Yvette Arts

Within my circle of friends and acquaintances in the past couple of days, I have learned about two fun widgets. I installed one in the side panel of this blog. It is called MEEBO and it is a simple code that embeds a chat window wherever you want on your web site and allows people to chat with you who happen to visit your site. You just go to the MEEBO web site and enter in a user name and password and code is automatically generated for you to insert onto your site.

The next fun item is called SPROUT and the promo on the web site claims, “With Sprout, you can build, publish and manage widgets, mini-sites, banners, mashups and other rich media Web content in three easy steps…” You don’t need to sign up unless you publish a sprout, it’s free and you start building your “sprout” immediately. The only way to really understand what I am saying is to go try it out for yourself and see how simple it is. I built this “sprout” of Whitney Ransom McGowan in about 30 minutes since I was learning as I created. If you have all of the assets gathered together, building time is just a matter of simple assembly. I thought i could embed it into WordPress, but was unsuccessful.

Whitney and I worked together to research and write on the class topic of SHARING. You can find our learnings in a blog post on Whitney’s site. Within that post we mention my love of beetles and a book I have about beetles. I thought to put in some further explanation about this fondness on my blog and mention how I think beetles and their work is a great metaphor for sharing.

The book is called An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles (Evans & Bellamy) and the opening line in the prologue is “Asked what could be inferred about the work of the Creator from a study of His works, the British Scientist J.B.S. Haldane is reported to have replied, “an inordinate fondness for beetles.”

The reason why Haldane said this is because beetles are the “most successful animals on earth.” According to the book, “if every plant and animal species were placed in a row, every fifth species would be a beetle.” Estimates of the number of beetle species range from 350,000 to 8 million (Evans & Bellamy, 1996). There are more types of beetles than any other form of insect, and more insects than any other kind of animal. (Wikipedia. Accessed 18 October 2008.)

To make the metaphor, I want to look at beetles in the context of the role they play in their particular environments.

Beetles are mostly “minute recycling machines, returning organic materials to the soil for use by other organisms.” The sheer diversity of the species and their “propensity for colonizing new habitats and exploiting underutilized niches” make beetles “ideally suited to meet the rigors of their demanding and unforgiving environments” (Evans & Bellamy, p. 73).

As a simple metaphor, people who use sharing tools are like beetles. They are from all walks of life and they create and consume within their environment and share with others what they have created and consumed. Because of this sharing and collaboration, other ideas can grow and develop.

To fulfill the class assignment on Social Networks, I read quite a bit of Danah Boyd’s material about social network sites (as opposed to social networking). She is cutting down on her blogging at the moment to finish her dissertation. She mentioned in one of her blogs that she is/will be part of the Microsoft Research group in Cambridge. I checked out the MRG and found that the group held a summit in July called Microsoft Research Faculty Summit 2008. More than 400 individuals came together to explore these questions:

1.    How are advances in program analysis, verification, and compiler technologies measuring up to the challenges of the next generation of computing architectures (e.g., multicore computing, virtualization, etc.)?
2.    What are the technological and societal drivers to enable an “intelligent Web”? What is required to transform the current Web of data into an “Information Highway” that goes beyond Search to include tasks, accounts for the shift from consumers to producers of information, and supports information integration and reasoning?
3.    Where are we with the status, goals, and promise of artificial intelligence?
4.    In which new directions is the quest for scientific discovery taking the field of computing research?
5.    Technology impacts education in both positive and negative ways. In this era of globalization and technological advancement, how can technology be leveraged to improve education?

Of course I was particularly interested in question five. I found a PowerPoint from the summit by Cliff Lampe titled “Using Social Networks in Education” that provides an outline and some statistics regarding the use of Facebook in an educational setting. There is not much information on the PowerPoint except some statistical reporting from a survey. Questions asked in the survey include “How does Facebook change the instructor/student relationship? How are students using Facebook for education and social activities?”

There were no answers given in the PowerPoint related to the first question, but according to the survey, some of the ways in which students are using Facebook: arrange study groups or meetings (43%), collaborate on an assignment the way the professor would like (305), collaborate on an assignment the way that the instructor may not like (8%), view profile of another student (79%), view profile of professor (20%), contact another student with a question related to class or schoolwork (63%), discuss class or schoolwork (49%), and do something on Facebook as part of an assignment (8%).

I am working on my thoughts on social networks in general and particularly their application to education, and will be compiling my notes in another post. I didn’t want those thoughts to be combined with this report.

The next topic in the social media class is SOCIAL OBJECTS. Kevin Anderson, in one of our readings, said “the sites that work are built around social objects.” I would agree with that statement.

One item now being used as a social object that hasn’t really been discussed on the commercial scene yet, is a pedigree chart. The company FamilyLink.com, Inc., has built an application in Facebook called We’re Related, that centers around a pedigree chart. This social object has all of the requisite drawstring questions mentioned by Jyri Engestrom, especially the underlined final test: “Does it bring people closer together?” The success of the application with ten million users in one year, assures the developers that individuals are using the social object to connect with their family and friends.

The other preliminary questions from Engestrom include “Is it free? Is it quick and easy? Is it cross device and multi channel? Is it everyday?”  I like these questions and will apply them to the class questions listed below. And I will add one more question to the Engestrom test, based on the idea of using social objects in education.

The questions Dr. Wiley asked us to answer for the assignment were:

1. Can educational content be a social object? Why or why not?
2. Can assessments or assignments be social objects? Why or why not?
3.  If you’ve ever taken a class that used a learning management system (LMS) like Blackboard, how compatible does the idea of social objects appear to be with the notion of a learning management system?
4. One metaphor for social objects is a campfire, because campfires draw people together and therefore catalyze social interactions. Can you think of another metaphor for social objects? What are the implications of your metaphor for education?

Answers to the class questions:
In order to answer the first question, I would like to add some context from an article we read for class called Social Objects in Education, by Martin Weller. In the article, Weller states:

“The very hard lesson for academics here is that the educational value is not in the content itself but the social interaction it begets. It also means that content has to exist within a framework of appropriate tools which have the right affordances [emphasis mine] for the type of social interaction, and within a network of users who use the social objects as nodes.”

I agree with the author that the value of a social object is in the interaction(s) arising from its use. The key word for me in the above paragraph is “affordance.” I was first introduced to this idea of “affordance” by Dr. Andrew Gibbons in one of his lectures on instructional design languages.  I found a good definition of affordance at jnd.org:

“The word ‘affordance’ was originally invented by the perceptual psychologist J. J. Gibson (1977, 1979) to refer to the actionable properties between the world and an actor (a person or animal). To Gibson, affordances are a relationship. They are a part of nature: they do not have to be visible, known, or desirable. Some affordances are yet to be discovered. Some are dangerous. I suspect that none of us know all the affordances of even everyday objects…. In product design, where one deals with real, physical objects, there can be both real and perceived affordances, and the two need not be the same.”

So, the next question I would add to Engestrom’s list of tests would be “Does it grant the user (student) affordance, real or perceived?” I think this “affordance” is assumed in Engestrom’s mind and is foundational to his queries, but it is not articulated.

I also agree with Weller’s “three things for a social object driven mode of education:

a. Content that acts as a social object
b. Tools that facilitate social interaction around these objects
c. A community of learners who find the social objects engaging

So, I would say, yes, educational content, with the above criteria to grant the content “affordance” can make educational content into social objects. Tools are needed to facilitate the social interaction with that content. However, without this affordance provided, the content should not be considered a social object.

On to my answer for question 2: Yes, assessments can be social objects using the same criteria listed above for educational content. However, if an assessment is tailored for an individual answer to a specific matter that must be answered alone (no social interaction), then it should not be defined as a social object.

Question 3: In using Blackboard or another LMS, there are perhaps two or three ways in which content can become a social object. There are places within Blackboard where students/faculty can comment on each other’s work and make those comments public. Social interactions can also be built around shareable flash and other media that is posted within the Blackboard framework. Links to resources can be posted where students /faculty share information. So…yes to question 3.

A metaphor for social objects I thought of is popping popcorn and sharing it. When I turn on the popper at home, immediately my children come out of the cracks and crevices of the home and make their way to the kitchen. I hand them a bowl of popcorn when it is popped and we sit together in the kitchen (since I do not allow food to leave the kitchen), eat it and talk about whatever is on our mind.

To apply this to education, the shareable part is the popcorn that brings us together and grants “affordance” to interactions we have when we are together.

Does anyone really ask that question anymore, or does everyone just go straight to Google, no questions asked?

In the instance of the class assignment to find educational use of wikis, I decided to Wikipedia instead of Google. (Yep. I’m using nouns as verbs here.) At the bottom of the article on Murder, Madness and Mayhem and I found this link to Wikipedia school and university projects. There are 72 entries where Wikipedia (as a educational repository wiki) is being used in an educational setting.

Since there were so many links on the page, I decided to close my eyes and just click. I figured this method was scientific enough of a random sample to test out how a wiki was being used in education. The link I clicked was ITESM Campus Toluca. On the right hand side of this wiki page, I clicked on the navigation bar titled “Wiki Projects” and three more links appeared. I clicked on the last link titled “Mexico Stubs” and found a Wikipedia page dedicated to creating and expanding sub-categories related to Mexico. Hmmmmmm….

My task, besides researching on the use of wikis, is to write about what I found particularly interesting in my search, and what I would suggest as extensions or enhancements to the use of the wiki in question. The article just was there to help out in the categorization and discovery of content for Mexico. (At this point I think I will Google “educational use of wikis” instead of Wkipedia the phrase.)

I decided to go into the Google pages a bit after entering the search term and I found Peggy’s page. Peggy has a list of bookmarks to categories such as

Wiki in a K-12 classroom – WikEd (links to Wikipedia)

WikiEducator (work on building open education resources [OERs] on how to create OERs)

educationalwikis » Articles and Resources

I found this last site to contain many links to top resources. There are videos, podcasts and discussion forums all centered around using wikis for education. Definitely the answer is to Google AND Wikipedia for a list of resources.

Yep. Just when I thought that there was a safe haven for the preservation of content, I learned that “safe haven” means keeping things constantly in flux while retaining the journey in logs.

As per our assignment in my social media class, I went to Wikipedia article about the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and made a change that I thought was appropriate. I made the change (according to the Wikipedia log) on September 17, at 19:27. (I added in the LDS doctrine of baptism by immersion.) Well, less than a day later (September 18, 9:40), my change was deleted with the explanation “baptism by immersion doesn’t distinguish it from other christian denominations–many christian denoms have baptism by immersion.”

I have to conclude that Good Olfactory (user name of person who changed my entry to Wikipedia) was right in changing my addition. And well, Good Olfactory made more than 20 other changes that day, so I am assuming that many of my colleagues learned about revisionist history in this exercise.

Another assignment for the class I mentioned in the previous post, is to find a blog that talks about using blogs in education. I found a blog that suggestions how to NOT use blogs in an educational setting. The value of this blog post is in the comment section below the article.

I found the site Thoughts on Teaching in the readers’ comment section. It is a great outline on what worked and didn’t work for a particular class that used blogs.

What I would add to make this a better learning experience, is to make another blog post that incorporates the good comments and suggestions that were added by the readers.

As an assignment for a new class at BYU, students were asked by the instructor to start a blog and share a few thoughts on why they (the students) were interested in the class. This blog post is written to fulfill that assignment. The instructor is Dr. David Wiley.

I am very interested in new media/social media because I am a great proponent of learning in communities. I believe that there are areas in which we can utilize some of the new/social media technology to “broker” online relationships in many productive ways. My masters thesis centered on the idea of participatory democracy.

I am interested in the idea of “purposive creation” put forth in Dr. Wiley’s article “The Moral Imperative of Academic Instructional Designers and Technologists.” I believe that all “purposive creation” must be done within constraints, and the key to good design (of communities, instruction, etc.) is discovering the right constraints. The big question for me about communities is “How can we make human interplay productive?” Chris Alexander in his book A Pattern Language suggests, “Buildings and towns will not be able to come alive unless they are made by all the people in society.” I think that providing access to “purposive” online tools will help facilitate the participation of all.

So, in light of this brief introduction, I will post my notes from the article that is used as a basis for this class. I will elaborate in further blog posts about my deeper feelings about learning within the context of community.

ARTICLE: M. Russell Ballard, “Sharing the Gospel Using the Internet,” Ensign, Jul 2008, 58–63

Elder Ballard’s talk—Action items in outline
DIRECTION ACTION ITEM: Create your own sphere of influence

A.    World of the future
1. How will you use these marvelous inventions?
2. How will you use them to further the work of the Lord? (Be a force for good. Share the gospel.)
3. Make sure that the choices you make in the use of new media are choices that expand your mind, increase your opportunities, and feed your soul.
4. People use Internet search engines to hunt for topics about the Church.

B.    Why join the conversation
1. Can’t stand on the sidelines.
2. Conversations have impact.
3. Perceptions of the Church are established one conversation at a time and through one-on-one conversations.
4. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are reminded and encouraged continually to share the gospel with others.
5. The Church is always looking for the most effective ways to declare its message. This is the most important work that we can participate in.
6. Participate on the Internet to share the gospel and to explain in simple and clear terms the message of the Restoration.

C.    Suggestions/Examples as to what can be done
1. Start a blog  (Share the gospel every day. Record and post testimony, teachings from book of Mormon)
2. Download videos from Church and other appropriate sites, including newsroom.lds.org, and send them to friends.
3. Write to media sites on the Internet that report on the Church and voice views as to the accuracy of the reports. (It is essential that you are able to offer a clear and correct witness of gospel truths.)
4. Give pass-along cards

D.    Adopt a demeanor worthy of a follower of the Savior.
1. Be not “ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation”
2 . Stand firmly and speak with faith in sharing our message with the world. Many of you are returned missionaries and can carry on a meaningful conversation in the language you learned on your mission. Your outreach can be international.
3. “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger” (Proverbs 15:1). Contention is of the devil (see 3 Nephi 11:29).
4. Have a conversation, guided by the prompting of the Spirit
5. Remember the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.

E.    Apostolic blessing
1. May the Lord bless each of you that you will have a powerful influence on those you come in contact with. As I said in the beginning, the power of words is incredible.
2. Let your voice be heard in this great cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This week I attended the Brigham Young University (BYU) faculty conference at the Marriott Center. The keynote speaker, President Cecil O. Samuelson, started the presentation by recognizing several faculty who were honored by their departments, colleges or other university entities. I was happy that I knew some of the faculty being honored. I delight in their excellence.

I came to hear President Samuelson speak because I knew he would speak about teaching and learning. I really am interested in keeping up with all of the latest developments in the teaching and learning arena. I know that teaching and learning are in the forefront of BYU’s academic mission. I also will be teaching part-time for the BYU Communications Department, so I am officially part of the academic life at BYU. Samuelson asked the faculty to cast their lot and future with BYU. He said that we (faculty) have a heavy responsibility to do what we can. Life, according to Samuelson, has its ongoing purposes and we (BYU) have not arrived to where we need to be. He also admonished us to “be planted in the land of [y]our inheritance.” Instead of comparing ourselves to other universities, faculty at BYU must recognize this is a great day of preparation, and that the preparation will go on throughout our lives. We need to compare ourselves to what we must become.

Along with all of the other requests, he asked us to “arise to the higher ground of excellence” and he backed up his statement by saying that the “Lord provides ‘a more excellent way.’” President Samuelson challenged the faculty to read/listen to all of President Hinckely’s talks that he has given at BYU. I decided to take this request to heart. I went to speeches.byu.edu and found the articles. Most have downloadable mp3s for FREE and offer a variety of different formats, suited to one’s particular media needs. There are about 40 addresses.

I decided to download the FREE mp3s and listen. And just in case anyone else out there wants to do the same or something similar, I’ve added the links to his material.

You can get the full list here.

An apostle from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was in Provo, Utah (my home town) earlier this week. Elder Richard G. Scott spoke at the Brigham Young University Education Week devotional. I went with a friend to hear him speak. I was uplifted and edified to hear his words. He spoke about learning and teaching. He said he was going to talk about how to “learn and teach effectively.” My friend and I smiled at each other when he said that was going to be his topic. We are both excited about learning and teaching.

Elder Scott said that the path to truth was spiritual guidance through the promptings of the Holy Ghost. He shared this principle:

Throughout the remainder of my life, I will seek to learn by what I hear, see and feel. I will write down the important things I learn and will do them.”

He talked about many other ways in which to be a learner and a teacher. I really love the field of instructional design and his words rang true to my heart. He promised that the Holy Ghost will provide “personalized instruction adapted to your individual needs.” That is also a task of an instructional designer and teacher! Of course, most professors in academia don’t pursue the “spiritual” side of teaching and learning in their classes. The closest I’ve come to teaching that caters to the spiritual side of the individual is through the work of Parker Palmer.

One of the main topics that hit my heart was that Elder Scott said that we will never be prompted to do something we cannot do. He also said that we can make many choices, but we cannot choose our final destination. Our actions do that. I really felt such a change of heart with these words. I know that my actions need to reflect what I know and feel. And I must share these feelings with my children and help them experience these same feelings so they can fulfill their purposes during this earthly experience.

Elder Scott admonished the audience to encourage interaction with those we teach—to promote participation. He said as teachers we should seek to help others follow the principle he outlined above and to help them qualify to be led by the Spirit.

So…I will test his words. Throughout the remainder of my life, I will seek to learn by what I hear, see and feel. I will write down the important things I learn and will do them.