digital lifeboat

I found the subject of the group project on building and sustaining online learning communities to be timely and relevant to my work and study. The research threw light into the construction of this course, and has increased my regard for the value of belonging to online communities for my own personal self development.

It is clear that there are many practical factors influencing the sustainability of such a community, which can be enhanced. I feel that this knowledge will be of value to me ongoing in my career. It was timely that this project fell at the point at which a VLE environment was brought on line at my workplace. This gave me the opportunity to undertake an extended evaluation of the administrative functions, as well as the user experience of a VLE environment.

There was also an interesting feedback from the report research into our reflective journal blogs and vice versa. This is exemplified in our quoting of forum posts in the report paper, and illustrating aspects of our research graphically in the blogs. I found it straightforward to construct a methodology for the evaluation process, and found it satisfying that we had been able to achieve a meaningful result, in spite of the limitations on the scale and scope of the project.

In this project we were prepared to take risks and experimented with using a new PLE tool to construct the report. This enhanced our work process and communication considerably. There were some technical issues, but overall this was a useful part of the learning process.

Today I was following a current controversial news story and checked into the bbc news website to see the latest on the situation. I was surprised and interested to see that following an update on the facts there was a rating of the story as it appears in global blog postings. It was also reported that a protest Facebook group had been started in response to this particuar situation.

This may have been going on before but I have never noticed activity on the “blogosphere” reported on the bbc news online as part of the main news item coverage before.

“A brief survey by BBC Monitoring on 29 November 2007 indicated that the story was not yet featuring prominently in the global blogosphere.

For example, a search on the Technorati website at 0945 GMT produced fewer than 300 hits, mostly from US and UK bloggers. “

Into the final furlong now with the bibliography sorted the final para nearly done. Going to do some final formatting editing and putting in the appendix.

Good to talk to Helen on Flash meeting today its the first time we have spoken, long live video conferencing! This was the first time that all participants got fully functioning webcam and sound, despite early probs for me! My webcam had been removed due to the need for teenagers to synch mp3 player. Now it is safely re located to a rear usb port on my pc.

We chatted on after Terry left for a while. These chats are really good for thrashing out some ideas, trouble shooting, and a bit of social nattering. I am glad that we are going to meet in Flash meeting for the rest of this semester. Hopefully we will pursue this on into next.

Just having a moment of pondering about the report writing process for the group work.

Wondering what the difference would have been if we had been able to submit a wiki instead of a WP document for the group assessment.

Not really had any real experience building a wiki yet. Something to try out.

Shooting from the hip first thoughts.

1. No battling with formatting of the page and tables.

2. Loads of Illustrations, much more pictoral.

3. Introduction of evidence websites, video, graphics integrated seamlessly into the document.

Question 1. Would this have improved communication and understanding?

Question 2. Would this have been less authorititive?

Question 3. Would this be more difficult to assess in terms of plagerism?

I don’t see why if referencing is done properly. Is there really any substantive difference to the report we are going to submit.

So my initial thoughts are all about benefits for the writers.

Downsides again off the top of my head can you think of any to add or comment on these.

Marking on screen and the visual stress of that.

The difference in design skills of the authors might influence the marking and detract from the quality of the content. ( This could be overcome with a standardised template)

What an awsome thing the internet is, no sooner do you think of a question than you can find out if anyone else has been along that train of thought.

This link to the university of Hertfordshire Using Wiki for formative and summative assessment

Obtained via a link from Re-engineering Assessment Practices (REAP) project

to be returned to …………………..watch this space.

I would like to try this before the end of the course for some small activity.

 For the purposes of our report some illustrations of the course I have set up in the school Moodle installation.

The student view shows how we are trying to improve the accessibility/readabillity of the interface by using sans serif font and blue lettering. In the student view I have removed as many tool blocks a possible to create an uncluttered interface and ease navigation for the students.

In the administrator view you can see the range of editing tools next to each block of the course. I have placed demonstration content for the following areas.

Orientation- work for this week

An assignment- to demonstrate�uploading documents to moodle.

A demo Glossary- there are a number of terms which are american in origin and their meaning needs clarification for an english audience.

A short quiz- What do you think of it so far?

2 sample SCORM compliant software demonstration disks- Birchfield

A forum- Test Forum

A chat room-Test moodle chat room

A wiki – Test moodle wiki

A survey-test survey

A project-test project

Not shown in screenshot, demonstration Hot potatoes exercise.

Each of the demonstration areas have at least one test entry.

I have enrolled staff at school who are learning to use Moodle in my test course. It will also be used to demonstrate moodle for staff training in January. I anticipate continuing to refine and add to content.

Moodle course student view

Moodle course administrator editing view

Forum in Moodle

Wiki in Moodle