I was away at the 2006 Humanities and Social Science conference. When I came back, I tried to catch up with the game and debrief postings, in which there were a number of fresh viewpoints. Attached is my overview of the last couple of week's discussions, arranged by discussion topic, which I hope will be helpful.
I originally intended this only as a set of notes to myself. Apologies in advance to anyone who feels their ideas have been neglected or misinterpreted.
Overview of second round, with readings suggested by participants
by David Millar -
Number of replies: 10
In reply to David Millar
Re: Overview of second round, with readings suggested by participants
by Ann Busby -
David, you are awesome! Thanks so much for doing this! Ann
In reply to David Millar
Re: Overview of second round, with readings suggested by participants
by Nancy Riffer -
David,
I was intrigued to see how you take notes. My notes that were for myself were cut and paste quotes of ideas I found interesting in the seminar.
I found your previous list overwhelming and difficult to use because I didn't know what things were. This document, though formidable in length, was closer to an annotated bibliography so I found connections between several things that I hadn't seen before. For example, I picked up on Mathemagenic and Lilia Efimova -- you used the label "layers of culture." I will read more.
I also found the Personal Learning Environments (group) Blog which I will surely revisit.
I appreciate that you have distinguished which Nancy you are refering to throughout your notes.
I was intrigued to see how you take notes. My notes that were for myself were cut and paste quotes of ideas I found interesting in the seminar.
I found your previous list overwhelming and difficult to use because I didn't know what things were. This document, though formidable in length, was closer to an annotated bibliography so I found connections between several things that I hadn't seen before. For example, I picked up on Mathemagenic and Lilia Efimova -- you used the label "layers of culture." I will read more.
I also found the Personal Learning Environments (group) Blog which I will surely revisit.
I appreciate that you have distinguished which Nancy you are refering to throughout your notes.
In reply to Nancy Riffer
Re: Overview of second round, with readings suggested by participants
by Ann Busby -
David, I read your notes over the weekend. Didn't realize how much stuff we covered! There was something in there I wanted to go back to, but can't remember what it was, so will go back over it again. So much info-so many people sharing-what a fast, full, learning 3 weeks we've had. Thanks again for sharing your notes-very helpful. Ann
In reply to Nancy Riffer
Re: Overview of second round, with readings suggested by participants
by Nancy White -
There is also a personal learning environments wiki! http://octette.cs.man.ac.uk/jitt/index.php/Personal_Learning_Environments
In reply to Nancy White
Re: Overview of second round, with readings suggested by participants
by Ann Busby -
Cool, Nancy, for the Personal Learning wiki URL!
The more I poke around in this discussion the more I find tidbits that make things churn some more.
Nancy R. mentioned finding connections between several things she hadn't seen before while reading David's overview (doc). Likewise, I noticed when viewing the wiki on personal learning environments that Nancy W. directed us to, that I was seeing many familiar artifacts in new contexts -- items that have turned up in my own feeds, on mailing lists, etc. The whole idea around personal learning environments has been a little fuzzy for me, and I think my resistance to exploring PLEs further was that it all sounded so lonely. :-) Somehow seeing this wiki made a few things snap into place.
What just struck me is how much we benefit from having access to other people's personal learning environments. How other people draw connections, decide what's important, and interpret what they come across in their own daily routines through commentary, can be so intriguing. In many ways how individuals structure their PLEs is as valuable as the information. Personal Learning Environments are obviously valuable for the individual, but maybe "personal" is the wrong label if others are benefiting as well?
Nancy R. mentioned finding connections between several things she hadn't seen before while reading David's overview (doc). Likewise, I noticed when viewing the wiki on personal learning environments that Nancy W. directed us to, that I was seeing many familiar artifacts in new contexts -- items that have turned up in my own feeds, on mailing lists, etc. The whole idea around personal learning environments has been a little fuzzy for me, and I think my resistance to exploring PLEs further was that it all sounded so lonely. :-) Somehow seeing this wiki made a few things snap into place.
What just struck me is how much we benefit from having access to other people's personal learning environments. How other people draw connections, decide what's important, and interpret what they come across in their own daily routines through commentary, can be so intriguing. In many ways how individuals structure their PLEs is as valuable as the information. Personal Learning Environments are obviously valuable for the individual, but maybe "personal" is the wrong label if others are benefiting as well?
Sylvia, I find personal the apt term and I agree that looking into one another's PLEs is a great learning experience. I've been playing around with recording some of my navigation on screen and replaying it as "a look over my shoulder." We all use so many shortcuts and online tools that a three-minute look over anyone's shoulder may show you how to save hours.
In reply to David Millar
Re: Overview of second round, with readings suggested by participants
by Nancy White -
I found a few more juicy links today while doing work avoidance (I have one plan and one report to write. Can you say P-R-O-C-R-A-S-T-I-N-A-T-E?)
An interesting blog post on facilitator/teacher style when using blogs and other social media in education.
I noted this to highlight for me the different faciltiation practices that may or may not be part of informal learning. In fact, that would be an interesting discussion. I'm have lots of conflicting thoughts and feelings!
Harold Jarche's post on the Learning Profession. Wonderful stuff. Jay, chime in on this one because it is connected to your work! A response from a colleague of Harold and Jay's.
An interesting blog post on facilitator/teacher style when using blogs and other social media in education.
She made a couple of points with which I do not entirely agree. Firstly, on the issue of authority. In order to reduce her students? perception of her as the sage on the stage (I?m paraphrasing here), Barbara does not participate very much in the blogspace inhabited by her students. She believes that in order to reduce her ?authority? she needs to act in the wings rather than centre stage, as it were. She has her own blog, but rarely comments on students? blogs. However, there are three difficulties with this approach in my opinion.
Firstly, by choosing to stay on the sidelines she is, in fact, exercising her authority. Certainly, as I understand it, her students cannot make the same choice: they have to participate.
Secondly, and probably more importantly, a good way to encourage mutual respect and non-authoritarian behaviour is to model it, and you can only effectively do that by participating on the same terms as everybody else.
Finally, this approach seems to ignore the fact that students often want to be given guidance by an authority figure, and this for two reasons.
Firstly, children are always testing the boundaries of acceptability, especially in terms of behaviour. To not point out when they have stepped over an invisible boundary does them no service whatsoever, given that the real world doesn?t work like that.
Secondly, and more relevant here, people don?t know what they don?t know, and therefore want and need someone to at least point them in the right direction.
Harold Jarche's post on the Learning Profession. Wonderful stuff. Jay, chime in on this one because it is connected to your work! A response from a colleague of Harold and Jay's.
In reply to Nancy White
Re: Overview of second round, with readings suggested by participants
by Susanne Nyrop -
Thanks for your overview and reading list, for which I'd just like to share a new book written in English by some of the most important Danish ICT education researchers, and the good news is that it is all online for free, to download as a pdf file! From this book I'm now reading an article about using weblogs in education (instead of discussion fora), by Lars Birch Andreasen who did a part of his PhD study at Simon Fraser (where I met hin for the first time when I visited back in 2000 - and I also know that he has fond memories of visiting Sylvia with his wife and kids)
PS My reason for being quite distant lately in this seminar is for working reasons as we're into the exam period with lots of bachelor projects to read and examine orally in the coming week. Just like you, Nancy I'm a terrible procrastinator and this evening is no exception. I've really tried hard not to do too much that I should not do when at my computer. But there are so many temptations for a curious person!
PS My reason for being quite distant lately in this seminar is for working reasons as we're into the exam period with lots of bachelor projects to read and examine orally in the coming week. Just like you, Nancy I'm a terrible procrastinator and this evening is no exception. I've really tried hard not to do too much that I should not do when at my computer. But there are so many temptations for a curious person!
In reply to David Millar
Re: Overview of second round, with readings suggested by participants
by Hanan Gazit (VRider) -
Dear David,
Thanks for the useful summary. I liked your "to catch up with the game" metaphor !-)