Social Bookmarks

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Instead of adding bookmarks or favourites to my browser, I use Furl, which is a social bookmarking tool. The advantage of Furl is that you can access your bookmarks from anywhere, you can share them with others (hence the "social" descriptor), you can tag them according to one or more topics and they are stored in a searchable database.
Tools like Furl can be used by students to share what they’ve found on a subject or even by a teacher as a starting point for research or commentary. Each item can be ranked (I seldom use the ranking and leave the default at 3) and comments can be added. I use it for myself, my colleagues and my clients. A sample client topic is this one on Language Learning.
My Furl Archive is public and here are some of the most popular itms that I’ve cached:

Our local learning industry

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Our local learning industry has an umbrella organisation, LearnNB, that represents and markets the companies and institutions in the Province. The constant question over the past two years of its existence has been how can we grow the sector? Different perspectives offer various solutions. I tend to focus on the individual knowledge worker, not the companies.

The life expectancy of a knowledge worker is more than ten times that of your average knowledge-based company. The individual is the constant element, while companies come and go. We should establish incentives for individuals to create wealth instead of using the private corporation as the primary wealth creation vehicle.

How can we focus on enhancing creativity and critical thinking, essential for innovative organisations? First, we need to measure what matters. For instance, we currently measure the number of jobs created as a sign of economic prosperity. However, the number of jobs is not an indicator of a sustainable industry. If everyone is working for a few companies and these companies, headquartered elsewhere, decide to pull up stakes then all we have left are out-of-work employees. We need self-organising individuals who are able to create a company, a cooperative, or work by themselves.

Alec Bruce writes on Atlantic Canada First that foreign direct investment (FDI) has generally been positive for the region. Where it falls apart is when local entrepreneurs fail to capitalise on the financial investment and spin-off new, small businesses.

The issue is simply that the real, long-term value of robust FDI in this part of the world lies in the willingness and ability of Atlantic entrepreneurs to leverage international capital, expertise and innovation to build – or rebuild – homegrown economic capacity.
…
Ireland understands this, and so does Iceland. In recent years, both nations have embarked on aggressive and supremely effective campaigns to attract FDI – not to transform their economies into handmaidens for bottom-line-driven multinationals, but to equip their own entrepreneurs with the knowledge and market savvy to help them successfully venture abroad, themselves.

Yesterday I was speaking with Stephan List and he remarked that one of the major changes in German economic policy is to focus on medium-sized companies because the government realises that these companies are community-minded and the real engines of sustainable growth. In the German experience the large multinationals have not provided these same benefits.

We need a ground up approach. Support individuals, support entrepreneurs and free-agents and then support small company growth. Attracting employers who only provide “jobs” just continues a culture of dependence.

After the reduction of the e-learning industry here in 2001 we are now seeing some growth. I believe that the sustainability of the regional industry will depend on the knowledge workers and entrepreneurs who remain here to weather the next economic downturn. This could be difficult without a larger and more diverse group of small and nimble companies, developed during the good years.

Learning is Conversation

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This is a remix and update of some previous posts.

Let’s start with the Cluetrain Manifesto (1999), and update it for training & education (my previous post).

We are online learners …

  • We are not seats or audiences or users or target populations, we are human beings and OUR reach exceeds YOUR grasp.
  • Networked learners are beginning to self-organize faster than the companies that have traditionally served them. Thanks to the web, learners are becoming better informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from most education and training organizations.
  • To traditional educational institutions, networked conversations may appear confused, may even sound confusing. But we, the learners, are organizing faster than they are. We have better tools, more new ideas, and no rules to slow us down.

Thesis #1: Learning is conversation.

Stock & Flow

If learning is conversation, then online conversations are the essential component of online learning. Online communication can be divided into two parts (Lee Lefever):

Flows = Timely & Engaging (e.g. radio, speeches, e-mail, blogs)

Stocks = Archived, Organized for Reference (e.g. web site, database, book, voice mail)

One reason that blogs are so engaging is because they allow flow. On the other hand, stock on the Net is everywhere. In the case of digital learning content, fewer people are willing to pay for plain old stock, such as self-paced online courses. Learning content is now a commodity and over time the price of commodities tends to zero.

You need flow to provide real value for learners (remember that they’re becoming better informed, smarter, and more demanding), as flow provides the essential element of context. Social interactions help to put it all together for each learner. For instance, MIT’s open courseware initiative makes the stock available for free, but you have to pay to participate in the flow (class membership, MIT degree). Without the stock, there is little to guide the flow, so you need both but stock alone is almost worthless.

Networks Enable Connections

Will Richardson made this statement about the changing needs of learners in a networked world, “ … now that we have access to people and knowledge, learning is ‘network creation’ and we can learn through ‘collaborative meaning making’.” The web enables connections (constant flow) as well as instant access to information (infinite stock).

Because of this connectivity, the Web is an environment more suited to just-in-time learning than the current and all-pervasive course model. Learning on the web is moving from stock to flow, and devaluing all content out there. For web-savvy learners, entering an online course and then losing access to the system, notes and connections after the “course” is seen as ridiculous. These learners are what Mark Federman, Chief Strategist of The McLuhan Institute calls UCaPP:

“The UCaPP world – ubiquitously connected and pervasively proximate – is a world of relationships and connections. It is a world of entangled, complex processes, not content. It is a world in which the greatest skill is that of making sense and discovering emergent meaning among contexts that are continually in flux. It is a world in which truth, and therefore authority, is never static, never absolute, and not always true.”

Now that the Web is nearly ubiquitous, we are moving away from a ‘horseless carriage’ metaphor for the web. Online courses and curricula are old metaphors posing on the new medium. Tagging, folksonomies, wikis and social bookmarks are new metaphors designed within the new medium. Tech savvy learners are exploiting the inherent capabilities of the Internet and creating new social tools. Hence the rise of Web 2.0 – the web being built by the digital natives. These same natives are the new, discerning, and well-informed, customers for training & education organisations.

Ontario Ministry of Education Seeks Multimedia Authoring Software

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Just came across this RFQ looking for software in an educational setting (Ref # 115781 and Sol # OSS-072822). Here’s the requirement:

 The Ministry seeks products that will run on Windows (98- XP) and/or Macintosh (9.2 – OSX) or commonly available browsers. Consequently, the Ministry seeks to obtain the following:
(i) Multimedia Authoring Software Grades 5 – 12 in English and French for Windows and Macintosh computers for publicly funded Educational Institutions in Ontario.
(ii) The Respondent’s product should provide a rich environment for students to create linked multimedia products that can easily be opened and navigated by other students and parents. It should allow for the easy creation of a variety of navigational tools, buttons, hyperlinks, animations, and embedded graphics, movies and text objects. Easy placing, sizing, and moving of all objects is essential.
(iii) The Respondent should provide 5 CD-ROMs in English and/or French for use on Windows (98 – XP) and/or Macintosh (9.2 – OSX) to be considered.

Off the top of my head I can think of OpenOffice and Gimp as FREE and OPEN SOURCE software that does not require a ($)license. Can anyone name and link to some others?
I’m sure I could find some better ways to spend tax dollars for education – let me count the ways …

Genuine Open-Standard Format for Office Documents Already Available

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From OpenOffice.org:

25 November 2005
OpenOffice.org believes that the demand for a genuine open-standard  format for office documents is overwhelming. Users of office software  are coming to realise that their real investment lies not in the  software itself, but in the spreadsheets, databases, and  wordprocessing documents which they have created:  their own  intellectual property. The only way to guarantee access to this  investment long term is for the data to be stored in a vendor- neutral, open-standard format.
Microsoft’s announcement on Monday, 21 Nov., that it recognises the  market pressure for open-standard data formats is a welcome  development.  But why opt for a new standard? OpenDocument, which  OpenOffice.org uses, is approved by OASIS – the standards body for  XML data formats in business; OASIS is sponsored by all the leading  names in IT, including Microsoft. In addition, OpenDocument was  submitted to the International Standards Organisation (ISO) on 30  September 2005 for ratification.
OpenDocument is a genuine vendor-neutral, open-standard  specification, free from intellectual property encumbrances, so that  all developers are free to work with it, including open-source  developers.
Vendors and developers do not need to continue with the current  limiting industry standard, as the OpenDocument standard is available  now. Utilising an open-standard, such as OpenDocument, driven and  supported by many vendors, is of huge benefit to organisations and  their customers. Interoperability between different applications and  potential new ventures formed among vendors supporting OpenDocument  will stimulate innovation.
Following an open process, the OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee  has a long term commitment to extend, improve, and maintain the  standard as technology changes. Membership is open to anyone and  users of OpenDocument may view the OpenDocument proceedings and  participate in an increasing number of forums.
OpenOffice.org and other open-source projects are well placed to lead  and contribute to the innovation of new e-business applications  utilising the OpenDocument file format specification.

Is metadata dead?

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Here’s a question for any experts on learning object repositories, metadata, cataloguing, etc. Given the latest conversations around tagging, folksonomies and Google’s various search tools; is it still necessary to create a definite metadata structure for large web databases? Would it be better to focus on search? Can personal tagging address everyone’s needs? Should you address both? What would you do if you had to build a learning portal tomorrow? Yes, I’m asking for free advice ;-)

Update: Stephen Downes has this Summary of the Metadata Enigma, with the final comment being that the benefits of metadata have not been clearly established.

Atlantic Canada ICT Industry Needs New Models

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Stephen Downes links to a PowerPoint file (works in OpenOffice.org too) produced by the NRC, entitled ICT Industry Overview, on the state of the industry in Atlantic Canada.
There are some good snippets of information, but the slideshow medium is not meant for a lot of knowledge transfer. For instance, on open source:

Business cases have to be wrestled with, but OSS generally is impacting the way people are thinking about IP and making money – new business models required.

That’s pretty obvious to anyone who has read anything on open source, but worth repeating, and nice to hear this from our "National" Research Council. However, I feel that much of this presentation is looking in the rear view mirror. Supposedly, VC’s want to fund a "Craigslist on steroids" . Have they heard about Google and its services & tools?
In an IT Conversation about a year ago, I believe it was Jonathan Schwartz of Sun who said that the enterprise software development business model as we know it is broken. The latest software successes are not traditional enterprise applications. They’re community platforms, like Vancouver-based Flickr, which spurned VC money and was finally purchased directly by Yahoo!. The investment model is already changing, and perhaps VC’s are not the best source of advice. Enough of them avoided Skype because they couldn’t figure out the business model.
This presentation highlights the need for innovative models, experienced management (lacking in Atlantic Canada) and an understanding of market needs. I would add that Atlantic Canadian entrepreneurs should get a real deep understanding of open source and Web 2.0 if they want to stay in the ICT Industry.

Gatekeepers or Guides?

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There’s a lot of hype around Web 2.0 (AKA the social or two-way web). Some see it as the next business opportunity while others view it as the answer to all of our problems. Certainly there is a communications revolution happening right now. Educators, businesses and yes even consultants, are floundering about. Many of us, in a McLuhanesque way, are driving into the future while looking in the rear view mirror. How many people in positions of authority, power, management and consultation are acting as gatekeepers rather than guides?
These thoughts were triggered by Leigh Blackall’s photographs that have been mixed with Web 2.0 themes. If you don’t get this stuff, then watch the slideshow and let the right side of your brain absorb it.
Sometime in the next few years, it will become obvious which way we should have turned. Our schools will be different, or non-existent, and our economies and environments will have gone through enormous changes. In the near future, younger generations are going to make things happen that many of us cannot fathom at this time. How will they view us then? Will we be remembered for our vision and support or for our near-sightedness and stubbornness?

Free Basecamp Account for Educators

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Via Anol Bhattacharya is this post from the 37Signals blog announcing a free Basecamp basic subscription for educators. Basecamp is a hosted project management tool, but nowhere near as complicated as MS Project. I haven’t used it for a while but my friends at Tantramar Interactive swear by it to manage their web design projects. This basic subscription is regularly $24 per month and lets you host up to 15 projects. The company also provides Writeboard, a free hosted wiki with an easy interface.
Here’s a post from EdBlogger Praxis on how a school used Basecamp for its school improvement plan.

The $100 Laptop

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The idea behind MIT’s $100 laptop initiative is to have one laptop per child, individually owned and cared for. The lime green laptop, which sports a handcrank and a swivel screen debuted in Tunis this week. The official word is that these laptops will be produced in huge quantities (5-10 million) with governments or donors purchasing them in bulk for distribution to students. Jon Husband forwards an additional twist on this initiative that is a bit more grassroots:

"How about offering a commercial version that costs twice as much? Do it in a different semi-florescent color and those who would buy them would be buying one for kid some where."  … Well .. why not ? I’d buy one at $200 if I knew some child or woman in an underdeveloped part of the world were going to receive a laptop they could use.

Given that most of the students in most of our schools do not have their own laptop, I think that a higher-priced version for students in more wealthy countries would not be a bad idea (my previous comments on laptops in schools – One Reason for Laptops & The Laptop Furor).
Like Jon, I would gladly pay about $(CA)300 to purchase one for my children and another for someone else. If this happens, would there be any pressure on governments to not allow a commercial version of this laptop in order to appease the oligopolies?