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The “Small Pieces Loosely Joined” Conversation Continues
Posted By Terry
Jim Groom starts an interesting conversation here that I confess to not completely understand. We have been a Blackboard institution, and I have seen that this is just not going to do what we need to do. It is too restrictive, and it was designed for a model of learning that is inaccurate (which is actually generous–I don’t think it was really designed with learning in mind at all!) For my own teaching I started using Blogger blogs about 2 years ago. They are SO easy to use, and allowed for email notifications of updates, and a blogroll of other other blogs in the class. That was all I needed, and I didn’t have to waste lots of class time teaching a software, nor did I have to have the Tech people come in and teach it for me–yes, it was that easy. I didn’t have to know even a smidgen of code. And at the time, email was still the main communication mode.
But now–I notice that students don’t wake up and check their email first thing anymore. They perceive email as more “formal†and for old people. The first thing they check on the web now is their facebook account, and the first thing they actually check is their phone. I am fascinated by how much of their life filters through their phones, and how those devices are with them constantly, almost like security blankets. We are renovating a classroom and putting in “comfy arm chairs†that have a small metal disk on the arm. I though it was a cup holder; the registrar who had tested the chairs with students said “No–they use them for their keys and phone.â€
So I am trying to understand what this is about. My new phone gets my email and allows for messaging, and I have been having some fun with that. Twitter will work with phones too, but I haven’t made that leap yet. But phones are for short things–alerts, quick communications, looking at things quickly on the web. But frankly, it is still hard to see much on the web from my phone and it is really slow. Will the iphone change this?
For learning, we need places for sustained reflection, bigger documents/objects, more in depth conversation–as well as quick communication. I think I am going to opt out of Blackboard all together this fall, but I am concerned about how I will do some of the things I used to do there. We won’t have an easy way to email the whole class at once, or individuals in the class. I’ll have to use e-reserve through the library if I want to post things that are copyrighted (I should have been doing that anyway). I will use del.cio.us tagging, and maybe Flickr along with the blogs, so the students will be creating content along with me, which better fits my understanding of how people learn through conversation and collaboration. I will try UMW’s theory of small pieces, loosely joined.
But here is what I haven’t’ decided: will I go to WordPress for the student blogs? It still seems to me, having used WP and Blogger both for the last 9 months, that Blogger is just still simpler for the user! The only thing it can’t do (easily) is host podcasts, and I don’t know that my students will be doing that. For me, it is still a giant pain to have to put any larg-ish files out on my Bluehost account in order to get them into my blog. Blogger handles images more seamlessly, and allows for modifications of the format of the blog so students can personalize their space easier than WP. While every class has one student, it seems, who is a web genius, most of the students are still intimidated by the whole concept of a class where they are active creators, and if the tools aren’t REALLY simple they become a stumbling block. Students are masters of socializing with each other, but they are not masters of web authoring, nor of deep collegial conversation. I want to spend our time on the reading and writing and conversation, not the tools. So–while I appreciate all you guys are saying about the big picture of what the University should do and provide, I keep bringing it back down to the microcosm of my class, and I want to keep it simple! It doesn’t matter to me how much “better†something is if it raises the barrier too high for users. I hope we will find a solution that works better for the whole system–maybe sakai… maybe drupal will be a part– but for now, I am going to play with the Small Pieces idea, and the small pieces I use will be not just small, but simple.
Jun 21st, 2007
Terry,
As someone who blogs from Blogger, but will be using WordPress with my students, my perception from others’ experiences and playing around with both is that WordPress offers more flexibility and personalization than Blogger with only a little more technical know-how. A colleague of mine used WordPress with her seminar and the students loved the greater customization they were able to use, yet those students who didn’t want to mess with that kind of personalization didn’t have any problems with WordPress’s interface.
[Keep in mind, of course, that I’m constantly exposed to Jim Groom WP enthusiasm which gets on everything here at UMW…. :-]
Terry, am “composting” at your post after beginning with Mike Caulfield’s “Enterprise Learning Systems Considered Harmful to Learning”, from where I traipsed over to “The Motley Management System” @ bavatuesdays, which then led me to you.
Like you, we are a Blackboard institution and are finding it less and less useful. On my campus, faculty have tried Blogger and LiveJournal primarily. I’ve had an account with WordPress for about a year now, and I have to confess that I’m as shameless an advocate as Jim Groom is. In fact, my classes will be using WP this year and it will be interesting to contrast their experience with the previous year’s classes.
I’m also working on ways to integrate Facebook into the course. One option is to create a group for the course and encourage the students to use the Notes feature to share resources.
In the final analysis however, and as you say, it’s not about the tool, it’s about whatever allows them to quickly and easily collaborate and create.
Terry, just quickly, you can email your entire class out of bannerweb just as easily as blackboard. I just learned that this year…
I have nothing to add to the wordpress vs blogger debate,though, having not tried wp. And just so you know, googlereader seems to me to prefer blogger blogs. (Well, it would, since they’re part of the same system.) I don’t know if any of your students would use feedreaders, though.
Just a quick note here, as I’m pretty confident you know my take on this issue (WP all the way). I will say that if your students aren’t using feedreaders, they’re probably not understanding RSS, and if they don’t understand RSS, they’re not deep enough into the blogosphere (or any Web 2.0 stuff). The “small pieces loosely joined” mantra is very much about RSS, and getting students to recognize this will take them a long way toward understanding the central relations of reading and publication….
Disco and hallelujah too, for that thought!
If you are having students create their own space than blogger or Wordpress, its six of one, half a dozen of the other. WP is far superior, but that is purely my maniacal fanboy status talking. many great bloggers use blogger as a way to represent their stoic asceticism and lack of any aesthetic interest at all
More seriously, WordPress plays really, really nice with tools like del.icio.us, flickr, youtube, and the rest of the bigger web 2.0 applications to make these small pieces join seamlessly. This may be just as true for blogger, and if it is, then it really doesn’t matter. The bigger question is how do you aggregate everyone work together effectively. That is where it gets difficult and fun, and I would love to talk more with you about this…
Clearly, what I need is a few days in the Revival Tent with Reverend Jim! I should have mentioned–I do use Bloglines now for linking the small pieces. I will continue thinking about this topic this summer, and will watch all of your blogs to see what you are doing! Thank you.
And Jim–where can I find your tent?
On idea Terry, that may make some sense for you is to try and create a page within your own class blog (I would use a Bluehost installation of WordPress) to aggregate all the students work together. I agree with Gardner about teaching them about RSS and making sure the use readers and understand the concept -it is key. However, in my own experience it is also useful to have a space where the content from the distributed blogs is aggregated within a page on a class site. This helps them understand RSS in practice, and gives the class a temporary aggregator for most recent content in specific space in the event your students are willing to bite on using an RSS reader just yet.
Two plugins that will handle this well are Optimal and BDPRSS for WordPress, I have explained the setup for these both on bavatuesdays, but I would be more than happy to go into detail on it, just e-mail me at jgroom_at_umw.edu. Another disciple joining my flock of WordPress fandom?