Glossary

• Affordance – "refers to the perceived and actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used … Affordances provide strong clues to the operations of things" (Norman, 1988) ;  "an action possibility available in the environment to an individual, independent of the individual's ability to perceive this possibility" (McGrenere and Ho, 2000).  See also Wikipedia

• Blog – "a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.  Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Most blogs are primarily textual although some focus on photographs (photoblog), videos (vlog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.  The term "blog" is a contraction of "Web log."  "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog". (source Wikipedia)

• Connectivism – is an emerging learning theory, formulated by George Siemens.  "Connectivism is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories.  Learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual.  Learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organization or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more important than our current state of knowing" Siemens (2004)

• Constructivism – is a set of assumptions about the nature of human learning that guide constructivist learning theories and teaching methods of education. Constructivism values developmentally appropriate teacher-supported learning that is initiated and directed by the student.  The theory of constructivism suggests that learners construct knowledge. (source Wikipedia)

• eLearning – for the purposes of this site, eLearning is equated with online learning. E-learning is an all encompassing term generally used to refer to computer-enhanced learning, although it is often extended to include the use of mobile technologies.  The term is generally used to refer to the use of technology in learning in a much broader sense than the computer-based training or computer aided instruction of the 1980's   (source Wikipedia).  As online learning continuously grows exponentially, eLearning is often being used synonymously with online learning.  See Online Learning. 

• eLearning 2.0 – refers to a second phase of e-Learning based on Web 2.0 and emerging trends in eLearning. It can include features such as:
• eLearning where students create content, collaborate with peers through mechanisms such as blogs, Wikis, threaded discussions, RSS and others to form a learning network with distributed content creation and distribution of responsibilities.
• eLearning that takes advantage of many sources of content aggregated together into learning experiences.
• eLearning that utilizes various tools including online references, courseware, knowledge management, collaboration and search.
• The term itself is meant to imply that the traditional model of eLearning as a type of content, produced by publishers, organized and structured into courses, and consumed by students, is turned on its head. Insofar as there is content, it is used rather than read— and is, in any case, more likely to be produced by students than courseware authors. And insofar as there is structure, it is more likely to resemble a language or a conversation rather than a book or a manual. The e-learning application, therefore, begins to look very much like a blogging tool. It represents one node in a web of content, connected to other nodes and content creation services used by other students. (source Wikipedia)

• FURL – "a free social bookmarking website that allows members to store searchable copies of webpages and share them with others. Every member receives 5 gigabyte of storage space" (source Wikipedia).  Members can rank, date, and tag the web pages in their repository with searchable labels, making the body of information they provide quicker and easier to search.

• Flickr – "Flickr is a photo sharing website and web services suite, and an online community platform, which is generally considered an example of a Web 2.0 application.  In addition to being a popular Web site for users to share personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers as a photo repository. Its popularity has been fueled by its innovative online community tools that allow photos to be tagged and browsed by folksonomic means" (source Wikipedia).  See also Folksonomy.

• Folksonomy – "is an Internet-based information retrieval methodology consisting of collaboratively generated, open-ended labels that categorize content such as Web pages, online photographs, and Web links. A folksonomy is most notably contrasted from a taxonomy in that the authors of the labeling system are often the main users (and sometimes originators) of the content to which the labels are applied. The labels are commonly known as tags and the labeling process is called tagging.  The process of folksonomic tagging is intended to make a body of information increasingly easier to search, discover, and navigate over time " (source Wikipedia).

• Gopher – "a distributed document search and retrieval network protocol designed for the Internet. Its goal[s] are similar to that of the World Wide Web, and it has been almost completely displaced by the Web" (source Wikipedia).

• Immersive Environments – An immersive environment is an artificial, interactive, computer-created scene or "world" within which a user can immerse themselves.  Immersive environments could be thought of as synonymous with Virtual Reality, but without the implication that actual "reality" is being simulated. An Immersive environment could be a model of reality, but it could also be a complete fantasy user interface or abstraction, as long as the user of the environment is immersed within it. (source Wikipedia)

• Intelligent Agents – are software agents that exhibit some form of artificial intelligence that assists the user and will act on their behalf, in performing repetitive computer-related tasks. While the working of software agents used for operator assistance or data mining (sometimes referred to as bots) is often based on fixed pre-programmed rules, "intelligent" here implies the ability to adapt and learn. (source Wikipedia)

• Internet Architecture – the underlying form and functionality of the Internet.

• Learning Management System (LMS) – a software package, usually on a large scale (that scale is decreasing rapidly), that enables the management and delivery of learning content and resources to students. Most LMS's are web-based to facilitate "anytime, anywhere" access to learning content and administration. (source Wikipedia)

• Listserv – today a generic term for any email-based mailing list application.  In times past Listserv was the first electronic mailing list software application. (source Wikipedia)

• MySpace – a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos. (source Wikipedia).  See Social Networking Technologies.

• Net Based Learning – see Online Learning

• Net Pedagogy – see the Net Pedagogy Portal Blog.

• Online Learning – Learning which utilizes the Internet and in which both learner and teacher utilize various subsets of the Internet repetoire of teaching and learning tools.

• Pedagogy – see the Net Pedagogy Portal Blog.

• Pedagogy of Practice (Practical Pedagogy) – the daily application of personal philosophy, experience, training, knowledge of educational and learning theories, and understanding of best practices by individual educators in specific contexts.

• Personal Learning Environment – are systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning. This includes providing support for learners to
• set their own learning goals
• manage their learning; managing both content and process
• communicate with others in the process of learning
• and thereby achieve learning goals.
• Important concepts in PLEs include the integration of both formal and informal learning episodes into a single experience, the use of social networks that can cross institutional boundaries, and the use of networking protocols (Peer-to-Peer, web services, syndication) to connect a range of resources and systems within a personally-managed space.  A PLE may be composed of one or more subsystems. As such it may be a desktop application, or composed of one or more web-based services. ( source Wikipedia)

• Podcasting – A podcast is a multimedia file distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers.  Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital audio formats by its ability to be downloaded automatically using software capable of reading feed formats such as RSS. (source Wikipedia)

• RSS Feeds –  are simple XML-based systems that allows users to subscribe to their favourite websites. Using RSS, webmasters can put their content into a standardized format, which can be viewed and organized through RSS-aware software or automatically conveyed as new content on another website.  A program known as a feed reader or aggregator can check a list of feeds on behalf of a user and display any updated articles that it finds. It is common to find web feeds on major websites and many smaller ones.  (source Wikipedia)

• Semantic Web – HTML, as it is generally deployed, has limited ability to classify the blocks of text on a page, apart from the roles they play in a typical document's organization and in the desired visual layout.  The Semantic Web addresses this shortcoming using specialized descriptive technologies, thus allowing intelligent agents (machines) to determine meaning of the content, thereby facilitating information gathering and research by computers.  The goal of the Semantic Web is to create a universal medium for information exchange, not only content, but meaning as well. (source Wikipedia)

• Skype – is a social networking software for making free calls over the internet to anyone else who has Skype (www.skype.com)

• Social Constructivism – learning theory that emphasizes that learning is an active social process in which individuals make meanings through the interactions with each other and with the environment they live in. Knowledge is thus a product of humans and is socially and culturally constructed. (source Wikipedia)

• Social Environment – the direct influences of a community of individuals' in integrated contributors as groups and individuals and who are in constant communications and/or within indirect and direct involvement with every individual within its integrated and significant cultural or influential socio-economical, as a role identity(-ies) or as the individual's self (sociology) maturity process. (source Wikipedia)

• Social Networking Technologies – new emerging technologies that allow the creation of social networks.  A social network is a social structure made of nodes which are generally individuals or organizations. (source Wikipedia)  Examples are FURL, SKYPE, Blogs, RSS Feeds, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, and  ELGG.

• Teaching Presence – is defined as the design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social processes for the purpose of realizing personally meaningful and educational worthwhile learning outcomes. (Anderson, Rourke, Garrison, & Archer, 2000)

• Transactional Distance – Transactional Distance (TD) refers to a physical separation that causes a psychological and communicative chasm--a potential fall-space of misunderstanding between the actors (instructor and learner) in an educative event. TD is a continuous variable and a relative term. TD is a function of dialogue and structure in which TD increases when dialogue decreases and structure increases (Stirling, 1997)

• YouTube – a popular free video sharing web site which lets users upload, view, and share video clips, the service utilizes Adobe Flash technology to display video. The wide variety of site content includes movie and TV clips and music videos, as well as amateur content such as videoblogging. (source Wikipedia)

• Web 2.0 – refers to a supposed second-generation of Internet-based services - such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies - that let people collaborate and share information online in ways previously unavailable. (source Wikipedia)

• Wiki – a type of website that allows the visitors themselves to easily add, remove and otherwise edit and change some available content, sometimes without the need for registration. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative authoring. (source Wikipedia)

Anderson, T., Rourke, L. Garrison, D. R., Archer, W. (2000).  Assessing teaching presence in a computer conference environment.  Retrieved October 30, 2006 from http://communitiesofinquiry.com/documents/Teaching%20Presence.pdf

McGrenere, J., Ho, W. (2000): Affordances: Clarifying and evolving a concept. In: Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2000. May 15-17, 2000, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. p.179-186.

Norman, D. A. (1988).  The design of everyday things. New York, Doubleday

Siemens, G. (2004).  Connectivism:  A learning theory for the digital age.  Retrieved October 18, 2006 from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm

Stirling, D. L. (1997).  Toward a theory of distance education:  Transactional distance.  Retrieved October 30, 2006 from http://www.stirlinglaw.com/deborah/stir4.htm