How Can Google Beat Facebook?

It might not be so hard: As I see it, the biggest shortcoming of social-networking sites is their inability to play well with others. Between MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tribe, Pownce, and the numerous also-rans, it seems as if maintaining an active presence at all of these sites could erode into becoming a full-time job. If … Continue reading “How Can Google Beat Facebook?”

Facebook for Teaching and Learning

My friend Jay Pottharst has created a Facebook group for a section he’s teaching. Thought about doing the same thing myself but I still prefer Moodle for learning and teaching contexts. One thing which could be quite useful is Jay’s Tips for people who are concerned about joining Facebook. Though he wrote those three tips … Continue reading “Facebook for Teaching and Learning”

Moodle and Collaborative Learning

Something I just posted on a forum about the Moodle course management system. Using Moodle: Thinking Through Groups Here are some comments and observations about the “Groups” interface (where an instructor can put participants in distinct groups) and other group-related features in Moodle. I’m currently teaching a smallish ethnomusicology seminar and a large (170 students) … Continue reading “Moodle and Collaborative Learning”

WordPress as Content Directory: Getting Somewhere

Using WordPress to build content directories and databases.

Thought Streams about Online Literacy

Interestingly enough, in the last several days, at least five unrelated items of online content have made me think about what I’d call “online literacy.” Not too surprising a co-occurrence, given the feeds I follow, but I think still interesting. Especially because different perspectives were behind these items and the ways I was led to … Continue reading “Thought Streams about Online Literacy”

Selling Myself Long

Been attending sessions by Meri Aaron Walker about online methods to get paid for our expertise. Meri coaches teachers about those issues. MAWSTOOLBOX.COM There’s also a LearnHub “course”: Jumpstart Your Online Teaching Career. Some notes, on my own thinking about monetization of expertise. Still draft-like, but RERO is my battle cry. Some obstacles to my … Continue reading “Selling Myself Long”

Reminiscing about Mont-de-La Salle

While discussing educational systems in relation to Finnish results in the OECD’s PISA results, I got to think about my high school. Here’s a slightly edited version of my forum post. Focusing on those who need help? Interesting learning philosophy. Several WSJ forum comments mentioned this and it goes well with some parts of the … Continue reading “Reminiscing about Mont-de-La Salle”

Learning Systems Wishlist

In a blogpost, Learning Systems ’08 host Elliott Masie lists 12 features learning management systems could/should have. Elliott Masie’s Learning TRENDS – Learning TRENDS – 12 Wishes for Our LMS and LCMS A summary: Focus on the Learner Content, Content and Content Ratings, Please More Context Performance Support Tools Social Knowledge Learning Systems as Components … Continue reading “Learning Systems Wishlist”

Social Networking and eLearning

Oops! I did it again. Launched on one of my long-winded ramblings about the convergence between learning management systems (in this case, Moodle) and social networking sites (in this case, Facebook). Executive summary: Facebook’s power’s in fluid, organic networks. Moodle’s power’s in structured but flexible learning-based groups. I personally see a marriage made in heaven. … Continue reading “Social Networking and eLearning”

Views and Feeds

Yep! One of those blogposts about blogging. This is somewhat interesting. For some reason, I’m getting much fewer daily views on this blog but I’m getting a lot more feed views, a good proportion of which come from Google Feedfetcher. Maybe WordPress.com has changed its usage statistics to switch Feedfetcher to feeds instead of views … Continue reading “Views and Feeds”

Future of eLearning

Extended quote from  John Battelle’s Searchblog: A Brief Interview with Michael Wesch (The Creator of That Wonderful Video…) As a university professor I have also found Facebook to be useful. I was inspired to use Facebook for teaching by something I saw while visiting George Mason University. Like many universities, they were concerned that the … Continue reading “Future of eLearning”

Web 2.1 or Internet 7.0?

Speaking of Web technologies getting together to create tomorrow’s Web. It’s all about puzzles. It’s really not that hard to visualize the completed picture of a Web 2.1 puzzle merging most of the advantages from the main Web 2.0 players: Facebook meets YouTube, Wikipedia meets WordPress, PodShow meets Digg, Flickr meets SecondLife… Smaller players like Moodle and … Continue reading “Web 2.1 or Internet 7.0?”