Teaching and Learning in Networks

This online event is open to everyone!

eCampusAlberta, Alberta-North, and BCcampus invite you to a 90-minute web conference as part of the Best Practice in Upgrading Online Conference organized by Bow Valley College and NorQuest College.

When: March 24, 2010 @ 13:00 pm PDT (your time zone)
Presenter: - George Siemens
Where: Elluminate Live (see details)

Moderator:
Randy LaBonte, PD Coordinator, Alberta-North

Presenter:
George Siemens, Social Media Strategist, Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Institute (TEKRI), Athabasca University.

Session Description
Social media and networked technologies have become prominent in society. In response, educators have started to actively research how social and technological networks impact the role of the teacher. Decentralized learning content and distributed learner interactions call into question many of the activities teachers perform in traditional courses and classrooms. This presentation will explore participatory pedagogy and highlight practical activities teachers can utilize to increase learner involvement in networks.

How do YOU connect online?

ETUG member D'Arcy Norman is asking this question for his non-traditional assignment in a graduate level course he is taking on Technology & Society:

How do YOU connect online?

More information about the project and how to submit your contribution is available on the Connect Project site.

The Open Educator as DJ - Towards a Practice of Remix

Scott Leslie's keynote at the 2009 Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange (TTIX)

The Urgency of Open Education

Brian Lamb's keynote at the 2009 Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange (TTIX)

I'm just sayin'

Put this report:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/twitter/5050261/Twitter-is-put-on-new-primary-school-curriculum.html

together with this quote:
"Every company needs to embrace and leverage Twitter before Twitter replaces them."
(http://thebillionairegirl.wordpress.com/twitter-for-dummies/)

Heads up, Education. And educators!

Twitter for Teachers: A Collaborative Effort to Teach Teachers About Twitter

A wiki site where you can read and/or contribute your own ideas.

"This e-book is intended for use by teachers from primary, elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools. The contents of the book are made available under an attribution, non-commercial, share-alike Creative Commons license."

Twitter for Academia

Dave Parry explains:

"I must admit that when I first heard about Twitter I thought it represented the apex of what concerns me about internet technology: solipsism and sound-bite communication. ...Although I am still beginning to wrap my head around all of its varied uses—I think for the most part Twitter users themselves are still figuring this out—I have been using it for over six months now and come up with some academic uses. ...Some of these ideas are general, and some are specifically from a Twittering assignment I did for a class last semester. When I first added it to the syllabus I had no idea what to expect. It was just sort of an experiment that I had planned for the end of the semester (all of the students signed up for twitter and followed each other). After using it I have to say it was one of the better things I did with that class, for reasons I will explain below."

Can we use Twitter for educational activities?

In short, yes! Of course! The full article is interesting, but if you're in a hurry, scroll about halfway down the article box to "Potential Educational Uses of Twitter". Excellent tips and ideas.

21 Interesting Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom - Google Docs

A slideshow; each slide has an excellent, fun, educational suggestion. I'm impressed by the creativity of the educators who contributed these ideas!

I tried embedding the video here, but it was too big for my column and the right half of it disappeared.

50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Education

From Carol Cooper-Taylor, this covers topics like First Steps, What to Tweet, Some Sanity For You, Negatives People Will Throw at You, Positives You Can Throw Back.

Effective Use of Social Software to Support Student Learning and Engagement

A report of a study done in the UK.

"This study provides insights about the: educational goals of using social software tools; enablers or drivers within the institution, or from external sources which positively influence the adoption of social software; benefits to the students, educators and institutions; challenges that may influence a social software initiative; and issues that need to be considered in a social software initiative. ...Our investigations have shown that social software tools support a variety of ways of learning. ...The educator’s role is changing from being a provider of information to a facilitator or moderator, which raises training needs, workload issues, and adjusting to a ‘new’ way of teaching."

[the bold is my emphasis]

Twitter in Education

You're going to get more posts from me about Twitter. I've started a new keyword label/tag for my blog. I'll try to focus my selection on articles that address Twitter's relevance for educators and students.

Here are a couple more today:

1. My own blog post: why I'm a fan after 1 week trial of twitter.

2. Why You Should Be on Twitter: "Don't listen to the critics. Twitter is a great forum for communication and community building." It's a long-ish article but if you're an educator concerned about the use of twitter by students both inside and out of the classroom, please read the whole thing. "...rather than engaging in forms of unneeded media panic, we need more thoughtful, more flexible accounts of how media work."

3. Scroll down to see my previous post: How to Present While People are Twittering

follow me on twitter! 

How to Present While People are Twittering

So, you're giving a lecture, and your students are all focussed on their handhelds, twittering back and forth or to/from the world. Read this article and you'll begin to feel differently about it all. As the article points out, at least they're not falling asleep!

The article has a very positive spin about what it calls "the backchannel". It's about people at conferences, but the positive notes and advice are something teachers ought to read and think about!

follow me on twitter! 

txtng is gd 4 lrng

"Texting does not erode children’s ability to read and write. On the contrary, literacy improves. The latest studies (from a team at Coventry University) have found strong positive links between the use of text language and the skills underlying success in standard English in pre-teenage children. The more abbreviations in their messages, the higher they scored on tests of reading and vocabulary. The children who were better at spelling and writing used the most textisms. And the younger they received their first phone, the higher their scores."

italki - Language Exchange and Learning Community

"...where you can find everything you need to learn a language. italki is a social network and an online resource for learning foreign languages."

Dancing with the devil: a view from Blackboard’s European conference

What's new & coming soon in the Blackboard systems? See this blog post written by Niall Sclater, a Moodle proponent who attended the Spring '08 Bb European Conference.

Seven Habits of Highly Connected People

Seven Habits of Highly Connected People: By Stephen Downes, posted in Lisa Neal's blog (and soon to appear in eLearn magazine). He makes some excellent observations. If you want to learn how to expand your abilities and presence within online social networking, this is a good place to start. My favorite is "Be yourself:...Learning and communicating are not merely acts of sending content over a wire. They are about engaging in (what Wittgenstein called) a ‘Way of Life’. Having a cat is as important for a physicist as having an advanced research lab..." (So I've been thinking I'm a computer addict, but actually it's just that I'm involved in a Way Of Life.)

Web 2.0 Applications (MyOffice 2.0 Setup)

Stephen Downes calls this page "a fantastic collection of web 2.0 applications that effectively replace the standard desktop." A great one-stop resource for applications, organized into sections according to what they're used for, and complete with links to see/get them. Even if you're just learning what a Web 2.0 application is and want to see common examples, you'll recognize a lot of them!

Web 3.0 has long since passed Web 2.0 in Education for 2020

A peek into the future (2020), written in present tense. Check out the diagrams; they're interesting studies / descriptions about what Web 3.0 is, what other web aspects and trends it encompasses.

Will Web 3.0 and 4.0 Change Education?

If you're just getting what Web 2.0 is all about, maybe these newer terms are a bit much. But check out this at EduTechie.com article anyway, just so you know what's being referred to.