This should be an interesting workshop on social technologies, in an interesting place.
The deadline for submissions has been extended to March 20th.
The 2013 International Workshop on Social Computing, Network, and Services (SocialComNet 2013)
September 4-6, 2013, Gwangju, Korea http://www.ftrai.org/socialcomnet2013
Call for papers available at: http://www.ftrai.org/socialcomnet2013/cfp.htm
Damned lies and statistics…
But it does seem that Google+ is gaining ground and network effects are amazing things, as MySpace found to its cost when Facebook shot past it. I find it interesting, however, that there is a lot of chalk and cheese in this list and this is an ecosystem in which many different systems can thrive. And I still don’t believe that Google is trying to compete directly with Facebook in a big way, even though Facebook might think it is competing directly with Google. Google+ is not a direct competitor to Facebook on most counts, even though many functions are superficially similar and industry watchers would love them to be head-to-head. They are not quite like chalk and cheese, but nor are they like two brands of car competing on features, style and price.
One thing in this article really caught my eye…
“The continued growth of Facebook, Google+ and Twitter also has a secondary side effect, the survey found. Local social networks in various countries are seeing a dip in usage, up to 57 percent in some cases, particularly in China. This is apparently due to a saturation of the market and shift towards more informal social media including blogs and forums, where privacy is easier to maintain from growing government clampdowns”
I know of thousands of Elgg, WordPress and possibly millions of other social sites out there that are quietly populating an increasingly long tail. While many of these are largely independent, this long tail is feeding on the big providers in many cases, even while the big providers attempt to feed on them. On an increasing number of social sites I use, from Pinterest to AcademicExperts.org, the big three (Twitter, Facebook and Google+) are simply a means of authentication to get to somewhere else. Speaking for myself, if the choice is between Facebook and pretty much any other alternative, I choose the other alternative, and an increasing number of sites provide good alternatives. I suspect that use for authentication might count as ‘active use’, in which case the figures are hiding some big changes in behaviour that are going unreported, but it’s hard to tell for sure. If so, the respective business models of Google and Facebook put Facebook at quite a disadvantage: Google just needs to know more about you so that it can improve its search (which is why Google+ exists – social networking is just a fringe benefit that sometimes adds a bit more information for it to use), whereas Facebook needs you to actively engage in its toolset before it can make a profit from you. But, if all it is doing is getting you in to a smaller competitor’s site, then it becomes increasingly irrelevant (still dangerous, still nasty, but no longer the site where the game is held). If this turns into an endgame, the winner will not necessarily be the one with the most identities to its name, but the one that can make most effective use of them. And, in a distributed universe of decentralized systems, that looks like it might be Google.
Address of the bookmark: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2026521/google-outranks-twitter-as-no-2-social-network-after-facebook.html
“Don’t make people pay for music. Let them’
A wonderful talk by Amanda Palmer on what looks like a radically alternative approach to making a living from music. In fact, in some ways, it is not really radical at all: it is simply a return to pre-recording-industry methods (busking), that is updated to incorporate social media. But that assembly of technologies makes all the difference, transforming a millennia-old system into something quite wonderful and quite new. This is a person who has embraced the adjacent possibles of social media in a remarkably whole-hearted and inspiring way. Interesting that what the industry deemed as a ‘failure’ (selling a mere 25,000 recordings) was, in the absence of the need for the mechanisms to turn a profit for a company geared to traditional methods of distribution, turned into a spectacular success. But what is perhaps more interesting is an alternative way of thinking about success, production, economies, and trade that actually works, without the structures and strictures of the industrial age, at a very human scale. Many great stories in this talk.
Address of the bookmark: http://www.ted.com/talks/amanda_palmer_the_art_of_asking.html?utm_content=addthis-custom&utm_source=t.co&awesm=on.ted.com_s4jB&utm_medium=on.ted.com-twitter&source=twitter&utm_campaign=#.UTSs47nNqAp.twitter
Nice to see that a few journals are starting to run articles on MOOCs. This is a straighforward and quite well-informed JIME article describing the state of play in MOOCs last year (2012).
Address of the bookmark: http://www-jime.open.ac.uk/jime/article/viewArticle/2012-18/html
Resumo
Este artigo define e examina três gerações de pedagogia de educação a distância. Ao contrário de classificações anteriores de educação a distância, baseadas na tecnologia utilizada, esta análise centra-se na pedagogia que define as experiências de aprendizagem encapsuladas no design da aprendizagem. As três gerações de pedago- gia, cognitivo-behaviorista, socioconstrutivista e conectivista, são examinadas utilizando o conhecido modelo de comunidade de investigação (GARRISON; ANDERSON; ARCHER, 2000), com foco nas presenças cognitiva, social e de ensino. Embora essa tipologia de pedagogias possa também ser aplicada com proveito na educação presencial, a necessidade e a prática de abertura e de explicitação do conteúdo e do processo em educação a distância tornam o trabalho especialmente relevante para os designers, professores e desenvolvedores de edu- cação a distância. O artigo conclui que a educação a distância de alta qualidade explora as três gerações em função do conteúdo de aprendizagem, do contexto e das expectativas de aprendizagem.
Palavras-chave2:
Teoria. Educação a Distância. Pedagogia.
Abstract
This paper defines and examines three generations of distance education pedagogy. Unlike earlier classifications of distance education based on the technology used, this analysis focuses on the peda- gogy that defines the learning experiences encapsulated in the learning design. The three generations of cognitive-behaviourist, social constructivist, and connectivist pedagogy are examined, using the familiar community of inquiry model (GARRISON, ANDERSON, & ARCHER, 2000) with its focus on social, cognitive, and teaching presences. Although this typology of pedagogies could also be usefully applied to campus-based education, the need for and practice of openness and explicitness in distance education content and process makes the work especially relevant to distance education designers, teachers, and developers. The article concludes that high-quality distance education exploits all three generations as determined by the learning content, context, and learning expectations.
Address of the bookmark: http://eademfoco.cecierj.edu.br/index.php/Revista/article/view/162/33
Very well conducted research showing that, in the study sample, active learning does not produce any significant gains compared with the inactive variety. What is most interesting is the reason the authors discover for this, which fits perfectly with the model of soft/hard technologies that I have been developing and writing about in my forthcoming book on how learning technologies work. In brief, it ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it. Softer constructivist methods are extremely effective if the teacher uses them skillfully but, if not, they are pretty hopeless and may be positively harmful. Most studies of active learning have involved researchers who know what they are doing and engage with passion and enthusiasm as well as expertise, whereas this study simply grabs a random sample or people using active learning methods in their classrooms. The one and possibly the only benefit of harder formulaic methods of teaching is that they are rather more resilient to bad teachers (and/or those that do not have enough time or energy for the task as a result of other pressures).
There are other good insights in this paper – it is well worth reading if you have an interest in education.
Address of the bookmark: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3228657/
Tony Bates on recent events at AU, including a list of facts that are known about what may lie behind the very sudden and unanticipated (at least by the victims) firing/resignation/termination of four of the most important and well-respected executives at AU.
We have been given almost no information about this turn of events and there is more bad news to come that I know about (and perhaps more on the way after that) so to speculate like this is all we can do right now. Bates may be completely off the mark in his final paragraph but, in the absence of any explanation from those who should be telling us much more about it, it’s food for thought.
Address of the bookmark: http://www.tonybates.ca/2013/02/25/whats-going-on-at-athabasca-university/
A post providing speculation but mainly questions about the causes of recent events affecting and affected by AU’s leadership.
Address of the bookmark: http://beaconnews.ca/blog/2013/02/athabasca-university-public-deserves-to-know-whats-happening/
Donald Clark remains one of my favourite bloggers on e-learning. In this post he discusses Mayer & Clark’s research-based principles for designing instructional content. Required reading for anyone who ever needs to tell anyone anything using multiple media.
Of course, in a learning context, such principles are only of value in putting together a few of the basic building blocks, they are not a model for creating a full learning experience. Following these principles and ignoring the overall learning assembly of which they should form a small part would be a very bad idea. But we all need to communicate content, no matter what our theoretical educational leanings might be.
Address of the bookmark: http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.ca/2013/01/mayer-clark-10-brilliant-design-rules.html?utm_source=pulsenews&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/dcplanb+(Donald+Clark+++++++Plan+B)
Kevin Kelly’s characteristically excellent take on Clay Shirky’s Law – “Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.”
Some nice insights into barriers to change that emerge because of the nature of human systems.
Address of the bookmark: http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2010/04/the_shirky_prin.php