This discussion is so rich with resources, examples, issues, advice, and ideas!
The Examples and Resources Wiki is a good way to collect and organize the resources that pop up in our discussion. I see a few participants have gone in there to add links, etc. That's great. I'll make an effort to add some more during the next week. I encourage you to do the same! I can see the Wiki becoming a really useful resource.
I created a Blogging to Enhance Learning Experiences Tag Crowd which is a cool way to visualize word frequency in our discussion over the past week. I tried to strip out the irrelevant words but I see a missed a few! I got the idea tag crowding from John Smith's Learning Alliances blog and he heard about it from Nancy White 's blog, and so on, and so on.
The Technorati SCoPE Bloggers list is growing. Be sure to add your blog to the SCoPE member blog repository. I'll continue to pluck the new ones out to add to our list. Many of these blogs were in my personal reader list before, but now I have a single RSS feed set up to read all SCoPE members' recent posts. Here's the link to subscribe to the compiled feed:
http://feeds.technorati.com/faves/Community?format=rss
The last piece I'm fiddling with is FreeMind map, which is proving to be an interesting process. I'm sure it will be way more useful to me than to everyone else. After all it's my mindmap! But I hope it will help us to see at a glance how much we've accomplished in just one week. I'll post it when it's in better shape, then continue to add to it during the next week.
I believe the more general term is 'tag cloud'.
Right! Thanks for that, Michael. It sounds like I have my mouth full of marshmallows when I say tag crowd :-) I guess I was subconsciously being true to the site where I created it http://tagcrowd.com/
In reply to Sylvia Currie
Re: Collecting our resources and visualizing the themes
by Michael Griffith -
I have had a quick look at Tag Crowd - it looks fascinating but a little mindboggling- it is still early morning here!|-. . Could you, Sylvia, give a three or four sentence summary of how you see it working for us in this context?
Michael
Michael
In reply to Michael Griffith
Re: Collecting our resources and visualizing the themes
by Sylvia Currie -
Early in the morning, mid afternoon...the tag cloud is still a little mindboggling :-) So let's see, how does this cloud help us? I suppose whenever you visualize data in different ways there is potential to see new patterns, peaks, and perhaps surprises as well as what might be missing.
When I look at the tag cloud which represents our discussion about enhancing learning experiences it feels right to me that these words stand out:
discussion
people
learning
personal
share
issues
community
collaborative
public
experience
group
online
open
writing
work
There probably aren't too many surprises in that list but it might be interesting to scan the cloud for words that are missing.
What are some common issues that don't seem to apply in this discussion? (Cheating? Plagiarism?...) Do the missing words provoke any new questions?
What haven't we talked about that we could bring in during the final week of the seminar? If you use the advanced search you can search just this forum to check any words you think of.
When I look at the tag cloud which represents our discussion about enhancing learning experiences it feels right to me that these words stand out:
discussion
people
learning
personal
share
issues
community
collaborative
public
experience
group
online
open
writing
work
There probably aren't too many surprises in that list but it might be interesting to scan the cloud for words that are missing.
What are some common issues that don't seem to apply in this discussion? (Cheating? Plagiarism?...) Do the missing words provoke any new questions?
What haven't we talked about that we could bring in during the final week of the seminar? If you use the advanced search you can search just this forum to check any words you think of.
In reply to Sylvia Currie
Re: Collecting our resources and visualizing the themes
by Michael Griffith -
Here are some other words we could include Sylvia
privacy
wiki
education
tertiary
creativity
and where do you view the Tag Cloud... It hasn't struck me between the eyes yet.... ( a boy's look...????)
Cheers
Michael
privacy
wiki
education
tertiary
creativity
and where do you view the Tag Cloud... It hasn't struck me between the eyes yet.... ( a boy's look...????)
Cheers
Michael
In reply to Sylvia Currie
Re: Collecting our resources and visualizing the themes
by Michael Griffith -
Sylvia has initiated an important step here in attempting to collect and compile all the material that has been produced in this last week. In line with Michael Rees who has perceptively commented ["As always with online forums the discussion has already become fragmented" (http://blog.mrees.biz/myblog/)], I believe we need a strategy to get our house in order and Sylvia has here put a concrete post in place- well done and thank you Sylvia.
With the benefit of hindsight I am thinking that might it have been good to start off a discussion like this with a series of key discussion headings? But then one never knows clearly in advance what all the lines of discussion might be, and one doesn't want to be restrictive or prescriptive.
At all events if anyone has any good clear thoughts on this issue I am sure we would all be interested. Because it is wonderful to have such a rich array of committed minds (from around the Globe) working on this topic; it would be even more wonderful if we all had a guide book in our hands to know which streets I haven't attended yet... and where is the next party happening!!!!
Thank you all for continuing input. For those that are interested I have just completed a summary article of my own recent experiences in Blogging in Education: please distribute freely... and all comments are welcome.
And by the way one of the best articles I have read in the last few days - suggested by someone in our gathering (might have been Michael Rees???!!! -sorry if it was someone else)- is the article by danay boyd at http://reconstruction.eserver.org/064/boyd.shtml- wonderfully perceptive and well written
Cheers
Michael
With the benefit of hindsight I am thinking that might it have been good to start off a discussion like this with a series of key discussion headings? But then one never knows clearly in advance what all the lines of discussion might be, and one doesn't want to be restrictive or prescriptive.
At all events if anyone has any good clear thoughts on this issue I am sure we would all be interested. Because it is wonderful to have such a rich array of committed minds (from around the Globe) working on this topic; it would be even more wonderful if we all had a guide book in our hands to know which streets I haven't attended yet... and where is the next party happening!!!!
Thank you all for continuing input. For those that are interested I have just completed a summary article of my own recent experiences in Blogging in Education: please distribute freely... and all comments are welcome.
And by the way one of the best articles I have read in the last few days - suggested by someone in our gathering (might have been Michael Rees???!!! -sorry if it was someone else)- is the article by danay boyd at http://reconstruction.eserver.org/064/boyd.shtml- wonderfully perceptive and well written
Cheers
Michael
In reply to Sylvia Currie
Re: Collecting our resources and visualizing the themes
by Sylvia Currie -
I just realized that I forgot to point out the map of the themes emerging from our seminar. I switched from FreeMind to MindMeister (thanks to Nick Noakes for introducing me to this excellent collaborative mapping tool). The map within MindMeister itself isn't publicly visible, so periodically I export an updated map as a .gif file and upload it to SCoPE.
If you would like editing access to the map just drop me a line and I'll send you a MindMeister invitation: scurrie@sfu.ca
If you would like editing access to the map just drop me a line and I'll send you a MindMeister invitation: scurrie@sfu.ca
Wow, These are excellent tools for visualizing what has been discussed. They help zero in on what is relevant to us individually in this very active discussion. Thanks for sharing... and preparing them.
T
T
1. In another Moodle site I am in, there is a single page that shows all the attachments from a forum in one place. Is there such a page here? I was looking for the guidelines Michel put up on using blogs and assessment.
2. http://supportblogging.wikispaces.com/ has hundreds of blogs.
NONE on economics??
I'm seeing a staff member here at 4.30 who wants to use blogs this semester with an economics class. Any suggestions?
-Derek
2. http://supportblogging.wikispaces.com/ has hundreds of blogs.
NONE on economics??
I'm seeing a staff member here at 4.30 who wants to use blogs this semester with an economics class. Any suggestions?
-Derek
It's probably after 4.30 now in New Zealand ... but in case you want to send your colleague some follow up - have you seen http://www.economicsnetwork.ac.uk/showcase/ayres_blogs.htm