Sugden’s posterous

What a wonderful week: Very tiring, but wonderful nevertheless. I’ve not had the time to reflect on Friday’s work and two others were fairly rushed but – hopefully – I can do that now.

Early in the week I’d come across http://write4.net and used it to create quick reflections, which were then directed to Twitter as links. This was disastrous for all sorts of reasons. [Having said that – I did manage to post two to the Eduvel blog earlier.] Mainly, time and connectivity prevented me from reflecting properly. Both Khawar and I were ‘on’ at all time between 9.00am and 6.00pm (she was usually sorting problems then until dinner at 7.00pm). I managed to get back to my room on two occasions for a shower before dinner! This was an all-enveloping course from Sunday 5.00pm until about 11.30pm last night! I drove back from Wetherby this morning. But it was a fabulous experience – on all sorts of levels.

I was also thwarted on the blog-reflection front by a very poor connection in the hotel bedroom (no opportunity in the delivery room) and, on one memorable occasion, by a truculent Vista/2007 laptop! If I could have poised it out of a window and NOT hurt anyone – I would have. Similarly, phone connectivity at Weetwood prevents any real communication from within the building – you have to go outside.

Anyway.

The whole week has been a revelation to me. I’ve never presented to a mixed group of non-native-English speakers before and I’d worried that my usual delivery might fall on deaf or (at worst) non-understanding ears. But they were brilliant. They ‘got’ the humour; they understood me despite my strong accent and they appreciated ‘the message’. Khawar and I had worked together to realise her original plan. We’d started with two days of intense ‘stuff’, including the need to use a blogging tool for their reflection and lots of theoretical stuff. I think we had the balance just right for the first three days. Wednesday was a half-day in the classroom (well – conference centre) and a half-day shopping in town before going back to Khawars to cook food for everyone (they did that – not me). I think we (mainly ‘I’) lost the balance a bit towards the end of the week. Thursday was very much ‘me’ and the sort of stuff I do – and to be fair to the group, they stayed on task and thoroughly enjoyed the day, but I think it was a little too long. We’d started with Audacity and Mypodcast(.com) recorder, then moved onto CamStudio and PhotoStory 3, before introducing Windows Movie Maker (WMM). I think the afternoon task – to edit the films they had taken whilst shopping was one task too far. The laptops couldn’t take the pressure and I’d not prepared well enough to tell the learners that they should first make a folder and add their assets to that folder; before beginning work. Then – save, save and save as you go! So although they stayed on task – I think that we were seriously in danger of de-motivating the group – which would have the opposite effect to the purpose of the week.

I think we should give the same amount of time to learn WMM as we gave them for the other tasks and introduce ‘assessment’ as a motivating task for the last (after break) session. This would then lead nicely into the Friday session which looks at how they have learned and how they might apply their learning.

We all met that night at the Bridge Inn in Walshford near Wetherby for a 'cultural evening' - Murder Mystery.

Just how the group coped with the concept of amateur actors acting out a pretend murder (or two) - especially where the scenario was a complete mystery to them (an aging holiday camp) - I don't know. But ....

They won!!!!!

How brilliant and end to the week was that.

[posted here because Wordpress is playing silly bugger]

THIS IS A COPY OF MY POST AT http://eduvel.wordpress.com  (http://eduvel.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/is-twitter-innovative/).
I don't intend to make a habit of posting in two places - but am doing it this time to re-publicise my new MAIN BLOG at http://eduvel.wordpress.com
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On Sunday last, I was invited to follow #spymaster (http://playspymaster.com/) on Twitter. Given that my invite came from a respected friend, and the fact that that friend is one who pushes the boundaries of learning technology (and the further - final fact that it was Sunday and not really a work day - although ....) I succumbed. You never know unless you try!

The game - and this does not really matter for the purposes of my post - puts you in the position of a James Bond, Ilya Kuryakin sort of spy. You have to earn money by doing simple tasks, buy 'stuff' to make you more powerful and assassinate people. That's about it. I saw pretty early on that it was something that, if you became committed to it, would suck the time out of your life. It is/was like everything I hate about Face Book - pointless and silly. However, for the occasional 10 minutes I played with it on the day it was a harmless pastime. The main problem with it, is the viral nature of its invitation policy - unless you're careful everyone you've ever written to or heard from on your email programme will be invited. The designers have clearly set out to rule the world.

Nevertheless, my agreeing to use the game was my choice.

It was a surprise therefore to read several Twitter posts which implied that the game was 'not an innovative use of Twitter'. Because I thought it was. Had it been the sort of thing I actually liked, or if I could have found an educational use for the game - it might have been an innovative use of Twitter. Because Twitter itself no longer innovates. Twitter for many, is just another bandwagon and it's shine will fade (see James Clay's excellent:Ten reasons why Twitter will eventually wither and die… - he cites this game as an example of #9 ). Others have posted that they will un-follow(!!) Twitterers that post to #followfriday. Another form of creeping death.

So what is innovation? Is it anything that doesn't have a bandwagon following it? Surely innovation is the taking of 'something' and putting it to another - useful - use? Perhaps that's the real question - what do we as individuals deem to be useful?

Needless to say, I've now done what I can to disable my #spymaster account. I didn't like it, I couldn't see how it could be adapted for educational purposes and I can't be bothered with it - but as I said before: you never know unless you try!

Also read: Ten things people say about using Twitter, but really they shouldn’t (James Clay).

Cheers

I've become something of a Twitterer in recent months. My previously preferred micro-blog - Jaiku - has suffered a serious decline in its health and looks (to coin a nautical phrase) 'dead in the water'. I've discussed this before:

Not sure what this means but here goes:

Apparently this CHANNEL is a good thing. If I like the way it looks and works, I'll try to fit it into my new Village e-Learning blog: http://eduval.wordpress.com

http://www.ipadio.com/phlog.asp?section=39&phlogid=289&phlogcastId=1299

Today’s Sunday Times http://is.gd/yuvc has two topics for discussion. The first concerns revolting students [http://is.gd/yuKy] and the second is discussed two times this week: the seemingly new (sic) phenomena known as Twitter.

[http://is.gd/yttY] (The Truman Show has arrived) and [http://is.gd/yakp] (The men who made Twitter Tweet)

The students are up in arms because teaching standards at their University have not risen in line with the implementation of tuition fees. Apparently: “The prospectus suggested lectures would be given to groups of about 100 students. In reality, they contain up to 380, although 150-200 is more typical.”

All the article serves to do is reinforce in the minds of readers a Blott-on-the-landscape style of university education. What is right about lectures being given to groups of 100 students? Never mind to a typical 150-200! I suspect (and apocryphally know) that many Professors didn’t come into the University to “teach” – but... I ask you... what can be gained by perpetuating this medieval teaching style. The students have every right to demand education rather than lecturing.

And what does the University in question say in its defence? [The University] described as “not true” the idea that increased tuition fees were intended to lead directly to improved teaching. Instead, it says they are aimed at strengthening the finances of universities

Oh really? And when the University finances have strengthened – what then? Are learners and learning still at the heart of their raison d'être? I wish the students luck. It’s about time someone cared about how education post 16 is delivered.

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The amount of interest over Twitter continues to amaze me. How many column inches must this provision attract before it becomes a useless parody of itself? I now have [I am dsugden] 99 followers! I know less than half of these people. I follow just one celebrity, purely because I find the things he does and the language he uses interesting. Everyone else is a work colleague of one kind or another.

In my previous defence of micro-blogging [http://dsugden.posterous.com/micro-blogging-0] I was reacting to another Sunday Times article (don’t they ever read their back numbers?) and I’d then suggested that I and friends used micro-blogging “as a means of mutual self-support and development”. I’ve had no reason to change this opinion, despite the long drawn out illness of Jaiku (another micro-blogging site). www.jaiku.com

Today’s articles are a little less pointed and both authors seem to take the stance that it’s safer to site on the fence and only mildly ridicule the site as so many readers subscribe.

People who see the point of sites such as Twitter (and Facebook – which to me is already a hateful parody of itself!) should be allowed to continue communicating in this way without having to have the constant SPAM of new users hitting the follow-everyone button (if there is one: there must be?)

I heard one lady (my sort of age) talking to a shop assistant in Somerfield’s the other day. “Are you sure Facebook is safe?” – “yes perfectly safe – you just join and invite those you know” – “so it really is safe, really?” – “yes” – “it’s just that I heard it wasn’t safe”. “No it’s perfectly safe, as long as you just invite those you know, I’ve never had a problem.” – “So you’re sure it’s safe?” – and so on ... Just an example of media watchers and readers following like sheep I suspect but what is ‘safe’? what does it mean?

Hey ho.

David

Frieda replied to my post thus:

Thanks for your post David. I agree with you that there is no plan B and that if we decide to use such tools we are throwing the die and playing with our luck ('alea jacta est'). However, what I wouldn't like to see is 'fashion' in web 2.0.
Twitter and Facebook for example seem to be in vogue now, even with all the issues Facebook has around 'privacy of data'. Does it mean that we can only rely (or partially rely) on web 2.0 fashionable?

Is the Web dying? - Sugden's posterous (7 May 2009)

http://dsugden.posterous.com/is-the-web-dying

http://snipurl.com/hjaek

[The clip above is courtesy of Hyperwords - I chose to 'copy with link']

[I decided to reply this way because the replies to Comments on Posterous is not the best way of opening up a discussion. I'd still like to see a wider discussion of the principles of this debate]

.. and I agree that parts of the web can be 'fashionable', which is why we must not lose site of our pedagogical principles.

As I said previously, we should use the web as a convenience and as an aid but we should base this convenience on basic tenets of teaching and learning. Research and evaluation can still be done in a library - it is not just a feature of online web engines; storage of media can still be done in other ways; when one web facility fails, there is always another to take its place (fingers crossed). If Flickr ever dies, because I still keep tabs on another couple of sites, I know that they could easily replace that particular convenience.

As Frieda suggests - beware of 'fashion' but exploit the underpinning principles offered.

David

 Following my friend Frieda's recent Posterous post [http://frieda.posterous.com/can-we-trust-it] I thought I'd put a few thoughts together by way of support and to perhaps extend the argument.

Frieda’s question was that now e-Tribes had ceased to be (fallen off its perch; gone to meet its maker ...) “How do we solve the issue of web 2.0 reliability without falling into the hands of VLEs? Can it be solved?

What's the plan B ??? ”

1)   – First of all: There is no plan B! I'm afraid that the answer is as bleak as that.

2)   – Next: I don’t think we can solve the problem of Web 2.0 – it is what it is ...

We’ve always known (I think we have always known) that the web is flaky and that we should only trust it as far as it can be convenient. E-Tribes and similar document hosting web sites (I’m thinking of e-Snips here) have always had the convenient tag for me. I’ve always kept a back-up of any materials posted and simply used the convenience offered by world-wide and round the clock access to host materials for use by or to be shared with others. I lost patience with e-Snips a long time ago as it sought to ‘groovy-up’ the stuff I’d posted and to fix me up with some girl or chap somewhere else on the internet who was gagging for it!!!

Flickr (http://www.flickr.com) and to a lesser extent YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/) are exceptions to this rule for me. Although I keep the majority of images posted to Flickr and most of the video clips on YouTube as files on one of my computers – these are not as ordered or easy to access as those online. Should Flickr fall by the wayside I would have a serious case of depression, which I suspect is what Frieda feels now, as she has invested the same amount of time and effort into e-Tribes as I have into the photo hosting site. The difference between the sites for me is that Flickr has always had a ‘Pro’ level, for which you pay a minimal amount. It’s also backed by Yahoo! I suspect that if Yahoo! went belly-up – it would be the time to worry.

So – does partnership with a world renowned web presence (Google, Yahoo, AOL etc.) mean that a loved Web 2.0 facility will survive? Not really. Jaiku [http://davidsugden.jaiku.com/overview] became part of the Google juggernaut a while ago and is now slowly dying from a lack of real support. Unlike Twitter [http://twitter.com/dsugden], another micro-blogging site, it provide (used to provide) the opportunity to import RSS feeds and to be updated from a phone. This gave huge educational potential, which colleagues and I had begun to explore. It has the ability to ‘group’ discussions in such a way that all contributors could follow the thread – not just those who were being ‘followed’ by the contributor. On Twitter this leads to confusion as only a fraction of any wide reaching discussion can be followed. AND Twitter is now Spam-ridden.

Gabcast [www.gabcast.com] started charging for their provision in March – which caused many of us to back off. It’s still worth paying for the service, if the service fits your needs but (finally a positive point) others have leaped to fill Gabcast’s place. See www.ipadio.com

See http://dsugden.posterous.com/gabcast 
and http://dsugden.posterous.com/gabcast-replacements

3)   – Finally: “without falling into the hands of VLEs” Nice one Frieda – much more discussion there I think! :-)

David