Web 2.0 and PLE July 20, 2007
Posted by tomshepp in PLE, Web 2.0, distance learning, e-learning, education, elearning, learning, technology, web2.0.add a comment
I wrote a paper for a masters course and I thought it was good enough to post excerpts. I posted it on my blog at Athabasca University’s Me2U site. Here are the links:
- Web 2.0 (http://me2u.athabascau.ca/thomass/weblog/1199.html)
- Personal Learning Environment (PLE)
(http://me2u.athabascau.ca/thomass/weblog/1200.html) - References (http://me2u.athabascau.ca/thomass/weblog/1197.html)
My conclusion is that advances in Web 2.0 technologies are making the development of PLEs more of a possibility, but harnessing everything into one centralized portal is a challenge that will need to be met to make it a reality.
I would like to see PLEs take advantage of the approach of sites like Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/) and applications like Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/) that allow a user to add or remove applications/add-ons to improve functionality. It should also be flexible enough to allow learners to utilize it in formal, educational, settings, but this would be difficult from the institution’s perspective.
Second Life July 10, 2007
Posted by tomshepp in 3D, Second Life, avatar, virtual reality.add a comment
I recently signed-up for Second Life (a 3D virtual reality world), downloaded and installed the software and spent a couple of hours wandering around. After teleporting to a couple of places, where I wandered around aimlessly, I grew bored and looked for a place on the map where there were some people to interact with. Lesson #1) Watch out for where you teleport. Let’s just say I ended up in a place where people were being a little too social. Some of these places reflected more of a wild life then a second life.
Well, my first foray into Second Life l(SL) eft me wondering what is the big deal? Yes, the 3D environment was impressive but the same can be said of some video games. I did not get to experience much interaction. I encountered an SL bot in one area and it seemed like I was getting fixed responses which grew tiresome quickly. I can’t see the value for learning in this environment yet. I did find out that it can be a big time waster. Maybe first impressions are not good to go by.
