Diigo Links 10/03/2007
elluminate :: Live eLearning Solution & Collaboration Solution Software
EdVentures in Technology
teaching, learning and changeDaily Diigo Links 03/19/2007 - The Presentation Edition
Today’s link list is wrapped around a number of tools which facilitate or contribute to the development of online presentations. The last link is worth considering although it doesn’t necessarily fit into the genre. Vicki Davis points out an ICT conference occuring this November 2007 in New Zealand with a focus on the kids. Check it out and think about how you could do something like this locally. How might this kick-start excitement over learning?
- Great site for free sounds (not songs) for use in presentations.
- post by edventures
Empressr: Presentation Creation, Management and Sharing
Comeeko: Creating comic strips from your photos
Media Convert: Convert and split sound, ringtones, images, docs
- Nice tool to have in the back pocket in order to develop screencasts and other media rich presentations.
- post by edventures
Coventi Pages: Collaborative editing
SplashCast: Create streaming media
Mogopop: Create video content for iPods
Cool Cat Teacher Blog: A kids ICT conference: Why Not?
- It strikes me that it would be a wonderful thing to create a bunch of
mini-conferences designed for students. Yes there are a ton of great
programs for exploration: Close Up, Robotics
competitions, etc. but what about a conference for kids or better yet a
conference for both kids and their teachers, presented by both kids and
exemplar teachers. A whole school conference that hits the sciences as
well as the humanities. A conference that energizes students about
learning, that generates excitement around exploration. - post by edventures
[tags]ict, presentation, software, ict [/tags]
Got your Groove on? Microsoft Groove that is
As evidenced by the past few posts, I’ve been evaluating the latest edition of Microsoft Office, Office 2007. I first came across Groove quite by accident. I was looking to create a new folder and so right-clicked on my desktop. I noticed a new and unfamiliar icon and conducted a Google search to see what on earth it was.
As it turns out, it wasn’t spyware (yes, I know I’m talking about Microsoft here) but rather a link to a new piece of software included in the Enterprise edition of Microsoft Office. This software operates on a peer-to-peer level using technologies originally developed by Groove Networks. Rather than collaborative materials being stored on a central server, they are distributed to the desktop of each team member. This might serve to assuage some of the fears some hold over their files being stored by someone other than themselves, i.e. Google.
Each Groove Workspace can include any or all of the following components:
- Calendar
- Chess Game (all work and no play y’know)
- Discussion
- Files
- Forms
- InfoPath Forms
- Issue Tracking
- Meetings
- Notepad
- Pictures
- SharePoint Files
- Sketchpad
The workspace itself is shown in the image below. The tools are available in tabs at the bottom of the workspace.
Here are a couple of useful links to learn more:
Wikipedia: Microsoft Office Groove
Microsoft Office Groove
Microsoft Groove Tutorial
Now the bad news, this is obviously a commercial product so there is a licensing cost involved. While Groove is included with the Enterprise version of Office 2007, it can apparently also be licensed through Microsoft individually. A cursory examination of their site did not reveal a pricing structure. So while this might be a great option for businesses or organizations with a Microsoft campus license, it is not likely to gain widespread adoption in the education arena due to its exclusive nature. Another option that may be available to schools with computers purchased after February 2007 might be the Meeting Space collaboration tool embedded within the Vista operating system. While not as robust as Groove, in terms of available features and functionality, Meeting Space might serve to facilitate synchronous collaborative efforts through its abilities to distribute agendas and files, share desktop screens and presentations and link activities.
Either way, it seems that only just now is Microsoft catching the “groove” that the rest of the web has enjoyed for the last couple years. It still has a long road ahead.
[tags]microsoft, groove, collaboration, software, office2007 [/tags]
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Blackboard Patent Reviewed, Not Rejected (Yet)
According to Groklaw and a press release from the Software Freedom Law Center, the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) ordered a re-examination of Blackboard’s patent on certain aspects of the e-learning environment.
The Patent Office found that prior art cited in SFLC’s
request raises “a substantial new question of patentability” regarding
all 44 claims of Blackboard’s patent….A re-examination of this type usually takes one or two years to
complete. Roughly 70% of re-examinations are successful in having a
patent narrowed or completely revoked.
This is very interesting news for those who have been following this issue since Blackboard’s announcement of their patent last summer and their subsequent lawsuit against their next strongest competitor (in terms of market share) Desire2Learn. While this may take up to two years, a patent rejection might well be the impetus that is needed to bring Blackboard back to reality. The corporate monolith mentality and disdain for their user community has not served them well in the past year.
[tags]blackboard, patent, software, freedom, lawsuit, desire2learn, lms, cms [/tags]
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Social Software in the Classroom: Happy Marriage or Clash of Cultures?
Notes from this session:
What does social software mean to our students?
Eric Gordon mentions a sense of possession, that they are creating a space that is inherently their own, and that often they enter physical classrooms with that same expectation. He also states that their expectations of our curriculum entail a a desire for personal relevance, “What does this mean to me?”
He cites the allure of access (to content) without liability, referencing the example of Napster’s quote: “Own Nothing; Have Everything.” Is this the equivalent of leasing content?
Gordon also mentions the common desire for instant access which I equate to the stereotypical males desire for immediate gratification. If it’s out there, why should I need to wait to access it in a physical realm?
Lastly, a snippet from a Roger Waters Radio K.A.O.S. tune, Home, “Everybody wants somehwer they call home” - virtual personal spaces such as mySpace, Facebook, blogs, even Second Life (which is the focus of the next session) are important because they allow us to extend our xxx to the physical.
How do students perceive and use social software environments?
Often used as a Personal Management system via the implementation of RSS, blogs, mySpace, etc. the value to the learner is in the aggregation, xxx convenience in accessing…content.
Desire for personal relevance
There is also an interesting dichotomy between perceptions of privacy and publicity. Some of the perceptions held and distinctions made are that open areas such as Facebook, mySpace,Orkut, Friendster, etc. are assumed private, while academic areas such as learning management systems, prescribed blogs and other directed learning tools are assumed public (due to the sense of evaluation by profs and peers).
Digital Social Networks typically converse in chat speak versus the
more academic dialogue and discourse which demonstrates the following
characteristics:
- self-reflexive - comments scutinized and reflected upon, peers/profs as audience
- delimited - scale is localized and definable
- contributive - content added to pre-defined framework of analysis
- self-policing - established hierarchies maintain standards of conversation
Caveat: These are my interpretations and are subject to the vagaries of my muddled mind.
[tags]sstl2006, social, software, Gordon, digital, networks, myspace, facebook, blog, second_life, learning, environment, personal[/tags]
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NERCOMP SIG - Social Software for Teaching & Learning
Subtitled Insights from Early Adopters, this SIG advertises sessions on the following topics:
- Social Software in the Classroom: Happy Marriage or Clash of Cultures? (Eric Gordon, Emerson)
- Teaching and Learning in a Virtual World (Rebecca Nesson, Harvard)
- Electronic Constructivism: Inspiring and Motivating Students with Thought Provoking Questions and Emerging Technologies (Dr. Maureen Brown Yoder, Lesley University)
- Social Computing Tools in the Curriculum (Katie Livingston Vale, MIT)
More information is available at the Social Software SIG website including links to presentations and referenced materials.
It also leaves time at the end for furthering the creation of an online community of practice for EdTechies. This is probably the part I am looking forward to the most. I’ll post the details of the sessions that strike me although I’ve got to duck out of the first one to call into a teleconference to discuss Friday’s e-Portfolio summit.
The trip down from NH was a good 3 hours and 45 minutes but luckily, I’ve travelled down here with a colleague of mine, Casey Bisson of Maison Bisson fame so the trip was far more enjoyable than it might have been otherwise.
technorati tags:sstl2006,nercomp, sig, social, software, teaching, learning, technology, constructivism
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From the Chronicle of Higher Education
My CIO passed an article on to me from the January 27th edition of The Chronicle. (Note that the Chronicle requires subscription so access to this article is limited.)
Entitled "Facing the Faceboook," it was authored by Michael Bugeja of Iowa State University, and at first glance seemed to deal primarily with the perceptions of faculty about the Facebook social networking service. Had the article maintained that scope, I wouldn’t be quite so torqued as I find myself at the moment. The author introduces the concerns that many of us in the field of education (and not just edtech) have been talking about for the better part of a year regarding the lack of concern over privacy, content and the pervasive nature of this social app.
Unfortunately, there are a number of broad assumptions and generalizations about the negative impact of technology and social networking. Here are some of the quotes from that article that I found frustrating because the are not backed by primary sources (the bolding is my own):
"To be sure, classroom distractions have plagued teachers in less technological times. In my era, there was the ubiquitous comic book hidden in a boring text. A comic book cannot compare with a computer, of course. Neither did it require university money at the expense of faculty jobs."
This is an inflammatory statement with no supporting references. Is it true that technology is replacing our faculty or is that a faulty attribution based solely on one’s individual opinion?
"John W. Curtis, research director at the American Association of University Professors, believes that investment in technology is one of several factors responsible for the well-documented loss of tenured positions in the past decade."
The key phrase here is "one of the factors." What are the others and where does technology fall in terms of its true impact on this loss?
"Unless we reassess our high-tech priorities, issues associated with insensitivity, indiscretion, bias, and fabrication will consume us in higher education."
Is the assumption here that technology is to blame for our continuing devolvement? For when it comes to the social failings quoted above, these our human culture has faced since the dawn of its age. Lest we forget that technology is simply a means and not an end. It is a tool and as such is only as effective as the one wielding it. As the employer of that tool, it is we who determine its impact on our culture, and whether it is used to build or to destroy. Educators throughout the spectrum have been struggling with these topics for far longer than technology has been on the scene.
"… the younger generation views technology largely as a means of delivering entertainment—be it music, video games, Internet access, or television—and secondarily, as a means of communicating."
I’m not sure I can support this statement, particularly in light of the reports coming out of the Pew Internet and American Life project which clearly show our "net gen" or millenials as content creators, rather than passive consumers. This begs the question about how we define communication and what it means to communicate ideas, thoughts and knowledge. Simply because a certain generation does not communicate in an historically acceptable fashion should not invalidate their methodology.
"… we must make hard decisions about our investment in technology and our tradition of high standards."
Should technology and standards be treated as mutually exclusive? I would hope not.
The Chronicle: 1/27/2006: Facing the Facebook (while the link lasts)
Looks like I am not alone. Both Bryan Alexander and Stephen Downes are following this as well.
technorati tags: facebook, chronicle, higher, education, university, college, social, software, networking
ED506 - The focus of my examination
As I mentioned in an earlier post, the focus of my M.Ed. is on educational technology, specifically the prescriptive application of the appropriate technology to achieve or improve an educational experience. Over the past 6 months or so, I have found myself exploring an explosion in innovative web-based applications which have been assigned the unofficial moniker of Web 2.0. Blogs, podcasts, wikis, social bookmarks, aggregators and virtual communities (the online equivalent of social networks) are just some of the latest trends in the online experience. That is all well and good you might say, but why is this important to me as an educator?
Two recent research studies have led to some startling revelations about our current generation of young learners. In early November 2005, the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) published the ECAR Study of Students and Information Technology, 2005: Convenience, Connection, Control, and Learning in which they describe the characteristics and aptitudes of the generation that has been termed the “digital natives.” Other monikers include the “net generation,” the “twitch generation” and the “Millenials.” Around the same time, the Pew Internet & American Life Project published their report, “Teen Content Creators and Consumers.”
Each of these studies identified trends in this generation of learners that are important for educators to bear in mind. The ECAR report shows that among the participating colleges and universities:
- 96% of student respondents own at least one computer
- 55.6% of these computers are laptops, an increase of 10% over the 2004 results
- Yet only 14.1% of the students actually bring these laptops to class
- 90% of student respondents had access to broadband connections
- The average student spends 11 - 15 hours per week on their computers.
One important item to note is that while students self-reported that they were sufficiently versed in computer and internet technologies, ECAR data
“…suggests that students are possibly rating their skills higher than they ought. Students report difficulty with new kinds of applications or technology, and troubleshooting their computers.”
As educators we should bear in mind that comfort with computers and applications does not necessarily imply an ability to employ those skills for academic purposes. In addition, a technology proficiency gap already exists between the skill levels and technology preferences of the incoming freshman and outgoing seniors. In a span of only four years, there is already a significant difference in the aptitudes and comprehension of our learners. This gap is borne out, at least allegorically, by my experiences working with students at both ends of the spectrum in my role as the coordinator of the Technology & Learning Center on my campus. Couple this with the fact that sum of our human knowledge has grown more in the past ten years than at any other point in our history and according to the American Society of Training and Documentation (ASTD) continues to double every 18 months (Siemens 2004), it is clear that if this is a challenging time to be an educator, just imagine how overwhelming it can seem to our learners.
Unlike the ECAR report which identified trends in students’ use of and comfort with technology, the Pew Report examined the role of teens in content creation on the internet and summarizes their findings as follows (this is a national study; I have not yet found international statistics for correlation):
- 57% of online teens are creating content for the internet
- 19% of online teens keep a blog, 38% read them
- 15-17 year old girls are the predominant bloggers
- Teen bloggers are tech-savvy and heavy internet users
While ECAR identified four themes in student expectation of information technologies: convenience, connection, control and learning, we will, for the purposes of this project, focus on the aspects of connection and learning as they apply to educational technologies. The prevailing theme in the Pew Report is that our millennial learners are no longer satisfied with being content consumers, they are becoming content creators. These trends, connection and learning, and content creation, will become pivotal as we explore the potential impact that Web 2.0 applications can have on facilitating the learning process for this digital native generation.
technorati tags: web20, web, 2.0, learning, technology, educause, ecar, connectivism, philosophy, theory, social, software, networking, ed506
