I just got around to reading this report. I have a great deal of enthusiasm for several of the technologies that the report sees as being on the horizon, but probably the most relevant for me personally is the section on collaborative environments. The links to examples and further readings are a very good compendium of sources for self-education in this area. Many of the current experts in this area are represented, including Steve Hargadon and Wes Fryer.
I have been looking at Moodle as a nearly ideal K-12 application for collaboration in and out of the classroom for several years, however this report gathers a number of different resources that point toward many other platforms and approaches than the conventional classroom or hybrid environments.
Part of my interest area overlaps with what they are reporting here, but I personally feel as though caution in implementation is warranted. Without some comprehensive survey of the student body effected in any given district, there is no real means of knowing exactly what the access to technology overall. Though the tech is there, and it is very promising, access is the real limiting factor in low income, transient, and remote areas.
Check it out:
New Media Consortium 2010 Horizon Report K-12 Edition
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Facebook as a course management system?
There is a lot of buzz right now about inclusion of social networking features in online courses. In terms of building communities of practice and promoting a constructivist application in building greater understanding through the group, this does make sense. But is Facebook the place to build a program?
Here is an article about Boston U trying to work through the question:
http://dailyfreepress.com/2010/12/07/students-faculty-torn-over-idea-of-facebook-courses/
My own thoughts are that eventually schools will need to include social networking as part of the overall university experience. But does it make sense to farm this out to a private provider with very different goals, such as Facebook, or does it make sense to include some sort of in-house solution that is attached to the LMS? Either way, I believe that eventually this will be a feature of all higher education.
Here is an article about Boston U trying to work through the question:
http://dailyfreepress.com/2010/12/07/students-faculty-torn-over-idea-of-facebook-courses/
My own thoughts are that eventually schools will need to include social networking as part of the overall university experience. But does it make sense to farm this out to a private provider with very different goals, such as Facebook, or does it make sense to include some sort of in-house solution that is attached to the LMS? Either way, I believe that eventually this will be a feature of all higher education.
Becoming curious about MOOCs
A couple of years ago, Stephen Downes mentioned in a blog being involved in a project to create a MOOC, a Massive Open Online Course. It was an exercise in connectivism, which was a new theory to me at the time, but has become more familiar the more that I use social networking sites. The course ran, and I promptly let the idea fall off of my intellectual radar. I stumbled across a blog post that described the experience of a participant in another MOOC a few days ago, and this has prompted new interest for me. The post can be found here: http://sleve.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/why-mooc-engagement-is-so-hard/
The description of the experience left me wondering how I might construct my own MOOC. How would I assess? How, or should I, use participation as a measure? How does one promote interaction and participation? Or do you? How do I make it easier for people like Steve without recreating in some way the standard course layout on larger scale? This is a fascinating area of education that really has not been explored in detail by academia, probably because of the same questions that I have.
Not many traditional instructors are immediately comfortable working without a safety net, and the safety net is the structure of the course. That syllabus, linear events orchestrated in such a fashion as to create time constraints for the participants, and assuring the instructor that the learning objectives are really being met. Or not.
MOOCs throw this structure out of the window. It is a very squishy approach to education. I like the idea.
The description of the experience left me wondering how I might construct my own MOOC. How would I assess? How, or should I, use participation as a measure? How does one promote interaction and participation? Or do you? How do I make it easier for people like Steve without recreating in some way the standard course layout on larger scale? This is a fascinating area of education that really has not been explored in detail by academia, probably because of the same questions that I have.
Not many traditional instructors are immediately comfortable working without a safety net, and the safety net is the structure of the course. That syllabus, linear events orchestrated in such a fashion as to create time constraints for the participants, and assuring the instructor that the learning objectives are really being met. Or not.
MOOCs throw this structure out of the window. It is a very squishy approach to education. I like the idea.
WCET- Managing Online Education 2010
WCET- Managing Online Education 2010
This one snuck by me. It came out last month. As of yet I have only read the executive summary, but the numbers here do show that progress is being made in the area of campus awareness and acceptance of distance education. More importantly, it shows where the largest areas of resistance are. I say more importantly, primarily because the deficiencies point toward the areas that need the most attention. If one can identify the problems, then one knows where to allocate resources to improve practice.
The study focuses on the managerial middle, the policies and people that make up the distance education team at any given school.
There are a couple of gems in this overview that really do indicate opportunities for improvement are in ADA compliance, where over 50% of the 183 responding two and four year schools have no policy, or depend upon faculty to make certain that online courses meet the requirements. There is a huge opportunity, as I see it, for training and professional development in this area.
Likewise, and no surprise, the majority of issues and impediments are internal, not external.
The video is well worth watching. By far my favorite quote from the presenter, Casey Green, is “The easy part of the infrastructure is the hardware and the software. The hard part of the infrastructure are the the people and the resources. And the explosion of online ed really still demands people and resources.”
This does relate to excellence from the standpoint that it gives us a snapshot of where we are right now and what the prevailing forces, both positive and negative are from a distance education management perspective.
http://www.campuscomputing.net/survey
This one snuck by me. It came out last month. As of yet I have only read the executive summary, but the numbers here do show that progress is being made in the area of campus awareness and acceptance of distance education. More importantly, it shows where the largest areas of resistance are. I say more importantly, primarily because the deficiencies point toward the areas that need the most attention. If one can identify the problems, then one knows where to allocate resources to improve practice.
The study focuses on the managerial middle, the policies and people that make up the distance education team at any given school.
There are a couple of gems in this overview that really do indicate opportunities for improvement are in ADA compliance, where over 50% of the 183 responding two and four year schools have no policy, or depend upon faculty to make certain that online courses meet the requirements. There is a huge opportunity, as I see it, for training and professional development in this area.
Likewise, and no surprise, the majority of issues and impediments are internal, not external.
The video is well worth watching. By far my favorite quote from the presenter, Casey Green, is “The easy part of the infrastructure is the hardware and the software. The hard part of the infrastructure are the the people and the resources. And the explosion of online ed really still demands people and resources.”
This does relate to excellence from the standpoint that it gives us a snapshot of where we are right now and what the prevailing forces, both positive and negative are from a distance education management perspective.
http://www.campuscomputing.net/survey
Almost a year?
I am amazed. It has been almost a year since my last post. In that time I have been doing a number of things, but mostly I have been simply teaching and and being a house Dad. Simple as that. I have come to the conclusion in retrospect that I needed some time to regroup after being let go by CSUB. I am still teaching part time as adjunct, but it is nowhere near as satisfying as either the fulltime staff or faculty position. So it is time to get back into the game and become a DL player again. :-)
It has become obvious to me that I need something more than teaching for Extended University. So back to training again. I will be making a series of posts in conjunction with the courses I am taking at the present time.
Right now these include the Distance Education program through University of West Georgia: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/certificate.html . I needed a refresher, since the last courses in this area were taken in 2007, and most earlier in 2002-2005.
I have just completed the EASI course in Barrier-free E-Learning and am now enrolled in the Train the Trainer course as well. http://www.easi.cc/
The EASI courses are fairly simple and inexpensive, but are loaded with excellent information on creating an accessible environment for students in all aspect of IT. I enjoyed the first course and have decided on completing the Certificate in Accessible Information Technology provided by EASI and the University of Southern Maine. This certificate program is a series of courses designed to provide training in all aspects of accessibility application in IT. I highly recommend them if you have an interest int IT and an interest in accessibility.
I have a few other courses I wish to take between now and summer, and hopefully by that time I will be back at work, innovating distance education as is my passion.
It has become obvious to me that I need something more than teaching for Extended University. So back to training again. I will be making a series of posts in conjunction with the courses I am taking at the present time.
Right now these include the Distance Education program through University of West Georgia: http://www.westga.edu/~distance/certificate.html . I needed a refresher, since the last courses in this area were taken in 2007, and most earlier in 2002-2005.
I have just completed the EASI course in Barrier-free E-Learning and am now enrolled in the Train the Trainer course as well. http://www.easi.cc/
The EASI courses are fairly simple and inexpensive, but are loaded with excellent information on creating an accessible environment for students in all aspect of IT. I enjoyed the first course and have decided on completing the Certificate in Accessible Information Technology provided by EASI and the University of Southern Maine. This certificate program is a series of courses designed to provide training in all aspects of accessibility application in IT. I highly recommend them if you have an interest int IT and an interest in accessibility.
I have a few other courses I wish to take between now and summer, and hopefully by that time I will be back at work, innovating distance education as is my passion.
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