Short paper which briefly looks at the opportunities offered by web 2.0 technology (wikis, blogging etc.) in terms of enabling students to become content creators. Consideration is given the notion of ‘pedagogy 2.0’ which is essentially a learner centred environment founded on constructivist principles.

“Pedagogy 2.0 is defined by:

• Content: Microunits that augment thinking and cognition by offering diverse perspectives and representations to learners and learner-generated resources that accrue from students creating, sharing, and revising ideas;
• Curriculum: Syllabi that are not fixed but dynamic, open to negotiation and learner input, consisting of bite-sized modules that are interdisciplinary in focus and that blend formal and informal learning;
• Communication: Open, peer-to-peer, multifaceted communication using multiple media types to achieve relevance and clarity;
• Process: Situated, reflective, integrated thinking processes that are iterative, dynamic, and performance and inquiry based;
• Resources: Multiple informal and formal sources that are rich in media and global in reach;
• Scaffolds: Support for students from a network of peers, teachers, experts, and communities; and
• Learning tasks: Authentic, personalized, learner-driven and learner-designed, experiential tasks that enable learners to create content.”

And the outcome is: “With this learner-based, communal, media-rich, flexible approach, Pedagogy 2.0 uses social software tools to enable the development of dynamic communities of learning through connectivity, communication, and participation. “
It is brief but does a good job of raising the possibilities of such environments. A good staring point for discussion.

Anyway I’ll start my comeback by talking about the presentation I was involved in with Myles Dyer and Joanne Teague which was made at the 3rd International Blended Learning conference, (Sally Graham also helped out but was unable to attend in person). ‘Developing Student Identity, Values and Employability Skills Through the Use of Video Logs’ focused on the development of ones’ ‘self’ through the act of vlogging (video logging). The talk looks at how through creating and publishing video blogs on a regular basis can lead to the development of skills attractive to the employer such as presentation skills, confidence (in terms of receiving and giving critics, defending opinion, issuing challenges ) and team working through the creation of collaborative videos.

We take things further however – the overlying argument of the talk is as to how through the ongoing development of the aforementioned skills together with the creativity conferred and autonomy conferred through the act of vlogging, can lead to further development of the students identity in terms of their value and belief systems and how this translates into creating learning communities.

The presentation went down very well and generated discussion which carried on outside the talk. The full presentation is presented below which includes the question and answer session.

PART 1: VLOGGING AS THE PUREST FORM OF CREATIVITY
Why I started vlogging; vlogging as the purest form of creativity; improving presentation skills and identity – using the process for self exploration. Particular aspects: emphasis the use of the comments facility to enable discussion and exchange views; how over a two year period vlogging has helped to developed confidence and presentation skills (examples are provided); how the act of vlogging enables you to view yourself in a 3rd person perspective and to reflect and evaluate on how well you presented.

PART 2: BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN STUDENTS AND TUTORS – PLUS Q & A SESSION
Bridging the gap between students and tutors – how vlogging provides a forum in which both tutor and students can discuss ideas as opposed to the traditional lecture; academic autonomy, developing ownership and driving your own education ; team working and collaboration – bringing our own ideas and providing solutions by coming together, not as students or teachers but as one educational entity and value systems — knowing who you are.

Audience questions include: Can a viewer develop key skills through simply watching the vlogs? Vlogging enables viewers to leave comments — how important is this? (answer: it closes the gap between tutors and student, giving people, particularly the less confident, as sense of equality and freedom to pose questions in a less formal context), Are there things that the vlogger learns through this process of interacting with the wider world that makes them a better student? (answer: yes in terms of being open minded to the ideas of others and being able to dialogue with them such that you critically evaluate their arguments and take on board their views).

PART 3: THE FINAL PART OF THE Q AND A SESSION
The final part of the q and a session which looked at: Have you had many negative experiences with vlogging and how do you cope with it? (answer – many negative experiences in terms of negative and unconstructive comments. But this has led to being a better person in terms of comments which are negative but contain constructive arguments which are in turn evaluated and taken into consideration with comments left by others. If there is a trend you evolve as a person to deal with it. If we were to use this within a formal education context, where vlogging was required rather than self-directed, would this have a positive result or would it sterilize the process? (answer not really as vlogging allows the student to bring their own interpretations of the topic into the process. So it’s more then learning facts but being able to put forth your own point of view. Other questions include: Vlogging enables you to develop in terms of being able to express yourself clearly. Has this translate into other areas of your study?

AND THE SESSION CONTINUED (THROUGH BLOGGING)
Interestingly, and probably typical of today’s e-learning conferences, one member of the audience, Dr Richard Hall, (De Montfort), immediately blogged his reaction, via the LRC, in a post titled ‘The most inspiring conference presentation I have ever seen’, (Web Link). This led to an online discussion between himself and Myles with other delegates chipping as well including Julie Hughes (University of Wolverhampton), who stated ‘This was the highlight of the conference for me and it made me really excited about the possibilities for other students’. Richard’s post accurately summarised the essence of vlogging particularly in terms of reaching out and forming communities – it’s not about my education but our education: “…Myles is opening up spaces for people [him] to becomes themselves [himself] and relate to others and take meaningful action. This is powerful stuff, beyond the banalities of “me and my learning environment”, towards a progressive, hopeful pedagogy,..”. And in terms of the future a rallying cry towards a time in which students are empowered to develop their own passions for the subject “Myles’ talk reinforced to me the powerful impact of Web 2.0, or the read/write web, on learner agency in educational environments that are at once connected and networked and informal and formal. Grasping these affordances is a crucial part of education as a democratic, political project, and in empowering our students’ through facilitating their development of personal literacies.”

MINI DOCUMENTARY : THE BLENDED LEARNING CONFERENCE 2008
To take things further Myles was also encouraged to produce a vlog about the whole event. This produced in the form of a min documentary which included highlights of his presentation, after talk reflection and extracts from interviews with Richard Hall and Norm Vaughan (Calgary University). He also used his online journal to record his reflections (Web Link).

Richard and Myles look at the use of Web 2.0 tools in education: elaborating on what web 2.0 tools are, what can be achieved with them in terms of connecting with others and the limiting factors to their inclusion within teaching. For example the idea of student rather than staff driven vlogging activity in which the students connect with others exchanging world views and then reflecting and taking that reflection back into the curriculum.

While Norm and Myles considered the notion of how the rise of online communities has led to the on the fly develop of social tools whose iterative development is responsive and consequence of the communities needs.

FEEDBACK FROM THE VLOGGING COMMUNITY
The above video also appears on YouTube and has at the time of this blog been viewed 4400 times and received 120 comments from readers (including 4 video responses). Some of the video responses have been left by other students and it’s interesting to hear what they have to say (here for example).

Regarding the comments: a great many were supportive and congratulatory in tone while some led to discussions. There were of course a few challenges which was great as they provided the opportunity to elaborate on things which were not apparent in the video. In all this exactly showcases the strength of the medium in that it allows further and continual re evaluation of the topic on a non hierarchical level allowing everyone to form their own versions.

For instance:

“I know I wish I’d discovered this thing earlier in my life. It can be a great way to move forward in so many areas of life.”
“I’m still yet to post my first vlog, but I’m building confidence by watching yours and others that have succeeded here on YouTube. Thank you.”

“I was 13, studying Evangeline (Longfellow) and the great thing was the teacher had us make books. Draw pictures, write our take of the poem, and I’ve not forgotten the overall story of how the British removed the French Acadians from Nova Scotia to Louisiana. Youtube is now the “binding” of the images and discussion which will help students learn. Better than text books, cram, then exam by choosing 1 of 4 answers. “

“I’m a homeschooling mom of two girls, ages 16 & 11. I truly think that what you are doing is incredible. I am seriously considering making Vlogging part of our curriculum & that is in large part thanks to you.”

“It’s interesting that society’s obsessed with the dichotomy of “online” and “offline”. I see it like an extension on community, like, we don’t bother to distinguish between “school community” and “work community”, which also truly exist in their own worlds. But we also freely accept they are part of the “real world”.” Which is really interesting since I think that where blogging and vlogging fail when implemented as educational activities is that the tutor fails to recognise that the whole thing is about community and exchange of ideas. In other words its all about conversation and as such they should recognise that the conversation can and should happen online (via blogging) and offline as well. And the curriculum and class room design needs to reflect this.

“Coincidentally, one of my daughter’s teachers only last week suggested that she vlogs to improve her communication skills. In a few years, vlogging will become expected of prospective students as part if their extra curricular activities.”

And finally this: “Is herts uni any good? I’m living only a few miles from it, should have gone to the open day really. Dam thats a bad-xxxx sllideshow. Just over a grand is pritty good for all that!”. Clearly some marketing potential here.

In all a great and fun endeavour – we are now off course looking for further challenges…

NOTE: SLIDES FROM THE PRESENTATION CAN BE FOUND HERE

Please take 5 minutes to discuss in pairs as to how you might use blogs to support your students in their learning.

For instance how might you use them alongside existing methods of instruction? Wat are the challenges? Would you blog yourself?

Please use the comments facility at the base of this entry to add your views.

The slides are taken from a series of papers we have developed concerning the possible future evolution of managed learning environments.

The rise of Web 2.0 has led many practitioners to the conclusion that social networking and peer content production and sharing sites will take over from what is now regarded as a formally structured and institution owned managed learning environments. In a way they are correct as web 2.0 empowers the student through enabling them to create content and develop a deeper connection with and ownership of the subject. However the use of web 2.0 technology often requires the learner to sign up with external providers whose intentions and purpose are commercial rather than learning and teaching. As such there are very reals issues with regards to privacy, ownership of material and long term service provision.

This presentation argues the case that MLEs will have to change and become more people-centric than ever before allowing users to develop content and make contact with others users creating hubs of people interested / working / learning in the same areas (Socialised Managed Learning Environments, SMLEs).

| View | Upload your own

A great article which looks at how you can represent a persons social graph – a person’s network of friends, family, and acquaintances.

The Blogosphere

Matthew Hurst, a scientist at Microsoft’s Live Labs, used a search tool, called Blogpulse, to generate visualizations of the blogosphere.

Credit Matthew Hurst (blog) via Technology Review (Web Link)

Hurst describes the cluster at the centre as a core which is basically a group of a few thousand blogs with links to and from other sites. Interestingly you can see other smaller blogging communities connecting to the core. The links are one-way and are produced when an obscure blog links to a well-known blog at the core.

The article also includes another image which shows a core made up of several thousand popular blogs which are heavily connected to one another. What�s really interesting is that the core divides into two regions: one relating to political blogs the other focused on gadgets and technology. The two areas bind together through popular blogs with interests in both subject areas. What�s really fascinating is that Hurst noted a difference in culture between the two areas in that reciprocal two way links are much denser among the political blogs than they are among the technology blogs.

Comment Flow

Correctly the article notes that maps of social networks usually show an the fact that two users have linked to each other’s profiles. And in this sense the maps have little meaning, as the article notes MySpace users can have 100s of such links. However Dietmar �Offenhuber, a research assistant at the MIT Media Lab, together with associate professor Judith �Donath has created a comment flow visualization which traces communication between users rather than links. The visualisation is based on where and how often users left comments for other users. As the article notes �Offenhuber says the tool can help users assess the communication habits of prospective friends at a glance�.

Credit: Dietmar Offenhuber, Judith Donath, MIT Sociable Media Group via Technology Review (Web Link)

Twitter Social Network

This is a great visualisation of the twitter network and it focuses again on communication but also on the TYPE of communication. According to Akshay Java, a member of the eBiquity Research Group at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, communication on the microblogging site Twitter falls into three purposes: finding information, sharing information, and having conversations. Each type of communication results in a different network. One way communication such as news sources form huge nodes while mutual communication based on sharing and receiving information form smaller nodes which are closer together resulting in a tightly knit network. See the article for images.

Atlas

I like this. IBM’s Atlas maps social networks in the workplace. It looks at �users’ connections on the basis of their relative positions within the company and their communications by e-mail and instant messenger�. So the element of frequency of communication is included which means that some contacts appear or vanish over time as communication with them ebbs and flows. . The map shows contacts together with a visualisation of how close they are to you. Close contacts are near the centre while distant ones are toward the perimeter. From a business perspective this can be used for staff to maintain their professional networks. For instance you might see a particular contact drifting toward the perimeter prompting you to contact them before the connection vanishes. See the article for images.

A great article with many more visualisations. Well worth a read (Web Link).

Form the BBC a lengthy article on the continued rise of social networking. There’s some very interesting stats, for example:

* 49% of children 8-17 have an online profile
* 22% of 16+ have an online profile
* On average adults have profiles on 1.6 sites
* 63% of 8 to 17-year-olds with a profile use Bebo
* 37% of 8 to 17-year-olds with profile use MySpace
* 18% of 8 to 17-year-olds with a profile use Facebook
* 59% of 8 to 17-year-olds use social networks to make new friends
* 16% of parents do not know if their child’s profile is visible to all
* 33% of parents say they set no rules for their children’s use of social networks
* 43% of children say their parents set no rules for use of social networks

The survey performed by Ofcom was based on a sample consisting of 5000 adults and 3000 children.

Sadly the rest of the article overly concentrates on the risks involved with children having a presence on a social networking site. Obviously there are concerns but would a balanced approach in which the benefits of social networking would have been nice . For instance they cite “59% of 8 to 17-year-olds use social networks to make new friends” – well why not? Social networking allows you to make contact and connect with people who are into the same stuff as yourself. It’s not all bad.

Anyway apparently the Home Office has been working with social networking firms and is expected to publish a set of guidelines for the sites around best practice, security and privacy on Friday. Could be interesting.

View the article here

Darren Rowse lists 9 Benefits of Twitter for Bloggers. He started off using Twitter to: improve the quality of his blogs * network with other bloggers *widen his readership * grow his profile and drive traffic to his blogs.

He lists 9 benefits, most of which are marketing oriented but nevertheless can be extended to the educational context. They include: research tool; reinforcing your personal brand; promoting content; extending readership; networking; preview content; speed linking; story gathering and finding out what people really think. Taking a look at those most relevant to education:

Research Tool: echoing Tom Barrett’s observation (see previous post) you can ask your network of followers to provide examples, answers to difficult questions or for a straw poll on ideas. As an example Darren posted a question to his network and received 30 responses within 10 minutes. This is linked to another benefit, previewing blog content, in which draft blog posts are placed on the network for comment and suggestions.

Networking and the creation of community: again academhack refers to this in first post in this series. The emphasis is that twitter allows you to electronically network on a more intimate level. It build up a certain level of camaraderie similar to that experienced when you spend 3 or 4 days with someone at a conference.

Find out what people really think: this is interesting Darren observes that “that people have a certain level of honesty and rawness on Twitter that they sometimes mask or hide on their blogs”. He reckons this is down to the 140 characters limit which forces them “to strip away some of the politically correct language and just say what they mean”. So you get a sense of what people are really thinking on a topic.

Reflection: the very excellent Educausehave produced 7 Things you should know about Twitter. This is a very good introduction for first timers detailing possible applications and downsides. The main benefit again relates to using Twitter to encouraging students to engage in metacognition exercises in which they reflect and exchange thoughts about a topic. Obviously group blogging and wikis can be used for a similar exercises however again the character limit forces the user to be brief and to the point which as Educause points out is “an important skill in thinking clearly and communicating effectively”. Additionally Twitter can be used by attendees at a con¬ference to share thoughts about particular sessions with others at the event and those unable to attend.

Library use: Stephen Francoeur cites examples of library use, Reference services and Twitters, in which he suggest that libraries could use a Twitter address allowing people to “follow” and “learn about events, new books, and other announcements. Twitter could also be used to announce responses to library user questions, which might be answered in greater length on a linked webpage.” A couple of more library examples can be found at: Twitter Update or how I was able to exploit the latest social networking site without really trying and Twitter and the Missouri River Regional Library.

AND FINALLY the Twitteracy Project: recommended reading is Damian Bariexca’s blog post, The Twitteracy Project is Dead, Long Live the Twitteracy Project, which presents a very honest case study on his use of Twitter. It seems that despite the benefits on offer there are two major challenges: one, the technology and two, student intrinsic motivation.

You can follow me at Twitter by going here and look for “drandyoliver”.

The updates are also placed on a wiki so that you can view the story so far. After the 140th entry the story will be collectively edited before being publishing as a small book.

You can read details of Tom’s participation here.

Exploration: Another interesting use is also provided by Tom (sent in response to a question I sent out on the Twitter network “Could twitter be used for teaching and learning?” – thanks Tom). GeoTweets – Inviting your network into the classroom” describes an exercise involving Google Earth. Avoiding a simple show and tell exercise Tom asked his Twitter network to provide clues (via tweets) as to their geographical location. Tom’s class were then required to find them using the scraps of information. A helpful hint list is also provided, I like this one: “if you think your network isn’t quite at that tipping point where it will give live results, then you can prep it before hand and ask for specific responses a couple of days before. Ask others to pass on the request to their network – spread the word a bit.”

Group Work: Another school-based example (schools… HE please take note) is described by Clarence Fisher. “Twitter in the Classroom” looks at a possible assignment involving small groups of students using twitter to support project work. Essentially each member of the group will have a twitter account and each member will then “simply pull the RSS feeds of those people in their network (five? six? kids working on the same topic) into their iGoogle homepagest. This would allow them to stay in touch with each other and also give them a tool to ask questions of those who they are working with, post suggestions, share resources, etc.” Clarence obviously points out that the signal vs noise ratio might be an issue together with the group being small in size leading in turn to small benefits. But he ends positively “I also know that my own network is sometimes used for serious learning, and other times to cajole, laugh, and make general contact with each other. We are human. That is our reality. Their network will be the same.”.

Final part tomorrow.

Anyway during the course of writing and summarising the post has developed in length and I’m still not finished so I’m going to split it up.

From academHack, (Twitter for Academia). Not so much ways in which Twitter can be used but a great summary of its effects. I like this because Twitter has been used to support classroom conversation and dialogue:

Class Chatter: conversations continued inside and outside of class. I like the observation that often the conversations were tangentially related to class subjects as certain topics reminded the students about the subjects covered in class. In this manner Twitter served as “a reinforcement/connection between the material and the “real world.””
Classroom Community: Twitter allowed the students to develop ”a sense of each other as people beyond the classroom space”. This leads to more productive classroom conversations as students knew more about each other, their backgrounds, their views etc.

Get a Sense of the World: The Public Timeline (where all Twitter public messages are posted). Provide students with “a sense of how varied are the things people are doing around the globe.”

Alerts: From Doug Belshaw’s blog. “Using Twitter with your students” concentrates on secondary education. He suggests using the SMS functionality to send alerts on deadlines, trips etc to student mobile phones. This is useful if you don’t know the student’s email. An LMS might remove the necessity for this however many schools do not have the resources to afford one so this is a useful alternative.

Research questions: You can select who you ‘follow’ in Twitter and they in turn can follow your updates. This can lead to the creation of a community as the number of followers grow which is quite handy for when you need to ask for advice on problems, resources etc. Tom Barrett provides a useful account (Is there a doctor on board? Twitter as part of your Personal Learning Network) on how Twitter can help you solve problems / answer questions by connecting you to a community of like-minded individuals, who can provide instant feedback and suggestions in response to queries or problems (his example involved drafting a survey and he needed insightful questions). Interestingly he advises that it takes time for your network to grow, you have to be patient and wait until if reaches a sufficient cluster size before you can get any responses to your questions. This is something that will come to dominate future e-learning as managed learning environments accommodate more social networking elements. A good post which emphasises the importance of communities, in terms of being part of a person’s learning, in education.

More to follow…

Twitter again. It seems to becoming quite popular. For info Twitter is a social networking (aka micro-blogging) service that allows users to send “updates” (text-based posts, up to 140 characters long) to the Twitter website, via short message service or instant messaging. The act of doing this is called ‘Twittering’ and when you receive an update you have been ‘twittered’.

Users can sign up to receive updates from a particular user and receive updates via the Twitter website, instant messaging, SMS, RSS, email or through an application.

But the big thing is that it means we can use twitter to communicate to and between students using their mobile phones (although there is a cost of course).

So you can see / receive updates from a particularly person as they go about their business. From this perspective I couldn’t see any application for education. However Vicki Davis proposed an interesting use of book reviews citing the character limitation in the updates as being a benefit in terms of forcing he sender to rationalise their thoughts etc. (I blogged about this earlier this month).

Anyway I’ve comes across some more suggestions for use courtesy of academHack. Interestingly the list starts with a preface in which the author echoes my own perceptions in that Twitter reduces conversation to mere sound-bites often self-centered statements. Anyway the author has since investigated further: (I’ve not listed them all click here).

#Class Chatter: Keep track of conversations which start inside the class and extend outside of it. The author is keen to state that ‘Most of these conversations were not directly related to class material, but many were tangentially related.’ In other words as the students engage in their outside lives something they do may trigger a recall of class material and this gets sent (twittered) to fellow class members. And as the author states :” This served as a reinforcement/connection between the material and the “real world.”
#Classroom Community: Twittering brings the students closer together helping them know each other, their lives, where they are coming from and in doing enables the classroom conversation mentioned previously.
#Track a Word: Twitter allows you to track words so that you receive an update every time that word is used in a post. “So, for example a student could be interested in how a particular word is used. They can track the word, and see the varied phrases in which people use it. “
#Instant Feedback: Good for receiving instant feedback but also as the author suggests for asking questions. The tutor for insatnce could ask the class about certain references. “Students can also use this when doing their classwork, trying to understand the material. Tweet: “I don’t understand what this reading has to do with New Media? any ideas?” Other students then respond. (This actually happened recently in a class of mine.)”
#Follow a Professional: You can ‘follow’ someone as they record their activity throughout the day. Students could keep track of professionals working in their future career area, (health professions, jounralists for instance). The author provides an example: “NewMediaJim who works for NBC and Tweets about being on Airforce One, covering the Middle East etc. …He is followed by over 2,500 people at this point.
#Other suggestions include using Twitter for sharing inspiration, “thoughts that just popped into your head. Not only are they recorded, because you can go back and look at them, but you can also get inspiration from others. This is really useful for any “creative” based class.” And writing assignments in which one person would start a story, the next person would continue it, etc. . .
A great post in all and food for thought. Anyone have additional suggestions?

The list can be found here.