OpenEd preconference day

Plan to meet up with Randy Fisher today.  I know what he will ask me about.  I really should shift my stuff to wikieducator and kill off akowiki.  Got some questions as well.

OpenEd: already too much to think about.

Random sessions of particular interest

1. John Mott: PLE’s and LMS’s: “Traditional LMSs are not open. PLEs are. But there’s a gap between the two that poses problems for higher education. While PLEs promise significant improvements in student engagement, flexibility and transparency, institutions are struggling to manage student enrollments, gathering of student work, conducting assessment across various PLE spaces, maintaining secure student records (compliant with FERPA guidelines), etc. ”

Hmm.  What do I think of this?  One person I’d like to chat to.

2. More on this topic: “It is vital that education realizes the informatics ground has shifted.  We can now realize the pedagogical and information-architectural limitations of the CMS, and so choose wisely when to use it.  We can devote our energies to using social media more widely, but also more effectively.  A greater participation in Web 2.0 means more use cases, further discussions of practice, and further development of our collective knowledge.” Brian Alexander’s session.  Social media is Killing the LMS star.

I still like the secure home base as a lunching ground.  The wild west of just everything public is still a bit much for me.  Maybe my students also.  These two sessions look really well balanced.

More sometime.

August 12th, 2009 | Tags: , | Category: PLE, Web 2.0 | Leave a comment

PLE’s (My inevitable post)

I’ve been in and out of this topic for a month, ever since the SCoPE discussion finished.  I don’t have a coherent view, and whenever I’ve talked about them it’s been more a show and tell and dialogue about our lives and personal habits.  Tonight on a chat Leigh referred to them as an ‘ethic’.  Agreed.  Not a thing.

Apparently they (PLE’s) are a big fat nothing. Alex Hayes on the Connections and Conversations blog, from the first of the four Learnscope events. (Like that name!!)

biffatzero.jpg

A story . . . (the second for today, sorry)

The blind men and the elephant: In various versions of the tale, a group of blind men (or men in the dark) touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one touches a different part, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then compare notes on what they felt, and learn they are in complete disagreement. The story is used to indicate that reality may be viewed differently depending upon one’s perspective, showing how absolute truths may be relative; the deceptive world of half-truths.

From something closer to the supposed original story:

“Just so are these preachers and scholars holding various views blind and unseeing…. In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling, and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus.”

Then the Exalted One rendered this meaning by uttering this verse of uplift

          O how they cling and wrangle, some who claim
For preacher and monk the honored name!
For, quarreling, each to his view they cling.
Such folk see only one side of a thing.

Udana 68-69

I really enjoy talking about the habits and ethics around a PLE.  For me it is a useful container to put ideas into, and I’ve had some great sessions.  I’ve been unable to really ‘define’ mine in a nice neat succinct description.  Sure I have delicious, bloglines, gmail, evernote, filing cabinet(s), 1B5′s, Firefox (plus plugins), google docs, skype (etc) . . .  but otherwise I am too shambolic.

Maybe to be continued.

Miscellaneous reflections. 

  • There are a lot of little presentations on the web now.  Huge and rich resources on all sorts of things.
  • Lots of conferences leave their legacy online.  Learnscope. TAFE linkups
  • Amazing what is being done through the Otago Poly course.
  • So much, there is just so much. . .   an ocean of ideas and I have a teaspoon.
September 21st, 2007 | Category: Blogging, PLE, Web 2.0, Whimsey | Leave a comment

How Many Forums in a PD Community Space

What should you have on a professional development site to support a PD community?
This kind of community is a strange entity: they are NOT usually in existance purely for their own interest, their own needs and purposes; they have a sponsor, who has great plans for their lives.
How much automony do you give the participants? Etienne talked about problems when CoP’s get jobs to do. They are then a project group or a task force.

I think there are at least five key functions needed.

  1. The professional discussion area. Where you talk largley business. I sometimes call this ‘On task-talk’.
  2. The social area. “The Locker Room” for a sports team. The “19th Hole” for a golfing group. “The caf”. I remember when Bron pointed out that “Lounge” was probably not culturally inclusive. :-)
    I use a standard phrase: “For related but off task discussion”
  3. Tech Help. :-) I used to call this Q&A, but the problem came when posters posted about any questions like “When is Task 2 due?” and “Where are we meeting on Friday?”. I have had 2 forums, one for tech Q&A and another for on-task questions. Now I just let the questions emerge in the Professional discussion area.
  4. Reflections. Where do you ponder and reflect on what you are learning.
  5. ?? I’m sure I had a fifth in mind when I started this post, but do you think I can remember it?? **

What happens if posts end up in the wrong place? (Who cares)

What happens if it’s a reflection question on a social and professional matter? “Should we talk about work at next week’s end of match function at the dux?” (Put it in the nearest forum to you when you get the urge to post)

cpSquare has a “Help in Real Time” forum for really urgent queries. Good idea.

OK. Why is this important? *

[28th March 2006]

  1. *I’ve lost the rest of this post. When I ported over the posts from my old pLog Blog (Now lifetype) I forgot the second part to some posts was in a separate table, until after Bruce had deleted the MySQL tables.
  2. **Still canot think of the fifth forum. Lets stop at 4.
August 30th, 2005 | Tags: , | Category: Communities, PLE | Leave a comment