Digital Identity Workbook for NPO/NGO Folks

some digital identitiesMy friend and colleague, Shirley Williams, pointed me to a great resource on digital identity (DI) that she and her colleagues created for their students at Reading University in the UK.  It is called “This Is Me.”

As I saw that lovely Creative Commons license on it, I thought I’d whip up a version for folks interested in social media and the digital identity implications in the non profit and NGO sectors. I thought it would be handy in an upcoming workshop I’m facilitating for the CGIAR starting next week.

Pat Parslow and Shirley uploaded a version to a Google doc. We edited, I did some rewrites and trims, and here is the first draft. I’d love feedback!

thisisme-ngo-v11

(updated to latest version on Thursday, May 21)
(Edited September 7 – there is now a version in Arabic here via the Social Media Exchange)

(Edited August 21, 2012 – file link has been repaired and there is a new Student version coming out in September!)

Monday Video: FireKites “Autumn Story”

Thanks to a link from my friends at Common Craft comes this creative, beautiful and haunting musical video, Firekites – AUTUMN STORY – chalk animation from Lucinda Schreiber.

Firekites – AUTUMN STORY – chalk animation from Lucinda Schreiber on Vimeo.

There are so many things that this video evoked for me. The traces of chalk brought to mind the traces that communities leave behind them and reification. It reminded me of conversations about digital identity – both its permenance and empheral nature. And of course, about the power of images. WOW!

P.S. Congrats to Lee and Sachi at Commoncraft for their story in Seattle Magazine.

Thanks Rebekah and Mom

Alert – personal post!
mom

I love my mom and I love food. So as mother’s day approaches here in the US, one of my food blog reads caught my eye – from Seattle’s own Rebekah Denn:  Beard dinner. Ticket giveaway. Mom.

So, I’m making that the theme of a ticket giveaway to a James Beard dinner coming to Seattle on May 14. It’s a “Celebrity Chef Tour” meant to recreate a bit of the experience of dining at the James Beard House, “featuring the greatest culinary artists in major markets across the United States.” Ethan Stowell will cook at the $175-a-plate fundraiser at at the Columbia Tower Club along with the club’s James Hassell, with organizers promising ”an innovative, one-of-a-kind dinner” and wine pairings.

Want to win? Just leave a comment on this post telling us how your own mother influenced the way you eat and cook. I’ll pick two names, using a random number generator, at midnight Seattle time on Friday, May 8, and give each qualifying winner (that is, someone who answered the question, however briefly) a pair of tickets, courtesy of the event organizers.

In my 51 years, my contest winning streak has been fairly brief. I won a jelly bean counting contest at a school fair in 7th grade. The prize? The mason jar of jelly beans and this weird, green squishy baby toy. Or maybe it was a dog toy. I treasured that toy for years. It is great to feel like a winner. Even if only for an educated guess.

This morning I got up at 5am because I have two work calls I am unprepared for, it is Saturday, it is going to be a sunny day in Seattle and I want to work in my garden. So the work has to be done early. I open my email.

I WON!

I bless Rebekah and the random number generator that picked me to win two tickets. I will look forward to and savor the meal. But I also get to take a moment to thank my mom (Dolores Wright) for inspiring me to care about food – where it comes from, how it is prepared and the importance of sharing it with the people I love. And the people I barely know. And everyone in between. (Yes, there is a dinner for an out of town friend tonight. If you are in Seattle and are interested in international development, contact me. There’s still room at the table.)

Mom, here is what I wrote about you. Thank you. Happy Mothers Day. And I’m so thrilled you are moving to Seattle in 3 weeks. Wow. Finally, we can have more little, unplanned moments together in the kitchen, over food or a drink.

My mother was the daughter of an amazing Italian cook, my Gramma B. A little bit intimidating, to say the least. But that didn’t stop her. She knew about fresh food when frozen dinners and canned veggies became the stable of a 60’s household. She figured out what to do with all those zucchini my dad grew. She kept us knitted together via family dinners. But most importantly, she encouraged me to experiment, to cook. She gave me a subscription to Gourmet magazine when I was something like 11 or 12. She let me cater her friends’ dinner parties. She made me the cook I am.

To every other mom, Happy Mother’s Day – a day early. I’m not blogging tomorrow!!!

Sam Rose on the Social Media Classroom

Drill bitLast week I shared a podcast with Howard Rheingold on the Social Media Classroom as part of  CPSquare’s “Connected Futures” workshop. This week we have a podcast with Sam Rose, one of the key developers of the Drupal based Social Media Classroom.

Listen! A Conversation With Sam Rose on the Social Media Classroom

Some of the many fabulous observations from Sam that caught my ear include:

  • Sam’s observations about the iteration between the deployment of a tool, the community’s creative use of the tool and the subsequent develop and iteration of the tool echoes what we found in our work for Digital Habitats.
  • The thinking around the differences of a platform designed for delivery of a curriculum (i.e a Learning Management System or LMS) and a platform designed to support inquiry based learning.
  • The importance of an integrated starting place and then as social media literacy grows, the exploration outward to other tools.
  • How SMC thinks about forums as discussion starting places, blogs as individual reflection/note taking spaces and wikis as a place for crafting joint learning.
  • The role of affordances to make use easier.  (For example, the little  color coded toolbars in SMC). And how some of those affordances are subtle and benefit from some “showing” — but once you learn them how useful they are.
  • The trajectory of SMC towards becoming a place to integrate with other tools and content through APIs. (Lots of exciting things to come!)

Creative Commons License photo credit: EnergyTomorrow

Howard Rheingold on the Social Media Classroom

Flickr CC image by vagawi As part of CPSquare’s “Connected Futures” workshop exploring the use of web technologies in the service of communities of practice, we (John Smith and I!) asked Howard Rheingold to share a little bit about the Social Media Classroom (SMC) he developed as part of a MacArthur Foundation Award (A HASTAC award specifically).

We were interested to hear about the development both because we are using a hosted version of the SMC as our “home base” this iteration of the workshop, and because Howard’s project is a nice example of community technology stewardship. Every platform has its lineage, the experiences of the designers that inform design choices during development. What needs is it trying to meet? How can it do this in the simplest and elegant manner?

SMC is created on a Drupal base but customized to reflect what Howard thought would be useful for educators. But it is not just a technology platform. There is also a rich library of new media literacy resources and a community of practitioners.  From the SMC website:

The Social Media Classroom (we’ll call it SMC) includes a free and open-source (Drupal-based) web service that provides teachers and learners with an integrated set of social media that each course can use for its own purposes—integrated forum, blog, comment, wiki, chat, social bookmarking, RSS, microblogging, widgets , and video commenting are the first set of tools.  The Classroom also includes curricular material: syllabi, lesson plans, resource repositories, screencasts and videos.

For communities picking or even building platforms for themselves, there are some nice pearls from Howard.

Click here to listen in: 30 Minutes with Howard Rheingold on the Social Media Classroom… and other stuff!

Some of the things Howard talked about included:

  • the importance of an on-ramp to new media – with integration of tools being an important early experience that helps us be more confident when we start using tools in a more “free range” manner.
  • the need for a new media literacy – just because we are all online doesn’t mean we understand and know how to use it. What are the essentials that make a difference?
  • the origins and inspirations of some of the tools in the SMC
  • Howard’s exploration of teaching at this phase in his career and the importance of a constructivist, participatory approach.

If you are interested in SMC for your learning context, you can download the software to your server, or if you don’t have access to a server or IT help, the project is offering a limited amount of hosted space. If you want to learn more and engage in the SMC c ommunity, join the community of practice.

Photo credit:vagawi