What Google Wave does best

Has everyone blogged about Google Wave yet? I have to confess that I haven’t yet found a profound use for it in my work, but it just occurred to me that what Google Wave does best is to discover your social network and connections, and to allnetworkow you to seamlessly collaborate with them without any mediating steps. Google Wave takes the view that people I have contacted should be added as contacts to my account. If I contacted someone, I therefore “know” him/her, and this person can automatically be added as a contact to my account, so that I don’t need to add them again. Rather than spending time on re-establishing connections, figuring people’s usernames, and going through the process of sending invitations to connect, Google does that all that automatically (at least for those of us who already use google products)…. is this marking a new era of living where our networks (both within and across services) become discoverable and transferable? The implications are wide-reaching.

Photo courtesy of Nimages DR licenced under a CC-license.

Choosing a career (14-17 year olds)

I started writing this post when I was at 38,046 ft in the sky, somewhere above the great state of Virginia, 3,670 miles away from Manchester. I’ve been flying for six and a half hours and in-between watching TED videos, listening to an audio recording of Machiavelli’s The Prince, and sleeping on the two empty seats next to mine, I have been thinking about how people decide on their career choice. This seemingly random thought has been nagging me for a while. This thought has nothing to do with me personally: I love what I do and I would do it again if I had the option. But going beyond my own experience, and leaving aside the cultural and need-to-work aspect of things, how do people decide on what they want to become? Sure, we take classes that sound interesting, appealing, or just different. Or, in some situations, we are forced to take classes from different domains (two thumbs up for liberals arts degrees). Or, we just stick with classes that we like or are forced to take (and two thumbs down for Anglo-type universities that force students to focus on one single discipline). Maybe we have role models or we have certain aspirations in life and figure out a career/job that allows us to achieve those certain aspirations. Or, our parents encourage us to take a certain path in life. Or, it’s all of these factors together or a combination of these. But this is all relative still. Where I want to end up is the magnificent (for those of us who aren’t yet parents) age of 14-17. That age is critical for one’s aspirations in life, for what one wants to become. Note that the emphasis is on having goals and becoming, and not on simply getting a job. So… at the age of 14-17, what guidance are we providing to students to help them choose socially important and personally meaningful, challenging, and interesting careers? When I went to school, I was given an outdated booklet describing (and stereotyping) jobs that would be available to me. I was also given the option to participate in a learning practicum. In Cyprus, this is still standard practice. I am interested in learning what schools worldwide offer for their students, especially when technology is involved. How do you introduce students to possible career options? Do you bring individuals to school to talk about their professions? Do you offer day trips? What do you do? Let me know!

Capturing influence in informal social networks

Data on the influence and impact of interactions in informal social networks is difficult to come by. Dr. Jon Becker is trying to collect data on the influence of Dr. Alec Couros‘ work, in support of Alec’s Tenure and Promotion application. Data from this endeavor will go in Alec’s digital portfolio that supports his application. This is a great idea, not just in terms of evaluating one’s contribution to the community, but also in terms of celebrating the achievements of a dedicated, resourceful, and brilliant colleague. If you have benefited in any way by interacting with Alec – and if you have interacted with Alec, I am sure you have – say it here!

Emerging Technologies in Primary Education

A few short weeks ago a colleague at the University of Nicosia-Cyprus asked if I could pay a virtual visit to her class and have a discussion on issues relating to educational technology. Below are the slides that I’ll be using to discuss the use of emerging technologies in primary education. I don’t usually post these, but this one is in Greek so I thought that some people may find use in it. Below is the same message in Greek.

Πριν μερικές εβδομάδες μία συνάδελφος απο το Πανεπιστήμιο της Λευκωσίας ρώτησε αν θα μπορούσα να κάνω μια εικονική επίσκεψη στην τάξη της για συζήτηση για θέματα που αφορούν την εκπαιδευτική τεχνολογία. Πάρακάτω θα βρείτε τις σημειώσεις μου για τη χρήση των νέων τεχνολογιών στην πρωτοβάθμια/δημοτική εκπαίδευση. Δεν συνηθίζω να τις δίνω αυτές αλλά μίας και είναι στα ελληνικά  σκέφτηκα ότι κάποιοι μπορεί να τις βρουν χρήσιμες.

Two Quotes

I’ve been thinking a lot about educational change lately. I’ve also been trying to connect a few ideas relating to culture, power, access, and responsible teaching. Though I usually return to Paulo Freire for these things, I’ve been reading a bit more on what other authors have to say. Below are two quotes that provide food for thought:

From the Foucault blog, “I lecture at a rather special place, the Collège de France, whose function is precisely not to teach. What I find very pleasing about the situation is that I don’t feel like I’m teaching, that is, I don’t feel that I am in a relationship of power with my students. A teacher is someone who says: “There are a certain number of things you don’t know, but you should know.” He starts off by making the students feel guilty. And then he places them under an obligation, saying: “I’m the one who knows these things that you should know and I’m going to teach them to you. And once I’ve taught them to you, you’re going to have to know them. And I’m going to verify whether you really do know them.” So there’s verification, a whole series of relationships of power. But at the Collège de France, students take only the courses they want to take. And anybody can sit in on classes, anybody from retired army officers to fourteen-year-old lycéens. They come if they are interested, otherwise they stay home. So who is tested, who is under power? At the Collège de France, it’s the teacher.”

From the Encyclopaedia of Philosophy of Education: “In Nietzsche’s thoughts, education and culture are inseparable. There can be no culture without an educational project, nor education without a culture to support it. Education in German schools springs from an historicist conception and gives origin to a pseudoculture. Culture and education are synonyms of “selective training”, “the formation of the self”; for the existence of a culture, it is necessary that individuals learn determined rules, that they acquire habits and that they begin to educate themselves against themselves, or better, against the education forced upon them.”

Conversational Agents & Natural Language Interaction CFP

Disclosure: Please note that I am on the editorial advisory board for this book with regards to my pedagogical agent work)

CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS (pdf document)

Proposal Submission Deadline: December 16, 2009

Conversational Agents and Natural Language Interaction: Techniques and Effective

Practices

A book edited by Dr. Diana Perez-Marin and Dr. Ismael Pascual-Nieto Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain

Introduction

Human-Computer Interaction can be understood as two potent information processors (a human and a computer) trying to communicate with each other using a highly restricted interface. Natural Language (NL) Interaction, that is, to let the users express in natural language could be the solution to improve the communication between human and computers. Conversational agents exploit NL technologies to engage users in text-based informationseeking and task-oriented dialogs for a broad range of applications such as e-commerce, help desk, Web site navigation, personalized service, and education.

The benefits of agent expressiveness have been highlighted both for verbal expressiveness and for non-verbal expressiveness. On the other hand, there are also studies indicating that when using conversational agents mixed results can appear. These studies reveal the need to review the research in a field with a promising future and a great impact in the area of Human-Computer Interaction.

Objective of the Book

The main objective of the book is to identify the most effective practices when using conversational agents for different applications. Some secondary objectives to fulfill the main goal are:

– To gather a comprehensive number of experiences in which conversational agents have been used for different applications

– To review the current techniques which are being used to design conversational agents

– To encourage authors to publish not only successful results, but also unsuccessful results and a discussion of the reasons that may have caused them

Target Audience

The proposed book is intended to serve as a reference guide for researchers who want to start their research in the promising field of conversational agents. It will not be necessary that readers have previous knowledge on the topic.

Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Fundamental concepts

Definition and taxonomy of conversational agents

– Motivation, benefits, and issues of their use

– Underlying psychological and social theories

2. Design of conversational agents

Techniques

– Frameworks

– Methods

3. Practices

Experiences of use of conversational agents in:

– E-commerce

– Help desk

– Website navigation

– Personalized service

– Training or education

– Results achieved

– Discussion of the reasons of their success of failure

4. Future trends

Issues that should be solved in the future

– Expectations for the future

Submission Procedure

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before December 16, 2009, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by January 16, 2010 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters (8,000–10,000 words) are expected to be submitted by April 16, 2010. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Publisher

This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference,” “Business Science Reference,” and “Engineering Science Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2011.

Important Dates

December 16, 2009: Proposal Submission Deadline
January 16, 2010: Notification of Acceptance
April 16, 2010: Full Chapter Submission
June 30, 2010: Review Results Returned
July 30, 2010: Final Chapter Submission
September 30, 2010: Final Deadline

Editorial Advisory Board Members
Galia Angelova, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
Rafael Calvo, University of Sydney, Australia
Dan Cristea, A.I. Cuza University of Iasi, Romania
Miguel Gea, University of Granada, Spain
Diane Inkpen, University of Ottawa, Canada
Pamela Jordan, University of Pittsburgh, USA
Ramón López Cózar, University of Granada, Spain
Max Louwerse, University of Memphis, USA
José Antonio Macías, University Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Mick O’Donnell, University Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
María Ruíz, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Olga Santos, University Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain
George Veletsianos, University of Manchester, UK

Inquiries and submissions

Please send all inquiries and submissions (preferably through e-mail) to:

Diana Perez-Marin, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain

Email: diana.perez@urjc.es

and

Ismael Pascual Nieto, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain

Email: ismael.pascual@uam.es

Hack This Syllabus!

I’m very excited to announce my Spring 2010 course, EDC385G (Current Issues in Instructional Technology: Online Learning in the Participatory Age). Students enrolled in this course will study the research and application of participatory technologies for online learning. Given the topic of the course, and the breadth of expertise the exists in the various professional networks that I belong, I thought I’d ask for your help to improve this class.

Here’s your chance: Hack my syllabus! Take it apart, suggest readings, activities, additions, subtractions, whatever you may think will help. Your suggestions will not only improve these students’ learning experience, but will serve as a model example of how the network can help us improve practice. My weekly topic list is posted on digress.it, allowing you to comment on each paragraph rather than on the document as a whole.

I am looking forward to your suggestions! [edit: Please note that ALL readings should be freely and publicly available]

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