Text Mex

A recently published article in Interactive Learning Environments entitled 'Use of Instant Messaging in Online Learning Environments' [14 (3), 205-218] suggests that Instant Messaging is even better for students than face to face communication. The authors, Juan Contreras-Castrillo et al, give a Mexican perspective on the use of this technology, and eulogise about how good it is, at least for their sample of 43 students and 4 teachers.

It seems that remote students gave the teacher a 'virtual apple' in the form of welcoming messages, which the authors claim helped to establish a 'better social presence'. Students tended to use IM for low level stuff like superfluous chatting rather than about the course. It's a kind of passing paper messages around type of use by the sounds of it. The authors conclude by claiming that the use of IM 'increases students's satisfaction by providing continuous opportunities for interaction with the teacher and classmates'.

Not on weekends it doesn't (I hope). Sounds like a flaming nightmare for teachers who enjoy a little time off from the trials and tribs of the classroom, virtual or otherwise....

Taking the Wii

Well it's official. Video games are better for your kids than watching TV. A recent report in The Psychologist [20 (1), pp 26-29] by Kevin Durkin (University of Strathclyde) entitled 'Myers, Media and Modern Times' tells us that although video games have been given bad press in the past, there may be hope.

Video gaming has been held responsible for a number of negative effects including addiction, impairment of family life and peer relations, damage to school performance and even obesity and aggressive behaviour.

Now, says Durkin, a study of over 1000 American 16 year olds has shown that low and high players of video games show less substance abuse than 'never players'. Low and high players of video games also reported higher levels of family closeness and attachment to school than did 'never players'. There must be something in this lark then. 1000 American kids can't be wrong. I'm on to Amazon right away to buy the new Nintendo Wii for each of my kids.

PS: Actually folks, all joking aside, it's an informative article - get hold of it and read it if you are interested in media effects on young people.

The Podfather (Part 1)

A well-known scene from the film 'The Podfather' (Part 1)...Dedicated to a friend who was recently 'hit'. No names, no packdrill.

DON PODLEONE: Nanosera, we know each other for years, but this is the first time you come to me for help. I don't remember the last time you invited me to your blogspot ... even though our wives text each other.
NANOSERA: What do you want of me? I'll give you anything you want, but do what I ask!
DON PODLEONE: And what is that Nanosera?
(Nanosara whispers into the Don's ear.)
DON PODLEONE: No. You ask for too much!
NANOSERA: I ask only for protection!
DON PODLEONE: Your software gave you protection.
NANOSERA: An i for an i...!
DON PODLEONE: But your daughter is still online.
NANOSERA: Then make the spammers suffer as she suffers. How much shall I pay you?
DON PODLEONE: You never think to protect yourself with a firewall. You think it's enough to have McAfee. All right, McAfee protects you, so you don't need a friend like me. But now you come to me and say Don Podleone, you must give me protection. And you don't ask in respect or friendship. And you don't think to call me Podfather. Instead you come to my house on the day I go phishing and you ask me to protect you ...from spammers.
NANOSERA: McAfee has been good to me...
DON PODLEONE: Then install Spamkiller 5.0 with your firewall, the Stinger with the Freescan, Nanosera. But if you come to me with your friendship, your loyalty, then your enemies become my enemies, and then, believe me, they would fear to attack you...
(Slowly, Nanosera bows his head and murmurs.)
NANOSERA: Be my e-pal.
DON PODLEONE: Good. From me you'll get protection.
NANOSERA: Podfather.
DON PODLEONE: Some day, and that day may never come, I would like to call upon you to do me a service in return.
(Don Podleone sits back in his chair and gives a hacking cough)

i-Pod, therefore i-learn...?

The i-pod craze is gaining momentum. For Christmas 2006, it is set to be one of the most popular gifts, and even the superstores are selling them, complete with all the 'trimmings'. The future it seems, is not orange - it's apple. (Pithy or what?) i-Pods sit next to the other electrical goods and come in several versions, including the nano. I have a 30 GB version, but there are larger memory versions available. Users can store any type of digital file on them in celebration of convergence - the fact that photographs, music tracks, text files, video sequences and all else can be digitised and stored in the same place as a file.

Now we have to find ways to use the i-pod in education. I know some people have already started. Both Drexel and Duke Universities in the good ol' USA have already begun to use them in anger. In the UK South Kent College in Dover dished out over a 100 i-pods to new students at the start of the academic year, 2006.

The use of podcasting is beginning to burgeon in higher education. Lecturers are recording their lectures and then posting them on websites, complete with RSS feeds so that absent students need no longer fall asleep in the lecture hall. Now they can fall asleep anywhere whilst listening to the lecture, whether at home, work or on the bus!

Excellent news - 'anytime, anyplace' sleeping is set to be the next killer application!

Seriously, just because lecturers are making their lectures available as podcasts, doesn't mean that learning will take place. i-Pod doesn't mean I therefore learn. It simply means that another method of delivery is available to e-learners, and we now need to test it out to see what it can and can't do. Watch out for the Podfather....

Caught between a rock and a hard drive

Well, it's been five days now since the university network crashed and burned and we have all been left e-mail-less (is that a word? It is now...) This means that in effect I have been cut off from all those around the world I usually communicate to using this illustrious technology.

Some of my colleagues are cock-a-hoop that they have been 'set free', even temporarily, liberated from the shackles of the monster we all know as 'e-mail'. "Hooray!" I hear them shout - "no more spam!" Personally, I'm a little uneasy about it. Not the spam - sending unwanted bulk e-mails should be punishable by a whole day of listening to Barry Manilow. No, I'm more worried about the backlog. How many e-mails are stacking up unanswered? Will my students and colleagues think I am deliberately ignoring them? What if there is something important waiting for my response?

I got to thinking - we are all so very dependent on e-mail as our prime communication method now, that when we are deprived of it for any reason, holiday, sickness, hands tied behind our backs due to a bank robbery, temporary blindness due to a surfeit of falling down water over the festive season.... we are actually disabled in some way.

For students relying on e-mail and other electronic delivery of content and communication, it is exactly like that - it is as if they are struck suddenly blind and deaf. It is most disconcerting if this is the only way they can access their learning.

Bring back our books! shout the techno-luddites. (Books have never left us, guys, so stop the moaning). Students have a right to complain when networks fall over and e-mail fails. For our e-learners, perhaps we now need to explore a multitude of alternative delivery methods. The belt and braces approach that blended learning can accommodate.

We have the technology - we now need the techniques.

Digging among the Swedes

I gave a paper at the EDEN conference in Vienna in June this year, and afterwards I was approached by a Swedish delegate. We talked briefly (as you do) about my research and I casually remarked that Sweden was the only Nordic country I had never visited. Pleasant chap. Nice conversation. I thought no more of it. When I got back to my office, he had send me an invitation to visit his university in Umea, to speak at their learning technology conference. In Web 2.0, you can Digg or Dump an idea. The University of Umea is quite close to the Arctic circle and the event was in mid-November. Icy. Freezing cold. Snow. Perpetual darkness. OK - I said. Love to. I digg.

Flying from London Heathrow into Stockholm with SAS should have been a pleasant experience. However, the flight was delayed, and my connection to Umea was less than an hour away, across the other side of a very large airport. Problems... I was told I had to collect my baggage from the carousel and re-check it in. This is not standard practice for most airlines, because when they promise that your luggage is 'checked through', you expect not to see it until you reach your final destination. But not so SAS. I should have known, just by looking at the acronym that this journey would not be smooth.

My time was short, and my connection time ticking closer... I stood there and waited, and waited for some time - 'baggonising' - and when eventually my bag appeared, I rushed across the air terminal to catch my connection. More problems ... my bag needed to go through the X-Ray before it could be re-checked in. More delay. More angst. Can we open your bag sir? My shaving foam, deodorant and hair gel are all confiscated. Security are very sorry, but it was all Tony Blair's idea in the first place. Well I didn't vote for him.

My razor blades and a pair of scissors were left untouched in my bag. What's that all about? Either they are fastidious about security on board planes or ... If I was a terrorist, I could do some permanent damage with a pair of scissors, I know I could. Or a razor. My face sometimes attests to this in the early morning. It is most unlikely that I would deliberately hair gel a cabin crew member though....

Umea is a cool university in more ways than one. They have an excellent, modern, compact campus, and it is very well designed. The interiors are very impressive - have to be when you get only 2 hours of greylight a day. The people are friendly too - they fell over backwards to make my short stay enjoyable and informative. I gave my presentation on 'Social Presence in online learning environments' to an audience of around 50-60 people, and there was good, constructive discussion afterwards. They were organised too. My talk was posted as a streamed media presentation two days later.

I will be going back - they have already invited me. Next time, though, I shall make sure that I don't suffer a repeat performance of the 'checked through' syndrome.