Category: Open

Categories
e-toolkit learning Exploration Open

Open Sandbox

My investigations into the Terms of Service (TOS) for several social media products was an eye opening experience. I had never taken the time to read the details behind the ‘click to agree’ button when I signed on for any one of these services. In my haste, I now realize, I have signed off on certain rights and privileges that could impact my future. Is this a big deal? Maybe. My investigations will continue but have already connected to other ideas I am exploring on this topic.

My interest in this particular topic connects to a book I have been reading titled “Open Leadership” by Charlene Li. It’s premise is an investigation into how social technologies can transform the way leadership can be open while retaining control. This is not a ‘how to’ book on accessing, establishing or creating accounts within social media sites. This book focuses on how to harness the power of social media to lead in the times of Twitter and Facebook. The ten defining characteristics outlined in the opening chapters include

Information Sharing: explaining, updating, conversing, open mic, crowdsourcing, and platforms

Decision Making: centralized, democratic, self-managing, and distributed.

A subsequent chapter establishes some measures of how to control the openness of social media when structures are needed, by using ‘sandbox covenants’. This examines the policies, processes, and procedures needed to manage social media in the workplace. This brought to mind the guidelines recently created for educators in Ontario as outlined by the College of Teachers. These are important controls to ensure the intentions and actions of members of the company or profession behave in social media environments in an appropriate manner.

The key mind-sets of open leadership, according to Li, are optimism and collaboration. These two dimensions will impact how open and active a leader will be within a social media environment. The one example from the field of education that comes to mind is Chris Kennedy’s blog “The Culture of Yes“. Within this social media outlet, the ten characteristics outlined by Li for open leadership can be identified as being present.

One thing not mentioned in Charlene Li’s book is the connection to T.O.S. for each of the social media tools that an open leader may utilize. Privacy is not mentioned in the subject index. Once you look at the fine print for Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites, I wonder – Are the leaders losing control of their content, message and meaning? What happens when they click the ‘I agree’ button when creating their open, social media accounts, despite the sandbox covenants established internally? And if so, how can this be used to advantage? How does this apply to educational leadership?

Reference

Li, Charlene (2010) Open Leadership: how social technology can transform the way you lead. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishing. (see also: http://www.charleneli.com/open-leadership/)

Categories
e-toolkit learning Exploration Open

‘M’ -mobile and moving

image of two lane highway going off into distance
Learning on the highway

Mobility and movement are markers of the current world reality. My weekend was one of mobility and movement so it was an excellent time to test and learn about m-learning technologies.

My first task, to get into the UBC MET course on WebCT was accomplished without any difficulty. I was able to read, respond and post without any challenges. Once I reached the part of my journey where wireless cell service was a little less stable, I experienced dropped pages and error messages. That’s when I began to wonder about cell service to remote parts of the world. This is the issue, as well as WIFI service, that will change the availability of m-learning for people around the globe. If my service to a fairly populated area of Ontario wasn’t stable, what about remote regions of the province or country. M-learning is not an option for those areas yet.

 

My second task was to try my various mobile tools – laptop, iPad, iphone. Since I am able to access wireless cell service through my phone by tethering my laptop to access the internet while travelling, it was fairly easy to access both WebCT and Moodle to complete work online. The load time was not as fast as my home location, but it was manageable. Again, the challenge occurred as a result of pockets of weak and unstable signal strength. My efforts to post to this blog using my iphone and ipad were a success. I was not able to upload an image but was able to insert an image from the media library.

I reviewed some of the links available through the Educause article and discovered a wealth of resources relating to the topic of mobile learning. I had not been aware of the difference between e-learning and m-learning.  I also discovered that some of the effective web site design techniques applicable to accessibility are also effective for mobile learning needs.

Wagner (2005) reported that catalysts for mobile learning include:

  1. growth of wireless networks, availability of wireless services, prevalence of wireless devices
  2. consumer demand for wireless service that is accessible, reliable, flexible, interactive, efficient and secure
  3. demand for access anywhere and anytime

These catalysts are ever more present in the area of educational technology in current times. This is one area that will receive more of my attention as I move through the MET program.

 

References

Highway image retrieved July 13, 2011 from http://4freephotos.com/index.php Photo #a6bc277281bb299072624118fbf3370f

Wagner, Ellen D. (2005)  Enabling Mobile Learning. Educause Review Volume 40, No. 3, May/June 2005, p. 40-53 Retrieved July 16, 2011 from

http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume40/EnablingMobileLearning/157976

 

Categories
Exploration Open Reflection

Tag! You Found it!

Tagging is the key to the web. The concept of tagging is not new, but it is something that has eluded me in my understanding of the web. It has come back into my explorations during this week’s discussions about privacy, protection and public presence in online environments. The difference between being fully private and fully public has caused heated discussions with educators around the globe. In our efforts to keep students safe, we are missing an opportunity to apply critical literacy skills to their investigations with digital media. In the meantime, the concept of the web is changing and this will become a redundant topic of discussion.

 

semantic web graphic
Link to http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/

The concept of Web 3.0 and how tagging our web contributions makes the web work has caught my attention. I have now begun to tag where I never tagged before. I even went back into other blog posts and created tags to the information posted there. In this way, I am helping to create the next evolution of the WEB – 3.0. The web that will become my personal google and a tool fit to my needs. It will know what my interests are, my common search topics, my music download interests and even my fitness habits. My personal tags will define who I am, my biases, my interests and my explorations. My digital tatoo will define me but not limit me. It will serve my needs while it learns who I am.

 

Web 2.0 is here with full force. The next wave is the semantic web that is Web 3.0. Here is a simplified explanation.

Since we have also been working on digital storybooks this week, here is one created to explain the differences between Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. It is an Xtranormal clip with two characters – Broccoli 3-d and Semantic Web.

Web 2.0 you say?! I say, let’s move it up the web and aim for 3.0.

 

Categories
Exploration Open Reflection

Collaboration in Wiki-spaces

My reflections on the recent work on the collaborative wiki for this week’s module has left me pondering and wondering about the pedagogical and educational applications and implications for collaborative work spaces.

This activity was challenging since the only way to see if any changes had been made was to use the history and then compare versions for changes. This significantly changed the way I interacted with the information and with my classmates. Not necessarily easier or harder, just different. When you are used to seeing where and when additions or new information is posted, working with a wiki brings the word ‘collaborative’ to the forefront of my thinking.

Each page has the message “if you aren’t prepared to have your work ruthlessly modified, don’t post it here” as well as the warning ‘don’t post copyrighted material’. Both are reminders of the public nature of the writing environment.

The final product should be a piece of quality writing and a compilation of everyone’s thoughts on the topic, if everyone puts their ‘2 cents worth’ into the project. The fine-tuning and organization still takes a certain someone to take ownership of these tasks or the whole thing is left in a messy, disconnected collection of individual thoughts. In this writing environment, the individual contributor is always making some assumptions about the others involved – that they agree, that they are present, that they care about the topic, that they are participating (even if there is no record of their presence in the history), or that they are aiming for the best outcome for the project. These can be challenges but also strengths to this type of collaborative working space. If you have the right group of people working on the right task, these assumptions become irrelevant and a quality outcome is assured.

Categories
Open Reflection

Cookies and crumbs

I was having heated conversations this past weekend with some colleagues about tracking sytems when using email. Since then, this idea has caught my attention several times.

Cookies leave crumbs…. no matter how neat you eat. When you work in a digital world, the crumbs are there to follow. In my course work, I can us SNAPP to see who is talking to whom, how many times they respond, wether it is inbound or outbound, even get a visual of how the community connects through it’s various members.  In wiki work, the history and editing done is recorded and can be viewed. You can always go back to previous versions of what was created. In blogs, such as this one, there is a trail of changes made. In collaborative project spaces such as Googledocs, there is a record of who wrote what, how it was edited, even when the edits were done.

I recently got an email from Twitter and Facebook asking me to come back to visit. I haven’t been connected to those sites since I set them up (on a whim and some tech support from my daughter) and was surprised to know I’m wanted. So, I’m being tracked there too.

Interesting that the more you ‘put yourself out there’ the more connected you feel, but also the more suspicious you can become. I’m beginning to rethink how quickly I click the “I Agree” button when I sign up for some new web service.

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