I commented on Zoe's second Educational Foundations posting.
Here is my comment.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Educational gaming
I examined educational gaming, the use of computer and video games in education.
Why all the fuss about educational gaming? Gaming is well established in our culture, it is reported that in 2005 over 154 million Americans were playing video games and the average eighth-grade boy spent 23 hours a week playing games, his female counterpart about 12 hours per week (Klopfer et al, 2009).
Games are often hard, long and complex and yet young people play them for fun (Gee 2007). In contrast, schools have problems getting students to do hard, long and complex work. Games are seen to encourage and develop many skills; key skills include communication and collaboration with other users, problem solving and processing information quickly (Facer 2003). Hence the motivation for educational gaming; if gaming is so pervasive, kids enjoy it and it develops skills valued by education, surely education and gaming should be able to work together?
The obvious approach has been using games in the classroom. Various models have been suggested.
1. Games as rewards
As students enjoy playing games, then games can be provided to students as rewards for finishing their other, 'real', work. Alternatively, games can be used as motivators to retain students at danger of dropping out of school (Royle et al 2010).
2. 'Skill and drill' games
Skill and drill games are simple games, usually focussing one skill with an emphasis on rote learning. For example, maths games that teach addition. Such games are found in schools but lack the complex nature of games that students play for fun (Hommel 2010).
3. Existing games in the classroom
Off-the-shelf games can be used in an education setting. For example, the game Diplomacy has been used to teach students about the political causes of World War I (Klopfer et al 2009).
4. Educational games for the classroom
As off-the-shelf games are designed for entertainment first, another model is to develop games that retain the entertainment but are based on educational objectives. Examples include Lure of the Labyrinth and The Small Business Game.
5. Games as supplementary resources
Even if games are not used in the classroom, there is an argument that games should be one of the resources in a school library (Hommel 2010). The games would then be used by students outside the classroom to consolidate the classroom material.
As well as looking at games in the classroom, research has asked the question "How can we make learning ... more game-like in the sense of using the sorts of learning principles young people see in good games every day" (Gee 2010). Such thinking attempts to see the students as a player (Prensky in Facer 2003) in a learning game. Many of the game playing ideas have parallels in the ideas of Social Constructivism (Klopfer et al 2009).
Despite the apparent link between gaming and education, issues remain in the field of educational gaming:
1. Educational game is a contradiction
"Historically, 'having fun' and 'learning' have been seen to be diametrically opposed" (Facer 2003). Using games in an educational setting is an attempt to bring fun closer to education. But if games are then changed to make them more suitable for education, by reducing or eliminating the violence for example, will they throw out the baby with the bathwater?
'Stealth learning' (Prensky in Facer 2003) is the approach of making an experience educational without the player being aware of the learning. Such an approach ignores the need for a learner to experience some awareness of learning.
Can educational games be fun? More research is needed.
2. Games: the time investment versus the return
Games require a significant investment in time. The nature of complex games being long and hard means that they may take many hours to play (Hommel 2010). A teacher must balance the time spent playing a game and the educational outcomes achieved. It may be true that game playing has many positive educational outcomes (like problem-solving and collaborative work) but if these outcomes are only 5% of the game and the rest of the time is shooting and hand-eye coordination skills, then are games the most effective way to achieve the educational outcomes?
3. Not everyone likes games
Despite the claim that games are motivational, not everyone find learning based on computer games to be motivational (Whitton 2007).
There are also gender issues with games. Games mainly have 'male' world views - 'shoot-em-up' games are an obvious example. As well social cultures come into play when looking at games. Many women just don't get the point of games or have more than enough other activities to stimulate or keep them busy without having to play games.
Research is required to identify how to make games more inclusive.
4. Negative aspects of games
Unfortunately, games often have negative associations (Baek 2008). Violent and aggressive behaviour is often attributed to game playing. There may be correlation but no clear causation (Hommel 2010). There are also concerns with students becoming addicted to games. Further research is required to find out if games do cause negative behaviours and how these negative outcomes can be avoided.
5. Fitting into curriculum and classroom schedule
A Korean study (Baek 2008) found that two major concerns of teachers were how to fit games into the curriculum and into the classroom schedule. Curriculum usually focusses on content, not the more general skills associated with gaming. This challenge is faced by teachers who are asked to produce general problem solvers and creative thinkers but also students who can pass endless literacy and numeracy tests. Similarly, the classroom schedule of 60 minutes classes is often not conducive to games that require time to set up and play.
Some conclusions:
It is clear that some (but certainly not all) games have "educational" value. How to best incorporate games into the classroom remains unclear. The variety of approaches of using games in the classroom gives teachers a range of possibilities.
I think that the current curriculum is so tightly focussed on subject content that "general" learning (such as problem solving) that does not fit into one particular subject remains unloved. We assume students get problem solving skills from school but do not have problem solving as a specific curriculum item of study.
The idea that games give educators ideas about teaching and learning is powerful. Games challenge the idea that students only learn by being given facts from a teacher.
Baek Y.K., (2008). What Hinders Teachers in Using Computer and Video Games in the Classroom? Exploring Factors Inhibiting the Uptake of Computer and Video Games. CyberPsychology & Behaviour, Volume 11, Number 6, 2008.
Facer, K. (2003) Computer games and Learning. FutureLab.
Gee, J. (2007) Good Video Games and Good Learning Collected Essays on Video Games, Learning and Literacy, Lang.
Hommel, M. (2010) Video Games and Learning, School Library Monthly, Volume XXVI, Number 10, June 2010.
Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., Graff, J. and Haas, J. (2009) The Instructional Power of Digital Games Social Networking Simulations and How Teachers Can Leverage Them. The Education Arcade, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Royle, K. and Colfer S. (2010) The breadth and scope of computer games in learning: Applications to 14 to 19 learners with a specific focus on applicability to those who are classified as Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET). CeDARE. September 2010.
Whitton, N. (2007) Motivation and computer game based learning. In ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007
Why all the fuss about educational gaming? Gaming is well established in our culture, it is reported that in 2005 over 154 million Americans were playing video games and the average eighth-grade boy spent 23 hours a week playing games, his female counterpart about 12 hours per week (Klopfer et al, 2009).
Games are often hard, long and complex and yet young people play them for fun (Gee 2007). In contrast, schools have problems getting students to do hard, long and complex work. Games are seen to encourage and develop many skills; key skills include communication and collaboration with other users, problem solving and processing information quickly (Facer 2003). Hence the motivation for educational gaming; if gaming is so pervasive, kids enjoy it and it develops skills valued by education, surely education and gaming should be able to work together?
The obvious approach has been using games in the classroom. Various models have been suggested.
1. Games as rewards
As students enjoy playing games, then games can be provided to students as rewards for finishing their other, 'real', work. Alternatively, games can be used as motivators to retain students at danger of dropping out of school (Royle et al 2010).
2. 'Skill and drill' games
Skill and drill games are simple games, usually focussing one skill with an emphasis on rote learning. For example, maths games that teach addition. Such games are found in schools but lack the complex nature of games that students play for fun (Hommel 2010).
3. Existing games in the classroom
Off-the-shelf games can be used in an education setting. For example, the game Diplomacy has been used to teach students about the political causes of World War I (Klopfer et al 2009).
4. Educational games for the classroom
As off-the-shelf games are designed for entertainment first, another model is to develop games that retain the entertainment but are based on educational objectives. Examples include Lure of the Labyrinth and The Small Business Game.
5. Games as supplementary resources
Even if games are not used in the classroom, there is an argument that games should be one of the resources in a school library (Hommel 2010). The games would then be used by students outside the classroom to consolidate the classroom material.
As well as looking at games in the classroom, research has asked the question "How can we make learning ... more game-like in the sense of using the sorts of learning principles young people see in good games every day" (Gee 2010). Such thinking attempts to see the students as a player (Prensky in Facer 2003) in a learning game. Many of the game playing ideas have parallels in the ideas of Social Constructivism (Klopfer et al 2009).
Despite the apparent link between gaming and education, issues remain in the field of educational gaming:
1. Educational game is a contradiction
"Historically, 'having fun' and 'learning' have been seen to be diametrically opposed" (Facer 2003). Using games in an educational setting is an attempt to bring fun closer to education. But if games are then changed to make them more suitable for education, by reducing or eliminating the violence for example, will they throw out the baby with the bathwater?
'Stealth learning' (Prensky in Facer 2003) is the approach of making an experience educational without the player being aware of the learning. Such an approach ignores the need for a learner to experience some awareness of learning.
Can educational games be fun? More research is needed.
2. Games: the time investment versus the return
Games require a significant investment in time. The nature of complex games being long and hard means that they may take many hours to play (Hommel 2010). A teacher must balance the time spent playing a game and the educational outcomes achieved. It may be true that game playing has many positive educational outcomes (like problem-solving and collaborative work) but if these outcomes are only 5% of the game and the rest of the time is shooting and hand-eye coordination skills, then are games the most effective way to achieve the educational outcomes?
3. Not everyone likes games
Despite the claim that games are motivational, not everyone find learning based on computer games to be motivational (Whitton 2007).
There are also gender issues with games. Games mainly have 'male' world views - 'shoot-em-up' games are an obvious example. As well social cultures come into play when looking at games. Many women just don't get the point of games or have more than enough other activities to stimulate or keep them busy without having to play games.
Research is required to identify how to make games more inclusive.
4. Negative aspects of games
Unfortunately, games often have negative associations (Baek 2008). Violent and aggressive behaviour is often attributed to game playing. There may be correlation but no clear causation (Hommel 2010). There are also concerns with students becoming addicted to games. Further research is required to find out if games do cause negative behaviours and how these negative outcomes can be avoided.
5. Fitting into curriculum and classroom schedule
A Korean study (Baek 2008) found that two major concerns of teachers were how to fit games into the curriculum and into the classroom schedule. Curriculum usually focusses on content, not the more general skills associated with gaming. This challenge is faced by teachers who are asked to produce general problem solvers and creative thinkers but also students who can pass endless literacy and numeracy tests. Similarly, the classroom schedule of 60 minutes classes is often not conducive to games that require time to set up and play.
Some conclusions:
It is clear that some (but certainly not all) games have "educational" value. How to best incorporate games into the classroom remains unclear. The variety of approaches of using games in the classroom gives teachers a range of possibilities.
I think that the current curriculum is so tightly focussed on subject content that "general" learning (such as problem solving) that does not fit into one particular subject remains unloved. We assume students get problem solving skills from school but do not have problem solving as a specific curriculum item of study.
The idea that games give educators ideas about teaching and learning is powerful. Games challenge the idea that students only learn by being given facts from a teacher.
Baek Y.K., (2008). What Hinders Teachers in Using Computer and Video Games in the Classroom? Exploring Factors Inhibiting the Uptake of Computer and Video Games. CyberPsychology & Behaviour, Volume 11, Number 6, 2008.
Facer, K. (2003) Computer games and Learning. FutureLab.
Gee, J. (2007) Good Video Games and Good Learning Collected Essays on Video Games, Learning and Literacy, Lang.
Hommel, M. (2010) Video Games and Learning, School Library Monthly, Volume XXVI, Number 10, June 2010.
Klopfer, E., Osterweil, S., Graff, J. and Haas, J. (2009) The Instructional Power of Digital Games Social Networking Simulations and How Teachers Can Leverage Them. The Education Arcade, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Royle, K. and Colfer S. (2010) The breadth and scope of computer games in learning: Applications to 14 to 19 learners with a specific focus on applicability to those who are classified as Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET). CeDARE. September 2010.
Whitton, N. (2007) Motivation and computer game based learning. In ICT: Providing choices for learners and learning. Proceedings ascilite Singapore 2007
Thursday, April 14, 2011
PPLE - Reflection on Oral Presentation
How will I control my students?
Before Lara and I interviewed my nephew, William, the main provocation that I had been thinking about was “How will I control my students?”. My reading had focussed on the interventionist approach, as I predicted that William would discuss a class with poor behaviour control. I also wanted some balance to my more natural approach which would be non-interventionist. I had read various articles on assertive discipline (eg Charles 2005 and Babkie 2006).
After the interview with William, I was intrigued that the classroom he described had learning issues, not behaviour issues. It reminded me that a positive learning environment is not just about discipline and conduct, but also about learning.
What will students want and need from me?
William’s need for structure in learning made me think about the provocation “What will students want and need from me?”. The interventionist approach provides structure for discipline and rules. But structure is also required for learning. For example, in the PPLE lectures, Steve has argued that boys need structure in their learning.
William found the discussions in his class pointless. Advice from experienced teachers indicated that any class discussion should be framed both on commencing and concluding the discussion. There should also be an outcome from the discussion – reporting back to the main group is one possible outcome – but other outcomes such as a PowerPoint presentation or a cartoon are other candidates.
Uncertainty about assessment was a major concern for William. Understanding by Design (in Churchill 2011) is a form of curriculum planning where the assessment outcomes are designed before the learning experiences. Such a style of planning makes the assessment more explicit and gives a structure that will assist students. During my first observation day I was reminded how students focus on assessment; “will this be on the exam” was asked by a keen student, not to get out of work, but so he could understand the level of competency and skill that was expected in the class.
A teacher needs to be organised and have a clear road map that gives students the structure they need in a class. A road map does not stop detours, but instead lets students know what is coming up and what to expect. In lecture E, Steve suggested one technique that seems appropriate : provide overarching structure with lots of freedom within boundaries.
A teacher needs to be a lead manager (Glasser in Charles 2005), leading and facilitating. To do this I will need to be more assertive than I normally am. I like to listen and see where a discussion goes. To be a lead manager I need to channel the discussion (without taking over the discussion).
What kind of teacher do I want to be?
William’s experiences have made me think about the kind of teacher I want to be. I tend to be pretty easy going, patient and laid back. I try to get along and encourage. I’ve seen this in how I was a team leader at work and how I coach my son’s basketball team. Because of this I had sympathy for William’s teacher. She was trying to befriend students (as suggested by Glasser (Charles 2005)) and provide variety through some fun activities like Singstar karaoke. Instead William felt excluded from the group of favourites and called Singstar “dumb”.
My immediate reaction was that it shows that you can’t keep everyone happy all the time. William survived the class, and is doing related subjects in Year 11 which indicates he wasn’t turned off the subject by the Year 10 class. Maybe the teacher did a good job but William just doesn’t appreciate her efforts and teaching.
On deeper reflection, I think a teacher must be aware what is happening in the classroom. The problem was not being friendly, but rather that some students (like William) felt excluded. It may be better for the student to help the class develop into a community as suggested by Kohn (Charles 2005) rather than for the teacher to unintentionally create a perceived community of favourites.
Similarly, Singstar was not a bad idea in itself, but rather the teacher should have seen that some students did not like it, or the teacher should have asked for feedback to check if Singstar was appreciated by the class. It may have been that the teacher was aware that William did not like Singstar but wanted to use it in class either for other students or to try to bring William out of his shell. In either case, the teacher should have explained the role of Singstar in the class. The students in a class must be involved in the learning journey.
One of the teachers we consulted said that she believes teaching is about relationships. A teacher must build trust and then a positive relationship and learning can occur. I think the teacher in William’s class was trying to build relationships but had not earned the students’ trust first.
I think I can be an easy going, patient and laid back teacher, but have to remember to establish trust and then build relationships. Remembering student names and using them is one practical technique that I can work on.
I would also like to be a teacher that tries new ideas (like Singstar) but have to remember that not all new ideas will work. New ideas must be integrated into the curriculum if they are to have any chance of succeeding.
Should we teach students or subjects?
I have always thought that teachers should teach subjects. Students are people and people are inherently complex and impossible to work out. And so I’ve always thought that teachers should focus on what they know - the content of the subject.
William’s experiences have challenged my thoughts.
First, he was being taught Australian history for third time in four years. A teacher needs to be aware of what students know about the subject and have experienced in the subject so that the subject can be taught in a meaningful way.
Second, in order to stay in the gifted and talented level of the subject, William had a particular motivation for maintaining a grade in the class. In a streamed class it was probably a concern shared by other students in the class. Knowing something about students is then necessary in order to teach effectively.
In Educational Foundations, Phil has suggested the provocation should be answered as “we should teach students our subjects”. I like this response, it fits my initial thoughts about teaching a subject but it allows for the fact that teachers must be aware of their students.
Babkie A. (2006). Be Proactive in Managing Classroom Behaviour. Intervention in School and Clinic. Vol 41, 3. pp 184-187.
Charles, C.M. (2005). Building classroom discipline (8th ed.). Pearson.
Churchill R et al. 2011. Teaching: Making a Difference. John Wiley.
STS 1 - Module I - Creating and Environment for Learning
Due to the guest speaker being unwell, Kerrie's lecture today was her presenting a guest speaker talk. As with any good guest lecture, it lacked structure but contained lots of interesting insights.
The points I found interesting and/or useful included:
1. Be explicit with students. Don't assume that students know what you are thinking and understand what is expected of them.
2. Think about classroom organization. Single desk arrangements are good for some situations. U-shape is most flexible. You need to teach students skills for working in groups - don't assume that they know how to work in groups (see point 1!). Putting difficult students in far back corners can reduce eye contact problems.
3. Develop class rules and do it collaboratively. Have consequences for breaking rules. Have realistic consequences.
4. Take time to build relationships before starting on content. My mentor teach said something related - take time to motivate content before starting on content.
5. Routines are great. We all need structure and routine. We need boundaries that we can work within.
6. Don't wrestle with the pig! Look at your weekly schedule. What are your productive lessons? What are your unproductive ones? Adjust material to suit lesson times. For example, Friday afternoon lessons aren't going to be productive, so don't fight the class trying to make it productive. Instead, find an activity that suits Friday afternoons.
7. Don't try to teach content all the time and every lesson. For starters, it takes too much preparation time. Schedule activities that are low preparation but engaging for kids. Good for kids and good for teacher.
The points I found interesting and/or useful included:
1. Be explicit with students. Don't assume that students know what you are thinking and understand what is expected of them.
2. Think about classroom organization. Single desk arrangements are good for some situations. U-shape is most flexible. You need to teach students skills for working in groups - don't assume that they know how to work in groups (see point 1!). Putting difficult students in far back corners can reduce eye contact problems.
3. Develop class rules and do it collaboratively. Have consequences for breaking rules. Have realistic consequences.
4. Take time to build relationships before starting on content. My mentor teach said something related - take time to motivate content before starting on content.
5. Routines are great. We all need structure and routine. We need boundaries that we can work within.
6. Don't wrestle with the pig! Look at your weekly schedule. What are your productive lessons? What are your unproductive ones? Adjust material to suit lesson times. For example, Friday afternoon lessons aren't going to be productive, so don't fight the class trying to make it productive. Instead, find an activity that suits Friday afternoons.
7. Don't try to teach content all the time and every lesson. For starters, it takes too much preparation time. Schedule activities that are low preparation but engaging for kids. Good for kids and good for teacher.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Some Final Thoughts on Leveraging Off Social Networking
I thought I would end my blogs on teachers leveraging off social networking with a research article on success in the field. Unfortunately, I was not able to find a research article that provided a summary of teacher experiences. Instead here are a few sites and articles on teachers using social networking that I found interesting.
A simple way of using Facebook in the classroom is to create a Facebook page for the class and use the page as a tool for listing homework and for communicating with students (Hart 2010). Students are informed of new posts on the page (such as a reminder that homework is due). Students can send messages asking for assistance or clarification. By not posting any personal information about the teacher or students, the page can be an effective communicator without any of the usual concerns of social networking. Such a Facebook page still keeps the teacher as the central actor and therefore does not encourage peer to peer learning.
An English teacher had his students create Facebook pages for characters from a novel (Featherstone 2009). Each page should have attributes appropriate for the character. Does this mean that there aren't 500 million real people on Facebook?
A Victorian Government report (2009) describes an online science fair and a maths books as projects successfully completed at schools. The report refers to the use of the SuperClubsPlus social networking site. This is a site designed for school children 6 to 14. Enrolment is restricted to children and requires validation from the child's school. There are on-line mediators monitoring the site 24 hours a day. Such a site obviously addresses the security and privacy concerns of sites like Facebook. The report contained positive teacher feedback on social networking in the classroom.
And my final thoughts? I think that social networking has some great advantages but the security and privacy concerns will not go away in a public site. Restricted sites such as Nings and the SuperClubsPlus address these concerns. Eventually the learning management systems (LMS) that schools seem to be using will be extended to have social networking within the LMS. The only problem then for students and teachers will be keeping up with all the different on-line communities to which they belong.
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2009) Teaching and learning with Web 2.0 technologies. http://www.education.vic.gov.au/ Accessed 15 April 2011.
Featherstone (2009) Mr Featherstone's Class Blog http://mrfeatherstone.blogspot.com/2009/04/unit-project-facebook-character.html Accessed 15 April 2011.
Hart L. (2010) Using MySpace and Facebook Pages in the Classroom http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/18955.aspx Accessed 15 April 2011.
A simple way of using Facebook in the classroom is to create a Facebook page for the class and use the page as a tool for listing homework and for communicating with students (Hart 2010). Students are informed of new posts on the page (such as a reminder that homework is due). Students can send messages asking for assistance or clarification. By not posting any personal information about the teacher or students, the page can be an effective communicator without any of the usual concerns of social networking. Such a Facebook page still keeps the teacher as the central actor and therefore does not encourage peer to peer learning.
An English teacher had his students create Facebook pages for characters from a novel (Featherstone 2009). Each page should have attributes appropriate for the character. Does this mean that there aren't 500 million real people on Facebook?
A Victorian Government report (2009) describes an online science fair and a maths books as projects successfully completed at schools. The report refers to the use of the SuperClubsPlus social networking site. This is a site designed for school children 6 to 14. Enrolment is restricted to children and requires validation from the child's school. There are on-line mediators monitoring the site 24 hours a day. Such a site obviously addresses the security and privacy concerns of sites like Facebook. The report contained positive teacher feedback on social networking in the classroom.
And my final thoughts? I think that social networking has some great advantages but the security and privacy concerns will not go away in a public site. Restricted sites such as Nings and the SuperClubsPlus address these concerns. Eventually the learning management systems (LMS) that schools seem to be using will be extended to have social networking within the LMS. The only problem then for students and teachers will be keeping up with all the different on-line communities to which they belong.
Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2009) Teaching and learning with Web 2.0 technologies. http://www.education.vic.gov.au/ Accessed 15 April 2011.
Featherstone (2009) Mr Featherstone's Class Blog http://mrfeatherstone.blogspot.com/2009/04/unit-project-facebook-character.html Accessed 15 April 2011.
Hart L. (2010) Using MySpace and Facebook Pages in the Classroom http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/18955.aspx Accessed 15 April 2011.
Social Networking to Help Teachers
Social networking in the classroom is usually the main focus of teachers using social networking, but can teachers also leverage off social networking to help themselves?
Cloudworks (Conole et al, 2009) is a social network "for sharing learning and teaching ideas and designs". Teachers would be able communicate and collaborate on teaching and learning. The Cloudworks project expended considerable effort in the design of the network. Clouds are the "social objects" of the site. A cloud is the basic unit in the network - it could be an idea about teaching, or a particular resource. The site allows connections to be made between clouds. A cloudscape allows users to aggregate clouds around an idea or an event.
Going to the Cloudworks site however, is a little like visiting an empty shopping mall. The mall looks great, has all the facilities but no shops and no people. The Field of Dreams approach "If you build it, he will come" unfortunately did not seem to work for the Cloudworks project. A quick look at the tags shows the focus of the site: virtual worlds, PhD skills, research, etc. The site is a research tool, not a working network.
The Ning in Education site was established as a community of educators discussing how to use Nings in education. Going on the site, however, the first forum that caught my eye was a discussion on why the site was not being used by educators (Shapiro, 2011). The point of the discussion was "People are joining this NING, however there is a very low participation level after people join." Several of the blog entries however noted that teachers want to be able to access material (how can I use a Ning in the classroom?) and get on with teaching. Many teachers are read-only users of Web 2.0 as they don't have time to post resources for others.
Conclusion? Social networking may be a great tool for teachers to collaborate and communicate. However, smaller communities of teachers with common interests, setting up their own Ning, may be more effective than trying to build a "one size fits all" solution like Cloudworks.
Conole G. and Culver J. (2009) Cloudworks: Social networking for learning design. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 24(5) pp 763-782.
Shapiro, R. (2011) What are you looking for from Ning in Education? http://education.ning.com/forum/topics/what-are-you-looking-for-from. Accessed 15 April 2011
Cloudworks (Conole et al, 2009) is a social network "for sharing learning and teaching ideas and designs". Teachers would be able communicate and collaborate on teaching and learning. The Cloudworks project expended considerable effort in the design of the network. Clouds are the "social objects" of the site. A cloud is the basic unit in the network - it could be an idea about teaching, or a particular resource. The site allows connections to be made between clouds. A cloudscape allows users to aggregate clouds around an idea or an event.
Going to the Cloudworks site however, is a little like visiting an empty shopping mall. The mall looks great, has all the facilities but no shops and no people. The Field of Dreams approach "If you build it, he will come" unfortunately did not seem to work for the Cloudworks project. A quick look at the tags shows the focus of the site: virtual worlds, PhD skills, research, etc. The site is a research tool, not a working network.
The Ning in Education site was established as a community of educators discussing how to use Nings in education. Going on the site, however, the first forum that caught my eye was a discussion on why the site was not being used by educators (Shapiro, 2011). The point of the discussion was "People are joining this NING, however there is a very low participation level after people join." Several of the blog entries however noted that teachers want to be able to access material (how can I use a Ning in the classroom?) and get on with teaching. Many teachers are read-only users of Web 2.0 as they don't have time to post resources for others.
Conclusion? Social networking may be a great tool for teachers to collaborate and communicate. However, smaller communities of teachers with common interests, setting up their own Ning, may be more effective than trying to build a "one size fits all" solution like Cloudworks.
Conole G. and Culver J. (2009) Cloudworks: Social networking for learning design. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 24(5) pp 763-782.
Shapiro, R. (2011) What are you looking for from Ning in Education? http://education.ning.com/forum/topics/what-are-you-looking-for-from. Accessed 15 April 2011
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