My experience with Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2008 has been tantamount to climbing Mount Everest. The amount of sustained energy required to maintain an upward assent has been extraordinary – with many colleagues turning back or stopping along the way – but in this lay one of the key sources of its engagement, and one that tied students together into a unique, shared experience. It’s been absolutely incredible.

Every week yielded a fascinating new topic to be explored, and with it an even greater amount of tangential discussion. Never was there a time when there weren’t more topics to be explored than time to explore them. I was constantly left wanting more; wanting to read more, write more, discuss more, experiment more, think more. Like so many capillary trails diverging from the primary path, there was no end to the new territory that could be explored from one day to the next.

A Diverse Cohort

Equally fascinating was the cohort of students drawn together in the course. I found the diversity of professional and educational backgrounds incredibly insightful in discussions, since everyone brought a different perspective to the table. This meant assumptions and beliefs were challenged constantly and the true complexities and intricacies of the educational landscape began to emerge.

Connectivism emphasises the importance and significance of diversity and depth in a network, and that it’s a critical component for healthy, holistic learning experiences. Within our midst we had teachers, trainers, educators, support staff, professionals, administrators, students; those who believe in the current educational system, and those who would see it wrecked asunder and built anew; behaviourists, cognitivists, constructivists; instructional designers, researchers, even radical unschoolers.

The social structures that emerged as a result of this cacophony of unique voices was truly amazing, with a cohort spanning 5 continents, a myriad different cultures and languages, and countless networks, groups and communities. So too was the depth of the toolset that was used to connect with others. In the 27 responses I received to my poll on what students used to engage, there were over 50 different tools covering a spectrum of uses. Tools for discussion, reading, syndicating, chatting; virtual worlds, video viewing and sharing; collaborative tools, reflective tools; visualisation tools and communicative tools.

Modes of Delivery and Engagement

The modes of delivery for the core coursework and their mixed format nature were just awesome. The wiki, the Moodle forum, The Daily, Blip.TV videos, SlideShare presentations, audio clips, Elluminate and Ustream.TV meetings all served to maintain continuity and tie together the disparate communities that evolved and emerged over the course of the session. The short videos done to camera were particularly appreciated, because they put a face to the facilitators and gave the course a greater sense of humanity.

If I have any criticism for the evolution of course, it was that, with a few notable exceptions, I never actually saw another student. In a purely online course like CCK08, seeing the faces of your peers is critical in tying together the cohort and establishing a sense of “us” as opposed to just “me”.

This is one of the key reasons I included Seesmic clips on my blog – both as posts and comments. It was my attempt to convey some of my humanity through a largely anonymous space – even if it meant bouncing my son on a birth ball, or revealing my guitar performances.

As a suggestion, perhaps next time students could be encouraged to post pieces to camera at specific stages of the course – maybe nothing more than checking in and talking about how things were going.  I think doing this at recurring intervals would be important because it could help capture the development of relationships and networks over the course of the session.

For example:

Use of video to connect online learnersThis post accompanies my feedback and evaluation of CCK08. Full post here: http://techticker.net/2008/11/24/cck08-course-evaluation-and-feedback

Social Dynamics and Open Learning

Researching the theoretical applications of educational technology, as I do as my primary role, is one thing; seeing it used in practice is entirely another. This too shed an entirely new light on the educational landscape for me, once again revealing how vast the range, scope and scale of unique opportunities and potential that exists, and emphasising the importance of flexibility and personal ownership of learning in education.

The course was a fascinating glimpse into the social dynamics, relationships and learning cohorts that evolve naturally in the absence of central interference. This, I think, is of critical significance to the wider educational landscape. With Open Education gaining increasing recognition, it is essential that Open Learning be included in this paradigm. Too often the focus is on content alone, and locating new ways of teaching the same way. What is equally important is casting off existing structures, constraints and conditions to learning, and instead recognising the uniqueness of each individual learner, and their inherent right and freedom to explore learning in their own way.

Connectivism as a model

As to the question of “whether you feel this course approach could be applied to other subject areas,” my response is a resounding yes, however as always there are caveats and conditions that will be realised in individual circumstances. For example, Sarah Stewart has discussed the legal implications of client privacy in midwifery, saying there are fairly clear regulations on what can or cannot be discussed in open forums and blogs. Just as learners are each unique, so too are courses and subjects.

Nonetheless I think Connectivism as a model offers a significant and equally valuable reference point for what is possible in online learning, and the freedoms that can be afforded to learners while still following a solid curricular framework. My experience in the course has been one of tremendous engagement and a sense of personal ownership over my learning journey, which will extend well past the end of the course.

Equally significant are the networks that developed and evolved over the course of the session. As a direct result of the fact I was freely able to explore and discuss the coursework in a manner of my choosing, engage with those I wanted to, and avoid those I didn’t, despite reaching the end of the course there is still a tremendous sense of continuity – as if this is just the beginning. Though the formal aspect of the course is coming to a close, the informal relationships within the network remains. Thus the learning continues.

I deleted my Diigo account tonight after a period of only a fortnight.  I’ve heard many great things about the application as a better version of Del.icio.us with support for group collaboration and was inspired to check it out when it was suggested as a potential tool for the Facilitating Online Communities course I’m presently taking.

Based on the little I saw of the application it did bear promise, however then I began to receive notifications that people had accepted my “invite” to use Diigo, and I got suspicious.  This suspicion was exacerbated and confirmed when I myself began to receive the same invites, which were sent to my various email accounts.  These read as follows:

Mike Bogle…is a member of Diigo and would like to send you an invitation.

To accept this invitation and register for your free account, please click and visit Create Account

If you haven’t already heard about Diigo, you can view a short introductory video here. As you will see, Diigo is both a powerful research tool and a knowledge-sharing community that allows you:

- to add highlights and sticky notes on any web pages, just as you can on books!
- to create and organize your personal digest of the web, and access and search it from anywhere.
- to create groups for collaborative research.
- to keep in touch with friends effortlessly and non-intrusively by sharing contents.
- to connect with others based on shared content and interests.
- to discover quality resources on any subject or get personalized recommendations.

We’re still working every day to improve Diigo. We hope you’ll like Diigo. We do. And, it’s only going to get better!

Thanks

The Diigo Team

I didn’t send these, nor did I request they be sent.

As it turns out the application had spammed my entire contact list without my knowledge or permission, and I was receiving emails from people wondering whether it was legitimate.  “It’s not” I said.

While I’ve heard many great things about the application by way of my edubloggers network, I have no patience nor tolerance for an application that abuses my contact list.  It is simply unacceptable.

The unfortunate thing is several of my fellow students have begun to use it as a collaborative forum for my course.  I may miss out on some of the discussion as a result of my departure from the application, however I have no interest in driving additional usage, nor providing recommendations for, an application that takes advantage of its users.

WordPress.com needs to start supporting use of the Seesmic plugin and embedded video clips.

As the several posts I’ve written here indicate, I’ve spent the last few months gaining a greater and greater appreciation for the potential and value that Seesmic has to offer – from both user and technical perspectives.  The Alpha video chat application is continuing to pick up speed, having launched a procession of valuable tools and functions that spread it’s capabilities farther and farther outside the confines of the main site.

In the wake of its continuing development, we are starting to see the emergence of a powerful new means of online communication that caters to rapid asynchronous discussion while retaining and in fact injecting the human and non-verbal communicative elements that make face-to-face discussion so much more engaging and immersive than text-based discussion.

Notably this includes the recently launched embed option, which enables users to view the entire thread worth of discussion on a topic as well as submit a response or even create a new Seesmic account – all within the embedded player.

Equally valuable is the plugin for WordPress that enables users to post inline comments that are embedded within the chronological flow of commenting discussion.

Online video is becoming an increasingly ubiquitous component of internet usage today.  However this option is noticeably absent in blogs hosted at WordPress.com

Seesmic Not Supported By WordPress.com

As of this post neither option is available to users of WordPress.com.  The commenting plugin is not an available option, and any attempts to embed Seesmic video clips results in the code snippet being stripped and therefore not playable.

The perhaps disconcerting part about all this is the fact this topic has come up before – amidst calls of support and agreement from the user community – but has thus far received no responses from WordPress of any kind.  Indeed at least on the surface it would seem that discussion of the topic is being actively discouraged.

A forum post called “Seesmic video support?” for example was opened by underleft on 23 February saying:

“Just wondering if it would be possible to request support for seesmic videos.
Seesmic is pretty much a video version of Twitter.”

However the topic was inexplicably closed to new replies with no response – formal or otherwise – from WordPress whatsoever.

A previous thread asking a similar question and which had received over a dozen replies of agreement is no longer returned in the search results.  This would suggest it too was closed and perhaps even deleted without reply.

Email to WP.com Support

Given the vacuum of available information on the fate of Seesmic at WP.com, I’ve just sent an email to WordPress Support seeking clarification.  In this email I stated the following:

Subject: Inquiry on Seesmic embedded clips and/or WP plugin for inline comments

Hi There,

I’ve been following the WP forums for some time now regarding discussion on the Seesmic plugin for WordPress in an attempt to determine when it will be supported, however it would seem the oldest thread has been removed completely – and the only other request closed to replies.

Therefore I wanted to email you directly to find out what the official situation is with respect to the plugin.

I am a passionate user of both WordPress.com and Seesmic and am greatly interested in seeing Seesmic supported on WP.com.  However at the moment I can’t even embed Seesmic clips – let alone use the inline commenting.

Are there plans to support either or both of these two activies?  If so can you tell me when this would be?

If support is not likely to occur ever I’m likely to move my blog to a self-hosted instance of WordPress.  I love the blogging platform and would ideally really like to stick with WP.com.  However my interest use of Seesmic is the main consideration driving the decision making.

Thanks for the assistance.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Mike Bogle

The Alternatives

In saying all this there are alternatives for users who wish to explore Seesmic in an embedded capacity.

A self-hosted WordPress blog

First and foremost is a self-hosted instance of WordPress.  I’ve done just that with a testbed on my home server and truly amazed with what is possible in terms of extensibilty and customisation freedom.  The world is your oyster in self-hosted instances.

This comes at a price however, both in a dollar sense as well as that of time.  Getting your own hosted instance requires either paying hosting fees with a provider, or installing and maintaining an instance on a home server.

For many the latter option is perhaps too technical to swallow.  However for the interested users who would like to experiment with the possibilities, I’ve written up a post detailing how to set up your own hosted instance of WordPress – from installing and configuring the webserver itself all the way through the WordPress installation.

View this post here: “Setting up a self-hosted WordPress Blog”

Another blog provider

Unfortunately aside from the self-hosting option the only other possibility would seem to be going with another blog provider alltogether.

Blogger for example supports use of the Disqus 3rd party commenting tool, which includes the Seesmic plugin.  So you’re effectively able to take advantage of video commenting though a slightly different means.

Parting Thoughts

In my case, barring WordPress.com bringing in support for one or both Seesmic activities I’m likely to go with one of the first two options – self-hosting on my own server, or paid hosting through a provider.

My experiences with WordPress.com thus far have been fairly positive, and have served to whet my appetite for the customisation potential that is so ripe for WordPress users.  However I’ve reached the point where the widget, plugin and embedded media restrictions are becoming prohibitive and starting to stand in the way of where I want to go with this blog.

Update: A few hours after sending my inquiry to WordPress.com Support for an official line on Seesmic use I received the following response:

Howdy!
Unfortunately, there is nothing to announce at this time.

I have added your input to our user suggestion library, which is reviewed on a regular basis.

Best,
Anthony

Automattic | WordPress.com

Unfortunately there is little that can be gleamed from the wording of this email.  The one exception is the point about my input being added to their suggestion library.  This is what you tell a user when you have no real information or solution to provide and want to be seen as taking their thoughts seriously.  More often than not though, what this amounts to is a brush off.

When you have good news for a user you given them specifics; when you have bad news, you tell them they’ve been added to the suggestion library.

Realistically the silence here from WordPress speaks volumes.  Users interested in exploring Seesmic functionality on their blog will either need to go without, or go elsewhere.

Update 2: Just to drive this point home, I discussed this topic on Seesmic.  Click on the image for a link to the video, or click here: http://seesmic.com/videos/PZ0ciRaOB9