tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29165134220280979792024-03-06T04:10:08.034+00:00Yarn and GlueWeb 2.0, e-Learning Developments and Reflections on TechnologyGuy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-81950817890842426532010-07-16T16:44:00.001+01:002010-07-16T16:44:21.484+01:00Got the train reservations and not a day too soon!Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-90591203996311765582010-07-16T16:43:00.001+01:002010-07-16T16:43:01.065+01:00Got the train reservations and not a day too late!Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-34897152675669071222010-03-17T10:26:00.002+00:002010-03-17T10:29:00.287+00:00"Heading To Follow"CDoTL's seasonal teaching and learning publication <i>Teaching Matters</i> went out here at the University of Reading today. I wrote an article on Twitter for it, which ended up being too long and which, consequently, I had to cut in half. The cuts were pretty gory and I'm not sure the article makes as much sense as it did (however much that was). So I've put the full, uncut version here so you can see for yourself.<br />
<br />
The article is titled "Heading to Follow", which is supposed to be a pun that looks like a printer's mistake. I laughed anyway. Disagree with anything in the likely inaccurate and unjustifiably opininated rambling below? — Do let me know through the comments at the bottom.<br />
<blockquote><b>If, as Marshall McLuhan once said, "the medium is the message" what is Twitter saying to us? And for those of us that use it — still in the minority, despite all the hype — what does it say <i>about</i> us?</b><br />
<br />
Those who aren't familiar with Twitter probably won't be surprised to hear that it's the latest popular something-or-other to hit the "Interweb". It was bound to be, what with all the press it's been getting. Turns out even the kids aren't down with this one. What distinguishes Twitter from other social websites, like Facebook or MySpace, is its simplicity. Virtually all it consists of is a box in which you can put what's called a "status update". This update is normally a record of what you're doing, or thinking, though it's equally likely to be a link to a website you've been looking at. The catch is that the box only allows up to 140 characters — essentially then, no longer than a single text message sent from a mobile phone, which is sort of the point as it turns out. If you've got a mobile you can tell Twitter what you're doing from anywhere with a decent signal.<br />
<br />
The updates are recorded on your profile, which otherwise merely consists of a picture, a short description and all the other updates you ever put out. This might be why it doesn't seem to have caught on with people under twenty, according to some demographic studies. You can change what the profile looks like to an extent but there isn't much opportunity to create a strong identity. Also "Friends" aren't a big feature of Twitter like they are on other social networking sites. You can choose to "follow" other users instead, so that whenever they update their status, you see it on the home page. Others, likewise, can choose to follow you, but it hardly mirrors or fosters the kind of relationships younger users of the Web relish.<br />
<br />
It's almost too simple really. So simple that people who don't use it don't understand the reason for its existence, let alone its gradually increasing presence in the news and subsequent popularity.<br />
<br />
Having said that, you might have a similar problem trying to explain to a hunter-gatherer why you'd want to spend 3.9 hours a day on average (last time I checked) sitting in front of a box of moving pictures. But most of us don't think about television in those bare objective terms, perhaps because we're too busy watching it. The only reason people question the point of Twitter is either because they haven't used it or because the concept is too novel. So perhaps before we can say what Twitter says to and about us and the age we live in, we need to ask the same question of other concepts - for example two that we take for granted.<br />
<br />
One could argue that, <i>pace</i> McLuhan, a lecturer in front of class is never merely lecturing on a certain topic. He or she is also, by virtue of the lecture itself, telling the class something simple — that what they say is of importance somehow and that you should listen. Powerpoint as a technology emerged to service that idea, to reinforce it lest our attentions should wander; to emphasise that what the person at the front says goes, for now.<br />
<br />
Television, similarly, talks at us. However, it's a little easier for us to change channels, if we fail to switch off altogether. So television ups the stakes a little and tries to make what it tells us entertaining, which might seem hard to believe these days. It's still talking at us but increasingly resorts to either emotional manipulation or irony, in order to keep us engaged. The emotional manipulation is like the equivalent of saying "you'd be a cold-hearted bastard to turn off now". And the irony is saying "Okay so I'm talking at you but we both know this is a one-way conversation and we both know you wouldn't be watching if you didn't want that so let's just wink at each other and get on with it". The most entertaining television manages to combine these opposite poles to great effect. Aside from these two of course there are always last resorts, namely titillation or outright sexual explicitness.<br />
<br />
It's possible, of course, for a lecturer to employ televisual-like techniques in a lecture but at a certain point it stops being a lecture. Pull on those heart-strings too much and you've got yourself a "speech". Employ irony and you may have yourself a "routine". Opt for those aforementioned last resorts and you'll have yourself a "burlesque show", or something. The very point of the lecture is to impart information to a preferably large audience. Start doing something else and there's probably another word for it.<br />
<br />
With Twitter of course there isn't a one-way conversation; there are several. What Twitter says to us, implicitly like blog tools in general, is that the things you do or think or say as an individual are important. But on Twitter, it's on one forum and there are no distinctions between "posts" and "comments" as you get with blogs. As a result, everyone talks at each other. While it's possible to send messages to one another, either in public or privately, this isn't the point of Twitter. It's designed so that you can announce what you're doing. There's a big give-away to this effect above the box where you enter your updates — it says there: "What are you doing?"<br />
<br />
Twitter isn't really built for dialogue therefore. Dialogue might be a side-effect of using it, in the same way that two people might talk to each other while watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer.<br />
<br />
In its simplicity, there is at least an honesty to the design of Twitter that one doesn't find with for example Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, or any other social networking site you might care to think of. On Twitter at least, the word "followers" instead of "friends" or "fans" keeps the "voyeuristic" aspect that seems to have become part-and-parcel of the social networking game upfront and intentional. Although as David Foster Wallace once said of television, true voyeurism depends upon the voyuee being unaware of their being watched. The main purpose of Twitter, it seems, is to encourage a kind of exhibitionism or performance art. At least, those that use Twitter best seem to manage to make what they're doing or saying or thinking sound entertaining, even when it may be the most mundane thing — they therefore get larger numbers of followers.<br />
<br />
I suspect this is why some people have said they didn't understand Twitter before they used it and now they've started they can't stop. It can be entertaining, especially when you can take part in putting on your own text-based show, replete with hyperbole, self-depracation and post-ironic witticism. That isn't to say Twitter can't be useful. If you sign-up and follow the right people, you give yourself access to a wealth of resources, not to mention potential contacts. I personally use it as a way of sharing bookmarks and occasionally commenting on what I've been doing or will do (but never while I'm doing it).<br />
<br />
Other ways of using Twitter in teaching and learning include 'backfeeding'. This has been done at a few of the conferences I've been to lately, where the speaker will load Twitter on a screen behind them and all the tweets relevant to the talk will appear for everyone to see. This seems useful when it comes to the "questions and answers" section of the talk but there might even be scope, in the future, for such feeds to change the direction of a presentation — depending on how brave presenters feel in the future. But it hardly feels like the solution to concerns about disengaged and disconnected learners. To find out what that is we're going to have to stop talking at each other first, no matter how much it sounds like we're having a conversation.</blockquote>Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-155959374424029832010-03-06T13:56:00.001+00:002010-03-06T13:56:30.194+00:00Can hear normally again! Music is beautiful; traffic too loud...Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-36991450345719804652009-09-27T09:44:00.001+01:002009-09-27T09:44:45.931+01:00was told (w/o provocation) by someone at the pool this morning to read Marx's Das Kapital; will shortly be checking forehead for writing...Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-87253275895560587702009-09-26T18:45:00.017+01:002009-09-27T09:33:47.062+01:00"Getting Started": A New Approach<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The short version:</span> I haven't previously blogged much about the training we do but I thought this was mention-worthy, and the patient reader (or impetuous scroller) will be rewarded with a link to some resources at the end.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">The less short one (in two parts):</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc_O79VBiD9WvZR2gyNU9OehnoaKg0mNZ-zdAyeO1Lay6VhiuBXLaQouqoZbXzLRi2Xd5GvqQSqyDzIFTpLfwgN096XHXFHxRv28fwS59dBfH1DIpmHItYH2TlVPISRp9E2jOgVnZgRzKR/s1600-h/my_workload.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 231px; height: 177px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc_O79VBiD9WvZR2gyNU9OehnoaKg0mNZ-zdAyeO1Lay6VhiuBXLaQouqoZbXzLRi2Xd5GvqQSqyDzIFTpLfwgN096XHXFHxRv28fwS59dBfH1DIpmHItYH2TlVPISRp9E2jOgVnZgRzKR/s320/my_workload.jpg" alt="Pilfered from Blog with a View at http://cruelanimal.blogspot.com/, found via Google Images" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385852384748883458" border="0" /></a>My workload seems to have gone beyond crazy this week (and it was already twitchy, drooling and rabid).<br /><br />One of my colleagues, Robyn, has been getting ready to leave our Team recently, and Richard (the other guy on the e-Learning Team) has been on leave. That's left just me to deal with all the email queries about courses on <span style="font-weight: bold;">Blackboard</span> that have been pouring in. Next week it's Freshers' Week and everyone has obviously either just got back from holiday or has just woken up to the fact that things need preparing.<br /><br />Meanwhile, I've also had two workshops to deliver with my colleague Paul Janota from IT Services. They were both "Getting Started with Blackboard" <span style="font-weight: bold;">training</span> sessions. We tend to run perhaps five or six times of these a term and they're internal, so the first one at least didn't involve too much preparation. But the second...<br /><br />Normally, Paul takes everyone through their first steps in Blackboard with the aid of the <a href="http://www.netskills.ac.uk/content/index.html">Netskills</a> <span style="font-weight: bold;">guides</span> produced by the <a href="http://www.netskills.ac.uk/content/about/history/">Newcastle University</a>. Once he has spent half an hour doing this from the front, he then gives them the same amount of time to follow the guides themselves while we go around giving individual help to anyone that needs it. Then about an hour into the session, once they've got a good idea about the basic functionality and limitations of the system, I talk about our Good Practice courses. These are example courses, copied from actual courses that were selected on the basis of their demonstrating good course design and making innovative use of tools within Blackboard (or the Web generally) for teaching and learning purposes. Once I've spent about ten minutes presenting some of these and showing people how they can access them in their own time, they all resume following the guides, while I go around asking if anyone needs specific courses setting up (though Richard sometimes does this bit).<br /><br />And that's what we did on Monday. As usual.<br /><br />However, yesterday, in our second session, we decided to take a different approach.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">*<br /></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZNcC2IF8eiOqLGKdfuX7ZZb7OCm_FzjkHnowwFiogSaghks85SwT1yTksnf_x51WHM-Ow0PThVomWAOSEfNvQ41YilW5-J6pD4A6sCSMCI7-Noozm9_NOwD0eN0qrX2XMJTbWrRP5IhxO/s1600-h/how-to-screenshot.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 162px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZNcC2IF8eiOqLGKdfuX7ZZb7OCm_FzjkHnowwFiogSaghks85SwT1yTksnf_x51WHM-Ow0PThVomWAOSEfNvQ41YilW5-J6pD4A6sCSMCI7-Noozm9_NOwD0eN0qrX2XMJTbWrRP5IhxO/s320/how-to-screenshot.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385850806645006882" border="0" /></a>Over the summer, Robyn and I have been working on a <span style="font-weight: bold;">new online Help system</span>. The new help information is presented on a wiki within Blackboard (we use the <a href="http://www.learningobjects.com/expo.jsp">Learning Objects Expo LX</a> tool). Preparing this has been a long and painstaking task: detailing every step needed to, for example, post an Announcement or Assignment, ensuring the information is thorough but not too dry or boring, and trying to keep the pages from being too technical despite all this. We've tried to put each tool in a teaching and learning context but at the same time keep the pages concise. We don't know if we've succeeded (we're pretty sure in some areas we haven't had the time to) but the idea of putting this information on a wiki was to make it easy to change and not just for one member of the Team but all of us and, if need be, people from other areas too. So we're not really expecting it to be "finished" as such - ever, let alone by next week.<br /><br />As long as the information is comprehensible, relatively accessible and easy to navigate, we'll be happy (and relieved). And it very nearly is.<br /><br />Except a couple of weeks ago, having returned from foreign climes and possibly still a little affected by the sun, I thought it'd be great if we could make these online guides print-friendly too. That way, we could use them in place of our Netskills guides during workshops, thereby cutting out some of the what we'd always thought to be unnecessary stuff and also making them more specific to Reading.<br /><br />So on top of all the firefighting, I spent a sizeable chunk of time this week, perhaps even a clock's worth, going through the guides, making sure they followed on from each other, and changing links so they were not just user-friendly but paper-friendly too. I met with Paul halfway through the week and we agreed on what other changes should be made.<br /><br />Then Friday came. After a punch-up with the photocopier, I arrived at the workshop and rather apprehensively distributed the new guides. I basically had to run through the whole session with a new outline because the order in which tasks were done had changed slightly. I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure the new guides would compare and, although Paul had brought the old Netskills guides as back-up, it would've been embarassing for us and confusing for the attendees, switching halfway through.<br /><br />Thankfully, it all seemed to go well. There were, unfortunately, a couple of steps missing from the guides and a couple of spelling errors (for which I apologised) but the participants seemed able to follow the guides just as well as previous participants had the old ones. I shouldn't have worried I suppose; Paul and I were breaking a pattern that we were used to, but the attendees had by design never come to a "Getting Started" session before, so they weren't about to make comparisons, favourable or otherwise.<br /><br />The feedback we received was very positive so I'm glad I put the time in. Now I just have make all the more advanced-level pages print-friendly and we'll have a whole set of new resources to use.<br /><br />We've started to promote our new Help System yet: we have a few changes to make to the tab in Blackboard before we're ready. Hopefully these will done by Monday evening and I'll get my weekends back and live a peaceful life once more. However, the wiki pages are already available publically at this address - <a href="https://www.bb.reading.ac.uk/webapps/lobj-expo-bb_bb60/user/DA5D5C46DDBDE6A9/HowTo_QAs/Index">https://www.bb.reading.ac.uk/webapps/lobj-expo-bb_bb60/user/DA5D5C46DDBDE6A9/HowTo_QAs/Index</a><br /><br />If you're using Blackboard and you're struggling for help guides, then you might want to use these. Feel free to copy and modify as you see fit, though some credit would be nice where possible! And let us know how it goes, if you have time.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">In summary:</span> (1) We've made some new resources, (2) we're very nearly proud, and (3) I should write shorter blog posts (but see point 2).</span>Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-79158767519848910972009-09-16T17:50:00.004+01:002009-09-16T17:59:04.051+01:00Catching UpIt's Wednesday, my fourth proper day back after returning from my travels, and I have a big pile of to-do on my desk. Not that I got to do any of it today as I had some meetings which produced their own to-do, which I then had to do first in order to clear my desk (and mind) for the original pile of to-do...<br /><br />The main tasks at the moment seem to be:<br /><ul><li>Finishing our new online Help System which uses Expo in Blackboard</li><li>Changing the iLearn e-portfolio enhancement tool in response to the feedback we received from students</li></ul>I'm now really appreciating the fact that we decided not upgrade to Blackboard version 9 this year.<br /><br />When I get time I also intend to write up my remaining notes from ALT-C which I'll then back-post here and advertise up-front.Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-29505209525493409562009-09-15T12:08:00.003+01:002009-09-15T12:31:59.558+01:00Learning Technologists on TwitterI just used a tool on a site called <a href="http://tweepml.org/">TweepML</a>, where <a href="http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/">Steve Wheeler</a> (<a href="http://twitter.com/timbuckteeth">timbuckteeth</a> on Twitter) has arranged a list of learning technology professionals. The tool enables me to follow all of them on <span style="font-weight: bold;">Twitter </span>with one click. Which is to say I will now be able to see every time they tweet something.<br /><br />If you have a Twitter account and want to be be updated yourself you can do the same <a href="http://tweepml.org/Learning-Technology-professionals/">here</a>.<br /><br />I don't really know if I will be able to keep with all these tweets - I've gone from following a manageable 36 'twits' (that is the term apparently) to a sudden 103. That's 67 people all of whom I imagine are Twitter enthusiasts and who therefore will be tweeting on a regular (e.g. maybe four times an hour? more?) basis.<br /><br />Still, it's a neat tool and I can always opt out if I find certain people aren't tweeting stuff I want to read.<br /><br />I've signed up to be on the list myself. It asked me to give a justification as to why I should be on the list - my three reasons:<br /><ul><li>I work in an HE e-Learning team</li><li>I did quite a bit of fiddling with e-portfolios last year</li><li>I'm generally neurotic about technology and the way it might be shaping our lives, for better (eg. instant connection and communication) or worse (eg. increasing "alienation", connection only in a voyeuristic sense)</li></ul>So that last reason might disqualify me from the list! And also, I'm not really sure I tweet enough, especially w/r/t work. Still, if <span style="font-style: italic;">you</span> would like to follow me, I can be found <a href="http://twitter.com/guypursey">@guypursey</a>Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-60034398214073945192009-09-11T17:22:00.001+01:002009-09-11T17:22:55.100+01:00had the first full day in the office in over a month and the desk is mess again already... <a href="http://ping.fm/xecuG">http://ping.fm/xecuG</a>Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-89904253142509013262009-09-08T23:50:00.006+01:002009-09-09T18:50:27.534+01:00ALT-C 2009 Day One Round-upAs this is my first post-holiday post I'll try and keep it brief. I'm in Manchester for the next couple of days for <span style="font-weight: bold;">ALT-C</span>. ALT is the Association for Learning Technology and the C bit stands for <span style="font-weight: bold;">Conference</span>. It's a chance to spend a few days feeling confused about which of the ten parallel sessions you want to attend and more generally hobnobbing with other learning technologists and professionals in the education sectors.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpF6lyUO6V-wvBKJMNL-wpGU-ZU6tvLZNbZaJxpMora3x0BW4O2mRJ2RMbkL0wavtaCC1BCvTtjlDXCGMRlo53N-YB1c2k6yzl0zsQMoaer5aKSRpQNSrnKhy8_Sq5DYQiKUPuKTa6tsOg/s1600-h/IMG_4940.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpF6lyUO6V-wvBKJMNL-wpGU-ZU6tvLZNbZaJxpMora3x0BW4O2mRJ2RMbkL0wavtaCC1BCvTtjlDXCGMRlo53N-YB1c2k6yzl0zsQMoaer5aKSRpQNSrnKhy8_Sq5DYQiKUPuKTa6tsOg/s200/IMG_4940.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379521402966228402" border="0" /></a>This year's conference got off to a good start, thanks to a keynote from Michael Wesch, which covered identity, the search for authentic self, the history of "whatever", and how this is all looking in our new age of digital media. If you haven't heard of Michael Wesch before I strongly recommend having a look at his short and informative videos on YouTube - specifically <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g&feature=channel">The Machine Is Us/ing Us</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o&feature=channel">A Vision of Students Today</a>.<br /><br />Wesch was funny, knowledgable and sometimes just plain endearing. He began by talking about his experiences in Papua New Guinea, living with people who have no (or perhaps next to no) experience in the way of exposure to digital media, the Internet, or any of the devices that conspire to keep us constantly "connected". According to Wesch, the people he stayed with don't even have names (that they can remember), their village and community are so tight-knit. It made an interesting contrast to his following description of mass civilisation, in which the search for recognition and desire to escape from anonymity have become so crucial that flocks of consumers become hell-bent on winning the next American Idol contest.<br /><br />I don't think Wesch actually used the word 'alienation' but for me it would have summarised this feeling perfectly. The feeling that creates this desire, that is. And I was glad that he said, despite <span style="font-style: italic;">our</span> need to engage with digital media (as educators, technologists, and citizens, I suppose), the Papua New Guineans seemed just fine the way they were - "disconnected", which sounds perjorative perhaps because it comes from our own homogenising value system with regards to "progress".<br /><br />I'd like to write about this more - it's an area that fascinates me - but I should mention some of the other sessions I've been to.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiRriIC1IFQ_BsEeCf9KCNhQoUaKxsxPqFWUISf4Zka3cMOnv2Z36dzlo9VLiMFHo08ew8bNtS1UPOBCEFDz2oxz6Em1kTxENVumqWPORhfb5MWlkKAlErLGKL2l4oGf1DW97sUANHMAkQ/s1600-h/IMG_4944.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiRriIC1IFQ_BsEeCf9KCNhQoUaKxsxPqFWUISf4Zka3cMOnv2Z36dzlo9VLiMFHo08ew8bNtS1UPOBCEFDz2oxz6Em1kTxENVumqWPORhfb5MWlkKAlErLGKL2l4oGf1DW97sUANHMAkQ/s200/IMG_4944.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379522367366755586" border="0" /></a>Josie Fraser hosted a symposium called "<span style="font-weight: bold;">The VLE is Dead</span>" in which a group of four panelists got to put forward their views before opening up to the floor. The panelists themselves were lively and entertaining in their responses to the audience but some expressed frustration that the debate wasn't focussing on the real issues - which when they were brought up seemed to imply that the whole factory-based education system and perhaps even the socio-political organisation of educational institutions needed to be radically changed before something like the VLE (which may only be symptomatic of these larger issues) would die.<br /><br />One of the panelists Nick Sharratt made a good play on words with the headline "VLE not finished" - meaning that's it's not so much vanquished as incomplete and it's our responsibility as technologists to keep working on it.<br /><br />James Clay, one of the panelists has posted a video of the whole talk on his blog <a href="http://elearningstuff.wordpress.com/2009/09/09/the-vle-is-dead-the-movie/">here</a>. You could try watching the first twenty-odd minutes for a summary of the views as I don't think the panelists really shifted positions on anything fundamental. You can also leave comments there and take part in the general discussion on Twitter using the hashtag <a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23vle"><span style="font-weight: bold;">#vle</span></a>.<br /><br />The final "highlight" of the day was Steve Wheeler's session on <span style="font-weight: bold;">Twitter</span> which was kind of chaotic and may have left some newcomers to the tool feeling confused, but raised some interesting questions about its possible applications in teaching and learning contexts. I'll perhaps blog again sometime on the Infinite Summer project <a href="http://yarnandglue.blogspot.com/2009/06/infsum.html">I mentioned previously</a>, as an example of this.<br /><br />All in all, an interesting if tiring first day. It doesn't help that I still have jetlag...<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(For once, all the photos are my own! Ie. I pressed the button on my camera and they're not just pilfered from somewhere like usual...)</span>Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-66452778072815234302009-08-08T05:00:00.001+01:002009-08-08T05:00:49.559+01:00will be w/o a real Internet connection for a few weeks now probably.Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-41097160959158905142009-07-31T19:53:00.001+01:002009-07-31T19:53:56.558+01:00wrote a list of things that need doing this evening and it's worrying long. Ergo, I am online.Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-34905774464108998202009-07-30T11:45:00.005+01:002009-07-30T14:43:22.408+01:00New iPhone?July so far has been a busy month and there are only two days left for it to prove otherwise. Consequently, between sessions of preparing our new help system, I've time for the occasional visit to Twitter and that's about it. (Hence the lack of recent updates on this here blog.)<div><br /></div><div>Since <a href="http://yarnandglue.blogspot.com/2009/06/infsum.html">my last post about Twitter</a> (in which I said I'd be taking part in a new social media experiment called Infinite Summer), I've been on it quite a lot. And unlike my other forays into social networking this hasn't been one of these read- or write-only things.</div><div><br /></div><img src="http://www.theonion.com/content/files/images/Apple-Claims-Keynote-600w-R.article.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 300px;" border="0" alt="" /><div>In fact, I've been getting into it so much, I've been tempted to get myself an iPhone so I can play with it on the go (which lately is where I've been finding myself).</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, these toys and gadgets are changing so fast nowadays, I find myself resorting back to my old "deferred entry" excuses, excuses which follow this line of reasoning: if something is going to be better and/or cheaper in a few months time, might as well put your pennies in a piggy bank and wait 'til then. Which reasoning means of course that I will never ever buy any new toy or gadget, unless we hit that sometime-anticipated <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity">technological singularity</a> while my money is still worth something. (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna">Some</a> have placed bets on 2012.)</div><div><br /></div><div>All of which is one way of directing you to <a href="http://www.theonion.com/content/news/apple_claims_new_iphone_only?utm_source=a-section">a report from America's Finest News Source</a> about the new iPhone, which I must say even I am tempted to buy into.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some more stuff about Twitter and the #infsum thing is waiting in my blogpost drafts area and it'll be there I guess until I've decided the grammar is sufficiently anal enough for all to see. Hopefully sometime in the next few days. </div>Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-18143719016200098202009-07-02T14:01:00.006+01:002009-07-02T15:16:34.074+01:00Bb 9 Upgrade Notes (LSBU)Last Friday, my colleague Robyn and I went to the <a href="http://www.wmin.ac.uk/">University of Westminster</a> for the <a href="http://londonbug.pbworks.com/FrontPage">London BbUG</a> (<b>Blackboard</b> Users' Group). It was, as usual, a nice way of catching up with friends and colleagues in other institutions and a healthy outlet for our frustrations with, ahem, certain bits of software. We also got to see a couple of presentations - one of which was given by three people from <a href="http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/">London South Bank University</a> (LSBU).<div><br /></div><div>LSBU recently upgraded to <b>version 9</b> of Blackboard and it was very interesting to hear about the issues they had and were, in some cases, still experiencing.</div><div><br /></div><div>They have a large and diverse student body; 23,500 students, half of whom are of ethnic minority. The decision to upgrade came apparently from their Vice Chancellor, and was related to recognition of the need for a student portal. Coming from the top down as it did, the upgrade was thoroughly planned; Jim Nottingham gave a glimpse of their schedule as laid out in a finely-detailed spreadsheet. This tight schedule was crucial for them, I gather, as use of the VLE continued heavily through the summer months and they were upgrading from version 7.2 (which e-portfolio users will remember had some pretty dire bugs).</div><div><br /></div><img src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2007/11/26/cupoftea2.jpg" style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" border="0" alt="" /><div>Sarah Bell, who's on the e-learning team there, listed some of the bugs they are now encountering in the upgraded software, among which were (from my scribbled notes):</div><div><ul><li>Problems with course copying (something to do with admin settings and existing courses)</li><li>Language pack issues</li><li>Availability of courses for the TA role</li><li>Issues with announcements</li><li>Ample time to make cup of tea while waiting for Grade Center to load</li><li>File exchange issues</li><li>Problems with lists and re-ordering items in courses</li><li>Changing colour of item titles</li><li>Browsing received e-portfolios still limited</li></ul></div><div>I wasn't really surprised by the last of those points. The interface may've changed but the functionality of the e-portfolios is much the same. In fact, that's one of the main reasons we at Reading have decided not to opt for the upgrade this summer. The biggest challenge we imagined facing, before we even hit any bugs, would be re-training staff in the new Web 2.0 "look-and-feel" with its lack of control panel, etc. The new interfaces <i>are</i> better, and kudos to Blackboard for finally trying to catch up with the kids, but they do leave staff who are used to clunky workarounds and web-based forms with receipts in need of some support, guidance, and general TLC.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you see this as a problem (which we did, in terms of resourcing) then it's one more to the list, as Version 9 doesn't actually have enough change in functionality to solve any of our existing problems! Ergo, automatically, the cons outweigh the pros.</div><div><br /></div><div>I did speak to a few of people from Blackboard at the <a href="http://yarnandglue.blogspot.com/search/label/bb%20world%20europe%202009">Bb World Europe conference this year</a> about their plans for e-portfolios. All they could tell me was that big things were on the way (which, in retrospect, sounds kind of ominous). I have not-so-secretly been hoping that they don't change e-portfolios too much as we've adjusted to the pitfalls and built our enhanced iLearn features on the back of it. If they do, it would be nice just to include some extra functions that don't interfere with the current operations (like they did with the Received Portfolios organisation): things like an ability to import e-portfolios back into Blackboard, an option to give 'write' permissions to others and an improved WYSIWYG text-editor (like the LX one). Simple additions like that would go a long way to improving the tool, whether the interface is 'clunky' or not.</div><div><br /></div><div>The same probably goes for the rest of Blackboard - which might explain why, with the exception of LSBU and one other person I spoke to, no-one else at the Users Group is going ahead with an upgrade this year.</div>Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-55062502249519617912009-06-26T18:07:00.010+01:002009-07-01T21:47:28.174+01:00#infsum<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmtMMCRK08ZOcs6k2KLLYYMkMZRVz8RV7jhyphenhyphenCbr5231hgCGRyCF2cVgeZur7zs2em5MKm4pQqLtg_c6-lmWUc0e0jsI-PWFKK3ov985Hpnd0QrvQLZCW-plMkq_3AZ1dtDcbeWOUW6jE-v/s1600-h/IMG_2832.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 112px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmtMMCRK08ZOcs6k2KLLYYMkMZRVz8RV7jhyphenhyphenCbr5231hgCGRyCF2cVgeZur7zs2em5MKm4pQqLtg_c6-lmWUc0e0jsI-PWFKK3ov985Hpnd0QrvQLZCW-plMkq_3AZ1dtDcbeWOUW6jE-v/s200/IMG_2832.JPG" border="0" alt="a photo of my copy of IJ taken by... uh... me" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5352002523550000978" /></a>This week I have decided to participate in a sort-of-new social media experiment.<div><br /></div><div>Depending on which way you look at it, <a href="http://infinitesummer.org/">Infinite Summer</a> was set up either as a challenge to or a support base for those who have had David Foster Wallace's <i>Infinite Jest</i> on their shelves for too long and hadn't until now mustered the strength to lug it off. The "challenge" (for those that see it that way) is to read the book in three months... Well 91 days to be exact; most people began on June 21st and are set to end on September same, thus encompassing all of the summer-official, and hence the name of the experiment.</div><div><br /></div><div>The reason this is a challenge, and the reason one might also see it as a support base or network or group, is because the book contains over 1,000 pages, a not insignificant chunk of which are endnotes. The length (or heft) of the book is often commented upon but, just in case it's not clear, it is <i>a novel</i>. This is a fictional book to be read for <i>pleasure</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://fanaticcook.blogspot.com/2008/09/david-foster-wallace-1962-2008.html"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAjMT_LLnM-YA5tSKNJ7eZxSmnuS4n4bD0wwgwqG7T2nqVg6jZ9IY7PeS_6NFxo3mVqgfJZWa40RWkWEwEpiOXbES9pGyeKa69J_pHXbMbvqCWnlab9_v0mcqkjVHChyNnkDoTPGKhKBQA/s400/DavidFosterWallace3.jpg" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px;" border="0" alt="picture of DFW, pilfered from http://fanaticcook.blogspot.com/" /></a>DFW has for a few years now been one of my favourite writers and <i>Infinite Jest</i> has been taking up a wedge of space on my bookshelf for about the same amount of time. I avoided reading it by absorbing everything else he'd written that I could get my hands on, thinking I'd never have the time to commit to his magnum opus. I was shocked by his suicide last year and was going to post something on this blog but didn't think what I had written was appropriate at the time.</div><div><br /></div><div>Many others were upset too. Some like the founders of Infinite Summer were obviously more productive in their response to his passing.</div><div><br /></div><div>The official website (<a href="http://infinitesummer.org/">http://infinitesummer.org/</a>) is set to feature regular blog postings from writers who are reading the book alongside everyone else, commenting on their experiences with the books and making people feel perhaps a little less alone in the challenge. (As well as being long and containing endnotes, the general preconception of the book is that it's difficult.)</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, a Twitter hashtag (<a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23infsum">#infsum</a>) has been set up so that twitterers can comment on the book and then see each others' comments by doing a quick search.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><div>For those who have ever participated in a book club, this may not seem that original or experimental. The first obvious difference from a 'real' book club that meets in a physical location, is that, as with most online groups, distance is no issue; people from all over the globe can alert and update each other as to their progress and interpretations. Twitter also seems to eradicate time issues; it's not exactly asynchronous as it's possible to simulate live chat via Twitter but it's also possible to (dis)engage at any moment. This has its advantages and inevitable its disadvantages.</div><div><br /></div><div>One criticism, that could also be levelled at Twitter as a whole, is that people don't necessarily communicate but just key others into their own updates via the hashtag. This means the tool sometimes seems to facilitate something more like a support group for addicts ("It's been 7 days. I've read 63 pages. Every day is struggle" &c.) than an actual discussion, but then perhaps that's appropriate given the alleged subject matter of the book. There might also be a parallel to the upcoming <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/jun/10/promoting-bookaholism">"bookaholic" publicity campaign</a>, which Jean Hannah Edelstein reported on earlier this month.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another disadvantage might be that it encourages instantaneous judgement of the section just read every time the book is put down. Obviously people continuously form and change opinions as they read something but I wonder if Twitter will encourage people to cement those opinions without giving them more than 140 characters to reflect on them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Having said that, Twitter is only one outlet for those taking part and many are keeping blogs on their progress. You can follow all this yourself by checking out the website (link above) or the hashtag.</div><div><br /></div><div>I have decided to back-post my tribute for DFW written at the time of his death - you can find it <a href="http://yarnandglue.blogspot.com/2008/09/rip-dfw.html">here</a>. I'll let you know if anything interesting in the way of social media experimentation comes up.</div></div></div>Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-3530219090807245422009-06-22T18:24:00.001+01:002009-06-22T18:24:55.651+01:00started on #infsum last night. Progress so far: pg12.Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-1456180588940363442009-06-18T07:48:00.001+01:002009-06-18T07:48:39.681+01:00got into the office bright and early to catch up on work before the #pdprdg event. (Coffee, for once, may be required.)Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-72477375614303308432009-06-14T09:48:00.001+01:002009-06-14T09:48:43.762+01:00might be forced to concede to the 21st century and buy a new phone. The Nokia 3410 barely survives a text now, despite frequent recharging.Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-46162760959268042842009-06-03T12:11:00.001+01:002009-06-03T12:11:13.604+01:00Could be up for an Infinite Summer <a href="http://ping.fm/nNO9R">http://ping.fm/nNO9R</a> #infsum Anyone else game?Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-24675292877646237362009-05-29T13:41:00.001+01:002009-05-29T13:41:13.634+01:00finished Catch 22 and declared it a masterpiece (but then realised that many other people have already done just that...) Next: Barthelme!Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-28821004235177831542009-05-29T11:48:00.008+01:002009-05-31T13:59:53.068+01:00Facebook Status Update UpdateMay has been a quiet month for me blog-wise. I've been using <a href="http://ping.fm/">Ping.fm</a> as mentioned previously to update my <a href="http://twitter.com/guypursey"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Twitter</span></a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=526155349&ref=profile"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Facebook</span></a> and <a href="http://www.blogger.com/">Blogger</a> accounts simultaneously and it's either made me a more frequent <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">micro-blogger</span> or... just a very lazy blogger.<div><br /></div><div>Anyway, I'm back here because I realised it's been a month since I posted anything properly and because <a href="http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/">Language Log</a> seem to have picked up on <a href="http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1454#more-1454"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">status update</span> pronoun issues</a> similar to the annoyances I'd found myself getting unduly worked up about <a href="http://yarnandglue.blogspot.com/2009/04/status-updates-and-digital-identity.html">back in the frantic days of April</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Eric Baković, who wrote the post, also noted the increasing prevalence, since Twitter, of users' tendency to "brain-dump" on Facebook. (I thought that was a nice phrase for it.) He puts this down to the Facebook facelift which changed the status area from a "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">Username</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);"> is</span>" style format to the present and more evocative question: "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255);">What's on your mind?</span>"</div><div><br /></div><div>So perhaps I missed the point of this status update feature or perhaps I've just failed to keep up with the times... It's not so much what you're doing but what you're thinking that counts. This gives <a href="http://thesearethelies.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/introduction/">my friend's admission</a> that he feels all this Tweeting and FBing and blogging feels more like group therapy than communication some credence. It also makes sense as there are surely only a limited number of things you can do while updating your status.</div><div><br /></div><div>I digress. Point is, that status updates in Facebook are still preceded by your username.</div><div><br /></div><div>Eric goes on to explore the grammatical implications of this:</div><div><blockquote>Among those who conceive of the username prefix as part of the status update, a couple of patterns are distinguishable. (Again, this may have been true before the facelift, but it's certainly more noticeable now.) On the one hand, there are those who consistently refer to themselves in the third person; e.g., "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Username</span> can't wait for the weekend so that she can sit on the couch and watch TV." On the other hand, there are those who start out in the third person but then switch to the first; e.g., "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Username</span> is ecstatic that it's the weekend. I'm going to sit on the couch and watch TV!"</blockquote>If this is something that people do frequently without stopping to consider the grammatical inconsistencies I wonder what it means for self-perception, identity, narrative, etc... I'm not losing sleep over this (yet) but I do wonder if and how it's reshaping our culture and our perceptions of ourselves and what we do or think. To be switched on and constantly reporting on your actions/thoughts, announcing what you do, to a world full of people doing/thinking much the same...</div><div><br /></div><div>As with my previous post, this may all seem trivial to some but I wonder what someone like Orwell would have thought about this technology and the kind of mangling of language that seems inherent to its use...</div>Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-46929314759766572902009-05-21T16:56:00.001+01:002009-05-21T16:56:32.854+01:00got tired and would like a beer and burrito.Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-73432367924427949732009-05-20T09:56:00.001+01:002009-05-20T09:56:39.683+01:00probably should've read Catch 22 years ago but only started at the weekend.Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-25124196094699496292009-05-17T21:43:00.001+01:002009-05-17T21:43:15.911+01:00could get used to the weekend.Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2916513422028097979.post-48792554728893498332009-05-14T22:14:00.001+01:002009-05-14T22:14:30.021+01:00will be playing an acoustic set with Galapagos tomorrow night, at Deja Vu. Please no jokes about the venue; I've heard them all before...Guy Purseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.com0