Hi All
Sue asked, so this is just a quick attempt to explain the role that blogging plays for me in my managing of multimemberships.
As I metioned in my first post, I sometimes feel like a conduit - so much information passes through me from my various networks and i want to make some of this 'stick'. One of the best ways of evaluating, processing and assimilating that information is quitee simply to write about it! This process of writing about and adapting information to the priorities of my proffession, helps me to really understand what's happening in the flow ( or great wave) of information and communication that goes on every day. It also helps me to then adapt and feed back into that flow ( I sometimes feel like I'm one of those Yahoo Pipes that aggregates feeds and makes them relevant to the readers who com from my profession (EFL ESL / Learning technology) and I hope add some value to it.
Once the information comes out in my blog, I then also get feedback on it from other bloggers / readers etc, so I again get the chance to reprocess and re-evaluate the information that's coming though my network.
I hope that makes sense.
best
Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
http://www.plurk.com/user/NikPeachey
http://twitter.com/NikPeachey
My office in Second Life: http://tinyurl.com/ytz5go
Nik, I think this is a very interesting way of handling (social) information overload. It sounds like you engage in public reflective practice with all this information via your blog, sharing what you find while simultaneously processing it. From this perspective, it seems blogging plays multiple roles for your managing multimembership, with your own creation of content and meaning in the process!
I know I've really benefited from following Nik's blogs where he does all that
evaluating, processing and assimilating! I kind of latch on to people like him. :-)
I have another story and some questions related to managing multimembership and blogging.
The topic for this seminar came about from our experiences in the Facilitating Online Communities course (FOC08). Most of our communication in that course takes place on our individual blogs. We post our reflections and observations, and responses to questions that come up in the course on our personal blogs. We also wander around reading and posting comments on other course participants' blogs.
It sounds pretty straightforward except that there are 74 individuals/blogs on the course list. Also, some individuals have set up blogs specifically for this course while others are integrating course related posts into their existing blogs, so the course related posts need to be teased out from the rest. In addition, there is a course blog which is where Leigh the facilitator posts reminders about what we should be focusing on as well as reflections on the course itself.
At the beginning of the course there was a bit of a scramble to figure out how to manage it. Many of use were new the idea of organized communication through blogs. Do we each subscribe to every single blog through our rss reader? Is there a way we can organize these subscriptions as a group? How do we remember where we posted? How do we know if somebody responded to our comments left on other blogs? What's the best way to cross-reference posts and comments?
As I was thinking about these issues early on I found this gem from Nancy White's blog archives about multimembership. The title of the blog post is It's not me or the group, it's about multimembership.
evaluating, processing and assimilating! I kind of latch on to people like him. :-)
I have another story and some questions related to managing multimembership and blogging.
The topic for this seminar came about from our experiences in the Facilitating Online Communities course (FOC08). Most of our communication in that course takes place on our individual blogs. We post our reflections and observations, and responses to questions that come up in the course on our personal blogs. We also wander around reading and posting comments on other course participants' blogs.
It sounds pretty straightforward except that there are 74 individuals/blogs on the course list. Also, some individuals have set up blogs specifically for this course while others are integrating course related posts into their existing blogs, so the course related posts need to be teased out from the rest. In addition, there is a course blog which is where Leigh the facilitator posts reminders about what we should be focusing on as well as reflections on the course itself.
At the beginning of the course there was a bit of a scramble to figure out how to manage it. Many of use were new the idea of organized communication through blogs. Do we each subscribe to every single blog through our rss reader? Is there a way we can organize these subscriptions as a group? How do we remember where we posted? How do we know if somebody responded to our comments left on other blogs? What's the best way to cross-reference posts and comments?
As I was thinking about these issues early on I found this gem from Nancy White's blog archives about multimembership. The title of the blog post is It's not me or the group, it's about multimembership.
I've learned this idea of multimembership from Etienne Wenger and see the management of multimembership as one of the key technological and social issues of the online world today. There is quite a bit of interesting technological work happening in this area, from identity standards, pushes for interoperability and tools that help us collect all our digital interactions so we can make sense of them across all the groups, networks and even casual online interactions we engage in.The phrase "key technological and social issues" really stood out. I thought yikes! I have a lot to learn and I think I'd better hurry up and figure this stuff out. So here we are 12 weeks or so into the FOC08 and frankly I'm still struggling with the whole process. What are the tools that help us to collect our digital interactions? How can we best use these tools to remain engaged in these distributed but related conversations?
Hi Sylvia,
I'm really flattered that you follow my blogging. It's nice to know that someone does!
You ask at the end of your post "What are the tools that help us to collect our digital interactions?" and I think for me it really is the blogging part that helps me to collect.
I use loads of tools to pull in information:
I've actually been doing a small experiement with Plurk and twitter that I'll post about when I have a bit more time.
best
Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
I'm really flattered that you follow my blogging. It's nice to know that someone does!
You ask at the end of your post "What are the tools that help us to collect our digital interactions?" and I think for me it really is the blogging part that helps me to collect.
I use loads of tools to pull in information:
- Yahoo groups and other list serves
- Various Nings and other Social networks
- Plurk and Twitter
- And an accumulated network of people that I've met or worked with via email
I've actually been doing a small experiement with Plurk and twitter that I'll post about when I have a bit more time.
best
Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
Just gone to the link beneath your signature Nik and can't thank you enough for your latest update about Text to speech and animations. I am passing it around as it could be so useful for disabled students. 
Now is when I put it in Tiddlywiki but I should use RSS feeds more often! I try to curtail the stream of 'stuff' most of the time and yet I need it to keep up to date so still not sure what are the best combinations?
Now is when I put it in Tiddlywiki but I should use RSS feeds more often! I try to curtail the stream of 'stuff' most of the time and yet I need it to keep up to date so still not sure what are the best combinations?
Hi E A Draffan
I'm glad you liked the posting about xtranormal.com It is one of those tools that come along once in evry couple of years (another similar favourite for me is DFilm).
Anyway, to get to the point which is one that I missed earlier. For me one of the BIG KEY factors in keeping in touch with my networks / memberships is RRS Feeds! I think the vast bulk of the information i recieve, and some of the 'freshest' information comes through feeds and many of them from out side of the educational sphere.
Some times I think educators are too insular in their networks and communities, so i think especially in this technological age it's vital to step outside of that ' comfort zone' and start trying to process and integrate all that other stuff that's going on in our rapidly changing world and understand how it relates to our students, how they learn and how we can best support them.
For me, as I said RSS and having a good feed reader is the key.
Best
Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
I'm glad you liked the posting about xtranormal.com It is one of those tools that come along once in evry couple of years (another similar favourite for me is DFilm).
Anyway, to get to the point which is one that I missed earlier. For me one of the BIG KEY factors in keeping in touch with my networks / memberships is RRS Feeds! I think the vast bulk of the information i recieve, and some of the 'freshest' information comes through feeds and many of them from out side of the educational sphere.
Some times I think educators are too insular in their networks and communities, so i think especially in this technological age it's vital to step outside of that ' comfort zone' and start trying to process and integrate all that other stuff that's going on in our rapidly changing world and understand how it relates to our students, how they learn and how we can best support them.
For me, as I said RSS and having a good feed reader is the key.
Best
Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
So changing to something quite specific - if we are looking at RSS feeds - I am wondering which is the best way of achieving these reminders in a way that allows us to catalogue the important bits of news and get rid of the rest?
- Receive them in your e-mail client?
- Read them in a Browser?
- Read them in a dedicated application?
- Read and store them on-line somewhere?
Here is the About.com - 'Top 10 Free Windows RSS Feed Readers / News Aggregators'
Hi E A
There are lots of readers out there and new ones emerging all the time, but my favourite at the moment is Netvibes. It's set as my start up page in my web browser. It pulls in the feeds from all my favourite sites and then I can just mouse over the title to get a summary and decide if I want to read the posting or not. You can also make pages public and share them, so here's a page that I use for ELT and Edtech kinds of news, so you can have a look and try it out:
http://www.netvibes.com/nikpeachey#Edtech-ELT
There are lots of nice features, like the flickr image mosaic which I've configured to pull in images from the creative commons section, and you can add verious widgets such as to do lists, Flash movies , video search. You can also configure it to pull in your emails so that you can check emails online. It's also great that you can access all this online, so you can just go to one place for everything while you are traveling / at work / at home etc.
I use this in conjunction with a tool called http://www.instapaper.com
So whenever I spot something good in one of my feeds, I open up the page, then if I don't have time to read it or I want to reffer to it later a click a button in my tool bar and the link is saved and anotated on my instapaper page. Then whe I have time I come back to instapaper read the article and then delete it or save it to my bookmarks if it's really useful (or blog about it).
I know a lot of people are really keen on Pageflakes too, I think that's areader that is well worth trying out.
If anyone is interested here are a few movies I created for training I've been doing.
This one is from a presentation I did on RSS and personal homepages to try to convince teacher traners here in Morocco to start using these:
This one shows how to configure the Flickr image page widget
And this last one shows how to add widgets to the page. The demonstration uses a widget that enables you to view sites that don't have a feed.
Hope these are of some use.
Best
Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
There are lots of readers out there and new ones emerging all the time, but my favourite at the moment is Netvibes. It's set as my start up page in my web browser. It pulls in the feeds from all my favourite sites and then I can just mouse over the title to get a summary and decide if I want to read the posting or not. You can also make pages public and share them, so here's a page that I use for ELT and Edtech kinds of news, so you can have a look and try it out:
http://www.netvibes.com/nikpeachey#Edtech-ELT
There are lots of nice features, like the flickr image mosaic which I've configured to pull in images from the creative commons section, and you can add verious widgets such as to do lists, Flash movies , video search. You can also configure it to pull in your emails so that you can check emails online. It's also great that you can access all this online, so you can just go to one place for everything while you are traveling / at work / at home etc.
I use this in conjunction with a tool called http://www.instapaper.com
So whenever I spot something good in one of my feeds, I open up the page, then if I don't have time to read it or I want to reffer to it later a click a button in my tool bar and the link is saved and anotated on my instapaper page. Then whe I have time I come back to instapaper read the article and then delete it or save it to my bookmarks if it's really useful (or blog about it).
I know a lot of people are really keen on Pageflakes too, I think that's areader that is well worth trying out.
If anyone is interested here are a few movies I created for training I've been doing.
This one is from a presentation I did on RSS and personal homepages to try to convince teacher traners here in Morocco to start using these:
This one shows how to configure the Flickr image page widget
And this last one shows how to add widgets to the page. The demonstration uses a widget that enables you to view sites that don't have a feed.
Hope these are of some use.
Best
Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
Nik thank you so much for that help - I am off to try them all
Thank you for sharing your Netvibes account, Nik. I have always found Netibes (and its competitor, Pageflakes) to be more promise than reward. I suppose I lose patience with the time it takes the pages to load, as each time the page loads it has to go to all the linked sites and gather the current data. One hiccup someplace in one of the links, and the whole site seems to stall.
I have tried to use it for an RSS feed, but I have not been able to find a way to have the read feeds vanish or otherwise get hidden, so the new ones do not immediately show up. How do you handle this?
E.A. asks about the "best ways of achieving these reminders in a way that allows us to catalogue the important bits of news and get rid of the rest"
I've been experimenting with a tool called coComment. You have to put up with ads on the site and the interface isn't great, but it does help with managing blog conversations. I haven't checked out all the features but noticed something called "neighbours" which is a way to find other coComment users who are participating in the same conversations as you, so you can find people that fit your interests. Also, there are a number of RSS feeds to choose from so you can get at the details you need (and not have to visit the site).
From the site:
Does anyone know of other tools to help with managing blog communities and conversations?
I've been experimenting with a tool called coComment. You have to put up with ads on the site and the interface isn't great, but it does help with managing blog conversations. I haven't checked out all the features but noticed something called "neighbours" which is a way to find other coComment users who are participating in the same conversations as you, so you can find people that fit your interests. Also, there are a number of RSS feeds to choose from so you can get at the details you need (and not have to visit the site).
From the site:
Keep track of every single one of your comments, or someone else's, and the responses to them... wherever they occur. CoComment summarizes all of your comments, and the responses, in a single location and notifies you of any updates to any of them.
Does anyone know of other tools to help with managing blog communities and conversations?
You know, Sylvia, I have tried coComment as well, though do not particularly care for it. I find that sometimes I click the browser button on the top of a page that I know has comments, though it does not appear to see them. It then invites me to start a discussion on the coComment site, but why would I want to do it there instead of on the blog or page itself?
I have had a lot better luck with co.mments. While this site has had some load issues at times, and while it is difficult to know who runs that site and how they make money, I find their site easier to use and its own RSS feed to be more straight-forward than either coComment or Commentful (which is also good, though their admin interface is rather difficult to navigate).
We use www.Bloglines.com quite extensively for managing and sharing RSS. You can build files, tag them, and share them with your groups. I have two Blogline accounts - a simplified one just for mobile access when traveling.
Bloglines is quite intuitive in its design and reflective of the needs of its user over time.
Bloglines is quite intuitive in its design and reflective of the needs of its user over time.
Hi Sylvie and Nik and others,
I'm still relatively new to blogging on a regular basis -- and lately I've been in courses in Distance Education and Technology on top of working, so I have been using Me2U with Athatbasca University -- and only a little of my own outside blogging. You both inspire me in the direction of more bloggine after I have more time after mid December. I really enjoyed looking at the lego like video characters in the Xtranormal vidoe -- YouTube making in you one blog Nik. I' wondered if they could give more choice of "characters", but I like the interactional dialogue that one can design for a lot of purposes. It looked easy to use. I always find you teaching videos helpful Nik. Jo Ann
I'm still relatively new to blogging on a regular basis -- and lately I've been in courses in Distance Education and Technology on top of working, so I have been using Me2U with Athatbasca University -- and only a little of my own outside blogging. You both inspire me in the direction of more bloggine after I have more time after mid December. I really enjoyed looking at the lego like video characters in the Xtranormal vidoe -- YouTube making in you one blog Nik. I' wondered if they could give more choice of "characters", but I like the interactional dialogue that one can design for a lot of purposes. It looked easy to use. I always find you teaching videos helpful Nik. Jo Ann
Dear Sylvia and all,
I guess it's high time I surfaced here. In fact, Friday I had written a huge message to this group, but hit the wrong key and all was gone. I was so disappointed that I just let it go...Well, not fair, as I've been learning tons for some time now with the SCOPE sessions.
I'm Carla Arena, a Brazilian EFL educator, and a fan of online social tools as enablers of connections and lifelong learning.
I'm reading you all with interest. Well, Sylvia asked about aggregation of content and how we manage multimembership. I'm moderating an online session for Brazilian educators on web tools, and as they use their newly created blogs to reflect upon their learning, I've aggregated them on a pageflakes so that it becomes more visual and easier to connect to each other and see when there's new content. It has worked pretty well for participants and me. I still keep thing on my Google Reader and use a lot iGoogle, but it's just that pageflakes (or netvibes) does the visual trick for a group.
http://www.pageflakes.com/edutechtools/24766454
Friendfeed (http://friendfeed.com/carlaarena) is also a place in which I can see what I've done in a day and plan future steps. Plus, I love to see what others in my feed are up to and always learn new stuff from it. By using thwirl, I can see friendfeed, seesmic and twitter at once. Though, I use it mainly for twitter and prefer the daily alerts that go to my email in friendfeed.
Also, a very cool tool that aggregates my multimembership since I've had an online presence is Swurl. http://carlaarena.swurl.com Playing with the timeline feature there is just fun and I can see the patterns of my online presence there.
As for blogging, just like Nik pointed out, it's how I make sense out of this brave digital world, my learning, reflections, snippets that I want to keep and let them fade away when my memory cannot keep them vivid. I have different blogs for different purposes. One for my experience here in Key West (http://brazilnaskeywest.wordpress.com), one for professional development (http://explorations.bloxi.jp), one for my former students (http://carlaarena.posterous.com) and some others! However, when I just want to register things that I find interesting and I don't have much time to explore it blogging, I use a screenshot tool, Kwout, and send this screenshot straight to Tumblr. From time to time, I get back to Tumblr to see what I've saved and why.
Well, just a bit here. I felt compelled to share as you've contributed so much to my own multimembership perspective.
Thanks to all!
Cheers from a Brazilian in Key West,
Carla
http://explorations.bloxi.jp
I guess it's high time I surfaced here. In fact, Friday I had written a huge message to this group, but hit the wrong key and all was gone. I was so disappointed that I just let it go...Well, not fair, as I've been learning tons for some time now with the SCOPE sessions.
I'm Carla Arena, a Brazilian EFL educator, and a fan of online social tools as enablers of connections and lifelong learning.
I'm reading you all with interest. Well, Sylvia asked about aggregation of content and how we manage multimembership. I'm moderating an online session for Brazilian educators on web tools, and as they use their newly created blogs to reflect upon their learning, I've aggregated them on a pageflakes so that it becomes more visual and easier to connect to each other and see when there's new content. It has worked pretty well for participants and me. I still keep thing on my Google Reader and use a lot iGoogle, but it's just that pageflakes (or netvibes) does the visual trick for a group.
http://www.pageflakes.com/edutechtools/24766454
Friendfeed (http://friendfeed.com/carlaarena) is also a place in which I can see what I've done in a day and plan future steps. Plus, I love to see what others in my feed are up to and always learn new stuff from it. By using thwirl, I can see friendfeed, seesmic and twitter at once. Though, I use it mainly for twitter and prefer the daily alerts that go to my email in friendfeed.
Also, a very cool tool that aggregates my multimembership since I've had an online presence is Swurl. http://carlaarena.swurl.com Playing with the timeline feature there is just fun and I can see the patterns of my online presence there.
As for blogging, just like Nik pointed out, it's how I make sense out of this brave digital world, my learning, reflections, snippets that I want to keep and let them fade away when my memory cannot keep them vivid. I have different blogs for different purposes. One for my experience here in Key West (http://brazilnaskeywest.wordpress.com), one for professional development (http://explorations.bloxi.jp), one for my former students (http://carlaarena.posterous.com) and some others! However, when I just want to register things that I find interesting and I don't have much time to explore it blogging, I use a screenshot tool, Kwout, and send this screenshot straight to Tumblr. From time to time, I get back to Tumblr to see what I've saved and why.
Well, just a bit here. I felt compelled to share as you've contributed so much to my own multimembership perspective.
Thanks to all!
Cheers from a Brazilian in Key West,
Carla
http://explorations.bloxi.jp
Carla,
Thank you so much for sharing how you manage multimembership and for introducing me to Kwout.
Warm wishes,
Nellie
Thank you so much for sharing how you manage multimembership and for introducing me to Kwout.
Warm wishes,
Nellie
Hi Jeffrey,
You said "it seems blogging plays multiple roles for your managing multimembership, with your own creation of content and meaning in the process!" and I tink that's absolutely true and of course I'm trying to feed my interpretation of meaning back into that big cauldron of information soup that's going round in hyperspace.
Personally I think every 'professional' (for want of a better word) or amateur for that matter should blog. It's great way of adding to a part of the 'soup' and I think we all have something to offer.
Best
Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
You said "it seems blogging plays multiple roles for your managing multimembership, with your own creation of content and meaning in the process!" and I tink that's absolutely true and of course I'm trying to feed my interpretation of meaning back into that big cauldron of information soup that's going round in hyperspace.
Personally I think every 'professional' (for want of a better word) or amateur for that matter should blog. It's great way of adding to a part of the 'soup' and I think we all have something to offer.
Best
Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
Nik, this is an interesting point. While I am an advocate of claiming one's online identity and pushing the boundaries of professional development, I have come to learn that, much to my surprise, many of my graduate and continuing education students do not blog (to such an extent, that many of them wonder why I advocate it so much). To get them started, I often recommend that they begin by discussing and processing what they are learning in class, and how they can envision using it in their work. While I see it as a step toward an online portfolio, I think this concept is still too new for many people.
For all our talk about the online teaching and learning opportunities, I am often surprised how great the gap is between those who actively engage in multimembership, and those who do not.
Nik and Jeffrey:
I'm interested in knowing how blogging and managing/engaging in multimemberships contribute to greater learning. Jeffrey, can you elaborate on what the gap is between those who do blog/have multimemberships and those whose who don't.
Thanks, Chris Horgan (SAIT Polytechnic, Canada)
Nik,
Thank you for sharing your way of managing multimembership with blogs. I may be new to blogging, but after being inspired by Leigh Blackall and FOC08, I am finding the process very rewarding. I now create blogs for courses and special interests (storytelling, mindfulness, doctoral studies, SL, blended learning, connecting online and MUVEnation). I have stopped subscribing to Moodle, other courses, blogs, websites, newsletters, wikis, or other places of interest with the exception of ning. Ning is still my sin. I store my RSS feeds on google reader but add them to my blogs. I stopped with delicious, technorati and only occasionally add things to facebook, myspace, pageflakes, netvibes etc. I twitter to get information across, but hold myself back from using some of the latest widgets. I may join, but try to grab the RSS feeds or generate new ones. I am finding blogs useful in managing time and as learning tools. My old chaotic way of doing things and managing my time is slowly transforming into something else as a result of blogging.
Some of my new blogs (for a full list see my Wikieducator profile):
I highly recommend giving blogs another try for reflective thought, storage of information, sharing, and management of multimemberships.
Warm wishes,
Nellie
Thank you for sharing your way of managing multimembership with blogs. I may be new to blogging, but after being inspired by Leigh Blackall and FOC08, I am finding the process very rewarding. I now create blogs for courses and special interests (storytelling, mindfulness, doctoral studies, SL, blended learning, connecting online and MUVEnation). I have stopped subscribing to Moodle, other courses, blogs, websites, newsletters, wikis, or other places of interest with the exception of ning. Ning is still my sin. I store my RSS feeds on google reader but add them to my blogs. I stopped with delicious, technorati and only occasionally add things to facebook, myspace, pageflakes, netvibes etc. I twitter to get information across, but hold myself back from using some of the latest widgets. I may join, but try to grab the RSS feeds or generate new ones. I am finding blogs useful in managing time and as learning tools. My old chaotic way of doing things and managing my time is slowly transforming into something else as a result of blogging.
Some of my new blogs (for a full list see my Wikieducator profile):
I highly recommend giving blogs another try for reflective thought, storage of information, sharing, and management of multimemberships.
Warm wishes,
Nellie
The advice to use blogs as as a way to manage and record information in a more mindful, reflective way reminds me of a comment made at a workshop I attended last week.
The topic was strategies for managing learning (course) content -- not exactly what we're talking about here but many of the same principles apply. In the workshop we were learning about many ways to create and share content...aggregate, integrate, share across several sites or LMSs or many instances of courses, search and pull, push and publish...oh my! Days of copy-paste are over. Hurrah!
Then one presenter quietly suggested that it is not necessarily a bad thing to slow down and carefully review course content used in previous courses and found elsewhere. It's a useful exercise to really pay attention to what you're publishing in a course; using those old methods of copy-paste and re-write will lead to a higher quality course.
I think that's what we're saying here. Nik finds uses a tool to make notes while coming across information, but then carefully sorts through it to make sense of it and write about it. Nellie has narrowed down her places for reading and contributing, and uses blogs to store information and reflect.
It seems that good strategies for managing mulimembership are:
The topic was strategies for managing learning (course) content -- not exactly what we're talking about here but many of the same principles apply. In the workshop we were learning about many ways to create and share content...aggregate, integrate, share across several sites or LMSs or many instances of courses, search and pull, push and publish...oh my! Days of copy-paste are over. Hurrah!
Then one presenter quietly suggested that it is not necessarily a bad thing to slow down and carefully review course content used in previous courses and found elsewhere. It's a useful exercise to really pay attention to what you're publishing in a course; using those old methods of copy-paste and re-write will lead to a higher quality course.
I think that's what we're saying here. Nik finds uses a tool to make notes while coming across information, but then carefully sorts through it to make sense of it and write about it. Nellie has narrowed down her places for reading and contributing, and uses blogs to store information and reflect.
It seems that good strategies for managing mulimembership are:
- Sort
- Narrow down
- Slow down
- Reflect
Sylvia, I agree that strategies are falling into these overarching strategies.
I have annotated all posts through the end of week 1 using the handy dandy Marginalia feature here in SCoPE. Wonder if it would it would help us summarize the contributions to tips for multimembership if we were to try and sort my categories into these themes.
I think we need a little post on Marginalia. would you be willing to start another thread entitled (SCoPE notation tool help) and then type out those four or five steps you IM'd me the other night?
I have annotated all posts through the end of week 1 using the handy dandy Marginalia feature here in SCoPE. Wonder if it would it would help us summarize the contributions to tips for multimembership if we were to try and sort my categories into these themes.
I think we need a little post on Marginalia. would you be willing to start another thread entitled (SCoPE notation tool help) and then type out those four or five steps you IM'd me the other night?
Sylvia,
What drives me is not only the content, but the learning process. I can easily retrieve most of the information I publish under my name or username on the Internet via google search, so nothing is really lost. The question is how much am I willing to spend on sorting, narrowing down, slowing down and reflecting? Maybe there will come a time when I will no longer have the need to organize and save information. Maybe, I will become comfortable with the knowledge that the information is out there, or perhaps my whole way of thinking will transform into something else. Isn't there a better approach to online learning than storing information? I sometimes wonder whether technology is serving me or whether I am serving technological tools. What drives us to learn this way?
What drives me is not only the content, but the learning process. I can easily retrieve most of the information I publish under my name or username on the Internet via google search, so nothing is really lost. The question is how much am I willing to spend on sorting, narrowing down, slowing down and reflecting? Maybe there will come a time when I will no longer have the need to organize and save information. Maybe, I will become comfortable with the knowledge that the information is out there, or perhaps my whole way of thinking will transform into something else. Isn't there a better approach to online learning than storing information? I sometimes wonder whether technology is serving me or whether I am serving technological tools. What drives us to learn this way?
Nellie's comment about content versus learning process made me pause. I wonder if we do get too hung up on knowing that our contributions to conversations and records of our work are safe, searchable, archived, organized, etc. Is it a situation of because we can?
Does anybody remember this book from 1991?
Michael Schrage: Shared Minds: The New Technologies of Collaboration.
In that book Michael Schrage compares verbal communication with digital communication in shared spaces. He describes our utterances as little bubbles floating up into the sky and disappearing -- nothing recorded, nothing to build on but our memories of what was said. I could really relate to that book because it fit so closely with my own habits of recording and revisiting group interactions and decisions. I guess that's why I appreciate online interactions so much. I like to have a record of what was said.
But I've been thinking really hard about what it is I really do want. I don't think it's so much that I need a record of my own personal contributions (although I do like having that) but I'm more interested in easy access to the conversations and people I want to follow. For example, if I'm drawn to the topic of a blog post enough to add a comment, then I want to continue to track that conversation (on that blog and also references from other places to that blog post).
Here's a real life example of someone writing about this topic my own lack of skill in keeping track of it! I recall a few years back Leigh Blackall wrote about his decision to not get attached to his own digital content. The context of his post was online services where people store heaps of data and the risks of losing that information if the service shuts down. (Common concern these days with Ning, Facebook, etc)
I would now like to find that post because it's so relevant to Nellie's points, and I'm such a stickler for citing work! I recall at the time I read Leigh's post thinking WOW, how can he be so carefree about investing all that energy into something and not worry if it all runs down a drain. I wish I had been better equipped to somehow flag that blog post at the time!
Now Leigh might be joining us here this week so the real test will be...can he find that blog post! (or was it a post to the TALO group?) And if not, does he care? :-)
Does anybody remember this book from 1991?
Michael Schrage: Shared Minds: The New Technologies of Collaboration.
In that book Michael Schrage compares verbal communication with digital communication in shared spaces. He describes our utterances as little bubbles floating up into the sky and disappearing -- nothing recorded, nothing to build on but our memories of what was said. I could really relate to that book because it fit so closely with my own habits of recording and revisiting group interactions and decisions. I guess that's why I appreciate online interactions so much. I like to have a record of what was said.
But I've been thinking really hard about what it is I really do want. I don't think it's so much that I need a record of my own personal contributions (although I do like having that) but I'm more interested in easy access to the conversations and people I want to follow. For example, if I'm drawn to the topic of a blog post enough to add a comment, then I want to continue to track that conversation (on that blog and also references from other places to that blog post).
Here's a real life example of someone writing about this topic my own lack of skill in keeping track of it! I recall a few years back Leigh Blackall wrote about his decision to not get attached to his own digital content. The context of his post was online services where people store heaps of data and the risks of losing that information if the service shuts down. (Common concern these days with Ning, Facebook, etc)
I would now like to find that post because it's so relevant to Nellie's points, and I'm such a stickler for citing work! I recall at the time I read Leigh's post thinking WOW, how can he be so carefree about investing all that energy into something and not worry if it all runs down a drain. I wish I had been better equipped to somehow flag that blog post at the time!
Now Leigh might be joining us here this week so the real test will be...can he find that blog post! (or was it a post to the TALO group?) And if not, does he care? :-)
Sylvia,
I think I'm the wrong person to talk to about being a stickler for citing work because I cite every single statement I make in my online doctoral class. You would probably love learning online at the University of Phoenix (except the tuition). I found interesting things about Leigh Blackall as I googled his name content vs process. For one thing, I found a blog referencing TALO (2006).
Online learning is allowing my thinking to be a lot more open and flexible. The ability to delete has transformed how I learn by allowing me to let go and say next... It all seems to fit in with my mindfulness meditation practice. You may want to join the free online course that is coming up.
Thank you for taking up this thread, Sylvia. It so much better to think out loud.
I think I'm the wrong person to talk to about being a stickler for citing work because I cite every single statement I make in my online doctoral class. You would probably love learning online at the University of Phoenix (except the tuition). I found interesting things about Leigh Blackall as I googled his name content vs process. For one thing, I found a blog referencing TALO (2006).
Online learning is allowing my thinking to be a lot more open and flexible. The ability to delete has transformed how I learn by allowing me to let go and say next... It all seems to fit in with my mindfulness meditation practice. You may want to join the free online course that is coming up.
Thank you for taking up this thread, Sylvia. It so much better to think out loud.
Hi Nellie
I think you hit the nail on the head here. You asked at the end of your posting
"Isn't there a better approach to online learning than storing information? I sometimes wonder whether technology is serving me or whether I am serving technological tools. What drives us to learn this way?"
I think what you are describing above, is NOT online learning. It's kind of a habit that we get into and something that gives us the illusion of being in control of all this information that's flying around. I think it's even useful, BUT it isn't learning!
I think learning is really about what you describe here:
"my whole way of thinking will transform into something else"
Learning IS transformative. If it doesn't bring some impact on your life, change your way of thinking, develop your practice in some however microscopic way, then you probably haven't learned anything, you've basically shifted information from one place to another to make it more managable. Nothing wrong with that, but it just isn't learning.
I think that's where the role of blogging, writing a wiki, producing a journal or writing and article of some kind is so important. Without that process of reflection, the information isn't really touching the sides (isn't transforming you) it just flows through from one place to the other.
So your question here really is the key: " The question is how much am I willing to spend on sorting, narrowing down, slowing down and reflecting?"
Here's where we get to the managing multi memberships bit. Personally I think it's probably better to let some information pass you by (after all as you said, you can probably find everything you need from a google search), but take the time to slow down and reflect on that part of it which can be transformative. Maybe we need to adopt more of a zen approach to this and start making zense of information (sorry about the pun) rather than just managing it.
I think that entering into this kind of dialogue is also a key part of that process too, many thanks to all for that.
best
Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
I think you hit the nail on the head here. You asked at the end of your posting
"Isn't there a better approach to online learning than storing information? I sometimes wonder whether technology is serving me or whether I am serving technological tools. What drives us to learn this way?"
I think what you are describing above, is NOT online learning. It's kind of a habit that we get into and something that gives us the illusion of being in control of all this information that's flying around. I think it's even useful, BUT it isn't learning!
I think learning is really about what you describe here:
"my whole way of thinking will transform into something else"
Learning IS transformative. If it doesn't bring some impact on your life, change your way of thinking, develop your practice in some however microscopic way, then you probably haven't learned anything, you've basically shifted information from one place to another to make it more managable. Nothing wrong with that, but it just isn't learning.
I think that's where the role of blogging, writing a wiki, producing a journal or writing and article of some kind is so important. Without that process of reflection, the information isn't really touching the sides (isn't transforming you) it just flows through from one place to the other.
So your question here really is the key: " The question is how much am I willing to spend on sorting, narrowing down, slowing down and reflecting?"
Here's where we get to the managing multi memberships bit. Personally I think it's probably better to let some information pass you by (after all as you said, you can probably find everything you need from a google search), but take the time to slow down and reflect on that part of it which can be transformative. Maybe we need to adopt more of a zen approach to this and start making zense of information (sorry about the pun) rather than just managing it.
I think that entering into this kind of dialogue is also a key part of that process too, many thanks to all for that.
best
Nik Peachey | Learning Technology Consultant, Writer, Trainer
http://nikpeachey.blogspot.com/
http://quickshout.blogspot.com/
http://daily-english-activities.blogspot.com/
You know, I thought I was following this thread, but now seem a little lost.
How are people using blogs to manage information and rss feeds? I have the feeds I subscribe to listed on my blog, though it is more for reference than for doing anything with as the blog itself is too cumbersome to use in this way.