Diigo tool from a Bloglines post

The blog Free Technology For Teachers has a posting about using Diigo, a social networking site that   allows those who post and comment to utilize "sticky notes" to add comments to content - which can also include PDF documents. 

The blog author states that a free teacher account can be created, along with multiple student accounts that do not require an email address.  This could be a fun way to build an online community in many different ways.  My office is putting together a resource guide for new residents who will be moving to our area.  Posting the guide and inviting comments could allow for people to build on the comments and ideas of others, which would hopefully result in a stronger guide! 

My Ning Fling

I searched and searched for a big active group on higher education, but couldn’t find one that suited my needs. I actually searched on medical education first, but had even less hits than higher education. I found blogs that discussed the use of Nings in higher education, but many were closed communities, such as a networking site for a particular course. One blog reported on a practice that I’m very interested in:  the way that a neighbor school, SUNY New Paltz, is using a Ning to bring together early admission students who will be attending the college in the fall. Multiple blog postings discuss the research that went into the decision and setup, initial demographic and use data, and potential future project expansion.  The Ning that I've added to my blogroll is similar, exept that it's open to current, accepted, and even interested students of Albright College.  It appears to be very active, with an effective use of blogs, fora, and a large number of users.  It may offer useful ideas as we consider a simlar networking site for our residents.  However, similar sites referenced in a Ning blog have links to public sites that either leave me uninspired, or look as if they have been taken over by unscrupulous marketers, leaving me to wonder about their effectiveness and potential complications.


This being said, our medical residents have indicated an interest in testing the capabilities of social networking sites for community building, especially prior to their arrival in Buffalo - with a large international group of colleagues who is largely unfamiliar with Buffalo and the American medical system in general. Developing a familiarity with the available options (beyond Facebook & MySpace) will definitely help me engage them in an informed conversation that will hopefully result in a decision that will benefit our unique audience.

Connectivism

In a 2005 article discussing the theory of “connectivism” in the International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning, George Siemens defines learning as “a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual.” Within this context, a learner today functions much like an orchestral conductor.

A conductor is challenged with taking into consideration multiple elements essential to the successful performance of a piece of music: the unique qualities of all the instrument families, the characteristics of the particular piece of music, the individual ideas of each of the musicians, the sound of the performance space, and the needs of the audience. As with Siemens definition of learning, many of these items are shifting and not entirely under the conductor’s control. The learner in this analogy is required to consider unique sets of ideas related to a particular topic, characteristics of related theoretical perspectives, perspectives of other learners, a seemingly unlimited number of learning resources, and requirements imposed by upcoming assessments.

In a related video, Conflict of Learning Theories Within Human Nature, Siemens further explores the theory of connectivism. He maintains that “our language gives birth to our thoughts” and that “ it is the aggregation of the activities of many individuals that generates meaningful/useful knowledge.” He posits that as educators, we should be concerned “less about trying to bring knowledge into the minds of our learners, but rather to develop skills of learners so they can go out in a sophisticated knowledge environment and function.” As a medical educator, working with learners who are processing very complex and specialized knowledge that grows constantly, I am very intrigued with this new approach. Medical educators, including accreditation bodies for graduate, undergraduate, and continuing medical education often discuss the need to stimulate “lifelong learning” among physicians, as shown in this white paper of the American Medical Association, which cites the concept of lifelong learning as one of the profession's guiding ethical principles.  If this theoretical approach were embraced and regularly applied to teaching practices, perhaps a decrease could actually be seen between the time medical evidence demonstrates the need for a change in medical practice and the time that change is actually put into practice by a majority of the practice community.