Microblogging for Networked Learning

MICROBLOGGING for NETWORK LEARNINGGabriela Grosseck & Carmen Holotescu

Cirip.eu

Network of Trainers in Europe Online ConferenceNovember, 9-10, 2009

A short introduction in Social Learning

What is microblogging?

Overview of the microsphere / Generally uses

Discovery microblogging through Cirip.eu

Educational uses of microblogging

What does the future look like? Microblogging Reflections

Where do we learn more?

Follow-ups, future reflections and sharing at http://cirip.ro/grup/trainersineurope Sabin Balasa paintings at UAIC Iasi, Romania, http://picasaweb.google.com

Presentation Agenda

RSS/blogs-2004, podcast–2005, vlog–2006, video–2007, microblogging-2008/2009

Web2.0 / social networks have great impact

in collaborative / social learning ( eLearning2.0 )photo: http://es.onsoftware.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/web20-redsocial.jpg

SOCIAL LEARNINGA short introduction

Enhancing teaching & learning using Web2.0 technologies

from Handbook of Emerging Technologies in Education: George Siemens, Peter Tittenberg (pg.34) ltc.umanitoba.ca/wikis/etl

Welcome to … your space

• Which 5 web 2.0 applications do you appreciate and use most?

• Compare your a-list with top at Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009

(http://c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/)

yes, You CAN still contributeto this top this week.

Photo Flickr by yanivg, http://farm1.static.flickr.com/28/64298062_4b83b8b87d.jpg

http://personas.media.mit.edu/

INTRODUCTION TO MICROBLOGGING

What is it? And why should I care?

Microblogging is a new form of blogging, with brief text updates of 140 characters, via Web, SMS, email, IM or 3th party applications, which allows RT interactions between users.

Microblogging is a collaborative technology

photo: http://media2.lelombrik.net/13501-14000/13845.jpg

A collaborative definition of

microblogging generated by

oamos.com embedded in the note at

cirip.ro/status/1645201

MICROBLOGGING PLATFORMS

Microblogging platforms used in education

Mar 2006 Oct 2007 Jan 2008 Sep 2008 Jul 2008Dec 2007 Mar 2008

Overview of the Microsphere Timeline

Twitter, Yammer, Cirip.eu, and Edmodo appear on Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009 http://c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/

How microblogging tools work

1. Create an account and sign in2. Search for other people to follow

(Other people are doing the same for you)

3. Read other peoples’ updates 4. Enter an update yourself5. Go back to steps 3 and 4!16

The most popular microblogging system

Launched in July, 2006

Robust, elegant and simple

More than 160 million users

Numerous mash-ups

Social networking

in 140 characters

twitter

Twitter Educational uses:Classroom community

Collaboration

Project Management

Assessing opinion

Conference / research

Virtual classroom

Learning experiences

Personal Learning Network

Reference services

• a private microblogging platform for teachers and students to share ideas, files, events and assignments

• features: Store and Share Files , Privacy Controls , Public Timeline (RSS) , Notifications (SMS) , Class Calendar , Assignments & Grades, Share Links and Embeds , Subscribe to Feeds

• similar LMS

„ Edmodo could be used for a wide variety of tasks and lessons. […] It could also be a forum for open discussion in an online course setting. In a one-to-one computing environment you could post a story starter and have each student add a sentence or paragraph to create a collaboratively written story. ”

Richard Byrne

a social journal for your life; a right-to-left scrolling “timeline”

photo: http://friendfeed.com/robingood

„ My Plurk line, for me, is a broadcast medium - I want to put a message out there and share some information and to do

that I need to keep the line clear for people to read and respond to. I'm not looking to gather information from other people

there (have so many other places where I already do that).”

only 10 minutes to setup the own microblogging networkuseful for those devoted to a particular nichea customizable and easy-to-use community spacesharing photos, files, links, locations and much more through a well known microblogging interface

„ We’ve all known it was coming, it as just a matter of time. Well, it has finally arrived and I’m thrilled to

say that it was worth the wait. ShoutEm is a create-your-own-Twitter platform that works just as easily as

Ning does. ”Steve Dembo

photo: http://teach42.shoutem.com/

• an open source implementation of a distributed microblogging platform, CreativeCommons framework

• full control of your data, meaning if you want to migrate to another service you can take it with you

• allows you to post 140 characters messages

• login with your OpenID• SMS updates and notifications

„ Discussing and proposing pedagogical approachs for education within the paradigm and

assistance of Web2.0.”http://identi.ca/group/w2e

• business oriented • used in a single

organisation• attachment links,

images, files• potential for schools

photo: https://www.yammer.com/about/screenshots

„But I can see the potential for, say, a school. Certainly in the UK, [….] it would be really easy to set up a Yammer account

for students and staff to collaborate with each other in a closed-off environment.

So, if Twitter seems somewhat too open for comfort,

perhaps Yammer is the answer. ”Terry Freedman

• more than 140 characters• commenting and "like"

system• room / group creation• attachment links,

pictures, embeddable widgets (YouTube, Flickr, twitpic)

photo: http://friendfeed.com/robingood

„ The option to create a private Friend Feed room could be a great way to create a

back channel for your classroom or for any workshops that you may lead. You could also

create a private Friend Feed room for your students to use as brainstorming area or a book

discussion forum.”

• a micro-update communications for companies that gives employees the ability to:

• instantly communicate their current status (collaboration in Real-Time)

• ask questions• post media (share documents & media)• groups for keeping conversations

organized• device support (computer, mobile

phone, any device connected to the Internet) photo: http://presentlyapp.com/

„ Present.ly provides a free place to get the same type of feedback as you'd gather on

Twitter, but in a closed setting..”Richard Byrne

7000 users

interface in Romanian, English, German

Cirip.eu - a microblogging platform specially designed for education; launched in March, 2008, by Timsoft, a Romanian company specialized in eLearning and mobile applications

HOW MICROBLOGGING CAN IMPROVE TEACHING AND LEARNING

brainstorming ideas – please add your thoughts

Scribd paper: Can we use Twitter for educational activities?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pandemia/354115976/sizes/l/

Classroom community Collaboration

Project ManagementAssessing opinion

Conference / research Virtual classroom

Learning experiences Personal Learning

Network Exploring the language

Reference services

good points:

distracting time-consuming

rude

addictive

no socialeducational value

bad grammar skills

privacy

spam

meaningless without a network

bad points

What ‘s your attitude toward microblogging?

• Use a single word and write it down !• Working in group, find images with flickr, flickrcc,

compfight or CreativeCommon.org!• Go to Photopeach and build your attitude in a digital

storytelling!

A slideshare presentation about collaboration on microbloggingembedded in the note at cirip.ro/status/1610057

A photopeach presentation for microblogging metaphors,embedded in the note at cirip.ro/status/874542

7000 usersinterface in Romanian, English, German

Cirip.eu - a microblogging platform specially designed for education; launched in March, 2008, by Timsoft, a Romanian company specialized in eLearning and mobile applications

Group: http://www.cirip.ro/grup/trainersineurope

Facilities Cirip.eu (1)

• public and private groups (courses, trainings, projects, events, internal communication, service, family, hobby, etc); group communication via SMS

• polls, quizzes – online or via SMS• feeds monitoring (via SMS)(sites/blogs/social networks/search feeds – jobs,

weather, reactions)• statistics, visualizations, tags.

Cirip.eu TUTORIAL

Facilities Cirip.eu (2)

multimedia objects embedded in messages (information/communication flow):

- livestreaming,

- images (flickr, tinypic),

- audio (eok, trilulilu, deezer, blip.fm, vocaroo, mp3),

- (live) video (youtube, dotsub, vimeo, seesmic, 220.ro, myvideo),

- presentations (slideshare, capzles, voicethread, flowgram, photopeach, picasa,

notaland, prezi, diagrammr, screencastle, screenjelly, screenr,),

- documents (odf, odt, pdf, doc, xls, txt, ppt)

Cirip.eu TUTORIAL

Who are you?

Use multimedia object to

describe yourself (blip.fm, youtube

or vimeo)

information and knowledge managementcourses enhancementdelivering entire online coursescollaborative projects in universitiescommunities of practiceePortfolios.

Personal Learning Environments ( Networks ) - PLE/PLN

Educational uses

Users

GrupuriFeeds Social networks

Groups

PLN: users, groups, feeds

interactions online, via ciripfox/ ciripgadget/ciripAIR/FF Ubiquity, SMS, mobile, IM, mJava, API, twitter2cirip, rss2cirip

messages, images, audio, video (live), presentations, files

livestreaming

cirip2twitter, widget, export notes on blogs

PROFILE

An online course about microblogging platformsResearch:

• integrate microblogging with other Web2.0 technologies

• microblogging platform as LMS

• course facilitation

Materials:announcements

materials as LOM/SCORM objects

Course elements:

announcements

modules - LOM/SCORM objects

multimedia messages

poll/quiz/ comments via SMS (f2f)

validations - interactions with users/groups

collaborative exercises

Participation:

built PLNs

42 members:

students, teachers, developers, librarians

1100 messages

Collaborative exercises using different Web2.0 technologies:• puzzle images - flickr,

CC

• del.icio.us collection

• video translation - writeboard, dotsub

• comments on voicethread

• tagcloud - wordle

• code of good practices on microblogs - writeboard

Cirip.eu has facilities to deliver successful and qualitative online courses and to enhance courses; the communication (online/SMS/mobile), authoring, monitoring, statistical facilities make Cirip.eu a modern free LMS.

• Facilitating an entire online course or a part of a course on such a platform requires specific facilitation skills, and collaborative technologies knowledge.

• Participants gain important digital and communication skills, build PLEs, continue to collaborate in community after the course ends

Connections/comunication

PLE/PLN relevanceePortfolio

Indicators:(mindmeister.com)

Popularity

InfluenceCoagulation indexExposure indexGeographical distributionTemporal distributionOnline social presenceRating (RT)Notoriety (favorite)Sharing (Link)IntimacySpaMood Language

WCES 2009, 4-7 Feb., North Cyprus University

WHAT do our students NEED?

Group: http://www.cirip.ro/grup/trainersineurope

For follow-ups, future reflections and sharing, you are welcome at

http://cirip.ro/grup/trainersineurope

Your comment and questions are welcome.

Thank you!