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
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
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
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....
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....
Monday, February 4, 2008
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
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!
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!
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