Monday, August 9, 2010

Curatr Launches: Social Learning SW Connects content and person objects

Using an object oriented approach to viewing people and the content created in various media as connectible objects, Curatr's features and metaphor for social learning holds promise to support collaborative networked learning for self organizing learners and for other guided learners as well as the collaborative networked learning-worker in the larger organization. Curators organize information into Collections, Exhibitions with Guides in a Museum Gallery space metaphor. Participants have the opportunity to bring together information objects to improve the understanding of a subject area. These objects can be commented on and improved to further refine what would otherwise be unrelated information into a structured area of understanding on a particular subject.
Curatr uses colored nodes to represent Learning Objects. Learning Objects can be anything from a document to an interactive animation. Every piece within Curatr is given a specific Reliability Rating, which is then used to position the node on the Gallery. It will be important to understand and track the factors used for the Reliability Ratings as the objects grow in the system.
Learning Objects with a higher Reliability Rating are shown closer to the middle of the Gallery, with less important objects gradually floating to the outer regions of the visual space.
People objects are also part of the learning system.
Using the 'Peer View', you can get a picture of the group you are operating within; see who the big contributors are, locate friends and highlight Subject Matter Experts.
Curatr is one of the new web based visual approaches to engagement, connection and collaboration around people "objects" as holder of ideas and expertise and dynamically growing content objects as nodes which one can connected guided by the desired purpose of the learner.
Ben Betts, creative director for Curatr, explained the underlying philosophy and operation.

I am hopeful that some of us can use this for a real collaborative learning-work project. Any candidates?

Monday, April 12, 2010

Creating Artifacts in Real Time with New Google Doc's

New and improved Google Doc's provides features to help those creating a text based artifact of their learning through collaboration. Using Google Doc's collaborators can now see what others are typing character-by-character. Small or large teams can work together; up to 50 people can now collaborate on one document. The company has also added a chat feature that allows collaborators to discuss a document in a popup that appears on the right-hand side. Check out the short video introducing the new Google Doc's

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Conversation to Knowledge Flowdock for CLW

Teams engaged in Collaborative Learning Work are often engaged in "conversations" with one another. The conversations using different social media take on value as part of the ongoing, expanding knowledge base over the life of the team. Flowdock represents a new way for team members to capture by tagging some bits of knowledge from these conversations. The tagged bits can be found later when needed by the group. Flowdock allows a participant to tag in any of the different communication tools used by the team. One accesses Flowdock tagged knowledge bits in a cloud for the particular group , so it is accessability anywhere. Mobile access is underdevelopment. Interesting beginning on ways to capture and use conversations.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Pew--Future of Network-structured communities

Most surveyed believe that innovative forms of online cooperation could result in more efficient and responsive for-profit firms, non-profit organizations, and government agencies by the year 2020. Pew Internet & American Life Project: "The respondents who addressed the issue of “innovative forms of online cooperation” sometimes referred to activities between people and institutions that were post-bureaucratic. They argued that people could use the internet and cell phones to create alternative, un-bureaucratic structures to solve problems through network-structured communities."