tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41179012011-04-22T05:13:44.112+03:00Collaborative LearningThis is a diary of my involvement in a project on collaborative learning in the psychology department at the University of South Africa. Most recent posts below and links to previous posts on the left.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comBlogger711100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1087584211076329712004-06-18T21:40:00.000+03:002004-06-18T21:43:31.076+03:00Another reminder that the collaborative learning environments blog has moved to http://www.criticalmethods.org/collab/news.htm I also now contribute to the Critical Psychology Blog.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1070610596093345152003-12-05T09:49:00.000+02:002003-12-05T09:51:19.780+02:00Collaborative learning blog moved Just another reminder that this blog now lives at - http://www.criticalmethods.org/collab/news.htmMartinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1066025174519656192003-10-13T09:06:00.000+03:002003-10-13T09:06:14.596+03:00Zonkboard removedWith Zonkboard now requiring payment, I've removed it. Also a reminder that this blog has moved to http://www.criticalmethods.org/collab/news.htmMartinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1064966581975406082003-10-01T02:59:00.000+03:002003-10-01T03:03:02.123+03:00I'm moving this blog to a new home at http://www.criticalmethods.org/collab/news.htm - more info about the move there. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1064839112561431762003-09-29T15:30:00.000+03:002003-09-29T15:38:32.193+03:00Another e-learning mantra in the making The normally sensible Stephen Downes today quotes an article by Belinda Lazarus showing that teaching an online course takes 3 to 7 hours per week. What irritates me about this is the implicit assumption that online learning equals facilitating online discussion groups. It only takes between 3 and 7 hours per week for classes of 25 (i.e. up to 17 minutes Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1064389023087967662003-09-24T10:35:00.000+03:002003-09-24T10:37:02.770+03:00Presenting at PsySSA I am co-presenting a symposium on collaborative learning at the Psychology Society of South Africa conference today. Will post my impressions here later.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1063781303476958112003-09-17T09:40:00.000+03:002003-09-17T09:48:23.160+03:00Just-in-time collaboration George Siemens makes the excellent point that "most training in workplaces is geared to courses and workshops...yet that is the last place I go for help". Like most of us, if George needs to learn something he searches for it on Google, asks somebody, reads a book - and will only go on a formal course as a last resort. Given this, here are his suggestions for how Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1063695398574668242003-09-16T09:46:00.000+03:002003-09-16T10:05:11.080+03:00Segue content management system From the site: "Segue is an open source content management system designed for e-learning that combines the ease of use of course management systems with the flexibility of weblogs for creating various types of sites including course, news, journal, peer review and e-portfolio." Of course there are many commercial and open source e-learning management systems, butMartinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1063021175197868172003-09-08T14:39:00.000+03:002003-09-08T14:39:35.196+03:00"Personal and Collaborative Publishing (PCP)" James Farmer suggests Personal and Collaborative Publishing as a broader term to include things like weblogs - here and here. Although there are some good counter-arguments, I think he's basically got it right. The weblog fad may blow over, but the principle of personal and collaborative publishing is here to stay.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1063002517413304952003-09-08T09:28:00.000+03:002003-09-08T09:28:37.370+03:00Collaborative learning heaven - or is it? Interesting article about the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business' new, state-of-the-art, $3 million Giovanini Commons for Collaborative Learning: In the main area are three rooms ideal for a variety of collaborative activities. The first two could practically double as corporate board rooms, offering large drop-down presentation Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1062068828026185832003-08-28T14:07:00.000+03:002003-08-28T14:07:08.070+03:00When people don't participate... Participation seems to come in two varieties only: too little or too much. Too much has killed off more than one overly-popular collaboration environment (e.g. the Usenet discussion groups), but has also resulted in much innovation as people devise ways of distributing tasks and responsibilities more widely and creatively through the group. David Wiley has, for Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1061879248355145182003-08-26T09:27:00.000+03:002003-08-26T09:27:28.353+03:00More commercial collaboration Stumbled on another example of how the collaboration and networking thing is hitting the big time in corporations. AskMe "is the leading provider of software solutions that enable global 2000 companies to create and manage Employee Knowledge Networks (EKNs)". What are EKNs, you ask? They are "software systems that deliver employee expertise, directly to other Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1061552375502829412003-08-22T14:39:00.000+03:002003-08-22T14:41:42.733+03:00Creating the conditions for collaborative learningfocus on real-world tasksstructure tasks so as to emphasize interdependence (e.g. make it necessary to draw on the diverse skills in the group)make members individually accountable to the group rather than to a third partymodel collaboration skillscreate mechanisms for social as well as task-oriented interactioncreate mechanisms for the Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1061358639260618732003-08-20T08:50:00.000+03:002003-08-20T08:54:05.366+03:00Web Based Communities Conference Got this announcement about an interesting upcoming conference from Conference Alerts: IADIS International Conference: Web Based Communities 2004 25 to 26 March 2004, Lisbon, Portugal CALL FOR PAPERS Deadline for submissions: 7 October 2003 (for all contributions) * Conference background and goals The mission of this conference is to publish and integrate Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1060947151058580732003-08-15T14:32:00.000+03:002003-08-15T14:38:15.966+03:00Beyond the consumer mindset Another bit of wisdom from Sebastian Fiedler's always-interesting blog on "Weblogs, CMS, and personal Webpublishing for learning and education":"Frankly, I don't care much if a good number of personal Webpublishing projects die after a while and people find other things to play with. One lasting effect of such an experience might well be the insight that one can Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1060926834123162152003-08-15T08:53:00.000+03:002003-08-15T08:58:21.013+03:00"Sage on the stage" collaboration? Sometimes I wonder how far one can stretch the term "collaborative learning". A press release by DyKnow brags about how the University of Southern California's Distance Education Network will be implementing their collaborative learning software. DyKnow's main product is an electronic whiteboard that, according to them, "creates a rich, collaborative Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1060842505588051222003-08-14T09:28:00.000+03:002003-08-14T09:34:22.950+03:00Problem based learning Nice, crisp article at elearnspace by Jennifer Gurrie on Increasing Student Motivation and Quality of Participation in Discussions through Problem-Based Learning. "Your first time teaching an online course isn’t going as well as you had hoped. You thought you posted interesting reading materials and asked students good questions to respond to in the discussion area. But soMartinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-106066863007302902003-08-12T09:10:00.000+03:002003-08-12T09:10:30.060+03:00More corporate-style collaborative learning Hyperwave is another company selling collaborative learning to the corporate world (see also their latest press release). Their products have names such as "Smart Collaborative Workspace", "Smart Collaborative Learning" and "Interactive Knowledge Center". Why all this focus on collaboration? Because - "Collaborative knowledge sharing can improve the Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1060596005270306752003-08-11T13:00:00.000+03:002003-08-11T13:23:47.250+03:00Selling collaborative communities I recently made the point in a post on why we dont' need a collaborative learning system that educational institutions may have to start concentrating more on adding value by indexing, linking, clustering learning objects (and learners) rather than on creating content. The Hackett Group provides an interesting commercial example of this. What they're selling, Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1060167691613031522003-08-06T14:01:00.000+03:002003-08-06T14:01:31.456+03:00Working with two basic tensions in collaborative learning I have just been to a presentation by Chris Reading, who is from the Centre for Cognition Research into Learning and Teaching at the University of New England in Australia. She mentions two tensions one encounters in statistics teaching, which I think may be fundamental to learning situations generally:A tension in terms of purpose: On Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1060084589533203642003-08-05T14:56:00.000+03:002003-08-05T14:56:29.310+03:00Portable skills, portable tools Sebastian Fiedler and I have been thinking about very similar issues lately, both partly in response to Elizabeth Lawley's ideas and experience. Here is how Sebastian explains why using tools with application outside of education is a good idea: "I would rather spend my time mastering skills for the use of personal Webpublishing technologies than working my way Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-106006610028303062003-08-05T09:48:00.000+03:002003-08-05T09:48:20.106+03:00An example of using generic software for e-learning I just found a nice example of one of the points I made in yesterday's post - about using software that has a life outside the educational world, rather than purpose-designed "courseware". Elizabeth Lane describes how she is using MovableType (a very widely used blogging system) in putting together and presenting a course on multimedia.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1059992434000079892003-08-04T13:20:00.000+03:002003-08-04T16:57:32.803+03:00Why we don't need a collaborative learning systemOver the past 9 months or so I have had some fun (with the help of colleagues and students in the psychology and other departments at Unisa) looking into, downloading, trying out and programming various bits and pieces of software that might help us build collaborative learning environments. Some of what we have learnt in the process is reflected Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-1059720288777567942003-08-01T09:44:00.000+03:002003-08-01T16:21:55.826+03:00Responses to my and Antje's "obstacles" posts I was very pleased to see that a couple of people have noticed what Antje and I have been saying about obstacles to collaborative learning - I just hope we don't get to be known as the "obstacles" people! Sebastian Fielder mentioned us (as well as the collaborative learning environments source book) on his blog; from there it was picked up by Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-958793862003-06-21T03:38:00.000+03:002003-06-21T03:38:52.333+03:00More obstacles to collaborative learning Antje (http://antjem.blogspot.com/) suggested some great additions to my list of obstacles to collaborative learning. I'm re-posting her suggestions here as they may go unnoticed in the "comments" link below my list. She says: "I can see more obstacles to collaborative learning in a student environment: Knowledge level of participants (if they come from Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-958607202003-06-20T15:52:00.000+03:002003-06-20T15:52:33.550+03:00In Turkey, Ireland, Scotland, England (but not France) I'll be away until 17 July 2003 doing the conference thing and visiting colleagues (and maybe doing a bit of holidaying in-between). Please don't ask about the "but not France" part...Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-954547762003-06-09T09:45:00.000+03:002003-06-09T13:06:45.000+03:00Slashdot - students vs lecturers There's a Slashdot discussion going on about online learning. What I Iike about it is that participants who want lecturers to do more teaching ("they never even graded my assignment!") get to have their say, but many others are also making good points about how it shouldn't all revolve around being taught and evaluated by "the expert". Ditto for collaborative Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-953665122003-06-06T14:52:00.000+03:002003-06-06T15:11:41.000+03:00Some obstacles to collaborative learning Students and lecturers are more familiar with a knowledge-transmission model of education and don't always understand what is expected of us in a more constructionist environment. We have too little information about lecturers' and students' backgrounds, networks and skills - so often we don't realise that there is somebody in the group who could teach theMartinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-952287302003-06-03T11:31:00.000+03:002003-06-03T11:45:10.000+03:00What is a learning object? Pithamber Polsani (2003) has published a useful paper "Use and Abuse of Reusable Learning Objects" in the Journal of Digital Information. His focus is mainly on pointing out what is wrong with existing understandings of what a learning object is and on suggesting better approaches. I'm not sure that he really has the problem solved, but he is very good at pointing out Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-950330732003-05-29T16:27:00.000+03:002003-05-29T16:30:26.000+03:00Indigenation Indigenation is a nice example of a collaborative learning project where students play an active role in creating (rather than just consuming) learning materials. It focusses on First Nation Studies. Have a look at the "student-generated learning objects".Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-949293342003-05-27T09:42:00.000+03:002003-05-27T09:42:27.066+03:00Informal learning Nice article by Jay Cross on Informal Learning – the other 80%. "Most people in training programs learn only a little of the right stuff, are fuzzy about how to apply what they’ve learned, and never address who are the right people to know." By contrast: "People learn to build the right network of associates and the right level of expertise through informal, sometimes even Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-947531942003-05-22T23:32:00.000+03:002003-05-22T23:32:07.076+03:00More on blogging and learning - Sébastien and Sebastian I have always been impressed with Sébastien Paquet's article on personal knowledge publishing and its uses in research because it's not only a nice intro to blogging but also relates it very nicely to the wider question of being an academic in the networked age. I've just discovered another similar article, this one by Sebastian Fiedler on Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-947245122003-05-22T09:12:00.000+03:002003-05-22T09:12:55.783+03:00SIMIAN standards Clinton Armitage drew my attention to the Infinite Monkey Protocol Suite - a very important standard for collaborative learning - not only because it is being developed through the usual Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) collaborative process, but also because the situation for which it seeks to develop standards is itself a collaborative enterprise of a very special kind.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-946294942003-05-20T15:30:00.000+03:002003-05-20T15:30:31.506+03:00Two sorts of standards After writing my little bit of wisdom (below) about standards in e-learning, I came across a short article about programming standards by Jim Waldo of Sun. He argues that standards often "curtail innovation and reward bad behaviour" and distinguishes between two sorts of standards. He likes descriptive standards that merely "codify what is already common practice in the Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-945761282003-05-19T15:01:00.000+03:002003-05-19T15:01:28.540+03:00Bal-oog I have always been attracted to non-purposive, poetic, trans-rational (er, whatever that means) forms of communication - if for no other reason than that they are so hard to do well, especially when it's a group effort. Here's a worthy attempt that may be semi-intelligible to (some) South Africans: bal-oog.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-944358652003-05-16T09:52:00.000+03:002003-05-16T09:58:33.000+03:00Collaboration standards Standards aren't exactly a turn-on for me, but I've gradually been waking up to how they really are what makes it possible for people to cooperate in the first place. In Vasi van Deventer and my book-in-progress we call standards "packaging" and talk about packaging for humans (things such as how to present different kinds of documents, user interface design, and Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-915447742003-03-28T15:43:00.000+02:002003-03-28T15:46:03.000+02:00Off to India I'll be in India from 1 to about 15 April to attend the "Indo-South Africa dialogue on truth, reconciliation and human rights" at the University of Delhi. Hopefully I will get a chance to post to this blog from there.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-913441802003-03-25T15:49:00.000+02:002003-03-28T15:39:45.000+02:00Tired of the war? Then try the random communications studies module generator!Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-913420692003-03-25T14:56:00.000+02:002003-03-25T14:56:11.590+02:00Stop the war OK, so this isn't about collaborative learning - not exactly - but like most South Africans I am opposed to the war and feel the need to do something to show my concern. The best, and most disturbing, analysis I have read of why the war is wrong, is Slavoj Zizek's THE IRAQ WAR: WHERE IS THE TRUE DANGER?.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-912721482003-03-24T12:38:00.000+02:002003-03-24T12:38:30.840+02:00Sustaining the online learning community I have just signed up for an online course at my university with the rather exciting title of "Sustaining the online learning community". According to the course blurb it is "aimed at providing staff with an overview of the potential of Internet communication technologies, a new perspective on teaching and learning, and the task of facilitating Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-910543992003-03-20T14:26:00.000+02:002003-03-20T14:26:30.623+02:00External examiner's charter Academic institutions typically do not have a direct hold over external examiners, but rely on their goodwill. External examiners consequently do not have to accept the examination format prescribed by institutions, but can negotiate conditions that better suit their ideas about examination. So, next time I am asked to be an external examiner, I plan on sending the Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-908420732003-03-17T08:54:00.000+02:002003-03-17T08:58:12.000+02:00Disinfopedia They describe themselves as "a collaborative project to produce a directory of public relations firms, think tanks, industry-funded organizations, and industry-friendly experts that work to influence public opinion on behalf of corporations, governments and special interests." A bit like the much bigger Wikipedia, but with a much more specific focus.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-906952322003-03-14T08:37:00.000+02:002003-03-14T08:37:03.746+02:00Commontext Their blurb: "A completely new way of publishing educational materials. It addresses instructors' most common complaints about commercial textbooks by providing a permanent library of freely shared classroom texts. Instead of settling for one or more commercially published texts for students to purchase, instructors can select precisely the materials they want and either post them Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-902980242003-03-07T15:16:00.000+02:002003-03-07T15:16:47.890+02:005th Annual Conference on World Wide Web Applications (WWW2003) 10 to 12 September 2003 University of Durban-Westville Campus. Proposals to pavb@rau.ac.za by 30 April 2003. Full papers by 15 August 2003. One of the themes is e-learning. More info at http://www.udw.ac.za/www2003 OR http://www.rau.ac.za/www2003 Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-902383792003-03-06T16:24:00.000+02:002003-03-07T13:35:44.000+02:00Open Content Finally got started on reading the article by Keats about how African universities could create teaching materials following the open source software model. He focusses on content, i.e. the sort of stuff that goes into textbooks and lecture notes, rather than on learning processes and systems. I like his suggestion that content could be developed collaboratively among institutions (Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-901629382003-03-05T09:00:00.000+02:002003-03-06T15:55:48.000+02:00Collaborative learning as the answer to everything Just as I thought I might be getting too extreme about this collaborative learning thing, I came across this really interesting proposal by Keats on using the open source software movement as a model for collaboratively developing open educational content for African universities. Is there anything this thang is not good for? (By the way, for Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-901094232003-03-04T14:57:00.000+02:002003-03-04T15:30:09.000+02:00International Conference on Collaboration and Sharing of Knowledge At the University of South Africa, 30 and 31 July 2003. More info from kmssa@unisa.ac.za Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-898325872003-02-27T13:57:00.000+02:002003-02-27T13:57:00.950+02:00Blatherboard I stuck a "blatherboard" (a scrolling open-comment thingy) by Zonkboard on this blog a while ago and at the same time asked MA students to start their own blogs (links are at the top left of this blog). They've been dutifully doing that, and will hopefully get into the habit. What I didn't expect was that there would be so much activity on the blatherboard - mainly the sorts of Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-898322212003-02-27T13:44:00.000+02:002003-02-27T13:44:39.826+02:00Recent collaborative learning articles Just came across two interesting-looking articles on collaborative learning. Haven't checked them out yet, but here they are anyway for future reference: Deep in the Hearts of Learners: Insights into the Nature of Online Community A Dialogue: Sharing, Trust, Collaboration Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-892964572003-02-18T11:40:00.000+02:002003-02-18T14:07:51.000+02:00Blogging goes mainstream The big news among bloggers is that Google bought Pyra, the company that owns Blogger. Here is the inside story from Evan Williams, founder of Pyra. Although people are (rightly) sceptical about take-overs and mergers, most bloggers seem to see this as a good thing. I agree. If blogging is to go mainstream, rather let it be via Google than the Microsofts of this world. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-892317512003-02-17T12:04:00.000+02:002003-02-17T12:06:10.000+02:00As part of a module on web authoring MA students in the Unisa research psychology course (aka knowledge2go) have to set up and maintain a blog during 2003. The first four (of about 10) blogs are up and ready to go - Helen: helzi.blogspot.com Eddie: chlorofilposman.blogspot.com Constance: constancem.blogspot.com Zenita: zeni.blogspot.comMartinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-888417752003-02-10T11:19:00.000+02:002003-02-10T11:25:47.000+02:00Collaborative learning resources I have been working with others in my department to compile a resource list relating to collaborative learning. Check it out.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-886955722003-02-07T10:23:00.000+02:002003-02-07T10:29:51.000+02:00Institutional repositories and collaborative learning Institutional repositories are a particular type of content management system - intended as a means for scholarly materials other than what gets published in journals to be made available online. The two big players are DSpace from MIT and Eprints - both, thankfully, open source. Like other content management systems, work on institutional Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-886430882003-02-06T13:47:00.000+02:002003-02-06T23:13:07.000+02:00Peer review as an element in collaborative learning I think I may have double standards about peer review. In settings to do with academic publication and funding I'm as cynical as the next person - peer review is largely a way of dressing up intellectual warfare as a fair and neutral process. In the context of collaborative learning, however, I see it as a good thing - a blurring of the roles Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-886367242003-02-06T09:20:00.000+02:002003-02-06T09:28:40.000+02:00Background reading on blogging There is no shortage of background material on blogging. Probably the best starting point is Sébastien Paquet's article on Personal knowledge publishing and its uses in research. There is another useful intro article by James Branum. It gives a fairly comprehensive background to blogging from a journalism perspective, together with an overview of how various mass Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-886357922003-02-06T08:50:00.000+02:002003-02-06T08:50:55.786+02:00Collaborative Learning Project Outline What the project is about It is an attempt to bring coherence to a number of smaller projects in my department, all with a common theme - the development of "communities of practice" in which learning happens collaboratively. A community of practice exists where a group of peers work together towards shared goals. It could be a small group involved in a Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-882624812003-01-30T13:46:00.000+02:002003-01-30T13:46:54.173+02:00Despotic versus open content management The university where I work is in the process of setting up a content management system - co-developed with a smallish local IT company. It's the usual sort of thing - separation of content and presentation, allocation of different roles (author, editor, publisher), a staged approval process for new content, and so on. These sorts of systems can be Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-881715152003-01-28T21:55:00.000+02:002003-01-28T21:58:31.000+02:00Collaboration as big business II Lotus Software, IBM and a host of other companies are also very much on the collaboration bandwagon. See Third-party vendors aim to ride IBM's pledge to integrate collaboration technologies with business processes by Gregg Keizer of TechWeb News "Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-881151292003-01-27T22:55:00.000+02:002003-01-27T22:55:07.910+02:00Collaboration as big business So Microsoft has bought out PlaceWare and is reviving its "Real-Time Collaboration Group". The story quotes Michael Sampson of Ferris Research - "Competitors could feel a chill if [Microsoft] Office applications come with a direct link to PlaceWare."Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-880855392003-01-27T09:31:00.000+02:002003-01-27T09:34:59.000+02:00Organizing documents (and why Windows is so frustrating) OK I know this isn't strictly about collaborative learning, but here goes anyway. There are, I think, basically four ways of finding documents (or other content): 1. Via nested folders. This is the most familiar way, sometimes (rather misleadingly) called the desktop metaphor. It helps to keep things organised, but a) requires a lot of Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-879452912003-01-24T09:16:00.000+02:002003-01-24T09:30:59.000+02:00How not to collaborate II OK, so I work my way down the cascade of attached e-mails and get to the document I'm supposed to comment on. Its rather off-putting title is "Criteria and guidelines for short courses and skills programmes discussion document". I'm a bit scared of the standards mania that's gripped South African education (and also find aspects of it a bit exciting), so decide to at Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-879449752003-01-24T09:06:00.000+02:002003-01-24T09:24:58.000+02:00How not to collaborate I Just got one of those typical e-mails from the head of department saying (in red capitals) - IMPORTANT DOCUMENT! PLEASE COMMENT! It had trickled down to him from the dean and before that from the university's central administration and before that from the South African Qualifications Authority. OK, so that's point one - trickle-down collaboration doesn't work. A sure Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-878898842003-01-23T10:50:00.000+02:002003-01-23T10:50:53.243+02:00Does information want to be free? Stephen Downes' wonderful Online Learning Daily today has a link to an article by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba - Napsterize Your Knowledge: Give To Receive. I agree with the general sentiment of the article ("the more that a company shares its knowledge, the more valuable it becomes") and I also like their examples of people and organisations who benefit from Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-878876822003-01-23T09:22:00.000+02:002003-01-23T09:29:00.000+02:00My friend Brandon Hamber started a blog - http://www.brandonhamber.com/blog/blog.htm and invited me and some other people to join. I'm ashamed to admit that even though my blog is supposedly about collaborative learning I never even thought of inviting collaborators on board. Naughty-naughty. Ah well, at least I started my blog four days before his.Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-877764512003-01-21T12:48:00.000+02:002003-01-21T12:48:30.326+02:00Apostrophe Protection SocietyMartinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-877706522003-01-21T08:27:00.000+02:002003-01-21T08:28:38.000+02:00MetaFilter - an interesting "community of users that find and discuss things on the web". "Self-policing since 1999".Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-877201432003-01-20T11:26:00.000+02:002003-01-20T12:24:05.000+02:00Externalling as a wasted collaborative learning opportunity. I am often used by colleagues from other universities as an external examiner for MA and PhD theses. What bothers me about the process is that, at best, my report is seen by the student and her supervisor. Some universities (like the University of South Africa where I work) even have strict rules (routinely broken) against letting Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-877166662003-01-20T09:14:00.000+02:002003-01-20T12:10:06.000+02:00Vasi van Deventer sent me a reference to a new book: Visualizing Argumentation: Software Tools for Collaborative and Educational Sense-Making, edited by Paul A. Kirschner from the Open University of the Netherlands. It also has a companion site at http://www.visualizingargumentation.info/. The focus on argumentation (rather than e.g. "brainstorming") puts me off a bit - people don't collaborate Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-877154202003-01-20T08:34:00.000+02:002003-01-20T08:34:56.040+02:00I like the name of Dave Winer's blog at Userland - TheTwoWayWeb.comMartinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-877149372003-01-20T08:22:00.000+02:002003-01-20T08:22:17.713+02:00Nice quotes from a talk by Jay Cross given to the Harvard Business School Alumni Association of Northern California: "Learning is social. 90% of corporate learning is informal yet 80% of corporate investment is in formal learning. Building community, fostering collaboration, and setting up virtual water coolers returns a bigger bang for the buck than loading on more courses." and "Learning is Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4117901.post-875836362003-01-17T12:38:00.000+02:002003-01-17T13:35:14.000+02:00This blog as a diary of my involvement in a project on collaborative learning being run from the psychology department at the University of South Africa. Martinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730588078940715494noreply@blogger.com