LearningTimes Network: Online Conferences and Learning Communities
LearningTimes designs online learning communities and produces programs and events for educational and cultural institutions, non-profit organizations, associations and membership groups. LearningTimes also provides the platforms, applications and promotional expertise that ensure success
Stephen's Web ~ Papers ~ An Introduction to RSS for Educational Designers
An Introduction to RSS for Educational Designers
Faculty Development - The Hammer in Search of a Nail
Faculty Development:
The Hammer in Search of a Nail
by Anne Scrivener Agee, Dee Ann Holisky and Star A. Muir
Details a range of approaches taken by higher ed insitutions in the US.
Hot Potatoes User Guide
http://www.ccm.ac.uk/ltech/cfet/materials/files/file%2013.pdf
LSDA Tutorial introducing the software for easy-to-create quizzes. The various quiz formats (anagrams, multiple choice etc) are covered, with a detailed explanations of their menu options.
Please note this link will display an Adobe Acrobat document (PDF file) in your browser window.
"Ferl is an information service for all staff working within the Post Compulsory Education sector. It aims to support individuals and organisations in making effective use of ILT (Information Learning Technologies). Ferl does this through a web based information service, conferences, publications and other events.
Ferl is funded by the Learning and Skills Council and managed by Becta. "
So - the proposal: a multidisciplinary educational simulation archive. This would be a library of simulatioins built by a consortium of universities. They would have a common API. And they would be designed to be inserted into Word documents and other text processors. Faculty know email, they know browsers, and maybe they know Word - and that's it - we should not expect them to learn anything else.
We can and should build custom Rolls Royces. But we need a way to empower faculty to build the Toyota Camrys - not custom made, but fine, reliable works.
-- Stephen Downes
Dr. Joan D. McMahon
Towson University, MD
Dr. Neil Davidson
University of Maryland, College Park, MD
"I could never teach online," Neil said. "I like being able to reach my students individually."
"I feel I can reach them and connect with them online just as well or better than F2F," I retorted.
Our conflicting views launched a brainstorm comparing how we "touch" our students F2F and how we can online. We hope the workshop we developed as a result of our continuing conversation is useful to you and your colleagues. "
EdTechPost: B.C. Educational Technology Users Group 'Blogtalk'
"http://etugblog.typepad.com/blogtalk/
Today is officially the last day so I can finally let the cat out of the bag for those who haven't seen this yet.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, for the past two weeks I've been helping to facilitate, along with 4 other educators from B.C., an 'online discussion' on possible uses of blogs in education for the B.C. Educational Technology Users Group (ETUG). Many of you will recognize at least one of the other facilitators, Brian Lamb from UBC...
Typically, ETUG discussions happen through the mailing list. During our one and only conference call to organize this online talk, the facilitators agreed that it was important to actually show the ETUG members a blog in action instead of just talking about one. To that end we set up this Typepad site which has been the focal point for the two weeks. It is a 'multi-author' blog which doesn't necessarily convey the true richness and multi-vocal nature of the blog experience, but it seemed a reasonable compromise at the time.
It has been an "interesting" experiment. Going in I already knew that the kind of 'conversations' facilitated through blogs do not end up looking the same as those facilitated through a mailing list or threaded discussion, even when everyone involved."
elearnspace. everything elearning.
Learning Ecology, Communities, and Networks
Extending the classroom
George Siemens
October 17, 2003
Summary
"Learner-centered, lifelong learning has been the cry of knowledge society visionaries for the last decade. Yet learning continues to be delivered with teacher-centric tools in a twelve week format. Society is changing. Learners needs are changing. The course, as a model for learning, is being challenged by communities and networks, which are better able to attend to the varied characteristics of the learning process by using multiple approaches, orchestrated within a learning ecology."
Informal Learning: A Sound Investment
October 2003 - Jay Cross
Informal learning is effective because it is personal. The individual calls the shots. The learner is responsible. It’s real. How different from formal learning, which is imposed by someone else. Workers are pulled to informal learning; formal learning is pushed at them.
Jeremy Hiebert's headspaceJ -- Instructional Design and Technology
Peter Merholz is taking some interesting notes at the HITS Conference (Humans | Interaction | Technology | Strategy) this week. The conference is focused on interaction design and business strategy, but much of what he's learning could be translated into e-learning terms without losing any value. In Part 1, he's got a great diagram showing how the needs of stakeholders in a project should be interrelated, and compares it with how it usually works, using Technologist, Client, Customer and User.
In e-learning, you could translate those to Technologist/Designer, School, Teacher, and Student. Ideally, there would be lots of communication and between all stakeholders to ensure the best learning experience:
But in reality, projects or purchases get done in waterfall fashion, pulled out of the classic venn diagram into a chain. As Peter points out, this "resembles the child's game 'telephone,' where the fidelity of the message degrades as it passes from person to person."
If the designer isn't in contact with the end user, how can the learning environment/software/course/resource be designed to optimize their experience?
Open Source Course Management Systems
"The Index of Learning Styles is an on-line instrument used to assess preferences on four dimensions (active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal, and sequential/global) of a learning style model formulated by Richard M. Felder and Linda K. Silverman. The instrument was developed by Richard M. Felder and Barbara A. Soloman of North Carolina State University.
The ILS may be used at no cost for non-commercial purposes by individuals who wish to determine their own learning style profile and by educators who wish to use it for teaching, advising, or research. Consultants and companies who wish to use the ILS in their work may license it from North Carolina State University. "
TAFE VC E Conference 2003~Cultivating Communities
12 November - 14 November, 2003 at TAFE Virtual Campus
From website: "Following on from the huge success of the TAFE VC E Conference 2002, the Office of Training and Tertiary Education (OTTE) and TAFE Frontiers has generously supported an E Conference for 2003.
We'll be critically exploring initiatives in developing online educational communities. We'll also be examining the directions being taken by all of those involved in innovative online initiatives and the use of the TAFE Virtual Campus in Victoria . Teachers, students, administrators, managers, researchers, individual providers & networks - are all welcome to participate as we explore the use of new technologies in the delivery of education in the ACE, TAFE, and VET Sector.
We'll interpret our theme across 3 broad conference streams: RESOURCES, IMPLEMENTATION and the PRACTITIONERS to ensure there's something for the raw newcomer and seasoned online campaigner alike...."
This Guide
provides an overview of the processes and some of the things to consider when developing content for e-learning and describes some useful resources that may assist. This Guide is particularly targeted at those working in the Australian vocational education and training (VET) sector.
This Guide looks at current research on change management and describes some of
the tools and models that have been developed to assist the management of change toward flexible delivery and use of online technology in vocational education and training in Australia. It focuses particularly on approaches adopted and tools developed within the Australian Flexible Learning Framework and key research conducted within VET.
The size and scope of the ‘change’ being managed can be anything from a national
framework down to a small scale implementation trial of a single unit. In this guide we are mostly focusing on Institutional level change but the concepts relate to almost any scale, and no change occurs in isolation.
This Quick Guide looks at effective online facilitation and its importance in online
teaching and learning.
From the Flexible Learning Framework
Down the line from Deakin - smh.com.au
By Eric Wilson, Sydney Morning Herald
October 7, 2003
"The impressive thing about Deakin is its online curriculum push is not just driven by academic enthusiasts at the departmental level but through official policy. In 2000, the university decided the incorporation of e-learning components should be compulsory in all awards. Yet no course would be conducted entirely through e-learning, other than in exceptional educational or financial circumstances. So three years ago, the pro vice-chancellor of online services and the university's deans were charged "to take all necessary action to ensure that students commencing an undergraduate degree in 2004 can be required to undertake at least one unit online".
EdTechPost: Matrix of some uses of blogs in education Archives
Scott Leslie, an educational technology researcher:
"To help facilitate this discussion and my own thinking on it, I've worked up this matrix of some of the possible uses of blogs in education.
A big caveat here - this matrix very much approaches the topic in the context of 'formal' education, and only really considers students, instructors and 'the rest of the net' as actors. Obviously one could add much to this - librarians, institutional RSS feeds ... That's why I titled it 'Some' uses of blogs in education. Even just considering this limited set of actors, I have definitely left much off. And I didn't try to enumerate all of instructional events and applications you could facilitate through blogs (e.g. webquests as one example).
My goal here was to illustrate that blogs are about both writing and reading, and that one's professional practice and ones instructional practice can be facilitated with the same technology. It's aimed at an intro audience. I'd really love to hear any feedback on this. Do you think this would help people new to blogging understand some of its potential, or by creating this matrix am I just blinding them to other possibles uses not captured here? Thoughts, comments, etc appreciated. This is an early draft and if there's interest I'll share the source doc later on. - SWL"
[the girlie matters] tips and tricks: combined form for bloglet and mt notifications
From the girlie matters
ScriptyGoddess has the code here. See how it works on the e-moderating site
October 6, 2003
George Siemens
Summary
Our reality is shaped by the ideas we hold. A model of ideas as corridors (larger structure of ideas which determins the nature of subsets of ideas) is presented. The article explores how ideas are developed, how they are challenged, and the implications in an educational and knowledge sharing context.
About GLOBALED.com
"GLOBALED.com is building the world's biggest quality listings of articles, authors and events for global education professionals, with 10,000 subscribers and over 80 listed authors providing a community of practice for the new breed of Global Education professionals to share insights and experience with other like-minded professionals.
The website and companion monthly newsletter aim to cater for the needs of educators who have an increasing interest in borderless education, mainly, although not exclusively, online.
The service is inteneded for academics, practitioners, students and providers in higher education institutions around the world. All content on the site is freely accessable and users can subscribe free to the mailing list to receive the monthly update which contains summaries of new articles and events with hyperlinks to take them directly to that part of the website to get full information. There are currently 10,000 subscribers to GLOBALED.com"
Zane Berge
"With the emergence of technologies that make it easier for two-way communication, such as teleconferencing and web-based, computer-mediated communication, the image of the independent distant learner is changing. Historically, in higher education there has been a teacher-centered focus on transferring knowledge from expert to novice. Today, the goals of education, demographics of the population, and the lifestyles of students are converging to cause a focus on students being transformed into self-directed, life-long learners who construct meaning, both individually and socially. Taken together, these factors demand a cultural change within higher education that both necessary and painful to teachers and learners. "
Knowledge-at-work: Mapping tacit
Summary
Mapping tacit knowledge is a paradox of sorts, it requires immersion in the workplace, raising actor awareness, careful observation, team validation and attention to subtle investigator bias and subversion. Many KM tools claim to map tacit knowledge but it seems this is one task that will always require human skills, intution and inventiveness.
Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education-TOJDE October 2003 ISSN 1302-6488 Volume:4 Number:4
Directions for Future Research in On-line Distance Education
Alaa SADIK,
Faculty of Education South Valley University,
Qena 11183, EGYPT
Introduction
In the last twenty years, educators’ interest enhanced dramatically as a result of the great advances in media and telecommunication technology, which resulted in an increase in the subject areas offered by distance education programmes. By the early 1980s, the rapid developments in computer accompanied by easy-to-use, flexible and effective ways of storage and distribution of course materials created a new paradigm of distance education. These features, plus the interactive nature of the computer as an instructional medium for individualised instruction, have attracted distance educators more than any other medium ever and developed the nature of distance education systems to be more effective delivery modes (Gray, 1988).
Dr John Eklund, Margaret Kay, Helen M. Lynch
Abstract
The purpose of this short paper is to provide a view of the state of e-learning, issues and implications for the use of technology mediated and delivered instruction in the vocational education and training (VET) sector in particular.
The paper was developed in a short time frame to inform the planning cycle for initiatives within the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework) in June 2003. It aims to integrate a review of literature to provide a high level
comparative view of the current and future directions for e-learning, and possible implications for policy and practice. The paper does not seek to inform on a technical level and it assumes knowledge of terminology and issues in using technologies in teaching and learning. The authors comment on current and possible events in other sectors that may influence the shape of e-learning in VET. The paper considers issues and developments of a technical,
organisational and pedagogical nature that are likely to generate change in the use of technologies in education and training. The paper offers a view of the driving forces for e-learning, an historical context for its development, and a
vision for the future with recommendations for the Australian Flexible Learning Framework.
link
Louise Housden:
"The idea of the guide is to provide some basic help in getting started with your new TB, some ideas on different ways to use a TB to support flexible delivery, hints and tips plus some other goodies that we thought would be helpful. We had a very strict limit on the number of pages for the CD-based guide so yes - it is brief, but we hope it will be helpful to new users. The guide contains four main sections:
1. Finding your way around the Toolbox.
2. Different ways you can use your Toolbox for training delivery and support.
3. Planning for the implementation of your Toolbox.
4. Helpful websites"