me.edu.au is now in testing mode in preparation for launch by the middle of December. The video below shows some of its features. If you would like to explore me.edu in its test form, visit http://me-uat.edna.edu.au and log in with your edna login, or register. Note, any content added to the test mode will not be retained after the launch.
The initial service includes:
Profile - who I am, what I have done, qualifications
Interests - my professional Interests
Communities - each Interest forms a Community of Interest with whiteboard, links.
Colleagues - people I keep track of
Minifeeds - my selected RSS feeds and those of my Colleagues
New features will be added progressively with the next major release due in March 2008
Friday, 30 November 2007
Wednesday, 31 October 2007
Multimedia Simplicity in VoiceThread
The more I use VoiceThread the more I think it is a breakthrough application. It is so simple and clean and feature-packed - three attributes that are hard to combine. The following example shows one of its capabilities, as a quick and powerful instruction and information tool.
An introduction to LibraryThing
This is a small embed to fit into the limited space on this blog. But it easily generates a bigger presentation. And click on the image and it enlarges, click and it shrinks!
The fact that the interactive features of VoiceThread, including the ability to add voice and text memos to a presentation like this one makes it unusually good at fostering two-way communication. Feel free to add your voice memo.
An introduction to LibraryThing
This is a small embed to fit into the limited space on this blog. But it easily generates a bigger presentation. And click on the image and it enlarges, click and it shrinks!
The fact that the interactive features of VoiceThread, including the ability to add voice and text memos to a presentation like this one makes it unusually good at fostering two-way communication. Feel free to add your voice memo.
Saturday, 20 October 2007
R/evolution
I have just been watching another fascinating video, Information R/evolution by Prof Michael Wesch from Kansas State University in which he tells another fast moving and engaging story about the revolution or evolution of information management that is taking place. It is a worthy follow up to his spectacularly popular The machine is Us/ing Us. With thousands of fast moving images it tells a frantic story of how the old fixed information in shelves, books, catalogue cards is being replaced by indexed searchable online resources of a much greater quantity. It is well worth viewing.
A lot of people viewing it, like members of Classroom 2.0, are the in-group with new technologies, and we tend to smugly nod and say, yes, it is a revolution and it is transforming the world, and for the better. And we can all think of colleagues we feel a degree of pity for who don't get it, who are largely oblivious or dismissive of the changes that are taking place, and the impact on education.
But like most revolutions, the outcome is not clear. I suspect that the direction of the revolution will depend a lot on how schools react to the challenges and opportunities. The trouble is, the technology is evolving faster than our ability to come to terms with it.
There are two big pot-holes on the road to technological progress in schooling. The first is that it is often easy to learn how to use a tool but darn hard to work out how to use it effectively and appropriately. Take searching. It is very easy to conduct powerful searches but there is a wide and deep range of skills needed to be able to search wisely and skillfully. That's where smart teachers come in. The second pot-hole is that it is not much good just teaching the old stuff in new ways (to paraphrase Mark Prensky). For example, if students have access to a mountain of information, it is not adding much value to their learning if they are sent off to find the information that used to be in their old text book. Much better to learn how to genuinely investigate, then evaluate information buried in the information mountain. Better still if that investigation is a collaborative task using some Web 2.0 tools. If there has been a revolution in information then maybe there needs to be a revolution in teaching goals and methods.
But from what I can see, most school systems are tentative, ill-informed and more than a little paranoid about the new learning environment. We hear denunciations of the use of information from Wikipedia and other informal information sources that are quite detached from the reality of what smart people are doing in the wider society. But it is a tradition of education systems that they tend to be very resistant to change.
So I think it is up to well informed people like members of Classroom 2.0 to not wait for evolutionary change, but to support the information revolution become a teaching and learning revolution.
A lot of people viewing it, like members of Classroom 2.0, are the in-group with new technologies, and we tend to smugly nod and say, yes, it is a revolution and it is transforming the world, and for the better. And we can all think of colleagues we feel a degree of pity for who don't get it, who are largely oblivious or dismissive of the changes that are taking place, and the impact on education.
But like most revolutions, the outcome is not clear. I suspect that the direction of the revolution will depend a lot on how schools react to the challenges and opportunities. The trouble is, the technology is evolving faster than our ability to come to terms with it.
There are two big pot-holes on the road to technological progress in schooling. The first is that it is often easy to learn how to use a tool but darn hard to work out how to use it effectively and appropriately. Take searching. It is very easy to conduct powerful searches but there is a wide and deep range of skills needed to be able to search wisely and skillfully. That's where smart teachers come in. The second pot-hole is that it is not much good just teaching the old stuff in new ways (to paraphrase Mark Prensky). For example, if students have access to a mountain of information, it is not adding much value to their learning if they are sent off to find the information that used to be in their old text book. Much better to learn how to genuinely investigate, then evaluate information buried in the information mountain. Better still if that investigation is a collaborative task using some Web 2.0 tools. If there has been a revolution in information then maybe there needs to be a revolution in teaching goals and methods.
But from what I can see, most school systems are tentative, ill-informed and more than a little paranoid about the new learning environment. We hear denunciations of the use of information from Wikipedia and other informal information sources that are quite detached from the reality of what smart people are doing in the wider society. But it is a tradition of education systems that they tend to be very resistant to change.
So I think it is up to well informed people like members of Classroom 2.0 to not wait for evolutionary change, but to support the information revolution become a teaching and learning revolution.
Saturday, 29 September 2007
Infernal technology: the automobile
The Editor,
The Times
29th September 1899
Sir,
I wish to express my dismay at the appearance of the automobile on the roads of England. This increasingly popular form of travel heralds a severe deterioration in the standards of transport of people. A good horse and light buggy provides a quiet, gentle, reflective and throughly pleasant mode of travel. The motor car on the other hand is noisy, smelly, and much too fast for safety. Furthermore, as seems likely, the cost of the motor car is falling below the cost of maintaining horses, and the development of the ominbus with up to twenty passengers, will mean that travel of longer distances will be economic for the lower classes which will lead to the deterioration of roads and crowding thereof. Furthermore, there is the likelihood that crowds of unruly people will congest popular places of leisure.
On a personal level, we must note that Man's relationship with the horse has been treasured by many people for thousands of years and may be lost if this trend continues.
The so called advancement of technology in the form of the automobile may have some benefits, but overall, its introduction is to be resisted because it disturbs our way of life.
Yours faithfully,
Disgusted.
The Times
29th September 1899
Sir,
I wish to express my dismay at the appearance of the automobile on the roads of England. This increasingly popular form of travel heralds a severe deterioration in the standards of transport of people. A good horse and light buggy provides a quiet, gentle, reflective and throughly pleasant mode of travel. The motor car on the other hand is noisy, smelly, and much too fast for safety. Furthermore, as seems likely, the cost of the motor car is falling below the cost of maintaining horses, and the development of the ominbus with up to twenty passengers, will mean that travel of longer distances will be economic for the lower classes which will lead to the deterioration of roads and crowding thereof. Furthermore, there is the likelihood that crowds of unruly people will congest popular places of leisure.
On a personal level, we must note that Man's relationship with the horse has been treasured by many people for thousands of years and may be lost if this trend continues.
The so called advancement of technology in the form of the automobile may have some benefits, but overall, its introduction is to be resisted because it disturbs our way of life.
Yours faithfully,
Disgusted.
Saturday, 22 September 2007
Sharing images smoothly
This is not to show off my holiday pics (well, not entirely) but to demonstrate Picasa's nice slideshow feature as well.
If you go to the web site (below) for this album you can access Goggle's integration of applications with Google Maps.
If you go to the web site (below) for this album you can access Goggle's integration of applications with Google Maps.
 |
| Central Australia |
Friday, 7 September 2007
The book dead? Long live the book!
Books may be delivered in new forms, audio, digitised, purchased online, but their death has clearly been exaggerated. Google has embarked with some of the world's leading libraries on a project to digitise the world's books. These can be searched and for those under copyright, extracts can be read. For older books, they can be read in their entirety.
Since they have been scanned, old books can be seen in their original form. Sections can be copied as an image, or text, or as an embeded image, like one of the most famous opening lines of a novel......
Since they have been scanned, old books can be seen in their original form. Sections can be copied as an image, or text, or as an embeded image, like one of the most famous opening lines of a novel......
Thursday, 6 September 2007
So what to do with your blog?
So now that everyone has a blog, what to do with it? Well...
think about...
The blog format encourages thoughtful reflection. It is a good place to choose a theme, issue or topic that you want to say something about. It can be a little or a big issue. It should be forward looking, pointing in directions to go.
The other characteristic of blogs is that they allow comments. If you provoke comments then it is very likely a good blog. So read others' (check the public ones in your Netvibes or similar). If your blog is private, post a brief note on what it is in the Groups discussion set up for this purpose.
By the way, the slide show is yet another integrated feature of the Google empire. The photo management system Picasa offers to turn images into a slideshow. You can then embed them in your blog.
think about...
The blog format encourages thoughtful reflection. It is a good place to choose a theme, issue or topic that you want to say something about. It can be a little or a big issue. It should be forward looking, pointing in directions to go.
The other characteristic of blogs is that they allow comments. If you provoke comments then it is very likely a good blog. So read others' (check the public ones in your Netvibes or similar). If your blog is private, post a brief note on what it is in the Groups discussion set up for this purpose.
By the way, the slide show is yet another integrated feature of the Google empire. The photo management system Picasa offers to turn images into a slideshow. You can then embed them in your blog.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)