StigmergicWeb

This is the last blog post I’ll write here. If you want to skip my droning on about why, you can just head over to the new blog, Open Monologue, at robwall.ca. If you want to stay subscribed to this blog, I’ll be auto-posting the ed-tech links that I bookmark at del.icio.us so and I’ll probably announce when EdTech Posse podcasts are online here as well, so if you want to keep track or our podcasts stay tuned here.

So why close up now? First reason, and I have only myself to blame, is the domain name. Stigmergy is a very cool idea and a key concept for understanding emergent systems. It is also, however, not the easiest domain name to tell people out loud without having to spell it for them.

The second reason is restlessness. Way back in 2003 (that feels like such a long time ago) Alan Levine noted that many edu-blogs seem to be abandoned after about a year. If that is the case, I’ve put in more than my time here. This incarnation of my blogging started in June of 2004 after trying other formats for a couple of years, and I just have a feeling that it is time to move on. When I’ve moved before, I have changed the focus, and I think it’s time for me to do just that.

I think that the desire to change the focus of my writing is probably the biggest reason. Go check out the new blog - Open Monologue - to see a summary of what I want to write about. I am not, as I mentioned before, going to give up writing about education, learning and technology. Those are still subjects I try to think deeply about, but other things will be there as well. Besides, I think the edu-blogging thing is starting to get a little tedious. No offense meant to anyone who is in the edu-blogging camp but I have to agree with some of the points made by Tim Holt in a recent post on his blog.

You know, you have to stop preaching to the choir. I am sorry, but frankly, the people that are listening to you leaders are the ones using the technology already. Have you seen the attendees at the conventions that no one can afford? It is a nerdfest. It should be filled with teachers that have no frikkin’ idea what a blog is or what podcasts are. But that isn’t the case. Seems to me that the message has been, for MANY YEARS, that we need to use technology. Okaaaay…So, you have saturated the ed-techie teachers with that message and most of them have done their darndest to get ed tech in their classrooms. But have you ever stopped to think that maybe after all of these years, the message needs to be changed to appeal to the non-techie educator?

In general I have to agree with that. I think that the conversations are becoming rather circular. (By the way, I disagree vehmently with pretty much every other point on dissent that he raises.) Certainly there are new technologies since this blog started, but I think we are still having the same discussions as we did then. And, generally speaking, we are preaching to the choir. There certainly are many more voices in the choir than their used to be, are we articulating a vision that is coherent in a way that is comprehensible to the teachers I work with who still don’t know how to use their e-mail? Can we show them something that will make them change their teaching practice? We seem to present technology based solutions - blogging, digital story telling, wikis, etc. - as the one true way to reform education. I certainly don’t believe that is true, at least not at this stage in my life. I know teachers who are brilliant speakers and lecturers that can enthrall and educate a class of students just by standing in front of a group of students and talking. My organic chemistry prof in my first year of university did just that (although he did use some very commonly used technology in his classes - an overhead projector and a chalkboard). I learned a lot from him. It was his way of teaching and it worked for him and for his students.

I should stop. I don’t want this to turn into a criticism of what we (speaking with my edu-blogger hat on) are trying to do or of the importance of some of the models of learning that we develop. we have some valuable contributions to make to pedagogy. I just want us to think critically about what we collectively want to achieve. Are our goals for the common good, or is it hubris for us to think that we hold the one true solution?

OK - if I haven’t totally alienated everybody with that, y’all can follow me over to the new blog which is pithily entitled Open Monologue. You’re invited to drop by anytime you’d like. No cat diaries - I promise.

Alec Couros and I are in the midst of putting together a course for the University of Regina. Officially, the course number and name is EC&I 831: Computers in the Classroom: Appropriate Curriculum and Instruction Related to Computer Technology but Alec and I are referring to it as Open, Connected and Social Pedagogy. We’ll be offering it in the second semester, from January to April 2008.

The official outline is rather vague, but we will be focusing on the principles of learning being “open, connected and social” (full credit to Alan, D’Arcy and Brian for coming up with that pithy little phrase) and focusing specifically on open and social tools/software for the classroom, how they can be used and how pedagogy changes the way we perceive and guide learning and knowledge. Social learning and connectivism are two key pedagogical concepts that guide the course. The will be offered completely online. We’re planning to use a synchronous tool for once a week get-togethers, about 1.5 hours/week where we can discuss course goals, content and create collaborative opportunities.

That’s the elevator pitch. What we really want to do is get some educators and edtech folks together for some great conversations and opportunities to collaborate. There are two ways we’re looking for people to participate. Obviously we are looking for students since we need some enrollment for the course to run. If we get a high demand for the course, that will help to make sure we run it again next year. If you are interested in that way of participating, details are for registration are available at the Distance Learning Division of the U of R.

The other way you can participate is involved in the discussions and collaborations. If you’ve got some ideas about using social software/web apps/web 2.0 (ugghh), we would welcome your contributions in some way. We’re looking at a number of ways to get people involved in some way - maybe wikis, maybe doing some RSS mashup of blog feed, maybe podcasting. In the end, it will probably be a mix of all these things and more.

This is a new implementation of an existing course, so we’re still not exactly sure where it will end up. If you want to get involved to see where it goes, leave a comment or send me an e-mail (robwall at gmail dot com).

There is some irony in my being involved with this course but that’s another blog post that will have to wait.

{begin sarcasm}Oh how I do love the lockdown on my ability to customize my account with our new Windows computer system at my school. I’m so happy that the IT folks are preventing me and my students from doing useful things that might interfere with their ability to manage the system. We wouldn’t want students’ learning to interfere with their system, would we?{end sarcasm}

I am feeling loathing towards our school division system administrators right now, and very bad words are prominent in my inner monologue. The reason - Google Notebook. Google Notebook itself is not the cause of my loathing, merely a symptom. I think that Google Notebook is a terrific research tool. I would love to be able to introduce it as a resource for the students and other staff here at the school. My favourite feature of GN is the extension that allows highlighted section of text on a web page to be clipped and added to a notebook along with the address of the web page it came from. The notebooks can be shared or published so that teachers are able to follow along the process of a student’s research. This is a great tool from Google, and one that too few people (especially students and teachers) know about.

But I can’t install the extension on IE on our system. I don’t have the rights to add an extension to my browser. I’m not surprised about this, considering the control issues of the current IT regime. So, being a resourceful and geeky kind of guy, I thought I thwart the IT guys by running the portable version of Firefox, which runs off a USB drive. I could then install the notebook extension.

Alas, this does not work. I have other apps on my USB drive - Skype, PuTTY and Opera (which I am currently running) and others which all run just tickety-boo. Firefox seems to be singled out and prevented from funning running (Oops - apparently I was too upset to type correctly). I can’t install the GN extension on IE, and I can’t run Firefox. These are the only two browsers that support the plugin. I can still use GN, but without the extension it is only flying on one wing.

As an isolated event, this is an inconvenience to me. But it’s not just an isolated event. It also prevents teachers and students from using a wonerfully useful research tool to its fullest. It is symptomatic of an unfortunate fact in many school divisions that education is secondary to the demands of the IT department. If that’s not a case of the tail wagging the dog, I don’t know what is. When that happens, something is seriously wrong with the system.

We got a new one up - EdTech Posse 3.1. We (Alec, Heather, Dean and me) about Twitter and all sorts of fun stuff.

And a personal note to Apple - thank you for removing the 1 hour and 6 minute limit for podcasts in the new GarageBand, and for direct mp3 exports. You have made my life much easier, and justified the cost for the iLife upgrade.

The presentation looks pretty good, especially if you go into full screen mode. I don’t know if it handles really complex powerpoint but the straightforward, page-turner stuff looks pretty good. Now we just need an interface for making the presentations and I won’t need to deal with Microsoft Office ever again! Or at least, not so much.

One of the problems that always comes up at my school is students want to be able to work on essays and such at the school and at home. The usual solutions are e-mailing back and forth (tedious, but at least there is a degree of revision control built in) or putting the files on a portable medium such as a USB drive or a CD-ROM. I showed Google Docs to a student the other day, and I could see the light bulb go on over his head. With the Google Apps suite available to schools for free, this is a service that a school or college could offer all students with zero cost to the institution. This is done without students seeing any ads - I’m glad google gets it that it is clearly unethical to use the offer of a free technology service in order to force students to watch ads.

Again, I find myself being a Google fanboy. I know that there is a cost attached - TNSTAAFL, after all - but they seem to be creating/acquiring the web applications that are most valuable for individuals, and for schools.

Another in the Ten Things to Know podcast series (recorded on occasion by Donna DesRoches and me) is up and ready for your listening pleasure, the one entitled Ten Things to Know about Wikis. It shouldn’t take much mental strain to figure out the topic of this one. And if you care to just subscribe to the podcast directly, give a little clicky on the Ten Things to Know RSS feed. We’re hoping to offer some short, useful and non-technical descriptions of some of the different web and application tools that absolutely rock, but might not be well known by many teachers. Sadly, we don’t always meet the goal of short, but we do aim to meet the goals of useful and non-technical

Donna and I have done a few podcasts we’ve entitled Ten Things to Know. We had a small corner of the school website to show this off, but we thought it was time to set it up as an independent site. If you are interested in some examination of the educational application of various technological tools, take a look at the official site and have a listen to our podcast at Ten Things to Know. I’m releasing some of our old shows at first, since most people probably haven’t heard them yet, then I’ll start adding the new ones.