Wikipedia, Wikibooks, and all of the other Wiki products available online are the epitomize the collaborative nature of Web 2.0. Together authors draft informative articles, books and definitions available to all who have an internet connection for free. Also, unlike discussion boards or other prominent communication tools on the web, wiki's promote cooperation and consensus. People are encouraged and to discuss and work out differences, eventually reaching a consensus.
There are some skeptics of wikipedia with regard to its accuracy and scholarly integrity. I have personally witnessed this skepticism when completing my undergrad degree a few years ago. When I cited wikipedia as a source of information in one of my papers, the professor cried foul, saying that it wasn't a legitimate source. The fact is that the accuracy of Wikipedia has been studied, and it has been found to be as accurate as other sources. In fact, in the article Studying Cooperation and Conflict between Authors with history flow Visualizations (2004) the authors determined that vulgar material and mass deletions of information are corrected in less than three minutes on average. I would also argue that wiki resources are better than traditional reference materials because they are flexible. If new information comes out, the wiki's are easily corrected, where an outdated encyclopedia lives forever (until someone throws it away).
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
YouTube, Videos, and Instruction
"A picture is worth a thousand words". No truer words than than this have ever been spoken with regard to education, specifically with the availability of YouTube and other free video sources on the web. With millions of educational videos available on demand, teachers can easily integrate powerful videos into their instruction to enhance the depth of learning. The vivid depictions in videos offer an experience for the learner that isn't possible through reading or lecture; "a picture is worth a thousand words".
In his article, YouTube Anchors and Enders: The Use of Shared Online Video as a Macrocontext for Learning, Dr. Curt Bonk discusses the effectiveness of videos and a number of potential instructional strategies associated with video clips. These strategies include instructor based uses, as well as student centered activities. Most commonly, videos can be used as an instructional primer, to act as an anchor for instructional material, or as an ender to reinforce what was taught in a lesson. Students can also be assigned to show relevant videos. This serves two-fold, to facilitate discussion as well as empowering students to take charge of their own learning.
Overall, YouTube and other sources of video available on the internet are, and will continue to facilitate student's interest in learning, while enhancing the depth and effectiveness of education.
In his article, YouTube Anchors and Enders: The Use of Shared Online Video as a Macrocontext for Learning, Dr. Curt Bonk discusses the effectiveness of videos and a number of potential instructional strategies associated with video clips. These strategies include instructor based uses, as well as student centered activities. Most commonly, videos can be used as an instructional primer, to act as an anchor for instructional material, or as an ender to reinforce what was taught in a lesson. Students can also be assigned to show relevant videos. This serves two-fold, to facilitate discussion as well as empowering students to take charge of their own learning.
Overall, YouTube and other sources of video available on the internet are, and will continue to facilitate student's interest in learning, while enhancing the depth and effectiveness of education.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Open Education Resources
The availability of Open Educational Resources (OER) has exploded recently. MIT has made its entire curriculum available to the public and many other universities have followed suit. David Wiley of Utah State has created an interactive course called "Introduction to Open Education" and made it available to any who want to participate, with students from all across the world signing up. The explosion of OER isn't just a phenomenon in the United States, as many other countries across the globe have also made strides in this endeavor, including China, Japan, Vietnam, as well as countries throughout Europe and Latin America.
A few questions remain in my mind; however, with regard to the use of OER in the classroom setting. First and foremost of which is, are teachers aware of and do they know how to use the vast resources now available? Although I haven't been in a K-12 classroom in many years, I suspect that much of the same sort of teacher centered instruction remains, with little collaboration and use of OER. I think that teachers need to be made more aware of OER resources and their possible uses in the classroom. This may be a tall task considering the slow rate at which educational institutions seem to embrace change. The key may be to include considerable OER training throughout the schooling of new teachers entering the field of education. I also believe that it would be very helpful if OER experts and instructional systems technology staff were hired at each school, or even each school district to train and assist teachers.
I realize that resistant teachers aren't the only roadblock to the use of OER in classrooms. There needs to be better systems of cataloguing and organizing OER so that teachers can easily find material that suits their needs and share material that they've created. In conjunction with this, Open Courseware needs to be made more flexible, that is, designed in modules versus courses, and educators can use various modules to supplement, not replace, their curriculum.
All in all I believe that OER will become more widely used in schools as teachers become more aware and more familiar with its use, and as a result education will imrove.
A few questions remain in my mind; however, with regard to the use of OER in the classroom setting. First and foremost of which is, are teachers aware of and do they know how to use the vast resources now available? Although I haven't been in a K-12 classroom in many years, I suspect that much of the same sort of teacher centered instruction remains, with little collaboration and use of OER. I think that teachers need to be made more aware of OER resources and their possible uses in the classroom. This may be a tall task considering the slow rate at which educational institutions seem to embrace change. The key may be to include considerable OER training throughout the schooling of new teachers entering the field of education. I also believe that it would be very helpful if OER experts and instructional systems technology staff were hired at each school, or even each school district to train and assist teachers.
I realize that resistant teachers aren't the only roadblock to the use of OER in classrooms. There needs to be better systems of cataloguing and organizing OER so that teachers can easily find material that suits their needs and share material that they've created. In conjunction with this, Open Courseware needs to be made more flexible, that is, designed in modules versus courses, and educators can use various modules to supplement, not replace, their curriculum.
All in all I believe that OER will become more widely used in schools as teachers become more aware and more familiar with its use, and as a result education will imrove.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Free and Open Source Sofware/Courseware
Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) has transformed the software industry. The collaboration of passionate "hackers" has resulted in the availability of high quality software applications for all. The benefits of FOSS include free or reduced cost, no user restrictions, and a consistency with the academic values of openness and sharing. However, as it relates to free and open source courseware, the greatest benefit is providing a successful model capable of harnessing IT to improve learning.
One of the keys to the success of many FOSS projects is that they are embedded within a community that supports the project, one another, and continually improves the product. Similarly, for free and open source courseware to improve it must be supported by an active community to collaborate, help one another, improve the products, and to spread the word about courseware applications. This community must include teachers, students, administrators and instructional developers. Robert Stevenson, a community manager for curriki.org, believes that for open course communities to thrive they must:
-Achieve active community collaboration and participation.
-Include students in the communities.
-Have the ability to modify and improve resources.
-Incorporate assessment to drive improvement.
-Provide easy ways for communities to make contributions.
When all of these are accomplished, communities supporting open course software will become stronger, and it will transform education, much like FOSS is transforming the software industry.
One of the keys to the success of many FOSS projects is that they are embedded within a community that supports the project, one another, and continually improves the product. Similarly, for free and open source courseware to improve it must be supported by an active community to collaborate, help one another, improve the products, and to spread the word about courseware applications. This community must include teachers, students, administrators and instructional developers. Robert Stevenson, a community manager for curriki.org, believes that for open course communities to thrive they must:
-Achieve active community collaboration and participation.
-Include students in the communities.
-Have the ability to modify and improve resources.
-Incorporate assessment to drive improvement.
-Provide easy ways for communities to make contributions.
When all of these are accomplished, communities supporting open course software will become stronger, and it will transform education, much like FOSS is transforming the software industry.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Libraries and Researchers of the Future?
With the rapidly increasing dissemination of e-books, online journal articles, and basically any information that you could ever dream of wanting to know on the internet, are our libraries becoming a thing of the past? How has library use changed since the rapid expansion of online information? How has Google and other search engines changed the way that people conduct research? These are some of the questions that were addressed by a British study conducted in January, 2008; "a ciber briefing paper. Information behaviour of the researcher of the future".
Many of the studies findings regarding library use were consistent with what any student would likely tell you; most notably that we use search engines rather than libraries because they are easier and more intuitive. Students are intimidated by libraries. It is much more within our comfort zone, and a whole lot easier to Google something than to physically go to the library or try to navigate their complicated online databases. We also tend to search horizontally; that is to briefly and incompletely view a lot of different information sources rather than reading entire articles. We "squirrel" away many interesting articles reading for possible future use.
Surprisingly, the study also revealed that young people may not be the expert searchers that many believe; often having difficulty developing effective search strategies. It surmised that students must be taught library skills early, before they enter college, in order to become effective researchers.
The conclusion of the study was that the availability of information on the internet has minimized the need for libraries and librarians as intermediaries, and the shift away from libraries will likely become increasingly rapid as more e-books and other information is made available on the web. The bottom line is that libraries need to adapt or they may become a thing of the past.
Now what do libraries need to do if they don't want to become a thing of the past? Well, address those issues; become more user friendly, shifting from a content oriented to a more user focused perspective. With their limited budgets, they may need to integrate their services more with popular internet search engines to take advantage of their deep pockets. But most of all they need to study their users and base their future strategies on their research habits.
In my opinion I think libraries are here to stay for a while. However, I believe that they will be more seamlessly integrated with other web search engines in order to become more user friendly. And as for the physical library itself, I think it will become more of a social place like the bookstores of today, a place to drink coffee, read magazines, and relax. In the end as long as there are people that like the smell and feeling of reading an actual book, libraries will be with us.
Many of the studies findings regarding library use were consistent with what any student would likely tell you; most notably that we use search engines rather than libraries because they are easier and more intuitive. Students are intimidated by libraries. It is much more within our comfort zone, and a whole lot easier to Google something than to physically go to the library or try to navigate their complicated online databases. We also tend to search horizontally; that is to briefly and incompletely view a lot of different information sources rather than reading entire articles. We "squirrel" away many interesting articles reading for possible future use.
Surprisingly, the study also revealed that young people may not be the expert searchers that many believe; often having difficulty developing effective search strategies. It surmised that students must be taught library skills early, before they enter college, in order to become effective researchers.
The conclusion of the study was that the availability of information on the internet has minimized the need for libraries and librarians as intermediaries, and the shift away from libraries will likely become increasingly rapid as more e-books and other information is made available on the web. The bottom line is that libraries need to adapt or they may become a thing of the past.
Now what do libraries need to do if they don't want to become a thing of the past? Well, address those issues; become more user friendly, shifting from a content oriented to a more user focused perspective. With their limited budgets, they may need to integrate their services more with popular internet search engines to take advantage of their deep pockets. But most of all they need to study their users and base their future strategies on their research habits.
In my opinion I think libraries are here to stay for a while. However, I believe that they will be more seamlessly integrated with other web search engines in order to become more user friendly. And as for the physical library itself, I think it will become more of a social place like the bookstores of today, a place to drink coffee, read magazines, and relax. In the end as long as there are people that like the smell and feeling of reading an actual book, libraries will be with us.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Digital Literacy
According to dictionary.com the definition of literacy is "the ability to read or write". Today this definition seems as outdated as the factory-like education that our schools provide. Although literacy in it's tradational form, the ability to read and write, is obviously important, there is much more to being literate in today's technological world. This new literacy is referred to as digital literacy. Digital literacy refers to a persons ability to use technology effectively and efficiently. This not only includes the physical functions of using technological hardware and software, but the ability to locate information, sort through it, exercise critical thinking, and synthesize and make sense out of the vast troves of information.
One of the difficulties that have arisen with the rapid development of Web 2.0 educational technologies is that many teachers are not digitally literate themselves. As Barbara Jones Kavalier states in her article Connecting the Digitial Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century, "linear thinking instructors" are trying to use outdated methods to teach digitally literate students. The question is, is there any effort ongoing to train these teachers, and if not are our students missing out on the newest educational tools available via Web 2.0 as a result? It seems an easy solution would be to make IST professionals available to all teachers to "bring the teachers up to speed". Whether this will ever happen or not, who knows, but in reality the situation faced by many teachers who technologically challenged is not a new one. I'm sure a few decades ago educators were struggling with how to turn on the overhead projector, but it seems today there is a lot more at stake, as students are missing out on a lot more learning tools and opportunities associated with Web 2.0.
One of the difficulties that have arisen with the rapid development of Web 2.0 educational technologies is that many teachers are not digitally literate themselves. As Barbara Jones Kavalier states in her article Connecting the Digitial Dots: Literacy of the 21st Century, "linear thinking instructors" are trying to use outdated methods to teach digitally literate students. The question is, is there any effort ongoing to train these teachers, and if not are our students missing out on the newest educational tools available via Web 2.0 as a result? It seems an easy solution would be to make IST professionals available to all teachers to "bring the teachers up to speed". Whether this will ever happen or not, who knows, but in reality the situation faced by many teachers who technologically challenged is not a new one. I'm sure a few decades ago educators were struggling with how to turn on the overhead projector, but it seems today there is a lot more at stake, as students are missing out on a lot more learning tools and opportunities associated with Web 2.0.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Learning Opportunities on "The Web of Knowledge"
The "web of knowledge" offers incredible learning opportunities for anyone with a computer and an internet connection...which is becoming more and more common as cell phone and satellite internet access help to bridge the "digital divide" around the world and the $100 laptop has become a reality. The web allows students (or anyone who has a desire to learn about anything) in urban or remote settings to engage in incredibly rich learning environments that were not possible even a few years ago. How amazing is it that people around the world can read the diary (old school blog) of Samuel Pepys, a man who lived in the 1600's - complete with links to read about other relevant topics of his day! I can't think of a more indelible way to learn about everyday life in 17th century London. Of course this is just one of many examples of how the web of knowledge is able provide a depth of understanding on an endless range topics previously unavailable to the masses.
In addition to providing unprecidented learning resources to people, the web also allows them to easily create networks with people whom they have common interests. Whether obscure or popular, there is almost certainly a community of people on the web that shares your interests, and with with whom you can communicate and collaborate. This is huge opportunity for learning because discussion and collaboration often act as a catalyst for creativity and development of new ideas.
I've only presented a couple of examples, but the bottom line is that they serve to reinforce that the learning opportunities and possibilities available on the web of knowledge seem endless, yet they continue to multiply at astronomical speed.
In addition to providing unprecidented learning resources to people, the web also allows them to easily create networks with people whom they have common interests. Whether obscure or popular, there is almost certainly a community of people on the web that shares your interests, and with with whom you can communicate and collaborate. This is huge opportunity for learning because discussion and collaboration often act as a catalyst for creativity and development of new ideas.
I've only presented a couple of examples, but the bottom line is that they serve to reinforce that the learning opportunities and possibilities available on the web of knowledge seem endless, yet they continue to multiply at astronomical speed.
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