Latest Posts.

Arck Interactive Gives Back

March 27, 2012 Published by

Arck pledges to donate a customized social networking platform, containing a collection of our open-source and proprietary plugins and a custom theme, to an Organization or Non-Profit of the community's choosing. We are calling on the community to vote for the most deserving organization and and we will do the rest.

Elgg is one of ZDNet's 10 open source tools worth trying

December 24, 2009 Published by

Jack Wallen in the Enterprise Open Source Toolkit (23rd December 2009) names Elgg as one of the 10 open source tools worth trying, saying Of the thousands of open-source projects, you may be wondering how many are worth tracking. If you remove the usual suspects, you can pare down the list to a number that really merit closer inspection. The tools that Jack recommends range from Openbravo (an ERP application) to Magento (an ecommerce tool). Of Elgg he writes: If you are looking for a means to improve your company morale but do not want users logging on to Facebook...

Featured Elgg site #8: Wiley Faculty Network

December 23, 2009 Published by

About the Wiley Faculty Network The Wiley Faculty Network (WFN) is a global community of faculty, connected by a passion for teaching and a drive to learn, share, and collaborate. Our mission is to promote the effective use of technology and enrich the teaching experience. Whether you're seeking guidance, training, and resources or simply looking to reenergize your course you'll find what you need with the WFN. Connect with the Wiley Faculty Network to collaborate with your colleagues, find a mentor, attend virtual and live events, and view a wealth of resources all designed to help you grow as an...

Featured Elgg site #7: RIBA Knowledge Communities

December 19, 2009 Published by

Clare Sinclair wrote to tell me about the Elgg-powered site she has been developing at RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects): The RIBA Knowledge Communities project provides both online and face-to-face support for architects and other professionals in the industry. The groups feature support specialist subject areas and each has a chartered architect as a Champion, volunteer/staff Facilitators, and named subject Expert Peer Groups. Some 'communities' are new collaborations, others are a new model for established committees. The site has required significant customisation and plugin work, such as improving the user interface, and developing the calendar plugin. RIBA Kowledge Communities...

Connectivism, social learning and Elgg

November 18, 2009 Published by

Just came across this presentation about Elgg created by Ishmael Burdeau - which discusses George Siemens' Connectivism, social learning and Elgg. I was pleased to see it makes use of screenshots of slides I've shared in presentations about Elgg's use in education and in the workplace. But this presentation is also a good example of what you can do with the Prezi presentation tool:

Building a Social Learning Environment – using Elgg

November 15, 2009 Published by

On Tuesday 17th November I am going to be speaking at the Learn Trends Online Conference. My presentation is entitled Building a Social Learning Environment. Here's a sneak preview of what I'll be saying ... I am going to talk about organisational concerns of using public social media tools for their social learning initiatives I am going to describe a solution to address these concerns: the open source social engine, Elgg I am going to explain how I've implemented my own social learning environment at SoLEARN I am going to feature two case studies of organisations I have worked with...

Elgg in a weekend

November 12, 2009 Published by

Nicola Avery has a great posting on learn4kicks where she describes how she helped a Computing Department implement an Elgg-powered network for a leadership programme. She writes Elgg is without a doubt one of the most rewarding, quickest and easiest projects I have been involved with in the last few years. Read more about it here: Elgg in a weekend. If you'd like any help with getting Elgg up and running, find out how we can help here: Social Learning in a Box

LMS or SNS?

November 12, 2009 Published by

George Siemens has an interesting posting on his Connectivism blog, where he discusses the future of learning: LMS or SNS. As part of the dicussion, he writes Most organizations currently use a learning management system (LMS) such as Moodle or Desire2Learn. These systems are content-centric. Their objective is to organize and manage content, just as Google did in early 2000. Because higher education is particularly enamored with content, an LMS is a critical service. It’s completely the wrong model, however, and this will become increasingly apparent in the next several years. To survive, LMS vendors will need to transform their...

Elgg at Harvard

November 3, 2009 Published by

The Fall Newsletter of the iste SIGilt newsletter, innovative learning, includes an article: Transitioning from an LMS to an Open Source Social Network to Support Graduate Students Here Stacie Cassat Green of the Harvard Extension School explains Last year, after ten years of teaching in the Technology in Education program at Harvard Extension School, Harvard University’s school for continuing education, my co-teacher and I switched our courses from a learning management system (LMS) to a social network and ended up transforming our teaching practice to better match our learning goals for our students. They used Elgg to build The Yard,...

Using Elgg for a Social Learning programme

November 3, 2009 Published by

Yesterday I ran a kick-off workshop for a 5-week social learning programme for an organisation. The programme will introduce a range of social media tools and how they can be used in both formal learning as well as to support informal learning approaches within the organisation. I set up a closed group in my own Social Learning Environment - SoLearn - powered by Elgg, and used this as a place for the group to begin to explore social technology concepts and tools. Mark Berthelemy, a Senior Learning Consultant, was also present in the workshop, and he has written up his...

Featured Elgg site: #6 Primary School Teaching

October 17, 2009 Published by

John McClear tweeted me about this Elgg site: Primary School Teaching is a social networking and resource sharing site made exclusively for Primary School Teachers using the Elgg platform. They also welcome other members of staff working in Primary Schools who may also find Primary School Teaching a valuable resource. Primary School Teaching is a platform for sharing and ranking teaching resources and ideas. It allows teachers to communicate effectively in a collaborative environment, working to create exciting and engaging teaching. Primary School Teaching Get featured! Would you like us to feature your Elgg site? If so, please find out...