WE/ME in epedagogy design

The next international Seminar is said to be in the begin of October and should be held in Barcelona (great!).

I thougt about if a BarCamp as a open Structure for this Seminar might be right decision. For those of you who don’t know yet what a BarCamp is:

BarCamp is an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.

Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

When you come, be prepared to share with barcampers.

When you leave, be prepared to share it with the world.

Source: barcamp.org
In my opinion the Part of exchanging knowledge should be implemented much more in our Read the rest of this entry »

I have been teaching a course on social software. During this I decided that Facebook offers a very good front end for a lot of “serious” activities, including the epedagogy MA. I have therefore started an epedagogy group in Facebook. So far it has 5 members, and a link to this site.

It would be very good if everyone else on the course (past and present, staff and students) would also join Facebook, message me and then apply to join the group. (I have set it as a closed group so you have to apply to join. This stops people messing around with it.)

I think we could use this as collective action research. My initial hypothesis is that using this as the front end to our online networking will be good because we will then get a richer picture of each other, and this will enable us to engage in more fruitful collaborations.

BTW, for those with genuine privacy concerns Facebook is VERY privacy conscious. You can set everything to be viewable only by your friends, if you want - and people can only become your friend by applying to you and waiting for you to say yes or no. It is absolutely NOT like MySpace, Bebo, or similar sites.

Later that same day:

I wrote a slightly longer argument in favour of this on my site (which is now being updated again) here.

trams & roads - Helsinki

Originally uploaded by Jimmie James.

Hey fellow students from Helsinki, please listen up!
Some of us students from germany are looking for a place to stay at during the international seminar.
Those who’ve been to Hamburg last year are already familar with the system. Those lokal students who can offer a place to stay for international students during the seminar please “raise your hands” in the blog. I know that at least Christina, Alex and me would prefer to stay in one of your places than in an expensive hotel.

Don’t let us live on the streets of Helsinki, please!

I have begun the final stages of pulling my thesis together and you can join in. In fact, I would positively like you to join in.

My thesis is called The mimi: a key tool for epedagogy and expands my research into the blog/wiki idea into a permanent. portable, personal data-space to be known as a mimi. The link in the previous sentence will take you to the opening section. That will remain the permalink for the thesis. Bookmark it now!

My thesis will be written as linked posts on my site, where it will act as an example of the arguments proposed in it. It will be written entirely in public, which is to say that the posts will all accept comments, which will be left there, and answered where appropriate. Where I am persuaded that my argument is wrong I will leave the “wrong” page visible and link back to it from the corrected page, so the way that the ideas progress will become part of the work.

If you join in by reading and making comments (big or small) then it will also demonstrate the nature of online networks and communities, which is one of the core ideas to be addressed.

In brief I am saying that the mimi works as a tool for self-directed people who engage online, and regard sharing information and ideas as natural, and I am trying to produce evidence to suggest that these people (Prensky’s digital natives as well as assimilated immigrants) are becoming more usual, and will eventually be the norm.

Alex and Ralf, in particular, might also want to read this page, which will form part of the thesis and discusses an idea I am calling peerticles, which will turn WordPress into a peer-to-peer publishing medium - something I definitely intend to get working in practice as well as theory.

It would be good if you could join in helping me show this

1. I logged into the new Helsinki website in order to find the notes and/or material for Jaap’s online discussion tonight. I could find nothing.

2. I skyped Christina who said that she found it by logging into the new site and then following the link to the old site and then looking there. I did that. The old site has several sections COURSES has a broken link to Hamburg. PROGRAMS has no downloadables that I can see. The other sections are publicity material.

3. I have no idea where else to look.

4. WHY IS IT THIS HARD? Why do we have to play “search the web” to find announcements and materials? It could be that I am stupid and do not understand how to use this internet thing, or it could be that the game of “hunt the materials” is a vital part of the didactical process.

5. Either way I do no know where the materials are. I have failed to complete Level One, and will not meet the Level Boss. Can somebody who has completed the level and defeated the Level Boss please post an actual URL to the materials for this course here please.

6. I will give you five gold pieces and a power up

another interesting article from George Siemens on Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age. See also http://www.connectivism.ca