is it just me

At this week’s SSE 2010 workshop, Prof. Bernd Brügge from TUM gave the keynote entitled “Opportunities for Social Software in Large-Scale Project Courses”. The talk was really inspiring and introduced the DOLLI project to us. This project was a cooperation between TUM and the airport Munich during which more than 50 students worked on a real-life problem for the airport. Not only the engaging topic but also they way they did project management (starting with RUP and switching to XP after that) and used video during the whole project is worth the viewing.

Also check out the website of the DOLLI project.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Maybe you have already seen Recognizr, a TAT prototype of an augmented ID concept. If not here is the pretty stunning video.

Can you imagine the great impact on scientific conferences that tool could have? You just talked to someone pretty cool and want to stay in contact with him. Normally you would need to exchange analog or digital business cards or use tools like More! where you still need to know a name or use QR codes to identifiy your communication partner… With the Recognizr you’d only need to make a picture of his face and add the person to you network. How cool is that?

I am aware of the privacy issues that arise from such a tool and I am pretty sure many people would be frightend to use it, but for us technical geeks that live in the Social Semantic Web and use all new cool toys and tools it is simply awesome. Seems like I need to get me an Google Nexus somewhere…

Popularity: 1% [?]

It is my pleasure to announce the call for paper for the first workshop on Using Microblogging to enhance communication within Communities of Practice (MicroECoP) which will take place at the WCC 2010 conference in Brisbane, Australia. I organize this workshop together with my colleagues Steve Wheeler, Graham Attwell and Johannes Magenheim. You’ll find all the necessary information at the workshop website.

Microblogging has become a very popular social networking activity in the recent years. The limitation of 140 characters constrains the user to send concise messages. Twitter and other popular microblogging tools have acted as catalysts for a flurry of new and fast exchange of thoughts and artefacts, and from these activities a new area of research has emerged. There are case studies for the application of microblogging in scientific conferences, educational courses, distributed software engineering teams and corporate project groups.

A number of questions are emerging from the early use of micro-blogs as social networking tools that connect communities of practice and interest. These include: How can microblogs support the development of professional communities of practice? How can microblogs be effectively incorporated into formalised professional learning? How can we measure the optimum levels of engagement necessary for microblogs to be successful social networking tools within professional communities of practice? How are communities of practice enhanced or enriched as a result of the application of microblogs? What about issues of security, privacy and intellectual property – how can these be protected? Do the filtering features on microblogs constitute semantic tools?

The workshop focuses on current research trends in the application of microblogging in various domains. The workshop seeks to attract quality research papers that propose solutions to the issues identified above. The workshop also seeks papers that comment how the application of micro-blogging can impact on real life experiences in diverse communities. It aims to bring together scientists and engineers who work on designing and/or developing the above mentioned solutions, as well as practitioners who use and evaluate them in diverse authentic environments.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Design and development of microblogging tools
• Application of micro-blogging in teaching scenarios
• Application of micro-blogging in software engineering scenarios
• Communication and interaction issues using microblogging
• Understanding the dynamics of microblogging communities
• Harnessing the semantic filtering capabilities of microblogging
• Visualization issues of microblogging
• Evaluation issues and case studies
• Smart devices for microblogging in education
• Using microblogging for enhancing creativity in education
• Digital identities and microblogging
• Ethical and safety issue
• Harshtagging and tweckling
• Developing pedagogies around the use of microblogging
• Live microblogging and micro-narratives
• Language Learning with microblogging
• Engagement analysis and microblogging

Papers up to 12 but no less than 8 pages are solicited. All submissions should be original and not published or under consideration elsewhere. Papers must correspond to the WCC 2010 conference format requirements, as they are described at the conference web site (http://www.wcc2010.com/call-for-papers/submission-instructions). All accepted papers must be presented at the conference by at least one of the authors. One of the authors of accepted paper needs to register for the workshop.

Popularity: 7% [?]

The first day of the JTEL WinterSchool is almost over (we’re in the socialising event with iPod disco right now) and the event is already worth the travel. Innsbruck is not covered in snow, so we will focus on the actual work

Today we had 3 (more or less interactive) talks by Dai Griffiths, Jon Dron, and Marie Joubert that had the overall topic of Orchestrating Learning and Services Used. Gai did an good overview to SOA, WS-* and the applications in industry and learning (have a look at the eFramework) and Jon asked us to think about the possible education use cases of a wooden stick. That was really great fun. The last lecture by Marie covered the tasks of the STELLARnetwork of excellence and what orchestration of learning really means. She asked four questions that you always should keep in mind during your Ph.D. research:

1. What are you researching?
2. How are you researching?
3. For what reason are you researching? and
4. What is going to provide evidence for your research?

The attendees are very active in the social semantic web and thus the Twitter channel for the #jtelws2010 hashtag is very active.

I created a Twitter list for the attendees of the WinterSchool at http://twitter.com/wollepb/jtelws2010 which will be extended as soon as I spot new Tweeple here.

Here are some early statistics: 160 tweets tagged with #jtelws2010 from 27 different users. Here is a wordle of the first (Twitter) day:

Popularity: 2% [?]

Today I came across a real awesome video presented by Critical Commons.

Critical Commons is a non-profit advocacy coalition that supports the use of media for teaching, learning and creativity, providing resources, information and tools for scholars, students, educators and creators. Critical Commons provides information about current copyright law and its alternatives in order to facilitate the writing and dissemination of best practices and fair use guidelines for scholarly and creative communities. Critical Commons also functions as a showcase for innovative forms of electronic scholarship and creative production that are transformative, culturally enriching and both legally and ethically defensible. At the heart of Critical Commons is an online tool for viewing, tagging, sharing, annotating and curating media within the guidelines established by a given community. Our goal is to build open, informed communities around media-based teaching, learning and creativity, both inside and outside of formal educational environments.

The video discusses informal learning through blogs and creative thinking in the context of online/offline learning networks in a rather … extraordinary way. On of the best parts is

Don’t worry Anna. We will always have our informal learning networks.

But see yourself:

Popularity: 2% [?]

The latest presentation of Steve Wheeler on Slideshare contains a very good quote of Paulo Friere:

Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students.

In his presentation Steve shows how the latest technology of smart devices can be used in educational settings. Especially interesting are the Venn diagrams showing the overlaps of virtual and augmented reality and the use of gestures with really smart devices (MIT style).

Popularity: 2% [?]