Your own book from wikipedia content
An interesting idea which allows you to create your own books from wikipedia pages and have them printed up in a proper, old-school book format – none of this iPhone/iPad appery-pokery.
I picked up this post via Lost Remote, who have indeed collated (or curated as they put it) their own book on the media from wikipedia pages.
Quite simple really – there’s a tool called book creator in wikipedia (I’d missed this) which can then be sent to Pediapress
Some interesting posibilities here for quick heads up books based around topics, and at $9 per 100 pages it is a pretty good deal (although obviously there is then postage). You can download, share and encourage others to buy it.
Is it any good? Well, that depends on your take on the usefulness of wikipedia vs traditional forms of encyclopedia. But an interesting way of gathering together content for a course primer.
Slightly different take on the custom primer currently doing the rounds, but an interesting idea.
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Communities vs network of practice
- Image by Harold Jarche via Flickr
Been reading a lot about Communities of Practice recently and thinking I’m not quite looking at the right thing – particularly as Wenger and Lave are talking about communities within the same organisation. But one thing that has struck me in what I have been reading is this quote:
It is life itself that is the main learning event. Schools, classrooms, and training sessions still have a role to play in this vision, but they have to be in the service of the learning that happens in the world.
Some of the most useful things I’ve picked up in my life haven’t been in the classroom, but from outside it. – from teachers, colleagues and former colleagues, friends and passing acquaintances. This kind of informal learning is vital to what we do. Read more
Web 2.0 and the lifecycle of a news story
Spot of essential reading from Alison Gow for anyone interested in journalism, education or journalism education.
Alison, who blogs over at Headlines and Deadlines, has taken a look at the cycle from gathering to publication and follow-up and comparing web 1.0 to web 2.0.
I had no idea when I started doing this how thin the ‘old’ opportunities for investigating stories would look compared to the tools at our disposal now; it’s quite stark really. It drives home just how important mastering these tools is for journalists as our industry continues to develop and change.
This is a quote you will see all over the place (Paul Bradshaw switched me on to this via his Twitter stream and he used this quote in his blog post) – because it is very astute. The Web 2.0 services Alison talks about are important tools that are vital to all sorts of people – you’ll see the same things being talked about in edupunk, eduwomble, PLE, loosely-coupled teaching.
Alison’s point is major – things have changed in a major way and educators need to understand we are getting the point. I’m in the middle of putting together resources on Web 2.0 for my students, so this has been a great little fillip for me.
If you don’t get why WEb 2.0 is such a big deal here’s a a video by Digital Ethnographer Dr. Michael Wesch.
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So, just WTF is social media then?
A really nice introduction to social media with a provocative title – nuff said.
Elearning and journalism – tackling the same issues
I’ve mentioned this before briefly, but what continues to amaze me is how much my two spheres of interest are essentially colliding. Not only are the same issues being talked about in both journalism and elearning on a regular basis – how should we change the conversation, ‘push or pull’ and on-demand content – but the same tools and concepts keep cropping up too.
Both Amy Gahran and Mindy McAdams have been looking at what a journalism school needs to do to help its students equip themselves for the 21st century.
Note to e-learning types from other fields, these two bloggers are well worth reading as part of your wider blog trawls – good stuff on teaching and technological support tools here.
OU’s Social:Learn Project
Had a fun Flashmeeting with my tutor and some of my course mates last night.
We were looking at theories including push/pull in learning and teaching and how this applies to elearning (we’re doing some old-school reading of books and were discussing E-Learning Strategies: How to Get Implementation and Delivery Right First Time by Morrison.)
At one point we got chatting about how/whether pull learning (where you get what you want when you need it, rather than having it pushed at you by an employer or teacher) could lead to the end of a set and formalised syllabus for some courses.
One of the things we were wondering was how this could work and, indeed, if it should even work.
Would we need a VLE, or would a collection of Web2.0 technologies be more appropriate?
Just doing some blog reading and found this by the OU’s Martin Weller – who blogs as The Ed Techie.
The OU are working on how to use web 2.0 and social learning in what is a very rapidly changing world.
Here’s Martin’s slideshow
But do please go and have a look at Martin’s own site.
Oh and he ‘dared’ to say that a Prof’s views could be as valid as a blogger out in the wilds of t’internet somewhere. Got to be the blogger, surely 
Blogged with Flock
Tags: PLE, social learning, Open University
Reflective practice
Getting interested in reflective practice and how that can work – the obvious answer is to blog or to keep a journal inside a VLE.
But why not bring PLE elements in to play here.
I’ve signed up to Twitter to have a little play and see what that can do, so you’ll be seeing little messages popping up in the right hand column from time to time.
I’ve also uploaded Shozu to an N95 to try some video reflection via blip.tv .
Stay tuned – and I apologise for the early video posts. I did get into newspaper journalism for a reason
What, you mean that other people could look at my FaceBook?
I was at a lecture into online journalism yesterday and we were discussing blogs, the rise of the ‘new trade press’ (expert bloggrs) and how journalists fit into all of this.
We got sidetracked and started talking about social networks and then someone piped up with “But it is my FaceBook and I don’t want employers to be able to see pictures of me doing….” Read more
Social learning
Social communities – why bother? After all we’ve all got enough on our plates without having to worry about people we don’t know or like wanting to become our ‘friends’ – haven’t we?
They’re here to stay, of that there is no doubt – so I guess I’d better learn to use them to my advantage rather than just whine about them.
My students are involved in a project using a Ning community set up by one of my colleagues and we’re using an Eduspaces community for my masters project. Both are proving to be interesting, both have their own little usability problems that get in the way of things a bit.
I’ve also been doing quite a lot of reading on how journalists are using things like Facebook to their advantage, great article on Magda’s Web Creation called Facebook – love it or loathe it that features what the Beeb and other organisations are up.
This electronic form of social link between disparate individuals has massive implications for journalists and educators alike. Read more