Moving at the Speed of Creativity

This podcast is a rebroadcast of my presentation today at the Vancouver eLearn 2005 World Conference on eLearning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education. This is a remixed version of my keynote for the TECSIG conference on October 13th, with more of a focus on the implications of podcasting in higher education contexts.

Program Length: 43 min, 29 sec
File size: 10.0 MB

(Click here to listen to this podcast)

Show notes for this podcast include:

1. eLearn 2005 Vancouver
2. “Podcasting as Disruptive Transmediation” October 26, 2005 multimedia presentation
3. Additional links to the resources discussed in the keynote address are included in the online presentation, created with S5: A Simple Standards-Based Slide Show System (a free open-source resource)

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Technorati Tags: elearn2005

I had nice conversations with several people following my presentation on podcasting today, but one of the most thought provoking was with Dr. Terence Cavanaugh of the University of North Florida. We discussed the importance of instructors including links to additional resources in multimedia presentations that are posted online.

Going beyond just source citations, external links to content in an online presentation or a blog post allow others to “drill out” in the content, to use the parlance of Jonathan Levy who addressed eLearn participants yesterday.

By including external links to additional content, online presentations can become more than just “sustaining technology” which is a rebroadcast of previously shared visual information. When designing any type of instructional materials, I think it is a great idea for teachers to intentionally add worthwhile web links to their presentations. This gives students a compelling reason to access the online presentations, because they become jumping off points to additional content that may be deeper on ancillary to the main ideas of the presentation.

Hopefully I modeled this pedagogy well in my presentation today. I love the S5 tool for web-based presentations for this precise reason. The web is the delivery vehicle for my content, and it makes sense to use a presentation format that is very clean, speedy, accessible, and web-friendly.

Plus, S5 has the added bonus of not being a Microsoft product! Patricia McGee of The University of Texas at San Antonio in her presentation today mentioned execs proposing the radical idea of NOT using Microsoft PowerPoint for presentations… now that is thinking differently. But why not? S5 is free / open source after all!

Creating Sustainable E-Learning Infrastructures – Moving Beyond the Course as the Unit of Instruction

an eLearning 2005 keynote presentation by David Porter
Executive Director
BCcampus.ca
dporter at bccampus.ca

Presentation is available as both:

PDF: www.sfu.ca/~davidp/ecosystem.pdf
Breeze preso: present.bccampus.ca/ecosystem

(I GOT STARTED TAKING NOTES LATE, ABOUT HALFWAY THROUGH THE PRESO)

Harnessing community effectively

BC Campus has put together a tool that integrates a variety of tools: all the tools are in the environment, point and click
- notion of promoting and supporting collaborative program development models

Key to moving forward: establishing intellectual property models
- if you give developers the IP rights, you stimulate innovation
- we want to request a resuse license
- Lessig’s group came up with Creative Commons: this is a great model
- so we created our own model BC Commons because our faculty would NOT go with the idea of sharing it with the world
- right now there are about 50% that have gone with CC, 50% that have gone with BC Commons
– as soon as we put geographic boundaries on it, we had much more faculty buy in (basically everyone)

Providing a resource repository for everyone
- works with all commonly available systems: WebCT, Moodle, etc
- makes it easy for the faculty developer to not have to make any choices
- open source ethic: give back as good as you get or better

have emphasized value in this approach
- exemplary public policy: optimizes utilization of public funds
- a model for collaboration among public post-secondary institutions
- we have told faculty: if 10 institutions reuse your content, isn’t that a great reputation building activity that can be leveraged with commercial publishers
- differentiation is based on bundled services rather than content
- builds reputation of developers
- middle ground between free and commercial

Identifying sustainability factors
- identify, communicate, implement, and ensure value propositions for all members of the learning ecosystem
- involve key reference groups to set goals for the system development, evaluation, and implementation
- conduct active, small-scale pilots with all systems and processes
- evaluate and acknowledge all successes and shortcomings, and quickly move successful implementations into wide-scale production
- acknowledge that members of the ecosystem will ultimately be responsible for sustainability

Overall online learning trends in BC are very positive
- technical support and instructional support tend to be positive
- all forms of online learning except videoconferncing are up

We are learning to work in new ways
- following developments in the open source community closely
- Community Source: uPortal, Creative Commmons, BC Commons, OKI, OSPI (Open Source Portfolio Initiative), SAKAI

Sectors in community: financial, K-12, post-secondary education, health, manufacturing, government

In Europe and developing world, governments are mandating open source licensing
- in North America, most IT professionals are scared of open source

Building an agenda for sustainability
- balance the needs of learners and educators
- and administrators

LESSON OF THE WEB: build on a foundation of community and communication
Adopt open source and open access technologies
- give back as good as you get
- Pay attention to techno culture and the context of learning
- Support the innovators in your community

Another lesson of the web: students to technologies and services THAT WORK
- (for dating, students go to lavalife.com, they won’t go to our site for something like that)

“You expect me to remember what?”: Knowledge Retention in Computer-based Training with Adult Learners

An eLearn205 presentation by Doug Reid, University of Wollongong, Australia; D. Michele Jacobsen, Larry Katz, University of Calgary, Canada

Were looking at trying to improve retention levels for adult learners
- studying learners that wanted to use MS Outlook better
- involved 32 adult learners for 60 days

The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of training and the effectiveness of different types of knowledge retention activities delivered by computer-based training programs. This study focused on a computer-based learning system called the Profound Learning Delivery System (PLS). This study used a pretest-posttest experimental design to compare adult learners’ knowledge of Microsoft Outlook (”Outlook,” 1997) before and after a computer- based training session. Participants were trained using two different computer-based instructional programs. This comparison involved three different formats for post-instruction retention activities that were; no review activities, user generated review activities, and program generated retention activities. Results indicate that despite random assignment, there was a significant difference between the groups 60 days after training. This result showed that PLS has potential worth exploring.

every day, people were doing knowledge retention activities
- test, testing, and retesting
- used Profound Learning System (PLS)
- and another system that is confidential
- and used Outlook

Reasons for study
- Profound Learning wanted to find out if their product worked
- they had a non-technological alogrithm currently
- best knowledge retention stuff I have read is about chess
- wanted to fill in a gap in the literature

Goals of study
- can we effect the quality of people’s knoweldge retention: would they remember it better 2 months down the road if they went through our processs
- was the difference significant

Used 2 little software programs with same content
- SoftWare training program
- CD based (for the nameless one)
- tests at the end as people went through and did activites
– there were no retention activities built in (people could go back and look at the CD, but most people don’t have the time for that)

PLS was Internet-based
- built-in retention activiaties
- program controlled rentention activities
- honor system learning rate

I stopped taking notes at this point…..

Technology for Advanced e-Learning
an eLearn2005 presentation by Vladimir Uskov, Bradley University, USA

Abstract:

In 2001-2004, the InterLabs Research Institute at Bradley University (Peoria, IL, USA) hosted the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) CCLI-EMD grant # 0196015 on design, development, and testing of advanced online educational materials (OEMs) in Information Technology (IT) area. This paper describes technical solutions, summaries of users’ surveys and questionnaires, summaries of student and faculty feedback, and project team’s recommendations for developers of streaming media-based learning content and faculty who plan to teach online classes using rich streaming multimedia materials. This paper also presents the author’s views on perspective technologies for e- learning.

Average age of eLearner in the US is 36.9 years old

Braodband Internet is rapidly shifting online learning to the preferred method of continuing education in the US

What technology is best for students?
- I don’t know
- I don’t want to answer this
- Let’s ask students
- whatever is convenient for students, we should develop and deliver
- let’s not put textbooks in the center of this process, let’s truly put the student in the center
- combination: let students select
– some will select synchronous video streaming, some will select CDs-DVDs

I will teach it online and F2F

MY THOUGHT: THIS REMINDS ME OF DR SUESS’S “GREEN EGGS AND HAM!”

Sir Winston Churchill: “personally, I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.”

Steaming Media for Advanced eLearning
- this is about technologies that are very popular among students
- idea is that if I teach this class in the classroom, we record this and squeeze it on an AVI file (1 hour of teaching = an AVI file of around 12-14 GB)
– 1 hour oc compressed video/audio is .ASF file of 100-120 MB (1000 times of compression)
- students can access same course on CD-ROMS or DVD-ROMS
- 1 semester course is on 3-4 CDs

Bradley University Streaming Media-Based Teaching Technology
- we created our own tool in Nov 1002
- video/audio
- email, bulletin board, chat, whiteboard, videoconferencing, audio conferencing
- text, ppt slides, pictures
- web based animation
- web based programming and simulations

Students postcourse evaluation
- 93% say they like and are comfortable taking online or other academic or training courses using streaming media technologies

After using this, 93% say they want to continue using the technology

Many advantages of streaming technologies
- better interactivity
- they are watching the video
- they can replay any part at any time, they can post questions to the message board, email students or the instructor
- increased marketability: gives students actual experience with videoconferencing, distance education

Challenges for REsearchers and PhD students
- our size is 320×240 pixels
- in some applications we need 1024×768
- so we need a codec that can compress

Streaming Technology to-do list
- new fast codecs to transfer 1024 x 768
- more….

Technology #2: Recorded computer screen technology (web-based hands-on exercises, animations, simulations, games)
- there are LOTS of courses where I should NOT use talking head technologies
- biggest textbook I had was 1400 pages, about 900 pages were photos
- PowerPoint HOE versus Oracle…

Innovative recorded coputer screen (RCS) technology is being widely adapted in computer science courses

Outcomes for NSF grant: created 12 developed streaming media online courses (advanced)
- based on streaming technology and RCS technology
- demo versions are available at www.interlabs.bradley.edu/NSF_CCLI/demo

Technology #3: Internet2 technology
- using Internet2 for collaboration
- includes about 200+ US univesities
- 100+GBps = 100,000 MBps Network

examples
- stanford: interactive and simulation based learning environments
- Bradley: Live (synchronous) eLearning (2way interactive video and audio) for courses in screenwriting and…

At Bradley University, they have 300+ faculty but over 275+ online courses semester
- all dorms at Bradley University have connections to Internet2

Unique examples of Internet2 uses
- “Hand Drumming” course taught by Matt Savage from the Univ of North Carolina ant Chapel Hill
- “Screenwriting” course by Hollywood directors, producers, etc. from UCLA

Students meet in studio with microphones, students see the instructor that is remotely located,

Internet2 based to-do list
- need special studios on both sides (video cameras, mics, lights, etc)
- teaching styles need to adapt (interaction with students)
- content (should be adjusted to TV)
- new pedagogy (e-Pedagogy - Dr. Toshio Okamoto, when teaching is based heavily on technology)
- Ethics
- Services

#4 Technology: Mobile Technology (m-Learning)
- by 2006, 95% of smartphones will be connected to the Internet
- performance right now is pretty poor
- 35% of attorneys now using mobile devices, many physicians

PocketPC equipment is very good, voice over IP is great, video window only, acceptable for “talking head” teaching technology
- just receiving of information, no feedback by email

data and video
- right now, no video with synchronized PPT slides and video now
- no advanced web-based simulations
- no great communication features
- almost or entirely not acceptable for courses in math, physics, computer science, IT

Pocket PCs and Head Mounted Display
- will it work for education
- very heavy now: 1.2 pounds now
- in labs this works fine, not great as a deployable technology
- price now is about $23,900 each

To do list
- if you have ideas about how to address this, come be my PhD student, I will find the money for you
- we need 1024×768
- we need at least 512 K outside WLAN hotspots
- Verizon says they will provide 300K over cell phone networks
- instead of 128 MB to 512 MB memory sticks, 2-4 GB at least
- keyboard input: instead of 8-10 words per minute, we need 50 words

mobile devices are NOT ready for advanced eLearning now

Technology #5: virtual reality, augmented reality, scientific virtual labs (Web-based simulations)
- I do not work in this area, but believe there are great prospects here
- demos: waves, BMW, pump, arc demos

Examples of context-aware computing and augmented reality
- this is very popular in civil engineering, architechture

Innovative Technology and Faculty:
- be aware, if you create the best tool, it doesn’t mean faculty will jump into using it
- Roger’s Typology
– 2-3% innovators
– early adopters 10-15%
– 30-35% early majority
– 30-35% late majority
– 12-15% conservator manority

From EM Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations 4th Ed, Free Press, New York, 1995

this is a distribution, and unfortunately it seems to be true (in my university too)
- this is true across institutions

If you ask first year faculty who just arrived / are new
- asked if they plan to use advanced eLearning system again: 97.4% yes
- have benefits received justified the time invested: 94.1% yest
- has adavnced eLearning system met your expectations: 78% yes

Student feedback
- this is the bottom line of my preso
- “select your 5 favorite technologies for eLearning”
- 68% of Bradley students said streaming media also including CD/DVD
- 58% said recorded coputer screen technology (1024,768)
- Internet2: 27%
- Mobile devices like PocketPC: 27%
- 63% favored any mobile devices including laptops
- 24% preferred virtual reality, virtual worlds, 3D animations
- online testing: 76%
- less than 3% said they favor educational audiotapes, VHS videotapes, televised courses

Students want all tests to be on Blackboard to not waste time

Course student acadmic
- no great difference phenomena in distance learning student performance outcomes (Tom Russel, at North Carolina)
advanced eLearning good for convenience and many other reasons

student complaints
- problems with access to high speed Internet
- different levels of computer literacy
- synergy: difficult to work along
- student profile: need to be self-disciplined

This is very hard for freshmen students, those without a lot of experience at higher education courses

National Dissemination of teh Outcomes of the NSF CCLI Grant #0196015
- selected partners get results free
- technology, courseware, digital media studio info, more….

Moderate DV studio equipment: $12-$15 K, Advanced Studio is $50-150K

invintation for all attendees for the International Journal on Advanced Technology for Learning (ATL)

http://www.actapress.com/

In oct 4-6 2006, CATE-2006 will be in Lima, Peru
- first CATE conference in South America

American Proverb: “The Future Belongs to Those Who Prepare For It Today”

Technorati Tags: elearn2005

A Post-Secondary Teaching Scenario for “Tomorrow”

an eLearn2005 presentation by Leon Combs, Kennesaw State University, USA

Abstract:

This paper will present a scenario for a teaching method that would be appropriate “tomorrow” in any discipline or setting (government, industry, university, etc.) at a post-secondary level. A 1976 publication of five basic “psychological principles” for effective teaching has been chosen to be applied to the web era. The basic questions of “what is education”, “where is the classroom”, “where are the students”, “what do we teach”, and “how do we teach” will be briefly probed for their application to this scenario. The resulting scenario involves the concept of a Learning Center staffed by discipline experts who can lead discussions on particular aspects of the course, computer facilities for students to use at their leisure, and areas that allow for group interactions among the students. The scenario also allows for students to completely self-pace themselves using the course web sites and web tests to help them determine their level of competence before each proctored exam.

Using Wales’ 5 principles for designing websites and setting up learning courses

Where are the students? Home, Prison, Military, Work, Learning Centers (like universities)

What do we teach? The basic chemistry book has not changed since the 1950s

PPT is just an electronic overhead / slide
- might as well have an overhead projector, except you can’t put that on the web easily (but file size can be a problem)

Need to use: current texts, library, research, the web, professor expertise

How do we teach should morph into “how do we motivate the students to learn?”
- emphasis
- if we could just get 20% of our class to the top of Bloom’s taxonomy that would be great

Wales’ Learning I (Guide)
- guide them prime directive of online elarning websites

I use “hot potato” free software for making tests, produces them in DHTML
- great way to make up short tests
- on various parts of the website

practice may not make perfect but it certainly helps

research indicates kids are not going to sit there for long periods of time and just read on the web
- you need to have frequent interaction opportunities
- big need is motivating students
- coaching used a lot
- case studies are good to use, big use in medical schools and law schools
- not a lot of these available for freshman and sophomore college students

Rather than having a predetermined way for students to progress through a course, I design to give students options
- can have short sub-courses (shortcourses) at the learning center

Conclusion: this 1976 publication is recognized for its excellent insight into teaching that maximizes learning and is coupled with the goal of achieving the top of the Bloom Taxonomy
- Chief Learning Officers (CLO) will lead the new learning initiatives using combinations of websites and Learning Centers
- No lectures of basic knowledge: that is dead, there should be none of that

MY IDEA: I DISAGREE, THERE IS STILL A PLACE FOR THIS

Cobb County (where I live) is now converting traditional textbooks to eBooks
- we have a big proglem with administrators and faculty members who have never done this before
- I started teaching online in 1997
- students who learn online tend to have better retention / transfer in upper level courses in my research and experience

We need validation of websites
- anyone can put up a website
- the American Chemical Society is one organization that can do that
- that has GOT to happen, otherwise there will be all kinds of garbage sites out there that will be disastrous

Read the paper!

My question to the presenter: Why did the Cobb County laptop initiative fail? His answers:
- they guy who pushed that through is now being investigated by a grand jury
- there was questions about how it was done
- people were concerned students would tear up laptops
- in Georgia there was a disaster at the university level with maintenance (Clayton State)
– students were just destroying the laptops, and the university was obligated to fix them
– that initiative has been discontinued
- that initiative was pushed through by someone (name not stated) who become the eLearning Czar for the entire state of Georgia
- now Cobb county is moving toward eBooks for students, but students will have to provide their own laptops, the school district will not

MY THOUGHTS: THIS IS CERTAINLY NOT A REPLICABLE MODEL IN CASES WHERE STUDENTS ARE FROM LOW SES SETTINGS, BUT MAYBE NOT EVEN REASONABLE FOR HIGH SES AREAS. IF EBOOKS ARE REQUIRED BY THE DISTRICT, HOW COULD THEY REASONABLY REQUIRE STUDENTS AND PARENTS TO BUY THEIR OWN?
- I NEED TO DO MORE RESEARCH ON THIS CLAYTON STATE LAPTOP DISASTER. WHAT WAS THE PLATFORM THAT WAS USED? WHY DID IT FAIL? THESE ARE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS.

Lots of studies show “no significant difference” with technology
- we need teachers with content area knowledge, that what is most important

MY THOUGHT: I DON’T THINK MANY OF THESE STUDIES OF “NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE’ ARE SPECIFIC TO LAPTOPS, I THINK THEY ARE GENERAL TO EDTECH INITIATIVES

For me, the knowledge and the science is most important…

Technorati Tags: elearn2005

“If we know then what we know now”
eLearn2005 preso by Patricia McGee, The University of Texas at San Antonio, USA; Jashoda Bothra, Cicso Systems, Inc., Canada; Jennifer Gurrie, WebCT, USA; Ameeta Jadav, The Art Institute of Atlanta, USA

Here because of research in next generation content management systems (CMS)
Now involved in national study interviewing CIOs, students, faculty, etc about their current satisfcation and dissatisfaction with CMS systems

Abstract:

When discussing the delivery of technology mediated instruction, the focus is typically focused on the organizational, managerial (see Gallagher, 2003), or technical (IMS Global Learning Consortium, Inc. standards and corporate white papers) while lacking in learning, instruction, and cultural theoretical frameworks that drive functional elements, interactivity, and user interface (Cambridge, McGee, & Suter, 2003). What’s missing from the conversation is teaching and learning. Recent research about how people learn (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999) identifies specific uses of technology to support learning that indicate a user and learning-centered design in which the tools and functions are transparent. And yet, when students or instructors enter current systems, the tools (e-mail chat, discussion boards) or the functions (modules, syllabus, calendar) are the organizing elements. This panel presents visions for the future of elearning from the perspective of the learner and the instructor.

Needs:
- we have a need for a shift from organizational, managerial (Gallagher 2003) or technial (IMS, SCORM) to teaching and learning
- systems must reflect what we know about now people learn
- we articulate a user…

First preso: learner perspective, then from instructor perspective
- we will look at what should be guiding principles for these systems

Our assumptions about learning
- DEEP: needs to be deep: active, engaged, in contextually relevant environment, social, students should have ownership of work
- this can be challenging online, but these are simple
- RELEVANT:
– US Military beginning to shift to online, contextual learning system for diversity training
– they are struggling with the disconnect between understanding they don’t have control over that learner, and the importance of users actually reporting about what is happening in their REAL context versus in a fabricated / artificial environment
- TRANSFERABILITY: this is critical
– there is a body of research that says if you learn about something in a different context than where you are going to apply it, there is little chance of transferability
– this has implications when people are in a Blackboard environment, which really has ZERO correlation to the real world

What we know about the learner
- we are not talking about baby boomers, because systems being designed today needs to be for the millenials
- ref to Mark Prensky’s idea of digital native / millenial and digital immigrant

My third category: digital foreigner
- might visit the foreign country, but can’t wait to go home because they want to go home and talk the way they are most comfortable, communicate with other foreigners, etc.

Millineals:
- how many times have we told people “close your computer and pay attention?”
- they are multi-tasking as a way of life
- cognitive structures appear to be parallel rather than sequential
- reality isn’t real for millineals
– technology mediated world is shifting ideas and experiences about what is REAL
- doing is more compelling than knowing for millineals

The paper has a lot more

Our vision:
- we need more fluid / flexible boundaries around learning experiences (IE in contrast to the rigid course structure we know today)
- example: I am having my student be instructors in WebCT, this violated many principles at the institution and was very difficult, however
- we should allow learners to enter into and move between learning experiences more freely not bounded by time, course enrollment, or technology borders
- some content if not all should be accessible in an active system or archive to learner and ….

intelligent tools and content that continuously learn about the learner should be used
- what they know, what their learning needs are, what past experiences they have to draw on, how they learn best, what their professional preferences are
- tools adapt the environment based on what is known about the learner, like Amazon.com

We need a host of learning environments that more closely mirror

Example: http://dub.washington.edu/denim
- denim tool is replicating a real enviornment while allowing people to experiment on their own

Recommendation: Read Van Weigel’s book “Deeper learning for the 21st Century”

Need relevant, realistic, and customized desired learning outcomes for each learner
- adaptive technologies should be driven by adaptive pedagogies

Merger of Sakai with LAMS (learning assistance management system)
- any instructional designer can go in and pull together a set of instructional activities
- you can build in choices for the students
- building into the framework of the instructional tasks a set of choices

Favorite example: Croquet (more of an operating system)
- idea: we can go in and control our desktop, and move it around
- www.opencroquet.org
- people can get together and interact with each other as they see the same thing
- this is how Jennifer and I have envisioned letting the learner have more control over their learning experience
- this is VERY DIFFERENT than what we are seeing in most CMS systems today
- implications for faculty are very different than current roles too

Technorati Tags: elearn2005

Next preso here: “Evolution of the Role of Faculty in Higher Education”
- question: how will technology impact the faculty role?

part of “If we know then what we know now” eLearning2005 preso

faculty role is impacted by
- email, discussion boards, bulletin boards, chat rooms
- web based research (Google it)
- applications for word processing, presentations, etc
- course management systems (www.classbot.com)
- instructional delivery systems

CEO of Xerox has talked about PowerPoint being evil, suggested not using PPT (people are shocked by this)

We developed our own home grown CMS system using open source technology: www.classbot.com
- this is managed by a faculty member in our department

Terra Cognita working out of Austin is doing amazing work on instructional design

traditional instruction is defined by a classroom
- integrated in conventional learning modes
- resistance, mistrust of technology, hesitation in adoption, insecurity
- problems are not with educators: problems are with the system

I DISAGREE: I THINK A LOT OF THE PROBLEM IS WITH PEOPLE WHO DON’T WANT TO CHANGE. THIS IS COMMON TO THE HUMAN CONDITION, NOT JUST SPECIFIC TO EDUCATORS THO.

From teaching and managing to facilitating and orchestrating (not a control freak)
- no “classroom” as we traditionally think of it (just to manage the learners)
- organic, dynamic classes: classes don’t have the definition of the 4 walls, they can change over time and place
- individualized learning, optimum cohorts
- automation of administrative tasks
- global learning space

CISCO is a lot like a college campus, very creative
- lots of teaching and learning always happening
- lots of flexibility built into the environment
- CISCO has resources and flexibility, everyone sometimes goes and creates their own tool
- every process at CISCO HAS to be online, nothing is done in hard copy!

What would be the faculty role, how would technology be used in the future
- learners will be multitasking, somewhat scatterbrained about finding the content: that is the reality
- Boundaries of the classroom are melting away
- at CISCO all our learning is virtual, the so-called “learning community of the future” is going to be different

Faculty are going to have to come up with ways to accomodate individual learning needs of students
- different strata / levels of the learners can be accomodated

MY THOUGHT: I NEED TO DESIGN MY WINTER ONLINE CLASS WITH THESE MODALITIES AND PEDAGOGIES IN MIND

Hope that LMS systems will be portals
- are connected to other portals
- portals will be homogeneous in a scary way? maybe?

Idea of a global learning space: boundaries of the classroom are no longer defined
- the learning space can be negotiated between students and faculty
- should be defined beyond brick and mortar, across national boundaries even
- not just a local audience

Other areas that will evolve
- instructional support: perception of organizational support by the faculty member is really key
- learning management support
- vast knowledge base
- focus on development of the learner
- varying evaluation models (including greater reliance on peer, automated, experts, self)

Support in the future for instruction needs to be more transparent and pervasive

At CISCO we spend about 9 months (that is very long in business context) trying to bring all learning organizations together, to develop a competency library / index of all the different roles we need in CISCO moving forward
- something like this could be replicated in higher education
- a growing and dynamic knowledge base

CISCO is a universe unto itself with 25,000 employees worldwide
- bringing the experts to your students is much less of a challenge today than it has been before
- the process of doing this needs to be much easier for educational settings

Challenges: what is going to make those changes happen
- we have to get beyond on perceptions that shackle us, when we focus on our current problems and limitations
- our attitude is key
- our willingness to adapt and learn
- our ability to conduct considered experiments (AND FAIL)
- economic, logistical and infrastructural support

MY THOUGHT: THE FAILURE BOW IS KEY HERE!

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Anyone attending the eLearning conference can include the following line of code at the end of their blog post, so Technorati will automatically index the posts with others from the conference:

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Technorati Tags: elearn2005

I have been sitting by Mark Sheppard, who is the Senior Education officer for the Ontario Smart Systems for Health Agency. He maintains 2 different blogs:

• His personal blog: Mixed Moss from a Rolling Stone
• eLearning blog: Mark’s eLearning Space

Small world, Mark actually has a family connection to my hometown of Manhattan, Kansas and the Kansas State Wildcats– he has a relative playing ball for K-State. He also let me know that Michael Bishop is playing football with some success in Toronto. Didn’t know that! Nels Lindahl has a pretty thorough discussion from Dec04 about Bishop’s experiences with American gridiron in Canada that is worth a quick scan.

Technorati Tags: elearn2005

The Use of Blogs in Teaching, Knowledge Management, and Performance Improvement
an eLearn2005 presentation by Minjuan Wang, San Diego State University, USA

Abstract:

The number of web logs (‘blogs’), or online personal journals, is on the rise. While this trend may reflect a human propensity for self- indulgent introspection, it may also be propelled by the many advantages of blogs. In addition to providing a portal for journal entries, blogs allow authors to self-publish, record reader commentary, and archive their entries. The increased use of blogs on the Internet has exciting implications for the field of communication, education, and educational technology. People who blog often (bloggers) tend to improve their literacy skills, critical thinking skills, and knowledge construction abilities. Furthermore, the easy-to-use template and the often free service of blogs suit educators’ needs for feasible and self-maintained technological tools. However, little research has been conducted on the use of blogs for education, knowledge management, and performance improvement, thus pointing to a need for further exploratory study.

Types of Blogs (Gomez, 2005)
- personal
- topical
- news
- collaborative (aka collective or group, team)
- directory
- corporate
- advice from experts
- advertising
- private blog (limited access)

Example of a collaborative class blog: EDTEC 296: Learning, Technology and Society
- another one called “Going Global”
- format: text and grpahics
- audioblogging

Blog formative research
- facilitate critical thinking and knowledge construction
- develop writing and communication skills
- we need research data on this however
- reduces transactional distance (Saba, 1988)
– the amount of structure and dialog governing the communication relationship between the student and the teacher
- course structure and level of dialog
- like a psychological distance

Research questions on a study we did comparing 2 blogs
- lit review found most students find no interest in writing authentically
- weblogs encourage students to read, write, and converse more often
- sense of audience is a key motivator (different than a CLOSED discussion board)
- method was a qualitative case study with content analysis (very time consuming)
- can offer a sense of autonomy and community

Blogs can be underused, percieved as additional work / simply a class assignment, and abandoned after the class is over

Solutions
- manage environmental factors
- provide multiple venues of communication and interaction among students

Blogs as knowledge construction tools
- permits collaboration, debates, and argumentation
- open for people to debate and discuss positively about issues
- facilitates social constructivism
- documents how ideas connect and evolve over time (Kajder & Bull, 2003)
- allows organization of info into meaningful personal narratives
- encourages “learning with the Internet”

Company blogs
- can be created for learning mechanism, knowledge management, project management, and advertising tool

Top executive bloggers… (list I couldn’t copy)

Klogs (Blogs as a knowledge management tool)
- can provide centralized access to thematically related resources
- try to capture expert knowledge

Blogs as Project Management Tool
- easily and quickly communicate project updates
- provides a means for ongoing communication with the entire team
- offer a forum for rich dialog

Blogs as advertising tools
- 3 forms: paid ads, earned ads, self-created ads

Blogs as organizational performance improvement tool
- may stimulate organizational learning, ultimately organizational improvement
- are many examples of corporate blogging policies from Feedster, Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, IBM

I am doing a study and content analysis now on Chinese women who are blogging
There are different approaches to studying blogging
- studying blog as form
- ethnographic studies
- content analysis (involving coding)

Teachers editing content of student blog posts first does affect quantity and quality of writing

Technorati Tags: elearn2005

The article in last Friday’s Dallas Morning news, “We’re failing: Texas is losing teachers and students with its high-stakes tests” is politically slanted due to its source, but none-the-less right on target and worth reading. The author, Chris Bell, is a Democratic contender in the Texas gubernatorial race. This statement is 100% on target:

But even if we fund our public schools at much higher levels, we will fail to get the results we seek because of a broken accountability system that looks at one test score as the sole measure of a student’s and a school’s success.

We have got to embrace continuing, authentic assessment systems that are as diverse as the students we serve. And we must prepare students for the 21st Century, as Chris notes in this article. Some of these ideas were the topic of my blog post last week, “Integrating Literacy and Technology Literacy Instruction in Preservice Education.”

I do take issue a bit with the following statement in the article:

Mr. Perry thinks he can use tests to make our kids smarter. A test won’t make you smarter, just like a ruler won’t make you taller. Tests aren’t the answer; they’re the best way to ask the question.

I am not sure Governor Perry or any other legislator really thinks tests can make kids smarter. I think they believe high stakes testing is an effective stick to raise teacher expectations of student performance, and thereby positively change the predominant instructional practices in Texas classrooms. Unfortunately, education is a complex issue, and expecting this linear falling of the causal dominoes is naive policymaking at best– a crime against the students and teachers involved in the system at worst.

I also disagree with Chris Bell that tests are “the best way to ask the question.” Objective tests are inherently limited because they reflect a world where there is one correct answer, instead of multiple perspectives and often diverse ways of approaching the same problem. Teaching and learning is a complex task. Chris and others who aspire to lead our state and help shape educational policy should read “John Dewey and the Art of Teaching : Toward Reflective and Imaginative Practice” (Douglas J. Simpson, Michael J. B. Jackson, Judy C. Aycock). We have suffered from the impacts of an overly simplistic educational reform policy (high stakes testing) that falsely perceives itself as the magic bullet to cure education’s ills too long. Why can’t we have leaders who listen to the educators, and listen to the students, and help both prepare for the future instead of the past?

Read more about Chris Bell and his ideas on www.chrisbell.com.

I just had a wonderful conversation with a man named Dirk from Belgium, who works for an adult education school there. I was fascinated to learn that by regulation, at least 50% of all the adult education hours in their programs are required to be face to face. Apparently this pedagogy is based on the need to validate and verify student performance, and the belief is that by requiring at least half the classtime and coursework to be F2F, this can be done better. This reminded me of the session I attended yesterday (which Dirk attended too) entitled “Best Practices for Preventing Cheating on On-line Exams.”

This is the first example I know about of an organization requiring that a majority of classtime be F2F. Very interesting. I was also interested to learn that Belgium is a very wired country, and high speed Internet access has substantial market penetration. Dirk said it costs about 40 Euros per month for high speed cable modem access to the Internet, which translates currently to about $50 US. I also did not know that Belgium is a historically Catholic country, and now has both a public and private school system. The government also funds the private schools, but both were heavily influenced by the Catholic church. The Catholic church also had a major influence on the health care system in Belgium. Dirk reported that the influence of the church otherwise today– in cultural and economic terms, is minimal. It is now typical for there to be one priest for 4 or 5 different churches. Very interesting. Invigorating to be at a world eLearning conference where such opportunities for dialog and ideological interchange abound! I visited last night with a Canadian from Nova Scotia who is a university biologist, and another Canadian who works for the government’s school of public service.

I am particularly interested in the experience of Canadian’s in making bilingualism “work” on a national level. I do not think the US will become bilingual officially, but we certainly are moving in that direction unofficially in many areas (my current home state of Texas included.) I sense that many US citizens are uncomfortable with a national identity that is multicultural and diverse. Canada has clearly has their share of problems with this too. It is good to visit with others about these topics, as well as issues relating to distance education and elearning here.

Never Worry About Transfer Again: Strategies for Converging Learning and Work

an eLearn2005 Wednesday keynote presentation by Allison Rosett, San Diego State University
arossett@mail.sdsu.edu
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/ARossett/Arossett.html

I want to talk about our work in a way that is a little bit different

Transfer is everything (my belief)
- also believe when you are doing a keynote you have to be hyperbolic (need to exaggerate)
- if we are teaching, surely we are not doing this to hear ourselves talk
- the purpose is for our students!
- for our students to be able to do something out there in the real world

My definition of Transfer: “the application of skills and konwledge learned in one context to the context that matters.”

We are all about transfer to performance, resulting in accomplishment
- if transfer does not happen, where’s the value? What have we added

MY THOUGHT: THIS GOES ALONG WITH THOMAS FRIEDMAN’S CONCEPT OF THE “VALUE ADD” IN ECONOMICS

The traditional teacher centered educational model raises much cause for concern about transfer
- www.marcosenberg.com

Am I “doing it” in a useful way that will permit learners to “reach for it” in a meaningful way later?
- another model: has the learner in the center, around them is classroom training, libraries, communities, field experts, online training, intra/internet websites
- pervasiveness, distributed risk
- here in this model, the student has more potential for

Higher education owns the buildings, the terra firma: often people think of that infrastructure as the higher ed competitive advantage
- that is nonsense: our brains / intellectual capital is our completive advantage, our credentialing power

Most favorable model also includes on the outside:
0 assessment, field practice, credentials/certificates, supervisors, communities, processes, coaching/e-coaching, …

Consider that the answer to our concerns about IMPACT is convergence
- convergence is “infusion of information, education, guidance, policies, and support into the context that matters”

We will focus on 6 strategies for converging learning and work

1- Job Aids
- book “the handbook of job aids”
- how do you give people just what they need just when the need it, not “just in case”
- boosting performance at the moment of need
- information presented at the moment of need
- examples:
– at supermarket: what did I say we needed to purchase?
– what should I consider as I prepare to this performance appraisal?
– how do I change the message on that answering machine? Mix a new drink?

Job aids delivered online
- thousands of people can look at them online
- example: eHow website, “clearn instructions on how to do (just about) Everything
- very useful direct support

MY THOUGHT: GOOGLE HAS BECOME MY PRIMARY WORK JOB AID WHEN IT COMES TO ANSWERS TO TECHNICAL PROBLEMS AND OTHER ISSUES

Transfer Boosters
- matrix: human or system? independent or communal

2- Performance support tools
- they are all over
- independent technologies based on wrap-around
- available 24-7
- the tool has the smarts, the worker doesn’t have to be– the worker just has to be smart
- when info and coaching is “one with the work” - as identification grows, so does the impact
- think MapQuest, GPS

GPS is integrated into the task, it is one with the process
- with MapQuest, you have to anticipate and print first
- and then you are driving and reading (not desirable)

Mapquest helps you plan, has a different context

Example: the IRS has a website that blends a class and a PST
- ITIN Process Support tool provides the info for people at need

MY THOUGHT: PROVIDING INFORMATION AT NEED FOR CONSTITUENTS IS A MAJOR PART OF MY ROLE AS AN ORGANIZATIONAL WEBMASTER

Another example: PST at sea
- remembering different tolerances, checklists, error rates have plummetted
- now they rely on a PDA to inspect and report
- as they record, they sync and data reports are produced

This is a combination of learning (just in case) and performance support (converged with the work just in time)

At Purina.com: Decision guide to help you pick your dog breed
- from 185 breeds to 3
- sometimes all the variables we care about are not included in the matrix

3- Coaching, E-Coaching
- in the 80s, many business managers turned away from control and command and towards a more participatory model which infused coaching into work and used immediacy and personal relationships to boost performance
- the role of the coach: train, integrate, and motivate
- the TIN model of coaching (Strayer & Rossett, 1994)

Coaching is good
- Hay group estimate: between 25-40% of Fortune 500 companies use executive coaches
- we call it advising in higher education, in most programs this is a weakness
- it is often idiosyncratic, not systemic
- productivity and satisfaction are highly impacted by coaching

What is coaching (versus teaching): through people and technology, enabling performance with timely, contextual support, guidance, information and encouragement

Knowledge management aspects (to share knowledge) are really important now

coaching is the delivery of support, kinship, and expertise, as needed at work
- incentives are also needed

E-coaching makes sense even under trying circumstances
- 2001 Wang and Wentling studied

Visit www.alicebot.org
- English language training for $9.95 per month
- ALICE = Artificial intelligence Foundation

Defense Acquisition University
- AT&L Knowledge Sharing System

MY THOUGHT: WE SHOULD CREATE A COLLEGE WIKI FOR GRAD STUDENT QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Defense Acquisition University- Google this, there is lots online about this
- lots of subject matter

Using Macromedia Breeze now to coach a doctoral candidate with dissertation work

4. Knowledge bases
- useful data is made available at the moment of need
- Blue Web’N is great resource for software K-14 mainly
- online resources that allow you not to have to remember things by heart

Non-training interventions
- I always tell my students, training is great, but how else can you get it into the bloodstream of people?
- Google for “Performance Improvement Emporium”

Encylopedia of Educational Technology is another example built at SDSU

There are so many things to know, NO ONE can know them all and stay up to date on them all: That is why we need knowledge bases

MOOM: The Museum of Online Museums

5. Communities of Practice (CoPs)
- great idea, not always great execution
- Babycenter.com is an example
- why do they work: narrowly focused, have a deliverable aspect to them
- lots of content that is shared

The eLearning Guild has an info exchange: elearningguild.com

6. Nagware
- also known as “captology”
- BJ Fogg writes about this
- use of computer software to actively nudge voluntary performance and persistence
- an independent and communal strategy
- examples: diet websites like Weight Watchers online
– Quitnet.com - Created by US CDC

These have been 6 ways of bringing messages into the workplace

Convinced of the power of convergence?
- Mary Broad’s research on transfer says: What works is what the manager does before the training, what the trainer does BEFORE the training, what the manager does AFTER the training

The new world, a technology infused world, REDUCES the distinctions between before, during and after
- MY THOUGHT: BECAUSE IT IS MORE JUST IN TIME CAPABLE

Learning, support and work become converged. Thus, transfer becomes less of a concern….

This is all about busting through classroom walls to the real world
- how might a professor use these concepts, a university use these ideas to do it more and better

Quotation from Einstein: “Experience teachers that men are often so much governed by what they are accustomed to see and practice, that the simplest and most obvious improvements, in the most ordinary occupations, are adopted with hesitation, reluctance, and by slow gradations. Men would resist changes, so long as even a bare support could be ensured by an adherence to ancient courses, and perhaps even longer.”

In the past we had a lot less information that we do today in courses

Will Rogers: “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just site there.”

Technorati Tags: elearn2005

I have made numerous modifications and additions to my paper presentation today, “Podcasting as Disruptive Transmediation,” that I am giving later this afternoon here in Vancouver at the eLearn 2005 World Conference on eLearning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education.

Someone at the conference asked me to address IP (intellectual property) and podcasting, so one of the additions to the preso is a slide that addresses IP. This version of the presentation is much more focused on the higher education perspective, versus the version two weeks ago for the TECSIG conference that was K-12 oriented.

After the preso I’ll be posting the recorded audio of the session here as a podcast. This presentation is also linked from my main “Podcast Help” link on the right sidebar of my site, under “Pages.”