Blogging at #SpCP13: Week 2

This week’s #SpCP13 tutorials were held in the University Computer Labs.
My aim was to start a conversation about e-portfolios and personal learning networks.
I suggested we looked at four blogging platforms:

• Blogger
• WordPress
• Tumblr
• Posterous

Three presentation platforms:
SlideShare
Prezi
SlideRocket
I wanted to discuss YouTube and Flickr too.
I invited the students in the tutorial to choose a blog platform that suited them. I tried to allay concerns about blogging but I do understand and appreciate reluctance to blog.
One of the Assessment items for the unit is the development of an e-portfolio.

The aim of this assessment item is to share a record of your learning journey through the unit. The style and format are open but must reflect your participation and engagement in the unit’s learning activities. Guidelines for the development of the e-portfolio will be shared in lectures and tutorials at the start of the unit. The e-portfolio should demonstrate evidence of regular and continuous reporting of and reflection on your involvement in the unit.

After today’s tutorials, I am clear that I need to offer a lot of support to each student as they develop their portfolio. I will start by guiding them to this post about Developing an E-Portfolio.
As I was wrapping up the tutorials I noticed a link in Stephen Downes’ OLDaily that demonstrated the connections one can make through a digital portfolio.
Stephen posted about Brian Lamb’s Twitter Picture:

From Stephen, I learned that the drawing was made by graphic recorder and illustrator Lisa Thiessen.
Brian linked to an audio recording of the talk by Jim Groom illustrated by Lisa. There was a link to a blog post too, Learning at TRU. By coincidence, the University of Canberra has a Sport Studies link with Thompson Rivers University.
I liked the summary of Jim’s talk in the blog post:

Jim Groom, named by the Chronicle of Higher Education as one of “12 tech innovators who are transforming campuses”, finished the day with a passionate and at-times radical vision of higher education technology that placed student and instructor ownership and autonomy at its centre. Jim stressed the importance of experimentation, of open source tools and methods, of investing in people rather than in technology as the keys to promoting a culture of innovation.

I think our day at the University of Canberra was all about “the importance of experimentation, of open source tools and methods, of investing in people rather than in technology as the keys to promoting a culture of innovation”.
My blog post is an attempt to make some of the issues we discussed today transparent. It is a blog about blogging and other opportunities.
Photo Credit
Visualization of Jim Groom’s talk (Brian Lamb, CC BY 2.0)