Last lap

Your 2.0 Life: Preparing Learners for Life 2.0
Mountain Community Colleges
This session didn't really deliver for me. They presented a lot of models and frameworks from the NCAT (National Centre for Academic Transformation) on course redesign using technology. http://www.center.rpi.edu/PCR/Proj_Model.htm .

The part of the presentation that stood out for me was the discussion about social networking sites - academics invading the student territory and not being welcome - argument. One of the academics had introduced Ning to her students and felt that it created a neat solution for them and her - them, because it wasn't straying on their social territory but the general use of the concept was familiar to them - her, because unlike in Facebook, she could control the environment and establish some baseline rules. There was very little of this needed in fact and she was pleased with how, with very little intervention from her the students started supporting each other - and even more pleased that as a consequence the number of direct emails to her requesting support dropped considerably. Surprisingly few in the audience had heard of Ning.


Ok - my last post - who's still reading anyway?

Designing the Next Generation Student Technology Fluency Programme - George Mason University
Interested in this because they had reported good results with their first programme. They are of comparable size and ethos to SHU - mission to 'Live, learn and succeed' and culture of entrepreneurialism. Describe DF as being caught between 'hype and fear'. Hype about how supposedly DF the digital natives are and fear along the lines of 'Facebook ate my daughter' media headlines. Argued the case for technology 'education' (why) not 'training' (how) - you know the old question - would you want your daughter to have sex education or sex training at school...
So, the difference between their first and second programme - first was more a series of pilots/small grants to fund initiatives etc. Decided they needed a more sustainable approach with second programme. They went to Heads of Faculty and asked for names of all staff who currently teach any type of research methods course (could our DoF provide this?) and through invitation from this list set up forums to share problems with the current provision.
The programme is based on Ten IT Goals (which cover the broad range of DF and although CT not a specific goal all have an element of critical awareness) http://tac.gmu.edu/goals/tenitgoals.html they also make an attempt at defining what advanced level skills might look like. They've set up a resource bank of DF assessment activities to encourage staff to use and integrate and add to - this sounded interesting and something I'll follow up. The revised programme only came into being in summer 2007 so no real evaluation of its impact as yet. The rest of the session was about their new Learning Hub - along the lines of the D&S learning hubs but one institutional hub with different specialist staff based there and open to staff and students - again, only a few weeks open so they are holding their breath to see if anyone uses it.
They summarise DF @ George Mason as 'a programme, a process, a space'. (Just the one space then?).

Keeping them coming...

Supporting Learning 2.0 with a Technology Enhanced Teaching Certificate Program. University of Illinois.

I mentioned this earlier but a few additional points worthy of passing on. This is a truly collaborative venture between their Division of Instructional Development, the Centre for Educational Technologies and the University Library. It kicked off about three years ago when the when they went on a retreat and established their common goal of supporting and improving student learning. This gave rise to Learning Technology Teams - instructional technologists-educational developers and librarians working together in Faculty facing units - formalising what sometimes ,but not often enough, happens naturally. It's taken a while to get this working but seems to be having an impact now.

Emerging from this collaboration came the idea of the new course. They already do a range of new staff courses but they are not specifically focusing on technical fluency for teaching. Apart from stuff mentioned earlier - they also pair each course participant up with an instructional adviser - how scalable this is remains to be seen - so far they only have 5 staff on the course. They're also looking at how they can recognise and award merit to those staff who are already part way on their journey with technology enhanced teaching - possibly through reflective portfolio and a selection of the other activities.
http://www.oir.uiuc.edu/Did/Certificates/Technology.htm



Faculty Ideas about Technology: The Pedatechnical Impact of 2.0
Purdue University
Shared their experience of introducing a new programme called FIT (Faculty ideas about technology). http://fit.itap.purdue.edu Having touted round new technology with few takers they decided they needed a more pedagogically driven approach and a more formalised process for introducing new technology to help them to understand where to channel their resources (ie developers time), accessibility issues, technical infrastructure to support the new tools and most critically, its potential benefit to LTA. Their goal is 'To evaluate technology in the light of what they already have and to tie learning theory and pedagogy directly to the technologies'.
To cut a long story short - after a few false starts they have developed a methodology that they think works. Focusing in one 'teaching problem' at a time they have something called 'fit n sit' sessions where faculty, learning technologists and staff from their LTI equivalent meet. Through this they identify pilot classes where different technology solutions are tried and evaluated. Often linked to a blog with a 'celebrity' guest blogger talking about how they have innovated around a teaching problem using this technology. They then produce a 'white paper' through Google docs where everyone who feels they have something to contribute can -academics/lti/it/etc - that then is used to inform decisions about future implementation and resourcing.
They feel that the scheme is a success as it: engages those who have shied away from technology before, formalises the evaluation process, based on valid user requirements and provides a collaborative forum for feedback and policy development. Their plan is to have 7 fit n sit sessions per semester. Also looking at a student version where the focus is their learning problems and the team help identify potential solutions - we'll see - tho looking at the blog - as usual a woeful lack of comments/participation from faculty - but this one sounded really interesting...

http://fit.itap.purdue.edu/?p=8#comments

Why Gardner Campbell is so cool...

...well, to be honest, just one of the reasons Gardner Campbell is so cool. Take a look at his reflections on the final keynote and the twitter back channel backlash that ran alongside.
http://www.gardnercampbell.net/blog1/?p=583

A masterclass in thinking carefully and not letting ego get in the way of constructive analysis (aka how to get other people to have a higher opinion of you than you have of yourself)

Challenged by how to teach reflection to students? - just subscribe to Gardner's blog

btw - I just remembered I was going to send link to Serena's short film - I had problems with it on my laptop but it seems OK on the other machines in our house so here it is, enjoy!:
http://www.serenae.com/filmpull.htm

Also, whilst you're there, you might want to check out the other things on her website to get a flavour of her other interests - impressive, hu'h?

Posted resources....

More and more speakers are posting the links to their sessions (http://www.educause.edu/13312 or see the main link in the Useful Links on the right hand side) Keep checking back, it is definitely growing. However I wanted to highlight a couple that may be of particular interest.

At last! the fourth video from the Fear 2.0 session is online - Scylla or Charybdis?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpGDSp5sHbQ&feature=PlayList&p=C6169752D9C77476&index=3

They have also posted all four as a package together with the outputs from the discussion and links to the "Got Fear" blog
http://teachinglearningresources.com/fear.html

And something called "The Digitally Fluent University: A Recipe for Success" - from some crazy English women who are prepared to push a metaphor to the edge of polite usage and just keep pushing!! Not sure how informative the slides are but if you want a replay of the full session - it is available at a price ;-)
http://www.educause.edu/ELI081/Program/13300?PRODUCT_CODE=ELI081/SESS09#available_resources

Connecting and reflecting

Connectivism - George Siemens, Associate Director, Learning Technologies Centre, University of Manitoba

OK - so you have the video, heres the transcript (in terms of my very loose interpretation of the key messages that hit me.

This was the one I was really looking forward to, and it didn't disappoint, despite a very fast gallop through some complex theories about learning and knowledge that roll off the tongue of the speaker but take a bit more grasping from the audience (as the questions at the end revealed -not just me then).

The basic premise with Connectivism is that learning in a digital age happens differently. Most learning theories are based on a different era of knowledge production and George asks the question ' How does learning change when knowledge growth is overwhelming and technology replaces many basic tasks we have previously performed? The answer is through networking.

At its simplest, information is a node which can be connected - when connected, it becomes knowledge - the combined nature of many connections results in understanding

The tools which enable the greatest possibility of connection forming provide the greatest possibility of knowledge growth. Hello and welcome Web 2.0!

He still argues the need for the academic 'expert', claiming it can take up to 10 years to develop a true discipline knowledge - but sees the role changing to one of relationship builder, connecting the learner to other experts and knowledge builders. The importance of blogging as a means of connecting 'small worlds' to build knowledge is a key skill.

More controversially he calls for academics to get out of their closed publishing networks and get into the open spaces of knowledge that their students inhabit. Access and currency are the most important issues for consumers of information today and if our academics are not going to where the students access information they can't complain about the quality of the stuff out there - he likens it to an academic preferring not to teach in the draughty lecture hall (even though it can accommodate 100's of students) and teaching instead in a small seminar rooms and excluding the many?

Practising what he preaches, much of his work is available through the following sites, blogs and wikis.

www.e-learnspace.org

www.knowingknowledge.com

www.connectivism.ca

Watch for yourself...

Don't take our word for it:

the videos of the keynotes and featured sessions are online now
http://hosted.mediasite.com/hosted4/Catalog/?cid=cd40888eed5940f2bbd8daa8c09b4ecc

Highly recommended:
What Wikipedia...
Connectivism
Virtual worlds as....
2008 Horizon Report

Not so much:
Educational Publishing....

Visiting Presidium

1. Yes we really did....look here we are with the sign in reception (you just can't fake that!):

Actually the time with Presidium was excellent, it was really useful to see their operations which was much bigger and busier than I expected it to be. Also it was interesting to see what a tightly run ship they have regarding what calls are coming in, time taken, time queuing etc, quality assurance of calls and continuous training programme.

All the staff made us feel really welcome - with special mentions to Andrew and Mike (of course), and also Michael, Christie, Phyllis, Russ, Alex and Joe.

2. Still friends after discussing the details of our engagement with Mike (Country) Cuthriell

I spent some time reviewing how our engagement with Presidium was going with Mike and Andrew (who had very wisely left before the excruciating photo shoot) and what our options are for going forward into 08/09. It was a really really useful discussion especially as it highlighted for us all the things that each of us assumed the others understood and brought out in conversation, things that have been difficult to get to the bottom of over the phone....yes, I am referring to the Patriot Act!

Also I ask Mike for a shopping list of reports that will help take us forward.

3. Getting to review the knowledge base and its untapped potential with Christie, our knowledge manager:

Christie had spent some time looking in detail at our knowledge base as she has recently taken over our knowledge management and had some great suggestions for how we might improve things at our end and theirs.

Kay and Christie kicked around some of the ideas and tried to map out the next steps for a digital fluency knowledge base. This was really productive and enabled us to take the time and space to acknowledge and (for some) answer some fundamental questions.

4. Kay asks Christie what it's like working with Mike (answers on a postcard):

...and this is nothing to the laugh we have when Mike takes us to see the sights of Somerset - which takes all of about 90 minutes (with 75 minutes of that eating). A quick tour of downtown incl many, many churches and the republican party local HQ (no democrats in those parts), the lake (which looks a bit like Wales), and Baxters coffee (Somerset's answer to Starbucks). But the highlight by far was parked in a disused parking lot (see what I did there), looking at large houseboats (not able to get out the car cos it was so windy we'd have been blown away) listening to a preacher on the radio telling us at varying volumes and with scarying degrees of intensity that we do have a friend in jesus, jesus is our friend, he is our only true friend...you get the idea...it was one of those "shouldn't be funny, but was" situations...it was definitely the parking lot that made it art!!

The trip back to Cincinnati was estimated to be 2 hrs with Mike driving and Russ riding shotgun, but despite having our entire afternoon timed down to the last minute Mike waits until we are about half way before admitting he doesn't really know where he is going - hmmm! More radio preaching, a chat about quality assurance at presidium, a few texts back and forth to Liz, a drive around someone's front garden, some music, a quick stop at a garage for directions followed by Mike doing a yee-haw! leap into the air (I thought it was hillbilly, Mike thought it was leprechaun - tallest leprechaun I've ever seen), some mind-bending riddles, more music, another retelling of the room service burger story more music etc etc etc all the way home (about 3hrs 15!! in the end...but, you know, educational)

Reflections on ELI

Sort of highs and lows... but more sort of very highs and not quite so highs with a smattering of serious reflection.

The very highs - of course - the people! special mentions go to Bryan, Gardner, Gardner's students Serena and David, Diana O, Julie Little, Carie, Don and John (both from BbIESC)...as well as new friends to add incl Holly (my co-interviewee), Laura and Barbara (of digi-fear), Joann, Jose...and some others including every presenter I saw (yes this is a bit like an Oscar's acceptance speech but probably my only chance) - I took something away from every session and every conversation, as always it was ELI so pretty intensive (aka exhausting) but also very inspiring.

The not quite so highs - never quite enough time, too many parallels (although to be fair, for me, two parallel sessions is 1 too many) and, of course, being completely supplier free means not so many "fabulous" freebies.

The new kids on the block - everyone was talking about two dominant features of the conference - the apple-sponsored student content showcase (a really nice idea, spoiled ever so slightly for me by the skew towards things that involve apple technologies, I know that is how it has to be, but it was just a shame) and twitter (intelligirl described twitter as the grand-dame of the conference and I can't sum it up any better than that, it was like having access to a conference back channel and I definitely got more out of running parallel the real world conference and the virtual twittering than had it been the event alone)

A conference divided (?) - I felt that there were definitely two camps at the conference
- the "run as fast as we can towards web2.0" group extolling the virtues of SecondLife, WoW, croquet, twitter, mashed up maps n IM, gaming, Facebook etc etc (and of course that VLEs (esp Bb) are inherently evil) - all based on the premise that the kids are leaving us behind and we need to be where they are and know what they know to enable education to keep up with social uses of technology.
- the "digi-fear, the technology is OK but what about the people" group asking challenging questions about who the kids are and how confident are they really, how do staff become more digitally fluent to embrace these new technologies when CMS/VLEs still scare them and what are the true tower and cloud implications of the brave new world.

If You Build It, Will They Come? Reality-Based Emerging Services Planning for Millennials

oops sorry - one session outstanding from me from the ELI conference - sorry it is out of sequence, I got a bit paranoid about battery life.

So the session - named above - was from U of Guelph in Ontario. This was a library and IT group who were looking at whether they should deliver more of their student support services through new and emerging technologies or techniques, rather than learning and teaching. Not a big deal just thought it was useful to set the context (and explain the title). They had done some research into their own students use of technology and expectations, and many of their findings seemed to contradict the stuff in the literature (although it aligned with conventional wisdom and the general sense we get from SHU).

Their slides are pretty comprehensive and share quite a lot of their results - so I'll let you take a look for yourselves (and I encourage you to do so, some of the results are surprising, some are not at all surprising) http://www.educause.edu/upload/presentations/ELI081/SESS37/ELI%20Presentation.pdf Hard to know what to add from my notes, but if you have any questions/comments, please post, I will try to expand on it.

Most I think are similar (or pose similar discussion points) to the kind of feedback we get at SHU. The only result they discussed which looked a bit "odd" was the library resources one. Even though they had made some effort to minimise the bias that might be in the responses if the students knew the survey came from the library by sending it from the office of the CIO, bottom line - it is still a survey from the university and this was the one question where I felt there might be some skew towards the answer you are supposed to give.

Overall the feedback was that all to familiar "message for the ages" - spend less time developing new things and more time improving things that are already offered by making them easier to use and supporting users to use them more efficiently/effectively.

Kentucky Bed and Breakfast

Apologies for falling off the radar for a couple of days but we found ourselves in deepest darkest Kentucky. In fairness it was pretty well connected for wireless etc it is just that we had such a packed programme that we didn't have a minute to blog.

So anyway, I wasn't really sure what to expect from a B&B in rural Kentucky but it certainly wasn't this! There aren't really many good reasons to visit Somerset, Kentucky - (afterall it is at least 1 hour from anywhere, it has a population of about 11,000, is best known for building the finest houseboats in the world (not a big demand in Sheffield?), is, despite being in the home of bourbon whiskey, a dry county and is the very buckle of the bible belt (and believe me that phrase cannot be adequately explained in words, I thought I knew, but it needs to be seen (and heard) to be believed!!....but if you ever do have one this is the place to stay. Check out the website by clicking on the image left...and enjoy, y'all!

Kentucky fast food

Ok can't seem to get away from the food imagery. Here at Presidium and a few minutes to kill so catching up with my blog homework. Haven't got my notes so thought I'd pick up a few of the DF issues that have emerged from the sessions overall. Firstly that DF is being mentioned repeatedly and is definitely on the radar over here. Critical thinking is the area that most are focusing on - particularly around the net gen student.
There are also lots of examples of collaboration across the support services, recognising that the DF agenda has to be multi agency. Much mention of creating learning hubs type environments for academic/staff and support to come together - those I've seen are at the early stages, eg George Mason University Learning Hub (open 2 weeks) - and interestingly they wanted to call it the DF hub but no one connected with that term.
Possibly the most common dilemna under discussion is how to engage academics. Virginia State University have just done the ELI survey on use of technology with their academics and their students and shared some really scary results about how little their staff are using any technology both in their personal life or their academic and that was just the staff who felt it mattered enough to complete the survey (about 8% if I remember correctly) so the true picture may be considerably worse.
Indian University did a session on a new teaching cert for academics on Integrating Technology into the Curriculum, the bar seemed to be set fairly low - requiring one semester of teaching using the CMS and reflecting on it, observing and dicussing an experienced academic using technology effectively in a class and attending at least 6 LTA type seminars run by faculty or centrally. However, I went straight from that session to one of the student showcase things and there was a student from Indiana, showing a video about students experience of technology in the curriculum at Indiana and the only two things repeatedly mentioned were Powerpoint and very occassionally video. Needless to say the staff doing the presentation upstairs had not been aware of the student stuff going on downstairs initially.
Talking of student video the DF event planners may be pleased to hear that not only is Chuck D from University of Central Florida going to contribute to our YouTube but he has also promised to get his students to talk about their experience of DF too - if he delivers then he may well supplant GBA as my fave Deity.

keynote (next bit)

oh dear - he has just invited questions from the floor "what do you guys want to know?" - I think probably where do we keep the torches and pitchforks

Tom Reeves (Georgia) has just asked about role of editorial in lulu and opportunities for publication of holocaust denial materials - hmmm, he can't quite answer it - he must have really upset people if they are railing again the open access principles.

Gardner's student, Serena, has just challenged him about his view about how, as a "damn idiot student", she should do to work better?
on Twitter: "Serena rocks. But her direct query cannot penetrate his cloak of inane self-regard."

Education Publishing: Moving from the 18th to the 21st Century in One Step

keynote - Bob Young is CEO of Lulu (and previously from redhat) http://www.lulu.com/ - space for self publishing
OK, doesn't seem to be about anything at all quite yet - so I'm a bit distracted (or just flexing my CPA muscles)
- looks like the competitions have got too hard - I'm gonna try and swoop in a get/give some "power points"
- Quote from twitter: "is it back? is it reeeeeally back? I've missed my ELI twitterers metatwittercognitive thoughts!" - now there is a word and half (well actually 2 complete words)!!
- also looks like the twitterati don't like the keynote - he thinks he is a lot funnier than anybody else in the room seems to. Interesting twitter stuff, real time "critique" and everyone else in the room is watching him and it - you need thick, thick skin in life 2.0 - i.

eg twitter stream (read bottom up):
I'm glad this clown thinks we're smart. 1 minute ago from web
Conference speaker just joked about not getting paid enough to talk. That takes, um, something. 2 minutes ago from web
This guy is not working for me... Not sure why. 2 minutes ago from txt
I seem to have slipped into another space-time continuum. What is the topic? 2 minutes ago from web
Did I just hear the speaker complain about not getting paid enough? You're lucky to be here, pal. 3 minutes ago from web
-----------------------------------------------------
So far - there hasn't been anything on the screen other than the lulu homepage and he seems to be talking about not making enough money for something else that he has does in the past.
- you need thick, thick skin in life 2.0 - interesting to gather student feedback on satisfaction through this *gulp*, halo effects are so last century. OK the twitter is definitely of more interest, look at this (from bottom again):

I am not following this talk either. I agree that a little more structure & prep would have been appropriate. half a minute ago from web
I confess I haven't spent a long time on my Rolex connoisseurship. I feel alone. less than a minute ago from web

Let's go! less than 20 seconds ago from Snitter in reply
There's obviously something interesting about his experience, but he doesn't seem to have prepared to share it with us. less than 20 seconds ago from web
A long lulu promotion? half a minute ago from web
Please aim carefully. I'm up front and don't want to get hit. 1 minute ago from twitterrific in reply got a long tail for you right here pal. half a minute ago from web
Where are we going with this
---------------------------------------------------------------
"I was unaware that the closing keynote writers are on strike too." - classic!!

Getting ready for the last keynote

ooh ooh whilst the intro is being done a giant picture of Kay interviewing Bryan for our May event on the big screens - I hope I can find it afterwards - yay!!!

quote on twitter: " the student showcase presentations have rocked my paradigm"

ooh - there are Kay and Bryan again on the loop

Virtual Spaces as Web2.0 Learning Spaces

sarah robbins (aka intelligirl) - the session is recorded and will go on Educause connect soon, if you want to see it in full - the visuals are pretty good.

Quick classification of web2.0 - 4 elements: prosumer, remote applications, social, APIs

where do universities fit in?

who are our students?

where do they live (what space do they inhabit online)?

how do they learn outside the classroom?

Preparing new students:

Interesting concept of flexible identity across different spaces and environments

Facing a very different workplace

No Medial Hauntings - really interesting concept, new users don't have previous version hauntings they stand alone Ref: Sloane "Haunting history of J" Passions and Pedagogies in the 21st Century Hawisher and Selfe

New Learning Models - our games and our classrooms take approaches that are "learn by experiment"or "learn by social interaction" ie divided along gender lines, can new technologies enable both in the same place Sheri Graner Ray Gender Inclusive Game Design: Expanding the Market (2003)

Hypermediated (TV with multi-info)

Compare and contrast how things work (like information, chat etc) within a VLE and the social IM spaces, gaming environments that they inhabit socially. It is a very engaging premise, and the idea of how sophisticated the students (pre-14) use of technology and gaming is. But again a bit of VLE knocking - not sensing much empathy with the fear 2.0 concept. One example was Bb chat v Radius IM which mashes IM with google maps - and as a response on twitter windygap96 posts "radius vs. Bb chat...how many times have faculty told me they cannot manage the Bb chat imagine trying to get them to use radius? how do I?"

So my questions are (as always) - is this how it really is? are they in these spaces in the UK? "all their social interactions are IM, social networks, twitter" hmmm - how does this resonate with the research we have been doing recently? If this is the case in the US (if?) are we going to get this soon or is it never really going to have the reach within a UK cultural context. IMing hasn't replaced texting in the UK as predicted a couple of years ago.

On the other hand - Some great stuff about identity, rhetorical construct, feeling "different", community engagement online, encouraging specific behaviours, translating ideas, changing roles in dramatic ways

Students projects:

- exploring how the growth in open source software will reduce the cost of higher education.

- visitors blindfolded in the space to translate idea of cultural literacy

[aside from twitter George Mason have renamed their Digital Fluency Center as a Collaborative Learning Centre, gardnercampbell twitters: "Collaborative Learning Center" an easier sell to provost than "Digital Fluency Center." Interesting. Also, importance of a dedicated space."]

oops, too much twitter:

Questions about Croquet (http://www.opencroquet.org/index.php/Main_Page) her response was yes, its OK, (harder to use?) future is probably in multiverse - is that the right name?

Doing my homework- Starting with the God

Sorry folks for not getting into this earlier - combination of time, Texas trots (don't ask) 2 hours sleep a night and not bringing my own laptop with me (never again).
Anyway will try to give you a quick overview of what I've been to so far - and what an inspiring event it really is.
Start with the best and on Monday I worshiped at the feet of the God that is Bryan Alexander (GBA). Despite the aforementioned afflictions GBA tried valiantly to engage me in Web 2.0 Storytelling and soon I was under the spell. So, if you're sitting comfortably, I will begin.
We did a rapid trot through the history of storytelling from the oral to web 1 (culturally normative) to web 2.0 (culturally reflective). GBA reviewed the many platforms being used for digital stories , blogs, wikis, social slides, serial photo stories, podcasting etc and the trend for stories to start in one platform but be continued across others depending on the needs and preferences of the contributor.
Some DF issues touched on in the discussion - the need to help students develop more sophisticated visual literacies/the idea of the conflict between authority and community and wether in order to encourage participation we need to give up (initially at least) the notion of excellence.
GBA then covered the principles of Digital story telling - drawing on the Digital Storytelling Cookbook (someone else pinching our recipe idea) - but then I lost the plot completely when he started talking about the need to 'Fab your Lexia Chunks' - I didn't even know I had any lexia chunks let alone that I could 'fab' them - but then sheltered upbringing and all that.
The abiding message based on the enthusiasm and level of engagement in the activities in the session was that DS if fun, playful and a powerful learning agent - not unlike GBA.

Alamo-oohh

Last night after a tour of a shop ironically entitled "San Antonio Style" I sat and watched the sunset over the Alamo - cool, uh!

The 2008 Horizon Report

...pity the poor presenters who were scheduled parallel with the Horizon Report launch!

Click on the image (below) to go to the Horizon Report wiki space (the report is also available for download from there)

For those of you who can't wait - the six featured themes are here:
(*spoiler warning - highlight to reveal)
Grassroots Video
Collaboration Webs
Mobile Broadband
Data Mashups
Collective Intelligence
Social Operating Systems


The launch itself started off like last years with Bryan doing the whole Elwood thing, but then the case was empty, Larry Johnson hammed it up from the podium and then on screen (and in SL) Alan Levine sacked Elwood and launched the report by walking through it in SL!

I don't scare easily....

so I went to the session with the best title in the entire programme - Who's afraid of blogs, wikis, podcasts, and the big, bad CMS? A Digi-Drama about Fear 2.0

This session was absolutely fabulous - it started with a montage of 3 videos, they are intentionally provocative and challenging, and I encourage everyone to take the time to watch them. They are all great but the Teacher Fear/Fear 2.0 is my favourite - when I see stuff like this I always find it so humbling, now this is what I call a learning object. These guys are clearly playing at a different level.- Let me know what you think to them

Fear 2.0: Are We Stagnating? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfv7smXyccs&feature=related

Fear 2.0: Institutional Fear http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HdWMmx_7YE&feature=related

Teacher Fear/Fear 2.0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QdH70_nuVQ&feature=related

Each video got a round of applause in the session, so then we are back to the discussion part of the session.

a couple of asides:
the 5 presenters were from 4 different institutions who knew and had been working together for 3 years, but they had all met online originally, following blogs, commenting and sharing on wikis and later keeping in touch through skype and twitter. 2 of the 5 met face to face for the first time at this ELI
the session was packed and attracted the big names, so the discussion/debate was advanced - but great! one of the presenters (who was fantastic) had been to our session and was very complimentary.
I got the feeling there wasn't anything I could think of that those presenters hadn't done, they were inspiring, but they were also balanced - they presented in the videos the polar opposites of web 2.0 and a CMS (VLE) but did acknowledge that the answer for everyone was realistically somewhere between the two.
A bit of controversy when they declared that faculty and students should decide what technologies to use, not IT experts... the room was clearly split

We did a piece of groupwork about fears on campus and overcoming fear. It was a great discussion and as I fed back to the room about our group discussion Bryan twittered: "My small group's rep is brilliantly summarizing our notes. Uh-oh, we look revolutionary." - that's me he's talking about, you know!!

The whole group discussion was also fab: here are some notes/prompts/questions - let me know if anything needs explaining more:
This cross-institutional group mentor faculty members at each other institutions
Student comment - "tell the professor to ask us less questions he already knows the answer to, just tell us"....or let us explore new questions together
Questions (no prizes for guessing who asked these):
What do we do about the media panics, how do we counter this scaremongering that has little or no evidence base but seems to quickly influence the law?
How do we deal with all the weirdness around teens and sex, students are not "kids", why do we insist on pushing them into the dark corners?
The responses to the questions were the "model answers" - expose the students to the full richness of the environments and then when blogspam, flaming or "odd" questions are asked, embrace them, discuss them and allow students to learn from them - and I am certain that this is exactly what these presenters do, but can we really expect every academic to feel comfortable doing this?

Collaborative Design and Support for Effective Online Learning Environments

This session was (yes that's right, a retrospective, and therefore succinct, blogpost) about the involvement of a subject librarian along with an instructional designer in the development and delivery of a fully online distance learning course. At first I thought that this would be one of those "nothing new" sessions - of course the presenters were interesting and engaging and were clearly passionate but not the premise of involving a subject librarian to support students throughout an online course is a no brainer to me.

But there were a few interesting take-aways:
They talked about their perception of the traditional model for course development (ie what they thought was broken) - body of content transmitted from faculty to student, and during the development and introduction, the faculty member works with a subject librarian to develop resources for the course and also works (quite seperately) with an instructional designer (that's us in US terms) to develop the curriculum design, and the students get a standard 45 minutes information resources induction. The librarian and instructional designer did not work together with the academic and in many cases never even met - seeing their two areas as unrelated and leaving the faculty member to make the connections (or not) for themselves.....sound familiar? I think we have the opportunity to provide a much more joined up development process, if we wanted to.

The two presenters had taken a different approach and worked together on the design and development and also encouraged involvement with the students by the librarian throughout the course - so were addressing what they thought was broken - however it was clear that they did it because they were both interested in each others work and had built up a personal relationship - nothing was expected or embedded, nor was the approach (even with their demostrable successes) being adopted by other colleagues at the institution. Again, similar to our experiences, and how some good practice happens, but I think to do this effectively it needs to bought into and applied systematically.

They talked a bit about the Garrison, Anderson and Archer (2000) Community of inquiry model - worth checking out from an e-supported distance learning perspective as is the Xu and Morris (2007) article on Collaborative Course Development for Online Courses. (I have the references on a handout, but if you can't wait for me to get back, check out the handout at http://www.educause.edu/ELI081/Program/13300?PRODUCT_CODE=ELI081/SESS18#available_resources

They also had an "instructional support" checklist - a bit like an information resources version of the module planning doc that Brian and Juliun have been working on - take a look: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/instruction/checklist.html

No prizes for guessing the dominant technology at ELI this year..

SHU's Second Life

(the other SHU that is ...Seton Hall University)

06 - pilot industrial and organisation psychology - way of engaging students who are struggling to identify with subject in traditional context.
06 - science facluty biosphere environment
07 - development grants and lease of a full island
The lease of the space is through membership of New Media Consortia (so you can get some assurance about who your neighbours are)....which reminds me, Andrew, any progress on the application???

Project name - House of 7 - analysis of the book House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Staff member was already using LMS - and had been for many years, students were using multimedia in presentations, students had developed websites/wiki etc
Reference Building Effective Course Sites (Michael O'Malley) - http://chnm.gmu.edu/resources/essays/building.php

reason for selecting second life - students creating mental models and make interpretative choices (like reader response theory in literary criticism)
motivation for student body very disciplinary (prospective teachers)
tutor built the shell of the house, everything else produced by the students (didn't want to go for traditional "all built by the instructor" - patronising). Students submitted draft proposals, gave feedback and revised the plan. Then space divided up and things are developed - it puts me in mind of an exhibition gallery - images of period, writings about aspects of the book, quizzes.

Questions - would it lend itself to SL if the book wasn't based on a physical space.
Nice way for students to collect resources/learning and share them with other students and very very well executed by the tutor - but it does feel a bit like a novelty exercise, not sure you'd want to do this all the time - does the effort of learning how to build the stuff in SL get in the way of learning about the subject matter.

This novel wasn't the topic of the final paper - cos students got "tired" of the book after all the work in SL, size of final assessment reduced to reflect the (very heavy) student time investment in the SL project.

Evaluation - likert and open ended survey Qus - topics accessibility, learning effectiveness and student satisfaction:
technology challenges - they didn't anticipate just how long it was going to take to do the assignment and work with the afforances of the technology. Also a perception that the activities value was diminished because of the SL use. Those happy with SL and its affordances were happy with the activity. All of the students read the full novel (which they didn't do with other novels on the course). Students enjoyed the web quests and online scavenger hunts that you don't see traditionally in a graduate literature course. Many of the students in the class were frustrated and anxiety was increased because of their perceived inability to use the environment and build/locate the exact objects they wanted in there (because they felt very invested in the space and getting it right) - although they rated their comfort with new technologies as very high. Their engagement with text in SL was heightened over the traditional student experience.

Cost to build the house ($1200) - debate about how much like the house in the novel should we make it, cos it is very run down in the book and might upset the neighbours of the island! Ended up with a house without walls (cost $500)

Interesting application of SL - driven by an early adopter/enthusiast

NB - I have on my machine the code for a RegAPI developed by Philip Long at MIT that allows you to authenticate through your campus single sign on system, register an avatar for the student and place the avatar where you (as the instructor) need it to be in SL, and keep the user data locally without the user having to go to Linden Labs (I think that's what I've got anyway). Not sure if it is any use to us, but when MIT experts are giving away free code I'm not gonna say no :-)

Accountability in HE

keynote by Belle Wheelan - President of the Commission on Colleges (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools) - bio online http://www.sacscoc.org/docs/Belle%20Wheelan's%20Bio.doc
but the bit I like best (obviously) one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Washington DC (2001)
based on the continued dialogue around Spelling and based (initially) on high school and colleges

by 2010 we need 2 million more scientists and engineers and 2.4million in key manufacturing/production and there are skills shortages in health and service industries (plumbing, electrics etc)
"students are coming out with basic skills but they don't know how to use them"

Really, really interesting talk and loads of great opinions and anecdotes, but really too US-centric (and US policy-centric) for me to bring anything much to the blog. It will be on video on Educause connect at some point if you want to check it out for yourself - I'll add the link when I can find it.

Information Fluency as Curricular Innovation: New Media Studies in General Education

This session was absolutely excellent!! (and very humbling) Gardner Campbell and a couple of undergrads who have taken his New Media Studies course. Gardner kicks off by saying this is a curricular innovation planned not realised, although it has run at least once on his own programme, I think the "not realised" bit is about getting it across all UG curriculum. He talked about why traditional “info fluency” won’t bridge the gap:
Bolted on, not baked-in (-> oooh look a DF baking analogy has leaked out of our session and trickled into the next session)
Academic skill (serving studies) not academic inquiry (an object of study)
Tend to bypass core academic commitment: curriculum

Talking about first year writing course – and the aim to move from a service course (skills and proficiencies) to habits of mind.

Recommended text (and endorsed by the audience) The New Media Reader (Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Nick Montfort) - anyone read it? Sounds pretty good.

He also talked about the importance of information fluency, that it isn't (can't be) bolt on - it is about supporting “the fish that doesn’t know it is wet”. He is proposing to introduce a new media studies class positioned instead of the slightly stale general education class. Information fluency is currently interpreted by many students as finding out “learn how not to cheat on the net”. Then he emphasised the importance of “the presence of digital fluency within the curriculum” [Oh yes, there it is!! An expert has just used our term!!]

Student projects were to "make something that demonstrates what you have learned in the course and shows you have understood, using any media/web2.0 tools that are appropriate". Final project presentation night on youstream.tv as they made their presentations, and got comments across a global new media community. Yes, scary, a multi - media assessment task.

First student, David Moore, talked about "in.genio.us – a framework for intelligent online discussion boards". If an online discussion board is unregulated and open to the general public it will result in idiocy, so his project was to develop the idea of a online forum space for intelligent conversation (effective and self-regulating, identity, constraints, reciprocity) and in particular looked at how the quality of the postings was influenced by the use of reputation/contribution ratings. A bit like Vineacity - a measure of earned reputation in the Newsvine environment
http://berry.newsvine.com/_wine/vineacity

Yes, another manteau - horray!!

Second student, Serena, not going to say too much about her input but will try to track down a link to the video she showed which probably speaks for itself.

Showstoppers? Dealbreakers?
- who will teach these courses?
- what do we hope students to come away with? - can write learning outcomes, but constraining as part of the exercise (and the digital age reality) is to see what such a course or experience could possibly offer? not knowing where it is going is part of the experience - emergence
- what learning environments are most conducive to these courses? mobile/wireless
- how can we ever sell this to the faculty?

Reference: "Fate and the Possible" in On Knowing: essays for the Left Hand (Jerome Bruner, 1979)

Some thought provoking comments:
"The opportunity (and curse, sort of) is that New Media is not yet owned (and therefore stifled) by a particular discipline domain."

"The broad topic for the first year experience will be New Media, now go and make this work in your own disciplinary."

"Could use current cohort students as mentors teaching staff for next cohort for academic credit."

The syllabus of the course is available at http://www.gardnercampbell.net/syllabi/index.php?title=Introduction_to_New_Media_Studies_Spring_2008

Definitely, definitely check out the student blog from the Spring 08 cohort on the Intro to New Media Studies course. http://intronewmediastudies08.umwblogs.org/
Associated del.icio.us tags: unw_nms_s08

Digitally fluent university - crazy idea!!

OK, so we've done our session (sorry, I was unable to live blog it, busy with other things).
The session was very well attended (40-50 people) and no one complained (at least outloud) about the funny accents.

We were a bit worried that we didn't have enough fully packaged answers, but what we said seemed to be well received. We tried to acknowledge the complexity and emphasise the lack of a quick fix. Lots of discussion, lots of nodding, some compliments and even a few laughs - so not all bad.

I still think that some of the attendees wanted us to deliver answers, but it seems to me that it is only the same as the staff back at the ranch who want the "out of the box" diagnostic. This stuff isn't that easy, you have to get your arms around the problem and see the big picture, not just keep try the quick fixes.

....and boy oh boy did we work that baking metaphor until it begged for mercy...

Anyway, will post up the slides to the ELI site and add the link when I get chance, if you have any questions please ask.

what wikipedia can teach us about new media literacies

First keynote - apparently we are currently waiting for some guy called "Mike Check" ;-)
Diana and Julie are running the ELI/Educause adverts ahead of the feature presentation, most people are killing time twittering - the latest and greatest CPA online space.

Extra bits for this year - Student Showcase (apple sponsored), the ELI twitter-camp, and also during the conference the roving citizen journalists called twitterati will be around to capture the out of session stuff. I love this conference - it is always so positive, and prepared to be fun!! - they have a short poll online that they would "enjoy" us filling out!

OK - keynote kicks off:
New Media Literacies project at MIT
Ref the History Dept at Middlebury College stuff from 06. It isn't as simple as wikipedia bad, books good, which is how it was reported in the media. Inaccuracies kept occuring on a particular paper where the primary source was wikipedia, nothing new really, can still have inaccuracies too. What they actually said is endorsed by Jimmy Wales (co-founder Wikipedia) - ie an encyclopedia (any encyclopedia) is not a primary research source. However we should be talking to students about Wikipedia and helping them understand its purpose and its relationship to higher education learning.

Check out the McArthur series - a range of resources by the McArthur Foundation "that explore core issues facing young people in the digital world" (eg civic engagement, credibility, identity, race & ethnicity etc) - http://digitallearning.macfound.org/site/c.enJLKQNlFiG/b.2029271/

what do we mean by New Media Literacies:
Participatory culture -> low barriers to artisitc expression and civic engagement, strong support for creating and sharing what you create with others, some kind of informal mentoring, members feel their contribution matters, some degree of social connection between members.

NMLs are social skills and cultural competencies not individual skills, are skills for participation, emerge from taking seriously children/young own cultural lives, not products of media technologies, are unevenly distributed, shaped through interactions across generations, shift from focus on media effects to media ethics, offline as well as online, build on existing framework of literacy and research skills, , importance of integrating across curriculum, need to be fostered in and out of formal learning spaces.

Three core challenges:
The Participation Gap - unequal access to opportunities, experiences, skills and knowledge that will prepare them for full participation in the world of tomorrow.
The Transparency Problem - young people swim in technology but aren't aware of the ways media shapes the way we see the world
The Ethics Challenge - breakdown of traditional forms of professional training and socialisation.

reference: the "Protecting Children in the 21st Century" Act - be afraid, be very afraid

Wikipedia isn't something we use, it is something we participate in. Perspective that Wikipedia isn't a collection of articles but a collection of people.

Check out Henry's ecclectic blog www.henryjenkins.org, particularly of interest is his entry: "reconsidering digital immigrants" (scarily a bit like the stuff I wrote for the Uni Exec workshop)
http://henryjenkins.org/2007/12/reconsidering_digital_immigran.html

Manteau alert ** Wikiality **

"Like journalism, wikipedia offers a first draft of history, but unlike journalisms draft, that history is subject to continuous revision"
Roy Rosenzweig "Can History be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past"
http://chnm.gmu.edu/resources/essays/d/42

ggrrrr, i hate it when this happens - just found full transcript of this keynote on Henry's blog from an earlier conference - I could have sat back and listened and save my battery:
http://www.henryjenkins.org/2007/06/what_wikipedia_can_teach_us_ab.html

btw - he's just given an example of using wikipedia in schools which seems to be based on the 7 degrees of seperation on wikipedia game we almost played at Educause, but I found too hard to manage so went for the click sequence mystery tour version instead - "5 clicks or less from William Shakespeare to the Apollo Space Program" - if you want to answer.... it is on Henry's blog above.

Writing as collaboration rather than as personal expression
What knowledge counts? - word count does not measure importance in wikipedia as it might in a traditional encyclopedia - not a finite resource.

"Report from Wikimania" documentary - anyone know the source?

Qus
What knowledge matters to whom and in what context?
What is missing from Wikipedia? (who has access, choses to participate, maximum diversity of input)

Collective intelligence, judgement, networking, negotiation

six questions to ask about any media message - consider these in a Wikipedia context:
Who made it
Who is the target audience
What are the different techniques used to inform, persuade etc
What messages are communicated
How current, accurate and credible is the information
What is left out

pre-conference session - Open Learning & ASSISTment

Open Learning Initiative - Carnegie Mellon
Different from Open Content Warehouses (eg MIT etc) which tend to be content that is packaged to be used by other instructors in face to face or blended opportunities. OLI more about individual learners getting support and feedback at an introductory level without tutor support, however there is an increased use by tutors www.cmu.edu/oli

Develop exemplars of scientifically based online courses and course materials that enact instruction and support students. - not about replacing staff, this is about different opportunities
Quote - "Any staff member that can be replaced by a fully automated online process, should be!" Theory-based and driven by design and evaluation throughout - designer mantra "the user is not like me" - recognising the difference between expert users and students

"transforming rather than transposing instruction"

What is a cognitive tutor? - type of software that "acts like a tutor", in order to develop fluency on a procedural skill ie practice - supported practice, immediate feedback, targetted and directed support. mini tests, offfer of help with steps or not depending on student progress.

Most of OLI seems to be about using formative assessment activities with built in, optional step by step help. Nothing that new as a concept but the dialogue about their response to the "expert blindspot" is interesting. Transcriptions of experts solving statistics problems were coded, then the same problems were give to undergraduate, transcribed and coded, then the problems are developed based upon the gaps between how the experts solve a problem and how a student does. The idea is to support students in solving the problem the way an expert/professional statistician would ie "becoming authentic in the discourse of the domain" [My guess, this won't be the last time over the next couple of days I hear the "A" word]

Before I lose the thread, I like the evidence-informed approach to designing the problems rather than perpetuating the "expert blindspot" ie staff guessing what students find different. Lots of emphasis on students learning about the big picture the conceptual framework of the topic they are learning.

Embedded assessment and feedback - student learning data is gathered and this is used in a range of domains - monitoring and improving student performance but also loops to inform course design, faculty support and development, and develop our understanding of science of learning.

Premise of the programme is to bring the opportunities of the classroom to learners that can't get to the classroom, but it is being increasingly used by tutors to support their learning (both fully integrated in courses and offered for students requiring additional support in science/stats based courses - anyone else thinking killer modules, maths for engineers and stats for nurses???)

Growth of use by tutors due to challenges such as increased class times, variability in student background knowledge, aptitude and future goals, greater demands on instructor time. Inevitable questions about why attend face to face if you are learning all the materials online, of course, this is as expected if nothing face to face has changed. Need to change that impact from a threat to a window of opportunity for staff to re-examine how they use their face to face, tensions at Carnegie-Mellon with traditional faculty development unit who weren't on board with this initially, so it was hard to retro-fit. Would have been better to have them in from the start.

Tests:
Does taking the OLI course result in at least equivalent attainment as those taking the traditional learning course? The data showed they did as well as those doing the traditional course (as expected - nsd). But provost response was - if, as you say, the underpinning philosophy of OLI is really better (ie structured, tailored support adding value), shouldn't that programme show better performance (question what do you mean by better performance - higher scores? or faster?) - they chose faster and ran the OLI Accelerated Learning course in which students took course in 8 weeks rather than 15 weeks and performed as well or better in the end of course testing than those students taking the traditional course.

There is a published paper on these tests - found a link to it on the OU site - definitely worth a look especially if assessment, online assessment or blended learning is your thing: http://kn.open.ac.uk/public/getfile.cfm?documentfileid=12186

"converting teaching and online course design from a solo sport to a community based research activity" (Herbert Simon)

ASSISTment (http://www.assistment.org/) - "blending instructional assistance with assessment" [they are still everywhere, you know, these manteaus!]

This is based largely on maths diagnostics and formative assessments for school age students (if they get the MCQ wrong, they get hints getting progressively easier until they get to the fifth hint which is at the hint level of "the answer is 5"). I was hoping to get some insights into structured diagnostics and support that might work pre-enrolment, but not seen anything too new yet.

OK, time for mid-morning break, so gonna publish this before getting refreshments, after the break hands on activities around undergrad molecular biology, masters level statistics or 8th grade algebra - guess which one I'm gonna pick :-)

Competition 2!!

OK, so I thought we would run a couple of mini-comps parallel to get you guys started whilst we see what happens at the conference. This one is to celebrate my favourite new blogger page element.

On the right are two slideshow page elements - these are elements where you can add a search term or a user name and then google creates a slide show from picasa, flickr or photobucket. I think this is absolutely fab! much fun to be had! For info I'm using flickr.

The top one is self-explanatory (I think) but does anyone want to take a guess at the search term or user name that generated the second slideshow (there is a sort of clue in the title). Correct guesses will result in points for the guesser (of course) and me changing the slideshow for another round. The search terms/user names will always be topical ie LTA terms, EDUCAUSE or Texas/Kentucky related.

Competition time!!

As a starting point, I thought I would resurrect the game we played the last time we were in Texas - the google race!

A quick reminder of the rules
How to play:
The race organisers provide a question and the particants try to find the answer using google (or similar) and post the answer together with the search terms used to get there and a new question (on a topic of their choice) as a blog comment. The question deviser or at least 2 other participants can confirm the correct answer on the blog. The participants then chase the new question of the person who was first to provide the correct answer and so the race continues like a relay, with question devisers taking on confirmation role as appropriate (the race organisers can also be participants in subsequent rounds). And so on until it runs out of steam...each correct answer provided entitles the winner to be entered into the draw for a special (lone)star prize...First question (to get things started):

Of the 189 heroes who died defending the Alamo, how many are known to be from the home nations (England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales)?

on your marks.....get set.....GO!

Remember the Alamo?

Well, I don't really need to, cos I can see it from my hotel room window! I like Texans, they put tip top Educause accommodation sooo close to the landmarks. So, here on the right is the shot from my hotel room window -->

Can't see the Alamo??? well it is that stone building in the middle just beyond the "slightly greener than the rest" grass and behind that great big tree in the middle. Just tilt your head slightly, close one eye and squint around that tree, and you too could be seeing this - honest!!

Of course we went to check it out, to make sure it really was behind the tree. Not the most exciting historical building, but y'know, it is the alamo and no one should forget that.

(btw - no plaque to commemorate the historic visit by Ozzy Osbourne to the Alamo, but undoubtedly, San Antonio is the tat capital of Texas, for every cliche a product and for every product a super-sized Texas version!!! Watch out for the competitions, people, the phrase "excellent prizes" has never meant soooooo much!!!)

You know there are always two intro posts....

2. The Skymall extravaganza
An internal US flight isn't really the "full experience" without the customary browse through the Skymall mag. Whilst it is obviously getting harder to identify new truly surreal purchases, I thought I'd start with a couple that prove that there is no end to the ways you can re-work a "good" idea:

Hot on the heels of the "the worlds' first and only 100% dishwasher-safe, time-telling drinkware." (NB - the incorrect apostrophe placement isn't mine, it is theirs and it is "what makes it art") comes the Electronic USB Travel mug -"Keep coffee or tea deliciously hot with this tech-savvy travel mug. In the car it plugs into a power port with the included 12 -volt adapter; at a computer it plugs into the USB port." I can see the student feedback now, "I don't need to be digitally fluent, I have a tech-savvy mug."
http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=102530884&c=

Similarly, you've seen doggy stairs, doggy ramp, doggy stairs/ramp combo, now comes PupSTEP Plus (the plus bit means that the steps can be handily folded up and stored under the bed when not needed)
http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=102579663&c=10710

And for those of you who constantly crave something new (you know who you are!!) please enjoy the "T-Rex Dinosaur Trophy" Wall Sculpture and "Establish yourself as a REALLY Big Game Hunter" Enjoy!!
http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=102593648&c=

You know there are always two intro posts....

1. LTI travel curse:
Picture the scene....I get up really early, get to station really early, only to be told that airport train running late, go get the (v slow) Manchester train and connect. OK, that shouldn't be too bad. Ring Kay (who is catching train at Dore) "get on the next train the one for picadilly". Kay does....I'm sat on Manchester train just outside Sheffield when Kay rings me from airport train - speeding across the pennines. Then ticket guy says "this train is going to be late getting to Manchester cos we stopped outside Sheffield to let the airport train past" grrrrrrrrr

So I get to airport 40 minutes after Kay to find that the baggage carousels are broken and checkin is several miles long grrrrrrrrrrr

Everything after that goes fine - and even though we checked in 45 mins apart spookily our luggage found each other and came out side by side (and hand in hand) in Chicago ahhhhhhhhh

Snowy Chicago, we acted out several scenes from Tom Hanks' Terminal then we try to get out of Chicago but United Airlines staff had other plans. Can't do automated checkin (no record of our reservation), go to manual checkin, where all staff have their special award for indifferent customer service, Kay's luggage label breaks the printer, I'm called Mrs Lousy and we have to wait whilst the 4 techies reboot the label printer. So 25 mins checkin (an all time record). We get sent to the front of the security queue cos our boarding passes are marked "SSSS". We thought this meant we'd been "Specially Selected for Superior Service" but actually it turned out we'd been "Specially Selected for Strip Search" This took even longer because they feared either my sunglasses or my hairbrush were deadly weapons....

Flight to San Antonio was fine, although plane was very very small and at times thought it was a rollercoaster, and once again I got the extra leg room that I so desperately needed, unlike the 6' Texan folded into the seat in front.

Finally arrived in San Antonio about lunchtime (a balmy 66 deg)

Customary starting point

Hi everyone - well we are trying to capture everything we learn whilst at ELI & Presidium- hope you find it interesting. Thought I'd start with a bit of a running order so you can get yourselves synchronised.
Sat - Sun: travelling to San Antonio (+20degC) via Chicago (-20degC) - hmmm
Mon am: preconference workshops - Kay is going to Bryan's web2.0 storytelling one, I'm going to one on the Open Learning Initiative and ASSISTments
Mon pm - Wed early pm: main conference (including our session on Mon afternoon 3pm - keep your fingers crossed ) Time difference -6hrs

One of the great things about this conference are the different format sessions - as well as workshops, presentations and posters - there are also experience it! sessions, student content showcase, innovation demos and learning circles. The downside of this conference is that I always want to go to everything and that would require special powers!

Wed pm: travel from San Antonio to Kentucky via Cincinnati (back down to freezing :-( )
Thurs - Fri am: DF for students support development and forward at Presidium
Fri pm: travel back to UK
Sat - Sun: v.v.v.v.v. tired.....