Weblog of Wesley Fryer

Dr Ellen Wagner, Sr Director
Global Education Solutions,
Macromedia

TxDLA
2005

Macrmedia can be considered an
accidental eLearning company

I cut my
teeth on distance learning about 25 years ago, came out of
Colorado
- have heard titles about “new
frontiers” for many years
- for those of us
working

Have you ever wondered why
distance learning is always described using metaphors of the American
West?
- Oh
Pioneers!
- New
Frontiers
- Wide open
spaces
- no
fences
- no
limits
- no
boundaries

These analogies are not a
surprise: always figuring out ways to bring education to those who would not
have those opportunities otherwise
- this
is a calling, like a mission

Amazing
waves of change: CONVERGENCE
- have stopped
wishing that the waves of change would
stop
- convergence is on people’s minds and
lips today, it is the word de jure today in
technology

Part of what I have been
doing in my life is going through career changes / job changes as we hear people
talk these days

When technologies
converge
- Legacy of
1984
– telephones merge with
computers
– computers meet the
mainstream
– television sees the
light

- Internet comes of age:
1994
– can you spell BROWSER (mosaic
–> Netscape)
– privatization of the
internet (before this time you had to be doing research on the
internet)
– anytime,
anyWWhere

Media Convergence:
2004
- computers, telephony, television and
wireless meet digital devices, ubiquitous connectivity and online
services

Even 10 years ago we were
having to get real creative to figure out how to get these technologies to work
for us

Do you know where technology
is going to take us? It is going to be a white knuckle
ride!
- let’s take a
look…

Technology timelines: showing
A learning Technologies Timeline
- source:
SRIC-BI

another graph of dot.com
boom
- eLearning hype cycle peaked around
2000

What is different in
2005?
- wireless is taking over our
lives…

Asked how many people in the
room don’t carry a cell phone
- whether we
like it or not, it is everywhere and it is changing our
lives

SRI Consulting, showing map of
wireless technologies
- 3 categories:
MAN/WAN, LAN, short-Range

we have so
many different ways that information is being shot at us, through us, around us:
it is not going to be possible for us to escape
it
- there are more wireless services and
devices around us
- Macromedia is being
intentionally very generous with the licensing of flash player on all
platforms

She carries 5 phones right
now
- if you need to reach her, use email
not the phone cuz she is never sure which one is
ringing
- there is an enormous amount of
activity
- making sure we have your content
when and where you need it

Just 1400
employees worldwide for Macromedia, but now 98% of desktop computers have flash
player installed
- Macromedia produces the
tools that others create with

Most
important: people want connections more than ever
before
- “demands for information,
performance support, instruction, training and education being shaped by people
like us who want access to resources, assets, program and people when and where
they need those connections
most.”

will come back to a story
about being blogged during her presentation
later…

What will this unplugged
notion of technologies mean?
- changing
life as we know it
- GPS means never lost
again
- Fast pass” transponders means no
stopping to pay for bridge or highway tools (don’t have to stop anymore on
golden gate bridge, twice per day)
- IM
enables real-time connections no matter where you
are
- don’t like what’s on radio? With your
ipod you can have all your favorite tunes, photos, books and docs in your
pocket
- shoot photos and movies with your
mobile phone, send as an email attachment while waiting at the
spotlight
- How do YOU feel about being
fact-checked in a meeting and having the results of the meeting blogged before
you’re done with your presentation

In
a presentation recently, during a presentation, she received an IM message from
a friend monitoring a blog, someone in her session was blogging her and was
questioning some of her data

Moblie
Learning: the next frontier
- mobile
learning is the next iteration of strategies, practices, tools,
applications
- mobile learning may allow us
to make education something that is so engrained in us, that it is no longer
“the thing we go to”

being always
accessible is going to bust open the walls of your institution, this will change
your level of privacy

eduction
unplugged rocks the locus of classroom control, democratizing teaching and
learning dynamics in previously unimaginable
ways
- opportunities for personalizing
learning opportunites are unparalleled
-
challengs to be met for successful implementation must be
reviewed…

Showed movie:
max_mobile_kids_dq.mov
- lots of discussion
by kids about mobile
technology

really seeing mobile tech
revolution in Korea and Japan
- was on a
train in East Asia recently (Japan), everyone on the train except her was using
a handheld device or phone, no one was using a
laptop
- face wipes are becoming very
trendy now in Japan
- remarkable activity
taking place

In education we have all
these things happening around us, and it is like the boundaries around us

- it will be connected, ubiquitous,
pervasive, personal, portable, and
DISRUPTIVE

my thought: key boal is to
reduce disruption

Tools of Mass
Disruption
- mobile phones,
PDAs
- TVs and set-top
boxes
- Toys and other
devices

disruption just means doing
things differently

How long is it
going to be till a car is free?
- if
someone can show you can do at least $220 in subscription services for your car,
then companies could give them away
- we
are going to be looking at

graphic
of button: For me, one flag, one wife, one
telephone
- turn of the 20th century US
political campaign button

keep this
in perspective: the more things change, the more we need to
adapt

the MOBILE value proposition
for learning
- factors that create positive
view of mobile tech:
– ease of
use
– relevancy to learning
tasks
– helps get more value from learning
technologies already being used
- providing
a ….

New tools demand new
responses
- skills
development
- professional
development
- tools
updates
- trends
updates
- research and effective practices
updates
- innovation
exchanges
- communities of interest and
practice

Now focusing on what the
research says about impact on practice, how innovative can we
be

innovation = invention +
application

have fear and acceptance:
will have a lot of focus on games
- I keep
thinking I want to get further in my education than the 4 or 5 levels i can get
past on a Leapster

Have now finished
my first flashlight demo…

have a
way now to pull up actual traffic cameras in NYC live on
phone

Robby Robson created slide on
convergence
- the
web
-
WAP/WML
-
WiFi
- Digital
Libraries
-
Calculators
-
Flash
- Mobile
Devices
-
Groupware

Education community must be
a part of this conversation
-
information
-
content
-
access
-
rights
-
validation
-
pedagogy
-
multimedia
-
communication
-
collaboration

Every single one of us
should view ourselves in the center of this
diagram

ewagner@macromedia.com

“You
touch the future and make the world a better place for learning… so we just
want to thank you for all you
do”

www.macromedia.com/hed