twopointoh2009summer

Feedback Monday

2009-06-22T10:37:00.003+01:00

Well, we're past the half-way mark - and your assignment is now in view!

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you'll make of it and to seeing what you've made of the various new ways of working and (very often) thinking on the course.

Don't forget, if you ever feel a bit lost, or need answers to questions, I always try to respond tout de suite - and your lovely supportive groups and mentors are there for you, too!

This particular iteration of the course has really taken me by surprise for a number of reasons - I think it's especially because of the change to a group-based format, which has challenged the basis of the course 'delivery'. And I seem to be completely overhauling the course in response to your feedback - but it's lovely and thank you! I'm especially grateful to you for just letting me know how the course feels from your point of view - if learning ain't comfortable, then it just ain't learning!

So, my big lesson from this last week focuses on engagement with tasks in between the face to face sessions, which could be improved. Key thing is that they seem somewhat artificial and I think that's why people are not engaging with them so much. Two things I'm thinking about:

Run the whole course as a task-based EBL course, whereby the groups engage in a six-week long project-style task so that any activities engaged in do have an overall purpose. Not quite sure what the driver might be for colleagues to engage in such demanding work though...
Run the course over a single day, again with tasks driving the day - however, I don't know if there would be enough time for the shock of the new to subside in such a time scheme

As usual, I'd be glad of your thoughts on this! :-)

Week 3, Task 2: Presentation Preparation

2009-06-19T14:31:00.002+01:00

This task is intended to help you begin to prepare for your final presentation:

Blog about MindMeister, to include some discussion of your presentation task - especially with regard to how you might go about it and which Web 2.0 tools might best help you.
Add a picture or a video to your blog to illustrate your blog post or as the subject of your blog post (this is simply intended to underline the fact that blog posts look better with pictures in them!).
Work as a team to begin to create a set of shared bookmarks in Del.icio.us to support your presentation task - include me in your sharing!
Work as a team to create bulleted list of what makes a good blog (use a self-created Google Document - making sure that I'm invited as a viewer).

Week 3, Task 1: Blogging Delicious

2009-06-19T14:30:00.000+01:00

Each of you in your group, create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool. Can you see the potential of this tool for research or learning? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere? How might this tool best be used to support your work?

Getting Social with Delicious Bookmarking and Tags

2009-06-18T12:00:00.000+01:00

I hope you're enjoying the course so far - here's a little taster of the coming session, which is primarily about Social Bookmarking.

What does Social Bookmarking do? Simply put, it's a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet. Okay, so, why should you use a social bookmarking site (like Del.icio.us, for example) when you can save your Bookmarks (or Favourites) in your browser? Well:

it's computer-independent, so whether your're at work or at home or in another country, you've always got access to your bookmarks
you don't have to think about a hierarchical ordering system, rather you can just tag your bookmarks
you can collaborate with others to create a shared resource - always much more powerful than what we can do alone
you can search for other people's bookmarked resources

In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, but can be saved privately, shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private domains. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine. This is instead of the traditional browser-based system of folders.

Additionally, you may - or may not! - have come across the word folksonomy and wondered what it means. It comes from the word taxonomy, which is the practice and science of classification - something Universities are very familiar with. Folksonomy is taxonomy in the hands of the masses. It's what happens when a user makes up his or her own words, or tags, to classify things like bookmarks on De.licio.us or blog posts.

More on Social Bookmarking here and on Tagging here. More on del.icio.us here as well as a very good Del.icio.us tutorial.

And if you want to know if Del.icio.us is really any good, and what you might use it for, get some ideas from what people say about it here, where it was voted as the number one in the top 100 tools for online learning for 2008 and only pushed to number 2 this year because of the unassuming but all-conquering Twitter (next week!).

Session 2: The Death of Google Groups

2009-06-15T20:11:00.006+01:00

Friday's session was less of an anxious affair and I'm really pleased about that - however, I still felt that I was trying to cram a quart in a pintpot, so some of the following changes may help next time:

Google Groups are history - so we are now less complicated
I will estimate timings for activities in class and try to stick to them
I will restrict the online activities to two only per week

Generally, the sessions would benefit from a slower pace, but I'm a bit wary of taking too much out. It has been suggested that perhaps it would be better if the sessions were one and a half hours long - I'm not sure, what do you all think?

I'm still really happy about the way the course is going, though, and especially about our group setup, which seems to be working tremendously - and I'm grateful once again to our marvellous mentors for their work.

By the way, I've added some first-thoughts answers to the 'tough questions' doc as promised - but do go in there and add your two penneth

Week 2, Task 2: My first blog - could it be yours?

2009-06-12T14:27:00.000+01:00

There is a Google doc shared by you all here - add your examples of 'blogs-u-like' and 'how not to blog', followed by the principles of good blogs.
Post a blog based on your recent experience: what advice would you give to somebody writing their first blog? Comment on your colleagues' postings.
Keep looking at blogs and blogging on blogs – don't forget, it's your blog: you don't have to wait for course instructions - you are encouraged to start to develop your own theme: so, suggest up to 3 ideas for a blog which you think you could sustain (ie, it wouldn't become boring or a chore for you and you would be spurred to blog regularly and to comment on others' blogs).
If you create your own blog at any time - do consider sharing it with colleagues - and if colleagues share theirs with you, do go and comment on it.

Week 2, Task 1:

2009-06-12T14:24:00.002+01:00

Each of you post to your group blog about "RSS Feeds and Readers" - and comment on your colleagues' posts.

Don’t know what to blog about? Think about these questions:

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
What don't you like or find confusing?
How do you think you might be able to use this technology for learning and teaching, in your work or personal life?
How can Universities use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?

Feedback

2009-06-11T16:32:00.002+01:00

Don't forget to give your feedback on your first week of Web 2.0 for Collaboration and Learning. Did you collaborate? Did you learn? Did you Web 2.0, whatever that might be?

Click here for Google Groups Feedback

Enter the Blogosphere

2009-06-11T16:20:00.000+01:00

How to search for blogs - or enter the blogosphere.

There are others, but Google Blog Search seems to do the trick and it's not limited to its own blogger blogs: http://www.google.com/blogsearch

Alternatively, you could just click on 'Next Blog' at the top of your own blog (if the author has removed this, just hit your browser 'back' button and click 'Next Blog' again).

Introduction to the Course

2009-06-09T15:25:00.011+01:00

I made this video as a direct result of feedback from week 1 - I hope it helps you to get a fuller picture of what the course is about and of the various course elements. Do let me know if there's anything that's not clear or anything that is missing. :-)

Click on the little square at bottom right of the video for a full-screen version.

Session 1: Crossing from the outer circle...

2009-06-06T16:26:00.004+01:00

I feel the need to post giving some feedback myself from yesterday's hothouse of a session. But first of all, I'd like to pay tribute to your perserverance and, especially, to the marvelous work of the mentors - as tricky as the first half of the session was, I have absolutely no doubt that it would have completely collapsed without your help: thank you! As I say, though, my thanks are for all of you on the course - and one comment in particular stands out as encouraging: 'we'll all help each other'. From what I've seen so far, that is certainly true.

Apart from it not being the manual handling course (lol) the main anxieties were about managing large amounts of information, about keeping up, simply having time to get the work done. These are issues that are not going to go away, and we need to discuss them as we go, but as somebody has suggested things need to slow down in the first session (feeling battered is not good!). Therefore, key changes for the next time I run the course:

I will give access to Google Groups and each group's blog before the course begins
I will create and upload a video or narrated slideshow of the teacher-talking bit in the session, with an introduction and overview to the course and the three key tools of the course (course blog, course wiki, Google Groups) - again, to be viewed prior to the start of the course.

Hopefully , these two measures will allow everybody to get a better overview of what's going on, reducing confusion and anxiety in class and leaving us free to focus on the main tasks in hand, communication, collaboration and learning.

The main hopes for the course seem to have been about using web 2.0 in learning and teaching and understanding more about web 2.0 itself. I'll try to make sure the tasks take this joint focus, but do please remind me if they don't.

Somebody suggested that we'd perhaps moved from the outer circle of a community of practice - I'd not thought of things in this way, and it seems a lovely clear way to think the theory of Communities of Practice through - a number of circles of participation, perhaps we're onto a really cool way of thinking through the lived experience of a community of practice..?

Task 3: Guide to Good Blogs

2009-06-05T14:32:00.000+01:00

Individualy, look around the blogosphere and report on two blogs you really like, one that confuses you and one you dislike (for whatever reason);
In your group, using an appropriate online space, brainstorm the features of a good blog and create a bulleted list;
Add your list to the Google Document "Guide to Good Blogs"
Post about your experience of this task - include a link to the "Guide to Good Blogs"

Task 2: Top Ten Tools for e-Learning

2009-06-05T14:31:00.002+01:00

This is a group task.

Each of you choose (a different) one of the Top Ten Tools for e-Learning to try out.

Post to your group blog a review of how the tool was, what you like or don't like about it and a way that you could see yourself, students, academic or support staff using this service.

Then, go and write at least three comments on the posts from the other groups.

Task 1: What is Web 2.0?

2009-06-05T14:30:00.001+01:00

That is a good question and I'm not sure if Google gets us nearer to a definition...

To help us form an understanding of the Web 2.0 look at the following:

a communal definition/overview of Web 2.0 from Wikipedia
getting old now, but a readable Guardian perspective
a video explanation of Web 2.0 and a video response to the explanation.

After reviewing the linked resources please leave a comment (here) on what you think Web 2.0 is, ask a question about Web 2.0, or provide the URL of another resource attempting to explain Web 2.0. Feel free to respond to other people's comments, too.

If you're really cra... keen, you can have a peek at Web 3.0

Welcome to Web 2.0 for Collaboration and Learning

2009-06-02T15:43:00.001+01:00

I'll be using this blog to communicate with you as the course progresses, including information about tasks and so on.

As you enter into the world of blogging remember this is your voice so just be yourself. Over time, a blog that is written in an authentic voice instead of a made up personae holds the attention of the audience longer and serves the author better.

Remember also that a blog publishes in 'reverse' order from what you might be used to.

If you find you need extra help with any particular task, remember that your colleagues in your new community of practice itself is your best resource - and you should make use of the communications tools that you are acquiring along the way. Naturally, I'm here to support everything you do, so don't hesitate to get in touch at any time and by any means...

Finally, do take a few minutes out to listen to two great (first-time) podcasts from a previous iteration of the course:

Podcast created by Lisa, Philippa and Mary: participant introduction to the Web 2.0 course
Podcast created by Tom, Rita, Oliver and Dave: Web 2.0 Rocks!