Learning is Change

LiC Podcast: Design with Forever in Mind Archive

Although I was thrown a whole bunch by not having wifi for the first 45 minutes, I think that the session was worthwhile. Here is the archive of all that we have done. I am also including my planning podcast from my drive up to copper mountain.

Presentation:

 

Drop Box:

 

drop.io: simple private sharing

 

Important Links:

Ben Wilkoff Links:

  1. Learning is Change Blog and Podcast>
  2. Twitter Page
  3. Other Presentation on Thursday (The On Button: Instant and Always-on Collaboration)

Presentation Links:

  1. Foreverism
  2. Math Casts
  3. Web 2.0 Game Over

Exit Plan for Vocaroo:

  • Wav files backed up to a hard drive/server

Exit Plan for Drop.io:

  • Everyone who downloads the podcast will have a copy.

Exit Plan for JamGlue:

  • Mp3 files of mixes

Exit Plan for Screencastle:

  • Download Direct Link to File and store on hard drive/server

Exit Plan for Screentoaster:

  • Mov Downloads before uploading to screencastle site

Exit Plan for DimDim:

  • Download and build own DimDim server and store recordings there.

Exit Plan for Twitter:

Exit Plan for Google Docs:

Ustream Archive:

Twitter Archive:

Jun 23, 2009 05:54 AM GMT ·
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Conflict of interest

I accidentally posted this too soon, but here is the official version
of this idea (which is bound to change at some point).
 
What does it mean when you are faced with the following challenge:
 
The place that you work has given you the freedom to explore different
learning platforms, work with creative people, collaborate on process,
policy, and pedagogy, and the means to not have to say no too often.
 
The future you see for education is different than what is being planned.
 
The opportunities to branch out and create your own learning spaces
have never been more numerous or more engaging.
 
The community you actively engage in advocates for open communication
and documentation of every move forward that you make with your own
learning.
 
The boundaries on that communication have never been more clear: “Some
meetings are secret.”
 
The platforms for learning and support that you use are at odds with
“having someone on the other end of the line” when something goes
wrong.
 
So, what here is a conflict of interest. Can all of this coexist and
not create chaos, unrest or animosity between my job, my network, my
living, and my passion?
 
(Too vague? Give me a few months, and perhaps specifics will surface.)

Posted via email from olco5’s posterous

Another one bites the dust…

Image representing Flowgram as depicted in Cru...
Image via CrunchBase

One of the more promising tools that I had seen in the last year was Flowgram. I had used it to do a few tutorials and to show people just how easy it is to create a learning path for people with your voice and few good links. However, now it seems as though that is all coming to an end. I received this e-mail this morning:

Dear Flowgram user:

Today is a sad day for us. We have decided to terminate the Flowgram service as of the end of the month (June 30th, 2009).  The service received excellent reviews and had an enthusiastic core user base. However, we were not able to demonstrate (especially in these economic times) that Flowgrams would ever be prevalent enough for us to adequately monetize the business, either though ads or subscriptions. This is obviously very disappointing, but building the Flowgram platform was a lot of fun, and it was wonderful to see how many of you used our tool to express yourselves in a deep and meaningful way.

Although you won’t be able to play your Flowgrams after the end of the month,  you can export them to video by clicking “share” from the website or “more sharing options” from the Flowgram player and scrolling down to the export to video section.  It is very important, if you wish to keep your content, that you export to video and download the video by the end of the month.  Please let us know at support@flowgram.com if you have any difficulties doing this.

Again, I would like to thank you for your support, for your Flowgrams and for your good wishes.

Best Regards
Abhay Parekh (Founder) and the rest of the Flowgram Team

So it goes.

I definitely see more of this happening in the near future. In fact, I am basically scared for all of the tools I use, and at this point, I would like to flat out state that if the following tools would let me pay for their service, I would gladly do so just to ensure that there are there tomorrow:

  1. Twittter
  2. Screentoaster
  3. Delicious
  4. Google Reader
  5. Youtube

So if any of these services are reading this blog:

Please develop a sound business model, or at least open up your platform so that others can keep it going after you have run out of money.

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The most trusting of folks

We trust that things will happen , that the projects we are working on
will eventually see the light of day.
 
We trust that by sharing our information and learning, good things
will occur. We trust that feeds are freedom and voice if virtue.
 
We trust that when we create something of value, that others will
recognize that value.
 
We trust that tomorrow will, in fact, be another day.
 
We trust that change will occur if we will it into being. We trust
that learning isn’t static.
 
We trust that a great many things will be stable, though too.
 
We trust that networks are not based upon the platform they were
created in. We trust that people will still be humane when faced with
the possibility of being so.
 
We trust that truth still matters.
 
Or, at least I do.

Posted via email from olco5’s posterous

Not knowing what I can share

The future of e-learning is social learning

For a week or more I have been conflicted about knowing what I can share from a class I co-taught this week on Best Practices for Online teaching and learning (yes, I know that I have blogged about there being no such thing as “best practices”). The reason why I am conflicted is because I do not own all of the rights to the content within the course and I have never tried to share the work of other adults amongst whom some are reluctant to have open classrooms. Because my district would like to take a look at running this course again and again internally and eventually running it for other districts as well, it would be hard for me to share the actual content of the course that I co-created (with my good friend Liz Walhof).

This saddens me because I am the type of person who has to share what is going on, has to add value to the work that is going on in changing the way education works. I really would like to share just how a hybrid course can look for professional development (we met on Monday, had asynchronous learning on Tuesday and met again on Wednesday with an extended skype session). I would like to share just how excited I am for people getting down to the business of making authentic learning objects with students and using Personal Learning Networks within an LMS. However, I respect the fact that I am not the only one who took part in the creation or learning of this class. I realize that I do not have all of the answers on this blog as well.

So, what I have decided to is to is to slowly take bits and pieces of things that I have learned from the course as well as things that were created during the course and share them on this blog. By doing this, I can satisfy my need to share as well as fulfill my obligations to show that there is valuable content within the course itself.

Here is the first set of objects, three visual representations of PLNs by members of this class:

picture-3picture-2picture-1

I quite like how this activity turned out. I hope you do too.

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Install Moodle on an Oracle Database (in 25 minutes or less)

While this post may not be for my typical reader, I believe that it has value to the larger online education community, mostly because many of us are faced with making current systems work with what know to be the way forward. The specific system in question is using an Oracle database to work with Moodle. While it has been done before, some of the instructions didn’t ring true for me. I also wanted to be able to provide a step-by-step account of how I have done it and how it can be done.

So, without further ado, here is the Google Doc that gives the step by step account of just how to do it.

And, just to prove that it can be done in 25 minutes or less, I have included a screencast of the entire process that I used to revise the Google Doc and make sure everything works.

I hope it can be of use to you and yours.

Educon Conversation, better late than never.

Educon Sat AM
Image by catvpar via Flickr

I have been going back through some of my audio files recently and I found a really good conversation from Educon 2.1.

This conversation was from John Pederson‘s Session, The Networked Learning Manifesto: Welcoming Parents into the Conversation.

You can find the actual Manifesto that sparked the conversation here.

The participants that I recognize from the audio are:

There are many voices that I don’t immediately remember or recognize, however. Which is a little sad because there are a lot of really good voices in the room.

The original recording for the session is here, but I believe that the audio isn’t quite as good as this excerpt. There is also a follow up conversation at Parents as Partners.

This is the kind of conversation that I need to keep reminding myself to come back to. Some very smart things were said about going to where parents are and becoming a person to them first before trying to “get them on board” with technology and networked learning.

I hope that we all follow up on the promise that this conversation evoked.

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Strategy for Collaborative Learning

I recorded this podcast a few weeks ago, but I have sat on it for that long in order to mull everything over for a while.

The topic for this podcast is all about how we enumerate the exact needs found within the classroom that would require us to be collaborative and use tools like Google Docs, Wikis or Blogs. Many of us feel as though these needs are self-evident, but in the face of resistance, we need to be able to write them out and share them with others.

I will let the psudo-rant speak for itself, but I would like to repeat the question/s that I ask at the end:

What do you believe the needs are for a collaborative learner that would lead you to using Google Apps? What was the needs analysis that you underwent that led you to believe that a collaborative space was necessary?

(This sounds like a ridiculous question, but I think that it actually gets at a small portion of Karl Fisch’s much larger and better questions, found here.)

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Blogs as Continuing Professional Development

Loch Tummel in Perth and Kinross.
Image via Wikipedia

I got a message on twitter that 5 posts from this blog are now available to anyone who is a part of Continuing Professional Development in Scotland. It appears as though this means that people will be able to read my blog for some kind of credit.

While I am intrigued that my writing may make its way into any type of curriculum, it makes me think a whole lot more about how we package learning materials from others.

Can we make anything into curriculum? Can we offer credit for any type of academic pursuit?

I think that the kind of work that brings outside resources into the realm of canonized professional development is just wonderful. But, since they are linking to me, perhaps I am little biased.

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What winning looks like.

Interactive whiteboard at CeBIT 2007
Image via Wikipedia

I have been quite energized by a lot of the basketball games that have been going on during the playoffs this year. There have been a lot of tight games and quite a few overtimes. As with anything that I am engaged in, I bring it back to learning.

It is my contention that there are a lot of really “close games” in education at the moment. With the amount of budget cutbacks and lack of consensus on what the best technology investments are for education, it is hard to see anything as coming out as a clear winner. The conversations are all happening (Online Learning, Technology Integration scaling, Netbooks, Cell Phones in the Classroom, Blended Learning, Student ePorfolios, Interactive Whiteboards, and a few others), but it remains to be seen whether any of them will make for long lasting changes in education.

So, what does winning look like?

When will we know that the inroads that Interactive Whiteboards have made are enough to change who controls information in the classroom?

Does winning look like the “No Cell Phones” Signs coming down?

Does winning look a 1:1 netbook program where the kids actually own the laptops?

Does winning look like every student having an ePorfolio filled with artifacts from their required elearning or blended learning class?

I really want to know.

(By the way, I do get the fact that “winning” isn’t really an appropriate metaphor for the kind of change we are looking to create. I understand that there are lots of competing factors, and not just two simplistic sides. But, my hope is that it will create some discussion at least.)

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