Project coming up

Started to work on my project, its about creating a limited digital canon of source materials in Swedish political history, designed to make it easier for students to write term papers concerning the subject area. Lots of problems with the idea and also possibilities. Will try to explore those in my project report.

Video presentation

Well, in the end i skipped prezi, instead I was inspired to kick off my presentation with a short video, an animation illustrating how news traveled in order to reach Northern Scandinavia at the beginning of the Crimean war (1854-1856) when it was transported though ships and land transports. It was fairly easy to do in GE and I captured the video with Fraps. At the conference it made my presentation stand out against the competition of many traditional PP presentations.

See the video at Youtube:

Fear of failure

At the end of next week i am going to a conference. My idea was to use Prezi for the presentation instead of MS PP. Am a bit afraid though, that it will be a negative experience.
1. Technical problems, computer hangs or something, since everything is set up for pp
2. People getting annoyed with all the zooming and panning, me coming across as a show-off
3. Overall giving the impression that it is all too flashy, PP is boring, but by using it, the tool itself becomes invisible since it is the norm.

Will still make a shot though, but takes some energy thinking about backup solutions. I always bring plastic slides to important presentations in case the projector starts burning or something. Maybe this time I will bring the Prezintation, plastic slides AND a few PP-slides on a stick as well. Just in case.

Maybe I should have my key points printed on a t-shirt too, if everything goes havoc, I'll just start unbuttoning my shirt...

Tools for teaching

The department is launching new online courses, and therefore a day of learning is required for all teachers unfamiliar with Camtasia and Marratech. We'll see how it goes.

Computers versus teachers?

In Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter Malin Siwe has commented on the idea that shools should have a minimum ratio of computers-pupils. Although her rhetoric is kind of coarse, I most heartily agree with the idea that the ability to analyse meaning is more important than knowing how to cut and paste in MS word. Tools are tools, be they computers or pens and books. Its a tricky question though, knowing ones' way round computers is also a social skill these days, and forming students into able citizens also means enabling them to live with success in the technology-immersed society that is ours.

http://www.dn.se/opinion/signerat/skolan-behover-inte-it-plan-1.935098

Twitter: 40%Pointless babble, Documented

An American company has analysed the content of twitter messages and found that 40% is "pointless babble" of the type "I am eating a sandwich". Is that "research" by any norm? I wonder what the rate of babble would be for the sms-messages sent by those with a flat-rate fee-structure.


http://mashable.com/2009/08/12/twitter-analysis/

Learning platforms: 3, Ping Pong

No picture of this one, since it is the one we're using on the course. To me, this one seems the most intuitive, it's easy to add elements and administer results. I am not sure, but I think there is a decent statistics module, making the mechanics of being a course administrator easier. It seems most geared to web 2.0, with the integration of blogging and other fancy stuff. If I had to choose I think I would pick Ping Pong. On the other hand it is a bit unfair since this course is done by people specializing in these kinds of things. Maybe the impression would be different if the example course was a strict course in physics done by someone uninterested in social media.

One aspect I have still to come to terms with, is the role of TEXT within these platforms. The concept promotes a click-approach to learning, which is good because it stimulates interest. A reading-approach, if we may call it that, on the other hand, means you have to accept a linear structure imposed by textual course material. Depending on the learning objective this could be a good or a bad thing. As a historian, you are supposed to be good at digesting large amounts of text. I am not sure if this could be learned efficiently through a platform structure, which promotes accessing and reflecting on chunks of texts, but not longer coherent narratives.