Nicola just twittered me two interesting mobile posts that added to my previous post on future-of-mobile from this week:
One from Kevin Cawley working with Android Google challenge;
A presentation of Ron Edwards on mobile learning on the move;
and zong.
Sunday, 18 November 2007
CLTI07 - Steve Mahaley - virtual worlds and education
In the corporate learning conference organised by George Siemens, Steve Mahaley was second to give a presentation on using virtual worlds for education.
Education was defined in this presentation as a corporate business strategy to optimize work. Steve gave some examples of education in virtual worlds (he used the Second Life environment). One of his examples was on having a teaming exercise in SL.
He looked at possible benefits of virtual world education. Based on his favourite class = recess, he concluded that the best learning activities are those using all of our senses to interact with an educational environment. Several learning theorists were put onto display: Lev Vygotsky, John Dewey and David Jonassen who based their theories on 'Learning by doing' and social interaction to enhance education.
Steve showed a virtual teaming exercise and listed a few practical considerations amongst which he mentioned:
- videoconferencing is better than virtual world for debriefing;
- debriefing is essential if you want to reach your learning goals that you set out to attain;
- he found that it was better to give participants avatars, than to let participants come with their own avatar that could be 'inappropriate' for certain circumstances or would lead to unnecessary exchange of items.
My own thoughts on using virtual worlds as a means of education:
- great for getting experience with simulations;
- good for learning any knowledge that is based on sight;
- but it is expensive if you want to own or build your own island and virtual environments certainly demand high end equipment for all participants to be able to attend virtual classes => at this point virtual worlds exclude people from low resource areas.
Again, like with the presentation of Tony Karrer yesterday the fire walled environment in corporation was mentioned as a possible downside for corporation and (knowledge) workers in those corporations to accept virtual environments as an educational tool. A lot of participants mentioned that they could not blog or go to virtual environments from their office. Which meant that most of them were pushed into experimenting with these new educational tools from home and in their spare time.
Again Ricardo Semler comes to mind as a possible blue print for new management in corporations that are technology and knowledge based.
A couple of links that were mentioned on virtual worlds and education
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Terra%20incognita/152/96/33
http://sl.nmc.org/wiki/NMC-Campus:About
http://electricsheepcompany.com/
http://metalab.blogspot.com/
http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/
Education was defined in this presentation as a corporate business strategy to optimize work. Steve gave some examples of education in virtual worlds (he used the Second Life environment). One of his examples was on having a teaming exercise in SL.
He looked at possible benefits of virtual world education. Based on his favourite class = recess, he concluded that the best learning activities are those using all of our senses to interact with an educational environment. Several learning theorists were put onto display: Lev Vygotsky, John Dewey and David Jonassen who based their theories on 'Learning by doing' and social interaction to enhance education.
Steve showed a virtual teaming exercise and listed a few practical considerations amongst which he mentioned:
- videoconferencing is better than virtual world for debriefing;
- debriefing is essential if you want to reach your learning goals that you set out to attain;
- he found that it was better to give participants avatars, than to let participants come with their own avatar that could be 'inappropriate' for certain circumstances or would lead to unnecessary exchange of items.
My own thoughts on using virtual worlds as a means of education:
- great for getting experience with simulations;
- good for learning any knowledge that is based on sight;
- but it is expensive if you want to own or build your own island and virtual environments certainly demand high end equipment for all participants to be able to attend virtual classes => at this point virtual worlds exclude people from low resource areas.
Again, like with the presentation of Tony Karrer yesterday the fire walled environment in corporation was mentioned as a possible downside for corporation and (knowledge) workers in those corporations to accept virtual environments as an educational tool. A lot of participants mentioned that they could not blog or go to virtual environments from their office. Which meant that most of them were pushed into experimenting with these new educational tools from home and in their spare time.
Again Ricardo Semler comes to mind as a possible blue print for new management in corporations that are technology and knowledge based.
A couple of links that were mentioned on virtual worlds and education
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Terra%20incognita/152/96/33
http://sl.nmc.org/wiki/NMC-Campus:About
http://electricsheepcompany.com/
http://metalab.blogspot.com/
http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/
Saturday, 17 November 2007
CLTI07 - Tony Karrer - Web2.0 tools for education
The CLTI is on. Each session is a blast of information served to all attendees. Tony Karrer focussed on Web2.0 tools ranging from wiki's to social bookmarking... It was a very good intro because everyone got ideas on possible uses of Web2.0. Because most of it was a little bit familiar, I just wrote down some of the things that were said in Tony Karrer's presentation that stuck to my mind:
Because information is increasing on a daily basis (by 2015 it is predicted that information will double every week), most people (me included) find it difficult to keep track of the latest knowledge.
As tacit knowledge work becomes pivotal and the idea that 'learning = working' becomes more accepted, the ability to cope with massive amounts of info and being able to search through them becomes more important as well.
Learning to learn is becoming more and more important. To keep track of the evolutions within one field of expertise, blogging is a sound option. Blogging forces you to think about what you are writing down, hence you learn more in-depth. Apart from blogging continually evaluating and improving personal work and learning skills is of the essence. This is made easier when one uses Web2.0 or participative web tools. But this is were some corporate IT departments have difficulties with security. While wiki's are most of the time accepted, other 2.0 tools get thumbs down in a lot of cases.
Bill Bruck pointed out that learning professionals need to learn how to support learning within the existing constraints and find tools and approaches that work within IT. Now that is something I am facing... not easy.
Most attendees of the virtual conference knew wiki's, social bookmarking, RSS etcetera, but the Google Tilde operator was virtually unknown.
Some links that were written in the very active chatbox of elluminate:
http://www.articulate.com/community/blogdemo/web2/engage.html
http://www.wikipatterns.com/display/wikipatterns/Wikipatterns
http://www.techcrunch.com/
http://sociallearning.ning.com/
Because information is increasing on a daily basis (by 2015 it is predicted that information will double every week), most people (me included) find it difficult to keep track of the latest knowledge.
As tacit knowledge work becomes pivotal and the idea that 'learning = working' becomes more accepted, the ability to cope with massive amounts of info and being able to search through them becomes more important as well.
Learning to learn is becoming more and more important. To keep track of the evolutions within one field of expertise, blogging is a sound option. Blogging forces you to think about what you are writing down, hence you learn more in-depth. Apart from blogging continually evaluating and improving personal work and learning skills is of the essence. This is made easier when one uses Web2.0 or participative web tools. But this is were some corporate IT departments have difficulties with security. While wiki's are most of the time accepted, other 2.0 tools get thumbs down in a lot of cases.
Bill Bruck pointed out that learning professionals need to learn how to support learning within the existing constraints and find tools and approaches that work within IT. Now that is something I am facing... not easy.
Most attendees of the virtual conference knew wiki's, social bookmarking, RSS etcetera, but the Google Tilde operator was virtually unknown.
Some links that were written in the very active chatbox of elluminate:
http://www.articulate.com/community/blogdemo/web2/engage.html
http://www.wikipatterns.com/display/wikipatterns/Wikipatterns
http://www.techcrunch.com/
http://sociallearning.ning.com/
Friday, 16 November 2007
Blog philosophy taken lightly: blogging is competitive – easy guidelines for quick importance
There is some strange behaviour when it comes to blogging (or any ICT use for that matter). People tend to add significant data or information to be taken seriously. Because everybody can use easy guidelines to enhance ones status, I have jotted some of them down here:
• Started blogging: if ever you need to address the moment you started blogging, you need to say 19XX. This is very important (if you only started in 20XX just think of your dairy days and add that date, but be sure not to go back to far!)
• First computer: if you need to speak of your first computer, make it at least 198X, later than that and you are practically admitting that you are not a savvy of the first generation.
• Using widgets: since 2005 you have been using widgets (of course).
• Active participator: you have been participating in online conferences since they first started (and here you add a chuckle while you explain: “oh I remember it well, it was still with a modem and you could join the likes of Bill G. and Steve J…");
• (Google) ranking: statistics rank you, but if in need simply photoshop the google ranking picture and add any ranking you like.
• you must have an openID (btw: I found out that it is good to look up openID in wikipedia to be able to show it off at meetings and conferences);
The latest indirect blog competition I entered was clustr maps. I added this feature yesterday, which of course has very little connections up until now. So I will now start a tour around the world and access my blog from all corners in the world to enhance my global significance as a blogger.
Or I will just try and twitter it and hope the community will help…
Please add your tips to enhance a blogging status, I will be more than happy to embrace all your suggestions.
• Started blogging: if ever you need to address the moment you started blogging, you need to say 19XX. This is very important (if you only started in 20XX just think of your dairy days and add that date, but be sure not to go back to far!)
• First computer: if you need to speak of your first computer, make it at least 198X, later than that and you are practically admitting that you are not a savvy of the first generation.
• Using widgets: since 2005 you have been using widgets (of course).
• Active participator: you have been participating in online conferences since they first started (and here you add a chuckle while you explain: “oh I remember it well, it was still with a modem and you could join the likes of Bill G. and Steve J…");
• (Google) ranking: statistics rank you, but if in need simply photoshop the google ranking picture and add any ranking you like.
• you must have an openID (btw: I found out that it is good to look up openID in wikipedia to be able to show it off at meetings and conferences);
The latest indirect blog competition I entered was clustr maps. I added this feature yesterday, which of course has very little connections up until now. So I will now start a tour around the world and access my blog from all corners in the world to enhance my global significance as a blogger.
Or I will just try and twitter it and hope the community will help…
Please add your tips to enhance a blogging status, I will be more than happy to embrace all your suggestions.
Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.
Thursday, 15 November 2007
Mobile guidelines for better content
The latest trends in mobile technology and content were given in speed tempo at the conference future-of-mobile.com. There were a bunch of speakers (17!) who each got between 15 – 30 minutes and the format worked. In just one days time I got updated on some of the trends in mobile design and development.
Open standards
Because I am a fan of open standards, I really liked Andrea Trasatti of dotMobi. The site of dev.mobi is a mobile developers community with a clear understanding and willingness to work with open standards.
He also mentioned the W3C mobile web initiative
Linked to this CDF’s were mentioned to appear on handsets from 2008 onwards. CDF’s or Compound Document is the W3C term for a document that combines multiple formats, such as XHTML, SVG, SMIL and XForms.
A great test from the W3C consortium, a MobileOK basic test to see whether or not your mobile development project works within the standards.
Browser for cheap cell phones
For low resource settings I found the opera speaker (Charles McCathieNevile) very useful. He mentioned Opera mini which brings the Web to low cost cell phones.
Mobile Tools
The tools I jotted down were SoonR, WURFL and Volantis.
Contest with lots of money!
Well, it was of course the google man that got the crowd going by mentioning the android developer challenge. To all you developers out there: DO IT!!
networking
The networking was nice as well, I finally got to see Nicola who also wrote a post on the conference , Chris Mills from Opera, Simone, Sheila and I met Jennifer or Ms Jenn from Black Phoebe with some notes on the conference, really great people.
Open standards
Because I am a fan of open standards, I really liked Andrea Trasatti of dotMobi. The site of dev.mobi is a mobile developers community with a clear understanding and willingness to work with open standards.
He also mentioned the W3C mobile web initiative
Linked to this CDF’s were mentioned to appear on handsets from 2008 onwards. CDF’s or Compound Document is the W3C term for a document that combines multiple formats, such as XHTML, SVG, SMIL and XForms.
A great test from the W3C consortium, a MobileOK basic test to see whether or not your mobile development project works within the standards.
Browser for cheap cell phones
For low resource settings I found the opera speaker (Charles McCathieNevile) very useful. He mentioned Opera mini which brings the Web to low cost cell phones.
Mobile Tools
The tools I jotted down were SoonR, WURFL and Volantis.
Contest with lots of money!
Well, it was of course the google man that got the crowd going by mentioning the android developer challenge. To all you developers out there: DO IT!!
networking
The networking was nice as well, I finally got to see Nicola who also wrote a post on the conference , Chris Mills from Opera, Simone, Sheila and I met Jennifer or Ms Jenn from Black Phoebe with some notes on the conference, really great people.
Thursday, 8 November 2007
educational widgets and informal language
While going through all the great information that the College2.0 community has to offer. Marielle Lange send in a very interesting set of widgets that can be used for educational purposes for k12 students. Some of them are in French. She also bundeled some software to make presentations or sharing media which is very helpful.
The one I really liked the phonetic chart. Ever since a linguistic friend of mine told me written English is one of the best kept written languages, I cannot get that idea out of my mind. According to her, if you speak the words like you they are written, you will find a resemblence with other German languages and it really works.
Informal Linguistic Learning: so while I am reading an English book, I get the urge to spe-ak every word in its original w-ritten form and more than ones the resemblence with medieval Flemisch and Afrikaans words springs to mind.
But that reminds me, in 1906 there was an article in the New York Times that was pro-Dutch language and pleaded that it should be the official language in Washington and all official US departments.
But looking at this post... how do I ever think I can get structure in my blog, if I cannot even stay with one topic inside the same post? Memo to myself: stick to ONE topic per post, do not multi-think while writing.
The one I really liked the phonetic chart. Ever since a linguistic friend of mine told me written English is one of the best kept written languages, I cannot get that idea out of my mind. According to her, if you speak the words like you they are written, you will find a resemblence with other German languages and it really works.
Informal Linguistic Learning: so while I am reading an English book, I get the urge to spe-ak every word in its original w-ritten form and more than ones the resemblence with medieval Flemisch and Afrikaans words springs to mind.
But that reminds me, in 1906 there was an article in the New York Times that was pro-Dutch language and pleaded that it should be the official language in Washington and all official US departments.
But looking at this post... how do I ever think I can get structure in my blog, if I cannot even stay with one topic inside the same post? Memo to myself: stick to ONE topic per post, do not multi-think while writing.
Tuesday, 30 October 2007
tips for Search Engine Optimization from Google itself
In my quest to optimize my blog I came accross this SEO movie. It is over 1 hour of media, but worth it if you want to get some on optimizing your blog or site.
If you do not feel like watching the video, take a look at what Stephan Spencer wrote on CNET.
If you do not feel like watching the video, take a look at what Stephan Spencer wrote on CNET.
Friday, 26 October 2007
preparing for socialMedia training I need to give
In a few weeks time I need to give a training to the teachers and staff at our Institute. For most of them it will be the first time they get in (conscious) contact with social media and the possibilities it offers.
Because of the differences in knowledge on this topic, I am trying to find an easy access to start the training. Get them motivated to learn and jump into the social media water.
I found this one and it seems to hit the spot: getting people thinking about the future.
Thank you to walkinggal for putting me on this track.
Because of the differences in knowledge on this topic, I am trying to find an easy access to start the training. Get them motivated to learn and jump into the social media water.
I found this one and it seems to hit the spot: getting people thinking about the future.
Thank you to walkinggal for putting me on this track.
thinking strategically about my blog
With the (indirect) help of Darren Rowse and his 31 days to Building a Better Blog, I will jump into my blog analyse it and get some strategy in it.
I have started making a mindmap of what I want to restructure and I look forward to the complete mindmap. The idea is that with that easy template I will be able to look for flaws in my blog and mend them more easily. Once the mindmap is finished in its draft version, I will post it and try to get some extra input.
I have started making a mindmap of what I want to restructure and I look forward to the complete mindmap. The idea is that with that easy template I will be able to look for flaws in my blog and mend them more easily. Once the mindmap is finished in its draft version, I will post it and try to get some extra input.
Thursday, 25 October 2007
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