José Mota on October 23rd, 2011

Tagus ParkThe 2nd conference of the Master’s Program in eLearning Pedagogy from Universidade Aberta, myMPEL2011, took place last friday, 21 October, in the new facilities at Tagus Park.

Organized by Lina Morgado, the master’s coordinator, and a very engaged and resourceful group of students from MPEL4, it proved, once again, a great opportunity for the community involved in the master’s – teachers, students from the several editions, people interested in the subject areas – to interact and learn from one another. It was also an amazing showcase of the work done by the students in the fourth edition, organized around a Pecha Kucha session that was, for the most part, awesome (with a couple pre-recorded presentations that don’t work so well in a live event). Reflecting on last year’s and this year’s conference, one of the best feelings I have is how this master’s is such an exciting environment for innovation and experimentation concerning online teaching and learning.

We had also major contributions from invited speakers: Pedro Caramez presented remotely, through Colibri, a compelling talk on LinkedIn; Luísa António got people excited about creative labs and innnovation rooms;  Helena Lopes and Ana Boa-Ventura, from Media Shots, wowed us with digital storytelling for education; and Vitor Reis brought a very interesting perspective on the contributions of distance education in the training of firemen. The conference was streamed live and had a very active backchannel on Twitter (hashtag: #mympel), so we had a lot of people (including some of our students) following the conference all over the world.

It was an intense, rewarding day, both academically and also because of the opportunity to have some great informal exchanges with students and participants.

Some of us teachers presented on topics related to the curricular units we teach. Here’s my presentation on Open Educational Resources (PT). This and other resources can also be found on http://www.scoop.it/t/mympel-2011/.

Recursos Educacionais Abertos: Potencialidades e Desafios

And here are some pictures of the conference.

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José Mota on October 21st, 2011

Another great RSA Animate video, this time on a lecture by psychiatrist and writer Iain McGilchrist, who talks about how our ‘divided brain’ has profoundly altered human behaviour, culture and society.

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José Mota on October 20th, 2011

28 min video of @joi @cdibona @jseelybrown @larrylessig @ybenkler @ Media Lab talking about openness.

Posted by +Howard Rheingold On Youtube and shared on Twitter

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José Mota on October 19th, 2011

If this is true, it will be a major change in Google's policy regarding Google+. Let us wait and see how they will handle this.

Google+ will soon support pseudonyms and other forms of identity, says a Google executive.

During a conversation at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, SVP of Social Vic Gundotra revealed that G

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José Mota on October 19th, 2011

Michael Winslow (the guy who did all those incredible sounds in Police Academy) has a go at Whole Lotta Love. And it is … WOW. From the vocals to the guitar imitation, it’s amazing beat boxing. You have got to see to believe.

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José Mota on October 18th, 2011

More on #dmlbadges by Byd Hunt

When Badges Backfire. Posted on October 17, 2011 by Bud Hunt. One of several things that worries me about the DML focus on badges is that it's entirely possible that a badge will backfire. Badly. …
José Mota on October 17th, 2011

Here’s an interview we did with +George Siemens on 30 June, 2011, at the Laboratory of Distance Education and eLearning, Universidade Aberta, Portugal. It’s around 40 minutes long and has, imo, a lot of great stuff on conectivism, change and moocs. There’s no doubt he is one of the best persons you can find to have a great conversation with.

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José Mota on October 14th, 2011

Martin Weller on Digital Scholarship

Writing on the London School of Economics and Political Science blog "Impact of Social Sciences", Martin Weller restates some of his compelling ideas on digital scholarship. Love this paragraph:

Similarly, universities are realising that their online reputation is their main brand, that the glossy brochure is not how they attract students now. Being recognised as a university that has online savvy staff is the new equivalent of having TV celebrity academics.

http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/10/14/universities-digital-scholarship/

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José Mota on October 12th, 2011

Boone Gorges is done with Apple

Next time someone asks me (and I get asked that a lot) “Why don’t you have an iPhone” or “Have you bought an iPad yet” and look puzzled when I tell them “I don’t buy Apple” I can point them to this post by Boone Gorges. It’s the perfect explanation.

Teleogistic / Done with Apple.

 

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José Mota on October 12th, 2011

Google Plus Gets Real-Time Search & Working Hashtags
http://m.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_plus_gets_real-time_search_working_hashtags.php

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