The recent issue of SideBars has a great focus: The Mellinnials. The tools we use, and the context in which we use them, significantly alters how we communicate, relate and think. "The millennials, who have just begun to make an appearance in the workplace, are being called the hottest commodity in the job market since Rosie the Riveter. They’re sociable, optimistic, talented, well-educated, collaborative, open-minded, influential, and achievement-oriented. They are arriving in the workplace with higher expectations than any generation before them and they’re so well connected that, if an employer doesn’t match those expectations, they can tell thousands of their cohorts with one click of the mouse."
Collaborative knowledge gardening...I've been playing with del.icio.us recently..and I'm quite intriqued by the potential of the concept - opening up and sharing our information sources. Most often, we are evaluated by a finished product. Like other social knowledge sharing tools (blogs, wikis), del.icio.us allows others a chance to look in on the creative process.
Can You See Me Now?: "Thanks to voice-over-IP, videoconferencing--the eternal technology of tomorrow--once again appears to be on the verge of success."
Honey, I Shrunk the eLearning: "The kind of media-rich presentation features necessary for effective learning – features such as animation, simulation, graphically enhanced scenarios, video and audio – have not been possible given the small screen and limited memory of handhelds. This has been changed by a new generation of PDAs."
Comment: Several years ago, our department completed an evaluation of the role of PDAs in learning. The end result: PDAs are second-choice devices for learning. If other options exist, they will be used first. If not, PDAs will do. It is interesting, however, to note the number of functions now being performed on cell phones. It's possible that "the small screen syndrome" that limits PDAs for learning will end up being a generational (not device) issue.
Knowledge Discovery: ""Instead of mining for a nugget of gold, knowledge discovery is more like sifting through a warehouse filled with small gears, levers, etc., none of which is particularly valuable by itself."
Leveraging Interactive Technologies - Learning Design (.pdf)...this paper looks at the transition in education from objectivist to constructionist design. Games and simulations are presented as examples of effective constructivist design (and a list of principles of constructivism in elearning in also included).
Technology Infusion in Higher Education: "When asked to rate the "single most important IT issue for my campus over the next 2-3 years," responses were:
31.5 percent - Assist faculty to integrate technology into instruction
15.4 percent - Provide adequate user support
8.4 percent - Provide online/distance education via the web "
I'm gleaning all kinds of resources from RRU these days...here's a few on concept mapping:
Concept Mapping Process
Mind Mapping: "Mindmapping is a form of brainstorming that utilizes a distinct form of visualization. It is a chaotic way of data collection."
Mind Maps: How to, benefits, and software
I've posted a new article on elearnspace describing the categories of elearning...it details the various components that make up the field of elearning (sometimes I find I'm talking past others because we have such different images of elearning). Last year, I posted The Whole Picture as an attempt to explain the holistic nature of moving online...in this article, I attempt to specifically isolate the categories that comprise the industry.
Resistance Limits Elearning's Growth: (via Seb Schmoller) "Most organisations say resistance to change is the biggest challenge to e-learning, followed by IT issues such as bandwidth, firewalls and infrastructure..."
Managing the Gamer Generation: "They are different from you and me, this generation born after 1970. They grew up with a finger on the keyboard and an ear to the cell phone, and in a world where the forces of globalization have broken down national barriers like no time in history."
elearningpost links to this .pdf on Games and Simulations in elearning - the author's main premise is that as we begin to understand important criteria in game design, we also begin to find these same elements in other educational experiences.
Wikis: "Wikis are one of those internet phenomena that are confusing, intruiging, powerful, and often misunderstood. Many users and even some programmers of wiki software have missed the point completely, and from what I've observed in scholarly discussions on the subject, most teachers "using wikis in the classroom" are so far off the mark that I am at a loss whether to laugh or cry. When I read these reports, it's like reading about how someone completely and utterly failed to use their shiny new Ferrari to properly tow a horse trailer."
Selling your Soul: "Google does great things, but it asks for your data in return."
Portable Internet: (.pdf summary) "Portable Internet technologies promise to cut the cords to a wire-free future in which Internet access, for both fixed locations and users on the move, is supplied over the airwaves."
Tracing the Evolution of Social Software: "The term 'social software', which is now used to define software that supports group interaction, has only become relatively popular within the last two or more years. However, the core ideas of social software itself enjoy a much longer history..."
Third Generation Knowledge Management: "In recent years, it's been difficult to pin down a definition of what Knowledge Management is."
Global Knowledge Review - new publication by David Gurteen, first edition is available for free download. Focus is: "learning, creativity, innovation, personal development, and corporate and personal knowledge management".
Google Desktop Search: this was just a matter of time...but Google has released a simple download that indexes documents, emails, chat files, etc. on your desktop and makes them available for search. I just did a presentation on information overload, and the need for intelligent tools to take over some organization and search tasks. My main point was that we will eventually just throw information into a bin and the intelligence will be provided by the search tool. This is an early stage example.
Innovate: "Innovate is a bimonthly, peer-reviewed online periodical published by the Fischler School of Education and Human Services at Nova Southeastern University. The journal focuses on the creative use of information technology (IT) to enhance educational processes in academic, commercial, and government settings."
Rip, Mix, and Learn - a new way of learning: "The basic idea is that with the Internet, a good model for learning is to rip stuff that's out there (or in other words, grab it, collect, convert it so you have it, whatever it is), mix it (which means personalize it, remix it, change it so it has your spin), and then learn from the process. It's a way of synthesizing material from many sources by mixing them into one product...The implications, as I see them, for education are that students don't need to be receivers of knowledge, or dumpsters where teachers do some information dumping. Instead, they can be creators of new knowledge, remixed from old information they glean from the Internet."
Communication Dynamics: : "Most current developments in the use of modern technologies in education and training are… little more than relatively naïve transpositions to new environments of the much criticised educational paradigms of the past."
Intranet Trends: "Intranets need killer applications to survive and grow. The killer applications that replace the corporate telephone directory and the cafeteria menu will be knowledge management tools."
Comment: I disagree with this. As long as KM is about the organization's needs, adoption will only work if it's forced (and if it's forced, people will only use it for the minimum required). A KM initiative needs to start with the individual at the center...and in a manner that is reflective of how they work. Blogs, wikis, and syndication have high adoption rates because they are simple, and give the end user the control. Knowledge management should be about what we gather from people doing their actual work...not from what we gather when we ask people to put contents into a container.
Here's a few interesting links (gleaned from a course I'm taking through RRU) that extends the last week's post on brain-based learning:
- News from Neurosciences: "How would it affect educational systems if everyone truly believed that the human brain could change structurally and functionally as a result of learning and experience--for better or worse?"
- 12 Principles of Mind/Brain Learning
Neat site: Creativity and Innovation...the techniques and puzzle resources are very useful for fostering creativity.
...and now, a brief moment of idealism - The Web: "The Web is over. Now comes the next big thing, growing out of the primordial soup of wireless and wired networks, gadgets, software, satellites and social changes created over the past decade...Instead of having to find information or entertainment, it will find you — and be exactly what you want or need at that moment. The network becomes a butler."
Apparently, the first stage in solving a problem is defining it. It's even more of a challenge when you can't even define the solution you are intending to use. The field of knowledge management (KM) suffers from this confusion. Two people can both be talking KM principles, yet mean entirely different things...When you say KM, What do you mean? attempts to clarify things.
Brain-based learning hasn't been very prominent recently. The central argument of proponents is that our brain functions best under certain conditions...and when we factor these conditions into the design and learning process, we increase the success of the learning experience. Brain links offers many articles and resources.
Amateur Revolution...this article just scratches the surface of the important role amateurs are playing in recreating information flow. This trend is gaining some momentum in the fields of education and training as well. No longer does the instructor know everything. The learner and instructor often exchange roles. Amateurs can contribute heavily even to professional fields.
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in Networked E-Learning: "This guide aims to provide a user-friendly introduction to IPR issues for e-learning content developers and managers. It is intended to act as a point of entry to the field of IPR in e-learning that will provide a good foundation for building expertise in the e-learning developer community. It deals with the basic aspects of IPR, especially copyright, in e-learning content development, with an emphasis on reusing third party materials to create new resources."