UISUISBlogs, Wikis and Musings on the Future of Online

LearningRay Schroeder

Prof Emeritus / Director OTEL

UISUIS

First, Some Musings

Online learning as we know it has been around for a dozen years– Though such systems as PLATO date back a

quarter of a century or more

What have we learned?– Hundreds of studies show online learning

can be at least as good – in many cases better than – face-to-face (f2f)

– Quality online learning in most ways analogous to f2f – engagement is paramount

– Consider your best classroom experience

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More Musings

Five Pillars of ALN - Sloan Consortium http://www.sloan-c.org – Access (location, location, location)– Learning effectiveness– Faculty satisfaction– Student satisfaction– Cost effectiveness

Online learning enrollments growing at 25% per year nationally

More than 2.5 million enrolled online in US – fall 2004 (Sloan-C survey)

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More Musings

Progressive interest at UIS Digital Natives

– Largest k/12 population since baby boom– New expectations– New approaches – Gaming, simulations, digital environments

Future– Commuter campus enrollment drops

Energy costs, time costs, continuing ed needs– New immersive environments emerging– No longer “e-learning” – just “learning”

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Wiki

Wiki = quick wiki wiki = really quick Online collaborative tool Enables multiple parties to edit

document Keeps record of previous versions

– So your prior edits are not lost

Comment fields available Many potential applications in education http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WikiInEducation

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Wiki Spaces

Creating a Wiki– http://www.wikispaces.org – FREE!

http://govst.wikispaces.org– Editing your Wiki– http://www.wikispaces.org/wikitext

Many versions of wikis are available for mounting on your own servers to permit custom and password protection

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Blogs

WeB + LOG = Blog 1997 – the first blogs appeared Reverse chronological order New blog created every 10 seconds Enables “public” journaling with

comment capability http://www.pembinatrails.ca/program/tec

hnology/uses_of_blogs_in_education.htm

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Creating a Blog

Scores of blogging software options– Desktop based– Web based– Hosted / unhosted

Blogger – purchased by Google in 2004 Ray’s Online Learning Update Blog

– http://onlinelearningupdate.net

Takes just three minutes to set up! http://www.blogger.com

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Pedagogy of Blogs/Wikis

How do these tools fit in? Pedagogical elements

– Student-centered– Collaborative– Constructivist– global in nature

http://mt.middlebury.edu/middblogs/ganley/bgblogging/006557.html

http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=126&action=synopsis

http://webquest.sdsu.edu/necc2004/blogs-and-wikis.htm 

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Collaboration

Favorite topic! Collaboration

– Among students working together Wiki construction, revisions

– Among students in different classesBlogs with comments across disciplines

– Among students in different geographic regionsRegional awareness / global awarenessComment fields

http://llt.msu.edu/vol7num2/emerging/default.html

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RSS Defined

RSS – method of sharing updates online– Rich Site Summary– Really Simple Syndication– 1997 – Radio Userland (blog)

Provides summary of content XML – advanced version of html

– Essential elements in RSS XMLTitleLinkDescription

Example – http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/onlinelearning/blogger_rss.xml

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Some Examples of RSS Feeds

News Services– New York Times RSS feeds– ABC News feeds – BBC News feeds – Wall Street Journal – Chronicle of Higher Education

Academic Journals– Law Journal Feeds – Library Science Feeds – Biomedical and Health Feeds

Dynamic Pages– http://www.rss-to-javascript.com

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How RSS Works

Really Simple 1. XML file is posted on the web and updated

anytime

2. Prospective readers find the address of the .xml page

3. Readers use an aggregator – a simple, usually free, program – to automatically search for updates whenever they are online

4. Other sites can use the .xml files to dynamically-update their web pages (as in syndicate like AP or Reuters)

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Aggregators

Aggregators check xml sites at pre-determined times (as often as every few minutes – as infrequently as upon request)– News Is Free – Sharp Reader

FeedBurner re-formats the xml into files that can be easily read in IE and all other browsers– Online Learning xml– Online Learning feed burner

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True Syndication via RSS

Remote RSS site is updated When visitor visits the aggregating site, a script

seeks the latest (updated) rss .xml file, excerpts relevant data (i.e. links and text)

The new page is automatically (dynamically) created for the viewer

Increasing numbers of sites are aggregating Ray’s blogs– Online Learning Update– Techno-News– Educational Technology

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Syndication Sites of Ray’s Blogs

*Bloglines http://bloglines.com/preview?siteid=1696 *East Tennessee State Univ. http://www.etsu.edu/oit/ats/rss/rss.asp?feed=4*Feedness (Spanish) http://www.feedness.com/read/10683*MacKenty http://www.mackenty.org/index.php/learn/student_work/*OTEL http://otel.uis.edu/ *Portland Community College

http://www.distance.pcc.edu/distancehq/RSSdisplay.cfm?Sectionname=index

*SciencePort Newsfeed http://us.scienceport.org/index.php?show=feed&SiteID=1076

*Sloan-Consortium http://www.sloan-c.org *Technik-Infos http://technik.hakzell.at/rdf_news.php*Technology4Teachers

http://www.technology4teachers.com/?q=aggregator/sources/2 *Universiti Terbuka Malaysia http://www.mobynuke.net/v3/ *University of Auckland http://cfdl.auckland.ac.nz/news/aggregator.php *University of Illinois Online http://www.online.uillinois.edu

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Not Just Blogs

The future of RSS is booming – just as “blog” was “word of the year in 2004” RSS will be especially “hot” in 2005

Shareware / Freeware RSS generators Input either text or html and convert content

to .xml file for RSS distribution

Without endorsement: http://www.nightskyobserver.com/RSSGen/ http://softwaregarden.com/products/listgarden/ http://www.tristana.org/writer http://www.feedforall.com/

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Contact info

More information on RSS, Blogging and application of technology to enhance

teaching and learning:

Ray SchroederOffice of Technology-Enhanced Learning

Schroeder.ray@uis.edu217-206-7531

This presentation is online:http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/govst.ppt