Blog of the day

Found another interesting blog today - Keith Bryant's blog on e-learning reports all the bits about EDEN that I probably missed. Have a look at it when you get the chance, as it's well worth a read. That's the great thing about the blogosphere - what someone misses, someone else nails down. Keith holds the same opinion as me about Teemu Arina, and makes some interesting points bout what was discussed during the Web 2.0 sessions at the conference. I will add his blog to my blog roll when I find out what's causing the 'error on page' message that keeps popping up. Probably an error on the page...

Viva la difference

Yesterday I blogged that there was little or no difference between FaceBook and MySpace, principally because I thought there was no difference between the social class profiles of users. Now it seems that there may be a difference between the two social networking services after all.... A new report (see BBC News online) reveals that MySpace is fast losing ground to both FaceBook and Bebo, and that in the UK in particular, these two are much more popular.

Says the report, by Rory Cellan-Jones: 'There was also evidence that there is plenty of promiscuity amongst the social networkers - at least when it comes to visiting the various sites. Around half a million British users visited all three services in May'. Promiscuity? What does Mr Cellan-Jones mean by this?? Lack of loyalty I hope, otherwise they must all be bonkers ....

MyFace or SpaceBook?

So it's official. Apparently your choice of social networking site indicates what social class you belong to... A recent US research project (by a PhD student mind you) has reported that users of FaceBook are generally toffs from wealthier homes and are more likely to study in further/higher education than that great unwashed working class lot who like using MySpace. Well, fancy that. I guess the fact that FaceBook organises its regional networks on the basis of the colleges or universities its members attended might have something to do with it...? And what about those who use Bebo - are they part of a particular social class, or are they just little oiks who couldn't design a tasteful personal space to save their lives?

Anyway, I'm not so sure about this report. I used to have a MySpace, but abandoned it because FaceBook was easier to use. I subsequently found out that more of my friends were using it than MySpace, so it made social networking easier. The fact that I'm working in a university didn't sway me either way. The two are very similar in what they do, but for me FaceBook has the edge because I can upload my 'orrible little photos a bit easier. In the UK, incidentally, being wealthy and attending college are not necessarily synonymous, so the data in the study may not generalise to a British context.

What do you think? Oh... and not so's you'd notice, but the links above have been swapped for effect.... doesn't really make that much difference, does it?

Here is the link to the University of Plymouth elearning site and also back to the Learning with 'e's blog where you will find loads more on social software...

Every child connected

Seems our cousins across the other side of the pond are having similar problems to us, at least in their schools. This post from Mike Hasley's Election 2008 blog says it all:

Instead of “No Child Left Behind,” our goal should be “Every Child Connected.” The digital divide in our country is worse than it was 10 years ago before our schools were wired. Most public schools still have students visiting computers only for a few hours a week in computer labs. With every major corporation in the world connecting its customers, employees, and suppliers, to 24-hour networks regardless of whether they are using computers, cell phones, PDA’s, etc. providing them access to massive data resources, there is no reason we can’t build a similar networked ability for our students, teachers, and parents 24 hours a day to access the greatest libraries of the world. This will accelerate the professional development of teachers to use the new technology as well as transform education from being something that happens primarily only in school buildings into an ongoing process that facilitates learning moments happening wherever and whenever possible.

The Who released a song with the lyrics: 'Meet the New Boss, same as the Old Boss'. This is certainly true in the UK this week with Brown replacing Blair.... and we all got fooled again. It might also, sadly, be true for the USA next year, at least in terms of policy if not gender....

Google-de-Gook

Don't suppose you've seen the latest article from BBC News about language on the web, have you? Web-lish to replace English runs the title, and the author, Ben Camm-Jones writes:

'New words coined to describe things we encounter on the internet can be pretty awful, but 'folksonomy' has been voted the worst of the lot.' Well fancy that.

The article features the self-styled web policeman Bob Young, who is Chief Executive of Lulu, the 'Blooker Prize' organisers, (hang on, wasn't Lulu a singer from Scotland?). Young declares that too many awkward new words are being coined to describe Internet activity, and that 'web-lish is the new English'. He also rules that 'Folksonomy' is a word that makes you want to 'howl in the night'. Well, why confine yourself to yelling in the dark, Mr Young, when you can come up with words like 'Web-lish'?

I despair.... really I do.

Fall guy

My 50th birthday bash last night went off well - several old friends turned up, each with a bottle of wine for me (are they trying to tell me something...?) and a splendid time was had by all. Yesterday it was raining again, as it has every day since I got back from Bella Italia. It's been so bad (you know, raining Japanese car components) that a guy two doors down from me is actually building an Ark. Persistently precipitating. Not June weather at all.

So it was, in a slightly damp and depressed mood that I decided to venture off for a while into my Second Life to cheer myself up. All was going well until I fell off the side of a cliff, and tumbled down over into the side of a log cabin. It hurt! Not physically of course - I'm still able to walk without a limp. But it hurt psychologically. I wouldn't have believed it until it happened to me. But there you have it. Second Life and other 3-D virtual worlds can be damaging to your sense of well-being. The embodied mind does extend beyond the physical body and into the technological extensions we employ, whether mobile phone, blog, or avatar. I recall reading Andy Clark's book 'Natural Born Cyborgs', and he voiced similar ideas. Well, I'm not disagreeing with him, now I have the mental contusions as evidence....

Access Andy Clark's musings here.

EDEN saw play....

Now I've had time to reflect upon the EDEN Conference in Napoli last week, I can report that it was a successful conference. I met some old friends and forged closer collaborations, and also met some new and interesting colleagues, whom I will be working with in the future - this a real strength of EDEN - bringing together e-Learning professionals and enabling them to network.

Although many of the 24 papers I attended were fairly average, some challenged and positively fuelled ideas for me. I'm thinking about the Web 2.0 sessions, which came under the heading of 'Emerging New Media and technology'. What was good about these sessions was that they all dovetailed into each other. Tom Wambeke's (KATHO, Belgium) session entitled 'Educational Blogging: in search of a general taxonomy', concluded that folksonomies were less hierarchical and more appropriate measures of blogs. Deborah Everhart (Georgetown University, USA) followed, with a session on social bookmarking, using Blackboard MLE tools. I followed as the third speaker, with my session on wikis and collaborative learning, and the session was capped off by an overview of social software from Antonio Huertas (Open University of Catalonia, Spain) who dealt with 'Wikis, blogs and tagging in education'. The session was packed with over 150 people in a room designed for 120. Obviously a popular session, which was gratifying for us as speakers, and the questions were relevant and searching. Kept us on our toes...

Other sessions dealing with Web 2.0 in this series proved equally popular, and the Sala Archimede was positively bursting at the seams. Papers on podcasting, mobile technologies and Multi-player Games along with a super paper entitled 'How to cope with the complexity of Web 2.0 environments' from Paula de Waal (University of Padova, Italy) kept the creative ideas and questions flowing, and sent the delegates away with new ideas and tips to try out with their own students. Next year's EDEN will be held between 11-14 June, in Lisbon, Portugal. I hope to see you there....