11/20/09

25 practical ideas for using Mobile Phones in the Classroom -- from Stephen Downes
Good list of ideas, credited to Doug Belshaw (here is his new blog location). A lot of people promote the use of mobile phones in learning. But here's my take: I want to see something like a cost-analysis on this. How much does using a mobile phone (with unlimited data transfer, at decent (3G or better) speeds) as compared to using (free?) wifi and a netbook? Or as compared to a typical desktop with DSL or cable? Also, I would like to see a study of how much freedom a mobile phone user has to use software and access content as compared to a computer user. We're getting a lot of promotion for mobile phones - but honestly, I think moving in this direction in any serious way would be a big mistake.

NEA Study Finds Digital Divide Narrowing in U.S. Public Schools -- from B2E
Parents Overwhelmingly View Internet as Help, Use Email as Main Communication Tool with Teacher
WASHINGTON - November 16, 2009 - Poll results released today show the digital gap is increasingly becoming a thing of the past in America’s public schools. The National Education Association and Harris Interactive have released the results of an Omnibus poll showing parents have embraced the benefits of Internet at school and even use the technology to communicate with their children’s teachers.

-- from Jeff Achen [for those following changes within the journalism industry]

With the launch of YouTube Direct, it’s clear they now “get” online news video even better than most of us in the news industry. YouTube Direct is a new service that will help news organizations aggregate, solicit and take ownership (in a way) of citizen produced videos of newsworthy issues and events. I just hope news organizations don’t look—or overlook—this gift horse in the mouth. This service will allow video producers, be they citizen journalists or average folks in your community, to upload their videos to YouTube THROUGH your site WITHOUT LEAVING YOUR WEB SITE! News organizations then review the videos and approve or reject them. Once approved, the video appears on your web site. Here are a few responses to questions about...

Kenneth C. Green on the Current and Future Climate of IT in Higher Education -- [12-minute podcast] from Educause

12 educational ways of using 12seconds.tv -- from Doug Belshaw

Releasing the Chromium OS open source project -- from Google
In July we announced that we were working on Google Chrome OS, an open source operating system for people who spend most of their time on the web. Today [11/19/09] we are open-sourcing the project as Chromium OS. We are doing this early, a year before Google Chrome OS will be ready for users, because we are eager to engage with partners, the open source community and developers. As with the Google Chrome browser, development will be done in the open from this point on. This means the code is free, accessible to anyone and open for contributions. The Chromium OS project includes our current code base, user interface experiments and some initial designs for ongoing development. This is the initial sketch and we will color it in over the course of the next year.

11/19/09

Online Learning for Dollars: Selling Lessons Online Raises Cash and Questions - Winnie Hu, New York Times -- resource and quote below from Ray Schroeder

Between Craigslist and eBay, the Internet is well established as a marketplace where one person’s trash is transformed into another’s treasure. Now, thousands of teachers are cashing in on a commodity they used to give away, selling lesson plans online for exercises as simple as M&M sorting and as sophisticated as Shakespeare. While some of this extra money is going to buy books and classroom supplies in a time of tight budgets, the new teacher-entrepreneurs are also spending it on dinners out, mortgage payments, credit card bills, vacation travel and even home renovation, leading some school officials to raise questions over who owns material developed for public school classrooms.

Following graphic from Daniel Christian:

Virtual Classrooms Could Create a Marketplace for Knowledge -- from the New York Times
Teacherless or virtual-teacher learning is described by enthusiasts as a revolution in the making. Until now, they say, education has been a seller’s market. You beg to get in to college. Deans decide what you must know. They prevent you from taking better courses elsewhere. They set prices high to subsidize unprofitable activities. Above all, they exclude most humans from their knowledge — the poor, the old, people born in the wrong place, people with time-consuming children and jobs.

Champions of digital learning want to turn teaching into yet another form of content. Allow anyone anywhere to take whatever course they want, whenever, over any medium, they say. Make universities compete on quality, price and convenience. Let students combine credits from various courses into a degree by taking an exit exam. Let them live in Paris, take classes from M.I.T. and transfer them to a German university for a diploma.

“This is putting the consumer in charge as opposed to putting the supplier in charge,” said Scott McNealy, the chairman of Sun Microsystems, the technology giant, and an influential proponent of this approach. He founded Curriki, an online tool for sharing lesson plans and other materials, and was an early investor in the Western Governors University, which delivers degrees online.

From DSC:
Students will demand better in the future. If we don't give it to them, they will go elsewhere. Our offerings must be relevant, accessible, affordable, and engaging.

NOTE: Using technology to electronically deliver education does NOT prohibit a live human from being involved! The role of what a "teacher" is may change along the lines of a guide...a mentor...a person who steers others in the right direction. For example, SMARTHINKING.com provide live tutors -- so using technology and involving human beings are NOT mutually exclusive!

Psalm 119:105
"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path."

Educational Networking: The Important Role Web 2.0 Will Play in Education -- social networking whitepaper from Elluminate by Steve Hargadon
...discusses social networking, Web 2.0, the emergence of educational networking, and its adoption for personal learning. The paper also looks at how the LearnCentral social learning network is providing a platform for professional development for educators on a global level.

Future Of Learning: A Video Interview With Curtis Bonk -- from Robin Good's Latest News
What does the future of learning look like? What is going to change in the future of our education systems? What role will new media technologies play in the way you and I will share knowledge and skills in the near future? If you want to see a glimpse of how you can impact the way in which you and your kids are going to learn in the future, check out this video interview.

Learning in 2020 -- by George Siemens

Web 2.0 plays to the strengths of educators — curiosity and love of learning — by opening the doors to collaboration and participation. It encourages and facilitates the natural desire to share what you know and to learn from your colleagues. And fully embracing Web 2.0 is a logical extension of the attempts that so many educators have made to use the Internet to connect, collaborate, and create since the first days of bulletin boards and listserves. So for many educators, it’s an incredibly exciting time. But it may also be confusing and even intimidating to a larger number. My purpose here is to offer some clarity around the confusion, and, more importantly, explain why the excitement around Web 2.0 is not just a passing fad, but is grounded in the deep roots of how we learn.

Here's an interesting one...

Smart spectacles aid translation -- from the BBC
In this scenario the microphone on the headset picks up the voices of both people in a conversation, pipes it through translation software and voice-to-text systems and then sends the translation back to the headset. At the same time as a user hears a translation, they would also get text subtitles beamed onto the retina.

From DSC: Nice idea...but information overload. Perhaps they will develop the option to tune out one or the other information channel.

Connected Colleges: New Study Suggests Using Social Networking Tools to Engage Students -- from EducationPortal.com

11/18/09

Mobile Learning Jam Reflections -- from Judy Brown
Regarding DevLearn in the Mobile Learning Jam. Other links mentioned:

• Overview of Mobile Learning – Who is Doing What?
• Getting Started with Mobile Learning Planning Session with Austin Winters, Microsoft
• Mobile Learning in Government and Military - Mark Friedman and Jason Haag
• Discussion of Mobile Learning Standards, or Lack Thereof with Mark Friedman and Jason Haag
• Tools for Mobile Learning Examined
• Mobile Learning Examples Examined
• Future Directions in Mobile Learning: A Look at New Technologies and Potential

College Receives $250,000 Federal Grant for Mobile Learning Initiative -- from Thomas Edison State College; original link from learning and teaching at BCIT
Funding to Advance Use of Flash Drives & Develop New Course Delivery Platform
Trenton, N.J. (November 10, 2009) —Thomas Edison State College has recently received a two-year, $250,000 federal grant that will be used to accelerate the deployment of a new course delivery system that utilizes cloud computing technologies and is designed to increase access and minimize technical issues for adults earning a college degree.

Quote from BCIT:
Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey is implementing an interesting model of mobile online course delivery that uses cloud computing technology and flash drives to deliver the courses. The goal is to make the courses accessible without the need for a constant Internet connection.

What’s New Inside Microsoft Office 2010 -- from Digital Inspiration

#1. Save Office Documents to the Cloud
#2. Embed Web Videos in your Presentations
#3. Quick Steps in Outlook
#4. Built-in PDF Writer
#5. Document printing made simple!
#6. Broadcast Slideshows within PowerPoint
#7. Video Editing meets PowerPoint
#8. Distribute your slides as video
#9. Built-in Screen Capture
#10. Outlook gets social

'The College Fear Factor' -- from InsideHigherEd.com
Despite best intentions, today’s first-generation college students and their professors “misunderstand and ultimately fail one another” in the classroom, according to a new scholarly work on community college pedagogy. The College Fear Factor, published last month by Harvard University Press, is based upon five years of observations of community college courses and interviews with students and professors by Rebecca Cox, professor of education at Seton Hall University. In her work, she tries to show how “traditional college culture” is a barrier to student success, particularly for disadvantaged students.

HTML5: The Web Beyond Web 2.0 -- from The Journal by Ruth Reynard
And the potential impact of Google Wave on instruction

While current distance and online education uses chat technology for real time connection as an augmentation to asynchronous exchange, the future will have immediacy as central to every exchange. The future will also have actual realities being exchanged and developed as ideas are immediately applied and integrated into reality development. Therefore students will not be passive receptors of anything but will rather be fully engaged in all processes of exchange and will also be central to the development of their own learning--customized learning at its fullest.

As always, the bigger challenge will be to educators themselves and to accrediting bodies who will probably lag in their acceptance and understanding of the technology. Our challenge, as educators and co-learners with students, is to engage sooner rather than later and while there is still time to influence emerging technology uses for better instruction.

Purdue U Brings Social Networking to the Classroom -- from CampusTechnology.com by Bridge McCrea. "Hotseat" allows students to text in class

Can Clickers Enhance Student Learning? -- from Faculty Focus by Mary Bart

Touch Screen, Multi Touch, and Touch User Interface Resources -- from Touch User Interface
...massive list of touch screen, multi touch, and touch UI stuff.

Colleges and Universities Select Cisco TelePresence to Extend In-Person Collaboration Beyond the Campus Environment -- from Cisco Web Ex
Higher Education Institutions Create Virtual Learning Environments and Foster More Open Innovation Between Academic and Private Industry Researchers with Cisco TelePresence.

From DSC: Notice how some other colleges and universities are using products from Cisco WebEx -- we can do the same things with Wimba Classroom.

11/17/09

Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning -- from Virtual School Symposium 2009 Overlay

Key emerging trends for online learning?

• We haven’t addressed the mobile device and we know it is what students want – might not be 2010 but in 18 months we will see mobile devices
• We will continue to see the conversation changing from what is it to how we manage it
• We will see integration into special education in much greater numbers
• We will see more states require online learning experience - MI, AL already have this
• Several different waves are coming – growth in elementary, blended learning – adults needing a high school diploma are a huge audience coming to virtual schools
• Within corporate training, we will see more cohort based collaborative learning in the corporate world
• More multiple pathways to learning – more ability to just in time resources to support the learning that needs to happen for students
• All states will finally have online learning and the discussion will dramatically change
  
  This is the wave, the wave is coming – you either ride the wave or wipe out! [emphasis in bold red by DSC]

Tools - Banned and Mobile -- from Miguel Guhlin (looks at the top learning tools and how many are banned in K-12)

Big Picture: A Better School Model? -- from Big Picture Learning by Sarah Fine
The Big Picture Learning Company structures high schools around the belief that kids learn best when they are doing what they love. In the world of American public education, this is nothing short of radical.

Empowering Youth-directed Learning in a Digital Age -- from DML Central by Barry Joseph

Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics, and the Future of American Education -- from Virtual School Symposium 2009 Overlay

RSS- Day 2 -- Using RSS -- from Enagaged Learning

ELI Discovery Tool: Blended Learning Workshop Guide -- from Educause by Veronica Diaz (Educause) and Jennifer Spink Strickland (Maricopa Community College District)

Apple's Shocking App Store Numbers -- from Forbes.com by David Ewalt

Apple announced [11/4/09] that developers have created over 100,000 applications for its iPhone and iPod Touch App Store, and that users have downloaded well over two billion apps in the 16 months since the store's launch.

Stop for a second to think about those numbers. The store's only been around 482 days. It launched with only 500 apps, so that averages out to more than 200 new apps a day, and a staggering 4,149,377 downloads a day [emphasis DSC].

From DSC:
The blazingly-fast pace of technological change continues!

This January, what he does intend to start is something that could boost online education and threaten competitors. The Welch institute plans a marriage of investment capital, minimum admission standards, online reach, established academics, and the global brand of Fortune's Manager of the Century. That contrasts with other for-profit online colleges that offer open admission, including a brand whose reputation was recently mocked on Saturday Night Live. The Welch program's cheaper tuition may also lure students away from some traditional business schools.

From DSC:
As Jack's health is very questionable, his longevity is not the key to his contribution to online learning. However, his current backing signifies to the corporate world that this new online learning world is to be taking extremely seriously. More than that, the investment community is getting behind this movement as well. Someone with deep pockets will get this thing right...and when they do...lookout!

11/16/09

[Really Simple Syndication] RSS – Day 1 – An Introduction -- from Engaged Learning

Connectivisim: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age -- from E-learning Practice & Research blog; and ultimately from George Siemens
The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today. A real challenge for any learning theory is to actuate known knowledge at the point of application. When knowledge, however, is needed, but not known, the ability to plug into sources to meet the requirements becomes a vital skill. As knowledge continues to grow and evolve, access to what is needed is more important than what the learner currently possesses [emphasis DSC].

Connectivism presents a model of learning that acknowledges the tectonic shifts in society where learning is no longer an internal, individualistic activity. How people work and function is altered when new tools are utilized. The field of education has been slow to recognize both the impact of new learning tools and the environmental changes in what it means to learn. Connectivism provides insight into learning skills and tasks needed for learners to flourish in a digital era.

-- slide #49 or 63 of Rodd Lucier's "Learning 2.0 / Top 10 Trends" presentation

Cases on Online and Blended Learning Technologies in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices From Information Science Reference Although online education is becoming an important long-term strategy for higher learning instructors, blended learning through a balanced mix of traditional face-to-face instructional activities with appropriately designed online learning experiences is expected to become an even more significant growth area in the future. "Cases on Online and Blended Learning Technologies in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices" provides real-life examples and experiences of those involved in developing and implementing the merge of traditional education curriculum and online instruction. A significant resource for academicians, this advanced publication provides a wide range of the most current designs, methodologies, tools, and applications in blended course teaching.

Shaping the Promise of Cloud Computing for Higher Education -- from Educause by Brad Wheeler and Shelton Waggener
Could the broad adoption of cloud computing be a critical multi-institution step toward Vest's meta-university? Vest noted: "The meta-university will enable, not replace, residential campuses, especially in wealthier regions. It will bring cost-efficiencies to institutions through the shared development of educational materials. It will be adaptive, not prescriptive."

-- from Jane Hart

CCK09 Is the future a race between education and catastrophe? -- from Suifaijohnmak’s Weblog

What unfolds during the course of the film is a very inconvenient truth about education. It concludes that, while there are signs of spring, a transformation of the education system is vital if the UK is to continue to compete effectively in an era of globalization the world has changed enormously but our education system has not kept pace. We need to recognise that there are many paths to success for young people and provide the right support and opportunities for them to develop their individual talents.

Globalization has exploded the Information Age. Yet our education system isn’t preparing our children for how to compete in the Global Economy. America is a nation in crisis. Did you know how little media attention this very real crisis receives?

Mobile Learning -- presentation from National Distance Learning Week

Social Media FOR learning - Part 2 -- from Jane Hart

Colleges Find Creative Ways to Cut Back -- from Time Magazine by Sophia Yan

Heads in the Cloud | anseo.net -- from John Pearce, Educational Consultant
Simon Lewis is a great Irish educator and this very practical post explores how he is using Google Docs across his school. I particularly like the way he uses the tools to meet real needs by fashioning them in very innovative ways.

Are Teacher Colleges Producing Mediocre Teachers? -- from Ian Jukes

This is an excellent Time Magazine commentary on the state of teacher education today. Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education has some strong opinions on this subject. What do you think? Is it the institutions? Is it the traditional mindsets held about what a real education is? Or is it something else?

-- from Mobile Learning Presentation from NDLW

Blended Learning: Where Online and Face-to-Face Instruction Intersect for 21st Century Teaching and Learning -- from Blackboard

11/13/09

More Teachers Trading in Textbooks and Lectures for Interactive E-Learning Software To Engage Students -- frrom B2E

Future of learning: LMS or SNS? -- George Siemens

Net Cetera: Chatting With Kids About Being Online
...OnGuard Online gives adults practical tips to help kids navigate the online world. Kids and parents have many ways of socializing and communicating online, but they come with certain risks. This guide encourages parents to reduce the risks by talking to kids about how they communicate – online and off – and helping kids engage in conduct they can be proud of.  Net Cetera covers what parents need to know, where to go for more information, and issues to raise with kids about living their lives online.

Slide 3 of 64 of Stephen Downes' Presentation:
Open Education: Projects and Potential

Journal of Interactive Media in Education

LibraryThing.com -- my thanks to Steven Chevalia in the T&L Digital Studio for this resource
LibraryThing is a free, immense tool. You can catalog book collections in two simple steps. If you and your spouse, or friends, have different book collections but want only one account you can create new “collections” or “libraries” within your account. LibraryThing allows you to export all of your books into an expansive Excel sheet, where you can sort all of your books anyway you want. LibraryThing lets you rate, review, and research books you are interested and/or own. This is a great tool for any book lover or library looking for a new way to catalog books.

EasyBib.com -- my thanks to Steven Chevalia in the T&L Digital Studio for this resource
EasyBib is a place you can go to for quick and reliable citations of any material.

Google poised to become your phone company -- from Wired.com by Ryan Singel

“Enrollment has been growing steadily, but this was a tidal wave for us this fall,” said [LaGuardia Community College's] president, Gail O. Mellow, pointing out that the student body had risen by almost 50 percent in the past decade. “I’ve never seen anything like this. We used to pretty much be an open door.”

A New TV Guide for Internet Television -- from Open Culture
Today, Clicker.com comes out of beta and promises to become the complete guide to Internet Television. Currently, the site “contains more than 450,000 episodes, from over 6,000 shows, from over 1,200 networks, tens of thousands of movies, and 50,000 music videos from 20,000 artists.” The content (all apparently legal) is generally supplied by other content providers, and then aggregated by Clicker. Although the content is often quite pop, you can find some university content (Berkeley, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, etc.) in the mix, much of it supplied by Academic Earth. Other quality content appears in the Art & Artists section here and the Documentary section here.

11/12/09

Gov. Granholm Terminates 96,000 Michigan Promise College Scholarship Grants - TaxPayers United Michigan Foundation -- resource from Ray Schroeder

Gartner Identifies the Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2010 -- from Gartner Newsroom (back on 10/20/09) -- resource from BizDeansTalk blog
Analysts Examine Latest Industry Trends During Gartner Symposium/ITxpo, October 18-22, in Orlando

Is Cloud Computing a Credible Solution for Education? -- from CampusTechnology.com by Denise Harrison
Can cloud computing live up to its hype, or is it just another empty promise designed to create demand and liberate more funds from already strapped IT budgets?

Moodle is an Airport, Not a Total Solution! -- from Zaid Ali Alsagoff (From DSC: This posting includes a nice discussion of what Moodle is and is not)

The Shake Up in the VC Market -- from Videoconferencing out on a Lim
Are you following all the interesting developments in the videoconferencing market? Here’s an interesting review and analysis of the changes coming down the pike. I highly recommend that you take some time to read it. Here are a few snippets to convince you to read further...

From Logitech to Acquire LifeSize Communications:

"We expect this acquisition to enable Logitech to extend our leadership in video communication beyond the desktop," said Gerald P. Quindlen, Logitech president and chief executive officer. "Together we can make life-like, HD-quality video communication as mainstream and seamless as a telephone, for meeting participants in the boardroom, at their office desk, in a remote-location meeting room, telecommuting from home or on the go with a laptop."

11/11/09

Presentation: Podcasting and the Listening Culture -- resource from eLearning Blog by David Hopkins
This posting focuses on a presentation from Steve Wheeler.

From DSC: This next one is very relevant for those of us in higher education:
The One-Minute Journalist Guide To Understanding The Internet -- from Robin Good's blog, by various authors

Money can be made on the Internet with journalistic content. There are many examples of this today already. Yet because the Internet is fiercely competitive, business models have to be adapted to the structure of the net. No one should try to abscond from this essential adaptation through policy-making geared to preserving the status quo [emphasis DSC]. Journalism needs open competition for the best refinancing solutions on the net, along with the courage to invest in the multifaceted implementation of these solutions.

Site simplifies text for students with disabilities -- from eSchoolNews.com
A new national online database is making it easier and quicker for college students with print-related disabilities, including blindness or dyslexia, to obtain the alternative textbooks they need for their academic courses. The AccessText Network contains more than 300,000 textbook and novel titles available in alternative formats. To date, more than 650 colleges and universities have enrolled. The Association of American Publishers (AAP) developed the database in conjunction with the Alternative Media Access Center (AMAC) at the University of Georgia.

eXe Learning
The eXe project developed a freely available Open Source authoring application to assist teachers and academics in the publishing of web content without the need to become proficient in HTML or XML markup. Resources authored in eXe can be exported in IMS Content Package, SCORM 1.2, or IMS Common Cartridge formats or as simple self-contained web pages.

eXe is currently supported by CORE Education, a New Zealand-based not-for-profit educational research and development organisation. eXe grew out of the New Zealand Government Tertiary Education Commission's eCollaboration Fund and was led by the University of Auckland, The Auckland University of Technology, and Tairawhiti Polytechnic. It has also been greatly assisted by a global group of participants and contributors.

11/10/09

Advice to Grads: ‘Be Ready for Change’ -- from Higher Education Weblog

Smart college students know their career futures won’t be stable. Most new graduates will work in several fields or jobs over their lifetimes and will be continually adapting to ever-faster technical developments [emphasis DSC]. But you can take steps to be ready for an uncertain work world. First, accept that your education doesn’t stop with college or graduate school. To be successful and rise up through the ranks, you’ll need to be a lifelong learner. Second, be ready for change. View new systems and processes as opportunities and volunteer to get involved with them.

Five Tips for Young Professionals
When making forecasts about your career future, one thing is sure: it’s going to be buffeted by change. As a young professional, you can take steps to be ready for some likely twists and turns, says Glen Heimstra, founder of futurist.com in Kirkland, Wash.:

• Get on a learning curve. Identify what you need to learn in the next six months and create a plan for accomplishing this goal. Continue to set learning agendas for yourself. As the world keeps changing, successful professionals will stay up with new developments.
• Be technically knowledgeable. Virtually all work in the future will require technical competence. You don’t have to be a programmer, but you should be competent on basic computer systems and software programs and aware of how technology can be applied.
• Improve your personal-interaction skills. More routine work will be automated, leaving employees to do what’s left. Young professionals will stand out if they can interact with and manage people effectively.
• Be good at balancing work and life. As work spills over into life, and vice versa, professionals must know when work starts and stops and help other employees to set those boundaries as well.
• Take time to look over the horizon. Be a futurist. Cultivate the ability to forecast what’s just around the corner, so you can prepare for it, says Mr. Hiemstra.

VoiceThread + WordPress + VodPod = Simple solution for sharing digital narrative and reflection -- from David Wicks

Pillars of Institutional Pedagogy: Ten Principles for the Future of Learning -- from The Macarthur Foundation's "The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age"

1. Self-Learning
2. Horizontal Structures
3. From Presumed Authority to Collective Credibility
4. A De-Centered Pedagogy
5. Networked Learning
6. Open Source Education
7. Learning as Connectivity and Interactivity
8. Lifelong Learning
9. Learning Institutions as Mobilizing Networks
10. Flexible Scalability and Simulation

Calvin College is about to pilot the Eno Interactive Whiteboard. We are working with
Scott Custer and Amanda Lovell at Custer Workplace Interiors.

Frequently asked questions about viewing and syncing video with iTunes and iPod -- from Apple support

11/9/09

Joshua 24:15 (New International Version) -- from Bible Gateway's Verse of the Day
But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.

The K-12 Online Conference
...invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2009 conference theme is “Bridging the Divide.” This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote by classroom teacher and international educator Kim Cofino the week of November 30, 2009. The following two weeks, December 7-11 and December 14-17, over fifty presentations will be posted online to our conference blog and our conference Ning for participants to view, download, and discuss.

[webinar] Engaging Students In and Outside the Classroom with Interactive Digital Solutions -- from The Journal

Inside Google: Challenges and Opportunities -- Calvin grads at Google to speak Friday, November 13, at 4:30 p.m. in SB 382
Nathan Beach and Jack Veenstra both attended Calvin College. Both currently are employed at Google. They will be in town this week to give a presentation at the computer science seminar.

Want to see awesome ways you can use your mobile phone? Do you want to discover a glimpse of how Google continuously improves the quality of search results? Come join Google employees and Calvin graduates, Jack Veenstra and Nathan Beach, to see some cool demos and learn what it is like to work at Google. After the talk, Jack and Nathan will take questions. You may submit questions NOW and vote on other people's questions using Google Moderator.

More Engaged and Engaged or Confused? -- from InsideHigherEd.com

Engaging Learning -- from Clark Quinn
How do you systematically design learning experiences that effectively engage the learner?

Fans and Fears of 'Lecture Capture' -- from InsideHigherEd.com

Managing Flow in the New Newsroom -- from WordCampNYC

Professional Video Editing Software: Comparison Guide To The Best Video Editors -- from Robin Good's blog by Daniele Bazzano

'Managing Online Education' Study Sheds New Light on the Operations Side of Online Programs -- from Faculty Focus by Mary Bart

11/7/09

-- my thanks to Mr. Ed Jennings for this resource

Radar Networks makes Twine. Think of Twine as your own artificially intelligent personal web assistant. That’s the message we get from Radar Networks CEO, Nova Spivack, about his new project from Radar Networks. Twine is a semantic web application that auto-organizes all your information and media based on an auto-tagging engine. It’s been in the works for some time, but will make its public debut soon.

-- my thanks to Dr. David Klein at Capella University for this resource

Openness, Dynamic Specialization, and the Disaggregated Future of Higher Education -- from IRRODL.org by David Wiley, John Hilton III
Abstract:
Openness is a fundamental value underlying significant changes in society and is a prerequisite to changes institutions of higher education need to make in order to remain relevant to the society in which they exist. There are a number of ways institutions can be more open, including programs of open sharing of educational materials. Individual faculty can also choose to be more open without waiting for institutional programs. Increasing degrees of openness in society coupled with innovations in business strategy like dynamic specialization are enabling radical experiments in higher education and exerting increasing competitive pressure on conventional higher education institutions. No single response to the changes in the supersystem of higher education can successfully address every institution’s situation. However, every institution must begin addressing openness as a core organizational value if it desires to both remain relevant to its learners and to contribute to the positive advancement of the field of higher education (emphasis DSC).

From DSC:
What are our plans here? What are your plans here? If they haven't already, the conversations better begin soon...

If you need a laugh today...check out the 10 Most Viral Videos for October

Create your customized view of the news using Google News
Go to http://www.google.com/news/ and click on the Add Section in the upper right portion of the screen

11/6/09

[Re:] The Higher Educational Bubble Continues to Grow -- from Stephen Downes
Higher education, writes Karl Kapp, is in the grip of a bubble. The signs?

• core mission and fundamentals are ignored
• disproportionate compensation at the highest levels
• product value doesn't match marketplace expectations
• prices are manipulated without regard to market supply and demand
• perception of exclusivity
• a delusion that "this market is different"

I have long affirmed that such a crisis is coming and that it would arrive very suddenly after being years in the making. It is now very close - within a matter of months. 2010 some time, maybe (at the outside) 2011, at least in North America. Funding will dry up, there will be significant staff reductions, institutions will merge or close, and administrators will be desperate for alternatives. Not just in education, but education will be very hard hit, and at all levels.

From DSC:
This is not a joke folks...I couldn't agree with Karl and Stephen more.

In Search of the Big Idea -- from InsideHigherEd.com
NEW YORK -- Nothing concentrates the mind like a fiscal crisis; or at least that's the hope of higher education leaders. Gathered here Thursday for the TIAA-CREF Institute's Higher Education Leadership Conference, some of the nation's most prominent figures in postsecondary education wrestled with the central question of their time: What is the future of this thing called college?

What became quickly and painfully obvious in their deliberations is that the center will not hold. In something of an irony, higher education leaders acknowledged here Thursday that the very system that put them in the position to run the nation's colleges and universities is no longer fit to groom their successors or the rest of the U.S. work force. Diminishing state support, a skeptical public pressing for accountability, and dramatically shifting demographics all point toward the necessity for a serious rethinking of the way colleges educate students, according to just about every panelist who spoke at the conference.

...And therein lies the tug of war within higher education. Innovation is invariably greeted with a mix of applause and raised eyebrows, as an "industry" steeped in tradition seeks to redefine itself for the 21st century. Is the skepticism rightful protection of a system that is the envy of the world or unwarranted protectionism of a system that is built to fail? That's the question college presidents say they're now confronting every day, according to several who attended the conference.

BlackBoard, Sakai and Moodle – Point/Counterpoint at Educause 2009 -- from Mark Smithers

Pearson launches a bold new approach to online learning: Pearson LearningStudio -- from Pearson.com

Blending Learning Webinar (via Elluminate): Nov. 10th, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 pm (ET)
This webinar will explore the economy of scale and power of blended learning which is derived from its "elasticity": the ability to integrate a variety of synchronous and asynchronous media allowing the instructional designer to attain the most appropriate blended learning solution. Each participant will receive a FREE copy of the USDLA Instructional Media Selection Guide for Distance Learning authored by Dr. Jolly Holden and Dr. Philip Westfall.

Higher Education (Via Elluminate): Nov 9th, 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (ET)
This webinar will explore a broad range of issues related to the institution's/unit's practices and procedures as new global campuses become the norm and the traditional education landscape transforms. Specific areas of interest may focus on strategic planning, accreditation, faculty workload, international programs, virtual learning communities, leadership, connecting educational institutions globally, trends, best practices and alternative education as an issue of national competitiveness.

Inspiring Teachers' Use of Curriculum Videoconferencing: What Works (via Elluminate) -- Nov 110th, 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm (ET)
Teachers are the most important key to implementing any new technology innovation. So how to do you hook teachers on curriculum videoconferencing? Learn what works in Southwest Michigan and apply these principles to your own school.

Google releases Dashboard privacy tool -- from CNN.com by Doug Gross
Ever wonder what information Google knows about you? With a click or two, now you can find out.

GoingOn Announces First Community Platform for Education at EDUCAUSE 2009 -- from B2E
The GoingOn Community Platform leverages social web technologies to create online communities for collaboration, learning and social knowledge management
November 4, 2009/San Francisco, CA – GoingOn provider of the first open source community platform for education, will showcase its cornerstone technology, The GoingOn Community Platform at EDUCAUSE 2009, November 3-6, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver.

11/5/09

Educause09 opening keynote: "Good to Great"
Stages of decline:

1. hubris born of success
2. undisciplined pursuit of more
3. denial of risk and peril
4. grasping for salvation
5. capitulation to irrelevance or death

'Convergent education' comes together -- by Gregg W. Downey, Editor
Commentary: Educational transformation will come--whether entrenched interests like it or not

As I was saying last month, an avalanche of change is rumbling towards our field. I propose we call this cascading phenomenon "convergent education." [From DSC: I call it tidal waves of change.]

Here's what I mean: A new species of education is emerging that artfully aggregates up-to-the-minute instructional technology, sophisticated pedagogy, robust and standards-based educational content, and web-based delivery that requires a computer or other personal digital device but no fixed address. Under most circumstances, convergent education certainly can amplify the impact of traditional instruction, but it is not necessarily dependent on face-to-face encounters between teacher and student.

At its best, convergent education features diverse learning opportunities delivered via multiple media platforms combined with field trips (virtual or real), live streaming video, interactive archived video, educational gaming, student collaboration, animation, celebrity lectures and adventures, project-based instruction with student-managed data, virtual demonstrations and experiments, continuous monitoring of student engagement and learner satisfaction, and classic, in-the-classroom instruction.

In general, convergent education is based on developments such as distance learning and lecture-capture strategies that have been around for some time, but which are now reinforced by the completely unprecedented fact that nearly every willing learner has (or soon will have) economical access to the rich multimedia resources of the internet--access delivered by such devices as personal computers, netbooks, smart telephones, personal digital assistants, interactive whiteboards, pocket projectors, and handheld reading devices.

Convergent education has been made feasible--and perhaps even inevitable--by a unique confluence of social and technological forces that ultimately must transform the way we learn. Such forces include--but are by no means limited to--the thinning of our teaching corps by retirement, reductions in force, and classroom abandonment; the movement toward charter schools, open-courseware, and online universities; the push for school reform from government and industry; and the desire and necessity of multitudes of adults to obtain new skills and knowledge to survive and thrive in a swiftly changing job market.

Here's what's profoundly different now: This time the transformation will come whether entrenched interests like it or not.

Lecture Capture with Wimba -- Nov 9 Time: 3pm EST
In addition to using Wimba Classroom and the podcasting feature of Wimba Voice for online instruction, did you know they can also be used for capturing face-to-face lectures? Learn tips and tricks of lecture capture with Wimba. This demonstration will not only give practical tips and tricks for successful lecture capture, but will also share numerous real-life examples of how schools today are already doing this.

Using Collaborative Online Technology for Non-Instructional Use (Wimba) -- Nov 12 2pm EST
Using Collaborative Online Technology for Meetings, Disaster Preparedness, Office Hours, and other Non-Instructional Uses Across a Campus

Except re: Narrative from this article from "A List Apart"

Narrative is essential to learning. From epic films to conversations with toddlers, all human communication revolves around storytelling. We use story to convey information and to make emotional connections with each other. Writers use narrative to align what they know about the world with what their readers know about the world, and through the exchange of story a sense of trust is born. The reader identifies with the writer, and thus with the information presented.

Google Wave makes a big splash as it hits the shore -- from San Jose State University's Spartan Daily by Suzanne Yada

Apple Announces Over 100,000 Apps Now Available on the App Store -- from Apple.com

Social Isolation and New Technology -- from PewResearch.org
How the Internet and Mobile Phones Impact Americans' Social Networks

Americans Are Lonelier, but Don't Blame the Internet, Report Says -- The Chronicle

Sony shows prototype 360° 3D screen -- from Sony and news.techworld.com
Images can be viewed from any direction

How an old guy saved online music journalism -- from Wired (UK) by Warren Ellis

Which brings me around to what Morley is doing today instead of The South Bank Show. Given that print is apparently dead, or at least not paying much, Morley is putting on his own show via the good offices of the Observer Music Monthly. Buried in the OMM's web presence, once a month, is a multimedia presentation by Morley. Not just a music column, but video of the interviews he conducted in support of the month's subject or theme, music files, filmed performances, and, most unsettlingly, a Flash file that places an immense screen-filling Morley as rambling disco ringmaster. In this way, he surrounds a subject in a manner that music journalists normally just don't get to do. It is still music journalism, even as it's a music performance show and arts show.

ABC News recruits college reporters -- from eSchoolNews.com by Dennis Carter
Journalism students use laptops, advanced editing software in contributing to local and national news broadcasts

Tactics for Successful Grant Writing -- from CampusTechnology.com

The Genetic Science Learning Center -- from Jessica Overbeeke, T&L Digital Studio
...is a science and health education program located in the midst of the bioscience research being carried out at the University of Utah. Our mission is making science easy for everyone to understand.

From DSC: This is brilliant! The use of storytelling/plot in learning genetics!

236 Online High Schools -- from Online High

100 Open Courses to Learn Any New Language -- from Online Universities.com

Toyota launches user-submitted multimedia interface “Beyond Cars” -- from Innovative Interactivity by Tracy Boyer

Daniel S. Christian

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Recommended sites from the T&L Digital Studio

Key areas to watch

• The forthcoming Walmart of Education
  
  
• Developing learning ecosystems
  
  
• Rising student expectations & power
  
  
• Keeping students engaged & motivated
  
  
• The move towards using more teams of specialists to create educational content
  
  
• Learning Agents, 1:1 computing, PLE's, EPT's
  
  
• Building your global network
  
  
• Mobile learning
  
  
• Global learning
  
  
• Lifelong learning
  
  
• Participatory learning; students more in control of their learning
  
  
• Digital storytelling
  
  
• Cloud computing / software as a service
  
  
• The all-encompassing communications & computing device; convergence
  
  
• Open/collaborative teaching & learning
  
  
• The move towards developing consortiums & pooling resources
  
  
• Nanotechnology
  
  
• Cross-disciplinary assignments & learning
  
  
• Multimedia -- providing students with the same content but in 4-5 different ways; let them select what works for them
  
  
• Educational gaming
  
  
• Social networking/ learning/Web 2.0-related items; including the growth of blogs, wikis, Twitter, other
  
  
• Multi-touch interfaces
  
  
• Virtual worlds / 3D
  
  
• The semantic web
  
  
• The developing WebOS
  
  
• Legislation requiring students take at least one 100%-online class to graduate (first from high school, then from college)
  
  
• The move towards Voice-Over-IP (VOIP)-based applications & services, often bundled in with technologies such as instant messaging, presence, desktop sharing, whiteboarding, and audio/video conferencing
  
  
• Whether Learning / Course Management Systems continue to be integral or not
  
  
• Whether Moodle and other open-source systems will continue to gain market share
  
  
• Whether accreditation will be relevant in the future and/or if the accreditation bodies have to change significantly
  
  

Christian-based items

• Biblegateway.com
• GospelCom.net
• Leadership Network
• Minds in the Making
• 100 Most Bookmark-Worthy Websites for Christians

Training resources

• Lynda.com
• Adobe's Video Workshop
• Atomic Learning