Web2Learn

I am very excited about helping the Honors College incorporate Wordpress or other tools to support incoming freshmen discussing Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains. Like my nephew and nieces, Alex Goodell was greatly inspired by Paul Farmer’s work. He has initiated an the summer reading program & dialogue via his blog post. As an avid Wordpress blogger and Twitterati member, he has found contacts so he will travel to Ghana this summer. Louise Bishop, acting dean of the Honors College is envisioning that the students could use blogs to support development towards the Senior Thesis. I would be really psyched if we could get these students to model reflective learning for the rest of the campus.

The Chronicle of Higher Ed describes using Blogs for education, including a video from University of Mary Washington.
Article: Colleges Consider Using Blogs Instead of Blackboard
Video: Can Web Tools Replace Blackboard?

For the conclusion of this course, we want to use the small community we have built to support the activities you are doing anyway. As we discussed,
- 1. POSTING By Saturday May 23
A. Each person will post about a question/issue about their design project . This post could include concise visual information (i.e. that supplements the midterm review reflection material).
B. Each person starts a Diigo forum topic that summarizes the question and links to the post.

- II. FEEDBACK (by Wednesday, May 27)
Each student responds to at least two other students on the Diigo Forum.

1. Which Web 2.0 tool(s) do you see as most promising for higher ed?
2. What would be the best ways to learn with specific tools? Think of a scenario.  Consider how you think differently in writing an essay, journal, blog, or tweet.
3. What concerns should we think about in expanding our implementation of ePortfolios?

Re-examine your larger goals and make a plan:

• concrete objectives for this term:
• major decisions to be made
• action plan with schedule
• discuss your progress towards to date.

If you haven’t reflected about your midterm project, please do so in a blog post.

For this week also find an example of a designer’s website that has a strong organization and interesting content. How are the graphics displayed? Who is the audience and how is it addressing them?

Caitlin posed the question, “How can we take advantage of the Internet’s resources without wasting too much time?”
>>  Please post your first answer on your blog and then add blog responses for discussion on Diigo.
My Thoughts:  In the last year, my e-mail has grown exponentially.  I’ve unsubscribed to almost every listserv, but somehow the tide keeps surging.

- A major strategy I’ve adopted is that I try to address my most important “To Do” item before I open my e-mail.  Otherwise, it’s too easy to either be sucked down the rabbit hole OR if I cherry-pick, the mass of unanswered mail becomes too daunting.

- I register secondary services, such as Facebook, under a different e-mail account that I only check occasionally, and I ferret out the little notification options to reduce the mail deluge.

- I set an old alarm watch to beep on the hour to stay aware of time or and set an alarm to keep myself to a schedule.

- For Web authoring, blogging has kept me from being so compulsive. I used to work on my websites in a big charrette and then I’d be so exhausted that I’d leave them to languish forever.  Since the introduction of WYSIWYG visual editors on wikis and blogs, both my attitude and my workpattern is transformed:  it’s SO much easier to just add a quick thought.

But the cobWebs are still a problem : I just realized that almost nobody can see the ePortfolio or this blog post because they are not linked to my “official” website.  aka the really really old one.  My virtual self is really fragmented!  On the plus side, I was unable to find the silly image of myself that I posted on my first webpage.  Whew!

In Fall 2008, 16 intermediate architectural design students used PBWiki for sharing and the Plone system for reflections about design studio competencies.
In Winter 2009, 36 first year grad students used the Plone system in a computer graphics intro
In Spring 2009, we have three cohorts currently in classes using ePortfolio systems:

• 87 first year undergraduates using the Plone system in a computer graphics intro taught by Jill Salter
• 66 second year undergraduates using the Plone system and Google Sites as a class wiki in design studio
• 5 hand-picked advanced students exploring Wordpress MU/BuddyPress and other Web2.0 tools with me (here)

Snapshot of results:

• Students in the computer graphics classes are receptive to learning technology; those in studio find it a distraction from their core mission.  In team-taught studios, compliance varies according to the instructor attitude.

• Response to reflective questions has varied greatly.  Those adept at graphics tend to be less interested in verbal assignments.  Introspective students with poor graphic skills can be much more expressive in writing than through drawings, models or computer graphics.  It helps the instructor to see that students understand concepts, even though they lack proficiency in generating visual results.

• Google Sites is very accessible and quick to learn, BUT you can’t backup or move the sites and they have a fixed quota limit!  Compared to PBWiki, which I have used  for 5 previous classes, Google has not set up a support infrastructure.

>>  Keep new requirements minimal.  Target sharing of artifacts that benefit the whole (i.e. site analysis, factual design data)  Provide strong documentation, support and examples for the eager to excel.

Studnets, For this week’s assignment, please look at Michael Wesch’s video explaining the YouTube phenomenon at the bottom of the page:
http://www.nmc.org/connect/wesch It’s shows in a compelling way how  communication has been transformed and enlarged.

By Monday, April 27, please write a blog posting (~200 word) tagged “web2learn” about the video addressing the following questions.  Then by Wednesday, April 29, write your reactions to others’ posts and pose a question for us all onto this Diigo forum…  http://groups.diigo.com/groups/web2learn

? In what ways can YouTube be useful to society?
? How can we employ YouTube, blogging and other Web2.0 tools to positively change design education ?
? How can we employ YouTube, blogging and other Web2.0 tools to positively change the design professions ?

Optional:
- Can you suggest a related article, website or video for us all to examine?

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

AGENDA

• Check-in on progress
• Diigo
• WPMU galleries
• Structuring your website for your learning objective

NEXT ASSIGNMENT:  Use Diigo forum to discuss the same website about the potential of new media to transform education

Michael Wesch http://www.nmc.org/connect/wesch

Howard Rheingold’s New Media Classroom
http://www.nmc.org/connect/rheingold

We’ll review student progress to date and discuss modes for communication.

Things to try this week:

- Add an annotated Diigo link, tagged Web2Learn

- Comment on 2 classmate’s blogs, suggesting how they could target their blog to meet their goals.  Try including a question.

- Add a blog post to your WordpressMU site.

- Other ways to connect?