So many technologies to keep track of the past few years. Rarely does anyone point out how to use them. Too often people become pessimistic due to the lack of examples or immediate success. Too often the naysayers win the debate without adequate trial periods and we educators move on to the next tool or system. In response, I try to make lists of pedagogical uses of technology in my blog posts (see below), books, presentations, journal articles, classes, etc. The following link is to a blog of Professor David Parry from the Emerging Media and Communications Department at the University of Texas at Dallas on reasons or ways one might use Twitter as an instructor, trainer, student, etc.
http://academhack.outsidethetext.com/home/2008/twitter-for-academia/
I can use some of these I think--instant feedback for student work, having them follow a famous person and perhaps be indirectly apprenticed by him or her, recording creative thoughts and ideas in a public notepad, writing continuous short stories that others in a group add to, tracking a particular conference, and creating a sense of a classroom community. All of these are ways Dr. Parry lists as uses of Twitter. Creativity, feedback, apprenticeship, communities, collaboration, etc. are all evident in his ideas. These may be short bursts of learning and conversation (since you are limited to 140 characters of text), but pithy summaries and writing in nutshell what has been thought, said, or presented somewhere, has been shown for decades to be effective by cognitive psychologists. Summary writing forces the reorganization and rehearsal of ideas.
I think Dr. Parry has done an excellent job of moving the debate forward. Thank you Professor Parry!!! It is just one technology, but there are myriad practical (and some not so practical) uses for it in the classroom. How else might you use a tool like Twitter?
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Sunday, 13 January 2008
CLO Magazine January 2008 Issue on Motivation, Innovation, Googlization, and the Future of E-Learning
I try to keep up on e-learning in all sectors—K-12, higher education, corporate training, military, etc., but it is not easy. I spend most of my time in the higher education space, but enjoy those moments in the other areas; especially since I used to be a corporate controller and CPA and my master’s thesis and dissertation were in the K-12 schools. It is always difficult to straddle all sectors.
Below are some articles I just read in Chief Learning Officer (CLO) Magazine (see http://www.clomedia.com/) which came in the mail yesterday. I have an article in here about collaborative tools a few years back and always like reading it. I normally do not find much useful stuff in other corporate training magazines which I subscribe to (especially the ones from ASTD—T&D Magazine this month was all about “learning” but I found none if it worthwhile so I disappointingly tossed it out—lots of promise but far too fluffy). Fortunately, CLO is different and usually has a couple articles of value each month. And it is free! This month there are articles related to motivation, innovation, creativity, relevant learning, and the future of e-learning. I review 7 of the articles below.
CLO Magazine, January 2008 issue (see http://www.clomedia.com/current_issue.php):
1. The Power of Pull (Idea of article—this one is about motivating people online. Charlie Gillette has a powerful story of his own college days that we can all relate to. Here he notes how free and fun college learning can be yet there is always that threat of a bad grade or, worse yet, failure. Instead of the fear of failure learning (i.e., push learning) such as experienced in college and many training settings, learning needs to be irresistible and help learning unconsciously acquire information. In effect, learning should be interesting, fun, interactive, collaborative, cool, compelling, exciting, social or friendly, challenging, authentic (simulations for instance), flexible (learn when want to learn), user generated, captivating (draw learners into it—learning is a perk not a terrible experience), and, simply stated, an alternative to the regular classroom): http://www.clomedia.com/features/2008/January/2047/index.php
2. E-Learning Is Dead. Long Live E-Learning! (Idea of article—I love this title since it is highly accurate; E-learning—wanted dead or alive? No, I just want it alive!!! In effect, do not push technology and fancy e-learning on to learners and expect them to complete it; instead, think about learner needs and provide content on demand or just in time. There was a ton of e-learning terms we were told were important 5 or 10 years ago (e.g., LMS, LCMS, WBT, CBT, VCT, ILT, KMS, CMS, VLE, etc.) that basically no longer apply. The focus is now once again more squarely on the learner instead of the technology. E-learning is dead (I mean the old electronic page turning versions of e-learning), but e-learning, as is all learning, is very much alive as well. http://www.clomedia.com/features/2008/January/2037/index.php
3. Innovation: Nature and Nurture (Idea of article—I appreciated this article as well since I have a recent keynote talk about the nature (i.e., technology) and nurture (i.e., pedagogy) of e-learning. Here, Corrine Miller argues that we need a culture of innovation and management support for innovation is helpful for innovation to occur since innovation CAN be taught (nurture) and some people are born with ability to be creative and generate new ideas (i.e., nature). Need a problem-solving approach which involves creating ideas, evaluating ideas, and action plans for such ideas. Need real goals, challenges, problem statements, inquiry, question banks or guides for such inquiry and investigations, and activities which lead from divergent or creative thinking exercises to convergent or critical thinking ones and this has to be done in a team. Sure sounds like this course! You need the motivational environment and the methods for problem solving and innovation.): http://www.clomedia.com/features/2008/January/2048/index.php
4. On Demand: The Googlization of Learning (Idea of article—learning from classroom training is forgotten quickly so need access to information (i.e., information must be available on demand); it is blended learning that combines face-to-face and online learning plus resources online that is best. More than 70 percent of corporate learning is informal so need to provide access to information on demand. Accessible knowledge is highly important but so need to not just spend our days searching for content but actually finding the content we need (in small, understandable chunks, on-demand, and ranked by relevancy of the search). Learning is no longer just teacher-directed but is now increasingly self-directed. It is not discrete knowledge or facts learned at a specific event. Instead, our learning might come from online or face-to-face meetings with mentors; from collaborative teams; from online access to information; from instructors; from life experiences; etc. Google and other search tools are simply fueling a trend toward making learning available on demand for learners and learner-centered learning. The author of this article, John Ambrose is right on target.): http://www.clomedia.com/features/2008/January/2050/index.php
5. Learning Transparency and Assumptions by Elliott Massie (Idea of article—This article is short at 1 page but Elliott Masie is always interesting to read. Here, Masie notes that too often training and education lists objectives and stops at that; unfortunately, such an approach is missing out on many things that are important to the learners and ultimate learning performance; in particular, with greater self-selected learning and e-learning, it is missing the learning assumptions, such as the how much will learners need to memorize in the course, what facts and skills (or prior knowledge) is assumed, what is the philosophy of teaching this course (i.e., exploratory of drill and kill, behavioral), how difficult will different content be (might you color code content with different difficulty levels), how have previous learners succeeded or failed (what have they done to succeed, how have they studied, what tasks did they choose, what worked best), how much classroom discussion and dialogue will be expected, who should NOT take this course, and how current is the knowledge of this course?): http://www.clomedia.com/imperatives/elliott-masie/2008/January/2040/index.php
6. Three Learning Trends to Watch in 2008 by Jeannie C. Meister (Idea of article—Here is another 1 page article with three trends outlined: (1) college classes are going paperless by building content in wikis, using RSS feeds of online news, podcasts, blogs, etc., and other things to delete textbooks and make learning more relevant and designed for the new generations of learners; (2) corporations need to change too by creating Wikipedia-like knowledge bases designed by employees as well as using more Web 2.0 tools like blogs, podcasts, instant messaging, text messaging, and Facebook posts to network, learn, and communicate; and (3) the free online class portals and open educational resources like the MIT courses are soon going to be prevalent in corporate learning portals such as the Free Management Library with 650 topics and 5,000 links; in effect, social software is helping learning become more collaborative and interactive and the corporate world better keep pace): http://www.clomedia.com/in-conclusion/jeanne-c-meister/2008/January/2041/index.php
7. Five Trends in the LMS Market by Brandon Hall (Idea of article—A final 1 page article from my friend Brandon Hall notes the following five trends related to the learning management system (LMS) market in corporate training: (1) need to look at software as a service (SaaS) and use hosted software thereby reducing personnel needed; (2) focus on supporting internal talent from prehire days to when they retire and even after (i.e., build talent rather than ignore it or assume it just happens); (3) learning should come to the learner when needed using emerging technologies such as mobile technologies, blogging, and collaborative Web 2.0 tools instead of forcing the learner to attend a specific training event and location; (4) with nearly 3 billion mobile phones deployed worldwide, anywhere, anytime mobile learning is growing at an unprecedented rate ; and (5) tools for SHARING knowledge and information and social networking (e.g., Facebook) are on the rise): http://www.clomedia.com/take-five/brandon-hall/2008/January/2042/index.php
Hope you find some of these articles valuable. Despite being a former accountant and CPA, I spend roughly 15-20 percent of my time on corporate related learning research but I thought these were unique and valuable. Thanks CLO!
Below are some articles I just read in Chief Learning Officer (CLO) Magazine (see http://www.clomedia.com/) which came in the mail yesterday. I have an article in here about collaborative tools a few years back and always like reading it. I normally do not find much useful stuff in other corporate training magazines which I subscribe to (especially the ones from ASTD—T&D Magazine this month was all about “learning” but I found none if it worthwhile so I disappointingly tossed it out—lots of promise but far too fluffy). Fortunately, CLO is different and usually has a couple articles of value each month. And it is free! This month there are articles related to motivation, innovation, creativity, relevant learning, and the future of e-learning. I review 7 of the articles below.
CLO Magazine, January 2008 issue (see http://www.clomedia.com/current_issue.php):
1. The Power of Pull (Idea of article—this one is about motivating people online. Charlie Gillette has a powerful story of his own college days that we can all relate to. Here he notes how free and fun college learning can be yet there is always that threat of a bad grade or, worse yet, failure. Instead of the fear of failure learning (i.e., push learning) such as experienced in college and many training settings, learning needs to be irresistible and help learning unconsciously acquire information. In effect, learning should be interesting, fun, interactive, collaborative, cool, compelling, exciting, social or friendly, challenging, authentic (simulations for instance), flexible (learn when want to learn), user generated, captivating (draw learners into it—learning is a perk not a terrible experience), and, simply stated, an alternative to the regular classroom): http://www.clomedia.com/features/2008/January/2047/index.php
2. E-Learning Is Dead. Long Live E-Learning! (Idea of article—I love this title since it is highly accurate; E-learning—wanted dead or alive? No, I just want it alive!!! In effect, do not push technology and fancy e-learning on to learners and expect them to complete it; instead, think about learner needs and provide content on demand or just in time. There was a ton of e-learning terms we were told were important 5 or 10 years ago (e.g., LMS, LCMS, WBT, CBT, VCT, ILT, KMS, CMS, VLE, etc.) that basically no longer apply. The focus is now once again more squarely on the learner instead of the technology. E-learning is dead (I mean the old electronic page turning versions of e-learning), but e-learning, as is all learning, is very much alive as well. http://www.clomedia.com/features/2008/January/2037/index.php
3. Innovation: Nature and Nurture (Idea of article—I appreciated this article as well since I have a recent keynote talk about the nature (i.e., technology) and nurture (i.e., pedagogy) of e-learning. Here, Corrine Miller argues that we need a culture of innovation and management support for innovation is helpful for innovation to occur since innovation CAN be taught (nurture) and some people are born with ability to be creative and generate new ideas (i.e., nature). Need a problem-solving approach which involves creating ideas, evaluating ideas, and action plans for such ideas. Need real goals, challenges, problem statements, inquiry, question banks or guides for such inquiry and investigations, and activities which lead from divergent or creative thinking exercises to convergent or critical thinking ones and this has to be done in a team. Sure sounds like this course! You need the motivational environment and the methods for problem solving and innovation.): http://www.clomedia.com/features/2008/January/2048/index.php
4. On Demand: The Googlization of Learning (Idea of article—learning from classroom training is forgotten quickly so need access to information (i.e., information must be available on demand); it is blended learning that combines face-to-face and online learning plus resources online that is best. More than 70 percent of corporate learning is informal so need to provide access to information on demand. Accessible knowledge is highly important but so need to not just spend our days searching for content but actually finding the content we need (in small, understandable chunks, on-demand, and ranked by relevancy of the search). Learning is no longer just teacher-directed but is now increasingly self-directed. It is not discrete knowledge or facts learned at a specific event. Instead, our learning might come from online or face-to-face meetings with mentors; from collaborative teams; from online access to information; from instructors; from life experiences; etc. Google and other search tools are simply fueling a trend toward making learning available on demand for learners and learner-centered learning. The author of this article, John Ambrose is right on target.): http://www.clomedia.com/features/2008/January/2050/index.php
5. Learning Transparency and Assumptions by Elliott Massie (Idea of article—This article is short at 1 page but Elliott Masie is always interesting to read. Here, Masie notes that too often training and education lists objectives and stops at that; unfortunately, such an approach is missing out on many things that are important to the learners and ultimate learning performance; in particular, with greater self-selected learning and e-learning, it is missing the learning assumptions, such as the how much will learners need to memorize in the course, what facts and skills (or prior knowledge) is assumed, what is the philosophy of teaching this course (i.e., exploratory of drill and kill, behavioral), how difficult will different content be (might you color code content with different difficulty levels), how have previous learners succeeded or failed (what have they done to succeed, how have they studied, what tasks did they choose, what worked best), how much classroom discussion and dialogue will be expected, who should NOT take this course, and how current is the knowledge of this course?): http://www.clomedia.com/imperatives/elliott-masie/2008/January/2040/index.php
6. Three Learning Trends to Watch in 2008 by Jeannie C. Meister (Idea of article—Here is another 1 page article with three trends outlined: (1) college classes are going paperless by building content in wikis, using RSS feeds of online news, podcasts, blogs, etc., and other things to delete textbooks and make learning more relevant and designed for the new generations of learners; (2) corporations need to change too by creating Wikipedia-like knowledge bases designed by employees as well as using more Web 2.0 tools like blogs, podcasts, instant messaging, text messaging, and Facebook posts to network, learn, and communicate; and (3) the free online class portals and open educational resources like the MIT courses are soon going to be prevalent in corporate learning portals such as the Free Management Library with 650 topics and 5,000 links; in effect, social software is helping learning become more collaborative and interactive and the corporate world better keep pace): http://www.clomedia.com/in-conclusion/jeanne-c-meister/2008/January/2041/index.php
7. Five Trends in the LMS Market by Brandon Hall (Idea of article—A final 1 page article from my friend Brandon Hall notes the following five trends related to the learning management system (LMS) market in corporate training: (1) need to look at software as a service (SaaS) and use hosted software thereby reducing personnel needed; (2) focus on supporting internal talent from prehire days to when they retire and even after (i.e., build talent rather than ignore it or assume it just happens); (3) learning should come to the learner when needed using emerging technologies such as mobile technologies, blogging, and collaborative Web 2.0 tools instead of forcing the learner to attend a specific training event and location; (4) with nearly 3 billion mobile phones deployed worldwide, anywhere, anytime mobile learning is growing at an unprecedented rate ; and (5) tools for SHARING knowledge and information and social networking (e.g., Facebook) are on the rise): http://www.clomedia.com/take-five/brandon-hall/2008/January/2042/index.php
Hope you find some of these articles valuable. Despite being a former accountant and CPA, I spend roughly 15-20 percent of my time on corporate related learning research but I thought these were unique and valuable. Thanks CLO!
Saturday, 5 January 2008
10 quick writing tips in the academic world.
My colleague and friend from grad school days at Wisconsin, Dr. Veronica Acosta, text messaged me tonight. During our chat, she noted that she has to do a presentation for faculty at Cal State Long Beach on writing this week Tuesday January 8th. Veronica noted that I had some succcess lately in publishing (ya, after many years and stacks of article rejections, I have had 65 articles published that past 3 years and 15 more things in review or in press) so it has been a good run. I give her links to my 3 blogs posts on writing tips and ideas. In addition, I added the 10 tips below in a text message. I reproduce these 10 tips for others who might be interested:
#1. Create Writing Goals: Goals are perhaps the most important part of a writing plan and success story. Establish your goals for writing = how many articles per year or semester to get out and published. You do not need to meet your goals, but just have them and compare your performance to your goals from time-to-time.
#2. Sharing Goals: Share those goals and the articles produced with colleagues and friends. Goals are even more powerful when you realize that others are aware of them.
#3. Hire Help: Hire part time help for monotonous stuff like finding articles and proofing or editing (spend small amounts of money and it will pay huge returns). This is a no-brainer, but one that frugile people too often neglect.
#4. Create Possible Journal Checklists: Look at lists of where to publish articles and attack that list in a strategic fashion (e.g., see my list of educational technology and e-learning journals at:
http://www.trainingshare.com/distance-ed-journals-and-online-learning-books-Nov-2007-b.htm). Check them off as you publish in different ones. Spread your articles around and your reputation will and with that, so, too, will invites to write also grow.
#5. Manufacture Time: Time is the #1 obstacle to writing--so schedule time during the week to write or during the day to write. Also, you might do things like combining meetings back to back to save time to write. I tend to write in bulk. I do not have set hours or a set day of the week; instead, I write for a week or 2 or month at a time. I get everything cleared off my plate and then I have a go at it. Brute force writing as much as I can for as long as I can. Others might not like this approach but it has always worked for me. I leave most of my summers open for writing and no longer teach in the summer.
#6. Understand Journals and Network with Editors: Talk to the editors of journals about their requirements. Get to know them and they might help you out or give you insider tips or expedite the review process where possible. Knowing people, especially those in power, is a good thing when it comes to publishing your ideas. Of course, often this requires you to do something in return such as reviewing articles for their journal or edited book project. You must decide when to jump in and when to back off. But by all means, do not smooze or use people. Be genuine. Work with the people whom you like and respect.
#7. Persistence/Passion: Never give up on an article that you care about or that you think others care about. Passion and persistance are often key to publishing. Since 1999, I do not think that I have given up on an article. Before 1999, it was an all-too-common occurence. If you want to be successful, you must be passionate and also persistent about your work.
#8. Take Risks and Explore Different Forms of Writing and Publishing Outlets: Explore new forms of publishing--Wikibooks, electronic books, open access journals, etc., and even forms of self-publishing. So many outlets for writing are available today--explore them and use those that benefit you and that that help spread your message. Your institution may not reward or recognize all of these outlets--but which is more important to you--the recognition from internal colleagues or the recognition from people around the planet whom you might never have met without making your book or article open access.
#9. Collaborate with Like-Minded People and Support Colleagues: Form a team that might do a special journal issue or edited book and support each other. As stated in #2, writing is always enhanced when you share it and work with others. When you find a group that is genuinely interested in the work of each other, you are bound to find at least some small success.
#10. Play Second Fiddle: Do not always be #1 or first author of an article; being #2 or #3 on an article will give you more time to write; some people (like me) work better once there is some text on the page from someone else. I had 19 things published in 2007, but I was only first author on a few of them and I had 9 research articles in review or revision at the end of the year and was 2nd or 3rd author on all of them.
Hope these quick writing tips help. See also my previous 3 posts which are much more expanded I think (especially #1 below):
1. 30 Writing Tips:
http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007/01/quick-20-academic-writing-tips.html
2. 3 P's of Professional Writing (Purpose, Passion, and Pleasure):
http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007/08/3-ps-of-professional-writers-purpose.html
3. 3 P's of Publishing (Persistance, Patience, and Push):http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007/08/3-ps-of-publishing-professorship-keep.html
Good luck!
#1. Create Writing Goals: Goals are perhaps the most important part of a writing plan and success story. Establish your goals for writing = how many articles per year or semester to get out and published. You do not need to meet your goals, but just have them and compare your performance to your goals from time-to-time.
#2. Sharing Goals: Share those goals and the articles produced with colleagues and friends. Goals are even more powerful when you realize that others are aware of them.
#3. Hire Help: Hire part time help for monotonous stuff like finding articles and proofing or editing (spend small amounts of money and it will pay huge returns). This is a no-brainer, but one that frugile people too often neglect.
#4. Create Possible Journal Checklists: Look at lists of where to publish articles and attack that list in a strategic fashion (e.g., see my list of educational technology and e-learning journals at:
http://www.trainingshare.com/distance-ed-journals-and-online-learning-books-Nov-2007-b.htm). Check them off as you publish in different ones. Spread your articles around and your reputation will and with that, so, too, will invites to write also grow.
#5. Manufacture Time: Time is the #1 obstacle to writing--so schedule time during the week to write or during the day to write. Also, you might do things like combining meetings back to back to save time to write. I tend to write in bulk. I do not have set hours or a set day of the week; instead, I write for a week or 2 or month at a time. I get everything cleared off my plate and then I have a go at it. Brute force writing as much as I can for as long as I can. Others might not like this approach but it has always worked for me. I leave most of my summers open for writing and no longer teach in the summer.
#6. Understand Journals and Network with Editors: Talk to the editors of journals about their requirements. Get to know them and they might help you out or give you insider tips or expedite the review process where possible. Knowing people, especially those in power, is a good thing when it comes to publishing your ideas. Of course, often this requires you to do something in return such as reviewing articles for their journal or edited book project. You must decide when to jump in and when to back off. But by all means, do not smooze or use people. Be genuine. Work with the people whom you like and respect.
#7. Persistence/Passion: Never give up on an article that you care about or that you think others care about. Passion and persistance are often key to publishing. Since 1999, I do not think that I have given up on an article. Before 1999, it was an all-too-common occurence. If you want to be successful, you must be passionate and also persistent about your work.
#8. Take Risks and Explore Different Forms of Writing and Publishing Outlets: Explore new forms of publishing--Wikibooks, electronic books, open access journals, etc., and even forms of self-publishing. So many outlets for writing are available today--explore them and use those that benefit you and that that help spread your message. Your institution may not reward or recognize all of these outlets--but which is more important to you--the recognition from internal colleagues or the recognition from people around the planet whom you might never have met without making your book or article open access.
#9. Collaborate with Like-Minded People and Support Colleagues: Form a team that might do a special journal issue or edited book and support each other. As stated in #2, writing is always enhanced when you share it and work with others. When you find a group that is genuinely interested in the work of each other, you are bound to find at least some small success.
#10. Play Second Fiddle: Do not always be #1 or first author of an article; being #2 or #3 on an article will give you more time to write; some people (like me) work better once there is some text on the page from someone else. I had 19 things published in 2007, but I was only first author on a few of them and I had 9 research articles in review or revision at the end of the year and was 2nd or 3rd author on all of them.
Hope these quick writing tips help. See also my previous 3 posts which are much more expanded I think (especially #1 below):
1. 30 Writing Tips:
http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007/01/quick-20-academic-writing-tips.html
2. 3 P's of Professional Writing (Purpose, Passion, and Pleasure):
http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007/08/3-ps-of-professional-writers-purpose.html
3. 3 P's of Publishing (Persistance, Patience, and Push):http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007/08/3-ps-of-publishing-professorship-keep.html
Good luck!
Thursday, 20 December 2007
Send me just a Pew more Today: Online learning reports this week from the USA Today and the Pew Internet & American Life Project
Lots of reports related to educational technology and online learning this week in the USA Today (my primary source of news--smile). Monday they featured a story on 3 students at Carlton College in Northfield, MN who gave up computers for a few weeks. Not sure if Jessie and Frank James pulled off another great Northfield raid and stole all their computers, but I was curious to read what happened. Seems some of them could actually go offline for 3-4 weeks. And the rest of their class produced a documentary about it. They even asked the student body to abstain from computers for 24 hours.
They were forced to use typewriters of all things. Wow, now here's a technology that I want to forget (typing was my lowest grade (C) in high school--and perhaps lowest grade in my life). Despite that wondrous class, I still hunt and peck for keys. Still to give up computers and I assume online access via phones as well, is quite difficult today. I gave up TV in August in a $10 bet with my son and I think that is much easier to give up than computers. If my son was smart, he would have bet me $10 that I could not give up computers or the Internet for a few months. Hec, I can catch up with everything online--who needs stinking TV anyway? Not me! But I could not do the opposite--I could not get all my news, communication, and information needs from TV if I gave up computers instead of TV. Typewriters and TV are history in my book. Computers, mobile devices, and online communication are all I need. For more, read
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20071217/d_computerless17.art.htm
The next day (December 18th), the USA Today ran yet another article the trend toward using digital textbooks (see http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2007-12-17-textbooks_N.htm). Have we not seen this before? 2000? 2001? 2002? 2003? 2004? 2005? 2006? And now late in 2007. Having been on the board of a digital book company called Metatext from 2000-2002 (now part of Xanadu), I can say that I have heard this story before. Every year we hear about the great boon toward digital textbooks, only to also hear about the bust a few months later due to problems in pricing, acceptability, usability, portability, trust, etc.
I think this time is really different, however. The article expand (albeit briefly) on how these can better address student learning styles and preferences. I just finished an article with Dr. Ke Zhang yesterday on how online technologies marry well today with theories of human intelligence, learning styles and preferences, and cognitive styles. Our upcoming R2D2 (Read, Reflect, Display, and Do) book with Jossey Bass has many examples related to how tools such as digital textbooks can address verbal and visual learners (as well as reflective and hands-on ones). However, Ke and I do not believe in learning styles per say. Still it interesting that companies like Pearson are once again making a push in this area (and perhaps no longer simply plodding along).
Wednesday was a slower day at the USA Today in terms of online and distance learning but today (Thursday the 20th) it picked pack up again (see http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2007-12-19-teens-social-media_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip). This USA Today article notes that according to a new Pew Internet & American Life Project report called "Teens and Social Media" (see
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Teens_Social_Media_Final.pdf
According to this report, Web-savvy teens still use the telephone to communicate with their friends (39%); in fact, they use it more often than using their cell phones (35%), relying on face-to-face meetings (31%), sending instant messages (28%) or text messages (27%), using social networking tools to send messages (21%), and email (14%). Wow, I guess email is old school. And I guess the telephone is still ok.
There is also a report from the Pew Internet & American Life project called "Digital Footprints Online identity management and search in the age of transparency," by Mary Madden, Susannah Fox, Aaron Smith, and Jessica Vitak (see http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Digital_Footprints.pdf.
This report is about how we have become content creators and expose masses of personal information about ourselves online. And then we Google our own names to see what appears. Is Google now our identity? There is much data in each report that you might want to read.
Humm, to recap, then, Carleton College kids are going back to typewriters and shunning computers, teens are still using landline phones to contact their friends more than cell phones (the data must be wrong here), publishers are yet again pushing digital supplements and e-books, and I am giving up TV. So, the world keeps turning--am I pushing ahead and everyone else pushing back or vice versa?
They were forced to use typewriters of all things. Wow, now here's a technology that I want to forget (typing was my lowest grade (C) in high school--and perhaps lowest grade in my life). Despite that wondrous class, I still hunt and peck for keys. Still to give up computers and I assume online access via phones as well, is quite difficult today. I gave up TV in August in a $10 bet with my son and I think that is much easier to give up than computers. If my son was smart, he would have bet me $10 that I could not give up computers or the Internet for a few months. Hec, I can catch up with everything online--who needs stinking TV anyway? Not me! But I could not do the opposite--I could not get all my news, communication, and information needs from TV if I gave up computers instead of TV. Typewriters and TV are history in my book. Computers, mobile devices, and online communication are all I need. For more, read
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20071217/d_computerless17.art.htm
The next day (December 18th), the USA Today ran yet another article the trend toward using digital textbooks (see http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2007-12-17-textbooks_N.htm). Have we not seen this before? 2000? 2001? 2002? 2003? 2004? 2005? 2006? And now late in 2007. Having been on the board of a digital book company called Metatext from 2000-2002 (now part of Xanadu), I can say that I have heard this story before. Every year we hear about the great boon toward digital textbooks, only to also hear about the bust a few months later due to problems in pricing, acceptability, usability, portability, trust, etc.
I think this time is really different, however. The article expand (albeit briefly) on how these can better address student learning styles and preferences. I just finished an article with Dr. Ke Zhang yesterday on how online technologies marry well today with theories of human intelligence, learning styles and preferences, and cognitive styles. Our upcoming R2D2 (Read, Reflect, Display, and Do) book with Jossey Bass has many examples related to how tools such as digital textbooks can address verbal and visual learners (as well as reflective and hands-on ones). However, Ke and I do not believe in learning styles per say. Still it interesting that companies like Pearson are once again making a push in this area (and perhaps no longer simply plodding along).
Wednesday was a slower day at the USA Today in terms of online and distance learning but today (Thursday the 20th) it picked pack up again (see http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2007-12-19-teens-social-media_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip). This USA Today article notes that according to a new Pew Internet & American Life Project report called "Teens and Social Media" (see
http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Teens_Social_Media_Final.pdf
According to this report, Web-savvy teens still use the telephone to communicate with their friends (39%); in fact, they use it more often than using their cell phones (35%), relying on face-to-face meetings (31%), sending instant messages (28%) or text messages (27%), using social networking tools to send messages (21%), and email (14%). Wow, I guess email is old school. And I guess the telephone is still ok.
There is also a report from the Pew Internet & American Life project called "Digital Footprints Online identity management and search in the age of transparency," by Mary Madden, Susannah Fox, Aaron Smith, and Jessica Vitak (see http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Digital_Footprints.pdf.
This report is about how we have become content creators and expose masses of personal information about ourselves online. And then we Google our own names to see what appears. Is Google now our identity? There is much data in each report that you might want to read.
Humm, to recap, then, Carleton College kids are going back to typewriters and shunning computers, teens are still using landline phones to contact their friends more than cell phones (the data must be wrong here), publishers are yet again pushing digital supplements and e-books, and I am giving up TV. So, the world keeps turning--am I pushing ahead and everyone else pushing back or vice versa?
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
"Wired for Learning": A call for a new Web 2.0 book
Whether it is a good or bad sign I do not know, but as with any trend in education there seems to be a ton of attention related to the Web 2.0 lately. There apparently was a debate between Andrew Keene and Graham Attwell at the big e-learning conference called Online Educa in Berlin (see http://www.icwe.net/oeb_special/news78.php). Keene is the outspoken critique of the Web 2.0 and apparently at the conference, Attwell responded by saying that “I am Andrew Keen’s nightmare!” I did not get to Online Educa this year, but you can read more from the link above.
This enamoration with the Web 2.0 has translated into many books, Webinars, classes, and institutes on it. One such book, "Wired for Learning: An Educator's Guide to Web 2.0," I was informed of yesterday is below. The "Wired for Learning" book will be edited by Terry Kidd of the University of Texas Health Science Center and Irene Chen of the University of Houston-Downtown campus. I met Terry when giving a keynote at the University of Houston in November of 2006 (he won a copy of my Handbook of Blended Learning at the end of my keynote). A few months later (March 2007), I briefly met Irene at the SITE conference in San Antonio.
As noted below, I have chapters in 2 of their other books; one in press and one recently released.
Lin, M.-F., Bonk, C. J., & Sajjapanroj, S. (in press). Twin wiki wonders?: Wikipedia and Wikibooks as powerful tools for online collaborative writing. To appear in I. Chen & T. Kidd (Eds.), Social information technology: Connecting society and cultural issues. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
Liu, X., Lee, S. H., Bonk, C. J., Magjuka, R. J., & Liu, S. (2008). Technology use in an online MBA program: Issues, trends and opportunities. In Kidd, T. & Song, H (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Instructional Systems and Technology (pp.614-630). Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
If anyone wants a preprint of either of the above chapters, let me know. But this causes me to reflect. Sure seems to me that Information Age Publishing as well as Information Science Reference (formerly The Idea Group Publishing) both are producing many edited volumes and encyclopedias related to educational technology and e-learning lately (though Info Science Reference definitely has more). I wonder to myself how they can market them all and how people can pick and choose between them given all the books that they churn out in this fashion. The titles often look extremely tempting, but how can all of these books be of high quality? I also wonder who can afford them. What might they do to help the customer?
Compiling a "best of" book is one option of weeding through mass of edited volumes that companies such as Information Science Reference produces. My first book back when in graduate school in 1988 with Donna Rae Clasen was, in fact, a compiled book on critical thinking. Clasen, D. R., & Bonk, C. J. (Compilers). (1988). Teachers tackle thinking: Critical thinking in the classroom. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin-Extension. (Note: this was created for nationally distributed telecourse on critical thinking).
Perhaps one way to do something with all these books is to compile a set of best articles from all the books. In fact, I had four old chapters of mine reprinted in a huge multi-volume book, Online and distance learning: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications, compiled by L. Tomei for Information Science Reference. Compiling newer books based on older articles in e-learning and distance learning is one way to gain attention to articles that were once thought gone to the scrapheap of old articles. I got notice this week that "Online and distance learning" is the #2 selling book this year from Information Science Reference. Unfortunately, the price is well over $1,000!!! Just who in the field of education can afford it?
Terry asked that I pass this information on so I am. Perhaps some of you might want to submit a proposal to him. Perhaps others will wait for books on the Web 3.0 or 4.0 or for some other trend or buzzword. More information on Terry and Irene's Web 2.0 book effort is below. (Do see an earlier blog post of mine about another Web 2.0 book (see http://csusap.csu.edu.au/~malee/web2book/) that Catherine McLoughlin and her colleague are doing (for my blog post, see http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007/07/more-and-more-web-20-opportunities.html.)
Call for Chapters for the
Wired for Learning: An Educator's Guide to Web 2.0
Editors: Terry T. Kidd
University of Texas Health Science Center, USA
Irene Chen, Ed.D
University of Houston-Downtown, USA
Introduction:
"Web 2.0" (O'Reilly, 2005) is a term used to describe an apparent second generation or improved form of the World Wide Web that emphasizes collaboration and sharing of knowledge and content among users. There has been a burgeoning interest in Web 2.0, both in mainstream society as well as in education, with tools such as blogs, wikis, RSS, social networking sites, tag-based folksonomies, and peer-to-peer (P2P) media sharing applications are gaining popularity and traction in all sectors of the education industry.
Web 2.0's inevitable arrival within the education system is likely to follow the pattern set by the first generation of the Web, only to become more pervasive and essential. With Web 2.0, students can be actively involved with creating content and accessing mass amounts of information, but educators need to determine how to embrace and focus the activities on teaching and learning. Wired for Learning: An Educator's Guide to Web 2.0 holds tremendous potential for addressing the growing interest in mainstream society and in education. The purpose of Wired for Learning: An Educator's Guide to Web 2.0 is to present a realistic framework of Web 2.0 to educators for teaching and learning practices aimed to meet the educational challenges of learners in diverse settings.
Coverage:
Wired for Learning: An Educator's Guide to Web 2.0 will provide a compendium of terms, definitions and explanations of concepts, processes and acronyms. Additionally, this book will feature chapters (3000-5000 words) authored by leading experts offering an in-depth description of key terms and concepts related to various areas, issues and trends in Web 2.0.
Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following :
(We will solicit research-oriented as well as practitioner-oriented chapters. Case studies will also be solicited.)
• Introduction and Historical Background Information: What is Web 2.0?
• Philosophy of Web 2.0
• Legal, Cultural, Social, and Political Issues in the Web 2.0
• Nontraditional, Alternative, and Informal Learning with the Web 2.0
• Global and International Education and Interaction
• Overcoming the Digital Divide with Web 2.0
• Socio-cultural Aspects of Web 2.0
• Web 2.0 Learning Styles
• Instructional Design and Pedagogical Issues with Web 2.0
• Web 2.0 Tools: Virtual Worlds, Language Learning, Podcasting, Wikis, Blogs, Social Networking, and Online Communities
• Instructional uses of blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasting, P2P media sharing in an education setting
• Instructional uses of blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasting, P2P media sharing in a corporate business and industry settings
• Web 2.0 and mobile technologies / mobile collaborative learning
• Massively-Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) and networked learning
• Institutional issues related to Web 2.0 and social informatics (e.g. strategy, policy, and infrastructure)
• Web 2.0 and learning management systems
• Web 2.0 and Human Performance Technology
• Success factors and pitfalls in the implementation of Web 2.0 teaching and learning
• The Future of Web 2.0
• Real world case studies and exemplars of Web 2.0 in university and K-12 teaching and learning (need a number of good proposals in this category)
Invited Submissions: Individuals interested in submitting chapters (3,000-5000 words) on the above-suggested topics or other related topics in their area of interest should submit via e-mail a 1-2 page manuscript proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of the proposed chapter by February 1, 2008. We strongly encourage other Web 2.0 topics that have not been listed in our suggested list, particularly if the topic is related to the research area in which you have expertise. Upon acceptance of your proposal, you will have until June 1, 2008, to prepare your chapter of 3,000-5000 words and 5-7 related terms and their appropriate definitions for the glossary section. Guidelines for preparing your paper and terms and definitions will be sent to you upon acceptance of your proposal. Full chapters will be submitted to a double-blind peer review. Authors are allowed to submit no more than three single chapters for this publication.
You will be notified about the status of your proposed topics by March 1, 2008. This book is scheduled for publishing by Information Age Publishing, http://www.infoagepub.com in 2009. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit http://www.infoagepub.com.
Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document) or by mail to:
Editors, Terry T. Kidd and Irene Chen
wiredforlearning@gmail.com
Terry T. Kidd
University of Texas Health Science Center
School of Public Health
1200 Herman Pressler Office: West-220
Houston, TX 77030
About the Editors:
Terry T. Kidd is a PhD candidate from the Texas A&M University and is the Director of the Office of Instructional Development & Support Services at the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health. Kidd has presented at international conferences on designing technology rich learning environments, web based instruction, and issues dealing with training and development. His research interests include technology adoption, instructional design strategies for eLearning and the socio-cultural aspect of information communication and technology. He has published the Handbook of Research on Instructional Systems & Technology and Social Information Technology: Connecting Society and Cultural Issues with Information Science Reference an imprint of IGI Global, Inc.
Irene Chen received her Doctor of Education in Instructional Technology from University of Houston . She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Education at the University of Houston Downtown. Dr. Chen has diverse professional experiences. Previously, she is instructional technology specialist, learning technology coordinator, and computer programmer/analyst. She has taught numerous graduate and undergraduate courses in instructional technology and curriculum & instruction, and delivered a number of K-12 in-service training and professional development activities for school staff and faculty members. She has recently published Technology Application Competencies for K-12 Teachers and Social Information Technology: Connecting Society and Cultural Issues with Information Science Reference an imprint of IGI Global, Inc.
This enamoration with the Web 2.0 has translated into many books, Webinars, classes, and institutes on it. One such book, "Wired for Learning: An Educator's Guide to Web 2.0," I was informed of yesterday is below. The "Wired for Learning" book will be edited by Terry Kidd of the University of Texas Health Science Center and Irene Chen of the University of Houston-Downtown campus. I met Terry when giving a keynote at the University of Houston in November of 2006 (he won a copy of my Handbook of Blended Learning at the end of my keynote). A few months later (March 2007), I briefly met Irene at the SITE conference in San Antonio.
As noted below, I have chapters in 2 of their other books; one in press and one recently released.
Lin, M.-F., Bonk, C. J., & Sajjapanroj, S. (in press). Twin wiki wonders?: Wikipedia and Wikibooks as powerful tools for online collaborative writing. To appear in I. Chen & T. Kidd (Eds.), Social information technology: Connecting society and cultural issues. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
Liu, X., Lee, S. H., Bonk, C. J., Magjuka, R. J., & Liu, S. (2008). Technology use in an online MBA program: Issues, trends and opportunities. In Kidd, T. & Song, H (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Instructional Systems and Technology (pp.614-630). Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.
If anyone wants a preprint of either of the above chapters, let me know. But this causes me to reflect. Sure seems to me that Information Age Publishing as well as Information Science Reference (formerly The Idea Group Publishing) both are producing many edited volumes and encyclopedias related to educational technology and e-learning lately (though Info Science Reference definitely has more). I wonder to myself how they can market them all and how people can pick and choose between them given all the books that they churn out in this fashion. The titles often look extremely tempting, but how can all of these books be of high quality? I also wonder who can afford them. What might they do to help the customer?
Compiling a "best of" book is one option of weeding through mass of edited volumes that companies such as Information Science Reference produces. My first book back when in graduate school in 1988 with Donna Rae Clasen was, in fact, a compiled book on critical thinking. Clasen, D. R., & Bonk, C. J. (Compilers). (1988). Teachers tackle thinking: Critical thinking in the classroom. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin-Extension. (Note: this was created for nationally distributed telecourse on critical thinking).
Perhaps one way to do something with all these books is to compile a set of best articles from all the books. In fact, I had four old chapters of mine reprinted in a huge multi-volume book, Online and distance learning: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications, compiled by L. Tomei for Information Science Reference. Compiling newer books based on older articles in e-learning and distance learning is one way to gain attention to articles that were once thought gone to the scrapheap of old articles. I got notice this week that "Online and distance learning" is the #2 selling book this year from Information Science Reference. Unfortunately, the price is well over $1,000!!! Just who in the field of education can afford it?
Terry asked that I pass this information on so I am. Perhaps some of you might want to submit a proposal to him. Perhaps others will wait for books on the Web 3.0 or 4.0 or for some other trend or buzzword. More information on Terry and Irene's Web 2.0 book effort is below. (Do see an earlier blog post of mine about another Web 2.0 book (see http://csusap.csu.edu.au/~malee/web2book/) that Catherine McLoughlin and her colleague are doing (for my blog post, see http://travelinedman.blogspot.com/2007/07/more-and-more-web-20-opportunities.html.)
Call for Chapters for the
Wired for Learning: An Educator's Guide to Web 2.0
Editors: Terry T. Kidd
University of Texas Health Science Center, USA
Irene Chen, Ed.D
University of Houston-Downtown, USA
Introduction:
"Web 2.0" (O'Reilly, 2005) is a term used to describe an apparent second generation or improved form of the World Wide Web that emphasizes collaboration and sharing of knowledge and content among users. There has been a burgeoning interest in Web 2.0, both in mainstream society as well as in education, with tools such as blogs, wikis, RSS, social networking sites, tag-based folksonomies, and peer-to-peer (P2P) media sharing applications are gaining popularity and traction in all sectors of the education industry.
Web 2.0's inevitable arrival within the education system is likely to follow the pattern set by the first generation of the Web, only to become more pervasive and essential. With Web 2.0, students can be actively involved with creating content and accessing mass amounts of information, but educators need to determine how to embrace and focus the activities on teaching and learning. Wired for Learning: An Educator's Guide to Web 2.0 holds tremendous potential for addressing the growing interest in mainstream society and in education. The purpose of Wired for Learning: An Educator's Guide to Web 2.0 is to present a realistic framework of Web 2.0 to educators for teaching and learning practices aimed to meet the educational challenges of learners in diverse settings.
Coverage:
Wired for Learning: An Educator's Guide to Web 2.0 will provide a compendium of terms, definitions and explanations of concepts, processes and acronyms. Additionally, this book will feature chapters (3000-5000 words) authored by leading experts offering an in-depth description of key terms and concepts related to various areas, issues and trends in Web 2.0.
Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following :
(We will solicit research-oriented as well as practitioner-oriented chapters. Case studies will also be solicited.)
• Introduction and Historical Background Information: What is Web 2.0?
• Philosophy of Web 2.0
• Legal, Cultural, Social, and Political Issues in the Web 2.0
• Nontraditional, Alternative, and Informal Learning with the Web 2.0
• Global and International Education and Interaction
• Overcoming the Digital Divide with Web 2.0
• Socio-cultural Aspects of Web 2.0
• Web 2.0 Learning Styles
• Instructional Design and Pedagogical Issues with Web 2.0
• Web 2.0 Tools: Virtual Worlds, Language Learning, Podcasting, Wikis, Blogs, Social Networking, and Online Communities
• Instructional uses of blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasting, P2P media sharing in an education setting
• Instructional uses of blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasting, P2P media sharing in a corporate business and industry settings
• Web 2.0 and mobile technologies / mobile collaborative learning
• Massively-Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) and networked learning
• Institutional issues related to Web 2.0 and social informatics (e.g. strategy, policy, and infrastructure)
• Web 2.0 and learning management systems
• Web 2.0 and Human Performance Technology
• Success factors and pitfalls in the implementation of Web 2.0 teaching and learning
• The Future of Web 2.0
• Real world case studies and exemplars of Web 2.0 in university and K-12 teaching and learning (need a number of good proposals in this category)
Invited Submissions: Individuals interested in submitting chapters (3,000-5000 words) on the above-suggested topics or other related topics in their area of interest should submit via e-mail a 1-2 page manuscript proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of the proposed chapter by February 1, 2008. We strongly encourage other Web 2.0 topics that have not been listed in our suggested list, particularly if the topic is related to the research area in which you have expertise. Upon acceptance of your proposal, you will have until June 1, 2008, to prepare your chapter of 3,000-5000 words and 5-7 related terms and their appropriate definitions for the glossary section. Guidelines for preparing your paper and terms and definitions will be sent to you upon acceptance of your proposal. Full chapters will be submitted to a double-blind peer review. Authors are allowed to submit no more than three single chapters for this publication.
You will be notified about the status of your proposed topics by March 1, 2008. This book is scheduled for publishing by Information Age Publishing, http://www.infoagepub.com in 2009. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit http://www.infoagepub.com.
Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document) or by mail to:
Editors, Terry T. Kidd and Irene Chen
wiredforlearning@gmail.com
Terry T. Kidd
University of Texas Health Science Center
School of Public Health
1200 Herman Pressler Office: West-220
Houston, TX 77030
About the Editors:
Terry T. Kidd is a PhD candidate from the Texas A&M University and is the Director of the Office of Instructional Development & Support Services at the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health. Kidd has presented at international conferences on designing technology rich learning environments, web based instruction, and issues dealing with training and development. His research interests include technology adoption, instructional design strategies for eLearning and the socio-cultural aspect of information communication and technology. He has published the Handbook of Research on Instructional Systems & Technology and Social Information Technology: Connecting Society and Cultural Issues with Information Science Reference an imprint of IGI Global, Inc.
Irene Chen received her Doctor of Education in Instructional Technology from University of Houston . She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Education at the University of Houston Downtown. Dr. Chen has diverse professional experiences. Previously, she is instructional technology specialist, learning technology coordinator, and computer programmer/analyst. She has taught numerous graduate and undergraduate courses in instructional technology and curriculum & instruction, and delivered a number of K-12 in-service training and professional development activities for school staff and faculty members. She has recently published Technology Application Competencies for K-12 Teachers and Social Information Technology: Connecting Society and Cultural Issues with Information Science Reference an imprint of IGI Global, Inc.
Monday, 17 December 2007
Packer backer bday travels of TravelinEdMan
After giving 104 talks on e-learning and related topics in 2005 and 107 in 2006 (only 82 in 2007), during the past year or two, I have tried to spend less time away from home when traveling. I have done day trips to DC, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Lafayette, Dayton, Athens, Ohio, etc. If it is within 6 or 7 hours, I try to drive and I often see if I can get back to Bloomington (Indiana) the same day. And there are many US cities within 6-7 hours of my home. That was true this weekend in a journey to St. Louis and back.
Normally TravelEdMan blogs on e-learning, but yesterday was Sunday and so not a lot of e-learning things happening though I will sneak a few points into this post. Yesterday was my birthday. To celebrate, TravelEdMan went on an adventure from Bloomington, Indiana to St. Louis, Missouri to see his favorite football team, the Green Bay Packers.
My father took me to such a game for my birthday decades ago back when I was a young lad. I remember that freezing cold (icicles forming from your nose) day at the old Milwaukee County Stadium. I think we beat the Los Angeles Rams that day 28-7 with Bart Starr at quarterback and some keen passing to Carole Dale in the NFC championship game right before the Super Bowl. Well, now it was too many years later and they were to play the St. Louis Rams (the Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995) with Brett Farve at quarterback. Sure enough, we won again! Score was 33-14. Many Wisconsin fans made it to Green Bay. They were dressed in green shirts, green hair, and cheeseheads. It was crazy. Felt sorta like a home game for the Packers though they were the away team. No one from St. Louis stayed for the end of the game and most did not come early like us Packer fans!
I got 4 tickets on eBay a few weeks before—one for me, one for my daughter Nicki, and one for her boyfriend, Corbin. Unfortunately, I did not know that the weather would be so bad!!! Fortunately, I think my daughter and her boyfriend had a blast though they got to sleep on the way there and back and I could not. The 4th ticket was for my Thai friend from the University of Missouri, Ta Boonseng. TA is a great guy. He took me to Bangkok for my birthday last year to keynote a conference and then had bands from 6 pubs sing happy birthday to me. This year was different--a football game in America.
Driving to St, Louis was quite a painful experience yesterday for my bday (many cars, trucks, etc, in the ditches or in accidents; some major semi-truck accidents and one car flipped totally over). We made it though-- I drive carefully. Little plowing on I-70 when got to Illinois—I now officially hate the State of Illinois highway road crew people and the politicians who apparently underfund them. Very scary when big trucks pass you and you cannot see where the road is. That was so-so bad. Left at 4 am St. Louis time and got there at 10 am (normally 4 hour drive took 6 hours—so not too bad). Looking back, we probably should not have gone but once you are in it, you just go.
At least I did get to listen to part of an old book I have been wanting to read, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." I complete roughly one book each month this way. Speaking of e-learning (smile); perhaps there is a way to get people to listen to books that they are assigned in class. I think there is a serious need to translate articles and books to audio.
Anyway, the game was great. One new record for passing was set by my favorite player, Brett Farve of the Packers. The Edward Jones Dome was easy to find and great to watch a game inside. And you can make phone calls when inside. Both my brothers called me while I was in the stadium to wish me happy bday which was great. My son too. TravelinEdMan was happy!
After the game, we spent over an hour just trying to get out of the parking structure. And by the time we passed by “the Arch” and departed from STL, it became dark and I took a wrong turn onto Highway 55 and ended up in Springfield, Illinois before I realized it (60 miles off my route-- I simply missed the sign since in Illinois they give you 1 sign and no warning) so it took 2 hours extra to get home. In retrospect, at least we did not go on same I-70 which was bad in the morning (took I-74 instead--so perhaps 2 extra hours was good for us). Spent 12-13 hours driving on my bday. Still wearing those clothes today. I smell bad I bet! Oh well, I get to wear my bday pin one more day (I got this pin when former and current Korean students had a surprise bday party for me Saturday at a great restaurant here in Bloomington with Chinese food, gifts, singing, etc). So my bday celebration now in its 3rd day. Or perhaps the fourth since it is now the morning of the 18th!!!
My next post, I promise to be back on e-learning stuff.
Normally TravelEdMan blogs on e-learning, but yesterday was Sunday and so not a lot of e-learning things happening though I will sneak a few points into this post. Yesterday was my birthday. To celebrate, TravelEdMan went on an adventure from Bloomington, Indiana to St. Louis, Missouri to see his favorite football team, the Green Bay Packers.
My father took me to such a game for my birthday decades ago back when I was a young lad. I remember that freezing cold (icicles forming from your nose) day at the old Milwaukee County Stadium. I think we beat the Los Angeles Rams that day 28-7 with Bart Starr at quarterback and some keen passing to Carole Dale in the NFC championship game right before the Super Bowl. Well, now it was too many years later and they were to play the St. Louis Rams (the Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995) with Brett Farve at quarterback. Sure enough, we won again! Score was 33-14. Many Wisconsin fans made it to Green Bay. They were dressed in green shirts, green hair, and cheeseheads. It was crazy. Felt sorta like a home game for the Packers though they were the away team. No one from St. Louis stayed for the end of the game and most did not come early like us Packer fans!
I got 4 tickets on eBay a few weeks before—one for me, one for my daughter Nicki, and one for her boyfriend, Corbin. Unfortunately, I did not know that the weather would be so bad!!! Fortunately, I think my daughter and her boyfriend had a blast though they got to sleep on the way there and back and I could not. The 4th ticket was for my Thai friend from the University of Missouri, Ta Boonseng. TA is a great guy. He took me to Bangkok for my birthday last year to keynote a conference and then had bands from 6 pubs sing happy birthday to me. This year was different--a football game in America.
Driving to St, Louis was quite a painful experience yesterday for my bday (many cars, trucks, etc, in the ditches or in accidents; some major semi-truck accidents and one car flipped totally over). We made it though-- I drive carefully. Little plowing on I-70 when got to Illinois—I now officially hate the State of Illinois highway road crew people and the politicians who apparently underfund them. Very scary when big trucks pass you and you cannot see where the road is. That was so-so bad. Left at 4 am St. Louis time and got there at 10 am (normally 4 hour drive took 6 hours—so not too bad). Looking back, we probably should not have gone but once you are in it, you just go.
At least I did get to listen to part of an old book I have been wanting to read, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." I complete roughly one book each month this way. Speaking of e-learning (smile); perhaps there is a way to get people to listen to books that they are assigned in class. I think there is a serious need to translate articles and books to audio.
Anyway, the game was great. One new record for passing was set by my favorite player, Brett Farve of the Packers. The Edward Jones Dome was easy to find and great to watch a game inside. And you can make phone calls when inside. Both my brothers called me while I was in the stadium to wish me happy bday which was great. My son too. TravelinEdMan was happy!
After the game, we spent over an hour just trying to get out of the parking structure. And by the time we passed by “the Arch” and departed from STL, it became dark and I took a wrong turn onto Highway 55 and ended up in Springfield, Illinois before I realized it (60 miles off my route-- I simply missed the sign since in Illinois they give you 1 sign and no warning) so it took 2 hours extra to get home. In retrospect, at least we did not go on same I-70 which was bad in the morning (took I-74 instead--so perhaps 2 extra hours was good for us). Spent 12-13 hours driving on my bday. Still wearing those clothes today. I smell bad I bet! Oh well, I get to wear my bday pin one more day (I got this pin when former and current Korean students had a surprise bday party for me Saturday at a great restaurant here in Bloomington with Chinese food, gifts, singing, etc). So my bday celebration now in its 3rd day. Or perhaps the fourth since it is now the morning of the 18th!!!
My next post, I promise to be back on e-learning stuff.
Saturday, 15 December 2007
I Ustreamed your Ustream: Tha's a twitter of an idea!
TravelinEdMan has not done any international traveling the past six months but I have been to DC a few times and to Atlanta and Milwaukee for conferences. When I was presenting at the Georgia Educational Technology Conference last month in Atlanta (see http://www.gaetc.org/) something unusual happened which I finally have time to reflect on below. First, I must point out that this conference asked me to do 4 invited 1 hour talks back to back to back to back on Wednesday afternoon November 14th. That was tiring to say the least. Keep in mind that I flew to Atlanta and back to Indianapolis the same day (Yes, the SAME DAY--I am stupid and insane at times) and this was after presenting a few times in Washington DC on Monday November 12th and flying home on Tuesday. It was quite a crazy week. And somehow I was able to teach my Minday and Tuesday night classes at IU that week (Monday using videoconferencing from DC).
When I got home from DC on Tuesday, I was plain old out of gas. AND, I still had the 4 talks in Atlanta to prepare for (I was about 60-70 percent done). Needless to say, Atlanta was a grueling experience. By the time I got to my final talk in Atlanta, I was pretty beat. And, compared to all my other talks that week, this crowd was the smallest one. I was attempting to synthesize across the 3 one hour talks I did earlier in the afternoon in just 1 hour (a "Best of Bonk" type of talk). Relatively small crowd, tired, feet sore from wearing new shoes, voice going, etc. I think I had a 15 minute break to catch my breath.
Guess what? Vicky Davis (alias Cool Cat Teacher; see http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/) decides to sit near the front and ask if she could use her Webcam and Ustream it (in addition, she was also going to Twitter it and blog on it). Oh no, I said to myself. I am not ready for this. So, I said to Vicky, "What is Ustream?" Well, she replied, it is fabulous--you can can let others watch a presentation who might not be able to attend. I then said something like, "sure, go for it." Now keep in mind that I was extremely tired at this point. But knowing that I was going to be Ustreamed to the world, it perked me back up and I was glad that it did. Soon people around the world who got Vicky's announcement in Twitter or Blogger were logging in. Amazingly, my friend, Dr. Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University was saying hello and asking questions. When I heard that Bernie was online it was like a shot of adrenalene. I reached back and found some previously unused reserve energy and gave it my best shot.
I also found out that one of the students in my program back at IU, Jennifer Maddrell, got wind of it while attending a conference in New York City and sent a message for me to Vicky as well. After the event, Jennifer sent me an email titled, "You Ustreamer!" Then she said, "I was ustreaming from a conference in New York, when I saw a tweet from Vicki Davis in Twitter that she was ustreaming YOU! So, at my conference we ustreamed us watching your ustream. Cool ..." Now, how cool is that? One of my students watching me present on a topic she was interested in, but not during a class at IU, but, instead, from a conference talk of mine and she was in session at a different conference from the one in which I was presenting. (I should point out that Jennifer is one of our distance students so she is rarely found live in Bloomington, Indiana anyway.)
I was worried that I looked terrible at that point in the day, but Jennifer assured me that I did not. Whew! But what is Ustream you ask? Well, Jennifer informed me that Ustream (see http://ustream.tv/) "is a free 3rd party host for live streaming video and audio. Think Breeze, but Web 2.0 style. They offer a chat room and will host the video after you are done streaming so you can create your own "channel." All you need to do is sign up for free, hook up any old webcam, and you are off to the races!" Ok, this surely sounded wonderful, so I have been checking it out since then.
But now what is possible when people Ustream a Ustream and bring their friends to the e-party with Twitter, Blogger, Facebook Groups, and the rest of their online suite of tools? What is now possible educationally? What learning might happen? As per usual, here are ten ideas off the top of my head:
1. Conference to Conference Connections: As Jennifer did, now one can send a plenary or keynote speaker (or anyone of interest) from a conference to another conference. If a conference was too poor to bring someone in or if a person was unable to be at 2 conferences at the same time, someone might be sent to where the person decides to keynote and then Ustream him or her to the other conference. This could be done with permissions of all interested parties or perhaps more sneakily. You must determine what ethically works for you.
2. Conference to World Connections: You can now Ustream someone of interest at a conference to the world. Is there any legal liability you ask? Get permission from the speaker for one. I am no attorney nor do I claim to be. When I was an unhappy CPA/accountant, I almost turned to the dark side, but held off. When in doubt, ASK!
3. Ustream Podcast Shows: Now activities like EdTechTalk (see http://www.edtechtalk.com/) at World Bridges are using Ustream to add video to their audio broadcasts. Consequently, you can meet and hear people for free online.
4. Ustream Instructors: You can create educational channels in Ustream for others to watch (just like in YouTube, Splashcast, TeacherTube, etc.). Might someone create a video bank of best educational videos someday and repackage them? Is there a list of best 100 online instructors?
5. Ustream to Ustream to Ustream: Might popular Ustreamers in the field of education band together and syndicate some of the best shows or performances that they anticipate? What if there was a once-in-a-lifetime performance from someone famous in a discipline? What if someone well known was giving a last lecture before retiring or changing fields? These can now be Ustreamed by someone in the audience for anyone in the world to see.
6. Student Ustream Competitions: You might ask students to find and rank the top 2-3 educational Ustreamed sites on a particular topic or content area and then have the class vote on them. The person who selected the one with the top votes might get bonus points. He or she might also introduce that video (or set of videos) to the class. (Now you might have a problem with this as some of the content is not educational; then, perhaps do the same at TeacherTube or some other educational portal or channel of videos).
7. Student Ustream Creations: Ask students to create a channel in Ustream as a class project. They might be the presenters, filmers, or both.
8. "Live Ed": During the 1980s and 1990s in the USA, there were Farm Aid and Live Aid concerts to help farmers keep their farms or to provide food for those in third world countries that needed it--some of these concerts appeared for a day or two on TV and eventually into the Internet. Since that time, there have been been online days for various things like International Internet Day, International Earth Day, Live Earth day, etc. Well, what about Live Ed? Perhaps with tools like Ustream, people from around the planet could be sharing educational content of the best of best thinkers and ideas around the clock; perhaps starting with someone in New Zealand and then Australia and then Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, and China and then Russia and India and so on working westward around the planet. You could hear from different people maybe on the theme for that day or on different themes that intersect. Perhaps pose a key question related to educational change or reform and let people in different countries and regions of the world attempt to answer it in a celebrated experience of everyone on this planet. That is quite ambitious I know! perhaps on a smaller scale, what about conference event for the world to participate in. For instance, in my own field, I realize that no one can attend all the conferences on e-learning or educational technology, but with Ustream, one might be able to gleem some of the best ideas and meet some of the biggest stars. It is worth a thought. Ok, who will start "Live Ed?"
9. Ustream the Ustreamers!: Have students interview someone with a Ustream channel or a popular show. These interviews might even be Ustreamed! I think that would be unique. Ustreams of ustreamers (akin to blogging on bloggers or doing podcasts on or with well known podcasters).
10. Side by Sides: What if 2 people giving similar talks at the same time at 2 different conference somewhere in the world were juxtaposed against each other? Wht might you look for? How might an instructor use this to pan back and forth between presenters? And what about speeches of politician being Ustreamed and compared during an election year? Or perhaps find 2 Ustreamed presentations on the same topic and compare and contrast them. (For higher level students perhaps in higher education, you might have the students find the video content.) You don't need Ustream for this--it is also possible with YouTube, TeacherTube, CNN videos, Google Videos, etc.
Those are just some ideas off the top of my head. I am sure that there are hundreds more and many that do not require Ustream and that were possible long before Ustream. And when you combine technologies such as adding Twitter notifications or a posting in a Facebook Group or in MySpace or within one's blog, the experience is appropriately amplified and extended. I think for a while the notion of someone "Ustreaming my Ustream" will be unique enough to motivate me when speaking on an empty tank! Try it!
As I said at the start, I have not done much international travel lately. Note that TravelinEdMan was in Thailand a year ago for my birthday (December the 16th) and to keynote an e-learning conference (I was in Taiwan the previous week last year). To celebrate it this year, TravelinEdman (me) will be in St. Louis tomorrow/Sunday to see the Green Bay Packers play (beat we hope) the St. Louis Rams in a dome stadium. Hope the snow and ice hold off as I got some tickets on eBay I need to use!
When I got home from DC on Tuesday, I was plain old out of gas. AND, I still had the 4 talks in Atlanta to prepare for (I was about 60-70 percent done). Needless to say, Atlanta was a grueling experience. By the time I got to my final talk in Atlanta, I was pretty beat. And, compared to all my other talks that week, this crowd was the smallest one. I was attempting to synthesize across the 3 one hour talks I did earlier in the afternoon in just 1 hour (a "Best of Bonk" type of talk). Relatively small crowd, tired, feet sore from wearing new shoes, voice going, etc. I think I had a 15 minute break to catch my breath.
Guess what? Vicky Davis (alias Cool Cat Teacher; see http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/) decides to sit near the front and ask if she could use her Webcam and Ustream it (in addition, she was also going to Twitter it and blog on it). Oh no, I said to myself. I am not ready for this. So, I said to Vicky, "What is Ustream?" Well, she replied, it is fabulous--you can can let others watch a presentation who might not be able to attend. I then said something like, "sure, go for it." Now keep in mind that I was extremely tired at this point. But knowing that I was going to be Ustreamed to the world, it perked me back up and I was glad that it did. Soon people around the world who got Vicky's announcement in Twitter or Blogger were logging in. Amazingly, my friend, Dr. Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University was saying hello and asking questions. When I heard that Bernie was online it was like a shot of adrenalene. I reached back and found some previously unused reserve energy and gave it my best shot.
I also found out that one of the students in my program back at IU, Jennifer Maddrell, got wind of it while attending a conference in New York City and sent a message for me to Vicky as well. After the event, Jennifer sent me an email titled, "You Ustreamer!" Then she said, "I was ustreaming from a conference in New York, when I saw a tweet from Vicki Davis in Twitter that she was ustreaming YOU! So, at my conference we ustreamed us watching your ustream. Cool ..." Now, how cool is that? One of my students watching me present on a topic she was interested in, but not during a class at IU, but, instead, from a conference talk of mine and she was in session at a different conference from the one in which I was presenting. (I should point out that Jennifer is one of our distance students so she is rarely found live in Bloomington, Indiana anyway.)
I was worried that I looked terrible at that point in the day, but Jennifer assured me that I did not. Whew! But what is Ustream you ask? Well, Jennifer informed me that Ustream (see http://ustream.tv/) "is a free 3rd party host for live streaming video and audio. Think Breeze, but Web 2.0 style. They offer a chat room and will host the video after you are done streaming so you can create your own "channel." All you need to do is sign up for free, hook up any old webcam, and you are off to the races!" Ok, this surely sounded wonderful, so I have been checking it out since then.
But now what is possible when people Ustream a Ustream and bring their friends to the e-party with Twitter, Blogger, Facebook Groups, and the rest of their online suite of tools? What is now possible educationally? What learning might happen? As per usual, here are ten ideas off the top of my head:
1. Conference to Conference Connections: As Jennifer did, now one can send a plenary or keynote speaker (or anyone of interest) from a conference to another conference. If a conference was too poor to bring someone in or if a person was unable to be at 2 conferences at the same time, someone might be sent to where the person decides to keynote and then Ustream him or her to the other conference. This could be done with permissions of all interested parties or perhaps more sneakily. You must determine what ethically works for you.
2. Conference to World Connections: You can now Ustream someone of interest at a conference to the world. Is there any legal liability you ask? Get permission from the speaker for one. I am no attorney nor do I claim to be. When I was an unhappy CPA/accountant, I almost turned to the dark side, but held off. When in doubt, ASK!
3. Ustream Podcast Shows: Now activities like EdTechTalk (see http://www.edtechtalk.com/) at World Bridges are using Ustream to add video to their audio broadcasts. Consequently, you can meet and hear people for free online.
4. Ustream Instructors: You can create educational channels in Ustream for others to watch (just like in YouTube, Splashcast, TeacherTube, etc.). Might someone create a video bank of best educational videos someday and repackage them? Is there a list of best 100 online instructors?
5. Ustream to Ustream to Ustream: Might popular Ustreamers in the field of education band together and syndicate some of the best shows or performances that they anticipate? What if there was a once-in-a-lifetime performance from someone famous in a discipline? What if someone well known was giving a last lecture before retiring or changing fields? These can now be Ustreamed by someone in the audience for anyone in the world to see.
6. Student Ustream Competitions: You might ask students to find and rank the top 2-3 educational Ustreamed sites on a particular topic or content area and then have the class vote on them. The person who selected the one with the top votes might get bonus points. He or she might also introduce that video (or set of videos) to the class. (Now you might have a problem with this as some of the content is not educational; then, perhaps do the same at TeacherTube or some other educational portal or channel of videos).
7. Student Ustream Creations: Ask students to create a channel in Ustream as a class project. They might be the presenters, filmers, or both.
8. "Live Ed": During the 1980s and 1990s in the USA, there were Farm Aid and Live Aid concerts to help farmers keep their farms or to provide food for those in third world countries that needed it--some of these concerts appeared for a day or two on TV and eventually into the Internet. Since that time, there have been been online days for various things like International Internet Day, International Earth Day, Live Earth day, etc. Well, what about Live Ed? Perhaps with tools like Ustream, people from around the planet could be sharing educational content of the best of best thinkers and ideas around the clock; perhaps starting with someone in New Zealand and then Australia and then Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, and China and then Russia and India and so on working westward around the planet. You could hear from different people maybe on the theme for that day or on different themes that intersect. Perhaps pose a key question related to educational change or reform and let people in different countries and regions of the world attempt to answer it in a celebrated experience of everyone on this planet. That is quite ambitious I know! perhaps on a smaller scale, what about conference event for the world to participate in. For instance, in my own field, I realize that no one can attend all the conferences on e-learning or educational technology, but with Ustream, one might be able to gleem some of the best ideas and meet some of the biggest stars. It is worth a thought. Ok, who will start "Live Ed?"
9. Ustream the Ustreamers!: Have students interview someone with a Ustream channel or a popular show. These interviews might even be Ustreamed! I think that would be unique. Ustreams of ustreamers (akin to blogging on bloggers or doing podcasts on or with well known podcasters).
10. Side by Sides: What if 2 people giving similar talks at the same time at 2 different conference somewhere in the world were juxtaposed against each other? Wht might you look for? How might an instructor use this to pan back and forth between presenters? And what about speeches of politician being Ustreamed and compared during an election year? Or perhaps find 2 Ustreamed presentations on the same topic and compare and contrast them. (For higher level students perhaps in higher education, you might have the students find the video content.) You don't need Ustream for this--it is also possible with YouTube, TeacherTube, CNN videos, Google Videos, etc.
Those are just some ideas off the top of my head. I am sure that there are hundreds more and many that do not require Ustream and that were possible long before Ustream. And when you combine technologies such as adding Twitter notifications or a posting in a Facebook Group or in MySpace or within one's blog, the experience is appropriately amplified and extended. I think for a while the notion of someone "Ustreaming my Ustream" will be unique enough to motivate me when speaking on an empty tank! Try it!
As I said at the start, I have not done much international travel lately. Note that TravelinEdMan was in Thailand a year ago for my birthday (December the 16th) and to keynote an e-learning conference (I was in Taiwan the previous week last year). To celebrate it this year, TravelinEdman (me) will be in St. Louis tomorrow/Sunday to see the Green Bay Packers play (beat we hope) the St. Louis Rams in a dome stadium. Hope the snow and ice hold off as I got some tickets on eBay I need to use!
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