Splicing information and social relations to suite the needs of different situations is increasingly important. The fields of learning and development have not yet been transformed to the online environment. The combination of learning/knowledge analytics, data visualization, and activity streams provide, I think, a sufficient basis for educators to begin planning for a post-course view of education.
SNAPP is a software tool that allows users to visualize the network of interactions resulting from discussion forum posts and replies. The network visualisations of forum interactions provide an opportunity for teachers to rapidly identify patterns of user behaviour – at any stage of course progression. SNAPP has been developed to extract all user interactions from various commercial and open source learning management systems (LMS) such as BlackBoard (including the former WebCT), and Moodle. SNAPP is compatible for both Mac and PC users and operates in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.
This post provides an annotated bibliography of some work on using social media (in particular Facebook) as a pre-registration/pre-university/induction tool. The references given can also be found at my Delicious site. Some examples of the use of Facebook for induction purposes are given at the end.
Schoology is a startup that seeks to address many of the pain points of the LMS: Schoology is easy to use. It's free. It offers data portability. It encourages communication and collaboration with look and feel of contemporary social networking sites rather than the bulletin boards of circa 1996. But it isn't simply a social networking tool. Schoology provides the functionality of its big name competitors - Blackboard, Moodle.
XPERT (Xerte Public E-learning ReposiTory) project is a JISC funded rapid innovation project (summer 2009) to explore the potential of delivering and supporting a distributed repository of e-learning resources created and seamlessly published through the open source e-learning development tool called Xerte Online Toolkits. The aim of XPERT is to progress the vision of a distributed architecture of e-learning resources for sharing and re-use.
The recently released ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology gives some excellent insights into trends in college students' technology ownership, perceptions, skills, and habits.
The government is to delay the research excellence framework by a year to see whether consensus emerges in the sector over plans to measure the social and economic "impact" of academics' work. - Ha Ha!
Here are nine guides written initially by the authors listed below. Nearly all are current or recent members of the ALT Research Committee. The guides went live in June 2010, and we encourage users with knowledge and experience in the field to contribute to their long term maintenance and development. ALT does not have the resources to closely monitor whether and if yes how the guides are changed, but will be keeping a general eye on them.
A friend just sent me an e-mail asking for writing tips. Her question is a common one -- I get this question every month from one of my doctoral students, one of my former students, or someone outside of the university where I teach. As a result, I thought that I might summarize some of the 10 suggestions I gave my friend, as well as 10 additional ones that I thought of while writing this up -- and then 10 more later on. It is now 30 ideas! Perhaps more people can benefit from the list or add to these ideas.
"I teach critical appraisal to biological science and medical students at the University of Leicester and have devised my own list of questions". See: http://scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com/2010/03/begin-beyond.html
"The benefits of membership to a scientific society are decreasing every year. Lately, I’m asking: Why bother?" See also: http://scienceblogs.com/confessions/2010/03/scholarly_societies_why_bother.php
Open Book is an independent publisher run by academics for academics and for the readers of academic work. We are a Social Enterprise (CIC) company that publishes high quality, peer-reviewed monographs in the humanities and social sciences and ensures the widest possible distribution of its publications. Open Book makes the whole publishing process in academia fairer, swifter and more affordable by utilizing three important technological advances: the digital medium, the Internet and print-on-demand.
The “thin portfolio” concept (borrowing from the prior “personal information aggregation and distribution service” concept) represents the idea that you don’t need that portfolio information in one server; but that it is very helpful to have one place where one can access all “your” information, and set permissions for others to view it. This concept is only beginning to be implemented.
The public domain is the realm of material—ideas, images, sounds, discoveries, facts, texts—that is unprotected by intellectual property rights and free for all to use or build upon. Our economy, culture and technology depend on a delicate balance between that which is, and is not, protected by exclusive intellectual property rights. Both the incentives provided by intellectual property and the freedom provided by the public domain are crucial to the balance. But most contemporary attention has gone to the realm of the protected.
"This site is for anyone who has been to uni in the UK. Whether you are there now, attended last year or 5+ years ago we want to hear your opinions. We also want to hear from you regardless of whether you graduated or not. Perhaps your lecturers were the reason you didn't get your degree? Or maybe they were fantastic. Have your say rate your lecturer! All ratings will appear anonymously on the site." Hmm...
There aren’t many things in life that are more fun than using the Blackboard discussion board system. But if we find any, they’ll be dutifully documented here.
PechaKucha 20x20 is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images forward automatically and you talk along to the images.
Mashable write up of our Twitter article: Alan Cann, Jo Badge, Stuart Johnson, Alex Moseley. Twittering the student experience. ALT-N, Vol. 17, October 2009. http://newsletter.alt.ac.uk/xrctg5ovlfkimsphpsy77s
A. Rovai. The Internet and Higher Education, 10 (1):
77 - 88(2007)Special Section of the AERA Education and World Wide Web special Interest Group (EdWeb/SIG).