Social Networking: Philosophy and Pedagogy
by Leonard Low - Thursday, 29 June 2006, 10:37 AM
With just a couple of days left for this topic, I thought I'd mention a related conversation that I had with Alex Hayes, earlier this month. Following the temporary interruption to service at http://www.alexanderhayes.com, we spoke about the issues relating to the potential impermanence of social web interactions.
What happens if Blogger goes bust and shuts down their service? How can we maintain a record of students' activities in a course? What happens if a course is audited, and we can't present evidence of student activity because it all went missing from social software we have no control over?
I don't think that there's a complete solution to this issue yet... but I don't think we're far from one. It seems to me that we need to leverage on existing technologies to build a better mousetrap, as it were: an archiving RSS aggregator, capable of collating student work from various Web 2.0 services, together with video, photo, or audio attachments, and "backing them up" centrally. This is already technically possible using the
element of RSS feeds.
I envisage that such a system would work online, in a LCMS like WebCT or Moodle; students would enter the RSS addresses of the social web tools they chose, which would also constitute legal consent for the recording of their material; and teachers would then have a central point for perusing students' work and distributing the links to other students if desired (to help establish the social network). The latest RSS updates could even appear within the LCMS "home base" for the course itself (already possible using javascript syndicators like Feed2JS).
Integrating social web tools with our existing ones in this way would be a real enabler for teaching and learning approaches utilising these tools, and would also improve the relevance of current LCMS environments.
ONLINE CASTING Literature Review
ONLINE CASTING LITERATURE REVIEWScope This literature review was conducted under five broad headings:
• Podcasting
• Social Software
• Elearning 2.0/Web 2.0
• The Theory of Connectivism
• Models of Content Distribution
Online casting, with podcasting currently the mostly widely practised form of online educational casting, is a manifestation of social software – software that enables communication and sharing knowledge between individuals and groups. The growth in the number of applications in this domain has resulted in new terminology to describe this new way of using the Internet – elearning 2.0, or Web 2.0. These terms are an attempt to delineate the difference between the use of the Internet as a passive resource, and a newer use of the Internet that is primarily about sharing online presence and resources with others through personal learning networks. These relationships between individuals, who can be regarded as points (or nodes) in a connected network of learners, has in turn given rise to the theory of Connectivism.
The proliferation of social software has created an explosion of content via personal publishing tools. Online casting has enabled not only institutions to create and distribute audio and video content, but also individuals. Individuals, teachers and students, are becoming podcasters, and they wish that content to be shared with, and available to, their personal online networks. The advent of RSS technology, the means whereby an individual can subscribe to a podcasting service, has enabled end-users to choose when and where they listen to that content. The model of distribution of educational content is changing. Material can be produced and podcast via RSS feed for later consumption. Students too can have acccess to this technology and podcast their own work.
This gives rise to several related questions: where does this content sit? who has access to it? who, if anyone, quality controls it? can the personal publishings of students be housed for example on a college website? can this type of content be accessed via RSS feed off campus? These questions prompt a re-evaluation of the way some educational content is distributed.
The challenge for an organisation that wishes to pursue online casting is reconciling the tensions between the traditional way of producing and storing educational materials – where content is centrally produced, controlled, and verified by teachers, and the new phenomenon of personal publishing where students are part of the content producing equation – where they may want access to course content, and their own personally produced content, in ways not previously possible, and who may wish to have access to that content when they exit the course or institution.
The nature of these changes – the fact that they are happening in many cases outside the auspices of organisations, and the fact that teachers and students are producing content they want to access outside of their college, means that much of the dialogue about these changes is occurring outside of official channels. The debate is taking place in the realm of social software. The bulk of the dialogue and current thinking on these issues is happening in blogs, wikis, and podcasts. In addition, the recency of these changes, and the speed at which this transformation of the model of distribution is occurring means that recognised journals are not keeping abreast of current thinking and practice.
For these reasons this literature review does not, and should not, just consist of journalled articles. It attempts to present a review that encompasses the new ways of assembling and sharing knowledge on topics related to online casting.
====================================================
PODCASTING•
Podcasting in Education http://seanfitz.wikispaces.com/access2005, and http://seanfitz.wikispaces.com/networks-june (Sean Fitzgerald) - describes how to create and distribute podcasts, and suggests reasons on why you might use podcasting in education
•
Introduction to Podcasting & Videoblogging in Education http://sridgway.wikispaces.com/IntroductionToPodcasting (Stephan Ridgway)
Guides•
Quick Guide to Podcasting for Windows Users http://superuser.com.au/documents/podcast_on_windows/ (Chris Harvey)
•
A Guide to Podcasting http://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/set/pace/podcast/guide.pdf
( Michael Abulencia) - includes info on creating your own RSS feeds
• An example of comprehensive educational podcasting in action: http://recap.ltd.uk/podcasting/index.php
•
Trends in podcasting in academic and corporate learning http://www.learningcircuits.org/2005/jun2005/0506_trends -
Podcasting – Implementation- Podcasting Legal Guide: Rules for the Revolution - a general roadmap of some of the legal issues specific to podcasting. The guide covers copyright, publicity rights, and trademark issues related to content that you acquire or create. Information is also provided on licensing your podcast. http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Podcasting_Legal_Guide.
- Weblog & Podcasting at Bellevue Community College (Washington) - Recommendations (unpublished); preliminary findings from a podcasting implementation project
SOCIAL SOFTWARE•
Social Software: The Relevance for e-businesshttp://knowledgetree.flexiblelearning.net.au/edition08/npra_coghlan.html
An audio article that describes the phenomenon of social software and how it is being used in ecommerce to enrich knowledge sharing services in organisations.
•
Tracing the Evolution of Social Softwarehttp://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2004/10/tracing_the_evo.html
•
The Social Software Weblog http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/
•
Teaching Social Software with Social Software - Ulises Mejias, Innovate Online
This article explores how the current wave of information and communication technologies (ICTs) known as social software can enable new forms of study and research, preparing students to participate in networks where knowledge is collectively constructed and shared. …First, it engages students in learning to learn by having them assume some of the responsibility for integrating and maintaining the social software systems that allow learning to happen. Second, it promotes the benefits of working cooperatively with tools that facilitate the aggregation and organization of knowledge while at the same time demonstrating that the diversity of individual research interests enhances learning for all. And last, it helps students develop practical research skills that they need in a world where knowledge construction and dissemination make increasing use of online information networks. In short, social software allows students to participate in distributed research communities that extend spatially beyond their classroom and school, temporally beyond a particular class session or term, and technologically beyond the tools and resources that the school makes available to the students.
•
Social software in support of knowledge sharing – Bronwyn Stuckey; keynote presentation at Tapping into Social Software for Networked Learning (archive of synchronous presentation) https://www.elluminate.com/pmtg.jnlp?psid=d392851945.438809
• Stuckey et al:
Development_of_an_ e-learning_knowledge_sharing_model - http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au/flx/webdav/site/flxsite/users/kjohnson/public/Development_of_an_%20e-learning_knowledge_sharing_model.pdf
- A list of tools for teaching online that are freely available.http://talo.wikispaces.com/TeachingTools
WEB 2.0/ELEARNING 2.0CONNECTIVISMDISTRIBUTION MODELSfrom Norene Lahring (FLL 2003)Currently teachers in my school in the NT are becoming excited about using MyInternet as a tool for directing school students to a variety of online learning opportunities. The benefits for us are
- off-site storage of files/media/etc – although a very slow process, we only have a 16 Gb server for a school of almost 500 students (somewhat outdated and very challenging for project work) so space is a premium
- Distributed Social Software Eric Gradman (December 2003)
http://gradman.com/projects/dss/final/final.pdfAbstract:
The last five years have given rise to a number of novel applications ….which has come to be known as “social software.” Notable among these are instant messaging systems, weblogs, and services like Friendster and Tribe which exploit the concept of “six-degrees of separation.” These services generally employ centralized client-server architectures. These architectures are failing to adequately scale with the growing user-base. These services do not rely on open protocols; the userbase is fragmented among competing service providers. Users use numerous service providers to get the features they want, but have no easy way to maintain the consistency of their information on each.
This paper summarizes the ever changing state-of-the-art in social software, and presents an alternative to this “service-centric” view of social software. The novel user-centric distributed social software model outlined in this paper overcomes many of the limitations of the current model by drawing from ideas from the Semantic Web.
=========================================================
A blog with commentary on the five sub-headings of this literature review is available at
http://onlinecasting.blogspot.com/ This blog will be updated throughout the project to reflect contemporary dialogue, and thoughts of the project team.
========================================================Key Word Search TermsPodcasting, online casting, learncasting, mediacasting, social software, RSS, distribution models, connectivism, networks, personal learning networks, connectivism, elearning 2.0, web 2.0, knowledge sharing, social constructivism
Web 2.0 and Assessment
From the TALO list today:
(Assessment) goes against much of what I consider the exciting about the social networked era. What can we use to meet ... audit requirements?
How do we encourage the shared network of assessment tools and ideas?
As one Exec said to me....
"How can there be an assessment Web 2 tool?" =
Jo Fuller of(
the E Network for Assessors===================================
Track the term ' life based learning' over the next
decade.........connectivism has gone awol.
-
Alex Hayes
Banning Social Software etc
Sean Fitzgerald wrote (Monday, 5 June 2006, 03:57 PM)
"Social software such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and social networking tools offer the promise of new and exciting educational applications and could usher in a more student-centred model of learning.
Yet these tools are causing a lot of controversy and face resistance from educational institutions.
In the US social networking tools like MySpace and FaceBook have caused a moral panic over child safety, online predators and cyberbullying as well as online attacks against teachers and other staff.
The response to this has been that many school districts have banned, or are trying to ban, school children from accessing these sites from school.
Some are even banning students from using these services in their own time.
We can expect to see the same types of issues arising here in Australia as more educators and institutions explore the educational value of these tools and as they become more popular with our youth.
Here in Australia many institutions already ban these tools with IT departments citing network security, or administrators claiming that they distract from "serious" educational applications of the Internet.
This raises a number of interesting questions:
Is it inevitable that these tools will start to impact upon education, whether they are formally embraced or not?
What impact will have?
What do you see as the challenges to implementing social software tools in the educational environment?
How can those challenges be overcome?
Do the educational advantages of these tools outweigh the disadvantages?
Is simply banning them the solution? Or should we develop strategies to maximise the educational opportunities while minimising the risks/negatives?
How do we do that?
Is it worth the hassle trying to get them accepted by institutions?
How can we overcome some of the resistance to implementing these tools?
Does there need to be a shift in the way teaching is practiced in order see the relevance of these tools? Is it only then that institutions will be more open to their implementation?
Do students need to take more responsibility for their learning in order for a learning model based on social software to work?
Will more nimble organisations like RTOs be able to adapt faster than larger institutions and start to implement these tools in their educational practice thereby making the larger institutions irrelevant?"
