Fin de la nuit

One of the blogs I am following talks about students' reactions to tutors using social software... Not all welcome it and some tutors talk of a 'creepy tree house' effect. The blog post has a number of responses (mostly from US tutors) about their positions and their students' reactions. As I only teach mature students on Master's courses, I wonder if the term applies...

I just posted a Bb message about Twitter hashtags to our ELSS tutors. Very kindly they have given their personal tags, although there is also a course tag. In my teaching, I'll probably ask students used a course tag, so that it's easy to locate the contributions. There's also the issue of separate private and professional identity. But then how many tags would I personally need? I can think of two already, just for courses. Best not have one for modules, or I'll be juggling even more virtual id's. And I haven't yet started to use Twitter in earnest...

Lots of interesting thoughts from a fellow teacher: http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/

Recording thoughts about the first steps of a socia media journey is a bit like conducting a virtual reflexive ethnography. An ethnographer is always connected to the object of their research, which is why reflexivity is important. But let's not get all 'postmodern'... I am just thinking about Hine's book on Virtual Ethnography . In the ELSS course, we're asked to reflect on learning, with some of the learning also achieved 'by doing' (using SM) as well as by the traditional reading and online discussions. The course isn't about research, but having to maintain a blog reminds me strongly of my MEd project where I did something similar (but without public access). The 'field site' is the distributed environment (to use R&M's phrase) offering a rich social media ecology (Blogger, Flickr, Blackboard, Twitter and probably other platforms in future). Instead of going to a specific field site (eg Bb), I also followed field connections, eg links...

I've been pondering about the risks to privacy involved in using social media. Here is one I hadn't come across before, about a platform called Yaari: http://mkaihani.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/yaaricom-the-social-network-that-crossed-the-red-line/

The first week on the ELLS has come to an end, and a requirement is to reflect on learning on this part of the course. This is a great idea, not just to reinforce learning, but also to track what needs to be done or thought about when starting the social media journey. The technical part of it was trivial, which is a mixed blessing. The ease of setting up various facilities (this blog, Flickr and Twitter, and before this, delicious and LinkedIn) obscures the bigger issues of identity and privacy (I haven’t hit copyright yet, but no doubt this will come). The Mason and Rennie book has a lengthy quote from Lou on page 57. This sparked off a number of ideas partly about my reluctance to use Flickr, but most importantly in terms of understanding the reluctance that some students might have in using social media. My reluctance to use Flickr are showing my visual work has several reasons. Because I am new to Flickr I see it as amorphous, or as I said elsewhere, as a kind of uncurated exhibit...

... Connectivism. There's an interesting and well researched essay here: http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm There is some follow up on this essay available at: http://www.connectivism.ca/ Here is how Siemens defines constructivism: Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual. Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing. Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations. New information is continually being acquired. The ability to draw distinctions between important and unimpor...