"FlockPod is about adding social interaction to any web page to serve a dual purpose - facilitate social learning and augment the content itself! The central idea of FlockPod is to provide a space on any web page for you to collaborate and learn right on-the- spot, to share ideas, opinions, experiences, and anecdotes or sometimes even to question, reason or debate."I was interested to see a product like this coming from a developer associated with conventional self-paced e-learning. It's encouraging that they can see the potential for a product that allows learners to break out of self-study isolation and express, share and compare views with colleagues. The fact that it works asynchronously suits it's role in self-paced learning.
FlockPod is created in Flash and requires the learner to be online, both of which could pose some limitations, but should not put off the majority of potential users. It's easy to implement, requiring just a line of HTML code on a page. The big questions for me are:
- Will enterprises see the potential benefit of this form of collaboration?
- Will they be concerned about what learners have to say using their FlockPod and how they should/can manage this?
- How much will it cost?
Interesting! I could see a use for this in alpha testing for elearning projects. You could throw together a functioning prototype of your materials, embed the Flock code, and turn it loose on some learners. They could enter free-form feedback on the spot and see what other learners have already said.
ReplyDeleteI agree that in a larger scale, this technology could face some of the same resistance that wikis are facing: What will people say? Do we want to let them say it?
The FlockPod developers suggest that their product gives you more control over commenting than a wiki. I have to disagree with that. The wiki owner can control each individual's access and commenting rights on every topic, at least in the wiki I use (TWiki).
Clive, I see we are looking at some of the same trends. I'm figuring out what social networking + collaborative learning + self-guided learning will look like. Talk about The Next Big Thing ...
ReplyDeleteSo what worries me about things like Flockpod is that this particular application is just another closed silo on a proprietary platform. Your "stuff" goes in, but you can't get it back out. It's not open. Will Harbinger expose their API? I don't see anyone in e-Learning worrying much about this right now, but they will. If not, then we are back to the same mess we have now with LMS and LCMS.
My opinion only. I don't own stock in anybody's solutions. (In real life, I am Bill Brandon, Editor of Learning Solutions e-Magazine, the publication of The eLearning Guild.)
I share both of your concerns, Bill and Cathy. Let's see how Harbinger respond.
ReplyDeleteHi Clive, I think if you are interested in social networking and integration with learning you could look at Elgg. In essence it is an open source Facebook which you can download, install and configure. Th egood news is that it integrates with Moodle so you can use it along with the wiki, forums, chats and tracking facilities of Moodle. We have only done one integration so far but looks full of possibilities.
ReplyDeleteHowever, a lot of corporates are still nervous of letting staff free to publish material and participate in social networking.
Hello Clive and others,
ReplyDeleteI am Janhavi from Harbinger. I would like to respond to some of the questions raised here and provide additional relevant information...
What are the potential benefits of this form of collaboration to enterprises?
- Being a hosted service that does not require all learners to be online at the same time, saves some logistical hassles
- Pushes the envelope of self-paced learning; allows learners to interact with other learners ‘on-the-spot’ (in context) within the presented content
- Ability to guide the way learners interact; preventing interactions going haywire
How OPEN is the FlockPod platform?
Stuff that goes in can actually be retrieved. Even in the Beta version, FlockPod already provides users the ability to harness data in any Flocktivity to a text file. The text can then be used anywhere without the need for FlockPod platform from that point on. This is an easy way to get content out of FlockPod.
Some other folks have also asked how FlockPod compares with Elgg and since it was mentioned in this blog I thought I will write here as well.
ReplyDeleteAs the Elgg website indicates, Elgg is about creating your own social networking site. So it may be viewed as personal environment or eportfolio tool. It allows users to integrate their own weblog, file repository, online profile and RSS reader. It is more about social networking than social collaboration.
FlockPod is much different and is not a portfolio tool. FlockPod focuses on providing social collaboration within the context (On-the-Spot) of any webpage, with the purpose of informal learning and content enrichment. It enables effective peer interactions to help step outside the self-study silos.
FlockPod works with any HTML content (blogs, wikis, forums, eLearning courses etc.), as long as these sites allow a single line of FlockPod code to be inserted in their pages. To see a sample of FlockPod integrated in a blog visit blogspot http://elearningflockpod.blogspot.com.
Hello Everyone,
ReplyDeleteI am Radha from Harbinger. Here is a quick update on what's latest with FlockPod. Harbinger has released a new version 1.1 of FlockPod. This new release allows you to embed social interactions in your web pages with a small piece of code, and also unveils multiple new interactions that position FlockPod as a software for on-the-spot discussions, collaborative referencing and spot polls.
Visit http://www.flockpod.com/whatnew.html to know more about the new release.