Monday, March 14, 2005

Apcala now available!

The team from ELGG have opened up Apcala, a shared blogging environment.

You can register for free and you have many features to play with, a personal blog, links to friends blogs, group blogs, you can also make up your own templates! The user-side features are many - you have control of your 'space'!

I've just signed up - I hope to make some use of this to trial a group of student teachers to develop a reflective professional development 'space' both individually and collectively!

If anyone else is using this for educational purposes, particularly in developing an e-Portfolio 'environment', I'd be most interested to hear!

Friday, March 11, 2005

Action learning, action research and performance management

I've registered at PARnet, a 'knowledge gateway' for action researchers around the world. It's part of the Cornell Participatory Action Research Network (CPARN).

It would be great if the site had a blog and/or RSS! I think their guestbook is getting spammed majorly!

Anyway, I'm always on the lookout for others who are doing research and undertaking action learning practices in educational settings, if this rings bells for you! I'm planning out my thesis and looking at relevant and manageable approaches, including a balance between well researched methodologies and new ways of research too!

One project I'm currently a part of, Global Knowledge, Local Learning is aiming to bring forward some new ways of doing research especially when we focus on learning and teaching experience, cultural aspects of learning and teaching and international education and what it means for one's learning and life experience. A phenomenological approach coupled with action reserach and reflective practice (in many forms including drama, imagery and music for example), can prove to be highly effective in research where we seek to uncover cultural nuances, personal experience and perceptions of learning and teaching.

I've also just popped my memebership form to ALARPM in the post! I've been meaning to do it for such a while now (sheesh!). I'd love to get to their conference this year among the mountains of other stuff going on!

Friday, March 04, 2005

Connectivism Portal

So here I am, c r a w l i n g to the end of a Friday!

I have just signed up to George Siemens' Connectivism Portal!
Tagline: "This site has been created to foster discussion on how our thinking, learning, and organizational activities are impacted through technology and societal changes."
Can't wait to play around there and there's lots of good ideas floating around from George and his counterparts. Thanks George for creating such a space - it's a sign of things to come in learning!