Imagining Learning with Web 2.0 Tools

Having agreed in a previous post with Martin Weller about the inappropriateness of traditional learning management systems in a social networking context I have been reading his blog further.
Martin has established a project called SocialLearn and done some thought research about what a social learning environment might be like. He proposes an interesting scenario and [...]

Learning Management Systems Under Threat from Web 2.0

Hot on the heels of presentations by Iain (HOD) and myself to a group of local teachers of IT comes confirmation of the problems facing learning management systems (LMS). Iain made the point that the structured top-down approach of LMS technology was not necessarily leading to better learning for the students.
We see this point echoed [...]

Students Sanitise Their Facebook Profiles

A remark made by a panelist at the recent International Conference on Computer-Mediated Social Networks (ICCMSN200 is now echoed in research from Educause and its Center for Applied Research. A blog post from Jeff Young of The Chronicle indicates that students are beginning to watch their privacy on Facebook. Photos and comments in their Facebook [...]

ICCMSN2008 Conference Report

With Peta Hopkins I attended the inaugural International Conference on Computer-Mediated Social Networks 2008 hosted by the Information Sciences (Information Systems) Department part of the Commerce Faculty at the University of Otago, Dunedin , New Zealand, over 11-13 June 2008. The conference was slow to use social networking tools but a Twitter account was set [...]

Enrol in Your Own Social Media U

With other colleagues at my institution we are trying to persuade the powers that be of the benefits of social media. Sarah Perez would escalate the issue considerably into a Social Media U. She proposes eight lessons:

Personal Branding: buy yourname.com to secure your brand, make a video resume, start a WordPress blog, use Google Reader, [...]

Blogging 2.0 is Upon Us Already

According to some we are entering into the next phase of blogging inevitably named Blogging 2.0.
Duncan Riley (blogoz panellist and ex TechCrunch blogger) has recently created his own professional blog, Inquistr. He takes a cogent look at  ‘blogging 2.0′ where all of a person’s social media activity on sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube as well [...]

AideRSS is even Better

Eight months ago in a previous post about AideRSS I lauded the benefits that I had found after only 2 weeks of use. These benefits have progressed in the interim so that now 6 out of my top 20 most frequently read blogs are filtered by AideRSS. This amounts to a saving approaching 300 posts [...]

Connecting Blackboard to Facebook

This influence Facebook has over the social networking of university students across the world is undoubtedly significant and probably growing. The dominant learning management system used in universities is Blackboard. However by design Blackboard is a closed system within each institution and it would be very difficult to emulate Facebook’s global reach.
It is quite natural [...]

More Intranet Evolution Needed

Peta points us to a very telling slide presentation by James Robertson on where intranet use stands in most organisations:

 
Note that Communication has a way to go whereas the scope for Collaboration (social network tools like blogs, wikis and team sites) to improve is very high. Activity (form filling and data gathering) is just [...]

Grasping the Concept of Social Surplus

Although suffering the CodeCampOz heavy cold my mind still seems to be active. It has been stimulated by a post by Clay Shirky entitled Gin, Television and Social Surplus that espouses material from his book Here Comes Everybody.
Clay estimates that Wikipedia has taken 100 million person hours to produce - 100 million hours of social [...]