I’m going to TribeCamp

On Saturday, I’m going to TribeCamp.  What’s TribeCamp?  Here’s what the organizers have to say about it:

TribeCamp is a daylong conference with sessions about Web Content Creation, Social Media, Online Marketing, and “Tribes”, which are really professional groups of people with some commonality (think Designers, Entrepreneurs, Marketers, etc…). However, the sessions are just half of the day.

The other major benefit of the day is the numerous connections you’ll make with a sphere of professionals. TribeCamp is a unique experience by LaunchMemphis and LunaWeb designed to foster the community of entrepreneurship in Memphis.

It’s going to be a blast.  Coming off the high of Project Showcase and then going to TribeCamp, it’s like “learning-crack.”  I’m going to be floating all the way to AERA next week.  Wanna go to TribeCamp, too?  I hear you!  There’s still time to get registered.  It’s not expensive, and there’s lots of discounts.  Here’s the link to find out more:

http://www.tribecamp.com/

5 things Facebook can teach us about elearning

Facebook is an Internet phenomenon. It launched to a small group of Harvard students in 2004 and now has millions of users worldwide. Although elearning is popular, it has not had the kind of widespread acceptance with the general public that Facebook has seen. Let’s take a look at a 5 things Facebook can teach us about elearning.

1. Anyone can do it.

One reason people give for not wanting to participate in elearning is that they aren’t good with computers or technology. According to Inside Facebook, Facebook’s fastest growing demographic is women over 55. I’ll never forget the surprise I had when I logged into Facebook and saw that I had a friend request from my mother. MY MOM IS ON FACEBOOK! I was shocked. If she has the ability to create an account, upload pictures, make status updates, and everything else she’s been doing on Facebook, why can’t she take an elearning course?

2. People don’t mind spending time online.

Another complaint I’ve heard about elearning is that people don’t like spending that much time on the computer. If you take a look at Nielsen’s Online Ratings, you’ll see that the average Facebook user spent almost 6 hours on the site in December. If someone can spend 6 hours a month updating their status, viewing photos, and participating in virtual pillow fights, they should be able to spend time participating in elearning.

3. Evolution is critical.

Facebook is constantly changing and improving. They add features that are needed and take away features that people don’t like or don’t use. They change the layout to help improve the user experience, even though everyone doesn’t always agree.  Elearning must take a similar approach for the content and the experience to remain relevant. Elearning must take advantage of the latest technology, make changes based on user feedback, and keep content up to date in order to improve the overall experience.

4. An active facilitator is not necessary.

Elearning proponents often talk about the need for an active facilitator to help create a thriving online community. Facebook blows this theory out of the water. Facebook has an extremely active and constantly growing community without having someone in charge of making sure everyone is participating. However, there is some facilitation programmed into the system. It might make a suggestion about adding a new friend or contacting someone you haven’t messaged in a while, but there is no live person checking to make sure you do these things.

5. It’s not for everyone.

I know I said earlier that anyone can do it, but that doesn’t mean that everyone wants to do it. Even with over 300 million Facebook users, there are still people who just don’t get it. I know several people who have signed up for an account, spent some time looking around, and then never returned. The same applies to elearning. It just doesn’t seem to fit with some people’s learning style.

So, if you are involved in the development of elearning, keep these things in mind. They might help it improve. If you can think of other things that Facebook can teach us about elearning (good or bad) please post them in the comments.

Guest Blogger: Joey Weaver teaches Computer Technology to high school students at Kansas Career & Technology Center in Memphis, TN. He is currently working on a Master’s degree in Instructional Design & Technology at the University of Memphis.

Image courtesy of sitmonkeysupreme at Flikr Creative Commons

TETC 2009: Friday sessions

I’ve had a really great time here at TETC in Nashville.  The sessions on Wednesday went great.  The feedback I received was really positive, and I hope the information was helpful to many of the teachers.  Today, we’re going to be discussing two topics.  The links and topics are below.

W84-The Secrets to Project-based Learning (2:45 – 3:45pm, Ballroom C)

Here is the link to web page with the details about PBL all in one place. I plan to be adding some more pieces here, too, so let me know if you think something is missing.

1. Secrets to Project-based Learning

Web 2.0 … from the beginning

Here’s the link to the page that contains details about the presentations

1. Web 2 from the beginning

400 friends? Confirm or ignore?

I recently had a facebook friend post a celebratory post about reaching 400 friends. Of course, comments of congratulations followed this. However, I could not help but wonder how many of the people he would recognize or speak to if he met them on the street?

A recent blog posted by Dion Hinchcliffe lists the twenty-two power laws of the emerging social economy. I found it interesting that number 3 was Dunbar’s Law that states we can only have 150 active connections. With more than 10 social networking options available, I think of people who have more than 150 connections on each network. For example, on my LinkedIn network, I only have four connections with two group memberships.

So, how many connections do I need? Personally, I have 148 friends in Facebook. In September, Wired published an article explaining where you could purchase Facebook and Twitter friends. Most of my connections are personal connections made through education and church settings. However, I did use my friends list recently to distribute a survey for a course. Because of their feedback, I was able to focus the instructional design of my unit.

The Facebook Song seems to summarize the feelings of the growing population of social networkers. With the number of social networking sites and connections increasing, are social interaction skills beginning to suffer? I love the thought of being able to connect with high school friends or college friends. However, when you begin to suffer withdrawl symptoms because of lack of Facebook time, there is a greater problem.

• Have you suffered facebook or social networking with drawl?
• How many social networking connections do you have?
• How do you use these connections personally and professionally?

Guest blogger:  Jamae Allred is a former preschool teacher of six years. She enjoyed working with children from three to five years old. After completing her Masters of Science in Education in Early Childhood, she taught undergraduate early childhood courses for one year. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in instructional design & technology at the University of Memphis. Her research interests include online education and e-Learning influences in the early childhood arena. She plans to teach in higher education after completing her degree.

Importing your blog (or someone else’s) into Facebook

Over at The Edublogger, Sue Waters offers up a quick tutorial (with screenshots) on how to import your blog posts into your Facebook account.  With a comment I made to Sue, she also discovered it was possible to use Yahoo Pipes and splice multiple RSS feeds together and import that into your Facebook account as well.  Finally, because Facebook is accepting an RSS feed, it seems possible to publish/re-publish just about any RSS feed, including your Delicious bookmarks, a CNN feed or the feed from your Google Calendar.

The role and future of social networking

Yuri Quintana

Increasingly social networks are being used in business, education and by non-profit groups. Which social networks do you use? Which one is your favorite? Why is it your favorite? How should educators be using these networks? How can these networks be used in the classroom? What kinds of student projects could be done for course credit?  Here’s a list of some popular and some niche networks.  Add your thoughts in the comments below.

Professional Social Networks
http://www.linkedin.com/ <http://www.linkedin.com/>
http://www.xing.com/ <http://www.xing.com/>
http://www.talkbiznow.com/ <http://www.talkbiznow.com/>
http://www.plaxo.com <http://www.plaxo.com>

Wireless Social networks
http://www.whrrl.com <http://www.whrrl.com>
http://www.snaptell.com <http://www.snaptell.com>
http://trutap.com <http://trutap.com>
http://taptu.com <http://taptu.com>

Social Networks for MDs
http://www.sermo.com
http://www.socialmd.com
http://doc2doc.bmj.com

Networks for Scientists
http://labroots.com
http://sciweavers.org
http://scientistsolutions.com
http://network.nature.com/

Create  Your Own Social Networks
http://www.ning.com
http://www.crowdvine.com

Self-Publishing and User Contributed Content
http://lulu.com
http://beta.yudu.com
http://scribd.com
http://www.ireport.com
http://www.wikipedia.org

Video Publishing
http://www.youtube.com
http://video.google.com

Guest blogger: At St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Yuri Quintana has led the development of several international online projects, including www.Cure4Kids.org, an online pediatric cancer education Web site used by thousands of health professionals in 164 countries; Pond4Kids, an online system used for international pediatric cancer protocol research; and Consult4Kids, a Web-based system used by health professionals for clinical consultations. Prior to coming to St. Jude, Quintana was a principal investigator in the Canadian HealNet Research Network focusing on consumer health informatics; while there, he designed breast cancer decision support systems for the Canadian Cancer Society. Formerly a faculty member at the University of Western Ontario, Quintana also served as director of the New Media Research Lab. He has held high-tech positions at IBM Canada Limited, Watcom Inc., WATFAC, and the University of Waterloo. The chair of four international conferences on medical informatics, Quintana earned master’s and doctoral degrees in systems design engineering and an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and computer science, all from the University of Waterloo. Quintana is currently focused on the development of innovative Internet technologies that empower communities of health care professionals and consumers to communicate, learn and collaborate on a worldwide basis.