First it was Moodle that came with a wiki and now ATutor has the ErfurtWiki included as an add-on. I have found wikis to be excellent tools for collaborative work and learning, especially the development of policies and procedures with geographically distributed groups. There are now at least two open source learning systems with collaborative wikis included. I can only see this as a positive step for learners, as well as anyone looking for a "made in Canada" learning system.
Learning
Learning
Edublogs
From James Farmer is this notice about Edublogs, a "totally unique project aimed at teachers, researchers, writers and educators the world over. Basically you get to set up a free WordPress blog, 10MB of upload space (extending to much much more down the line), an enormous stack of beautiful themes and to be part of a unique community. You could use a blog to record and annotate important resources and ideas, to propose and discuss anything under the sun, to progressively develop your thesis, to publicise and discuss your publications with the world or just to develop your digital identity. Either way, http://edublogs.org is a no-strings-attached, open source, ongoing and freely available service for you and you’re invited to take part! If you’ve got any questions, please feel free to contact James Farmer at james[at]edublogs(dot)org".
If you are an educator and have not taken the plunge into blogs for learning, then this supportive community, including knowledgeable and friendly James, is the best place to start. James has helped me out many times with advice and information and is very passionate about learning.
Culture is Everything
Anyone who has worked as a consultant or on an external/internal project knows about culture and change. It’s what can make or break a project. Fast Company has a quick note on the importance of culture, it’s organisational DNA, and gives this how-to list:
Something to try:
Consider the team/group/organization you’re leading
1. Look at your vision/mission statement and jot down the behaviors that everyone supposedly follows.
2. On a second list jot down the behaviors that everyone actually follows.
3. Pick the one discrepancy that annoys you the most.
4. Make it a top priority to change it.
5. Have a conversation with colleagues on why each of you think the discrepancy exists.
6. Agree on some structures to put in place to ensure that change happens (communication, processes, rewards etc).
Consider the team/group/organization you’re leading
1. Look at your vision/mission statement and jot down the behaviors that everyone supposedly follows.
2. On a second list jot down the behaviors that everyone actually follows.
3. Pick the one discrepancy that annoys you the most.
4. Make it a top priority to change it.
5. Have a conversation with colleagues on why each of you think the discrepancy exists.
6. Agree on some structures to put in place to ensure that change happens (communication, processes, rewards etc).
I’m not sure that it’s ever this easy to address culture issues but these "discrepancies" can spell the death of any project. If you can spot them early, they can also be indicators of projects to avoid.
Drupal versus WebCT
Charlie Lowe asked his students, experienced with WebCT, how they felt about Drupal. The comments from the Business Writing course are anecdotal but sometimes a personal view is better than some dry statistcs.
The comments are generally more positive for Drupal but there are specific cases where WebCT seems to be a better tool, such as access to marks and grades.
FluWiki
FluWiki is a site that endeavours to create a sharing community to prepare for the next flu pandemic.
No one, in any health department or government agency, knows all the things needed to cope with an influenza pandemic. But it is likely someone knows something about some aspect of each of them and if we can pool and share our knowledge we can advance preparation for and the ability to cope with events. This is not meant to be a substitute for planning, preparation and implementation by civil authorities, but a parallel effort that complements, supports and extends those efforts.
This site interests me because we used wikis with internal communities of practice, and the ability to co-edit pages was greatly appreciated by the social workers who developed an online knowledge base. The community seems to be just gearing-up but there is a lot of information already available, including a basic primer on influenza.
Via Denham Grey
Development Gateway
The Development Gateway is a comprehensive, non-profit resource on issues related to economic and social development with a particular focus on information and communication technologies. It includes 28 online communities, such as ICT for Development. I came across this site because I was looking for specific information on ICT’s and Indigenous communities and Development Gateway listed 61 articles on the subject. This is a very easy to use and substantial web resource.
Ministers of Education Not Happy with Copyright Law
The Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) has issued a press release stating their concern with the new copyright law, recently passed. Jamie Muir, Minister of Education for Nova Scotia stated:
“While other countries have copyright laws that support education by protecting student and teacher access to learning resources, Canada has a law that makes routine classroom activities illegal.”
It makes you wonder what is more important, the education of Canadians or profits for a select group of copyright holders. One point about the CMEC’s position that concerns me a bit is the use of the word "classroom" as the only venue where learning happens. Education is not confined to the classroom, but it may be confined by the classroom. Time to drop the classroom metaphor.
Canadian Council on Learning
The CCL had its first elearning workshop today, and I attended from the NRC-IIT video conference facility. The major problem was the technology – we couldn’t get a real conversation going as about 20% of the time we were fighting with the technology. I’m told that the main issue was that users did not know how to use the technology (an open source system, run mostly over the mega-bandwidth CA*Net).
I’m still formulating my thoughts on CCL. Here is what I know so far.
It has received $85M to establish five knowledge centres:
- Adult Learning in Atlantic Canada
- Early Childhood Learning in Quebec
- Work and Learning in Ontario
- Aboriginal Learning in the Prairies, Northwest Territories and Nunavut
- Health and Learning in British Columbia and Yukon
I don’t want to appear too cynical but my first impressions were – It’s a new organisation with a new pot of money, but the same players from other initiatives that have gone by the wayside, with the same issues and agendas as well as the same barriers. That being said, upon further discussion it became evident that CCL could play a pivotal role for learning. That role would be as an objective advocate (since the CCL is not a government agency) to advance good learning practices. Already, the CCL is advocating open source technologies and methodologies within the elearning sphere. This is a good thing, and will enable us to help developing countries and vice-versa.
On the other hand, I don’t see a sustainable business model with CCL. What will happen when the money runs out? I used to work for the Centre for Learning Technologies. We were 85% self-sufficient but it wasn’t enough for the university, so the CLT was closed after five years. How will the CCL continue when the $85M runs out? My experience with not-for-profits is that you have to work on the business model just as hard as you do with any other private sector start-up. I don’t see how the CCL will generate revenue after the initial funding is over. So my basic question is – Is this another flash in the pan?
Any comments here are greatly appreciated, since the CCL does not have a blog/wiki or other collaborative medium (yet).
The Individual is the Organisation
Yesterday, at the QSC opening, I was able to have a much too short discussion with Robert Paterson about organisational change. The gist of our conversation was that since all change happens with the individual, why focus on the organisation for any cultural/organisational change? This has me thinking about my own business, which I have summed up by stating that my consultancy focuses on "Improving organisational performance at the intersection of learning, work and technology". Perhaps a better, and more pragmatic, focus would be on "Improving individual performance …". The lesson being that you should focus your energies on what you can change, and that would be by helping people, one person at a time. It’s pretty well what I am doing, I just haven’t stated it that way.
I think that a focus on individuals could also reduce some of the inherent frustration of consulting. Even if the organisation has not implemented the change, or just parked the report on a shelf, you can walk away from a project knowing that you have helped someone. It’s a parallel activity within a project but could be the most rewarding.
Fewer Left Brain Careers
Following up on my post on Productivity, I noted that Dan Pink has referred to this AP article about the decline in demand for traditional technology jobs:
"In this country, we need to train our engineers to be at the leading edge," Gray [executive director of the National Society of Professional Engineers] said. "That’s the only place there’s still going to be engineering work here."
At Stanford, career experts are urging engineering and science majors to get internships and jobs outside of their comfort zones — in marketing, finance, sales and even consulting. They suggest students develop foreign language skills to land jobs as cross-cultural project managers — the person who coordinates software development between work teams in Silicon Valley and the emerging tech hub of Bangalore, India, for example.
At Stanford, career experts are urging engineering and science majors to get internships and jobs outside of their comfort zones — in marketing, finance, sales and even consulting. They suggest students develop foreign language skills to land jobs as cross-cultural project managers — the person who coordinates software development between work teams in Silicon Valley and the emerging tech hub of Bangalore, India, for example.
The writing is on the wall. If your work can be automated or outsourced to a cheaper labour market then you had better be looking for a new career.