The Trying out pedagogical networks seminar celebrated its fifth anniversary in October. The programme was a composite of familiar information and communications technology-related teaching application themes, and the areas of priority were the social media in instruction as well as the future of online teaching. In addition to Finland, the festive seminar offered high-quality international expertise from neighbouring countries in the field (Brian Hudson, Umeå University, Mart Laanpere, Tallinn University). The city of Turku had again managed to rally a large group of online learning experts – quite an achievement for an event arranged for the autumn season. Seminar arrangements were the responsibility of the University of Turku, Turku School of Economics, Åbo Akademi University and Diaconia University of Applied Sciences.
When I last spoke at the seminar in 2005, the themes of the event were mobile learning and web-based tools: blogs (Jere Majava), wikis (Riitta Suominen), HorizonWimba (Marko Mäkilä) and Breeze (Annika Ranta). Laura Naismithspoke of mobile learning so convincingly that one can only believe in its possibilities, particularly in learning linked with tasks as well as in informal study. What was highly interesting was her example of the benefits of a pocket computer at a botanical garden, but just as noted at Finnish museums as well, it is not easy to combine navigating in specific facilities with general information space.
Wikis were once again on the programme this year, and two speeches were made on the subject: Wikiversity (Jaakko Suominen) and the educational use of wikis (Riitta Suominen). It was gratifying to notice that the use of wikis is growing and becoming continuously more diverse, though competing social media tools are being offered at an accelerating rate. New tools were surveyed at the seminar under the heading “Social media gems” by Anne Rongasand Jari Sjölund, and by Katri Lietsala in her talk “Learning environments – what may be learned from social media?” Experiences of Second Life as used in teaching were offered by Kim Holmberg, Isto Huvila and Franck Tetard from Åbo Akademi University.
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| Jere Majava spoke inspiringly of the significance of blogs in the creation of networks and encourage the audience to ‘blog’. Gilly Salmon provided a video lecture while Laura Naismith did hers ‘live’. | |||