Colleagues/
A Most Interesting Article ...
Thanks to Stephen M  West Chester University of PA for the
HeadsUp!
/Gerry
Gerry McKiernan
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011
gerrymckiastate.edu
Iowa: Where the Tall Corn Flows and the (North)West Wind
Blows
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Don't Tell Your Parents: Schools Embrace MySpace
Robert Andrews 04.19.07 | 2:00 AM
Some schools ban social networks for wasting classroom time
or to protect students from weirdos. But, as part of a wider
trend toward less top-down teaching, other institutions are
putting tools like MySpace, Bebo and Facebook on the
curriculum -- and teachers are saying: "Thanks for the
add."
Recent efforts to outlaw the Web 2.0 sites so beloved by
teenagers include a congressional bill that would throttle
funds to schools that do not restrict access. But Elgg,
open-source social networking software developed at the
University of Brighton, has been designed specifically with
academic uses in mind.
[ http://elgg.org/ ]
Students, tutors and researchers 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 balk, 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.
"The virtual learning environment model used by nearly
all universities these days is based on the traditional
tutor-led, course-structured mode of learning and doesn't
easily allow for significant participation by students or
for crossing course boundaries," said Stan Stanier, the
school's learning technologies manager, who oversees a
33,000-member Elgg installation. "Higher education is
meant to be an environment for student-centered and
collaborative learning."
Broadly, Elgg represents a shift from aging, top-down
classroom technologies like Blackboard to what e-learning
practitioners call personal learning environments -- mashup
spaces comprising del.icio.us feeds, blog posts, podcast
widgets -- whatever resources students need to document,
consume or communicate their learning across disciplines.
[snip]
But Elgg, which is being translated into nearly 40
languages, may also have applications outside education.
With media organizations and sports teams scrambling to
create yet another social network, the software could become
an open-source rival to Marc Andreessen's Ning platform, an
easy way to create on-the-fly, user-centric sites for any
conceivable niche.
Around 30 private companies and other organizations,
including France Telecom, are already using Elgg.
Curverider, a Brighton University spinoff responsible for
commercializing the software, recently released an
enterprise edition targeting big businesses keen to get on
board the social networking train.
[snip]
The University of Brighton hosts ElggJam07, an Elgg-themed
conference, July 11. Registration is free, but limited to 70
places.
[ http://www.wired.com/print/culture/edu
cation/news/2007/04/myspaceforschool ]
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