Terry Anderson gave a characteristically fantastic keynote today on social learning 2.0. Of course, I may be a little biased as he very kindly gave me some credit for what he had to say and gave a brilliant plug for my book! However, the style and interpretation was all Terry’s, full of rich insights into the nature of groups, networks and collectives.

Terry is a great crosser of boundaries, pulling in ideas from many different fields and pushing out something new, fresh and thought-provoking. I’ve said it before but it’s worth repeating: inspiring things happen at the edges, as we cross into new territories. The previous keynotes have been great, with interesting things to say and deep insights into important areas in which their expertise is unrivalled, but I have not walked away feeling inspired. Reflective, yes. Enthused even. But not inspired. Terry was inspirational.

The talk was followed by a very lively and interesting discussion, attended by many of the great and the good. The underlying themes included all of usual suspects, including the stormy relationship between top-down and bottom-up control, issues of trust and privacy, and concerns about the stupidity of mobs. It is wonderful to me that these debates are at last getting out into the open. 

And while we’re on the subject of social software and inspiration, I have been bumping into George Siemens on and off throughout the conference, who has been making some interesting contributions to several discussions. It is reassuring to know that he is as smart in real life as he appears in his blog. 

Original: https://community.brighton.ac.uk/pg/blog/jd29/read/80606/edmedia-day-3
By: Jon Dron
Posted: June 29, 2007, 2:00 am

Allison Littlejohn gave a great keynote today. Not rabble rousing but clear, measured and wise. The stuff that really interested me was her notion of blending, which took a very total-ecology view, recognising the complex tensions between the top down and bottom up, private and public, virtual and real.  This is a notable departure from earlier naive views of blending, highly situated in the real world of the learner rather than that of the teacher.  I particularly liked her visualisation of the move from dependence to independence, looking at it in terms of a variety of dimensions of space, tools, activity and time. Clear discussion of the challenges of blending the private, the privileged and the public. One small thing that came up as an aside surprised me a lot though, given the nature of the conference – she asked how many people had heard of IMS-LD and there were maybe a dozen or so of us, in a hall full of hundreds of e-learning people. Amazing.

I’m currently sitting i an interesting presentation from the University of Hertfordshire, talking about getting a computer science placement student into an e-learning role. Excellent process of bringing the student along and involving him in the complete research process. Seems to work nicely from everyone’s perspective. I especially like the fact that it is as much about faculty learning from him as about the student learning from them. Great stuff!

Original: https://community.brighton.ac.uk/pg/blog/jd29/read/80601/edmedia-day-2
By: Jon Dron
Posted: June 27, 2007, 11:11 am

I Just got out from Ron Oliver’s keynote, which was nice: reassuring rather than inspiring. As Ron covered the bases with a very broad discussion of a load of stuff from learning designs to design-based research I was reminded of Clay Shirky’s recent post on the Bayesian advantage of youth.  I have noticed that many of the great and good have such a broad and deep knowledge of the area that their talks make use of a kind of shorthand and are (perhaps) so profound that they actually wind up stating the obvious. It is a bit like the old joke about people calling out numbers to stand in for jokes they already know. It would be quite entertaining to give a presentation in which this idea is taken to its logical extreme, just saying keywords like ‘authentic’, ‘constructive alignment’, ‘community of practice’, ‘blogging’ etc etc etc. Perhaps the audience could applaud after each word, or just nod sagely. No need to expand further.

It is interesting that ignorance leads to the same problem:  I am currently sitting in a presentation by a nice man with a moustache who has done some research that was old news 15 years ago, also stating the obvious (in this case that you have to rethink teaching strategies when doing it electronically and that students like being able to access course notes at any time!).

The interesting stuff happens when we know a little, not when we are complete beginners and not when we are world experts. The people that most consistently inspire me are those that are constantly moving into new territories. As they cross the borders from one subject area to another, sparks often fly. 

Original: https://community.brighton.ac.uk/pg/blog/jd29/read/80595/edmedia-begins
By: Jon Dron
Posted: June 26, 2007, 11:30 am

http://jondron.net/cofind/frshowresource.php?tid=5325&resid=1308

A nice collection of ideas about different kinds of Many applied to blogs. Some lovely evocative metaphors such as ‘cloud’ and ‘carnival’, with some good examples of each of the many Manies.
Created:Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:32:37 GMT

Original: https://community.brighton.ac.uk/pg/blog/jd29/read/80564/library-clips-blogs-the-many-ways-many-come-together-june-2007
By: Jon Dron
Posted: June 21, 2007, 11:32 am

Neat – YackPack for VoIP, Meebo for chat, slideshare for presentation – not exactly state of the art, but still pretty cool web conferencing for free using a simple mashup.
Created:Mon, 18 Jun 2007 02:08:48 GMT

Original: http://jondron.net/cofind/frshowresource.php?tid=5325&resid=1304
Posted: June 17, 2007, 8:08 pm

Interesting tool from Simon Buckingham Shum and gang that combines concept-mapping, argument visualisation and other cool features in a user-friendly, Java-based tool. It is a little clunky when used collaboratively, but is a very helpful weapon in the e-learning armoury, making things possible that would have been difficult or impossible before net-connected computers.
Created:Tue, 12 Jun 2007 10:54:58 GMT

Original: http://jondron.net/cofind/frshowresource.php?tid=5325&resid=1301
Posted: June 12, 2007, 4:54 am

A rather lovely art installation that maps activity throughout a building using webcams and other sensors, representing it in a large, skeletal 3 dimensional LED structure which changes as the building’s use changes. It is described as a ‘continuous spatial log, concretising the movements as much as the monuments of form within the building.’
I love this idea – augmenting social navigation in meat-space, heightening a sense of community and social presence, and also looking incredibly cool.
For those on smaller budgets and with limited space, it might be inspirational rather than imitable: we might try something similar with a smaller number of sensors, a smaller space and maybe a simpler 2D visualisation on a display panel or two. I guess the security-minded might be a little concerned about what it might tell malicious people, which is a potential weakness of social software in general. On the other hand, there are visualisations that could be both helpful and less revealing than the lighthive, albeit losing the potential of social navigation. At the University of Brighton, for instance, which is spread over multiple campuses and multiple towns, a sense of activity throughout the university might help to bind it all together and reduce the current sense of fragmentation.
Created:Sat, 09 Jun 2007 04:25:39 GMT

Original: http://jondron.net/cofind/frshowresource.php?tid=5325&resid=1300
Posted: June 8, 2007, 10:25 pm

A nice metaphor for the social web – ‘weaving’, where the medium is the relationship, as well as reference to Chris Locke’s notion of social networking as relationship bricolage.
I like both metaphors as they capture different things that are important about social software. Weaving is about connection and (to an extent) diversity, but also about constructing a matrix that incorporates not just people but software. I actually prefer ‘bricolage’ as it is about assembly of disparate and disconnected things, capturing the fact that they are reassembled into a new and recognisable order rather better than ‘mashup’.
Created:Thu, 07 Jun 2007 09:19:29 GMT

Original: http://jondron.net/cofind/frshowresource.php?tid=5325&resid=1299
Posted: June 7, 2007, 3:19 am

Meetmoi is an online dating service that works via SMS – offers ‘speed-dating’ by text message for 10 minutes to those who meet in a virtual lobby, determined by post code.A neat, bottom-up idea. A sort of geocaching where people are the geocache. The idea may be transferable – isolation is a notorious problem for distance learners: if it were possible to find others nearby in near-real-time it might help a lot.In fact, though geographical collocation would be nice, even the ability to find other ‘lonely learners’ would be beneficial.
Created:Thu, 07 Jun 2007 02:57:35 GMT

Original: http://jondron.net/cofind/frshowresource.php?tid=5325&resid=1297
Posted: June 6, 2007, 8:57 pm

That old chestnut of lack of diversity raises its ugly head again.It appears that 3M may have been losing its legendary creative edge as a result of a (successful) drive to improve efficiency through the Siz Sigma process. The new chairman, Buckley says, “Perhaps one of the mistakes that we made as a company—it’s one of the dangers of Six Sigma—is that when you value sameness more than you value creativity, I think you potentially undermine the heart and soul of a company like 3M.” His answer is to reduce the control in creative areas, getting rid of a one size fits all approach.As ever, parcellation is the key to successful innovation. We need islands in which innovation can take hold and grow, unthreatened by the grey masses.
Universities should listen.
Created:Wed, 06 Jun 2007 18:51:42 GMT

Original: http://jondron.net/cofind/frshowresource.php?tid=5325&resid=1296
Posted: June 6, 2007, 12:51 pm