Defining a Virtual Learning Space for our students
Harry Pence | 12 April, 2006 15:21
The importance of some parts of the VLS seem to me to be clear, for example, podcasts and blogs. These can be very valuable sources of information, but unless a student knows how to manage them, they can become a time sink. It also seems to me that any education major should have a clear idea of some of the ways that these could be used for teaching. Both techniques have already penetrated into grade school in some places and sending out new teachers need this background. The importance of Instant Messaging goes without saying, but I have no idea of how to describe the possible effect of IM on education. Then there is Really Simple Syndication, which provides a way to attempt to manage blogs, podcasts, etc. There are many different sites that are designed to serve as aggregators, including netvibes. Trying to find the most useful blogs is still more of an art than a science (as indicated by the fact that the most popular blogs are Boing Boing and EnGadget. I think that both Blog and Pod searching are important skills for our students.
Wikitextbooks are a more difficult piece of the puzzle. Those who believe in wikis are true believers, but it is not clear that their ideas will prevail over the more traditionalist approach to education. It is important for education majors to understand the issues involved in deciding whether or not to use wikitextbooks, especially since my feeling is that the argument breaks down into process vs. product, with neither side being willing to accept the logic of the other position. Personally, I believe that wikitexts ultimately may not fly, but I’ve been wrong in the past, and even if I am right, their crash may strew quite a bit of debris upon the surrounding landscape.
That brings me to web search. It seems clear that we have reduced to three major search engines, and all three are aiming to become basic entertainment tools as the media converge. If this happens, will they continue to serve as true information conduits, or will our students have to look elsewhere for academic search? Tags and social networking seem to be the main current hope for organizing the flood of information. The leading site of this type seems to currently be del.icio.us, but there are a number of other options. There is an interesting article on the web from BusinessWeek describing how one music company is using tags for market research.
That leads me into the social networking sites, like MySpace and Face Book. Most of my students already are using these sites, but I’m not sure anyone has fugured out how they relate to teaching. I have seen some interesting approaches, such as having each accepted student join FaceBook before they come to campus in order to begin their orientation to campus life. Fraternities and sororities are also using FaceBook for rushing. I was just reading that the most popular classical composer among those 18 thru 25 is someone I never heard of, but who has used MySpace to reach out to a large “circle of friends” who are listening to and buying his music. Similarly, it is not fair to ignore Flickr, which allows users to upload pictures and tag them. I realize that seeing another picture of a cat named Fluffy seems unnecessary, but some educators have found very innovative uses for this type of site. For example, I have read of one campus that asks their students who study overseas to load their snapshots on Flickr. This allows prospective students in the program to get at least some feel for what the different countries might be like.
This leads to the question of self publication. Sites like lulu, cdbaby, and youtube allow individuals to post their personal intellectual products, including books), CDs), and short videos) and to directly access an audience. In some cases these products enjoy significant success. Perhaps the “Death of the Gatekeepers” idea is overblown, but these new distribution methods are certainly pushing back against the traditional distribution channels. Potentially one of the more interesting of these sites for teachers is Safari U, which allows teachers to share lesson plans and class materials on the web. So far, most of the material is focused on computers and technology, but it seems inevitable that there will be more lesson plan exchanges available in the future.
This post is already much too long, but I did want to clarify the direction I had in mind for this blog. I realize that I am only scratching the surface, but it is a start. I would invite anyone who has strong opinions (or even weak ones) to comment on the catalogue of resources I have mentioned. If you wish to add special skills essential to your own discipline, then feel free to do so, but please label them as specialized skills. I am hoping that this type of discussion will give me a better understanding of where I need to go, and perhaps also be useful to others.
In conclusion I think that the most important idea for our students to understand is that the rules are changing and the first person to understand the new rules wins (even though he/she only wins until the rules change again - - -in a very short time). Of course, that also goes for us. ; -)
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