• Syllabus for Social Computer Mediated Communication – Like that one. If I had the time I’d …
  Tags:research readings education
• Socialstream – “Create a system for users to seamlessly share, view, and respond to many types of social content across multiple networks.”
  Tags:socialnetworks aggregator
• iheard Radio Stations – promising attempt to search across internet radio
  Tags:radio search
• Hillary Rodham Clinton: OurStory.com – “This is an unofficial biography and history of Hillary Rodham Clinton.”
  Tags:lifestories identity fake
• SpendView –
  Tags:finance productivity
• Network Monitor ? Social Networks Displayed – Promising = ..”Network Monitor is a powerful tool for the visualization and access of your data. It’s heart is the VirtualGravity engine for the real time visualization of social networks and a powerful reporting tool for detail data and graphical represe
  Tags:socialnetworks visualization
• PubMatic – online advertising consolidated.
  Tags:advertising
• Rmail – another rss2email converter
  Tags:rss email
• RssFwd – “Reading RSS the way you are already reading your emails”
  Tags:rss email

The findings, however, were:

[...] students report that one ofthe most common topics of conversation on the social networking scene is education. Almost 60 percent of students who use social networking talk about education topics online and, surprisingly, more than 50 percent talk specifically about schoolwork.

Yet the vast majority of school districts have stringent rules against nearly all forms of social

networking during the school day —even though students and parents report few problem behaviors online. Indeed, both district leaders and parents believe that social networking could play a positive role in students’lives and they recognize opportunities for using it in education — at a time when teachers now routinely assign homework that requires Internet use to complete. In light ofthe study findings, [tag-tec]school[/tag-tec] districts may want to consider reexamining their policies and practices and explore ways in which they could use social networking for educational purposes.

Recommendations!

Encourage [tag-ice]social networking[/tag-ice] companies to increase educational value. Educational leaders should work with social networking companies to increase services
that are explicitly educational in nature,via informal or formal initiatives that highlight educational offerings.

Release of study, “Creating & Connecting: Research and Guidelines on Online Social and Educational [tag-ice]Networking[/tag-ice]” The report, available now for media only at http://files.nsba.org/creatingandconnecting.pdf , is embargoed until Tuesday, August 14, at 12:01 a.m.

Key findings:

* 96 percent of students with online access use social networking technologies, such as chatting, text messaging, blogging, and visiting online communities such as [tag-ice]Facebook[/tag-ice], [tag-tec]MySpace[/tag-tec], and Webkinz. Further, students report that one of the most common topics of conversation on the social networking scene is education.

* Nearly 60 percent of online students report discussing education-related topics such as college or college planning, learning outside of school, and careers and 50 percent of online students say they talk specifically about schoolwork.

* Students report spending almost as much time using social network services and Web sites as they spend watching television. Among teens who use social networking sites, that amounts to about 9 hours a week online, compared to 10 hours a week watching television.

* 96 percent of school districts say that at least some of their teachers assign homework requiring Internet use.

[tags]ePortfolio[/tags] [tags]education[/tags]

If I can help students getting their job done than I’m happy. The only thing that should change is who to invoice. But this is the students task.
[tags]business[/tags] [tags]education[/tags]

So what’s at stake in the e-portfolio business? And what’s the connection to Facebook?

It’s only a few weeks since I deal with e-portfolios. My perspective and interest is derived from my experience with social software and web 2.0 applications and concepts and of course my 10 years of working at a university.

My working definition for e-portfolios goes along those lines published by IMS.

ePortfolios are collections of personal information about a learner that represent accomplishments, goals, experiences, and other personalized records that a learner can present to schools, employers, or other entities. Typical uses of ePortfolios go beyond the traditional concept of a transcript to include applying for jobs, designing personalized learning, and tracking career planning.

and extend a little further: e-portfolios are digital representations of a person and thus need to be an integral part of a person’s digital life. Thus e-portfolios need to be either aggregators of data or citizens in bigger digital environments.

Now this somehow contradicts what is happening at universities, school authorities and in the software industry. And please hold on, in a view lines I’ll link to the Facebook revelation.

From my point of view 3 main issues are at stake (on different levels of course) in the gradually rising e-portfolio business. This is not a comprehensive list by any means and very unsystematic. Only a blog permits that opportunity .

So, well those three issues are:
- interoperability (portability)
- sales strategies (integration into administration software)
- adoption (is an e-portfolio really going to be a digital representation or just a little more than a storage for official data needed for school and work)

On Adoption: The most important issue is the decisive question: do I have an e-portfolio because I want one or because I need one. Well the latter is very likely. So after that decision the questions stays: can I make it my place or is compliance with institutions the overall guiding principle. If it’s going to be my place – and we are far away from that – than it needs to be some sort of personal space with extensions into institutional requirements and not vice versa. Well this approach might be different from an institutional perspective.

On Interoperability: Aside from that portability is a first concern because you might want/need to move from one (e-portfolio) application (=institution) to another. But does that really matter? It does at least as long as an e-portfolio is part of your institutional life. If the institutional compliance is achieved via webservices and mashups that might be different. Than interoperability is about using and displaying data that resides here and there and portability is more a question of moving your digital presence along your idiosyncratic preferences to other applications.

On Sales Strategies: to make this post short. I could imagine that Facebook or any other user-centered application (note: social graph) that is able to offer decent APIs could host those modules/plugins that are needed for institutional e-portfolios. I think it makes particularly sense to develop an e-portfolio at my preferred personal digital presence and mashup data with several institutions where necessary instead of having my real digital presence at – for instance – Facebook and my faked one at my school’s application.

And here is the innovation: schools, authorities and software vendors need to conceive of those requirements that are needed and offer either open platform (such that belong to users) that have APIS for that matter or better provide modules for existing platforms. And Facbook’s F8 is just a nice example.

Update:
An alternative take on that topc by Stephen Downes : Open Educational Resource

Update 2:
Very interesting remarks on that entire issue from Tony Hirst.

[tags]e-portfolio[/tags] [tags]innovation[/tags] [tags]social software[/tags] [tags]education[/tags] [tags]business[/tags]

Pat Delaney shares A proposal for school district deployment of a CMS [via Sebastian Fiedler]

• Great example for those who want to start. It includes:
• Capabilities & benefits
• Examples
• CMS Selection & Pricing
• Security
• Training scenarios
• Infrastructure requirements
• Process for school participation

I have to check if Manila supports Cyrillic (Radio doesn’t . If so I have a great idea in mind: my monther is school principal in Russia…

Yesterday I searched for blogs in .ru and found out that blogging is taking off in my own country, but more in the “personal diary format” rather than in “k-logging format”. I really want to introduce blogging to Russian professionals and I have ideas for several projects in mind. Now it’s a matter of time and finding tools that will work in Russian. [Mathemagenic]

There are many online colleges that offer courses, such as medical billing, that you can take in the comfort of your own home. Medical coding is one great course study that is offered in phoenix universities and taking online courses allow you to go to a university without having to commute.