Sitting here in sunny Wellington at the wrap-up to ePortfolio NZ 2007. 

I have attended the odd presentation on ePorfolios before, but never really paid the area a lot attention till now. What is particularly fascinating to me is how this area has converged almost completely with the social software community and the notion of personal learning environments.

Some great presentations. I particularly liked Derek Chirnside who gave an exemplary talk encompassing issues of control when running an extremely andragogic and learner centric course using many (learner-selected) Web 2.0 technologies. Also delightful to meet the very erudite and creative Serge Ravet, who sees aggregation as much more significant than integration – quite right! This was also my first introduction to Mahara, which is like Elgg on steroids (and the developers recognise Elgg as a major influence) – it has a particularly excellent innovation of views, which allows many different ways of presenting an eportfolio (whatever we think that is) to many different people. There are some big issues of identity management, trust and authorisation yet to be resolved, but things are moving in interesting and convergent directions.

Wellngton, incidentally, is a delightful, vibrant, attractive and friendly city –  well worth a visit.

Original: https://community.brighton.ac.uk/pg/blog/jd29/read/79607/eportfolio-new-zealand-2007
By: Jon Dron
Posted: March 29, 2007, 10:35 pm

…and gosh he was good!

His talk was gentle and rational, belying the fact that the ideas he was promoting were deeply subversive, when followed to their logical conclusion. The VLE is dead in the water, the PLE is the new kid on the block. Or rather, the old one. Because the things that we used to find difficult are now easy. We once needed a means to allow technophobes to publish content and interact online. What we got were the e-learning monoliths, epitomised (and patented) by BlackCT. Now, the new technologies are pervasive and connected, and develop emergent forms from the bottom up.  Anyone can publish content, anyone can engage with others, and we have great tools to link and mash technologies together.

Terry used the fact that Time Magazine made You the person of the year last year, but actually I think that they got it wrong: We are the person (not the people) of the year. The group mind has gained a voice and a vote. What does this mean for the teacher? For me, this was the central dynamic of the talk. Helping people to learn in this environment means shaking off our preconceptions and habits, to unlearn, not just what we were taught, but how we were taught. This is unsettling.

I have followed and been influenced by Terry’s work for years. At last year’s ICALT we both had papers that, from slightly different angles, covered the same kind of ideas about social software. I hadn’t realised how close our ideas had become, however! The only significant difference now is that Terry does it better. Much better. A true guru, a great scholar and a charming man. 

Original: https://community.brighton.ac.uk/pg/blog/jd29/read/79520/terry-anderson-was-here
By: Jon Dron
Posted: March 20, 2007, 11:48 am

…and gosh he was good!

His talk was gentle and rational, belying the fact that the ideas he was promoting were deeply subversive, when followed to their logical conclusion. The VLE is dead in the water, the PLE is the new kid on the block. Or rather, the old one. Because the things that we used to find difficult are now easy. We once needed a means to allow technophobes to publish content and interact online. What we got were the e-learning monoliths, epitomised (and patented) by BlackCT. Now, the new technologies are pervasive and connected, and develop emergent forms from the bottom up.  Anyone can publish content, anyone can engage with others, and we have great tools to link and mash technologies together.

Terry used the fact that Time Magazine made You the person of the year last year, but actually I think that they got it wrong: We are the person (not the people) of the year. The group mind has gained a voice and a vote. What does this mean for the teacher? For me, this was the central dynamic of the talk. Helping people to learn in this environment means shaking off our preconceptions and habits, to unlearn, not just what we were taught, but how we were taught. This is unsettling.

I have followed and been influenced by Terry’s work for years. At last year’s ICALT we both had papers that, from slightly different angles, covered the same kind of ideas about social software. I hadn’t realised how close our ideas had become, however! The only significant difference now is that Terry does it better. Much better. A true guru, a great scholar and a charming man. 

Original: https://community.brighton.ac.uk/pg/blog/jd29/read/79520/terry-anderson-was-here
By: Jon Dron
Posted: March 20, 2007, 11:48 am

Goof range of social functions (wiki, blog, social networking) to raise the barn!
Created:Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:21:09 GMT

Original: http://jondron.net/cofind/frshowresource.php?tid=5325&resid=1254
Posted: March 19, 2007, 8:21 am

Landmark application making it easy to mashup feeds and services really easily. Brilliant! The shape of applications to come.
Created:Sat, 10 Mar 2007 02:01:14 GMT

Original: http://jondron.net/cofind/frshowresource.php?tid=5325&resid=1253
Posted: March 9, 2007, 7:01 pm

Delightful and highly creative short video explaining the evolution, technologies and benefits of Web 2.0. A very entertaining presentation.
Created:Wed, 07 Feb 2007 02:28:22 GMT

Original: http://jondron.net/cofind/frshowresource.php?tid=5325&resid=1248
Posted: February 6, 2007, 7:28 pm

A nice online book from AUB for faculty describing how to use Moodle.
Created:Tue, 06 Feb 2007 23:30:18 GMT

Original: http://jondron.net/cofind/frshowresource.php?tid=5258&resid=1247
Posted: February 6, 2007, 4:30 pm

Full story at: http://jondron.net/cofind/frshowresource.php?tid=5325&resid=1244

A summary of the Pew Foundation’s study of tagging behaviour among Internet citizens. You’re more likely to do it if you’re intelligent, well-paid and under 50, and less likely to do it if you’re white (at least in the US) Apparently around 7% of the population might be tagging on any given day, but overall just over a quarter of Internet users tag online content at some point.
So – control from the bottom-up relies on the activities of the minority. No great surprise I guess, but it would be nice if more people contributed.If it’s going to take off as an educational technology then I have one or two concerns about such a relatively small number controlling the shape of things.I’m not sure, because I would rather it were in the hands of those who know what they are doing and who understand what they are tagging and why, but there could be a vast untapped source of knowledge out there.
Created:Sun, 04 Feb 2007 06:16:57 GMT

Original: https://community.brighton.ac.uk/pg/blog/jd29/read/93928/message-pew-internet-study-why-tagging-matters
By: Jon Dron
Posted: February 3, 2007, 11:16 pm

http://jondron.cofind.net:80//frshowresource.php?uid=anon&pwd=&tgid=26&tid=5290&qid=&quality=&show=all&page=&searchstring=&returnto=&perpage=20&order=&expired=&resid=1243&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cluetrain.com%2Fbook.html The entire Cluetrain Manifesto is available online and makes good reading for anyone lost in the ways of the last century. Stirring stuff, not always right, but nearly always either thought-provoking or blindingly obvious, depending on which side of the fence you sit.
Created:Sat, 03 Feb 2007 14:12:20 GMT

Original: https://community.brighton.ac.uk/pg/blog/jd29/read/72103/the-cluetrain-manifesto-the-book
By: Jon Dron
Posted: February 3, 2007, 7:12 am

http://jondron.cofind.net:80//frshowresource.php?uid=anon&pwd=&tgid=26&tid=5290&qid=&quality=&show=all&page=&searchstring=&returnto=&perpage=20&order=&expired=&resid=1242&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eurodl.org%2Fmaterials%2Fcontrib%2F2006%2FChristian_Dalsgaard.h A paper by Christian Dalsgaard which expresses a similar attitude to mine on system construction and social software’s benefits.
Created:Fri, 02 Feb 2007 02:28:49 GMT

Original: https://community.brighton.ac.uk/pg/blog/jd29/read/72087/social-software-elearning-beyond-learning-management-systems
By: Jon Dron
Posted: February 1, 2007, 7:28 pm