Comparing 3 Personal Learning Environments. IET F 09

Martin Weller - My personal work/leisure/learning environment

This was the first one that really caught my attention. I like Martin's PLE because it gives attention to his leisure/private time as well. Learning in my opinion does not happen from 9-5 and then stops. there has been many instances where I have learned something by playing around or while being on leisure time.

D'Arcy Norman "My PLE according to Goolge and Touchgraph

Here

I like the second simplified diagram from D'Arcy because this is learning through connectivism in its simplest of form. Here he uses online tools to connect to people who holds the knowledge that he seeks. Plain and simple.

Julie Collareda

Julies' PLE is the last one that I picked for this exercise. This one lies close to home as she has included the availability of internet access to her PLE. This is applicable in my case as well. I am only now getting round to writing this up as I did bot have any internet access the last week. This is a concept that might seem strange to people in first world countries, but in places like South Africa it's a real issue

Let me know what you think and have a good one!

How safe are we online? IET F 09

This topic is one that I have thought about a lot in previous years. It has sparked interesting debates between various people and myself and I have come to the conclusion that it is all a matter of perception, more specifically what your perception of your level of online security is.

In my opinion the most important thing to remember is that nothing (as far as my knowledge goes ) is "unhackable". If someone wants to get into your facebook account badly enough for whatever reason they will. My facebook account has been hacked and the same goes for my G-mail account, it is not unheard of. The point that I have to emphasize though is that these accounts where hacked not to gain my personal information, but in order to do what I like to call "Link dumping" (Posting links to all of my contacts and then erasing them from my contact list, very very annoying). I was fortunate in this instance that the perpetrator did not use my personal information for something malicious but it might well have happened that way.

This bring me back to the point of perception of your online security. After the "attacks " on my accounts I became aware that I am not at ease with the information floating around the net about my private life. Sites like facebook and myspace reveal so much personal information that can be used for the wrong purposes if desired. I think that we as people living in the technology explosion era need to learn a new skill. The skill of knowing what information about ourselves we need to keep of the net, what instances we need to do this and where it is appropriate to expose this information. It will be a difficult process (As I have found out) but it needs to happen if we are ever to feel safe on the net.

Have a good one
Schalk

First week of CCK09

So here we are at the end of the first week of the Connectivism and connective knowledge course. As another student remarked, I feel like I am at the tip of the ice berg, scratching the surface of a wealth of information laying beneath. I must say that this notion is very exciting to me.

Having studied developmental psychology in previous years, I was no stranger to the connectivism theory. We had discussed (not in much detail) this theory as part of the learning theories chapter in the course and to be honest it was the one that made the most sense to me then, and after this week it is making even more sense. If I reflect back on my life and the key skills that I feel I have acquired, it is becoming ever more clear that I have been learning what I know through connections with other people. I "see" connetivism all the time. From toddlers playing in the sand, the one learning how to build a sand castle by helping and interacting with the other one, to students sitting in a computer lab, the one learning how to navigate to a certain page on a University web site by asking directions from the other.

I wouldn't say that all the learning that has taken place in my life has been exclusively through connectivism, but I think that living in the time of massive information explosion and technology it is the most prominent and valid learning theory and I am very excited to be on the verge of diving headlong in to the underlying principles and factors regarding connectivism.

Have a lovely Sunday and good luck with the upcoming week.

Schalk

The first 5,000 days of the web, and the next 5,000: Kevin Kelly

Verry interesrting talk. Relates a lot to connectivism like Richard Schwier said in the interview with George.

http://blog.ted.com/2008/07/the_first_5000.php

A blog is born....

A blog is born every second, right? Well heres mine.

Hello world