Self Portraits

It was great to observe a resource which I created on the fly during a lesson a while back, now being put to expert use by our new Reception class teacher in the ICT suite. These four and five year old children were shown how to navigate to the page, and then to scroll down exploring the various self portraits. They each chose their favourite one, left it visible on the screen and then discussed which type of drawing tools had probably been used for each picture, relating it back to previous classroom activity with paints and charcoal.
selfportraits.html

Rough and ready, but workable.

I’ve learned how to do this using the JavaScript RSS Box Viewer 1.0RC. Found via Shirley’s blog

Example:
http://frankieroberto.com/dad/ultrastudents/andyroberts/

See more progress on: learn how to include an RSS feed on part of a web page

Findings

Yesterday I did a bloglines search for “wiki +COP” and this came up with a posting by Sebastien Paquet ( Seb’s mailbox )
http://sebsmailbox.blogspot.com/2004/06/communities-of-practice-for-educators.html
which led to http://www.emacswiki.org/cw/MailingListThenWiki
on the Community Wiki which is a kind of meta-wiki which focuses on the community aspect – just the kind of thing I’m investigating.

Mission Statement:
“This is a wiki about communities both online and offline: Management, creativity, teaching, learning, conflicts, mediation, security, freedom. We also have lots of tech talk about wikis and other tools used by online communities, but that’s just the current bias.”

The Community Wiki seems to have spun off from Meatball, which is a good sign I think. There’s also a CommunityWiki blog which hasn’t been updated since February, but had a useful article about WikiSpam – a subject which has been on my mind too, from time to time.

See more progress on: ILM2-03 – LA2 Research Literature

Literature Research

LA2. Research websites, blogs and conference papers to identify emerging opinion about the usefulness of Wikis to COPS.

First thing is to set up a FURL category, which I’ve called Wiki2

RSS: http://www.furl.net/members/andyrobts/rss.xml?topic=Wiki2&count=25

See more progress on: ILM2-03 – LA2 Research Literature

ILM2 - version 3

version 3

Name: Andy Roberts SID:9999999

Award: BA Learning Technology Research ( Information Communication Technology )

Title: Further research into ? Introducing a WIKI to a Community of Practice?
Brief description:

My Action Enquiry2 module looked at the process of creating a Wiki for a COP and the first few weeks of activity. This ILM unit will focus on an analysis of the data which has accumulated over a longer period to date, as well as attempting to research other examples through conversation with online faciliators and by reviewing the latest literature.

Assessment criteria focus: All

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the module I will be able to:

1 Design, write and modify an ILM plan in plain text format.

2 Analyse several months? data from a mailing list and Wiki.

3 Review the latest significant literature emerging about the topic.

4 Engage Online facilitators in discussion about the use of Wikis for COPS.

5 Analyse data from 2,3 and 4.

6 Reflect on conclusions with regard to future practice.

7 Evaluate and reflect upon the ILM planning process and outcomes.

Learning Activities

1. Write an ILM plan in plain text format and share it in the Learning Community and elsewhere. Change it as necessary.

2. Research websites, blogs and conference papers to identify emerging opinion about the usefulness of Wikis to COPS.

3. Gather data from the mailing list and Wiki. Design questions about the data and answer them through analysis.

4. Share findings with Meta-COPS and Meta-WIKI communities, with a view to soliciting reports of others experience.

5. Reflect on findings from 2,3,4 and draw conclusions.

6. Reflect on the ILM design, negotiation and implementation process.

Product for Assessment:

A report consisting of contents along the lines of

1) Literature review
2) Summary and findings from activities 3, 4 and 5
3) Main Conclusions supported by data in appendix.
4) Brief conclusions about the overall ILM process

See more progress on: ILM2-01 ? negotiate ILM

A Fresh Look

I’ve been really struggling with this ‘negotiate ILM’ task, so now I’ve taken a fresh look at the whole proposal and decided to go about it in a different way.

Rather than seeing ‘updating the previous findings in the light of new data’ as a means to the end (dissemination and validation), I think I should make this the main focus of the module.

The Wiki was born in February and the AE written up in March, after only a short period of existance. I now have data from the COP and WIKI which covers a longer period (to date) and can be subjected to a more thorough analysis which should reveal deeper and more accurate conclusions.

So the activity will be reduced in scale, and the report focussed on data and analysis, with far less on preparation and process. I shall dispense with the ‘rewrite for a different audience’ objective and instead attempt to engage the meta-cops in conversation about the previous findings. Any data forthcoming from that can then be analysed alongside my own data. I shall also research and review any emerging literature on the topic of using Wikis for COPS.

Now to rewrite the ILM proposal, and begin work.

See more progress on: ILM2-01 – negotiate ILM

one last push

After a pleasantly productive weekend now I just need to avoid accumulating too many distractions for the next 15 hours and make sure there is enough time left to finish off the last few short tasks in order to polish off my submission for the deadline tonight.

• careful proofreading and spellchecking of the main piece. 1 hr


• Harvardising short bibliography therein. 1/2 hr


• Re-furling items for the wider bibliography and exporting 1hr

If there’s any time left I can then flesh out some of the PDP comments a little further and work on the discography. Then it’s all over, 2/3rds of year 2 completed – through the pain barrier and out the other side.

See more progress on: LITWS01 get through the module

Manor Park website

Oh bums, I?ve just realised that with the loss of my broadband supplier I?ll have to move the manor park website as well, since it?s hosted at http://www.manorpark.homechoice.co.uk/

and that will break the links from sites such as this one. Perhaps I?ll just shift it onto a

combination of Flickr and the Manor Park blog

See more progress on: Choose a new broadband ISP