Cal EduCamp Aug 5 @ Haas School of Business was promoted as an "unconference", that is, an event generated by participants.
Twitter: #caleducamp
It lived up to the billing and more. Sponsored by UC Berkeley's instructional technology groups it featured a webinar by Howard Rheingold, workshops for learning social media tools, presentations and interactive sessions. About 75 people attended.
The best aspect of the conference was its laboratory atmosphere at once inclusive and challenging in a friendly way. Many people shared works in progress through the main live channels or back channels of twitter, wiki and blog posts.
There was lively interest in varied topics: using game platforms as learning environments, cloudware integration, persona development through comics. I was excited to see distance learning course management represented by two poles: 1) Google sites (Sage Adams, distance educator) (2 Echo from NewTech, a drupal platform for public HS that uses facebook's API as well as integrating other cloudware into a true network, that is it fosters co-construction in problem based learning.
Almost all the educators included mindmapping sw in their toolkits for collaborative learning.Mindmeister, Bubbl-Us & MindNode were all mentioned favorably.
Twitter feeds to follow:
@mashable
@edutopia
@readwriteweb
Other intriguing software:
visibletweets
Write or Die (write 500 words in 10 min or else)
Jeff Brain from SFSU CEL/ITEC lead several great sessions:
- 1-2-3 SuperHeroes (visual storytelling)
- BricknMortar to Distance where he described development of the K-12 technology competency course and techniques to make a hybrid course rich and functional
(group teams by time zone, use embedded video, integrated assessment)
What's a general purpose toolkit for hybrid, problem-based teaching and learning?
-Webinar: Elluminate or Adobe Visual Communicator
- MindMap: LucidChart, Mindmeister, Bubbl-Us
- Sound editing: Audacity
- video: iMovie
- collaborative content generation: google docs, UTube, vimeo, voicethread
Common theme: don't expect it to be immediate, ease of use takes work.
My take-away: this is all great fun, very exciting but mostly not accessible. Although design for multiple pathways of access (Rheingold and others) is attended to. Many people are still waiting for the technology to just "do it" automatically, probably because its complicated and technology does have a way of catching up - oh wait, that's us!
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
User Experience meets Learning Theory
From
UX of Learning, T. Tate on A List Apart, 7262011.
another IA's take on learning theory and designing the learner's user experience for maximal effect. Stimulating article but there's a pretty hefty reliance on Bloom's Taxonomy treated in a linear fashion. It seems clear that human learning happens in more of a network of interlinked experiences that maybe mirrors the form our nervous systems take (curly, bushy, differentiated). So Bloom's Rose has more appeal to me.
Setting up learning sequences may benefit the instructional designer more than the learner, at least this is a question. Is the specific sequential organization of material helpful to the learner -bottom up - or is it a top down convenience.
[the steps were all presented so why didn't the student learn it?]
Presenting wholeness and providing access...thinking out loud here...might lead to student or learner taking initiative to grapple with and generate knowledge on their own terms.
After reading Ron Eglash' "African Fractals" I am cautious about taking a recursive approach that leads to demanding that students know how to study something before the skills are available to them. So what would H. Gardner ("Five Minds for the Future") have to say on this: some level of a 'disciplined ' mind must be available to make self-driven learning meaningful. How is this to be decided? school board? class room teacher? act of congress?
"A further element that establishes a climate for self-initiated experiential learning is emphatic understanding. When the teacher has the ability to understand the student’s reactions from the inside and has a sensitive awareness of the way the process of education and learning seems to the student, then again the likelihood of significant learning is increased." I think the word that's meant is "empathic".
Begs the question if self-initiated or self-directed learning is the goal then isn't the primacy of the teacher's empathy for the student's process displaced to the responsiveness of the system? But ... in practice the relationship btw student and teacher turns out to be key - so a system of technology alone can't do it.
Bard College prison initiative appears to be so successful precisely because of emphasizing teacher-student relationships.
From teaching (in a facilitative manner, I aspire) is how I came back around to trying to build learning systems that support relationships whether in "real" time/space or virtual, sometimes called "hybrid". [SFSU Instructional Technologies program uses this, ref B. Beatty ]
Looking for a better way of expressing the idea of close linking btw virtual and "real" I've seen other IA's talking about transchannel or crosschannel UX. Not sure if finding the right words will help with the fundamental problems of generating it.
UX of Learning, T. Tate on A List Apart, 7262011.
another IA's take on learning theory and designing the learner's user experience for maximal effect. Stimulating article but there's a pretty hefty reliance on Bloom's Taxonomy treated in a linear fashion. It seems clear that human learning happens in more of a network of interlinked experiences that maybe mirrors the form our nervous systems take (curly, bushy, differentiated). So Bloom's Rose has more appeal to me.
Setting up learning sequences may benefit the instructional designer more than the learner, at least this is a question. Is the specific sequential organization of material helpful to the learner -bottom up - or is it a top down convenience.
[the steps were all presented so why didn't the student learn it?]
Presenting wholeness and providing access...thinking out loud here...might lead to student or learner taking initiative to grapple with and generate knowledge on their own terms.
After reading Ron Eglash' "African Fractals" I am cautious about taking a recursive approach that leads to demanding that students know how to study something before the skills are available to them. So what would H. Gardner ("Five Minds for the Future") have to say on this: some level of a 'disciplined ' mind must be available to make self-driven learning meaningful. How is this to be decided? school board? class room teacher? act of congress?
"A further element that establishes a climate for self-initiated experiential learning is emphatic understanding. When the teacher has the ability to understand the student’s reactions from the inside and has a sensitive awareness of the way the process of education and learning seems to the student, then again the likelihood of significant learning is increased." I think the word that's meant is "empathic".
Begs the question if self-initiated or self-directed learning is the goal then isn't the primacy of the teacher's empathy for the student's process displaced to the responsiveness of the system? But ... in practice the relationship btw student and teacher turns out to be key - so a system of technology alone can't do it.
Bard College prison initiative appears to be so successful precisely because of emphasizing teacher-student relationships.
From teaching (in a facilitative manner, I aspire) is how I came back around to trying to build learning systems that support relationships whether in "real" time/space or virtual, sometimes called "hybrid". [SFSU Instructional Technologies program uses this, ref B. Beatty ]
Looking for a better way of expressing the idea of close linking btw virtual and "real" I've seen other IA's talking about transchannel or crosschannel UX. Not sure if finding the right words will help with the fundamental problems of generating it.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Method of loci - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Method of loci - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I wrote about spatializing virtual experiences
here
I wrote about spatializing virtual experiences
here
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Systems & Resources
Priority / Date | System | Description | Resources | |
| Life Support |
| Materials | Workers |
1 –end of rains | Irrigation | Installation of mainline and auxiliary lines (See site map) to support collections, catchment pond and workspaces. | Needed: 240 linear feet of mainline, pvc or copper. 12-15 valves. *Ask Berkeley Indoor Garden & Plant It Earth.* Pond liner 2x6x8, 10 -15 rocks*, 5 bags of concrete mix. We have 3 pumps. | Line:Multi-level team, 3-5 people. More plumbing experience the better. 8hrs Pond: 3-5 people, carpentry & plumbing. 4 hrs |
2 | Soil Cycling | Vermiculture(2), compost (2) & mulch(1) beds (See schematics). | Needed: o 1x2x18” pine/redwood slats – 64 o 4x4x12’ redwood posts – 4 o woodscrews
| 2 teams, 2 people each, carpentry & strong helper. 6 hrs |
1- ASAP | Planters/Containers | Tree planters (10), East wall 100’ (ledge reinforcement), vegetable beds (8) fence planters (vines) (4) | Needed: o 2x10”x12’ redwood planks – 30 o concrete bolts – 50 o 4x4x12 redwood posts - 16 | 2 teams: cutters & assemblers 4 each, 8 hours. Mixed carpentry levels, physically strong. |
| Collections |
|
|
|
3 | Greenhouse | Shelves Drainage Door | Needed: o 2x4x8 pine – 8 o 1.5”x 12” x 12’ pine shelving - 10 o 4-6 bags of gravel o curtain rod (over door) o heavy pvc sheeting (clear) | 1 team 4 people, light carpentry. 4 hours |
1 | Ornamentals & Trees | Plant trees and shrubs in beds | Mulch, as much as we can get 160 feet of rip-wrap, topsoil- sandy loam, 2 pickup truck fulls | Tree team: 4 people, 4-6 hrs. Beds |
2 | Biome Exploration Wall | Configure Irrigation, organize and plant ornamentals. | Needed: soil, mulch as above. | 3 teams, 3 each, mixed strength, |
| Culinary Program Planting | Organize and plant seeds, seedlings | Needed: Seeds, sets, soil, mulch and fertilizer. | 2 -4 teams including program participants + horticultural helpers. 4 – 8 hrs |
| Human Uses |
|
|
|
| Handwashing | Basin on pedestal by greenhouse. | Recycled, install graywater line. | 1 plumber, 1 helper. 3 hrs. |
| Quiet Spaces | Benches | We have them, Place them as desired. | Teams include youth, senior, activity leaders & participants. |
| Outdoor Meeting | Tables | We have them place them as desired. | Teams include youth, senior, activity leaders & participants. |
| Mobile Stage | modules | Needed: 6 modules on casters (24) o 2x6x12 pine – 24 o 2x4x12 pine - 18
| 2 teams: cutters & assemblers 4 people each, 8 hrs. |
| Outdoor Program Integration | Sports & other activity | Unidentified, but important needs | Teams include members of all programs. |
SYLCentral Y Gardens Establishment Plan
Asberry Spring 2010
1 / 1
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Assets Manager
This tool works to satisfy the need to keep up with sketches, profiles and other entities as I create them before they are integrated into systems or polished.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
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