Martinis & Higher Education

Wayne Barry - LTEU Martinis & Higher Education (or Using Social Software within Learning and Teaching) Contents

Quotes

Introduction

Blogs

What are they?

How can they be used?

What are the challenges?

Wikis

What are they?

Why use it?

Podcasting

What are they?

Why use it?

Transferable Skills – What’s in it for the student?

Further Reading

Contents Contents:

“ What will on-line interactive communities be like? In most fields they will consist of geographically separated members, sometimes grouped in small clusters and sometimes working individually. They will be communities not of common location, but of common interest ” Source: Licklider, J.C.R., “ The Computer as a Communication Device ” (1968) Martinis & Higher Education Quote:

“ The basic [idea] of the Web is that [it is] an information space through which people can [not only] communicate [in general], but communicate in a special way: communicate by sharing their knowledge in a pool . The idea was not just that it should be a big browsing medium. The idea was that everybody would be putting their ideas in, as well as taking them out. ” Source: Berners-Lee, T., LCS 35 th Anniversary Speech , (1999) Martinis & Higher Education Quote:

“ The key to the Learning Society is to seek the learning potential in everyday situations … A ‘learning culture’ must, after all mean finding learning in the most unlikely places … ” Source: Barber, M., The Learning Game , (1996) Martinis & Higher Education Quote:

Martinis & Higher Education Introduction:

Blogs, wikis and podcasts are a suite of e-tools that forms the basis of Web 2.0 / “Read/Write” Web / Martini Media / Social Software / The Web out of Beta * - The “ anytime, anyplace, anywhere ” mantra.

Blogs, wikis and podcasts now offer many unique and powerful information sharing and collaborative features.

Users of such collaborative web-based tools do not require any special technical skills; thus allowing users to focus on the information and collaborative tasks without having to worry how it will be delivered.

Blogs, wikis and podcasts carry the potential of complementing, improving and adding new collaborative dimensions to teaching, learning, assessment, research and continuing professional development.

* Delete where applicable

Martinis & Higher Education Blogs:

Blog – a contraction of the term “we blog ” (which was first coined in 1997 by Jorn Barger ).

The first blogging tool ( Pitas ) was launched in 1999.

A website comprising of date-related entries (or posts ) – usually displayed in reverse chronological order.

Blogs are typically of a personal nature .

A typical blog combines text, images, links to other blogs, web pages and other media related to the topic.

It can allow for other users to comment or feedback on the entry – offering 2-way communication .

Read “ 7 things you should know about Blogs ” at:

http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7006.pdf

Contents Blogs: What are they?

Search Term: blog Source: www.google.com/trends Martinis & Higher Education Blogs: What are they?

Collaborative Activity

Reflective Activity

Knowledge Sharing

Personal

Peer

Expert

Debate

Peer Review

Citizen Journalism

Flash Fiction

Personal Publishing

Network Building

Encourages Associative Thinking

Can provide an immediate portfolio of work for future job hunting

Contents Blogs: How can they be used?

Blogs are not seen as good tools for facilitating discussion.

Assigned blogging ends up being “forced writing”.

Blogs that focus on the personal and can be seen as egotistical / biased / inaccurate.

Competent blogging requires:

Learning the technology environment;

Developing an initial view of blogging;

Participating into the conversation;

Developing a voice / expressive skills.

Set guidelines and expectations to maximize benefits of blogs.

Would a blog work better across classes over the duration of a degree course, rather than being focused on a specific assignment task or used within a particular semester / term?

Intellectual Property – who owns it? What happens when content is being used without proper attribution?

Contents Blogs: What are the challenges?

Martinis & Higher Education Wikis:

Wiki – a shorten form of the Hawaiian term “ wiki wiki ” which means “ quick ” or “swift” (which was first coined in 1994 by Ward Cunningham ).

A website that allows users to collaborate and allows for content to be easily added, removed, and edited. Analagous to a palimpsest .

Users can create pages “ on-the-fly ” and change live documents. These changes are usually published instantly .

Encourages a democratic use of the Web.

A wiki can provide a way to organise and cross-link knowledge, typically through a hypertext system .

Read “ 7 things you should know about Wikis ” at:

Contents Wikis: What are they?

Search Term: wiki Source: www.google.com/trends Martinis & Higher Education Wikis: What are they?

Knowledge Production

Collaboration

Research Paper / Critical Peer Review

Project Documentation

Technical Documentation

Project Management

Virtual Study Group

Exam Preparation

Instant Study Guides

Shared “sketchpads”

“ Space” for brainstorming

Create agendas – becomes a note-taking template

Glossary

Hypermedia Fiction

Contents Wikis: How can they be used?

Wikis maximize interplay .

Wikis are democratic .

Wikis work in real time .

Wiki technology is text-based .

Wikis permit public document construction ( distributed authorship ).

Wikis complicate the evaluation of writing .

Wikis promote negotiation .

Wikis permit collaborative document editing, or open editing .

Wikis make feedback intensely public and potentially durable.

Wikis work on volunteer collaboration . [co-operative]

Wikis endorse particular ways of writing .

Wikis enable complete anonymity .

Source: Fountain, R., Wiki Pedagogy , (2005)

Contents Wikis: Why use it?

Fear of losing control by levelling the authority structures – it aids student autonomy.

A lack of approved ways to administer [group] assessment and to rate individual performances – a sense of lack of accountability.

Issues of legal liability, privacy, reputation, and security must be considered.

Content accuracy, balance, comprehensiveness, consistency and reliability can be questioned.

Articles, by design, are always in flux, editable, and have a mix degree of quality and finality.

Source: Various case studies and literature on wikis in use.

Contents Wikis: What are the challenges?

Martinis & Higher Education Podcasting:

Podcasting – an amalgam of the terms Apple’s “ iPod ” and “ broadcasting ” (which was first coined in 2004 by Ben Hammersley ).

It is a multimedia file that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds . Thus allowing for users to subscribe to a feed. Content is then “ pushed ” so that users receive new files automatically for playback on mobile devices and personal computers .

Portable - Allows users to “ listen and learn ” whilst they walk, jog, ride the bus or tube, etc.

Read “ 7 things you should know about Podcasting ” at:

Contents Podcasting: What are they?

Search Term: podcast Source: www.google.com/trends Martinis & Higher Education Podcasting: What are they?

“ Thoughts of the day” / Weekly round-up / “What’s New?”.

Foreign Language lessons.

Recruitment and Retention – both students & staff (prospective / in-situ).

Recorded lecturer’s notes.

Recorded lectures.

Audio recordings of textbook text – An aid for auditory learners.

Recorded meetings & conference notes.

Student projects / Research projects that support interviews.

Oral History archives.

Music resumés / Music critiques.

Recording of student radio broadcasts.

Libraries of heart sounds for medical students.

Sport Events.

“ Prayer-a-day” / Sermons.

Contents Podcasting: How can they be used?

Listening in instinctual , reading is not.

Listening gets round illiteracy .

Listening gets round dyslexia .

Listening frees eyes and hands.

Listening is a mobile medium .

Listening and learning go hand-in-hand.

Source: Clark, D. & Walsh, S., iPod-Learning , (2004)

Contents Podcasting: Why use it?

Sufficient bandwidth to download podcast.

32kHz for audio content uses about 250Kb / min that’s 15Mb / hour – make take 1 – 2 minutes to download.

Sufficient storage space to hold podcast.

A 15 Mb audio could store approx. 65,000 hours of classroom content on a single terabyte drive.

Search and retrieval – may need to be catalogued with meta-tags to help with searching; could be resource intensive.

Issues of format – limited use for the hearing impaired – need to provide transcripts?.

Not designed for two-way interaction or audience participation.

Variable quality of podcasts – speakers’ voices, speech patterns, intonations and other sound effects.

Staff development would be required to handle the medium and use the technology – similar issues relate to video-on-demand (vodcasting).

Ownership – Can the content be used outside the University? Can it be tracked?

Revenue – Can money be made from this content?

Contents Podcasting: What are the challenges?

“ None of the talents which are hidden like buried treasure in every person must be left untapped… memory, reasoning power, imagination, physical ability, aesthetic sense, the aptitude to communicate with others and the natural charisma of the group leader, which again goes to improve the need for greater self-knowledge. ” Source: Delors, J., Education: The Necessary Utopia , (1997) Martinis & Higher Education Quote:

The most desired skills sought by employers:

Communication / Communicating Ideas.

Problem-solving.

Team-working.

Creativity & Innovation.

Source: Gillinson, S. & O’Leary, D., “ Working Progress ”, (2006)

Contents Transferable Skills – What’s in it for the student?

Martinis & Higher Education Articles and websites used to help create this presentation can be found at: http://www.connotea.org/user/waynebarry/tag/martini_2007-01 Contents Further Reading