I'm delighted you posted your thoughts here. The links to the material you mention are very helpful and would be interested in reading further information in the Virtually There: Learning Platforms' book. How can I get hold of a copy please? Do you have any in your Chelmsford office that I can have please? The website http://www.yhgfl.net/learning-platforms/ suggests that the book and DVD is distributed freely to schools in the Yorkshire and Humberside region but doesn't mention how else the pack can be obtained if you are working in a different Local Authority.
Picking up on your point about the VLE needing to be a blend of tools, I completely agree and I think Facebook has gone a long way towards providing the sort of framework you mention. For instance, RSS feeds from any source can be imported into my profile space, group spaces. I used Twitxr (a mobile blog solution) for the first time last week and within minutes the data was being read straight into Facebook. There wasn't any fuss or settings to make, I just needed to authenticate a few times and hey presto! I notice that Facebook and Flickr can work well together and I can bring Flickr images into my profile space. Imagine building my portfolio in Flickr (or Twitxr) as a means for capturing and annotating the learning objects, and then assembling these objects for presentation and discussion within the community framework which is Facebook.
I think most of the capability is in Facebook already - agreed it could be better, but so could most things. What I am excited about is that the core features of any online community are already met. You'll remember our work in the Ultraversity project trying to shape the community tools that we used. Stephen Powell, Richard Millwood and myself came up with this diagram whilst working at Utralab back in 2003 in the hope to detail what are the software essentials in an online learning community.
Now, apart from the lack of a range of discourse tools and privacy options (with which we are both agreed) it looks to me as if most of what's needed is now there. Notifications for example, are excellent with lots of user choice available.
As for integration with MIS systems - well that's of course desirable, but as you say, it's helpful for administration of user accounts and pupils and that's it.
Jonathan
Hi Hal,
I'm delighted you posted your thoughts here. The links to the material you mention are very helpful and would be interested in reading further information in the Virtually There: Learning Platforms' book. How can I get hold of a copy please? Do you have any in your Chelmsford office that I can have please? The website http://www.yhgfl.net/learning-platforms/ suggests that the book and DVD is distributed freely to schools in the Yorkshire and Humberside region but doesn't mention how else the pack can be obtained if you are working in a different Local Authority.
Picking up on your point about the VLE needing to be a blend of tools, I completely agree and I think Facebook has gone a long way towards providing the sort of framework you mention. For instance, RSS feeds from any source can be imported into my profile space, group spaces. I used Twitxr (a mobile blog solution) for the first time last week and within minutes the data was being read straight into Facebook. There wasn't any fuss or settings to make, I just needed to authenticate a few times and hey presto! I notice that Facebook and Flickr can work well together and I can bring Flickr images into my profile space. Imagine building my portfolio in Flickr (or Twitxr) as a means for capturing and annotating the learning objects, and then assembling these objects for presentation and discussion within the community framework which is Facebook.
I think most of the capability is in Facebook already - agreed it could be better, but so could most things. What I am excited about is that the core features of any online community are already met. You'll remember our work in the Ultraversity project trying to shape the community tools that we used. Stephen Powell, Richard Millwood and myself came up with this diagram whilst working at Utralab back in 2003 in the hope to detail what are the software essentials in an online learning community.
Now, apart from the lack of a range of discourse tools and privacy options (with which we are both agreed) it looks to me as if most of what's needed is now there. Notifications for example, are excellent with lots of user choice available.
As for integration with MIS systems - well that's of course desirable, but as you say, it's helpful for administration of user accounts and pupils and that's it.