eLearning Blog Dont Waste Your Time » Web 2.0

Infographic WordPress World

David Hopkins — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:24:13 +0000

With figures like “13.4 million downloads of WordPress 3.0″ or “10,935 Available Plugins” andthat WordPress “powers nearly 8.5% of all websites on the net”, this is one of the better infographics I have seen for a while.

I cannot find the original author, but thanks go to Robin Good for pointing it out.

Click to enlarge

All of a Twitter … how are social web tools used in University classrooms

David Hopkins — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:32:41 +0000

I am trying to steer clear of blog posts that keep talking about Twitter, and how we can use it in a classroom setting, but this one (from the University of New South Wales) is one of the better ones I’ve seen recently that have the academic staff talking about how they are using it.

“It is the very interactive nature of social web tools that academics are finding so useful in the classroom.”

“What you can do with the Web 2.0 … is that you can deliver material gradually and you can allow students to interact with your course materials in a very different way.”

“Those sorts of tools are really interesting because they plug in to the open web, which is what I’m really interested in; tools that allow us not to work in a walled-garden environment so much … but to work in the open world so that anyone can look at what we’re doing, if we wanted that, or we could restrict who the outsiders were, or we could invite outsiders in, or we could connect to anywhere on the web.”

Enjoy.

Many thanks to mbogle for showing this video.

Video: The State of The Internet

David Hopkins — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:35:57 +0000

This video shares many facts and figures, and one I was most surprised / impressed with was (as of November 2009) Facebook had over 30,000 servers!!

Wow!

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from JESS3 on Vimeo.

Watch this and other fascinating and inspiring video infographics over on the Speckyboy website.

Policies for Staff use of Social Media and Social Networks

David Hopkins — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 09:29:44 +0000

Does your employer / Institution have a policy for the accepted use, by staff, for how they can use Social Media (Twitter, Facebook, SlideShare, YouTube, WordPress, etc)? Is it limited to how you can use it for work, or in work, or does it cover your usage outside of work and how you talk/post about what you do at work? Are you allowed to use images/logo of your employer/Institution in your work?

Here a are a few I found;

DePaul University – Social Media Guidelines: Social Media Working Group. There are some good resources here, especially interesting to me is the section on ‘personal site guidelines’ that outlines what an employee can do in their personal space, but based on work at the Institution.
SAP - Social Media Guidelines 2009. Again, some great resources, and well worded reasoning, on what and staff members can do on networks like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc in a professional manner about their work, but not linked or attributed officially to their employer.
Colorado State University – [Draft] Social Media Policy.This covers all official accounts on Social Networks that represent CSU rather than covering staff use of Social media for personal reasons based on what they work on.
Law Schools on Ning – Social Media Best Practices for Law Schools. This Ning site has a good draft/example policy for Law Schools to use as a starting point as well as a link to The Legal Watercooler Blog post by Heather Morse-Milligan on whether you actually need a policy to cover social media use or not? Heather’s post is actually very good in that it outlines 5 reasons why you don’t need a policy to govern your staff and their use of Social Media and Social Networks.
Southeast Missouri State University – Social Media Information. Why is it only US University’s that are open about their policies? Anyway, this really only covers Twitter, Facebook and Blogs for departmental uses.
Washington State University – Social Networking Guidelines. A list of official Twitter and Facebook accounts and pages, but the link to the ‘Reference, Social Media & Web Tools’ page was unfortunately broken at the time I looked (June 9th, 2010).

In the corporate world it seems they are quicker to sort this out. The Online Database of Social Media Policies from large multi-national companies (including the BBC, Reuters, Microsoft, and Kodak, to name a few) has some very good (and some bad) examples. Check them out.

This list, produced by Michael Willits, is also a good place to start. he has broken the list into different categories based no the type of organisation. Again, take a look.

One thing I have found during my search for examples is that, as we all know, the world of Social Media and Social Networks are constantly changing, so any ‘policy’ needs constant attention and updates and, in actual fact, should be thought of as a working document rather than a set-in-stone policy.

About the same time as writing this (I started it back in April 2010) AJCann was asking for examples and links on Twitter. If you have any to share please post them as a comment below and I’ll alert AJCann so we can share and share alike!

Post Updates:

June 9th, 2010: Leeds Metropolitan University – Social Media Guidelines. Thanks to Sandra Hopkins (no relation).
June 9th, 2010: Social Media Best Practice for Law Schools – Recommendations for Staff use. I have seen a few other policy’s and guidelines that look a lot like this … I wonder if everyone uses the same base model to start their policy documents?
July 14th, 2010: SmartBlog on Social Media - Creating a social-media policy that works, with Alexandra Levit. This post holds good examples for companies and organisations on how to create their own Social Media policy.

Podcasts and Supervision (2.0)

David Hopkins — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:03:31 +0000

There are some choice quotes I want to raise to you this morning from the article on the Times Higher Education website ”Podcasts can lead us into the world of Supervision 2.0“.

Under the banner heading of ” exciting technological developments that can transform our learning environment and bring multiple benefits to all university students” the article continues to demonstrate and discuss the use of audio technology in aspects of education.

“For underconfident and inexperienced students, podcasts are an opportunity to connect theory and practice, thinking and doing. The advantages are clear: podcasts are inexpensive to produce. They build community and add emotion to education.”

“Academics are developing podcasts to deliver audio feedback on assignments and I conduct course reviews through sound. Instead of ticking boxes, I ask students to comment on what they have learnt. I create a mix from their words and upload it to a centralised portal so they can monitor the thoughts of their colleagues as they write the final assignments. It is a sonic snapshot of their semester and helps me to improve future learning opportunities.”

“Podcasting offered an evocative method for talking through intellectual options.”

“The literature on auditory cultures and sonic media is revealing complex, intricate and dynamic oscillations between hearing, listening and learning.”

Thanks to Steve Wheeler for point this out this morning.

Video: The Future Internet and Web 3.0 / Semantec Web

David Hopkins — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:33:34 +0000

This is great, the use of animated flip-charts is a nice touch.

However, if you watch this from the beginning try looking at it like this … the first 1 minute and 50 seconds (or there about) sounds like a trailer for some new disaster movie that will see Keanu Reeves save the human race from the marauding machines. It’s nothing of the sort, it’s just the Web 3.0 or Semantic Web being explained. Stick with it, it’s good.

What is Ning (and what can I use it for)?

David Hopkins — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:46:31 +0000

I’ve used Ning, I’ve read and talked about Ning, but I haven’t’ actually put any thought to what it is or how I can get the most out of it.

Ning is “a platform for creating your own social network”, and leaving you in control of all aspects of it (public/private, tools, etc). You start by working on a name (that someone hasn’t already used!), you choose the features you want to make available to the participants (photo sharing, video sharing, forum, events, blog, etc) and you then customise the design and appearance … and then launch.

Read this: 7 Things You Should Know About Ning

Twitter conversation:

I have archived the responses I received through Twitter on the following ‘Twapper Keeper’ Archive list: twapperkeeper.com. Many thanks to those of you who helped with your contributions to this post.

Hosted or Self-hosted:
As with many Web 2.0 systems (WordPress, etc) you can host your Ning network on the main www.ning.com website or, and this is probably the route many Institutions will take, you can download it, load it to your own server(s) and run it yourself.

There are several download sites where it is available, but perhaps the safest and most ‘reliable’ is through Tucows.

Additional Ning features: Free Ning Applications

How to create a Ning ‘network’ (environment):
Once you’ve signed up and verified your account you can start using and creating your Ning network(s).

Choose a (unique) name for the network,
Enter the settings (keywords, description, privacy, etc),
Set up the layout and tool options for the network (see below),

: [Click for larger image]

Choose a design/style from the list of (pre)defined templates,

[Click for larger image]
Done. All you need to do is start populating the network/environment with content and people.

If you set the Ning network as ‘private’ you’ll need to invite your users to access it.

How do you use your Ning network:
What you want to happen here is that people start joining and using the tools. First you’ll need to tell them about the network (especially if you’ve set the privacy high; you’ll be emailing them details on how to join).

Participants will need you to guide them not only through the tools available to them, but also the reason the tools are there. This now comes down to the ‘reason’ you have created the network.

Are you trying to use Ning to encourage participation and collaboration between students on a specific topic (e.g. “Social Healthcare”, “Consumer Behaviour and Market Research”, etc) or is the reason for the network more professional (see some of the example sites below)? Whichever it may be, explain this somewhere to the students – no one will engage if there is no reason to.

Also, don’t be afraid to be the one who starts the party rolling – yes, you’ll be the first one on the dance floor, that encourages others to step up and start as well.

Read this: Okay, I’ve joined the network. Now what?
Read this: [Ning] Site Guidelines

Example Ning sites/networks:

Ning in Education: education.ning.com
The Educator’s PLN: edupln.ning.com
School 2.0: school20.ning.com
Classroom 2.0: www.classroom20.com
Technology Integration in Education: tech-in-ed.ning.com
Best Practice for eLearning: bestpracticeforelearning.ning.com

Presentations:

Building Community with Ning

Comments:
Please leave a comment on your own experience in running or participating in a Ning network, or any aspect of Ning or network applications.

PLE / Personal Learning Environment: What's yours like?

David Hopkins — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:09:07 +0000

As most of my posts these days are based on resources and my readings, I thought I’d continue with this I found (again) on Twitter: A Collection of PLE diagrams.

Please look through all the ones listed (the list is growing daily so what I see now and, say, next month is going to be different) using the link above, but I’ve loaded some of the more interesting ones below … interesting for both content and delivery.

UPDATED: I’ve worked on mine and, while there is little substance, it covers the kinds of activities and tools I use on a (fairly) frequent basis.

: David Hopkins’ Personal Learning Environment/Network : PLE / PLN
[click to enlarge]

If you have already worked yours out, please comment and let us know how/what you did, as well as adding your own to the Edtechpost Wiki (link above – I’ll add mine in a minute).

: Gretchens Frage – Personal Learning Environment

: Francesc Esteve My Personal Learning Environment PLE

: Jay Cross – Interface.007

: D’Arcy Norman “My PLE”

Reading: "Web Squared – Web 2.0 Five Years On"

David Hopkins — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 07:43:50 +0000

Wow, what a great paper – thanks to @AnneBB finding this and sending out to her Twitter network.

It’ll take a while to fully digest the contents, but here are some choice excerpts for you, to whet your appetite;

“Ever since we first introduced the term ‘Web 2.0′, people have been asking, “What’s next?” Assuming that Web 2.0 was meant to be a kind of software version number (rather than a statement about the second coming of the Web after the dotcom bust), we’re constantly asked about “Web 3.0.” Is it the semantic web? The sentient web? Is it the social web? The mobile web? Is it some form of virtual reality? It is all of those, and more.”

“The Web is no longer a collection of static pages of HTML that describe something in the world. Increasingly, the Web is the world – everything and everyone in the world casts an information shadow’, an aura of data which, when captured and processed intelligently, offers extraordinary opportunity and mind-bending implications. Web Squared is our way of exploring this phenomenon and giving it a name.”

The paper concludes with some very insightful comments, lile;

“The new direction for the Web, its collision course with the physical world, opens enormous new possibilities for business, and enormous new possibilities to make a difference on the world’s most pressing problems.”

“It’s time for the Web to engage the real world. Web meets World—that’s Web Squared.“

The 'Edgeless University'

David Hopkins — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:56:01 +0000

I was reading Steve Wheeler’s latest blog entry this morning thinking “huh?”

So, a JISC report on “Edgeless University: why higher education must embrace technology” has said that;

“British universities will lose their leading international standing unless they become much more radical in their use of new technology” (to quote Steve).

I hadn’t thought it was that bad, but perhaps it is. I’ll not bleat on about the report, I’ll let you read it for yourself, but the biggest issue that it raises for me (and perhaps you too) is simply … dont’ blame the University, or even the students, if you can’t get the staff engaged!

I’ve written here before about getting tutors/educators engaged in using Web 2.0 tools and techniques, but the reason they don’t are not always easy to define;

Willing: Are they willing to try something new?
Able: They may be willing, but are they able to try it?
Time: Irrespective of ability or willingness, do they have the time to sit and learn something new … even if you can demonstrate that it will save them time in the long run?
Blinkered: Are they just burying their heads in the sand hoping you’ll go away and bother someone else instead?
Blind: Are they just point-blank ignoring you.

Not everyone will fit so easily in the stereotypes above; I know of one example where the tutor was enthusiastic about trying something new, didn’t have the time to work it out until the students requested discussion boards and a wiki to support their face-to-face seminars.

Only time will tell and, if the JISC report is to be believed, time is running out. The report says:

“Through their institutional capital, universities can use technology to offer more flexible provision and open more equal routes to higher education and learning … this will take strategic leadership from within.”

and Steve says;

“… online and social media could help universities meet these demands by reaching a greater number of students and improving the quality of research and teaching. Online and DIY learning can create ‘edgeless universities’ where information, skills and research are accessible far beyond the campus walls.”