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A Place of My Own That Everyone Can Visit April 10, 2008

Posted by kduclos in : 3D Virtual Worlds, Personal Learning Environments (PLE), Second Life , 3 comments

I’ve found from trying to develop my own PLE that I’m a control freak. (Well, I actually knew that before, but it is now confirmed.) Maybe that comes from being a web designer for over 15 years. Using social networking tools as a base for my PLE is a challenge because you can only put certain things in certain places and there are limits. I couldn’t see using tools such as Facebook or MySpace. Both are a little too social for my personal space. Also, tools like SlideShare and YouTube are great for visual content (of which I’m using both) but not necessarily for all my needs. I’ve found that a blog is the right tool (as far as I can tell) for my task of creating a PLE. It allows me to create a space in which I can strive for my PLE goals: learning, exploring, participating, reflecting and gathering resources. With this tool I’m able to create separate pages and integrate Flickr, YouTube, RSS feeds, blogrolls, del.icio.us, SlideShare, blogging, and links to other tools and resources. The great thing is that although I’m creating a “personal” space, it’s a public, social networking tool that is open to all if others want to learn from it too.

Check out my PLE in progress at http://kduclos.wordpress.com/.

From Designers to Assemblers? March 23, 2008

Posted by kduclos in : instructional design, Personal Learning Environments (PLE) , add a comment

In eLearning Magazine’s 2008 Predictions, Karl Kapp, Assistant Director, Institute for Interactive Technologies and Professor of Instructional Technology, Bloomsburg University, USA says “Formalized ‘instructional design’ will begin to look more like ‘instructional assembly,’ in that what is traditionally thought of as a course will really be the efforts of an instructional designer to assemble disaggregated pieces of related content into a coherent flow for novice learners or learners who are not comfortable with assembling the content themselves for whatever reason.”

Are the affordances of Web 2.0 going to force the instructional designer to become an assembler or mashup technician? Will our jobs hold less value? This is a scary prospect, however, I think there will always be a place for those who know how design effective learning environments whether or not an individual has the power to design his own PLE. Informal learning is popular but I’m not sure it’s always enough to promote a true learning experience. It also comes down to the willingness, motivation, and devotion of the student to learn whether it is in a formal or informal way.

What is a PLE anyway? March 15, 2008

Posted by kduclos in : Personal Learning Environments (PLE), web 2.0 , 1 comment so far

A Personal Learning Environment (PLE) is to me a nebulous concept. What is it really except a bunch of resources pulled together that make sense to the person pulling them together? Every one of us has our own learning style preferences. Alan Levine describes a PLE as a cloud (and in a different posting he describes a PLE as the internet itself). When asked what was in his cloud he wrote this blog posting in response – My Network Probability Cloud … PLEase This is an interesting way to look at a PLE. He says that his “environment” is in flux and could be something different at any given moment. He names feeds, Twitter, del.icio.us, and Google Apps as “core” tools, the “heartbeat” is blog commenting, the “nervous system” is IM and synchronous communication, his “old bones” is email, and the “appendage” is Second Life. For him, this works. While I contemplate creating a PLE, I have to ask myself what would make up the “body” of my knowledge-building environment? I don’t know yet, but Mr. Levine’s description gave me food for thought.

Virtual Collaboration Now So Easy March 15, 2008

Posted by kduclos in : Social Software, web 2.0 , add a comment

Here is a great web meeting/collaboration resource. Web 2.0 to the rescue…delivering a way for people to meet and collaborate for FREE (up to 20 people, that is. ;-) Have a class meeting, a business meeting, work on a group project, or meet up with friends.

From the Dimdim web site: “Dimdim is the world´s first free web meeting service based on the open source platform. Dimdim is a browser-based web 2.0 service that allows anybody to share their desktop, show slides, as well as talk, listen, chat, and broadcast via webcam. Dimdim´s hosted service is available for free and can be easily used for small gatherings, to seminars with hundreds of attendees. With absolutely no software to download for attendees, Dimdim gives everyone the opportunity to hold Web meetings and to customize and brand these meetings.”

Enterprise Web 2.0 March 15, 2008

Posted by kduclos in : Enterprise, web 2.0 , add a comment

For those interested in implementing Web 2.0 in your company, here are a couple blogs and resources that address the advantages, barriers, and business issues related to integrating Web 2.0 into your business processes and culture.

Customization in the Web 2.0 era March 15, 2008

Posted by kduclos in : web 2.0 , 1 comment so far

The hardest part of setting up my blog was choosing a template. I probably tried every single one of them but in the end there was something about each and every one that I would like to be slightly different. I finally decided on this one (the moon space and “EdSpace” kinda went together…corny, I know) and I have the ability to customize the header graphic. I also can decide what “widgets” I want to include and where they go. I haven’t done any customization yet, but depending on my mood on any given day, I may. The point is that I have the power to do what I want with my space.

The latest web technologies put the power of customization in our own hands and forces us to make decisions on the way things look, the way they function, and what kind of “stuff” we want to be exposed to. This is a major departure from the early days of the web (1.0) where the company who owned the domain was the one who decided what thing looked like, how they functioned, and what information they thought was important for you to know. We now can create our own web pages (personal, education, and business) without much effort or expense, decide what our sites will do (widgets, plug-ins, AJAX), and we have become the “media” deciding what we think is important and what we want others to know from our point of view. The blog is the perfect example of this new power of the masses and can only produce some truly incredible “stuff” from people that might never have had an outlet for their ideas. Pretty cool!

Check out this blog posting The Age of Customization: Enterprise Web 2.0 is the perfect pair of pants!