Foliospaces

Beyond LMS

2012-01-19T11:43:00.003+11:00

This is a copy of the presentation I gave at the Converge11 conference in Melbourne late last year. I was an enthusiastic supporter of learning management systems, and even helped to get Moodle accepted at my university. But...... every dog has its day. There is still a place for an LMS, but I think it is shrinking. Just the words, Management and System tend to be at odds with self directed and learner centred. It is a topic I would like to explore a lot more.

Email problems resolved from the top of a volcano!!

2011-10-07T11:09:00.003+11:00

Well it's not true really but I did give it a passing thought. I am recently returned from a 10 day holiday in Vanuatu, and it was bliss. I wanted to see an active volcano and wild horses and was lucky to see both. The brochure said 'free wifi when the generator is running' but like all things in Vanuatu it does not always turn out that way. What little Internet there was tended to be dialup. Remember that??

Now I am getting back into work mode, slowly. While I was away, Steve was left trying to resolve some registration (new account) and general email issues we have been having. As we (FolioSpaces) continues to grow we run into a hassle from time to time, and email notifications have been a pain. We now have a dedicated email server, which failed yesterday (the host did not provide a reason) so there were no emails going out at all. A more long term problem has been we were blacklisted (?) by Gmail, so no users with Gmail accounts were able to register. This is an interesting dilemma. Google Australia does have a phone number, but once you get through the option 1, option 2, you finally get a recorded message that says 'technical support is not available'. I tried the help forum, sent an email, and eventually sent a Fax. Now, I don't know what worked in the end but I have just successfully managed to register on FolioSpace with one of my Gmail accounts. The email was in my Spam folder, but what the heck, it was there. Hooray!!!!! I have a sneaking feeling the fax may have helped. Don't ever underestimate the value of old technology!

Hopefully our email hassles are now sorted for a while, and I can spend some time building an ePortfolio... I might do one on Volcanos....

Your ePortfolio Profile

2011-09-09T08:57:00.002+10:00

There has been an interesting discussion on Mahara.org recently about Profiles. Leo Lyons, a Learning Research Analyst, at the University of Kent, has a JISC funded project looking at the broader implications of HEIs providing their students with a public blogging platform and public profiles. The University of Kent has blocked public profiles. My initial reaction to this is one of horror (I hate big brother tactics) but I also see some merit in it.

In my opinion a profile should be public. It should include all the information a user wants to share with the world about themselves. I am a marketer, so 'this is me' is great marketing. But... there is a problem. Mahara (so also FolioSpaces) is a sophisticated platform. Like all things online, the best (well most common) way to learn is to 'just do it'. I have commented before that I am surprised that a large number of students complain to us that their teachers don't have a clue how to use FolioSpaces (some don't even have accounts) but expect their students to work it all out themselves. This is terrible teaching practice as far as I am concerned, but it happens, heaps. When we provide eLearning consultancy services, clients are often reluctant to also include staff training. Can't we just design some learning materials? The assumption that a transition from face to face, to online is just another day in the life of a teacher.

So, back to Profiles. I have noticed that about 10% of FolioSpaces users use their profile AS THEIR PORTFOLIO. They never create any additional pages, it is just all there. Profiles are public (either completely or just to logged in users). The main advantage of an ePortfolio (over say a blog) is that the user can control who sees what. The profile page can be whatever you want it to be, but usually I would suggest it should just be a brief introduction to you the person, and should not include personal contact information. It can even be blank although that is pretty boring.

We will not be adopting the private profile approach, but it is important to recognise that we all need to manage the information we want to publicly share. If you are considering introducing portfolios in your institution, provide some guidance. We wouldn't (usually) teach people to drive by saying there is a car, and here are the keys. You can do it with computers, and it is fun to teach yourself. But just like a car, it is necessary to learn the road rules first.

What have we been doing lately?

2011-09-09T08:34:00.004+10:00

It has been a while since I have made a blog post, as I just seem to have been a little out of control lately. Our upgrade to Mahara 1.4 went pretty well, and I (like many of our users) am getting used to it now. While the functionality is much the same, I think the improvements to navigation are excellent. I would welcome any thoughts from our users as well. Open Source software is both a blessing and a curse. We don't like to customise too much as when the next upgrade to the core code comes along, everything breaks. On the other hand, you are at the mercy of the community priorities. We are still having a few hassles with email notifications from time to time, but that is not a Mahara issue but rather a local one for us.

I really like Collections, and I have been developing an open Social Media Marketing course using FolioSpaces, and a couple of collections. Fortunately I have a great group of students who are patient as I am developing and piloting the course on the run. Nothing like having 50 different projects running at once to keep you honest. We are also using Google+ (for communication/interaction/sharing) and that has been a great experience. I could (perhaps should) have used a FS group, but I like trying new media. We are basically running the course with Google+, FS and Twitter so it is great fun trying to keep up with it all.

FolioSpaces needs a Spring clean, and it will come I promise. Most of our help pages are now out of date, so I will start making a few videos, and posts about new features. For now we have linked to the Mahara.org help files (which are up to date), but it is good to have some local ones as well.

It is now more than three years since we started FolioSpaces. We have a few great institutional members, a lot of premium individual members, and thousands and thousands of free members. We value you all and Steve and I are just as committed to providing a global ePortfolio service now as we were at the beginning. What is really exciting is we have noticed users are now working their portfolios a lot harder than they were. There is some great public content. It would be good to share some, I just need to figure out how without causing privacy concerns. For now you are welcome to visit our Social Media Marketing course as one example of a work in progress....

Social Media in the Workplace

2011-08-29T20:12:00.000+10:00

Great presentation from Jane Heart on Social Learning

The impact of social media on workplace learnng

View more presentations from Jane Hart

Upgrade to Mahara 1.4 complete

2011-08-13T12:12:00.003+10:00

Well we have finally upgraded to Mahara 1.4. We waited this long as we were hoping for a Mahara 1.4.1 release but because 1.4 was so long coming we guessed most of the bugs were pretty well sorted. My first 5 minutes tells me we have been pretty successful, but there are a few bugs. My favourite browser Chrome seems to have issues saving edited pages (new name for a view). Firefox is better. Also I have noticed you can't change the number of colomns - it encounters and error message. There are a few error message s on some of the group tabs as well (shared pages and topics).

Please be patient for a few days as we work to resolve these issues. In the mean time I suggest you use Firefox (or perhaps IE if you must).

Showcase with more than words

2011-07-22T16:38:00.003+10:00

Portfolios can use any media, so why are we still hung up on words, words, words. One of the most popular formats I have noted for graduates is to present a page that contains links to document after document. Sorry guys and gals, but it looks like crap and if you sent it to me as a prospective employer I wouldn't bother to read it. There is an alternative, and this is a great example I found on slideshare. So easy to drop into a portfolio....

Tyler's Presentation Resume

View more presentations from Tyler Totman

Getting framed...

2011-07-10T21:25:00.011+10:00

I should stop working so late!! The post below was meant to be on my picture framing blog at http://justframekits.blogspot.com/ but hey, they do look great so it makes a change to eLearning lol.

We send frame kits all over Australia, and sometimes to international destinations. It is wonderful to see how they turn out. One of our customers from Adelaide, South Australia, sent us these images of lithographs that had been donated to birds Australia. Our frames are easy to put together, but this was a fair few to do at the one time. Thanks very much to John, for sharing the images with us, they do look great.

MySpace RIP

2011-07-04T12:48:00.003+10:00

Well how the mighty are fallen. MySpace has finally been dumped by News Corporation, sold for $35 million. Bit of a loss on the purchase price of $550 mil in 2005. Facebook only overtook MySpace in 2008, just three years ago. I was at a Social Media presentation recently and the presenter suggested Facebook will always be dominant. Frankly, how naive is that? Nothing is new; everything is new; nothing changes; everything changes. That is the world we are living in. Based on market valuations MySpace was actually a steal at $550 mil back in 2005. So what went wrong? Basically an inability to innovate I imagine. Stand still and you die. I am not sure that it is possible for any huge corporation to buy an innovative startup without giving it the kiss of death at the same time.

Since News Corp took over MySpace it is reported that it quickly destroyed morale, and had unrealistic revenue expectations. Social networks do not work well in large companies which tend to be all about control. Flat management structures, inclusiveness, and morale are something I remember nostalgigally from the 70s and 80s (or perhaps I was just in an altered state).

There are a lot of parallels really in all walks of life, but particularly in education where I spend most of my time. MySpace needs to become OurSpace. At the moment to much seems to be for the benefit of SeniorManagementSpace.And now Google+ emmerges. Wow, at first glance it looks great. The concept of circles is really smart. What is amazing about Google is their patience. I guess Microsoft is the same too, afterall it took a long time to get WIndows 7 (which I figure is now pretty good). I liked Wave but it was too clever by half. Buzz didn't really hit the spot either. + on the other hand, I am using already having only got it last night.

ePortfolios and chess theory

2011-06-01T13:00:00.000+10:00

Natalia Pogonina wrote recently on chess.com that 'chess theory is based on general principles, regularities, and notions'. Natalia goes on to point out that following general principles religiously can lead to disaster as sometimes seemingly illogical or irrational moves make sense. She gave the example of Dr. Tattasch (Grand Master of late 19th early 20th century) responding to an irate reader:

"I followed your stupid advice and lost!”. In his next column Tarrasch commented on this ironically: “Here is the new rule. You should always place your rook behind passed pawns in the endgame, except for the situations when it doesn’t make sense”.

Somehow, this great article made me think of ePortfolios (perhaps my mind works in a strange way). The more I hear about templates, reflection and right and wrong ways to construct ePortfolios the more I think 'except for the situations when it doesn't make sense'.

Secret URL secret!!!!

2011-05-22T10:56:00.005+10:00

In my last post I said I couldn't find the secret URL in Mahara 1.4. Well now I have, it is a bit strange and hopefully may be changed.

From in the edit access screen there is no option for secret URL. You don't select any options (or could if you wanted to say share with a group etc). You then click save and are returned to a screen with a link to the page you have just edited or are about to work on. You will see that there is a secret URL option here (on the right hand side). I am not sure why this is not included on the access page, but going to a link to the Page is great. Previously (and in our current version) once you set access you get taken back to the main Page (View) menu and have to find you page again.The image above is a screen shot of the page you go to after clicking save in the edit access screen. Note the secret URL button on the right hand side. It is like an 'optional extra' and I think it is growing on me as a good idea as it separates the decision to share (say with an industry consultant or potential client or employer) from access for other fellow users or general public.

If the method for adding a secret URL stays like this, users will just need to learn how to do it, and it is one of the few non-intuitive features I have encountered so far.

Mahara 1.4 release candidate

2011-05-21T20:10:00.010+10:00

At last the long awaited Mahara 1.4 is here. Release candidate 1.4 is now available. We have a test install, but will probably wait for a month or so before we upgrade FolioSpaces as there are sure to be bugs. I have had a quick play, and some of the new features look great. Usability and navigation has been simplified which should make it much easier for new users to get started.

The first thing you notice is the different Tab names. Home is now Dashboard, Profile has had a major redesign and is called Content, My Portfolio is now Portfolio, Groups stays the same. Site Admin remains the same, and is only visible to Institutional admins.

The Profile was always a bit confusing and now the Content tab provides access to both the user profile, resume, plans and resources (document files, images etc). Image management has been enhanced and now image folders can be created and a collection of images used in a portfolio. All management of any file types is done via the files Tab. I believe there is a phone app that allows images to be pushed straight to a photo folder, so that is/will be a great advance. The blog Tab has been replaced by a journal Tab so new terminology here. Probably a good idea, as I have always used multiple blogs, often using them more as lists that I could plug into a View (now - Page). Interestingly there is one default journal and if you want more you need to turn on the ability to create more in settings. The thinking behind this is (I imagine) to keep it simple and avoid confusion. Not sure if I like this but it is easy enough to adjust settings, but it does make the Journal function like a one up blog, rather than the way I have always used it. I still prefer to use a professional blog (like Blogger, Posterous, Wordpress etc) for blogging and just RSS it as needed, but it is a minor quibble and overall the simplification is good.

MyPortfolio is now Portfolio. The navigation and usability here is really improved. When you click Portfolio the default Tab is Pages. I was used to ' View' and liked it, but have also spent way to much time trying to explain what it meant to people, so ' Pages' (as in Web pages) is a great move. You will also see there is a search box to allow Pages to be searched by tittle, description and Tag (the addition of tags for pages is a great feature).

When you click on 'edit page' there is a new navigation method as shown above (top menu). I like the Display page tab and the share page Tab. The sharing option is much simpler but I could not find Secret URL. Perhaps it is our test install, or a bug. I don't think it has been dropped. Everything else is there though, public, private, friends, groups.

The edit page Tabs are similar but with a few additions and/or changes. RSS is now external feeds. Probably a good idea as it can be used for more than just RSS and it is always complicated trying to explain what an RSS (Really simple syndication) is! We will put embed.ly there, and also Youtube which is a change (from files, images, videos). An important change in Files, images and videos is the ability to create photo folders as I already mentioned.

Key to the general Tab is still the text box, which is used constantly for all page construction. It now full pages by default (remember the bug?) and that looks like it works well. I personally liked the drag resize workaround we are already using, but full page editing by default is ok. And actually it is not quite full page but rather a full width edit box that takes up about half the screen and you can still see the Page behind which is good. There is still no direct upload of photos from a text box, which is my biggest disappointment. Not being able to upload photos on the fly is a pain, and we will continue to offer our easy pic uploader at http://pics.foliospaces.com/ for quick URL generation.

All in all the new navigation looks great and I think it will make Mahara (and in turn therefore FolioSpaces) much easier for new users to learn. There are not a lot of new features, but the navigation overhaul is radical, but existing users will also work it out very quickly as it is much more intuitive. I have noticed a few things that don't look right (such as the secret URL and a duplicated back button) but I am sure they will be quickly fixed.

I haven't looked at groups yet, but the ability to collaborate is one of the most important features, so I will do a separate post once I go through the features. I am impatient and would love to upgrade straight away, but our first priority is always looking after data security and functionality for our users, so a few more weeks (probably a month) won't be to long to wait.

Perhaps the Internet could be interactive?

2011-05-12T15:47:00.000+10:00

It is the 10th aniversary of the death of Douglas Adams, author of the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. .

One Thursday lunchtime the Earth is unexpectedly demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass. For Arthur Dent, who has only just had his house demolished that morning, this seems already to be more than he can cope with. Sadly, however, the weekend has only just begun, and the galaxy is a very strange and startling place.

Just 10 years ago the Internet was still very strange and startling place for most of us. No Google, Facebook or Twitter. In 1999 Adams wrote a piece for the UK Sunday Times, 'How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet', which very much relates to Social Media (SoMe) today.

Adams predicted that ‘normal’ mainstream twentieth century media (Television, cinema, radio, recorded music) will be recorded as a historical aberration.

‘Please, miss, you mean they could only just sit there and watch? They couldn’t do anything? Didn’t everybody feel terribly isolated or alienated or ignored?’

‘Yes, child, that’s why they all went mad. Before the Restoration.’

‘What was the Restoration again, please, miss?’

‘The end of the twentieth century, child. When we started to get interactivity back.’

Well we are starting to get interactivity back, but to a large extent education, business and society is clinging to control, hiding behind the firewalls and not really seeking input or collaboration despite the proven 'wisdom of the crowd'.

Minds on fire and ePortfolios in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

2011-04-04T17:00:00.005+10:00

I was reading a terrific article 'Minds on fire. Open Education, the Long Tail and Learning 2.0' today which started me on a journey for a few hours this afternoon. It lead me to the Open Education Resources site, which in turn led me to Youtube and a video on ePortfolios. I contacted the maker of the video and Sean Dowling replied from the United Arab Emirates. Sean is employed as the Educational Technology Coordinator at the Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology (SHCT), two of sixteen colleges that comprise the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Sean has made an excellent series of videos on using FolioSpaces, and there is far more content on his Sharjah Technology page as well. It is a great resource for any Ed technology course. The willingness of people to share information is wonderful, and it is particularly exciting that social media allows sharing across countries, continents and cultures.

Community is what makes Open Source ePortfolios so fantastic

2011-03-24T21:11:00.000+11:00

A new feature has just been added to Foliospaces that allows users to embed content from hundreds of different sources, just by pasting the URL. The main difference between software like Mahara and proprietary software is the constant evolution, and improvement of Open Source software. The reason is that individuals from all over the world, constantly contribute code for no other reason than personal satisfaction and a sense of community. A regular contributor to the Mahara community, Gregor Anželj, has produced a Mahara block type for Embedly. What this means for Foliospaces users is that you can now embed URLs from over 200 sites.

So how does the blocktype work? All you have to do is drag it into your view, paste the URL from the application you want to use (such as a YouTube video, Flickr image, Scribd document, TED, Teacher Tube, Issuu, CNN, or hundreds of others). The blocktype then displays the video, image, document or other choice of media. You will find it under the external feeds tab, when you go in to edit your view. It is just so great being able to embed content from multiple sources via one simple blocktype. A friend emailed me today and said the IT Mafia at her institution has just banned embedding in Moodle. Makes me wonder if they have any idea about the real world at all. Bland pages that just contain endless lists of links look so boring. For my part anyway I am so excited that it will now be easy to embed so many great apps in Foliospaces. If your LMS has become a one-way street you can always link to a FS room with a view :-)

Audioboo

2011-03-11T14:00:00.002+11:00

I am still to try Audioboo, but I think it may well be great for FolioSpaces. You can send audio from Android, that other phone or PC and embed or RSS feed. I will see if embed works, but RSS should. Here is a video.

Intro to Audioboo from Mark Rock on Vimeo.

Playing with Storify

2011-03-11T12:51:00.002+11:00

This is my first attempt with Storify. I just did a very quick drag and drop creation without much quality control. The Cluny Video is a bit cute but actually really good content for students.

Examples of ePortfolios

2011-03-11T11:29:00.002+11:00

When asked 'why portfolios' I usually cite the ability to showcase work, to reflect, to re-organise and to present additional content (say to compliment a job application) and so on. One of the most important aspects of ePortfolios is that content is private by default until made public. This separates specialist ePortfolio sites, from most blogs, wikis, and the ever popular Facebook.

There are obvious advantages though as well for teachers to use a mega host like Facebook. The students are already there, and it is so popular. The learning curve is already done which is a huge advantage. That said, I am personally reluctant to allow my students to use Facebook for a number of reasons. A few are that it merges the private with the public; it blurs the informal with the formal; it provides too many distractions (such as games). Facebook is set up and works brilliantly as a social networking platform, but it works far less well, as an ePortfolio. An ePortfolio allows for groups, sub groups, forums, shared views, and personal spaces can be purpose built and/or reorganised at will. Access can also be controlled and shared easily.

Control and ownership over access to content is at the heart of FolioSpaces, and we firmly believe both of these elements should rest with the user. Most specialist ePortfolio software (like Mahara) is designed this way. This was the driving force behind the development of LEAP2A protocols which allow users to export their entire portfolio content from (LEAP2A) compliant software when they graduate, or move from one hosting service to another.

The down side of all this otherwise great user control of access to content is it is hard to see examples of ePortfolios. I always look at any public views in my 'recently updated' list on FolioSpaces my logged in dashboard and I love to view the (public) profiles of logged in users, but it is still a random experience. I was really pleased to find this link from Ms. Beach's Honors English class at Carmel High School. It is a rare opportunity to see the collected work of a class showcased. They obviously have their own Mahara installed, but many views are public.

So, while I am the first to declare privacy controls are critical for ePortfolios, it is also great to see the finished product. After all if parts of a portfolio are never shared, who needs a portfolio? A Word document stored on a PC would be fine. So it is a bit of a privacy paradox. If portfolios are mainly private, how do we know how good they are, or what they can be used for? I do wish there were more Mrs Beach's honors classes to share, and I would love more examples if anyone has them.

Cheers, Ian

So Why ePortfolios?

2011-03-03T09:26:00.007+11:00

I had an entertaining exchange this week on Mark Drechsler's blog Join the Dots. Mark likened Mahara to a child that had lost it's way, but then went on to describe the redeeming qualities. Whilst it is usually easy enough to agree on positive qualities, whether in a child or software package, the importance and significance attributed to each of these qualities can vary wildly depending on an individuals viewpoint. This was the case on this occasion, and I presented an alternative view. It was taken in the spirit that it was offered, which was great, as dissenting views are not always welcomed in these politically correct times. I do miss the wide ranging debates of the past. Getting nostalgic now, so perhaps it is just fond memories, clouded by passing years!!

A response to my comments was posted by Linda Harasim, who raised additional questions. Linda wrote 'Ian, could you pls. start there. Why portfolios? How do we know? Which type of portfolio under what conditions? And so what? where do we go from here? Intriguingly, Linda'.

Probably why Linda is a Professor and I am a humble (ha, maybe not so humble) Lecturer in eBusiness and eMarketing. I think her questions are fundamental, and really do need to be answered over time. I have read widely on ePortfolios, have bought all the books, and and I don't think these questions have ever been adequately addressed. Rather than repeat it all here, visit Join the Dots, for an interesting read. Cheers, IK

Re: Blog Comments

2011-03-03T09:15:00.003+11:00

I was using Disqus (a plugin) for comments and I have just realised that you needed to click on a post to see the comments. As nobody (including me) would automatically know this it was a hassle. I have had to clear all the comments sorry, and return to the blogger default. If the truth be known I also forgot my Disqus user name and password, so I couldn't check out the problem.
Cheers, Ian

The 36 Plots

2011-03-01T08:47:00.004+11:00

I am intrigued by the relationship of ePortfolios with storytelling. Story telling is such an important part of life’s fabric. And in business and public life today it is done so badly!! I am so sick of platitudes and business speak. Sick of being told ‘your business is important to us’ or ‘our staff are our most valuable asset’. Bullshit. At least they could try to tell a good story. To this end I revisited the 36 plots by Loren J. Miller. This article is based on Loren’s interpretation of a book by Georges Polti called The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations. The article is specifically relating to role playing games, but it is applicable to any story telling. Now obviously most portfolios (mine included) are largely information repositories, and there is not a lot of story to tell. But just think what added excitement such plots as Familial Hatred, Murderous Adultery, Disaster, Enigma, Revolt, or Daring Enterprise would add to an otherwise dull assignment. Marking is usually such a drag, every rubric should contain marks for entertainment value.

Are you really my friend?

2011-02-24T13:57:00.002+11:00

Once you join a social site like Facebook you tend to be their friend for life. It is really hard to erase the memory of you. There are lots of reasons for this, but the main one is that sites like to brag about how many users they have. Just like newspaper circulation of old, it helps bump up advertising revenue. We have decided at FolioSpaces, that it would be better to use our resources for users that are active and want a long term relationship. No one night stands for us!! Ha. Perhaps I am getting to old and grumpy. My dogs still love me. What we are proposing is that if your account is inactive (i.e. you have not logged in) for three months you will get an email advising you to log in. If you want your account deleted just ignore the email and it will be deleted in 2 weeks from that date. It is to administratively intensive for us to delete free accounts on your behalf, so we thought this was a good solution. If you don't agree please let us know. Like a good politician if public opinion is against me, I may be happy to change :-)

How do I get students started with their ePortfolio

2011-02-18T15:28:00.001+11:00

I am often asked by teachers – ‘how do I get students started on an ePortfolio’. If any of you have the answer to that – please share it! What I have noticed in the past six months though is a lot more energy and creativity going into portfolios. One of the key factors, is in my opinion having a champion, to support both staff and students. Most portfolio use at the moment (well on Foliospaces anyway) is driven by individual lecturers who see a use, often for assessment. The good lecturers start their own portfolio and learn how it all works, but many just drop their students in the deep end and say create a portfolio’. One comment I read from a student from East Coast U.S.A. was – ‘once again we have been told to create something and our lecturer doesn’t have a clue about the technology. This is the second course this semester, and I am about to give up’. I would like to think this was an isolated comment but I fear it isn’t.
Fortunately there are also some great examples from many countries of great use of portfolios. Close to home, one of our institutional clients Western Sydney Institute of Tafe is doing really exciting work, driven by Nayomie Baihn. Working as a Project Officer in the Workforce Capability Development Unit on a variety of different projects including ePortfolios, Nayomie has motivated and energised a whole team of teachers and staff alike to develop portfolios, that focus on documenting student achievements across the whole of programs, with a view to ongoing use for lifelong learning well beyond graduation. Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK is also taking a coordinated approach as are many other institutions.
So back to ‘how do I get students started on an ePortfolio’. Start with a sense of purpose. A unique feature of an ePortfolio is the ability to use and reuse contend, and to fashion it for specific uses at different times. If it becomes a living record of everything a student achieves in their academic life, then it will be a logical step to continue it on to their professional life. Sure, use it for assessment too, but try to make the picture bigger. Many courses now have ePortfolio hurdles which may not be technically assessed, but they must be completed for the student to progress. This is particularly common in medicine.
If you have a class of 30 (or 200 for that matter) students that you want to setup on Foliospaces, get them to setup accounts before you run a lab. Saves a lot of headaches; it is amazing how many have ‘left their email accounts at home’. For users with Hotmail accounts the registration email often ends up in their SPAM folder (so remember to tell them that). On the day that you do have your first lab, you will be amazed at the different levels of ability. Best to get the more IT savvy students to help the less IT savvy. They can record it as ‘leadership experience’.
Whilst most students will be familiar with Facebook, the ePortfolio environment has similarities, but it is also quite different. It is made up of a profile, then an infinite number of Views (web pages) that can be customised according to different needs. Most Facebook users rarely get beyond their wall with a few photos thrown in. As a result many Foliospaces users often don’t get beyond their profile page, and this drastically under utilises the potential of an ePortfolio. For a start it tends to make one page the ePortfolio, so how can this be constantly repurposed? The other extreme is to put nothing on the profile page at all. My recommendation is to make the profile page ‘about me’. What do you want to share publicly? When you click on a name what do you see? So a profile really is like an expanded business card, but one that can also lead to any number of selected Views are linked to whenever desired.
Once students have set up a profile, then the real work begins creating individual Views. There has been a lot of debate about terminology and the next version of Mahara 1.4 will have simplified terms. View has been the most confusing I think, which is why it may be easier to think of a view as a web page, or ‘blank sheet’. If you have set up a group for your students, templates, and views can be shared, providing details of expectations. This can include forums, or views that all group members can edit. All in all students need to spend a few hours exploring and learning what they can do. Some do, many don’t so it is really important to showcase the work of students who have put in a good effort.
Finally, encourage students to explore Foliospaces when they are logged in. New public views will be listed on the logged in home page. Click on them to see what others around the world are doing. Click on user names to learn about other users. It’s fun and also quickly shows that a blank profile is boring!

Free embeddable forums

2011-02-05T11:49:00.003+11:00

My wife wanted to use a forum for a group, but some members would just be casual users. There were a few options, but I was looking for something I could embed and nabble seemed to fit the bill. This is an example below. Of course a better option would just be to have a group in FolioSpaces and use a forum, but this is a great solution for embedding in blogger.

Foliospaces

2011 - Year of the ePortfolio

2011-02-01T21:01:00.004+11:00

I was a bit early with my prediction for Mahara 1.4, more likely to be mid year I have heard. In the mean time, we seem to have most of the bugs ironed out of Foliospaces at the moment which is great. Secret URL works at last. It is frustrating at times, but we are happy that we are constantly improving our service. It is interesting to see ePortfolios evolving on FolioSpaces. Basic project pages are starting to be replaced by more sophisticated portfolios, often associated with course groups.

The 9th International ePortfolio and Identity conference is being held in London on 11-13th July 2011. Organised in partnership, between EIfEL, the Internet of Subjects Forum (IoS) and the Center for Recording Achievement (CRA)the lineup looks really interesting. Themes include -

· the development of learner and professional identity;
· the (institutional) recognition of informal / life-wide learning;
· accreditation of prior experience and learning (APEL), curriculum design and
assessment;
· integrative learning and holistic development (including graduate attributes);
· continuing professional development, lifelong learning and sustainable employability;
· the development of distributed ‘communities of practice’, community and organisational development.

The Conference website address is: http://www.epforum.eu/ I would love to go so will have to see if I can raise the fare. I think the themes really capture where portfolios are going.

Full steam ahead despite a few growing pains

2011-01-18T11:29:00.003+11:00

We are experiencing huge growth at FolioSpaces and it is bringing with it lots of excitement and a few growing pains (pardon the pun) as well. Mahara, the open source software we are based on is changing fast as well, and each new version brings with it new features, and sometimes a few bugs as well that come inevitably with rapid development. We are waiting patiently for the release of 1.4 hopefully in the coming weeks. As a result we cannot address some of the existing bugs and ask for your patience and suggest you use workarounds. The main problems we are aware of are secret URL’s , and some folder access issues.

In the short term, I suggest you avoid secret URL’s (as there is still an unresolved bug) and use ‘Public’ or share with Friends. Also don't set a date range, just leave them open, then take it off (the Public access) when you want to. Folders generally work ok, but to be safe just upload a file and drag it straight into your view. I personally would rather avoid Word files anyway – why not just put information straight into a text box, or embed it as a Google document? This is the internet, I hate having to constantly open attachments (but yes they should work if you do). Some problems are not software related, but are often cache related. If a view won’t open, try clearing your cache, and/or reload the page and this will often fix it.

As a largely free service, sorry but we can only provide online support for premium and institutional users. There are only a few of us and it has become too much. Try emailing Google for support, and they have just a few more employees than we do. Many Universities and Schools are now using FolioSpaces which is fantastic, but they need to provide their own support. Lecturers need to learn to use Mahara themselves. Alternatively if they subscribe to institutional hosting, they can then have admin access and troubleshoot easily. You need to be a premium user to set up a groups and forums, it is also worth considering this option for some users, and it comes with email support and no ads.

Now in our third year of operation, it is set to be a brilliant year, although we are expecting a few bumps along the way as we scale up. You are welcome to email, but please use the FAQ, or this blog first so your questions are valuable for all users. For teachers and lecturers, I suggest you identify some class champions to help their fellow students (and maybe you to) as we have found that peer support is by far the best way to get great results.

A first look at Mahara Droid

2011-01-13T15:26:00.003+11:00

We are eagerly awaiting the release of Mahara 1.4. Besides a simplified easier to use interface, it will also have lots of new features. One of them is the ability to upload photos and files directly from an Android phone. Kristina Hoeppner a wonderful e-learning specialist who works at Catalyst, the major developing company of Mahara in New Zealand, made the following video below. Kristina also started a discussion on the Mahara.org forum which provides lots of background to the new Mahara 1.4 release and is well worth reading.

Social Media - Use with care

2010-11-03T15:21:00.003+11:00

The presentation below is from web marketing company Hubspot so it is a bit of an advertisement but it still has a good message. I particularly like 'If you’re boring in real life, you are still boring in social media.'

Why Social Media Is BS

View more presentations from HubSpot Internet Marketing.

Resizing Text Boxes

2010-11-03T13:56:00.002+11:00

Steve has recently installed a fix for the textbox resize issue, kindly provided to the Mahara community by Tom from TDM Ltd in the UK. The couple of slides below show how it is done.

Zapping Bugs

2010-11-03T09:34:00.008+11:00

Just when you thing the bugs are gone, one reappears. The secret URL function in Mahara has a bug in it which brings up a login screen when you click on it. This makes it VERY secret indeed. The Mahara developers are aware of it and say it will be fixed in the next release. In the mean time, it is best to use a public view, or you need to click on the link twice, then it is OK. I have also noticed that if you use a URL shortener (like bit.ly or tinyurl) this fixes the problem but I am not 100% sure of this so please let me know what your experience is. . This is an explanation below from the Mahara Forum (you need to join Mahara.org to view this)

Mix 'n match - Cool navigation tool

2010-11-01T14:27:00.003+11:00

Collections are a great new feature in Mahara that I have already talked about, but what if you want to include a few web pages as well in your portfolio? You can always link screen shots, but there is also another way using bridgeurl. This simple online service lets you package any web pages into a slide show. I am not sure that I would want to save them, but they would be great for sending a portfolio package to someone, if you also needed to drop in a few web pages. In the following example http://bridgeurl.com/FS-Bridge I have packaged a Foliospaces view, a favourite Polo video, another view and finally the Ballarat train timetable just in case you want to visit!!

Now I am not that sure what you would use this for, but it seems like a fun way to package up a portfolio rather than just including a heap of links to web pages. It uses iframe which some sites may block but most should be ok. One feature I have noticed which is good when you click within a FS Collection, the pages change within the frame but you stay within the bridgeurl navigation (so in my example above there are four pages total but the first page has a collection within it).

Try it yourself and perhaps share your thoughts on ways it could be used.

Going Mobile

2010-10-29T09:53:00.003+11:00

Increasingly mobile phones are being used for collecting artefacts for portfolios. This video was shot entirely on a Nokia N8 mobile phone. It is quite amazing, and perhaps slightly beyond the average cinematography student. It took four days to shoot, and had help from Dev Patel and Pamela Anderson and was directed by the McHenry brothers. I must confess my prejudice against Apple (I hate control freaks) here, and I love my HTC Desire, but wow, this is truely amazing.

Managing Images in Mahara

2010-10-27T09:02:00.005+11:00

When looking at student ePortfolios one of the most common problems I find that students encounter is image/photo management. I remember (not that long ago) paying an obscene amount of money for a Ricoh 1.3 megapixel camera. I sold it on eBay last year for $10. Todays cameras and even phones blow that away, and the resulting file size tends to be 2MB+. Great for a print, but far too big online.

This image is tiny (about 40KB), and it is just a head shot cropped from a much larger photo.

I cropped it from a 2MB photo using Picnik.com a free online photo editing tool. Now I know social media like Facebook will accept large photos, and auto resize them, but currently Mahara won't. So if you upload 10 x 2MB images to a portfolio the page has to load 20MB of images to display. What this means in non geek speak is the page will take forever to load.

There are to main ways to inset images into your ePortfolio. The first is to upload a the image to your image section (then insert image) and the second method is to insert a URL into a text box. I hope in time you will be able to upload directly to a text box, but in the mean time, understanding basic image management is really important anyway. If the image you want to use is already published somewhere else (such as on your web page) you can often just right click on it and copy image location. Try to right click on the image above and you will see - çopy image URL'. Alternatively we have a free upload image tool at http://pics.foliospaces.com/ which generates a URL for you. Just remember to resize it first!!

What is a web browser?

2010-10-26T15:44:00.003+11:00

I attended a child birth education conference in Queensland last week (because my wife was presenting) and I took the opportunity to talk to some of the participants about ePortfolios. Nurses and midwives throughout Australia are now expected to keep a record of their clinical professional development, and and ePortfolio is a great way to do it. I would like to say that I was enthusiastically received (well everyone was very friendly) but the reality was 90% of the Child Birth Educators I spoke to were technophobic. I shouldn't even use that word I imagine. They were not comfortable with the idea of using computers. The baby massage or belly dancing for pregnancy stands on the other hand were doing a roaring trade. Now this is a worry I would suggest, as eHealth is high on political agendas in Australia and O/S.

One interested conference attendee was happy for me to help her set up a Foliospaces account, but a stumbling block was access to her email account (to complete the registration). As it turned out she did have a hotmail account but only accessed it from her home computer 'bookmark'. I talked her through that little hic up (Do you know your email address? What would your usual password be?) and then everything worked pretty well. If you are promoting the use of ePortfolios with your staff, students, friends or family, don't assume people have much technical knowledge.

Although Internet users spend a most of their time inside a web browser, in fact few of them actually know what a browser is. A Google employee asked a random set of people in Times Square New York recently and less than 8% of them could say what a web browser was. KBC, which is the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire quiz show, last week asked a contestant 'which of the following is not a web browser?' The choices were Firefox, Opera, Facebook and Google Chrome? The contestant (who happened to be a doctor) didn't know the answer and had to ask the audience.

A number of people at the conference were amazed that Foliospaces is free (it was a medical conference after all) but in fact they were the reason. We want to encourage people to get the most use out of portfolios that they can. Mahara (the open source software we use)still has some usability issues even though it is getting much better. Although we will start to develop our premium services more, for now we make most of our income from workplace and institutional ePortfolio training and seminars. It is not enough to tell professionals or students to just go and make a portfolio. If an organisation is serious about it they should provide training for at least a group of champions who can then act as mentors. The alternative is a heap of portfolios setup, then left idle.

I must finish this post now, a student is dropping by for some help with her portfolio! It will only take 10 minutes, and will hopefully be her first post of many, many more.

Do you email yourself from time to time?

2010-10-20T23:17:00.002+11:00

Do you ever want to email something to yourself so that you can remember it later?

It happens to me all the time especially when I am on a mobile phone. For instance, if I come across a cool site that I would want to check out later from the desktop, I just send the URL to my own email account. If I have an idea for a blog or need to remember something, I jot it down in a message and email it to myself.

I often send emails to myself. Is this strange or do lots of people do it? Since I got a data plan on my phone I tend to do it more. Say I see a URL I want to remember I just send it to my email account, then can't find it again later because it is buried in email!! What would be handy if you could put a time delay on sending the email. Google calendar works ok, but I find it a bit persistent (ok I got the message so stop popping up). Its good for really important reminders though. An app I really like is Followupthen. You just send a message to time-interval@followupthen.com and you get a verification email back. Once your email is verified you can then send an email for a specific time, for example 6pm@followupthen.com or 5days@followupthen.com. You get an email at the allocated time that has your message in it (the one you emailed).The service recognizes your time zone which is great and means it will work anywhere in the world.

Life is not as simple as a drop-down box

2010-10-17T11:09:00.005+11:00

One of the best features of an ePortfolio is the ability to create mashups using a wide variety of media best suited to the purpose at hand. Ultimately it is about communicating thoughts, feelings, observations, or precisely recording information. Why then, does it seem we are constantly reduced to a drop down box, of limited choice? In education there is a lot of interest in creating portfolio templates to help students ' structure' their entries. This can be useful as long as it doesn't stifle individuality and creativity. All to often undergraduates in particular will look for the path of least resistance, seeing tasks as a barrier between them and the pub. In a recent course I conducted online, I had an expectation that students participate in the discussion forums. So, a common question was 'how many posts are we expected to make?' As many as you feel inspired to... was my reply, and fortunately it seems inspiration was not that far from the surface of many of them.

I have been following the eHealth record articles with interest, both locally in Australia and internationally. Now, I am not a health professional so my interest is in the debate and topics discussed rather than the content of records. Even to a casual observer like myself however, I am intrigued by the 'lack' of debate in some areas. All the discussion (in the public arena at least) seems to be around privacy and patient confidentiality. Obviously this is hugely important and may never be satisfactorily resolved. My interest though (in eHealth) is much simpler. Paper has served us well for a long, long time. It should/can be replaced digitally in many circumstances, but surely it should be to give better outcomes, not just for efficiency. Many hospitals are currently scanning records, so some are available, some not. Imagine you are in hospital for a routine matter, you have a cardiac arrest, get rushed to emergency, and your records are not available online for one reason or another. You are allergic to a particular drug, but where is this recorded?

Obviously there are huge benefits in electronic records, but there is also a risk surely, that it could be like having a lecture at 8.30am on a Monday morning at my university. More times than not the network is down, and you have to wait for a technician to arrive at 9am, make a coffee, start up, realise there is a problem, then fix it by 9.30am if you are lucky.

But back to the drop-down box. In a paperless world, we have (or should have) unlimited room to write notes. Consider this scenario, when a pregnant woman books in at a hospital.

Q. Was your pregnancy planned?
A. Y or N

Never having been pregnant myself, but as a father of four, even I know it's not that simple!! Yes, it was planned, but then my life was turned upside down, or no it wasn't planned but isn't it grand?

In an ePortfolio, i see this this 'dropdown' box effect all the time. 'Stuff' dumped on a page with no explanation. A video embedded, with-out a label, or apparent purpose. Just as doctors, nurses and other health professionals have appended notes on a clipboard at the end of a patients bed for generations, eRecords, for whatever purpose should also be comprehensive and descriptive. Life is not as simple as a drop-down box.

Do you think drop down boxes are used too much?

Yes
No
I cannot decide!

view results

Journals in HIgher Education

2010-10-14T08:31:00.003+11:00

For anyone looking for a good list of academic journals related to teaching, learning and research, this list is about the best I have found. It has been compiled by CIDR (the Center for Instructional Development and Educational Research) at Virginia Tech.

My Plans

2010-10-01T11:16:00.008+10:00

I talked about collections in my last post, and the power they have now given to users to navigate through views, to create a web site effect. Another new feature I have just been exploring is 'My Plans'. I am not a great fan of templates, but 'My Plans' is so simple I can see it being really useful. It is basically a way to create task lists, including (desired) completion dates and detailed notes. You can then drag the plan into a view to share or collaborate. See what a simple plan looks like in this sample view. Here is a brief presentation that shows how easy it is to create a plan.

New feature - Collections

2010-09-30T09:47:00.005+10:00

One of the great new features of Mahara 1.3 is 'collections'. This allows you to associate a collection of views together. Previously you manually link views to get a web page navigation effect, but now the links are automatically generated. This is an example - see the navigation at the top. You will also notice on some of the pages I have previously used a blog to create a menu. This will no longer be necessary, and I can delete those blocks.

Send a podcast via phone straight to your ePortfolio

2010-09-29T21:37:00.004+10:00

It is not always easy to access a computer out in the field. Whether taking a few notes, conducting an interview or reflecting on your experience in a work context, wouldn't it be great to just make a voice recording on your phone and have it appear on your portfolio. Well you can. With Ipadio it is so easy. You can include an RSS feed on a View, or embed a specific episode. And it's free (apart from the cost of a phone call. This is a very rough example below.

There is also an Android app for offline recording or 2G posting. I am yet to explore that. I think you can also include a few photos. Following the upgrade to Mahara 1.3 on the weekend, I am discovering more features every day which is really exciting. Pretty much any html embed code will now work ok. Please share your experiences (or great Views) as well.

Managing your profile - This is me!!!

2010-09-28T20:13:00.003+10:00

Most social media applications have a profile page. It is the 'this is me' page. It is a part of what will make up your digital identity, whether you want it to or not. The main point is that you should take care what you put on a profile page as it is a window, leading to everything else. One the one hand you could put nothing on it, a safe option, but that also has limited value. From a professional point of view it is a good thing to showcase a bit about yourself. On the other hand many people use their profile page for everything, and I think that is equally mistaken.

I am not sure if users don't realise they can make as many views as they like in Foliospaces. I have noticed that a lot of people just use their profile page for everything. If thats what you want, well it is up to you, but to manage a portfolio long term it makes sense to create separate views relating to separate purposes.

Make your profile page 'about you'. A window to the world, to tell who you are, where you are from, and perhaps chronicle a few achievements and aspirations. You can also link from the profile page to any number of specialist views you have created. It is always great to click on peoples profiles, but do remember it should just be information about you, not your life work.

ePortfolio terms

2010-09-28T14:49:00.003+10:00

Like everything else, ePortfolios have a certain number of unique terms associated with them. I am not sure where they originated from, but probably a combination of programmers and academic users. Here are a few of the common ones. Some are specific to Mahara, while some are in general usage.

Artefact
These are items included in a personal portfolio. They could include Files, Education History, Blogs, Blog Posts, RSS feeds, Videos, Podcasts and so on. They may be created in the portfolio or elsewhere (such as a Youtube video or Divshare podcast).

Block
Blocks provide a content wrapper to determine how artefacts should be displayed in Foliospaces, and they may also display content from external sources (for example we have a Google apps block).

Groups
These allow users with shared interests to share views with each other and use discussion forums. They can also facilitate group views and artefacts, representing collaborative projects between and Foliospaces members.

LEAP2A
An import/export functionality to the Mahara e-portfolio system and other compatable systems. Currently it is possible to export a portfolio (from an institutional Mahara account or FolioSpaces account) into either HTML or LEAP2A. It is not perfect and you need to create a new account to import again (for example to Foliospaces). Currently an export can be conducted by any user, but an import needs to be done at the admin level so providers may charge a fee (as we would also).

Resume/CV
The resume CV is a series of templates including cover letter; interests; contact information; personal information; Employment History; Education History; Certifications, Accreditations, and Awards; Books and Publications; and Professional Memberships. These can be displayed in full or used as individual artefacts. Alternatively users may create their own Resume with any View.

Template
A template is a type of view that can be used as a basis for creating further views and can be shared among users. A view can be saved as a template, or just copied (if copy view is enabled).

View
A View is a term used in Mahara (and may well be called something else in other ePortfolio applications). In Mahara it is a way of presenting a collation of artefacts. Blocks are used to position and render artefacts within a view, and the views can then be shared with specified users, groups or individuals by applying 'permissions'.

ePortfolio Funding - up to $9,000

2010-09-27T14:57:00.003+10:00

Funding is available for two E-portfolios Implementation Trials in 2011. Funding will provide two Australian Training Organizations with up to $9,000 (matched in kind by the RTO) to identify which features of an e-portfolio system help:

* increase the efficiency of the learning process – through the better flow, use, re-use and exchange of information to improve communication and collaboration
* enhance the learning experience – through either individual learning plans, personal/career/workforce development planning and/or continuous professional development requirements.

To read more see the Flexible Training Network's ePortfolio Blog.

Now running Mahara 1.3.1s

2010-09-26T18:13:00.004+10:00

We are now running Mahara 1.3.1. Sorry about the disruption caused, it proved to be a difficult upgrade, but we believe you will notice the benefits straight away. There are as always still a few bugs (mainly still with notifications), but view management is enhanced, and there is now a much wider range of embed options. I will post some examples over the next couple of days.

Mahara 1.3.1 upgrade on Sunday

2010-09-24T20:10:00.004+10:00

We will be completing the upgrade (at last!!) on Sunday 26/09/2010. FolioSpaces will be unavailable between 9am and 12 noon.

So what went wrong?

2010-09-20T13:46:00.004+10:00

On Saturday the upgrade to Mahara 1.3 on our production server failed. Unfortunately the backup of our database and our last nightly backup failed to restore our production server to a roll-back position, forcing us to revert to a weekly backup. Not sure if that will make sense to many of you, but it is the technical reason behind the mess that was caused. We feel terrible! About 40 users were effected. Whilst files are safe, some data was lost from Views or blogs updated last week.

Whilst we are not quite the same size as Google - although we are growing rapidly (with a staff of 2!!), it is encouraging to know that Google also experienced problems early on see (Gmail disaster December 2006) There is always a tiny chance data may be lost online (or on your desktop for that matter).

So can you feel secure in the future? You certainly can. We have already increased our capacity, and we have installed additional backup procedures. We are still excited about Mahara 1.3, but hope you understand that we will delay the (live) upgrade for a week or so until we are 100% sure it is OK. Thanks for understanding, and for the support expressed in the many emails we have received.

Regards, Ian

When things don't go according to plan

2010-09-18T20:08:00.005+10:00

Well, we were meant to be upgrading to Mahara 1.3 this weekend, but encountered a series of disasters. Upgrades can always cause problems and we have had a pretty good run up until now. Anyway, a few things came together to cause a major headache for us. It is possible that some views created in the last few days may have been effected, and we are very sorry. All files are OK, the only disruption was to a few recently created views. Because growth has been so rapid, our resources have been stretched to near capacity, and we will take this opportunity to add extra capacity so we don't experience the same problems again. Launch of Mahara 1.3 will be delayed for a week or so, until we complete full testing on a duplicate site. Thanks to all of our users for your understanding. In the two years that we have been running we have had very few problems, but it is a good reminder that we all need a backup for our backups.

Is free sustainable?

2010-09-15T09:37:00.003+10:00

I was sorry to see that the blog host Vox has been shut down. It was a truly great hosting service. It has been replaced by its more commercial cousin Typepad which is also good, but not as 'out there' as Vox was. This made me wonder though, just how free is free, and what is the future of free providers on the web? There are still plenty of great free services and the trend is sure to continue. From a users point of view though, it is worth having a 'free' strategy. What would you do if your service was to close down?

For the past two years now we have been offering Foliospaces as a free service and we will never change that. Steve and I both have day jobs fortunately to pay the bills. That said, we do have a long term strategy to make Foliospaces pay for itself. The new version of Mahara 1.3 (our underlying software) that we will go live with this weekend has lots of new features, and we feel for the first time we will be in a position to offer advanced premium features as well for a modest subscription. This will include additional storage, lots of theme choice, no ads and so on.

But is your 'free' account safe? It sure is. From the start we have restricted free accounts to 50MB of storage. Now the funny thing is, I haven't even used that much myself, as I constantly plug in video, documents, photos, podcasts from different hosts and I think this is a good strategy. We all need to do a certain amount of 'risk assessment' and I am pretty heavily exposed to Google. Email, Docs etc. Well if Google goes out of business we will all have more important things to think about.

As far as a portfolio goes though, You can export from Foliospaces at any time, either to HTML or LEAP2A (a protocol that allows you to import to another LEAP2A application). My driving philosophy is that a portfolio should belong to an individual, which is why I am not keen on solutions hosted in-house by universities or businesses. Who's portfolio is it? Yours, or theirs? If we are to use ePortfolios for lifelong learning, then taking it with you has to be the key. This is the service we see Foliospaces filling.

In the next few months we will develop some modest premium service plans. They will offer ad free views and other benefits. There will not be any pressure at all to change, but we acknowledge that we need to plan to fund the rapid growth we are experiencing.

Upadate to Mahara 1.3 this Saturday

2010-09-13T13:21:00.005+10:00

Well everything seems to have gone really well. So well we intend to update Foliospaces to Mahara 1.3 this coming weekend. I have been experimenting further with 1.3 and it is really exciting. Never being happy fenced in (must be because I am a farm boy) I have been trying all sorts of plugins. Now you will be able to pull content from all over. In addition to Google docs which we have already enabled, you can now embed most html. Podcasts, video, and so on. This is a sample View from Mahara 1.3 (the content is only for example purposes). I keep changing the theme background (because I can now).

Mahara 1.3 Release - First Impressions

2010-09-07T22:49:00.004+10:00

Mahara 1.3 Release Candidate Launched

2010-09-03T09:46:00.003+10:00

Hooray!!! The Mahara 1.3 release candidate is out (RC is geek speak for the release between Beta and final bug free release). We will install it on our test server, so I hope to be able to report back on what we think of the new features soon. For a full details on the release please see this post by Kristina Hoeppner at Mahara.org.

Mahara 1.3 release soon

2010-08-20T11:04:00.003+10:00

The long awaited release of Mahara 1.3 is due on 30/08/2010. FolioSpaces will be a few weeks behind this date probably as we always test the official release for a few weeks before letting it loose on our users. Although we have had half a dozen updates in the last 18 months or so, this will be the most significant, bringing simplified navigation, more individual control and greater group support. The Mahara wiki 'Roadmap' includes the following features due for release. Until now the focus has been on getting the 'mechanics' all working. This upgrade is so significant as it is largely about the user experience. Just like a mobile phone, we all expect it to work (for making phone calls!), but what else can it do? I use this blog, because it has RSS, good feedback provision, and if I get bored with the theme I can change it. From next month these will also be options in FolioSpaces, along with much, much more. I can't wait :-)

Some of the new features are coming in Mahara 1.3:

Simplified navigation
Gravatar support (global avatars)
RSS feeds for public blogs (when embedded in a view)
Pluggable anti-spam system
View themes
Email bounce handling
Moodle 2.0 Porfolio API support
View/artefact feedback enhancements
Statistics in the Admin area
New blocktypes: notifications, recently modified views, recent forum posts
Configurable forum post indentation
Personal dashboard

Every Timezone

2010-08-18T09:54:00.004+10:00

It is always interesting to see Foliospaces users online from all parts of the world and I like to kknow what time it is wherever they may be. My fuddled ageing brian has always struggled a bit with timezones so I really like this widget - called everytime zone. It shows your time zone and you can just drag your time forwards or backwards and see wwhat time it is anywhere. My daughter who is currently in Ecuador will be pleased that I now have no excuse for calling her at 6am.

Too many haystacks

2010-07-19T13:57:00.002+10:00

Donald Draper, the main character in “Mad Men,” has a great way with words. While talking with his partner about a client that thinks they want younger copywriters on their project, Draper senses the clients simply want what their competition is doing. To which Draper responds:

Success is related to standing out, not fitting in. One wants to be the needle in the haystack, not the haystack.

We do need to find more needles in the world, there are already plenty of haystacks. As Australia enters election mode, I am already underwhelmed by the 'sameness', of all the candidates, the policies and the parties. Just be a haystack and don't stand out seems gto be.

eLearning Tools Links - Have You Ever Heard of Them?

2010-07-06T20:39:00.008+10:00

Help needed to review eLearning Links

I have made up an eclectic list of eLearning tools. I have no idea what many of them are, so thought it would be good to work through some brief reviews. I would welcome your opinions as well.

Click here to edit the document

The Digital Native Myth

2010-07-01T20:47:00.004+10:00

Whenever I am logged in to Foliospaces (which tends to be a lot of the time) I am always interested to see who else is online, and I love to view their profile page. Some are empty, but others have a wealth of information. Next month (August), when the next Mahara upgrade is available we will be also adding some extra social networking features to Foliospaces such as live chat. Our primary concern will always be your privacy, but we also recognise how important community is.

About a month ago now, I noticed a lot of new members from Singapore. I clicked around to try to find the leader and it turned out to be a teacher from a local college, James Kuwe. Being nosey I clicked on James' view (which was public at the time) and his words struck a cord with me. I have reproduced his entry (with permission) below -

Today, I took my Advanced class to the computer lab to create their ePortfolio. I was very excited about using this tool of teaching and learning. However, I faced a few challenges.

Firstly, to my horror, many students are digital dinosaurs. It look a long time to get everyone registered for an ePortfolio account with Foliospaces website. To make matters worse, the school’s internet connect is very slow. Some students were getting impatient with waiting for the website to process their registration and other requests. I managed to get some students who are digital natives to mentor the others. After 1h30min, everyone has finally succeeded in registering for an account. I then gave everyone a 30 min coffee-break and we are now ready to create our e-portfolio.

I got the students to write their profile in the beginning. After that, they copied and pasted a reflection they wrote last week onto their ePortfolio. Then they uploaded a powerpoint slide they created last week as homework. Now, the ePortfolio is beginning to take shape. Although in terms of content, we didn't achieve much, I believe the process of creating the ePortfolio has taught them and I many useful lessons. More importantly, the ePortfolio is a tool of their lifelong learning, even after they finish their education in Singapore.

I realised some students are struggling with the task becasue of three reasons. Firstly, the internet connection is slow in school. Secondly, some are not techno-savvy. Thirdly, a few have problems following my instructions or the website's instructions because of linguistic difficulties. However, the lesson objectives include: promote cognitive development as they write their reflection, collaborative skills (the digital natives tutoring the digital dinosaurs) and develop lifelong learning through the creation of a student ePortfolio. I have asked the students to write a reflection on today's lesson so I will soon get an insight into their thoughts about creating their ePortfolio.

In future, I will request that the students bring their own laptops and use the school wifi. And I will get the students to register for an e-portfolio account before coming to class. These will reduce the frustration we have over the slow internet connection and time wasted while waiting for everybody to get registered. I am sure the lesson outcomes will improve in the future.

I thank James for allowing me to reproduce his words. There is a lot of lip service paid to using ePortfolios, but many teachers expect their students to 'just create one, having not used an ePortfolio themselves'. My experience is similar. It is a steep learning curve, and it is important that teachers/lecturers share the experience. Suggesting that students register prior to class is an excellent idea, as is using peer support. At my own University, I often help students, and encourage them to mentor their peers, and (importantly) to also mentor their lecturers.

Currently I am researching global ePortfolio policy during the past decade, and widespread adoption has been slow despite global recognition of the benefits. This may be in large part, because digital literacy skills (particulalry multimedia) are not as high worldwide as generally proclaimed. Because Foliospaces is a global community of ePortfolio users, we have a unique oportunity to share experiences, and we welcome your feedback.

Are newspapers dead?

2010-06-18T09:31:00.004+10:00

I completed my Masters degree (seems like a lifetime ago now) in the early 2000's on the 'Impact of the Internet on Regional Newspapers'. My findings even then, indicated that people would be reluctant to pay for an online news service. One of the strongest user groups that emerged from my research was ex-patriots. Seems that distance makes the heart grow fonder, and people living away from their hometown crave connection and a bit of local gossip. The world cup is a wonderful example. My own capital city Melbourne is transformed into a multi-national frenzy as expats fly the flags, cheering on the teams of their respective countries home countries. We may live in a global economy but our interests are still very local.

Since then the Internet has permeated all of our lives and I am sure that our reading habits have changed as well. I have recently purchased an eBook reader and imagine I will never buy another paperback novel again. In terms of newspapers I subscribe to the Melbourne Age, but it seems a terrible waste of paper as I rarely read it. Besides academic reading, I tend to read blogs (which follows on from my last post on the wisdom of the crowds) as they feel so 'honest' and focused. I am sick of sanitised political speak. Newspapers are so full of PR spin, they are boring.

I have a list of some of my favourite blogs in the side bar, and yes they are a mixed batch, but without exception they all seek the opinion of their readers. You feel that you do matter to them, even the hugely popular blogs like Techcrunch. This is very different to the traditional media experience. This morning for example I have been looking at Janes eLearning page, particularly readers top 10 picks of eLearning tools. It's quirky, and I haven't heard of many of the suggestions which also makes it a great way to discover new tools. My interest is biased towards ePortfolios obviously, but it is social media that is really at the core.

The wisdom of the crowd

2010-06-17T21:18:00.003+10:00

Crowd sourcing is a wonderful concept, and the dividends are often huge, but there are also inherent frustrations or even dangers. Jeff Howe, a contributing editor to Wired magazine, first coined the term "crowdsourcing" in a June 2006 article and writes the blog crowdsourcing.com.
While tapping into the collective intelligence of the public at large to complete tasks has given us Wikipedia, Youtube, and a host of social media and business applications, it could also be argued that crowd sourcing has brought the mainstream media and entertainment industries to their knees. Well perhaps that is an exaggeration, but the true impact is certainly beyond comprehension.

I have been running an online book business since the mid 1990’s. Last weekend I helped clean out a book shop for friends, and it was both a sad and thought provoking experience. I was reminded of a line from an old bush poem ‘will the likes ever pass this way again’...... There were old publishers’ brochures from the 1980’s, stunning art books, and even a leather bound volume of synonyms. It made me wonder how long I would still be selling traditional books for or if they would see me out (I am not getting any younger). eBooks have arrived. I doubt I will ever buy another paper based novel, but nonfiction may last a little longer. What has this got to do with crowd sourcing? Well not much and at the same time, everything as it is digital technology that is leading the revolution. Certainly Amish barn raisings are the stuff of legend, but for most of us digital technology has allowed us to share skills and resources on an unprecedented scale. I intend to publish one of the few books I have distribution rights to in an ePub format. Nothing special about that other than the fact I will also publish it in Spanish to share this special book beyond mere English.

Why does crowd sourcing matter?
With the rise of user-generated media it's clear that traditional distinctions between producers and users are becoming blurry. As Time explained after choosing the collective "You" as the magazine's 2006 Person of the Year, "We're looking at an explosion of productivity and innovation, and it's just getting started, as millions of minds that would otherwise have drowned in obscurity get backhauled into the global intellectual economy."

The open-source software movement regularly shows us what can be achieved with large numbers of people contributing to a project. Today's technology is also making it possible to share ideas with non-technical people as well. Mahara, the open sourced software that Foliospaces is based on, hosts a large community forum at mahara.org. It is an eclectic mix of technical and non technical people with a common interest in either the software development or the use of ePortfolios.

The down side
Crowds are not employees, so solutions and innovations are sometimes based on the whims of the crowd. In our case with Foliospaces it has been a wonderful but also frustrating journey during the past 18 months since the start of our operation. In addition to a few short outages which are frustrating enough we have had lots of minor issues that go hand in hand with unfunded (or sporadically funded) open source projects. Development seemed to falter when Nigel (the fantastic, enthusiastic young developer who was employed on the project) left, but it has picked up again now as a new face is leading discussion on the forums. We chopped our forum a few months ago as a bug caused havoc – generating mass emails to our users. Installing a patch last week (for that bug) caused us to unwittingly chop off access to new registrations, groups and some admin functions. The catcha used to prevent SPAM seems to let too much through, and so it goes. Sometimes I think the saying ‘a camel is a horse designed by a committee’ could equally relate to open source software. The alternative though is vendor CONTROL and where is the fun in that? It is the slightly dysfunctional nature of open source that is so exciting. Not everyone agrees of course. Ask all the Mac fanatics. I have never owned an Ipod. MP3’s were made to drag n drop and I don’t need a hardware vendor to control my life. But yes I admit there are a few Mac lovers out there who are happy to trade freedom for style and a degree of predictable functionality. It is interesting though that 90% of all Ipad sales are being made to people who already own a Mac device already. The rest of us are waiting for an Android tablet if we need on at all.

As we head towards 5,000 registered users on Foliospaces, we are excited about the future as Mahara is constantly getting better and we continue to incorporate additional features as well, such as the recent integration of Google Documents, or our image hosting service. We are currently working to integrate better podcasting and multimedia management as well. We believe that the long term value of an ePortfolio is the ability to share information and harness community whilst you maintaining complete personal control on who has access to your information. Unlike the Mac approach of total ownership and control of hardware/software/apps/your life we are committed to the wisdom of the crowd. We think Foliospaces (based on Mahara) is the best hosting platform to bring together your content which could (and should) be hosted on multiple sites which are best suited to your purposes. What is so radically different about an ePortfolio compared to a paper based portfolio is the ability to constantly repurpose your content to suit changing requirements as you move from education to professional use and then use your portfolio as the basis of a lifelong learning journey .

Google Docs Demonstration

2010-06-05T16:59:00.006+10:00

I have been using Google Documents for a few years now, and wonder how I ever managed without them. I use spreadsheets and presentations mainly, but increasingly documents and drawings as well. In fact Google documents are so good, you might well ask what do you need FolioSpaces for? Our answer to that is control and privacy. The thing with a FolioSpaces ePortfolio is you own the content and you control who can see it. So it is a question of ownership and the audiences you want to share your pages with. FolioSpaces is a platform and networking site that allows you to bring in information and resources from anywhere. Could be video, RSS, images, and now Google Documents as well. Here is an example of a FolioSpaces page with different Google elements embedded in it.

If you already have a Gmail account it is easy as you already have a link to Google Docs, but if you don't they can be a bit hard to explain. It is like a free Office software suite online. Google has not created an instant trial site so you don't have to be a member first. Just click here. And of course it is all free. Instead of attaching your MS Word document or MS Powerpoint to a view, you can now embed them, and they look great.

Google Documents now supported

2010-05-29T13:51:00.003+10:00

One of the key features of an ePortfolio is the ability to share content from multiple applications. Although a lot of users upload files to Foliospaces Google Documents are also a great option. They have the benefit that they can be embedded and seen rught on the page. Until now it has not been possible to embed Google Docs in Foliospaces but we have now installed an app. in the Files, images and video tab that makes it easy. See this view for a demonstration.

Blog Relaunched

2010-05-28T10:05:00.002+10:00

It has been such a busy year, we have mainly been focusing on regular upgrades to FolioSpaces. Our growth has been fantastic, with users now hailing from 70 countries, well on the way to our goal of users in every country in th world. Thanks to all our users for the messages we receive every day. In the next 12 months, we intend to keep addding functionality and new features, but we also want to concentrate more on developing help files, sharing user stories, and talking about all things portfolio. Please use this blog to comment or ask us questions. Regards, Ian

New features coming

2009-06-04T16:46:00.002+10:00

It's been a while between posts, mainly because it has been a bit mad around Foliospaces for the last month or so. We are continuing to grow rapidly and can now boast members from most countries. A software upgrade is now to far away, and we are currently testing the new alpha version. The export feature that will be available looks pretty exciting, here is a sneak preview video.

Foliospaces back up, but may be a little longer before you can access it

2009-04-29T12:09:00.002+10:00

Thank you to all of our users for your patience. Foliospaces experienced a major outage last night and we have had to start a new server. It is every online service providers worst nightmare, but we got through it and will be enabling improved contingency planning for the future. All data is backed up daily, so I want to assure you that making sure your data is safe is our top priority.

On the bright side, you only know how popular you are when things go wrong and I got lots of emails saying 'whats happened to Foliospaces'. I have a few more grey hairs than yesterday. We have redirected the Foliospaces domain again so it may take another hour or so before it picks up.

Foliospaces currently unavailable

2009-04-28T22:18:00.002+10:00

We are currently experiencing server problems tonight. It will be fixed as soon as possible. We can only apologise for this downtime. Foliospaces is growing rapidly and we thank everyone for their support.

New features for Foliospaces

2009-04-03T15:33:00.002+11:00

The most exciting thing about working with a site like Foliospaces is that everyday we discover new things you can do. There have been a couple of gremlins in the works, but we think most of the bugs are fixed now and the new features are ready to get tested to the limit. You will notice that you all have a Wall now on your profile page for comments. Your profile page now also works like a View and you can move the elements around.

This afternoon I received a question from a user asking 'How to embed a PDF' in his View. I didn't actually know the answer but I thought it must be simple enough and it was.

Here is my View which shows how I went about it. One note of advise while I think of it though - When you want to get creative use a View. Foliospaces blogs are good for reflection, keeping your notes etc but use a View for showcasing as they are really powerful.

Sorry about downtime yesterday

2009-04-01T22:37:00.003+11:00

We apologise to our users for an interruption to our service yesterday. There was a server issue which caused problems for hundreds of sites. The provision of uninterrupted service is our top priority.

Foliospaces upgrade

2009-03-31T20:46:00.002+11:00

We have upgraded Foliospaces to the latest version of Mahara. There are lots of new features, so check your portfolio tabs to check them all out. As we previously announced the group sharing features have been improved, and it is now possible to share view templates. The upgrade appears to have worked with very few hitches but if you do find and problems please do let us know so we can fix them.

2009-03-27T10:24:00.000+11:00

Collaborative Learning and Communities of Practice

2009-03-18T13:30:00.001+11:00

I was looking through my Powerpoint slides for a new class. The topic was ‘Navigating the Web’. It wasn’t a huge presentation, perhaps 25 slides or so. The slides were from last year, when I taught the class in a traditional face to face lecture/tutorial format.

Now the value of someone standing in frount of a class talking for 2 hours in a traditional lecture is questionable anyway, but what happens when that content is placed online? Which slides do I keep? Which to I change? Which do I discard? Taken in isolation a series of dot points don’t amount to much.

• Ranking algorithms needed
• Data base
• Search protocol

What on earth does it all mean and does anyone care? Like most academics, I have spent many years serving up content to my students. One of my favourite Youtube videos is Father Guido Sarducci's Five Minute University a comedy sketch which offers the proposition that all learning can be done in five minutes as that is all that will be remembered in five years anyway. Outrageous and silly, but funny because perhaps it contains a little truth?

Has teaching been reduced to a series of Powerpoint slides? We have all heard the term ‘Death by Powerpoint’. Google the search term ‘Gettysburg Address’ and you will find that about the forth result returned is ‘The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation’. I am not giving you the link – Google it!! The presentation includes the Gettysburg Address in the speaker notes, with the opening line - These are some notes on the Gettysburg meeting. I'll whip them into better shape when I can get on to my computer. A.L.

Wow. The actual address was just 267 words, and it remains one of the most famous speeches in history. So, yes, Powerpoint does have a role to play in education, and in business, we just over do it. In an online environment I cannot see that Powerpoint has a role at all. So far this semester I have put a voice-over on several legacy presentations, but abandoned them because I felt they still offered little to learning (and my voice sounds terrible!).

So what are the alternatives? I am not suggesting live presentations should be abandoned. They need to be more creative, and in most cases seminar rather than lecture based. In an online environment this is even more important. Simply ‘pushing’ content to students is futile. What content that is ‘pushed’ cannot already be found, with relative ease by searching the Internet? I have found that the most satisfactory method of teaching online is to find a balance between content provision and problem solving. Posing questions which may be the source of discussion, conjecture or research; encouraging students to share their answers, pose counter questions, and to gain an in depth understanding of the subject at hand. This in-depth understanding may or may not equate to the ability to immediately recall facts. Did it ever? I expect though, that students should develop questioning and (re)search skills that will allow them to find the answer to any question that I pose related to the particular area of study.

Communities, by their very nature, tend to be places where knowledge is shared. Knowledge sharing in small regional communities has been a way of life for centuries. In recent centuries learning and knowledge has for many people become institutionalised, with a teacher/student relationship embodying the learning process. The thought that this could change, is both an opportunity and a threat for both institutions and teachers. Communities are emerging as a place of first choice for knowledge acquisition, in many instances and the use of the World Wide Web has accelerated this transition.

Examples abound. Wikipedia is perhaps the most celebrated, but community knowledge sharing sites abound. But it is in the area of problem solving that the power of community collaboration is most evident, as illustrated by the following case study:

The problem: Email newsletters abound. Is it possible for a small business owner to create their own newsletter, or is it a specialist task that should be outsourced?

The solution: As a teacher of eMarketing and eBusiness I thought I should know the answer to this problem, but the reality was I didn’t. Yes, I could create a HTML web page, but how does someone simple include it in an email? Finding the solution to a problem such as this often lacks scientific method, but rather tends to be a process of elimination. Text books; colleagues; Google. After the first two methods failed, a Google search was conducted.

There are plenty of commercial email newsletter clients available, but this was not the solution required. Eventually a (self proclaimed) ‘expert’ was found on About.com Linda's Personal Web Pages Blog - By Linda Roeder, About.com Guide to Personal Web Pages since 1998. Despite the claim ‘Creating an HTML fomatted newsletter has never been easier’, the answer did not please most readers of the blog. They included:-

link for tool doesn’t work…

Is there a way to put in the actual html? I’ve already made the email in an html editor now I want to send it. It uses tables and stuff to look more pro and I really don’t think I could make this with the crappy gmail editor.

This isn’t really HTML at all, it’s just Rich Text Formatting.
I found this blog thinking I could find a way to create my own HTML formatted email “stationery” but I guess not.

Clearly this was not the solution most of the blog readers were looking for. And there was some obligatory SPAM:-

The best russian site here!
http://km.ru
Plese visit our site!

But then comment 15 was :-

Hi..!

to compose a mail with your own html formatting :

1-> compose you mail, using any html editor, save file as .html
2-> open .html file with Firefox or IE
3-> select Edit>Select all or Ctrl+A to select all of your messages.
4-> paste in compose window gmail. Voila!

ps: Not working in IE? Get rid of IE asap, switch to Firefox. IE sucks!

A community solution was found, and general feelings were reflected in the following comments:-

Thanks Linda for putting up the article.
Thanks Nostalgia, for giving such and effective and easy solution

@NOSTALGIA
thaaaaaaaaaaank yooooouuuuu
such a simple point, but no one else was saying it!

I recently had an irate senior lecturer say to me ‘are you suggesting that we should allow students opinions to challenge our own, or that they should be allowed to contribute course content and design their own learning?’

Yes, right in one. That is, pretty much was what I was suggesting.

RE: Internet Explorer Security Pop-uP Message

2009-03-07T11:11:00.004+11:00

Being a Firefox and or Chrome web browser user I was not aware that Apture (the web link application we use on some of our pages including this blog) was causing a security message to pop up all the time for Internet Explorer users. You can disable the function in IE but it is not straight forward. The reason it has been happening is because Foliospaces is an https site. We have a high level of security for your personal data. What happens when we link to another page (using apture) is IE indicates you are going to a non secure page (which is the vast majority of web pages). For now, we have decided to remove apture from Foliospaces. I will still use it here on the blog, as this is just a regular http page. Sorry for any inconvienience this has caused. Most free wiki hosts and blog hosts are not secure, and most users are happy with that for every day publishing. Because our users can expect to store any work related data on Foliospaces we believe the higher level of security we offer is appropriate.

Lots more Foliospaces features with new upgrade

2009-03-04T15:03:00.002+11:00

As I announced in a previous post we are getting ready to upgrade Foliospaces to Mahara 1.1.1. There are some really significant changes to look forward to. I have listed some of them here:-

View Templates (View Copying) - You can now mark Views as able to be copied by other users who can see the View. This gives people the option of using a View as a starting point to create their own View.

A lot of improvements to groups - they will now have Files and Views, which can be collaboratively authored; easier navigation, the Group owner is replaced by having one or more Group Admins, Artefacts no longer have to be owned by people, now Groups, Institutions or the Site can own artefacts; Groups can be made publicly viewable, including the forums. Users can be automatically subscribed to forums when they join groups.

Import API - Mahara now has an API to import content from external systems. Currently Moodle 2.0 can use it to send Moodle content to Mahara via their "Portfolio API"

Profile Views - Users' profile pages are now Views, which allows them to re-arrange the layout of their page. New blocktypes are also provided to help users show their information - My Views, My Groups, My Friends and Wall (which allows other people to leave comments for users).

For a more comprehensive look at the many improvements please see the Mahara release notes. This is will be a really significant upgrade, so we want to wait a few more weeks (for bug fixes) to make sure it causes no disruption to your Foliospace.

Personal Branding

2009-03-03T15:28:00.003+11:00

I was just reading a Seth Godin post on his blog about Personal Branding. Wow, what a marketing term. I have a love hate relationship with jargon really. It is sort of annoying and compelling at the same time. Still, back to the topic. I suggest you read the post, it is only brief. In essence the take home message is probably don't say your hobby is 'binge drinking' on your facebook profile if you want a housekeeping job (or any other I imagine). I have talked about it before, but I am always amazed that most people do not realise that employers now routinely Google applicants. The other thing is that people just don' t believe that once published your content is there forever. The delete button just does not work. Have a look at the Internet Archive for a blast from the past.

We see the recording of your goals, experiences, and achievements as one of the main purposes of Foliospaces. While you are welcome to talk about binge drinking on your Foliospaces page, it is probably a better idea to keep it for Facebook, and use Foliospaces to get you a job, or to keep the one you already have.

Foliospaces - Mahara Upgrade 1.1.1

2009-03-03T14:40:00.004+11:00

We hope that Foliospaces members have noticed that your pages are loading faster. We have improved load times by over 50% in the last couple of days. There is also a new release of Mahara, version 1.1.1. out. We will be upgrading, but will not do so for about a month as we want to make sure any bugs are ironed out first. Thanks to everyone for the enormous amount of support we have received by email in our first few weeks of operation. The upgrade to Mahara 1.1.1 is really exciting as there are lots of new features.

Open access education - free eBusiness Course

2009-03-02T12:04:00.005+11:00

As a lecturer in eBusiness and Marketing, It has always seemed strange to me that so many courses are locked up in universities, only accessable to the few students who enrol. The other day a colleague asked me how to export her bookmarks from Internet Explorer to a new computer. I did what most 'experts' would do, saying I would drop by in five minutes or so. That was just enough time to Google the answer.

I didn't need to enrol in a course to find the answer, but I did need to know how to find it. Every day we are involved in self directed learning. We have set up Foliospaces in response to this trend. A place, your place, to record, store and share your own learning journey. This semester I have an online undergraduate class in eBusiness Fundamentals. I am using Moodle as the learning environment for the course and it is locked to only allow access to students from my university. I have also set up a mirror site on e-socrates a free Moodle site hosted in Italy. Anyone is invited to join, just click here. You may want to participate, or just have a look. Some of the topics will include navigation and searching the web, design, analytics, trust, eBusiness models, auctions, social networking and so on. Whatever your purpose you are welcome. In time I would like to share all courses that I teach.

The idea of collective learning networks is not new, but it is still an alien concept in many formal educational settings. I am not an expert on collective learning networks, but I am fascinated by the concept that there is a relationship between individual learning, social networking and collective learning. Why not have learning without boundaries?

Congratulations to Brenda......

2009-02-28T17:00:00.002+11:00

It was exciting to receive permission to publish our first public 'View' from foliospaces member Brenda. Why don't you share a View with us as well and earn double free storage space too. I agree wholeheartedly with Brendas comments that "we all can see 'something' in this facility (ePortfolios), but we're searching for the compelling case". We at Foliospaces, are providing the facility, but ultimately it is you the users who will decide the value of ePortfolios. We want to hear your opinion and share your "Views".

Double your Storage Space - Share your 'View'

2009-02-25T08:50:00.006+11:00

We keep singing the praises of ePortfolios, but the concept is still very new to most people. How do you use them? Why would you want one? Isn't it too hard? How do I share my ePortfolio?

Besides being an artifact repository, a place to reflect, share assignments, or network, the real power of an ePortfolio is being able to share a View, with your employer, with your client, teacher, family, group or friends.

What would be great is to share as many 'Views' as possible. This is a call then, for any registered users of Foliospaces to submit a link to a public View that you are happy to share. You view can be about anything at all (well anything that is publishable!!). Just add your View to this post, and we will set up a Foliospaces 'View' page to share with all our members. To say thank-you we will give 'double' storage space (another 50MB) to everyone who share a view. The only condition is that you include a mix that uses at least three components (e.g. text box, RSS, photo, video, any artifacts etc). Happy Viewing :-)

Easy photos for Foliospaces

2009-02-21T22:23:00.003+11:00

I read a lot of blogs, and from time to time I stumble upon a great one. One I found recently was ‘The Rapid eLearning Blog’ written by Tom Kuhlmann. Find it in my Blogroll.

One article I found in Tom's blog of particular interest recently was 'Heres how I Built That Powerpoint eLearning Template'. We have all heard of ‘Death by Powerpoint’, and suffered boring presentations I am sure. Tom, gives great hints for better Powerpoint use, but the article that was really relevant for Foliospaces users was about using Powerpoint instead of Photoshop. Yes you heard right, using Powerpoint to rework images. This got me thinking about using photos in Foliospaces pages. A good way is to link them from a free online photo host like Flikr. The other way is to edit them yourself and upload them to Foliospaces.

I transferred some photos of a horse I am handling at the moment from my wife’s camera today to upload to the Internet. As digital cameras have got better, file sizes are getting huge. For a photo to look great on the Internet it only needs to be between 20-100KB. A typical digital photo today is between 1-5MB or even more. Great for prints and but wasted online, not to mention the fact that large file sizes make pages take forever to load. Optimising photos (making file size smaller) is the most important thing you can do to make the most of your Foliospaces storage. I use two free programs. The first is Picsizer. This simple little program allows you to resize and optimize a folder of photos at the same time. The second free program is Screenhunter. This is a really neat screen capture program, that again is very simple to use, and it allows you to create an image from anything displayed on your screen.

This brings me back to Tom’s piece about using Powerpoint. Having used Picsizer or Screenhunter you will be able to upload your files straight to Foliospaces. But what if you want to make a collage of photos, or add a diagram over them? I did this today with a car seat I was selling. Dropped it into Powerpoint, drew arrows on it , marked in measurements then snapped it with Screenhunter. Voila! This is the result. According to Tom’s article the 2007 version of Powerpoint allows you to save a slide as a jpg image which would be easier again. Now for anyone who is accomplished at working with digital photos and graphics I hope you haven’t even read this far. I am certainly not saying these simple tools even come close to what can be done with a graphics program, but it is close enough for most of us, and can create great results for a lot less effort. Using graphics programs requires more skill than I can manage so I think the Powerpoint method is great. Now for anyone who wants photos retouched, or catalogues done, my son does Photoshop work…..

Welcome to our new users

2009-02-21T00:31:00.002+11:00

It is only a few weeks since Foliospaces went live. Already we have members from many countries including Australia, New Zealand, U.S.A., Canada, UK, Ireland, India and the list goes on daily. We have been overwhelmed by the positive comments we have been receiving from new users. Foliospaces is primarily YOUR space. Whether using it for education, buisness, NGO's or personal use Foliospaces can help you organise and share your achievements, memories, hopes and dreams.

When starting out please consider a few points:

Foliospaces is much more than just a artifact repository. It is an oportunity for you to reflect on your study, work or life. It is also an opportunity to celebrate your achievements and to share your interests or work with others. By forming groups and friendships you will be able to find people in foliospaces who share your interests, or who may seek or offer advice. It is up to you if you are open to friend requests or not. Reading user profiles quickly demonstrates what a wide range of talents and experience members have. Please take the time to update your profile so you can share a little about your self. What country are you from? What is your occupation? What are your interests? That sort of thing. If you would like to share a 'View' that would also be great.

It has been a very busy time for us, and we will continue to grow the site week by week. The information pages will be expanded, and we will open a feedback forum. The technical launch of the site has gone smoothly, with only a few minor glitches along the way. Your support will decide the future directions foliospaces takes. We will be starting an open forum soon, so you can share your views, comments and questions. In the meantime, please tell your friends about Foliospaces, and consider using using it for a class, interest group or in your workplace.

Most of the resurch to date on ePortfolios has concentrated on the education sector. I am sure that there is also a demonstrated need in the workplace. Evidence of achievement for a promotion? A display portfolio for a client? A Curriculum Vitae demonstrating achievement of graduate attributes for a potential employer? Many registration authorities are now expecting professionals to document and provide evidence that specific competencies have been achieved during a specific time frame. What better way to do it than to maintain an ePortfolio that combines reflection on practice with suitable documentary or multimedia evidence of achievement.

The Death of Web 2.0

2009-02-16T15:22:00.000+11:00

I was just reading an article with the title 'Death of Web 2.0'. How people love funeral notices. The article attracted hundreds of comments, mostly 'thank goodness'. I on the other hand feel a little sad by the passing.

As a lecturer in eMarketing my colleagues have occasionally suggested the 'e' should be dropped as it is all just marketing. Perhaps they just meant I should be dropped. I tend to agree with them (only about the e) except... most of them have never heard of Web 2.0. The move from traditional content publishing (on or offline) to user generated content is the most exciting (and disruptive) thing that has happened in media since the invention of the printing press. While I would not say user generated content is now mainstream, it is certainly getting that way. It is only 2 years since I introduced 'Facebook' to my undergraduate class. Some of the adventurous were already using Myspace, but it was 'Facebook' that really got kids connected. It is probably timely to retire the term web 2.0, but the impact will be felt for years to come.

Advertising and Learning

2009-02-16T14:02:00.000+11:00

I get so used to looking at blog subscriptions in my email that I often don’t visit the blog homepage for weeks. Email subscriptions are so convenient, but sometimes, just reading text just doesn’t feel satisfying enough!! Its a bit like eating a carrot for lunch, or not putting butter on my bread. Yes, I do need to get out more. So, this morning, halfway through reading an article about Twitter getting another $35 mill, I had an overwhelming urge to visit the Techcrunch homepage. Voilà! What a shock. Techcrunch is covered in ads. It has always had ads, but they seem bigger and brighter and more in your face. You can spend up to US$30,000 a month on a 125×125 pixel ad. Now Techcrunch is one of my favourite blogs. Would I subscribe if there was no alternative? Well maybe, but probably not because there are lots of other great free blogs as well. It is an obvious dilemma for startup businesses, as altruism is great, but it doesn’t pay the bills, and most sites don’t have a fraction of the traffic Techcrunch generates.

We are also facing the same dilema at Foliospaces. We will always offer free ePortfolio's but what is the best business model to adopt? For now, I admit, I am not sure (despite being a lecturer in Marketing in my day job!). For now we will be using advertising and an advertising/subscription mix. In the meantime as our membership continues to grow, we are currently focused on increasing Foliospaces features, and participating in all aspects of the discussion and excitement of ePortfolios.

Teaching Learning and Creativity - Key trends

2009-02-16T13:50:00.000+11:00

The Horizon Report 2008 - Australia - New Zealand edition (published by the Horizon Project) is an interesting read. The four key trends identified be those most likely to have a significant impact in education in Aus and NZ in the next five years will present some exciting and at the same time challenging times for education. I have always found education to be pretty conservative and slow to change, but that is also why trend watching is such fun. Where are we now, where might we be in 5 years and where do we actually end up. I always think there is lots to learn about looking forwards, by looking back but we rarely do it seems. So what about the trends?

Trend 1) Worldwide production of over 1 billion mobile phones per year is driving both innovation and adoption of ever more capable portable devices.

‘They will never replace newspapers or books’ or so I have heard it said many times. ‘Desktop computers will never be replaced by handhelds’. Well I say, never say never. The report sees the move to handheld as a move to decentralised access to resources which will impact (bigtime) on the ways learning spaces are conceptualised and designed.

Trend 2) There is an increasingly important set of influences from the workplace that are impacting how learning is designed and conducted.

The report suggests that increasingly the effectiveness of learning is being measured using concepts like engagement and time on task. There in an increase of influence of the workplace on skills which will lead to greater focus on certifications, portfolios, and other ways that life experiences can be documented. Finding innovative and creative ways to record life experiences will be a key challenge for educators. I have mentioned before the role I see ePortfolios playing, I just hope they don’t get hijacked by bureaucrats who may see them as useful compliance records.

Trend 3) The increasing connectedness of people around the globe has and continues to dramatically reduce the costs of collaboration.

The emergence of free and very low cost tools - social networking, blogging etc is allowing collaboration and sharing once unheard of. Loss of control again though!! Educators do like control. The debate will continue to loom I think on this one for ages. The education technology companies could not be happy either are their proprietary LMS and other systems are threatened by open source solutions or free online tools.

Trend 4) As both computers and the network increase in connectedness and capability, the set of technologies available to educators grows ever richer.

In my role as eLearning Developer, I find this trend the simplest, and the most tangible. I see these results everyday. Is it only a few years ago I showed my first Youtube video in a class? Fear of technology failure was a huge deterrent to trying new things, but now Internet speed and reliability means academics and staff are using web based solutions more and more.

The critical challenges?

The report cites Protectionism as the single greatest challenge. The report states that protectionism ‘limits access to materials, ideas, and collaborative opportunities’. Coming from a background of lecturing in Marketing, I admit there are sometimes real benefits in limiting access to materials, ideas, and collaborative opportunities. Just ask the fossil fuel industry!! Whilst I see protectionism as the antithesis of great education and academic thought it is understandable why it has so many adherents. The report states that ‘the mindset of central network planners and administrators is often at odds with the increasingly user-centric nature of Internet applications and tools, limiting innovation’. The firewalls will not be turned off overnight, but it is time that security concerns were more balanced on a risk/benefit basis. Do I really need to change my password so often?

Six “Key Emerging Technologies” for Higher Ed Profiled in the 2008 Horizon Report

eBay promotion

2008-09-15T15:32:00.000+10:00

I have a love hate relationship with eBay. I love the size of the market it, and I hate the fees it charges, and the completely impersonal services it offers. There are other auction sites in Australia, such as Greys, and Oztion. Greys has its own niche, selling for businesses, while Oztion is in direct competition with eBay, for what it is worth. The Trading Post is like some weird hybrid, typical Telstra company, it doesn't seem to know what it is or who it serves. Which brings me back to eBay. I sell horsebooks mainly. Lots of them. In an ideal world I would just sell from my website. Minimal costs maximum profit. But the world is never ideal, fortunately, for marketers at least. I have spent money on magazine advertising, classified ads, sponsorships, promotions, public relations and more with varying effects. By far the best promotion I use tends to be just selling books on eBay. I can't completely explain it. Yes its great market exposure, but there may be another element as well. Familiarity, credibility, I am not sure what. I list between 50 and 200 books most weeks. The more I list, the more I sell (i.e. higher clearance %) and what is harder to explain I sell a lot more books direct from my web site (customers Google my business name as eBay does not allow direct promotion or use of URL's).

The rates charged by eBay Australia are huge compared to other countries. Why? Because they can be I imagine. There is no Amazon to compete with. I have started a U.S. eBay store because it is a fraction of the cost of an Australian store and while sales may not be as high, the costs are much lower. Dealing on eBay is tedious, time consuming and you are forced to discount (although I do not discount heavily), but I find it is great promotion. I have recently started another online business, more of a service industry - brokering skills, so now I am looking at developing marketing strategies. Its taken a while, but it looks like I will now be selling myself opn eBay.....