One of my dabbles over the summer that I’ve spent mostly offline was to join an Elgg community set up by the folks over at Worldbridges. (Specifically, I think it was Alex and Arvind’s idea. Good idea, gentlemen.) The commmunity, open to all y’all, is a playground for talking about teaching, technology, and modeling how to create a social network of teachers using Elgg, a piece of software that I didn’t really care all that much for.
Until now. I’m beginning to get how useful the tool might can be, particularly in that it’s very dynamic — participants in the community can build spaces and groups, while an administrator, I think, can maintain control when necessary. It’s kind of like a wiki for community building, where everyone can help out. I also like the different levels of publication available with the software, as I know that not everything that I ask my students to do should be 100 percent public.
I’m still exploring and experimenting, but I’m really beginning to think that a tool like this has lots of potential at my school, specifically since so many of my students use these types of communities to maintain relationships outside of school. I wonder if I can create a successful social network that centers around education and learning.
I’ve seen other people have success doing so, so I’m really starting to think that I might can. Now that Elgg is beginning to be integrated with Moodle, I really think I’ve got a suite of tools that I can use to do some pretty cool stuff. Maybe. Again, I’m still exploring, but I think it’s doable. I’ve gotten to the point where it’s time to try out a few ideas and see if I can make something that I can use.
Tonight, I’m off to find out. My FTP program is busily sending files onto some repurposed server space, and I’ve purchased a couple of new domain names.
Let the experiment begin.
I think I’m headed in the same direction. I was fooling around with the Apple server blogging software and I’ve had no luck getting it to do what I want. Even simple comment moderation has been a big hassle.
I was thinking about giving Elgg a try. Please keep me/us posted on your progress there.
Tom
Hey Bud,
I love that we’re beginning to impress you with Elgg’s potential. I keep going back and forth on blogging platforms but I really, really like Elgg’s functionality. I look forward to watching it develop and the work with Moodle progress.
Cheers, Alex