I have not used social bookmarking before. However I am at the start of a new project in a new job. I would like to get some publishing out of this project in the longer term and so think this may be a good time to try this with the rest of the project team. So the first thing I do is google some of the ideas
Delicious – It seems this is okay for the individual but not for groups as it is too public and does not have a good group-level interaction around it. CiteULike is said to be used by academics for using and sharing papers, but I am not sure if this what we are after – it is not only papers it is software and websites that are useful…
Collaborative bookmarking & Collaborative tagging, both these bring up a range of comments from just tools to blogs on where to find them and what to use them for. Google “democratic folksonomy metadata generation” and you get a whole discussion about democracy and its values on the internet as a whole.
So while there are many definitions it is more difficult to find a straightforward and useful tool to start my project. Eventually I go for Citulike as it came up as top when I narrowed my Googling to education. I will set this up and invite some colleagues to see what they think. I may try to link it into some type of file share system that way other resources can be used. I will also join Delicious as see the differences and perhaps look at some file stores that are different from the usual ones.
I think looking through the websites there is a grey area between social bookmarking and social networking. There is a lot of talk about them being age and subject dependent. I could not find much about where things link into each other, so for example I want s picture from Flicker to link to an article on YouTube and an academic paper I have read and stored on Citulike. I guess I would sort them all on a file on ‘My Documents’ or put them in perhaps a Google group… Overall I becomes increasingly confusing as the filed becomes larger and I become more tired!
Wednesday 8 April 2009
Skype - I think one of those simple tools
I am a regular Skype user. It is free to use and cost little to buy the camera (that has a microphone in it), it is convenient if I am on the computer and it does allow me to speak to people regularly who I would otherwise not do so as it would cost too much. I have Skyped into meeting as I have not been able to attend, and while this may not be ideal it does allow me to have some presence. The text type tool is useful (if one is a fast typist) to make notes or touch talk to people who have hearing difficulties
I think for distance learners it does have advantages to stay in touch with others but I think initially some type of structure would help those bonds form else it may feel like cold calling. It is not good for dispersed groups, as far as I know only sound can be heard but no picture. If one has the connection it could be used by students on fieldwork to remain in contact with their tutors and each other (archaeology students at different digs is just one of many examples I can think of here).
I think it is a useful tool – I did not know about the security issue. So I guess this is a reason to turn it off and not leave it run all day..!
I think for distance learners it does have advantages to stay in touch with others but I think initially some type of structure would help those bonds form else it may feel like cold calling. It is not good for dispersed groups, as far as I know only sound can be heard but no picture. If one has the connection it could be used by students on fieldwork to remain in contact with their tutors and each other (archaeology students at different digs is just one of many examples I can think of here).
I think it is a useful tool – I did not know about the security issue. So I guess this is a reason to turn it off and not leave it run all day..!
Thoughts on RSS Feeds
I initially came across RSS feeds when I started my PhD in 2007. I spoke to someone who was studying the internet and social network sites and depended on them to track what was happening. I tried them then and still have a lot set up on various sites I have interest in.
In relation to H807 I have set up a RSS for H807 student blogs. It is s useful way to find out what people on the course have on their blogs, the RSS updates my main page each time I log on so I don’t have to go and search for the latest updates.
As noted RSS is a great time saving tool. They way I have them arranged depends on what I want to do and how ‘keen’ I am to follow something. I have some coming through to my email box and some via an on-stream location (blogs and wikis). It does take a while (well at least for me it does) to get used to the format of some of the feed screens but that is okay
I find the largest drawback is it is tempting at first to sign up to so many, then when you go into your site or email feed there is actually too much information. It needs organising at least at first as many sites quote and feed from each other, so this takes time. You need to know where the bulk of the information is coming from.
Feeds that go direct to my email folders I find I don’t read if there are too many. I think therefore it does take time to get to know what ones own limits are and then set the Feed to send out the right amount of information. Too much and it becomes too overwhelming and I end up just deleting the lot as to thing I have 100s of unread news feeds it a bit much for a lunch time.
In relation to H807 I have set up a RSS for H807 student blogs. It is s useful way to find out what people on the course have on their blogs, the RSS updates my main page each time I log on so I don’t have to go and search for the latest updates.
As noted RSS is a great time saving tool. They way I have them arranged depends on what I want to do and how ‘keen’ I am to follow something. I have some coming through to my email box and some via an on-stream location (blogs and wikis). It does take a while (well at least for me it does) to get used to the format of some of the feed screens but that is okay
I find the largest drawback is it is tempting at first to sign up to so many, then when you go into your site or email feed there is actually too much information. It needs organising at least at first as many sites quote and feed from each other, so this takes time. You need to know where the bulk of the information is coming from.
Feeds that go direct to my email folders I find I don’t read if there are too many. I think therefore it does take time to get to know what ones own limits are and then set the Feed to send out the right amount of information. Too much and it becomes too overwhelming and I end up just deleting the lot as to thing I have 100s of unread news feeds it a bit much for a lunch time.
Information, explanations and web resources on Mashups
What is a ‘mashup’?
A mashup is what it says really, it is the putting together of two or more parts (data sources) of websites that have useful connections. So for example the jobs section of the Uni website could be mixed with the local map to show the locality of where the local jobs are situated for part time students. So what you see is a map with text boxes on it with the job information.
What can it be used for?
This is a really creative tool I think. I can see uses for it in a number of ways, not just maps. It could be used in creative imagery, music, management of customer services.
Reflections
On reading Lamb, B, (2007) I agreed with him about the sensitivity around plagiarism in a way. While within our academic culture this is a difficult area especially for foreign students not used to our style of teaching and learning we are very protective of things we create and write about, yet he is right that included in this is a tradition of building on the area of work (acknowledgement is the key here I guess). But I also saw a lot of scope for a lot of joined up thinking with this, some good and some a waste of time. Still I thought it was a good paper, easy to follow and gave good background reading on an area I had never heard of until this week. And today (08/04/09) on the Today programme (BBC radio 4), Evan Davies talked about Mashups, I don’t think I would have noticed had I note been reading this!
Useful websites (all downloaded on 6th April 2009)
Exeter College
http://fullmeasure.co.uk/mashups/ecsitemap.htm
Youtube - What are Mash-ups
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9sENSA_sjI
How to make your own Mashups
http://www.programmableweb.com/howto
Youtube Intro to QEDWiki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63qIq9t9Gqs
A mashup is what it says really, it is the putting together of two or more parts (data sources) of websites that have useful connections. So for example the jobs section of the Uni website could be mixed with the local map to show the locality of where the local jobs are situated for part time students. So what you see is a map with text boxes on it with the job information.
What can it be used for?
This is a really creative tool I think. I can see uses for it in a number of ways, not just maps. It could be used in creative imagery, music, management of customer services.
Reflections
On reading Lamb, B, (2007) I agreed with him about the sensitivity around plagiarism in a way. While within our academic culture this is a difficult area especially for foreign students not used to our style of teaching and learning we are very protective of things we create and write about, yet he is right that included in this is a tradition of building on the area of work (acknowledgement is the key here I guess). But I also saw a lot of scope for a lot of joined up thinking with this, some good and some a waste of time. Still I thought it was a good paper, easy to follow and gave good background reading on an area I had never heard of until this week. And today (08/04/09) on the Today programme (BBC radio 4), Evan Davies talked about Mashups, I don’t think I would have noticed had I note been reading this!
Useful websites (all downloaded on 6th April 2009)
Exeter College
http://fullmeasure.co.uk/mashups/ecsitemap.htm
Youtube - What are Mash-ups
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9sENSA_sjI
How to make your own Mashups
http://www.programmableweb.com/howto
Youtube Intro to QEDWiki
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63qIq9t9Gqs
Saturday 4 April 2009
The usefulness of affordances as a concept when thinking about technologies
As part of the activity for week 9 I read a few papers and was thinking about the concept of 'affordance'. While I am not sure I fully understand this concept I wanted to make a couple of comments on 2 of the papers that I think were related but were written on different topics and I think might have helped fill the gaps?
The papers were:
Walther, J.B. and Boyd, S. (2002) ‘Attraction to computer-mediated social support’ in Lin, C.A. and Atkin, D. (eds) Communication Technology and Society: Audience Adoption and Uses, Cresskill, NJ, Hampton Press, pp.153–88; also available online at http://www.msu.edu/~jwalther/docs/support.html (Downloaded on 2nd April 2009).
The second was
Weisband, S. and Kiesler, S. (1996) 'Self-disclosure on computer forms: meta-analysis and implications', Proceedings of CHI '96 [online] http://portal.acm.org.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/citation.cfm?doid=238386.238387
(downloaded on 2nd April 2009)
The papers talk about what they say they do really. The Weisband and Kiesler paper about why and what people disclose about themselves when asked questions via a computer as aposed to face to face. And the Wlater and Boyd about the amount and diversity of support there is online and who uses it and what it is used for again in relation to face to face support.
Both these papers related to why people feel safer when they meet people on-line than they do face to face. This despite the fact so much importance is placed on social cues (dress, gender, facial expressions etc), because of the computer somehow people are more willing to disclose personal information and ask for support, help and make friends as the computer is used as an some kind of an intermediary (that is if I understood what they were talking about!). I think this is a really interesting area and a reflection on society as a whole really (not making any grand theory statements, but thinking out loud).
As society becomes more individualistic and as people become more focused on image they maybe place less importance on long term relationships and connections. It takes time to make good friends and I think that if one is lucky one will make a handful of good friends in a life time. Yet look on face book and there is a social competition to have 1000s of friends. Similarly problems that were discussed and dissected with friends made at primary school and carried on over a life time or with family who live in the next village are now it is thought discussed more readily online within one of the 1000s of support sites.
Where I think this is a reflection on society is not only within the individualism, I think is lays also in the areas of people movement and perhaps in the fact we like more to consume than to give. By this I mean, we no longer have a job for life and live in the same place all our lives (of course people do, but it is a fact we move more now, houses and jobs). This makes sustaining long term relationships more difficult, work is not after all not only about wages. Making friends takes energy, why put in all that energy when you can get them online with no strings attached? The brother, sister or cousin who you knew as a child may be a stranger in adult life as they may live too far away to meet beyond the occasional wedding.
The movement of people has perhaps made us more unwilling to invest, more cautious about our neighbours or perhaps just lazy? So we consume our friends online….
The other paper was about how much and why people are more willing to disclose more about themselves online than face to face. This is a different social situation but what I think relates to the 2 is the individualism in relation to anonymity. As with friends etc, the computer acts as a gate keeper in a way, we tell the computer, we are not really talking to the other person in any depth. Our secrets are safe in the little box, we can turn off the screen and the friend we made will not bother us, the support we gave (or received) will not be scrutinised and the information we gave can not come back to bite. We can change computer or email and the chances are we will not have to think about that again.
I think one of the concepts introduced last week was about affordance of IT. I am not 100% sure I understand this concept fully, I made a note saying I thought it was referring to both the action of say typing, but also what it is allowing to be done. So typing is allowing us to communicate. Taken this concept then perhaps one of the many affordance(s) of IT is that it allows us to be anonymous consumers of social interaction? So in this way perhaps the concept is useful in considering how IT has shaped social behaviour?
The papers were:
Walther, J.B. and Boyd, S. (2002) ‘Attraction to computer-mediated social support’ in Lin, C.A. and Atkin, D. (eds) Communication Technology and Society: Audience Adoption and Uses, Cresskill, NJ, Hampton Press, pp.153–88; also available online at http://www.msu.edu/~jwalther/docs/support.html (Downloaded on 2nd April 2009).
The second was
Weisband, S. and Kiesler, S. (1996) 'Self-disclosure on computer forms: meta-analysis and implications', Proceedings of CHI '96 [online] http://portal.acm.org.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/citation.cfm?doid=238386.238387
(downloaded on 2nd April 2009)
The papers talk about what they say they do really. The Weisband and Kiesler paper about why and what people disclose about themselves when asked questions via a computer as aposed to face to face. And the Wlater and Boyd about the amount and diversity of support there is online and who uses it and what it is used for again in relation to face to face support.
Both these papers related to why people feel safer when they meet people on-line than they do face to face. This despite the fact so much importance is placed on social cues (dress, gender, facial expressions etc), because of the computer somehow people are more willing to disclose personal information and ask for support, help and make friends as the computer is used as an some kind of an intermediary (that is if I understood what they were talking about!). I think this is a really interesting area and a reflection on society as a whole really (not making any grand theory statements, but thinking out loud).
As society becomes more individualistic and as people become more focused on image they maybe place less importance on long term relationships and connections. It takes time to make good friends and I think that if one is lucky one will make a handful of good friends in a life time. Yet look on face book and there is a social competition to have 1000s of friends. Similarly problems that were discussed and dissected with friends made at primary school and carried on over a life time or with family who live in the next village are now it is thought discussed more readily online within one of the 1000s of support sites.
Where I think this is a reflection on society is not only within the individualism, I think is lays also in the areas of people movement and perhaps in the fact we like more to consume than to give. By this I mean, we no longer have a job for life and live in the same place all our lives (of course people do, but it is a fact we move more now, houses and jobs). This makes sustaining long term relationships more difficult, work is not after all not only about wages. Making friends takes energy, why put in all that energy when you can get them online with no strings attached? The brother, sister or cousin who you knew as a child may be a stranger in adult life as they may live too far away to meet beyond the occasional wedding.
The movement of people has perhaps made us more unwilling to invest, more cautious about our neighbours or perhaps just lazy? So we consume our friends online….
The other paper was about how much and why people are more willing to disclose more about themselves online than face to face. This is a different social situation but what I think relates to the 2 is the individualism in relation to anonymity. As with friends etc, the computer acts as a gate keeper in a way, we tell the computer, we are not really talking to the other person in any depth. Our secrets are safe in the little box, we can turn off the screen and the friend we made will not bother us, the support we gave (or received) will not be scrutinised and the information we gave can not come back to bite. We can change computer or email and the chances are we will not have to think about that again.
I think one of the concepts introduced last week was about affordance of IT. I am not 100% sure I understand this concept fully, I made a note saying I thought it was referring to both the action of say typing, but also what it is allowing to be done. So typing is allowing us to communicate. Taken this concept then perhaps one of the many affordance(s) of IT is that it allows us to be anonymous consumers of social interaction? So in this way perhaps the concept is useful in considering how IT has shaped social behaviour?
Podcast SWOT
Strengths
• Portable and friendly
• Simple to make
• Easy to upload and use
• Allows a second chance of learning/listening both in terms of consolidation and space
• Offers a service to students (not sure I agree too much with this consumerist discourse however)
• Download research reports and news atomically via RSS
Opportunities
• Opportunities to introduced ‘value added’ lecturers/speakers onto the course
• Markets education as progressive and dynamic
• Used for pre-registration information/news and virtual tours for new and continuing students
• Used to support students with additional needs as a tailor made learning (dyslexia via sensory aid support mechanism, and visual impairment),
• Alumni news
Threats
Not thought of any of these!
Weaknesses
Time consuming to edit if looking for an expert production
• Portable and friendly
• Simple to make
• Easy to upload and use
• Allows a second chance of learning/listening both in terms of consolidation and space
• Offers a service to students (not sure I agree too much with this consumerist discourse however)
• Download research reports and news atomically via RSS
Opportunities
• Opportunities to introduced ‘value added’ lecturers/speakers onto the course
• Markets education as progressive and dynamic
• Used for pre-registration information/news and virtual tours for new and continuing students
• Used to support students with additional needs as a tailor made learning (dyslexia via sensory aid support mechanism, and visual impairment),
• Alumni news
Threats
Not thought of any of these!
Weaknesses
Time consuming to edit if looking for an expert production
Wednesday 1 April 2009
Podcasting in Education
What is a podcast?
The best way to understand podcasting is to imagine a merger between blogging (regularly posted articles of news, insight, fun, grips, literature, and more) and radio (an established broadcasting medium that people have listened to for news and entertainment for generations).
Podcasting is essentially radio programming that can be produced with a standard computer, microphone, free software, and a web site for posting your programming. Podcasting can be listened to with any computer connected to the Internet and able to play standard MP3 audio files.
In the purest form of the term, Podcasts are published as RSS feeds (most blogging software features RSS feed generation). Listeners are notified of new programs by their aggregators, which then download the programs and then transfer them to the listener's MP3 audio player, such as an iPod. Get it? Podcasting! There are thousands of podcast programs available on the net, and their numbers are growing daily. Teachers, lawyers, doctors, housewives, children, and even classrooms podcast. In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen people.1
Attributed to David Weinberger
http://epnweb.org/index.php? Downloaded 01 April 09
Listening to a podcast
Ecotourism and the Grand Canyon, with Prof. Claudia Jurowski
http://epnweb.org/index.php?request_id=235&openpod=11#anchor11
Who do you think the podcast is intended for?
This podcast is intended for students and other people who are interested in tourism and the relationship between tourism and ecotourism and management. It is an interview with Claudia Jurowiski and additional information in relation to sustainable travel and ecotourism introduced at the start of the podcast.
Can you imagine using the podcast in your teaching or learning? If so, how would you use it?
It is an excellent resource for people who are interested in tourism, management etc. It gives an understanding of other peoples interests or points of view. It allows students to gain up to date information and research not only about this resource but also information that is given over the podcast. It also allows students to re-listen and therefore consolidate or revisit the information again.
What barriers, if any, do you see to the widespread use of podcasts from this site?
There is a need for internet access at a reasonable speed. It is also no use to students who have hearing difficulties or students who don’t favour auditory study skills. Also the site is big and therefore students would need to know what they were looking for as there is a lot to chose from (this could also be good as students could ‘stumble across’ something that may be interesting.
The best way to understand podcasting is to imagine a merger between blogging (regularly posted articles of news, insight, fun, grips, literature, and more) and radio (an established broadcasting medium that people have listened to for news and entertainment for generations).
Podcasting is essentially radio programming that can be produced with a standard computer, microphone, free software, and a web site for posting your programming. Podcasting can be listened to with any computer connected to the Internet and able to play standard MP3 audio files.
In the purest form of the term, Podcasts are published as RSS feeds (most blogging software features RSS feed generation). Listeners are notified of new programs by their aggregators, which then download the programs and then transfer them to the listener's MP3 audio player, such as an iPod. Get it? Podcasting! There are thousands of podcast programs available on the net, and their numbers are growing daily. Teachers, lawyers, doctors, housewives, children, and even classrooms podcast. In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen people.1
Attributed to David Weinberger
http://epnweb.org/index.php? Downloaded 01 April 09
Listening to a podcast
Ecotourism and the Grand Canyon, with Prof. Claudia Jurowski
http://epnweb.org/index.php?request_id=235&openpod=11#anchor11
Who do you think the podcast is intended for?
This podcast is intended for students and other people who are interested in tourism and the relationship between tourism and ecotourism and management. It is an interview with Claudia Jurowiski and additional information in relation to sustainable travel and ecotourism introduced at the start of the podcast.
Can you imagine using the podcast in your teaching or learning? If so, how would you use it?
It is an excellent resource for people who are interested in tourism, management etc. It gives an understanding of other peoples interests or points of view. It allows students to gain up to date information and research not only about this resource but also information that is given over the podcast. It also allows students to re-listen and therefore consolidate or revisit the information again.
What barriers, if any, do you see to the widespread use of podcasts from this site?
There is a need for internet access at a reasonable speed. It is also no use to students who have hearing difficulties or students who don’t favour auditory study skills. Also the site is big and therefore students would need to know what they were looking for as there is a lot to chose from (this could also be good as students could ‘stumble across’ something that may be interesting.
Reflection on communication technology
A few questions posed ....
Are such technologies finding new ways of conducting behaviours that were already in operation, or are they promoting new types of behaviour?
New ways of conducting behaviours that were already in operation, for me the one thing that jumps to mind is the mobile phone. We already used phones, but being mobile brought new expectations and at a younger age. It also made us become more slave like to each other and also towards our employer. Following on from this is the Blackberry, now we not only need to be connected to other people by phone, we are expected to pick up email, look at documents etc way beyond the working day. The working day has become extended. Holidays have become shorter. Our working insecurities are seen through the use of technology and in some way and our vanity has been boosted (wrongly) to think we are indispensable.
Are the technologies used uniformly, or do different communities use the same technology in different ways?
Yes, I think different people use technologies differently – young people are attached to their mobile phones, i-players etc as if they can’t live without them…. Older people don’t need to be so connected in the same way. Economic circumstances also come into play
Are internet technologies different in any respects from other technologies?
Yes, and No. They are the same as they are adapting and changing, they are about knowledge and communication. Increasingly it can be accessed on lots of IT equipment, so no longer does one need a computer, a phone will do it now….
No they are not different as they are about communication and connection
Can you think of an example when a technology has changed your behaviour?
Yes, the mobile phone has changed my expectations. The internet has changed the way I shop. All these technologies have changed my expectations and my working life.
Are such technologies finding new ways of conducting behaviours that were already in operation, or are they promoting new types of behaviour?
New ways of conducting behaviours that were already in operation, for me the one thing that jumps to mind is the mobile phone. We already used phones, but being mobile brought new expectations and at a younger age. It also made us become more slave like to each other and also towards our employer. Following on from this is the Blackberry, now we not only need to be connected to other people by phone, we are expected to pick up email, look at documents etc way beyond the working day. The working day has become extended. Holidays have become shorter. Our working insecurities are seen through the use of technology and in some way and our vanity has been boosted (wrongly) to think we are indispensable.
Are the technologies used uniformly, or do different communities use the same technology in different ways?
Yes, I think different people use technologies differently – young people are attached to their mobile phones, i-players etc as if they can’t live without them…. Older people don’t need to be so connected in the same way. Economic circumstances also come into play
Are internet technologies different in any respects from other technologies?
Yes, and No. They are the same as they are adapting and changing, they are about knowledge and communication. Increasingly it can be accessed on lots of IT equipment, so no longer does one need a computer, a phone will do it now….
No they are not different as they are about communication and connection
Can you think of an example when a technology has changed your behaviour?
Yes, the mobile phone has changed my expectations. The internet has changed the way I shop. All these technologies have changed my expectations and my working life.
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