Resource worth exploring:Internet Search Resources for Children (via Teaching and Developing Online). One of the challenges I encounter as a parent is teaching my children the nature of the online environment (how it differs from face-to-face), how to safely navigate it, and how to trust it. I don't want them to fear and distrust the Internet...but I do want them to realized that there are some goofy people in the world doing some goofy things.
Giving It Away (for Fun and Profit): "But what's really interesting is that as more and more artists use Creative Commons to tell the world that it's OK to copy, distribute, and build on their work, the first glimpses emerge of an economy based on the free exchange of digital content. The "sharing economy" is built on a supply-and-demand equation wholly alien to traditional media companies -- the record labels, Hollywood studios, and publishing houses that support strict copyright enforcement."
Software for conceptualizing, organizing and diagramming links to a list of 16 different software tools for capturing/communicating ideas. Why do Mac users get all the good stuff??
Towards a Philosophy of M-Learning (via Stephen): "The medium in which children play, communicate, and learn - the world of networked computing and mobile communications - is increasingly identical with the world in which adults communicate, work, do business, and seek entertainment. The patterns of primary and secondary education are bound to change."
Dave Pollard has several articles on business innovation: Part One, Part Two, Part Three: "After reading dozens of books on innovation, I was unable to find one source that explained in clear terms what innovation is, in a business context, conveyed the urgent need for businesses to become more innovative, and provided an actionable prescription for doing so."
Comment: Much of what he writes is applicable to education, training, and knowledge management. Formal education really needs to explore what innovation means in delivering learning. So much potential...yet so little focus.
Seductive-Augmentation Effect: "Seductive augmentations are interesting yet unimportant words, sounds, photos, graphics, and video that are added to instructional materials. In some situations, these augmentations hurt learning. In other words, they make it less likely that learners will learn the main points of the instructional material."
Knowledge flows and questions: "I believe that knowledge flows are powered by questions: in many cases employees do not mind to share their knowledge, but do not do it because nobody asks them or because they are not sure that others need to know." More comments from Jim and Jack. See also - Denham's wiki resource on the power of questions.
Jim McGee on storytelling: "The power of story then is twofold, at least. One, stories connect at an emotional level making action a much more likely outcome. Second, storytelling that engages a group in creating a tale collectively, also imposes a thought structure that helps the group organize its thinking."
E-mail’s many hats: "-mail is the jack of all trades, but the master of none. There are better ways to transfer files, hold discussions, deliver notifications, broadcast newsletters, schedule meetings, work collaboratively, and manage personal information. But even though e-mail isn't the best tool for any of these tasks, it provides a single interface to all of them."
This is one of the more useful set knowledge management publications I've seen in a while. Topics range from KM framework, corporate culture, implementation, measuring KM, and terminology (this module will be quite useful to KM newcomers). Thanks to Column Two
I've long been a fan of John Seely Brown. His views of how knowledge is shared, how people work, and how digital media are impacting society are visionary. Thanks to Maish for providing a link to JSB's website.
Tremendous resource - Storytelling: "We've assembled a resource guide for business leaders, consultants, educators, marketers, storytellers, artists, activists, students, and anyone else eager to apply story in the world of work." (elearningpost)
An Intro to Online Training Games: "In training, games are commonly used to supplement traditional lecture-based or online delivery of information. Marc Prensky, explains, “In most cases, digital game-based learning is not designed to do an entire training or teaching job alone.” The role of games is primarily to reinforce the understanding of presented material and to add variety in training."
Nice list of game templates and development tools provided at the end of the article.
Portfolios have been kicked around for years in education. For some reason, they have never received the level of adoption that many think they warrant. Blogs may be the tool to give them the extra push they need to grow in popularity. Here's a nice overview article: eportfolio and weblogs (.pdf).
Blogging in schools part 1 and part 2. Important posts for anyone grappling with blog use in education.
Very applicable to organizations implementing elearning: 10 Principles of Change Management "Plans themselves do not capture value; value is realized only through the sustained, collective actions of the thousands — perhaps the tens of thousands — of employees who are responsible for designing, executing, and living with the changed environment."
A slightly different vein of thought than I usually post here (but still very much related to corporate effectiveness) Helping Hope to Spring Eternal. It seems that the more advanced our information needs become, the more we come down to the big concepts of human interaction/relationships: hope, trust, faith, etc. Over the last two years, I've seen a big increase in articles addressing these foundational concepts. Do we become more human as we become more complex?
A nice "what to do" article on using blogging/wikis within corporations (with a focus on marketing/brand recognition) 10 Rules for Corporate Blogs and Wikis
So much attention in network theory has been given to the value of weak ties for facilitating information/knowledge sharing. This article on close relationships (via Valdis) provides an important counter-perspective. Close relationships are more effective for feelings of wellness and health. In terms of knowledge, I would assume that close relationships serve and entirely different function than weak ties. Strong ties, I believe, are more conducive to collaboration, creation, and visionary work. In order for the vision created by strong ties to filter through an organization, the value of weak ties needs to be considered. I guess the two work very much hand in hand.
e-Learning Centre's Guide to e-Learning (2nd edition): "There are now many technologies and tools that can be used to build e-learning solutions - but which is the most appropriate one for any learning problem? With a growing interest in the development of rapid, in-house learning solutions, we look at the range of tools and technologies available to build e-learning solutions as well as some guidance on how to build them."
Comments: Valuable resource, take some time to browse the various categories. A few areas that caught my eye: blogging and RSS, blended learning, games and simulations, and 10 ways to keep up-to-date with elearning.
This looks like a great site to follow: unmediated "unmediated is a group blog that tracks the tools, processes, and ideas being used to decentralize media production and distribution."
Collaborating with Universities to Create a Continual Learning Culture...this article just skims an idea that needs to be explored deeply - the future link between educational institutions and corporations. The authors, unfortunately, assume that the services universities will provide to corporations will be similar to courses - but with a corporate-focused slant. The last two paragraphs begin to address the real value of this type of partnership - informal learning and recognition of prior learning.
The missing element is how universities can provide "outsourced" learning to corporations...in formats other than only courses. For example, colleges have significant learning content...if properly packaged and presented, they have the resources to address many of the training needs facing corporations...i.e. content in the context (and for the task) needed. If higher education is to adapt to the developing knowledge needs of today's workers, they need to think beyond "we have them as a learner for 4 years" and move to "we have them as a learner for life, let's continue to provide them with the learning they need".
The Joys of Instructional Design: "I have to be a juggler of sorts. That seems to be the most required and remarkable aspect of developing online courses. Whatever the subject – from the journeys involved in Humanities or Social Science or Physics or Cultural Studies – I juggle the intricate details and try to highlight the humanity behind each course. Locating and highlighting the humanity is what helps the learners classify and organize knowledge into categories."
Comment: Just a quick note on learning objectives - I find that objectives are of greater value to the designer than the learner. Most learners (based on my experience) do not use the objectives as sign posts to course progress. At best, they read them at the start of the course to see what will be covered. Objectives are of more benefit to designers...allowing them to sequence content and ensure course content is presented completely and without gaps.
So, my son is actually preparing for his medical career...that's encouraging :): Surgeons Who Play Video Games Err Less (via Stephen): "All those years on the couch playing Nintendo and PlayStation appear to be paying off for surgeons. Researchers found that doctors who spent at least three hours a week playing video games made about 37 percent fewer mistakes in laparoscopic surgery and performed the task 27 percent faster than their counterparts who did not play video games."
Randy has an interesting thought on rule breakers in edutech: "But it's no wonder many of us are edublogging instead of relying on our institutions for help. They really can't help us; they're currently unprepared to develop the open applications needed to deliver modern instruction."
Some institutions are obviously more able than others to provide "modern instruction". It's important to note that the problem is two-fold: 1. changing understanding of what it means to teach in a knowledge society (which relates to methodologies that have nothing to do with technology)...and 2. incorporating the characteristics of technology to effectively improve the quality of instruction, or the ability for people to access learning.
Simple parable communicating the importance of evaluating online learning by its own characteristics (not merely through the lens of classrooms): The Polo Parable "We need to reach out via this collection of technologies to those from who opportunity has separated itself for whatever reason. But, just as importantly, we need to address online instruction on its own terms, and not pretend that it is just a slightly resolution-impaired photocopy of the face-to-face classroom experience."
A really interesting article on what Google is actually trying to achieve: The Secret of Google's Power "Google has taken the last 10 years of systems software research out of university labs, and built their own proprietary, production quality system. What is this platform that Google is building? It's a distributed computing platform that can manage web-scale datasets on 100,000 node server clusters."
Good list: Nine Rules for Good Technology. This statement is important to remember: "Technology that teachers employ in the classroom must be of exactly that variety: widespread and easy-to-operate. A learning simulation, a conferencing tool, and a student record keeper should be as untroublesome to use as a television, a telephone, and a notebook."
Sharepoint in Microsoft's response to the collaboration/shared spaces need. This article provides a good overview of the product. The real selling feature of Sharepoint is tight integration with other Microsoft products. If you know Windows and Office, the learning curve is very low. In my experience, I've been disappointed with the product (sign in isn't direct and obvious, very little metadata support, very "boxy", no support for RSS, collaboration is basically just a threaded discussion, etc.) Given the opportunity, I would move toward a product like Plone, Groove, Drupal, or Convea. Over the next several versions, Sharepoint will certainly improve...but it's currently a product that looks like a poor duplication of the more effective collaboration tools now available (both open source and proprietary).
And even after the right product has been selected, the final quote in the article says it best: "That's the whole problem with collaboration: It sounds great, but getting people to use the tools is a real challenge".
Some interesting statistics on Internet and video game use...especially in relation to print media.
Emergent Learning: "Emergence is the key characteristic of complex systems. It is the process by which simple entities self-organize to form something more complex. Emergence is also what happened to that “utopian dream” of e-learning on the way to the future. Simple, old e-learning has combined with bottom-up self-organizing systems, network effects and today’s environment to morph into emergent learning."
The University 'Market' is Here (via elearningpost): "This means overseas students will increasingly decide which university to come to on the basis of the course itself and their perception of its impact on future employability.
They may also decide not to travel abroad at all but to take their degree via the internet from providers in any one of several countries."
Ten Years in New Media...lesson for elearning: "We, the newspaper industry, are guilty of spending way too much time, energy and attention on technology (how we do it) and not enough on product vision (what we do).
The result has been too many "online newspapers" that replicate all of the shortcomings and weaknesses of old media."
Scott links to this study: Unemployment level of college grads surpasses that of high-school dropouts...and notes: "The first graph is sheer number of unemployed, and shows that in the U.S. there are now more of them with college degrees than are high school drop outs. This in itself is not that shocking - as the report says, "There are, however, far more college graduates than high-school dropouts in our current labour force." The graph shown in figure two should be more alarming, though its trends be not so steep - it depicts unemployed as a percentage of those two populations, and actually shows a decrease in unemployment for high school drop outs, but a steady increase for college graduates."
What, if anything, do these statistics tell us about the needs of learners today?
Google to Unveil Free E-Mail ...they will be offering 1 GB of storage (as compared to services like Hotmail/Yahoo, which are only offering 1 - 2 MB). An important distinction about Google compared to other "search engines" - Google isn't about search. They're about finding and using. This announcement validates that: "Rosing said the company arrived at the 1 GB figure by estimating how much storage an average user would need to store up to a decade's worth of e-mail. "It's a new paradigm where you don't delete your e-mail," said Rosing. Instead, users would leave all their messages on Google's server and search through them as needed. "
Random thought - curious if this is an April Fools thing. Update - apparently it's, confirmed as true.