This short extract in elearning papers from an article by Richard Straub discusses how "The idea of 'openness' is emerging as a dominant attribute of key developments in our economic and social fabric" and how with the emergence and increasing dominance of Web 2.0, we now have "the infrastructure and tools to operate in new ways in open systems".

Yet collaborative, open souce, open access is not yet the norm (understandably as it often forces a complete u-turn in business strategy). However, this trend for 'openness' is likely to continue to grow, particularly as more of the big names join in. Google have recently announced that they will join Myspace and Facebook in enabling users to move their personal profiles and applications to other websites, further facilitating the social (and open) aspects of online life.

Labels: freedom, online, open, socialnetworking, web2.0

Google have announced their open social networking platform will enable developers to create applications that work across different networking sites that have joined forces with OpenSocial (already including LinkedIn, Ning and Friendster). This should streamline development processes, meaning that applications are compatible across sites. See ZDNet.com for some more detailed analysis of the implications.

Labels: internet, IT, networks, online, web2.0

Yesterday I attended an interesting presentation by Ewan McIntosh (his edublogs site is worth checking out) run as part of the Urban Learning Space seminar series (a podcast of it will be available soon).

What I found refreshing was his discussion of how emerging technologies (social software in particular) is really just another development in a long line of 'in-things' (from sliced bread in 192x!) whose use seemed daunting, unusual or even inappropriate initially.

What I took from his talk was that maybe educators tend to take the use of emerging technolgies too seriously, treating them as an all-or-nothing. Overplanning the use of technolgy, putting so much emphasis on the need for them to be successful (or the need for it to not fail) means that the flexibility, spontaneity and innovative use of technologies is often stifled in the learning environment. And yet our learners are displaying exactly these traits in their personal use of the technologies - from using their blogs to publish creative writing, to producing videos for youtube sharing their comments on current affairs, and using some impressive technical features to showcase their talents. Maybe it is time we learned from them and see it as a creative medium rather than looking for the way to assess it and 'prove' the value of the excersie... maybe the value is it can engage the interest of learners!

Labels: digitalnatives, education, educators, elearning, freedom, internet, IT, learnerexpectations, online, web2.0

The Guardian reports that MySpace and Skype have joined forces to allow MySpace users to chat to each other for free within the social networking space using Skype VoIP technology.

The development has been hailed as 'The start of a convergence of social networking and communications applications' by Tim O'Reilly. It will afford users with another alternative communication channel, making the social networking environment an increasingly rich communicative tool.

Labels: digitalnatives, internet, IT, networks, online, web2.0

The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills have announced £3.9 million in funding to support the Technology Exemplar Network jointly led by Becta and LSC.

This inititative will aim to create a national support network to enable those who have successfully embedded ICT in their teaching and learning to share their experience with other practitioners and thus encourage use of learner-focused technology in education.

Read more at PublicTechnology.net

Labels: education, elearning, IT, networks, online, practitioners

Check out this very entertaining Google Tech Talk by Merlin Mann, in which he gives tips and advice for how to create a system letting you get your inbox to zero, and not let email rule your life!

Labels: email, online, organisation, system

The Scottish Online Journal of e-Learning (SOJEL) is a new peer-reviewed online journal which aims "to reflect and inform research and best practice in e-Learning in Scotland (and further afield)". SOJEL will be published twice a year, and is free to access.

The first issue (Vol 1, no. 1) was published in June 2007, and includes articles on social software, VLEs and e-learning in local government.

Labels: elearning, journal, online, scotland, scottish