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Conversation with Jeff Lebow from World Bridges on EdTechTalk this Sunday |
| Friday, July 13, 2007 |
Ok, a late announcement...
EdTechTalk Session Sunday July 15th!!!
On Sunday night at 8 pm EST (New York/Indiana time) I will be a guest on an online talk show. I will be talking about emerging technologies, my WE-ALL-LEARN book project (currently writing-—the learning world is flat book), my Empowering Online Learner book (in press with Jossey Bass), and my fall 2007 Web 2.0 syllabus and other various other topics at the Worldbridges program called EdTechTalk (though it we will start chatting at 7:45 and a program is on before me from 7-7:45) (New York/Indiana time). Links are below. (This is what I get for asking Jeff Lebow from Worldbridges questions for my book-—instead of answers on email, he invites me to his online talk show for a conversation.)
Per Jeff Lebow at Worldbridges (http://worldbridges.net/): "Go to http://edtechtalk.com/ since that is where all the action will be taking place live and where all of the media will be posted afterward. The audio stream should be on as long as the conversation is still happening. There are links at the top of the right column menu, but just in case there's any confusion, you can direct people to the text chat at http://edtechtalk.com/chat and the listen page in at http://edtechtalk.com/listen."
Jeff also said that "Along the way, we hope to be joined by students from Steve Kossakowski's 'Emergent Technologies' course at UNH who have been assigned to stop by our webcast and get a feel for our emergingness. Steve is using 'The World is Flat' as a starting point for much of what they're doing. His 'students' are primarily school principals and district administrators working on advanced degrees. Steve ( http://www.k12opensource.org/spdc/ ) is an an Assistant Superintendent in Exeter, NH and will probably join in at some point in the discussion. If all goes well, it will just evolve into an interesting discussion and lines between interviewer and interviewee will fade away."
Many of my former students and colleagues will be joining in from around the planet. This will be fun! I am still not really sure what will transpire. But checking out EdTechTalk and Worldbridges, if you have yet to do so, is worth it.
More on Worldbridges:
Worldbridges is an online community or network for individuals and organizations the employs webcasting and other media delivery formats to connect people in learning forums, including Webheads for those interested in English as a second language (ESL) learning. Worldbridges is filled with podcasts about a range of issues. Worldbridges also sponsors the popular EdTechTalk show and educational programming related to Korea (i.e., Koreabridge) and Tibet (i.e., Worldbridges Tibet).
The goals of Worldbridges are relatively simple and straightforward, as follows, “Our primary goal is to foster understanding and cooperation amongst the citizens of the world. We value civility and respect, open source collaboration, fair distribution of income, and a sense of world identity.” As part of these efforts, Worldbridges seeks to foster positive systemic changes in areas such as education, the environment, and politics. It also supports reliable and fair commerce. And it promotes a “people’s forum” for more civilized discussion of problems, issues, and conflicts that pose significant challenges in united the people of this planet. Values supported by the Worldbridges organization include respect and civility, fair distribution of income, world identity, and open source collaboration.
Jeff Lebow began experimenting with Worldbridges ideas (initially called “World Explorer”) when starting his master’s program in Training and Learning Technologies at the University of New Mexico in 1993 after a year of teaching English in Thailand (Worldbridges, 2007). At that time, Lebow became excited at the possibilities of the convergence of intercultural interaction and collaborative and interactive online technologies. After completing his masters, he returned to Asia—this time Pusan, Korea—where he taught English as a university and began to experiment with online audio and video, which included covering the Nagano Olympics in 1998. After burning out on all his activities and attempting to envision and build a webcasting network his life took a turn, or as he puts it, “I decided to quit my job, shave my head, and go to India for a while to contemplate the next chapter, for me personally and for Worldbridges. After some quality offline time, I decided to give Worldbridges a shot.” In Lebow’s vision for Worldbridges, he sought for it to become a means for using Internet technology for a global webcasting network of people. And it has!
So, perhaps now you are intrigued enough to join us at the session on Sunday. Feel free to listen in and text in a question. Or listen in later. Or ignore.
Feel free to forward to others. Enjoy your weekends. Also note that there is now a link you can click on to subscribe to my "TravelinEdMan" blog (look to the right).
References and Resources:
EdTechTalk: http://edtechtalk.com/
Text chat at http://edtechtalk.com/chat
Listen page in at http://edtechtalk.com/listen
Worldbridges: http://worldbridges.net/
Worldbridges (2007). History of Worldbridges. Retrieved July 10, 2007, from http://worldbridges.net/node/76 |
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More and More Web 2.0 Opportunities, Announcements, and Articles: Less is NOT More... |
| Wednesday, July 11, 2007 |
You know for more than a decade, I have been telling my students and colleagues that "more is more." My ultra liberal education colleagues keep feeding students the crap that "less is more." And this rumor of less is more has spread beyond psychology and education departments to other disciplines and down to K-12 education and up to corporate and military training. Sure, they can cite cognitive psychology studies on cognitive load theory, working memory, long-term memory deficits, and so on to get people to actually believe that less is more. I read many of those reports when studying educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin. Good work but to be sure, but people have extended it much too far. It becomes a copout or an excuse (much like the phrase "I am too busy" but that is another blog post for later). No wonder we have an academic crisis on our hands (and in our brains)! Using this "less is more" mantra, we lower standards and expect less from students and ourselves. And if students lack time, why then, just offer less. Less and less and less.
Did anyone ever think that those who want us to believe that less is more perhaps have tinier brains? Has anyone done a study of this before simply believing it? Hey, before you trash my ideas and call me a hoser, let me have some semi-tongue in cheek fun here. The educational world of opportunities is exploding in front of our eyes and yet many cling to a less is more philosophy. With Web 2.0, and the Web of Learning in general, a grand awakening is beginning.
Ok, I got news for you. Less is never more! I am a former CPA and corporate controller, I can count; i.e., unlike some of my liberal educational colleagues (just for the record, I am fairly socially liberal too, and economically conservative just like Clinton and Gore--you know, the one's who balanced the budget while increasing spending on technology as well as education and creating millions of new jobs in the process--but that is another story). More is more. Always was and always will be.
Why do we allow ourselves to be fooled? Now I am not just talking more facts and information. I think students (and all of us as well) need more critical thinking skills, creativity, evaluation, problem finding opportunities, analysis and synthesis to survive in the 21st century. Hence, my instructional design model starts with that (i.e., the accumulation of facts, concepts, and ideas) and moves to product-, project-, process- and problem-based learning. The more portable "P's" of learning. Yes, to do something like a Wikibook, or a podcast or a blog post for a real audience, not just another silly teacher- or curriculum-centered assignment. I believe in both--knowledge and hands-on, authentic learning. Hec, the faster students learn the facts, the more knowledge building, constructivistic, problem-based activities that can happen. Hence, why some are posting podcasts or Webcasts of lectures so that students can learn those and then come to class for more interactive mentoring experiences. You see, the Web of Learning enables that--learn the facts around the edges of "the course" so that face-to-face time can be more intensely interactive, engaging, reflective, collaborative, and process-based. See my R2D2 model--Read, Reflect, Display, and Do which is 2 posts below. The book will be out in 5-6 months--it addresses diverse learners by providing 100+ activities to engage them. Not 1, not 10, not 20, but 100+ (actually over 200), since more is more.
We need more of everything. We need to push learners until at least one of them has a wet eye and then pull back a bit. My colleague and I used to do this in our teacher professional development project for technology integration. Once we found someone crying because he or she did not think he could complete all that we required while maintaining a fulltime job, we would work with them and show them doable projects and ideas of students from the past. That is a power of the Web of Learning--to share what students have accomplished previously. And if you post up the best stuff, it raises the bar instead of lowering it. We need to challenge them and then support them in those challenges. That is what good teachers do--assist in the learning process of their students.
Give them lots of opportunities and choices to pick from and they set high and authentic goals. Gently nudge in a positive direction. And if they are doctoral graduate students, get them to be passionate in their dissertation research. I am tired of reading blah-blah dissertation endings. I think the next time I attend another blah-blah presentation of stuff I knew a decade ago, I will work on something else while the student presents. Let's push ahead, not fall back. Tell me why your research matters. Why should I read it? Why should anyone read it? Perhaps it is the pragmatic accountant in me that wants to know the impact or potential impact. To do research for the sake of research is silly. We do not need more of that. In that case (i.e., of boring and meaningless research which will be discarded in a year if not less), ok, less is more. See blog post below for more on that or skip that post if you believe that less is more.
Choice and variety are key components of a more is more world. With Web 2.0 technologies such as podcasts, wikis, and blogs, we are going to continue to have more learning and educational opportunities dance our way. Wikis are participatory--look at the amazing growth of Wikipedia. What 1.8 million articles there in English alone? Did anyone tell Jimmy Wales to stop adding to it? I doubt if anyone said to him "less is more Jimbo, less is more, so please just stop adding to Wikipedia right now." I think Jimmy Wales knows that less is not more. So much opportunity to learn lies in front of us each day. I like to give my students 5-6 articles to read each week and have them pick 3-4. And add in interesting tidbits (see link to syllabus below). And yes, reflections, discussions, debates, and conversations about those pieces are key to learning. We learn from our social interactions. And sure, from time-to-time these must be highly focused ones. And other times exploratory ones. We need both, not one or the other.
Ok, what started me on this more is more kick tonight? Well, the past week or so, I ran into the term Web 2.0 more this week than ever before. I know it came out a while back but for some reason this week was the week. Perhaps it is because I am writing a section of my WE-ALL-LEARN book on it. It is like when you buy a car and all of a sudden every car on the road is the same one you just bought or perhaps passed up buying. I put in a few examples for you below.
I. First of all, during the past week, I read the following articles (I have read Stephen's many times before--thanks Stephen--this is a fantastic article.):
1. Downes, Stephen (2005, October). E-learning 2.0. E-Learn Magazine. Retrieved October 26, 2006, from http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=29-1
2. Alexander, Bryan (2006, March/April). Web 2.0: A new wave of innovation for teaching and learning? Educause Review, 41(2), 32-44. Retrieved July 9, 2007, from http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm06/erm0621.asp
2. See Table: Brown, Malcolm (2007, March/April). Mashing up the once and future CMS. Educause Review, 42(2), 8-9. Retrieved July 9, 2007, from http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm07/erm0725.asp
4. Thompson, John (2007, April/May). Is education 1.0 ready for Web 2.0 students? Innovate Journal of Online Education, 3(4), Retrieved July 4, 2007, from http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=393
I also keep seeing references to ideas, videos, conferences, and articles from George Siemens related to Connectivism.
Siemens, George (2006, November 12). Connectivism: Learning theory of pastime for the self-amused? Retrieved July 11, 2007, from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism_self-amused.htm
Connectivism, Retrieved July 11, 2007, from http://www.connectivism.ca/about.html
George Siemens, The Changing Nature of Knowledge (4 short videos): http://www.homozappiens.nl/node/77/play
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II. Second, today, I see a call for papers on on Web 2.0-Based E-Learning:
http://csusap.csu.edu.au/~malee/web2book/
Mark Lee from Charles Sturt University, Australia and my friend, Catherine McLoughlin from Australian Catholic University are the editors. They note that the book will be divided as follows:
"The book will be divided into three parts, each consisting of between 5 and 7 chapters, for a total of approximately 20 chapters.
Part 1: Pedagogy 2.0? Emerging paradigms and innovative theories in web-based tertiary teaching and learning (6-7 chapters)
Part 2: Towards best practice: Case studies and exemplars of Web 2.0-based tertiary teaching and learning (8-9 chapters)
Part 3: Web 2.0 and beyond: Current implications and future directions for web-based tertiary teaching and learning (5-6 chapters) "
Looks interesting. Check out the Call for Chapter Proposals at the Website which I list again for you here. Proposals due October 5th so you have time.
http://csusap.csu.edu.au/~malee/web2book/
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III. Thirdly, I will be doing a course on Web 2.0 and Participatory e-Learning in the fall. See announcement and links below. All articles from the syllabus link (http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/Syllabus_R685_Fall_of_2007.htm) are free and open.
Fall 2007: R685 Topical Seminar
"The Web 2.0 and Participatory e-Learning"
School of Education: Room 2275
(3 Cr), Mondays 7:00‑9:45
Instructor: Curt Bonk, Professor, Instructional Systems Technology
IUB Section 28289 (R685)
See HTML of course syllabus: http://php.indiana.edu/~cjbonk/Syllabus_R685_Fall_of_2007.htm
Or download a Word version: http://mypage.iu.edu/~cjbonk/Syllabus_R685_Fall_of_2007.doc
Curtis J. Bonk, Professor
Office: 2238 W. W. Wright Education Bldg.
Phone: 856-8353 (W)
E-mail: CJBonk@indiana.edu
Office Hours: Thursdays 2:30-3:30 & as arranged
Nari Kim, Instructional Assistant
IST Doctoral Candidate
narkim@indiana.edu
Course Description and Rationale:
When it comes to perspectives on teaching and learning, the Web 2.0 has changed everything! Don’t believe it? Back in December, Time Magazine named “you” as the person of the year. The Web 2.0 (also called the Read-Write Web) empowers learners to generate ideas and comments online, rather than simply read or browse someone else’s. In effect, instead of passive consumption-based learning, we are living in a participatory age where learners have a voice and potentially some degree of ownership over their own learning. Here at the start of the twenty-first century, emerging technologies – such as online photo albums, blogs, wikis, podcasts, ebooks, YouTube videos, massive multiplayer online games, simulations, virtual worlds, and wireless and mobile computing – are generating waves of new opportunities in higher education, K-12 schools, corporate training, and other learning environments.
And today’s millennial learner, immersed in an increasingly digital world is seeking richer and more engaging learning experiences. Amid this rising tide of expectations, instructors across educational sectors are exploring and sharing innovative ways to use technology to foster interaction, collaboration, and increased excitement for learning. Unfortunately, as any high school student will tell you, this is far less common than most would hope. In response, it is time to take advantage of the new participatory learning culture where learners build, tinker with, explore, share, and collaborate with others online. It is also time exploit free and open educational resources, opencourseware, learning portals, and open source software across educational sectors and income levels. This course, therefore, will be a journey into the learning technologies (i.e., nature), pedagogical opportunities (i.e., nurture), and the people, societies, and cultures where this is happening now! We will create and publish a cross-cultural Wikibook on Web 2.0 technology. We will explore the motivational and educational value of YouTube and other online videos and create a few of our own. Of course, we will also blog on our experiences. And we might even create a few class podcasts or vodcasts.
In an age when eyeball-to-eyeball learning is no longer necessary, effective online instructors do not simply teach but moderate, coach, and assist in the learning process. As proof, dozens of pedagogical strategies utilizing Web 2.0 and other emerging learning technologies will be demonstrated, evaluated, tested, and discussed. As part of this, Bonk will present his “WE-ALL-LEARN,” “R2D2,” and “TEC-VARIETY” frameworks. Importantly, strategies discussed and modeled will address learning in all formats—K-12, higher education, corporate, university, military settings, etc. You-Too can participate.
Required Texts: None (all readings free online).
Tentative Tasks:
50 pts A. Weekly Attendance, YouTube, and Being Energetic (WAYTaBe) (Due: Each Week)
90 pts B. Blogging and Movie Making (Blogging-M&Ms) (Dec.3rd)
50 pts C. Midterm Assignment Reality Check (MARC) (Due: Oct 15th)
70 pts D. Wikibook Online Work (WOW) (Due: Dec. 3rd)
260 Total Points (Task mnemonic: Blogging M&Ms? Wow, Way-ta-be, Marc!)
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Projected Seminar Weekly Topics:
Week 1. (August 28th) Explosion of Online Programs, Universities, Courses, and Reports
Week 2. (Sept. 3rd) The Emergence of Blended Learning
Week 3 (Sept 10th) Online Instructor Roles, Training, Incentives, and Supports
Week 4. (Sept. 17th) New Learner Roles: Expectations, Issues, Dilemmas, and Resolutions
Week 5. (Sept 24th) Neo Millennial and Web 2.0 Learners
Week 6. (Oct. 1st) Free and Open Source Software
Week 7. (Oct. 8th) Open Educational Resources
Week 8. (Oct. 15th) Course Management 1.0 in a Web 2.0 and Participatory e-Learning World
Week 9. (Oct. 22nd) Online Interactivity, Engagement, and Social Presence
Week 10. (Oct. 29th) Electronic Motivation, Collaboration, and Communities of Learning/Inquiry
Week 11. (Nov 5th) Computer-Mediated Discussion and Blogging
Week 12. (Nov 12th) Podcasting, Coursecasting, and Online Language Learning
Week 13. (Nov. 19th) Wikis, Wikipedia, Wikibooks, and Collaborative Writing
Week 14. (Nov 26th) Alternate Reality Learning: Massive Gaming, Virtual Reality, and Simulations
Week 15. (Dec 3rd) Mobile, Wireless, and Ubiquitous Learning
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For more course details, write to Curt Bonk at cjbonk@indiana.edu or visit his homepage at http://mypage.iu.edu/~cjbonk/.
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IV. Fourth, there are now clever (and very simple) YouTube videos explaining different Web 2.0 technologies in plain English from CommonCraft. Yes, these have been out for a few weeks:
RSS in plain English: http://youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU
Wikis in plain English: http://youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY
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V. Fifth, Educuase has nice short summary articles on things you should know about things like YouTube, Podcasts, Facebook, Virtual Worlds, Creative Commons, etc.
As they say: "The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative's (ELI's) 7 Things You Should Know About... series provides concise information on emerging learning technologies and related practices. Each brief focuses on a single technology or practice and describes. What it is; How it works; Where it is going; Why it matters to teaching and learning"
Seven Things You Should Know About (Wikipedia, Podcasts, Facebook, etc.) (from Educause): http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?page_id=7495&bhcp=1
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VI. Sixth, Educause also announced an overview article on Podcasting research this week (which is great since there is not much out there that I could find):
Deal, Ashley (2007, June). Podcasting. A Teaching With Technology White Paper. Educause. Retrieved July 5, 2007, from http://connect.educause.edu/files/CMU_Podcasting_Jun07.pdf
VII. Many Web 2.0 start-ups. I was sent notices on the following 4 the past few days from my friend, Dr. Grace Lin at the University of Houston (thanks Grace):
Some Sample Web 2.0 tools and companies that came my way this week.
1. VoiceThread: http://voicethread.com/ (add audio to pics--I tried it and it worked great)
2. SnapGenie: http://www.snapgenie.com/ (tell stories behind pics; looks fun and easy but I did not try yet.)
3. Chinswing: http://www.chinswing.com/ (constructive communication is the goal of this tool; converse with other people about different topics)
4. Scrapblog: http://scrapblog.com (create a scrapbook of pics.)
5. Dotsub: http://www.dotsub.com/ (to create subtitling text in online videos and films).
Sorry I got carried away above. I was just going to post a link to my new syllabus and the call for book chapters. Ok, so more is more. And my brain is mushing with the Web 2.0 right now. Oh please I beg myself to stop and finally admit to the world that less is more. No, I cannot do that. More is more I tell myself. Now shut-up.
To prove I believe that more is more, please send me more links and ideas on Web 2.0 as you see them. Remember that more is more! So the more I get, the more I will assign (I mean make available) to my students in the fall. I cannot wait for the fall semester to begin and this sabbatical to be over so I can see my ultra liberal (i.e., "less is more") colleagues. Not! Now back to book writing. I need to write more, of course, since... |
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When are Old Reports, Old Reports? |
| Wednesday, June 27, 2007 |
Two weeks ago, I completely cleaned my home office for the first time since moving into this house in June 1993. 14 years of junk was piled up. I Had stacks and stacks and stacks of papers that I accumulated. So many stacks. I found lecture notes and handouts used in classes over a decade ago. There were even course notes from my first class on creativity that I took with Gary Davis back in January of 1986 at the University of Wisconsin. I thought I had been doing a good job of cleaning up but I guess not. I am a pack rat.
Ok, 12 suitcases stuffed with old papers were taken to the Bloomington recycling center. So many old technical reports, research papers, and workshop handouts were terminated there. Oh that felt good. Just let it go. In return, I recovered many great paperclips--the hard fastener kind. But what was lost? I list a few things below.
1. Cutting Edge Thinking and Seminal Writing: I lost knowledge of those people on the cutting edge educational technology from the 1980s and 1990s. Sure, I kept the most seminal pieces. But what did I forget to save? What might I need someday? What did miss out on in return? Will an article be available digitally if I ever need it? I remember complaints from a doctoral seminar class I taught in 2002 when I included articles that were more than a few years old. I had them reading Seymour Papert, John Seely Brown, Ann Brown, Marlene Scardamalia, Roger Schank, Roy D. Pea, Elliott Soloway, etc. God forbid that some of their classic pieces were 10 years old. I told one of my nearly completed Ph.D. students about the accident Seymour Papert had in Hanoi, Vietnam and he say "Who?" Oh, it sometimes hurts to toss.
2. Memories: In those 12 suitcases where memories. I had so many a battle with those articles--to comprehend them and note what they were missing or what they had that was spot on--and then to use them in my own reports. Each article I read or skimmed has some of those memories. I had been saving this stuff for a reason. Was that reason now gone? Had I, in fact, given up on much of my own field or profession? Had I moved on or was I about to depart? Why was parting with so much of this stuff easy when just a year or 2 earlier, when I had thought about doing it, it was impossible? Had I changed? Was the intersection of educational psychology and instructional technology no longer important or interesting?
3. Expertise: Those who study chess players and other experts, find that expertise takes thousands of hours and perhaps 5-7 years of one's life to build up. So then was my expertise being thrown away? I did not have time or patience to scan 12 suitcases of stuff. Was I moving to a new field? If so, when and what was it? With such extensive amounts of information now gone, was I no longer an expert in the field of e-learning? Or, perhaps, expertise no longer comes from storing boxes and boxes and stacks and stacks of paper. Perhaps it never did. Perhaps we continue to recreate our areas of expertise. And perhaps this recreation process takes much less time than 5-7 years. With 21st century technologies, it is plausible to become an expert at something in a much shorter time span. And yes, we have many more people mascurading as experts simply because they are linked in to other experts from whom they siphon off knowledge when needed. There is good and bad in all that, of course. We have Google and Yahoo as well as collaborative networks in Facebook and LinkedIn to thank for that. We can email out friends with a question whenever one arises or ask for a missing resource that we perhaps mistakenly chucked. If most or our expertise is retrievable from somewhere at one's whim, then what is expertise anyway? And do we need to save papers we are sent or given links to anymore?
4. When is Old, Old? During my cleaning episode, I started to wonder about when my stuff I save really old. I was tossing any technical report that was older than 5 years old. That was one of the most troubling aspects of cleaning up my home office. Sure, I had many reports left and a few that I hung on to but perhaps should not have. I thought that perhaps my fall class would love to see these reports.
I kept many cool reports; including a 2005 report from Australia's ACT Dept of Ed and Training on emerging technologies, the 2002, 2003, and 2004 reports from the Sloan-C Consortium on quality online and blended learning, the Pew/Internet and American Life Project on the future of the Internet from January 2005, a report from the Innovation Advisory Council of New Zealand and one on e-learning opportunities in New Zealand that I got in 2002 during my trip there, 2004 e-learning guidebooks from the United Arab Emirates that I had received during my last trip there a couple of years ago, a report on the State of e-Learning in the United States from around 2000, a couple of ASTD reports including one on a vision for e-learning from 2000, the 1998-1999 Teaching at an Internet Distance: The Pedagogy of Online Teaching and Learning report from the University of Illinois which I helped with in a minor way, a 2005 report from Oxford's Internet Survey that I had just received during my trip there in January, UCLA's famous Internet Report on Surveying the Digital Future, a 2004 e-learning report from the National College of Ireland that I was given 2 years ago, and a 2006 report on Learning for the 21st Century from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills in DC.
I kept many others. But I tossed out 5-10 reports for every one that I saved. And how often will I read the ones that I saved? Perhaps not much. I kept them to share with my students as examples of reports that they might write. If not for that, many more would have found their way into the garbage bin; not because they are rubbish but because I do not really need them anymore. Old white papers and technical reports have a much shorter lifespan today then they did 10 or 20 or 30 years ago; especially those in educational technology.
5. Are My Old Reports, Really Old? So, as I was tossing out report after report, I started to get depressed. Not just because I missed the intellectual dances that I had with the writers of those reports or because I realized that I was 5 or 10 years older than when I first read them, but because I started to contemplate what was happening (or had happened) to many of the technical reports that I had done for others during the years. What about that 1999 report on asynchronous conferencing and collaboration I did for the Army Research Institute (Applying collaborative and e-learning tools to military distance learning: A research framework. (Technical Report #1107)), or the 2005 report Vanessa Dennen and I did for the Department of Defense on where the research needs to go on massive multiplayer online gaming (MMOG), or the 2004 Perfect E-storm report I did for the Observatory on Borderless Higher Education, and many others? I am sure many of those are history as well. But how long of a shelf life do these things really have? Are they worth doing anymore? They often take 6 months to a year to generate, if not longer. If they only are important for a couple of years, there is less incentive to do them. How long will any of our work be read? In the days of the heyday of Papert's book "Mindstorms," books like that would be welcome reading for at least a few years, if not a decade. Not today. Today we toss. But, of course, if is a good book, Google or Microsoft will likely have at least some of it available online. Still, I had many a depressing reflection about my own works when sending tons of reports from other people to the recycling. I even had fun throwing out my own papers!!!
6. When is New, New? Ok, today, my friend and colleague, Dr. KJ Kim sent an email to my blended learning research team with a note about the recent Sloan-C report called "Blending in: The Extent and Promise of Blended Education in the United States." This is a March 2007 report, so perhaps it is too old for most of you to look up and read. Given my recent Handbook of Blended Learning, it was interesting that this report revealed some decreases in blended learning in higher education. In fact, it noted that fully online courses were more slightly prevalent than blended courses. However, there were larger percentages of blended program offerings than fully online ones (such numbers I think will increase as the advantages of blended become more known). In particular, there were higher percentages of blended programs in business, education, healthcare, computer and info sciences, and liberal arts. Larger institutions were, not surprisingly, more engaged in blended learning than smaller ones. There are many more findings in the report. But when will this report also be old? When should we toss it? And do we even need it given that it is available online from Sloan-C. Why print it out anyway?
See these various Sloan-C links:
See the blended learning report: http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/pdf/Blending_In.pdf
Become part of the new blended learning community: http://www.sloan-c.org/publications/survey/blended06.asp
See other Sloan-C blended resources and books: http://www.blendedteaching.org/node
So what should you save from your stacks is up to you. You will need to decide when old is really old but this is a constantly changing thing and so is your expertise. Right? Right!
Perhaps I am just getting old and cranky. But at least I have a clean home office to work from and view the birds, deer, and trees in the backyard now that the stacks of papers no longer are blocking my windows here in the basement. I wish I had some before and after pictures to share with you all. |
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