SCoPE: Seminars: CASE 3: EDNA with focus on ME

I'm excited about our 3rd case study which will be presented tomorrow by Nick Lothian.

Nick lives in Adelaide, Austrailia, and describes himself as a "30 something technophilic working in education.au’s open source/Java technical team." He's involved with sites like EdNA and the Education Portal.

In the last while Nick's work has been focused on the me.edu.au site, an "online professional network for educators". On this site members can:

create an online professional profile
connect with educators who have similar interests
share links, news, photos, ideas, opinions
blog about your work and professional learning
aggregate your online activity to show what you are doing online

Nick will be talking about, among other things, how the me.edu.au site has been designed for ME.

The session is in Elluminate. Here's a short URL to pass around to your colleagues via email and twitter: http://tinyurl.com/9m668l. And please do invite your friends!

I always hesitate to use words like tomorrow when scheduling sessions with people from Australia. big grin

These time zones get mind bending! Be sure to check your time zone for this case study session with Nick Lothian.

Re: CASE 3: EDNA with focus on ME

by Nick Lothian - Sunday, 12 July 2009, 11:48 PM

Hi All,

Here are some slide shows shared on Slideshare which may provide some additional reading and background on me.edu.au:

Establishing A PLN Using me.edu.au: http://www.slideshare.net/Concetta/establishing-a-pln-using-meeduau

Sustaining Social Networks in Education: http://www.slideshare.net/pru_mitchell/sustaining-social-networks

Further information on Edna: http://www.slideshare.net/KerryJ/edna-communications-tools-may2008-kj

Re: CASE 3: EDNA with focus on ME

by Barbara Berry - Monday, 13 July 2009, 10:00 PM

Hi Nick,
I am sorry to have missed your session today (was at the dentist) but am catching up. Thanks for these 3 links - some very nice work here. I especially like the networking and the potential of using a suite of tools and technologies to allow a person to engage in a constellation of communities of practice depending on their needs, requirements and context of their efforts. There are lots of options and yet flexibility for participants/members etc.

thanks again,
Barb

Re: CASE 3: EDNA with focus on ME - recording

by Sylvia Currie - Monday, 13 July 2009, 5:49 PM

Here is the link to the recording with today's session with Nick Lothian. Nick gave us a brief tour of the site then allowed plenty of time for questions, and we sure had a lot of questions! approve

A few things that really stood out for me:

This is a huge project. What were the numbers of members again? I think Nick said EDNA has 40,000 members.
The ME site is not intended to replicate tools people are already using. Rather, the site helps to raise awareness of the tools educators are already using.
The ME site accommodates both users who are new to blogging, wikis -- openly sharing in general -- and those who are already blogging and sharing openly.
Members have expressed interest in using the same services designed for professional learning for their own course delivery. Dilemma?

I'll post the text chat transcript in a separate message.

Re: CASE 3: EDNA with focus on ME - text transcript

by Sylvia Currie - Monday, 13 July 2009, 5:56 PM

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): hi all!

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Moderator (Sylvia Currie (British Columbia)): You sound nice and clear

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): yup sounds good

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Moderator (Sylvia Currie (British Columbia)): Yes

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john smith: yes

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Moderator (Sylvia Currie (British Columbia)): wow

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Gerry: An aggregator

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Moderator (Sylvia Currie (British Columbia)): There it is

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Moderator (Sylvia Currie (British Columbia)): Interesting. A little facebook like

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john smith: Nick, did you mention the underlying platform that you're using? ELGG, Drupal, ??

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john smith: All custom built.

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Moderator (Diego Leal): Thnx. I'm having network issues..

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Moderator (Sylvia Currie (British Columbia)): Is this used by people who already have blogs elsewhere?

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Gerry: and these blogs are blocked to the outside as well

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Moderator (Sylvia Currie (British Columbia)): Welcome back, Tracy.

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): (sorry about that, we're having thunderstorms and the power just went out!)

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): there are lots of free tools

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Gerry: Any concerns express in that is is a "closed" environment so that prevents interested parties from the outside from participating?

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): but in terms of providing information about them, they don't need to be disappointed about not having access

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Gerry: *expressed

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Gerry: OK IC

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Gerry: So I could register if I wanted

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john smith: any thoughts about commercializing the product?

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Moderator (Sylvia Currie (British Columbia)): If already have edna account okay for this site?

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Moderator (Sylvia Currie (British Columbia)): yes

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): boooo

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Tracy Roberts (RRU):

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Moderator (Diego Leal): not at all..

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): would you make it open source?

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): i totally hear you - it takes a lot of time to share!

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): we struggle with that with our moodle stuff

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Moderator (Sylvia Currie (British Columbia)): friendfeed?

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): just tried it this week for the first time!

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Moderator (Sylvia Currie (British Columbia)): I rely on friendfeed for catching up

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): after reading an article that said it was at risk of being the coolest app that no one uses (the blogger said it was complicated for most users? i think they mean robust in terms of features)

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Gerry: I use google reader to replicate most of this

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): but we do need the "dashboard" - or control centre for all this stuff, and like you, i like to keep them separate (me: facebook for friends, twitter for professional, etc)

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): yeah, i use google reader and igoogle

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): i think some people like the "magazine" style than the blocks (and vice versa)

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Moderator (Sylvia Currie (British Columbia)): Overall maybe less to manage for those who aren't currently managing very well

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): does it mark stuff as read/unread?

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): could i (as a user) tag stuff?

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): that's cool, very helpful to manage

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Gerry: are there tag specific feeds?

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): totally!

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Gerry: Looks like Wave may take things to the next level

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Gerry: And what did you think?

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): FB is too full of junk "what disney character are you" bla bla bla

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): fun for friends/personal, but it doesn't work for me professionally

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Moderator (Diego Leal):

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): exaaaactly...

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Chet 2: I agree that the professional network is an important aspect of me.edu.au v fb

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Gerry: If educators are participating, then you have some proof

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Chet 2: The teachers I work with are much more comfortable accessing a Nationally approved/funded solution

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): fine to be "closed", as long as there are windows to the "outside" (which it clearly is)

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Gerry: I am interested in knowing if teachers are engaging in conversations or just adding content??

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Chet 2: And yes also adding content and engaging in conversations

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Chet 2: in my context

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Gerry: Yes, community building is hard

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): i'm sure i missed this when i lost power, but is this for k-12, university, both?

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Diana Woolis: Can you say simply what moodle "does" v. "me"

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): that was sylvia's but i was wondering too

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Diana Woolis: thank you

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Diana Woolis: Is Mahara related to me or moodle?

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Moderator (Sylvia Currie (British Columbia)): grrrr hate that part of my job

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Diana Woolis: thank you

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john smith: Thanks!

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Moderator (NickLothian): thanks all for coming

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Moderator (Sylvia Currie (British Columbia)): Thanks so much, Nick.

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Moderator (Sylvia Currie (British Columbia)): http://scope.bccampus.ca/mod/forum/view.php?id=2311

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Moderator (NickLothian): sure

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): thanks for sharing your work - i always love to learn what others are doing and realize we're all working toward the same goals

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Gerry: thanks - the Me looks very functional

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Chet 2: Thanks everyone, it was great

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Moderator (NickLothian): thanks for the feedback and your time

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Tracy Roberts (RRU): bye all!

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Moderator (NickLothian): bye

Re: CASE 3: EDNA with focus on ME - recording

by Nick Lothian - Monday, 13 July 2009, 7:11 PM

"This is a huge project. What were the numbers of members again? I think Nick said EDNA has 40,000 members."

Edna has around 40,000 members, plus around 90,000 members of mailing lists. Me.edu.au has around 16,000 members.