encouraged to explore ways to engage clients using social software technology which has become known as web 2.0. Essentially individuals are able to access online platforms via the internet and easily register themselves, their team and in some instances their organisation for engaging clients and for housing conversations and data.

They would have otherwise been restricted to the use of learning management systems that do not enable world wide aggregation of knowledge nor imbue the gold of interactivity.

The Web 2.0 Debate

Much debate rages as to whether this use of open web platforms which are outside of organisational IT support is a sustainable way of engaging learners.  Privacy, security and liability protection issues  for learners of all ages and the educators who engage  using open web publishing  are at the forefront of such debates. 

A recent research paper released by the AFLF suggests that the use of web 2.0 technology is widespread throughout the VET community and indeed all educational sectors. With this in mind who’s really asking the hard questions here and who’s answering the issues of those facing reprimand for having done so ?

Questions I’ve heard include:

1. What of the associations and implicit concerns with unwanted content in platforms not controlled but implicitly involving  orgnaisations particularly considering that the platforms or softwares used retain all data transfer and a history of contribution ?
2. Who’s the owner of content  in other people’s spaces ( providers ) and places whilst being developed as part of  work related duties ( organisation ) ?
3. What are we all doing to infrom those who have no idea what CC SA 2.5 means ?
4. What of conversational traffic ?  Is that in actual fact content in itself ?
5. Who’s liable for maintaining where things are and where ?
6. What if a user needs support ? Who can they turn to and what issues arise from that ? 

What has LearnScope done to support knowledge management ?

Up until a few years ago many LearnScope teams were encouraged to use the services of EDNA groups and other AFLF affiliated companies to conduct their business and explore new ways of working within the auspice of  ANT or DEST and other governing authorities.

Ever increasingly though and with the proliferation of easily accessible online communication sites at hand, educators have turned away from static, intranet based learning management systems and content management sites , opting for the more flexible and robust easy install features of blogs, wikis and a swag of other social networking technology.

The individual in these spaces can build and change the sites “look” at will and as regularly as they like. The space selected grows according to what the individual contributes and allows other people to contribute. The individual can network “their” site with others and form groups or in-build features of some sites with others in effect “mashing” the functionality of the primary site and growing a web of others that interlace.

Effectively the user becomes the web author and the “site’ becomes their home. An online space connected to their identity.

LearnScope teams have cottoned onto the fact this technology can be used to “organise” teams, to steer individuals to and through as they first step into exploring new ways of working with clients. The online spaces individuals select are often blocked from regular access via organisational internet access and so many educators continue to create and contribute from their own private home and other locations.

Therein lis the dilemna. Should these be let in especially of education  professionals are using them to undertake their working duties ? Can they be trusted ?

A few core platforms have emerged as foundational elements for the continued exploration of new and emergent e-learning taking into account that many LearnScope teams operate outside of the constraints of organisational firewalls.

 Whats a wiki ?

The use of a wiki for content creation, collaboration, organisation and sharing of team based activities has become pivotal to sharing project knowledge  - as it occurs and as needed, in time , on time.  This is supplemented of course  with a myriad of emails and phone calls……and a hundred other applications we can one day acknowledge.

There are hundreds of different types of wiki’s and they all share one common feature - collaboration.

What to use and why ?

Last year the NSW LearnScope project team used and recomended Wikispaces  as the preferred site for individuals and teams to explore and consider a wider use with project team members elsewhere. This is just one tool of many however it retained it’s position as an open web space within which others could contribute easily.

NSW LearnScope activities were grown and referred to using such a space - modelled.

Wikispaces enables individuals to easily start their own “personal” wiki and if registered as an educator / teacher they can receive a fee-free account for a year. The platform itself is easy to access and available through most organisational firewalls through port 80. A few issues have been reported with the visual and code editor but essentially Wikispaces is a basic and easy to configure space with lots of multi-media features and a growing community of users.

Some of the concerns that have been raised with the use of WikiSpaces include;

1. The content that is  created in the wiki site sits on the WikiSpaces servers ie. IP issues
2. Users start up multiple individual sites for organisational task related duties using the free features which feature intrusive Google advertisments ie. exposure to non-contextual and often embaressing advertisments
3. Educators starting their own space which they wish to continue to use in a multitude of contexts can do so provided they dont use the platform to showcase their own personal activities. If they do so they are required to pay $60 AUD per year to remove advertisements.
4. The wiki source code is not available for install on other servers.
5. There are security and privacy issues for newbies who are just begining to share knowledge in an open web.
6. Organisational Management concerns for intellectual property, internal information and other competitive advantage concerns.
7. It has many glitches with editing including loss of data, login issues and upload hassles.

There are a host of other issues related to user controls, scalability and content copyright, however, this gives you a small indication of what team members have reported and are considering when using a wiki with clients, students and other colleagues.

Ways Forward - Attempting to Imbed the Concept

Taking into account these concerns and looking to explore how to imbed the use of wiki-ware ( amongst many other sought after applications like WP blogs ) and protect individuals content creation, in late 2006 the decision was made to explore the use of MediaWiki with LearnScope team members.

This was also due to the fact that MediaWiki is a free and open source application that can be downloaded to an existing web host and installed providing large scale wiki features and lots of other extensible features including an onboard visual editor and a large worldwide community of users. 

You would think that would suffice however we ‘ve run into some usability issues…….minor one’s I’d hope.

Content created in a MediaWiki remains within the confines of the MediaWiki install ( on the server hosting it ) and the creation of userspaces and pages takes place in a community building style ( userpages) rather than discrete stand alone spaces, which one or only a few people have access to change. User’s ( individuals ) can’t make alterations to other user’s namespaces nowever they can discuss and communicate with each other through the platform as well as collaboratively contribute to other pages at will when they have logged in. The history tab shows whats been added when and from where ( IP address ).

Essentially users are contributing in a collective community space and do not have the ability to install their own stand alone application differing to a wikispace multi-user install. Users all have to manage a new language ( ie. wiki markup ) unless a visual editor is installed which in effect corrupts the transferrable content creation and renders it only useful for those pages using that editor.

There are however, many benefits for using MediaWiki including;

1. Users can create their own discrete login and user space.
2. There is a global community supporting the use of the platform
3. Content created is retained in the server of choice rather than someone elses
4. The scalability of MediaWiki is huge ie. WikiPedia
5. The Alumni effect of MediaWiki means users keep coming back to a community of knowledge rather than a seperate space.
6. Discussions between individuals can grow into hosted forums and other larger scale events, using the wiki environment to collaboratively organise and grow information.

I could list a hundred other points  but I’d like to get some answers from the global MediaWiki community as to how we can address the core issues facing the NSW LearnScope community which encompasses hundreds if not thosands of online spaces.

Help ! Please suggest simple ways for us to achieve the following

1. We need assistance to implement ( test bed ? ) a visual editor that is wiki-markup compliant ….not FCK editor which we are having major issues with  at the mo . Any ideas or beta-projects underway …something that dosent corrupt and has the same functions as what WikiSpace achieves? The reason we need this as we have lots of feedback stating that teachers  / tema have got enough on their plate and dont wish to struggle with learning complex markup……..

2. How can as a Community project register oursleves as a wiki-intiative which is progressing the sharing of VET ( and other ) knowledge with the world ? this is a sustainable project only if we can connect it with others.

 3. How can we best engage Managers in organisations in dialogue as to the many and extensible range of features that MediaWiki has that intersects with the other social networking platform ideas ?

Conclusion

I’m looking for ways to progress this conversation as to how  educational organisations can acknowledge ( without fear of accessory )  the power and engaged response from learners who interact with educators using internet based open web publishing applications.

As this is very much about individuals having the choice as to ways to engage, retain and motivate, I’m trying also to seek ways that organisations can host platforms of collaboration that allow user generated content that have both open / closed features that can be turned on and off as required ie. this page is open to the net and that one is not.

The issues and the benefits of using open networked communication technology with learners is apparent, yet we are still to come up with guidelines which dont resemble rules for those who choose to use tools other than whats provided by their respective organsiation. I wont go into talking about policy as that’s a minefield in itself.

One things apparent.

Wiki’s work - we think.

What are your thoughts and what’s your advice ?

SecondLife : Cold and Lonely ?

 

Where are the beggars some would ask ? Dust ? The common cold or indeed where is there evidence that everything is not a clean and sanitised version of reality ? Is this just another digital cult  ?

There seems to be plenty of talk around about the loneliness  being experienced by those attempting to engage in SecondLife. In fact, there’s a whole range of talk about on the net about the ”empty” feelings that users sometimes experience when bills dont get paid or they lose the enthusiasm to keep up with the latest things occuring in this virtual world.

Even some of our educationalist luminaries seen to think that SL has a long way to go till we see it reach a relaxed integration with web experiences that the majority of users classify as normal and engaged social computing. I for one wonder at the amount of cost and effort involved in learning ways to engage in this rich digital tapestry, however, as our efforts to grow awareness of virtual worlds  this year in NSW LearnScope will attest, SL is here to stay amongst the many other virtual domains available for users to engage learners within.

Perhaps if your still dabbling like me on the edge of making this a reality for your life or considering integrating SL into your everyday learner’s timetable you might like to keep an eye on the Secondlife education page or visit the growing SLeducation resource.

Next Page »