If you are a fan of Michael Wesch, or just interested in some really powerful ways to move your classroom into the web 2.0 full participation mode, I recommend this video: A Portal to Media Literacy.
http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=174
It takes an hour to view, but is well worth it. This video is of a presentation Dr. Wesch gave in June at the University of Manitoba.
atw
Half way through it now -it's superb; thankyou
I was so impressed that I signed up for a netvibes account and a wetpaint wiki! There are definitely some things in here that I am interested in doing with my own courses. Maybe the new wiki in Moodle 2.0 will be something we could use in a similar fashion. I was very intrigued by his use of the wiki as a major method of delivering the course content. I really had never thought of this application before. You should go take a look at what he has created. It is all publicly viewable (and brilliant).
atw
atw
Netvibes is an excellent way to organise feeds, links and any dynamic content. Mine is a private space to public and password-protected content, and is my home page. I read your post from my forums tab, and only had to come to Moodle to post.
I have used wetpaint for wikis to support workshops and talks (as an addon) but there is a risk in using 'free' services for education in that they may disappear overnight.
I haven't time to watch Wesch's video (as I am on holiday in Canada) but looking forward to doing so as I loved the others.
I have used wetpaint for wikis to support workshops and talks (as an addon) but there is a risk in using 'free' services for education in that they may disappear overnight.
I haven't time to watch Wesch's video (as I am on holiday in Canada) but looking forward to doing so as I loved the others.
I agree totally that free services are not ideal for academic use, both for permanence and for privacy. But I thought if I studied what works best, then I can lobby for moodle to develop in that direction! (nudge nudge Ludo. . .) 
atw
I agree totally that free services are not ideal for academic use, both for permanence and for privacy. But I thought if I studied what works best, then I can lobby for moodle to develop in that direction! (nudge nudge Ludo. . .)
atw
I wonder whether those reservations about permanence and privacy are really satisfied by an in-house system?
For example, I feel that Google fought Viacomm's grab for user IP addresses and content far more effectively than my school, sector association or university is likely to. (Groklaw)
Privacy
School privacy policies typically aim to stop legally defined 'personal information' escaping the (legal) control of the institution; I think users' privacy concerns typically relate to information escaping the context they construct in their personal relationships.
E.g. Some students also care about their interactions with a Mathematics teacher contaminating their relationship with, say, the teachers of History.
An external provider can give more transparent control to the students, at the cost of removing the school's oversight.
Permanence
Students transfer to another school and cannot take their history of interactions with them. The permanence that is served is to the benefit of the institution, not the learner. An external provider gives a little more to a mobile population.Just thinking, y'know.
Russell
Hi,
I've got the video downloaed in my ipod so I can view it on the plane... I'm going on vacation
The nwiki includes a nwiki course format, but it still needs some improvements. We need to keep track of what's hot and where's the fire on a wiki, last page updates and so on.. We expect this fall 2008 to com up with RSS finally for the nwiki. At the ame time we are recoding it for moodle 2.0 So all the feedback is welcome.
Best
I've got the video downloaed in my ipod so I can view it on the plane... I'm going on vacation
The nwiki includes a nwiki course format, but it still needs some improvements. We need to keep track of what's hot and where's the fire on a wiki, last page updates and so on.. We expect this fall 2008 to com up with RSS finally for the nwiki. At the ame time we are recoding it for moodle 2.0 So all the feedback is welcome.
Best
Encouraging participation through online tools. I love it!
This very thread has taken part in my thinking about online literacy, during the past few days. Much of this thinking had to do with my current thoughts about textbooks (here in the Moodle Lounge), but what gets me is that I'm led to different items related to the same issues from disparate sources. For instance, Digital Ethnography and other anthroblogs are in my feedreader so I was led to this same video from different sources. I'm often suspicious of content which is covered too widely, but this presentation is a nice exception. I don't think that links to it are the typical "buzz in the echo chamber," the same way some mainstream media pieces often are.
About the video itself, I must say that I prefer it to the LoC presentation. It's really quite rich. I have another anthro friend who's very critical of Wesch's previous work but this video is more amenable to academic discussion than Wesch's other videos. In fact, I couldn't help but smile when I heard Mike say "This is where I'm gonna get all academic on you guys, real quick." (around 20:40) As I've also been trained in symbolic anthro, his "getting all academic" was quite to my liking.
This very thread has taken part in my thinking about online literacy, during the past few days. Much of this thinking had to do with my current thoughts about textbooks (here in the Moodle Lounge), but what gets me is that I'm led to different items related to the same issues from disparate sources. For instance, Digital Ethnography and other anthroblogs are in my feedreader so I was led to this same video from different sources. I'm often suspicious of content which is covered too widely, but this presentation is a nice exception. I don't think that links to it are the typical "buzz in the echo chamber," the same way some mainstream media pieces often are.
About the video itself, I must say that I prefer it to the LoC presentation. It's really quite rich. I have another anthro friend who's very critical of Wesch's previous work but this video is more amenable to academic discussion than Wesch's other videos. In fact, I couldn't help but smile when I heard Mike say "This is where I'm gonna get all academic on you guys, real quick." (around 20:40) As I've also been trained in symbolic anthro, his "getting all academic" was quite to my liking.
It is full of wonderful, thought-provoking ideas. I particularly like the student avatars increasing in size when they contribute to the Wiki. Could this be added to the new Moodle Wiki?
Thankyou for the link.
David Berry
Thankyou for the link.
David Berry
Greetings, David!
Yes, the avatars are similar to the tag cloud--the more a tag is used, the larger the font in which it is displayed. I am struggling with a lot of ideas (because I have not kept up with the literature). But social interaction and its influence on learning (and marketing, for that matter!!) is extremely interesting and important. The power of rss is woefully underused by most people.
I am envisioning a wiki course format that incorporates some of these things, and a vastly re-designed and more capable "my moodle" page. . .
atw
Yes, the avatars are similar to the tag cloud--the more a tag is used, the larger the font in which it is displayed. I am struggling with a lot of ideas (because I have not kept up with the literature). But social interaction and its influence on learning (and marketing, for that matter!!) is extremely interesting and important. The power of rss is woefully underused by most people.
I am envisioning a wiki course format that incorporates some of these things, and a vastly re-designed and more capable "my moodle" page. . .
atw