Networks, Communities & Learning: Show that you Share!

a European Conference

Organised by the Bazaar project and IVLOS, the Institute of Education of Utrecht University

Download the conference flyer here

14 December 2007, Utrecht, the Netherlands
9:30 - 16:00, Boothzaal, Utrecht University Library on the University Campus de Uithof, Heidelberglaan 3

Conference Objectives

• To provide a space for participant-driven discussion and debate
• To promote critical enquiry and discourse
• To allow for the presentation of ideas in progress
• To provide access to peer expertise and opinion

Main Themes

These five main themes are based on key and emergent issues identified by Bazaar

• Hey Dude, Where’s my Data? On data security, privacy and sustainability
• Social Software, Tools and Content Creation
• OERs and the Culture of Sharing
• Interoperability and Metadata and OERs
• PLEs, ePortfolio’s and Informal Learning

Workshops and Round Tables

Social networking services & social search – led by Josie Fraser, EdTechUK, UK
THINKing and UNDERSTANDing the internet – led by Helen Keegan, Salford University, UK
Building an infrastructure for lifelong competence development – led by Wolgang Greller, Open University, NL
Developing Open Educational Resources – led by Marco Kalz, Open University, NL
The use of wikis and open architecture spaces to promote a culture of sharing – led by Steve Wheeler, University of Plymouth, UK
Creating and sharing Open Educational resources – led by Veronika Hornung, Salzburg Research, AT
Personal Learning Environments – led by Graham Attwell, Pontydysgu, UK
How can we use IMS Learning Design? – led by Raymond Elferink, RayCom BV, NL
The future of Learning Management Systems – led by Geoge Bekiaridis, Ergon KEK, GR

Conference format

The major aim of the conference is to promote dialogue and exchange between ‘experts’, researchers, developers, practitioners and learners. We are particularly keen that learners and junior researchers are given an opportunity to discuss and exchange their ideas. We aim that the content of the sessions is driven and created by the participants rather than the traditional ‘presentation and five minutes questions’ format with content determined in advance by a single organiser, or a small group of organisers.

How will the format work?

The conference will start with a short scoping session. The main space will be for participants.
How the conference works is up to you!
To make the most out of the space available for the conference, the room will be divided into the following six areas, that can be dynamically allocated to one of the conference themes and to one of the following approaches:

1. Round table area (1) - for open discussion, meetings, project presentations, requests for comments and so on. This area is a useful space for those in the community that are already progressing with ideas and projects and research to spend face-2-face time discussing and formulating ways forward. This is your space. Feel free to use it as you wish.
2. Discourse space (2-5) - we outline here four different kinds of activities that you might like to try:
   1. The Ten Minute Slot -Ten minute presentations of work and ideas in progress, to be followed by ten minute discussion.
   2. Critical Enquiry - Present an idea for a project, a software tool etc. and be prepared for a critique from our expert panel (made up of other participants).
   3. Ask an Expert - Request that someone else introduces on a topic you wish to learn something about.
   4. Discussion Circle - Introduce a discussion in a maximum of three minutes, each participant gets two minutes to contribute.
   5. … anything else you would like to do
3. Poster time (6) - one area will be available for posters with another ten minute slot for you to explain your poster.

We will leave free spaces for ideas to be presented. If you have ideas already, it would be great if you could send us a short note suggesting the thing you would like to do or present at the conference. We will then add it to the conference web space to be launched shortly as part of the main Bazaar website www.bazaar.org.

The conference is free. Coffee and lunch will be provided for all participants. If you are interested in attending, please register in advance by sending an e-mail to Raymond Elferink - raymond@raycom.com

When registering, please provide us with the following information:

Name:
Organisation:
E-mail:
Website:

- I would like to run a Round Table / Ten Minute Slot / Critical Enquiry session
- I would like to present an idea in a Discussion Circle / Poster Session
- I would like to present a question to an Expert
- I would like to lurk at the conference and might decide to participate there and then

My topic will be:

11 comments November 2nd, 2007

Hey Dude where’s my data? A question of continuity

Broadly speaking there are four (non-commercial) reasons I can think of to publish something online. It is about sharing, storing, tooling and availability. There are also some issues that make people hesitate to publish online and these issues should not be ignored as non-relevant.

Continue Reading 2 comments April 17th, 2007

Where’s my data - I don’t care, just let me use the service!

Should educational institutions be using/relying on commercial, centrally hosted, solutions?

While it is true that the range of commercial offerings are very useful, attractive and slick - is there an argument for maintaining control over the system you use, especially given one, current, revenue model - selling user data and habits to advertising and marketing companies?

MySpace

“Myspace, News Corp says, could drive traffic to Fox Interactive Media. And most importantly, Myspace has detailed logs of its users’ preferences, online behaviour and personal information.

That could help the company tailor what it does to the ever-more-discerning market which Mr Murdoch believes he has identified.”

Source: What Myspace means to Murdoch - BBC
Further reading: MySpace is the most expensive data mining project in the world
Using MySpace: Virtual Presence

Facebook

At one UK Univerisity some students commented on a proposal to launch a student space:

“What about a ‘facebook’ community as in many other universities? this facebook system has been very successful in many other unis e.g. LSE, Imperial etc”

“I think facebook is a better options as it makes it easier for other people to find you. This option means people have to go out of their way to find your profile. Why not join part of a larger community? “There is no point in re-inventing the wheel!”"

Then we look at what one of the new investors in Facebook says:

“We think Facebook has a unique opportunity to reach a crucial demographic at a key point in their lives. And when a site has this much scale and brand recognition, advertisers will come.”

This clearly highlights the focus of these sites.

Source: Social Networking’s Gold Rush -Business Week

Delicious and Flickr

These two services are immensly popular with many courses and projects making use of them - what happens if Yahoo changes its business model, especially now that it has lost it ranking as the number one site in the US? Could we end up in a situation where learners need to pay, again, to access their data?

Who cares?

That said, how much do people really care about who has access to their data, usage habits etc.? Perhaps this is just a few and in reality convenience is more important?

We are becoming so used to filling in profile fields, providing sites with our details that perhaps it doesn’t matter and we should just stop going on about data issues and fully embrace these excellent, new services within our learning environments?

What are the alternatives? Government sponsored spaces? Large insitutions getting together and providing infrastructure and services instead?

Add comment July 13th, 2006

Sharing is a joy for all

No longer is the material used in education kept inside the walls of universities, schools and institutions, but it can be seen (and downloaded) on Internet via the websites of these institutions. More and more material is becoming organised in repositories that gather the information from various sites and improve the chance of finding the stuff we are looking for. Various models of sharing are possible. We propose…

Continue Reading 2 comments July 3rd, 2006

Hey dude - where’s my data?

Trailer for a Bazaar seminar on issues regarding data ownership.

Continue Reading 2 comments June 14th, 2006