Chapter 4: Architectures of Participation

Further reading: Ullrich Carsten

"The democratisation of the web is an important concept in that web 2.0 encourages it's user to take control of the production and access other people have to data (and not rely on businesses or government to provide that service)."(1)

This quote from the reader inspired me to look further into this concept of equality and the idea of the user taking control of your own participation and how this can relate to my learning. Looking at writing from Ullrich Carsten I found that the document was all about how web 2.0 helps with learning and and research in regards to participation.  I found the following quotes very helpful:

"Constructivism is based on the premise that knowledge can not be transmitted but has to be constructed by the individual.  Therefore learning is an active process of integrating information with pre-existing knowledge." (2)

By engaging in the BAPP course we are all taking a constructivist approach to our learning.  I like this terminology and it is a reminder that we are constantly learning, it never stops so there isn't a right or wrong answer.  The idea of integrating information with knowledge is a strong term for the fact that we all hold the knowledge to progress our practice we just need to find the information to help us and web 2.0 provides that.

"Learning takes place in context and collaboration and provides opportunities to solve realistic and meaningful problems." (2) "Web 2.0 services are characterized by the fact that their value increases the more people are using it." (2) "Each user is immediately a member of a community with a low barrier to participate" (2)

This is what we our doing through our blogs! This highlights to me the need to progressive comment on others work and share any ideas I have because you never know the possibilities and answers that may arise.  It is made so easy for use to participate in creating our own BAPPer community.

"Every website with a fancy interface is sold as web 2.0"

This made me giggle because of it's reality.  It makes me realise I need to be aware of everything out there and work out what really works for me.

"A Personal Learning Environment is not a pre-build collection of tools and content but a framework that allows a learner to assemble his own suite of applications and content sources."(3)

I like the idea of us having our own personal learning environment. This notion of a framework is what our blogs and BAPP provides us but we fill this with our journey of participation as we share and develop.

"Disorientation and cognitive overload are the principle obstacles of self-regulated learning in technology-enhanced learning." (4)

It was nice to see this Ullrich's document as it is exactly how I feel sometimes.  The Internet is an overwhelming source of information but reading this comforted me in the fact that I just need to accept that and find from it what works for me not use everything it has to offer.  I round up this further reading with a poignant quote.

"It is now easier than ever to build the tools that enrich the learning experience." (2)

Refrences

(1) http://lgdata.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/docs/566/262964/Module_1_BAPP_Handbook_3730_Reader_1_2011-12_final.pdf

(2)http://www2008.org/papers/pdf/p705-ullrichA.pdf

(3) M. van Harmelen. Personal learning environments. In ICALT '06: Proceedings of the Sixth IEEE
International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, pages 815{816, Washington, DC, USA, 2006. IEEE Computer Society.

(4) S. O. Tergan. Hypertext und Hypermedia:Konzeption, Lernmoglichkeiten, Lernprobleme und
Perspektiven. In P. Klimsa and L. Issing, editors, Information und Lernen mit Multimedia und Internet { Lehrbuch fur Studium und Praxis, pages 99{112. Beltz Verlag, Weinheim, 2002.