6 minutes

... from the box to a browser and search results.

Think about how little time it takes to launch an Eee PC.

More on David Warlick

Stephanie Sandifer writes "oodles" about David's keynote speech at the 2008 Convocation on Education, the theme of which was: “Education 2021: Preparing Kids For a Future We Can’t Describe”. More here.

Ustream channel of the presentation:

Technorati Tags: DavidWarlick 21stCentury

2D2C in DLS-C

aka how do students in De La Salle-Canlubang discover, disclose, connect and co-create learning?



Figure 1: people@dlscanlubang.org

Discover

Figure 2 below demonstrates how the technology more commonly known as Real Simple Syndication (RSS) gives the user the ability to be on top things of interest thereby offering the latest updates in a personalized fashion.

Figure 2: Feed Reader

Disclose

Now by filling in suitable fields in a user’s profile, the owner indicates which attributes best describe him or her to the rest of the community. Some systems give to the user the flexibility of disclosing as much or as little, depending on the suitable level of comfort.

Figure 3: Profile

Connect

Connecting is something that Friendster, one of the pioneers of Social Network Sites in the early decade of the century, has widely popularized. The ability to invite friends online and get invitations confirmed in a two-way friendship loop gave rise to the practice of “Friending”.

Figure 4: Friends

Co-create

Through what is commonly called tagging, Social Network Sites confer to the users the ability to put some loose categorization of learning objects. The image below shows what is called a tag cloud. It’s an aggregation of ‘popular’ labels used on learning artifacts and the system works to highlight the ‘relative importance’ of the items according to font size.

Figure 5: Tags and Folksonomies

The implication of all these resonates with David Warlick (2007): "students stop being mirrors, and instead become amplifiers. Their job is not merely to reflect what they encounter, but to add value to it. Content and skills are no longer the end product, but they become raw materials, with which students learn to work and play and share. Information is captured by the learner, processed, added to, remixed, and then shared back, to be captured by another learner/teacher and reprocessed."

Got Facebook?

Then perhaps you can do e-business. Here's one step. (You need to be logged in.)

But don't ask me about payment mechanisms, I'm still trying to figure that one out.

Thanks to Manny Pacquiao.

An aside: Seems like html coding is becoming an obsolete skill.

Leveraging wikis

aka some valuable lessons from Ross Mayfield.

He identifies 4 meta-patterns which apparently could be useful to the 21st century Enterprise.

Sounds good. Resonates with "Getting ready for the Friendster Generation."

[via Larry Cannell]

Where in the worlds is ... ?

Social Notworking?

Bernhard Warner doesn't think so. He actually marvels at the purposive creativity and coding skills of his students despite the broad disruption that Social Network Sites bring to the school environment.

Makes some sense. After all, learning also happens outside of the school setting.

Where is the love?

You told me that you'll never leave me...

The Break Up
by geertdesager

Participation: The future of Education

Just my take on Steve Hargadon's recent post.

The printing press is about n; the Internet is about n+ 2^n + n^2.

I like that part which goes: “The Answer to Information Overload Is to Produce More Information.”

[via Jeff VanDrimmelen]

"12 ways to turn your Web 1.0 site into a Web 2.0 site"

I've been writing about Web 2.0 for close to 4 years now. Then I realized I've not really described it enough to give an ordinary Website reader a good sense of a typical look and feel of a Web 2.0 site. Good thing someone has done that for me in 12 ways. Slayerment puts it like a prescription on how to "Web2fy" a site:

"1. Replace esomething.com with MYsomething.com

Your web site is not web 2.0 if it has some lame "e" in front of it. We all know your web site is electronic! Let's make it personal with a friendly "my" :).
2. Increase 10px font to at least 12-16px font

Nobody likes squinting their eyes, and no it doesn't look good. Get rid of the small text and replace it with some easy reading text for us productive people.
3. Change categories to tags

Why would somebody want to read your site if it's categorized into specific sections? Your content should be dynamically tagged so everyone can keep track of which is more and less important. Get a tag cloud!
4. Change your news section to a blog

People want to know what's going on with your company besides just formal news. Write something thats cool, funny, stupid, whatever! 1/2 the battle is keeping the audience entertained.
5. Change email a friend to RSS subscriptions

When was the last time you emailed a friend? Have you ever used it? Me neither. Get rid of that worthless feature and get people subscribing to your site via RSS or even...
6. Change bookmark this to social network this

With sites like del.icio.us and Digg you should not be having people bookmarking your site only for themselves to see it. Get your site out there in front of everyone with social bookmarking and networking!
7. Change user account to user profile

Nobody wants a boring user page with just their username and email (Yes, I'm talking to you Amazon). They want a full blown personal page that tracks their whole life and tells the world about how great they are. Get your users involved!
8. Change crappy hard-coded HTML to Semantic HTML with CSS

Your design is cool and all but how do you update it? How do you change it? How does it allow for new content to be added (which is the most important part!)? Get rid of your angst ridden layout and get some semantic HTML styled by CSS in there that is super light and better for everyone - please!
9. It's visitors not HITS!

Once again, this is not the 80's and we don't care about your hits! All that matters is the visitors (Yes, short for unique visitors) and the conversions. Get some Google Analytics on there and stop with the hits talk already.
10. Add comments

People want to contribute and share. Let them! It's better for your users and for your search engines.
11. Change esite.com?id=5235&sort=desc&useless=this &one%20more=still%20useless TO.. mysite.com/meaningful-title

Need I say more?
12. Change custom built site to open source CMS

Come to think about it, just get rid of your whole site and download Drupal or Wordpress and start rocking some free theme. After all, people really don't care what your site looks like that much. They would much rather visit to a terrible looking site with compelling content than a beautiful site with pitiful content. Do it right!"

So if you're wondering what site could benefit from those steps, perhaps the Asian Business Directory.

It's not an either-or proposition. Anyways, I've always maintained that there's beauty in finding the sweet spot.

Collective Artistry and Social Technologies:

Enabling Cultural Development through the Participatory Web

(preview of presentation at De La Salle Manila, on February 28, 2008, 3:00 pm)

This is just a Filler, to make way for post no. 888

Digg Meets Del.icio.us

The intersection happens at edutagger.com. Imagine getting "brownie points" for sharing relevant links. Click on the image below to find out more.


Now how do you monetize brownie points?

"7 Steps for a Flat Classroom"

Vicki Davis suggests: "Step 1: Get Connected ... "

The logical progression is up to you.

| View | Upload your own

I like the elements that tend to promote Personal Learning Environments, Show-and Tell and portfolios.

Got Speech?

Check this out:

"CuePrompter.com - The Online Teleprompter
Free teleprompter/autocue service
CuePrompter is a free teleprompter/autocue service. Your browser works like a teleprompter -no extra software needed. (Go to their site) whenever you need teleprompter services."

Thanks to Nik Peachey.

Some possible uses come to mind:

• Basic Reading Classes
• Political Speeches
• Valedictory Addresses
• Karaoke Sessions, anyone?

Quote of the Day

"If moderation is a fault, then indifference is a crime." - Jack Kerouac

Search Engine Optimization Exercise

This assumes the user is a blogger.

1. Post a blog entry ideally with just one outgoing link (i.e. to the site being optimized for Google search engine.
2. Use the word or phrase being promoted as keyword/s (also known as "anchor text"), i.e. that the target searcher is expected to type in the search box

For example:

Post a blog with a link to www.slb.ph and the words "tama na" as text anchor.

Click on "tama na" then on this text to to see what I mean.

While the world sleeps

... in a stupor induced by fixation with politics, Richard Ingham reports that the next plague is likeliest to emerge from poor tropical countries

There's still hope though. Thus, "priority should be to set up monitoring networks in developing countries that would identify a threat from the outset and circumscribe it, rather than let it spread like wildfire around the globe thanks to jet travel and trade. " More here.

Pardon my bias towards Social Media but yes it's doable.

Finding the Sweet Spot

I could have participated in the insightful discussions on Shared Governance and University Leadership forum last Saturday, but the paternal duty of preparing for a Family Day in my son's school prevented me from being in two places at the same time.

Good thing there is a report by the De La Salle Philippines Media Bureau:

"A German educator discussed principles on Shared Governance and University Leadership to Lasallian educators in a forum held last 16 February at the DLSP Multipurpose Hall, 20th Floor Br. Andrew Gonzalez FSC Hall.

Prof. Michael Fremerey, director of Institute for Socio-cultural Affairs Studies at Kassel University in Germany, emphasized that “shared governance” means the active participation of stakeholders in a university through their collaboration on projects and activities. But he clarified that administrators must identify stakeholders who will play a role in a certain project. For instance, students and faculty may participate in revising or designing a curriculum.

Fremerey, who is also expert in organizational development, said that a university must be transparent in terms of providing access on basic information to the stakeholders.

In terms of accountability, he emphasized that a university should focus on quality and relevance of education, which he considered as areas of challenges that educational institutions face today. “We have to admit that these challenges have not been born and created in the university itself. The call for more quality and more relevant (education) has come from public, economy, and political systems,” he said.

Even if there is a shared governance, leadership still plays a big role in educational management, Fremerey said. He emphasized that “leaders (the educators themselves) have to respond to expectations of the community, if they want to be accepted as leaders.”

Moreover, Fremerey said that an educator should underscore the dynamic balancing of polarities: between change and stability, system and individuals, as well as self-organization (creativity) and intervention (caring)."

On a side note, at least I got a chance to talk to Dr. Fremerey during the ride from the airport to the Legend Hotel in Mandaluyong (one of the value hotels in the Philippines) on the night before the forum.

Speaking of shared governance in Education, perhaps this is something that Social Software can help enable?

No download necessary

Just edit away. See the pattern generator in action below.