Emerging Technology for Emerging Scholars: Ed Media Conference and Beyond...

Please Note: This blog post is not going to be the most thoughtful or illuminating that I have ever come up with. Hence, if you are a leader in the field of educational technology or e-learning or whatever, I would not recommend reading it. Skip it and save some time. There is not much here to really chew on. I just needed to post something since it has been over a month and I had promised that I would post more during my sabbatical. Apparently, I lied.

Now on to the post...On Thursday afternoon, my very delightful friend, Jim Hensman, at the Coventry University wrote me an email. Jim said that he wanted to pick my brain for a session he is doing in a week or so at Ed Media in Victoria, BC which is June 24-27, 2013. In fact, it is the 25th anniversary of Ed Media. I wish I could go; from 1999 to about 2007, I went every year.

Jim then told that his session was one of those "Emerging Scholar" types of events. He has one hour assigned and wants to "create a discussion about the future of learning and how new researchers can orientate towards this." He wanted perhaps four or five examples of key things happening that are indicators of the future. They could be highly specific developments or "something more generic and could be really way out or down-to-earth."

I thought about it very briefly and sent him the info below. Then I expanded in it a tad.

Some Indicators of the future of learning:

   
1. Embedded and ubiquitous computing: Wearable devices like smart watches, bracelets, smartphones, Google Glass, etc., from which to access information as well as to communicate with others. Many articles on Google Glass lately, including general ones from the USA Today in April and those that are specifically related to healthcare in March.

     

2. Massive Open Online Gaming (MOOCs): Hundreds of millions of people will be exposed to K-12 and higher education as a result of MOOCs who have never had access before. And many more will change their jobs or career pursuits as a result. But accreditation, assessment, and attrition remain serious issues.

     

3. Free and Interactive Mobile Books: I think that free books on mobile devices or on the Web or your watches, etc., are a key part of the next century of learning. Cites like BookRix allow anyone to post mobile books. And Subtext allows for comments and communities to form around books.

4. Gamification of Learning: Learners want to achieve goals, overcome challenges, solve problems, interact, and ultimately win at something. More emphasis on this gamification of learning will be placed on all digital contents. I appreciate Jane McGonigal''s October 15, 2012 article in "Big Questions Online" (BQO), "How Might Video Games be Good for Us?" Speaking of which, I also appreciate the BQO website. They ask questions like "Can You Learn to Control Your Mind," and "Do We have Souls" and "Are We Alone in the Universe." Stuff like that.

5. Wall of Video for Apprenticeship: I think that expert apprenticeship is on the rise. We have video walls at IU.  It is called the IQ-Wall. I used it when my emerging learning technologies class ended in April We could bring in people from around the planet and have them appear on that wall. We now have another IQ-Wall in our Herman B. Wells Library. You can also have mini walls on a mobile phone. In each window, you can have a different expert, tutor, mentor, etc., appear. Or a different friend, colleague, family member. Increasingly, instructors will be tapping into experts on the fly in video walls or in Google Hangouts or whatever. (see attached paper #1…just published)

6. Extreme Learning and Life Change: I think that people will seek out life change online. OpenCourseWare and Open Educational Resources led to MOOCs. But it is more than MOOCs. It is also adventure learning, social change, global ed, online learning, shared online video, online language learning, etc., which all combine to offer new learning paths and experiences. People learn when at sea or on a boat, in a plane, on a train, in the mountains, etc. We are learning all the time. I am working on papers on life change from such informal learning environments. Here is one paper that I wrote on extreme learning for an open university conference in Manila, the Philippines last year.

A few hours later, I added the following items:

7. Virtual reality holodecks. Here, the user(s) can reenact scenes in history. Apparently, we already have the capabilities for audio and video, just not tactile yet. According to a February 2013 report, some company in Canada, in fact, is designing virtual holodecks. Apparently, Microsoft and the University of South California are also working on such technology. The author of the article, Matt Hartley, states,

"While 360-degree video might be the most obvious component in a holodeck-like structure, according to Ms. Su, technologies such as directional audio — think movie theatre surround sound on steroids — help to situate the user within an artificial world." He goes on to say, "Some of the technologies that would enable users to navigate the a potential holodeck — including touch computing, speech recognition, and motion sensing capabilities — are already being used in consumer technologies today, such as smartphones and video game systems." LeVar Burton, who was interviewed for this article, said that transporter rooms would be a "down-river goal."

8. On Demand Mentoring. Have a series of mentors or teachers available on your laptop, mobile device, or other as needed. When you encounter a learning difficulty, a teacher, mentor, tutor, etc., will appear. This already is in place for many years in the corporate world. Companies such as Triple Creek took the early lead in online mentoring, coaching, collaboration, and related social learning services.

9. Interactive Video Displays of Teachers and Peers. In effect, when you enter a school, there will be a video display or kiosk of some type wherein a young person (or adult) will be able to pick her classmates as well as her instructors from around the planet. Such technology will help personalize the learning process.

10. Science on the Sphere. Interactive globes that display planetary data such as climate change, ocean temperatures, hurricane movements, etc., around the world. According to one of my students, Michele Kelmer, "it is a project by NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Assoc). IU has the 97th one in the world." Now what happens when such devices are extended to display anything happening at any place on the planet? Oh, I guess that is what the U.S. government may be already doing. 

11. New forms of CVs and Resumes. This is not necessarily a technology tool. However, it will be vital to have a way to place your informal learning experiences and accomplishments in some format. I imagine resumes and CVs will soon divide up education and training into formal educational experiences and certificates at the top; semi-formal next (with badges and still other types of certificates), and then informal learning explorations of OpenCourseWare (OCW), open educational resources (OER), and MOOCs. My research is now looking at learner motivations and goals as well as obstacles and challenges when using such content.

12. Language translation devices: Already, there are tablets, mobile, and other that will take signage you encounter and translate it. See this video on the World Lens tool for the iPhone and Android devices. Such technology allows people to function more effectively in diverse settings.

 Those were the 12 ideas that I sent to my buddy Jim. Nothing earth-shattering here.

Ok, let's add a 13th--Flexible Display Devices. Imagine reading off of buildings, buses, and bendable screens on your watch or smartphone. Cool. There are many other learning innovations. I was just trying to give Jim a few quick items.

By the way, I do hope to go to Ed Media next year in Tampere, Finland and join up with Jim for one of his sessions. I miss him and the conference. One of the best international conferences in the field that one can attend.

Ten TravelnEdMan Plans for 16 Month Sabbatical: Much to do in the Open World

Grades are posted as of last night. Today is the first full day of my 16 month sabbatical. Yes!

So what are the plans? A little bit here and a little bit there.

Ten Sabbatical Plans:
1. Blogging: I intend to blog more. Also, plan to make the posts shorter and to the point. I have some experiences from the past winter and spring to post yet (from the UK, Austin, U of Florida, Shanghai (via videoconferencing), UW Milwaukee (via Web conferencing), and elsewhere).

2. Book Completion: I need to finish my online motivation and retention book as well as my World is More Open book. Both will be free to the world when done. Too many committees and service work has been slowing me down. Draft chapters are available to those who ask.

3. Travel Plan Outlook: I will likely send one week each month in different parts of the world. Here are some initial travel stops tentatively planned after the coming summer.

          a. Tokyo (International Christian University (ICU) in September. My friend, Dr. Insung Jung, is arranging and said that I will stay in a guest house of ICU.
          b. Las Vegas for E-Learn in October (I are planning to coordinate a preconference symposium on MOOCs and Open Education with Mimi Lee, Tom Reynolds, and Tom Reeves. This event will take place Monday October 21st with a presession reflection in Red Rock Canyon the day before. The preconference symposium will be like the session on "E-Learning in Asia" that the four of us did 5 years ago at eLearn in Vegas in 2008 that resulted in a special journal issue and print-on-demand book. We hope that many of our friends and colleagues from 2008 will return to help out.).
           c. After E-Learn, I will keynote the Health & Safety Institute Conference 2013 in San Antonio, Texas and then head for Anaheim.
           d. Anaheim for AECT 2013 in the following week in early November.
           e. Taiwan (at National Sun Yat-Sen University in Kaohsiung and most likely Taipei as well) in mid to late November,
           f. The UK for BETT and other things in January.
           g. University of Hue in Vietnam (Wikipedia) to keynote a conference, "Innovation and Good Practice: Global Perspective" for various Asian university leaders March 15-16, 2014.
            h. AERA April 3-7 in Philadelphia in April, 2014.
            i. Tampere, Finland for Ed Media in June, 2014 and perhaps Helsinki and other places in Finland.

This is just a starter list of travel destinations for TravelinEdMan. There will be dozens and dozens more requests.

4. Upcoming May Travel Plans. This Month is Jamming. This week Wednesday May 8th I will be speaking at the University of Indianapolis where my daughter, Nicki, goes to graduate school in occupational therapy. Next Monday May 13th, I will be speaking at the Faculty Summer Institute at the University of Illinois (the FSI agenda). On May 15th, I will speak at the 4th Annual Stone Soup Professional Development Conference at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina. And on May 21-22, I will be on a discussion panel and then keynote the 2013 UA System Scholars Institute at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

5. Upcoming June Travel Plans: In June, I will speak on MOOCs at our Indiana University 2013 Mini University (full list of speakers). This will be the opening session on June 10th. I will also present some of my research on MOOCs and self-directed open learning at the 25th Annual Ethnographic and Qualitative Research Conference in Cedarville, Ohio on Friday June 7th.

6. Book Reading: I intend to read more books. I have been listening to many books in my car since 2006-2007 (when I had my last sabbatical).

7. New Book Projects: I have many other book writing plans. Some related to the open learning world and extreme learning and others related to emerging video technology.

8. Running: I plan to run in Bloomington and elsewhere. I get to see the cities which I visit better from a morning run. During my last sabbatical, I started a trend of running every day at least once a day until I got plantar fasciitis. Ouch! Wish it was not raining so hard. I have had my jogging clothes on all day.

9. Reflection: I plan to reflect more. I have a lovely wooded backyard with a creek at the bottom and many birds singing. Placed a bench down there overlooking the creek and park (former farm) below.

10. Rosemary: I plan to see my auntie Rosemary (my father's younger sister) and her 50 year anniversary of being a nun at an even in my hometown of Milwaukee on Saturday July 6th.

Ok, those are some plans. All for now. Remember, that I plan to blog more.

Bringing Experts Around the World to Your Class: One Interview, Two Videos, and Five+ Lessons Learned

Introduction. Back in mid February, some folks at our Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CILT) here at Indiana University (IU) asked me if they could interview me about how I bring in experts into my classes via videoconferencing, Skype, Web conferencing, chat, and so on. I have been doing such activities for nearly two decades now and so they were interested in capturing some ideas from me. The video interview is now posted as a Spotlight report for faculty development purposes here at IU (Bringing Experts Around the World to Your Class). There are two short videos along with a few paragraphs of text from that interview. Below I explain more about my rationale for engaging in such instructional activities.

Thinking back. Way back in 1995, Dr. Ken Hay and I team taught a course on "Interactive Tools for a Learning Community" between IU Bloomington and IUPUI in Indianapolis. In the middle of the semester (see Week 11 of old syllabus from 1995), we had Elliot Soloway from the University of Michigan and David Palumbo from the University of Houston at Clear Lake come into our class via CU-SeeMe. At the time, CU-SeeMe was free while other Web conferencing options at the time were highly expensive. The class was taught each week via videoconferencing using PictureTel technology. With the savvy tech help of Dr. Bob Appelman, we combined to videoconferencing systems together. It was pretty cool at the time. In fact, we published an article about the event in Educational Technology magazine.

Added to that course was a weekly asynchronous discussion using VAX Notes. There were several students in that course who debated and criticized the ideas in the articles we read that particular week from Drs. Soloway and Palumbo. They did not believe that computer programming could impact thinking as they had described (i.e., the expression many researchers used in the 1980s and 1990s was "Logo as Latin"...you learned a computer programming language and your thinking would improve just as it would from learning Latin or so they thought). Anyway, those same students who discarded these ideas and perspectives, were nodding their heads in agreement with everything that Elliot and David said when we brought them in via CU-SeeMe. These students found out that one article did not represent a person and that people's ideas can (and do) change over time.

Lesson Learned #1. Asynchronous activities first. Then try synchronous. It whacks students in the side of the head and kicks them in the seat of the pants. They see new ideas and perspectives. And they rethink on their previous perspectives and biases. Of course there was another factor--Elliot Soloway looked like Santa Claus when projected through low bandwidth on CU-SeeMe. Anyone in the room at the time had to love him. In fact, a professor walking by my classroom stopped by and sat in when he saw what we were up to.

While that was a fascinating experience with Elliot and David back in 1995, I have had dozens and dozens of guests around the planet since that time. In fact, a few years ago, I tried this technique once again (sync then async) with the world famous instructional designer, Dr. David Merrill. Worked fabulously then too.

This week, I had my former student, Dr. Kira King from Orlando come in and chat about her different work-related experiences in instructional design and development since leaving IU 15 years ago. While she is the healthcare field now doing scenario-based learning for interactive simulations, she also have experience working for with museum schools, the World Bank Institute, the military, financial services companies, and the Disney Institute (i.e., a wine tasting course). My class topic was on collaborative technologies and so we planned to discuss our 1998 book, Electronic Collaborators: Learner-Centered Technologies for Literacy, Apprenticeship, and Discourse, but we never got to that since her work experience was so interesting and important to share. It was another fantastic week of intraplanetary sharing.

I must admit that the idea of bringing Kira in dawned on me later than normal. In fact, I called Kira last Sunday night between NCAA basketball games. I needed her presence less than 24 hours later. It was after 9 pm EST and she had gone to bed early that night. I woke her up. Yet, she was gracious and said no problem, "I would be happy to talk to your class tomorrow night." Whew. I am fortunate to have such wonderful friends and former students.

Lesson Learned #2. The world is open. You can alter your class at any moment with new resources, guest experts, activities, and collaborations. There is an endless sea of expertise to tap into. And sometimes you just have to go with the flow and see what happens. Sometimes it works great and sometimes not as great. Just be open and flexible and the good times will vastly outweigh the not so good.

A few years ago, I invited my friend John Traxler at the University of Wolverhampton in the UK to discuss mobile learning with my online students via Adobe Connect. The following year, Paul Kim from Stanford was the guest when that topic came up but this time we used videoconferencing since it was a face-to-face class. Students learned so much from Paul that they are still talking about it. A few weeks before Paul came in, Anya Kamenetz discussed her DIY-U book with my class. That sure was fun! Anya and I just happen to be the keynotes for the UA Systems Scholars Institute in Huntsville, Alabama in a few weeks.

I also like to bring in people from other countries. For instance, George Siemens from Athabasca University in Canada came in to discuss his theory called "Connectivism." His Canadian colleague, Stephen Downes, has appeared via Webcam to present on open and personalized learning environments. Very frank and impressive stuff always from Stephen. A few weeks later, Yayoi Anzai has made an appearance from Tokyo talking about her highly creative use of blogging, podcasting, and wikis for learning English. I was flying home from Saudi Arabia that day and my assistant Seolim Kwon handled it. I arrived for the last few minutes after more than a day of travel. As is clear by now, each of these synchronous events have been highly memorable and rewarding.

While these people were all great, I rarely bring anyone back; at least not for a few semesters or years. In Kira King's case, it had been about 13 or 14 years since she last was a guest in my class.

Lesson Learned #3. Despite the fact that you can connect with anyone at any time and invite him or her to join your class, you really should plan ahead. See the articles, resources, and activities that you have organized. Is there someone whose articles you are reading that are highly complex or complicated? Might there be one on a recently popular topic? Is there someone you know or met recently who would excite your students? If so, contact them.

More recently, Ray Schroeder from the University of Illinois at Springfield discussed massive open online courses (MOOCs) as well as related changed about to impact higher education (that was February 2012). That same month, George Veletsianos from UT Austin was a guest who talked about adventure learning as well as social media.

During the current semester (Week 8), Dr. Rey Junco was our expert guest who presented his research on social media (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, chat, etc.). Once Rey agreed, I took screen shots from various articles that he had published during the past few years and uploaded them to a PowerPoint deck. During our Adobe Connect meeting, he responded to most of those and just told me to skip on any that he felt were not important to the points he was making. After that, Rey responded to student selected quotes from his various articles (I had asked my students to bring in a few for him to respond to). Rey was highly skilled at performing in such a "hot seat." He is about to move to nearby Purdue University. It was be great to have him in the neighborhood.

In Week 6, we also had Steve Carson from MIT give us a fascinating look at open education and the impact it is having around the globe. Again, I brought in a few screen shots from one of Steve's papers for him to respond to. In Week 3, Peter Young from San Jose State University discussed digital book and mobile projects that he has been involved with.

Lesson Learned #4. You can make it easy on your guests by preparing questions, screen shots, or quotes for the them to comment on or respond to. If it is an open and flexible environment, the guest can skip any item that you bring up. This makes for a more relaxing yet highly focused discussion on the ideas and relevant content produced by that individual.

So many possibilities for global and cross cultural interaction today. What fun times these are! This semester, I am experimenting with the combination of Google Hangouts and Adobe Connect Pro. We use Adobe Connect for PowerPoint presentations and Web explorations, whereas Google Hangouts is used for chats and reflections about such content as well as the weekly readings, videos, and Web resources from the monster syllabus. Keep in mind, however, that the limit is 10 people in a Google Hangout, unless you move up to Google On Air.

I have had many more guests. In fact, last fall, I started my semester with Michael Horn from the Innosight Institute discuss his recent articles on blended learning. The students in the course had not even been introduced to the course syllabus and expected activities. I decided to just jump in first thing with Michael. That was fun. He has the book with Clayton Christensen, "Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation will Change the Way the World Learns." We used Adobe Connect with Michael as well as my other weekly guest experts that semester. This attendance was optional, we recorded each week so that students who missed could watch it later. I also posted the link each time we had a guest to my Facebook account and anyone in the world could lurk in. I think we had nearly a dozen guests last fall, including three on one night alone when we got to the topic of digital books. But please don't think I was slacking; in actuality, I also presented most weeks.

Lesson Learned #5. You (i.e., the instructor) are not vital the start or the end or any part of your class. You do not need to start the class with the all-too-boring reading of the syllabus. Try something new. Break it up. Bring in highly inspirational and talented people to excite your students about the content and different topics that you will be reading and learning about.

Takeaway. Why do I bring in guests with Adobe Connect or link to them with videoconferencing or Skype? Simple. I want to expand student minds beyond preset course materials and expectations. I want to build perspective taking and social cognition. Social cognition is the most vital skill that we can try to foster as instructors. I view this activity as part of a cognitive apprenticeship process. Clearly, in this age of information abundance, we (instructors) are concierges (see 2007 blog post on this notion). We challenge and support learners with the resources that we make available. Sure, my 75 page monster syllabus on Emerging Learning Technologies is a bit much. But you can challenge with much less.

One of my doctoral students, Miguel Lara, was aware of my use of guests. After obtaining a fulltime job at the CILT, Miguel asked me to talk about the topic as part of a faculty development effort here at IU. I think he did the later splicing of video snippets. Miguel and his colleagues finished the video (actually 2 parts) and posted it two days ago. They titled the episode or "Spotlight" report, "Bringing Experts Around the World to Your Class. You can read much more on my views on why I bring in guest experts from reading the article that Miguel posted. You will discover several more lessons learned. You will also find two short videos. As per below, these have also been posted to YouTube today.

             Part 1: Benefits of Inviting Guest Experts (3:48)
             Part 2: Expanding Global Awareness (2:17)

So will you be bringing guests into your class? Perhaps. If so, let me know how it went.

Note: I hope to post to my TravelinEdMan blog a few more times in the coming week. Perhaps one per day for the next few days. Not sure yet.

Want Some MOOC With Your TV Dinner?

Again, it has been a long time between posts. Apologies. There is much to discuss here in TravelinedEdMan in the coming weeks. There are many press releases, podcasts, and news interviews from the past two or three months that I have not posted.

In addition, I have a trip this coming week to SXSWedu in Austin and one the week after to San Diego for the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) Conference 2013 (I am in the ending plenary). Let me start reflecting back first. My next blog post will be about SXSWedu and the Cengage Learning conference within it. My Cengage talk will be streamed free to the world. Unfortunately, my "Cage Match" with Dr. Chuck Severance of the University of Michigan on MOOCs on Thursday morning at 9 am at SXSWedu will not be streamed. See next blog post.

As I said, let me reflect back a few months in order to bring us to a recent publication of mine. Back at the end of October, I was heading to Australia for a 10 day trip to 3 cities, namely, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Sydney. In the final leg of the trip, I was meeting up with my good friend Rick Bennett at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). He was arranging a symposium on MOOCs, Rhizomes, and Ruksacs and related trends on a Friday afternoon November 9th in the College of Fine Arts (COFA) at UNSW. It ended up being a most splendid event.

Before I got there, Rick's media department asked me to write a little press release about MOOCs. What I wrote on the plane to Melbourne and titled, "Want Some MOOC with Your TV Dinner," was considered a bit too long and "not opinionated enough" to submit to the Aussie media. Instead, the Aussie media interviewed me when I was there. COFA, by the way, is known for its online programs and resources including Omnium (Rick helped build it and then research Omnium). More recently, Rick and his colleagues have built a cool social media tool for one's courses called Ruksac (ala having course resources in one's backpack). Do check it out when you get a chance.

When I got home from Oz, I revised the article and extended it. I then sent it to one of my contacts at Inside Higher Education. However, my main contact there left a few weeks later to work for the Chronicle of Higher Education and the article sat at Inside Higher Ed for 2 months. I finally got a response from Inside Higher Education that they had too many articles on MOOCs and mine was not unique enough.

Fortunately, I was able to publish it during the past two weeks in The EvoLLLution in 2 parts. The Evolllution is concerned with lifelong and online learning which are the focal points of this article. I thank my friend Amrit Ahluwalia for reviewing it and finding it to be to his liking. Part 1 of the article came out Friday February 1st in HMTL and PDF. Part 2 came out on Friday March 1st in HTML and PDF formats.

The basic premise is that TV and correspondence courses changed the lives of many people during the previous century (including mine); even those of low quality. None of them had the interaction possibilities that we have here in 2013 Today, people debate the quality of MOOCs as if there is a certain threshold that we are aiming for. Sure, we all want more engaging and interactive content; in fact, I am working on a book on online motivation and retention. However, we cannot discount the many lives that are changing from MOOCs that have limited or no interactivity. People can still learn as self-directed online learners. Perhaps such views will evolve and hence why I publish this in the EvoLLLution.

The opening paragraph to Part 1 of the article starts with the following:
             "If you grew up in the 1960s and 70s, you likely remember those TV dinner nights when your parents were out or when there was nothing else in the fridge. You just heated it up and you were done. You know the one: you get a slab of meat, some diced-up potatoes, a side tray with an assorted mix of carrots, corn and peas and, perhaps, another tray with rice or gravy. Bland, but still passable as a meal."

Anyone remember those meals? Do you now want some MOOC with your TV dinners?

The opening paragraph to Part 2 of the article starts with the following:
             "Given the possibilities presented by Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS); instead of simply looking at achievement gains (or losses), we must begin to ask how self-directed local and global teams as well as personal visits from a MOOC instructor are helping to foster important moments of reflection and change. Not every outcome can be determined from test scores, page-hit rates or student retention data. Lives change. People change. Education is a key vehicle for fostering such life transformations. And MOOCs have the potential to change lives on a grander scale than perhaps any previous form of learning delivery."

My life changed from TV and correspondence courses. I am sure many of yours have as well.

See what you think. Part 2 has a link back to Part 1. More soon. I promise.