As most researchers and academics know - studying and writing can be a lonely business - but the internet can make it better!
Google+ is the latest shiny social media playground and admittedly it looks pretty good so far.
Through #mooc, #edumooc and cck11 I have become ever more involved up in the world of online social media - so rather than working on my book I have prevaricated all day and played on twitter and google+.
I do like most features on google+ so far - although it can be a little creepy. A comment on my stream that the platform seems faster than FB, prompted a little pop up message thanking me for 'a nice post' from GOOGLE itself.
I am slightly undecided on how to judge this message - in a way it is a timely and transparent reminder and that all our information, which is put out by us on FB, Google, Twitter and our e-mails do get stored and semantically analysed. Consequently to maintain the illusion of a 'private conversation' or 'direct message' online is basically insane.
On the plus side, google+ IS actually very nifty and the whole Circles thing is much better than Facebook Friends.
There are already some early adopter networks out there, like the interesting sounding 'women of google plus'. Apparently only 10% of subscribers on google+ are women - and despite my reservation of single-sex groups, I find myself tempted to actually sign up.
Saturday 9 July 2011
Friday 1 July 2011
#edumooc - the benefits of lurking
Well,
here goes my 3rd MOOC - and I anticipate that I will be lurking around again! I am referring to the rather neat categorisation of mobiMOOC (my 2nd MOOC) - participants were asked to self-categorise into the following options, before and after completion of the course:
1)lurker
2)moderately active
3)memorably active
While I had initially aspired to the 2nd category I never managed to get beyond 'lurker'. Nevertheless, I found that just being involved on the periphery, subscribing to the googlegroup, email digests and also the Facebook groups was very useful indeed. I learned an enormous amount through links which were shared, and I was able to follow up topics which interested me in my own time. Of course I would have gleaned more if I had participated more actively - something which holds for everything in life, the more you put in the more you get out. While I was initially beating myself up about this, I have now cheerfully missed the first online session of #edumooc - although I do have to admit that 'the first come fist serve basis' of getting into the online class room put me off from even trying.
So here goes to a summer of lurking - the online equivalent of being the kid in the back of the class who sometimes surprises. Although in my case it's not attention deficit, but attention overload by trying to juggle too much stuff. Everything is interesting!
here is the link for anyone who wants to dip their online toes into an open learning environment:
https://sites.google.com/site/edumooc/
here goes my 3rd MOOC - and I anticipate that I will be lurking around again! I am referring to the rather neat categorisation of mobiMOOC (my 2nd MOOC) - participants were asked to self-categorise into the following options, before and after completion of the course:
1)lurker
2)moderately active
3)memorably active
While I had initially aspired to the 2nd category I never managed to get beyond 'lurker'. Nevertheless, I found that just being involved on the periphery, subscribing to the googlegroup, email digests and also the Facebook groups was very useful indeed. I learned an enormous amount through links which were shared, and I was able to follow up topics which interested me in my own time. Of course I would have gleaned more if I had participated more actively - something which holds for everything in life, the more you put in the more you get out. While I was initially beating myself up about this, I have now cheerfully missed the first online session of #edumooc - although I do have to admit that 'the first come fist serve basis' of getting into the online class room put me off from even trying.
So here goes to a summer of lurking - the online equivalent of being the kid in the back of the class who sometimes surprises. Although in my case it's not attention deficit, but attention overload by trying to juggle too much stuff. Everything is interesting!
here is the link for anyone who wants to dip their online toes into an open learning environment:
https://sites.google.com/site/edumooc/
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