Wow, a rich resource from Carnegie Foundation

And the cool thing is that it's available for our use under cc-license terms! Attribution Non-Commercial. WAY COOL! I need to explore this site cuz it has some potentially good resources that look at how teachers are trying to help students learn more effectively. Might be great nuggets to share with TwT1/ISW students eh? The Gallery of Teaching and Learning is a collection of multimedia resources sharing knowledge about teaching and learning from participants in Carnegie Foundation funded programs (or their partners) Information is presented on "KEEP" sites that contain video clips and written information. Information is organized by Subject (Arts, Business, Humanities, Math&Statistics, Science&Technology, Social Sciences) or by Collections (Windows on Learning, CASTL-HE Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning in Higher Ed, etc) Check out Capturing Change: A Tale of Two Portfolios for an interesting example of what you might find http://web.mac.com/elizabethbarkley/BarkleyPortfolioPortal/Welcome.html More as I explore...Sylvia # - SylviaR - 8/4/09; 7:47:03 AM -

Google's Curriculum

Just pulling together resources for a LandL on Twitter that some of our teachers and staff have been asking for...and tripped over a blogger (ICT in My Classroom - Tom Barrett) who tweets who was at a conference where they announced the Google curriculum. Here's what he had to say about it: There are three modules covered: Understanding Search Engines, Web Search Technique and Strategies and Google Web Search Features. Each course has lesson plans that are detailed and differentiated: Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. Furthermore the lesson plans provide a variety of links to specifically created presentations that support the lesson. For each lesson there is reference to the ISTE Standards for Pupil and Teacher. Now, I haven't explored the curriculum in-depth but I've been thinking about hosting some mini-workshops to help teachers use Google Search more effectively. Everyone thinks they are good at using Google but I've watched a few people use it and I think there's lots of room for improvement! I should roll in some of the resources from the Classroom 2.0 presentation I watched one Saturday in late May during a break from my shed-building course. The lady who hosted it was showing how to use GoogleScholar search as well. I'll have to run it by Laurie but she won't have time to do it so I may go ahead.   # - SylviaR - 8/1/09; 2:46:27 PM -

Before I lose it again

Several months ago I was lurking in an interesting SCOPE online discussion and one of the participants shared a link for teaching teachers about technology for better learning. The unique approach of this curriculum was that it was developed by a group called the League for Innovation in the Community College (The League is an international organization serving community colleges) and the course development included a lot of videos (something my teachers have been asking for -- vivid examples of how other teachers are implementing technologies to improve learning). When I went looking for this material again (going in the front end through their home page) I wasn't able to find it. I want to review it in detail and, if it looks good, check about paying for using some of their materials in our teacher development efforts. So, now at the end of my awesome July holiday I found the original link and I will hopefully find the time to review the content in detail.   # - SylviaR - 8/1/09; 2:20:34 PM -

Endless fodder for thinking

And of course my personal reading and reflection list never grows shorter. Some new additions gleaned from the CeLC conference: Chris Lott's keynote video, slides and text! at TTiX Conference "The idea of ideas" - cited by Barbara Ganley and Brian Lamb- http://chrislott.org/story/the-idea-of-ideas-ttix-2009-keynote-address/ New economic models that utilize the new efficiences and interconnects of the Web:  "David Byrne and Thom Yorke (Radiohead) on the Real Value of Music"  12.18.07  - http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/16-01/ff_yorke   - Wired magazine article that Richard said contained 6 business models that can be used for educational materials "Free:  Why $0.00 is the Future of Business"   article in Wired by Chris Anderson (author of The Long Tail) - http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free What learners are experiencing in elearning: Research from Britain - LEX, The Learner Experience of eLearning (Grainne Conole, http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearningpedagogy/learnerxp.aspx )   Bloggers to follow more closely: Barbara of course! at both blog sites:  http://bgblogging.com/ and her new venture in community blogging http://digitalexplorations.org/ Grant Potter is a new addition:  Network Effects http://web.unbc.ca/~gpotter/ Chris Lott's blog at http://chrislott.org/ might be interesting to follow. # - SylviaR - 6/27/09; 11:17:02 AM -

Troves to sift through

Another side benefit of the CeLC conference at UBC was the lengthy list of potentially rich resources to spend time sifting through. Some worthy additions to my treasure hunting trove: And here are some additions to my treasure-hunting list: Smarthistory:  a free multi-media web-book designed as a dynamic enhancement (or even substitute) for the traditional art history textbook  Zeum:  San Francisco's hands-on arts & technology museum where kids can explore animation, sound & video production, live performance, and visual arts School of Everything:  a British site that is the online version of a learning web (Freire or?) you can sign up as a teacher or student of anything. 826 Valencia:   the name and address of a nonprofit writing workshop and tutoring center in San Francisco, United Stateshttp://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dave_eggers_makes_his_ted_prize_wish_once_upon_a_school.html # - SylviaR - 6/27/09; 9:42:17 AM -

So much to learn, so little time!

I've spent a couple of hours trying to pull together the things that I found interesting or enlightening at the recent eLearning Conference (CeLC2009) at UBC. Each time I review my notes or follow the links provided by presenters, I find yet another area I want to read and reflect on, or that I want to test for potential use with instructors at Yukon College. Here's some of additions to my personal learning list: From Barbara Ganley's metaphor of the Russian suitcase (unpacking and reflecting on what you leave behind and what you're going towards) (a paraphrase of what she said) The immigrants would place their suitcase on the threshold of the place they were leaving and look back and fill themselves with the memories and the lessons they had learned and reflect on why they were leaving I poked around on the Internet and found that she uses it in a workshop to help teachers open their closed classrooms - need to review her outline to see if some of it would help my instructors move beyond lecturing and tests   http://bgblogging.com/nitle-workshop/ And UBC's attempt to create wiki articles on Latin American literature for Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Murder_Madness_and_Mayhem # - SylviaR - 6/25/09; 8:35:22 AM -

Focusing on Presenter but then...

I decided to take advantage of the lack of students in my afternoon Adobe Connect 2: Troubleshooting with Students workshop to review the details of the participant experience so that I could help students who have trouble finding the little pop-up messages and the controls that allow them to overlay a whiteboard or see who has control of their desktop (and boot them out if necessary). 1.  We discovered yesterday (and I watched it again today as a participant) that the sending of a request to share desktop that is generated by the Host from the Attendee Pod doesn't display long enough for some people. It pops into the screen at the top right-hand corner and then disappears if they don't accept or reject it quickly enough. Note to self:  Make sure to tell participants where to look for the incoming request to share their desktop. 2.  We also had a really thorny audio issue in Carcross with Gisela desperately trying to get the microphone on her headset (which had the two plugs rather than a USB connector) to work. I never did get it resolved but I did a test with a similar headset this afternoon and found that I could correct the issue with microphone recording by moving the slider switch on the headset. When I worked through everything with Gisela, we thought the Audio Setup wizard wasn't recognizing her headset because it didn't come up as a choice. Turns out that it just doesn't perceive the two-plug headsets as a headset. I got mine to work even though it didn't show up as a selection in the Audio Setup Wizard. Gisela swore that she had the headset slider switch set to be unmuted but she showed up that way in the meeting room window (her microphone graphic in the Attendee List). Note to self:  With the Logitech headsets with two plugs, there is an on-off switch on the headset itself as well as a separate control to adjust volume. Make sure the slider volume adjustment is turned up and the slide switch is set to unmuted 3.  James and Michelle had a couple of problems which we overcame but they're worth noting for future online training sessions (this is from Helen's setup Banner training session).  James was a little thrown by the fact that sharing the screen resulted in him being popped out of the meeting temporarily. Michelle got a little confused by how to share her desktop as she had to minimize the meeting room window to see what she was trying to share with us. Both of them had trouble finding the controls in the bottom righthand corner; James said his control buttons to stop sharing or Full Screen were hidden at first (perhaps his taskbar is set to Hide?) Note to self:  Do some screen captures to show where different controls appear and to highlight where to look for request messages in a meeting room layout. That's all for now...oh wait, I also found a series of videos by Alistair Lee that are pretty good overviews of meeting room layouts, training room layouts and event room layouts. Some of the video is too hard to see but he explanation is clear.   # - Sylvia - 4/15/09; 3:32:11 PM -

Several blind alleys but I think I've got it!

Ann and I worked on one of her slides this afternoon and it just stumped me. It should have been simple...stacking 4 images and applying a number of animations to achieve a fast review of what teenagers would rather be doing than watching a PowerPoint. But we just couldn't get it to flow smoothly. I tried adjusting timings, layering photos in different order, duplicating them, adding more than one transition to one image...nothing seemed to work. I double checked a very similar slide that Brian had done and it seemed that we had used the same basic approach but his flowed smoothly and mine didn't. Then I had a brilliant idea (well, it was the end of the day so it was properly a dim light) - Ann said she would be happy with a simple pan and fade kind of effect -- she wasn't even planning to put music behind it as she'd be speaking while it was playing. So I thought of trying Photostory (cuz it does simple pan and zoom) to create a video and then importing the video into her Powerpoint. So I came home tonight and tried and it works very easily and quickly BUT I can't turn off the player control that displays on the front face when I import it into PowerPoint and it really detracts from the overall effect. So, it was back to fighting with it. An hour and a half later I think I've figured it out -- for the most part. It works except for one glitch (I seem to have a ghost of one of the images). So I need to go and read some more about how PowerPoint interprets "With Previous" and "After Previous" and exactly what the Delay setting means. But it's enough for tonight! I also managed to write most of a good intro to startup settings in Presenter for the next students. I'll do some screen captures tomorrow, embed them in the story and test drive it on a couple of peoples. nite # - SylviaR - 4/6/09; 9:57:33 PM -

Learning by the nose

OK, so much for focusing on Excel for a bit...in the last month I've been testing and learning more about Adobe Presenter 7 - with a focus on the digital storytelling workshop I just finished. Next week I plan to develop some Captivate tutorials to help my future workshop participants learn how to deal with slide animations, audio and video. Brian Butler worked out a way to create a movie-type pan and fade (believe it or not there is not a one-click choice for this - PowerPoint can do a lot of neat things that are way more flexible than PhotoStory but it seems to fall down on this) so I'll use his slide as a starting point to demonstrate how to accomplish it. We discovered that not all animations are created equal - sometimes publishing the effect doesn't take? I need to do some serious testing to work out what is going wrong. I'm almost certain I'd published a demo slide on capturing webcam video so that people could open up the side panel but it didn't work. Brian did it in class and it did work. Go figure eh? I'm sure I selected the option to make it possible for the viewer to open the side panel ...mmmm. Must be user error but I'd better make sure before the next workshop. Grant also helped me install Aquia Drupal on my desktop at work and gave me two movies..I've been slowly working my way through the Content Creation Kit (amazingly powerful) and then I'll move on to Views. It's a shame the College won't go this route for the main web site...I could see several ways already that we could link data and reuse/repurpose it. We just have to learn to think that way...the tools are there; the users aren't yet (at least this user isn't there yet but I see the light at the end of the tunnel). I'm also running to catch up with some tutorials for the new Adobe Connect that are targetted to our needs. Some of the posted tutorials on the new Connect Users Community site are great...sometimes I need to write some smaller pieces to make a bridge for my teachers or other users. Ooops, got to run again. More later. Me   # - SylviaR - 4/5/09; 1:43:10 PM -

Finished Bus174z - MS Excel 2003

I'm still not an expert and I still need to go back and test some of the more advanced features that Jennifer demonstrated such as using the Listing and Forms functions. But I've learned a number of new techniques that should make me faster at using formulas and formating spreadsheets. Something I want to remember to take away and apply to my own tutorials  (things that I really like that Jen did) names the tutorials so that you can tell what they cover states what each tutorial will cover signs off at the end and says "Go on to the next tutorial" What I think I would be a little clearer on...in the list of tutorials, always restate basic steps such as using the back button on the browser to clear the finished tutorial and return to the web page.  Also, to use the home button to return to the list of labs from one lab list page. That's all for now...on to Adobe Captivate 3 - I have to get better at mapping and doing the testing. # - SylviaR - 2/5/09; 7:05:03 AM -

Flexible objectives

Even though it's not on my New Year's list, I need to add some short-term learning objectives. It looks like I'll have to do some more self-learning to ensure that I'm up to snuff on MS Excel and that I get better at using all the features of Captivate 3.  I'm working on preparing online tutorials (demonstrations and practice modules in Captivate3) for Comp050z which is being taught in a mixed mode. I had already been reviewing the instruction manual for recording options for Captivate 3. This morning I started reviewing Jennifer's MS Excel tutorials to see if any of them would be useful to the students in Comp050z so that I don't reinvent the wheel.  The additional benefit will be to test my full understanding of Excel so that I can ensure that the tutorials I do build will be correct. Let's see how I do for focus! Lab 1 - completed review (Formatting cells might be useful as it explains the currency and comma buttons)   # - SylviaR - 1/28/09; 6:57:07 AM -

New Year's learning objectives

Oh, there are lots and lots and lots! So much to learn, so little time! 1.  The newest version of Adobe Connect and Adobe Presenter are high priority. Significant changes in Presenter and I really like the looks of the breakout rooms and some of the redesign of the meeting space changes in Connect. Our upgrade should be in place soon and then I'll have to teach others how to use it most effectively...the teacher should be at least one step ahead! 2.  Open Content - I need to learn to work through the process so I can help others use this amazing (and rapidly growing) resource. I think the best approach will be to select one of the newer versions of Open Learning with a full complement of collaborative development and sharing tools - maybe UK's OpenLearn site? 3.  Participate in Scott Leslie's OER discussion in SCOPE (and I'm in the middle of it now). 4.  Develop a Managing (Facilitating?) Online Discussions course for instructors. I've found an open course in just this subject from  Otago (Facilitating Online Communities) so that is now part of my PLE and my learning objectives for 2009! 5.  Adobe Captivate 3 - mastering the ability to map learning options within a module and creating the quizzes, inserting flash video etc. Designing interactive learning can be more challenging than it looks at first! Another learning objective.... 6.  Figure out how to introduce and built commitment towards flexible learning design - funny that I blogged about it last year and only rediscovered the post this year...but Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand is way ahead of me...I'll be exploring their Designing for Flexible Learning course and repurposing it for us soon! .... S   # - SylviaR - 1/26/09; 7:09:28 AM -

Obsolete! I'm not obsolete!

CCK08 - Connectivism Course - George Siemens In the second Elluminate discussion for Week 7 of CCK08. Siemens states, “Insructional design is an optional skill for a teacher to have.” I couldn’t agree more. In a comment that was posted on Stephen’s Web in response to the Elearn magazine op-ed piece by Jerry Murphy, “Is Instructional Design Becoming a Commodity?” Brian Alger states: Instructional designers will eventually become obsolete. I've been following along sporadically with the multithreaded discussions that George and Stephen are managing in their MOOC. I've found some of the aspects of George's theory of connectivism interesting and enlightening but one of the aspects that 'sticks in my craw' is this assumption that the plethora of possibilities for self-learning and the mutlitude of connections results in what I would consider 'learning'. It can do so but just being able to connect doesn't mean I know what to do with whatever I connect with. I still believe that, if I'm a beginner on a path to some kind of knowledge that I can apply in my personal life, I benefit from starting on the path with a guide. After I've progressed, I can venture out on new paths and they'll have meaning and I should be able to integrate them and enrich my understanding. If I can't, I guess I need to find another guide. As an instructional designer and teacher, I believe in the value of organizing defined fields of investigation to make new information digestible and potentially meaningful. I think we can all accept that information is not knowledge and (this is my take on it) knowledge is not understanding (from what I've read not many people that agree with George would agree with that last bit ;-) So, despite the fact that I agree that the explosion of accessible information makes data sifting, gathering and evaluating desirable skills in a learner, they alone will not result in learning or understanding. Connecting with information or people who have information doesn't mean I'll progress very far beyond adding knowledge to my repository. Whether I'll be able to extract it in the future and apply it in meaningful ways will depend on a)  whether I'm a skilled self-learner  or  b) whether I connect with someone who is able to help me see the next level of connection or to apply that piece of information in a knowledgeable way. Some people are natural teachers and given the right circumstances can provide someone who connects with them a coherent, comprehensive introduction to a subject. Most are not. Good instructional design is about organizing materials and learning events to help students learn about a series of topics that some group (yes, I know that's considered a repressive, linear approach to learning) has agreed have recognizable value; good instructional design should provide lots of opportunities for unanticipated learning but, for the most part, we have to agree on what we're trying to achieve so that we can provide credit for a set of agreed outcomes. Most of the voices in this course appear to be people with strong self-learning skills; however, I would guess that most of them are a product of linear, industrialized learning with a teacher, practical, hands-on practice in daily life and work, new insights and unique learning opportunities from meeting new people (either face-to-face or virtually), self-exploration through their personal environments, different media, connected environments (Internet). Who's to say which learning option was the most useful? I find it hard to believe that structured learning didn't have an important place in their development. Are instructional designers truly going to be obsolete? Even if you don't buy my argument about the need to have some structured learning opportunities on our paths to understanding, instructional designers and teachers of courses provide credits and recognizable certifications. I dislike our reliance on artificial standards but they are still useful tools for busy employers.  Only when employers and others find other ways to assess value and competence in a new person will I see that formalized education is on its way out the door. # - SylviaR - 10/27/08; 6:55:08 AM -

Things that strike me...

as I try and catch up with the connectivism course from an Aug 1st blog post by Stephen: >> George and Stephen are approaching this as edubloggers that want to engage institutional instructors and others in a discussion about technology-based information management and learning (so far my understanding of the theory is more of how the tools will change how we use our brains, not necessarily how we learn) >>Mind maps of key discussion topics will be co-created with participants at the conclusion of each week  (I haven't seen one of these and I'm curious as to how they're working and what tool they chose) >>Stephen suggested his gRSShopper tool that allows people to subscribe to an RSS of text content or an email notice (check this out for featuring on tntnews?) >>Discussions will be held in asynchronous forums like blogs, moodle, and wikis. Use of the course code - CCK08 for tagging posts or sharing del.icio.us resources will be helpful.   This is a key point. I don’t think it will be helpful to try to provide some sort of common discussion forum or content management system. It would mean that everybody had to learn the system and that they would be constrained by the limits of the system. Stephen's comments  (interesting cuz the comments that people had during the Elluminate discussion yesterday is that they were finding it challenging to learn and use the range of tools used to deliver the course) >>people who would like to participate in the course discussion to send us their RSS feed. We will aggregate the RSS feeds and post links and summaries to the daily mailout... Participants who are taking the course for personal interest, not enrolled, obviously don’t have formal assignment requirements. However, I’d encourage participants to provide comments through blogs tagged with the course tag (CCK08), contribute to the Moodle forum, create and share concept maps, and so on.  From an Aug 6th post by George: >>I’m personally quite interested to see how the concept of a narrative of coherence will unfold in this course. We all face information abundance. We all face the reality that we will always be missing some key pieces of information. In our previous online conferences, we had large numbers enrolled, but I would say less that 5% were active contributors. A common concern voiced by many of the active participants: how do we assimilate/makesense of this information?!? There’s just too much of it. (interesting statistic -- doesn't bode well for our idea of moving more students towards this model of learning) From Aug 20th post by George: >>Another valuable community is developing in SecondLife. Chilbo, under the activities of Chris Collins - or Fleep in SL - has organized a Second Life Cohort. It’s a great opportunity to extend the conversation. From the site: “Participants will meet weekly for synchronous discussion in Second Life and will have the opportunity to create a home or office in the Chilbo community for the duration of the course. Due to space limitations, this cohort will be limited to approximately 50 participants.  (check this out using Miranda's laptop?) From Sept 10th post by Stephen >>As George has said, we are doing for the delivery of instruction what MIT OpenCourseWare has done for content. We have opened it up, and made it something that is not only not institutionally bound, but something that is, to a large degree, created and owned by the learners engaged in this instructional process.  (obviously. modesty is not an issue.)     # - Sylvia - 9/11/08; 9:01:49 AM -

Catching up with George

They're already so far ahead I'm not sure it's possible to really catch up. I had a family emergency last week so I didn't do any of the course readings or participate in the Moodle forum. But I do have a list and I'll practice my filtering and assessment skills as I figure out where to put my time and energy. It's all such interesting stuff. Just participated in the Elluminate discussion this morning. Lots of sharing going on in the chat area while George or Stephen or the other participants were talking. I came away with an Ursula Franklin reference to pseudo-communities that I want to read more about. She's got an interesting perspective on technology and I know I have her book from my UBC MET program but I don't recall exactly what her point was about pseudo-communities. George talked about using technology to make the content of the course "flow" better for all of us - and isn't that what connectivism is all about? Learning how to use the tools to make ourselves better learners? # - SylviaR - 9/10/08; 10:10:17 AM -

Reviewing Admin panel possibilities

I had an hour (which quickly scaled down to half an hour) while Greig, Jessie and Christina are out canoeing so I jumped back in. Read over glossary of terms. My understanding of the pieces seems to be solid. But I still can't figure out why our home page doesn't display pages or categories. I can find the categories at the bottom so I know it's something to do with the template choices Grant has made. I'm reviewing the Admin page possibilities and I'll move on to Templates the next time I get time for some reading and playing. I'm off to the Takhini pullout to pick them up. Hopefully the weather held. It's been mixed in Riverdale. - continue here when I get time again - http://codex.wordpress.org/First_Steps_With_WordPress  # - Sylvia - 8/17/08; 3:00:37 PM -

Taking the methodical approach..

I've realized that I have to set up a more consistent schedule to do this self-study thing cuz I'm forgetting what I read and thought I understood from last week. So, I'm home trying to get the swelling down in my eye (black fly bit...the nasty buggers) so I'm restarting my reading with (appropriately) "New to WordPress - Where to Start" Thoughts to pursue... they recommend installing a plug-in that sets up a search window for WordPress Codex and online forum. I looked and don't see it listed as a plug-in on our test site at http://www.blogs.eduyukon.net/wp-admin/plugins.php ;  Tried the link in the article but it doesn't work. Took a look under the Links tab on our site and noticed that Grant has the link to the CODEX site available. Action:  Try searching the CODEX while building a post. I was reading the section on adding links for a blogroll so I went and did that and set up a new category (to differentiate from the one's Grant has already set up. Funny though...I still can't get how this thing thinks. If I go into Manage and click on Lists I see our blogroll links but I can't view them from the home page of the blog site. Grant has created a Links page (tab) that is visible on the home page of the site but it doesn't contain the blogroll links and looks like a story page that I can add links to. Different meaning of "links". Action:  Add more links to the links tab. Try adding another Links tab (different title?); explore ways to make the blogroll visible # - Sylvia - 8/11/08; 11:09:19 AM -

An undisciplined learner...

So much for my great plans of proceeding through the wealth of learning content on the WordPress site in an orderly way. I just dove in this morning cuz I realized that it was Thursday and I still hadn't opened my WP page! Rather than reading through my stated objectives (Rule 1 of effective planning and organization), I went to my WP link and looked at WordPress Lessons --> WP for Beginners --> Introduction to Blogging. Most of it I already knew but I enjoyed the explanation of trackbacks and pingbacks (both features I haven't tried) and I learned that WP has a feature that should allow me to email in blog posts. I'll try that one before the end of the week. More tomorrow...Sylvia P.S.  I do have excuses...my best one is a cute, energetic, blue-eyed, blonde-haired granddaughter who is visiting. She's sleeping right now which is the reason I'm at my computer and not playing. # - SylviaR - 8/7/08; 7:05:24 AM -

Overcoming stupid barriers

And the stupid barrier was me! I managed to lose my login information so I couldn't log into the WP site so that I could use it to practice what I was learning from the WP lessons...embarassing! Anyway, I've managed to get in finally (on the weekend when I could focus)...so now I will design this week (Aug 4 - 10) as my first week of learning WP. Found an interesting blog that provides all kinds of good ideas of how to use WP - check out http://umwblogs.org/wiki/index.php/Ten_ideas_for_using_UMW_Blogs more later...sylvia # - SylviaR - 8/4/08; 10:48:23 AM -

A new endeavour(s)

Actually, I have to upskill in a couple of areas. I've played with the software and tried different things but now I think it's time to take a more comprehensive (organized?) approach to upskilling in a couple of different software packages or services that look like they'll provide a lot of benefit to YC instructors. First self-directed learning focus:  WordPress And luckily for me, Wordpress has a number of ways I can learn about it. Grant has it installed on his Dreamhost server so I can play to my heart's content. Now I need to establish a foundation; a better understanding of how Word Press works and what it can do. Week 1:  Complete Step 1 and part of Step 2 from WordPress page - http://codex.wordpress.org/New_To_WordPress_-_Where_to_Start Read WordPress Features and First Steps with WordPress Complete as many WordPress Lessons as I can! As I don't know where I'm going I can't map it yet. Hopefully once I've finished the introductory lessons I can map how I want to develop my skills....stay tuned Sylvia     # - Sylvia - 7/29/08; 8:46:14 AM -

Exploring Wikiversity and LeMill

Part of this week's course work is to join, explore and contribute to Wikiversity and LeMill. Well, I've only had time to take the first steps and I now have an account and profile on   Wikiversity User:Yukonsyl    (Note:  Wikiversity allows me to self-identify as a user name which I select while LeMill asks for my first and last name.)   LeMill - Sylvia Riessner # - Sylvia - 3/10/08; 7:17:26 AM -

Exploring selected OER sites

The last part of the assignment for this week was to explore: Wikimedia Foundation's Wikiversity Rice University's Connexions OpenLearn's Learning Space University of Helsinki's LeMill I was hoping to review each of them according to the levels of openness described in the report we read this week. But I'm finding that what is stated about the openness of the content ( by site managers ) is not always true in practise, at least not in my experience. And the definitions of each level are not sequential although this is implied by the numbering scheme. So I find that Level 2 seems very arbitrary and exclusionary and creates a category that no one appears to meet. Openness Level 1:  access and accessibility  Is there a non-discriminatory opportunity to reach, explore and study the resource. I still find barriers to access -- often in sites that were designed by technies who don't seem to realize the impenetrability of their design. At first glance, all four sites would score well at this level. They post content in a variety of ways and try to provide a variety of ways of finding the content that is right for you. I particularly liked the way that Open Learn and Connexions organize their materials. Other obvious barriers to true Level 1 status would be language - only LeMill seems to provide a broad variety of resources in other languages but I find their content difficult to navigate so it's not a perfect Level 1. It's hard to see how any method of posting and sharing content might not pose a barrier to access if people didn't have sufficient computing power, knowledge, connectivity, language. It seems that, if there is a need, people come together to try and help. I've read about student volunteers translating materials for people in other countries and I'm sure that if someone expressed concerns about accessing materials in one site that some member of the site would find a way to help. So the initial categorization of each site for openness may not present a complete picture Openness Level 2:  enjoy the services generated by the resource. Can the user gain an educational degree? I felt this was totally unrealistic and not particularly helpful or meaningful in terms of assessing the openness of a site. Why should an institution grant a degree or certificate unless they gain some compensation for it? I would have thought the primary goal is to provide access to learning so that no one is denied the right to learn. What they do with the knowledge they acquire is up to them. Openness Level 3:  right to modify, repackage and add value to the resource. Can the user access materials, repurpose them and republish them? I guess I can only truly assess this after I try to download and access materials. I have only downloaded materials from MIT's OpenCourseWare site. I did notice that trying to figure out how to download materials from some of these sites was not easy. I'll have to poke around some more and report back! Anyway, here's a quick overview of my initial impressions of these open content sites (lots more digging to do on all the sites) The OpenLearn Learning Space is the most impressive in terms of providing tools for people to work together on projects. They provide a flash web conferencing tool, instant messaging, journaling tools and online discussion forums. The quality of content in Wikiversity and LeMill seemed very inconsistent (perhaps because they're not as well funded?). Wikiversity seems to be built by people who love subdividing content into ever-smaller sections that often lead to nothing. I followed many paths that lead to blind alleys. LeMill had some good content but it was difficult to tell from the indexing as to what I would actually find. I never did manage to identify a 'media piece' let alone download something. Connexions is nicely laid out and it appears to have some very technical and high quality content. Some of their material seems a little dry and linear for my taste but the course module I sampled seemed well written (if a little heavy on text). I'm looking forward to reading what other students thought about these sites. Maybe I'll blog that too! Sylvia   # - Sylvia - 3/8/08; 11:38:11 AM -

Week 1: Tuomi's Report to OECD on OERs

Open Educational Resources: What they are and why do they matter PDF of Report prepared for the OECD Ilkka Tuomi - October 2006 Knowledge = Freedom? Ilkka Tuomi's 2006 report begins by linking the beliefs of the Western Enlightment to the development of the OER movement. He idenfies a series of beliefs that, to me, cannot be understood in isolation. For example:  knowledge is a shared construct and therefore cannot (should not?) be owned exclusively by anyone. The implication is that knowledge = freedom. This assumes that knowledge is a good and can be used (consumed?) in the same way by each individual -- all that is required is access. And that the end result of the access will be the same for all of us. This seems to be an overly simplistic understanding of knowledge. As a quick example, what I do with my knowledge of the current federal budget will be vastly different than what a professional investor will do or what a government official will do. Even if we all read the same newspaper article about the budget, our different foundational knowledge, our financial and other resources, our immediate environments and our intellectual capacity and styles will change what we do with knowledge. So even if we all consume the same thing, we digest it differently. The propietary aspect of knowledge needs to be carefully defined. I agree that knowledge that is publicly funded should be publicly accessible. But knowledge that is generated with the investment of private funds, energy and resources does not appear to be the same thing. You can argue that all knowledge builds on the knowledge that humanity has generated already.  But I find it hard to believe that individuals will struggle and strive to create and develop if there is not some reward for their efforts. The OER movement is supported by many individuals and institutions who believe that the knowledge they have should be shared freely. But they, for the most part, are adequately compensated for their daily efforts by their employers or funders. Their espousal of the concept of free knowledge is simply a relinquishment of additional compensation for their efforts. Tuomi's report to the OECD put forward the idea that some knowledge can be a social good that generates more value (to society?) by being freely available. He related the economic notion of public goods (goods that can be consumed or used by others without diminishing their value) to the definition of open resources. But his examples of public goods are weak as public parks and facilities do become devalued if they are used by too many people. And I can think of very few examples except the Open Source (or FLOSSE) movement where groups of people have worked together to improve a product without direct compensation or ownership. He also acknowledges the different levels of 'openness' (access to knowledge is not enough and what do we mean by access?) Openness I:  Is there a non-discriminatory opportunity to reach, explore, and study the resource?  Openness II:  Can the user gain the full benefit of the resource? Openness III:  Does the user have the right to repurpose (add value?) to the content? By Tuomi's definition, MIT's OpenCourseWare only achieves a Level I because you cannot earn a degree. Yet it seems logical to me that they have satisfied the concept of open access (as much as is possible); conferring a degree seems to be something that should be paid for. And, as many people have pointed out, even that example of Openness is not sustainable. MIT's initiative would not have been possible without generous funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. It was (and is) an immensely expensive 'free' project. Tuomi also proposed that OERs would (could?) transform learning by stimulating new forms of teaching practice and by enabling new ways to organise education and learning. The traditional educational models where learning was seen as “knowledge transfer” and “internalization” of pre-existing knowledge are now increasingly being replaced by active, social, and problem-oriented models.(p.6) The possibilities are why I'm interested in OERs (where I wasn't that interested in learning objects). So far it seems to me that many people resist the move away from students as vessels to be filled with knowledge. Engaging in learning is more work - for the educator and the student. Some find it exciting and leap right in. Others are being dragged reluctantly to participate. Others aren't even being given the opportunity. But, the potential to transform education is there...whether we can achieve it in a broad enough way to be meaningful to society is another thing entirely.       # - Sylvia - 3/4/08; 8:19:55 AM -

Week 1: Introductions

# - Sylvia - 3/3/08; 10:18:41 AM -