Greece is the word

Kalamera! I'm off on my travels once again next week, back to the Mediterranean again - to the beautiful Greek island of Crete. I'm speaking at the International Conference on Information Communication Technologies in Education (ICICTE) Conference and I'm looking forward to hooking up again with old friends and also meeting some new colleagues. My paper is entitled 'Learning with 'e's: Defining technology supported e-learning within a knowledge economy', and I hope to generate some debate about the evolving nature of e-learning.

The keynote speaker is Rob Koper from the Open University of the Netherlands. He is the director of learning technologies, and leads a team of 40 researchers. The Open University is based in Heerlen and Maastricht, down in the extreme south of Holland, and it's an old stomping ground for me... I went to school there between 1971-73.

We will be staying at the Atlantis Hotel in Heraklion, and the conference will be located in the hotel, which means no long distance travel to get to the venue, like we had to in Napoli.... Forecast for next week is blue sky (thinking) and temperatures up to 33 degrees. I will blog about the conference when I can, if I don't get thermal shock.

Calling an ALT to it

Such a relief... it's 01.30 in the morning and I have just finished writing the editorial of the Research Proceedings for ALT-C 2007 - the Association for Learning Technologies annual conference. I've been working closely with Nicola Whitton (Manchester Metropolitan University) who is my co-editor, to complete this in time for it to go to press in time for the conference. We have 18 very interesting and thought provoking papers this year, and putting it all together has been time consuming but very rewarding. It's no co-incidence that today is Independence DAY! Yeehaw!

ALT-C is the premier UK e-learning event and promises to be yet another success this September. This year we meet in Nottingham, at the East Midlands Conference Centre, and as of yesterday, over 380 delegates had already registered for the event. Keynote speakers include an old friend of mine, Michelle Selinger from Cisco, and Peter Norvig, who is the head of research at Google. There's still time for you to book your place, but be quick... Spaces are filling up fast - see you at ALT-C in September!

Widgit and they will come...

I'm sat here in a computer suite at the University of Plymouth with a bunch of my colleagues, all trying to get our heads around the new MicroSoft SharePoint software which will be unleashed upon our unsuspecting students in the Autumn term. Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war! Sighs, head scratching, bemused faces, more sighing, an 'arghh' and an occasional 'hooray', as something actually works for someone. We are investing a lot of time and effort into this, and the facilitators are sweating cobs, so I sincerely hope it gets used.

The bottom line is this - people will use a new technology or piece of software providing they see a clear benefit for it. We need to consider the affordances and constraints. We need to ask ourselves the question - what can I do with this *widget* that I couldn't do before? If the answer is 'nothing', then ditch the *widget* and get on with yer life. On the other hand, if there are new things you can do with the *widget*, then learn all you can about it, and use it to enhance learning. It's not just a case of 'build it and they will come', but more about 'how can I build it to make it welcoming?'

Is SharePoint another weapon of mass distraction? Or is it going to turn out to be a boon? Here's the secret.....Make a technology transparent and students will concentrate more on learning new things than they will on the technology.

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?

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....