myPE(N)L ctd

So here is my current Personal Environment for Networked Learning
(which I think of as the interface with physically remote people and information):
INPUT
For input, it includes email, of course, plus a bit of traditional media and occasionally the telephone, but everything else comes through the browser. This includes web pages of various kinds, with on-demand discovery of new content largely via Google but also via subject specific search tools when necessary. It also includes an RSS aggregator (Bloglines until last week but now GoogleReader) through which I get news and a number of blogs which I can reasonably well sort by subject if they are subject specific but for which I don’t yet have a good tool for filtering by keywords or tags. But I rarely open Twitter except during an event like this. I suppose I might use it to put out a question I couldn’t answer without help, but if others are like me it might never get an answer that way so I’d be more likely to broadcast an email to appropriate lists or perhaps post to a discussion group or LinkedIn. This works well enough to keep me flooded with information but I could use better filtering and cataloguing skills – like several who have commented so far I often use minimal blog postings as a kind of bookmark but am now trying out Diigo and del.icio.us more seriously than I have done before.

For this course, I will be checking the #PLENK2010 hashtag in twitter and keeping ready access to the course discussion page and check the daily for new blogs to read and maybe follow.

Problem: too much stuff – especially of what might be worth revisiting but which gets lost
Solution(?): better tagging if I can keep up with it for the bookmarkable items, but not sure what for the discussion postings (Evernote? but I have never yet gotten into that).
In any case this also requires that I (or we?) can come up with useful categories.
Improved Solution: if there is agreement on suitable tags for sub-topics, then encourage everyone to apply them to blog and twitter postings and have the GRSShopper sort daily listings by topic.

OUTPUT
Output is via all the old routes plus my blog (this one), twitter (mostly just for advertising blog posts) and comments on other peoples blogs or in discussion groups eg at LinkedIn or subject specific sites and in course specific sites for the course duration.
Problem: How to be heard (especially in this course if people focus exclusively on one of discssions, twitter and RSS)
Solution(?): Link to blog posts in discussion comments and rely on the GRSShopper system to present to non-followers.

Meta-Problem: Use of GRSShopper in PLENk2010 is centralized and so not necessarily available as a personal tool
Meta-Solution: Learn how to use it (or something equivalent) in my own personal environment

ok This post is a mess just like the previous one but I will post it anyhow and maybe come back to try and combine them later (which I need to do and will forget to if I hide them away as drafts)

Since posting this I have noticed that Steve LeBlanc is someone else who appears to have a similar take on the issue of what is needed.

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3 Responses to myPE(N)L ctd

  1. Heli Nurmi says:

    Hi Alan,
    I am just trying if I can get this comment through. I have been reading your blog posts and I supposed I cannot comment here.

    You know, I only use technology and do not understand how to use. Today I have noticed that there are wordpress.com and .org are they same or ..? I found my akismet anyway (but not easily)..

    You have so clear view. input and output. In psychological sciences we are interested What is Between (organism or personality or) and it is so complex that we never know anything. But I like to follow this blog

  2. alan says:

    Hi Heli,
    Yes, it did come through. Thanks for trying again.
    I might be a more effective user of technology If I just took what’s there at face value instead of wanting to “understand” and control it. If I had been using wp.com or .org I would have had a working spam filter available years ago rather than having to wait for my lazy IT guy (me again with another hat on) to find, check, and install it.

    I agree that learning and communication are more than just input and output but those interfaces do seem to be necessary before any of the more interesting stuff can happen. (eg my broken comment system made it hard to use this blog for two-way communication)

  3. Hey Alan,
    Thanks for the shout out. I agree. We do seem to approach it from similar angle. Except that I’m Twitter Centric, checking it daily. Although I’ve not posted much lately. Usually on Twitter I post RT’s of good links and a few insights. I like your Problem / Solution format that you use here to think out loud.

    While I’ve not gotten into EverNote either, I keep hearing great things about it and about Diigo. You mentioned an RSS filtering problem. Perhaps these links will help. I’ve not used them either, but plan to some day.

    http://feedrinse.com/ filter out syndicated content that you aren’t interested in. spam filter for your RSS
    http://feedsifter.com/create.php filter rss

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