Learn Online

Don't forget to update your feed: http://learnonline.wordpress.com

2006-12-23T20:53:00.000+13:00

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Time to update your subscription to this feed

2006-12-18T14:28:00.000+13:00

Sorry about this, but I'm moving off Blogger and onto Wordpress. New location is http://learnonline.wordpress.com and the feed URL is http://learnonline.wordpress.com/feed

Hope you'll stay with me :)

Second Life is starting to grab me

2006-12-11T15:48:00.000+13:00

I've kinda sat on the fence with Second Life. But really, there's no arguement about it. SL is an intensly engaging and inspiring space to be working in. Ever since the Future of Learning in a Networked World and talking more with Jo Kay and Sean FitzGerald I can see it more clearly.

With surprisingly little effort, IT here opened the communication port to allow access into SecondLife. Gotta hand it to the IT crew here at Otago Poly, for all my moaning about the profession generally (mostly legacy attitude from a gestapo like IT department in NSW DET), they have mostly been very responsive in taking off filters, allowing me to install software and try out things like Second Life.

Anyway, today I pulled a group of Occupational Therapy lecturers and others, to meet and watch as I met Jo in Second Life. In an intense hour of moving around, riding a balloon, visiting Harvard Law's SL school, and a Medical Library, not to mention bringing up a heap of Youtube videos, related websites, wikis and blogs, I think the group began to see how all this stuff can tie in together. (Links follow)

But, the usual overwhelmed feeling still pervades - that I fear will paralise anyone from moving into trialing out new practices with this teachnology. I'm ready, give me a project, I'd like to get iinto this I think...

Great links:
Jo Kay's BlogHud - where she is intergrating Blogging in with SecondLife
Jo Kay's Flickr photos - a bunch of screengrabs from Jo's SL experiences
SAE in Second Life - an excellent wiki page by Sean and Jo to support their presentations about edu use of SL
NMC Campus: Seriously Engaging - Youtube vid
Second Life Medical Library - an amazing range of information in a virtual library!
A Masters in Digital Media course blog - that also has a campus in Second Life
Cyber One - Harvard Law course that has a blog, wiki and Second Life campus

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Moment of truth - when the free stuff lets you down

2006-12-11T12:51:00.000+13:00

As many no doubt already know, Blogger is upgrading (catching up) with better web2 like features. But somewhere along the way they have stuffed up. I have just now tried to help 2 lecturers get started with blogging - now I'm certain that they will never blog again!

The problem is that we can't successfully get Blogger to hold a new username. We go in, we set up, we create new posts, all is looking good - so we sign out and then can't get in again. Google is in there claiming ownership over the username and asking us to sign in there instead - which just confuses the hell out of those poor newbies. BTW, I'm also experiencing trouble with Bloglines too - just to rub salt into the wound. Bloglines isn't adding new feeds to new accounts :( I suspect it is the computers here... but I can still get in to my old accounts, but not the new accounts! Blogger's help is no help, and they certainly aren't being up front about it in their blog either... could it be something in the way we are set up here?... either way, blogger beta is not rolling out smoothly, reminds me of a recent Blackboard upgrade just 10 yards from my key board a couple of months ago... So the moment of truth has arrived. After 2 years of using bloglines and blogger without a single issue - here it is.

About now is when all the IT people jump in and say, "see! I told you so! Its better to have control" and about now I would be closer than any other time to say, "yep! I agree with you Roger!" But no! the moment of truth is here, and it is now that I must drop back to first gear and employ that network flexibility I've been talking about.

To my mind, the free, web based and externally maintained services like blogger and bloglines are still better than what might cost you between US$200 and US$35 000 per year if you start including part of the salary you pay someone to maintain your internal servers. So if I had something up my sleeve when the issues with Blogger become so noticable - we could have jumped out of Blogger and Bloglines all together and used one of the many other free blogging and feed reading services available. I could start using my Del.icio.us to blog with, or my Flickr, or Multiply...

But that doesn't solve the problem of total newbies trying to get started. In the past, Blogger and Bloglines offered a reliable and easy service. Now that ivory tower has come crashing down and we are back to where we began. Either Blogger will regain some composure in about 10 hours, or I'm outa there and onto a whole other platform. In the meantime, IT can have their 12 - 24 months response time and try and get an internal blogging system up at no charge.

What a shame though. Right there was the making of two fantastic educational bloggers. Now, I'm sure they'll never blog again. I couldn't fix it in the time we had! They gave up trying after about 1 hour - or when I could say that I was at a loss :(

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Cormac Lawler - Wikiversity

2006-12-04T13:07:00.000+13:00

I had a very interesting phone conversation with Cormac Lawler today. Cormac is an experienced user, researcher and collaborative coordinator of wikiversity. In it we talked about the history of wikiversity, the possible structure and uses for it, some issues and considerations, and future developments.

Audio is in ogg, goes for 1hour and is 7.9megs.
VLC media player plays ogg files.
Conversation was had and recorded using Gizmo Project.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Students struggle with information literacy

2006-12-02T21:58:00.000+13:00

EdNA's Recent Items RSS pointed to an article in eSchool News that references a interesting results from a study of high school and college student's information literacy. Unfortunately I couldn't get a link to the actual published results as eSchool News wanted me to register before reading the rest of the article.. no wonder bloggers kick linkless journalists. I did manage to grab this though:

The report comes from an evaluation of the responses of 6,300 students from 63 institutions around the country to ETS's new ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Literacy Assessment. Students were given scenario-based items that were presented to them in 75-minute test environments. These information literacy tests included extracting information from a database, developing a spreadsheet, or composing eMail summaries of research findings.
The tests are meant to measure students' abilities to overcome three challenges they typically have:
"The ability to identify trustworthy and useful information;
"The ability to manage overabundant information; and
"The ability to communicate information effectively
The study found that 52 percent of those tested could correctly judge the objectivity of a web site, and 65 percent could correctly judge that web site's authoritativeness. But only 40 percent of students entered multiple search terms when researching a topic, and only 44 percent properly identified a statement that captured the demands of the assignment.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Flogging the dead horse that died in the trough

2006-11-28T08:07:00.000+13:00

There are times when I feel like my feedreader is talking to me... "go on Leigh, did you read that, its says what you say, say it again, here you go, read this, and this, and don't forget this, say it again..." Its a strange sensation hearing these little voices - am I going schitz? No its a reminder of how small our little band of web2/elearning2/networked learning enthusiasts are...

Chris Sessums has posted an extension to Will Richardson's frustrations at not seeing real changes in the educational settings he witnesses. Chris is suggesting Action Research as a way to help solve the problem. I suggested the same last year - but now I'm not so sure. I tend to think that action research (while admirable and certainly a method I would prefer working with) does not appreciate the extremely political and unfortunately hierarchical bureaucracy of institutionalised education. Such conditions in my opinion render results yielded through action research impotent. See DOPA and various educational departments banning all things Web 2 for a start. Then see mass implementation of learning management systems, intranet communications and secured content repositories for a second.

As regular readers of Learn Online know, I've chimed in on quite a few occasions when the despair for lost web2 potential in schools sets in. When I post a rant like the one about to follow, I always get the, "..but Leigh, you must be more patient", or "you're not seeing where the changes are happening.." not to mention the anonymous troll comments. Just quickly, I'd like to knock those first two off before I flog the dead horse laying in the trough again.

Patience is waiting to die
The internet has been around for over 10 years now, and by and large all I can see for it - in a tertiary ed sense - is vast quantities of money spent, I mean VAST quantities!! in content creation and "PD training", resulting in a clear majority of teachers who still don't know how to use a web browser effectively, who can't resize an image before they attach it to email, who struggle to see the potential of the read write web, and fail to see the use of wikipedia (if they've even heard of it) at first glance.. etc

And now whole education Departments are recoiling in fear - banning mobile devices, censoring the Internet, debating open source benefits but never trying it, then attending conferences on digital game based learning - simply for the political photoshoot with a celebrity.

Rather than me offering hyperlinked references to those sweeping statements above, how about you copy each of them and drop them into google and see what turns up. BTW, if you're blushing with the feeling that I might be looking at you when I write this - right clicking your mouse when you click those search results will give you the option to open the link in a new window - yes, you can have more than one website open at a time - but please, just do yourself a favour, get firefox. Tabbed browsing is just so much easier!

So, no - I don't have much patience left. I am seeing yet another communicative medium with immense potential, being lost to mediocre and mostly bureaucratic mud wallowing. I still have all the patience in the world for someone who wants me to show them how to set up a blog and edit a wiki, I have endless patience for people willing to give it a go. But I snap at people who have never honestly experienced themselves in the read write web - yet have all the cliche lines against it... "how can we verify it?", "how can I rely on this service", "how do you know its the truth?", "but we use Blackboard", "what about my privacy and intellectual property?", "why would I want the world to see me?" Amazing to think academic minds can be so unimaginative.

I see the positives
For a fella who reads an excruciating quantity of information coming online about education, and much of it filtered through the communiques of other people who passionately read through even more excruciating quantities of information - I'd say the chances of me catching the encouraging stories are farley high. When I see'm I post about them. So before you close this browser tab, or hit your IE back button (if you're teacher still struggling to learn how to browse) - please go back through my blog and try and find numerous pointers to exciting developments in small pockets of the world. I do see exciting stuff at times, but rarely is it ever from within the walls of a school, college or university.

I am someone who works in or for an institution tasked with helping to develop educational practices to be more in line with current and future trends not to mention potential. I get employed to help maintain the institution's relevance through change in practices (at least I think I do). And I do still believe that that this objective is important, despite my sound offs. I have they privilege of working first hand with a wide cross section of teachers from all types of subject areas. I have worked in this role at many different institutions for 5 years now.

Action not research
As much as I would love action research to be a means to which we might work to solve the serious shortfalls in teacher staff's digital and network literacy, I tend to agree with Stephen Parker when he focuses more on the hierarchy, trying to get management bye-in and modelling desired communicative behavior... before those managers go and cut off the tails of the few long tail teachers that are already read write web savvey.

Last Friday I had the pleasure to meet Jacob and Dawn McNulty from orbitalRPM. OrbitalRPM offers consultancy services to business and corporations on how to improve their staff training, general communications strategies and leverage informal learning. Jacob has apparently been lurking in my blog for some time now. He and Dawn recently married and chose New Zealand for their honeymoon. Good choice I reckon. Jacob, being a typical Web2 obsessive dragged poor Dawn to Dunedin so we could meet. Needless to say, it was a pleasure, we talked Web2 to each other based on our respective lines of work.

I was excited by Jacob's simple but perceptively effective idea of how to improve communication in an organisation and at the same time leverage informal learning via the networked learning model. He claims high millage for his thinking with client work he does, and I was certainly impressed enough to want to get him back here to talk to my own senior managers.

Like Stephen, Jacob reckons we must have managers and leaders modelling the desired behaviour, then offer incentives to subordinate staff to do the same. That is to communicate openly and frankly about their thinking, their job progress and their concerns. In other words to blog. There, now I (a subordinate) have no reason to say I have no idea what management are thinking, the minutes from their meetings will become more readable, hopefully to a point of interest and engagement that I might even WANT to read them, the public can see what we are up to and the newspaper can more easily gather their press releases.

Then the managers need to create incentives. Jacob and I talked a little about what this may look like and where it might come from - we thought the following was realistic:

$200 per month bonus to every staff member who regularly maintains a blog for their work. In it should at least contain notes and reflections on training sessions and other learning, issues and concerns, ideas and solutions, links to resources etc.
The money for this come from a fraction of the formal training budget. Call it small money for big informal learning.
Coupled to this incentive are efforts to forge communicative networks between these blogs. Support agents who monitor the blogging and make introductions to emergent synergies.

The long and the short of this post is that action research will not achieve a speedy enough result, and while there is a disconnect between the workers and the bosses, change is made impotent. I think the modelled behaviour from leadership with incentives will set up the infrastructure and potential for an action research culture to develop.

I hope Jacob offers a more detailed idea to this post when he's back from honeymooning with Dawn.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Shaggy Rules!

2006-11-22T16:59:00.000+13:00

I just got off the phone with Peter Shanks, creator of the Training Packages Unpacked tool. It is a system that reaches into the MSAccess data base of the Australian National Training Information Service NTIS (a place that manages expressions of Australian competency standards or training units for qualification), and pulls it out of the PDFs and RTFS and redisplays the information that teachers and learners need on a web page for us web people to more easily reuse. Then he goes the full 9 yards and makes the newly formatted data available for those of us using wikis, Moodle, html, XML and an assessment spreadsheet. Now its just a simple process of finding the competency unit you are using for learning, teaching or assessment and copy pasting your prefered format into your prefered system.

Here's me extracting out an overly verbose unit statement from the Training and Assessment package - Design and Develop Learning Resources. Now, it is still a big wad of text, but now it is in Wikiversity where I and many others can chop down and make it more realistic. Peter and I agree that this statement alone should be enough for people to structure their learning around. Students could work together building up this wikiversity entry with resources and the like.

Here's the audio of Peter and I talking about all this today (3.5meg - 30 minutes - ogg file). I couldn't get an MP3 through to Podomatic or Odeo, security settings here prevented my uploading it. But a through way to Wikimedia commons who rightly only accept open standard media formats like Ogg was A OK.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Excellent video about web2 and web3

2006-11-21T12:27:00.000+13:00

Graham Stanely has published an excellent video that overviews educational uses and ideas of Web2.0 and Web3D. Quite useful if you are still introducing people to the concepts, or trying to motivate people to stay on it.

Many thanks Barbara Dieu for sending this through.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Good bye computer

2006-11-19T14:48:00.000+13:00

At last! an alternative to this back breaking, arse flattening, nerdy looking laptop interface!

Nokia's N770, Internet tablet.

It's the versatile Wi-Fi web browser with possibilities to spare. The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is built on a Linux-based open source platform, which means you've got the power to transform your device into virtually anything. Now your options are as wide open as your imagination.

The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet includes pre-installed Google Talk, Google's free instant messaging service that lets you chat and make calls using Voice Over IP technology. The upgraded software platform also supports SIP-based VoIP solutions, perfect for broadband business use.

Whatever your instant messenger of choice, the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet will keep you connected to your buddy list when you're on the go. With Gaim, a multi-platform instant messenger service, you've got instant access to friends and co-workers while you're out and about.

The Gaim port for the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet supports the following clients:

AOL Instant Messenger
Yahoo! Messenger
MSN Messenger
Gadu-Gadu
ICQ (via OSCAR)
Internet Relay Chat
Jabber (XMPP)

Lotus Sametime
Novell GroupWise
OpenNAP
Zephyr
SILC
Google Talk, IM only (using the Jabber protocol)
QQ, 3rdparty plugin

The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet's desktop comes equipped with an intuitive RSS reader, designed to render feed items with ease. The device supports scheduled retrieval and gives you a convenient way to check headlines at a glance. And by downloading the latest version of FBreader, you can turn your Nokia 770 Internet Tablet into a handy e-book reader — choose up to 18,000 free texts to peruse on the go.

Enjoy your favorite video clips stored on your device, memory card, or streaming from the web. The large format, high-resolution screen and on-board speakers (with headset jack) deliver a movie-going experience on the go. There's even a built-in USB 2.0 for easy uploading and downloading.

The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet supports the following file formats:

Image: BMP, GIF, ICO, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, SVG-tiny
Video: 3GP, AVI, H.263, MPEG-1, MPEG-4, RV (Real Video)

It's the ultimate mobile music player. Listen to music tracks and other audio files stored on your device, memory card, or streaming via the web. The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet's audio player supports many popular sound formats and enables you to create and manage all your playlists. Just plug your favorite set of headphones into the 3.5mm headset jack and you're ready to rock. And if you're looking for a bigger sound, you can hook up your device to your compatible home stereo system. You can also enjoy a wide variety of Internet radio channels streaming anytime, day or night.

The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet supports the following file formats:

Audio: AAC, AMR, MP2, MP3, RA (Real Audio), WAV, WMA
Internet Radio Playlists: M3U, PLS

The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet offers a number of options for text input. On-screen, users can choose from a full-screen fingerboard, a half-screen stylus-tap keypad, or handwriting recognition. Bluetooth HID support also gives users the option of an external Bluetooth keyboard, purchased separately.

The full-screen fingerboard enables users to write longer text, like emails and documents, in a convenient and natural way. The QWERTY interface mimics that of a regular PC or laptop keyboard, making text input simple.

An edit menu gives you quick access to copy, cut, and paste functions, while the handy special character mode lets you enter in symbols and foreign language characters. An optional predictive text system makes typing fast and easy. Both keyboard functions also support typing in multiple languages at the same time, and a numeric keypad allows for the quick entry of numbers.

In handwriting recognition mode, the movement of the pen is recorded and compared to a library of characters. When a match is found, the character is input to the text field. The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet recognizes several different handwriting styles, but you can also train the device to recognize your personal style with a built-in training program.

So, what I wanna know is: can I plug in a monitor and hardrive for when I need to do a big type up? and does it take a microphone?

Please please please be so!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

SMH - Youtube in Melbourne School - Stephen Hutcheon counters Catherine Munro

2006-11-09T12:34:00.000+13:00

Stephan Ridgeway alerted me to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday that is definately worth looking at - Youtube is a class act - a refreshing look at the positive adaptation of undeniably popular communication into some Australian school curriculum. Certainly a more informative counter to an earlier SMH article that should shame not only the paper and its 'journalist', but a doctor, the NSW Department of Education and some schools.

Stephen Hutchinson, a technology and society journalist worth following up on has told of a Melbourne School students,

...dissecting the fare on the world's most popular video-sharing website, they're creating their own mini movies and uploading them onto the site.

In fact they are doing interesting market research by the sounds of it

His class is about halfway through an eight-week project in which students - with parental consent - compile and upload videos to YouTube.
Then they wait and watch to see which ones take off and which sink without a trace - as is the lot of most of the 65,000 videos that are uploaded to the site daily.

They examine how, for instance, one of their videos with the title Hot Chix rates compared with another one called Funniest Cats You'll EVER See!!.

And its Funniest Cats' that is in the lead!!

Make sure you follow the link to the blog entry that supports the article for some interesting questions to Stephen from the students (on youtube video of course) which Stephen answers by text of course :)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Will says DO IT! but they turn the other cheek

2006-11-05T11:52:00.000+13:00

Will posts a much needed rev up in owning the teaching... and the learning.

We go back and forth in this community about whether teachers who use blogs should blog, or podcast or read RSS feeds. I’ve always hesitated to come down on one side or the other in that debate for a variety of reasons. But it’s become clear to me that the answer has to be yes. If you are an educator, I think you have little choice but to choose option 3 in the Marco Torres mantra: “You can complain, quit or innovate.” I know in many ways it stinks to have to be an educator at a moment in history when things are changing on a glacial scale. But what you signed up for is preparing kids for their futures. You have little choice but to deal.

I'd like to second Will and say that I am also concerned that we are not seeing true and honest attempts to change systems and practices in a way that is better suited to the new world we are heading towards. I share his sense of urgency about it. But more and more, I think I'm realising that the changes we hope for will not come. The changes are happening outside the classroom walls (as always) and so the schools are becoming even more irrelevant to real life. Perhaps we are mistaken in the first place in our thinking that the formal education systems have any significant bearing on our socialisation... perhaps we are contribution to the blockage by attributing more significance than is warranted to the teachers, and thus failing to see what experiences are really important to a person's learning. Perhaps we might do better refocusing our efforts away from schools and teachers, and more towards community groups, parents, home-schoolers, scouts and sporting clubs etc.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

DimDim, free web-based webconference tool is available in alpha

2006-11-03T12:27:00.000+13:00

DimDim - open source web conference tool, is available as an alpha download.

Dimdim is an open source web conferencing product with features like Application, Desktop and Presentation sharing with A/V streaming and chat. No installation is needed on the Attendee side and all features are available through a web browser.

North Sydney Institute - Web2Debate, Guidelines for using Blogs and Wikis

2006-11-02T10:22:00.000+13:00

An interesting project unfolding at North Sydney Institute. A draft set of guidelines for the use of blogs in wikis in formal educational settings. Acknowledges things llike duty of care to minors, and public and private communications etc... (I was surprised to see my blog linked in there - so this is not a self promo).

I know they're not the only ones developing up such things - though they are using wikispaces - its a sure sign that we're in 2nd wave though. This is the 2nd wave adoption stage where the hi hopes, ideals and dreams of the 1st wave get compromised.

A skim read of their guidelines looks hopeful. Something in me recoils from the idea of setting guidelines though - which inevitably inform policy - but at least this one works to balance the facistically inforced IT policies of the Department over arching them. Good luck to them.

Thanks Peter Enderby for the pointer.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

I've been learning from robots

2006-10-31T13:31:00.000+13:00

William Lucas, a language teacher here at Otago Polytechnic has been experimenting with chatbots for language tuition. I popped around yesterday and spun me out with JabberWacky and sat back with a grin watching me talk to a robot.

Amazingly, William's class has already taught a robot what the capital of New Zealand is, it even asks back the same question in a variety of ways.

I'm impressed with William's adoption of the tool - normally thought of a spammer device - now as a language tuition device. Highly recommend watching the ABC video on it.

Related to this is what Peter Enderby points out in the Tourism Hospitality network. A 3D rendered animation that speaks the news aggregated from leading news sources, then pops out to other characters to read out blog posts like in the filed journalists! Again, well worth watching the video yo fully comprehend this. this technology could just as easily replace a teacher on many levels!!

News At Seven is a system that automatically generates a virtual news show. Totally autonomous, it collects, parses, edits and organizes news stories and then passes the formatted content to an artificial anchor for presentation. Using the resources present on the web, the system goes beyond the straight text of the news stories to also retrieve relevant images and blogs with commentary on the topics to be presented.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Artichoke introduces Living End and Ricardo Semler

2006-10-29T19:29:00.001+13:00

Another inspiring post from Artichoke, giving me yet another great reason to go to Brazil next year - to meet Ricardo Semler. A man enacting a concept that is only just now unfolding for me. Democratic schools and industry. Semler has founded a democratic school called Escola Lumiar in Sao Paulo.

Lumiar International School is testing the new concepts building a space of socially mixed classes, freedom and democracy as the grounds for the formation of the balanced citizen, the individual able to learn how to learn, to take responsibility for his/her own choices and to determine the course and scope of his/her education. As equal members of a democratic community, the students are actively involved in the events of daily life.

I think I could find more ideas for the Stepping out from under the umbrellas idea for training sector reform.

And this video depicts a new school in the US.

Thanks Sean FitzGerald for finding it in our long lost email exchanges...

and this from the Australian Catholic System:

Click To Play

Talks about 24hr school
related video http://heyjude.blip.tv/file/92772

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Vote for the Wikivesity Logo

2006-10-24T21:21:00.000+13:00

Wikiversity is taking votes for their logo. This is the only one I would wear on a t-shirt. The others look like some polluted snow flake or something. Make sure you cast a vote - a. to show your support for wikiversity, b. to make sure the better logo wins :)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Affirmative action in language - delete teacher

2006-10-24T20:34:00.000+13:00

Stanley makes a good summary of his thoughts out of Global Summit, and is hopefully going to articulate something of an ecological perspective towards learning sometime soon.

He points out the common interpretation people are taking away from the teaching is dead idea, the feeling that perhaps I meant to say teaching is dead, long live teaching. Unfortunately that is quite the opposite to what I should have said, but I accept that by using correlations with "painting is dead, long live painting" I have perhaps mislead people in my thinking about teaching.

Imagine a paragraph about teaching and learning, but without the word and concept of teacher/ing. I think by calling it "teaching is dead, long live learning" I mean to point out that learning occurs without teaching. Basically reinforce Illich and many others who say that most if not all of our learning does or can occur outside the power of Teaching. Many people talk about the need for teachers to become learners again, in an effort to fit them in with this new age. To that I would respond and say, the day teachers stop being learners is the day they can no longer be teachers.

So what good is the concept of teaching? Is it not enough to simply work with the idea of learning? Where some learners are in a temporary position to assist other learners. Or more importantly, what do we loose by ceasing to use the word teacher? Does the meaning or interpretation of my blog change if I were to call it simply Learning Online? Can't the teaching bit just be implicit?

What I am trying to say I think is that by ditinguishing the concept of teaching as a practice that is different to learning, we straight away break the the process of learning. By identifying someone as a teacher and another as a learner - there, it is broken. The practice of teaching still exists of course, but it is no longer the full time, entitled practice we give it today. The teacher is gone, replaced by a learner.

This would work well in a research organisation, where the practice of research (learning) is directly connected with the practice of showing others what is being learned. What we end up with then, is a progression of learning where teaching is absorbed as a small event used for learning. Basic knowledge and skills are demonstrated and mentored by those working intermediately, and intermediate learners learn from advanced learners.

teaching is simply a part of learning. Such a small part, or such an everywhere occurrence that it is barely worth mentioning.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Realpolitik/power politics

2006-10-19T12:13:00.000+13:00

The word realpolitik makes me picture this man.

John Connell used 'realpolitik' to criticise my talk and perspective, teaching is dead - long live learning. I appreciate the criticism actually, John recommends further reading for me, and makes me perhaps realise that I didn't speak enough about the 'real' work I do within an institution.

John writes:

...but loathing is not in itself enough to make a difference to the inertia that resides in the structures and processes that make up most state education systems around the world. He is right, absolutely, that IllichÂs notion of the Learning Web was created more than a generation before the maturation of the technology that now makes his vision achievable, but he shares Illich's inability, ultimately, to engage with the real political and institutional issues that would make a difference.

So to say I am not engaged with institutional issues is ignoring what I am outside the talk. I wish I had of pointed to it more. It is true that back at Otago Polytechnic my points are tempered somewhat, but the principles and ideals remain the same. I am searching for ways to deschool inside my organisation, so what is this realpolitik John is refering to? Is it simply power politics?

If I hold onto the principles and ideals that John has philosophicalal and emotional sympathy for, AND I stick to coming up with ideas for it in my work inside an institution, what is missing? I'd point to my ideas evolving in the posts Out from under the umbrellas and what would it be like to be the rain. They are ideas that I am reasonably comfortable with philosophically, and they are ideas I am really working on at Otago Politechnic. I hope John will make comment on those ideas.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Audio recordings from Global Summit

2006-10-18T20:13:00.000+13:00

I'm quite relieved to have finished my talk. Seemed to go well, great that Education.au are audio recording and publishing as we go too. Unfortunately the main access to the files is through EdNA groups - which requires a user name and password :( but a little birdy showed me where the media is being stored wide open. Here's a feed coming out of the bloggers of the conference.

Here's some recordings I can see in the open media list so far:
My talk
Doug Brown
George Siemens
Robert Cailliau
Robert Cappie Wood

So that's day one over. I've meet some pretty cool and inspiring people.
I switched on fella from education au by the name of Mike Seyfang
. And another edu blogging teacher from South Australia who I've forgotten the name and link but will track down and put here later. And Greg Whitby of the 24hr open school fame - as discussed in TALO recently. Here's a link to a video I recorded of Greg talking about his work with Catholic Schools in NSW.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Cappie Wood

2006-10-18T12:46:00.000+13:00

Andrew Cappie Wood, Director General of the NSW Department of unEducation is up on stage to start us off.
I'm as bored as I could possibly be, holding back the urge to shout out at every corner of talk about centralised provision, managed learning, oh boy... but if I drop my eyes down from Cappie, about 5 yards in front of me is Greg Whitby, executive director of schools in the Parramatta diocese. You know - that 24 hour school:

The traditional classroom concept will disappear, replaced by "learning spaces". The school will be referred to as a "learning community" and teachers will be known as "learning advisers", Mr Whitby said. "The walls of a classroom become redundant because students are able to access real-time, any-time learning."

I was going to try and get ou to the school and see if I could grab a quick interview. But Greg is here and I'll be very interested to hear his views of NSW D(u)ET.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Global Summit - Teaching is dead tweaked a little

2006-10-18T09:02:00.000+13:00

So! here we are, at the very fancy Shangri-La Hotel under the coat hanger in Sydney, for Education.au's Global Summit. Sunshine went to dinner and sat next to George Siemens and Charles Jennings. We had a long awaited discussion about ye old LMS, and I got to flex my work in progress, out from under the umbrellas/what would it be like to be the rain.

I must say I'm quite intimidated by this Summit. The list of people coming is mostly big wigs and policy makers, in a 5 star setting, with high caliber speakers. What am I doing here!

I put teaching is dead up quite some time ago - hoping for more suggestions and feedback. Its been so long that it feels like old hat by the time I get up, and I've been so distracted by other events in the lead up to this that I haven't had much time to think about it more fully. But, to hell with it! I'll just have to get up and blurt it out in the usual scorched earth, Leigh Blackall fashion.

Here's the teaching is dead slides into a video on Blip.tv, and YouTube, slides on flickr and bubbleshare.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Welcome back to the redneck wonderland

2006-10-16T14:58:00.000+13:00

So I'm back in Australia, sitting in a friends house in the Blue Mountains, looking out his window over the National Park, watching the mist roll on by, contemplating an image I might use for a talk at the Global Summit. 'bloip' goes skype as a Stephan messages me a link to that only-good-for-fire-starting rag, The Sydney Morning Herald.

Vandalism and Violence on You Tube - by Catherine Munro

PARENTS are being warned to monitor their children's viewing of YouTube, the hugely popular video site that is carrying scenes of teenage violence and vandalism...

...Fighting in Australian schools also features, along with demonstrations of how to spray graffiti on the outside of moving trains.

The site was impossible to access at public schools, an Education Department spokesman said...

...Adolescence psychologist (sic) Michael Carr-Gregg said the craze threatened to encourage copycat behaviour and urged all schools to ban the use of camera phones...

..."It's nasty stuff," Dr Carr-Gregg told The Sun-Herald. "I have seen some stuff which involved girls kicking each other on the ground, which made me want to vomit. In the background you can hear the person shouting 'I've got it' as they film."...

...The massive price Google paid for YouTube reflects how keen IT players are to shore up access to the millions of people who access the site every day...

...But the so-called "new media" is proving difficult to regulate...
..."No reform package can stop the migration of consumers from traditional media into more exciting and more flexible formats," Mr Berg wrote.

Not a scrap of concern as to the evidence of violence in schools, not a mention. Just a dull attack at the "so called new media" from a mysterious Cat Munroe - a few seconds of searching didn't turn her up, she probably doesn't even exist - just a name to pin press releases from the NSW Department of Uneducation to. I feel sorry for Michael Carr-Gregg though, in the absence of Cat, he's the next in line - and an easy target at that. Knowing how anonymous rag news works, they probably quoted Carr-Greg out of context... surely a doctor wouldn't be so narrow minded!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Reading - The Wealth of Networks

2006-10-12T23:19:00.000+13:00

So, 3 months later and my library has finally delivered my order of Yochai Benkler's The Wealth of Networks - How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom.

Sure enough, after reading through the introductory chapter, it is an impressive read.

So far it has had me thinking about:

the shift from mass mediated information to networked - p10
an counter point to the common objection of information overload - p13. "..Individuals become less passive, thus more engaged. Attention in the networked environment is dependent on being interesting to an engaged group, than it is in mass media - where moderate interests to large numbers of weakly engaged people is preferable.."
the increased capabilities of individuals as the core driving social force behind the networked information society - p15
a response to individualism further fragmenting communities and continuing the trend of industrialisation: Internet is impacting on television and we are using the Internet to communicate with family and friends. But at the same time, our social ties are shifting due to the increasing range of diversity in our newly established connections...

I'm observing Benkler is at fault in my view, of wording in the global sense but almost only ever using US examples. This starts me wondering how much of what Benkler identifies as important (legislation, democracy, freedom, individualism, access and many other things) as being very dependent on your (US) view of the world...? This is already most apparent to me in his section in the introductory chapter starting p13, Justice and Human Development, where he does little to acknowlege digital divides, and the success of pirate software over free software.

But where is really started to get interesting was towards the end of the introduction, where he articulates the 4 methodologies he is approaching things with:

technology not as deterministic or entirely malleable
economic sociology
liberal political theory with economics and markets as a basis
individualism and anarchism

Finally, to finish the intro and motivate me to read on:

".. we must recognise... what is fundamentally a social and political choice - a choice about how to be free, equal, productive human beings under a new set of technological and economic conditions. As economic policy, allowing yesterday's winners to dictate the terms of tomorrow's economic competition would be disastrous. As social policy, missing an opportunity to enrich democracy, freedom and justice in our society while maintaining or even enhancing our productivity would be unforgivable..." p 27 and 28.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.

Stanley Frielick and the future of learning institutions

2006-10-12T15:02:00.000+13:00

It has been great to witness Stanley Frielicks thoughts emerge as he processes his experiences with the Future of Learning in a Networked World. He, more than anyone has sparked important debate in that tour. He has suffered tirades and rants from many, flames from some, and institutional dogma from others, but maintained a willingness to engage and expose himself more. What emerges from this is a presence, a node, an extension in the connected knowledge, a person with whom I feel I can communicate with and relate to.

I met Stanley on the Northland leg of the tour, but before that he was simply a name in my email and little more. I tried once to find out more about him, but he was not easily located. A paper there, a photo here. As a result I could not be sure of who he was or what he stood for - that is until we met face to face.

We met at night at the airport and like any face to face meeting, a flood of information flows in as you instinctively look the person up and down and basically sum the person up as quick as you can so you can interact to some degree. A handshake because he is an anglo bloke, a smile because thanks to his dress and body language I have summed up that he's a good bloke and we'll get along... something like that anyway.

Now, Stanley is blogging. While he is at the other end of this little country I am given access to his thoughts and ideas, and can remain in touch. It is a different type of interaction - blogging and subscribing to someone's blog (networked), compared to say - email, forums and telephone. With networked communications I see Stanley writing largely to himself and in the context of his 'self' (blog). I can choose to remain at a distance, or comment in to let him know I'm there. Compared to the demands of one to one email, phone, or even group email communications, it is a safe distance, less demanding, but intimate enough over time.

This networked communication is different to what many of us are used to, and different to what the majority of us experience. But it is significant. It is this form of communication - with all its promise of equality, democracy, and other egalitarian principles - that inspired the open space ideals of the FLNW. The connectivity emerging between myself and Stanley is an example of how that happens and how it can be maintained.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license.