Michael Coghlan spoke at the recent ACE e-learning showcase on the topic of building online community. (A re-working of his piece from the Community Engagement showcase in Cairns Nov. ’07.) For 21C learning, “you need a gang!” according to Mike Seyfang.
i was recently reading Lankshear and Knobel’s piece on Facebook as an environment for multiliteracies (more on that over here). There is some disagreement around these social networking sites, that you must be self-centred to use them, or that they will damage your brain (eg this article).
At the recent ACE e-showcase, Michael Gwyther from YUM productions gave a great account of how they have used web2 technologies in one of their multimedia courses. Here’s the list of tools they’ve used: Blog Social Bookmarks (delicious) RSS Feeds Podomatic Slideshare Flickr Video RSS Feed reader! (Bloglines) The key for Michael is RSS feeds. As multiple students post their course reflections and assignments to their blog, he is able to read the updates from a single place .. his RSS feed reader. For a feed reader, i like google Read More …
Interesting to read stories from an adult literacy worker in Canada. Wendell Dryden is “a poet, painter, literacy worker .. writing in Saint John, New Brunswick.” He’s written a few times now about using the Page Turners easy reader series in his adult literacy classroom. Just now he’s posted an interesting piece about “guided reading” .. or finding the right book for the adult learner at the right time. A good overview of which texts he uses for each level, eg: Grass Roots (canada) and Page Turners for the real Read More …
The POV wearable computers in my earlier post had me thinking about how technologies might be integrated more closely with human bodies in future. Not only portable, but wearable. i stumbled upon a TED talks video which demonstrates a new wearable computer-like device. Camera and projector work together with your phone to create touch screens anywhere, linked in with the “hive mind” (portable projection). .. or you can download it yourself from their site. Fantasy and technology continue to converge. In this charming “World Builder” video, a man builds a Read More …
Great initiative via Leigh Blackall over in Otago, NZ. He and Michael and Alex have been experimenting with a wild new concept known as the Point of View (POV) camera. Worn on glasses, or on a head torch, the gadget allows you to video exactly what you’re doing, hands-free. Not sure whether it has audio recording built in yet. (Check: yes it does.) What also caught my eye (and my similarity radar) was an article on Wired, where the law enforcement agencies are investigating similar options .. a wearable computer, Read More …
Just had a great meeting with the one and only Lynne Gibb from Coonara House. We started out in the new Access ACE Victorian elluminate room .. moved across to a new wiki near the e-showcase ACFE wiki .. and then realised we couldn’t edit the same wiki page at the same time. So moved over to google docs, where it was easier to collaborate, because the system is set up to auto-save the work of all people editing. Really great to watch someone else typing as they talk you Read More …
Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel’s (L&K) own chapter in their book “digital literacies” investigates the social networking site Facebook in the light of multiple literacies. Within that environment, literacies have a strong tendency to be “relational” rather than informational. Hence the “super-poke” is all about connecting with a friend or colleague rather than transmitting any particular information. Membership in “groups” signals identity, but may not involve any actual communication or participation within the group. Previous studies into social networking include: network theory, signaling theory, human geography theory, social contract theory, Read More …
Another course in online facilitation from Gipps Tafe. Missed this opportunity last year, and i want to make up for it this time around. No it’s not really about synchronicity, rather synchronous online facilitation skills (ie / live, same-time web conferencing sessions). Jonathan Finkelstein is good. He’s one of the real pioneers in this multi-venue seminar facilitation caper. But the first round of the course clashes with the ACE e-learning showcase. “Following on from Jonathan Finkelstein’s highly successful visit to Australia in 2008 GippsTAFE is pleased to announce in collaboration Read More …
Our adult education co-ordinator at PRACE is looking to develop a flexible learning unit for the certificate ii in information technology – ie self-paced with support. i’ve had a thought to do some kind of blended digital imaging course using web applications and social software. However Robyn Jay says the Cert’s in IT are far too desktop-bound for that, and that we’re better off looking at communications skills or a media unit. i think we’re going to try and run it past the curriculum managers anyway (because we don’t have Read More …
I decided to bring posts to this blog from other projects, such as: Digital Learning at PRACE Digital Learning at Lalor Living and Learning ACFE Learn Local Communities of Practice the North-West e-mentor projects from ACFE Learn Local iPad for Seniors at PRACE the 23 Things project from ACFE, CAE and PRACE. Having written nearly all the text in those places, i wanted gather it all together. It was relatively easy to export from Blogger, and then import into WordPress here. Unfortunately, now i’ve discovered several roadblocks, namely: the Read More …
You remember Mark Hopkins, the adult learner from PRACE who told his story so well, not only in our publication, but also on the SBS Insight tv program last year? Well, some of the stories from this Resilience collection have been translated into other languages for the EPALE* site, and the first story to be translated was Mark’s. *EPALE: Electronic Platform for Adult Learning in Europe. https://goo.gl/XqROOX
Last night Tricia Bowen spoke about her experience of reconnecting with the adult learners who have shared their stories in this volume. I talked about how great it was to join with Tricia and Lynne in the whole creative and collaborative process of editing. Then Lynne Matheson invited us to launch the video into the world, so we all made rocket-launching sounds, and the champagne flowed. * It was such a good experience filming and editing these stories with Tricia. I would love to hear any feedback, especially related to Read More …
If you think Australia is a highly literate nation, watch this recent episode of Insight from SBS. This powerful and moving episode features Mark Hopkins one of the students from PRACE. I spoke with Mark as part of the “Stories of Resilience” project, and it’s really heartening to hear his voice in this national forum. All these adult learners show real courage and vulnerability, as they describe their experience for people who have no idea of the extent of this hidden problem. Over 40% of Australians experience some level of difficulty Read More …
If you’re involved with any kind of online facilitation, you may appreciate this article from The Guardian. They’ve done some research into the comment section, finding that much more abuse is directed at female writers than male. (Also, for web designers, some really good layout effects, especially the way they’ve integrated the graphs and the “how would you moderate this comment” bits.) There’s a whole series around this research, articles interviewing people who have experienced the maelstrom of massive online shaming and bullying.. and articles on ideas for making things Read More …
Here’s a copy of the printed materials we handed out during the course. It’s a pdf file that should hopefully open on your iPad. Link here: This post was originally on the site “iPad for Seniors” at PRACE.
Just sent out the latest PageTurners newsletter, letting people know that the new shopping-cart style website is up and running!! It’s taken me much time this year to get the site all updated and e-commercey, so i’m very happy that we’ve finally launched. Woot. You can read the newsletter here. Take a look at the site, tell us what you think. Oh, we need a feedback form don’t we. If you’re not subscribed to the PageTurners email list, you can join via the website.
I wondered if there are any iPad apps that would be especially useful for people over 55, so i searched the web for “best apps for ipad for seniors“. Sure enough, there are many many lists: “16 helpful apps for seniors”, “27 bet iPad and iPhone apps for senior citizens”. But are any of them useful.. and how many of these apps are FREE..? Well, some of them are designed to help people by improving things like: Visual accessibility: Silver Surf is a web browser with “large navigation buttons, dynamic text Read More …
Here’s a basic intro that Michael made – for low level students really (link: pdf stored in google drive). GCF LearnFree don’t have an intro to blogger, but they do have a great section talking about blogs in general, and an intro to Tumblr instead. Tumblr is much more visual than blogger, which can be text-heavy. Google themselves have a fairly decent help section. Grovo has a few videos showing the basics, including this overview. But they’re a commercial mob, and they’ll want you to pay for more. What good Read More …
What are the the basics of blogging? make new blog, with title & web address (URL) hopefully at a time when google is not policing your IP address make new post add & format text add images make links save draft / publish get people interested in reading your blog post knowledge you may need Ideas for engaging learners with online activities. Ideas for adapting your already brilliant teaching and learning knowledge into online spaces. On writing for the web keep it as visual as possible make your text very Read More …
