With the amount of technology around us we are able to access more and do more to with what we have. So what limits us? What is it that stops us from embracing this technology wholeheartedly? Technology is no longer the limitation… Could it be that we are now the limitation that is holding technology back?
On our networking site Huddlemind.net we have been having an ongoing discussion about collaborative learning technology and it’s implications. Many of the respondents have come back saying that the tools aren’t being used correctly or are not being used at all.
So in this hunt for the most effective tool what is it that makes a one system more effective or better than another? The amount of plug-ins you can use? The amount of uses? The ease of connectivity or just the simplicity of design?
The tools are there for us to use and as we have seen there will ALWAYS be updates available for everything! We need to adapt to the tools as much as they need to adapt to us. Many of us aren’t willing to change our processes to the tools available. Imagine you arrive for a talk and you ask for a projector for your laptop and you get brought an old over-head projector that works with transparencies (as happened to me the other day). How would you adapt?
So in your never-ending search for that killer-app, maybe think of the most easy-to-use system, the one that integrates better than the rest, rather than the one with the most features…
While reading some very interesting notes on Learnlets earlier this week something struck me… As a kid I was always told, there are two ways to learn something: The easy way and The hard way. The difference is that you will not forget if you learn it the hard way. Now, after some introspection I substituted “hard” for “fun”. It seems to work better…
Gever Tully founder of the Tinkering School runs his school on the same lines…
So why does this stop when we get old? Why don’t we try harder to make ‘higher’ learning fun? We don’t lose the desire to have fun as we get older… Just as many of us don’t lose the desire to learn.
If you have a few spare minutes in your hectic schedules you should check out http://wikieducator.org Just be warned it might take up more of your time than you might expect…
What is Wikieducator? It is a collaborative space for the planning of education projects linked with the development of free content. A space to develop free content on Wikieducator for e-learning and to work on building open education resources (OERs) and a space to network funding proposals developed as free content.
It was voted by Stephen Downes as the best educational wiki last year and if the developments that have happened are anything to go by, watch this space.
Another great online resource that is both practical and free is CasePlace. It has useful resources like up to date case studies, syllabi and innovative teaching materials on business and sustainability.
One of the major benefits of CasePlace is that almost all of the content on the site is free. Some of the content providers charge for their information but the rest of it is for free and available to the public.
The site is designed specifically for business schools and their faculties, “To facilitate new curriculum development and new connections among faculty with aligned interests.” But it is really open to anyone interested in social and environmental concerns in business.
The website has loads of tools and resources from Audio and Video files, books, background reports, links and more all available after you complete your free registration. There is also a really great section on Teaching Modules which are all structures around specific themes.
These days it is becoming more common for companies to open up their work-places to other businesses. There are various reasons to do this (aside from the obvious shared-cost benefit)
With the move towards collaboration many companies prefer to have fellow creative close to hand in case there is an opportunity to develop or to share a project. There is also the added bonus of another set of skills in the same office that can be tapped into.
The general trend seems to be the feeling of community that people get from working together. There is a more social aspect to how people interact and this makes for a better working environment. While many companies are hesitant to join forces with others, for some the benefits are too real to pass up.
So if you have spare space in your office it might just benefit you to rent it out to a firm that you work with. Not only will you save on the rent, but you will also have them close at hand when you need to deliver on a project. You get the benefits of hiring a freelancer while having them around all the time, paying you to be there…
For many students the big downside to leaving university is the debt left over from your years of study. There are a few options open to the student looking to pay off their loans in innovative ways and Dissertation.com is one of the more innovative ways I have encountered.
At Dissertation.com they allow you to publish your dissertation, either in hard cover, soft cover or an E-book. They also give you royalties on any sales you might receive… you get between 20 and 40 percent of the sales and the agreements are not exclusive so you aren’t locked in.
“The primary function of Dissertation.com is to provide students, researchers, and the general public with low cost access to your academic dissertation.” By providing a data-base of dissertations on a variety of topics by students all over the world, Dissertation.com gives one access to an amazing array of theses.
The topics are wide-ranging as you can imagine and there is an amazing amount of information available to the public so go and check it out, there is a submission form you can complete to see if you are eligible to submit your dissertation and you never know you might just get published and make some money out of your years of labour.
This year the conference will be focusing on 5 main points.
Classrooms Without Walls
What will happen to teaching and the way people are taught when there are fewer structural barriers to collaboration in learning institutions and enterprises.
Microcontent Technologies and Infrastructures
What will feeds, interfaces, management systems be like to accomadate micro-content?
Changes in Workplaces and Enterprises
How is the movement towards micro-information changing the way people do business and how we are measured?
Mobile Learning and The Mobile Web
How will the shift towards the use of mobile technology affected content and how it is offered and viewed.
Evaluation of Digital Learning.
How successful is e-learning under the conditions of mircocontent and how is this measurable? What is the role of social context, content and the media experience?
For those of you who haven’t heard, The Age of Conversation was authored by 100 people and the topic is” The Conversation Age” and basically each person gets one page (around 400 words). It is based on the concept of We is Smarter than Me.
Subscribing to the concept of a group conversation around a topic the book gives thoughts on the conversation age.
You can buy it here with the proceeds from book sales going to charity… They had a Social Media Bum Rush to promote the book to get everybody to buy it at the same time to get it to the top of amazon… Sneaky.
With the move towards collaboration many companies prefer to have fellow creative close to hand in case there is an opportunity to develop or to share a project. There is also the added bonus of another set of skills in the same office that can be tapped into.
