Conversation with Jeff Lebow from World Bridges on EdTechTalk this Sunday

Ok, a late announcement...

EdTechTalk Session Sunday July 15th!!!
On Sunday night at 8 pm EST (New York/Indiana time) I will be a guest on an online talk show. I will be talking about emerging technologies, my WE-ALL-LEARN book project (currently writing-—the learning world is flat book), my Empowering Online Learner book (in press with Jossey Bass), and my fall 2007 Web 2.0 syllabus and other various other topics at the Worldbridges program called EdTechTalk (though it we will start chatting at 7:45 and a program is on before me from 7-7:45) (New York/Indiana time). Links are below. (This is what I get for asking Jeff Lebow from Worldbridges questions for my book-—instead of answers on email, he invites me to his online talk show for a conversation.)

Per Jeff Lebow at Worldbridges (http://worldbridges.net/): "Go to http://edtechtalk.com/ since that is where all the action will be taking place live and where all of the media will be posted afterward. The audio stream should be on as long as the conversation is still happening. There are links at the top of the right column menu, but just in case there's any confusion, you can direct people to the text chat at http://edtechtalk.com/chat and the listen page in at http://edtechtalk.com/listen."

Jeff also said that "Along the way, we hope to be joined by students from Steve Kossakowski's 'Emergent Technologies' course at UNH who have been assigned to stop by our webcast and get a feel for our emergingness. Steve is using 'The World is Flat' as a starting point for much of what they're doing. His 'students' are primarily school principals and district administrators working on advanced degrees. Steve ( http://www.k12opensource.org/spdc/ ) is an an Assistant Superintendent in Exeter, NH and will probably join in at some point in the discussion. If all goes well, it will just evolve into an interesting discussion and lines between interviewer and interviewee will fade away."

Many of my former students and colleagues will be joining in from around the planet. This will be fun! I am still not really sure what will transpire. But checking out EdTechTalk and Worldbridges, if you have yet to do so, is worth it.

More on Worldbridges:
Worldbridges is an online community or network for individuals and organizations the employs webcasting and other media delivery formats to connect people in learning forums, including Webheads for those interested in English as a second language (ESL) learning. Worldbridges is filled with podcasts about a range of issues. Worldbridges also sponsors the popular EdTechTalk show and educational programming related to Korea (i.e., Koreabridge) and Tibet (i.e., Worldbridges Tibet).

The goals of Worldbridges are relatively simple and straightforward, as follows, “Our primary goal is to foster understanding and cooperation amongst the citizens of the world. We value civility and respect, open source collaboration, fair distribution of income, and a sense of world identity.” As part of these efforts, Worldbridges seeks to foster positive systemic changes in areas such as education, the environment, and politics. It also supports reliable and fair commerce. And it promotes a “people’s forum” for more civilized discussion of problems, issues, and conflicts that pose significant challenges in united the people of this planet. Values supported by the Worldbridges organization include respect and civility, fair distribution of income, world identity, and open source collaboration.

Jeff Lebow began experimenting with Worldbridges ideas (initially called “World Explorer”) when starting his master’s program in Training and Learning Technologies at the University of New Mexico in 1993 after a year of teaching English in Thailand (Worldbridges, 2007). At that time, Lebow became excited at the possibilities of the convergence of intercultural interaction and collaborative and interactive online technologies. After completing his masters, he returned to Asia—this time Pusan, Korea—where he taught English as a university and began to experiment with online audio and video, which included covering the Nagano Olympics in 1998. After burning out on all his activities and attempting to envision and build a webcasting network his life took a turn, or as he puts it, “I decided to quit my job, shave my head, and go to India for a while to contemplate the next chapter, for me personally and for Worldbridges. After some quality offline time, I decided to give Worldbridges a shot.” In Lebow’s vision for Worldbridges, he sought for it to become a means for using Internet technology for a global webcasting network of people. And it has!

So, perhaps now you are intrigued enough to join us at the session on Sunday. Feel free to listen in and text in a question. Or listen in later. Or ignore.

Feel free to forward to others. Enjoy your weekends. Also note that there is now a link you can click on to subscribe to my "TravelinEdMan" blog (look to the right).

References and Resources:
EdTechTalk: http://edtechtalk.com/
Text chat at http://edtechtalk.com/chat
Listen page in at http://edtechtalk.com/listen
Worldbridges: http://worldbridges.net/

Worldbridges (2007). History of Worldbridges. Retrieved July 10, 2007, from http://worldbridges.net/node/76

More and More Web 2.0 Opportunities, Announcements, and Articles: Less is NOT More...

You know for more than a decade, I have been telling my students and colleagues that "more is more." My ultra liberal education colleagues keep feeding students the crap that "less is more." And this rumor of less is more has spread beyond psychology and education departments to other disciplines and down to K-12 education and up to corporate and military training. Sure, they can cite cognitive psychology studies on cognitive load theory, working memory, long-term memory deficits, and so on to get people to actually believe that less is more. I read many of those reports when studying educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin. Good work but to be sure, but people have extended it much too far. It becomes a copout or an excuse (much like the phrase "I am too busy" but that is another blog post for later). No wonder we have an academic crisis on our hands (and in our brains)! Using this "less is more" mantra, we lower standards and expect less from students and ourselves. And if students lack time, why then, just offer less. Less and less and less.

Did anyone ever think that those who want us to believe that less is more perhaps have tinier brains? Has anyone done a study of this before simply believing it? Hey, before you trash my ideas and call me a hoser, let me have some semi-tongue in cheek fun here. The educational world of opportunities is exploding in front of our eyes and yet many cling to a less is more philosophy. With Web 2.0, and the Web of Learning in general, a grand awakening is beginning.

Ok, I got news for you. Less is never more! I am a former CPA and corporate controller, I can count; i.e., unlike some of my liberal educational colleagues (just for the record, I am fairly socially liberal too, and economically conservative just like Clinton and Gore--you know, the one's who balanced the budget while increasing spending on technology as well as education and creating millions of new jobs in the process--but that is another story). More is more. Always was and always will be.

Why do we allow ourselves to be fooled? Now I am not just talking more facts and information. I think students (and all of us as well) need more critical thinking skills, creativity, evaluation, problem finding opportunities, analysis and synthesis to survive in the 21st century. Hence, my instructional design model starts with that (i.e., the accumulation of facts, concepts, and ideas) and moves to product-, project-, process- and problem-based learning. The more portable "P's" of learning. Yes, to do something like a Wikibook, or a podcast or a blog post for a real audience, not just another silly teacher- or curriculum-centered assignment. I believe in both--knowledge and hands-on, authentic learning. Hec, the faster students learn the facts, the more knowledge building, constructivistic, problem-based activities that can happen. Hence, why some are posting podcasts or Webcasts of lectures so that students can learn those and then come to class for more interactive mentoring experiences. You see, the Web of Learning enables that--learn the facts around the edges of "the course" so that face-to-face time can be more intensely interactive, engaging, reflective, collaborative, and process-based. See my R2D2 model--Read, Reflect, Display, and Do which is 2 posts below. The book will be out in 5-6 months--it addresses diverse learners by providing 100+ activities to engage them. Not 1, not 10, not 20, but 100+ (actually over 200), since more is more.

We need more of everything. We need to push learners until at least one of them has a wet eye and then pull back a bit. My colleague and I used to do this in our teacher professional development project for technology integration. Once we found someone crying because he or she did not think he could complete all that we required while maintaining a fulltime job, we would work with them and show them doable projects and ideas of students from the past. That is a power of the Web of Learning--to share what students have accomplished previously. And if you post up the best stuff, it raises the bar instead of lowering it. We need to challenge them and then support them in those challenges. That is what good teachers do--assist in the learning process of their students.

Give them lots of opportunities and choices to pick from and they set high and authentic goals. Gently nudge in a positive direction. And if they are doctoral graduate students, get them to be passionate in their dissertation research. I am tired of reading blah-blah dissertation endings. I think the next time I attend another blah-blah presentation of stuff I knew a decade ago, I will work on something else while the student presents. Let's push ahead, not fall back. Tell me why your research matters. Why should I read it? Why should anyone read it? Perhaps it is the pragmatic accountant in me that wants to know the impact or potential impact. To do research for the sake of research is silly. We do not need more of that. In that case (i.e., of boring and meaningless research which will be discarded in a year if not less), ok, less is more. See blog post below for more on that or skip that post if you believe that less is more.

Choice and variety are key components of a more is more world. With Web 2.0 technologies such as podcasts, wikis, and blogs, we are going to continue to have more learning and educational opportunities dance our way. Wikis are participatory--look at the amazing growth of Wikipedia. What 1.8 million articles there in English alone? Did anyone tell Jimmy Wales to stop adding to it? I doubt if anyone said to him "less is more Jimbo, less is more, so please just stop adding to Wikipedia right now." I think Jimmy Wales knows that less is not more. So much opportunity to learn lies in front of us each day. I like to give my students 5-6 articles to read each week and have them pick 3-4. And add in interesting tidbits (see link to syllabus below). And yes, reflections, discussions, debates, and conversations about those pieces are key to learning. We learn from our social interactions. And sure, from time-to-time these must be highly focused ones. And other times exploratory ones. We need both, not one or the other.

Ok, what started me on this more is more kick tonight? Well, the past week or so, I ran into the term Web 2.0 more this week than ever before. I know it came out a while back but for some reason this week was the week. Perhaps it is because I am writing a section of my WE-ALL-LEARN book on it. It is like when you buy a car and all of a sudden every car on the road is the same one you just bought or perhaps passed up buying. I put in a few examples for you below.

I. First of all, during the past week, I read the following articles (I have read Stephen's many times before--thanks Stephen--this is a fantastic article.):

1. Downes, Stephen (2005, October). E-learning 2.0. E-Learn Magazine. Retrieved October 26, 2006, from http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=29-1

2. Alexander, Bryan (2006, March/April). Web 2.0: A new wave of innovation for teaching and learning? Educause Review, 41(2), 32-44. Retrieved July 9, 2007, from http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm06/erm0621.asp

2. See Table: Brown, Malcolm (2007, March/April). Mashing up the once and future CMS. Educause Review, 42(2), 8-9. Retrieved July 9, 2007, from http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm07/erm0725.asp

4. Thompson, John (2007, April/May). Is education 1.0 ready for Web 2.0 students? Innovate Journal of Online Education, 3(4), Retrieved July 4, 2007, from http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=393

I also keep seeing references to ideas, videos, conferences, and articles from George Siemens related to Connectivism.

Siemens, George (2006, November 12). Connectivism: Learning theory of pastime for the self-amused? Retrieved July 11, 2007, from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism_self-amused.htm

Connectivism, Retrieved July 11, 2007, from http://www.connectivism.ca/about.html

George Siemens, The Changing Nature of Knowledge (4 short videos): http://www.homozappiens.nl/node/77/play


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II. Second, today, I see a call for papers on on Web 2.0-Based E-Learning:
http://csusap.csu.edu.au/~malee/web2book/

Mark Lee from Charles Sturt University, Australia and my friend, Catherine McLoughlin from Australian Catholic University are the editors. They note that the book will be divided as follows:

"The book will be divided into three parts, each consisting of between 5 and 7 chapters, for a total of approximately 20 chapters.
Part 1: Pedagogy 2.0? Emerging paradigms and innovative theories in web-based tertiary teaching and learning (6-7 chapters)
Part 2: Towards best practice: Case studies and exemplars of Web 2.0-based tertiary teaching and learning (8-9 chapters)
Part 3: Web 2.0 and beyond: Current implications and future directions for web-based tertiary teaching and learning (5-6 chapters) "

Looks interesting. Check out the Call for Chapter Proposals at the Website which I list again for you here. Proposals due October 5th so you have time.
http://csusap.csu.edu.au/~malee/web2book/


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III. Thirdly, I will be doing a course on Web 2.0 and Participatory e-Learning in the fall. See announcement and links below. All articles from the syllabus link (http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/Syllabus_R685_Fall_of_2007.htm) are free and open.


Fall 2007: R685 Topical Seminar
"The Web 2.0 and Participatory e-Learning"
School of Education: Room 2275
(3 Cr), Mondays 7:00‑9:45
Instructor: Curt Bonk, Professor, Instructional Systems Technology
IUB Section 28289 (R685)

See HTML of course syllabus: http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/Syllabus_R685_Fall_of_2007.htm

Or download a Word version: http://mypage.iu.edu/~cjbonk/Syllabus_R685_Fall_of_2007.doc

Curtis J. Bonk, Professor
Office: 2238 W. W. Wright Education Bldg.
Phone: 856-8353 (W)
E-mail: CJBonk@indiana.edu
Office Hours: Thursdays 2:30-3:30 & as arranged

Nari Kim, Instructional Assistant
IST Doctoral Candidate
narkim@indiana.edu

Course Description and Rationale:
When it comes to perspectives on teaching and learning, the Web 2.0 has changed everything! Don’t believe it? Back in December, Time Magazine named “you” as the person of the year. The Web 2.0 (also called the Read-Write Web) empowers learners to generate ideas and comments online, rather than simply read or browse someone else’s. In effect, instead of passive consumption-based learning, we are living in a participatory age where learners have a voice and potentially some degree of ownership over their own learning. Here at the start of the twenty-first century, emerging technologies – such as online photo albums, blogs, wikis, podcasts, ebooks, YouTube videos, massive multiplayer online games, simulations, virtual worlds, and wireless and mobile computing – are generating waves of new opportunities in higher education, K-12 schools, corporate training, and other learning environments.

And today’s millennial learner, immersed in an increasingly digital world is seeking richer and more engaging learning experiences. Amid this rising tide of expectations, instructors across educational sectors are exploring and sharing innovative ways to use technology to foster interaction, collaboration, and increased excitement for learning. Unfortunately, as any high school student will tell you, this is far less common than most would hope. In response, it is time to take advantage of the new participatory learning culture where learners build, tinker with, explore, share, and collaborate with others online. It is also time exploit free and open educational resources, opencourseware, learning portals, and open source software across educational sectors and income levels. This course, therefore, will be a journey into the learning technologies (i.e., nature), pedagogical opportunities (i.e., nurture), and the people, societies, and cultures where this is happening now! We will create and publish a cross-cultural Wikibook on Web 2.0 technology. We will explore the motivational and educational value of YouTube and other online videos and create a few of our own. Of course, we will also blog on our experiences. And we might even create a few class podcasts or vodcasts.

In an age when eyeball-to-eyeball learning is no longer necessary, effective online instructors do not simply teach but moderate, coach, and assist in the learning process. As proof, dozens of pedagogical strategies utilizing Web 2.0 and other emerging learning technologies will be demonstrated, evaluated, tested, and discussed. As part of this, Bonk will present his “WE-ALL-LEARN,” “R2D2,” and “TEC-VARIETY” frameworks. Importantly, strategies discussed and modeled will address learning in all formats—K-12, higher education, corporate, university, military settings, etc. You-Too can participate.

Required Texts: None (all readings free online).

Tentative Tasks:
50 pts A. Weekly Attendance, YouTube, and Being Energetic (WAYTaBe) (Due: Each Week)
90 pts B. Blogging and Movie Making (Blogging-M&Ms) (Dec.3rd)
50 pts C. Midterm Assignment Reality Check (MARC) (Due: Oct 15th)
70 pts D. Wikibook Online Work (WOW) (Due: Dec. 3rd)
260 Total Points (Task mnemonic: Blogging M&Ms? Wow, Way-ta-be, Marc!)

=======================================================================
Projected Seminar Weekly Topics:
Week 1. (August 28th) Explosion of Online Programs, Universities, Courses, and Reports
Week 2. (Sept. 3rd) The Emergence of Blended Learning
Week 3 (Sept 10th) Online Instructor Roles, Training, Incentives, and Supports
Week 4. (Sept. 17th) New Learner Roles: Expectations, Issues, Dilemmas, and Resolutions
Week 5. (Sept 24th) Neo Millennial and Web 2.0 Learners
Week 6. (Oct. 1st) Free and Open Source Software
Week 7. (Oct. 8th) Open Educational Resources
Week 8. (Oct. 15th) Course Management 1.0 in a Web 2.0 and Participatory e-Learning World
Week 9. (Oct. 22nd) Online Interactivity, Engagement, and Social Presence
Week 10. (Oct. 29th) Electronic Motivation, Collaboration, and Communities of Learning/Inquiry
Week 11. (Nov 5th) Computer-Mediated Discussion and Blogging
Week 12. (Nov 12th) Podcasting, Coursecasting, and Online Language Learning
Week 13. (Nov. 19th) Wikis, Wikipedia, Wikibooks, and Collaborative Writing
Week 14. (Nov 26th) Alternate Reality Learning: Massive Gaming, Virtual Reality, and Simulations
Week 15. (Dec 3rd) Mobile, Wireless, and Ubiquitous Learning
======================================================================

For more course details, write to Curt Bonk at cjbonk@indiana.edu or visit his homepage at http://mypage.iu.edu/~cjbonk/.
=========================================

IV. Fourth, there are now clever (and very simple) YouTube videos explaining different Web 2.0 technologies in plain English from CommonCraft. Yes, these have been out for a few weeks:

RSS in plain English: http://youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU
Wikis in plain English: http://youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY


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V. Fifth, Educuase has nice short summary articles on things you should know about things like YouTube, Podcasts, Facebook, Virtual Worlds, Creative Commons, etc.

As they say: "The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative's (ELI's) 7 Things You Should Know About... series provides concise information on emerging learning technologies and related practices. Each brief focuses on a single technology or practice and describes. What it is; How it works; Where it is going; Why it matters to teaching and learning"

Seven Things You Should Know About (Wikipedia, Podcasts, Facebook, etc.) (from Educause): http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=7495&bhcp=1


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VI. Sixth, Educause also announced an overview article on Podcasting research this week (which is great since there is not much out there that I could find):

Deal, Ashley (2007, June). Podcasting. A Teaching With Technology White Paper. Educause. Retrieved July 5, 2007, from http://connect.educause.edu/files/CMU_Podcasting_Jun07.pdf


VII. Many Web 2.0 start-ups. I was sent notices on the following 4 the past few days from my friend, Dr. Grace Lin at the University of Houston (thanks Grace):

Some Sample Web 2.0 tools and companies that came my way this week.
1. VoiceThread: http://voicethread.com/ (add audio to pics--I tried it and it worked great)
2. SnapGenie: http://www.snapgenie.com/ (tell stories behind pics; looks fun and easy but I did not try yet.)
3. Chinswing: http://www.chinswing.com/ (constructive communication is the goal of this tool; converse with other people about different topics)
4. Scrapblog: http://scrapblog.com (create a scrapbook of pics.)
5. Dotsub: http://www.dotsub.com/ (to create subtitling text in online videos and films).


Sorry I got carried away above. I was just going to post a link to my new syllabus and the call for book chapters. Ok, so more is more. And my brain is mushing with the Web 2.0 right now. Oh please I beg myself to stop and finally admit to the world that less is more. No, I cannot do that. More is more I tell myself. Now shut-up.

To prove I believe that more is more, please send me more links and ideas on Web 2.0 as you see them. Remember that more is more! So the more I get, the more I will assign (I mean make available) to my students in the fall. I cannot wait for the fall semester to begin and this sabbatical to be over so I can see my ultra liberal (i.e., "less is more") colleagues. Not! Now back to book writing. I need to write more, of course, since...

When are Old Reports, Old Reports?

Two weeks ago, I completely cleaned my home office for the first time since moving into this house in June 1993. 14 years of junk was piled up. I Had stacks and stacks and stacks of papers that I accumulated. So many stacks. I found lecture notes and handouts used in classes over a decade ago. There were even course notes from my first class on creativity that I took with Gary Davis back in January of 1986 at the University of Wisconsin. I thought I had been doing a good job of cleaning up but I guess not. I am a pack rat.

Ok, 12 suitcases stuffed with old papers were taken to the Bloomington recycling center. So many old technical reports, research papers, and workshop handouts were terminated there. Oh that felt good. Just let it go. In return, I recovered many great paperclips--the hard fastener kind. But what was lost? I list a few things below.

1. Cutting Edge Thinking and Seminal Writing: I lost knowledge of those people on the cutting edge educational technology from the 1980s and 1990s. Sure, I kept the most seminal pieces. But what did I forget to save? What might I need someday? What did miss out on in return? Will an article be available digitally if I ever need it? I remember complaints from a doctoral seminar class I taught in 2002 when I included articles that were more than a few years old. I had them reading Seymour Papert, John Seely Brown, Ann Brown, Marlene Scardamalia, Roger Schank, Roy D. Pea, Elliott Soloway, etc. God forbid that some of their classic pieces were 10 years old. I told one of my nearly completed Ph.D. students about the accident Seymour Papert had in Hanoi, Vietnam and he say "Who?" Oh, it sometimes hurts to toss.

2. Memories: In those 12 suitcases where memories. I had so many a battle with those articles--to comprehend them and note what they were missing or what they had that was spot on--and then to use them in my own reports. Each article I read or skimmed has some of those memories. I had been saving this stuff for a reason. Was that reason now gone? Had I, in fact, given up on much of my own field or profession? Had I moved on or was I about to depart? Why was parting with so much of this stuff easy when just a year or 2 earlier, when I had thought about doing it, it was impossible? Had I changed? Was the intersection of educational psychology and instructional technology no longer important or interesting?

3. Expertise: Those who study chess players and other experts, find that expertise takes thousands of hours and perhaps 5-7 years of one's life to build up. So then was my expertise being thrown away? I did not have time or patience to scan 12 suitcases of stuff. Was I moving to a new field? If so, when and what was it? With such extensive amounts of information now gone, was I no longer an expert in the field of e-learning? Or, perhaps, expertise no longer comes from storing boxes and boxes and stacks and stacks of paper. Perhaps it never did. Perhaps we continue to recreate our areas of expertise. And perhaps this recreation process takes much less time than 5-7 years. With 21st century technologies, it is plausible to become an expert at something in a much shorter time span. And yes, we have many more people mascurading as experts simply because they are linked in to other experts from whom they siphon off knowledge when needed. There is good and bad in all that, of course. We have Google and Yahoo as well as collaborative networks in Facebook and LinkedIn to thank for that. We can email out friends with a question whenever one arises or ask for a missing resource that we perhaps mistakenly chucked. If most or our expertise is retrievable from somewhere at one's whim, then what is expertise anyway? And do we need to save papers we are sent or given links to anymore?

4. When is Old, Old? During my cleaning episode, I started to wonder about when my stuff I save really old. I was tossing any technical report that was older than 5 years old. That was one of the most troubling aspects of cleaning up my home office. Sure, I had many reports left and a few that I hung on to but perhaps should not have. I thought that perhaps my fall class would love to see these reports.

I kept many cool reports; including a 2005 report from Australia's ACT Dept of Ed and Training on emerging technologies, the 2002, 2003, and 2004 reports from the Sloan-C Consortium on quality online and blended learning, the Pew/Internet and American Life Project on the future of the Internet from January 2005, a report from the Innovation Advisory Council of New Zealand and one on e-learning opportunities in New Zealand that I got in 2002 during my trip there, 2004 e-learning guidebooks from the United Arab Emirates that I had received during my last trip there a couple of years ago, a report on the State of e-Learning in the United States from around 2000, a couple of ASTD reports including one on a vision for e-learning from 2000, the 1998-1999 Teaching at an Internet Distance: The Pedagogy of Online Teaching and Learning report from the University of Illinois which I helped with in a minor way, a 2005 report from Oxford's Internet Survey that I had just received during my trip there in January, UCLA's famous Internet Report on Surveying the Digital Future, a 2004 e-learning report from the National College of Ireland that I was given 2 years ago, and a 2006 report on Learning for the 21st Century from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills in DC.

I kept many others. But I tossed out 5-10 reports for every one that I saved. And how often will I read the ones that I saved? Perhaps not much. I kept them to share with my students as examples of reports that they might write. If not for that, many more would have found their way into the garbage bin; not because they are rubbish but because I do not really need them anymore. Old white papers and technical reports have a much shorter lifespan today then they did 10 or 20 or 30 years ago; especially those in educational technology.

5. Are My Old Reports, Really Old? So, as I was tossing out report after report, I started to get depressed. Not just because I missed the intellectual dances that I had with the writers of those reports or because I realized that I was 5 or 10 years older than when I first read them, but because I started to contemplate what was happening (or had happened) to many of the technical reports that I had done for others during the years. What about that 1999 report on asynchronous conferencing and collaboration I did for the Army Research Institute (Applying collaborative and e-learning tools to military distance learning: A research framework. (Technical Report #1107)), or the 2005 report Vanessa Dennen and I did for the Department of Defense on where the research needs to go on massive multiplayer online gaming (MMOG), or the 2004 Perfect E-storm report I did for the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, and many others? I am sure many of those are history as well. But how long of a shelf life do these things really have? Are they worth doing anymore? They often take 6 months to a year to generate, if not longer. If they only are important for a couple of years, there is less incentive to do them. How long will any of our work be read? In the days of the heyday of Papert's book "Mindstorms," books like that would be welcome reading for at least a few years, if not a decade. Not today. Today we toss. But, of course, if is a good book, Google or Microsoft will likely have at least some of it available online. Still, I had many a depressing reflection about my own works when sending tons of reports from other people to the recycling. I even had fun throwing out my own papers!!!

6. When is New, New? Ok, today, my friend and colleague, Dr. KJ Kim sent an email to my blended learning research team with a note about the recent Sloan-C report called "Blending in: The Extent and Promise of Blended Education in the United States." This is a March 2007 report, so perhaps it is too old for most of you to look up and read. Given my recent Handbook of Blended Learning, it was interesting that this report revealed some decreases in blended learning in higher education. In fact, it noted that fully online courses were more slightly prevalent than blended courses. However, there were larger percentages of blended program offerings than fully online ones (such numbers I think will increase as the advantages of blended become more known). In particular, there were higher percentages of blended programs in business, education, healthcare, computer and info sciences, and liberal arts. Larger institutions were, not surprisingly, more engaged in blended learning than smaller ones. There are many more findings in the report. But when will this report also be old? When should we toss it? And do we even need it given that it is available online from Sloan-C. Why print it out anyway?

See these various Sloan-C links:
See the blended learning report: http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/pdf/Blending_In.pdf
Become part of the new blended learning community: http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/blended06.asp
See other Sloan-C blended resources and books: http://www.blendedteaching.org/node

So what should you save from your stacks is up to you. You will need to decide when old is really old but this is a constantly changing thing and so is your expertise. Right? Right!

Perhaps I am just getting old and cranky. But at least I have a clean home office to work from and view the birds, deer, and trees in the backyard now that the stacks of papers no longer are blocking my windows here in the basement. I wish I had some before and after pictures to share with you all.

A week of hyperspeed e-learning publishing: R2D2 and Beyond!!!

This was a highly productive and somewhat strange week from an academic publication standpoint. I never had such a week before--we hit hyerspeed about half-way through it. As an example, I sent a book manuscript off to Jossey Bass for the production process this week after months of haggling about the title and length of the book. It is about my R2D2 model. Here is the title or current citation:

Bonk, C. J., & Zhang, K. (in press). Empowering Online Learning: 100+ Activities for Reading, Reflecting, Displaying, and Doing. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

In the picture below, Ke Zhang and I display our R2D2 talents.

I guess it will be out in 6-7 months or so. I hope by Xmas so I can send it to family and friends as a Xmas gifts but who knows. If you cannot wait until Xmas to learn about the model, write to me and I will send you what I can (perhaps the preface), or read the following:

Bonk, C. J., & Zhang, K. (2006). Introducing the R2D2 model: Online learning for the diverse learners of this world. Distance Education, 27(2), 249-264.

The above journal article summarizes the R2D2 model and provides many examples, though we modified it slightly in the book. Below is a brief summary of the book pulled mainly from content that was deleted from it prior to the production phase.

Brief Summary of the R2D2 Model and the Book
Ok, below, I provide some comments related to R2D2 that we deleted from the book before sending to Jossey Bass (Note: 6 chapters were deleted from this book (chapters on online learning trends (originally Chapter 1), learning styles and preferences (Ch 2), different generations of learners (Ch 3), problems with LMSs and CMSs and training instructors online (Ch 4), comparisons of R2D2 to other models and our MATRIX model (ch 15), future directions of the Web of Learning (Ch 16)). I can send you some of these if you like...just ask.

As I indicated, the book goes through the R2D2 model (Read, Reflect, Display, and Do)--Note: we could not use R2D2 in the title due to concerns related to Star Wars repurcussions. There are 25 sample activities for each phase of the model or 100 ideas total and for each activitiy, Ke Zhang (my collaborator) from Wayne State University and I go through at least one variation or extension so there are more than 200 activities and ideas for fully online and blended learning courses in the book.

In effect, R2D2 is a relatively simple instructional design model that offers a macro lens on the processes that an instructor or instructional designer might want to consider in designing, building, or moderating an online course or module. It simultaneously provides a window into specific ideas that might help in the successful delivery of a course or module. It is more a problem solving process than it is a way to address learning styles. In part, it is a motivational model, a problem solving model, an instructional design model, and a learning preferences or styles approach. Or maybe it is none of that (Note that neither Ke or I believe that any learning style approach is valid or reliable but they do encourage instructors, instructional designers, course developers, and administrators to think about the varied and diverse needs of their learners).

Ke and I intend for the R2D2 acronym to be an easy mnemonic for instructors as well as students to remember. It is a label that distance educators and researchers can use to discuss the quality of an online course and perhaps structure the redesign of it. Clearly, it is advantageous that the Read, Reflect, Display, and Do (i.e., R2D2) model is easy to remember and can be applied in a versatile manner! It might be used as a general evaluation framework for a course, set of courses, or a program, or as a specific tool for generating interesting and engaging activities within fully online or blended courses.

Ke and I also hope that thoughtful use of our model can lead to transformative blended and fully online experiences. Of course, this book offers a few windows into how this might occur. Those reading this book should keep in mind that what was possible in the Web of Learning at the time of this writing was scarcely imagined a few short years before. The same will undoubtedly be true in a few years.

Diversity
Instead of focusing on distinct learning styles or approaches, the aim of this book is essentially to address diverse learner needs. By the term of “diverse,” we do not intend to directly address diversity from the standpoint of social, ethnic, or race-related criteria (though it might). Instead, the notion of diversity here relates to the varied interests, particular learning preferences, generational differences, and special learning needs in online learning. The R2D2 model offers a starting point for online instructors to understand the diverse nature of e-learners and become better able to address their diversity.

Intended Value of the Book
For each of the four key types of learners, the R2D2 model suggests a variety of learning activities for active and effective online learning with various distance learning technologies. In Chapters Three, Five, Seven, and Nine, we detail twenty-five or more online learning strategies for each of the respective quadrants or phases of our model. R2D2 is an easy-to-apply, practical model that helps achieve active learning through four types of activities: (1) reading, (2) reflecting, (3) displaying, and (4) doing.

The “Empowering Online Learning” book (I preferred "E-Powering E-Learning") should find value for online instructors, trainers, instructional designers, and designers of web-based courseware or course management systems. For example, this book introduces the R2D2 model as a practical and easy-to-apply mechanism for online instructors to integrate various learning activities for different types and generations of learners. With a solid theoretical foundation and practical guidance and examples, it may work as a quick, practical guidebook for online instructors, trainers, and instructional designers. In effect, this book is intended to help readers with the design, development, and delivery of learner-centered online learning. At the same time, there are ideas and examples that are more instructor-led as well; if one prefers such options.

Open Issues of R2D2
As with any new idea or model, there are numerous open issues and questions that remain to be sorted out as well as various limitations that must be disclosed. One limitation is that there are an assortment of ideas that cut across multiple phases of the model. Given that many of the 100+ strategies detailed in the book do not fall squarely in one quadrant or another, some online educators may get confused when applying R2D2. Of course, this is a perennial problem related to the lack of validity of learning style approaches and any scheme or framework that attempts to label or somehow segment human learning. Certainly, an equally problematic aspect of R2D2 is that it has yet to be widely used or embedded in blended and fully online courses.

The model or framework provided by R2D2 can help new as well as experienced users of the Web of Learning (i..e., the new name Ke and I gave to the Web) better grasp what is now possible, while perhaps helping glimpse what might be possible in the tomorrows to come. No longer must we remain passive browsers and polite connoisseurs of the Web of Learning. In contrast, we can exploit Web 2.0 technologies and beyond which allow learners to engage in reflective as well as participatory learning wherein they build, tinker with, and share their learning. The use of the R2D2 model will provide guidance for professional educators wanting their learners to generate ideas online as found in the use of podcasts, wikis, blogs, virtual worlds, and social networking software.

Consequently, it is critical to determine how easy it is to train instructors in the use of this model. At the same time, stakeholders will want to know if student retention increases when instructors are properly trained to use this model. Are students more satisfied in courses wherein the instructor had training in how to use R2D2? Do achievement scores go up and are such gains higher in courses that use the R2D2 method over those that do not? And is there a greater opportunity for learning transfer from one context to the next when this model is successfully applied? And, of course, can it take your online instruction to hyperspeed?

The jury is still out on whether the pre-assessment of learning styles, whatever their format or components, can help instructors and trainers better deliver online and blended courses. While it is just one framework, the R2D2 model is a means for instructors to consider online learner needs and learning activities in four different phases or aspects of learning, thereby providing a more enriching and stimulating environment for learning. At the same time, R2D2 makes available a problem solving process that shifts instructors and instructional designers from an overriding focus on the acquisition of content knowledge and basic facts to active learning and reflection including the visualization of one’s learning.

Final Comments in the R2D2 Model
The explosion of online learning events, activities, courses, and programs during the past decade have only scratched the surface of what is currently possible while scarcely hinting at the opportunities of tomorrow. As a result, during the next few years (or decades), researchers will likely compile extensive information about how to address learner needs using models such as R2D2. There will definitely be significant inroads and advances made in personalizing and customizing fully online and blended learning environments. R2D2 certainly pushes us in that direction, but it is clearly not enough. We all have to do more! What will you do to make a contribution toward understanding and using the Web of Learning? May R2D2 take you and your learners to places where no instruction has gone before! Engage!

Other Publications and In Press Stuff this Week...
I also had a whole bunch of stuff published this week and other stuff going to press including 4 chapter reprints in a mammoth book that the Information Science Reference (i.e., Idea Publishing) people are putting together. It is a six volume monster with 200 chapters on online and distance learning. It will sell for a mere $1,750 and is set to come out in July, 2007. I think I may have the most chapters. You can get more information at http://www.igi-pub.com/reference/details.asp?id=6923. A sample of one of my chapters is below.

Bonk, C. J., Wisher, R. A., & Lee, J. (2008). Chapter 1.47. Moderating learner-centered e-learning: Problems and solutions, benefits and implications. In L. Tomei (Ed.), Online and distance learning: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications (pp. 536-561). Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.

I have 3 more chapters being reprinted in there (perhaps the most of anyone in this book...not sure yet). It was quite a surprise to me that they were being reprinted.

Some other publications this week are noted below.

One book chapter went to press in a second edition of the Encyclopedia of Distance and Online Learning. As indicated by the title, this article one explores how to take a learner-centered approach with online instruction:
So, H. J., Bonk, C. J., & Wisher, R. A. (in press). A learner-centered perspective on e-learning: Mounting possibilities. In P. Rogers, G. Berg, J. Boettcher, C. Howard, L. Justice, & K. Schenk (Eds.). Encyclopedia of distance and online learning (2nd edition). Information Science Reference.

Ok, perhaps more importantly, two journal articles were published this week. The first one below is one of many on instructor perceptions and suggestions regarding online learning though we attempted to end it more uniquely than most on this topic. A earlier version of the second one below one an outstanding paper award at the eLearn conference in Hawaii in October 2006.

Liu, S., Kim, K-J., Bonk, C. J., & Magjuka, R. (2007). Benefits, barriers, and suggestions: What did online MBA professors say about online teaching? Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 10(2), see http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/summer102/liu102.htm

Liu, X., Magjuka, R., Bonk, C. J., & Lee, S. H. (2007). Does sense of community matter? An examination of participants’ perceptions of building learning communities in online courses. Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 8(1), 9-24.

In addition, a book chapter came out early this week (co-published with my colleague, Dr. Vanessa Dennen from Florida State University) that summarizes many of the frameworks I have designed for online learning environments during the past decade. It is in Michael G. Moore's Handbook of Distance Education (it is an updated article to what we had in volume 1 of this handbook). I recommend this book given the number of well known scholars he has contributing to it (e.g., Randy Garrison, Zane Berge, Terry Anderson, Robin Mason, Sir John Daniel, Michael Hannifin, Farhad Saba, Som Naidu, Janette Hill, Linda Wilcott, Tom Clark, Donald Hanna, Charlotte Gunawardena, Chris Dede, Walter Archer, Rick Shearer, Marcy Driscoll, Michael Simonson, etc.). Apparently, Michael G. (note the "G" here) Moore knows a ton of important folks in the distance learning field. Well, he has been at it for some time so he should. Great book. I highly recommend it as it is even better than the first edition and quite a bit lighter to carry around. Here is the chapter from Vanessa Dennen and myself:

Bonk, C. J., & Dennen, V. (2007). Frameworks for design and instruction. In M. G. Moore (Ed.), Handbook of distance education (2nd Ed.) (pp. 233-246). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

On top of that, a key technical report (or minibook) came out Wednesday that was produced by Brandon Hall Research (http://www.brandon-hall.com/). I got a copy Thursday. It looks great though it does cost $595. Pictures and bios of my entire blended learning research team are in there. More information on it is here http://www.brandon-hall.com/publications/blendedlearning/blendedlearning.shtml. This is aimed at blended learning in corporate training settings. Our section of the report relates to strategic planning for blended learning in corporate training settings in 5 countries--Taiwan, China, Korea, US, and the UK.

Teng, Y.-T, Bonk, C. J., Kim, K-J., Oh, E. J., Son, S.-J., Zeng, T., & Cheng, J. (2007, June). Strategically planning for blended learning: A cross-cultural comparison. In J. Clarey (Ed.). The real story: Blended learning (pp. 101-114). Sunnyvale, CA: Brandon Hall Research.

Ok, that is a sample of some of the articles I had come out this week or go to press. There were more and a few others sent out for review. Now I am finally (yes, finally!) working on my Learning World is Flat book. Been talking about it for more than 18 months. After that is done, I will write a book related to online motivation and retention which will outline my TEC-VARIETY model. The World is Flat book will be my summer 2007 project and the other one will be my project during the fall of 2007 and spring of 2008 or so I hope. Who knows...these are just goals.

Due to my focus on book writing, I will be missing the Ed Media Conference in Vancouver in a week or so. I have been going every year since 1999 so this really hurts not to go. As my post on Canada below notes, I love Vancouver in June. So many friends and colleagues will be there. There are some wonderful researchers who present at Ed Media each year--many from Australia. The Aussies travel well. Oh, tear, tear, cry, cry. I will also not be going to the annual distance teaching and learning conference at the University of Wisconsin (my alma mater) in August. More tears to shed!!!!!!

Ok, send me notes if you want to know more about my Empowering Online Learning book or about any of the other book projects I mentioned here. I am sure I will be adding a blog post when the book is closer to publication though you can likely inquire with Jossey Bass about ordering a copy soon. I am pretty sure it will not arrive by hyperspeed or Warp 9, but it will get there someday. Until then, full impulse power.

Oh Canada...10 E-Learning Memories from 9 Trips in 2 Years.

Ok, this posting is a chance to me to reflect on many trips I have had recently to the Great White North as some refer to it as--though with global warming I have rarely seen snow there. I have been in Canada for 9 different trips in 2 years starting with Ed Media in Montreal in June 2005. That was memorable indeed! Jazzfest. And my sabbatical started a year ago with a 3 city tour of Canada--talks in Saskatoon, Calgary, and then Edmonton. Much to do there! Many people to show me around! Thanks to everyone for that! From Barry Brown in Saskatoon to BJ Eib, Norm Vaughan, and Randy Garrison in Calgary, and John Boyle, Guohua Pan, and many others in Edmonton. It was great to be on radio, 3 TV stations, and the newspaper one day in Edmonton. Pics from Saskatoon are below with 3 professors, Barry Brown, Rick Schwier, and Earl Misanchuk, there who all got their degrees in my department at IU a few years earlier (smile). They are doing the Indiana "I."



Pics from the Calgary portion of that trip are below (note that they made me wear the Calgary Flames shirt for my journey up to Edmonton where the Oilers play hockey. Smile.)


(Note: above is Norm Vaughan and myself in one picture and the whole group in the other.)



(Note: one pic above is of me and Randy Garrison; the other is of me with BJ Eib and Pam. BJ and Pam used to work in Indiana. BJ worked at our Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) in our School of Education where she brought in tons of teacher training grant money. We are doing the Indiana "I" in this picture.)

I have been to Canada 3 times in a little over the past month; first to Mohawk College in Hamilton to speak on how the learning world has become flat and also on strategies for teaching online (see http://connections.mohawkcollege.ca/). Next I gave a keynote at a conference at Concordia University in Montreal (see http://spirit-of-inquiry.concordia.ca/keynote.shtml). See pic below with Arshad Ahmad from the business school at Concordia. Finally, last week, I spoke in 3 different places in 3 days to begin to wind down my sabbatical as it all started--with a 3 city speaking tour in Canada..only this time in the eastern time zone instead of Rocky Mountain time. I have gone from west to east. I still need to get to more provinces, however.



In my most recent 3-4 days in Canada (June 3rd-6th), I spoke to teachers in the York district in Newmarket (just outside Toronto thanks to Janet Murphy's excellent coordination), graduate students at York University in Toronto (my first grad class since this sabbatical began--thanks Ron Owston--see Flickr for pictures or see below).

The Orion conference in Toronto (see http://www.orion.on.ca/2007orionsummit/home.html), and then Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. I took a shuttle service from Toronto to London; otherwise friends and taxi's drove me from place-to-place. Lot of friends! See some of those at Orion conference below (observing a presentation on an anatomy course in 3D).

Now after all these trips let me make some quick observations.

1. E-Learning Leader: The majority of my speaking invites related to e-learning and blended learnig lately are from those in Canada and the UK. This indicates either that they know I like a good beer and conversation or that these 2 countries are assuming leadership in this field or attempting to do so. Perhaps it is both! Notice that Ed Media is back in Canada in 2 weeks (in Vancouver) and eLearn is in Quebec City in October. Maybe there is more government support for e-learning in Canada than here in the States where we lack e-learning leadership from the government. A recent study I did in corporate training departments in 5 different countries showed that government support for e-learning and blended learning was high in the UK and Korea and lagged behind in the USA, China, and Taiwan. We did not study Canada in that one. I guess we should have.

2. Cross-Institutional Collaboration: I notice that in the Canadian higher education workshops I do are typically jointly sponsored and open invite (i.e., anyone can attend for free). As a result, there are often people from many local colleges traveling to another one for a conference or event. Or an event is broadcast using Webstreaming or videoconferencing. The sharing, networking, and collaboration among and between institutions of higher learning as well as the corporate sector in Canada is stunning. I have noted similar things in the UK. People in the UK travel well due to the size of their country and they can use trains (a conference in the middle of the country, say in Leicester, is only 2-3 hours for nearly anyone to travel to by train). In Canada, it may be that share and collaborate well and invite people from nearby places due to its enormous size.

3. Sponsors: As I said, in Canada, there are sponsors for these e-learning conferences. People like Joe Sandercook from McGraw-Hill Ryerson and others have done a marvelous job of sponsoring my talks in Canada. I rarely see the same thing here in the USA. It is really heartwarming when someone calls me up and says "hey, Curt, we have a regional conference in Moose Jaw and we would love for you to be a keynote speaker there." Unfortunately, I have yet to be to Moose Jaw or Yellowknife but perhaps someday. McGraw-Hill Ryerson, like any company is profit-driven, but it is one few companies that truly seems interested in moving the field of educational technology and e-learning ahead. As a former CPA and corporate controller, it is good to see some genuine interest in the ultimate user of their products--the faculty members and the students. Thanks Joe!

4. Inquiry-Based Learning: Only in Canada do I get requests to speak on inquiry-based learning. Most recently, some folks at the University of Guelph (near Toronto) wanted me to speak on it. Unfortunately, we could not come to a date and time. Interesting, back in November 2005, I noted that the University of Calgary has a funded blended learning initiative wherein faculty members can get funded for their blended learning course projects if they include an inquiry component. See success stories at the Learning Commons department at the University of Calgary: http://commons.ucalgary.ca/. Why is inquiry-based learning not more prevalent in the USA or other countries that I visit? Is this a direction we should head? Does online learning provide more rich and powerful opportunities for it?

5. Blended Learning: A hot topic in Canada right now is blended learning. People like Norm Vaughan and Randy Garrison at the University of Calgary are doing a more practical and higher education focused book than my Handbook of Blended Learning which has both higher education and corporate training components. Their book will be coming out soon with Jossey Bass or so I think. Randy and Norm are also currently offering a course on blended learning. I said, a course on blended learning. Wow!!!!!!!!!! I am not sure that would fly here at Indiana. I have had many people in my TravelinEdMan journeys ask my if IU could offer a master's or Ph.D. in blended learning or e-learning and I have to tell them regretfully no.

Dr. Rick Schwier at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon told me last month (he was here on sabbatical) that they are also offering such a course on blended learning. And blended is not just hot at Canadian Universities. For instance, when at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), they had me do a talk on blended learning that they sent to 35 or so sites in Canada as well as to Alaska and Saudi Arabia. I also did a blended talk in Saskatoon a few days before it which is a Google video now (see http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8666613122467962929&q=curtis+bonk&hl=en). Last week, I spoke on blended learning to graduate students at York University, to instructors at Fanshawe, and then to end my trip, I gave an overview of blended learning to Fanshawe administrators.

The Canadians sure seem to like blended learning as much as they do hockey...well, maybe not that much. These are just a few examples. Perhaps it is because, like me, they believe in getting learning out in as many formats to reach as many people as possible. They have a diverse population and significant geography to traverse with their courses. Perhaps the Canadians are simply taking a leadership role. Perhaps one should read Ron Owston and Randy Garrison's chapter in my Handbook of Blended Learning to see what is going on in Canada in the area of blended learning or wait for Randy's upcoming book.

6. Facebook: When I spoke at Concordia University in Montreal a few weeks ago, I showed my Facebook account and noted that I only had 2 friends in 1 year of using Facebook (and one was an acordian player from Germany I had never met). Now, less than a month later, I have more than 20 friends in Facebook and it is growing every day. Seems many Canadians felt sorry for me. Also, I have been told that Facebook has a huge presence in Canada; especially in the Ontario province. Interesting--why are the Canadians fascinated with Facebook? In the past week, however, I have had people from countries such as Australia, the USA, and the UK contact me through their Facebook accounts. So maybe, Facebook is starting to take off among us adults across the planet. Someone should study this!

7. OISE is Poised Again: When I was a graduate student at Wisconsin in the late 1980s, my colleagues and I were always reading information from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. It was always highly grounded in theory and yet had a practical bent to it. People like Marlene Scardamalia, Carl Bereiter, and Gordon Wells have always been welcome reading. Marlene and Carl led the research field on computers and writing and continue to do so. Their psychology of writing papers and books were an inspiration to my own dissertation on computer prompts and writing and keystroke mapping of that writing. Anyway, I have meet a number of people during the past few trips to Canada who have recently completed dissertations at OISE on various collaborative technologies. Once again, it seems that OISE is facilitating many interesting studies (see picture below from Olivia Roberson from OISE who just graduated with a dissertation related to online collaboration processes and stages). Way to go OISE and Olivia!

8. May Day: The past few years I have been to Canada for inservice workshops in May and June. May and June apparently are the months when colleges and universities are in summer session and instructors can come in for some training. Here in the US, this might more often be June and July or never (smile). In Canada, it just seems expected that professors and instructors will engage in retooling during May or June. Many (though not all) realize that the world is changing and they better learn what is possible. Sure, there are still many who are reluctant, resistant, reticent, and hesitant. But, hey, as Bonk is Borg will note, "Resistence is Futile" (see http://www.trainingshare.com/images/BonkasBorg.jpg or http://www.trainingshare.com/workshop.php). Some reading this post will say, well we have training at my campus here in the US. What is Bonk talking about. Well, when you compare the number of higher education institutions in Canada and the US, and realize that I have spoken at 3-4 times as many Canadian colleges and universities than US ones during this sabbatical, you have to at least note it. Ditto the UK compared to the USA. Perhaps US people hate me. Or perhaps they do not like a good conversation and a beer as those in Canada and the UK do.

9. In Canada, E-Learning Friends are Friends for Life: I am on sabbatical now. Been on it for 14 months with a little over 2 months to go. Big sigh and an ug!!! Back in the fall of 1998, I did part of my last sabbatical at Simon Fraser University (SFU) at their Burnaby campus in Vancouver at the top of a mountain. What a lovely place it is. Wish I could go to Ed Media in Vancouver later this month, in fact.

Back in November 1998, I got a chance to hang out with Linda Harasim's research team where the TeleLearning Centres of Excellence were headquartered. Linda had quite a wonderful research team assembled there--Cindy Xin, Brian Fisher, Milton Campos, Sylvia Curry, etc. And she kindly introduced me to many people who came to the TeleLearning conference there that month. People like Ron Owston from York University and Robin Mason from the Open University. They all remain friends today! See pics of Milton and I in Toronto in May. First time I have seen him in years yet he remains a great friend.

I got emails from Cindy, Brian, Milton, and Ron in the past 1-2 days. And there is talk of many of us getting together at Milton's new house near the Vermont border just outside Montreal. My career perhaps had started taking off the year before in Finland, but those weeks in Vancouver were wonderful since I was able to meet many e-learning friends for life. Perhaps I need to move to Canada. I grew up in Milwaukee, so not far in terms of accent.

10. Canada has Stephen Downes: Stephen reads everything in the field of educational technology and online learning and often summarizes them so well that you do not have to read them--just read his blog (hec, he is likely one of the first to read this blog post--though his blog says he is in Taiwan now with limited access and is about to travel home.). And, unlike many of us who publish just for the sake of tenure, he is passionate in his writing!!! As I indicated, Stephen will often read and review articles on emerging technologies so that you can decide whether to read the article yourself or use the particular technology. He will blog on a conference that perhaps you could not get to. I attend many conferences each year but remain amazed by the number that Stephen gets to. Stephen's blog is perhaps read by more people in higher education than anyone else. Do the Canadians know how well he places Canada on the e-learning map. If you were at a dinner party and someone said "educational technology" and "Canada" in the same sentence, I think most would immediately think of Stephen Downes. Thanks for all the fantastic posts Stephen! You are an e-learning institution.
See http://www.downes.ca/
http://www.downes.ca/news/OLDaily.htm

Well, that is 10 things I have to say in recapping all these trips to Canada over the past 2 years. (Note that I have been to the UK 10 times in a little over 2 years and 9 times to Canada in less than 2 years; I am curtailing my travel now in order to write more books. TravelinEdMan will still exist, but his ideas will have to travel electronically more often than in the past).

Of course, I have enjoyed these visits to Canada but I am getting a tad worried that I am starting to speak Canadian. Haw bout dat huckey game, eh? Ok, I better sign off now, before someone calls me a hoser. Just post it you hoser. Ok...here it goes.

Another Wonderful Flight to Saudi Arabia! Not!!!

I had many a strange thing happen at each conference I attended or spoke at in 2005 (e.g., getting stuck on the balcony of the hotel in 110 degree heat and the door will not open), but 2007 has to be the year of air travel fiascos for me. I have had a series of plane adventures this year so I thought it was time to write one up. Since the year started, I have been stuck overnight in Gatwick Airport, sat on the runway for hours in Indianapolis and Chicago O’Hare Airport during snow storms, been forced to sleep overnight in Chicago, and experienced far too many flight delays. Every trip for the past 5-6 months has has some problems.

My latest fiasco was this week during a trip to Saudi Arabia where I was training English and Math teachers for Saudi Aramco how to be more learner-centered and to embed collaborative learning and technology in their teaching. Since this was one of the more interesting flights I have ever had and I had time to kill, I thought I would write it up and chronicle the journey in my blog.

1. April 18th: The Unexpected Exit: I should have known this would be a strange, when in my first leg of this journey in Indianapolis, a nervous elderly man asked to get off the plane after we had already started to leave the gate. Apparently, he felt claustrophobic and did not like his window seat. The plane had to go back to the gate and let the man off. Strange, strange way to begin this trip.

2. April 18th: The Wait: That did not delay us much and I had plenty of connection time in Cincinnati (more than 3 hours). What I did not expect is that Delta officials would decide to wait 10-15 minutes for a plane that was late arriving from Seattle. Apparently, many of the people on board had a connection to our flight to Frankfort. Unfortunately, these 10-15 minute soon resulted in a delay of more than a one hour. And when we had to taxi to a remote runway at Cincinnati, our delay time expanded even more. I looked at my watch repeatedly and said to myself, “Self, you will be running to the gate when we get the Frankfort.”

3. April 19th: The Missed Flight: My original schedule had 1 hour and 15 minutes for me to locate my flight in Frankfort; which, they assured me would be enough time when I booked the flight. Not! When our plane landed that morning in Germany, this layover was reduced to 15-20 minutes. As soon as I got off the plane, I ran to my exit, which was about 5-10 minutes away (if you ran really fast and ran over several passengers and people innocently walking to their gates). Despite wearing tennis shoes, I arrived at the gate only to find out that my plane had left already; i.e., it left early. I got there 10-12 minutes prior to departure but Gulf Air had already left for Bahrain. Ug, I hate Gulf Air! Same people that left 20 minutes early back in February when I had a tight connection in Istanbul. That time I made it; this time I did not.

4. April 19th: The Mad Scramble: Ok, my one day of touring Bahrain the following day seemed lost. Still, I ran down to the Delta terminal (which was not easy to find and required me to go through customs in Germany). Ok, is it in Hall A, B, C, or D? After explaining my situation to a couple of Delta agents, they were kind enough to place me on a Lufthansa flight to Bahrain that was leaving only 90 minutes after the one I was supposed to be on. Hooray, I finally had a stroke of luck! Unfortunately, they could not issue a boarding card. The Delta agent warned me that my return flight on Gulf Air might be canceled as a result and that I should see the Gulf Air agent across from her after she was done processing my ticket. So, I ran to the Gulf Air counter to explain the switched flight and they were, of course, closed. Ug! So I proceeded to the Lufthansa terminal or Hall to retrieve my boarding pass. Plane was leaving in a little over 1 hour. When I got there, the lines were so long that there was really no hope that I would make this connection either. So I went to the Lufthansa ticket agent and explained my situation. He told me to jump to the business class waiting line with his permission. So I got my ticket and ran to the gate. Sweat was pouring off my body after this run. Bags were checked and they explored a few of my props for my talks but were ok with them and I proceeded to the gate.

5. April 19th: The Screaming Boy: The Lufthansa flight was great since I had 4 seats to myself. Ah, time to sleep! Not so fast, there was a screaming boy sitting right behind me. Seemed that every time I was fading off to sleep, he would let out a huge scream. Oh my, my, my, my ears! But still I did sleep and we made good time to Bahrain.

6. April 19th: The Canceled Flight: When I got to Bahrain, I checked with their information desk and found out that, indeed, my return flight was canceled. The agent indicated that my entire trip back home was canceled, not just the leg on Gulf Air. At least that is what I could understand from him. I am not exactly sure what he was saying given that English was not his first language. I think he said that Delta had failed to process my ticket in a timely manner, and hence, I was canceled for my return. So, on to my hotel I went but without knowing if I would get home or not a week later.

7. April 22nd: The Powerless Phone Call: A few days later, I had to call Delta to see what happened and I was not feeling well. I had a extremely sore throat, sinus problems, and other cold-like symptoms and a serious lack of sleep. The first night with Delta I was on hold on and off with them for an hour, and, while they admitted to the problem, they were having difficulty rerouting me or reconfirming me. So I sat and sat and sat on the phone with them. Then the phone I had borrowed ran out of power and so nothing had been done though they did have my email address in case they found something.

8. April 23rd: Reconfirming Delta’s Mistake: The next night it was 2 more hours of such phone conversations. I knew that it would be a long time since the Delta representative said that she would have to sit down for this one. And eventually, she would have to contact her supervisor. This seemed endless—every 10-15 minutes they would come back on the line and say, we are still checking sir so no worries; we just wanted to let you know that we are still working on it. Of course, they wanted me to tell them the story of what happened to me each time so that they could verify that Delta was at fault. Finally, after what seemed like days on the phone, they indicated that I been rebooked on the original flight but in a different class of service (not that I would notice). Keep in mind that I was pretty sick during all these calls and I was borrowing someone else’s phone since my Verizon mobile phone does not work in Saudi.

9. April 24th: Confirming the Reconfirmation: Once I had been rebooked, I had to get to a travel agent to pick up the new ticket. Fortunately, Saudi Aramco gave me an assistant, Brian Clouse, who picked up my ticket when I was conducting my workshop in Jeddah (my 4th workshop of 5). My voice was going hoarse that day as their microphone did not work. Still, the travel agent which handled the ticket said to call Delta to reconfirm my reconfirmation. So Brian and I did just that.

10. April 25th: Facing Four Flights? Ok, the workshops I conducted went really well and it was time to come home. But I had to come back through Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, where my final workshop took place. This meant 4 flights; one to Bahrain, one to Frankfort, one to Cincinnati, and one to Indianapolis. Then, of course, the drive home.

11. April 25th: First Flight, Worst Flight: There was concern that I would make my flight in Riyadh since I was doing training one end of the city for Saudi Aramco English and math teachers (actually outside the city) and I had to get to the opposite side. So we left quickly. Not much traffic and we got to the airport by 3:30 for a 5:20 flight. Unfortunately, my Saudi Arabia Airlines ticket was actually with my old friend Gulf Air (see #3 above). I sat in line for 20-30 minutes before I figured this out and was told to head to a different terminal and find Gulf Air. Well, the line going through initial security was extremely heavy there, so I got me a airport helper (with official helper blue shirt) who required a fee to push me through faster. He got me to the first class desk in fact, though I do not know if I paid him in Saudi money or money left from Bahrain. Who cares, I was in line and I had passed 100 or more people still waiting to go through the initial security line (which actually does nothing). Unfortunately, I was in the wrong line and found out that our flight was delayed for 3 hours. One Saudi gentleman was extremely upset with this and screaming at the top of his lungs at the Gulf Air officials. He wanted to be let know of this delay much earlier in a text message; not when he got to the airport. I have never seen so much yelling from one person at an airport. I had to hold back from laughing. Many others were upset as well. Most just said that Gulf Air tends to do whatever they want and really have no schedule. I found this out—our 3 hour delay soon become 5 hours or so. I had an 8 hour window in Bahrain so I did much care since I had to wait somewhere. Unfortunately, their free wireless service in the Riyadh airport was slow (I tried to download one web page or 1 email for 15-20 minutes and gave up).

12. April 25th and 26th: More Gulf Air, Oh No!: When I got to Bahrain, I still had 2-3 hours to kill. Of course, with Gulf Air you never know and they added 90 minutes to this delay. I make a vow, Gulf Air no more. Sometimes they leave earlier than scheduled but more often late (and when they leave early, I am usually the one running to the gate and finding out that the plane has already left). Still, this delay gives me time for a wonderful dinner overlooking the airport on the 4th floor of the concourse and I find time to read a book on self-publishing. And I have a beer since I could not have any in Saudi Arabia.

13. April 26th: Next Up, Frankfort again and Another Screaming Baby: Time to depart for Cincinnati. We board on time! This is a first! And, to my surprise, I am in luck with a whole row of 3 seats to sleep on. The flight attendant smiles at me and says that I have a bed to sleep on. Oh no, she decides to move a family with a screaming baby to the empty row or seats in front of me. And he screams and screams and screams. Still, I did get some much needed sleep. I think I was awake for 1 or 2 hours of this 9 hour flight.

14. April 26th: On to Indy: Well, in Cincinnati, I had to go through security with my bags, just as I had done in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Germany. I think my bags should be fine by now. Again we board on time and I enter the little plane to Indianapolis now and consider myself quite lucky. I have just this short leg left. Cool!!! And we got back in plenty of time. Finally, a good flight. And finally home!

Memories of Chris Essex, a close friend, doc student, and colleague...

Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Memories of Chris Essex, a close friend, doc student, and colleague...

I got some early news (not good news) today from Joyce Alexander, department chairperson of Counseling and Educational Psychology, that one of my IST doc students and close friends, Chris Essex, had passed away the night before, April 17, 2007. He was still a very young man with so much potential and a dissertation waiting for him to complete. How does one cope with such news? What does one do? Immediate reactions to messages such as this are sorta blank and lifeless as you hear about them in the midst of 50 other things and there is no one immediately next to you to talk about it. Then, perhaps a few minutes, perhaps a few hours, or perhaps a few months or more, it starts to sink in. You will not see him physically again, though he will appear in the many works he has accomplished and the stories that we have to tell about him. As I note below, Chris had many accomplishments and we will tell many stories about him.




Some pics from a memorial for Chris are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/travelinedman/sets/72157600516966387/

I did a voice link to Chris in Voice Threads at: http://voicethread.com/
http://voicethread.com/maker.php?b=2995



1. Chris as English Teacher: I am now stuck in the Cincinnati Airport on way to Bahrain and then Saudi Arabia to train English teachers in active teaching techniques; many of which will entail emerging technologies such as podcasts, wikis, and blogs. Given this focus, it is Chris who should be here doing this training. Chris knows all the technologies one could ever want to know. And he was an English teacher. He knows pedagogy too! I was never an English teacher. I know in my heart that Chris would be able to run these workshops so much better than me. Lots of exciting ideas but without overwhelming them. He could speak to them 1-1. Now I have that challenge in front of me to be like him

2. Chris as Faculty Consultant: Keep in mind that Chris would be someone I would talk to when I got back to let him know what happened. He always kept an open door and a cool glass one at that. People could just show up with a problem or an issue and he would listen attentively and give them candid and calm feedback and guidance. When I stopped by (which was pretty regularly), he would be interested in whatever happened to me in my recent teaching or training. Now he is not here for such support and advice and story sharing. His kind ear is gone. And I am not the only one. Many of my colleagues sought out Chris for advice on a weekly if not daily basis. He knew his stuff and more than that. Sure that was his job—to support faculty in integrating technology—but unlike many in such a position, he was born for this job.

3. Chris as Friend to Visiting Scholars: It is not just faculty and students who need Chris, but also all the visiting scholars who come to IU for a visit. Does anyone have a count of all the people that Chris would mentor or meet with on an annual basis in the IC office? There is rich intellectual capital we have lost here. I have brought visiting scholars from Senegal, Italy, Korea, Thailand, Japan, Australia, the UK, Canada, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, and many other parts of the world to meet with Chris in the Instructional Consulting office. Karen Hallett has had her share of high quality, sharing people working for her in IC, but Chris undoubtedly was at the top of the list. (Note: a final picture I had of Chris from January 2007 with people from the e-Read Ohio Program is below. Chris had just finished showing the them ideas for podcasting, online assessment, videochat, and other cool technologies.)





4. Chris as the Epitome of the Money Spent to Build the IU School of Education: There have been many changes in the School of Education at Indiana University during the past decade. If you think about it, other than perhaps Drs. Appelman and Frick, Chris Essex was the one constant in terms of innovation with educational technology in the School of Education that you could take people to meet during the past decade. I have had many visitors so I know. All the other innovators have either retired or moved to a different office, school, department, or university. Not Chris—you could still find him in the IC office. If you were visiting the School of Education and interested in technology in education, and keep in mind that the School of Education was built to promote technology in education, you just HAD to stop and see Chris Essex. Yes, we have the Center for Research on Learning and Technology (CRLT) and before that the Center for Excellence in Education (CEE), but the CRLT has been moved to Eigemann Hall and the CEE was disbanded long ago. The only cool technology stuff left in this School of Education (again a building built to showcase technology in education—in case anyone forgot) was being done my one man—Chris Essex. He was the lone beacon of light that I could see and take people to. He was a guaranteed stop on the IU tour for all prospective students, visiting scholars, and other expert visitors. The goodwill he generated by taking time to show tools such as Eval Online, the videostreaming that IC did, and the podcasts was invaluable.

5. Chris as Online Learning Course Promoter and Organizer: Chris and I go back perhaps 10 years or more. I am not sure the exact date or place we met. I am pretty sure if was sometime when Chris was indexing the online courses Dr. Karl Smith in language education. Shortly after that, he indexing and promoting of online courses in the School of Education began to expand to other department. It was then that he began asking people like Jack Cummings and I, who were teaching online ed psych courses, just what we were doing. He helped promote our courses and make them better when we asked him for advice. That was in 1997 and 1998. I think Jack dabbled in the online world just prior to that in late 1996 and then he told me I should teach online as he was about to become an associate dean or something stupid like that. But with the support of people like Chris Essex (and Karen Hallett’s entire office), it was a great experience to teach online. Those experiences and conversations about effective online pedagogy resulted in Chris and I becoming close friends. My time here in the Cinci airport is not enough to document it and I do not have a spell checker (smile) but I am trying. As everyone knows, Chris Essex was extremely conscientious, well organized, a voracious reader, and someone who passed along information to those in need.

6. Chris as Rock Music Junkie: His sweeping long hair was a giveaway as to aspects of his personality and hobbies. As many of us know, Chris loved his music; especially rock from the 60s and 70s. He often told me that his older brother was influential his musical tastes. If there was a Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, or David Bowie concert or tour that was announced, Chris already had his tickets ordered before the rest of us even heard about it. As an example, last year (May 19th, 2006), he met me at Cheers Pub in London for dinner and a few beers; he had told me that he would be following Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, and several other rock groups around at the time, so we arranged a meeting. Brian Ford, a long-time BBC personality and I waited for Chris for what seemed a long time. I was amazed he showed up at about 6 or 7 pm that night just as my friends and I were about to leave. He livened up the room with his stories of his travels and why he was late and his intended rock concert scenes. We all stayed for 2 more hours to listen to Chris. Later Chris and I found a comedy club in London which I know Chris also was a fan of. Unfortunately, his plans to visit the UK this May for still more rock concerts will not happen.






7. Chris as Conference Presenter: I have seen Chris at many conferences and situations outside of the School of Education. He always represented us well. In the early years of online learning, Chris kept me up-to-date regarding technology and online learning conferences. One such conference was Ed Media. I remember how excited he was that we would both be attending the Ed Media conference in 1999 in Seattle. Chris arranged a dinner meeting for some IU students (John Savery, Chris, Kurshat, and me) during the conference. I remember that dinner and conference fondly and went to the next 7 Ed Medias as well thanks, in part, to Chris’ initial prompting to go. Two years later, in August 2001, Chris presented with me at the Wisconsin Distance Teaching and Learning conference in Madison. We each took 20-30 minutes and presented our data on the state of e-learning in higher education and corporate training. Remember that this was 2001—the exact time that universities and corporations were trying to figure out how to strategically plan for online learning. Chris helped me design the survey instruments we used in this huge study as well as analyze the data and write it up. He had all the insights we needed as to what to ask and then later present. The talk was packed with people who wanted to know the state of e-learning back then. Without bragging too much now—we dazzled them. We had a similar presentation at AERA the following spring though I do not think it compared with the enthusiasm we felt in Madison the prior August.

8. Chris as Podcaster: For the past 2 years, Chris Essex has been the voice of my podcasts. He would ask preset as well as spontaneous questions and I would answer them as ways to relate to the students in my class the issues and content for the week. More importantly, Chris created 20 lessons for anyone to use on podcasting in our instructional consulting office (seehttps://www.exchange.iu.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.iub.edu/~icy/podcast/index.html). It is an impressive collection of ideas which I have referred many people to. In part it is successful since Chris has a broadcast quality voice for his podcasts. He was a natural. No nerves. In part, it was successful as a result of the time and effort Chris put into these productions. He knew his stuff. And he marketed it to faculty in a nice way. I always looked forward to my podcast days with Chris. We could plan something out at 1:30 and be on the air as it were at 1:35. He was quick with the technology yet never too fast for one to understand. He taught me a lot about how to do a quality podcast. The 20 lessons he created should be archived and transcribed and turned into a book with a coinciding online resource site. This could be a project for an IST student. I am sure one would jump at this or I hope so. And the dean's office might provide a couple thousand dollars to fund this. There are dozens of possibilities with this content.

9. Chris as Teacher to K-12 Kids as well as Adults: I have spoken to many people whose kids had Chris as their teacher in summer camps. And the kids loved his teaching of multimedia and the latest technology tools. Chris definitely looked forward to teaching at Binford Rogers (and St. Charles I think) each summer. And the school looked forward to him. College students loved his online courses as well. I heard from 1-2 weeks ago when presenting at Purdue. She spoke extremely highly of him. Everyone is or now I say was excited by his teaching. It is sad he will not teach anymore. We are very sad.


10. Chris as a Lifelong Learner: Despite his expertise and having been in many of my classes before, he would sit in on one of my classes. He was one of the best students in those classes--a high participator and willing to take risks. See Chris is the funny hat for an activity below from this class.








As shown by the pic below, Chris was in my classes since at least 1999. Chris is on the right--4th from right on top.




11. Chris as Believer in Free and Open Educational Resources: Chris also helped me in my research--whenever I had a question or an idea that involved online learning or technology, I could run it by him. He also helped me develop cool technology tooks. When I wanted to create some free websites for others like LibraryShare, BookstoreShare, SurveyShare, or InstructorShare, Chris jumped in to help. He was at the first mtgs I had to create a company to help faculty share online contents back in December 1999. And he helped me develop the tools for free sharing of ideas by faculty around the globe. We had meetings after work, on weekends, and at lunch. He always was willing to help. Today this is called the free and open educational resource (OER) movement. With free MIT courses online, this is huge. Back in 1999, Chris could see the potential. He always had the insights to help push these projects along. And as an English teacher, he could edit all the text and help systems we wrote. He had quite an eye for editing text. I trusted Chris with many a document.

12. Chris as Videostreamer: I deeply appreciate the fact that Chris went out of his way to promote my classes and talks to others. But he did that for many people. I think he did this for everyone. There are dozens of interesting talks by faculty in the School of Education that are catalogued and indexes due to Chris Essex, Without him, none of this would have been done. For instance , there is one talk he had me do a couple of years ago related to 100 ways making lectures more engaging since he heard I had done the talk over in the HPER building. He wanted me to repeat it as part of the Instructional Consulting office videostreams. Chris believed in videostreaming as a way to promote the School of Education and the IC office but more importantly as a way to get information out to the masses.. While only 1 adjunct faculty and 3 doc students from IU showed up, since Chris videostreamed it, I continue to get people writing to me from around the world about that talk. Just this week, the people at Wikiversity told me that they have indexed it.

13. Chris as Helper: People—my how Chris helped people. He helped kids with emerging technology courses in summer. He helped faculty looking to integrate technology in their courses. He helped students with their technology problems. He helped those in his office understand what the IC office does. He helped the Dean’s office index and market online courses when these things were new to everyone. He provided help to visiting scholars as I noted before. He gave talks in my classes and others when asked. Clearly, Chris touched so many people.

Suffice to say, Chris Essex was a great friend of mine. Kind, helpful, and willing to do a podcast or anything with technology with me whenever I asked. He will be missed by many and in many ways. More than most would immediately think of. As the days scroll by, we will all realize just how many ways Chris touched us and others around us as well as those outside the immediate IU community. Chris never saw a piece of technology he did not like. He never saw a human being he did not like. He never saw a pedagogical idea he did not like. We/I miss you Chris. Sorry I am not able to attend his memorial.