To PLE or not to PLE : What will it be ?

[image : stewart leiwakabessy]

With an up-coming NSW LearnScope Regional Event 1 to be held at the super-efficient Saxon’s Training in Barrack Street, Sydney and with an international audience coming on board, I’ve been doing some research based on PLE’s or online personal learning environments….my take.

I’ve written a number times on this PLE topic before but this time round it’s getting a little clearer as to what might consitute a “working” model however disparate the interpretations maybe.

My take has always been that PLE’s are anything and everything that constitutes an online identity, both inside and outside of the walled gardens which try to contain interaction and connection - educational and otherwise….

Robyn’s been hard at this for weeks so I’m doing my bit as well.

It’s a growing concern and a real part of where we are headed in this way-of-the-web so well articulated by David Wilcox, Stephen Downes, George Siemens and other big names.

Educause always has some good information - check out their entries.

I’m also heartened to see that a critical debate is emerging from what would otherwise could be seen as an expert centered top-down approach to the subject. It’s obvious that everyones got a different take on the matter none more so than Josie Fraser.

This is the gem I was looking for - a Tom Haskin’s approach. Something that re-posit’s the age old plug-n-play attitudes so thickly applied to this topic. I’d like to see if Tom’s able to join us for an international panel on the subject - Regional Event 1

It reminds me of the great posts of Nick Noakes from inside SL and within the broader context of the discussion with people like Bronwyn Stuckey or the share-your-shared space “shape” of the flatlands differing to building toolkits and all-in-one solutions…….. but where does this sit with your version of what constitutes a PLE ?

EduKite has an interesting take on the matter.

So does Graham Wegner who we hope will accept our offer to fly to Sydney and keynote at our Regional Events connection event number one.

Priceless : The Cost Of Connection

[image : mobology]

As I reflect on where I’ve been this year and who I’ve come in contact with and all of the many varied online connections, I’m thankful that new pathways and new opportunities are being acknowledge and shared and built upon.

We live in a world that is in hyper-mode, with a constancy of information to manage and responsibility to bear and this leads to a seemingly endless depth of tiredness and frustration when things don’t go our way.

Deep beneath the shores of this digital tide is an underpinning wealth of experience and if we look deeply enough we realize that we are responsible for the way our learners, colleagues, friends and family live and grow and move forward and interpret our obsession with remaining connected. If only we were to spend a little more time reflecting on how important each and every one of us is in connecting others and what it means to be able to speak of pedagogy as the conduit for realising dreams and bringing the world into our work and vice versa.

Our working world gardens only benefit from a little love and care, opening gates to encourage communication and linking beds of knowledge where our only role is to sprinkle a little food here and there to bring it on.

Priceless.

Champion : Judi Gowing

 

[image : ace connections ]

Once in a while I get totally blown away with the dedication and enthusiasm of real champions who demonstrate a commitment to their learners.

Last month it was Dot Waterhouse from the AMES team and the month before it was Alex Miller with the Learning Technologies Team in  Coffs Harbour.

This month I’m totally stoked with the work of Judi Gowing from the Tamworth Ace Connections team who has just sent me an email;

Hi Alex and Robyn

I created a little ‘masterpiece’ for our mid-session report. On Saturday, I
turned a movie created in Movie Maker into a Flash Movie using Toufee and
uploaded it to our Wikispace - it takes a while to load but I have the
Toufee techs on to it!!!

http://aceconnections.wikispaces.com/Mid_Session_Reporting

I used Audacity to create some audio, I used the Audio from the team visit
in Tamworth, I cut and pasted and fiddled with some audio from one of our
DiscoverE Sessions (it’s a bit dodgy in places!) and put it all together. I
was pretty pleased with the result and hope you are too!!!! I would like to
put it on the Media Wiki but that step is beyond me! Instead I have added a
link to it in Toufee!!

One of my team members has created a class Wikispace and I have too and our
students (Tamworth and Singleton) have been sending messages to each
other!!!! Student outcomes rule!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is what inspires me. Someone who genuinely pushes the boundaries of what’s possible with the tools available with the result being a masterpiece which tells the beautiful story of where the learning has occured and which team members have got the most from the action learning at hand.

This is exactly what we are after……check out the Mid Project Report tab towards the bottom of the Ace Connections wiki page.

Well done Judi !

You rock !

Reportables : Not The Word Doc.

[image: Clint M. Chillcott ]

Just a reminder to teams that we are NOT seeking word documents sent to Robyn nor I via email for project plans. I dont need them to substantiate what you may have done or not done with your project funding.

However, we would like for you to send us a link to an online web resource that you have built with your team such as a podcast, blog entry, SlideShare or short movie etc. and uploaded to the web that speaks of your project journey so far.

Add this link to your NSW LearnScope wiki page. That’s it. Done.

No word docs. sent as email attachments. No more….can you do this for me to substantiate what we spent NSW LearnScope money on.

Despite numerous attempts to dispel the myth that we seek skills audit statistics from team, we would also like to re-iterate what we have notioned in the past and that is that we can safely assume that the team members in your team will acquire skills over the duration of your teams journey…..at differing rates……in different compueter labs and so on.

Your reportables for your organisation may not mirror the ethos of NSW LearnScope however you can be assured that we care to hear the STORIES of your team members as they learn new ways of working with YOU !

These ways of working are known as client outcomes - where you the Project manager and the Project Facilitator have considered how you will imbed and use these new ways of engaging your clients……now ……..not in the future…….right this very minute. This is known in some ways also as action learning….where the new tools that you select are used to engage your clients / learners/ managers and in your workplace……not just a workshop you attended and then went home saying ” hmmm……maybe next year”.

Give it a go. Think outside the square.

Upload a PowerPoint to Slideshare

Upload a recording to Podomatic.

Learners Experiences

It seems that since we are focusing on pedagogy it would be prudent to see how our beliefs and practices impact on learners. I am not sure if people are aware of this report (full url below) by Rhona Sharpe , Greg Benfield, (Oxford Brookes University), Ellen Lessner (Abingdon and Witney College) and Eta De Cicco (NIACE) - there is some great information including information for managers/designers of learning activities etc etc. Specifically look at the ‘Guide 3 - Recommendations for designers of learning activities’
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning_pedagogy/elp_learneroutcomes.aspx

I was partuculalry struck by these outcomes:

In general, the Learner Experiences studies found that learners rely on a wide range of technologies, which they adapt and personalise to their needs. However, despite their sophisticated use of technology in their personal lives, learners do not always find it easy or appropriate to transfer these approaches directly when studying.
These are the main findings that emerge from the studies:

Learners would like teachers to provide guidance on using academic resources, retrieving and evaluating information from the internet, collaboration with peers, attendance, organisation and time management

There is enormous potential for teachers to use the technology that learners are familiar and skilled with, such as blogs, personalised spaces and synchronous communications

Ownership, personalisation and appropriation of technologies are important to learners because they use technology in their lives. Teachers need to allow and even encourage learners to personalise institutionally supported technologies and, where appropriate, to use personal technologies in tandem with these

As learners already make use of content available on the internet, the focus for teachers should be on course and learning activity design, rather than creation of more content

Teachers designing learning activities should not be limited by institutionally provided software. Open designs can allow learners to choose their own tools and technologies – and even their own mode of collaborating with others – while working towards common outcomes

Tutors should be aware of the skills learners need to perform effectively in a technology-rich environment – including not only technical skills, but the skills of selection, evaluation and critical reflection – and should ensure that all learners are given opportunitities to practice and develop these skills

It seems to me that regardless of our current tack on the tool eg: e-portfolios, blogs, etc that we always need to keep the ‘ease of application’ in mind and our client group.

e portfolios

today’s conversation

I hope this is readable…
Terrie and Kathie and I had a chat about e portfolios and we decided:

• kathie will post some links to possible e portfolio sites
• we will all tag our delicious finds with vetpedagogy and learnscope
• we will add each other to our delicious networks

i also recorded our session but am not sure how to upload the sound file here…

Help!

Kathy, Terrie and i had a great chat in discovere this morning about e portfolios.

We recorded it too.

We decided that our next steps would be

• kathie will post some more links to possible e porfolio sites
• we will all tag useful sites with vetpedagogy and learnscope in delicious
• we will all add each other to our delicious networks

Firefox : Eight Time Faster

[image : eole ]

Open a web browser. Enter a site URL and wait for it to kick in.

Take notice of how long it took to get there and how long it took till it was fully open.

Go to another site and do the same again.

Calculate how long that took also.

So……sick of waiting for what seems hours  for your internet browser to kick in?

This is a short, sharp and easy way to get your system working a heap faster.

1. Go to http://www.firefox.com

2. Download Firefox 2.0.0.6

3. Install and proceed to open Firefox

4. Type in the address bar > about:config

5. You will notice in the window an additional adress bar with the word ‘filter ‘. Then type in the filter bar the word > network

6. Wait for a second or so.

7. Scroll down the list till you get to an entry that reads > network.http.pipelining

8. Highlight this entry and double-click - this should set it to ‘true’

9. Go down one line and find > network.http.pipelining.maxsrequests

10. Double click on network.http.pipelining.maxsrequests which will bring up a pop-up box.

11. Set your maxsrequests to > 8

12. Both entries should now be bold.

13. Go to ‘file ‘ > exit.

14. Restart Firefox and test the speed of your browser startup.

Remarkable hey !!!

14 tips by Alexander Hayes - http://alexanderhayes.com

Thanks to Magikboyee for the awesome educational experience
Watch the YouTube - http://youtube.com/watch?v=MYzA-m9y5Wg

Ok….ok…..maybe three times faster but hey check another three sites and see how long it takes to download

Two Years : Two Lives

Language warning ahead…..that’s if f*^% bothers you…..

Apparently it’s in the English dictionary and I hear it used in great quantities no matter where I go in life and no matter what social setting.

Thank you to all those who contributed to my CIT National TAFE Workshops presentation which showcases the “real” story behind m-learning today from many peoples opinions and from many peoples perspectives.

I’m sick to death of “experts” whose opinions over-ride their ability to connect and aggregate knowledge and hence my call on the network which I only do once in a while ……perhaps I’ll be doing more of it in the future.

Hope you enjoy the show which I’ll add audio to when I complete my presentation in Canberra.

Sharing resources

LUD

Connected Learning: Education in distributed networks

TouchGraph image of a Network

Download the MP3 file (58 min 13.4 Mb)

Synopsis

A presentation by Stephan Ridgway for the “Digital Media Components & Products” course at Randwick College, August 21, 2007

Links Relevant to the podcast:

Presentation wiki

Presentation Power Point

Technorati Tags: vte talkingvte networkedlearning education elearning web2.0 elearning nswlearnscope07

Online "identity" awareness

I’ve recently been reminded of my responsibility as teacher/mentor to ensure that people I work with in the computer lab clearly understand the concept of “worldwide” when using the Internet.

We ask our students to sign an agreement to allow us to use their work, photos, and voices on our class wikis, Protopages, etc and in digital stories (presentations, videos, and slide shows) which we create. However, many of our students have limited English, have little formal educational background, and come from countries or refugee camps where technological access is limited. I am never sure just how much they understand the concept of “public” when applied to the internet.

Danah Boyd in “Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What?” :
“The inherent replicability of bits and the power of search make most walls temporary, at best. This is why most participants in networked publics live by ‘security through obscurity’, where they assume that as long as no one cares about them, no one will come knocking. While this works for most, this puts all oppressed and controlled populations (including teenagers) at risk because it takes one motivated explorer to track down even the most obscured networked public presence.” The Knowledge Tree

I am still learning about the ways people can “find” me just by linking different public information from different sites - and I have thought through the issue, weighed my options and set my personal boundaries. If you want to see just how effective that is going to be, have a look at this site.

I was reminded of the importance of the whole area of identity online when one of our students was in a class where I was the support teacher. This student was in hiding (with support of the legal system). So, in a situation where part of the motivation for reading/writing/speaking is to see and hear yourself and your work “on the Internet” in a class wiki or Protopage, we could not use this student’s photo (class group or individual); or written and spoken description of favourite object; or even the personal name in lists, group tasks, or other students’ writing.

In this case the teachers were aware of the student’s issues - but what happens in many other classes/groups - particularly in large classes?

What is our responsibility in this? Danah Boyd (The Knowledge Tree ) has some thought-provoking suggestions.
How have you dealt with this? Are these suggestions realistic?

The Minimalist Approach : Your Story ( or lack of it )

[image : Mr Green ]

Every dog has his day and sometimes all the storytelling just gets down-right exhausting agreed !!?

I mean , how many ways can we tell our story and which master are we telling it too ?

As we investigate all differing forms of PLE’s or online personal learning environments here at NSW LearnScope we are heartened to hear that for some people it’s still begining……just starting……almost there.

I suspect for many people having a web identity is as threatening as beginning a new job, or moving house after thirty years.

Robyn and I have all along tried to persuade people that without a web identity or online presence that it’s almost nigh on impossible to remain authentic with learners who have built amazing portfolios, interacted for years or perhaps have migrated from MySpace through Facebook into Bebo. Other’s would argue that the intranet is about as far it goes and in no way , shape or form are we to photograph, record nor distribute anything relating to their presence as an employee within an organization.

To remain faceless or untraceable or to become information architects.

We live in an age where we are filmed, photographed, fingerprinted, medically surveyed, tracked, branded, observed, recorded etc. so in my thinking isn’t it safer to be telling the world the story you do want to tell ?

In fact, if you were to critically ( positively ) assay the number of ways in which the community knows of who you are and the way in which we are manipulated, influenced and involved then the act of “telling the story” for the generations who could benefit from your experience would seem minimal in resonance. It’s a bit like when you begin blogging……the first question you ask is ” Who is reading this anyway ?”

Or perhaps for others it’s a purposeful attention seeking power-trip that preclues them saying anything to anyone where the worlds accountability operates.

Or maybe it’s because they have nothing to give….only consume…….or is it fear and loathing ……..or perhaps it’s safety issue or that SMH said so……be carefullllllllllllll………we might sack you or imprison you for daring to say - BOO !

What ever the reason, or whether your name is John Hartley or Owen O’Neill give it some thought and let us know what you think an online PLE looks like…….maybe you know of some other minimalists at work - pardon the pun.

3 Tools : Adobe Connect

[image : flickrcc > search > tafensw ]

I was given twenty minutes to introduce the use of Adobe Connect and three core web 2.0 tools with the TAFECard and Student Affairs group at the request of Simon Paine, A/General Manager for Student Services who is also our FLAG rep. for NSW LearnScope.

Here is the recording for your perusal.

E-portfolios: friend or foe?

One of our regional events in NSW - now to be held in Sydney on 18 Sept - focuses on e-portfolios and personal learning environments. You might like to attend either F2F or online (team members - let me know if you do and I’ll find some $$).

You may have already seen my post on the topic over in the NSW LearnScope blog but I thought I’d raise the topic here to kick off some conversation leading up to our online meeting on Tuesday 4 September.

Here’s a summary of the questions I raised…
Why would we build an e-portfolio system at a purely VET level rather than education-wide?
What use would it be to a learner in 12 months when they leave the course?
What’s the connection to Recognition?
How do we capture the soft skills, the attitudinal traits, values, capabilities?
Who says what’s of value?
If the capturing of skills and capabilities and achievements IS required then what ‘tool’ do you use?
Should children be supported to develop an independent space that may be non-existent in 5 years but which allows choice and ownership?
Or do we develop a life long Govt structure that certainly will be controlled and monitored? How does this align to social networking spaces?
Will they enable the capture of personal interests and potential?
How do we support the type of e-portfolio where a child can upload a digital story they’ve created on the weekend or capture the praise of the next door neighbor they baby-sit for?
Are we going to have classes in e-portfolio production?
What type of content would they allow?
Will they be biased towards those who are good at writing?
If they are started from a young age how is the content managed?
How do we deal with progress in technology?
How do we transfer the content from cassette tape to DVD?
In a world encouraging ‘life wide’ learning an e-portfolio must be designed and managed by the individual. But how?
How do we integrate contributions by significant family and community?
Who controls content?
What of access and equity issues?
How do you know what evidence will be needed in 10 years time?

What are your thoughts? Are we biting off more than we can chew here?

Spinner : Scorp

[ image: millerspin]

Alex Miller’s up to some amazing things all Flair and Square.

Cuttin’ loose on the dance floor.

Now that voice is part and parcel of Secondlife and that we are all upgrading our broadband accounts ( we’ve all stopped smoking and can now afford it ), it’s only a matter of time before we trot off to build some VMX machines and /or contemplate whether Facebook is actually run by the military of the US of A and find some reason to Twitter about it.

After all we’ve run out of half-hour’s to spend so now it’s down to half a minute.

That’s it. My half minute’s up.

Howard’s YouTube

[image : nswlearnscope]

For that matter why does Rudd visit “establishments ” ?

Whatever your persuasion why not give our regional LearnScope events a look-see as you will need to be thinking about how , why, where and what -for in the next week or so.

All participants needs to register via the wiki page of that event in the ‘participants’ section. That means you will have had to register to add content to our wonderful wiki…..

There’s a range of topics, a range of parties, dinners, breakfasts and celebrities turning up so get crackin’ folks……time to get your names into the wiki.

Webheads : Is This Your PLE ?

[image : stabilo boss]

Roll up, roll up…….come and get your web 2.0 roll-your-own !

Come and see what constitutes a PLE ……is it one, two………no three hundred ways of making your world online tick and making your learning stick.

Is this your PLE or are you building another functionaliteeeeee ?

Blocklayer

[ image : blocklayer ]

If you can navigate your around the plethora of advertisements and actually punch some numbers into this demo then you’ll see it’s potential.

Seriously…..be done with the Google ads. and monetise your product otherwise…..it’s a great tool for tradies.

Thanks to Sue Waters !

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