apcampbell

On the subject of moving toward learner autonomy, David Boud writes:

The autonomous person must be free not only from direction by others
external to himself, but also from his or her own inner compulsions and
rigidities.  Autonomy is more than acting on one’s own.  It
implies a responsiveness to one’s environment and the ability to make
creative and unique [...]

Concerning Manila, does anybody know how to either completely disable
the discussion feature or open discussion to non-members without using
Radio comments?  I would prefer to use the Manila discussion
feature on my News Item postings, but I don’t want to burden readers
with having to become a member and having to sign-in to leave a
comment.  Radio comments suck [...]

I finally got around to creating news departments on this weblog. 
It’s something I’m finally starting to see might become necessary, as
I’ll be writing about different topics over the next few years. 
So for starters, I’ve classified them as Interactive Webpublishing, EFL Practices, Learning to Learn, and Miscelleaneous.  These are sure to evolve.
—–

In the first
half of the semester, we focused on building the habits and skills
necessary for successful interactive webpublishing.  We’re now
moving into Phase 2 of our course, where we will attempt to create our
own personal learning communities that expand beyond the confines of
our Center and into the greater Blogosphere.

Our goals for Week 9:

Reflect upon and discuss [...]

Before RSS and aggregators were introduced in the course, our
learners came up with a list of ways to cultivate personal learning
communities using their weblogs and the internet:

Contact people through email
Update website frequently
Make content interesting
Network by telling peers about your site
Write about topics that stimulate conversation
Bribery, contests, give-aways, quizzes, threats

This is the product of a pre-RSS worldview brainstorm. 
While some [...]

All the recent talk about why people blog
has been getting me thinking about user experience and
perception.  If bloggers perceive that what they are doing is
helping them and others, that it gives them an audience for their
writing and helps cultivate a sense of community, then of course they
will continue blogging.   The choice of whether to continue
or [...]

Now that we’ve reached the midterm,
we’re ready to start moving into the second phase of the course:
cultivating a personal learning community which extends beyond the
borders of the classroom.  The first step is to learn about RSS
and start using aggregators.  In the weeks to come, we’ll be
subscribing to other weblogs and newsfeeds; and attempting to
incorporate those [...]

We’re on a bit of a two-week f2f hiatus at the moment, as students
are in the midst of a week long independent study field trip and a one
week mid-semester break.  When we meet again in Week 8, it will be
time for mid-term self, peer, and tutor evaluations.  From there,
we’ll introduce aggregators and RSS, which should [...]

I’m leaving tomorrow morning for the UK and the Netherlands on a two week journey.   I plan to hang out at the London Center next week, introducing our Center
to the first year students in Friends World.  We’ll be showing our
digital presentation of photos and video clips and talking about what
we and Japan have to offer.  [...]

We spent most of the time in class today discussing the difficulties of
posting to our websites.  Much of the recent inactivity on learner
sites seemed to have stemmed from an uncertainty as to what was
appropriate.  One learner felt intimidated and confused about what
to post.  Another thought it was necessary to keep her posts
academic and was spending [...]

Website Achievement

What is the purpose of my website? Am I achieving the goals that were agreed earlier with my peers?

Have I made an effort to build on the comments and help received by my peers?

Have I been meeting the minimum requirements for adding content to my site?

Communication Skills and Social Relations

Do I understand the contributions from [...]

After what I thought was a very slow and unproductive Week 4, I’ve
decided that a week of review and reflection is necessary. 
Our Goals for Week 5:

Raise doubts and difficulties for discussion. 

Review main points from Weeks 1 ~ 4, especially concerning the different ways to engage in the meduim.
[...]