At the end of the corridor

Photo by Krišjānis Kazaks on Unsplash

After over 16 years and 968 posts I feel it is now time to say farewell to this blog. It's a sad decision but but having been retired from academic life for two years I don't feel I have much more to contribute to the discussion of technology in education. To be honest I have lost my enthusiasm and even interest in the field and see no sign of the spark returning. 

My posts over the past five years have become increasingly darker as the menacing shadows of surveillance, manipulation, commercial exploitation, disinformation and hatred contaminate the digital landscape and indeed society as a whole. Into this toxic environment we have now released the genie/demon of artificial intelligence, a power that we barely understand, with the potential to benefit science and education but with even greater destructive potential. This frightens me. Even more so when we consider our pathetically inadequate response to the galloping climate crisis and the rise of political extremism. I'm not sure that education has an answer to this, especially as we see a growing skepticism towards science and research. In many countries, including here in Sweden, we regularly hear politicians snearingly dismissing scientific research as nonsense and government policies are instead guided by prejudiced opinions. So much of what I believe in and value is being cynically destroyed and very few people seem to be concerned.

I have tried to respond to all this in a number of ways. I don't fly anymore, have become vegetarian (well almost), consciously try to cut my digital activities, watch and read much less news than before, never search with Google or Bing and don't use Chrome or Edge. Not that any of these things make any difference to the world but I am at least trying to adapt. I go on long walks in the region where I live and have discovered so many beautiful places. I read almost as much as I did in my student days but always printed books and very seldom contemporary literature. I don't plan for more than a few months in the future and try to find happiness in my own bubble. I have often written about the dangers of becoming trapped in the so-called filter bubble but today I find it a safe space, a shelter from the ignorance, hatred and manipulation of the modern world. 

I am very fond of this blog. It all started on 5 April 2008 with a post entitled quite simply Why?  I had started using social media and was trying to build a network using Twitter, Diigo, LinkedIn etc. A blog seemed a logical channel to add but I wondered how I could get anyone to read it.

The point of this and probably the majority of blogs is not to become famous but simply to write down ideas and impressions and be able to access them anywhere. If you have a few friends or colleagues who want to contribute then that's a bonus.

I'm interested in seeing what happens when I start this blog and how it develops. I don't have a clear idea of what I want to do with this but I like the idea of just casting off and letting the wind blow me along. Will anyone stumble upon this and comment? How do you get noticed in the world of blogging? Will I turn up on other blogs? If I continue writing like this, probably not.

So off I went writing about a wide range of topics. In the early years I wrote lots of shorter posts, some good but also plenty that were not terribly useful to anyone. I spent several years trying to find a format and eventually settled on writing one quite long post every week or so and that remained the strategy till I retired. I loved the heady days of Web 2.0, social media, open educational resources, collaborative tools, the early MOOCs etc. The internet was exciting, open, free and offered hope for a new approach to education. Online education could reach out to all and foster tolerance, understanding and solidarity. We could build a better future. I miss all that. We totally underestimated the power of tradition, greed and power.

My top post was Organising a digital conference from 2019 with 23,500 views, written only months before the covid pandemic forced all conferences online. I had been a member of a team who organised Sweden's first (we think) wholly online academic conference and showed that such an event could be interactive, engaging and collaborative. Curiously we ran a workshop on this theme at an international conference on online education that year and only three people showed up. The following year's conference was completely online!

I have never bothered analysing the statistics of my readers in any depth. I don't know how many regular readers I have had or whether many of the visitors were bots or real people. It's maybe best not to think too hard about all that. However, the blog became my window on the world and helped me to become part of an international network of educational technology professionals. It has reached an audience I could never have even dreamed of when I started, 1.35 million page views so far. I've written and co-authored plenty of journal articles but none with the reach of the blog. It has lead me into many exciting international projects and organisations and allowed me to work with inspirational colleagues with much higher academic merits than myself. 

Is this the end of the corridor then? At the moment I think so but I will let it rest for now and maybe some day I will get the urge again. Never say never again! But to all of you who read this and remember better times then I thank you for reading and giving feedback and comments over the years. Also thanks to all who have helped to widen my readership through tweets and posts on other social media as well as those who have simply "liked" my posts. Every like is appreciated. 

So until we meet again, thanks for the memories!

On a personal note at a crossroads in life

Photo by Jordan McQueen on Unsplash

Since the last post two significant events have happened to me - retirement and a heart operation. Both demand a period of transition to recover and adapt. I hadn't expected the two to coincide so closely so many of my retirement plans are on hold till I'm fit again but it is a time for reflection and deciding what things to continue and what to stop.

One hard decision was to wind up my Swedish news blog, Flexspan, and its weekly newsletter. This has operated in parallel with this blog but featured short news items about news, articles, research and events in educational technology both in Sweden and outside. I managed around four to five posts a week since 2009 and had a very central place in my life. Breaking up is always hard to do but I decided that I would adjust my interest and involvement in educational matters to a much lower level and create space for other interests. So I have now written my farewell post on that blog (if you can read Swedish see here) and have received lots of positive feedback from colleagues from all educational sectors. Blogging can be quite a solitary activity unless you're a major figure in your field and comments are uncommon so it's very pleasant when suddenly some nice comments come in. I will continue this blog for as long as it feels relevant. I realise that the less I read about education the less I will have to write about. Maybe I'll change the focus of the blog but at the moment it's hard to imagine a blog-free life.

Over these years I've learned an awful lot. Back at the end of the 00s, I was extremely optimistic about how digital technology was opening up education and all the exciting opportunities to change teaching and learning for the better. I took part in several projects on open educational resources, MOOCs and so on and there seemed to be a powerful movement in higher education towards open, accessible and inclusive education far beyond the confines of the physical campus. I thrived on the wonderful communities, collaboration and discussion and was inspired by so many innovative thinkers around the world. If only we could get the message across to the management and authorities! My posts from that era certainly convey that enthusiasm but the breakthrough never really happened. It took a pandemic to achieve that but even if everyone now has experience of online education the signs are that the instinct to go back to normal again are extremely strong. In some places online is seen as merely a pandemic stop-gap solution that worked quite well but can never replace the real thing. Read Martin Weller's recent posts on this theme: The fake online vs in-person culture war and Energy crisis and hybrid learning for some insights on this.

There is still plenty energy and innovation out there and many inspirational educators to follow. But technology has been swallowed up by big business and so much of educational technology seems focused on surveillance and control rather than freedom and innovation. I worry about the future and find it very hard to find any light ahead in a world that seems increasingly driven by greed and willful stupidity. I hope that education can find a way to develop digital learning spaces that don't track and sell user data to corporations or government but it's a big ask. I am also concerned that higher education is being marginalised in countries where research is increasingly dismissed, ignored and openly ridiculed by populist politicians and pundits. If so few decision makers take research seriously, especially when it tells them things they don't want to hear, then we have a very dangerous situation. No country is immune from this trend.

I will continue to post here on whatever grabs my attention in the world of education but otherwise I intend to do a lot of hiking, reading, music and other activities that give me energy. But first I need to get my health back on track.

Ten years of blogging

I just realised that this blog celebrated its tenth birthday at the start of April and I completely forgot to buy the birthday cake. It all started on Saturday 5 April 2008 with this hesitant post, Why? I was busy investigating all the exciting new social media that were being launched (remember Web 2.0?) and enjoyed reading the blogs of leading researchers and experts in the field. I was unsure about blogging myself on the grounds that no one would be interested in my half-baked ideas but I persuaded myself that maybe the best reason was to use the blog as a place to write my reflections and notes. If anyone else found them useful then that would be nice but the main point was to try blogging for myself and see where it took me. So I started writing short posts about things I thought were interesting and it was fun to have a voice, however faint. I began to realise that the real power of social media lay in making connections across different platforms and to get the most out of this exciting new world I needed to work out my own private communication plan. So I decided that I would use my blog for certain purposes, Twitter for other reasons, Facebook in another way and so on. They all fitted together somehow and still do, at least in my head.

The stats for this blog may not be impressive among major bloggers, but for someone like me with only modest academic credentials I'm amazed at how far I have come. My 792 posts so far (this one makes it 793) have a total of just under 700,000 views according to Google. If someone had said ten years ago that I would have figures like that I would have laughed. In 2009 I added my Swedish blog, Flexspan, with shorter news items about educational technology and it also fitted nicely into my social media ecosystem. That blog has very recently passed one million page views so there's another landmark I am recognising belatedly. So over the past ten years I don't think I have more than a handful of blog-free weeks. Blogging has become a way of life.

At first I was concerned that there were very few comments on my posts even if there were plenty of visitors. I saw how the major bloggers had intensive and absorbing debates on their blogs and thought that was the norm. However, I now realise that most people read and then leave without commenting and I behave similarly. I seldom comment on other blogs even if I read many posts every day. If I find something really interesting I reply in kind by writing about the post on my own blog and referring to the original. What has been rewarding is when the original author of an article I wrote about then comments on my blog. I remember the thrill when one of the major edtech bloggers tweeted about one of my posts and I saw my page view figures spike! That's a great feeling and one that all educators and students should experience. Recognition from a leading figure in the field is an extremely strong motivator.

After a while I began to get e-mails from people who had read my posts and wanted to invite me to speak at a conference or take part in a project and then one activity lead to others. As a result I have had the privilege of travelling to many fascinating places and meeting with so many inspiring people. I have been part of initiatives way above my formal academic level and I am continually amazed that this has been possible. Maybe not only because of the blogging but it has played a large part. The blog has almost replaced my CV since if anyone wants to see what I work with this is where to go.

I will continue to blog as long as there's someone out there who finds it interesting and useful. I thank all of you for your interest.

Feeding the blogs

 by mclcbooks

The first of April is the one day of the year where most people have a high level of source criticism. You really have to check your sources and question everything. Most of the jokes are easy to spot but one that nearly caught me out was Steve Wheeler's farewell to blogging, Goodbye. Steve is one of the most prolific and most read edtech bloggers and the idea of him quitting blogging is rather hard to swallow. However he made a very convincing case; describing how blogging was affecting his private life and causing such stress that he could no longer justify it. I was actually just about to tweet the link with a sympathetic comment when I stopped and realised what day it was and that the post did contain some rather odd references to things like telepathy as an alternative to blogging. Normal service was resumed with a new post from Steve today (Seriously, 2 April) where the advantages of blogging far outweigh the disadvantages. The 1 April post was not so much a joke as an attempt to provoke a discussion about the role of the academic blogger.

The original post did resonate with me however. My blogs are not in the same league as Steve's in terms of readership but they do exert considerable pressure on my home life. Once you've built up a readership and set your own pace of how often you publish it is very hard to break the routine. I have built up a whole ecosystem around monitoring what's going on in the field of e-learning and then writing about it on blogs, in articles and various websites. For several years I've been keeping my hungry blogs well-fed and satisfied with this blog getting one or two posts a week and my Swedish news blog, Flexspan, getting 4-7 posts a week. Based on that I have a newsletter (in Swedish) that goes out every Monday with highlights from the week. Completely away from work I even have a third blog, about beekeeping, that demands regular postings. Hungry mouths indeed!

Once you get into that level of production it's mighty hard to break the habit and if you do, you get messages from people wondering if something is wrong. So I recognize the pressure Steve wrote about and the potential for stress that comes from setting a high level of production. Strange isn't it that if I had a boss who demanded this I would probably complain but I've created this all by myself and completely outside working hours. At the same time I realize that my blogs and other social media activities have completely changed my work. By sharing my thoughts and helping to spread others' good ideas I have built up a global network of colleagues who have invited my into interesting projects which have resulted in being invited to speak at conferences and join even more projects. I've visited places I could never have imagined visiting as part of my work and it keeps on developing. For me blogging has opened up a whole new world and even if I find it a strain now and then to think of what to write or to keep to my production schedule it's been well worth the effort.

MOOC Book Project

 by Abdulla Al Muhairi

If you're going to write a book about MOOCs then the obvious method to use is to crowdsource it, in other words ask the world to help you. That's what the MOOC Book Project is all about. They propose an outline for the book chapters and invite interested authors to submit an abstract by the end of March. From those abstracts the editors, Dr. Joseph Rene Corbeil (Associate Professor, University of Texas at Brownsville), Dr. Maria Elena Corbeil (Associate Professor, University of Texas at Brownsville) and Dr. Badrul H. Khan (Honorary Distinguished Professor of E-Learning, Egyptian E-Learning University) will then select the best prospects and invite them to submit full chapters by the end of June. The chapters will be then subject to a double blind peer review as in most scientific journals. If all goes to plan the book should be out by mid-2015.

The book will examine MOOCs with case studies investigating the following eight dimensions:

• Pedagogical - teaching and learning in a MOOC.
• Technological - infrastructure, scalability etc.
• Interface design - look and feel of the platform.
• Evaluation - assessment methods etc.
• Management - maintenance and distribution.
• Resource support - online support and resources.
• Ethical considerations - diversity, accessibility.
• Institutional - administration, academic affairs.

This book will focus on cases describing issues or challenges experienced by IT and e-learning practitioners, faculty, or students during the design, development and implementation of, or participation in, a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). Using Khan’s eight-dimensional E-Learning Framework, authors are invited to submit chapter proposals for cases addressing one (or more) dimensions of the framework. Through analysis, reflection, and discussion of illustrative MOOC cases, missteps in the design and delivery of future MOOCs can be minimized or avoided.

This is an interesting venture and I look forward to following its progress.

MOOC quality project

How can we assess quality in a MOOC? Is it even possible to have quality assurance in an educational form that is constantly developing and is already split into several distinct categories?

Over the next couple of months I will be helping to run a blog called The MOOC Quality Project under the banner of EFQUEL (European Foundation for Quality in E-learning) together with colleagues Ulf-Daniel Ehlers and Ebba Ossiannilsson. The project will feature leading experts in the field of open education who will take turns in writing a weekly blog post on how they see the issue of quality in MOOCs.

- The MOOC Quality Project, an initiative of the European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning (www.efquel.org), attempts to stimulate a discourse on the issue of Quality of MOOCs. A series of blog posts of worldwide experts and entrepreneurs will address the issue from each particpant’s viewpoint. After each blog post we will allow a one week period of time to react and comment on the post made available. At the end of the week the discussion will be shortly summarized and made available to all.

We hope that the articles will stimulate discussion and we will use the findings as the basis of a session at the conference EFQUEL Innovation Forum 26-27 September in Barcelona.

This subject is extremely relevant in response to the extreme hype surrounding MOOCs and the expected skeptical reaction. How can we apply quality assurance methods in this field since MOOCs differ significantly from "regular" courses? First of all there is no clear definition of a MOOC. Many of them are not so massive, few are genuinely open and some are not really even courses in the traditional sense. Donald Clark recently listed the diversity of MOOC models in his post MOOCs: taxonomy of 8 types of MOOC. There's a huge gulf between the open connectivist learning networks of the courses run by the likes of George Siemens and Stephen Downes and the more traditional lecture-based model offered by Coursera. So it's difficult to discuss quality in MOOCs in general terms, it depends on which type of MOOC.

One key quality factor is missing in MOOCs, namely the target group. Courses normally have a clear target group and can measure success by how well the course meets the needs of that group. There is no real target group in a MOOC, everyone is welcome. The participants' aims and motivations differ widely and many have no intention of even completing the course. How do we then assess the quality of a course that will mean very different things to many different people?

At a basic level a MOOC offers free access to a collection of educational resources that together form a logically linked progression. Quality here is the value and relevance of the resources and how they are linked. Many MOOCs have little or no qualified tutoring or guidance, only offering online arenas for student communication. These arenas can be quality assessed for their functionality but little more since what goes on there is out of the control of the organisers. Maybe the real quality issues of the MOOC phenomenon lies in the "value-added" services that are on higher layers than the course material. If tutoring, guidance, validation and examination are available at a price then these add-ons can be more easily assessed and quality guidelines set up.

It'll be very interesting to read the views of the experts in weeks to come!

Social autopilot

  by Mike Miley

Over the last 5 years or so my use of social media has enabled me to develop a diverse and wide network of contacts all over the world. It has also given me the chance to take part in many projects and    discussions that I would never otherwise have been involved in and has given me the opportunity to travel to interesting conferences as guest speaker. The benefits of sharing and networking are enormous but one downside is the fact that once you're on the treadmill it's mighty hard to get off, even for a short break. Anyone who blogs will have noticed that even a week of blog silence has an effect on readership. You have to keep posting, or at least it feels like that.

I sometimes prepare for a holiday by writing several blog posts and then letting Blogger publish them one by one at regular intervals. I've also tried asking a colleague to do some blog-sitting duty. However that doesn't cure a week or two of Twitter or Facebook silence. However there are now tools to cure even this "problem". If you want to look as if you're always online even when you're not you can try Buffer. You simply load up your Buffer account with messages, links and news that you want to post on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or a combination of the three and Buffer will then send your postings at regular intervals while you work offline or go off hiking in the mountains. Just keep it topped up and it'll do the rest making your network think that you never log off.

Only one drawback as I far as I can see. Social media need interaction to be social and this solution sounds more like broadcasting than interaction. You need to be online to answer questions and discuss. But as a solution for that week when you're planning to cross the Sahara by camel ...

How I learn

  by Alex Ristea

I decided recently to brush up my CV. I could list many years of experience in all sorts of roles but in one area I realised I was rather weak; formal qualifications. A master's degree, teacher training certificate and a few courses and diplomas here and there but that's about it. No significant certificates or qualifications in the past 8 years. It looks as if I'm not very studious or ambitious.

I suppose I'm a typical informal learner. In the past 10 years I've learnt an awful lot about net-based learning, distance learning and social media simply by reading, testing, tasting, writing and discussing without having taken a single course to prove what I know. What I work with today has no relation whatsoever to my qualifications and even if I can see the value of taking some time to get some credentials I never seem to get round to it. I've learnt fluent Swedish without having any certificates to prove it and have learnt the basics of several other languages without taking a course. So I'm in the embarrassing position of not using the knowledge I've got qualifications in and working in areas where I have few formal credentials. That is maybe not so wise working in the qualification-conscious world of higher education.

However I love to find out things myself and follow my own nose. I jump from one area to another and try to gain an overall view of as much as possible. I've written articles, a mountain of blog posts and discuss with a wonderful network of professionals who are often much wiser and better qualified than I'll ever be. I enjoy the freedom of learning what I want to learn and switching off when I feel like it. I'm not an expert in anything and may well turn my hand to something completely different in the next few years. On the other hand maybe I'll try and push myself through a real course for a change. Just for the hell of it.

Who teaches social media?

CC BY  Spree2010 on Flickr 

Our kids are using social media every day and are constantly communicating, sharing and creating. There are great opportunities for learning and networking out there on the net but there are, of course, many dangers. So how do they learn to use these tools in a responsible way? The answer is they have to do it themselves. Some succeed superbly whereas others make mistakes, sometimes even fatal ones. Isn't this a critical literacy that must be addressed in schools?

That's the theme of an excellent post by Zoe Branigan-Pipe, Will we value the skills associated with Social Media like we do traditional literacies? She is worried that although some teachers are doing a lot of great work helping pupils to use social media responsibly and taking charge of their digital identity it is not seen as a key competence.

"While I am thrilled that we are having these discussions online and within our PLN, it continues to concern me greatly that our districts and public education policies continue to put very little emphasis on the teaching of social media as part of a literacy program. While it is discussed and modeled in various capacities around the districts, it continues to be done as extra or optional, rather then as a required aspect of our children’s learning, like we do with reading, writing and math. And yet- it is the only literacy medium that can have serious personal safety consequences if it is used inappropriately."

Considering the volume of media coverage about teenagers' net use it is strange that so little is done to provide guidance and training in public communication. Zoe gives a great list of practical lesson ideas to let kids practice responsible blogging, tweeting and networking in a controlled environment. One idea is particularly interesting; paper blogging from an idea by Rodd Lucier, Paper blogging. This is completely off-line and involves pupils writing blog posts on paper and posting them on a notice board. Comments can then be added on post-it stickers creating a very analogue, hands-on blogosphere. It's public communication and highly social but with the school or class as audience and is a good place to practice the skills needed to get attention and deal with comments when you finally go online.

Since we spend so much of our time communicating on the net and are likely to do so even more in the future surely it's time to recognize this as a critical literacy and ensure that it is part of the curriculum. It can't be left up to individual teachers or schools, we need national initiatives.

Blogsitting

While I'm on holiday I thought it would be fun to have a guest write a post here. My blogsitter this time is my colleague Chahira Nouira from the United Nations University in Bonn, Germany (follow her on Twitter).

What is your blogging strategy while you are away on holidays?

The holiday season has started and many of you may have started looking for the house sitter, the dog sitter but have you considered a blog sitter? Taking a break is very often getting disconnected from computers and the internet. But how is it for the blogosphere?

Last year I was observing some of my favorite bloggers and their different strategies for blogging while they are away. Steve Wheeler (Learning with 'e's), Martin Weller (The Ed-Techie) and Tony Bates (www.tonybates.ca) had different strategies that I would like to share here.

Steve was announcing his holidays and that he won’t be online but he also announced a series of post to be published during that period of time. I very much enjoyed reading the series called “Web feats”. The posts were programmed in advance so that readers could have posts on a regular basis while he was away.

Martin chose another alternative and invited Phil Greaney who wrote a great and long post. The nice thing was that Martin took the time to comment and encourage his guest from his holiday home in France.

Tony Bates, wrote a post announcing he would be away to spend some time with his family and would be posting when he returned.

I got the feeling that in the first case readers could get their regular posts but rather be in a lurker mode and won´t comment as often as they would usually on Steve´s blog. As for the second case, Martin joked about him being worried that his guest would take over the blog. This did not happen of course and I think that it made me discover a new writing style on that blog. In both cases it was entertaining and enriching. In the third case I was clearly said not to have any expectations, so I just put the coming back date on my calendar!

These are examples of blogs I read; I am wondering what other bloggers do. What did you decide to do with your blog while you are on holiday?

Chahira writes on the SCIENTIA blog on education and e-learning related subjects.

Behind the mask

  by  Faithful Chant [ back ] 

Steve Wheeler has written an excellent article on the problem of anonymity on the web: Dear elearning101 ... Everyone who blogs welcomes comments, as long as they are constructive and respectful. The vast majority of comments are just that even though they disagree with the bloggers point of view. A healthy discussion is what blogging is all about. However there are a number of people who write hurtful and unnecessarily rude comments, always behind the mask of anonymity that is so convenient on the net. Steve received a scathing anonymous comment and decided to challenge it.

"... I want to point out that posting anonymous rude comments on someone else's site is unacceptable. For me, it's a form of cyber bullying. I won't stand for it, and neither should you. I'm writing this blogpost because I want to bring such behaviour out into the open. In so doing I hope the community of practice I value, the readers of this blog, and those who are as passionate as me about learning and technology can read, be aware, assess and otherwise discuss the implications of it."

In some situations it is very important to be able to make anonymous comments; in politically sensitive situations or when the writer fears reprisals from an employer, the police or criminal groups. However in professional discussions I simply don't understand why people canot reveal their identity. Abusive, snide and rude comments are almost always made by anonymous users with cartoon identities. I tend not to follow such people on Twitter or anywhere else because I want to know who I'm talking to. Imagine going to a conference where some of the delegates walked around with masks on. Would you talk to them, trust them? I doubt it.

Most bloggers moderate comments first and the most abusive ones usually get filtered out. But that doesn't mean they aren't hurtful. Anonymous know-it-alls can destroy a discussion forum unless someone steps in to ban them. I've left several forums for this reason. An honest question is met by a torrent of abuse and this destroys the credibility of the whole forum. As ever it's a minority group but a very vocal one. If only they could channel their energies into something more constructive.

My personal learning environment

There are countless web applications out there that you can use to network and collaborate. I've tried a lot of them but only a select few have made it into my daily life in a big way. Some I use now and then, some I simply can't find a use for, some I can't figure out at all and then there are those that I find invaluable. Here's a list of the tools I find essential for my work at the moment (in a year the list could be completely different).

My Netvibes page

Netvibes
This is top of my list because it allows me to follow hundreds of news sites, blogs, bookmarks and tweets from one page. My Netvibes page is my start page on all the computers I use and it even allows me to have three different sites; one for work, one for home and one public. It's basically an RSS aggregator and is extremely simple to set up and personalise. To see what's happening in the world of net-based education I just need to browse throuth the tabs on my Netvibes page and check any new items of interest. That way I can easily see what I might want to blog about later. Everything I find that seems interesting I share via Twitter. Have a look at my public Netvibes page to see what I mean.

Twitter
It took a while before I realised the potential of this in my work but now it's one of my main sources of information. If you're going to use it in your work you have to spend time finding the right people to follow; those who supply you with useful information. I've built up a long list of people to follow and they supply me with an endless list of links to articles, reports and examples that I can use. I don't follow people who use Twitter to tell about their private lives or just social chat. I never do that either, it's purely a tool for work. To get a good overview of activity on Twitter I use Tweetdeck. Twitter's web site is far less versatile and attractive. Follow me at @alacre.

Skype
If everyone was on Skype we'd never use the phone. Better voice quality than most phone calls plus video and chat. My international contacts wouldn't get far without this.

Google Bookmarks
Simple tool but the ability to access my bookmarks from any computer is so helpful. I'm amazed at how few colleagues use this or even know about it.

Blogger
My three blogs all use Blogger and I find it the simplest blogging tool of all. Maybe not as versatile as Wordpress and suchlike but simplicity is the key.

Google Docs
Sharing documents with colleagues from different organisations used to mean sending versions of a Word document backwards and forwards by e-mail and never knowing which version was the latest. Again I have many colleagues who still do this. Being able to edit a document with colleagues from different locations in real time makes work much easier. You can even use the in-built chat or link up via Skype.

Delicious
Although I have all my bookmarks in Google bookmarks I also collect them in Delicious. Here I can tag them and see who else has used similar tags. I can build up a more finely grained collection of bookmarks here and share them with whoever may be interested. I can follow other educators and see what they're bookmarking and it's this ability to share bookmarks that makes a tool like Delicious so valuable. I've also started using Diigo which does the same sort of thing plus more but so far I haven't been able to get the two tools to integrate.You can follow my bookmarking at http://www.delicious.com/alacre.

Taking the geek out of tech

One of the best things about using Blogger is that, on the whole, what you write is what you get. You don't need to learn any codes to write your blog and as a result it's highly popular. There are now so many similarly user friendly applications that we have grown to expect full transparency. But things are not always so easy.

I enjoyed reading a post on Lisa's Teaching Blog, Four web technologies that shouldn't be geeky anymore, where she lists RSS, wikis, tagging and embedding as four technologies that should be much easier. They are all extremely useful but in most cases remain relatively inaccessible due to what she sees as unneccessary complexities.

RSS, for instance, is probably my most important tool at work. I use Netvibes to gather hundreds of feeds. I find it easy to use but it still involves the process of finding the RSS button on an interesting website (not so easy even on popular sites), copying the link and then pasting it into Netvibes. One click should do it. RSS is one of the most useful web services around, especially for teachers and researchers, but very few that I know use it. It just hasn't been adequately hyped I suppose. The name doesn't help either. "Really Simple Syndication" - yes, quite.

Wikis are widely used but I also wonder if they couldn't just design them so we could dispense with the few codes and symbols they use. One teacher I know tried to get students to use MediaWiki but they found it too complicated, lost interest and solved the task using other tools. It's not that complicated but for many people the mere sight of coding turns them off instantly. The easiest wiki tool I've used is PBworks which hasn't so far required me to write any code at all.

Of course I admit that these problems could simply be down to my own reluctance to learn the finer points but the four technologies mentioned here might be much more widespread if they were just a bit more straightforward.

The dark side of the net

When we only had one or two TV or radio channels we sometimes watched/listened to programmes that we didn't really interest us at first. There simply wasn't anything else on. So now and again you might stumble upon something unexpectedly interesting and expand your horizons a bit. No chance of that now. We zap from channel to channel usually only giving a new programme a few seconds' chance before zapping on. Every opinion and subject is out there but most of us only check our favourite channels/sites; those that confirm our view of the world.

We generally assume that access to the net ensures free debate and strengthens democracy. Goverenments try to combat free discussion and political dissent by blocking social networks like Facebook and Twitter as well as stopping bloggers from publishing inappropriate information. However, there are cases where undemocratic governments actually embrace social networking as a means of combatting dissent.

There's a fascinating TED lecture by Evgeny Morozov (How the net aids dictatorships, don't forget to read the discussion under the film) where he claims that social tools can be used to spread disinformation and also enable authorities to gain access to vast amounts of information that would have been impossible in the past. They may even positively encourage bloggers to write on seemingly important issues in order to give the impression that there is indeed free debate in the country. This seems a much smarter policy than simply cutting access or blocking certain sites. Morozov is not denying the power of the net to strengthen democracy and education. He's just pointing out the reverse side of the coin that seldom appears in public debate.

Just as the net enables global networking and increased access to knowledge it can also lead to passivity. Only a small minority of net users are active in any significant way. One problem on the net is that you can choose what information you want to see. You read the news you want to read, visit sites whose views you agree with and seldom get confronted by opinions that challenge your own. Of course this has always been true to some extent but today you are able to filter out unwanted facts and uncomfortable opinions more effectively than ever before.

I remember before commercial radio started and those in favour of it claimed that with commercial radio we'd get a wider choice of music. Now we've got dozens of commercial channels all of which play "non-stop hits" mixed with phone-in competitions. The only channels that play new music and a wide variety of styles are the state-run channels (at least that is true here in Sweden). Without them we'd just hear the same hits round the clock.

Blogging in a nutshell

Every time I check my flow of Twitter messages I discover at least one useful link. Last night several people recommended a disclaimer of all things. Could this be the first disclaimer ever to be actually worth reading?

It appears on Chris Lott's blog Ruminate and is actually a justification of blogging in general. He basically writes that his blog is not an academic publication, it represents his spontaneous thoughts and opinions and as such he is liable to sometimes contradict himself and reconsider his previous opinions. The reader must accept these conditions and not see the blog as any more than a representation of the writer's thought process; sometimes logical and measured, sometimes chaotic and confused.

I think most people who write blogs could easily paste this disclaimer on to their sites.
For another very convincing reason to keep blogging, have a look at Seth Godin and Tom Peters in a recent interview (YouTube video).

Google everywhere

I've just borrowed a new book from the library called Googlepedia. It describes how all the various Google apps work and has lots of useful tips. It has also some good background to why Google has succeeded. The author, Michael Miller, admits that writing a book about anything on the net is like shooting at a moving target and a book about Google would seem to be a very swift target to aim at. To keep things up to date he also runs a blog on the subject.

The book is well worth looking at as long as you realize that it will be at least partly out of date by the time you finish it (weighing in at over 700 pages), thus making it a good library loan but a bad idea to buy someone as a birthday present. An admirable project though I'm sure the legendary figure of Sisyphus would have sympathised with the author.

Books on IT tend to be weighty objects and have a very short shelf life. We all have copies of mega-sized guides to, say, Windows 95 or Java programming for dummies lurking somewhere on the shelves helping to prop up other less bulky publications. Despite all the on-line guides and FAQs we still seem to need the reassuring hard copy. However, it is rather a lot of paper for something so ephemeral.

Do-it-yourself university

I can warmly recommend a blog by an Australian researcher called Mark Pesce called The Human Network (What happens after we're all connected?) in which he discusses the possibility of students of the future being able to put together their own course by using learning resources available on the net, by choosing from resources on, for example, iTunes University, Wikiversity or MIT Open Courseware. If lectures and course material can be rated along the lines of RateMyProfessors.com, he argues, then you will be able to select the best (or at least most popular) resources available. You would then sign up with a teacher whose role it is to provide a framework for your studies. Could we, in that case, create a truly open university where all aspects of the course are negotiable? Sounds a bit like the Peer 2 peer university I mentioned a few weeks ago.

Controversial stuff indeed but it's good to see people questioning even the fundamentals. Read the blog to get the full story.

Online Information part 2

Libraries around the world are doing their own 2.0 upgrade, using blogs to tell about new publications and services, allowing customers to review books or contribute to wikis and providing instant messaging for contact with library staff. The library building with its collection of books is merely the tip of the iceberg where the main arena for the library is on the net. Social software gives libraries the chance of bringing people together to discuss and collaborate and helping people to use the tools involved.

One particular library project caught my imagination. In Denmark there is a popular library service for children called Ask Olivia (Spørg Olivia - only in Danish of course) which has been produced by Danish TV (DR) together with today around 50 local libraries. Olivia is an animated teenager on the web site who answers all sorts of questions from children between 8 and 14. Instead of having a service like ”ask the librarian” they decided to create a character that the kids could identify with, Olivia. She has her own identity and personality and has succeeded in creating a genuine dialogue with the children who use the service. It is vital that she behaves and responds in keeping with her identity; a 14 year old girl who is smart and fun to be with.

Behind the character are a select group of librarians who take turns at ”being” Olivia and answer the questions that come in and take part in the discussion forum on the site. They found that the children soon began contributing to the service and wanting to add content where they knew more than Olivia or could add details. As a result Olivia has to deal with questions that would never be asked in a physical library. The service has expanded and today has a large following of children who enjoy sharing knowledge without ever really realizing that they are participating in a library service. That for me was the best part of the story; that a traditional library service has been turned into something much bigger simply by communicating on the children’s terms and by letting them contribute and communicate.

Online Information 2008

I’ve spent an interesting 3 days in London at this annual conference on information management - see more on conference website. My own contribution was to present some results from the Kamimo project, higher education in Second Life, that is now nearing completion (see more on the Kamimo Island blog). But the main theme for the conference was showing how social software is being used in education, libraries, business and government to facilitate greater levels of interaction than ever before. There was an impressive range of imaginative projects on show.

The keynote speaker, Clay Shirky, gave an excellent presentation called Every piece of information is a latent community showing that people can form vibrant communities round just about anything; from sharing similar bookmarks to enjoying the same TV show. In the past we filtered first and then published (the traditional role of book publishers and record companies) whereas now we publish first and filter later. Everyone can now publish but then we need filters to find what we want from the vast resources. Could libraries help to fill the role of filtering this information overflow? We see an overwhelming range of services and technologies and hope that things will eventually stabilise but instead we can only expect increasing diversity and experimentation.

Shirky’s recent book Here comes everybody deals with these themes and he has, of course, a useful blog built around the ideas in the book if you feel like participating in the debate. You can also watch a pre-conference interview with him on YouTube.

It struck me that so much of what is going on on the net today is non-commercial and voluntary and goes completely against the commercial norms of the market. People are connecting with each other to solve problems and create new solutions without any financial rewards at all. On-line reputation is however hard currency. Imagine if a company or team of experts had planned to write Wikipedia and planned it as a traditional project, no doubt asking for external funding. How much would Wikipedia have cost? Would anyone have backed it? But it happened and is expanding daily through a vast network of passionate enthusiasts whose reward is being part of something new and exciting.

One speaker introduced the idea of perpetual beta for the development of Web 2.0 and that seems a very fitting description. Many are hesitant about trying out new web tools because they can’t see the return on investment but it’s impossible to know what will pay off in the long run. Some at first insignificant efforts have later resulted in major breakthroughs. We need to foster a climate where people are encouraged to try out new ideas on a small scale without strict demands on ROI. The advantage of Web 2.0 is that the tools are inexpensive and the only major investment is time. Only by constantly experimenting can we learn to use all these new tools effectively.

I'll post more from this conference in a day or two!

Blogging in Belarus

Just spent an interesting few days in Minsk, Belarus as part of an exchange program with the Belarusian State University. I love visiting new countries and always learn a lot. We tend to stress the differences between countries rather than the similarities and it's so easy to fall into the trap of wondering why they don't do things the way we do. Campus life here seemed pretty similar to most other places I've visited and many conversations confirmed that we all have similar concerns about improving teaching quality, finding time for all the administration and so on.

The teachers and students I met showed great interest in net-based education and many already used social networks, wikis, blogs etc. The problem is a lack of bandwidth which seems to be a pretty expensive commodity at present. The technical know-how may be in place, the tools familiar but you can't get anywhere without a good plump connection to the net. Some claimed to have much better net access from home than from campus. It must be frustrating to see what everyone else is doing out there and not be able to take part in it all as much as you'd like to.

It made me more aware of the preconditions for our net-based society that we tend to take for granted. If the telecom operators and governments don't invest in getting broadband to everyone then we simply can't participate in Web 2.0, virtual worlds, e-meetings etc.
I got the impression that companies in Minsk did have good net access so there it's there if you want it, but the price is too high for cash-strapped higher education. We need to remember sometimes that we were there not terribly long ago; remember websites with animated ads that took ages to appear or trying to watch video clips that took an eternity to download?

Otherwise Minsk is well worth a visit; incredibly clean, nicely renovated and with a fascinating mixture of impressive Soviet era architecture with ultra-modern structures like the new National Library. It's particularly interesting to see statues of Lenin and Soviet street names brushing shoulders with shiny new glass "business centres", up-market designer shops and the familiar twin arches of Ronald McDonald.