LearnHub

nelliemuller said:

I love the discussion, Meri.

lechuck said:

LearnHub is better than both of them combined! ;) Personally I find Ning pretty impractical, I don’t get the “point” of it… while Wiki is a great encyclopedia. It saves me from buying the giant twenty four book set that weighs 500 lbs! But it’s socially far removed.

RLLillis said in response to:

Man, Adam, you took the words right out of my mouth…

nelliemuller said:

I am finding ning a bit dry these days, but my high school students love the video and audio applications. I use both ning and wikispaces because they offer ad free private spaces for K-12.

mawstools said:

Nellie, would you say some more about what you mean by “a bit dry?’ I’m guessing you mean something’s missing for you that would make the exchange “juicier” and I’m curious about what that might be.

I’m wondering the same kind of thing about Adam’s and Rachel’s comments.

Personally, I’m finding the experience here at LearnHub quite socially engaging… but so are my experiences in certain Nings. And it’s the engagement with diverse points of view around a clear shared interest that I really enjoy in Nings. I’ve been led to new resources from engaging in Nings that I never would have even THOUGHT of as relevant… which have often turned out to be crucial issues I hadn’t considered. I don’t experience the same kind of focus around a topic here at LearnHub. At least not so far. Communities are sort of like this, but not the same.

I’m still trying to understand my experience and I’m very curious about how others are seeing theirs.

nelliemuller said in response to:

Rachel and Adam,

I use wikispaces, wetpaint, pbwiki, and google docs for collaborative exchange with colleagues and other professionals worldwide. It is more convenient to exchange information via a common platform. I have also created wikispaces for each of my high school classes. My students use them as e-notebooks. Wikis become personal learning environments for learners of all ages. You may find the following article of interest on how to use wikis in education.

nelliemuller said:

Meri,

As you know, I have a few ning groups. I have created a ning group for each of my classes at school. In addition I have created 3 special groups. I have almost 500 members in blended learning and instruction ning site, a few hundreds in online instruction, and almost 500 members in international collaboration. However, the discussions do not go on by themselves. I or my co-administrators have to be there 24/7 to keep things moving. There must be something flat and uninviting about ning if we have to constantly add wood to keep the fire going, don’t you think?

nelliemuller said:

LearnHub can become the perfect learning environment if it adds the features of the wiki, ning and facebook social network applications, and the Moodle’s CMS capabilities with password protected online courses for K-12 learners. I am putting my money (time investment) on the LearnHub to come up with the goods. Patience (mindfulness) is the key to developing a successful learning environment.

mawstools said in response to:

I hear what you’re saying, Nellie, And, I don’t know about the assumption that there’s something wrong if you have to stoke the fire. For as long as we’ve had human communication, we’ve had facilitators and fire-stokers… Conversation is fugitive. I don’t know how much to attribute cause to the limits of short-term memory and how much to sheer information overload and the competition between face-to-face relationships and virtual relationships in a time-limited world.

Certainly the fire burns down…

I’m not sure the fire won’t burn down here, too… We’re all dancing madly around it right now… but how long will that go on here? I don’t know…

I want to think some more about this… and I hope others will pick this up and contribute their thoughts and feelings, too…

My teams, too, use wikis and Google Docs as online notebooks or bulletin boards or filing cabinets… and the sheer convenience has been a magical stimulant for increased creativity and contribution. But it’s not what I would call “social” interaction. The Nings I’m facilitating for teams seem to be creating stronger social relationships, especially when the teams are virtual.

The fact that there’s a place for each participant to say their OWN piece along with a place for group conversations about projects (or issues) has been a great support for increased trust and respect, at the same time.

I don’t see LearnHub operating in quite the same way. This is more like a university than what I think of as a social network. And, while there are communities, they are “open” to everyone and “public.” This is different from Nings where membership is managed – along with participation – by the network creator.

All this is fascinating… Do you have more thoughts?

Are you documenting your Ning and LearnHub experiences as part of your doctoral work?

csrd said:

Hi, I am Dr.R. I have the kind of ignorance which distinguishes the studious. I understand the statement, ” As an adult who loves to learn, I love Nings! As an adult who loves to collect information I may need later, I love Wikis.” Both have a role in creating global ambience for teach-learn culture.

lechuck said:

So, here’s the thing about Ning. Other than it rhymes!

Aside from it being “dry”, it offers a very unconventional way to connect and share with others who are interested in same topic. In my experiences trying to navigate any Ning network is it’s very difficult. I often find myself clicking around the site in order to get anywhere useful. By that time I’m ready to leave. Most people who sign up just sign up and then become a “dead” user. It offers video and audio, as LearnHub does, except we have a powerful video player that is more than just a YouTube embedded video. You can upload rather large personal video straight to LearnHub and share it with communities and or around the internet. Most of all, LearnHub offers a “network” which we call Communities and within those communities you can offer so much. Also our communities aren’t disconnected from one and another. Each community of similar subject can relate to one and another. You’re never trapped or navigating around trying to find something useful. Everything is right there in front of you. I just can’t see what the draw of Ning, other than there was nothing else out there, so you were forced to use it. Well, LearnHub is here now to save the day.

Nellie & Meri: Your right, we need more Wiki support here. That is a goal of ours for sure.

On that, LearnHub is new, we’ve been launched a month now and we are already quite active. You, as the first users on scene, have the power to help direct LearnHub into the future. What you post, what you discuss, what you create, acts as a reference to new users.

The evolution of LearnHub has just begun. Alike many other popular platforms, how YOU use it, is how the flow of the platform will go. I am watching diligently how all our members use LearnHub, and what they say is very important. I want this to be the BEST learning platform EVER.

Take for example Second Life, the developers and directors goals for Second Life are no were near what direction it took. The fact that the creative, unique users took the virtual world and used it in their own way, to create what they need, is amazing. Developers saw the potential, and took it in that direction and look at it now.

So when you talk about what is a discussion, debate, lesson, just remember that everyone needs to learn and use the platform in their own way, and in the long run they will make some AMAZING content that millions of people will be using to learn a new skill or expand on their knowledge. If you don’t like it, you can try sharing your ideals.

mawstools said:

Thanks for weighing in here further, Adam. I appreciate all the differences that you’re highlighting here and your passionate belief that LH is capable of creating a whole new kind of collaborative learning environment, different from anything out there. And better, from where you’re standing (grin).

You’re right. We’re all just here for a little over a month now. This discussion here is an attempt to cross-pollinate relationships and ideas between two systems. That’s the kind of thing I’m famous for. Sometimes irritating, sometimes transformational.

Personally, I’m excited about how this discussion is unfolding HERE and I’m interested to see how many folks are willing to leave their comments around BOTH campfires – this one here as well as the conversation on Ning in Education.

I’ll be very interested to see how the developers work wiki-capabilities into this world here…

I’m also interested to see how they develop our “profile” capabilities here. Right now, it seems to me they’re very focused on our social and pedagogical contributions, to the exclusion of other activities people need to create and manage an online “identity.” One thing I really appreciate about Nings is my ability to “decorate my room” with whatever I want … whether I decide to do it or not. I can’t do that here yet. My “room” isn’t very personal, in other words.

The analogue that keeps coming up for me about my participation here is that I’m at an open university where the rooms all connect both INSIDE the rooms and out in the hallway. But the only place I can rest is in the hallway. I don’t have a personal space here. And there’s no library, either. All the rooms have their own resources in them. The resources can be cloned from room to room…and some rooms have almost the same resources left in them as others … and the “titles” of the activities that are supposed to be going on in the rooms are radically different.

The separation between “communities” that happens as a function of the architecture of Nings manages this differently. And, I like that.

I do find myself posting the same things in several different Nings…and that’s a pain I don’t endure here (I can check other communities to share the same lesson with)... but there’s also a lot of confusion and redundancy of resources.

I LOVE being in here while the pot is being so actively stirred by ALL of us… it’s fascinating!

nelliemuller said in response to:

I am sure learnhub will get there. I would like also to like to be able to set privacy preferences.

stevemac121 said:

I’ve made some brief comments over in Ning’s classroom 2.0 discussion. Just some quick observations from my perspective

1. Learnhub is very young and i get the vibe that there is a passion to build a great learning environment 2. Learnhub offers activities, which is a good thing, as it stimulates interest 3. I like the Ning interface and environment and i think it works well. I think also it is useful to have distinct seperate networks in Comparison i find the learnhub interface a bit too busy and although manageable at times i am slightly disorientated. Especially as Learnhub is offering many more options i think a very good idea to look at the interface design would be beneficial. Couple of ideas; 1) two featured users, just have one heading with users displayed vertically, same with featured lessons and then 2) have much clearer distinction between the different sections on the page. The two points tie in. For Adam and the team – you may not agree with my ideas, but i’d do some user evaluation on the interface and see what feedback you get. I think the interface will be an important part of your success.

Vahid said:

I guess we go back to what collaborative learning means and how it works…

I do find wikis very handy to create a document (hyperlinked, full of pictures, and whatnots), and so to me it feels like wikis are good for a “last stage” of learning, quite close to the producing some sort of final agreed upon document.

Collaborative learning, with all the exploration, the conversations and discussions it demands, seems to be closer to what Ning can offer in my view. People can get to know each other, strengthen a little bit the ties that bond them, and go off in several directions while registering it all in the network.

However, i have already asked Ning why they didn’t offer a wiki tool… and i’m waiting for an answer.

Maybe it’s all about stages of the learning: Ning is better for interpersonal interaction that leads to learning, and wikis for the final output/product (if it is meant to be a document that the teacher could read for instance, or a synthesis that the group agrees upon).

mawstools said:

Vahid, I like the way you’ve described what happens in Nings as “people getting to know each other, strengthen a little the ties that bond then, and then go off in several directions while registering it all in the network.” This is my experience, too. And I am having a harder time managing the social networking here at LH than in Nings. The architecture doesn’t support our sharing the ties that bind us quite as easily here. At least not yet.

In case you didn’t know, Ning is about to add full wiki support to Nings … and there is already a workaround where you can add a wiki to a Ning as a tab, if you’re the system administrator.

I want LH to be a Ning, a Wiki, a Facebook, a Virtual Classroom Management System, and a payment system all in one… Maybe in a little while.

ivanrvr said:

I´m really agree with a post what Mari Walker made and may be I didn´t realise till now: there is something on the discussion forums (how you was using ning) who makes you to know the oppinions of each others and permits fix this knowledge through a conversation between people!! It´s not a document “purified” through several iterations till find one what has the “accorded knowlege”

On my company we really use wiki as a way to document and make it better because of we don´t need to see a really exchange of knowledge between people but a really clear document what anybody can read fastly to learn…

In conclusion to my oppinion, I would say that wikis are a good colaborative tool between experts to make a good final report of a certain material but forums (or social networks were people can discuss about any theme) are much more participative because let you to know the oppinion of the rest of the community.

Thanks to Phil and Meri Aaron Walker by this forum

alexpoole said:

This all makes for really interesting reading and I’m sure what the creators hear had hoped for.

I’m fairly new to social networking (online) I only just signed up to face book and that was only for work related activities and promotion.

I have known about ning for only about 6 months and have found it invaluable as a tool for setting up private members sites for some of my products.

Whilst I have heard of wikipedia I’ve never heard of Wikis – I’m going to have to go and see what they are all about.

Thanks for the great info.

jza said:

I personally think wikis is a more open platform and can be tweak to behave beter than regular aplications. Mediawiki for example have huge ammount of extensions to make it work better with users. The discussion tab in monowiki is very ‘hidden’ but a more interactive commenting can achieve better things.

There is always the challenge if teachers can really take all of what these technology is worth for.

I still see many teachers doing everything on Excel for example.

craigowens said:

Facinating conversation around this subject, but it just feels to me we are comparing apples and oranges (and some other healthy fruit if we throw Learnhub into the salad). Wikis and Ning are completely different tools. Ning is much more closely related to Learnhub – or so it seems to me – in that it facilitates communities and sharing of resources – fixed tangible things that can be commented upon and tkaen to be used and personally changed after the fact rather than ‘remixed’ on the fly. A Wiki, on the other hand, is the ‘thing’ or the ‘learning object’ that is just trown out there for group collaboration with the intention of building a collective understanding around the central theme – it engourages direct manipulation or ‘remixing’ of the subject matter. They approach the concept of collaboration in completely different ways. In one, the object is provided and perhaps commented upon or discussion is facilitated, in the other everyone actually gets to play a role in the transformation of the object to some sort of concensus of ideas.

Another off-the-wall thought here – wikis and social networks are not mutually exclusive learning environments, it just really depends on your intention. The killer app (maybe Learnhub2.0??) would just seek to integrate all these tools – wikis, blogs, slideshows, video, quizes, polls, embedded documents, photos, voicethreads, other external embeddable content, etc – within a single portal supporting the growth of communities of practice.

mawstools said:

Craig, I really appreciate your thought here. I fully agree that “wikis and nings are not mutually exclusive learning environments, it just depends on your intention.” My intention (grin) in posting this lesson was to stimulate just the kind of thinking and discussion that’s occuring here in this lesson. I’m delighted to be “hosting” the conversation.

I hear the distinction you’re making as calling for the “teacher” to have real clarity about his/her intention and to make a conscious choice of asking learners to work ON a learning object (in a wiki) or AROUND a learning object (in a ning… or in this kind of strange beast called LearnHub).

I’ve been facilitation groups in the development of shared understanding for a long time now – as a teacher, as a facilitator, and as a team coach. I’ve noticed in my own work that both the group itself (the different kinds of human beings/temperaments that make up the group) and the group’s GOAL (the end that the group has come together to achieve) both need to be taken into account when designing an engagement strategy.

I see learning as a social enterprise (thank you John Dewey) and I differentiate it from discovery and revelation which I understand as solo enterprises. When learning is, by one’s definition, social, then from my perspective learning always entails the development of shared understanding. A tricky and very messy process!

Wikis seem to me to help the development of a certain KIND of shared understanding that is different from the kind of shared understanding developed in dialogue. Wikis develop and leave behind an artifact of a conversation but, because of the process itself, they obliterate all traces of the dialogue that went into the creation of the artifact. Sometimes that’s just what a group needs and individuals who weren’t even part of the dialogue can use the artifact to get more quickly from Point A to Point B.

Nings (and these kinds of things we’re making here in LearnHub) seem to me to develop a different kind of shared understanding by recording the dialogue AROUND a learning object and leaving a record that preserves a lot of the process. Sometimes that’s just what a group needs to develop trust and individuals who weren’t part of the dialouge can also use the artifact to get more quickly from Point A to Point B (if they’re willing to wade through all the cookie crumbs) and maybe even point the group towards Point C…

These are some of the kinds of things I’m pondering anyway… and I’m really interested in what you and others think about this WHOLE conversation! Thanks for taking time to read this far. We’re playing here on the edge of wonderful new possibilities and I’m hungry to hear what others are experiencing and thinking as we’re putting these new tools into play…

nelliemuller said in response to:

I suggest you join me on wikieducator.