It is all over every tech news outlet but Google announced a new customized search tool. I have created one for test purposes for instructional technology blogs and sites.
I have pre-loaded 21 sites but left it open for anyone to update. I will add more over the next few days but, give it a whirl with something like "learning object" or "Second Life"
Here is a link to the Instructional Technology Search (to add pages to this search, click here) and I have included a test of in-page code below:
3pointD.com Blog Archive Sustaining the Metaverse: A 3pointD Think Tank
I am not yet immersed in the Second Life phenom but expect to find a good reason to do so in the near future. In the mean time, I continue to keep up with a number of recent events through 2-D world blogs, such as John Bransford's recent in-game lecture and now this think tank panel on the future of the 3-D web.
I note one quote from the think tank:
"Group #1, Standards and Interoperability: Group #1 suggested a public documentation effort to cover 3D Web protocols, the thought being that this might promote the creation of a standardized virtual space that allowed anyone to use and develop it. Adopting an open protocol or standard would allow for the import and export of objects between metaversal spaces, which would knit the metaverse more tightly together."
Standards are great in practice, once you have them. But truly global and open standards are extremely difficult to achieve. I wish the person who raises their hand to head this committee the best of luck...
Standards were but one topic, check out the full post for the more interesting aspects of this 3-D world meeting.
Learning 2006 - Technology & Learning Futures
As part of the prep for Learning 2006, Elliott is beginning to launch a series of different short elements. This is particular one uses a "learning object" approach. While the info is interesting, what I liked best was the format. 7-8 short learning modules, each with a different topic and each in a stand-alone format. I can sit and listen to them all or only one at a time. I could see these could be pulled out and used in other contexts too.
The Chronicle: 10/6/2006: E-Mail is for Old People
Thanks to George for pointing to this Chronicle article.
As I immerse myself in several new communication modes and, more realistically, watch how my son is interacting through new technology, even IM is not fluid or fast enough to keep up with the multithreaded social networks that are emerging.
As is evident in many MMOGs today, text chat is multilayered and constant. World, group, and personal messages flow by in streams of multicolored text representing a hierarchy of social spheres. In Warcraft, for example, pink text=1:1 "whispered" chat, blue text=small group of less than 5 people for short quests, orange is for large temporary groups of up to 40 people, green text is your more stable group or guild, white text is spoken by avatars in close proximity, and finally global or regional chat (on multiple channels) is seen as a muted tan. All of this text is flowing by in a single chat window in a non-stop deluge of information and social interaction. Added to this is often a third-party application (typically Ventrilo or TeamSpeak) that allows groups to communicate by audio to fellow gamers and friends who live anywhere in the world and IM and MySpace are already "old fashioned" technology.
It becomes easier to understand how such social interaction might over-stimulate (in a positive sense) even those who have difficulty interacting in normal environment. This post on Terra Nova describes at least one anecdote of how positive benefits can transfer out of the virtual world and into the real one.
While MySpace and IM might have replaced email for today's college students, they will pale in comparison to the group entering college in the next three years. I think the problem for "old people" is that by the time we have identified the trend, it is too late to react to it in a meaningful way for those currently in the classroom. For higher education and business, we need to look at those who are still two years away to understand what we need to prepare for today.
While my son rolls his eyes, his friends still take a minute to think about my favorite saying which is, "I still remember when we had to read email by candlelight." (and some never make the connection...)
A Learning Objects Literature Review at iterating toward openness
David Wiley has posted both a draft of a chapter describing learning objects for the upcoming Handbook of Research on Educational Technology Communications and Technology.
In addition, he has posted a comprehensive list of 250 sources from every possible medium discussing learning objects.
As I have redoubled my work to complete my dissertation on learning object development, this will be helpful as Chapter 2 gets revised!
< community participation >
Thanks to Brent for participating (and thus contributing to my answer).
Like Brent, my immediate response is "no". And, being a radical pragmatist, I feel this is more of the reality than the hopeful dreams of the few who answered yes (such as Stephen, but he gave some distinct qualifications and definitions to his "yes"). The pragmatist would answer that there is already enough self-reflection and opinion on the internet. Do we need to blog to prove we exist?
But, upon some self-reflection on even creating this post, I am not so sure. If I were only consuming blogs, I would not have paid as much attention to this post. Just taking a few minutes out of my busy corporate life to respond has created a window for new ideas and thoughts. I believe this is what Stephen is talking about when he noted that, "In order to see this in a clearer light, it is in my view useful to look at what the role of a professional should be in a networked environment."
Professionalism is more than consumption, it is contribution. If those working in learning are to be viewed as "professionals" then a legitimate contribution to their field should be expected. To limit such contribution to a single medium or mode is, however, limiting and misguided.
So, the final answer is to generally agree with Brent and others to say that blogs are one way for learning professionals to actively contribute to the broader community but should not be see as the only way. In fact, participation can happen without
Fun stuff and a great idea to try this multi-user blog participation by Learning Circuits.
< / community participation >
nose back to grindstone...
I upgraded to MT 3.3 this week and it was good to get "under the hood" of the site for a bit. I had a few minor issues with the upgrade and had to wait until the weekend to figure out the strange error messages. When I looked into the database, I was able to get them sorted out in short order.
One of the things that prompted me to go ahead and move from 3.15 to 3.3 is that my log would not display. I was not sure whether something had been upgraded on the server or if something else was going on. After working through some silly permission issues for the other errors I was getting, the upgrade kept hanging on upgrading the log table. I glanced at the database tables and then did a massive double-take. My log table was 30 megs! There were 105,000 entries in the log file! Well, of course, most of these entries were blocked trackbacks but it has only been a few months since I last emptied the log file. I had to manually dump the table and then MT upgraded just fine. I still need to kick the tires a bit but all seems to be working again.
And all this time I thought the traffic to my site was from people interested in what I was writing...