Open Learning Conversations

Monday we had a great discussion as part of our Collaborative Teaching & Learning course. We took a look at some examples of how teachers and learners today are using Web 2.0 tools to share information online.

• We looked at the Women of Uganda Network and the impressive work they have done using Facebook and Twitter to share information with members. Women of Uganda Network
• We also are finding EtherPad to be a "fantastic tool" that may be useful for some courses at KIST in the future. Several of you thought it might be a great discussion tool to use for facilitating discussions in large labs.
• We also looked at how the Ghana IT Professionals Network are using Ning.

I really like the discussion that is evolving around using Web tools as a place where students and lectures can contribute to the conversation. Dr. Bajpai noted that the collaborative space could also facilitate conversations between lecturers as they share views and join the conversation. These types of conversations highlight the benefits of open learning - authentic, participatory conversations that connect learners around the Web. Networks allow learners the opportunity to connect with a variety of experts and fellow learners. And, it also allows learners to share their expertise with others.

Dr. Gaurav Bajpai "they have increased far beyond older concept of digital teaching

its web teaching and content sharing, opensource and micro-messaging more open minded learning concepts"

Today we will explore a few other tools for keeping up with your own personal knowledge. We will look at Diigo, Zotero, Delicious, and Google Reader. Visit our EtherPad Day 5 page for more information http://etherpad.com/globalmedialab-day5

Day 3 Using Google Docs in a Course

With a basic Gmail account (http://www.gmail.com) you can take advantage of Google Docs.

Visit the Google Docs Blog for background reading. http://googledocs.blogspot.com/

In Google Docs you can create a new Document, Presentation, Spreadsheet, Form, or Folder. Each of these items can be kept private or made sharable for collaborative work.

You can also download your documents in various formats including pdf and OpenOffice.

LinkedIn - Social Networking Tool for Professionals

Today you should take a moment to create accounts at LinkedIn. http://www.linkedin.com

While there are many great social networking tools, LinkedIn is a more formal network for professionals. At LinkedIn you can meet other professionals, create a professional profile and resume, and make lifelong networking connections. It is also a great place to introduce to your students for finding jobs when they graduate.

Figure 1: Our LinkedIn Usage Survey Results for our CTL2009 Course 25-11-2009

Figure 2 eLearning-Africa-2010

With LinkedIn you can add events and individuals can RSVP and let their networks know that they will be attending.

Figure 3: LinkedIn Groups

The Groups feature is helpful for connecting with other professionals on a regular basis.

And recently, LinkedIn added a new feature - you can now have a live Twitter feed in your LinkedIn profile.

There's also a similar social networking site for academics - Academia.edu. It is growing, but the number of users is small at this point. Check out the number of users from Tulane . On LinkedIn, there are over 500 professionals listed from Tulane.

In our CTL session today, we will discuss how a professional social networking site like LinkedIn might be useful for KIST faculty and students.

Using Twitter for Extending Learning Beyond the Classroom

Figure 1: Our Twitter Usage Survey Results for our CTL2009 Course 25-11-2009

What is this thing called Twitter

Figure 2: Image by Wordle http://www.wordle.net

Twitter is a social networking tool that many are using to build communities, build brands, and for teaching and learning in the classroom. From the results of our survey today it seems that we have a range of usage with Twitter.

If you are new to Twitter, you might want to first take a look at Mashable's Twitter guidebook.

How does it work?

Short 140 character messages

How can one communicate in such short messages? Read Paul Left's article Using Twitter as a Communication Channel in an education context for ideas of how he is using this tool.

Figure 3: Example of Wired communicating with its staff

Following

Twitter is similar to other social networking tools in that it allows you to connect to people - but it also allows people to connect to you - to "follow you". If someone follows you, you do not have to follow them back. This type of functionality allows someone to follow experts in various disciplines and learn about what those experts are doing, researching, and promoting. Following is a behavior that helps learners stay current on new trends in their fields.

Public Dialogue

While one can "protect" one's tweets, having a public dialogue leverages the power of Twitter to make learning open and authentic. You may use the @ symbol before a person’s Twitter name to send a follower a direct public message. This allows for the conversation to take place.

Real Time Media for Classroom

Can I use it during class? Twitter can be used in an actual class setting to add an interactive element. Students may feel more comfortable asking a question via the Web. However, one should consider carefully before projecting student's twitterstreams as people's behavior can be unpredictable. Consider the recent use of tweckling in a conference setting.

Figure 4: MrsAngell discusses students asking questions in class.

Mobile

One of the great things about Twitter is that it can be used on a variety of phones making it great potential tool for mLearning as cell phone usage grows.

There are many more ideas for using Twitter in and outside of the classroom and there are many great apps for using with Twitter. We will discuss these more as we proceed with the course.

For Further Reading

Annotated Bibliography - Twitter, Social Networking and Communities of Practice - TESL-EJ

Tweeting in Class - Inside Higher Ed - for a look at upsides and downsides of using it in a classroom

How Twitter is Changing the Face of Media - Mashable

Streams of Content, Limited Attention - and Twitterwalls - broadstuff

Twitter tags in my Diigo Library

Collaborative Teaching and Learning

Welcome to our Collaborative Teaching and Learning course.

Instructors

I'm Deborah Elzie, an instructional designer at Tulane University (Payson Center for International Development / Innovative Learning Center).

Mike Bagorozi Ndimurukundo will be our TA for the course. Mike is the IT Manager at Tulane's Rwanda Country Office.

The course will run from 25th November – 18th December 2009.

The course will be held online and at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST)

Online

• Blog: Global Media Lab http://globalmedialab.blogspot.com
• Synchronous Discussions: Etherpad http://etherpad.com/globalmedialab
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/globalmedialab

Course Email: globalmedialab@gmail.com