This blog is a personal learning space which primarily focuses on educational use of technologies in education. It also serves as a test bed to experiment with various technologies. I feel that by sharing the problems along with the successes, we may all benefit from the experience.
Those who are new to Twitter are not infrequently perplexed as to what this is and why anyone might want to use this tool. As I explain my perspective, I try to represent not only my own use, but ways in which I see (or suspect) that others might use the service. Recently, I've been benefitting from Twitter searches and I've discovered that I can usually get help/advice from the "wisdom of the crowd".
Today, I'm preparing for a presentation on concept mapping and will be addressing a faculty user group who focus on the use of tablet PCs for teaching. Not being a power user of a tablet PC, I posted a tweet to see if I might shortcut the research process to find software, online resources, examples, etc. which might be relevant to the particular group.
My first reply was not what I expected, but the humor and quick wit made my attempt worthwhile. It provided the smile I need to remember to lighten up and enjoy the process.
Having a work routine and some limits is probably a good idea and something I need to work on. The notion of not checking e-mail until 10AM, as suggested by lifehacker, in Simple Guidelines for Workday Quality Over Quantity, is tempting and something I do on mornings when the creative muse is dancing (which has thankfully been happening more frequently these days). However, the use of e-mail is culture driven. Constant checking of e-mail may not be demanded, but it is not uncommon in many office cultures that one has read and possibly followed up on e-mail by arrival at the office.
Communication is (minimally) a two-way exchange. If everyone practices a 10:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. schedule, just think how long it might take to get a reply to your own messages, which you “send any time”. E-mail is just one mode of communication, in a digital world. Communication and information options, such as Twitter, Yammer, and other tools can push information and vie for our attention nearly 24/7. Each of these communication tools has it’s own unique characteristics and we can uniquely adopt them for our own reasons. Conversations can begin in one mode and migrate to another, or even continue simultaneously in multiple modes. An e-mail may inform you of something you feel compelled to share in Twitter. The Tweet might lead to reflective thought which is posted in a blog. The blog might generate responses which trigger a wide conversation.
So, perhaps instead of a concrete rule which stipulates when I will read my e-mail, I need to reflect on communication in general and ask a few questions.
Why do I use e-mail?
Who is sending e-mail?
What other communication tools do I use?
Why do I use each tool?
How do I decide to move the conversation to a different mode?
Is it OK to stop following an individual in Twitter, etc. as your needs and relationship changes?
Which tools should I drop?
Is there a way to quickly identify critical e-mail communication from other types?
Are other communication tools contributing to my work, thinking, or life in general?
Can I use special techniques, such as subscribing to RSS feeds, monitoring the messages of “friends” or using a customized “portal”, such as a Ning?
I’ll ponder these questions and more. I’m not sure which mode of communication I’ll use as I search for answers.
While talking with Brit Watwood (bwatwood) about the development of an upcoming brown-bag discussion of social media, I quickly listed some approaches and then scribbled the following thoughts.
In regard to our work, the social networks we formed in the past were primarily with our colleagues on the local level and those whom we met during participation in conferences. Image by luc legay via Flickr Online social media has allowed individuals to quickly identify people and experts with common interests and connect in ways that were just not possible a few years ago. People who cannot physically attend conferences may participate in real-time conversations with on-site participants via Twitter and similar tools. Ideas and/or resources may be quickly shared or requests for help on a particular topic may be solicited with the expectation of almost immediate help from the "community". Image via Wikipedia Various tools lend themselves to a particular expression and the "conversations" which occur may migrate to various media. The important component is the ability to create relationships with both individuals and communities of people with common interests and a willingness to share.
Well, thanks to Britt Watwood, I'm hopefully looking a little smarter today. Britt introduced me to Zemanta, a tool which may be added to the browser to assist in the development of a blog post with links to other resources. This slick little tool makes suggestions and provides resources based on the words in your composition. Britt uses this on his own blog called Learning in a Flat World (manually linked).
Although my experiments, have been partly successful, such as when I entered the term digital storytelling, I have found that it is not as powerful as I hoped it would be. It has not found links to Chickering and Gamson, The Seven Principles, Learning in a Flat World, Britt Watwood, VCU Center for Teaching Excellence. When I wrote, Sarah Palin the list of related articles was weak. Perhaps I need to be more specific, such as looking for articles on Sarah Palin's contributions to Alaska or her position on drilling for oil. In addition, Cogdog has created a very well traffiiced site called 50 Ways to Tell a Story and I am surprised that nothing related to that specific site or subject is appearing in the list of resources.
In another attemt to find information on a topic of interest, I wrote, The Personal Brain is a concept mapping tool which dynamically restructures and presents a concept map as one clicks on any one component of the map. It is a way to provide what appears to be a simple map, but dynamically presents sub-maps. Zemanta found a Wikipedia link to concept mapping, but nothing on the Personal Brain.
Again, expeciting to see links, I wrote, Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson authored a paper on the Seven Principles... but only a link to Chickering was presented.
Let's see what happens when I look for an image of a Volkswagen.
On the technical side, I received messages in Blogger: "Could not contact Blogger.com. Saving andpublishing may fail. Retrying..., however I could open another session in a new tab and saving generally seemed to occur.
I am intrigued by Zemanta. I do not intend to put it down, but just report on my initial experiments. Quite possibly the concerns I have are related (at least in part) to my own lack of experience with the tool. At any rate, this experiment leads me to believe that Zemanta and many other tools will continue to remove some of the tedium from our work and empower us to write, provide citations and format articles with greater ease in the future.
In a world where attempting to get help either means listening to a recorded message telling me how important my call is and providing me with a list of numerical choices, or a web page URL, where “Help” usually leads to an FAQ and an endless loop of pages which seem to never quite address my problem, I often long for the old fashioned “warm body”, who can provide direct assistance. There’s nothing quite like knowing someone upon whom you can call with a quick question, i.e. a personal contact or personal network. Or, perhaps there is: consider the power of an online social network.
Last night, I was working in Wikispaces (using Firefox browser) to develop content for an upcoming discussion about embedding resources and how embedded content might serve learner needs in a higher education environment. Since many sources of videos, sounds and other dynamic content now provide the embed code, it is easy to copy and paste it into your WYSWIG editor or use a ‘widget” as you are building your content pages. Wikispaces provides such a widget and it works well. However, I failed to use the tool provided and copied embed code for a video directly into the page editor. When I tried to preview the page, it presented a series of lines across my page and a faint box which must have been where the video should have appeared. When I tried to go back to the editor and remove the code, I could never gain access. Thinking that my page was most likely destroyed, I thought that sharing my mistake with others via Twitter might be a good thing to do. I hoped that by sharing this information, I might prevent someone else from loosing valuable time and work. Having posted my Tweet, I tried accessing the page with the Safari browser and I was able to resolve the problem, and I Tweeted about that solution as well. The big surprise was that in that very brief time span of about ten minutes, I received a Tweet offering help. Not just from anyone, but from the “mother country” of Wikispaces. WUWT? Now I cannot speak about the service which Wikispaces provides via their help link, but this welcome contact broke the mold of my “help” experience and it gave me new insight as to the power of a network and in sharing both problems and solutions in an open environment. The fact is that anyone who read my Tweet could have responded. In this case, help was just one post away. I’m converted. I’ve once again discovered that through the power of social networking, WE ARE THE HELP DESK. I may never click on a “help” link again. :=)
PS: Kudos to Wikispaces and to all of you who provide your help and links to valuable resources. Viva la network.
Photo credit: justindc under creative commons attribution
I am embedding a VoiceThread and then will make comments on the original VoiceThread site in order to see if these changes will be pushed forward to this embeded version in my blog.
Question: if this works, how does this differ from "subscribing"? I guess the answer is that it will not push new information forward to alert me of a new "posting", however changes to this website may be viewed when the page is refreshed.
We will see!
Follow-up -
Partial SUCCESS: the embedding test worked. I not only could see changes made to the VoiceThread site, I could actually make changes via the embedded version within my blog. Unfortunately, in this case, I tried to add an audio comment and this requires the purchase of an account for an annual fee in order to perform this function. However, I can see my image and a sound icon, even though the audio file is not being shared. Problem: in my particular blog, the sidebar hides some of the images and links to comments. Perhaps some fine tuning of my layout can solve this. This is an issue which may make this less useful.
Bottom line; this might work for certain educational purposes. Deciding to use it on a regular basis requires the purchase of an account. For limited student created work (3 VoiceThreads) this could be used for collaborative sharing and commenting. It would also be a way to make students aware of this type of technology should they desire to use it in the future.
Once again, I am about to demonstrate the various activities that can be accomplished through Jott. One of which is posting to a blog as I am doing right now. It looks like in this morning's presentation, we have a small group but an interesting cross section of our fatly(?) community and I hope they will be inspired... listen
My name is William "Bud" Deihl and I am Senior Specialist in the ALTLab, at Virginia Commonwealth University http://altlab.vcu.edu/ . My work and my role continue to evolve along with technologies, practices and organizational changes. Along with my own curiosity, this constant state of evolution is a source that drives my own experimentation and learning. Prior to my role in the the ALTLab, I served as an Educational Technology Consultant in the Center for Teaching Excellence at Virginia Commonwealth University. I have been instrumental in the development and delivery of several special week long faculty institutes which focus on teaching with technology. I hold a BFA from the Fort Wayne Art Institute, an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, a Certificate of Online Teaching and Learning, from California State University (CSU), and an M.S.Ed., with a Specialization in Online Teaching and Learning from CSU.
Those who are new to Twitter are not infrequently perplexed as to what this is and why anyone might want to use this tool. As I explain my perspective, I try to represent not only my own use, but ways in which I see (or suspect) that others might use the service. Recently, I've been benefitting from Twitter searches and I've discovered that I can usually get help/advice from the "wisdom of the crowd".
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