e-portfolios

I had heard of e-portfolios before we were given this assignment, but I only had a basic understanding of them.  Coincidentally enough, I just had a friend recently who was laid off, and I remember receiving his mass email out to all his friends to let him know of any employment opportunities they may be aware of.  I know when people usually do send out such emails they will include their resume as an attachment, but he did it a little differently.  He actually had set up his own website by purchasing the domain of his name, and he included a website link which I checked out.  Like I said, I had heard of e-portfolios, but had not really seen one in action.  His site was really cool and very multimedia interactive with photos, a few videos, his resume, experience, etc.  And I remember thinking how nice this would probably be to a prospective employer because they don’t have to deal with actual physical resumes.  I used to work for a recruiting agency years ago, and I remember having to scan hundreds of them in a database and run an OCR software on them.  ugh, no fun at all.  So this really solves that issue as there is nothing to store except an electronic file.

I think the most interesting article I read was the one about a university electronic portfolio project.  They described a portfolio as “a collection of work developed across varied contexts over time” and how the “electronic format allows faculty and other professionals to evaluate student portfolios using technology, which may include the Internet, CD-ROM, video, animation or audio”.  Sorry another quote, but I think it’s relevant.  “Electronic portfolios are becoming a popular alternative to traditional paper-based portfolios because they offer practitioners and peers the opportunity to review, communicate and assess portfolios in an asynchronous manner.”  I had to look up asynchronous myself, and it means “of, used in, or being digital communication (as between computers) in which there is no timing requirement for transmission and in which the start of each character is individually signaled by the transmitting device”.  Still not exactly sure what it mean, but it’ll dawn on me.

The article went on to say that colleges are starting to create and use e-portfolios as a means of evaluating a student’s learning or progress.  The author many reasons why to use an e-portofolio, and one of them really stood out to me being that it was related to computer skills a student would gain in the process of creating one of these portfolios.  The article said “students gain valuable computer skills while creating and editing their portfolio”.  Also, the ease of storage and access of an e-portfolio is that much greater than that of a traditional portfolio because you can simply store it on a flash drive and access on any computer at your convenience.

In regards to the student e-portfolio at a university, the article said the main things to include were:  Student Information, Table of Contents, Learner Goals, Rubrics, Guidelines, Artifacts, Instructor feedback, Self-reflection pieces.  It stressed the importance of self-reflective pieces because “a portfolio without reflections is just a multimedia presentation or an electronic resume”.

All in all as web design students, I think this is definitely something we will be exposed to over and over again, and it’s definitely something we need to become as familiar and fluent with as possible.  I look forward to creating mine later on in my educational career at AID.

http://academic.regis.edu/LAAP/eportfolio/basics_what.htm

http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic82.htm

http://electronicportfolios.org/portfolios/howto/index.html

Web Standards

Call me crazy, but one of the reasons I got into web design is because I really wanted to learn the markup coding languages (like HTML, XHTML, XML, etc) and I truly and honestly get excited learning things of this nature. Of course, I still want to learn the artistic design side of it and am just excited about that, hence my enrollment into an art related college.  But I can tell by reading the articles I researched and watching the one video I found, a newfound interest and curiosity has sparked up in me again.  This is kind of what I was waiting for and look forward to other classes covering this kind of material.  I remember one programming class I took in high school and just absolutely loving it.  It was fun to me, especially when so many others were almost brought to tears in trying to understand it.  I’m hoping that same passion will surface with these new web-based languages I’ll be learning.  Pretty sure, it will.

Learning things from how the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is dedicated from “leading the Web to its full potential” and how they have come up with standards (or recommendations as they really should be called since they are not enforced by some global law) for the web design community developing “open specifications (de facto standards) to enhance the interoperability of Web-related products’.  There’s also the “European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) which is an organization officially founded in 1961 in order to meet the need for standardizing computer operational formats, including programming languages and input/output codes”.  “The main role of the ECMA is to develop Standards and Technical Reports in the area of information and communication technology.”  Basically, they have a set of web design standards that, if you abide to in your web design coding, will enable your website to viewed in most web browsers, whether they be old or new.  Granted, your website may load in a view as simple as straight text and nothing else, but the more important point is that your website page will still load and the content can be viewed.   As one of the articles said “complying with Web standards can give your Web pages greater visibility in Web searches. The structural information present in compliant documents makes it easy for search engines to access and evaluate the information in those documents, and they get indexed more accurately.”  Your website will be more accessible and also account for more stability.

I also interestingly read and learned about semantically correct code, and how web designers who follow this practice “use heading elements (<h1> – <h6>) for different types of headings, paragraph elements (<p>) for paragraphs of texts, and lists (<ul>, <ol> etc) for any kind of listing you might have, and so on.”  It’ll make certain parts of your website each to find when troubleshooting any errors in coding, decrease your load time because there’s less code, and “strongly improve maintenance aspects of your web site”.

The importance of “separation of Content (HTML/XHTML), Presentation (CSS) And Interaction (JavaScript)” could not be stressed enough, and it makes perfect sense to me in terms of having order and a structure to things, especially when writing code.  I love order and structure to things.  One of the main reasons I loved math so much in school.  Still do.  Anyways, keeping things like the CSS and JavaScript files separate will help in performance because these files are cached “in the end user’s web browser after the first load, hence dramatically decreasing load times and improving the experience”.  Also, keeping all three of these separate helps you know where to look when troubleshooting as each layer has its own purpose.  In terms of maintenance, “you have all the code in one central location, applying all presentation and interaction code to all the web pages within a website”.

So I could go on and on.  Obviously, I find this stuff interesting and am excited about learning from in future classes.  I love the whole “behind the scenes” sort of vibe you get from learning this stuff.  It’ll be fun one day to actually be able to make sense of all the web associated coding I’ve seen over the years and finally be able to understand what it all means and actually does.

http://www.zeldman.com/2009/04/08/what-are-web-standards/#ooid=hjb2JnOsVPEUD-Izei4yTWSdtfmSSGya,IyeWJnOknf6DNfx7eSRod6UTNHtBAMdE

http://archive.webstandards.org/edu_faq.html

http://robertnyman.com/2007/05/21/what-are-web-standards-a-comprehensive-explanation-of-what-is-comprised-in-the-term/

http://www.zeldman.com/2009/04/08/what-are-web-standards/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_standards

Designing for the Mobile Web

In reading the three articles I researched for this blog entry, I discovered they all had many similarities in what they described as best practices in mobile web design from choosing a markup language, knowing your phones, doing research on your customers’ needs, keeping it very simple, etc.

First, you’ve got to pick your markup language.  WML (wireless markup language) was used in the early days mobile web devices but nowadays only “by legacy systems or by sites that explicitly target customers with low-end phones that are six years old or older”.  Nowadays, most mobile web pages are written in XHTML or XHTML-MP which “consists of slightly fewer elements and tighter restrictions”.

Next, you need to know the phones that are out there which consumers will be using to load your mobile web page.  When designing your mobile web site, you have to take into consideration different screen sizes and resolutions as well as different shapes.

If you have an existing website, you can modify your existing code and design it work on mobile devices, and then use a subdomain name (like m.example.com) for your mobile web page and your regular site redirect you to the mobile one. You can choose to create a separate domain name, although it’s not suggested because it can very confusing to your customer.  But you should always give the user the choice between viewing the mobile version of your site or the normal version, as the mobile version can sometimes lead to frustration for some users.

You also should do extensive research to know who your target customer is and how they will use your site. “The web developers at Google have identified and focused on three main groups, and they attempt to target their applications to those customers’ needs. These are three solid categories, and” they are the casual surfer, the repeat visitor, and the ‘urgent now’ visitor. Knowing which of these users you want to attract or use your site will determine how “to deliver to them the most appropriate content”.

The most common and repeated concepts of mobile web design is to keep the content and design simple and test, test, test.  One must keep in mind that  a mobile web site user does not have the capability and use of a keyboard and mouse to maneuver around your site.  Design should be kept in single column format for single handed controls and keep the “markup as clean, small, and standards-based as possible” to compensate for bandwidth caps and speed issues.  Also, keep the size of navigation and clickable objects large (viewable without having to zoom in too much) and easy-to-press links.  The importance of testing your site could not be stressed enough in all the articles I read, and there are many different ways to test your mobile web site such as emulators, rent time, buying a handful of phones, or even asking your friends to borrow their phone for a few minutes to pull up and test your site.  “In terms of both site design and the functions available, you must think as simply as possible for the best results. Form is still essential to attracting customers, but eliminating some graphical elements as well as long menus and extensive text may be essential.”

Since the size of mobile phone screens are obviously much smaller than that of a regular computer monitor, you must keep your text content to a minimum.  Only put the bare minimum in regards to text on a mobile web site, and one article said “less is more on a mobile device; less content equals more likely to read.”  Also, keep your images small by “reducing the resolution and dimensions” so the bandwidth consumption is kept to a minimum.

There are lots of other issues like plugins such as Flash (which Apple which has blocked from their devices), Javascript, etc.  The point most of the articles were making is that you need to make sure your mobile web site “degrades gracefully” and that you test your design on as many platforms you can manage to ensure that your site will be viewed by as many people as possible in order to be successful.

http://download.mylink.vn/mobile-web-design-best-practices.html

http://www.articleonlinedirectory.com/Art/452136/389/mobile-web-design-the-web-challenge-for-the-upcoming-decade-part-1.html

http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/designing-for-mobile-web

Twitter Influence on the Web

Several of the articles I read about Twitter centered around the debate whether the number of followers you have is an indication of how influential you are.  Another touched on why Twitter power users are influential and another on how to measure your Twitter influence.  And yet another (probably the most interesting) on Twitter’s influence on web design patterns.

In regards to the web design pattern article, I learned that since Twitter’s debut on the internet, it’s been one of the closest followers of the web 2.0 philosophy and how it practically invented the micro-blog.  Thought that was an interesting mention since it was one of our blog assignments. Twitter and its design (simpler, more intuitive and summary-based design by having an awesome API inherently increasing its user base) “has gone on to cause a revolution within the designs of other well-established websites”.  Many websites admire the trend and try to somewhat mirror it, but no one wants a “copycat” or blatant rip-off, such as Plurk as the article suggests.  The author went on to say that “Twitter’s design pattern is so influential (with its big celebrity based clientele) that other sites are feeling a sense of what I would term as “Web Darwinism“: the feeling that if a site doesn’t succumb to the new wave of web interface design, it will be phased out by the superior sites that do.”  In regards to the API (Application Programming Interface) mentioned a second ago, Twitter’s API has “taken Twitter from just-another-web-service to an extensible web collaboration interface with large amounts of integration from both users and developers alike to the point where its growth is nearly exponential.”  So seeing Twitter’s impact on the internet in this example is “unmistakable”.

In regards to the debate on whether the number of followers you have is an indication of how influential you are, the author of one article gave an example of Robert Pattinson (star of the Twilight movie series with his 245K followers) and that of local city government officials.  Even though the scale of the mentioned government officials’ audience may be small and Pattinson’s audience may significantly larger, he thinks Pattinson’s audience are “perhaps less rich”  meaning “overall he addresses more people but how hard does he have to try to convince his audience of something?”  Also, “consider the quality of the audience”.  Pattinson’s being that of teenage girls.  Are these teenage girls really friends with Pattinson because they “identify with this person” or that they “enjoys this person’s work”.  Either way, it’s not distinguishable on Twitter.  You have to follow someone regardless of your reason.  So, just because someone has thousands upon thousands of followers, doesn’t necessarily make them more influential in the world.

Another one touched on Twitter Power Users and how they are influential on the internet.  The article listed several examples of how these power users are so influential online.  A few mentioning are:  “72% publish blog posts at least monthly, 70 % comment on blogs, 61% write at least one product review monthly, and 61% comment on news sites”.

And, probably the topic that seemed to pop up more than any other discussed tools on how to measure your twitter influence.  Twitter’s influence nowadays is so important and such a big deal that many tools (websites, applications) have been created to measure its influence.  Also, in regards to people who may follow your Twitter account, “it’s important to provide value to who follow your tweets”.  So that’s where popular tools like Twitalyzer, Tweetleve, and Klout come in, just to name a few.  Twitalyzer “provides the most robust analysis of a given Twitter account” although “there are essentially too many metrics and it’s a little overwhelming to manage”.  Tweetlevel is more simplistic, according to the author, and it’s free.  “All you have to do is enter in a Twitter account, and the algorithm will spit out four key metrics — Influence, Popularity, Engagement and Trust.”  With Klout, “It’s easy to find what you are looking for, read the scoring information and the graphical output is awesome”, and it’s also free.  The score factor categories with Klout are True Reach, Amplification Score, and Network Score.  “The Klout Score is a numerical representation of the size and strength of a person’s sphere of influence on Twitter. ”

So one can begin to see after reading all of these articles how Twitter has infiltrated more aspects our web-based lives than ever before.  As one article said we live “in a world where everything continually gets smaller and faster in order to satisfy our increasingly attention-deficit society”, and this kind of web-based service is not going anywhere soon.

http://asymptomatic.net/2010/07/29/2863/twitter-influence

http://edelmandigital.com/2010/06/08/tools-to-measure-your-twitter-influence/

http://steveplunkett.amplify.com/2010/08/18/8-reasons-why-twitter-power-users-are-influential-via-jeffbullas/

http://jerichotechnology.com/socialmedia/twitter-influence-in-technology-history-part2/

http://thecoffeedesk.com/news/index.php/2009/05/12/twitters-influence-on-web-design-patterns/

Podcasting

Podcasting is a free service which allows anyone that has Internet access to pull audio files (mp3 files sometimes referred to as RSS feeds) from a podcasting website to listen on their computer or personal digital audio player, like an iPod.  The word podcasting is actually derived from a combination of the words broadcasting and iPod.  Podcastings are usually set on a consistent schedule so you can get more “dedicated” listeners.  You can either listen to the podcast live while it is happening or you can download to a portable media player to listen to at your leisure (also referred to as downloading the podcast on demand).

I read in several articles where they stressed you need to have the right good quality equipment and softwares (microphone, headsets, audio recorder software, etc) to ensure your recording is easy to hear and understand.  But, one of the more repeated themes of the articles are how podcastings “allow you to voice your opinions and make an impact”.   It’s free.  Doesn’t cost a lot to start-up, and, right now, podcasting is free from government regulation.   So that means anything goes on a podcast where it be radical views, four-letter words, or sexually explicit material.  Sounds like the sky is the limit.  And you don’t need a license to broadcast your programming, like traditional radio stations do.

Also, it’s probably wise to be somewhat knowledgeable about the subject matter of your podcast and also have a passion for it because I most people can hear insincerity in a person’s voice.  It always builds listener loyalty when you appear like you know what you’re talking about since the listeners will keep coming back if you spark an interest with them.  You can also expand on your knowledge by inviting a friend or two to join you to make it more interesting and and engaging.  Also, can help the nervousness or “stage fright” of doing it alone for the first time.  And, like one of the articles said, “don’t be afraid to add humor and goofiness” to your podcast “because people love that”.

There are podcast feeds that you can subscribe to as well, but you’ll need a podcatcher software (the most popular which is iTunes) to be able to download these feeds.  That’s the freedom of podcasts.  You can listen to your podcast of choice any time and any place you want to.

Podcasting is also a great way to promote a business and promote its products and services.  No longer can you just have text or images on a blog.  You can have a human voice speaking to listeners which is a “more effective way to gain customers and potential clients’ loyalty”. “Podcasting adds a human voice and a distinct personality that builds listener loyalty”, and is also “inexpensive, easy to create and convenient”.  All that I read in the benefits of businesses having podcasts makes me think the company I work for could really start using such a technology to help sales and bring in new business.

All in all, I am more interested in podcasting now than I was before I read all of these articles, and it definitely sounds like it can be a lot of fun if you pick something that you’ll never get tired of discussing.  For me, that would probably be something music related, but I’m hoping now that it opens a brand new world to me in the field of web design.

http://rofx.net/internet-and-businesses-online/business-and-podcasting-finding-the-benefits/

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/podcasting.htm

http://serenedestiny.com/blog/opinion-pieces/how-podcasting-can-help-your-business/

Collective Intelligence

I read many different opinions in the articles I researched about collective intelligence.  One focused on the power of crowds and how collective intelligence works.  Two others on harvesting the collective wisdom (and/or intelligence) through/of social networks.   And the last from a wiki source (wapedia) which covered many different aspects (and effects) of collective intelligence on topics such as social bookmarking, video games, stock market predictions, and of course views on the subject.

The first one I read was probably the most interesting to me.  It discussed how knowledge is lost every time someone retires or leaves a company or organization, and also how “collective wisdom is eroded” when “an organization discourages diverse opinion”.  Lewis Frees, of Harmony Inc., “sees social networks at catalysts for building collective wisdom” and also stated that “social networks are the central nervous system of collective intelligence in your organization”.  For many years now, companies have implemented database programs (document management systems, CRM, etc) to collect and retain the collective knowledge of their employees in the event they were fired or retired.  Of course, many were or still are resistant to share such information publicly because “knowledge they possessed gave them a competitive edge, a hedge against job loss”.  The author made very valid points how “knowledge sharing should be an essential aspect of any organization” and gave seven characteristics of knowledge-based organizations.

The second part of this article discussed how private social networks promote the development of knowledge-based organization, and this is the most interesting part of the article to me.  I am writing about this article in detail more than the others primarily because I can see how implementing a private social networking application at my company would be beneficial, especially since they seem so afraid of change.  And, one of the seven characteristics I mentioned above specifically states that change should be embraced for this tool to be successful.  In particular, they talk about a company called Enable Consultants which creates private social networking applications.  When Enable implements their application in a corporate environment, they create each employee a profile, but every profile “has the same set of communication and knowledge sharing tools”.

When this application is being marketed to a company, they “advise them on the value of social networks” and discuss “triggers” which are “all about best impulses, flashes of thought that lead to the sharing of ideas to collectively solve problems and render inspired outcomes”.  The really co0l thing about Enable’s application is that they reward triggers “by issuing loyalty point for sharing information”.  Also, every contribution “converts to bankable points that can be converted by the company into trips, prizes, or other incentives”.  The point I’m trying to make about this particular article is that it really gives an opportunity for shy or “back row of the room” employees to speak about and contribute to conversations that they normally would remain silent on for fear of retaliation or from their ideas being immediately show down.  Just like I would be nervous to bring up implementing this kind of application at my company for the exact same reasons.  Awesome because, before reading this article, I had no idea something of the sort existed.

Another article discussed collective intelligence principles and how web companies (such as Amazon) use “data of a particular user on recommendations made to other users with compatible taste” and how “recommendations of such nature stimulate sales at the same time as they try to engage customers on future visits”.  “Accurate recommendation means profit”.  Two principles they discussed are “anonymity” meaning that “no disclosure of personal information” is presented from recommendations given to you or any other user on purchases, and the second “from you, for you” meaning they use your purchase history to learn your preferences but also “the knowledge obtained is returned to the customer by means of recommendations” back to you.

Also read many mentions of a site called Digg.com, which is a social network where “users can share content from anywhere on the web”, and how “if you want to grab the attention of Web developers, Digg is a good place to make an open call”.  Thought this may be of interest to many in our class since we’re all enrolled in the same degree program.

All in all, the idea and continued growth of collective intelligence in our lives (and especially our field of study) is very exciting and obviously very powerful in how it can shape and determine the outcome in so many fields, especially since contributions to “community-based knowledge forums”, such as Wikipedia, are so widespread and “greater than ever before”.  Users “can retrieve knowledge through the collective access to the these databases and allow them to harness the hive”.

http://newassignment.net/blog/david_cohn/jan2007/21/harvesting_the_c

http://artificialintelligence.suite101.com/article.cfm/the-power-of-crowds

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/enterprise-20/harvesting-collective-wisdom-through-enterprise-social-networks-007241.php

http://wapedia.mobi/en/Collective_intelligence

Professional Blogging

All of the articles that I read on professional blogging mainly deal with the topic of how to become a professional blogger and generate a decent sole income from it.  As some of us might love to experience the financial success of a “perezhilton”, the plain and simple fact is that making a sizable income from professional blogging is usually not possible because of lack of traffic.  As one article said “More traffic leads to more income – that’s a fact in nearly all cases.”

A professional blogger also needs to produce content that people will love, but, at the same time, you will need to have a passion for the topic you’re writing about, some technical knowledge (since blogs are based on content management software), some blogging knowledge (from research done of similar blow types and also learning about search engine optimization), web design skills (since most successful blogs are created on original sites and don’t permanently live on sites like wordpress, etc), and have creative ideas and hopefully a network of contacts to spread the word about your site whether they may be personal or professional in nature.

One has to be able to create an interest for their site to build up enough traffic for companies to be interested in wanting to advertise your site because, from what I read, that is where most of the income stems from in professional blogging.  You also have to be able to devote enough time to venture and, as some articles said, treat it as a full-time job if you’re serious about it creating enough of a salary to live comfortably.

To be honest for many years, I checked guilty pleasure sites like perezhilton or dlisted not even realizing they were technically blogs.  Nowadays, of course, I read other sites containing many other interests of mine from science to space and particularly music.  I very much enjoy how I’m able to read on a topic that I love and also be able to feel connected to it by being able to post personal comments or respond to other’s comments.  I can definitely now see how I’ll be able to use blogs as a very valuable and awesome resource to keep up to date on the latest web design discoveries and trends.

http://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/563/professional-blogging-as-a-business-model/

http://professionalblogging.org/introduction-to-professional-blogging.php

http://www.dailyblogtips.com/10-requisites-for-professional-bloggers/

RSS Feeds

Like one of the articles I read said “RSS feeds are the most important technology of the Web 2.0 era.  They allow users to consumer a huge amount of information, quicker and at their own speed.”  Instead of subscribing to newsletters via email, which may only have one item or article at a time that you’re interested in with the remaining content being useless, subscribing to RSS feeds allow users to get information from many different sources at one time in which you can quickly browse or scan through the feed for information that is relevant to your interested topic.

Also, nowadays email subscriptions can contain “viruses, spyware, or other malicious code”, but an RSS feed “scans all information input to your weblog for malware before presenting it to you” kind of like its very antivirus software.  That is definitely something I did not know until reading these articles and was happy to discover.  Also, you can opt-in or opt-out of any RSS feeds at any time, and you don’t have to worry about filtering problems like you do with email newsletter subscriptions.

I now really see how valuable these RSS feeds will be to all of us studying web design.  There is so much information on the web and so much new information being added on a daily basis in relation to our field of study that it would take an enormous amount of time to look up each of the blogs we’re interested in on an individual basis.  Having an aggregator subscribed to feeds of valuable information saves and aggravation of having to research things in the old traditional way.  I am definitely sold on this.

http://www.websitehandlers.com/2008/11/significance-of-rss-feeds/

http://particletree.com/features/the-importance-of-rss/

http://www.webinknow.com/2007/01/really_simple_m.html

http://raidxblog.com/seo/importance-of-rss-feeds

http://xebidy.com/the-importance-of-rss-feeds/

Personal Learning Environment

To be honest, I had never heard of a PLE until last week.  So this is all new to me.  While in class, I kept thinking of PLEs in terms of the Netvibes website we had to create an account for.  Since this was my first exposure to learning about PLEs, it seemed to me nothing more than a place to store your favorite websites as bookmarks.  Kind of like your favorites in a web browser.  Boy was I way off.  After reading all three of the articles I found online, I have a very different take on the whole Personal Learning Environment thing.  I mean I was still trying to figure out what a widget was (admitted embarrassingly and coming to the conclusion it was an icon kind of like a thumbnail, in my opinion) and then still trying not to laugh every time I came across the word “pedagogies”.  The word just makes me laugh.  Go figure.

Anyways, I finished reading all three of the articles (being somewhat annoyed that one author kept referring to himself in third person…ugh) and all the debate over whether it’s a system or a concept.  I honestly had no idea this PLE thing was as widespread and very closely related to primary and secondary education.  And then, of course, now I realize the Netvibes site mainly focuses on linking blogs on certain subjects or topics where users of a PLE try to shape or “customize” their own learning space.  The way I was originally thinking of it in class was as a completely casual extracurricular type of tool.  One where you read and link the latest ridiculous celebrity gossip/drama and or one where you read the latest discovery or invention in science or one where you can get lost in your daily dose of io9 or Geekologie.  I now see that Personal Learning Environments as something that helps the learner/user “take control of and manage their own learning”.

Now just thinking of a PLE as a sole source of learning, especially for secondary education like college, was enough to almost make my head explode.  I’m in college as we speak (obviously), and I can’t imagine having to learn everything I’ll be learning in a traditional classroom over networked blogs that can be endless at best.  The whole idea I read of it possibly one day taking over education as we now know it blew my mind.  I just can’t imagine that.  For people like me, I actually do better in school attending a college with traditional in-person classes.  I learn better that way.  I have to physically be in a different place (classroom) than say sitting on my desk at home.  I personally don’t have the discipline it would take to one day completely get my education from blogs (or I guess free information on the internet), but, at the same time I say that, I have taken an online class here and there and have succeeded at it.  I just much prefer going to a class myself.  At home, I’m easily distracted because it’s such a relaxed and casual environment, and then next you know I’m off tracking researching the net trying to figure out what that cool progressive house song was playing in the background on the Scion car commercial I just heard from the living room.  See, I just got distracted and went off on a tangent.  Kidding.  Let’s move on.

But back to PLEs.  If they were the norm one day for education, who’s in charge for setting the standards for what information should be learned say to get a bachelor’s degree in any given field.  How’s it going to be graded?  How are you going to know you’ve learned what you need to learn if there isn’t any clear cut direction?  Nowadays, it’s hard to believe some of what you read posted on the web.  Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether it’s a fact or opinion, and yes I know people post references to back up their information, etc.  The plain and simple fact is that takes time to research, and I chose to go to college because it’s convenient and I trust the information I’m being taught.  In addition, I chose to go to college and to class to be taught by an instructor who to me is an expert in their field, and I’m there to learn from them.  There would always be a starting point to begin an education whether it be through a PLE or through some kind of traditional college.  In traditional college, there is a curriculum, assignments, tests, books, etc.  I would think an educational PLE might begin the same way, but, if you don’t have a structured outline of what to learn to get your desired result as an expert (say in web design for this exercise) in the field you want to work in, how are you going to know what site to link or what blog to follow, etc.?  I guess in my understanding what it all boils down to if you would really have to trust your resources for information and also do a lot of the leg work on your own, if it wasn’t provided to you in some sort of outline like a degree plan is.

I read on more than one occasion in the article describing how in regards to a PLE the “numerous different tools are overwhelming”, and I have to say that’s an understatement when reading all these different views on what a PLE might actually be in terms of sticking an exact definition to it.  All these different PLE architectures, PLEF, PLEX project, and aggregation portal this and that is overwhelming within itself.  I definitely have a newfound appreciation for what a PLE could mean for every single person sometime in the near future, and I’m ready to embrace it but of course will always have certain apprehensions until they are put to rest.  Man, at first I thought the whole PLE thing was going to be another way of “they” forcing you to join MySpace and Facebook where some people feel the need to give you a play by play of their entire day and where they are at any given time.  That’s just not me and never will be.  I actually enjoy my privacy and don’t need the world to know my latest feelings on the last Lost episode or who I can’t stand on the Bachelor or whatever that show’s name is.  I was almost ill thinking there was going to be another personal social-networking application or website I had to keep up with in addition to working full-time and going to school.  Proud (and glad) to say I was wrong in my assumption, and that a Personal Learning Environment might actually help me more with my studies more than I ever thought it could.  Just have to stay focused and not get lost in the other Web 2.0 applications that may be entertaining but not productive for school purpose.  Anyways, much more to come later in the semester and much more to learn.  Antennas are up and reading to receive incoming academic transmissions.

http://www.prolearn-academy.org/Events/Past%20Events/summer-school-2008/workshops/personal-learning-environment-ple-2013-a-new-learning-concept-or-a-new-learning-system

http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/wiki/index.php?title=Ple#What_is_a_Personal_Learning_Environment.3F

http://edutechwiki.unige.ch/en/Personal_learning_environment

Web 2.0: The New Guy At Work

This article describes how corporate employees realized that “Web 2.0-style networking and collaboration can help them in their jobs.”, and how of these employees are trying to bring this type of networking/collaboration “inside the walls of their companies”.  It talks about empowerment being the principal appeal of Web 2.0, and how all of these services are merging everything into one giant computer that anyone with internet access can use.  It uses Google as an example stating that when you do a search “you’re actually setting in motion programs and databases distributed around the globe on computer hard drives”.

What I thought was interesting was the decline of employees using their own company’s intranet sites.  They gave an example of one company using a social-networking site (Socialtext wiki) where “participants in a project can avoid endless e-mail exchanges and instead post documents, schedules, and other materials on a wiki Web site, which anyone else on the project can then append with changes or comments.”  And, after six months of using this social-networking and collaboration site, they had “been a 75% drop in the number of e-mails on projects using wikis”.  I thought that was amazing because we all relate to the endless number of emails you can receive on any given day at work in relation to any given project.  I know from personal experience at the company where I work, the owners and executives have been very hesitant to use the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) in the way it was intended.  Every department could use this site to bulletins, current events in the department (like winning new business), and most importantly (in my particular situation) file sharing where they would only be one master file that would track changes efficiently and accurately.  We’ve had this system in place for quite some time, and all they use it for is to post insignificant and ridiculous company bulletins like when the next potluck is.  Funny thing is no amount of trying to convince them ever works.  Some people are set in their ways and scared of change, unfortunately.  It’s a privately family-owned company.  So they basically do what they want, and it’s sad because the work environment could be so much more efficient and not plagued with as much stress as it is now.

But, back to the article, it does state how other companies who are being smart and catching on the trend are “starting to take a page from MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking services. The reason: Businesses are, in a sense, social networks formed to make or sell something.”  Corporations no longer want to buy mega-expensive software that takes years to implement and roll out.  It discusses another alternative called “mash-ups, where simple, existing Web 2.0 services are combined and put to a new use.”  The article specifically discusses how IBM helped the US Chamber of Commerce Center for Corporate Citizenship “mash together a one-stop site in just a few weeks for people who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina to look for jobs. People type into one box the kind of job they’re seeking, and the site searches more than 1,000 job boards, then shows their location on a Google map.”  I thought this was an incredible use of resources used in a way to help thousands of people in a very fast, efficient way.  Now only if this could be said to their response time to other crisis situations.

All in all Web 2.0 is here to stay, and I believe that many companies that don’t change with the times will eventually perish from being too old-fashioned and stuck in their ways.  “Corporate folks accustomed to clear lines of authority may have to tolerate bottom-up Web 2.0 technologies in order to help their employees reap the potential productivity gains.”   As Dave Girouard, vice-president in charge of Google Inc.’s (GOOG ) enterprise division stated “This isn’t people fooling around. It’s people trying to do their jobs better.”  I couldn’t have said it better.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_25/b3989072.htm