trying out animoto

An experimental video:


and another sample here

Surprisingly enough only 6 of the 30 or so photos that I selected were actually displayed in these short videos. Still it gives some idea of the sessions that were held. In the free version only 30 second videos can be made. Full-length videos are available if you are willing to pay for them, either for one of for a year.
Interestingly, the music library covers real music from real artists & bands.
PS For insiders, I chose the battle song ;-))

Reflecting , reflecting , reflecting ...

It's been a while since I last wrote here. Why? Well probably because there is only so much material to write about. As I've been writing short items of reflection in another space, it seems odd to do the same thing again here.

A little about that other space I'm writing in. It's in fact the safe and private workspace we're filling up with exchanges among the project members of the Homo Zappiens professionalization track. We reflect on things that we come across, on things that make us stop and think, but we also support each other with tips & suggestions and much more. Being part of such a learning community is a great bonus. It's ideal for letting off steam and reporting to like-minded people what concerns one in trying to get innovative ideas in education introduced and implemented. Just getting things off your chest can help enormously in reducing the frustration that innovators often come across. On the other hand, every so often in one's daily digest of feeds one comes across that little gem that one simply has to share with others. Again the first spot that comes to my mind is then the workspace and the people participating in the H Z project who are open to that. They value this, as is often demonstrated by stimulating reactions and / or further queries. This in fact in stark contrast to the writing of a separate blog like this, which is in fact so anonymous that one wonders why one writes here at all.

Ok ok, I do sense that people will be responding to this and saying it's good to reflect wherever you like as the act of reflecting is valuable in itself. Very true ! But again, there's only so much material to reflect on. And then I must say I concur with the many students that bring up the issue of being fed up with reflections and reflections on work done. Reflecting on things should always be timely and worthwhile to the one reflecting, instead of performing this little game for the sake of others, which is a recurring complaint I keep hearing from our students.

Now having a number of channels available to me for reflection, I have to choose wisely I feel what to bring / take where. Just so as not to turn reflection into a trick like many students simply do to satisfy their teachers and gain their credits.
Mission accomplished now ;-))

Linking knowledge worldwide

The title of a new Nuffic brochure "Linking knowledge worldwide" somehow stuck in my mind today. I began to realise that has been the driving force for me in quite a number of projects that I have been working on in the last few years. Now I know that I should add "by social media" or "by web 2.0 tools".
Let's go back a little.... Around 1999 I got involved in an international project that ran under the Dutch Scandinavian Cooperation consortium. With 2 partners from the Netherlands and 2 from Bergen (HIB), Norway we developed a course for lecturers in higher education that revolved around the idea of collaborative learning in distance education. The results are still available on the web. While working on the project I discovered that my interest in internationalisation could be enhanced by developments that were taking place on the web. There and then a keen interest in all things digital arose. From then on, it became clear to me that these two tracks in my professional development could reinforce each other in a big way.
Not quite by coincidence but definitely not on purpose either, I started out bookmarking sites on delicious in October 2006. I regularly worked on 3 different computers and repeatedly asked myself where I could find that particular favourite I stored a number of days earlier. Fed up with the situation I decided to take the jump and store them on the web, easy for reference wherever I was. Soon after however I started to become aware of the enormous potential of the network I had got involved in. I'm still thankful for the experiment that it was for me at the time, because now it's proved to be such a valuable resource for me in so many of the activities I'm involved in at the moment.
Today it crossed my mind that I can also utilise delicious in and for the new INTERISO working group that started up last September. Simply by adding the tag interiso for all the relevant sites I'm bookmarking as I go along I can build up relevant resources for all the international coordinators of our school of social work. Possibly, I could even seduce them into using this social bookmarking tool to their own advantage, within their own field of expertise.....
Another interesting social media tool is naturally flickr.com. I've already introduced this as a communication tool in a European Grundtvig project, but for all kinds of international plans and projects this is a real joy to explore and use. In other words, the current social media tools are ideal springboards for linking cultures, continents and knowledge worldwide. The possibilities are limitless. It just needs openminded and creative people to get it going and turn it into a success.

Inspiration from abroad

Just returned from a trip to Norway for a project called Blended Learning and Intercultural Dialogue, a simply wonderful experience with all the people involved. Although we came as teachers, we in fact were all learners at Arendal.
All of us shared our experiences and demonstrated what we had been working on in the past few months. What diversity and how fascinating!
A surprise followed 2 days later after returning home, when I heard that one teacher from the Danish delegation had picked up my enthusiasm for Ning and started one up by herself for networking on the Blaidproject.
Such great experience to be cooperating with so many openminded people willing to try new things.
On another international note, news from Slideshare announced that from now on there would be categories to find interesting stuff quicker. And immediately one caught my eye in the Education category.
Such food for thought ! However, at the same time I realised: can I really manage more input? Well, I'll put it here anyway, just in case.

25 EduBlogs You Simply Don’t Want to Miss!

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Aha's bij de collega's

Tijdens een surftocht vandaag stuitte ik op de socialblog van de Hogeschool Utrecht, een leuk en interessant initiatief, wat ik nog niet ergens anders heb zien opduiken waar het sociaal werk in het hoger onderwijs betreft.
Wat vind je er? Behalve een aantal artikeltjes staan er met name ook korte filmpjes van studiereizen die de studenten hebben ondernomen, naar Turkije, Brussel en Berlijn.
Aardig is ook de compilatie van favoriete foto's van een aantal eerstejaars in het kader van een onderwijsprogramma, een leuk kijkje in de keuken van de leefwerelden van deze studenten.
Conclusie: een mooie toepassing van een blog binnen een aantal gerelateerde opleidingen en handig om zo speciale activiteiten te delen in het publieke domein.
Op de blog staat ook een oproepje om lid te worden van de Culturehacking community, bedoeld voor mensen werkzaam in een creatieve (of creatief agogische) sector. Het is een initiatief van Erik Stronks die hiermee een netwerk voor creatieve professionals wil opzetten en hiervoor een ning groep heeft aangemaakt. Ik ben benieuwd hoe deze open ning zich gaat ontwikkelen. Zelf heb ik een maandje geleden een gesloten ning aangemaakt voor een groepje 4e jaars die ik begeleid als studieloopbaancoach. Een ning groep aanmaken is eigenlijk tamelijk eenvoudig. Voor de interface heb je verschillende opties, zodat iedere ning echt een heel ander image kan uitstralen. De inrichting is flexibel en steeds weer aan te passen. Het werkt allemaal behoorlijk intuitief. Tot nu toe ben ik er zelf enthousiast over, maar "the proof of the pudding" ligt eigenlijk bij de studenten: hoe zullen zij ermee omgaan? wordt het gezien als meerwaarde?
We zullen zien, het is nu simpelweg te vroeg om er uitspraken over te doen. Stay tuned.

return on investment

During (!) my volleyball training session last week the chit-chat somehow landed on web 2.0 tools. A team member and I sometimes just quickly exchange things while waiting our turns for one thing or another. (Rest assured, we are no top team ....)
This team member teaches in secondary education and conversations between us regularly turn to discussing educational issues. Just another form of blowing off steam in different surroundings. She had told me a few months ago she had fond memories of the special in-service training course she took in Turkey where she was involved in trying out all sorts of web 2.0 tools. Lots of time for experimenting, sharing ideas, exchanging successful formats etc. , all in a pleasant and stimulating environment (and a warm climate to top it all !). She came home full of new ideas to try out in her classes. Sadly, she now realised months later, she wasn't putting anything to good use, bound up as she was in the daily routine of teaching her classes and checking tests.
It was then that I realised how fortunate I really am, having been given the time to actually try things out at leisure, to discuss your progress and your setbacks with experts and enthusiasts, to take time to consider steps in implementing the new tools. Even though each of our colleagues in the Homo Zappiens community chooses his/her own path, we know we can always fall back on each other and find comfort in sharing things via the Workplace that was set up for us by the project leaders.
The fact that we can do this over an extended period adds to this, it makes it an even more memorable and more importantly, a lasting experience.
How many times haven't we heard people say that they came back inspired and stimulated by a special seminar or course, to fall back into their daily routines as soon as they took up their usual tasks and responsibilities.
Hooray for the people who had the courage to decide on this Homo Zappiens professionalisation track and to offer this to interested lecturers ! I would never have started a blog like this under different circumstances.

Groen

Toegegeven, ik heb al wel eens een paar blog artikeltjes geschreven. Dat was voor de site sociaaldigitaal, een website die het gebruik van internet en andere digitale communicatiemiddelen onderzoekt binnen de sociaal agogische sector.
Verder heb ik veel opgestoken van de samenwerking aan een project van de Digitale Universiteit dat leidde tot de site sociaalverhaal , een plek waar je verhalen kan vinden die allemaal iets met elkaar gemeen hebben en die ontsloten worden via tags. Het leuke aan deze interactieve site is dat studenten van de sociale opleidingen de verhalen hebben verzameld en opgetekend, met name via interviews.
Toch is schrijven voor het web in een blog zoals deze nog relatief nieuw voor me. Daarom houd ik het sjabloon voor de interface nog maar even op groen om mijn "rookie" status te weerspiegelen.