Just wanted to share these links with readers. They're coming from many directions today, so please forgive the randomness.
Just wanted to share these links with readers. They're coming from many directions today, so please forgive the randomness.
Jim Groom from the University of Mary Washington has an thought provoking blog post on his thoughts on the evolving nature of the role of instructional technologist.
There is something to all this as we as a collective work to define our identity as both catalysts and participants in the major shifts occurring in post-secondary education.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I worked for a little Web start-up called Britannica.com Education. We had a live-work loft South of Market, we spent lots of money, we got stock options, and then the bubble burst.
Imagine my surprise to see Britannica launching a Blog conversation called Brave New Classroom 2.0
http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/10/brave-new-classroom-20-new-blog-forum/
And with a great list of contributing bloggers, including: Micheal Wesch and Tim O'Brien (among others).
After getting over my disappointment that they didn't ask me (maybe to make-up for those worthless stock options) I was heartened to think that maybe we were just like 8 years to early with our Britannica ideas. Go EB!
Here is the list of blogs that are on my Google Reader subscription list.
You will see that there are too many - and too few. My ambitions are at cross-purposes - to both cull the list and add anything I should be keeping up with on the intersection of education and technology. Suggestions and ideas appreciated. I'd love to see your lists.
The reality is that I never keep up with my subscriptions. Google Reader has a list of new stuff always ready for me......with my method to quickly skim the list (usually at night)...clicking on any headlines/descriptions that catch my eye. About ounce a day I'll then blog on the one entry/story/blog-post/product/trends etc. that I found most relevant and fascinating from all the posts I've read that day.
I'm sure over-time Google Reader will get smarter, suggesting subscriptions based on my reading and suggesting deleting subscriptions that I don't read.
Using an RSS reader has changed both my news gathering processes and my Web surfing. Seldom do I go directly to Web pages......I almost always find everything from the Reader. Using an RSS Reader is also the main way that I gather and process my professional reading.
The act of daily blogging helps me consolidate what I learn, share with colleagues and students, and keep a record of what I was thinking at any given time.
So what subscriptions do you recommend?
On a day of disappointing Apple news (I was hoping for a sub $700 notebook...I guess my wife will have to live with her old iBook G4) - I thought I'd share two things that caught my eye.
The first is a list of "Top 10 Reasons to Blog" from the E-Learning Technology Blog
I'll cut and paste in full - and wonder out loud what you would add/change delete? My big addition would be that a group blog is a great tool to understand and document what is on the mind of your colleagues.
Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Blog
10. Because you stopped learning anything new a couple years ago and it’s about time you started again.
Or as Karyn Romeis & Barry Sampson both said - I’ve learned more via blogging over the past year than I learned in the preceding several years!
9. Because it forces you to do your homework (Rodolpho Arruda)
8. Because this is how you are going to learn in the future.
“This is the difference represented in the shift from traditional classroom based learning and network learning. The idea of the latter is that learning occurs when the learner immerses him or herself in a community of practice, learning by performing authentic tasks, learning by interacting with and becoming a member of the community.” (Stephen Downes)
7. Because if you don’t we’ll think you’re lame and don’t know how to do your job.
“What can you know about a professional who doesn't blog his or her work? How do you know they are competent, that they have the respect of their peers, that they understand the issues, that they practice sound methodology, that they show consideration for their clients? You cannot know any of this without the openness blogging (or equivalent) provides. Which means, once a substantial number begin to share, there will be increasing pressure on all to share.” (Stephen Downes)
6. Because it will change your life.
“there is something that happens to a person when they hit that "publish" button - you cross a threshold - you move from consumer to producer - you put your intellectual neck on the line and I really think that you aren't the same person after that.” (Mark Oehlert)
5. Because you’ll hook up all over the place.
“all learning professionals need to exchange ideas with others, to test their ideas, to question their assumptions, to learn from each other in ways that come with dialog. Blogging is great for forming networks based on weak social ties.” (Bill Bruck)
4. Because learning is conversation and that blogging lets you have more and better conversations (Harold Jarche)
“The lack of formality and the ease of cross-referencing other blog content or references means is great to accelerate discussion and promote broader thinking and understanding.” (David Wilson)
3. Because Professionalism is more than consumption, it is contribution. (Rovy Bronson)
2. Because it’s “a swap meet for the mind.” (Nancy White)
1. Because your job depends on it.
“If for no other reason than your job is changing, and you might want to be engaged in the process of what your new job will include.” (Brent Shlenker) and “They don't get what blogs are about and possibly never will. We just need to encourage them towards retirement.” (Barry Sampson)
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The 2nd piece to share is a great image from the EdTechie Open Education Movement......a poster I could see hanging on my wall.
Still not sure about Slideshare (lack of native/easy voice-over - static) - but this seems reasonable. Depressed that CCBlog is not on either list.
I was just entering a feature request on Blackboard site - and on a lark I decided to see if some articles I'd written for the WebCT online newsletter showed up in Blackboard's search. (As Blackboard bought out WebCT a few years back).
I typed: "Kim West Virginia" - (I was teaching at WVU at the time) and shockingly one of the articles showed up:
"Valuable You: What do Academics Have to Offer the Dot Com World?"
Back in the bubble days I did some consulting for WebCT - writing a column for their online newsletter called (and I'm embarrassed to say this) "The Corporate Academic"
Thankfully it looks like Blackboard successfully purged all the articles save one - so if you are interested from a 1999 perspective how I thought us academic types could all get rich on the Web you might enjoy this little piece of pre-bubble crash history (the other bubble).
Another interesting historical note is that back in 1999 I still thought the Web was "primarily a text-based medium". Called that one wrong as well I guess.
Back then...we were partying like it was 1999
A few times this week I've been reminded of the benefits of a department blog - and how it would be great to do what we can to diffuse and scale this technique to other departments (academic and administrative) on campus. These examples go beyond the usual reasons for a Department blog - such as sharing information internally, or providing a place where folks in our community can keep up with news within our discipline.
Some examples:
- Making face-to face connections: Just a few minutes ago Mark Franklin, Director of Computing Services at Thayer, popped his head in my door to introduce himself and chat about lecture capture. I had blogged on what Thayer is doing earlier, and Bill came by to continue the conversation.
In the course of our chat I learned about some amazing things his team is doing at the intersection of education and technology - and now I am motivated to build on this initial connection. The Computing at Thayer Blog is a must read.
- Breaking silos and keeping up with colleagues. From blogging we've started to read (and link) to other blogs on campus. Some examples are Bill Garrity's blog - always an excellent source for innovative trends, data and idea in the worlds of information technology, libraries, information architecture and policy. It was great to see that Bill thinks that our CC blog is worth reading!
- Sharing Information with Faculty: This past week I realized that blog postings can substitute for e-mails as a way of sharing info with faculty while documenting the process. A faculty member had asked us to research a tool (visual mapping) - and when a colleague (Anthony Helm) let us know about the perfect tool I blogged the information and pointed the faculty member to the post. This served the purpose of transferring the information, as well as making it available to the larger community. Who knows, this faculty member may now start reading our blog - and learning new things.
All three of these examples have come as a surprise for me. Looking forward to more surprises (and hearing about some other ones).
Just finished reading an excellent report from the Next Generation Library Systems Team (which includes our fearless leader) - on Bill Garrity's Blog http://www.william-garrity.com/
You can go to Bill's blog - or download the report (it is short and sweet) here Download NextGenReport-nopics.pdf
Some observations and additions:
* Can we build on successes of library/Blackboard integration to achieve significant improvements in how faculty place videos in the Course Reserve system to be accessed in Blackboard, and how students then access these video? In the current set-up, videos are buried under a number of clicks - without good guideposts for the students. Ideally, video from our library catalog could be easily discovered by faculty (or students) during an authoring process and then seamlessly integrated into course modules. Students would be able to disaggregate and then mash-up library held video using simple tools. Here the library has a real advantage in that it can license and provide content for active student learning that is unavailable other places on the Web. A system in which all media held by the library also came with streaming rights, and where all existing media was digitized with rights cleared to stream and use for student projects, would again offer important educational advantages in ways that cannot be found on the Web.
* A personal wish - that the library license audio content to twin with print content. As a devotee of audible.com - I have a fond wish that every book (or aticle) assigned in a class could be delivered in both traditional print and as an audio file (through Blackboard). Students could then consume the reading while running on the treadmill, walking to class etc.....Can the library form a partnership with Audible? Can we recognize that we want to deliver content in as many formats as possible - to match multiple learning styles? Audio content is still scarce - it has to be paid for - where much of the textual content that libraries have is abundant - and can be gotten other places by students for no money. By identifying scarce and useful resources the library can meet unmet demand.
Again...a thoughtful report - hope we have the opportunity to discuss further.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/fashion/21webgirls.html
Interesting article about teenage girls being more active on the (social) web.
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