tech-ed collisions

ePortfolio: a user perspective?

In the spirit of a certain type of eportfolio, here are some reflections on day 2 of QUT's 'Australian ePortfolio Symposium'. Day 2 was the only day I was able to attend which is a bit unfortunate as my perspective can only be based on my interpretations of that day in the program. What was really interesting was the panel session where a number of brave 'eportfolio users' were invited to give their thoughts on eportfolios and what is needed for them to be successful. A bit of background first. There seems to be growing agreement from a number of eportfolio system owners and some users (not so sure about vendors as I haven't personally heard any comment on this) that the idea of monolithic eportfolio applications (software offerings that do everything eportfolio that you need) is outdated and we need to consider a service oriented approach. This builds on the ideas being put forwards by projects/groups such as the JISC eportfolio reference model and the e-Framework service oriented approach. This is a notion that I support and its not hard to find a number of scenarios where this would work really well. Back to the symposium, there was quite a bit of discussion over the merits of system provided or learner owned eportfolios. The user panel provided some interesting perspectives on this. Firstly, it was very clear that there are a number of perspectives to consider. A wide range of opinions was provided from what was a very small number of users (five). The users varied in their experiences of eportfolios ranging from very little experience through to very experienced. My personal impressions were that the lesser experienced users saw some value in institutionally provided eportfolios while the most experienced user saw very little value in them and preferred to select her own tools from the Web. Having said that though, she recognised the need for some sort of framework for eportfolios as not all users would be in a position to establish their own Web presence in such an articulate, well formed manner. There was a view that only companies such as Google could afford the investment required to develop and provide rich 'eportfolio' services. To me this reasoning was quite flawed. True, it takes a lot of investment in either time or money to develop new types of services but when we looked at the services being asked for, it seemed to boil down to relatively mundane Web 2.0 style services such as file sharing, blogging, wiki etc. Not much investment at all is required to mash these sort of services together, whether deployed locally or using services that exist elsewhere on the Web. While some organisations do struggle with filespace issues there are alternatives available for those that are willing to think a bit more imaginatively. Clearly though, there is a strong sense of drawing on this service oriented approach to bring in the 'best' services that are available from the Web and apply them in a manner that suits eportfolio functionality and their users. The notion that all 'younger' students are tech savvy and can apply technologies in different ways that enhance learning is also flawed. A view that I have heard expressed before is 'just because I am good at using my thumbs to text and know how to use a phone in many ways, thats only to communicate with my friends - don't expect me to understand how to apply it or any other technology to get better at learning'. I have seen technologists and educators really struggle with how to improve learning through technology so having high expectations of learners to do the same seems a little unfair. Getting back to the forum, it was clear that users wanted and needed more support if they were going to really embrace and exploit the potential in eportfolios. Another really interesting perspective raised by one of the users, who is involved now in recruiting, is to consider the requirements of HR recruiters and employers. I think to some extent this can easily be overlooked. In a number of public forums that I have attended on eportfolios, many of the speakers/contributors, while not quite at the 'lunatic fringe', are very passionate about their views and so we find much of the debate occurring on what eportfolios should be. The use of them for reflective thinking, personal story, or journey telling often occupies more time than assisting in transitions etc. While reflection and goal setting can be very important elements of an eportfolio, there are many other, valid uses too. The notion of learner owned is very important, and strongly supported, identifying the user as learner, not student, or even better, author, really demonstrates where the thinking is around eportfolios. We do need to consider other users as well though. When I think of books, authors are important but they have very little value without readers and readers tend to ultimately determine the value of the books. So, while there are some very important introspective elements of eportfolios such as reflecting and planning, we do need to consider potentially much larger audiences if we start to think about those eportfolios that will be used to support transitions (getting a job, moving from one educational environment to another etc). These audiences will have have quite specific requirements and in the case of HR recruiters, may not even be human (that's not meant to be a slur on recruiters, just that computers can be used to sift through vast amounts of electronic information to do some sort of shortlisting/culling of applications). So, overlaying these basic services of collecting and organising content, which many generic Web 2.0 style services do very well, there needs to be some emphasis applied to presentation of content within specific audience contexts, and this is an area where simply mashing together public generic services falls short at the moment. We have some interesting ways of formatting parts of this content in HR-XML which may satisfy some recruiters or their computers but there is still a way to go. In the symposium we recognised challenges faced around context, language, vocabularies, ontologies etc and efforts made around standardisation and how incredibly difficult that is. Early attempts were too specifc and granular, which made them incredibly hard to implement. Organisations such as IMS are looking at having another go at their eportfolio specification so I look forward to see what happens there. In the meantime, social networking services are combining with recruiters so maybe we can just sit back and continue to debate what an eportfolio is while the rest of the world gets on with it;)

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Filed under  //   eportfolio  

careerOne + myspace = myspacejobs

An interesting service from myspace and career one, myspacejobs combines the might of the social networking space with the "country's fastest growing employment site". This article from adelaidenow suggests the importance of networking in building a career. Myspace makes a great eportfolio service and no doubt that is what many people around the world are using it for. As it continues to gather momentum we in the education space will continue to debate "really important" policy matters such as 'how much space should we let them have, or how long should we keep the information, what rights shall we give them etc. Meanwhile all such notions are rapidly becoming irrelevant to anyone seeking a space to promote themselves and their abilities. Of course we can always point to negative uses of myspace and provide gems of advice such as 'do you really want your potential employer to see pictures you put up of last weeks party etc'. Feeling cynical today!

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Filed under  //   Web 2.0  

digital pen/paper combination starting to look pretty good

Due for release shortly is the Livescribe Smartpen. The website demo of this looks very impressive and is certainly bound to have appeal to gadget lovers. Livescribe combines its smartpen with something called dotpaper along with audio recording and integration with applications to create some pretty interesting scenarios. Having your notes synched with audio combined with the ability to upload straight to a blog or other content sharing services should have educational use written all over it. Look forward to seeing one.

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Filed under  //   gadgets  

PILIN closure report out now

One of the more interesting projects that I have had the good fortune to be exposed to recently has been the PILIN (Persistent Identifier Linking INfrastructure) project which is one of the Systemic Infrastructure Initiative projects. We use persistent identifiers in some of our projects (eg LORN) and it has been great to collaborate in some way with others who are addressing the same types of issues. Anyway, the PILIN Project is coming to an end (of sorts - we should be seeing some of the outputs from it elsewhere) and the final report is available here for anyone with an interest in persistent identifiers.

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Filed under  //   standards  

Impressions from BETT

BETTclaims to be the largest education technology trade show there is and after having the good fortune to attend part of it, I believe them (it is also the only education technology trade show that I have ever seen though). My first impression of BETT actually started a couple of train stops prior to it where the platform was overflowing with people - noticeably different from the relatively empty platforms prior to it. These were all educators of some sort on their way to the show. My second impression was the sheer size of the show, the number of vendors and solutions was staggering. I remember thinking 'where is all this stuff being used?' There were technology based solutions for just about any subject I could think of. Walking around the pavilions, all the usual suspects (large vendors) were there centre stage with huge stands, impressive displays and interesting demonstrations. Surrounding them seemed to be the mainstream LMS vendors. As you moved outwards towards the perimeter of the halls you started to find the really interesting stuff from smaller companies and communities of various types. The first row of vendors that I happened to walk down was all about Internet safety, each with 'the best' filtering solution available. The only vendor that impressed me here was Securus, who understand filtering alone is quite inadequate and are taking a more holistic approach to the problem of Internet safety. It was nice to see them working hand in hand with 'the Red Balloon Learner Centre Group', a charity developing safe learner centres for children who have been bullied. As I said earlier, just about every subject I could think of had some sort of technology enhanced learning solution on exhibition. Hardware vendors were out in force as well as software ones. Electronic whiteboard solutions seemed to be everywhere and there were gadgets galore. There was a huge area set aside for special education needs which you could have got lost in for a day alone. It was interesting to see a number of online communities and social networks establishing some sort of presence in the outer wings. Communities of users (of software solutions etc) springing up and helping each other, sharing content etc. Speaking of content, there were two standouts for me. One was the BBC and the other was teachers.tv. Big budgets do help. The other content area that I thought would have been interesting was student.tv however the people/company on the stand where this was shown were more interested in promoting their services. Of interest to me also was the presence of open source vendors/solutions/communities. I have to say that I had to look pretty hard to find them. Moodle had a local provider and apparently Joomla had some sort of presence there too. Openforum Europe were also there and attracting quite an amount of interest (the presence of a few XO laptops no doubt had some attraction). Talking to them, they were very pleased with the amount of interest being shown this year - it seems to have been increasing steadily each year they have been there. There may well have been many more open source stands around but it was a very big place to get through. My last impression really was about the (for me) disconnect between all of this technology and solutions and the adoption of them. If your only exposure to education was via this trade show, you would think that education was one of the most IT savvy industries around with an exceptionally high adoption rate. What a wonderful impression (for a technologist at least)! A couple of pics here.

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Filed under  //   general  

problems with the thin end of the wedge

In a previous post, I looked at filtering since it is quite topical at the moment. I guess one of the concerns that many people would have is who decides what is appropriate content for citizens to be exposed to, the values and contexts under which that is assessed and how it is to be implemented. It's interesting to look at the recent experience of one of the team from the GLOBE initiative who gave a recent presentation in Dubai covering technology enhanced learning, content, search, collaboration and who tried to find some appropriate images from the region while there and observed:

The conference in Dubai was a really nice experience: there is obviously a lot happening in the region, and the dramatically fast transformation that this society seems to be going through is really fascinating. There is a lot of energy and eagerness to change things for the better - the abundance of resources is also helpful, I guess… It is also clear that there are some issues to be worked out: when I tried to find some pictures on flickr to illustrate my talk, I found out that the site was blocked. Finding pictures with a creative commons license without flickr is far from easy. When I mentioned this at the conference, the typical reaction was that everybody gateways his internet traffic through other sites, in order to bypass the blocking services. Makes you wonder…
It certainly does make you wonder...

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Filed under  //   Internet  

on filtering

An opportunity to visit BETT recently enabled me to take a look at a number of approaches to Internet safety. This was particularly good timing in relation to the recent announcement from Senator Conroy to establish filtering for all Australian Internet users in order to protect a (very important) sub-set of Australian Internet users. Firstly, the protection of our children is paramount. In my own case, safety of our kids at school was probably more important than potential academic performance when we started looking at schooling options for them. However, when it comes to Internet safety I am not sure that a sledgehammer approach to filtering the entire country is the best way forward. We have seen before and we will see again how easy it is for those who want to, to bypass filtering. To me, the Internet is just too dynamic to pin our hopes on such a coarse solution. Our language and the context in the way concepts are presented make filtering incredibly difficult. Here's an interesting article on Crikey showing at a simple level, just how difficult it is. Putting a wall around something to protect it is a medieval solution and I hope we live in more enlightened times. If you believe walls are a good protection measure then placing them closer to the assets you are trying to protect seems to make more sense than building a wall far away. Most, if not all of the filtering solutions that I looked at were local solutions ie at the school level rather than the country level. Local solutions potentially give teachers more opportunity to intervene when the inevitable breach occurs. While filtering will no doubt play an important role in this area, it does not come close to protecting students from all potential harm via the Internet. For example, it does not stop things such as cyber-bullying, predatory behaviour in online messaging/communications services, or simply wandering 'off-task' and accessing content that is not harmful, but not subject related. Clearly other approaches need to be implemented to address these problems. There are some interesting technical solutions appearing which start to address these areas by capturing what is on the screens in realtime and allowing intervention as and when the incidents occur. Still, this only starts to address the problem by allowing teachers to intervene straight away and take appropriate action. More important still though is educating our students and giving them the ability to protect themselves from harm. In the 'real' world, we don't protect them simply by shutting the rest of the world off from them, but give them the skills they need to survive and thrive safely in that world. So it should be in the 'online' world. Fenced off societies do not seem to work - think of any that you know of and ask yourself if they are really looking after the interests of their citizens in the best way. At the very least, we should have the right to opt into that environment than opt out of it - that may appease the civil libertarian concerns a bit. Cheers, Jerry.

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Filed under  //   Internet   policy  

My best and worse picks for 2007

So this is just a personal view of some of the technologies that have been hits and misses for me during 2007. Starting off with the worst, a HP Pavilion laptop running Vista I bought for home. What a worthless piece of (well..) junk! It had an incorrectly installed operating system which required calls to an overseas call centre to get unlock codes etc. When it finally started up it crashed regularly on out of the box Microsoft and HP applications (bluescreens of death are back). I tried installing third party apps such as iTunes and got more bluescreens. In the end I called the distributor who very kindly replaced the laptop. However, the replacement didn't stop the bluescreens from appearing quite regularly. To top it off, the wireless network works spasmodically at most. I get this regular message along the lines of 'local access only' so there is no Internet access. Browsing the Web for solutions, it didn't take long to find out that I am far from alone with this problem for HP Pavilion/Vista laptops with no apparent solution in site. This was a very disappointing purchase! Moving on to better things, Facebook has to rate a mention given its phenomenal success. I must say though that vampire bites, attacks from werewolves etc has long since lost its novelty for me. Added to that, the Beacon fiasco and Facebook has lost a lot of points with me. It was great but... On to the runner-up - the Nokia N95 almost took out my 'Best for 2007'. It does everything I want in a phone and finally there is a phone with a very good camera (with some quite stunning video capability). The list of features is really impressive on this phone. Its only bad point really is the battery life. The phone is constantly in need of recharging. So, the best for 2007 for me was the iPod Touch. You just have to play with one of these to really appreciate them. It stores all my music, photos and videos with plenty of space to spare (at the moment). The user interface is incredible. Video podcasts are finally worth watching on a portable device so I can at last watch them at a time and place of my convenience and enjoy the experience. Its great to have Web (wifi) too. The only disappointment for me has been the Youtube integration. In my experience it takes forever to load a Youtube video - to the point where it is not worth the effort/wait. Despite this, the iPod Touch was a standout winner for me. In summary, given my disappointing experience with the HP/Vista laptop and totally opposite experience with the iPod Touch, I just want to switch to Mac this year. Cheers.

Filed under  //   general  

Google does it again

Yet another interesting announcement from Google. It seems they are about to launch a new tool called knol. A knol is a 'unit of knowledge' and the service aims to encourage anyone who is 'expert' in something to write an article about it. According to Google the service aims to highlight authors and I guess help create or enhance their reputation. At the moment they are doing some limited trials by invitation only. From its description it sounds like it could be a great tool for educators and learners alike. It will be interesting to see how successful it becomes.

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Filed under  //   Google  

'Canon' fodder and remix

There are some brilliant examples on the Web illustrating just how important the read/write web is and the culture of remix. Along with these examples are also some really interesting stories. Take for example, the story behind the funtwo "Canon Rock" video on YouTube. This video was put up on YouTube about two years ago and has been viewed over 33 million times. Another version of the same funtwo video has been viewed over 1.7 million times. By any measure that is a staggering number. Canon Rock was a remix of a piece of classical music (Pachelbel's Canon in D major) 'published' by a Tiawanese guitarist (Jerry Chang) several months earlier. Chang (JerryC) took the classical piece of music, made orignally for violins and applied his electric guitar to it. The result was sensational. Inspired by this effort, funtwo recorded his own effort at JerryC's work and an Internet phenomenon was born. Do a search on Google Video or YouTube on 'canon rock' and there will be thousands of results. Have a look at some of these and you can see that a massive number of amateur musicians and learners have been inspired not only just to try and learn this great piece of music, but to publish their efforts. They are remixing, adapting creating, participating, and most importantly, learning. You will find all ages, all abilities and people from widely different backgrounds having a go. Its not just those with electric guitars either - acoustic guitars, keyboards and all manner of 'instruments' are being used. One guy is teaching himself how to play it on his acoustic guitar for his daughter's wedding - he is giving himself plenty of time to master it as she is only three! If, as Garry pleaded in 'We watched TV...they make TV', you viewed the Lawrence Lessig video he refers too, and you take a look at what is going on here you will really start to understand the notion that people are producing/remixing for the love of it and how important it is to our culture. So.... back to all those amateur musicians, and as Lessig very importantly points out, amateur and not amateurish, here is a sample of participation and remix: In how many ways does this relate to learning? For a start, its giving classical music a new life with a new generation. As stated before, it is inspiring others to have a go and learn something new. As a personal learning aid, some of the efforts published on Youtube, particularly from those who are not guitar geniouses and are brave enough to publish themselves, you can really pick up (sorry about the guitar pun) on the techniques that are being applied and demonstrated at a level you can understand. How about participation itself. Those who are are learning all the time and benefiting from it. If you played the funtwo video linked to earlier in this post (and I recommend you do if you appreciate music want to see an amazing performance ) and want to find out more about funtwo see the NY Times article 'Web Guitar Wizard Revealed at Last'.

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Filed under  //   Web 2.0