iPhone art – in bed

March 2nd, 2010 • General • No comments

The collection of educational tools for Second Life

March 2nd, 2010 • MUVEs • No comments

I’ve been interested, for several years already, in creating a documented collection of educational tools for Second Life.  The effort however to produce a snapshot in time of the variety of tools available for educators required a dedication beyond individual commitment. If the purpose was to create a valuable contribution for the community of educators at large, it was clearly a work for many, many helping hands and contributors.

The MUVEnation open online programme gave me the opportunity to organise such a work. First, back in September 2008, I coordinated the efforts of 33 partcipants in the introductory course for the identification of more than 100 tools used for teaching and learning in Second Life. Later, in March 2009, 55 education professionals (lecturers, researchers, learning technologists and teachers) have collected, tested and fully described more than 150 tools for teaching and learning in Second Life. The result of this collective work has been transformed into a book, published as an Open Educational Resource under CC licence by attribution unported, so anyone is free to distribute without restrictions: adapt, translate, re-mix and improve it.

The book is presently under a last quality control review for public release and it should be available by the end of March 2010. The book was edited by me in collaboration with Jaime Alamo, professor at the University of Valencia. The list of authors who contributed to the collection is here:

Read more »

iPhone art – bouche bleue

March 1st, 2010 • Moi-Je par soi-même • No comments

iPhone art – moimOooimoiii

March 1st, 2010 • Moi-Je par soi-même • No comments

Julia Kay’s iPod art collection gave me the inspiration to use my iPhone for my self portraits. Following her apps recommendations (a list of more than 30 apps for drawing and painting with the iTouch/iPhone) I’ve installed Brushes, Type Drawing and Pollock. Here my first attempts, not easy though: it feels as if the finger were too big for the surface. One good reason then to buy an iPad!

Fente sternale: la peur de l’inconnu nous angoisse beaucoup

February 28th, 2010 • Fente sternale, Pourquoi ça n'arrive qu'à moi? • No comments

Ce post en guise de réponse à une maman d’un enfant atteint d’une fente sternale:

Mon fils a deux mois et est atteint de cette malformation. Nous avons vu un chirurgien de Necker qui programme l’intervention prochainement. Comment s’est déroulée l’intervention ? et l’hospitalisation ? Quelles ont été les suites ? Merci pour vos réponses, car la peur de l’inconnu nous angoisse beaucoup. (Voir son commentaire en contexte ici)

Moi, aussi je me suis posé ces questions et n’ai pas pu trouver de source faisant autorité en la matière, ni de témoignages de parents accessibles sur Internet. Alors, je me suis adressée directement à Necker et aussi contacté des parents qui avaient laissé des commentaires sur ce blog , ainsi que des parents d’enfants ayant été opérés à Necker.

La fente sternale de ma fille ne concerne que le tiers supérieur du sternum et elle est isolée; c’est-à-dire qu’elle n’est pas associée à d’autres malformations ou maladies. J’avais donc le choix de l’opération selon que je considérais que ma fille pouvait vivre ou plutôt bien vivre avec sa malformation de la poitrine car cette malformation ne nuirait pas son à développement. Nous devions nous décider très vite, car plus l’enfant grandit mois sa paroi thoracique est “malléable”.

Je devais donc décider d’une intervention chirurgicale pour des raisons esthétiques sur un corps qui n’est pas le mien, qui ne m’appartient pas et surtout, sur un corps qui est sain. J’ai écrit sur ces questions dans Sternal cleft: repair or not repair? Mother’s questions to a scientist. Et je vous livre ici le compte-rendu de mes recherches:

Les questions-réponses aux médecins

• Mon Pédiatre n’a pas trop d’avis sur la question car Il ne s’y connaît pas du tout. Mais il s’est porté volontaire pour m’aider à comprendre le jargon médical des articles scientifiques, et après lecture, m’a conseillé de l’opérer. Il ne peut cependant m’éclairer sur les questions relatives à l’interventions, ni aux phases pre et post opératoires.
• Le docteur Faiza Khan a pris le temps de me répondre de docteur à patient et aussi de maman à maman. Elle me conseille la réparation de la fente sternale, tout en essayant de comprendre les raison de mon angoisse face à l’inconnu.
• J’ai posé 10 questions par email à l’équipe de médecins qui suit mon enfant à Necker. Le secrétariat du service m’a transmis les réponses (ici en gras) aux questions suivantes:
  • Quelle est la méthode de réparation chirurgicale que vous utiliser pour refermer la fente sternale? La méthode consiste à rapprocher.
  • Existe-t-il des méthodes d’intervention, je pense à des implants, qui pourraient nous permettre d’opérer mon enfant plus tard lorsqu’elle pourra participer à la prise des décisions? Non
  • Existe-t-il des interventions qui laisseraient une cicatrice horizontale? Non
  • Quelle est la durée de la période de rétablissement, lorsque l’enfant doit rester à la maison? 45 jours
  • Est-ce douloureux et pendant combien de temps après l’opération? Lorsque mon enfant sera chez vous, elle sera prise en charge, mais après à la maison quels sont les soins que nous devons lui prodiguer? Les douleurs peuvent persister pendant 1 semaine. Il n’y a pas de soins particuliers à prévoir à la maison
  • Combien de temps, après l’opération, sera-t-il nécessaire pour récupérer un mouvement total des bras en arrière? Pourra-t-elle pratiquer n’importe quel sport par la suite? Il faut compter 2 mois pour la récupération. La reprise des sports sera possible par la suite.
  • Avez vous des photos des patients opérés dans vos services où l’on peut apprécier le résultat de l’intervention? oui, il existe des photos.
  • Qui va opérer mon enfant? Les opérateurs seront le Pr. Glorion et le Dr. Padovani.
  • Est-il possible de se mettre en contact avec les autres familles des enfants opérés par vous? Je pense aux deux cas de fente sternale dont vous m’avez parlé. Oui dans la mesure où eux sont d’accord.
  • Y-a-t-il un soutien psychologique dans votre service, à la disposition des familles et des enfants qui vont subir une intervention chirurgicale? Oui, nous avons une psychologue dans le service.

Les entretiens avec les parents

J’ai contacté plusieurs parents d’enfants dont la fente sternale a été réparée. Dans tous les cas, les enfants ont été opérés entre les deux et les dix-huit mois de vie. parler de la malformation de son enfant n’est pas facile, d’autant plus que certains parents, tout en reconnaissant l’utilité des information que je publie ici depuis bientôt 5 ans, avaient peur de trouver des informations appartenant à leur vie privée diffusées sur Internet. Aussi il m’a été impossible d’obtenir de photos d’enfants après intervention. Mais ces quelques conversations de parent à parent m’ont aidé à apaiser mes angoisses. Une maman très généreuse a passé plus d’une heure au téléphone avec moi. J’ai été aussi contactée par un adulte ayant été opéré enfant à deux ans.

• Il s’agit d’une opération longue.
• L’enfant ne souffre pas trop compte tenu du programme de gestion de la douleur postopératoire.
• Le rétablissement peut prendre de 10 à 15 jours à l’hôpital, ensuite l’enfant peut rentrer à la maison.
• Les soins prodigués à la maison sont tout à fait gérables par les parents, pour les soins les plus délicats on peut toujours aller en milieu hospitalier.
• La cicatrice s’estompe très rapidement et elle est à peine visible au bout de quelques années.
• L’enfant peut très rapidement recommencer une vie normale: tout faire, y compris le sport.

Dans deux cas, les fils non résorbables utilisés pour refermer la fente sternale ont cassé ou se sons détendus. Dès lors on considérerait l’utilisation des fils résorbables. J’ai aussi entendu dire que lorsque les fils non résorbables cassaient ils pouvaient ressortir légèrement créant des protubérances sous la peau. Mais franchement j’ai déjà du mal à imaginer le résultat de l’intervention, encore moins les complications.

La recherche d’informations scientifiques

J’ai continué ma recherche de sources scientifiques pour savoir s’il y avait d’autres raisons, mis à part les raisons esthétiques, justifiant la réparation des fentes sternales isolées ou asymptomatiques. Dans le post Asymptomatic sternal cleft: is the repair necessary only for aesthetical reasons?, je rends compte d’un article scientifique où l’on trouve 6 indicateurs pour la réparation des fentes sternales, au delà des raisons purement esthétiques. Deux indicateurs de la liste m’ont amenée à reconsidérer l’opération:

• “Enlargement of the defect over time will worsen in appearance and make it more difficult to correct”
• “paradoxic respiratory movements of the chest induce dyspnea and presispose patients to recurrent respiratory infections”.**

Mon enfant sera opérée le 7 avril 2010, si j’obtiens l’accord de la caisse d’assurance maladie belge.

** Alexander A. Fokin and Francis Robicsek, Management of chest wall deformities in Advanced therapy in thoracic surgery, Kenneth L. Franco, Joe Billy Putnam, Robert S. D. Higgins, J Sanchez, PMPH-USA, 2005, 548 pp. Alexander A. Fokin est également réferencé pour son classement d’indications pour la réparation des fentes sternales dans: Michael J. Sundine, Treatment of sternal clefts in Reconstructive Surgery of the Chest, Abdomen, and Pelvis, Gregory R. D. Evans, Informa Health Care, 2004, 473 pp.

A fresh start: the story of why I deleted all my tweets

November 17th, 2009 • Moi Numérique, Moi-Je par soi-même • 2 comments

This is another contribution to the digital identities case stories repository, in the Pattern Language Network. Case Stories describe critical incidents of practice, highlighting key design challenges and possible solutions, They can be found at: http://purl.org/planet/Cases/

Situation

What was the setting in which this case study occurred?

Recently I have applied for selected job positions within international organisations in Europe. As soon as I had finished preparing and submitting my CV, I started to assess my online presence in case a potential employer ‘Googled’ me. I did not have any issues with my blog or my Netvibes universe: although they can always be improved, for example, making easier the access to relevant and structured information, they are in fact always prepared for public scrutiny! However I had a nagging thought in the back of my mind about my Twitter account.

Task

What was the problem to be solved, or the intended effect?

Although I was reluctant to use Twitter, I fell into it in 2007. At the beginning I used it only for personal purposes, but I soon began to tweet about my professional activities as well, mixing personal and professional tweets as my life went on. I was wary of privacy issues and always paid attention to what I tweeted. However, I did not want to build a fake public persona by carefully selecting tweets and retweets according to the editorial line ‘what am I doing now that makes me look great’? (replace ‘great’ by any other self-aggrandisement adjective).

So I have happily tweeted as a professional, but also as a mother and a citizen about all sorts of things that fill my everyday life – when life was clement enough to leave me the time to do so.

A few weeks ago some events made me reconsider my twitter activities:

• a blog post on the Internet titled “Is twitter my new CV?”

• the proliferation of fake public personas within the EdTech panorama who are effectively using their Twitter accounts as an eReputation trampoline

I realised that my Twitter account is definitely not my online CV in action and I did not want it to be. I am not building myself as a professional using Twitter. And I don’t want people to build my online professional profile based on my Twitter stream.

With this idea in mind I reassessed my Twitter stream and found a portrait of myself that wasn’t uplifting for my professional self: a mother busy living a challenging life.

Actions

What was done to fulfil the task?

I didn’t want to delete my Twitter account, I just needed a fresh start. As a consequence I decided to delete just the Twitter stream and decide later whether I was interested in continuing to twitter or not. I deleted all tweets using TwitWipe, a tool that deletes all your tweets in one go: http://twitwipe.aalaap.com/login.php. When my Twitter stream was deleted I tweeted an explanatory message announcing that all 573 tweets had been wiped.

Results

What happened? Was is a success? What contributed to the outcomes?

Deleting all my tweets feels like a success. I instantly felt weightless, without worries about the kind of professional profile that people can build by backward screening my Twitter account. However, given that the number of tweets in a profile are an identity marker, I would have loved to keep this indicator. I don’t want people to think that I’ve just discovered Twitter!

Since I deleted all my tweets I also feel less pressure to use Twitter. I have only one tweet explaining that I have erased everything else, I don’t have to twit anymore as well. I can escape from the banal world of ‘Hello Twitterverse!’ I do not even open my iPhone Twitter app. My life has changed: I have more time to concentrate in important things and be productive. I can always blog!

Lessons Learned

What did you learn from the experience?

I gained a better appraisal and management of the so-called spontaneous and ephemeral online activities.

CV Builder plugin for Wordpress: a interoperability scenario

September 16th, 2009 • Moi Numérique • No comments

Here a diagram of the interoperability scenario for the CV builder plugin for WordPress developed in the field of The Rhizome Project.

Using the plugin to create CVs is a simple 3 steps process: create a Master CV, customise Views and Export them!

1. Once plugged to WordPress, the user can store his data in a single XML file that acts as a vault for personal and professional information: this is the Master CV. The user can create one storage file or Master CV per language, in all official languages of the European Union.
2. With the data contained in the Master CV, the user can create as many customised Views he needs. At least three structured formats are provided: short profile, Europass CV and HR-XML. The user can also take advantage of customisation functionalities in terms of display of information and integration on media to create free form CVs.
3. For each View, a range of Export possibilities exist: ODT, PDF, HTML, XHTML and XML. Online publishing can also be password protected.

Images of superior sternal cleft in a 4 years old

September 16th, 2009 • Fente sternale, Pourquoi ça n'arrive qu'à moi? • No comments

Here two images from a recent thorax scan of my daughter before surgical intervention.

Design principles for the custom CV Builder plugin for WordPress compliant with Europass and HR-XML specifications

August 6th, 2009 • Moi Numérique, Portfolio et ePortfolio • No comments

The development programme for the custom CV builder plugin follows 10 design principles: user-centric, interoperable, recognised, flexible, multi-lingual, multimedia, secure, portable, accessible and open, all described in detail here:

1. User-centric. The CV builder employs a user-centric approach to personal data management by allowing individuals to control their personal information and digital self-representation. Individuals can decide where to store their data and have administrator rights to manage it. In this way data is not held with third-party web CV repositories or Job Board administered applications. The Europass CV Builder is fully integrated with WordPress, as a plugin application.
2. Interoperable. CVs are compliant with the latest HR-XML Staffing Exchange Protocol specification. By using a standards compliant CV format, individuals are able to establish a fluid exchange of personal information with eRecruitment, eLearning and Human Resources bodies.
3. Recognised. The builder produces CVs that comply with the widest European and internationally recognised standards for representation of personal data, qualifications and competencies. This allows the edition of a complete CV following the official Europass template and latest Europass XML specifications, recognised by audiences not limited by sector or geography.
4. Flexible. The CV Builder can produce flexible and fully modifiable views of CV content. Individuals can customise their CVs and target them according to their personal or professional needs and goals. To create a targeted CV, the user selects relevant content from the Master CV (the vault for personal information) and creates a View. This can be built using out-of the box templates or by creating new templates that can be customised with the addition of extra sections and fields as required. These fields may be outside of the Europass template but present in the HR-XML specification and therefore HR-XML compatibility is maintained. Allowing user-created fields will break standards compliance but this option is being considered to enhance customisability.
5. Multi-lingual. The entire interface is multilingual and content can be filled in by the user in any of the official languages of the European Union.
6. Multimedia. Text fields within the CV can be linked to any media (pictures, certificate, video or audio record); these can be added as evidence of performance alongside the tagging and aggregation of content from distributed locations. Support for WordPress ‘short codes’ allows content integration within blog posts and pages, adding ePortfolio-like capabilities.
7. Portable. Individual CVs are accessible via Internet and can be packaged, exported and moved from physical locations e.g. hosting services compliant with HR-XML specifications.  Users can also select the publishing format of their choice for each targeted CV or View, including: XHTML and HTML (integrated in blog pages), PDF, ODT, HR-XML feed and Europass XML feed.
8. Accessible. CVs are ergonomic, usable and any user, through compliance with accessibility standards such as WAI, can readily access content.
9. Secure. Stored personal data and CVs are secured for personal access via the WordPress authentication protocol. Individuals can set access permissions and the builder is granular enough such that portions personal data can be cordoned off. Publishing rights are available to allow both public versions of a CV for open consultation via the Internet and protected CVs held in a secure location. Each export of a targeted CV or View can be protected by an access code defined by the user.
10. Open. The CV is open and not related to any proprietary technology. Its online forms are built using XForms.

If you want to comment this entry, please go to the Rhizome project blog at: Design principles for the custom CV Builder plugin for WordPress compliant with Europass and HR-XML specifications

Resurfacing the KITE Europass-CV plug-in for WordPress

August 6th, 2009 • Moi Numérique, Portfolio et ePortfolio • No comments

As part of work being undertaken by the Rhizome project, we plan to enhance the range of existing standalone and plugin CV builders by developing a custom CV creation plugin for the blogging tool WordPress. This will allow individuals to maintain and present views of their professional profile, skills and competences.

Our plugin lies at the crossroads between self-presentation devices like the résumé, profiles maintained on professional social networks such as LinkedIn, and an ePortfolio style systems.

It will allow users to store their online personal data in a secure location of their choice and facilitate individuals in not only presenting their competencies according to the Europass CV format, but also in interoperable formats such as HR-XML and Hresume. Information in the CV builder, for example present educational and professional achievements, can be used to exchange data with educational providers for validation and accreditation purposes as well as enable reflective learning practices, and to store and present  educational and professional achievements.

The Rhizome project will not be developing a solution from scratch. We will be extending an existing open source solution released under GPL in 2007 – the KITE Europass-CV plugin – that was produced within the framework of the KITE project, co-funded by the European Union.

KITE offered an implementation of the Europass-CV as a plugin for three major open source blogs: Wordpress, DotClear and ELGG, and allowed users to present their competences and qualifications in full compliance with the specifications under the HR-XML Staffing Exchange Protocol 2.4

The work was started under the KITE project left some deficiencies in terms of usability, in two major areas: the orientation features of the graphical interface and the architectural organisation of the navigation paths through the system.

What the KITE plugin did offer was a major advance in CV building with the ability to create CVs for all official European languages, compliance with HR-XML specifications, the first match between Europass and HR-XML SEP. Separation between content and presentation was achieved using a Master CV that represented a ‘vault’ for all personal information. Data could then be selected and displayed from the vault according to user customisable preferences – these views being exportable in multiple formats such as XHTML, HTML, ODT, PDF, RTF and be held in public and password-secured locations.

Apart from the technical merits of the KITE project, we decided to resurface the plugin as a solution to the problem of implementing a user-centred approach to personal data management that would allow dynamic exchanges of personal information with eRecruitment, eLearning and Human Resources bodies. We identify a number of trends and factors that have suggested this as a valuable approach, including the:

• Increased use of blogs as self-representational devices, and significant uptake in their use across formal and informal educational settings;

• Development of blogging architectures that support plugin and widget functionality that can facilitate data exchange and aggregation of information whilst allowing for flexible presentation;

• Use of the CV as the backbone for identity management systems, personal representation tools e.g. portfolios, ePortfolios, blogfolios, personal aggregators and mashup technologies, and certain social and professional network sites like LinkedIn;

• Uptake of HR-XML as the open standard specification in electronic exchanges related to eRecuitment, eLearning and Human Resources;

• Deployment of European Community Frameworks and tools for the transparency of qualifications and competences, example include ECTS, ECVET and Europass.

Here is an overview of the six ways the Rhizome project is planning to enhance the KITE plugin:

1. Update the application profile for compliance with the latest HR-XML SEP specifications and the new Europass XML specifications;
2. Redesign the look and feel of the user interface and adopt WordPress content organisation and navigation styles;
3. Extend the options for customisation so that users can create views by re-ordering and adding new sections, categories and content. This will allow variation in the model for (re)presenting personal information and allow for ad-hoc profiles that can be used for ego-branding and interactions with professional social networks;
4. Incorporate simple mashup capabilities to allow the aggregation of personal information and distributed web-based content under the competency descriptors;
5. Add support for WordPress ‘shortcodes’ so that CV content can be extracted to pages and blogposts and be used as material for cross-referencing competences and as evidence of performance;
6. Allow widgetisation of the CV for ego-branding purposes.

Steven and I will be blogging here and in the Rhizome blog about the new plugin design principles and key features, as well as the interoperability scenario, the use cases and its detailed functionalities. If comments please leave them in the Rhizome blog at: Resurfacing the KITE Europass-CV plug-in for WordPress