About the Class
Microblogging in education by Carmen Holotescu, Dr.Gabriela Grosseck
About the Presenters:
Both authors have a large experience in using Web2.0 technologies in education, collaboration, social learning. They use such technologies, and especially microblogging, to run online courses for universities, but also for continuous education. They have participated in many European projects, have written papers and books/ebooks related to eLearning, Web2.0 technologies, teacher training.
About the Presentation:
Microblogging is the Web2.0 technology of the moment, having applications in many domains, including education. A few microblogging platforms feature in the Tops 100 Tools for Learning 2009 / 2010, compiled by Jane Hart from Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies: Twitter, Edmodo , Cirip.eu, Yammer.
These platforms will be the subject of the presentation, together with Identi.ca, Plurk, Shoutem, etc. The focus will be on Cirip.eu, specially designed for education.
Possible uses of microblogging in education will be discussed and exemplified.
- Classroom community: Communication on microblogs enhances traditional courses, exploring the potential of microblogging in formal and informal settings: students discuss different kinds of asynchronous online discourse, considering voice, purpose, audience, to organize ideas, reflect, send notes, manage meet-ups, serendipitous discovery etc. On Cirip.eu there are many private groups that host learning communities.
- Exploring collaborative writing: Microblogging promotes writing as a fun activity, it fosters editing skills, develop literacy skills; it can give our students a chance to record their cognitive trails and then use them to reflect on their work. The Cirip.eu public groups A haiku each day or Stories in 140 characters are such examples.
- Collaboration across schools, universities, countries: Pupils, students, teachers share their experience, learning socially.
- Project Management: Groups are set up o Cirip.eu for projects working, notes can be picked up on cell phones, as SMS, and so is no need to be online in order to communicate with your colleagues.
- A tool for assessing opinion, examining consensus, looking for outlying ideas, fostering interaction about a given topic.
- A viable platform for metacognition (the practice of thinking about and reflecting on your learning) has been shown to benefit comprehension and retention.
- Conference or as part of a conference or workshop: Dedicated groups provide a simple way for attendees at a conference to share thoughts, to publish and discuss presentations with others at the event and those unable to attend; they are also useful for learning from the stream / further reflections.
- Each user can build her/his Personal Learning Environment / Personal Learning Network (PLN), which contains – the last three only for Cirip.eu:
connections with the followed users,
groups in which the user participates, on topics she/he is interested
feeds provided by sites/blogs/social networks and search feeds on different topics,
social networks which provide the multimedia objects embedded by platform.
- Reference services (in libraries): People could monitor and communicate with dedicated accounts to learn about library events, new books, or get responses to library user questions.
- Online courses: Entire online courses for formal and informal education are run on the Cirip.eu platform, using the private groups facilities:
--A group has a special section for announcements (Group News) - another original element of the platform, where the moderators can post notes and useful materials as SCORM/LOM objects for the group activities.
--The discussions on the proposed themes are realized through messages sent by the participants in the group space. Messages can be sent / monitored online (web site, CiripFox, mobile version) or as: SMS; instant messages; e-mail, etc.
--Other valuable options are the facilities to send live video / audio messages and to integrate multimedia objects in the notes; all of them become part of the information / communication flow: audio/video clips, images, presentations, files, but also learning design objects – the latest are useful to share, improve, reuse scenarios in teaching/learning.
--Also the participants learn how to find/use/create educational resources on the corresponding social networks. Their digital skills are improved, and their PLEs/PLNs are enlarged with these networks too.
-Meta-learning: In the special group on the platform dedicated to learning designs (group lds), the teachers discuss, validate and improve the scenarios of learning activities and courses they develop, formalizing them as mindmaps embedded in Cirip notes. They can also find peers for peer-mentoring their courses.
References
1.Becta (2009). Software and internet analysis - Micro-blogging in education, http://url.ie/18re.
2.Ebner, M., Schiefner, M. (2008). Microblogging - more than fun? In Proceedings of IADIS Mobile Learning Conference 2008, Inmaculada Arnedillo Sánchez and Pedro Isaías ed., Portugal, 2008
3.Grosseck, G., Holotescu, C. (2008). Can we use Twitter for educational activities In The 4th International Scientific Conference eLSE "eLearning and Software for Education", Bucharest, April 17-18, 2008
4.Grosseck, G., Holotescu, C. (2009). Indicators for the analysis of learning and practice communities from the perspective of microblogging as a provocative sociolect in virtual space In The 5th International Scientific Conference eLSE "eLearning and Software for Education", Bucharest, April 9-10, 2009
5.Grosseck, G., Holotescu, C. (2010). Microblogging Multimedia Based Teaching Methods, In “World Conference on Educational Sciences”, Istanbul, Turkey, February 4-8, 2010
6.Holotescu, C., Grosseck, G. (2009) Using Microblogging for Collaborative Learning In Proceedings of „New Technology Platforms for Learning – Revisited”, LOGOS Open Conference On Strengthening the Integration Of Ict Research Effort, 19-20 January 2009, Budapest, Hungary
7.Holotescu, C., Grosseck, G. (2010). Learning to microblog and microblogging to learn. A case study on learning scenarios in a microblogging context In The 6th International Scientific Conference eLearning and Software for Education, Bucharest, April 15-16, 2010.
8.Milstein, S., Lorica, B. (2008). Twitter and the Micro-Messaging Revolution: Communication, Connections, and Immediacy—140 Characters at a Time, In O’Reilly Media, 2008
Integrating Technology for Active Life-long Learning
CO11 on IT4ALL Moodle & WiZiQ
Feb 4-6, 2011
Welcome to the annual connecting online live online conference (CO11). You are cordially invited to participate at the live online conference on the weekend of Feb 4-6 2011.
The conference will be of interest to educators, administrators, students, and community members who value the importance of integrating technology into the curriculum to improve instruction and learning. Online learning involves various skills on the part of the instructor and learner. These include social and communication skills, social networking, independent learning strategies, critical and higher order thinking skills, creativity, and effective online and face-to-face facilitation. In addition, there are may challenges that the educators, administrators, students, and community members face.
The CO11 will be conducted on IT4ALL Moodle with the presentations on WiZiQ through the Moodle.
The themes for the presentations are:
- Connecting Online to Improve Instruction and Learning: Online Learning and Instructional Experience
- Experiences with technology in face-to-face and online classes. What worked and what didn't work for you?
- How do you use technology to promote and sustain your online workshops, consultation, and communities of practice and learning?
- Research conducted on e-learning, blended online learning, and blended learning.
- Reviewing or promoting books on integrating technology into the classroom, e-learning, blended learning, and blended online learning.
- Challenges administrators, instructors, students, and community members face in connecting online.
Language of instruction:
English
Keywords: microblogging, co11