Frankie’s entry for a new BBC Homepage May 26, 2006
Posted by Andy Roberts in : social media, UK , comments closedFrankie Roberto has submitted an excellent entry to the BBC’s competition to redesign their homepage. I think it’s a really well thought out design based upon sound principles that Frankie has obviously given a lot of thought to, and cares about. He’s created a mini-website to present his proposal together with the thinking behind it and used Movable Type to allow feedback. That’s a technique which is in advance of simply using a blog page for an online exhibition
BBC refresh
Frankie has a lot of time for the BBC and boasts a good track record at entering writing competitions so I wish him well with this one,
The thing is, you really need to read his blog entry about it as well in order to get the whole picture, so I hope that is part of the entry as well.
Where do we go now? May 26, 2006
Posted by Andy Roberts in : edublog, Wiki , add a commentDániel Molnár is a friend from Ultraversity days, with similar interests to my own. We couldn’t collaborate much then because of the rigid boundaries imposed between cohorts but since leaving, Dániel has created this fascinating ‘paper’ called “Where do we go now?” which has been submitted to Microlearning 2006.
It’s published on a tiddly wiki and explores the new learning theory of connectivism in some depth. I’m also a little bit flattered because he’s cited my year two report about ‘Introducing a wiki to a community of practice” and asks his audience “What was the most useful findings of Andy Roberts you feel you can use in a community you’re involved with?”
still reading » Blog Archive » “Where do we go now?”
I find it interesting that he doesn’t try to explain, teach or report facts so much, but instead tells little stories, provides links to resources and then asks questions around them. I’m going to read that all over again again when I come back from holiday.
On the subject of connectivism, I might mention that I employed a cennectivist approach for the learning assessment section of one of my final year modules and included some discussion with peers about it in another.
Nicholas Carr’s Blog: The death of Wikipedia May 26, 2006
Posted by Andy Roberts in : General , 2commentsJimmy Wales responds in the comments to Nicholas Carr’s Blog: The death of Wikipedia
Revenge of the Right Brain May 26, 2006
Posted by Andy Roberts in : General , comments closedSo, is this a profound analysis of the changing world or just “wishful thinking from a dyslexic” as one person suggested when I related the key idea.
Wired 13.02: Revenge of the Right Brain
Until recently, the abilities that led to success in school, work, and business were characteristic of the left hemisphere. They were the sorts of linear, logical, analytical talents measured by SATs and deployed by CPAs. Today, those capabilities are still necessary. But they’re no longer sufficient. In a world upended by outsourcing, deluged with data, and choked with choices, the abilities that matter most are now closer in spirit to the specialties of the right hemisphere - artistry, empathy, seeing the big picture, and pursuing the transcendent.
Social Tagging May 26, 2006
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Communities of Practice , 1 comment so farBeth Kanter has deepened her exploration and explanation of tagging as a community phenomenon in a series of blog articles.
In this one, a link is made with learning styles and Myers-Briggs personality types:
Beth’s Blog: Why do some people love the discovery aspect of tagging and others don’t?
See also:
Beth’s Blog: Tagging in an Art Museum Context
Beth’s Blog: Tagging and Communities of Practice - Reflections from KM
Beth’s Blog: Thirteen Tips for Effective Tagging - article on TechSoup
Beth’s Blog: More thoughts on nonprofit tagging
Beth’s Blog: From Tag to Ag: NP Example
I’M FREE! May 23, 2006
Posted by Andy Roberts in : General , add a commentTommy:
I’m free - i’m free,
And freedom tastes of reality.
Three Gorges Dam completed May 21, 2006
Posted by Andy Roberts in : General , 2comments
Three Gorges Dam
Yesterday, 9 months ahead of schedule, was the completion day for the Yangtse River’s Three Gorges Dam in China. That was the biggest single construction project undertaken in the world, ever, and controversially involved relocating whole towns and flooding ancient monuments. On the plus side, it saves the thousands of deaths which used to occur every ten years or so when the yangtze river flooded, and produces enough electricity to save building about 40 nuclear power stations.
This post is really just an excuse to post a link to the set of photographs which I took in 2000, when the building of the Three Gorges Dam was already well under way.
Website: Images of China - Andy Roberts, 2000 ( temporarily offline )
Three Gorges Dam Enters Final Stages
Three Gorges Dam on wikipedia
Technorati Tags: yangtze, threegorgesdam
Online CoP meets face to face May 21, 2006
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Communities of Practice, cider , 2commentsSeveral of the members of the ukcider community have met each other on past occasions, but last Saturday was for me, the first significant ukcider face to face event, with seven cidermakers and enthusiasts gathering in Rose’s orchard in Dorset. You can see the photos and read more about the blossomtime celebrations and cider tasting, on the wiki page but here on this research blog, I want to think about how a F2F event might affect an online community.
It was effectively the first real face to face meeting of a CoP which has existed for 5 years or so online. Now I’ve done this kind of thing before, so I had no worries but it was interesting to hear others expressing great surprise at how well it worked, socially. They all got on together and had a great time with people they’d never seen before, chatting away like long lost friends, which I was able to explain is quite normal really. Not meeting strangers, but friends who just hadn’t happened to have met before.
Such an event can only strengthen the ties between those present, but what effect might this have on the CoP overall? It’s too soon to say, of course. I think most close communities develop an urge to meet f2f, overcoming quite substantial obstacles to do so, this one was just quite a long time in the making.
- |* I’d expect the members who were present to perhaps email each other more. That might cause a dip in the more public interactions. Should that be a concern?
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* Or they might make more personal, and perhaps off topic remarks in the group.
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* People who weren’t present have already expressed regret at not being able to make it, and this will increase the impetus to organise future events.
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* Others on the periphery might possibly begin to feel excluded by the added camaraderie of the regulars.
What’s your experience of what happens after a purely online community has met face to face?
Technorati Tags: communitiesofpractice, cider, online_community
Generation gap between students and faculty May 19, 2006
Posted by Andy Roberts in : General , add a commentAs somebody who, during three years at University, published all my work under an independent domain rather than rely on the institution’s ‘portfolio tool’ , I can fully appreciate the following insight:
Follow-up on Facebook.edu: Students, Software, and Emergent Social Practices | connect.educause.edu
there is a major generation gap emerging between older academics and administrators and students. For the older academics, identity is protected through restricting access to it; by using the language of privacy and confidentiality to talk about it; by preferring password-protected environments. For the younger students, identity is protected by becoming your own publisher and marketer; the emerging consensus is that you control your image and reputation by editing (and circulating) it yourself. By speaking first, not last. This generation gap may yet end up being more socially significant than the much-heralded “digital divide.”
As one of the older students, I’m not sure that ‘generation gap’ is the right name for it, though. Are most of the younger students just as comfortable with being ‘exposed’ on the public internet or are there perhaps plenty of young fogeys in the making, content to hide inside of the gated communities?
Technorati Tags: digitaldivide, eportfolios, generationgap, identity, gatedcommunities, academics
Colombians protest against US deal May 17, 2006
Posted by Andy Roberts in : politics , add a commentThousands of indigenous Colombians protest an imminent free trade deal with the U.S.
Organisers say at least 30, 000 went on the march, blockading the Pan-American highway in protest over the signing of a deal with the U.S.
is an online professional who initiated DARnet 
