Learning by Sharing - the essay

Before starting to do any essay I have to note that I was quite taken aback by Mark Prensky and I have a lot of his articles open to read later. First I am trying to design a sketch or a mind map for my essay which I am basing on the article with the same name - Learning by Sharing and add some of the other notions I got from different sources. Especially Prensky.

Learning by sharing

Introduction

More and more information and communication technologies (ICT) are used in order to make learning more interesting. According to an internationally acclaimed speaker and education designer Mark Prensky, a traditional “tell-test“ school model is less than three hundred years old and is still in use today with the current Digital Native (2001b, p. 1) generation that was born into a society where computers and other technology have always been a part of their lives. These learners have developed new kinds of study skills and do not feel the excitement in the traditional classroom, because they are used to fast speed information processing and arbitrary thinking  (Prensky, 2001a, p. 2) compared to the current school model that originates from the 1800-s and was meant for preparing the workforce (Toffler, 2008).  One of the possible learning methods for this generation, besides games (as Prensky suggests) (Prensky, 2001a, p. 10), could be learning by sharing or collaborative learning.  

The thirteenth article: Marc Prensky. Digital Game Based Learning.

Marc Prensky. Digital Game Based Learning.

I like Prensky's articles because he is so radical. Go and tell something like that to our teachers and they will certainly throw you with rotten tomatoes. By all means, this is only figurative, because teachers are intellectual by all means.
But now to go on with the article, Prensky does not feel ashamed to declare that it is the educators' fault that pupils feel bored at school. School does not provide them with a brand new content that they are used to, and he draws a good parallel that a doctor will not blame the patient for falling ill (p. 2). He adds that "people live in the world into which they are born, and do things of their time that appeal to them." He puts his thoughts into a very interesting context.

The twelfth article: Marc Prensky. Open Collaboration.

 Marc Prensky. Open Collaboration.

Marc Prensky elaborates on Game Based Learning in this article. He suggests that games are good for Digital Natives because they put them in the middle of the story and give them intellectual fun. He also insists on putting this kind of learning materials online without any fee so that everybody could contribute to the game or other learning materials in order to make for example a tiny game into something much bigger. Prensky gives examples of different cases which have managed to evolve to various bigger concepts.
He also explains why it is necessary to leave the game or other source's source code open - it is because education needs innovation (because current e-sources are according to him "pathetic" (p. 5)), and collaboration with different teachers, because innovation needs to be encouraged.
He brings about the idea of open content where people like to give their input. He notes that Tim Berners Lee has already said that important is not what you take out from the Internet, but what you put in it. This system is self-organising, thus no need to worry about the appropriateness.
He also raises the question of money. Prensky thinks that making something payable prevents innovation growth, and that it is not allowed by educators. He says that such money does not make anyone particularly rich (p. 6).
He says that there is no point in keeping to one's page, people must make content that is engaging and possible through open collaboration.

This article raised a few thoughts of how to develop such games if you are not a programmer. There are computer specialists at school, but everybody nowadays demands money for extra work. In Estonia we are still learning to teach the Web 2.0 devices, when the web itself is moving on. I think that only enthusiasts agree with Prensky, but majority who do not want to hear anything about extra work, are not contributors. Then there is the money issue, which could still become a problem in this consuming society.
Certainly teachers like Kim Casper can easily develop content (but still with money issues in mind), because they have a few lessons per week compared to lots of teachers from Estonia who have neither time nor the stamina to create such online content. But there are still more teachers than Estonian teachers who would be able to add to such initiative. It is a great concept, but needs enthusiasts to contribute to it.

The eleventh article: Marc Prensky. Make Those You Tubes! More Sharing = Faster Learning.

Marc Prensky. Make Those You Tubes! More Sharing = Faster Learning.

I read the article where Marc Prensky suggests that all teachers and students should use YouTube or similar video sharing communities for learning. According to Prensky, it is important to use the means because many of the world's most important people (politicians, teachers, thought leaders, etc) have posted their thoughts on such websites. He also suggests that for searching information a person should use video search engines together with text search.

I think that in a way it makes sense, because there are different learning styles. By viewing videos, visual and aural learners would gain more from such learning, for example how-to videos would teach exactly what to do, contrary to only textual information where you have to guess the movements. Even more, this means is a cheap way to upload videos and share them online with the whole world. Most of the people have some kind of a camera to record, and a possibility to use a computer. There are free programs that enable video downloading and uploading, and it is amazing that today's Digital Natives have great interest in digital technology. Teachers who upload some kind of useful content can contribute to the whole world. Students can share their achievements and get peer feedback, which at some point is very important.

Materials used: AOPA Online: Your Student's Style

The tenth article: Marc Prensky. Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

Marc Prensky. Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. Part 1.

First, the author states that the brains of today's young people might have physically changed or at least their thinking patterns are different. Marc Prensky calls these students Digital Natives who were grown up with technology. We, or the generation who grew up without technology, but have adapted it, are Digital Immigrants. The difference between those two is that the latter always have their past which was technology-free or at least computer free environment.
Prensky is concerned with the Digital Immigrant instructors for Digital Natives, because as today's youth processes information very fast, they prefer games and like multitasking, but the older generations are used to serious, step-by-step learning. He suggests that today's teachers should skip the step-by-step part and teach today's students more randomly, and to learn to teach old things in a new way. Prensky himself likes to adapt old content to games.
It is interesting how the author brings examples of games that were designed in order to learn a difficult program or how to teach different subjects in the "Digital Native" language. Key concept here is pace - everything has to be done in a faster manner than the traditional academic way. It is also useful to use your own students to help you develop content.

The article had a point in it when the author said that today's learners are different. They often parallel some words from the English lesson with some games, or they give examples from the games. I think that in a reasonable amount games would be fine, but there are other technologies what to implement.

The ninth article: Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture.

Henry Jenkins et al. Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture. Media Education in the 21st Century. 

In the foreword Henry Jenkins claims that it is necessary to teach children new media concepts so that they would be able to take part in the participatory culture (Jenkins, xiii) in order to become full society members. He names a set of social skills that are necessary to be learned in the classroom or after-school activities. The skills are necessary to navigate wisely in new media, and among them he names play, multitasking, collective intelligence, judgment, networking, and negotiation.
"According to a 2005 study conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, more than half of all American teens - and 57 percent of teens who use the Internet - could be considered media creators (Jenkins, 3).

The author defines participatory culture as having "relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement, and strong support for creating and sharing creations with others. Members who feel some degree of social connection with one another." (Jenkins, 5-6). The author notes that everyone is a participator in such community and all people are at ease when producing content, because they know that it will be valued at a smaller or larger scale.

He has studied various studies which confirm that participatory media will be of greater value among peers, because everybody is allowed to create content themselves. Also the youth who grow up with computers and use them on a daily basis, will be able to communicate via electronic channels and with people from different cultures more easily.

But nowadays there is not an issue whether children have access or not, because a 2005 report from the United Kingdom concluded that now children are categorized into two: a) those to whom the Internet is a diverse, rich environment, and b) those to whom it remains unengaging, and narrow (Jenkins, 17). Those who use computers at home are more dominating in these skills and the other, less skilled pupils are left aside, and the latter find themselves struggling in the Internet.

The author claims that the importance of media education should be ethical issues, enabling acccess to skills and experiences in order to become a full participant in current society, and to ensure that every child would be able to verbalise understanding of new media or interactive media (p. 26-27).

Also he declares that "adolescents need to learn how to integrate knowledge from multiple sources, including music, video, online databases, and other media". This information has to be processed. The need to participate in online collaborations is on demand, because the world is globalizing.

As this was a book preview, not all of the content was captured, but I hope that I got some ideas for my essay. Together with globalization we could make all learning easier with students and teachers from different countries communicating with students via Internet.

The eighth interview: Don Tapscott's interview about education.

It is sad that people do not have supernatural powers to understand whether the article or book to be read is of good value or not. Sadly I have lost interest in quite a few books or they have had deadlines and I had to return them. Thus I am going on with the articles, and wondering whether audio is applicable for a reading task?

Right now I am listening to Tapscott's interview. Bad quality, but good topic.
A quick scetch of what I have heard.

He is talking about today's learning. The kids today aren't prepared to working hard. The backgound of these kids is different and their attention span is different today, nobody even knows whether they have the possibilities to do their homework.
Pupils become very engaged in their computer, where full attention is guaranteed. They can actually mix all channels of media and do homework at the same time. The students are good collaborators.

According to Tapscott there is a need to change the education system. Education is teacher-centered and the students stay aside from the process. He is giving an example of Portugal, where everyone has interest in new generation's learning, but on the contrary he says that in American schools most of the children do not even have laptops.

He also acknowledges that technology is not of utmost importance, and integrating technology into the curriculum is hard work. He also brings forth that the model of education comes from the factory/industrial model, and we are gradually moving on to studio learning. He says that with a small class size you do not need technology, but with more than 30 kids it is impossible to hold a lesson/lecture without it.

What is the purpose of education? According to him children should not learn for the tests, it is important to have more students who know about the things happening in life. Students should be able to find information, synthesize it, organise it. They should know how to gain knowledge, be able to collaborate and communicate. Also how to understand context and to get information.

Tapscott gives lectures, and his intention is to make the students think.


Now to reflect on the topic, I have read several news where 21st century skills are discussed. Those are used to prepare the students for life and work. Test scores are not of use in real life, therefore, I think, the students should be able to concentrate their thoughts and also find necessary information in the web or anywhere. For example know which person to turn to for necessary information. I personally think that it is more difficult and time-consuming to search for keywords in the books since modern technology finds the answers more quickly.
The factory model of the current education system should definitely be reformed, since I can witness pupils who are unwilling to learn from the book and want more engaging content. They are used to interactive environments and sitting in one place for 45 minutes seems to be a strain for them. We still manage to calm the students, but it is getting more and more difficult with time. It seems that more and more pupils want to express their opinion and to wander off-topic. At the same time silence is required in the classrooms, otherwise there is no discipline according to some colleagues. While doing group- or pairwork there can be a little bit of talking.
Pupils have school stress.... all of this seems too much for the current generation of digital natives. The teachers are not that much accustomed to computers, it is an unexplored territory for them. Some of the teachers and parents have managed to become digital immigrants, to explore the territory and pull through quite well, but I think there is a lot of work to do in this field, first to educate parents and educators and then try to go on with improving our education. It seems that educators need more time and effort to be able to integrate computers into the lessons in order to make them more engaging for such learners. I think that today's digital natives will change the current situation, because they feel at ease with computers and technology, and in fact, they think that the teachers do not know much about it. They will be able to find the most interesting way of making the content engaging.
Also the pupils lack information finding skills. You give them the source and it is difficult for them to find the correct topic from there. But to learn a new game they probably do not need a manual, they explore and discover themselves the rules of the game. So that leaves us thinking how we could improve the learning environment of current digital natives being digital immigrants ourselves.

The seventh article: Cooperative learning

The Structural Approach to Cooperative Learning by Spencer Kagan

This article concentrates only on learning strategies based on the classroom activities. The main point that I gained from the article was that all students should achieve at least something from groupwork. It was not connected with interactive things, so it will be of little use in my essay.

The sixth article: Learning by Sharing. Thomas J.P. Thijssen, Rik Maes, Fons T.J. Vernooij

Learning by Sharing by Thomas J.P. Thijssen, Rik Maes, and Fons T.J. Vernooij - a study.
The study comes from Amsterdam and is quite radical. It stroke me immediately from the introduction, because the authors degrade the current school system while promoting the multi-dimensional learning model which, according to them, should replace the traditional, uni-dimensional model. (p. 4)
The authors also draw conclusions from various literature that learning should not be learner-centered as it can be group-based. The latter helps the learner study better and gain more knowledge. The latter might prove as well that working in group can contribute in many ways, such as perfect other learners' mistakes. The second possible way of learning the new way would be learning at one's own pace and curriculum, which enables the students to learn according to their own pace, abilities and learning style. (p. 6)
For the teacher the two above-mentioned approaches mean that he or she is the leader of the team who guides the students through the learning process. Enabling the learner to move forward on his or her own pace will result in the learner becoming active. I think that in today's world this would really be a necessary step towards better learning, because based on my own observations learners are not happy with the teacher's input, they would like to contribute to their learning themselves.
According to the article the teacher's role is also to develop the students' learning abilities in order to gain better results from one's learning process. This process would require self-evaluation from both sides - the teacher and the student, who reflect accordingly on their teaching and learning (p. 7). I agree that it is important to improve the students' learning skills and the ability to be able to choose between important information and the unimportant.
The authors of this paper also emphasize on the importance of the communities of practice, but in order to be most productive they need to be reshaped. There is need for collaboration between all parties, the need for innovation and brainstorming.
The idea of a visiting teacher is brought in on page 12. It is a good idea, and it is recognized in Estonian schools (there was a week called "Back to School 2009" in October) where parents or former students or workers of different professions come to talk or teach about their experience. A fairly different experience may come directly from the practitioner and the pupils may discover something that the teacher would not have told them.

The paper says that collaborative learning is also an important notion. In this respect the teachers act as guides and help the students go through the research. It can be implemented in learning as well – the teacher will give general guidelines and teach the students to get hold of the learning process. Students then give feedback on the teaching methods which enables their tutors to make changes when necessary. (p. 13)

The authors note also the gap between theory and actual working experience, and suggest that through internship this kind of gap can be solved. I think that it would be useful to bring such experience already to high school or secondary school, not to mention the end of basic school. This kind of learning through practice bridges the gap of learning and work. (p. 14)

The shortest point to be made from this text would be that all parties are learners as well as teachers.

The authors also bring in the role of ICT in learning by sharing which enables all the parties to collaborate more flexibly from any place in the world. (p. 19) The fact that a lot of knowledge is available on the Internet, lets the collaborators improve the existing material at any time or any place. It is mentioned, that this kind of education is cheap and let the students learn on their own, receiving immediate feedback.

According to the authors it is also possible to customise education according to different learning styles, which enables the students to progress at their own pace. It is useful for both students and the teachers, because according to the authors the students most likely adapt to the technology very quickly and the teachers can learn from them.

It is concluded that learning by sharing would serve as a model for life-long learning.

Learning by sharing - scholarly articles (Google Scholar)

As the date is approaching, one needs to start reading. I googled scholar a bit, and found my topic things:
1) Learning by Sharing by Thomas J.P. Thijssen, Rik Maes, and Fons T.J. Vernooij (Amsterdam Institute for Infopreneurship & University of Amsterdam) [Read the description]
2) Bias Learning, Knowledge Sharing - this article was not exactly what I was looking for.

3) Cooperative Learning [Read the description]

4) Learning by Sharing - this doesn't suit my expectations. A Google book preview, an old research about intergenerational approach.

The fifth read: The future of education - I found some good videos.

I will count this post together with the unfinished book of Introduction to Digital Media as the fifth read. I find the videos very educative, and thought that I should use them as sources as well.

Here Michael J. Trout tells about the future of Education.


Mr. Trout wants to change education radically. He's found a chance what would help doing it. Education Singularity - in the near future one organization is going to make education accessible worldwide regardless of the time, location. He hopes that he would be able to start the concept. Watch, listen and touch - you'll be able to learn everything.

A sweet little video about the students' opinion of learning. I agree with the computer part, it is a nuisance in the lectures, yet you will need it in the end. Lots of important information is hidden in the internet.



Alvin Tofler on the current situation of education:



Alvin Toffler is talking about the history of public education, when in the 1800s the poor needed to work and could not study because of that. Only wealthy people could afford school. Those educated people needed industrial discipline (show up in time and do the work all over again). Because of that the schools were designed which simulated factories. You have to be in school at a fixed time. Schoolbus-system prepares the pupils to commute to work. We do not need that anymore, because people work from home and in odd hours.
He thinks that the entire system is obsolete. According to Toffler, the system is prepared for yesterday, not tomorrow. Bill Gates has said: "We cannot reform our education system, we must replace it." It would be dangerous for the workers in terms of losing jobs.
There are going to be battles about education in different countries until the system is broken and replaced.

All the videos originate from the Ning-based webpage The Future of Education

Digital Ethnography blog is also a worthy read :)

A mock-up of a web-based mini-enterprise.

Our dot com business will be based upon Google Sidewiki. Using that tool we will add comments and mini-reviews to websites of various places of subculture: artist and youth cafes, clubs, galleries etc.

From there on we will try to bring the customer to our website, which concept will be similar to that of weekend.ee, featuring in-depth reviews and opinions about those subculture places.

The business model will be based upon ads. We will be hosting Google ads on our website, which is good in providing links based on the sites content. We will also promote a service through our website and for selling our abstract service we use either eBay or Amazon.

Marge contributed the image of the mock-up (Sidewiki is on the left):

Assignment 29.09.09

I found the article about young Egyptian women being able to take political activism thanks to Facebook.
Egypt: Thanks to Facebook, young women take to political activism

15 May 09 - In recent years, Egypt has witnessed increasing participation by women in grassroots political activism. Local civil rights advocates attribute the phenomenon to novel means of communication and organisation, especially the social networking website Facebook.

The phenomenon has become particularly notable since the advent of the ‘April 6 Youth’, a grassroots movement seeking peaceful political change. The movement takes its name from a general strike held on Apr. 6, 2008, when a planned labour action at a public-sector textiles company turned into a nationwide protest against skyrocketing food prices and political stasis.

The young were mobilised through mobile-phone text messages and Facebook - where one of its online groups currently boasts more than 75,000 members.

In this case women of Egypt have found the means to reflect on their political views and have met new people with similar interest. Women wanted to prove that political activity should not be dependent on gender. During a peaceful strike some women were still arrested.

And also do not forget to read the theory: An Introduction to Activism on the Internet

An Introduction to Digital Media by Tony Feldman.

1. What digital revolution?
Analogue and digital information
Speaking the language of computers

So, here I am with another book. It seems simpler for starters and as I borrowed it from the library a while ago, I felt like I had to read it before giving it back to the library.
So the first impression was good, despite its origin of 1997 I still find it interesting. It is a kind of prophetic book which introduces us to the future of digital media, but the time in fact is already there. We are moving to digital TV and analogue is history, but in the book they are talking about the future of digital TV.
As I was starting with the book, it stroke me right away and I kept on reading it from 12 to 1 o'clock. I'll try to finish the communities book later.

Some thoughts about the beginning (actually it is quite difficult to read when you try to note down all your thoughts as soon as they appear): The author starts the book with a description of analogue and digital media – analogue media is in continuous flow, a perpetual movement, but digital media has on and off states.

A good parallel is given by the analogue and digital watches, where analogue watch is in continuous movement, but with a digital watch you get the pause when seconds or minutes change, so it is not in continuous movement – and yes, it is so. I have never thought about it in this way!

The author gives five characteristics of digital media:

manipulable

networkable

dense

compressible

impartial (p. 3)

The first thoughts that came into my mind with digtal media being manipulable is that when you watch TV and you get these annoying ads in the middle (mind you, I do not watch TV daily, because I do not have one, thus I hate the ads especially) you automatically think that if it would have been a DVD or a recorded film, you could have forwarded the tape or just watched it without these annoying ads (I believe the ads can mostly be extremely dim-witted).

Analogue media is networkable, because there are several possibilities like you can reach it wherever you have a computer, for example, and internet connection. In Estonia it is especially good that lots of places have free Wifi. The information nowadays is embeddable and hyperlinkable and so on and so forth.

The author concludes his discussion about analogue and digital media with the fact that you can choose to view digital media from wherever you want to. He mentioned a TV screen, but sure it is possible to watch it from your portable phone, mp4 player or iPod.

I was also thinking that this book is from 1997, but the information still holds true. The first two parts that I read ended with the fact that you can view digital media from whichever screen you choose – your TV-set, some kind of a handheld screen (either telephone or mp4 player) or whatever you like.

So I think I have to cancel with this book here as well, because the deadline approached and I had to give the book to the library. I do not know if I should count this as a separate reading, but I will leave the notes here at least, maybe I will need them.

The fourth (article): A Review of the Cocktail Party Effect.

I was inspired by Jakob's post on the article and I decided to start reading it myself, too.

The article was interesting. The thoughts given there were partly new, partly familiar, but to read them in some context was new. So the cocktail party effect, I believe, is familiar to everybody. When you ride on a bus and you spot a familiar voice, or at a party when you hear your name and turn to listen to what the people are saying about you. It is amazing how a person is built up - lots of different and unbelievable mechanisms in us - we are like machines, only the most complex machines.
I also understood that the cocktail party effect has been used in creation of different gadgets or computers in order to let the machine understand what you are saying to them. My SonyEricsson mobile phone understands my talk when I have said something in it and it kind of synchronizes my previously said name with the newly said one (hands-free application), not recognising the name all the time, because it's a machine.
I would like to add that some of the text was filled with too many definitions.

I recommend you also read Maarja's thoughts on the article!

A few thoughts about the other blogs.

While browsing through the other coursemates' blogs, I put together four different blogger-types:

1) the ones who mostly stick to the given literature/article list,
2) the ones who invent topics themselves or read other literature apart from the given list,
3) the ones who don't read but invent the whole concept themselves or just comment on other topics in their blog,
4) the ones who forget to blog.

This is not a judgemental post, this is actually a discussion of very many different points of view that our group shares. We have people from different specialities and it is interesting to see that people stick to their preferences and read about the things they really like or believe that the read information would be of importance. I cannot even comment on all the topics, because some of them interest me very much and some of them do not.
I am really glad that I can share my thoughts with two people who think in the same direction as I do, and who complement my readings with their posts and thoughts/comments.
So thank you everybody who contributes to this blogosphere, I get very inspired by reading your posts.

I just had to make a note for myself of this video that Toivo posted - it's just as unbelievable as it is real. The power of new media!

A note: It really hurts the eye to read white text on black background. I almost got blind right now.

A mock-up of an education-related help network.

A Support Platform for Parents of Schoolchildren.

The profile of a parent [take a look here]:

A 30-50(?)-year old parent.
One child is a teenager, the other one probably a baby or or both children are in school.
A housewife or working part or full time.
Has internet access at home (and in office)
Uses internet for approximately 3 hours per day.
Needs help with child(ren)'s schoolwork.
Sometimes needs other education-related help.

Attatched to Estonian school network, and also given as a link on the schools web pages.
Works as a social networking platform with different applications.
Has open ID
A closed community only for parents and educators.
Has different sub-sections for different subjects.
Has a sub-section for specialists in education-related field.

Users:
Teachers
Psychologist
Social worker
Parents

Second and third: 2 paragraphs from Online Communitites: Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability.

 I began reading Jenny Preece's Online Communitites. Designing Usability, Supporting Sociability.

Online Communities. Designing usability, supporting sociability.
Jenny Preece Univ, of Maryland, Baltimore County.
John Wiley & Sons. LTD 2001

One interesting quote: "If you are not on the Internet, you don't exist" (p.6)

I have gone through the introduction of the book, which sparkled my mind with thoughts of "worn-out" phrases used in the book (like bulletin boards, MUD, MOO). I turned to the date of publication and it was published in 2000, improved in 2001. I was a little bit disappointed in the date as Internet and Online Communities are in constant change (perhaps the concept stays the same), but I am looking forward to the actual topics, because the book is promising in the meaning that it promises to give (social, psychological) background information about community development.
There were issues of digital misinterpretation discussed as more people spend more time in the Internet and less time with other people or family. I do not know about these days, but I believe the issue remains, people spend more time and have more communication online (but my statement is not scientifically proved or researched, just my personal opinion).

Well, I still have to note down some interesting facts that I found from the introduction (p. 13):
"The report from the brainstoming workshop held at an ACM CHI (Computer Human Interaction) Conference on the theory and practice of physical and network communities identified the following core attributes (Whittaker, Issacs, & O'Day, 1997, p. 137):
1. Members have a shared goal, interest, need or activity that provides the primary reason for belonging to thte community.
2. Mmebers engage in repeated, active participation; often, intense interactions, strong emotional ties, and shared activities occur among participants.
3. Members have access to shared resources, and policies determine the access to thise resources.
4. Reciprocity of information, support, and services among members is important.
5. There is a shared context of social conventions, language, and protocols."

"Douglas Schuler, author of New Community Networks, advocates the role of community networks as a resource that should be built by the community (Schuler, 1996). He claims that new communities should combine aspects of the old and the new, because history is an important part of community: "They must rest on the solid foundations of principles and values and be flexible and adaptable, intelligent, and creative. They must be inclusive. Everyone must be allowed to participate. They will have to engage both governments and business because they both exist to provide services for people. These institutions must be accountable to the people, and not the reverse" (Schuler, 1996, p. xi). Schuler proposes the following core values for building community networks: conviviality and culture, education, strong democracy, health and human services, economic equity, opportunity and sustainability, and information and communication. They imply long-term relationships, acknowledging the past and the importance of governance.  /---/ Schuler reminds us that technology can have a special role in promoting these values via online communities. Developers, managers, students, and users are advised to keep one eye on these core values while they strive to map human needs with technology"
(P. 19)

Maybe here is the key why one must continue reading this book, to get to know what were the importances of the old communities and what has remained there to move on from.

Another aspect of communities are social relationships. The introduction touched upon the subject of internet-based relationships that in many cases this may turn out a failure. It is sure, that people create images of the person they are communicating with, and if communication between them is pleasant, often it is thought that the person corresponds to that image in their heads. From my personal experience you may feel disappointment after having a real conversation or meeting with the person - he or she may turn out to be not exactly the person described in the numerous chats or e-mails (nobody uses those for chatting nowadays).

Software for communities was also discussed briefly in the introduction, it was stated that "community developers also have e to design software with good usability so that people can interact and perform their tasks intuitively aand easily. Software with good usability supports rapid learning, high skill retention, low error rates and high productivity. It is consistent, controllable, and predictable, making it pleasant and effective to use." P. 27

The introduction concludes with the thought that no online community is different from a real-life community, as it has real people behind it. I think that the emotions coming from an online community can often be false, as people may read something totally different from one post than the poster has meant. Also a person may skip a line or two from the moving text in the computer screen, because the text is moving on so fast, and later it may turn out that a lot of important information was skipped or misunderstood. The author suggests that real relationships should not be left aside as they are stronger than the weak relationships in the Internet.

As I carried on reading, I basically got no new information. I made some notes at the beginning, but when I went on reading, the book became really familiar.That is why I finished with that book.

I will just paste the notes for future reference:

"Unfortunately some instructors see online education as a forum for the dissemination of knowledge. Precluding the classroom in favour of the computer. Sadly, this uninspiring method of teaching is even welcomed by some, who see it as a fast way to get a degree or training qualification without leaving the comfort of their armchair."
"Educators (Winner, 1995) caution against this approach, which has been dispararingly called a „digital diploma mill“ (Noble, 1998)."

"Online communities, however, can add inspiration and community to education." (p. 55)

"More and more, professors are having to accept that their role is to guide students to meaningful activities rather than to provide knowledge." (p. 56)

"Dr, malaga incorporates these [Blackboard] facilities in an exciting approach, that he refers to by the acronym RED, which stands for read, explore and discuss." (p. 61)

Positive notes on online education were that pupils couldformulate their thoughts before posting whether those were cultural, language or character-related problems (p. 63)
What concerns MOOs and MUDs I am sure that currently pupils of only strong interest towards computers and programming (a minority in Estonian schools, though) are interested in such communities, and as my knowledge of e-learning shows, learning all the commands is time consuming and needs determination, thus I would exclude such learning form.(p. 63-67)
I think that online communities in Education provide a lot of benefits to their users. I agree that real-life participation is as necessary as is community support, but I think that such possibilities enable people to take courses from around the world without even having to go abroad and pay for the travelling costs.

"Such ad hominem attacks are known as flames." (p. 83)
Estonians call such action „leim“, which is probably a derivative of the word.


Rules and roles for communities are needed, certainly, but at the same time it must be remembered that people are not machines. They should not be regulated by rules all the time. (p. 86)

Communities need active participation in order to survive. There are several lurkers or people who have never posted in a thread, thus not contributing to the community. They only read others’ posts and benefit from the community like that. This happens due to several problems like time consumption, lack of language or knowledge, etc. These people do not enrich the community with their participation.(p. 87-90)

Lurking may also happen if a person wants to get to know the community first. (p. 100)

Policy and privacy are important, for example to let people know that e-mails are not entirely deleted after deletion, an a person with edtreme determination can retrieve such information (p. 103)

First article: E-learning.

My first article choice came from Mauri's course literature list: Downes, S. E-Learning 2.0.

I think this article was interesting, because I am interested in E-learning.

The article itself is a summary of author's own perception of the possibilities of the Internet and its development, and a collection of weblinks embedded into it. Links to different sources may come in handy with IMKE course (podcasting, E-learning, etc.) or my profession.
The article describes E-learning as becoming an open source for conversation and collaboration as people nowadays use blogging and podcasts rather than consuming one compressed package of online courses. They like to remix and reuse information according to their needs and interests. Students can exchange their ideas without being in the classroom and talking to the teacher.I have moved from ready-made exercises to different wikis and blogs myself, because I believe school pupils enjoy collaboration, peer support and feedback more than doing something where they don't see how they progress. The best feedback is peer support, I think.
In web 2.0 games are also a part of learning since games provide us with examples or simulation of real life, and students can easily impersonate any character and thus learn through their experience. Games may help students memorise things better.
Mobile learning or M-learning is also discussed in the article as it is another form of learning. Some teachers, like Nathan Kerr have used mobile phones wisely, thus giving great example to other colleagues. While reading the topics concerning M-learning, I started to google other M-learning articles and found Stuart Smit'hs "Mobile Learning" which I also read through. Then I found a website about M-learning, where software for developing mobile content is presented. You can download the trial versions for free. Searching further I ended up downloading a verbal synonyms application to my SonyEricsson from GetJar.com to test the efficiency of Mlearning (you can try out one level for free).
While reading the article my thought wandered off from the main topic, which leads me to coming back to the original idea of the article - the Internet has become a powerful source of different combinable and mixable information and resources where reading one type of information can lead to completely different, often useful topics.
Finally, being totally irrelevant from the topic, I started wondering why do people write things differently. I found the definition Mlearning, but I personally prefer it with a hyphen to grasp the meaning better.

Also take a look at Gert's reflection on this article.

I saw that Ilya had read the article as well. Now I have a comment on that (since I cannot post comments on Ilya's blog) - not all students really want to use a computer with their studies. This year when I had the first lesson in computer class with my French students I had an interesting situation where everybody sat around the table (where there were no computers) in the computer class. As I told them that I had prepared a computer-based lesson, they kind of moaned: "Do we have to do this?" I was astonished, and asked if they really did not want to do this. One of them replied: "Maybe if we try it out, we might begin to like it."
At the beginning of the next lesson in computer class they already sat in front of the computers. Perhaps Estonian pupils are not that used to computers in the lesson as we may think. I am sure the situation is changing as well, because computers are used already in the lowest levels of school.