Derek's Blog

I came across this wonderfully easy to use search tool today after reading Jane's Blog. Boolify provides a simple, yet effective way of introducing students to the complexities of Boolean searching.

Librarians, teachers and parents have told us how hard it is for students to understand web searching. Boolify makes it easier to for students to understand their web search by illustrating the logic of their search, and by showing them how each change to their search instantly changes their results.

It's simple, immediate and is easy and flexible to use with your class, no matter the subject matter.

Search results are presented through Google's "Safe Search STRICT" technology, so we're confident that the results your students receive are safe.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The uptake of web-based tools and applications in the Web2.0 world prompts a question in my mind from time to time - "where is all the information stored, and who has access to it?"

I thought about this again when I read Sue Water's latest post in which she has published the results of a Twitter poll she conducted by asking her Twitter followers to name their favourite 3 Web2.0 applications (apart from Twitter, del.icio.us and Frirefox.)

I'm very interested to note the extent to which Google applications emerged in the favourites list from her poll. I'm a big fan and user of many of these myself, but recently have become aware of of Google's reputation of being "hostile" towards users privacy.

This was brought home to me further recently a recent article in the Globe and Mail titled Patriot Act Haunts Google which highlights that the Google on-line services (Docs, Sites etc) are subject to the "USA Patriot" Act (in fact an acronym that stands for " Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001) which could make the use of the sites they consider (a) a threat to academic freedom, or (b) in breach of Canada's privacy laws - depending on what data is put there.

Certainly food for thought, I suspect we'll see more debate on this emerging in the next few months.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 8:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

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There has been discussion for years about the fact that there's a lot more information on the Web than is accessed when we do a search using one of the common search engines such as Google. Experts consider that there may be up to 500 times the information available in the 'invisible web' than there is in the 'searchable web'.

One way of addressing this is to consider the federated search approach - the powerpoint above is my humble attempt to illustrate how this works from a couple of years ago.

Another way is to use specialised search engines that are designed to search the deep or invisible web - usually within a particular field or discipline. About a week ago I received a note from Amy Quinn from an oganisation called College Degree, alerting me to a wonderful list of 99 Resources to Research & Mine the Invisible Web. I've had a play with several of these now, and can imagine they'd be pretty useful in particular contexts. A number of them are examples of the repository-specific search engines that I refer to in my slide-show, while others are more subject specific and search multiple repositories.

In addition to the links to search engines, the list also contains examples of specific directories, catalogues and databases etc, and has a useful section on social media also. It's worth scrolling right to the bottom for some articles and guides about the 'deep' or 'invisible' web.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Every now and then I come across something that I just sums up a lot of stuff I've been reading and thinking about - here's one of those. It's a slide presentation by Andrew Hinton titled Architectures for Conversation (ii): What Communities of Practice can mean for Information Architecture and is available on SlideShare.

Andrew's done a great job of bringing together a whole lot of thinking about information architecture and how it relates to our understandings of "communities of practice". I love some of the metaphors he uses - like, why Wikipedia is more like an AK-47 than like an M-16, and how he distinguishes between communities and communities of practice.

Each slide is annotated if you view it in full-screen mode, and with 71 slides make sure you give yourself a bit of time to read it all! An informative and entertaining presentation.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's something worth taking a look at, a project with huge implications for education, in which scientists are creating a massive web site, called the Encyclopedia of Life. The web site aims to contain information about all of Earth's 1.8 million known species, with the information available online to everyone free of charge, and users of the site can adjust its pages so they see information relevant for students or for research scientists. The project is described as follows on the site:

Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Our goal is to create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the Internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike. To transform the science of biology, and inspire a new generation of scientists, by aggregating all known data about every living species. And ultimately, to increase our collective understanding of life on Earth, and safeguard the richest possible spectrum of biodiversity.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've just spent the morning reading through a new report from the OECD titled "Participative Web: User Generated Content" (880kb PDF download) which describes the rapid growth of User Created Content and its increasing role in communication. The paper is the latest release from the OECD work on digital content.

I found the report very interesting, providing a comprehensive overview of the developments in this area, and identifying a range of issues that must be taken into account at the policy level as we move forward - including things such as access to broadband etc, and the old bogies of copyright, IP and "fair use" etc. These are all issues that are affecting schools and universities right now!

When I worked at NZ's Correspondence School a number of years ago we envisaged an environment where content contributed by students and staff would be just as important in the system as the formally produced course-ware, and began developing a content management process that would embrace this as part of the work-flow. Sadly, it was an idea before its time, and the project was shelved.

This OECD report has refreshed my interest, however. It contains a useful overview of the emerging value and publishing chain of user-created content (p.21), contrasting this with the traditional media publishing value chain which they say is characterised by a number of hurdles, including the control of "content gate-keepers".

In the past six months, having nothing better to do, I have submitted responses to several government tenders in which I've proposed a UCC-centric approach to the establishment and operation of online portals etc. Needless to say I haven't been successful (yet), but this report gives me confidence that it's the right thing to do, and the analysis provided in it will assist in future work and thinking.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

My friend Stephen Marshall from Victoria University has been hard at work on his blog over recent weeks developing a submission (.pdf) on the Copyright (New Technologies and Performers' Rights) Amendment Bill. He has just posted his draft submission on his blog for others to read and comment on.

Stephen's focus is on the need for this bill to deal with issues relating to the digital environment that we are now living in. He begins with....

[The Bill] fails to address the significant challenges raised by the worldwide shift to a digital information economy and it places onerous and unnecessary restrictions on New Zealanders that are not shared by our major trading partners and the citizens of the United States (the dominant global publisher of digital information) in particular.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I took the opportunity on Tuesday to attend one of the presentations on the draft Digital Content Strategy. One of the things I was particularly pleased to see was the inclusion of a category of content called "informal" content (which I often refer to as "user generated content" - the sort of thing created in blogs, wikis and other forms of social software.) I'd argue that this is an important dimension of a digital content strategy given the emerging discussion about "informal learning" that is taking place in the e-learning world (see recent contributions by Stephen Downes, Juliett White and Tony Karrer for instance)

Not all would agree however. One gentleman at the presentation challenged the presenter by asking "why are we taking this (informal) content seriously?" He contended that such content was untrustworthy, opinionated, and not worth the time and effort to classify or store for the future. Such traditional views of the nature and value of content are bound to inform the way the final document is developed - which is why I guess it is important for those who regard the importance of informal content as a part of the Web2.0 should make a response to the writing group by the due date of 20 December. Response forms, along with copies of the discussion document are available on the Digital Strategy website.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 12:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I spent a morning at the Future Learning for a Networked World open seminar in Christchurch a couple of days ago at which I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Stephen Downes about the whole idea of open content. He reminded me about the Directory of Open Access Journals that exists online, providing an amazing source of journals and articles that can be accessed free to support courses - instead of paying a premium for textbooks.

There are many good reasons for considering this - apart from the cost, textbooks and other traditional forms of published material are in danger of becoming increasingly irrelevant in our education system as emerging ways of creating, contributing, reviewing and using digital content become the 'norm'.

With this in mind I was interested to view a video-cast by Richard Baraniuk (pictured above) on TEDtalk dealing with this very topic as he talks about a project he is involved with called Connexions. Baraniuk is a Rice University professor with a giant vision: to create a free, global online education system. In this presentation, he introduces Connexions, the open-access publishing system that's changing the landscape of education by providing free coursework and educational materials to everyone in the world.

Baraniuk's presentation is very easy to follow and understand, and it presents a vision of a future that I'd rather like to be a part of! (thanks to Leigh Blackall for the heads-up on this clip)

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 12:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

There is a lot of activity in NZ at the moment around the establishment of MUSH networks in local areas, providing linkage to the Advanced Network (KAREN) that has just been implemented. In the school's area in particular, there are a number of initiatives exloring ways of using these networks to share services and resource repositories.

Seems that the whole issue of digital storage is attracting attention, particualrly as the so-called Web2.0 technologies take hold. The key here is the fact that consumers are now becoming producers - and the more they produce, the more the need for this to be stored - and the more that is stored, the greater the need for what is stored to be able to be searched for.

The relationship between storage and search is that more digital content requires more digital storage, and cheap storage stimulates consumer and enterprise proliferation of digital content. The more content that's stored, the more important search functionality is. The better the search functionality, the more people will use it. And so the cycle continues.

All of this brings us back to the importance of digital storage. An interesting blog post titled Future of Online Storage, 40 points to think about by Jeremiah Owyang provides a really useful insight into this area for those who may be considering where to next in their network. Some of his points will challenge the traditionalists in this field, for example, the idea of viewing thinking about Peer to Peer storage and the prediction that By 2010 all Media will be 50% consumer created.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm in the midst of some work for the MoE that includes reference to the "Knowledge Society" concept which has raised issues forme, in particular, the constant substitution of the word "information" for "knowledge" when referring to this concept - and the fact that many people use the terms interchangably in this regard.

An interesting media release titled Knowledge versus information societies : UNESCO report takes stock of the difference arrived in my mailbox today which provides some helpful distinctions.

The release from the UNESCO website refers to a report launched in Paris this week by UNESCO Director-General Ko??chiro Matsuura which is the first in a new series of World Reports, ??Towards Knowledge Societies?? and will be presented at the World Summit on the Information Society (Tunis, November 16-18.

The distinction made by the authors of the report is sumamrised as:

1. Knowledge societies contribute to the well-being of individuals and communities, and encompass social, ethical and political dimensions.
   
2. Information societies, on the other hand, are based on technological breakthroughs that risk providing little more than ??a mass of indistinct data?? for those who don??t have the skills to benefit from it

The report urges governments to expand quality education for all, increase community access to information and communication technology, and improve cross-border scientific knowledge-sharing, in an effort to narrow the digital and ??knowledge?? divides between the North and South and move towards a ??smart?? form of sustainable human development.

The stakes are high, stresses the Report, for the cost of ignorance is greater than the cost of education and knowledge sharing.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 7:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'm prompted by Stephen's response to my last post on Learning Management Systems to expand my thinking....

Stephen suggests a better starting point is to develop a process for needs analysis in relation to this kind of technology? I couldn't agree more - which is what I was trying to move towards in the last post. The point is, it's not much use comparing the features of different LMSs if we don't understand how and why we want to use them.

The group I've been working with have come to this point - and are now designing a questionnaire for schools and teachers that is intended to act as a catalyst for self-reflection about the teaching that takes place in their schools, and how the use of an online environment might assist.

By using a series of prompts and questions that encourage teachers to describe their current pedagogical approach, it is easier then to consider the sorts of online activities and approaches that might be useful.

By avoiding the notion of an LMS (implying an "off the shelf", "one-size-fits-all", "out-of-the-box" solution) and introducing the notion of an online learning environment, we can begin to thing much more flexibly about what the suite of tools and applicaitons we want to use might be.

Inevitably we will end up being faced with considering one of the existing LMS products as a starting point - chosen perhaps because of the range of tools and applications it already contains, or perhaps because of the ease with which other applications/tools/components can be integrated into it.

The keyword is interoperability - and I'd back a choice that focuses on an open-architecture LMS any day. Empowering schools and teachers to consider the choices available to them from a position of pedagogical understanding has to be the way to go.

Seems I'm not the only one contemplating these issues at the moment - see George Seimen's latest blog entry on course management.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 8:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here's a good example of the effective use of technology, taking advantage of what it does best!
Stephen Downes drew my attention today to the release of a free website called HamletWorks.org
The website is a work in progress, containing only half of the material the group has available at the moment, but the objective is to develop a database that will allow you to read around 400 years of commentary on Shakespeare's Hamlet - line by line! ( A printed variorum of Hamlet published in 1773 spanned 10 volumes, he says; by 1821 it had reached 21 volumes.)
For more background on the project take a look at the article in the Chronicle of Higher Education

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 1:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

George Seimens shared the following reference in his latest newsletter:
Distributed Knowledge Management - a paper by Martin Roell, presented to BlogTalk 2.0 , The European Conference on Weblogs, Vienna, July 5th and 6th 2004.

Seimen's notes...

"Improving the productivity of knowledge workers is one of the most important challenges for companies that face the transition from the industrial economy to an economy based on information and knowledge (Drucker, 1999). However, most "knowledge management" efforts have failed to address this problem and focused on information management instead. This paper briefly explores the failure of traditional knowledge management to adress the problem of knowledge worker productivity and argues that a deeper understanding of knowledge work is necessary to improve it. It then explores knowledge work and how it is supported with information technology tools today, focussing specially on the email client as a knowledge work tool."

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 9:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today I had the privilege of attending a seminar with Stephen Denning , renowned for his work in the area of knowledge management and story telling as an effective tool for leaders to use in bringing about organisational change (among other things).
Stephen reinforced the notion that much of the real value of knowledge within organisations is shared in the form of stories anyway, and that his approach to using story telling to spark change is simply an extension of this.
This links well with the reading I'm doing at present (still) from Carl Davidson and Dr Philip Voss's Knowledge Management book. The section I read on the train this morning dealt with formal and informal knowledge, and identified (like Denning) that it is in the tearoom discussions and casual conversations (ie informal storytelling) that some of the most valuable knowledge in an organisation is shared and developed. You can read more of their work on their No Doubt website.
For more on Stephen Denning, take a look at his recent article titled Telling Tales published recently in the Harvard Business Review (available here from his site as a PDF)
Steve also maintains a blog on which he is currently publishing the draft chapters for his next book.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 9:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This area is really gaining traction - here's a bunch of links to online journals on the topic. Some require subscription - but it's impressive just ot see what is available:

Knowledge-based systems (Elsevier Science)
International journal of Human-computer studies (Elsevier Science)
International journal of information management (Elsevier Science)
Journal of Intellectual Capital (Emerald)
Journal of Knowledge Management(Emerald)
Knowledge management research and practice (Palgrave Macmilan)
Knowledge and information systems (Springer-Verlag)
Data mining and knowledge discovery (Kluwer online)
Journal of information and knowledge management (JIKM)

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 9:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I came across this blog today - Lilia has posted list of links to knowledge management journals and magazines . Most offer email updates.

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 9:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've just been reading a fabulous book called "knowledge management" by a couple of Kiwis, Carl Davidson and Philip Voss from Massey University.
I'm only half way through, but already two things have really struck me...

1. the issue of valuing knowledge is amazingly complex, and not easily (of at all) captured within our traditional accounting systems. Davidson and Voss suggest that the capturing of narratives of what happens in our organisations is an essential first step towards valuing knowledge - I'm inclined to agree. They even point to some models that have been developed overseas, one called The Knowledge Capital Scoreboard, developed by Baruch Lev of the the NY School of Business and the other from the Swedish insurance company, Skandia, called The Navigator" that are well down the track of "accounting for knowledge" in an organisation. I'd love to see these strategies employed in some of the contexts I'm currently working in!
   
2. Another chapter I really enjoyed for its thoroughness dealt with the oft-talked about taxonomy of data-information-knowledge-wisdom. Reminded me of a model that I drew up for lectures I gave at Christchurch College of Ed back in 1992 (View image) which I happened to 'dust off' the other day for an online course I'm running at present as a discussion starter. Funny how things go round...
   

Posted by Derek Wenmoth at 9:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)