Wow, what a past 2 weeks this has been! I think I have crossed all my T's with visits to Taipei and other parts of Taiwan for a week followed by a trip to Thailand for a week.
Part 1: Taiwan. I am just home yesterday (December 21st) at about noon. Many former students met me in Taiwan. Great place! I got picked up at the airport by Victor Tao and his wife, Naoko Kihara. They had studied at Ohio University in Athens back in the 1990s (where they met), so we had many midwest stories to share. Naoko is about to start 2 Ph.D.'s and Victor is finishing his at National Taiwan University in Taipei.
Former IU master's student and now Ph.D., Dr. Jia-ling Lee, arranged for me to speak at Shih-Hsin University the following day. I talked on blended learning. After that, Jia-ling and 2 of her colleagues took me north on the subway to the sea to see on old Spanish fort (Santo Domingo?). That night former IU students (John Li, Mei-yun Tyan, Effie Chen, and Jalin Huang) took me to dinner at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall cafe. It was so great to see everyone there! Lucifer Chu from the OOPS project also appeared. Effie then took me to a Chinese play of the Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan in the halls above--it was a best of the best of different shows. It was wonderful! So stunning, it is hard to describe here. Not sure if I have ever seen anything like it.
The following day, a former master's student from Applied Linguistics at IU, Jessie Chen, and her friend, Yu-Ling, took me to a number of places. After Jessie and I explored Taipei a bit, we went to the north to a seaside area by train and also the night market for dinner in Taipei.
Sunday, I have taken to Hsinshu which is about 1 hour south of the city. My guide was my trip coordinator, Dr. Sindy Peng (and her mother). On that day, I got a tour of a Haika village by former students, Dr. Mei-Ya Liang, and Dr. Ching-Fen Chang, both graduates of language education at IU though they did not know each other. Many xmas gifts where bought there. Dinner was spent with many former students including Ching-Fen and Mei-Ya and their families and also Feng-Kwei Wang and his family, Jiunde Lee (married to Yu - chen Hsu).
On Monday I visited a primary school which focused on creativity, art, and academics. Great place--the principal gave me a wooden Buddhist carving. Then I gave 2 talks at National Chiao Tung University which were attended by many of their students. Also in the audience were Mei-Ya's husband (Chen Chao (Kevin) Tao ), Dr. Chin-Chi Chao, Dr. Jalin Huang, and Dr. Grace Lin from the Univ of Houston (all friends of mine or former students). At the end, they gave me a wonderful gift--a wooden mini-me. Tuesday, I did a workshop for corporate trainers in Taipei on blended learning for the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). Feng-Kwei Wang who runs ITRI College and his assistant, Cindy Chen, arranged it. That night Victor and his wife Naoko and Grace Lin from the University of Houston and Lucifer Chu from OOPS (Opensource OpenCourseware Prototype System) met me for dinner. After dinner, we went to the top of Taipei 101--the tallest building in the world. Wednesday I gave a talk on podcasts, wikis, and blogs for a conference of the The Institute for Information Industry (III). This one went really good. In the afternoon, I went back to the Institute of Education, National Chiao Tung University for a talk on my research for Ching-Fen's students and colleague and others.
Dr. Sindy (Hsinyi) Peng and her student, Roy (my interpreter), and Mei-Ya and her daughter, Michelle, and others took me to dinner. Sindy drove me to the airport. She was a major help! She coordinated all the details. I owe her bigtime! Seems she has been reading my research. That makes 19 or 20 people in the Bonk fan club. My mom and my Uncle Art were the first ones in.
Part 2: Thailand. I got to Thailand late that night--to keynote an e-learning conference in Bangkok which started the next day. Had fun there too. Met up with former student Kevin Koury who is now an endowed chair in Pennsylvania. It was great to catch up. Randy Garrison from the University of Calgary was also there to keynote as was Nada Dabbaugh from George Mason University. Thitinun (Ta) Boonseng, a student from the University of Missouri was a big help! Ta made sure all the keynotes had fun. So many pictures taken at this conference! Many volunteers to help make this one run smoothly.
Thailand was simply wonderful. While there, I got to tour Bangkok and a wonderful golden temple. You must see it! Also had a monk attend one of my talks and a former monk show me around Chiang Mai. Got to the international floral festival there as well. Many pics. It was like EPCOT in Orlando--many cultures of the world on display.
And I had my 28th b-day when in Bangkok on the 16th. Many people celebrated my bday with me in Bangkok. Entire conference sang happy bday at the closing ceremony and I got an official watch from the King’s bday. Many bands playing at night—my friend Ta had them sing happy bday to me at each pub we visited. What a good time that was! My final stop was Mahasarakham University for 2 talks on December 20th. They had many educational technology students in the audience.
I just got home at noon on the 21st of December (yesterday). Had to fly from Mahasarakham University (a university NE of Bangkok where I had 2 final talks) to Bangkok and then to LAX and then to Chicago and then to Indy. LAX was a zoo and a 6 hour layover. In LA, I sat next to a woman who sorta snuck onto the plane on standby and she would not get off and so after 45 minutes of officials trying to get her to walk off, they called security to take her off. This caused me to be almost late for my flight from Chicago to Indy. They were calling my name for last call as I ran there from another terminal at O'Hare. One bag made it and one did not. Still waiting--the one I am missing has my xmas gifts bought in Chiang Mai which I saw in LAX so I know it made it to the USA. What a terrible trip home but at least I slept nearly the entire time from Bangkok to LA.
I really enjoyed this trip though I am very tired. Ate too much to keep up my energy! I gained almost 10 pounds. I may go back to Taiwan for Wikimania in August.
Some overall reflections. Let's try for 10...
#1. The Asian culture is very special and helpful. I had more support than any trip I have ever taken. Yes, some of it was from former students but much of it was from people I had never met before in my life. This makes the 24 hours of flying worthwhile perhaps.
#2. I want to continue to learn more about the Buddhist religion. I have been given many books on this religion lately. Perhaps it is a sign. Perhaps Bonk should become a Monk. (Bonk the Monk, who would have thunk?)
#3. Many Asian countries look at e-learning as an area for economic growth and a way to spur educational change. It will be interesting to see which country will be the e-learning leader in 2010--will it be Korea, China, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, or Thailand or someplace else? What will a leader role look like?
#4. Blended learning is a concept that is intriguing in Asia but still remains fuzzy with many misunderstandings. Someone could make money consulting on blended learning in Asia. Where will blended learning make its greatest impact--higher education, K-12 schools, government settings, or corporate training?
#5. Taiwan is posed to take a leadership role in the e-learning space and in educational technology in general. Much interest and momentum. But to date, more talk than action; at least, according to our research on blended learning in corporate training.
#6. The open university of Ramkhamhaeng in Bangkok has more than 600,000 students. When will a university reach over a million students? 2 million? As education opens up for learners in remote and not so remote regions of the world, what will happen? How will this change learning as we know it?
#7. Many universities in Taiwan and Thailand are starting to offer Ph.D.'s in educational technology and learning sciences. How will this impact Ph.D. programs in ed tech, learning sciences, and instructional systems technology in the USA? Will my program be negatively affected? I think the emergence of new universities and program in Taiwan has already impacted my program at IU. Not as many students from there today as we had when I started in 1992.
#8. Despite observations made in #7 above, there continue to be students who approach me about coming to the USA for study either for master's, Ph.D., or a post-doc. I know we cannot handle all of them. How to help all these requests? Humm...
#9. During the conference in Bangkok, many people approached me about keynoting regional and international e-learning conferences they are organizing in such places as the Phiippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and elsewhere that will be held in 2007. It certainly seems to be the hot topic of the year in Asia as it was in the USA 5 years ago. Are they just catching up or is this a new wave of interest? Should I commit to keynoting them since this many not last long or take a pass on them and rest up? Hard to say what to do but I am tired from flying home for 24+ hours so perhaps I just learn to say no more often.
#10. The audiences for my talks vary widely. If a department advertizes the talk to the university, often people from other depts will not attend since they think it does not apply. If the university announces it, the people come from all over the campus. And it might be the same talk. Overall, the audiences have been varied and they have been packing the rooms. Many graduate students have been attending my talks which is good to see. I was fortunate to have nearly every talk go well in Taiwan and Thailand. For this I am highly thankful! May this momentum continue into the new year!!!!!
Bonus observation: Presentations at the e-learning conference in Bangkok from Randy Garrison from the University of Calgary in Canada, Nada Dabbaugh from GMU in the USA, and Dr. Said Hadjerrouit of Agder University College in Norway (as well as my own) indicate that people are increasingly considering the pedagogy behind e-learning. This is an important trend for higher education. Nada, Randy, and Said each are developing pedagogical frameworks for reflecting on e-learning. One might take a look at their work. I wonder if IT people in universities will take notice or continue to simply ask IT questions and look at and promote computer log data for their answers. I also wonder if corporate people will also begin to look at pedagogy and online interaction instead of just seek technology solutions.
God bless everyone this holiday season and into 2007.
Friday 22 December 2006
Thursday 30 November 2006
Fall update on speaking, book project (A Web of Learning), etc.
Hi all or anyone who reads this. Sorry for not posting for a while. Four reasons for this:
#1. I have been doing talks at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and also the University of Houston. Both were university-based regional conferences. I made some great new friends at both places and also saw old friends. A good combination! In St. Louis, I took 3 visiting scholars with me--2 from Korea and 1 from China. It was an immensely fun car ride. I learned a lot about life in China and Korea and life as a visiting scholar in the USA. Both conferences were fun for me to do. Successful I think. Seems many people interested in the same topics such as podcasting, wikis, blogs, tablet computers, faculty training and support, digital storytelling. It was great to hear Dr. David Jonassen talk about mindtools when in St. Louis and to have lunch with David. He is perhaps the leading figure in our field right now. David will be in Singapore when I am in Thailand in 2-3 weeks (see below). In Houston, Dr. Bernard Robin showed his fantastic "Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling" site: http://www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling/. Cool stuff. Check it out. Use it!
Both places made me feel at home. Seeing the Arch in St. Louis was great. In Houston, Dr. Mimi Lee and her 2 sons and also Dr. Grace Lin, showed me the Galleria and also a Buddhist temple among other landmarks. That was fun. We also discussed the expansion of our Wikibook research. I think we are exploring this topic at an opportune moment. We will see.
I can see that these regional conferences are becoming the norm. I have pending invites at Purdue, the University of Missouri at Rolla, Northern Illinois Unversity, and 4-5 places in Canada (mostly in Ontario though one came in from Montreal this morning). I do prefer staying in 1-2 day distance for speaking. This is nice!
#2. I have been writing a book with Dr. Ke Zhang from the Wayne State University. The title is
A Web of Learning (Part I): 100+ Online Learner Activities for Reading, Reflecting, Displaying, and Doing. We sent it to the publisher today--a few hours ago I finished this 122,000 word monster. Yikes! We describe the "Web of Learning" in the book and what it offers to auditory, reflective, visual, and hands-on learners. While we do not believe in learning styles, this book outlines our R2D2 method of online learning preferences to address the diverse learners of this world. R2D2 stands for Read, Reflect, Display, and Do. We outline more than 100 strategies (25 in each quadrant) to make it so. We also cover our newest method in the book we call the MATRIX.
#1. I have been doing talks at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and also the University of Houston. Both were university-based regional conferences. I made some great new friends at both places and also saw old friends. A good combination! In St. Louis, I took 3 visiting scholars with me--2 from Korea and 1 from China. It was an immensely fun car ride. I learned a lot about life in China and Korea and life as a visiting scholar in the USA. Both conferences were fun for me to do. Successful I think. Seems many people interested in the same topics such as podcasting, wikis, blogs, tablet computers, faculty training and support, digital storytelling. It was great to hear Dr. David Jonassen talk about mindtools when in St. Louis and to have lunch with David. He is perhaps the leading figure in our field right now. David will be in Singapore when I am in Thailand in 2-3 weeks (see below). In Houston, Dr. Bernard Robin showed his fantastic "Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling" site: http://www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling/. Cool stuff. Check it out. Use it!
Both places made me feel at home. Seeing the Arch in St. Louis was great. In Houston, Dr. Mimi Lee and her 2 sons and also Dr. Grace Lin, showed me the Galleria and also a Buddhist temple among other landmarks. That was fun. We also discussed the expansion of our Wikibook research. I think we are exploring this topic at an opportune moment. We will see.
I can see that these regional conferences are becoming the norm. I have pending invites at Purdue, the University of Missouri at Rolla, Northern Illinois Unversity, and 4-5 places in Canada (mostly in Ontario though one came in from Montreal this morning). I do prefer staying in 1-2 day distance for speaking. This is nice!
#2. I have been writing a book with Dr. Ke Zhang from the Wayne State University. The title is
A Web of Learning (Part I): 100+ Online Learner Activities for Reading, Reflecting, Displaying, and Doing. We sent it to the publisher today--a few hours ago I finished this 122,000 word monster. Yikes! We describe the "Web of Learning" in the book and what it offers to auditory, reflective, visual, and hands-on learners. While we do not believe in learning styles, this book outlines our R2D2 method of online learning preferences to address the diverse learners of this world. R2D2 stands for Read, Reflect, Display, and Do. We outline more than 100 strategies (25 in each quadrant) to make it so. We also cover our newest method in the book we call the MATRIX.
Like R2D2, the new acronym, the “MATRIX” should be familiar for those who frequent science fiction movies. It stands for:
- Mobile
- Auditory/verbal,
- Thought-stimulating,
- Reflective/Real World,
- vIsually Interactive
- eXtremely hands-on
Here are 2 paragraphs from the Preface:
The R2D2 Model
"This book introduces an easy-to-apply, practical model--the R2D2 (read, reflect, display, and do) Model--that should help online instructors integrate various learning activities with appropriate technologies for effective online learning for their diverse online learners (Bonk & Zhang, 2006). The R2D2 method is a new model for designing and delivering distance education, and, in particular, online learning. Such a model is especially important to address the diverse preferences of online learners of varied generations and Internet familiarity. The first component primarily relates to methods to help learners acquire knowledge through online readings, explorations, and podcasting. As such, it addresses verbal and auditory learners. The second component of the model focuses on reflective activities such as online blogs, reflective writing, and self-check activities and examination. In the third quadrant, visual representations of the content are highlighted with activities such as virtual tours, timelines, animations, and concept maps. Fourth, the model emphasizes what learners can do with the content in hands-on activities including simulations, scenarios, and real-time cases. When thoughtfully designed and effectively delivered, content and activities created from the R2D2 perspective (as well as from other perspectives we will outline; see Chapter Fourteen) are more engaging and enriching for learners.
The R2D2 model is not the only way to address learners; it is simply one way. We also include extensive information on other methods or perspectives throughout this book. Still, the R2D2 model will provide a starting point for online instructors to understand the diverse nature of online learners and become better able to address their diversity. It will also afford readers a means to apply the widely available and often free technology tools and resources into many types of learning activities that can address learner diversity and needs. While the journals and research literature devoted to online teaching and learning continues to mount, there is a severe lack of practical models like the R2D2 model to help instructors with easy to apply learning activities that result in effective and enjoyable online learning."
The publisher is Jossey Bass. I am not sure when it will come out. This is Part 1. Part 2 will be on online motivation and retention which I plan to write in the spring. Let's see if, when you read the book, you become convinced that we educator should rename "the Web," "the Web of Learning." Also I would love your reactions related to R2D2 and the MATRIX.
#3. I have been organizing my schedule so I can go to Taiwan Dec 6-13 and Thailand Dec 13-20. Back home on the 21st. Will see old friends in both places. My first graduate student, Dr. Kevin Koury, now an endowed professor at the University of Pennsylvania at California, will meet me in Thailand. Kevin is a very fun and frank individual. It will great to see him. Former students in Taiwan who I will see include Feng-Kwei Wang, John Li, Chin-Chi Chao, Mei-Ya Liang, Effie Chen, Ching-Fen Chang, Jalin Huang, Jessie Chen, and Jia-ling Lee. That is a lot of people! It will be great to see them all as well. Some touring planned despite 7-8 talks there. The big talk will be to corporate trainers on blended learning since it is an all day one. Lucifer Chu of OOPS fame, and the person who translated Lord of the Rings to Chinese and became a millionaire for that effort, will show me around as well. OOPS is the OpenSource OpenCourseWare Prototype System which is translating MIT courses to traditional and simplified Chinese.
#4. I have to attend 3 doctoral dissertations in the next 24 hours. Yikes! Some old timers getting done so that is great. Including Guoping Ma who works at Microsoft and showed my son and I around Redmond a year ago when he looked at the University of Washington for college. He did not go there but it was fun to see. You can read my blog from last November for more info on that trip.
All for now. Back with an update after Taiwan and Thailand.
Sunday 22 October 2006
Lots of things shaking at E-Learn in Hawaii (like earthquakes)
Time for some news on E-Learn in Honululu held October 13-17, 2006. This was the fourth straight year that I have attended this conference (Phoenix in 2003; DC in 2004; Vancouver in 2005; and now the Aloha State). It was perhaps the most picturesque place for a conference. What stunning views from the Sheraton Waikiki!!! Most sessions I gave had a window in the back of the room with a view of the Pacific and the hotel swimming pool and bar area as well as Diamond Head mountain to the righthand side.
My colleagues and I gave talks on blended learning in corporate training in Korea as well as Tawain. Other talks were on developing a sense of community online with Dr. Xiaojing Liu which won an outstanding paper award. Hooray for Xiaoing! Also gave talks on podcast, wikis, and blogs; as part of this, one of my graduate students and I gave a paper on Wikibooks. And I gave a talk to the University of Hawaii faculty and staff on my online survey tool, SurveyShare.
I was surpised how many people were interested in blended learning and transfer issues in corporate training settings. I figured that we would get 5-10 people but we got from 30-100 people at the various sessions. Perhaps there were not enough corporate training sessions at the conference or perhaps people are really interested in adult learning or perhaps these papers were just timely. We are actually studying blended learning China, Taiwan, Korea, US, and UK. All 9 talks went well I think. Seems like I was preparing one and then delivering it and then reloading for another talk for like 6 straight days. Happy to share paper with those who request them. Write to cjbonk@indiana.edu. Here are the topics and titles.
1. Son, S., Oh. E. J., Bonk, C. J., & Kim, K. J. (2006, October). The future of blended learning in corporate and other training settings in Korea. Paper presented at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
2. Teng, Y., Bonk, C. J., & Kim, K. J. (2006, October). The current development of blended learning in workplace learning in Taiwan. Paper presented at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
3. Zhang, K., & Bonk, C. J. (2006, October). The R2D2 model for effective online teaching and enjoyable online learning. Paper presented at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
4. Liu, X., Magjuka, R. J., Bonk, C. J., & Lee, S. H. (2006, October). Does sense of community matter? An examination of participants’ perspectives in online courses. Paper presented at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
5. Lee, J., Bonk, C. J., & Park, A. (2006, October). Design of blended learning environment ensuring transfer of training. Paper presented at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
6. Sajjapanroj, S., Bonk, C. J., Lee. M., & Lin, G. (2006, October). The challenges and successes of wikibookian experts and want-to-bees. Paper presented at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
7. Bonk, C. J., Oh, E. J., & Teng, Y. (2006, October). Blended Learning: Situations, Solutions, and Several Surprises. Tutorial presentation at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
8. Bonk, C. J., Zhang, K., & Barton, S. M. (2006, October). Podcasts and Wikis and Blogs, Oh My!: Online Learning is Not in Kansas Anymore. Tutorial presentation at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
After the conference, I gave this talk at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, "Introducing SurveyShare: Surveying the Online World."
The following papers were presented by my research team the same week in Dallas at AECT:
1. Liu, X., Magjuka, R. J., Bonk, C., J., & Lee, S. (2006, October). Participants’ perceptions of building learning communities in online MBA courses. Paper presented at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) 2006 Annual International Convention, Dallas, TX.
2. Su, B., Bonk, C., J., & Magjuka, R. J., (2006, October). Experiences versus preferences of online interactions. Paper presented at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) 2006 Annual International Convention, Dallas, TX.
3. Lee, S., Lee, J., Liu, X., Magjuka, R. J., & Bonk, C., J., & (2006, October). Analysis of case-based learning in an online MBA program: The good, the bad, and the ugly. Paper presented at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) 2006 Annual International Convention, Dallas, TX.
4. Kim, K. J., Bonk, C. J., Teng, Y., Son, S. J., Zeng, T., & Oh, E. J. (2006, October). Future trends of blended learning in workplace learning across different cultures. Paper presented at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) 2006 Annual International Convention, Dallas, TX.
It was some week!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, the E-Learn conference keynotes covered such areas as digital libraries, learning objects, authentic learning, and online learning in K-12 education (I was a keynote at the conference last year and spoke about how the learning world had become flat--see earlier blog post). Susan Patrick from the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) was the first speaker. While she looks young, she has many years of experience in K-12 education. She was highly passionate about the need to address K-12 learning with innovative ideas, risk taking, creativity, competition, and leadership.
Her interesting points included that the Intel science fair attracts 65,000 students from US classrooms and 6,000,000 from Chinese classrooms. Humm..who stands a better chance of winning. While her numbers related to the growth of online learning were a bit dated (2 millions learners in higher education and 500,000 in K-12 online), her points resonated with me. She noted that we are looking at 30 percent growth per year. There is huge potential for new programming if this trend continues. Unfortunately, she also had statistics on high school drop out rates (68-70 percent) as well as disapointing numbers related to reading, math, and science in the US. There are opportunities for greater self-directed learning online and for increasing student synthesis, evaluation, and analysis skills if done right.
Interesting that she noted a Gallup Poll which said that 40 percent of those surveyed think that students should take at least 1 online class prior to high school graduation. She also noted the State of Michigan's new requirement to do just that. And while 96 percent of kids believe that doing well in school is important, most kids say school is boring. Nearly 70 percent are not motivated and they simply lack challenges.
To resolve these issues, we need to modernize our learning environments. We also need to update our high school requirements. Technology can definitely help in that regard. She gave one other TIP--Trust, Integrity, and Passion. Those are the core values underlying leadership.
Jan Herrington from the University of Wollongong in Australia was the third keynote (I missed the 2nd one from Mary Marlino on Digital libraries since we had no power in our hotel and her talk was moved to late in the day--see below for details on why that was). Jan discussed authentic e-learning designs in higher education. Like her colleague Tom Reeves from the University of Georgia and Ron Oliver from Edith Cowan University in Australia have detailed in a book chapter in my Handbook of Blended Learning, there are many principles or factors in the design of authentic environments. Such factors include (1) authentic contexts, (2) authentic task selection, (3) expert performance assessment, (4) multiple perspectives, (5) collaboration, (6) articulation, (7) reflection, (8) scaffolding and coaching, and (9) authentic assessment. She noted that Tom Reeves believes that task selection is the key variable and I think I agree with that. Of course, many of these principles parallel those espoused by Brown, Collins, and Duguid on situated cognition back in 1988-1990.
Jan had many interesting and useful ideas. Some of these included real world scenarios for authentic contexts and planning a trip to Italy for tourism students or a planned Mission to Mars for engineering students for authentic tasks. Also, interviews with design experts and placing podcasts and vodcasts of expert guests on the web for expert performances and assessments. Using digital libraries, searching Google Scholar, and other online resources can help with multiple perspectives. Tools like wikis and blogs can help foster collaboration. And so might having students design an online journal (students write and publish to the online journal; perhaps all students can be board members of that online journal). Reflection activities might be developed through blogging as well as in other types of journaling. Scaffolding and coaching might be accomplished through track changes in Word documents. And finally, authentic assessment might be best displayed in electronic portfolios of student work. In addition, students might design web pages, create movie documentaries, develop products or presentations for stakeholders (as computer science and business students sometimes do for local businesses), and post downloadable reports online. They might write an occupational health and safety evaluation guide.
She also showed a research methods course for Edith Cowan that was a vitual environment wherein students did both quantitative and qualitative research. They used online data files, interviewed experts, etc. Across these tasks, students are doing something instead of simply being taught something. They are exploring, filtering information, performing real world tasks, conducting exciting research, making new connections, and sharing their discoveries. Now this is learning.
I only attended part of the final keynote session from Byan Eldridge on how digital repositories are revolutionizing the learning enterprise. He was attempting to provide a synthesis of instructional design, learning standards, and best practices. I did not stay long since I had to prepare a final presentation on Wikibooks later that morning. It looked interesting though. Some final comments about the presentations at eLearn--it is a highly international conference. Many people from Japan (our hotel must have had 60 percent Japanese) and Korea, Taiwan, Australia, UK, Thailand, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and South Africa. And some from Chile, Outer Mongolia, Germany, and New Zealand.
There were even two high school students presenting at E-Learn. Matthew Richards and Justin Baker presented with their advisor, Dr. David Brown, at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics. They had a roundtable presentation on "Massively Multi-player Online Gaming: Lessons Learned from an MMPG Short Course for High School Students." They also had a presentation on how "High School Student Research Success Lies in Mirroring Graduate Student Paradigms." It is amazing to see high school kids present at an international conference; especially with peer reviews. It is even more amazing when they stayed for a 5th year of high school since they love it so much. Yes, a 5th year! Here they are being treated as human beings instead of being drilled facts--they learn much more through inquiry, self-initiated learning, teacher coaching, synthesis, personal ambition, etc. This was excellent to see.
Not many people from last year at the conference except for Jon Dron from Brighton (he gave a great talk on why any color is ok as long as it is Blackboard). This was a highly entertaining talk. Jon is great!!!
Now in terms of the 2nd keynote which was moved to late in the day. This was due to earthquakes on Sunday the 14th. The conference was not on the big island which had the 2 big 6.8 amd 6.0 quakes next to it but we were still highly affected. As indicated, the conference was in Honolulu at the Sheraton Waikiki. Sunday was really crazy. I was on 19th floor of hotel and the bed I was on and the entire room really swayed back and forth. Many people I later talked to who were in rooms above me were highly scared. The 2nd quake hit a few seconds after the first one and we had no more power and elevators. I had to walk up and down 19 floors to get my props and to change clothes. Ke Zhang and I did our R2D2 presentation without PP slides--using my computer as the screen.
There was no power till 9 or 10 pm. All conference talks that day were done without PowerPoint. Ya!
I have never had a day like that before. Long long lines for food. Our hotel was great though for serving food. We were all lucky to be at the Sheraton Waikiki. Not much damage in Honolulu, but I heard on big Island there is some. Fortunately, the weather was great for the 3 days after the earthquake and 3 days before it. It is the best place for a conference--better than Vancouver even where the conference was the year before.
Good to be home now.
Mahalo!!!!!!!!!!!
My colleagues and I gave talks on blended learning in corporate training in Korea as well as Tawain. Other talks were on developing a sense of community online with Dr. Xiaojing Liu which won an outstanding paper award. Hooray for Xiaoing! Also gave talks on podcast, wikis, and blogs; as part of this, one of my graduate students and I gave a paper on Wikibooks. And I gave a talk to the University of Hawaii faculty and staff on my online survey tool, SurveyShare.
I was surpised how many people were interested in blended learning and transfer issues in corporate training settings. I figured that we would get 5-10 people but we got from 30-100 people at the various sessions. Perhaps there were not enough corporate training sessions at the conference or perhaps people are really interested in adult learning or perhaps these papers were just timely. We are actually studying blended learning China, Taiwan, Korea, US, and UK. All 9 talks went well I think. Seems like I was preparing one and then delivering it and then reloading for another talk for like 6 straight days. Happy to share paper with those who request them. Write to cjbonk@indiana.edu. Here are the topics and titles.
1. Son, S., Oh. E. J., Bonk, C. J., & Kim, K. J. (2006, October). The future of blended learning in corporate and other training settings in Korea. Paper presented at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
2. Teng, Y., Bonk, C. J., & Kim, K. J. (2006, October). The current development of blended learning in workplace learning in Taiwan. Paper presented at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
3. Zhang, K., & Bonk, C. J. (2006, October). The R2D2 model for effective online teaching and enjoyable online learning. Paper presented at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
4. Liu, X., Magjuka, R. J., Bonk, C. J., & Lee, S. H. (2006, October). Does sense of community matter? An examination of participants’ perspectives in online courses. Paper presented at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
5. Lee, J., Bonk, C. J., & Park, A. (2006, October). Design of blended learning environment ensuring transfer of training. Paper presented at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
6. Sajjapanroj, S., Bonk, C. J., Lee. M., & Lin, G. (2006, October). The challenges and successes of wikibookian experts and want-to-bees. Paper presented at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
7. Bonk, C. J., Oh, E. J., & Teng, Y. (2006, October). Blended Learning: Situations, Solutions, and Several Surprises. Tutorial presentation at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
8. Bonk, C. J., Zhang, K., & Barton, S. M. (2006, October). Podcasts and Wikis and Blogs, Oh My!: Online Learning is Not in Kansas Anymore. Tutorial presentation at the E-Learn Conference 2006—World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Honolulu, Hawaii.
After the conference, I gave this talk at the University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, "Introducing SurveyShare: Surveying the Online World."
The following papers were presented by my research team the same week in Dallas at AECT:
1. Liu, X., Magjuka, R. J., Bonk, C., J., & Lee, S. (2006, October). Participants’ perceptions of building learning communities in online MBA courses. Paper presented at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) 2006 Annual International Convention, Dallas, TX.
2. Su, B., Bonk, C., J., & Magjuka, R. J., (2006, October). Experiences versus preferences of online interactions. Paper presented at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) 2006 Annual International Convention, Dallas, TX.
3. Lee, S., Lee, J., Liu, X., Magjuka, R. J., & Bonk, C., J., & (2006, October). Analysis of case-based learning in an online MBA program: The good, the bad, and the ugly. Paper presented at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) 2006 Annual International Convention, Dallas, TX.
4. Kim, K. J., Bonk, C. J., Teng, Y., Son, S. J., Zeng, T., & Oh, E. J. (2006, October). Future trends of blended learning in workplace learning across different cultures. Paper presented at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) 2006 Annual International Convention, Dallas, TX.
It was some week!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, the E-Learn conference keynotes covered such areas as digital libraries, learning objects, authentic learning, and online learning in K-12 education (I was a keynote at the conference last year and spoke about how the learning world had become flat--see earlier blog post). Susan Patrick from the North American Council for Online Learning (NACOL) was the first speaker. While she looks young, she has many years of experience in K-12 education. She was highly passionate about the need to address K-12 learning with innovative ideas, risk taking, creativity, competition, and leadership.
Her interesting points included that the Intel science fair attracts 65,000 students from US classrooms and 6,000,000 from Chinese classrooms. Humm..who stands a better chance of winning. While her numbers related to the growth of online learning were a bit dated (2 millions learners in higher education and 500,000 in K-12 online), her points resonated with me. She noted that we are looking at 30 percent growth per year. There is huge potential for new programming if this trend continues. Unfortunately, she also had statistics on high school drop out rates (68-70 percent) as well as disapointing numbers related to reading, math, and science in the US. There are opportunities for greater self-directed learning online and for increasing student synthesis, evaluation, and analysis skills if done right.
Interesting that she noted a Gallup Poll which said that 40 percent of those surveyed think that students should take at least 1 online class prior to high school graduation. She also noted the State of Michigan's new requirement to do just that. And while 96 percent of kids believe that doing well in school is important, most kids say school is boring. Nearly 70 percent are not motivated and they simply lack challenges.
To resolve these issues, we need to modernize our learning environments. We also need to update our high school requirements. Technology can definitely help in that regard. She gave one other TIP--Trust, Integrity, and Passion. Those are the core values underlying leadership.
Jan Herrington from the University of Wollongong in Australia was the third keynote (I missed the 2nd one from Mary Marlino on Digital libraries since we had no power in our hotel and her talk was moved to late in the day--see below for details on why that was). Jan discussed authentic e-learning designs in higher education. Like her colleague Tom Reeves from the University of Georgia and Ron Oliver from Edith Cowan University in Australia have detailed in a book chapter in my Handbook of Blended Learning, there are many principles or factors in the design of authentic environments. Such factors include (1) authentic contexts, (2) authentic task selection, (3) expert performance assessment, (4) multiple perspectives, (5) collaboration, (6) articulation, (7) reflection, (8) scaffolding and coaching, and (9) authentic assessment. She noted that Tom Reeves believes that task selection is the key variable and I think I agree with that. Of course, many of these principles parallel those espoused by Brown, Collins, and Duguid on situated cognition back in 1988-1990.
Jan had many interesting and useful ideas. Some of these included real world scenarios for authentic contexts and planning a trip to Italy for tourism students or a planned Mission to Mars for engineering students for authentic tasks. Also, interviews with design experts and placing podcasts and vodcasts of expert guests on the web for expert performances and assessments. Using digital libraries, searching Google Scholar, and other online resources can help with multiple perspectives. Tools like wikis and blogs can help foster collaboration. And so might having students design an online journal (students write and publish to the online journal; perhaps all students can be board members of that online journal). Reflection activities might be developed through blogging as well as in other types of journaling. Scaffolding and coaching might be accomplished through track changes in Word documents. And finally, authentic assessment might be best displayed in electronic portfolios of student work. In addition, students might design web pages, create movie documentaries, develop products or presentations for stakeholders (as computer science and business students sometimes do for local businesses), and post downloadable reports online. They might write an occupational health and safety evaluation guide.
She also showed a research methods course for Edith Cowan that was a vitual environment wherein students did both quantitative and qualitative research. They used online data files, interviewed experts, etc. Across these tasks, students are doing something instead of simply being taught something. They are exploring, filtering information, performing real world tasks, conducting exciting research, making new connections, and sharing their discoveries. Now this is learning.
I only attended part of the final keynote session from Byan Eldridge on how digital repositories are revolutionizing the learning enterprise. He was attempting to provide a synthesis of instructional design, learning standards, and best practices. I did not stay long since I had to prepare a final presentation on Wikibooks later that morning. It looked interesting though. Some final comments about the presentations at eLearn--it is a highly international conference. Many people from Japan (our hotel must have had 60 percent Japanese) and Korea, Taiwan, Australia, UK, Thailand, Canada, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and South Africa. And some from Chile, Outer Mongolia, Germany, and New Zealand.
There were even two high school students presenting at E-Learn. Matthew Richards and Justin Baker presented with their advisor, Dr. David Brown, at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics. They had a roundtable presentation on "Massively Multi-player Online Gaming: Lessons Learned from an MMPG Short Course for High School Students." They also had a presentation on how "High School Student Research Success Lies in Mirroring Graduate Student Paradigms." It is amazing to see high school kids present at an international conference; especially with peer reviews. It is even more amazing when they stayed for a 5th year of high school since they love it so much. Yes, a 5th year! Here they are being treated as human beings instead of being drilled facts--they learn much more through inquiry, self-initiated learning, teacher coaching, synthesis, personal ambition, etc. This was excellent to see.
Not many people from last year at the conference except for Jon Dron from Brighton (he gave a great talk on why any color is ok as long as it is Blackboard). This was a highly entertaining talk. Jon is great!!!
Now in terms of the 2nd keynote which was moved to late in the day. This was due to earthquakes on Sunday the 14th. The conference was not on the big island which had the 2 big 6.8 amd 6.0 quakes next to it but we were still highly affected. As indicated, the conference was in Honolulu at the Sheraton Waikiki. Sunday was really crazy. I was on 19th floor of hotel and the bed I was on and the entire room really swayed back and forth. Many people I later talked to who were in rooms above me were highly scared. The 2nd quake hit a few seconds after the first one and we had no more power and elevators. I had to walk up and down 19 floors to get my props and to change clothes. Ke Zhang and I did our R2D2 presentation without PP slides--using my computer as the screen.
There was no power till 9 or 10 pm. All conference talks that day were done without PowerPoint. Ya!
I have never had a day like that before. Long long lines for food. Our hotel was great though for serving food. We were all lucky to be at the Sheraton Waikiki. Not much damage in Honolulu, but I heard on big Island there is some. Fortunately, the weather was great for the 3 days after the earthquake and 3 days before it. It is the best place for a conference--better than Vancouver even where the conference was the year before.
Good to be home now.
Mahalo!!!!!!!!!!!
Tuesday 3 October 2006
Scotland visit and the next generation of learner and learning environment
Hi all. Sorry no post recently. I have been hard at work on a book (not busy--people know I do not use that word. Kindergarten kids are busy not me and hopefully not you either.). The book is called: “A Web of Learning (Part I): 100+ Ideas for Online Learner Reading, Reflecting, Displaying, and Doing.” Part 2 will be related to online motivation and retention and another 100 strategies for 10 aspects of motivation (10 each for feedback, climate, engagement, variety, etc.). The third part, if there is one, will be 100 ideas for blended learning.
I have not been feeling well the past 2 months but finally am ok. Perhaps I got e-coli virus that was in the news. Not sure. But ok now and the energy is back.
Was in Scotland for 11 days in September. Lots of interesting e-learning projects happening there; especially at Napier University in Edinburgh where I spent a few days and gave 3 talks (on wikis, podcasts, and blogs; on blended learning; and on how the learning world has become flat). I also managed to also present at the University of Aberdeen as well as Robert Gordon University when there which are both in Aberdeen (a 2 hour train ride to the north of Edinburgh). Good people. Second time to present at both the Univ of Aberdeen which has a beatiful and very old campus some of dating back like 800 years. It is definitely worth a visit. And then there is Napier University and the Craighouse campus with its simply stunning views. Wish I had been feeling better that week but I was ok.
I got a chance to see some good friends during the during the annual Advanced Learning Technologies (ALT-C) Conference which was in Edinburgh when I was there. People like Diana Oblinger, Tim O'Shea, and Diane Oblinger were the keynotes and famous folks like Terry Anderson and Gilly Salmon chaired the different conference themes or strands. Seems a heavy emphasis on podcasting, the use of wikis, and blogging during this conference. Also, a theme to consider the next generation of learners so there were many presenters on that as well as much attention to personalized learning environments.
One interesting fact was that a workshop on brainstorming what the generation of online learning environments might look like, attracted the president of Desire to Learn (John Baker). John stood in the back of the room next to me; I noticed that no one from Blackboard was in the room--they were likely too busy filing their next lawsuit or looking for technology that they needed to patent which likely existed 20 years before they thought of it. I applaud DesireToLearn for their desire to learn here. John listened intently while adding an idea or 2 to the 30-40 minute conversation that we had. Wow! Did the people in the room realize the power that they all had? All they had to do was turn around and make suggestions to John and let them build some stuff that Blackboard never conceived of patenting. How could they conceive of next generation learning tools when they are so busy patenting stuff developed decades ago? DesireToLearn and those in the room look forward not back. All of us in the room wanted to be using something better--more learner centered or focused. A learning environment inviting people to learn not simply tracking if and when people were in the system.
Anyway, the room was packed with people; as I hinted, it was standing room only. The session chair, in fact, would not let anyone else in the room so I snuck in the back door and listened. After 3-4 short presentations showcasing what is happening and might be coming, they had small groups of 8-10 people discuss what might happen next and list their pts or design their new system. It was fascinating hearing the conversations. And, what was really funny (though quite typical and unfortunate) was to see one person from a particular group next to me go up to present and not say anything that the group said, just the pts he wanted to make. Smile. And this group has some great insights or so I thought.
I also got the Loch Ness when in Scotland but saw no monster. Darn! The bus ride to get there made me nausious. I visited 3 different castles when there--one south of Aberdeen, the Edinburgh Castle, and one at Loch Ness. I hope to put some pics in my Flickr site soon. Scotland is a wonderful place.
Oh, speaking of the next generation of learner, there is a wonderful article today in the USA Today front page of the Life section (see http://www.usatoday.com/life/2006-10-02-gennext-tech_x.htm) on wireless learning on college campuses. It features Ball State as it was claimed to be the most unwired college campus by Intel in a 2005. I think IU had that distinction the prior year with Purdue right behind it (http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/news/news.asp?id=115). What does this say about Indiana colleges and universities? Well, we are highly technology supported. And perhaps our public relations personnel are pretty good. Indiana is a good place to work if you are into technology rich learning environments or do research on it like me. Lots going on here and even more to come.
Back to the USA Today article--it had an interesting story of a student to downloaded his course schedule everyday, added to his electronic portfolio in teacher education (including lesson plans), downloaded music, chatted with friends, checked email, checked out his Facebook site, etc. Technology for this generation is second nature. They live off of Internet access as well as text messaging friends with their cell phones. Is that a problem as some in the article argue. Perhaps. But I think this generation is simply taking advantage of the ways of communicating of this particular age.
They are coping. They are also showing us what works or might work. I recommend you read the article. It is a good one. Here is a quote from it: "'This is so core to their social experience — to their identities — to what it means to be a young person and a student in 2006,' says Richard Katz of the non-profit Educause, which promotes the use of information technology in higher education." This quote reminds me of my blog post a few months about how we gain a sense of identity from our online activities; especially our blogs. All for now.
I have not been feeling well the past 2 months but finally am ok. Perhaps I got e-coli virus that was in the news. Not sure. But ok now and the energy is back.
Was in Scotland for 11 days in September. Lots of interesting e-learning projects happening there; especially at Napier University in Edinburgh where I spent a few days and gave 3 talks (on wikis, podcasts, and blogs; on blended learning; and on how the learning world has become flat). I also managed to also present at the University of Aberdeen as well as Robert Gordon University when there which are both in Aberdeen (a 2 hour train ride to the north of Edinburgh). Good people. Second time to present at both the Univ of Aberdeen which has a beatiful and very old campus some of dating back like 800 years. It is definitely worth a visit. And then there is Napier University and the Craighouse campus with its simply stunning views. Wish I had been feeling better that week but I was ok.
I got a chance to see some good friends during the during the annual Advanced Learning Technologies (ALT-C) Conference which was in Edinburgh when I was there. People like Diana Oblinger, Tim O'Shea, and Diane Oblinger were the keynotes and famous folks like Terry Anderson and Gilly Salmon chaired the different conference themes or strands. Seems a heavy emphasis on podcasting, the use of wikis, and blogging during this conference. Also, a theme to consider the next generation of learners so there were many presenters on that as well as much attention to personalized learning environments.
One interesting fact was that a workshop on brainstorming what the generation of online learning environments might look like, attracted the president of Desire to Learn (John Baker). John stood in the back of the room next to me; I noticed that no one from Blackboard was in the room--they were likely too busy filing their next lawsuit or looking for technology that they needed to patent which likely existed 20 years before they thought of it. I applaud DesireToLearn for their desire to learn here. John listened intently while adding an idea or 2 to the 30-40 minute conversation that we had. Wow! Did the people in the room realize the power that they all had? All they had to do was turn around and make suggestions to John and let them build some stuff that Blackboard never conceived of patenting. How could they conceive of next generation learning tools when they are so busy patenting stuff developed decades ago? DesireToLearn and those in the room look forward not back. All of us in the room wanted to be using something better--more learner centered or focused. A learning environment inviting people to learn not simply tracking if and when people were in the system.
Anyway, the room was packed with people; as I hinted, it was standing room only. The session chair, in fact, would not let anyone else in the room so I snuck in the back door and listened. After 3-4 short presentations showcasing what is happening and might be coming, they had small groups of 8-10 people discuss what might happen next and list their pts or design their new system. It was fascinating hearing the conversations. And, what was really funny (though quite typical and unfortunate) was to see one person from a particular group next to me go up to present and not say anything that the group said, just the pts he wanted to make. Smile. And this group has some great insights or so I thought.
I also got the Loch Ness when in Scotland but saw no monster. Darn! The bus ride to get there made me nausious. I visited 3 different castles when there--one south of Aberdeen, the Edinburgh Castle, and one at Loch Ness. I hope to put some pics in my Flickr site soon. Scotland is a wonderful place.
Oh, speaking of the next generation of learner, there is a wonderful article today in the USA Today front page of the Life section (see http://www.usatoday.com/life/2006-10-02-gennext-tech_x.htm) on wireless learning on college campuses. It features Ball State as it was claimed to be the most unwired college campus by Intel in a 2005. I think IU had that distinction the prior year with Purdue right behind it (http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/news/news.asp?id=115). What does this say about Indiana colleges and universities? Well, we are highly technology supported. And perhaps our public relations personnel are pretty good. Indiana is a good place to work if you are into technology rich learning environments or do research on it like me. Lots going on here and even more to come.
Back to the USA Today article--it had an interesting story of a student to downloaded his course schedule everyday, added to his electronic portfolio in teacher education (including lesson plans), downloaded music, chatted with friends, checked email, checked out his Facebook site, etc. Technology for this generation is second nature. They live off of Internet access as well as text messaging friends with their cell phones. Is that a problem as some in the article argue. Perhaps. But I think this generation is simply taking advantage of the ways of communicating of this particular age.
They are coping. They are also showing us what works or might work. I recommend you read the article. It is a good one. Here is a quote from it: "'This is so core to their social experience — to their identities — to what it means to be a young person and a student in 2006,' says Richard Katz of the non-profit Educause, which promotes the use of information technology in higher education." This quote reminds me of my blog post a few months about how we gain a sense of identity from our online activities; especially our blogs. All for now.
Sunday 6 August 2006
Bucaneer Bonk and His Belated Blackboard the Pirate Top Ten List
Ahoy Matey! Did ye hear the story about Blackboard the Pirate? Well shiver my timbers, there has certainly been a lot of chatter tis past week about the supposed patents of Blackboard the Pirate and the resultin lawsuit against "XYZ." Tis not somethin for those that are lily-livered that be for sure! Give me some grog! It be time perhaps ter get loaded ter the gunwales. Arrrr!!!! I have heard nothin on tis from my mates here in the US but instead email keeps comin in from the UK on tis topic for some reason. Yo-ho-ho!!! Remember the "THE GAUDET FAMILY PIRATING SONG" (see http://www.talklikeapirate.com/songs2.html Yo-ho-ho mates!!! Please hand over the bottle of rum! Bucaneer Bonk out... Note: The rest of this extremely long blog post has been (at least temporarily) removed. If interested, write to the author for the full version (email: curt at WorldisOpen.com)
Tuesday 4 July 2006
A Comment on Bob Mosher's article in CLO Magazine "Moving from One to the Many."
I read through Chief Learning Officer Magazine for July 2006 (see http://www.clomedia.com/content/templates/clo_section.asp?articleid=1448&zoneid=99) yesterday and was impressed with their articles on blended learning (2 articles), simulations, innovative technologies (Brandon Hall), and the democratization of content (Elliott Masie). I was perhaps most moved by the article from Bob Mosher (who has a chapter in my blended learning handbook) entitled: "Moving from One to Many." See page 15 of the July issue or see http://www.clomedia.com/content/templates/clo_article.asp?articleid=1439&zoneid=51
I just zipped off an email to Bob. Here is what I said to him:
"I appreciated your article in CLO this month. There are masses of hypocrites out there who espouse problem-based learning, virtual teaming, collaboration, and online communities of practice, yet the tools for training remain centered at discrete knowledge bits of individuals. My e-learning and blended learning surveys indicate that it is the boring LMSs which have caught everyone’s attention. Why? Well, they can track learners and their learning that way. I am reminded of my accounting exams back in undergraduate days that sacrificed many a student with such tests but those who eked through the slaughter were no more prepared for the real world interactions and collaborations that were needed.
Yes, LMSs place learners in silos as you say, in a time, when learning is viewed best as a social event. We learn from our interactions with others—trainers, supervisors, experts, peers, team members, SMEs, guests, mentors, coaches, semi-intelligent agents, etc. Yet we continue to push learners into these silos and drool over mindless data that an LMS provides—minutes or hours online, tasks completed, time of day online, throughput, etc. As a former accountant, I see this computer log data as nearly meaningless. It took minutes to program into the system. When are vendors going to start to build tools and tasks for human learning and collaboration? Tools for brainstorming with team members, tools for mapping out one’s thoughts and ideas, tools for evaluating thoughts or ideas suggested, tools for comparing or categorizing ideas, tools for teaming, tools for timelining, tools for role play or debate, tools for juxtapositioning of ideas, and tools for mentoring and coaching? What say you?
We are in a learner-centered world using learning “management” systems. It is still the preprescribed behavioral approach that is winning out not an active or constructivist learning one. How come few people see this and raise the red flags as you have done? Why? Well, because they have done the easy part here—they can map out the learning of factual knowledge among individual learners. We must do better.
Nice article Bob. Think that the hypocrites will wake up? Me neither. Keep writing this good stuff!"
I just zipped off an email to Bob. Here is what I said to him:
"I appreciated your article in CLO this month. There are masses of hypocrites out there who espouse problem-based learning, virtual teaming, collaboration, and online communities of practice, yet the tools for training remain centered at discrete knowledge bits of individuals. My e-learning and blended learning surveys indicate that it is the boring LMSs which have caught everyone’s attention. Why? Well, they can track learners and their learning that way. I am reminded of my accounting exams back in undergraduate days that sacrificed many a student with such tests but those who eked through the slaughter were no more prepared for the real world interactions and collaborations that were needed.
Yes, LMSs place learners in silos as you say, in a time, when learning is viewed best as a social event. We learn from our interactions with others—trainers, supervisors, experts, peers, team members, SMEs, guests, mentors, coaches, semi-intelligent agents, etc. Yet we continue to push learners into these silos and drool over mindless data that an LMS provides—minutes or hours online, tasks completed, time of day online, throughput, etc. As a former accountant, I see this computer log data as nearly meaningless. It took minutes to program into the system. When are vendors going to start to build tools and tasks for human learning and collaboration? Tools for brainstorming with team members, tools for mapping out one’s thoughts and ideas, tools for evaluating thoughts or ideas suggested, tools for comparing or categorizing ideas, tools for teaming, tools for timelining, tools for role play or debate, tools for juxtapositioning of ideas, and tools for mentoring and coaching? What say you?
We are in a learner-centered world using learning “management” systems. It is still the preprescribed behavioral approach that is winning out not an active or constructivist learning one. How come few people see this and raise the red flags as you have done? Why? Well, because they have done the easy part here—they can map out the learning of factual knowledge among individual learners. We must do better.
Nice article Bob. Think that the hypocrites will wake up? Me neither. Keep writing this good stuff!"
Sunday 4 June 2006
E-Learning in the UK
In mid May, I spent a week visiting universities and institutes in the UK. I got the University of Glamorgan in Wales, Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford (30 minutes northeast of London by train), the University of Brighton (40 minutes or south of London by train) which is on the Atlantic, and King's College in London; in that order. I also spent some time in Bath and in London when not presenting somewhere. I was greeted by many great people along the way. I got to stay with my friend Dr. John Stephenson when in Bath and we explored the Roman Baths a bit. There was also an international music festival going on when I was there. I also got to see the Tate Modern Museum, St. Paul Cathedral (all 534 steps with a spectacular view of London), and the Victoria and Albert's Museum (see http://www.vam.ac.uk/).
Norah Jones (the researcher, not the singer) was opening a new Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) which was focusing on blended learning. Their Vice Provost seems very supportive for it. Norah has a staff not only designing interesting and engaging blended learning experiences with simulations, flash animations, and so on, but also has people doing research on it. She has developed a respect from the administators and staff there. The Univ of Glamorgan is near Cardiff which claims to be the fastest growing capital of Europe. Vibrant shopping, lucious eating, and beautiful scenary there. I loved exploring the Cariff Castle and need to post some pics of it at my Flickr site soon. Both of my keynotes went well there--on ATuesday night we opened their CELT with my talk on blended learning being the keynote. I also spoke on blended learning the following morning. I went over both times but Norah was ok with it. The 2nd one was more about the future of blended learning.
It seems that the UK has money for e-learning specialists now. The money for the UK-EU, which no longer exists, was apparently reapportioned to universities throughout the UK for e-learning initiatives. As a result, they have many jobs posted at the Guardian for e-learning managers, specialists, project coordinators, multimedia people, evaluators, and so on. These are exciting times in the UK if you are in the field of e-learning. There are only so many e-learning specialists, so such people seem to be in demand. Perhaps we at Indiana University should design a master's and doctoral degree in e-learning and blended learning. Follow the UK and Canada closely when it comes to e-learning. Those seeking to get citizenship in North America or the UK might think about applying for such jobs.
My talks at Chelmsford (Anglia Riskin University) also went very well thanks to people such as Sharon Waller and Richard Millwood who brought me there. They also have a campus in Cambridge which I hope to visit someday. Anglia Ruskin also has the Ultralab which has sponsored the NonSchool project (see http://www.notschool.net/ns/template.php?id=home). People at each stop seemed interested in plagiarism, copyright, and differences between face-to-face and online teaching--and it was true here as well. My talks here were once again on blended learning but also on multimedia for visually hungry learners.
Brighton was a cool stop along the ocean. They have a CETL as well that is focused on creativity. They shared their proposal with me which seems highly unique and ambitious. Let's see what happens in a year. Will e-learning and creativity be a happy marriage? I think so. But it is difficult to predict where such innovation might go. Will it be in new forms of work collaboration or in teaching? Will we be able to recognize creativity when it occurs online and also be able to duplicate it? Thanks to Jon Dron for bringing me there. I gave a talk on blended learning as well as one called Pocasts and Wikis and Blogs, Oh My: E-learning is not in Kansas anymore. My friend, Donald Clark appropriately pointed out that much of the discussion and examples on blended learning relates to blended instruction and not learning at all. I think he is right. You can read 3 or so blogs he did of my visit at http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/
Donald sold Epic Group which is an e-learning services company. They do much e-learning development and evaluation. I had read many of his blended learning reports in the past. Good stuff! Donald definitely has a pulse on the field. He is one of a select few who has a sense of e-learning needs and experiences in both higher education as well as corporate training.
My final stop was at King's College in London. Anne-Lucie Norton and the folks at the War Studies Department brought me there. What a wonderful view of the London Eye and other featured sites from her office. My 2 talks went pretty well here as well though my computer cables had fried and batteries had died before it so I had to use their machines. Anne-Lucie informed me that their new master's in War Studies is entirely online. Cool! You might write to them. Loads happening at King's College. My blended learning talk ended with 30 minutes of questions and answers. After this talk, Brian Ford (a famous biologist with shows on the BBC), Tingting Zeng (a research assistant of mine from Roehampton University in the London area), and Chris Essex (a student of mine from Indiana just happening to be visiting the UK) met me at Cheers Pub. And some of us saw a show at the Comedy Store after that. I flew home the next morning.
I am sitting at my brother's house in Syracuse, New York writing this. I did talks Thursday for the State of NY instructional technology conference and head to DC next. Yesterday I ran in a short 3 mile (5K) run for cancer victims. My time was a respectable 24 minutes and 35 seconds. I tend to run farther distances. (see this run at http://pbrun.org/).
Norah Jones (the researcher, not the singer) was opening a new Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) which was focusing on blended learning. Their Vice Provost seems very supportive for it. Norah has a staff not only designing interesting and engaging blended learning experiences with simulations, flash animations, and so on, but also has people doing research on it. She has developed a respect from the administators and staff there. The Univ of Glamorgan is near Cardiff which claims to be the fastest growing capital of Europe. Vibrant shopping, lucious eating, and beautiful scenary there. I loved exploring the Cariff Castle and need to post some pics of it at my Flickr site soon. Both of my keynotes went well there--on ATuesday night we opened their CELT with my talk on blended learning being the keynote. I also spoke on blended learning the following morning. I went over both times but Norah was ok with it. The 2nd one was more about the future of blended learning.
It seems that the UK has money for e-learning specialists now. The money for the UK-EU, which no longer exists, was apparently reapportioned to universities throughout the UK for e-learning initiatives. As a result, they have many jobs posted at the Guardian for e-learning managers, specialists, project coordinators, multimedia people, evaluators, and so on. These are exciting times in the UK if you are in the field of e-learning. There are only so many e-learning specialists, so such people seem to be in demand. Perhaps we at Indiana University should design a master's and doctoral degree in e-learning and blended learning. Follow the UK and Canada closely when it comes to e-learning. Those seeking to get citizenship in North America or the UK might think about applying for such jobs.
My talks at Chelmsford (Anglia Riskin University) also went very well thanks to people such as Sharon Waller and Richard Millwood who brought me there. They also have a campus in Cambridge which I hope to visit someday. Anglia Ruskin also has the Ultralab which has sponsored the NonSchool project (see http://www.notschool.net/ns/template.php?id=home). People at each stop seemed interested in plagiarism, copyright, and differences between face-to-face and online teaching--and it was true here as well. My talks here were once again on blended learning but also on multimedia for visually hungry learners.
Brighton was a cool stop along the ocean. They have a CETL as well that is focused on creativity. They shared their proposal with me which seems highly unique and ambitious. Let's see what happens in a year. Will e-learning and creativity be a happy marriage? I think so. But it is difficult to predict where such innovation might go. Will it be in new forms of work collaboration or in teaching? Will we be able to recognize creativity when it occurs online and also be able to duplicate it? Thanks to Jon Dron for bringing me there. I gave a talk on blended learning as well as one called Pocasts and Wikis and Blogs, Oh My: E-learning is not in Kansas anymore. My friend, Donald Clark appropriately pointed out that much of the discussion and examples on blended learning relates to blended instruction and not learning at all. I think he is right. You can read 3 or so blogs he did of my visit at http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/
Donald sold Epic Group which is an e-learning services company. They do much e-learning development and evaluation. I had read many of his blended learning reports in the past. Good stuff! Donald definitely has a pulse on the field. He is one of a select few who has a sense of e-learning needs and experiences in both higher education as well as corporate training.
My final stop was at King's College in London. Anne-Lucie Norton and the folks at the War Studies Department brought me there. What a wonderful view of the London Eye and other featured sites from her office. My 2 talks went pretty well here as well though my computer cables had fried and batteries had died before it so I had to use their machines. Anne-Lucie informed me that their new master's in War Studies is entirely online. Cool! You might write to them. Loads happening at King's College. My blended learning talk ended with 30 minutes of questions and answers. After this talk, Brian Ford (a famous biologist with shows on the BBC), Tingting Zeng (a research assistant of mine from Roehampton University in the London area), and Chris Essex (a student of mine from Indiana just happening to be visiting the UK) met me at Cheers Pub. And some of us saw a show at the Comedy Store after that. I flew home the next morning.
I am sitting at my brother's house in Syracuse, New York writing this. I did talks Thursday for the State of NY instructional technology conference and head to DC next. Yesterday I ran in a short 3 mile (5K) run for cancer victims. My time was a respectable 24 minutes and 35 seconds. I tend to run farther distances. (see this run at http://pbrun.org/).
Wednesday 3 May 2006
Hanging Around Western Canada
Been in Saskatoon, Calgary, and Edmonton this trip. Meeting many interesting people who are having me talk about blended learning and e-learning. Been to the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon for 2 talks, Mount Royal College, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) in Calgary; and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) in Edmonton. Many kind people escorting me from place to place including folks from the University of Regina, the University of Calgary, the University of Alberta, and Grant MacEwan College. Lots of energy and excitement here. And lots of oil monies in this province.
I met many former IU IST students when in Saskatoon. I really enjoyed that and the tour of the city from Barry Brown. Got them all IU tee-shirts.
Today, NAIT ran an institute or workshop for instructors and staff to think about blended learning and the next generation of students. This topic fits into my recent handbook of blended learning as well as my upcoming one on my R2D2 method of learning styles (a book Ke Zhang and I are writing that we are temporarily calling "A Web of Everything" and will be focused on how to address diverse learners and learning preferences or appoaches online.
I fly back from Edmonton tomorrow. Today was a wild one--2 keynotes (one on blended learning and one on Gen X and Y students as a sub for someone who was sick) sent to 700+ people at 30-40 sites in Alberta and around the globe, interviewed by 2 TV stations and will be on 3 TV stations tonight, interviewed live on 1 the well known CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp) radio station, 1 newspaper interview for tomorrow's Edmonton paper, and I sat next to and chatted with the Premier of Alberta (Ralph Kline). He is like the Governor of this province. Pretty cool day. This is after 3 straight days of presenting. So wow!
And after my Sunday night talk in Saskatoon, sometime told me it was one of 2 great talks she had heard in her life and the other was by Bill Clinton. So that was cool. So having a fun trip.
Lots of pictures. I will add them later.
The radio interview was the best part!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I met many former IU IST students when in Saskatoon. I really enjoyed that and the tour of the city from Barry Brown. Got them all IU tee-shirts.
Today, NAIT ran an institute or workshop for instructors and staff to think about blended learning and the next generation of students. This topic fits into my recent handbook of blended learning as well as my upcoming one on my R2D2 method of learning styles (a book Ke Zhang and I are writing that we are temporarily calling "A Web of Everything" and will be focused on how to address diverse learners and learning preferences or appoaches online.
I fly back from Edmonton tomorrow. Today was a wild one--2 keynotes (one on blended learning and one on Gen X and Y students as a sub for someone who was sick) sent to 700+ people at 30-40 sites in Alberta and around the globe, interviewed by 2 TV stations and will be on 3 TV stations tonight, interviewed live on 1 the well known CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corp) radio station, 1 newspaper interview for tomorrow's Edmonton paper, and I sat next to and chatted with the Premier of Alberta (Ralph Kline). He is like the Governor of this province. Pretty cool day. This is after 3 straight days of presenting. So wow!
And after my Sunday night talk in Saskatoon, sometime told me it was one of 2 great talks she had heard in her life and the other was by Bill Clinton. So that was cool. So having a fun trip.
Lots of pictures. I will add them later.
The radio interview was the best part!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tuesday 4 April 2006
Israel Visit and E-learning in the Open University of Israel
My has it been nearly 2 months since my last update? Hard to believe. Well in late February and early March I spent time in Israel. Yoram Eshet from the Open University of Israel hosted me. He showed me around his home city of Jerusalem (lives there despite distance to the Open University which is an hour or so from there north of Tel Aviv in Ranana). Yoram does research on digital literacy and has many interesting insights.
I also had a chance to visit with Rafi Nachmias, Judith Ram, and David Mioduser from the University of Tel Aviv who have a chapter in my recent Handbook of Blended Learning. They showed me around their lovely university and also parts of Tel Aviv such as the old part called Jafa. Wonderful people.
I was joined by my doctoral student, Robert Fischler, who after 14 years of studying at Indiana University defended his successfully dissertation yesterday. Robert helped me out while in Israel. We also had a beer or 2 at Mike's Place across from the beaches of Tel Aviv which we found out later was blown up by a terrorist 2 years earlier. The Green Bay Packer signs and such did not make it seem like it would be a dangerous place. Of course, our bags were thoroughly checked on the way in. I also had dinners at a couple of other friend's places during the visit (Sherm and Melodie Rosenfeld, for instance) and Miri and Yossi Shonfeld's). Elaine Hoter ad Asmaa Ganaye joined us at Miri's for dinner. They are working on a project to get their teacher education to work together and share ideas. They are team teaching across private and public Israeli and Arab schools. Interesting.
Robert and I also visited former IU student Dr. Ronen Hammer who lives in Haifa. Ronen was a great host. He showed us the Baha'i headquarters. Baha'i is is a religion which promotes peace in the world. Gorgeous views of the Med Sea from his house and many places in town. See pics I will post later on in Flickr.
Ok, in terms of e-learning and blended learning, there is much interest in Israel. The Open University hosted one conference when I was there (where I did a keynote) and it was well attended. The seem to want to be the hub for online learning innovation and research in that country. They have built their own course management system. They are doing research on technology integration and online learning in education and have funding for such. The number of courses using the web in instruction there is exploding from 1 percent in 1998 to 19 percent in 1999 to 99 percent today. These numbers were provided by Dr. Yoram Eshet and Dr. Yoav Yair.
They have grown from 24,200 students in 1995 to 40,200 in 2005. Very fast growth! Not as fast as the Open University of Malaysia which has gone from a few hundred in 2001 to over 30,000 today. What does this say about education and online learning and open learning? I think it is clear--there any millions (if not billions) of people looking to obtain a college education. The typical hoops and hurdles to get in that the Harvards, Stanfords, and Indianas place on students are too stringent. Online is chiefly about access to learning and ideas. Open Universities facilitate such access. Sure we can deal with high level students and I love to as well, but more important is opening access to everyone. It will be important to monitor the growth of the Open University of Israel (and Malaysia and other places).
Will the Open U of Isreal become the hub of e-learning for the country? Will it's influence extend beyond it to the rest of the Middle East or over to the US or up to Europe? Hard to say. Dr. Yair is pushing their thinking ahead on where things are going. One niche for them is that they publish more books than anyone in Tel Aviv (at least 1 book for each class they teach). They also own the rights to them. Could they perhaps make podcasts of the authors explaining the ideas in each book or perhaps create audio books of each one? What might they do to repurpose each one electronically? Many things are possible here with the web. Will this build their reputation if they do so? It will be interesting to find out. Stay tuned.
I also had a chance to visit with Rafi Nachmias, Judith Ram, and David Mioduser from the University of Tel Aviv who have a chapter in my recent Handbook of Blended Learning. They showed me around their lovely university and also parts of Tel Aviv such as the old part called Jafa. Wonderful people.
I was joined by my doctoral student, Robert Fischler, who after 14 years of studying at Indiana University defended his successfully dissertation yesterday. Robert helped me out while in Israel. We also had a beer or 2 at Mike's Place across from the beaches of Tel Aviv which we found out later was blown up by a terrorist 2 years earlier. The Green Bay Packer signs and such did not make it seem like it would be a dangerous place. Of course, our bags were thoroughly checked on the way in. I also had dinners at a couple of other friend's places during the visit (Sherm and Melodie Rosenfeld, for instance) and Miri and Yossi Shonfeld's). Elaine Hoter ad Asmaa Ganaye joined us at Miri's for dinner. They are working on a project to get their teacher education to work together and share ideas. They are team teaching across private and public Israeli and Arab schools. Interesting.
Robert and I also visited former IU student Dr. Ronen Hammer who lives in Haifa. Ronen was a great host. He showed us the Baha'i headquarters. Baha'i is is a religion which promotes peace in the world. Gorgeous views of the Med Sea from his house and many places in town. See pics I will post later on in Flickr.
Ok, in terms of e-learning and blended learning, there is much interest in Israel. The Open University hosted one conference when I was there (where I did a keynote) and it was well attended. The seem to want to be the hub for online learning innovation and research in that country. They have built their own course management system. They are doing research on technology integration and online learning in education and have funding for such. The number of courses using the web in instruction there is exploding from 1 percent in 1998 to 19 percent in 1999 to 99 percent today. These numbers were provided by Dr. Yoram Eshet and Dr. Yoav Yair.
They have grown from 24,200 students in 1995 to 40,200 in 2005. Very fast growth! Not as fast as the Open University of Malaysia which has gone from a few hundred in 2001 to over 30,000 today. What does this say about education and online learning and open learning? I think it is clear--there any millions (if not billions) of people looking to obtain a college education. The typical hoops and hurdles to get in that the Harvards, Stanfords, and Indianas place on students are too stringent. Online is chiefly about access to learning and ideas. Open Universities facilitate such access. Sure we can deal with high level students and I love to as well, but more important is opening access to everyone. It will be important to monitor the growth of the Open University of Israel (and Malaysia and other places).
Will the Open U of Isreal become the hub of e-learning for the country? Will it's influence extend beyond it to the rest of the Middle East or over to the US or up to Europe? Hard to say. Dr. Yair is pushing their thinking ahead on where things are going. One niche for them is that they publish more books than anyone in Tel Aviv (at least 1 book for each class they teach). They also own the rights to them. Could they perhaps make podcasts of the authors explaining the ideas in each book or perhaps create audio books of each one? What might they do to repurpose each one electronically? Many things are possible here with the web. Will this build their reputation if they do so? It will be interesting to find out. Stay tuned.
Thursday 9 February 2006
E-Learning in for Kids, Libraries, and Older Adults
Ok, I see e-Learning becoming accepted in many areas of life. This week I see my son (who is a high school senior) taking an IU psychology course quiz online. Sure I know this is commonplace, but when you see your own son taking these online quizzes something strikes home that this online movement is not going away but instead is becoming more pervasive. I then walk up and see my 15 year old daughter exploring the web for English class assignment. She is using my new Sony Vaio laptop to do her exploring. And then I chat with my nephew on MSN about his first year in college at Madison and the tough classes he is taking as an engineering major. I try to give him some advice online. This Generation Y will be using more digital technologies than ever before to learn in high school and college and beyond. Nothing surprising here when I say that.
But last week, I went to my first library conference--it was the Ontario Library Association Super Conference in Toronto. I gave my Perfect e-Storm talk. It was well received and it was a packed room with people standing in the back. In fact, it was one of the more engaging ones I think ever. These library professionals were highly interested in the latest trends in e-learning. Well, why not--the role of the librarian and library support personnel has been significantly altered with advances in search technologies, storage devices, mobile and wireless technologies, broadband connections, and, yes, e-learning. They need to be aware of technologies and pedagogies that online instructors might be using and students might be asking for. It was a fun. They especially laughed at my Bill Gates jokes, so I guess those struck a chord.
After the talk, I met with McGraw-Hill Ryerson people who are working on their 4th in a series of research studies related to technology integration and use in higher education within North America. It is interesting to hear discussions related to such survey research since some focus on technologies and others on pedagogies. I think we need both. Like the famous psychologist, Jean Piaget, I think learning and development is interactional. It is both nature and nurture. I believe that technologies, like genes, provide the nature--the equip one for the possible. Technology allows for certain things to happen in one's environment. But we also need pedagogy or thoughtful instruction. This is the nurture--this nudges us along. We need both the nature (technologies) and the nurture (the pedagogies) for successful online learning. Too often we focus on one and discount the other.
In higher education, it is not unusual for people to argue that technologies are not important, it is the pedagogy stupid. But I think such thinking is misguided. Sure, I would love to put more focus on the instructional effectiveness and pedagogical decision making. However, without chalk, marker boards, pens, paper, projectors, computers, tablets, the internet, etc., we would be back in the Stone Age or worse. I think the reason people attempt to downplay the technologies is that they are so overwhelmed by the many emerging technologies hitting us in the face each week. It is not easy keeping up with all of them--so, if you say, pedagogy is more important, you can feel less stress.
Earlier today, I presented at the a preconference session of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education in Indianapolis. Like the library conference the week before, it was a first for me. This was a session on evaluating distributed education within a half day institute on distributed education. It is interesting to see online learning become so pervasive that there are online learning experts and researchers in the field of gerontology. Like my talk to library professional a week prior, this one was well received. By the way, PDFs of most of my talks can be found at TrainingShare.com.
So I guess this reflection is just 2 things: First of all, it is a note that e-learning is increasingly important in society--it is important for high school kids and it is a critical area for library professionals as well as those in the field of gerontology. Secondly, it seems my work is spreading in new directions in speaking to those fields outside of education and business where I normally speak. That is what makes my work so much fun and rewarding as I never know who I might be able to meet, influence in some small way, and learn from. E-Learning does have its rewards!
But last week, I went to my first library conference--it was the Ontario Library Association Super Conference in Toronto. I gave my Perfect e-Storm talk. It was well received and it was a packed room with people standing in the back. In fact, it was one of the more engaging ones I think ever. These library professionals were highly interested in the latest trends in e-learning. Well, why not--the role of the librarian and library support personnel has been significantly altered with advances in search technologies, storage devices, mobile and wireless technologies, broadband connections, and, yes, e-learning. They need to be aware of technologies and pedagogies that online instructors might be using and students might be asking for. It was a fun. They especially laughed at my Bill Gates jokes, so I guess those struck a chord.
After the talk, I met with McGraw-Hill Ryerson people who are working on their 4th in a series of research studies related to technology integration and use in higher education within North America. It is interesting to hear discussions related to such survey research since some focus on technologies and others on pedagogies. I think we need both. Like the famous psychologist, Jean Piaget, I think learning and development is interactional. It is both nature and nurture. I believe that technologies, like genes, provide the nature--the equip one for the possible. Technology allows for certain things to happen in one's environment. But we also need pedagogy or thoughtful instruction. This is the nurture--this nudges us along. We need both the nature (technologies) and the nurture (the pedagogies) for successful online learning. Too often we focus on one and discount the other.
In higher education, it is not unusual for people to argue that technologies are not important, it is the pedagogy stupid. But I think such thinking is misguided. Sure, I would love to put more focus on the instructional effectiveness and pedagogical decision making. However, without chalk, marker boards, pens, paper, projectors, computers, tablets, the internet, etc., we would be back in the Stone Age or worse. I think the reason people attempt to downplay the technologies is that they are so overwhelmed by the many emerging technologies hitting us in the face each week. It is not easy keeping up with all of them--so, if you say, pedagogy is more important, you can feel less stress.
Earlier today, I presented at the a preconference session of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education in Indianapolis. Like the library conference the week before, it was a first for me. This was a session on evaluating distributed education within a half day institute on distributed education. It is interesting to see online learning become so pervasive that there are online learning experts and researchers in the field of gerontology. Like my talk to library professional a week prior, this one was well received. By the way, PDFs of most of my talks can be found at TrainingShare.com.
So I guess this reflection is just 2 things: First of all, it is a note that e-learning is increasingly important in society--it is important for high school kids and it is a critical area for library professionals as well as those in the field of gerontology. Secondly, it seems my work is spreading in new directions in speaking to those fields outside of education and business where I normally speak. That is what makes my work so much fun and rewarding as I never know who I might be able to meet, influence in some small way, and learn from. E-Learning does have its rewards!
Sunday 15 January 2006
UK was a Trip
Ok, back from a week in the UK. Yesterday, I experienced a bomb scare in the express train terminal heading to Gatwick airport and they made us all exit the station...and then when I got to Gatwick the computers were down and the place was a zoo. Last week when flying to Gatwick, our plane had multiple engine and power system problems and we sat on the runway for 3 hours while our plane engine got a new starter. Suffice to say, it was a strange trip and I am happy to be safely home.
When in the UK, I presented on learning style and motivational ideas online at London South Bank University. It was an all day seminar with people from Australia and the UK presenting before and after me. Rick Bennett was among them and he presented on his art and design project online. The people at London South Bank were not heavy users of e-learning but it was definitely growing. There was a wonderful view of the London Eye from the lunch meeting room.
Rick and I also spent 2 days at the University of Leicester where Dr. Gilly Salmon was running an e-learning conference. About 60-70 people came for the first day which was focused on e-learning research. I gave the keynote with 10 stories for 10+ years of e-learning research at IU. When someone picked a story they got a CD of my work and an "I love New York" t-shirt. Day 2 was on potential partnerships. It seems the University of Leicester wants to be known for e-learning research. The hiring of Gilly Salmon from the Open University is a start. She is now hiring many people to support her and her multmedia zoo. Faculty and staff from all over the UK and beyond can for this event. Many potential e-learning partnerships were formed on Day 2 related to emerging technologies, online moderation, Wikis and blogs, online professional development, etc. I think the hope is for some jointly written research. More such partnerships are possible in the UK than in the USA since people can just jump in a train and meet up.
The following day, I had a chance to speak both at Oxford Brookes University and the University of Oxford. The Oxford Brookes presentations on blended learning and on how the learning world have become flat were well attended with about 50 or so people. Many good questions asked. The University of Oxford talk on blended learning was fun to do as well. Very bright students there, of course. I just got there in time as I had to wait 45 minutes for a taxi and the taxi driver I had was in training. Dr. Chris Davies from Oxford would like to put it on the e-learning map. They have a new master's in e-learning there in fact. I may spend a week of my sabbatical there. Would be an exciting week to do so.
Took the train back to London that night and met my old friend, Bob Craig, who had took me around New Zealand and also the United Arab Emirates in the past. this was our 3rd country to meet in. He is now working in Africa in Ethiopia and Somalia on educational programs.
So, lots seems to be happening in the UK in e-learning. Some of the focus is on research and also on digital repositories, blended learning, problem-based learning online, staff and instructor training, and retention and motivation online. The UK is a hotbed for e-learning in terms of my travel during the past year and Canada is the other.
When in the UK, I presented on learning style and motivational ideas online at London South Bank University. It was an all day seminar with people from Australia and the UK presenting before and after me. Rick Bennett was among them and he presented on his art and design project online. The people at London South Bank were not heavy users of e-learning but it was definitely growing. There was a wonderful view of the London Eye from the lunch meeting room.
Rick and I also spent 2 days at the University of Leicester where Dr. Gilly Salmon was running an e-learning conference. About 60-70 people came for the first day which was focused on e-learning research. I gave the keynote with 10 stories for 10+ years of e-learning research at IU. When someone picked a story they got a CD of my work and an "I love New York" t-shirt. Day 2 was on potential partnerships. It seems the University of Leicester wants to be known for e-learning research. The hiring of Gilly Salmon from the Open University is a start. She is now hiring many people to support her and her multmedia zoo. Faculty and staff from all over the UK and beyond can for this event. Many potential e-learning partnerships were formed on Day 2 related to emerging technologies, online moderation, Wikis and blogs, online professional development, etc. I think the hope is for some jointly written research. More such partnerships are possible in the UK than in the USA since people can just jump in a train and meet up.
The following day, I had a chance to speak both at Oxford Brookes University and the University of Oxford. The Oxford Brookes presentations on blended learning and on how the learning world have become flat were well attended with about 50 or so people. Many good questions asked. The University of Oxford talk on blended learning was fun to do as well. Very bright students there, of course. I just got there in time as I had to wait 45 minutes for a taxi and the taxi driver I had was in training. Dr. Chris Davies from Oxford would like to put it on the e-learning map. They have a new master's in e-learning there in fact. I may spend a week of my sabbatical there. Would be an exciting week to do so.
Took the train back to London that night and met my old friend, Bob Craig, who had took me around New Zealand and also the United Arab Emirates in the past. this was our 3rd country to meet in. He is now working in Africa in Ethiopia and Somalia on educational programs.
So, lots seems to be happening in the UK in e-learning. Some of the focus is on research and also on digital repositories, blended learning, problem-based learning online, staff and instructor training, and retention and motivation online. The UK is a hotbed for e-learning in terms of my travel during the past year and Canada is the other.
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