Carmen Holotescu : Activity

Book Meme 123.5 - Find what the others read

Mon, 29 May 2006 21:18:47 GMT

Book Meme: 123.5

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don�t search around and look for the �coolest� book you can find. Do what�s actually next to you.

Via Catherine Howell - educause.edu

The nearest book is:

Learning Design - Rob Koper, Colin Tattersall, Springer: "MOT+, described above, provides a powerful graphical language which aims to provide learning designers with the tools which they require to define any structure which they may need."

Technorati Tag: Book Meme 123.5

The Seven Competencies of Online Interaction

Mon, 29 May 2006 21:18:16 GMT

Northern Voice 2006
Blogging Conference takes place now in Canada - via
CogDogBlog.

Nancy White had a wonderful
presentation
about competencies of online evaluation.

The seven competencies would be - yes, Nancy put the most important on the
last position:

2. Online Communications

3. Learning with Others

4. Facilitation for relationship, identity/reputation, presence, flow

5. Intercultural Antennae

6. Tolerance for Ambiguity

7. Ability to switch contexts

1. Finally, most important� Self-Awareness

Please see the echoes
of
Nancy's presentation - with
BlogsBattle.

Update - and look, the competencies presented by Nancy are shown by
herself in such a simple, concrete, but also surprising way for me: she already
wrote

two comments at my note telling that:

the presentation at Northern Voice
2006 is online at

fullcirc.com/weblog/onfacblog.htm - please note the inventiveness of using photos and

flickr facilities for storing

mixing the audio file from
CogDogBlog +
the presentation

fullcirc.com/weblog/onfacblog.htm = the result is
makeashorterlink.com/?Z5B5262AC.

Thanks again, Nancy!

Gabriela announces us at

Coniecto that she participates now in the
Facilitating Online
Workshop, organised by Full Circle;
success, Gabriela, we are waiting for your stories.

Some principlea of ( online ) learning

Mon, 29 May 2006 21:17:32 GMT

Five years ago, when I was trained to become Online Instructor for UMUC, one
of the papers I have to study and to debate with my colleagues was the wonderful
article Seven
Principles of Good Teaching Practice written by Dr. James W. King
from University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The principles are listed below:

Encourage Student- Faculty Contact

Encourage Cooperation Among Students

Encourage Active Learning

Give Prompt Feedback

Emphasize Time on Task

Communicate High Expectations

Respect Diverse Talents and Ways of Learning.

See
new
adaptations of these principles and a
table
with these principles for traditional and online instruction.

Since then I have read and have written a lot of articles on this topic.

Two days ago I found a very clear article at
Xplanzine:

Parables on Learning - The Basic Principles by Rob Reynols:

Ask questions

Collect wisdom

Don�t compartmentalize

Be free

Promote good character

Be open and clear

Have fun

See abundance

Embrace community

Be spiritual

--I will extend this note, explaining how I apply all these principles in my online courses;
just to find a little time for this--

Using flickr and BubbleShare to create Educational Resources

Mon, 29 May 2006 21:16:29 GMT

Working on his book "Blogs, Wikis,
Podcasts, and other powerful Web Tools for classrooms", Will Richardson
comes with an example
of using annotated flickr photos.

Some visitors
comment on their experiences.

I also use this tool in my online courses:
here is an example
for a Unix course, having an extended HTML description - which the examples
above don't have, and also comments on the image and in the forum.

Sometime ago I invited the Romanian teachers to join the

flickr in Education group in order to learn/produce/share Educational
Resources.

And a few days ago I presented the

possibility of using BubbleShare:
to an image/set of images you can add a voice presentation and the students can
comment in a forum - so a new possibility of creating Educational Resources.

Subscribing to the RSS provided for each image - Learning Resource in our case - by both flickr and BubbleShare, the teacher/facilitator and the students can monitor the posted comments.

Web 2.0

Mon, 29 May 2006 21:14:17 GMT

Useful resources on Web2.0:

Web 2.0 at Wikipedia

BBC NEWS | Technology | Berners-Lee on the read/write web

Talking with Stephen Downes about online learning and Web 2.0

What E-Learning 2.0 means To You

E-learning 2.0, by Stephen Downes - eLearnMag

eLearning 2.0 resources

Weblogg-ed
- The Read/Write Web in the Classroom

Technological Reinvention

Web 2.0 for Designers

Web 2.0 API Reference - ProgrammableWeb

Why Web2.0 Matters: Preparing for Glocalization

Web 2.0: The Power Behind the HypeM

Web 2.0 Meme Map - Tim O'Reilly - comments

Visualising Web 2.0

Web 2.0 Mememap Overview

WSFinder Wiki |
WSFinder Blog |
Map of the Web 2.0
World | Web
2.0 Discussion

Web 2.0 Workgroup

Web 2.0 Conference 2005

The Best Web 2.0 Software of 2005

Web2.0 Companies on Google Maps

The Next Net 25

Web2.0 - extended mindcloudmap

Educause - Web 2.0: A New Wave of Innovation for Teaching and Learning?

Web 2.0 Awards

All Things web2.0

Web2.0Slides

Vladimir Oane - Ce este web2.0

There are talks about Web2.0, applications Web2.0, companies Web2.0, eLearning 2.0.

Technorati Tag:Web2.0

Blogs Visibility and Battle

Mon, 29 May 2006 21:13:21 GMT

An useful service is available at a href="http://www.timsoft.ro">Timsoft:

BlogsBattle

The visibility of two weblogs can be compared:

URL

PageRank

Bloglines Citations

Bloglines Subscribers

Technorati Links

Feedster Links - RSS

Blogdigger Links - RSS

IceRocket Links - RSS

BlogPulse Links - RSS

Google Backlinks

MSN Backlinks - RSS

Yahoo Backlinks

PubSub LinkStats - RSS

delicious Backlinks - RSS

BlogPulse Conversation Seed

BlogPulse Profile

Grafolicious

BlogShares Value

Fagan Finder�s URLinfo

Alexa Info

Silktide SiteScore

KartOO Conexions

TouchGraph GoogleBrowser

The PageRank, the
number of links found by search engines, together
with seach feeds, but also
links to different systems which offer other valuable information are
listed for each weblog .

You can type the URL of a weblog, or a note in a weblog; also
the URL of a site or a specific page in site.

Similar services:

TalkDigger

UpTimeBot

UrlTrends

EgoSurf

WhoLinksToSome

SEOpen Firefox Extension

Do you find the service useful? Comments are welcome.

Listed on Blogging tools - e-Learning Centre UK

How to create a group RSS?

Mon, 29 May 2006 20:57:33 GMT

There are situations when you need a group RSS starting from a few RSS feeds:

If your site provides more RSS feeds, you can offer the possibility of
subscribing to a single one, to the group RSS; as example, the four RSS feeds
produced by Timsoft have as equivalentTimsoftRSSs,
a Blogdigger feed, and are listed on
this page.

Students participanting in my online courses implement sites providing RSS.
To monitor their projects I create a group RSS; all the students subscribe to
this one too, thus having the image of all projects.

Sometimes you would like to have a single RSS which to contain the items of
your favourite newspapers RSS feeds.

Which systems can "mix" RSS feeds?

Please find a list below:

::1::Blogdigger Groups:

create a group RSS, starting from a few RSSs or an OPML file;

a HTML page of the group is built, which displays the new items;

search operation is possible, also

search feeds can be created;

I consider this is the best solution;

::2::FeedPaper -
a Feedster service:

you can obtain a HTML page which lists the items of the RSSs in group;

options to import OPML and to create the group RSS are not implemented;

::3::FeedShake:

creates a group RSS, starting from a few RSSs;

option to import OPML is not implemented;

::4, 5, 6::RSSMix, FeedJumbler, FeedCombine:

create a group RSS, starting from a few RSSs;

a HTML page of the group is built, which displays the new items;

option to import OPML is not implemented;

::7::BlogSieve:

create a group RSS, starting from a few RSSs;

different search filters can be applied;

option to import OPML is not implemented..

Do you know other similar services?

Which group RSSs have you created?

Note:

TagCloud starts from a few RSSs or
OPML and creates tags; this service is used "to disclose" which are the
top subjects of the
Romanian Blogosphere
- please take a look at ROTags.

Why I love Bloglines; my wish list

Mon, 29 May 2006 20:56:41 GMT

image from/ answer for
Welcome, Bloglines
- Ask Jeeves Blog

Bloglines is a wonderful service, which I use daily, in order to monitor over
850 feeds -
http://www.bloglines/public/camih, but also to search and to find new
information ( search, related feeds, users public collections, credibility of an RSS given by number of subscribers and citations ).

My feeds include weblogs, sites announcing their news using RSS, search feeds, podcasts; but also
the weblogs of my students working for their diploma or participating in online
courses.

Bloglines deals wonderful with the private RSSs produces by the online courses
using the virtual environment of
Timsoft.
Colections of RSS are displayed in my online courses using the
Bloglines export service.

My wish list for Bloglines future development:

for each account create an RSS with the new added feeds; why? we learn
from the resources collected by others ( a solution is given by Superfan - http://www.unpossible.com/superfan/userBloglines ); this RSS would be a measure on how
her/his OPML is changing; of course each user might choose to share this RSS
or not; such an RSS would be similar with that one created by
del.icio.us for each user:

http://del.icio.us/rss/user

the possibility of creating search feeds for the citations option; it's
useful to keep up with the citations of sites or specific postings

the possibility of searching specifying the OPML in which a search to be
realised; now each user have the possibility to search in her/his feeds
collection; the option could be extended: to specify whose collection to be
used; or an external OPML to be specified;

because very often a user feeds collection counts hundreds of RSS: when
you try to add a RSS you already have in collection, the message "You are
already subscribed to that blog." to specify also the Folder which contains
that feed;

to be able to find the collections saved by users under specific Folder/ categories - similar with
Technorati, delicious, flick,MetaFilter; as an example: a search for the feeds saved under Java folder to
display all the users who have a folder named Java in their collections:

http://www.bloglines.com/tag/java
# proposal

would display users and folders similar with:

http://rpc.bloglines.com/blogroll?id=carmenH&folder=java

See below similar applications:
- http://www.technorati.com/tag/java - a corresponding watchlist can be
  created
- http://del.icio.us/tag/java - an
  RSS is created too
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/java - an
  
  RSS is created too
- http://www.metafilter.com/tags/java

Do you have your own wish list related to Bloglines?

What is a RSS and how can I create one?

Mon, 29 May 2006 20:54:57 GMT

I'm sure you already met the above images on various sites or weblogs.

The images can be created using RSS Graphic Tool;
see also RSS Button Collection.
There are talks now about accepting a standard image
- Feed Icons.

RSS is an
open protocol for publishing/syndicating the information on Web. An RSS ( or RSS
Feed ) -
Rich Site Summary feed - is a XML file, which describes the updated content
of a site. Initially this protocol was used by Netcape in order to create My Netscape
pages; then RSS was adopted by the news syndication services and weblogs.

Recently RSS has turned 6 - see
RSS history and versions.

RSS is also considered the abbreviation of RDF - Resource Description
Framework Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication.

A RSS file includes a logo, link and title of the site, and also the news items;
each item consists of the URL of the news, a title and a description.

Systems called aggregators ( online systems - the best knows is
Bloglines; read why

I love Bloglines ) or desktop RSS Readers read RSS feeds and inform
the subscribers on the news on the corresponding site; thus the information is
syndicated. The contents of
RSS feeds is stored in databases, which can be searched using different search
keys.

By subscribing to RSSs you are able to monitor different sites without having
to visit them periodically; also you reduce the possibility of receiving viruses
and spams by newsletters.

The search engines specific to RSS index the information in a few
seconds/minutes after the RSS feeds were updated, while the classic search
engines make the new information visible in a few days.

This is why the RSS feeds and weblogs - which produce RSS - are called the World Live Web.

More at
RSS and Weblog-uri (
in Ro ) -
eLearning eJournal.

RSS: the next big
thing is useful
in many
domains.
See also RSS Quick Start Guide for Educators, RSS Workshop,
Tools for RSS

A technology similar with RSS is Atom � se AtomEnabled.org, RSS and Atom compared.

The weblog systems automatically create RSS feeds. But how can you create a
RSS for your site?

Here there are some solutions - see also RSS Compendium - RSS Editors:

a text editor ( such as Notepad ), and build the RSS structure - see the
article
RSS and Weblogs (
in Ro )

a program such as
ListGarden RSS
Feed Generator; se also this article
for other programs

use an online editor such as RSS-xpress, RapidFeeds, RSSxl

generate automatically a RS for sites which don't offer it with RSSApplet, FeedTier, MySyndicaat, FeedFire, FeedYes, Feed43

a Perl script ( this is how
eLearn _TS
creates the RSS feeds for its online courses ) or a PHP script in the site
content system - such as
FeedCreator.class.php, Netious Web-based RSS;
see also this tutorial

a simple solution, which is my proposal: a RSS file can be defined as a del.icio.us
tag, to which you submit the pages which constitute the items.

Which is the variant you use to
create the RSS for your site?

Check with BlogsBattle
the notoriety / visibility of your site, which is assured by your RSS; and learn
how
to create a better RSS.

Tips for webloggers

Mon, 29 May 2006 20:52:43 GMT

Let's learn from the others:

1.
Blog Tips - Central Register: "There are no hard and fast RULES
of how to blog - basically:

it's about being true to yourself,

getting what's inside you into cyber space,

connecting with others and

growing in your ideas as you interact with them."

2. Rebecca Blood -
The Weblog Handbook -

Weblog ethics:

Publish as fact only that which you believe to be true.
If material exists online, link to it when you reference it.

Publicly correct any misinformation.
Write each entry as if it could not be changed; add to, but do not
rewrite or delete, any entry.

Disclose any conflict of interest.
Note questionable and biased sources.

Weblogs: a history and perspective

There is a blog in your future

3.
3 Steves and a Blog:

be short and brief,
find your voice,

draw connections,

be human,

participate.

4.
Downes's How to be heard:

plan

design

implement

blog

market

audio and video blogging

revise.

Find your voice: find your style - two weblogs more than original: daily notes starting from an image of himself - 09h09 - or from wife's shoes - Blogger me!.