Elgg?

My Space? Bebo? Facebook? Collaborative learning tools that teachers are saying no to, because they are seen as a distraction and now Elgg? Elgg is an open source social networking with academic success in mind.

Now I can understand why schools will say no to myspace or facebook as they do provide quite a distraction, however they are collaborative constructionist tools that drive learning.  Students, and also teachers can each get a profile page, a blog, photo sharing and friends lists, and they can create and join on-site discussion communities. Some of these features might cause tutors to be scared, but Elgg’s creators say the collaborative, conversational exchanges in which today’s students have become so fluent outside class are the best way to deliver learning inside it.

Broadly, Elgg represents a shift from aging, top-down classroom technologies like Blackboard  to what e-learning practitioners call personl learning spaces– they include spaces comprising del.icio.us feeds, blog posts, podcast widgets.

Elgg is freely downloadable and being used in 50 schools around the world, it may be no match for sites like Myspace or facebook but Elgg is definitely merging it allows teachers and students to share their work and communicate. Even if it does act as another social networking tool in an academic sense it gives children the opportunity to collaborate with each other and the their teacher outside the walls of the classroom.

Collaborative Learning: Just because it is there???

I want to climb “mount Everest because it’s there” that is basically the message of Terry Freedman’s article on collaborative learning. He comes out and says that the reliance on, collaborative tools such as blogs, podcasts and wikis isn’t the way children should be heading solely for their research. Now to a certain degree I do see his point he raises the point of the reliability of these sources, and it is true anyone can change the information in these sources. And shouldn’t we be teaching children to treat these sources just like they would any other way. We encourage children to cross check information, basically this new way of presenting information is not only a new source of information for children but it also allows them to develop their skills in questioning and comparing sources. Freedman states that teachers shouldn’t be using this technology just because it is there, which is true if we do use it just because it is there it loses its effect, but it is like anything if it used properly it can be quite a good thing. As teachers we shouldn’t be rejecting this new technology, rather we should be encouraging it, it allows for new perspectives, questioning skills. Freedman leaves us with the thought that these activities are useful for children to set up. And it is it involves research, writing and editing and they are easy to set up. So if they are useful for children to use why can’t they be a valuable source of information to children?

Reference: http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/article_420.php accessed 13/05/08