I wasn't able to make the live meeting, on Oct 24, 2011 (link to video), but I did watched the 1:28 hour recorded lecture by Dr Terry Anderson. I'm curious what people thought about the LANDING (i.e. elgg) site? Do you think it's a good tool for a social learning environment? I went into the landing and "lurked" around as Terry put it.  I'm not convinced it’s a robust social learning tool.  It has a look and feel of a 10 year old system design.  It has affordances, but at what cost?  I haven't given it a fair trial yet, but so far the features seem to be comparable to E-Lab Portfolio (ie Mahara.) The idea of following a person’s blog, controlling personal data, banning objectionable material... are similar to joining a group in Mahara. Is it possible to use Mahara as a social learning environment? Can we multi-task or configure the current adopted systems to achieve the the social learning objective? 

Terry's raised the point of critical mass as a key issue when adopting a disruptive technology in an educational institution. To me, it's like trying to start a fire in a wet field. If you start several small fires around a wet field nothing catches.  But, if you focus all your energy on 1 spot then it’s easier for it to catch on.  The Landing does have hundreds of subscribers, but as Terry showed the “tail” graph of user participation, it’s a problem.  Most users are like me, “lurkers”.  This could be, in part, to the fact that several courses require students to create an account for a mark.  Those people have not bought into the idea.  Maybe there is a reason for that! I’m not trying to be a naysayer, about social learning, just that the tool may not be the best selection for the job.

I’m installing elgg (the Landing software) at: elgg.rhyon.com to give it a fair evaluation.  I found the technical support lacking compared to other systems I’ve installed. (ie Mahara, Moodle, Wordpress) After reading up on the tool, I found out that it’s not the most popular system on the market for social blogging.  That title goes to Wordpress, (http://blog-software-review.toptenreviews.com/).  I setup a Wordpress server to test out as a comparison at: wordpress.rhyon.com.  There are over a million subscribers to this product.  The added advantage is that Wordpress is portable, configurable and scalable. It can be adapted to work like a social learning environment.  Giving it additional affordances and a universal appeal.  Students can take their Wordpress site away with them and re-purpose it in the future.   On the home page of elgg site, they only boast 7 high level institutions use their system.  I think elgg is relatively simple but might not be the best choice for a social learning environment. 

Just my thoughts.

rhyon.com