Peer review strategies using
e-learning
Victoria 2012
Other personal learning networks
Holmesglen Institute of TAFE
Other personal learning networks
Student blog platforms (for portfolios)
It was assumed that some students would already use a blog or similar to share their work or at least comment on others work – whether that be through re-blogging or simply ‘liking’.
Some general feedback during the project induction session with the students confirmed our assumptions; however participation was limited and/or sporadic, unlike the regular activity in Facebook.
Nevertheless, it was important to research the most common blogging platforms further. We needed to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the different platforms that students were most likely to use to support them throughout the project.
Pinterest is a micro-blogging site that arranges posts in a noticeboard format, reminiscent of a fridge in the home that has pictures and notes stuck to it. Users receive feeds of new posts and can ‘follow’ other bloggers. Users can also ‘pin’ (post) their own contributions, comment and ‘like’ pins. Content is mainly photos and illustrations but can also include video, quotes (text only), sound and external links.
Pinterest seems to be a good platform for students to share photos of their work because users only see pins from people they ‘follow’. Also, the content is in small measures and ‘spamming’ can easily be overlooked or ignored. Content can easily be shared via Facebook, Twitter and other sites.
‘Pins’ can be arranged and grouped into ‘boards’ (collections) that can be linked to Pinterest categories for easy topic searching by other users. The platform is simple and clean but users are not able to customise the look and feel of their pin boards.
Tumblr
The tagline of Tumblr is ‘Follow the world’s creators’. It is a blogging platform that relies heavily on striking visual work and seems to attract a heavy presence of those either working in or with an interest in design disciplines.
User blogs are extremely varied and posts are often re-blogged multiple times.
The one thing that sets Tumblr apart from other platforms, such as Pinterest and Facebook, is that blogs and their content are not censored.
Users are able to customise the look of their blog by applying several themes and to apply custom html code to the header or footer areas of page templates.
Wordpress
Wordpress is a well-established blogging site that allows users a wealth of features including but not limited to:
· managing the overall layout, look and feel of their pages
· categorisation (theme dependent) of posts
· archiving system for managing older collections of posts
· promotional tools to target feedback.
On the whole, Wordpress is a respected and established blogging tool. However, because of its greater customisation features, the platform is more vulnerable to hacking and malicious code executions. Therefore we have not recommended this tool to the students participating in this project.
Other relevant social spaces
In addition to the blogging platforms mentioned above, there are several other social platforms worthy of research as they will undoubtedly come into play during the project. Depending on student focus, their involvement will vary from very little to a great deal. Either way, students will need to receive the best possible advice on each platform so research has been undertaken regardless of the predicted extent of adoption.
YouTube
There seems to be no limit to what content YouTube users will upload. From comedy to tragedy, real-life to made up environments; YouTube seems to offer entertainment to, and from all ages and cultures.
There is also enormous learning potential within the platform that has been tapped into in recent years. For example, there is a huge store of tutorials, learning checks and do-it-yourself activities fully documented and all via a user-friendly video approach.
These resources use a ‘learn by observation’ ethic, where users can absorb small blocks of knowledge as and when they like.
Some users are also using YouTube to promote their own work. This comes not only in the form of video/film but also music, music video, art (eg speed drawing or speed painting), interactive demonstrations or exhibitions and more.
This platform offers a useful way to exhibit student folio work that relies on movement or angular presentation. Still images can work by themselves or grouped and animated using a slideshow, but video presentations can offer an extra dimension to the work when applied correctly.
We will encourage the use of YouTube as a source of inspiration, as a learning and research tool and also as a platform for student folio work.
Twitter
Twitter operates as a micro-blogging site where each ‘tweet’ (user post) is limited to a maximum of 140 characters. While some might see this as a limitation (which indeed it is for the most part) it is also seen as the main feature that keeps ‘tweets’ succinct and topical.
Twitter is a public platform that allows users to build up their notification lists by ‘following’ other users. Design industry professionals and other establishment figures can be useful people to follow on Twitter – primarily to keep abreast of larger issues and to gain insights into industry relevant events both local and global.
We suspect that students using Twitter during this project would benefit from listening on Twitter and building up a good list of people to follow first of all. In time, students will better understand the benefits of the platform and how it can be of assistance to their careers or further education and thus will find the value in composing their own ‘tweets’ for a targeted aim.
LinkedIn allows users to ‘connect’ with each other in ways specified in their profile settings. They are able to add all manner of work experience, locations and even projects that can then be ratified and ‘endorsed’ by other connected users.
LinkedIn is very much seen as a clone of Facebook but upon deeper investigation, significant differences can be found. In particular its focus on employment and skill sets make it an ideal platform for recruitment consultants looking to build a reliable portfolio of professional contacts and clients.
Whilst LinkedIn is important to know about and perhaps to investigate further, we do not see it as vital that students participating in this project have a LinkedIn account. Saying that, LinkedIn does offer a great deal to potential employees, and as such a user account will definitely be of benefit for anyone looking to enter the workplace or to gain work experience in future.
Dropbox
Dropbox is a simple and reliable cloud-based online storage service. It is free and allows users to securely save and share photos, documents and videos. Its greatest strength is convenience in that files can be accessed anytime, anywhere and are synchronised. This means that no matter whether a user is viewing their files via mobile phone, computer or tablet they always see the same files.
While not a ‘social space’ in a strict sense, Dropbox is definitely a huge benefit to Internet users to work with files and version management. There are situations when sharing images or other media is limited due to lack of storage space, this is where the Dropbox service is of real benefit.
For more information on Dropbox, take the Dropbox tour at www.dropbox.com/tour/0.
National VET E-learning Strategy 2012 – 2015 Page 2Other personal learning networks
For more information
For more information on this Participation and Skills project:
Adi Glancy
Project Manager
Holmesglen Institute of TAFE
Phone: (03) 9564 1813
Email:
For more information on the National VET E-learning Strategy:
Email:
Website: flexiblelearning.net.au
With the exception of the Commonwealth Coat of Arms, the Department’s logo, any material protected by a trade mark and where otherwise noted all material presented in this document is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/) licence.