Changing the #twitterheart to X via simple coding

When twitter first changed the star into heart, I could not be bothered. Although I must admit I did follow some of the discussions (one from Kate Bowles here).

Software is always biased and represents the cultural and philosophical background of the developer/s (nice overview paper from Friedman and Nissenbaum, 1996, but also a lot articles, latest one from Gizmodo on job application software). This is also true for the symbols socmed companies use, in this case the #twitterheart. But when tweaking of those symbols becomes really simple it becomes a pleasure to change the symbols used... oh Yes.

Vicky Curtis got me on to this nice and simple Chrome/Firefox extension tweak to change the twitter heart into something you like. (tough part: finding a symbol you want to use... I went for a mobile phone.

The idea comes from Robert McNees who shared a full code via Github here. But this is a bit of work, a simplified version was offered by Adam Clark Estes from Gizmodo in an overview article, focusing on a simple addition of coded lines to a browser extension (either chrome/firefox), which only takes 6 steps to get the twitter heart replaced by an emoji (= character or symbol) of your choice. Neat!

Now, because I combined the article of Adam Clark Estes with the updated coding from Robert McNees = @McNees , I will add the steps I used in this post. Btw, at the end I also choose the "URL's that start with' option to add behind the 'applies to' option inside of the Stylish extension. So here it goes:

Step 1: Download the Stylish extension for Chrome or Firefox. (There are a host of other extensions to restyle the web, but Stylish is super easy to use.)

Step 2: Open Stylish (= click on the 'Manage installed styles' option within the Browser icon of Stylish for a new window to open, then click on 'write new style' - button)

Step 3: paste the wonderful code from Robert McNees into that new style window, find the code here at Github. 

Step 4: change the standard emoji, with the emoji of your preference (you can search for images of emoji and then copy paste them into the code).

Step 5: In the “Applies to:” field below the code, choose the option 'URL's that start with' (otherwise you only get the changes for twitter.com and not your own tweets).

Step 6: Click Save and your twitter should be updated with your own emoji.  

My biggest difficulty was finding the right emoji... still not sure about my simple X... and there seems to be some hearts still not adjusted, but getting there. And in the meantime, chaos in symbols is adding some diversity. 

Try out new conference formats #emoocs2015

With the #eMOOCs2015 conference coming to a finish, it is time for me as the experience track chair to look back and think about what happened, how, and the feeling it gave me and possibly others as well.

Trying out other formats during the conference
The experience track of a MOOC conference has one big advantage: you can say YES to any proposal that is offered, or suggest them, or think of them and try them out on the spot. All of that happened. We - all participants within and beyond the conference - came up with formats to test:

• a flipped conference mode in pecha kucha style, 
• an e-buddy style hangout online, and 
• unprepared speakers taking the floor: an open call to speak ad hoc filling in open speaking spots. 

Flipped conference mode: from open video, to pecha kucha and an engaged audience
The idea: put the 5 best (= those who got the highest scores from the reviewing panel) papers of each conference track on a MOOC platform about 3 weeks before the conference. Ask the authors of those papers to make a short (= approx 5 min) video describing their MOOC project adding some key questions. Enable people - insight and outside of the conference - to have a look, pose questions, add comments... to all of these papers/videos. These videos and papers were put on the ConfX MOOC, which is available here. Once the conference started we needed to find a way to balance the discussion that could take place in the room: on the one hand there would be people in the room having seen the videos/read papers, but there would also be people in the room being new to the presented projects. So how do you drive a constructive discussion forward where these two audiences meet? The option we went for was: pecha kucha style: each of the participants in the f-2-f session had 20 slides, each taking up to 20 seconds, to describe their project. Leaving 18 minutes for questions and answers with the audience. Because this was a new format, an extra physical incentive was added: Belgian chocolates were given to all those participants that posed a question. How did it go? First the audience was hesitant, but as trust and confidence grew, people started to shout out their questions. Resulting in the end with 25 questions coming from the audience, providing real dialogues to take place in the room itself, a real treat.

An e-buddy style hangout online
The wonderful, inspiring and public scholars Maha Bali ( @Bali_Maha ) and Rebecca Hogue ( @RJHogue )proposed a hangout, enabling non-conference audience to have a feel of what was happening at the conference, and have a chance to talk to some of the active people in the conference. This resulted in a recorded session spanning multiple continents. You can see the hangout here.
Now just to understand how great Maha and Rebecca are: suddenly the connection dropped Whitney Kilgore and me out the hangout. And Maha had a back-up plan! On the air she asked Aras Bozkurt to share his graph visualization from NodeXL where you could see the social media networks as they were created during the eMOOCs2015 conference, and his MOOCs, especially #rhizo15 and #edcmooc (this is a really great share!).
This e-buddy style hangout is part of a concept by both Maha and Rebecca exploring a new type of conference option, and you can read more about it in Maha's blogpost here.

Open call for speakers to take the floor (open speaking spots)
As I was preparing for my session (a session of an hour and a half, normally with 3 speakers)... I thought I was the only speaker in that room as the timing of our session had come. So I decided to call out and ask if there was anyone in the room willing to take one of the open spots... and Brian Wernham from NooLearn (= an open MOOC platform that lets the crowd build online courses... really nice) took the chance and started preparing a 15 min presentation on the spot. Tiberio Feliz Murias, the wonderful chair of this session also got out and pulled in a wonderful extra presenter: Divina Frau-Meigs of the Sorbonne university in Paris. As these two speakers were found, one planned speaker showed up: Rémi Bachelet, with a great talk on MOOC peer assessments which you can see on slideshare here.
So all of a sudden we were 4 speakers in the room, two planned speakers, two volunteering on the spot. And did it work? Yes! As in MOOCs, the people that actively participate are always people with wisdom, form which we all can learn. And indeed that happened in the room as well. New wisdom was shared, and new dialogues took place.

MOOCs and f-2-f moments mimicking the magic of life
So, for me, there were a lot of experiences happening in the experience track of the conference that lifted the interactions that were taking place. To me there is a parallel between life and moocs, if you keep opportunities open, new surprising knowledge will be created, and new networks will appear ... all of which make up the best moments in life, where magic happens. Thank you to all that engaged... it felt good. 

Networking #eMOOCs2015 a graph analysis & personal account

Conferences are really good meeting places, and they always mold my knowledge thanks to all the old/new people I meet and talk to. I often wonder whether they have more impact on my knowledge then the papers I read, simply because of the connection, the mutual dialogue that takes place. I am already looking forward to joining eMOOCs2016 in the beautiful Graz, Austria that will be lead by the wonderful Martin Ebner and Michael Kopp, and their colleagues. Mark your calendar, by the end of June 2015 the call for papers will already be out, so keep your keyboard/pen/mind alert.

Marc Smith made the wonderful NodeXL graph visualizing the interactions, and networks that were happening at eMOOCs2015. Which reflects the importance of getting the word out while you are in a conference, enabling connections and exchanges to happen in- and outside of the venue.

At the Mons venue, the IRL encounters were also illuminating and stimulating. I got a chance to shake hands with people I have been learning from for a long while: Whitney Kilgore, Dave Cormier, Pierre Dillenbourg, Siân Bayne, Ahmed Fahmy, Simon Carolan, and Christine Vaufrey. Of course there were also those who keep on inspiring me and I have met or meet: Mike Sharples, Sally Reynolds, Timothy Read, Janesh Sanzgiri,Yishay Mor, Steven Warburton, Martin Ebner, Nigel Smith, Carlos Delgado Kloos,
But also inspirational new people: Gavin Clinch,  Darco Jansen, Divina Frau-Meigs, Sabine Schuman, Tiberio Feliz Murias, Ella Harmonic, JingJing Lin, Beatrice Capristan, Su White, Françoise Docq, Bruno Poellhuber, and many others... as my mind is still a bit sleepy after an intense three days.

... and while I was listening to them I realized why it is so important for me to see some people in real life. I felt how driven they were, why they care for others (ethical, philosophical awareness), which made me realize that passion (in action, in philosophy) is the way forward for any life I love. 

New conference formats in Experience track of #emoocs2015 share

With the #eMOOCs2015 conference coming to a finish, it is time for me as the experience track chair to look back and think about what happened, how, and the feeling it gave me and possibly others as well.

Trying out other formats during the conference
The experience track of a MOOC conference has one big advantage: you can say YES to any proposal that is offered, or suggest them, or think of them and try them out on the spot. All of that happened. We - all participants within and beyond the conference - came up with formats to test:

• a flipped conference mode in pecha kucha style, 
• an e-buddy style hangout online, and 
• unprepared speakers taking the floor: an open call to speak ad hoc filling in open speaking spots. 

Flipped conference mode: from open video, to pecha kucha and an engaged audience
The idea: put the 5 best (= those who got the highest scores from the reviewing panel) papers of each conference track on a MOOC platform about 3 weeks before the conference. Ask the authors of those papers to make a short (= approx 5 min) video describing their MOOC project adding some key questions. Enable people - insight and outside of the conference - to have a look, pose questions, add comments... to all of these papers/videos. These videos and papers were put on the ConfX MOOC, which is available here. Once the conference started we needed to find a way to balance the discussion that could take place in the room: on the one hand there would be people in the room having seen the videos/read papers, but there would also be people in the room being new to the presented projects. So how do you drive a constructive discussion forward where these two audiences meet? The option we went for was: pecha kucha style: each of the participants in the f-2-f session had 20 slides, each taking up to 20 seconds, to describe their project. Leaving 18 minutes for questions and answers with the audience. Because this was a new format, an extra physical incentive was added: Belgian chocolates were given to all those participants that posed a question. How did it go? First the audience was hesitant, but as trust and confidence grew, people started to shout out their questions. Resulting in the end with 25 questions coming from the audience, providing real dialogues to take place in the room itself, a real treat.

An e-buddy style hangout online
The wonderful, inspiring and public scholars Maha Bali ( @Bali_Maha ) and Rebecca Hogue ( @RJHogue )proposed a hangout, enabling non-conference audience to have a feel of what was happening at the conference, and have a chance to talk to some of the active people in the conference. This resulted in a recorded session spanning multiple continents. You can see the hangout here.
Now just to understand how great Maha and Rebecca are: suddenly the connection dropped Whitney Kilgore and me out the hangout. And Maha had a back-up plan! On the air she asked Aras Bozkurt to share his graph visualization from NodeXL where you could see the social media networks as they were created during the eMOOCs2015 conference, and his MOOCs, especially #rhizo15 and #edcmooc (this is a really great share!).
This e-buddy style hangout is part of a concept by both Maha and Rebecca exploring a new type of conference option, and you can read more about it in Maha's blogpost here.

Open call for speakers to take the floor (open speaking spots)
As I was preparing for my session (a session of an hour and a half, normally with 3 speakers)... I thought I was the only speaker in that room as the timing of our session had come. So I decided to call out and ask if there was anyone in the room willing to take one of the open spots... and Brian Wernham from NooLearn (= an open MOOC platform that lets the crowd build online courses... really nice) took the chance and started preparing a 15 min presentation on the spot. Tiberio Feliz Murias, the wonderful chair of this session also got out and pulled in a wonderful extra presenter: Divina Frau-Meigs of the Sorbonne university in Paris. As these two speakers were found, one planned speaker showed up: Rémi Bachelet, with a great talk on MOOC peer assessments which you can see on slideshare here.
So all of a sudden we were 4 speakers in the room, two planned speakers, two volunteering on the spot. And did it work? Yes! As in MOOCs, the people that actively participate are always people with wisdom, form which we all can learn. And indeed that happened in the room as well. New wisdom was shared, and new dialogues took place.

MOOCs and f-2-f moments mimicking the magic of life
So, for me, there were a lot of experiences happening in the experience track of the conference that lifted the interactions that were taking place. To me there is a parallel between life and moocs, if you keep opportunities open, new surprising knowledge will be created, and new networks will appear ... all of which make up the best moments in life, where magic happens. Thank you to all that engaged... it felt good. 

#pkm course: sharing current network questions

Although the master class of Harold Jarche only started 2 days ago, it already got me thinking about my networks, what works, what does not work, and where I want them to be situated. From the start the course asks each participant (and what a wonderful bunch of participants, the joined expertise!) to explore, reflect and strengthen their own personal knowledge network.

Assignment 1 was on mapping your own network. This immediately resulted in tools for social network analysis to be shared:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nb57-Ztisok41WFatm-Iya96ocTYab-Esr11R34VgsE/edit

http://joitskehulsebosch.blogspot.nl/2013/11/tools-for-social-network-analysis-from.html

http://gigaom.com/2013/09/16/visualize-your-twitter-followers-in-3-fairly-easy-and-totally-free-steps/

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-awesome-free-tools-visualize-analyze-twitter-networks/

http://markvang.com/content/free-google-analysis-tools-visualize-your-network-and-measure-results

By taking on the assignment, I came up with personal questions I want to resolve during the 40 day course:

• Where do I want to position myself as a professional (corporate, consultant, academic) and how does this translate in terms of network interactions and professional options?
• What is the weak/strong ties ratio? Or rather: what do I want it to be?
• What is my interaction karma? Do I give, return and exchange in a balanced way between the peers in my network? It seems I want it to be balanced and karmic?
• Where do I want to go? How can my future career wishes be translated into knowledge network actions?

For those interested, this was my filled in paper of the collaborative document which was the result of the participants working on the starting pdf provided by Harold.

This is already worth it!

Setting up #LGBT help in crisis #uganda

For any LGBT person there is a long history of acceptance and persecution, but it has always been clear to me that the persecution of LGBT's comes at a moment that power tensions increase. I feel that with the current Ugandan LGBT crisis involving prosecution and incarceration of LGBT, and even alleged LGBT people - actions must be set up that help those at immediate risk.

Does stopping international (read western) aid work?
There is talk of governments stopping aid sent to Uganda, but within the current debate that the West is behind gay propaganda, stopping Western aid to Uganda will probably only fuel the debate and it will be easy for president Museveni to grab this fact as proof for what he has been saying all along. I agree with Rosebell Kagumire that one of the best things to happen to a dictator is putting his people in even more dire straights, because hardship promotes violence and radicalization. So for me, in a first step one should be supportive of LGBT and the whole population of Uganda. While find targeted actions. I wish it could be as simple as: if you have a LGBT teacher in your community it doubles your amount of financial support.

Brainstorming on solutions for LGBT inside Uganda
At this very point in time, the first focus in my opinion should be on supporting and helping LGBT people inside Uganda. Helplines need to be set up (a parallel with the Underground Railroad comes to mind: setting up safe houses and safe routes to get out of the country).  An option would be for consulates to open their doors (if they are not doing so already), or any international organizations to be obvious safe houses.

Violence needs to be made visible in order to stop it
Without proof that violence occurs it is all to easy not to take action. One option is to use mobile phones, as phones are most of the time personal and private. An option for indicating where LGBT violence is taking place can be found in 'Bashing'  (currently an EU app, but maybe easily adaptable to Uganda settings) an application described in multiple articles which is a smartphone app that allows you to map where violence has taken place.
Another option is to make use of a wider mobile application to indicate where violence is taking place using the wide media offerings of Ushahidi , this software crowdsourcing tool also works with basic cell phones to indicate where something is happening.

I am sure there might be more coming from people confronted with actual violence in their regions, and having set up solutions. Any thoughts or ideas welcomed.

Challenges that need to be tackled:
Making sure that these helplines are not infiltrated with malignant intentions, meaning, that those helplines that are set up are REALLY coming from positive LGBT people and not those portraying as LGBT to actually trap them. So how can this be done? Consulates and international organizations are easy, but internal Ugandan helplines might have to find solutions for this problem. Maybe set up a quick iteration that people must go through before trust is given?  
Any action taken will result in people leaving behind their families, homes, society and that is simply devastating to all.

Last remark: sure happy that big data is not commonly available yet. What if data would now be openly available? Anyone having indicated that they are gay in any form or document will easily be traceable with big data access. 

Choosing between Social Media automation and Reflective Use

Thanks to the Ol'daily my attention got grabbed by an article from Elsua (Luis Suarez - an KM/IBM social media pioneer). In his reflective blogpost on the industrialization of social media in the enterprise. His words rang a bell, as I am also caught between automating my (not corporate, but as I see it my personal brand) social media stream, because I feel I am not putting out as much as I want to. But after reading his blogpost, I realized the output is not why I started using social media, it is indeed the conversation, the network, the exchange of ideas ... the dialogue. I need to meet with others, discuss ideas, meet new viewpoints, feel what is out there to grow myself or at least to see other directions. Some poignant issues raised by Elsua:

Why do we have to keep up with that constant urge towards busyness (and bursting online activity) vs. pause, reflection and adding relevant value where it may apply into the overall conversation? Haven’t we learned that social networking tools are just not another marketing channel, but purely a conversation amongst peers on a common interest and with a strong urge to connect further along? Have we forgotten how for a conversation to take place out there in digital channels both parties need to be present and for real? providing value and being silent are two sides of the same coin, that is, you

He is hitting the nail on the head. Without reflection, there is no innovative insight, no grounded argument, no linkage to the past that can provide food for the future. 

Another point he raises is the fact that some of us knowledge workers decide to go for automated online presence (I for one simply send my twitter feeds to Facebook, but I am scarcely on Facebook myself apart from sporadic conversations with Facebook friends that are not in my other social media networks... so sometimes I wonder is this the right way?). Luis links this choice to be present online even though it is only automated to the feeling of abandonment which we cannot accept. We rather 'fake' a minimal online presence, then show that we are no longer 'out there'. Again, this feels so true. But then,  for me, I want to keep my network alive. 

Like Luis, and many of us, our blogs seem to stand even if other media are sometimes put on a low frequency output. My blog is what keeps me going, is my valuable knowledge archive, even a bit like my life's tracker (well in a small, but still a meaningful way).  So I agree with him, it is better to be silent at times and stay real, connect on a frequency that suits the personal possibilities, than to be out there without soul, without focus. Having said that... back to the writing board in getting a research ethics pack together... should write about that tomorrow... maybe, sure feels real. 

Sharing last nights presentation on #mobile #MOOC and learner interactions

Below you can find the slides I used for the CIDER session that was organized by the Canadian Institute for Distance Education yesterday. If you want to hear the whole story with more information on each slide and the somewhat coherent story behind the slides, you can have a look at this 57 minute recording session. The recorded session starts with an introduction delivered by the wonderful Dan Wilton, and takes off at 7 minutes into the recording.

The slides cover MOOCs and gradually focus towards the research I am currently rolling out to see whether mobile access has an impact on learner interactions in an open, online course.

First research data mlearn2012 mobile access in mooc course from Inge Ignatia de Waard

How #mobiles helped save Los Angeles Adult #education with Sean Abajian

With education being at the crossroads it says to be and with the crisis cutting educational initiatives around the world, this video can give us some strategies to see positive change happening thanks to grassroot action.

In this 25 minute video Sean Abajian shares the journey of some educational activists that were able to ralley using mobile phone calls and community action to safeguard adult education in Los Angeles.
Adult education has been thriving in the Los Angeles area from 1870's and last December 2011 it was said to be cut completely by the local government. This would have had a disasterous effect on both adults (many of which are parents) as well as on their children.
Thanks to strong grassroots action and the joining of hands with community leaders, they were successful in saving adult education.
In a marginal note, I learned that the use of "Si se puede" - Yes, we can - the oneliner for which Obama became famous in his last campaign is actually taken from the Latin American activist population!

This is a remarkable story of just a few activist, gathering a community to change the future of education and save the creation of knowledge for hundred thousands of families.

A recorded conversation with Michael Wesch @mwesch #teaching

Nellie Deutsch, an incredibly strong promoter of open education, has been gathering a few very interesting educational thinkers. One of these great educational minds, viewing the world from an anthropologist point of view is Michael Mike Wesch. These conversations offer any participant who logs into the open virtual session, a chance to pose questions to the speaker, exchange ideas or simply listen to what they have to say.

Why I found this video interesting? Most of all for the reasons Mike lists on what makes a good teacher, or a good person for that. He focuses on really getting to know your learners, respect them and recognize the gifts, expertise of the people around you, so engaging with those who are willing to engage with you. I like that idea, it is very human.

For those not familiar with Michael/Mike, I gladly add the information Nellie provided: Michael has been called "the explainer" by Wired magazine and he is a cultural anthropologist exploring the effects of new media on society and culture. After two years of studying the implications of writing on a remote indigenous culture in the rain forest of Papua New Guinea, he has turned his attention to the effects of social media and digital technology on global society. He has made some seminal contributions in the field of digital ethnography, and burst in to the realm of public consciousness with his 2007 video -"The Machine is US/ing US". Since then, his videos on culture, technology, education, and information have been viewed over 20 million times, translated in over 15 languages, and are frequently featured at international film festivals and major academic conferences worldwide.

Wesch has won several major awards and accolades for his work, including a Wired Magazine Rave Award, the John Culkin Award for Outstanding Praxis in Media Ecology, and he was recently named an Emerging Explorer by National Geographic. He is considered an active developer of innovative teaching skills, for which he has won several teaching awards, including the 2008 CASE/Carnegie U.S. Professor of the Year for Doctoral and Research Universities.

Enough formality, here is the conversation which starts with his famous video 5 minutes in the YouTube video.

#PLENK2010 the future of education, my vision of the future

This is how I envision the learning future. This presentation came about while following PLENK, a big online course on Personal Learning Environments, Networking and Knowledge. Alan Levine's comment triggered the presentation below, which is a reply to the question he posed: is augmented reality really going to revolutionize the world.

This is my narrative powerpoint which embeds content from people I learn from. In order to actually see the movies that are embedded in the slideshare, you need to download the powerPoint.

The future of humanity telepathy final

View more presentations from ignatia.

How to add a retweet and facebook button to your blog

With all the commotion with opening up Moodle to iPhone (and now some android driven phones, but still in the initial try-out phase), I was not keeping up with my blog lay-out. But now, I finaly got the retweet button for blogger embedded in my blog html template, as well as a facebook button.

In order to do this, I relied on the blogger plugins blog: here is the link for the retweet button and this one for the facebook button. But to make things easy, I wrote down what I chose.

For the retweet button, I used this code:

<div style="float:right;padding:4px;">
<script type="text/javascript">
tweetmeme_url = '<data:post.url>';
tweetmeme_source = 'your_twitter_user_name';
script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js">script>
div>


Mind you, I did replace the fourth line with my own twitterame, so that line became:

tweetmeme_source = 'ignatia';

But there are other types of button layouts, so check the post on bloggerplugins if you are looking for something different. Once I got the code, I followed the steps below:

How to install the Retweet Button on your blog?

1.Select the retweet button styles,and copy the corresponding code into a text file.

2.Now in this code replace your_twitter_username with your actual twitter username (e.g. ignatia)

3.Now we have got the final retweet code.Now login to your blogger dashboard and navigate to Layout > Edit Html and expand the widget templates

4.Find this piece of code

< div class='post-header-line-1'>

and immediately after that place our retweet code(from our text file) < div class='post-header-line-1'"> and you are done :)

If you were unable to find this code in your template,then look for the first occurrence of

<data:post.body/>

and immediately before that, place our retweet code(from our text file)

5.Save the template.

For the facebook button, I used this code:

<div style="float:right;padding:4px;">
<a expr:share_url='data:post.url' name='fb_share' rel='nofollow' type='box_count'/>
<script type="text/javascript" src="http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect.php/js/FB.Share"/>
</div>

Free mobile sms service getting to grips with bullying in schools: Bullyproof

If you are a teacher, principle or kids-psychologist worried about counseling or guiding young children on the topic of bullying, this software might be of interest to you.

Bullyproof will be released in March 2010, but you can check it out with the developer Brendan O'Keefe pre-release. This FREE software caught my attention for two reasons: first of all the obvious one in that it could reduce bullying, and second that it uses software that has been around in Africa for some time now, including great live saving medical applications.
Because the software is open source and free, you can adjust it to your language also (if necessary).

Reduce bullying
First of all bullyproof says to decrease bullying by using sms's. The free Bullyproof software, developed by Brendan O'Keefe, enables kids from primary and secondary school to send sms-allerts when bullying is taking place, or has happened. Because more and more young children have access to a mobile phone, and because it is a daily used instrument to those who have it, the technology is low threshold. Sending an sms is also not conspicuous, as I also found my kid sister sms-ing her friends without even having to glance at her mobile phone screen (straight from writing her sms inside the pocket of her jacket).
Bullyproof SMS is a social innovation designed to help reduce bullying. It enables students to report anonymously via their mobile phone, and schools to be notified and respond instantly to bullying or cyber bullying incidences.

The Bullyproof SMS software is available free to all schools and organisations that have an existing policy on bullying. (from their website) How it Works: Students text a report to a dedicated number and the report is then instantly forwarded to the appropriate person(s) mobile phone so they can respond in a timely manner. The report is also automatically forwarded via email to the school counsellor or principal. The Bullyproof SMS software comes preloaded with a database of tips and strategies for students that can be accessed by sending the keyword 'bully tip 1,2,3,4 'etc to a dedicated number.

As we all know their is an increased need to tackle cyberbullying, just this week the BBC wrote another article on it, and some parents indicate cyberbullying is the source for their kids suicide. Some countries like Australia put it high on the educational agenda as more than 1 million dollars is taken out to do research on the topic. Taking all this into account the bullyproof software might be a good and affordable (free) application to check out. If you want to get more information on it, twitter Brendan, he replies swiftly and if you like personal contact, he even offers skype sessions to exchange all the features of the bullyproof software.

FrontlineSMS:Bullyproof Webinar Jan 2010

View more presentations from Brendan O’Keefe.

What is the link with Africa?
Bullyproof is an application based on frontline-sms-software which has been actively used in Africa for a variety of social reasons (elections, social action...). So if you hadn't heard of Frontline which is software from Kiwanja.net, take a look, as it might inspire you to develop some mobile applications for social change as well.

For those of you interested in mobile medical applications, check out the medic frontline-sms examples, really fantastic!!

Critical pedagogy: people can learn, but that does not make them philanthropists

Social media helps us all to connect, we all learn at an increased pace, both in educational institutions, in our professional organizations/companies and just for ourselves. But how much of our learning is aimed at making the world a nicer (more human and balanced) place?
How much of our learning is aimed at becoming more critical? And should not all pedagogy be aimed at improving the world we all live in, no matter what position we are in, no matter what moment in our lives (kindergarten, higher ed, no school)? Or is this idea of building a more peaceful world based on educating the people by the people passé? Or impossible in this more corporate ruled world?

Thanks to the Oldaily I came across a link to the work of Paulo Freire and the promise of critical pedagogy. So I started reading up on it. If you have not read the best known book written by Paulo Freire yet (it was new to me, but what a great read and truly relevant to learning in general), you can download the first three chapters here, and the fourth chapter here.

The Oldaily directed towards an article by Henry Giroux (who knew Freire personally) which looks into Freire’s critical pedagogy and contemporary educational institutions. It is an interesting - though a little bit ranting – read. Here are a couple of quotes from the article to simply set the idea behind critical pedagogy: “Freire believed that all education in the broadest sense was part of a project of freedom, and eminently political because it offered students the conditions for self-reflection, a self-managed life and particular notions of critical agency.”
I must admit I really like that idea a lot. This way of critical pedagogy is also putting action back into the individual’s hands and possibilities, quote: “For Freire, pedagogy is not a method or an a priori technique to be imposed on all students, but a political and moral practice that provides the knowledge, skills and social relations that enable students to expand the possibilities of what it means to be critical citizens, while expanding and deepening their participation in the promise of a substantive democracy.”

the personal is political
So the personal issues need to be translated to public issues (any feminist will be happy to read something coming close to ‘the personal is political’). By this action pedagogy is also linked to social movements. Getting ideology and activism into pedagogy, enabling us as individuals to put ourselves in the middle of the society we are currently in, with our background, the framework we were put in or are put in by education, and consciously analyzing it… can only make us more aware of who we are.
Knowing who we are, how we got to be the person we are and whether or not we agree with the position we are in, and consequently put a goal (if we want to) for ourselves to improve our way of living, or/and our surrounding world.

corporations benefit from critical pedagogy?
After reading the article written by Henry Giroux, I was agreeing on many points. Mainly the statement that the increased pressure of corporations that indirectly forces (well, force is of course only powerful if you acknowledge it) universities and colleges to push all students more in the direction of workers, instead of becoming citizens in the first place.
But I do have some doubts about some of the statements in the article as well. The article written by Henry Giroux crushes down on corporations, but I feel that even in corporations some people (also at the top) would be interested in critical pedagogy and willing to try it out (think Oxfam International, Max Havelaar).
Creating critical people does not necessarily mean all citizens will follow the same set of moral rules, but it might build people that know how to construct long term visions. There are many corporations that already are more in touch with balanced human living (mostly smaller corporations, driven by motivated people), so I did not like the dichotomy that was again reproduced.

Dichotomies are false ideas
I like this short interview with Paulo Freire in which he says he is not into dichotomy. It is not directly related to learning, but to how he manages to link Christ to Marx. I like it because I struggle with a lot of dichotomies, just to conclude each time that the only thing dichotomies do for me is show me how I can become more critical by reading, studying both ends of a dichotomy. Dichotomies in my view no longer do it as a thought concept. We are no longer living amidst a linear line between one and the other, but amidst a very complex cloud of concepts.
Life is too complex to simply cut it in two halves, especially in this increasingly complex world. So putting public interest against corporate interest is just too simple in my opinion. Stating that idea is stating that things cannot change, that structures build by people cannot be changed to benefit people, and that people in such structures are static in their thinking. To me change is inevitable and I follow Heraclitus: panta rhei. Even if the main thinking is corporate thinking and finance, this might change and in some cases have been changing.

If change is inevitable, than let us all become more critical, also in our teaching and learning. For if we look around us, it is clear that we all can benefit from more human, global awareness. Critical pedagogy should indeed be taught or interwoven in all learning, especially from very early childhood on and through our formal education. But I also feel we should teach it without any other expectation than that an individual should have the capacity for autonomous thinking. Let's say critical pedagogy would be taught in educational institutions and taken up in corporate learning. Dinosaur, top-down corporations might not feel like it, but small and dynamic organizations will feel that this might give them an extra edge, an extra stimulus to move towards a world that is more humane; for corporations are made out of people, with different backgrounds, and … networking is becoming increasingly important.
If the world is really evolving towards a more networked knowledge world, companies will also benefit from a more democratic, critical way of teaching or providing learning time for their employees.
Networking is also build on trust, and trust is inherently human, so if a company wants to go ahead it will have to invest in networking, in trust, in humanity. And yes, that might lead to an active movement towards a more equal world (it might be far off, but hey, let me dream just a week longer, the Gregorian year has just started). Activism in my mind is not against something, but together for something, transcending the borders of the organizations/regions we work in.

Philanthropy not assured
However critical pedagogy will not turn us into philanthropists. What each individual does with her/his self-managed life is something completely different. It is not because a person becomes self-aware, knowledgeable about the social and political world, that the individual will say: “now I will put all my energy and capital into improving the world for everyone, so we can be a happy blue planet”. Being critical is no certainty for human and societal love and peace, but at least it makes us aware of what we do and what the consequences might be.

Do you feel we could benefit from a more critically directed pedagogy?

European report on 'The Impact of Social Computing on the EU Information Society and Economy' also mobile social media

The European Commission JRC (Joint Research Center), Institute for Prospective Technological Studies released last week at the EU Ministerial Conference on e-Government a comprehensive report on social and economic implications of Social Computing [aka Web2.0, social media].

'The Impact of Social Computing on the EU Information Society and Economy' (Eds.) Yves Punie, Wainer Lusoli, Clara Centeno, Gianluca Misuraca and David Broster. Authors: Kirsti Ala-Mutka, David Broster, Romina Cachia, Clara Centeno, Claudio Feijóo, Alexandra Haché, Stefano Kluzer, Sven Lindmark, Wainer Lusoli, Gianluca Misuraca, Corina Pascu, Yves Punie and José A. Valverde.

For anyone interested in social media and the impact it has on both society and economy, this is a very worthwhile report.

This wide report covers different thematic areas. In addition to a cross-cutting analysis across areas in Ch1: Key findings, Future Prospects and Policy Implications

It contains thematic analysis:
Ch2: The adoption and Use of Social Computing
Ch3: Social Computing from a Business Perspective
Ch4: Social Computing and the Mobile Ecosystem
Ch5: Social Computing and Identity
Ch6: Social Computing and Learning
Ch7: Social Computing and Social Inclusion
Ch8: Social Computing and Health
Ch9: Social Computing and Governance

In Part II: On defining Social Computing, its Scope and Significance, you have a chapter (chapter 4) which is completely dedicated to mobile social computing and which offers some great tables and analysis. You might want to click on the image to enlarge the picture, it gives an overview of the techno-economic activities in the mobile content and applications ecosystem. So just taken out two quotes from the report:

"Learning from users (user-driven innovation) is the response increasingly adopted both by the new mobile industry and by new public policies (e.g., by providing wide access to “living labs”). At the same time, it could also be argued that users are still not empowered enough in the mobile
domain. Currently, users are not in control (or even aware) of the information that players cross the mobile value chain have about them and how this could be used."
With a relevant quote to low resource areas: "it must not be forgotten that the base conditions for the success of any mobile advanced service are the availability and affordability of mobile broadband connections and the availability, affordability and usability of mobile devices. In particular, these conditions have an inclusive angle for those people who are under served by market priorities."

From their website: "The rapid growth of web 2.0, or social computing, allows users to play an influential role in the way commercial and public products and services are shaped. The report "The impact of Social Computing on the EU Information Society and Economy", published today by the JRC Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS), finds that in 2008, 41% of EU Internet users were engaged in social computing activities through Social Networking Sites (SNS), blogs, photo and video sharing, online multi-player games and collaborative platforms for content creation and sharing. This percentage rises to 64% if users aged under 24 only are considered.

The report shows that social computing goes beyond individual networking and entertainment, as it empowers tens of millions of Europeans to support their work, health, learning and citizenship in innovative ways.

The research found that social computing is reshaping work practices, as employees join communities of interest outside their organisations to improve their knowledge and skills. Social innovation enabled by social computing contributes to improved lifelong learning processes, business competitiveness, social inclusion and integration of immigrants, among others."

Using transparency to get citizens alert and active, or how Christian Kreutz influenced my thinking

It has been a very hectic period over the last couple of weeks. A tight workshop, planning a facilitator training, a short course with a lot of online activity, budget hassles, my master starting up … and this kept me from writing posts on a regular basis. I was also in an existential dip on blogposting.

Lucky for me I had one fresh and inspiring encounter at the middle of these chaotic weeks: meeting Christian Kreutz. His blog has been an inspiration for the last couple of years and all of a sudden I had the chance to meet him in Brussels.

Engaging citizens by analyzing (internet) data – civil society
We had an informal meeting, but a lot of what I learned from him made sense and sharpened my overall thinking on the use of websites and the internet to get civil society moving.

So what did Christian say that I found so enlightening? He simply said that we have all this data at our fingertips (google statistics, geo information, …), and all of these available data could be used for the better of society and its citizens.
In the past he has been writing about it. He wrote on metrics for social networks and what really happens, focusing on knowledge sharing and learning, he wrote about 6 innovative mashups for transparency, in which you could see the impact certain decisions have on the social fabric of regions (I was especially struck by the Healthcarethatworks – website that shows the New York City wide status for hospitals and its disproportionate impact that recent hospital closures have on low-income communities.) and his most recent post was on maptivism as a new approach of activism (based on the estimate that as much as 80% of data contains geo-referenced information. So, a lot of information can be displayed through maps. Digital maps allow easy ways to present large amounts of data and reduce complexity.)

The internet started out as a Utopia for me. It would benefit people around the world and make the globe a better place. With the increased absorption of internet initiatives into corporate environments, some of that euphoric belief in the WWW disappeared. But after reading the possibilities posted by Christian and after our talk in which he put forward the extra’s a transparent use of existing data (both on regional, national and international level) could bring… I am again a radiant believer. He gave a wonderful and simple example to get people interested in their own social environment. What if we take the data from a specific part of a city and open this data up to the citizens, e.g. people could see where trash bins are located, light poles are implemented, benches are placed... if city council than wants to change the outlines of that specific areas, or do something to create a better living space for all its citizens in that location, it could show the citizens what is already there, and ask them how they think their living area could be improved. I agree that a lot of debate could come from this, but coming to a consensus as a group can also adds to the social fabric of a region. All this data is already available, but in many occasions very little is done with it.

Christian Kreutz blogs qualitatively, which makes his blog a gem, check it out. He is thinking about going fully into consulting, so if you feel the need for a very professional, citizen-oriented web-analysis-expert, send him a note.

If you know of any data being used to make society more transparent, let me know, I would love to get more ideas.

How social media got linked to my blog thanks to Mike Bogle and Disqus

Every now and again I come across a knowledge diamant. Mike Bogle's blog Techticker is the knowledge diamond of the month! Btw if you surf to his blog, chances are you will hear his voice spring out of your boxes spontaneously, in that case scroll down to his post on twitcam to pauze his voice, or to simply take a look at his (nice) face.

Coming across his blog through a comment in the recently started CCK09 course that I posted just a couple of days ago, I was in awe by the amount of knowledge spread in his blog. Thanks to Mike I got hold of the Disqus software that enables you or anyone who reads a blogpost to comment through her or his favorite social media site (well not all social media sites are possible, but still it has some major ones enabled).

An added bonus of adding Disqus to your blog or site, is that it enables users to reply on comments as well. Which allows all of us to read comments in a more dialoged/natural way (why wait for Google wave to use threads in this way?). Disqus can (optionally) send you updates of comments that have been posted, so you can easily be posted. The only thing I am not sure about right now is how non-spam Disqus is if you allow anyone to post... so I will wait and take a chance.

But the blogger widget on 'my recent comments' will be thrown out now... but had too many widgets on here anyway.

Let others find your most read blogposts via PostRank

[Look at the right side bar to see the blogpost ranking in action]

The last few months many people have been writing about the surplus of networks and finding the content you are looking for as quickly and simple as possible in a knowledge world.

Although I agree that linking, filtering and constructing are just a couple of qualities that a contemporary learner (and I see all of the contemporary professionals as learners) should have to keep updated on the latest content and knowledge in a particular field, it is not easy to disseminate your own knowledge. Many knowledge workers mention many options: feeds, streams, blogs, collaborative networks... but at the end of the day you yourself need to stay on top of what people are interested in. But if networks are getting increasingly important, it will be essential to provide your network(s) with immediate extra's.

So what part of your brain do others want to pick? What niche might you have? In order to do this you can use a number of analytic tools, but those tools are just providing data for your own interest. What about data that is of immediate use to your own network? Today I came across an easy to use widget that gives just that bit of extra: PostRank. This widget extrapolates your most read blogposts, enabling new readers to take a look at those particular posts others found interesting, thus increasing the chance of your posts being followed. And in addition, if they are interested in case those readers have a specific topic of interest, they can search on that specific topic in the lower end of the widget (look at the widget on the side).

In addition to this widget they have a twitter widget for educational blogs as well: http://twitter.com/pr_education (get picked up in this twitter by adding #postrank & #education) through which I found the link to a post of Stephen's Web on 'Should Learning be Free and Open?' written by Curt Bonk.

By the way Stephen Downes Ol'Daily is one of my favorite ways to stay on top of what experienced learners have to say about learning... and I do not think the ol'daily has a official hyped term to define what it does, it is just the thing to get connected to if you are interested in learning content (I still have a lot to learn and still have a lot of things to change in order to improve dissemination of interesting learning topics).

Thanks to the global educational blogger Christian Kreutz for getting me posted on postrank.

Network aspects: communication, a whitepaper on Networks in Organizations' and why social intelligence is an asset (also in business)

One of the difficult parts of eLearning is to get a community going. The separation of students, the cultural differences and the loss of non-verbal communication can affect the learning network between learners (be it students or employee learners). Networks and communication is becoming increasingly important, but networks have many dynamics working within them. This post combines insights on working within a network as a person, the dynamics of networks in an organization and a suite-and-tie movie from Harvard Business on the topic of social intelligence.

(picture from Neuronal Networks, post Neurons Firing)

Keeping everyone involved (title taken from Steven Egan's post on the subject)
Steven Egan is a blogger who combines new technology - mainly games for playful learning - with new networking community spirit. Building on some comments he gave, this post took shape, so I am very grateful for his input.
He takes a closer look to conflict resolution: dividing it into 'ask before you explode!' on keeping communication going, 'be nice to everybody' on keeping your language respectful no matter what or who. Things to do: 'Don't sweat the big stuff' on giving room to long term goals and creativity, 'sweat the small stuff' (this idea is nicely put). And the ever important Show and Tell: 'make it always available' and 'make it easily available'.
I really liked this post because it is simple, yet if I look at my days and communications, I sometimes forget the simple rules. I really liked Steven's rules to keep a network interested.

Whitepaper on networks in organizations
A more formal and management approach, but still linked to networks can be found in this whitepaper. Jeffrey Stamps and Jessica Lipnack have just published their whitepaper on 'Applying the New Science of Networks to Organizations', which focuses on when and how networks are formed within organizations and corporations.

There intro to the paper goes like this: "NetAge Working Papers set out a new theory and practice for organizations. We feel compelled to publish these technical papers now as an urgent response to the collapse of traditional hierarchies and bureaucracies as evidenced by the current economic debacle. As the economic crisis deepens in 2009, we believe that now is the time for new ideas, new concepts, and new theory to come forward, approaches that will allow all kinds of organizations whether large or small to reorganize in smarter, better, and faster ways."

And although not everything they mention is as clear to me as it would be to experienced managers, it does make sense. Especially if you are a knowledge worker in a growing institution. So if you are interested in natural networks within organizations, this might be of interest to you. The whitepaper was brought to my attention by Johanna Bragge from the Helsinki School of Economics.
The only thing I wonder about is whether this hierarchy is also forming in informal networks? I mean, would certain persons be (unconsciously) given a different place in an informal network because of the dynamic that naturally looks for people with certain responsibilities. Or as Klingon history recalls: 'Great people do not seek power, they have power thrust upon them'; taken from the Deep Space 9 episode Tacking into the Wind (I did change the 'men' into people).

The importance of social intelligence
For those doubting if social skills mean anything in this new economically challenged year, a ten minute movie on 'Social Intelligence and the biology of Leadership', a movie delivered by Harvard Business interviewing the psychologist Daniel Goleman.



If you look at the interview, you do feel a bit of old school dynamics going on, not really new talk here, but it is nice to see it against a background of this new communications era.