Does it matter if students stop using courseware when the course ends? Digilit musings

However, a bigger concern is for those services where I was able to track usage was that after the course ended, so did student use. via scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com This experience mirrors ours, though I only have anecdote to support it. Courses where PebblePad is used do not seem to engender an extended adoption of the platform … Continue reading Does it matter if students stop using courseware when the course ends? Digilit musings

If the Twitterverse isn’t fed from outside, it is just an echo chamber #pcthe

The question of whether you can rely on Twitter to filter your reading is problematic. Yes following 8,000 people (or however many) will probably serve to satisfy most information needs. I am sure that by some number (10? 100? 1000?) a Twitter follower will be deep into a long tail of duplication. The other 40,000,000 … Continue reading If the Twitterverse isn’t fed from outside, it is just an echo chamber #pcthe

Mail lists and more open social software

Chris Rust sent me a link. He said: An Innocuous list you might want to give to the new staff course? Even better, you might get them to discuss adding their own?! Best wishes Chris --------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: TP Msg. #961 The Ten Worst Teaching Mistakes From: "Rick Reis" [deleted] Date: Tue, September … Continue reading Mail lists and more open social software

Sustaining support

Further to the last post, Sustaining Communities, the tension in higher education is between: open educational dialogue and institutional pragmatics (a 1000 mile question?). Open educational dialogue is concerned with networks or communities for information sharing, which take a user-centred approach to learning and design for learning on all scales. These networks make use of … Continue reading Sustaining support

New lecturer’s work blog

There is a tradition of keeping "work blogs". Scott Wilson's workblog is a touchstone for this kind of online identity and presence. Scott writes a lot on identity and presence and education (and here and here). This is written in my workblog. I feed stuff into here from my Posterous account. I use Posterous to … Continue reading New lecturer’s work blog

A response to Leigh Blackall: The New Colonialism in OER

In many respects, OER and the Creative Commons licenses help propel US centered ideas of copyright and intellectual property, indirectly inserting such ideas on the back of moral concepts such as sharing, freedom and openness, as though sharing, freedom and openness didn't exist before, and that the only way to protect such notions is with … Continue reading A response to Leigh Blackall: The New Colonialism in OER

Defining “Creepy Treehouse” #pcthe

In the field of educational technology a creepy treehouse is an institutionally controlled technology/tool that emulates or mimics pre-existing technologies or tools that may already be in use by the learners, or by learners’ peer groups. Though such systems may be seen as innovative or problem-solving to the institution, they may repulse some users who … Continue reading Defining “Creepy Treehouse” #pcthe

Josie Fraser (@josiefraser) on 3 ways to characterise online identity

There are three main ways we can characterise most peoples online internet and mobile activity and presence. Let me state up front that these distinctions are purposely blunt, but do act as effective and critical distinctions, especially when talking to people about how and why they can manage their online identities. via fraser.typepad.com Josie Fraser … Continue reading Josie Fraser (@josiefraser) on 3 ways to characterise online identity

Can a PeopleWeb be built on restricted vocabularies? @andypowe11

Andy Powell (@andypowe11) shared the text of Ramakrishnan & Tomkins (2007) "Toward a PeopleWeb". According to the authors, "Attentional metadata is increasingly sought after and is beginning to accumulate in significant volume, suggesting a paradigm shift - and simultaneously raising serious questions about user privacy." (63) A shift from what to what, I wonder? They … Continue reading Can a PeopleWeb be built on restricted vocabularies? @andypowe11

@eframework technical model: a key enabler of open education dialogue? #jiscssbr

e-framework.org The eFramework people have published their technical model here: http://www.e-framework.org/Resources/TechnicalModel/tabid/1008/Default.aspx The model depends on continuing feedback from the community. Their aim is to develop "... a common approach to the description of service-oriented design and analysis," and provide "... a neutral means to articulate the design of software services" in order "...to assist international … Continue reading @eframework technical model: a key enabler of open education dialogue? #jiscssbr