Author : SISWO, BENG

Saat ini pendidikan menjadi kebutuhan penting. Dengan kemajuan teknologi, sistem pendidikan dapat dilakukan melalui internet yang sering disebut e-learning. Utilities manage student ini berguna untuk mempermudah pengajar dalam mengawasi kegiatan yang dilakukan siswa, dalam mengelompokkan siswa untuk mengerjakan tugas kelompok, serta mempermudah siswa dalam mengumpulkan tugas. Aplikasi ini menggunakan teknologi PHP yang diletakkan pada sebuah web server. Halaman-halaman web diletakkan dalam web server yang terhubung ke database server MySQL. Setiap form dari aplikasi ini telah diuji coba dan hasilnya sesuai yang diinginkan. Aplikasi ini mendukung sistem pengajaran jarak jauh dan semakin melengkapi platform e-learning yang sudah ada. Aplikasi ini mempermudah siswa dan dosen dalam berkomunikasi dan berbagi informasi.

Keyword : electronic learning, manage student, database

Author : ARIF, RAYMOND

Saat ini pendidikan adalah suatu kebutuhan. Proses belajar dan mengajar tidak hanya dapat dilakukan di dalam kelas melalui tatap muka antar murid dengan pengajar, karena kebutuhan belajar sudah semakin meningkat. Proses belajar mengajar tradisional adalah dengan mengunakan surat pos, telepon, fax dan sebagainya, memakan waktu yang sangat lama dan mahal. Dalam tugas akhir ini, penulis mengembangkan sebuah sistem pengajaran jarak jauh berbasiskan Internet yang akan melayani proses belajar dan mengajar antara siswa dengan pengajar melalui web yang memakan biaya lebih murah dan cepat. Sistem ini menggunakan jaringan internet dan fasilitas Word Wide Web. Siswa dan pengajar dapat melakukan proses belajar mengajar seperti pada situasi dalam kelas , seperti mengambil bahan kuliah, mengumpulkan tugas, diskusi, dan komunikasi lewat web. Siswa juga dapat bekerja sama dengan memberikan pendapat, masukan dan ringkasan dari topik tertentu yang dibagikan ke seluruh kelompok belajar. Oleh sebab itu, sistem ini akan membangun sebuah lingkungan belajar yang kolaboratif dimana instruktur bersama dengan siswa dapat membuat database pengetahuan yang terkonstruksi untuk suatu kelompok belajar. Sistem ini dikembangkan dengan menggunakan teknologi Personal Homepage (PHP) yang diletakan pada sebuah web server. Halaman-halaman web diletakan dalam sebuah web server yang terhubung ke sebuah Database sever MySql. Database server digunakan untuk menyimpan data terstruktur seperti informasi dari mata kuliah, jadwal kuliah, tugas, sylabus, forum diskusi dan materi kuliah. Pengujian terhadap sistem ini menunjukan proses belajar menjadi lebih variatif, lebih mudah, dan lebih cepat karena sistem dapat diakses setiap waktu dan dari mana saja. Fasilitas komunikasi yang tersedia dalam sistem membantu instruktur dengan siswa untuk berkomunikasi dalam suatu kelas. Proses belajar menjadi mudah karena materi kelas dan file tugas dapat diambil dan dikirim lewat web.

Keyword : electronic learning, internet

MobileNews / Η Telenor επιλέγει το eFront, το οποίο διατίθεται πλέον σε 19 χώρες / ΕΛΛΑΔΑ / News
Την πλατφόρμα eFront υιοθέτησε ο παγκοσμίου εμβέλειας νορβηγικός πολυεθνικός οργανισμός τηλεπικοινωνιών Telenor, προκειμένου να καλύψει τις ανάγκες του eLearning portal που διαθέτει.

Αναλυτικά, το eLearning portal της Telenor θα είναι ο επίσημος κόμβος εκμάθησης των υπηρεσιών κινητής τηλεφωνίας της εταιρείας στη Νορβηγία και εκτιμάται ότι θα υποστηρίξει πάνω από 100.000 χρήστες στις εκατοντάδες επιχειρήσεις-συνδρομητές της ανά τη χώρα.[next]

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Besides (or may be even better because of) my profession as a manager I participate in advisory boards with regard to the education of contact center professionals.

This paper gave me great insights how to create a construct for learning which enabled me – as an operational manager – to connect to the essential world of training, education and life-long learning in the contact center field!

The paper is over 2 years old but i think still raises some interesting points. I would suggest that in the two years since this paper was written may of the social software available have developed greatly.

The question of organizing e-learning tools involves the problem of integration vs. separation.

The approach to e-learning presented below uses social software technologies to empower students in their self-governed activities. Students are directed at solving a problem, and the purpose is to provide students with tools which they can use to solve problems on their own and in collaboration with other students. Self-governed, problem-based and collaborative activities call for tools which support construction, presentation, reflection, collaboration, and tools for finding people and other resources of relevance to their problem.

Using social software to support self-governed activities necessitates a different organization of e-learning than the sole use of an LMS.

Post found at http://www.eurodl.org/materials/contrib/2006/Christian_Dalsgaard.htm

Christian Dalsgaard [cnd@imv.au.dk]

I

The article argues that it is necessary to move e-learning beyond learning management systems and engage students in an active use of the web as a resource for their self-governed, problem-based and collaborative activities. The purpose of the article is to discuss the potential of social software to move e-learning beyond learning management systems. An approach to use of social software in support of a social constructivist approach to e-learning is presented, and it is argued that learning management systems do not support a social constructivist approach which emphasizes self-governed learning activities of students. The article suggests a limitation of the use of learning management systems to cover only administrative issues. Further, it is argued that students’ self-governed learning processes are supported by providing students with personal tools and engaging them in different kinds of social networks.

Introduction

Whether focusing on distance education or campus based education, universities all over the world are using learning management systems (LMS) to support and improve learning within their institution. Yet the OECD (2005) report “E-learning in Tertiary Education: Where do we stand?” indicates that universities primarily use LMS for administrative purposes, and that LMS so far have had a limited impact on pedagogy:

“ICT has penetrated tertiary education, but has had more impact on administrative services (e.g. admissions, registration, fee payment, purchasing) than on the pedagogic fundamentals of the classroom.” (OECD, 2005, p. 15)

This article will discuss the use of centralized and integrated LMS and argue that they, within a framework of a social constructivist pedagogy, should play only a minor role within organization of e-learning. It is argued that social software tools can support a social constructivist approach to e-learning by providing students with personal tools and engaging them in social networks. Using social software in this way requires that organization of e-learning moves beyond centralized and integrated LMS and towards a variety of separate tools which are used and managed by the students in relation to their self-governed work.

It is argued that social software tools enable a different way of using the web within an educational context. The article discusses how social software can be used to support a social constructivist approach to e-learning, or more specifically, how social software can support self-governed, problem-based and collaborative activities.

Integrating or separating tools?

Tools used to support e-learning cover a wide range of different applications. They include discussion forums, chat, file sharing, video conferences, shared whiteboards, e-portfolios, weblogs and wikis. Such tools can be used to support different activities involved in the learning process. The question of organizing e-learning tools involves the problem of integration vs. separation. On the one hand, it is possible to integrate different tools in a single stand-alone system, a learning management system, also called virtual learning environments or e-learning systems (such systems include Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle). On the other hand, tools can be separated in a number of distributed and independent applications used for different purposes.

One approach to e-learning is the use of LMS. All LMS are not alike, and they can be used in different ways. However, a common idea behind LMS is that e-learning is organized and managed within an integrated system. Different tools are integrated in a single system which offers all necessary tools to run and manage an e-learning course. All learning activities and materials in a course are organized and managed by and within the system. LMS typically offer discussion forums, file sharing, management of assignments, lesson plans, syllabus, chat, etc.

Recently, the emergence of social software has questioned the use of integrated LMS. Today, only few social software tools are employed within existing LMS. The question is: Is the next step to integrate social software tools in LMS? Social software has initiated discussions about the extent to which tools should be separated or integrated in systems (see Levine 2004; Blackall 2005; Cormier 2005; Wilson 2005; Siemens 2005; Anderson 2006a; 2006b). However, the discussion will find no answer, unless it is placed within a context of pedagogy. Use and organization of tools within e-learning can be approached in different ways depending on the chosen pedagogy (Dalsgaard, 2005). Different pedagogies will have different things to say about the problem of integration vs. separation. A discussion of the educational value of different tools must use a pedagogy as a starting point. The usefulness of different tools in support of learning depends on which learning activities the tools should support.

Social software

The term ’social software’ is used in many different contexts, and the different technologies covered by the term are not developed for educational purposes. Terry Anderson (2005a) has introduced the concept of ‘educational social software’ which he defines, within a context of distance education, as:

“[...] networked tools that support and encourage individuals to learn together while retaining individual control over their time, space, presence, activity, identity and relationship.”
(Anderson 2005a, p. 4)

As Anderson notes, social software is a very difficult concept to define. The term not only includes a wide range of different technologies, but the social aspect of the technologies often emerges from a combined use of different technologies. The examples of social software technologies which will be discussed in this article include weblogs, wikis, RSS feeds and social bookmarking. It is, however, important to note that social software is in no way limited to these specific technologies.

Basically, a weblog is a log file with dated entries listed on a web page in chronological order. Maintaining a weblog means continuously writing new entries which can be categorized under different headlines. A weblog in itself is not a social or collaborative tool, but is rather individual and also often personal. It is often maintained by a single individual and it does not support discussion. It is, however, possible for readers of a weblog to write comments on the entries. This means that weblogs primarily support independent and individual presentation.

A weblog which is maintained by a single individual can function as that individual’s representation on the web. This representation can form the basis of socialization on the web. When a weblog is related to other weblogs, the weblogs become social, and communities or networks are formed. It is possible to subscribe to weblogs using RSS feeds (Downes, 2004b). Using RSS means that you can get notified whenever a new entry has been written on a weblog. Software tools such as Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com), BlogBridge (http://www.blogbridge.com), and Feedburner (http://www.feedburner.com) support subscription of several weblogs meaning that you do not have to visit every weblog to find out when new entries are written. RSS enables connections between weblogs – or, rather, between people. Subscribing to weblogs, writing comments and having potential subscribers yourself, means that you actively participate in networks on the web. This is enabled by the combination of personal weblogs and RSS feeds. Often, weblogs refer to other weblogs, thus creating communities. A weblog will often contain a ‘blogroll’ which is a list of links to other, related weblogs. This means that you can see what other weblogs a person finds interesting.

Social bookmarking tools can also support relations between people. The principle behind social bookmarking is to bookmark your web pages on the web, instead of in your browser. Del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us) and Furl (http://www.furl.net) are examples of different kinds of social bookmarking tools. When you bookmark a web page, you tag the page with different keywords of your own choice. Being social means that bookmarks can be viewed by other people. You can also see who else has bookmarked the same pages as you and what else these people have bookmarked. Further, some social bookmarking tools can provide recommendations for new web pages based on your bookmarks. Using RSS, it is also possible to subscribe to people’s bookmarks meaning that you get notified whenever certain people have bookmarked a new page.

Finally, wikis can be catalogued as social software tools. A wiki is a web page which can be edited dynamically directly from the web page itself. In principle, everybody with access to a wiki can make changes to it. It is possible to either edit a current page or create new pages through new hyperlinks. A wiki keeps track of changes meaning that you can view previous versions of each page on a wiki. The most famous implementation of a wiki is wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org), an online encyclopaedia which everybody can edit. Wikis support collaborative construction, development and production.

In this article, social software tools, LMS, and the problem of integration vs. separation are discussed from a social constructivist approach. Although social software tools are not created for educational purposes, I will argue that they can be used to support learning. Using social software can help facilitate an approach to e-learning which differs from using learning management systems and which better supports self-governed, problem-based and collaborative activities. However, a certain organization of social software is required.

Personal tools and social networks

Every organization of e-learning depends on the chosen pedagogical approach. A discussion of the educational potentials of social software, and other tools, needs to be approached from the point of view of an understanding and description of specific learning activities (Dalsgaard, 2005). The approach to e-learning presented below discusses educational social software from the point of view of social constructivism. The conception of learning as self-governed, problem-based and collaborative processes is derived from a social constructivist approach (Bang & Dalsgaard, in print). According to a social constructivist approach, learning is considered a social and active process (Vygotsky, 1978; Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989; Jonassen, 2000). Problem-based activities describe a learning process in which students are directed at solving a problem. It is important to a social constructivist approach that a student tries to solve the problem him- or herself. In other words, students should direct their own problem-solving process.

“The individual determines how to proceed based on his or her unique needs, perceptions, and experiences, distinguishes known from unknown, identifies resources available to support learning efforts, and formalizes and tests personal beliefs.”
(Hannafin, Land, & Oliver 1999, p. 119)

Further, learning materials are considered resources or tools which students use to solve problems. Resources are not learning materials, until they are used actively by students. As Hill & Hannafin (2001, p .38) state, writing about resource-based learning:

“Resources are media, people, places or ideas that have the potential to support learning. Resources are information assets – data points organized by an individual or individuals to convey a message (Allee, 1997). For learning, resources must be contextualized to determine situational relevance and meaning. Resources also need to be recontextualized to enable the use of information gleaned from various resources. Once contextual meaning has been established, information becomes organized as knowledge (Dewey, 1933), operating in a larger context of meaning encompassing relevant patterns, biases, and interpretations.”
(Hill & Hannafin 2001, p. 38)

Students’ self-governed and problem-solving activities are considered the focal point of a learning process. This conception of a learning process means that it is not possible to structure or pre-determine the students’ activities in a learning process – the activities must develop on the basis of the student’s own problem-solving. As a consequence, a learning environment needs, in the words of Land & Hannafin (1996), to be open-ended. An open-ended learning environment provides students with multiple possibilities for activities. A similar approach is outlined by Jonassen (1999) who presents a model for designing ‘constructivist learning environments’. Students’ activities in constructivist learning environments are initiated by a problem or project. Surrounding the student are different tools and resources which support the student’s problem-solving process.

The approach to e-learning presented below uses social software technologies to empower students in their self-governed activities. Students are directed at solving a problem, and the purpose is to provide students with tools which they can use to solve problems on their own and in collaboration with other students. Self-governed, problem-based and collaborative activities call for tools which support construction, presentation, reflection, collaboration, and tools for finding people and other resources of relevance to their problem. Using social software to support self-governed activities necessitates a different organization of e-learning than the sole use of an LMS. Figure 1 illustrates a different approach.

Figure 1. E-learning using social software

The approach is an organization of a number of different tools: a management system, personal tools and social networks.

The approach to e-learning illustrated in figure 1 first of all involves a management system. A management system differs from what is typically meant by a learning management system. The term management system is meant to indicate a limited use of an LMS. Whereas LMS refer to systems which organize and manage e-learning activities within a system, a management system is used only for administrative purposes. LMS are well suited for managing student enrolment, exams, assignments, course descriptions, lesson plans, messages, syllabus, basic course materials, etc. However, self-governed and problem-based activities are not very well supported by LMS. LMS are to a large extent developed for the management and delivery of learning – and not for self-governed activities of students. Learning processes of the kind described in the social constructivist approach outlined in this article cannot be managed. What can be managed, however, is the administrative aspects of a course. Thus, a management system is limited to organizing administrative issues. Anderson (2005b) describes the potential of social software as “overlay networks”:

“Educational social software can be used effectively to create a type of overlay network to enhance the more formal institutional network consisting of student support, library, tuition, registration and other institutionalized services.”
(Anderson 2005b)

This means that a management system aims primarily at teachers and administrators whereas it does not support the self-governed, problem-based and collaborative work of students.

Personal tools are defined as tools owned and controlled by students. They are used by students for various kinds of construction and reflection; for instance, writing, presenting, drawing or programming. There are at least two kinds of personal tools:

1. individual tools, and
2. collaborative tools.

Individual personal tools are owned and controlled by individual students. Such tools could be weblogs or wikis. The potential of these kinds of personal tools is to support a student’s independent work process. For instance, a student involved in a project, working on solving a problem, can use a weblog to communicate and present ideas and thoughts. Further, the student can use wikis or other kinds of web pages to develop the project. An e-portfolio can be used to arrange resources of relevance to the work. Individual personal tools support self-governed and constructive processes.

Collaborative personal tools are owned and controlled by students working together in groups. Collaborative tools could be wikis, discussion forums, file sharing, and, to a certain extent, weblogs. The potential of such tools is to support a closer relationship between students working together on a shared problem. For example, students could use a wiki for collaborative development of a project. Collaborative, personal tools can help create a shared frame of reference within a group.

Social networks are defined as connections or relations between people engaged in different kinds of communication. Communication can be one-way as well as two-way and synchronous as well as asynchronous. Networks also include connections to resources, for instance in the form of references to web pages. Within this approach to e-learning it is relevant to distinguish between at least three different kinds of networks:

1. networks between people working collaboratively,
2. networks between people sharing a context, and
3. networks between people sharing a field of interest.

Networks between people working collaboratively could be students working together in groups. Such networks are primarily supported by personal tools. They are networks of closely related participants, meaning that participants will not only have access to each other’s personal pages, but will share personal pages.

Networks between people sharing a context could be students and teachers within the same course. These are also networks of closely related participants, but individuals within these networks are not working together. Students within a course have a shared context and background in the sense that they have read the same texts and are working on similar problems within the same field. This means that students understand each other to a large extent. Thus, it is important to facilitate and strengthen the relations between students within the same course. Social software tools such as weblogs and wikis can help strengthen these relations by making the work of students visible to other students. Students will be able to follow each other’s work and will have access to each other’s networks of people and references. Social networks also allow teachers to follow and potentially participate in the work of students (Richardson (2005) describes a scenario of a teacher’s possible use of weblogs and RSS). Such networks are supported by connections between students’ and teachers’ weblogs through RSS feeds combined with social bookmarking.

Seeing each other’s work, network and references can provide a basis for discussions between students and teachers. Such discussions are different from discussions in a discussion forum. The difference is that discussions based on weblogs arise from the individual entries of students. Further, a weblog is a personal page whereas a discussion forum is shared; writing individual entries on your personal weblog is different from participating in a discussion. Since students can subscribe to different weblogs, they can create their individual network, which means that their participation in discussions is not limited to specific discussion forums within an LMS. The potential of social software tools such as wikis, weblogs combined with RSS feeds and social bookmarking is to facilitate closer relationships and more frequent interaction between students and teachers. This is facilitated by their sharing of work and references and their engagement in discussions.

Compared to networks of students and teachers within the same course, networks between individual students and other people are networks of more loosely related participants. Parallel to a closely related network of students and teachers, students can create and participate in networks of people from all over the world. For instance, a student can easily create an individual network simply by subscribing to RSS feeds from a number of different weblogs. The student does not necessarily have to participate actively by writing comments. For instance, the student can subscribe to weblogs from researchers, museums, libraries, news corporations, etc. and read about trends and problems within different fields. Further, the student can use bookmarks and references from different researchers. This means that students can potentially get access to research fields and follow ongoing discussions.

In a learning process, a student’s problem-solving work constitutes the context. Since the different networks have different relevance to the student’s context, they should be organized differently. Collaborative networks should be independently organized by the participants. Networks of people sharing contexts can be formally organized, for instance by an educational institution. Finally, networks of people sharing a field of interest can be facilitated and encouraged, but should ultimately be organized informally by each individual.

The approach to e-learning presented in this article first of all suggests that focus be moved away from learning management systems. Instead of integrating all functions within a system, the approach suggests making available several separate tools to support different needs of students – in other words, providing students with a tool box of different opportunities. At the New Media Consortium Conference (Summer 2004), a similar approach was suggested by Alan Levine, Brian Lamb, and D’Arcy Norman. They coined the phrase “small pieces loosely joined” to suggest an approach of loosely joined applications. On their web page they write:

“Collaboration via the net does not necessarily require monolithic, expensive tool suites that aim to do everything under one umbrella. We will share and demonstrate the use of readily available, mostly free, discrete sets of “small” and “loosely joined” technologies – weblogs, wikis, instant messaging, audio/video chat. The loose joining means that how they are connected are not necessarily in the programming of the software, but the ways people can use them in a social context that is an environment of dynamic, changing relationships and connections, rather than the rigid, limited ones defined by computer code.”
(http://careo.elearning.ubc.ca/wiki?SmallPiecesLooselyJoined/AboutSmallPieces)

As stated, learning cannot be managed. Learning can, however, be facilitated. The educational potential of social software is to facilitate self-governed, problem-based and collaborative activities by supplying students with loosely joined personal tools for independent construction, and by engaging them in social networks. This approach to e-learning empowers students by giving them the ability to navigate and participate on the web and to use it actively to solve problems. It is important to stress that the argument for using separate tools instead of an integrated system is a pedagogical argument. The argument is that the learning activities of students cannot be structured or pre-determined. Choice of a variety of tools will better support the required flexibility of open-ended activities than any one integrated system.

Learning management systems vs. personal tools and social networks

Using personal tools and social networks represents a different approach to organization of e-learning than the utilization of an LMS. Using an LMS, an e-learning course is delivered through and takes place within an integrated system. In contrast, empowering students with tools which they can use for different purposes and use independently supports self-governed and problem-based activities. An extreme alternative to the use of an LMS would be to place students in front of a search engine on web. However, it would be extremely difficult for students to navigate the vast amount of resources. Further, every student would have the same entry to the resources on the web.

Use of personal tools combined with social networks form the basis of an individualization or personalization of the web (Downes, 2004b). On the basis of a personal page, a student can use social software to navigate the web to find resources and people that can help solve the problem. Being engaged in social networks, for instance by getting access to teachers’ and researchers’ weblogs and their bookmarks, also means getting access to a wide range of resources in the form of links to web pages, articles, book references, etc. It means that networks will continuously provide students with references within the field. This represents an alternative to finding resources by searching the web or online digital libraries. Everybody using the same search engine has the same entry to materials. For instance, all students searching for materials within a digital library will use the same search engine, and they will find the same materials, if they type in the same keywords. Using social software, different people no longer have the same entry to the resources of the web. On the contrary, a person will participate in an individual network of people and resources. This is a key feature of social software. By, for instance, connecting to different networks and using social bookmarking, people construct their individual “profiles” on the web. Such a profile can be used to narrow down relevant resources. Unlike using a search engine, you not only search for materials, you also find or “stumble upon” materials within your network. Further, in opposition to the use of systems, social software tools enable active use of and participation on the web.

The approach to e-learning presented above does not suggest simply letting students loose on the web. However, the approach neither suggests confining the activities of students to a system. Instead, it is important to support students’ independent work and actively facilitate relations between collaborating students and also between students and teachers connected to the same course.

Towards a student-centred approach to e-learning

The approach to e-learning illustrated in figure 1 utilizes different tools in a certain way. As opposed to the use of an integrated LMS, it is an approach which separates tools instead of integrating them in a system. It would be possible to integrate different kinds of social software tools in an LMS. However, the strengths of social software in relation to self-governed activities concern students’ active use of and participation on the web. Further, self-governed activities are supported by providing students with a variety of tools for independent use. Students can use different tools depending on what tools serve their individual purposes. A student-centred approach to e-learning is approached by:

1. using a management system for administrative issues,
2. offering students personal tools for construction, presentation, reflection, collaboration, etc.,
3. facilitating networks between students within the same course, and
4. facilitating networks between students and other people working within the field.

Following this approach, an e-learning course is initiated by the formulation of problems for the students’ self-governed work. These may include small problems which may be solved within a week, or they may be problems which form the basis of students’ work throughout an entire course. The point is that during the run of a course, students work on problems. The learning processes do not take place within the management system, but develop through the self-governed work of students which is manifested in personal tools such as weblogs or wikis. Separate from the system, the student has different personal tools for construction, presentation, collaboration, etc. In relation to self-governed, problem-based and collaborative activities, the most important tools to the learning process are personal tools. They directly support the active process involved in working on problems and continuously constructing a solution. A personal tool is a manifestation of the work of students. In other words it can be seen as a manifestation of the learning process. This means that students’ participation in networks is motivated by the process directed at solving a problem. Networks are secondary to personal tools.

However, the problem-solving process may also be supported by social networks which can provide input to the learning process. Although the students do not necessarily work on the same problems, they do share a common context and subject area. This means that their problem based work and their personal references are probably relevant to each other. The broader networks can also be useful in the sense of widening the field to the students and providing them with new perspectives and references. During their work, students will come across problems, they will have questions, and they will need resources. This is supported by students engaging in social networks. A student’s network of weblogs provides him or her with access to other students and their work and resources. Through social networks students are able to find people and other resources which may help them solve the problem. Networks should, to a large extent, be developed by students, meaning that students should form their own relationships based on their specific needs and interests. However, networks may be facilitated by providing tools such as weblogs. Further, networks within a course can be strengthened by connecting students via RSS feeds and social bookmarking.

Conclusion

The outlined approach to e-learning necessitates a focus on students, providing them with tools to support their self-governed, problem-based and collaborative activities. Using a management system, personal tools and social networks differs from the sole use of an integrated LMS. The approach differs in terms of focusing on empowerment of students as opposed to management of learning. An approach focusing on empowerment of students implies thinking in terms of tools rather than in terms of systems. The idea is first and foremost to provide students with a variety of tools for their self-governed and problem-based activities; to empower students, offering them tools for independent work, reflection, construction and collaboration. Second, the approach suggests facilitating students’ engagement in different networks. Existing social software tools such as weblogs, wikis and social bookmarking can be used to support e-learning activities. However, these tools are not developed for educational purposes, which means that a directed effort is necessary to develop educational social software tools to support learning activities.

The perspectives for the use of social software in the form of personal tools and social networks to organize e-learning go beyond a single course and the educational institution in which the students are enrolled.

“The use of computers to assist learning also enables the formation of social contacts that would otherwise be impossible in learning. Students from widely dispersed groups are able to form online groups.”
(Downes 2004a)

The article has argued that personal tools and social networks support self-governed, problem-based and collaborative learning processes. This way of using social software also equips students with valuable tools for using the web as a resource in order to develop their understanding and solve problems – whether in school, at work or in their private lives. This has particular relevance in relation to lifelong learning (Friesen & Anderson 2004). This scenario for lifelong learning is similar to what Koper (2004a; 2004b; 2005) describes as ‘learning networks. Although Koper’s concept is more organized, it too describes the creation of learner-centred and learner-controlled networks for lifelong learning:

“Self-organised learning networks provide a base for the establishment of a form of education that goes beyond course and curriculum centric models, and envisions a learner-centred and learner controlled model of lifelong learning.”
(Koper 2004b, p. 1)

Working as proposed here, students not only learn a specific topic, but they are equipped with tools to navigate and make active use of the web to solve future problems. After the end of a course or an education, the networks continue to exist. Continued participation in social networks and creation of new networks give people access to a vast number of people and other resources.

Image via Wikipedia

Just yesterday I was having a tough time thinking about how I can bring all this new information I have to my colleagues and was also trying to think about which “just one tool” I would narrow down to share with them.  I thought about how much I enjoyed the collaboration with my classmates, professor, and guest speaker in our live online class and it got me thinking that this is where we need to head, as I mentioned in my earlier post today we use Blackboard/uLearn and so I set out on a mission to consider how we might integrate online conferencing into our work.  It also made sense as a starting point because we will have an opportunity to participate in a virtual conference together this fall with colleagues from across Canada, so they will be able to see firsthand the benefits of such a great tool.

So since I was last here, I set off to find out if we might be able use a virtual classroom to conference with our students.  

The Virtual Classroom is a Collaboration Tool that allows Instructors and Students to participate in real time lessons and discussions and also view archives of previous Collaboration sessions. The main area of the Virtual Classroom includes all of the functions available to users. From this area Instructors can manage the session through the system controls, interact with participants, and use the Whiteboard to post content, open Web pages, and draw. The Instructor has the ability to control access and functionality for other participants in the session.”

My goal was to come up with how we could implement using this new technology into our program and to consider how I might be able to get the ball rolling so that we can begin showcasing this technology in our program.  I usually take a “just jump-in” approach with new learning about new technologies and have done so in this case too and hope that I can convince my colleagues that we should use this approach for online conferencing with our students – let’s jump in!

This morning I was already speaking about some very applicable uses for this technology in my post, so I needed to ensure that we can actually use online live conferencing and I set off to see what I could find.  For there is not much reason for me to go further, if I get all excited about implementing a new technology and in my haste I engage my colleagues only to discover I have found a tool that we cannot access for some reason.  Especially given that my primary approach to sell my colleagues on starting with this tool is about just how easy it is to use.  The main objective to using this tool though is to add value to our students experience in our program. 

I started looking at our intranet and went to the link on teaching services where I am very happy to report, I found that our faculty does support live online collaboration.  There on the list of resources available to us, I found a link to Elluminate – Web Conferencing and upon further reading I discovered that we can use University’s virtual classroom application; the very same one that our Web 2.0 course just used.  It can be used not only for class, but also if you need to hold a virtual meeting, online office hours or mini-conferences or information sessions, for our entire cooperative education student body to enable them to collaborate with each other and with us at the university, even if they are out on their work experience placements.

I also came across the information on our faculty’s online course management system, which I mentioned is Blackboard and see that it is described in more detail than I imagined.

The School of Business maintains an online course management system (cms) known as “uLearn” which is used for all School of Business courses.  uLearn runs using Blackboard which is currently the most popular CMS worldwide.  Blackboard offers a variety of online tools that enhance the learning experience for students including announcements, course calendar, discussion boards, online assignment submission, exams, communication and much more…”

My investigations have been going far better than I ever anticipated! The current tools that we have in our course module for potential use in uLearn are a calendar, announcements, tasks, view grades and an ability to send email.  Since I believe my colleagues will adapt quickly to the benefits of using Elluminate I can briefly think about what we else is available within our uLearn cms so that when uses come up in conversation with my colleagues, I will be prepared to provide a list of potential, additional options.   else is already readily available for our potential use.  I found that our faculty’s online knowledge base has a separate link for uLearn/Blackboard.

I am beginning to rapidly notice that our office does not utilize uLearn to anywhere near its full potential and I have a fair idea that my colleagues, like I was, are not aware of the diverse Web 2.0 tools that we can bring right into our course modules, such as Wikis and Blogs.  This simple find, is how I will be able to share all of my new knowledge with my colleagues!  This, as my classmate Lori might say, is my eureka moment!  I had no idea that there were any tools outside of those that show in our course, never mind the full list of potential tools that are supported by our faculty.  We now have a have a well-rounded menu of available tools right at our fingertips and the technical support that comes with using them through the online course platform offered by our faculty. This course has shown me that there are endless ways to use Web 2.0 and now I am finding that some are way closer to home than I ever imagined!

WOW! Our online classroom platform has the potential to create an exceptional mashup and will keep me and my colleagues busy looking further into all the potential it offers.  Before today I had no idea that we can add a wiki to our course, or that we have the ability to add a blog.  These two finds alone are enough to start discussing with my colleagues how to really get the technology integrated into our courses. Eureka!  We can start with  live online conferencing, then wikis, then blogs, then…

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A Campus Technology 2009, uma das mais importantes conferências sobre Tecnologia Educacional que está acontecendo em Boston, é a primeira a destinar um espaço para uma comunidade online. A Conferência da comunidade online é alimentada pelo software Campus Pack, da Learning Objects. Os participantes podem colaborar usando wikis, blogs e podcasts, e compartilhar as suas idéias e conhecimentos relacionados com as sessões da conferência, seminários e workshops. A comunidade online acrescenta dimensão para o trabalho em rede e a troca de conhecimentos nos assuntos da conferência. Além de sessões específicas de sites, os participantes têm espaços pessoais nos quais eles podem criar sites sobre temas da sua escolha usando as ferramentas da Web 2.0. As seções da comunidade online estão disponíveis ao público.

I found this fascinating quote today:

Despite the recession, companies are spending millions on ‘pointless and ineffective’ training systems and elearning courses. Charles Jennings says it’s about time learning managers pulled their heads out of the sand.

trainingzone.co.uk, How not to train – read this before you waste more money |TrainingZone, Jul 2009

You should read the whole article.

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On TrainingZone by Charles Jennings

Despite the recession, companies are spending millions on ‘pointless and ineffective’ training systems and elearning courses. Charles Jennings says it’s about time learning managers pulled their heads out of the sand.

There’s one simple lesson that training and development managers and their business stakeholders could learn that would save their organisations large amounts of money – and saving money is an important consideration for almost all of us in the current climate. The lesson is this: stop wasting money on ILT training for system, process and product rollouts and upgrades, and cut down on eLearning courses, too.

So what impact will this have? Well, the amount of time, effort and money spent on formal ILT training prior to rollout or upgrade of enterprise platforms (particularly ERM and CRM), processes, and other new software systems and products is huge. Of the US$134bn (yes, 134 billion!) the ASTD reported as being spent on employee learning and development in the US in 2007 (the latest figure available) a conservative estimate is that at least 5% is spent on this type of system, process and product training. That’s more than $6bn every year that could be used much more effectively or saved.

Read the whole of this excellent article at Trainingzone

Charles Jennings was chief learning officer at Reuters and Thomson Reuters. He now works as an independent consultant on learning and performance. A version of this column was first published on Charles blog which is also linked from his website www.duntroon.com

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I have an on going struggle.

In fact, I have a lot of them but one of the main ones is about how to share my time between digging around online, looking at new areas and translating that into specific activity. I’m paranoid about getting analysis paralysis; you know, becoming so insular and heady that trying to start a new business becomes an intellectual frenzy rather than something real life and practical. I got talking to an older successful guy yesterday and he told me he doesn’t use a computer, never has and never will. My God, how does he do business. Simple, the answer is relationships – picking up the phone and talking to someone (such a novel concept).

I just finished reading the auto biography of Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnet bloke from the turn of the nineteenth century. Don t even talk about computers, the guy wore a top hat and tails and used horse power for transportation. And no, he didn’t have a phone. So he did his networking and business face to face. There ’s a rare concept. I remind myself of this every day. I’m reminding myself of this now because even writing here is making me ansi – it’s 9 am on a wednesday morning and i’m sitting here with a coffee and my dog on my southern wrap round porch stuck in my head writing something nobody else is probably going to read. Go and phone someone!!  If I’m not careful I find myself on the mouse wheel of continually looking at new business ideas (an addiction) and never moving anything forward. Your training gurus would probably tell me to spend more time setting my goals around a specific area and working towards solving problems around them.

True but here’s the deal so pay attention.  I respond well to the randomness of immersing myself in a topic area. There is something organic and essential to letting myself just wander (same reason why people stand memorized in front a weird painting in a museum) . It does something inside. Normally, reading a book or magazine article to focus my efforts on will start the process because reading someone else’s thoughts or experiences normally gets me to come up with my own questions   (I’m currently using the book Wikinomics).  This immersion allows me to become a domain “amateur” (the “expert” part can follow later). By learning just enough to be dangerous, I can create a good platform to speak with some type of authority when evaluating businesses. Most importantly, it lets me come up with the right questions when looking at opportunities. Questions are key to life. If i’m not coming up with the right questions when evaluating a business it normally means i’m not finding an intuitive fit for an area or the people i’m looking to get involved with. No questions = no chemistry = not a good business for me. When I went for lunch yesterday with a couple of Professors from Georgia Tech to talk about an elearning product,  I had a stream of questions – a feeding frenzy. These are good signs.

Here’s my list of things to investigate today. They are mostly based around the online learning and the growth of peer to peer & collaborative learning:

1.    Check out the California open source text book
2.    Set up meetings with the advisors of the elearning service I’m evaluating (face-to-face, very old school).
3.    Research some the collaborative news services out there. How they came to be and what makes them work.

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SIMULATIONS – BRIDGING FROM THWARTED INNOVATION TO DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY –

Gartner Research dubbed simulation the new “killer
application” in e-learning (Lundy et al., 2002) but even
assuming the best estimates for the adoption of simulations,
they represent a tiny proportion of the annual spend in
training and education. Considerable research has been done
to evaluate the effectiveness of simulations and, by and
large, the results suggest that simulations are effective but
there are doubts about even the most fundamental claims of
the efficacy of simulations (Feinstein and Cannon, 2002)
partly because there isn’t a clear, acceptable methodology,
partly because there is no real agreement on definitions, and
partly because there is little agreement on what should be
evaluated. Burns et al. (1990) consider the multi-fold
problem with evaluating experiential pedagogies stating that
there is firstly a need to compare the efficacy to ‘traditional’
approaches, and there is a need to compare alternative
experiential pedagogies competing to achieve the same
learning. Not surprisingly, they note a paucity of solid
empirical evidence regarding the relative effectiveness of
experiential techniques. Other authors (e.g. Pierfy, 1977)
note two particular problems with respect to evaluating
simulations or experiential techniques: the first being the
conceptual problems pertaining to definitions, domain
boundaries and the theoretical basis which underpin and
frame pedagogical research. The second fundamental
problem is that there remain significant methodological
difficulties including experimental design, constraints
within the organisations and institutions, time
considerations and ethical questions associated with any
comparative study.
This paper does not intend to argue in favor of one
approach, method or definition over another but to consider
why simulations have not yet emerged as training and
education’s “killer application” and how it may be possible
to bridge from being a thwarted innovation (Zemsky &
Massy, 2004) to a disruptive technology (Christensen,
1997).

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*Update* – I was wondering why I no one was responding to my post these past couple of days. Apparently when I thought I had posted all it did was save a draft. Weird. Anyhow, please read and if you have any comments I welcome them. Thanks!

There must be something wrong with me. Why do I just never seem to get it? I just cannot seem to find anything of interest. I mean, I love learning about things, but I cannot figure out anything that is of any interest to me at this particular moment other than the things I am learning at school…and I find it pretty stupid to do an eLearning site on eLearning. Ahhhh! Very frustrating! It feels like I should actually know something about whatever topic I am researching.

I have aimlessly visited a hundred sites and more tying to figure out something that would be cool to learn, but none of them have sparked interest in much of anything. I guess I have so many things on my plate that it really is difficult to care about anything else. I would rather have direction than such an ambiguous find something of interest. I wish people understood how much I do outside of school.

Anyways, I digress. Here are some things that could possibly be ideas for projects, but honestly…I cannot figure out how to make any of them work interactively and within a reasonable amount of limited time that I have to complete it. Hopefully this is what I was suppose to do for this assignment.

• Ellusionist.com – The biggest thing that I have been trying to learn for a very long time, that has taken a back seat to school is learning magic tricks. I bought hundreds of dollars worth of training videos  just before starting back to school from this site, which is the best magic learning resource to me, that I have barley ever had the time to even look at them, much less learn anything from. Ha…most of them are still in there packages. Though again, trying to think of an interactive way to make a magic site with any reasonable amount of time seems rather out of reach. This is something that I would love to do, but the only way I can think of it is by video and I feel that I would have to actually know how to do at least some magic to make video worth while.

• Photoshop Tutorials – this site has always been a big resouce for me when learning how to do certain effects in Photoshop as well as for digital photography. I have even contributed a few tutorials to this site a while back ago, but like everything else on this site, it was not very interactive, rather screen captures with text explanations.

• Good-Tutorials – has also been a big site for me when learning about different Photoshop, Illustrator, some CSS, and even JavaScript and they have a lot more other things to learn through tutorials. They have very good and crips looking images and good explanations for learning in the tutorials.

• Lynda.com – In the past, Lynda.com was the #1 place that I visited for tutorials on just about everything. The best thing about the tutorials here were that most of them were all video tutorials and for me being a visual person it is easy for me to follow along and see how someone else did the effect they were going for.

• Online Italian Help – I have been learning to speak Italian for a very long time, especially for translating 16th centruy Italian fighting/combat manuscripts. This site is a great resource to learning a lot of the basics. In fact a lot of the learning is actually interactive. So, how do you redo something like this that has already been done. I kind of have this idea that if it is not broken, do not try to fix it, if you know what I mean. Unfortunately, languages have it all taken care of when it comes to eLearning. Just take a look at Rosetta Stone.

• Flash & Math – Flash & Math has been a nice resouce for me in the past as well for learning things for Flash and ActionScript. Flash has always been something that I wanted to understand better, especially since I have a past interest and experience in animation. The ActionScript was someting that both made sense and did not all at the same time. Also the use of the stage and trying to figure out how the animation worked has always proven difficult to me. I am continually amazed at a lot of the things that some one has made and even more so when I get the oppotunity to see how they put it all together. How did they do that? What thought process led them to put certain elements in one scene and others in another scene to make a single piece?

So there you have it. Thanks for painfully making your way to the end of this poist. The only thing I think I could effectively do, is a tutorial, but with such a high expectation to make them better and more interactive, I have no idea how I would go about doing that effectively since I have had experience doing them one way. Hard to expalin, but I have a point there somewhere. I guess I just do not currently seem to have the imagination for coming up with anything clever. If any of you have any ideas I am most certainly open to what ever you might have. See you all in class.

Assuming you are already studying for one of the two exams that comprise the Canadian Securities Course, there are a number of weighs to measure the CSC, none of which are necessarily complex.  The best way to ensure you are reading to write any exam is to follow a three step approach to learning any material, that is; Learn, Apply, Review.  Nothing complex about that, just follow the steps.

• Learn: Review the modules, the FAQ & LOS statements and the forums
• Apply: Complete the online learning activities, post-tests and any other material you may have to test your comprehension.
• Review: For those areas which you have identified as your weakest in the applying stage, you can now concentrate on increasing your comprehension in these areas.

If you follow this process, you likely-hood of passing will substantially increase.  Another good way to test is to get a friend or parent to quiz you.  It puts you on the stop, doesn’t allow you to passively check the answer before fully getting the question correct and it provides you a chance to hang out with some friends.  If any of you have seen Billy Madison, that form of studying is extremely effective, no joke intended.  The best measure of a persons readiness to write any exam is the how that person feels about their abilities.  If by the end of the chapter you have a headache and just want to throw the book against the wall, maybe take the hint that your not ready.  If however you feel yourself comprehending the material on a review stage in greater depth then the last pass-through, take consideration that your studying is working and now its just a question of when the law of diminishing returns will kick in.  Also, when measuring your results, ensure you are scoring at least 80% on every post-test quiz provided on WebCT.  The questions on there and in the exercise are a lot easier then the CSC Level1 & 2 exams, so a 90% will likely translate to a 70% and so on.

- Steve

It is an exciting and challenging time for education. In the 20th century we perceived information as scarce while in the 21st century it is over abundant. Now students have the ability to search, work or publish at will, using text, audio, and video, or any combination these. The have un-precedented access to technologies previously cost prohibitive for schools, which are usually instant and often free. Learning and teaching has become a multimodal, multi-literate conversation – where participation is an everyday reality for teachers, librarians, administrators and students.

The opposing forces of ‘memory and forgetfulness’ no longer dominate learning. Since Gutenberg’s movable type in the mid 1400s, technology has allowed us to expand our creative and mental horizons, progressively chipping away at the need to ‘memorise’ and ‘recall’. Today more information is stored digitally than in all the libraries in the world combined. We simply don’t need to ‘remember’ everything. The output of ICTs exceeds the wildest dreams of nineteenth century industrialists, and alters our view of memory; forgetfulness; creativity and originality.  Schools need to extend their vision of learning beyond ‘memory-arts’. We are in a hyperdynamic world of connections, relationships, and adaptive tools that help us make sense of the information flooding about us. We are standing at the entry of an age of infinite recall and infinite memory, the lines between original works and derivatives is blurred because duplication is simple and storage cheap. The idea that students learn from single or even limited origins is naive. Originality and creativity is now an additive and transformative process. Students need to develop insight into how to navigate and select a pathway in the online world – and for that they need help – by creating better resources, developing better frameworks inside what schools call ‘information literacy’.

Students that score well on exams can also be strategic surface learners. They want and demand the ‘answers’. While there is pressure to ‘perform’ and ‘get results’, it seems that online learning is adapting and evolving regardless of what mainstream education thinks.

For example : The Florida Virtual High School - has a very different pedagogy, and very different approach to learning.

In two words? Personalized instruction. You want choices. You want to feel that you or your students are not just numbers. You want to work at your own pace. You’d like to study at home or from a library or coffee shop. You want some say in your education, and you want classes that hold your interest!

If these are the things you want for yourself or your students, you have come to the right place. We have built our school on these beliefs:

• Every student is unique, so learning should be dynamic, flexible and engaging.
• Studies should be integrated rather than isolated.
• Students, parents, community members, and schools share responsibility for learning.
• Students should have choices in how they learn and how they present what they know.
• Students should be provided guidance with school and career planning.
• Assessments should provide insights not only of student progress but also of instruction and curriculum

We are presented with infinite memory. We can store, retrieve infinitely more than our fragile memory. Our lives are not limited by local contemporaries or restrained by single sources of information. The internet wiped away that idea a long time ago. The next wave for education to deal with is the nature of schools and the mode of learning itself – in the global context. It is already happening. As Australia starts looking at the next phase of it’s ‘digital education revolution’ – I hope that it pays attention to schools like the FVS. I wonder what would happen if we had a HSC Virtual High School? – Now there’s an idea.

I was reminded in a student-panel session last week that just maybe I have to deal with the ‘ethics’ committee before recording the views of volunteer students. Academics enrolled in a Foundations of Learning and Teaching course were there to listen to the ’student perspective’ on what is good (and bad) learning and teaching at University.

Their views seem to be echoed online, as this High School student video, buried in YouTube talks about – so I’ll just use this instead.

• Leading learning, not controlling the class.
• Having Teachers that THEY can connect with
• Teachers who realise (though action) that a student is a human being with a range of interests and ideas to share.
• Allowing students to connect to the teacher without reinforcing the power teachers have over them.
• Teachers who connect with the content and shows passion for what they are doing – and saying.
• “if they don’t take an interest, then why should you” – teachers faking interest is obvious!
• Students know that good teachers have a DRAMATIC impact on positive learning experiences
• They remember ‘good teachers’ because they recognise ‘good teaching experiences’ (and visa versa)
• Good pupils hope to be remembered

The ’student panel’ were critical of both the ENTRY and the EXIT events, but also positive about  well designed courses that take into account the ‘learning load’, motivation and learning preferences of the students.

They were giving the room really valuable feedback on instructional strategies that work or don’t – for them. To reinforce the fact that often highly knowledgeable teachers fail to engage students … another YouTube clip … time to spot the strategies here. This clip really engaged the cohort, and pulled together the student panel session and the need to consider much more than content when teaching.

Students highlighted over reliance on summative assessment to grade students. This was later reinforced when the cohort learned about the Solove Method of grading.

They further talked about the assumptions teachers make ” students are there because they are ‘into’ the subject” – when in fact they are curious, interested but not (yet) deeply engaged in it. This assumption leads to issues of engagement if the teachers does not do adequate ‘oil dipping’ for prior knowledge – or motivation.

I was quite amazed to learn that many teachers (higher education) won’t use ‘online learning’ such as a discussion forum, as they have a 1000 students and insufficient resources. I’ve heard that from teachers with 20 students before too. Building effective learning communities remains one of the most important professional development sessions that teachers can attend in my view.

I think that is is great question to ask students ‘what is a great teacher’ (class) or ‘how can teach you better’ (personal).

It was great to see how keen students were to give positive, constructive feedback in the session – and how seriously that is taken as a key element of curriculum renewal. Students are the mirror that we need to look into more often I think.

Tal como aconteceu no ano passado (ver notícia aqui), a TecMinho/Gabinete de Formação Contínua da Universidade do Minho vai organizar mais uma conferência e-learning no Centro de Congressos da Exponor – Matosinhos,  integrada na Qualifica – Feira de Educação, Formação, Juventude e Emprego.

TecMinho via kwout

Esta 5ª conferência e-learning tem como tema “Avaliação da Aprendizagem em e-learning” e será realizada em duas sessões, de manhã e de tarde.

Depois de ter estado presenta na conferência do ano passado e de ter constatado a qualidade da organização e dos oradores, só posso desejar que a deste ano seja pelo menos tão boa como a anterior.

Informações sobre o programa e as inscrições pode ser obtidas aqui.

Nota: post cruzado com O Canto do PIGeCo.

Is it possible for people to develop skills in more than one style of online learning (searching and reading ebooks); just as many people are bi-lingual at different skill levels?

The Eide Neurolearning Blog presents opposing viewpoints regarding the impact of Google on learning: Google is changing your brain Monday, January 26, 2009.

Drs. Fernette and Brock Eide reflected upon articles from Discover and Atlantic Monthly magazines:

From a brain-based perspective, our bias is that expertise often comes at a cost. As more brain resources get devoted to particular tasks, others shrink and weaken.

My next questions:

How is expertise measured for this statement?

Mastery of a craft is often said to take ten years of focused study, which usually means that the person has selectively filtered out other learning opportunities. Yet, some people do become highly skilled in multi-talents. Are there not numerous shared brain resources between learning tasks?

Could the shrinkage and weakening be decreased by intentional efforts to learn more than one area of expertise?

Would it be more effective to develop high levels of skills in different modalities in order to utilize the brain resources at peak performance, or is it more effective to learn a cluster of similar highly developed tasks?

Follow-up:

Discover: The Brain: How Google is making us smarter by Carl Zimmer 02.15.2009

“Humans are natural born cyber-borgs and the Internet is our “giant extended mind.”

The good Drs. Eide also posted a response in the comments on their blog: The Eide Neurolearning Blog. Thanks!

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