The Coming Perfect Storm in Education (.mov file) (via Smartmobs)...the presentation itself is not that involved, but the image of the formation of a perfect storm in education is excellent. The combination of open source technology, open education (opencourse ware), changing relationships between experts and end-users (i.e. user-created content, two-way flow of information), changing context and characteristics of knowledge (speed of development, complexity, rise of the individual, representation in various media formats, etc.), and socially-based technologies are placing tremendous pressure on education. I'm not prepared to write-off the structures of education (or obliterate the role of the teacher)...but I'm convinced that we will see some dramatic (and exciting) changes within the next decade. The change that has developed progressively in many areas of society (look at how much businesses - and society - have evolved...while our learning institutions remain largely unchanged) will wash rapidly over education.
I'm on a Google diet. The super-secretive habits of Google are unnerving...Google has a simple formula: create outstanding tools, and ask users to sacrifice their privacy. Most people are willing to make the exchange. Concerns about Google: "In Google We Trust. That should be the inscription printed on each and every dollar bill. As a nation concerned with our privacy, we willingly bare our innermost secrets to the world."
IBM and The University of Arizona Bring Web 2.0 and Social Networking to the Classroom: "The growing use of social and community systems in businesses to support customers, users, and the general public, is creating an increasing demand for the job role of a "community manager." The new course enables students to explore and recognize various online collaboration tools and social software to provide an understanding of how they are used in businesses today."
I've been promoting "conversation over content" in recent presentations (content changes too rapidly to be the value point). I haven't paid enough attention to the notion of control. Organizations are still largey consumed trying to control the message (and the conversation), and as a result, end up closing down avenues for real dialogue. Control more important than conversation: "Despite the risks, I don’t think that companies should be afraid of conversation — they really have no choice...the conversation will take place with or without them. But they need to realize that it’s really, REALLY DIFFICULT to engage in conversation with the aim of achieving a desired outcome, especially when all isn’t right with the world."
Video conferencing is gaining momentum...broadband adoption and advances in technology make it much more attractive than the stamp-sized images, out-of-synch video audio, and poor image quality of first generation video. Business meetings, medical education (for doctors and nurses (or patients) in remote communities), and distributed education departments of colleges/univirsities are prime candidates for video conferencing. Prices, however, are currently insane. I still view mobile technologies as the most rapidly developing technology over the next few years...but video conferencing won't be far behind as organizations see the value (video certainly has it's roots well-established in the user-created space of YouTube and emerging video bloggers like Ze Frank...text and audio are great, but seeing people opens a different dimension)
Video Conferencing...it's hot again: "Video conferencing has been long time coming, and has been marred by poor quality, and complexity. Proprietary nature of the video conferencing systems did not help either. But broadband removed the network bottleneck, and open standards, and communication protocols are making it easier for video conferencing to work in an optimal fashion."
I've uploaded images (from Sydney, Whitsunday, and Great Barrier Reef) to flickr from recent travels in Australia (I'm back in Sydney for a few more days, and then back to Canadian soil!). It's been a great trip - connected with many individuals (during my presentations over the last two weeks). But after three weeks and several countries later, I'm ready to come home. One can only handle so much beauty before the comfort of home calls :).
How Knowledge Drives Innovation: "Knowledge and imagination are the primary drivers of innovation in organizations."
Innovation is so important for education. While many disciplines have re-invented themselves over the last several decades, education remains stagnant. Increasingly, as I dialogue with educators and leaders, the knowledge of needed change is evident. Missing, however, is the imagination to conceive a richer view of learning that accounts for the needs of learners (and other stakeholders of education - society, governments, corporations, etc.) today. Imagination (or as I've stated before, vision), not technology, funding, or knowledge is the limiting factor.
A virtual world but real money: "It has a population of a million. The “people” there make friends, build homes and run businesses. They also play sports, watch movies and do a lot of other familiar things. They even have their own currency, convertible into American dollars."
I'm at Global Summit 2006 (Sydney, Australia)...conference organizers have posted a series of podcasts from presenters (providing an excellent, global perspective). I have updated my presentations page to include my address to summit members.
modern families grappling with technology overload: "Modern families worldwide are striving for equilibrium in lives overloaded with technology...Computing and communications devices had people cramming an average of 43 hours' worth of activity into a typical 24-hour day by "multi-tasking..."
Unlimited Learning (.pdf) (via Seb Schmoller): "Games hold out the tantalising potential of a fully personalised, responsive and enjoyable learning experience, one in which part of the pleasure lies in overcoming difficulties and challenges while experiencing the excitement of personal growth"
Worlds are blurring. What's real...and what's virtual is not a clear line. Reuters recently opened a virtual news bureau in Second Life: "Second Life" citizens can stay tuned to the latest headlines by using a feature called the Reuters News Center, a mobile device that users can carry inside the virtual environment."
...Sun recently held an in-world press conference in Second Life...though these types of activities are more often about trying to be a "cool and with it" company, rather than being functional.
The learning management system debate is probably a waste of time. They are here. They will stay. The real debate going on in most institutions is not "do we need an LMS?"...but rather "which LMS should we get?". Unfortunately, much of our discussion in this space has ignored the faculty and the learner. I have posted a short article on LMS reviews...and what is missing in the discussion.
Go and Learn: "Mobile learning offers people something traditional education cannot; integration into life."
Our brain acts as a social network: "According to a U.S. professor of psychology, some regions of our brains work like digital computers. Still, our whole brains operate as social networks."
Stephen has put together a nice paper on Learning Networks and Connective Knowledge: "The purpose of this paper is to outline some of the thinking behind new e-learning technology, including e-portfolios and personal learning environments. Part of this thinking is centered around the theory of connectivism, which asserts that knowledge - and therefore the learning of knowledge - is distributive, that is, not located in any given place (and therefore not 'transferred' or 'transacted' per se) but rather consists of the network of connections formed from experience and interactions with a knowing community."
The first section of the article presents Stephen's philosophical (theoretical) views on factors impacting elearning. He covers communication theory, language, transactional distance, neural networks, etc - a well-argued background that I'll be referring to in future presentations. He then moves through connectivism, networked learning (I quite enjoy his discussion of network semantics - a discussion he started with his connective knowledge paper), elearning 2.0, PLEs, etc. Much to digest.
In a recent meeting with researchers in online learning, I made the point that people are not as interested in research journals and reports as they may have been in the past. In the edublog space, many bloggers (Stephen, Will Richardson, David Warlick, etc.) carry the authority (and corresponding citations) of well-known journals. If formal researchers play a key role in advancing our field...but they appear to be speaking a language that is not being heard by practitioners (who are finding their authority in a relationship of trust with individuals who have been transparent in their online writing and theorizing).
One of the days, someone needs to put together a conference mashup from eportfolios, elearning, knowlege management, eportfolios, design, libraries, museums, and technology. The degree of crossover in these spaces is really blurring lines. Library 2.0 and KM: "if L2 is all about participation, collaboration, community, creative content, changing the context and bringing more people into the conversation - that is core KM stuff."
If you are subscribed to my connectivism blog, please update your feed (if you're interested). I changed from Plone (spam issues) to Movable Type, and while the RSS feed has been transfered, it doesn't appear to carry over new content.
As Elliot Masie's conference approaches, he is once again putting out some great interviews and resources for learning professionals (he has the "give it away to get them" aspect of internet-age marketing down pat). He recently posted a recording of learning trends ...using Articulate's new tool Engage (I've been using it for some personal courses...and will post a few modules over the next week or so). I don't agree with everything Elliot states in his presentation. We are socially trailing behind technological possibilities (most people use MS Word to type letters/essay/reports...and use a fraction of what the tool is capable of doing - the technology runs ahead of what we are willing to invest to learn it, and to integrate with our lives). So while it may be possible to have advanced performance support, or context-aware resources, I think we are close to a "I've had enough" stage. Over the next few years, we'll see a progressive rise in those who counsel others to not do more...but to do less and stay human in the process. My other small crticism - the internet is visual. A text-based, long lecture approach used is not as effective as more visuals...or shorter slides with more rapid transitions (I get called on that everytime I post a presentation with Articulate...it's different when you're the listener vs. speaker :)).
An important consideration to consider in our approach to learning design (it's all about context, not definition in advance) - How to Kill a Knowledge Environment with a Taxonomy: "Knowledge and information infrastructure is much more like a complex ecosystem than a designed environment, and it has to be so because it needs to cater for a wide variety of uses and activities, past, present and future...It is simply not possible for a single vocabulary and category set to deliver consistent value for all those needs. Inevitably just as in a city, over-standardisation may bring efficiency, but it suppresses diversity of use, and in consequence the knowledge environment must privilege a few key activities over others."
I'm the guy who shows up at a party and tells everyone news they've heard before. Tony Karrer and David Lee have begun what promises to be a valuable discussion each month - the Learning Circuits blog "Big Question". This months question seemed a bit basic, but as discussion started, it presented numerous angles I hadn't considered. The most valuable aspect of their approach is allowing LC Blog members to post on their own blog. Distributed conversations - not centralized - are important. As I've stated before, I want my comments in my space, even though I don't mind them being reflected in our forums. It's a simple shift, but one that I think will be duplicated in other spaces in the future. The mailing lists we've used in the past may be replaced by open conversations around a defined theme (perhaps LC Blog should be about aggregation of various bloggers thoughts on a focused subject (as compared to a simple aggregation of feeds without a particular theme).
The question was: should all learning professionals be blogging? I'm not exactly sure how a learning professional is defined. Is it a consultant? Or the equivalent of the generic "knowledge worker"? Is it a learner in a course or program? I'll answer the question as "should everyone be blogging". Short answer: not everyone should blog...but everyone should engage in the activity that blogging enables or affords - critical thinking, reflection, meaning making, pattern recognition, etc. If I find blogs do this for me - great. Others might find it through a pen/paper reflective journal. Or weekly meetings with colleagues. The value of blogging is not that we are writing - it's that we are thinking (with the added benefit of enabling others to interact with our ideas in their own spaces).
Educators are still trying to figure out this whole social networking thing - E-Mail is for Old People: "A 2005 report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project called "Teens and Technology" found that teenagers preferred new technology, like instant messaging or text messaging, for talking to friends and use e-mail to communicate with "old people." Along the same lines, students interviewed for this article say they still depend on e-mail to communicate with their professors. But many of the students say they would rather send text messages to friends, to reach them wherever they are, than send e-mail messages that might not be seen until hours later."
So, in response, the college listed in the article decides to use Myspace as an additional tool in dialoguing with students. Results have been positive. When we stop asking students to come to our space and use our tools, we start seeing progress (imagine if the internet required different computers to access different websites...why do we expect that when students encounter our learning materials? Instead of an LMS, our content should come to the student in their native environment (blogs, wikis, social networking tools, iPods, whatever)).
It's all about the mobile...as this has been the year of video (youtube, googlevideo, etc), people are now declaring (accurately, I think) next year as the year of mobile access to content/dialogue: 2 Billion people onw mobile phones "...as of today, more than 80% of the world's population is covered by GSM, and more than 2 billions of people own a mobile phone (source: World Bank)."
Resistance to collaborative tools is usually less about the technology, and more about the context/environment of use...and the mindset of individuals involved - Collaborative Technologies: "Successful collaboration tool introduction is based less on the characteristics of the tool itself than on the motivation users have to use the tool, plus a heavy helping of Ease of Use. People who are already open to and involved in collaboration are more likely to adopt technological tools that support collaboration than people who aren't already open to or involved with collaboration."
My "keynote written in a wiki" experiment is progressing well for some projects (and not so well for others). The eportfolio 2006 wiki (for London, next week) has generated some useful dialogue on whether portfolios should be conversation-driven or content-based. The feedback from individuals is a surprisingly enjoyable experience...compared to my usual "develop the keynote in the dark...and wait until the "big day" until it sees the light of day", this is a two-way learning experience.
I spoke with a group of educators from Malawi yesterday. Emerging economies have different needs than established economies. Emerging countries are trying to create the structure of education...often under the umbrella of standards and best practices. As I spoke with the educators, detailing the tools I use in instructing online, I found even the most basic tools were not on their radar...but when I talked about how I try and foster interaction between students, students with content, and instructor with student, they could immediately relate. The tool (technology) enables interaction - a concept with which they were familiar.
Education systems in more advanced nations need to be retooled and restructured (i.e. in line with the nature of change at global levels...we require innovation and new approaches). Emerging countries have a different context which requires different approaches. The open education movement has particularly strong relevance in theses areas (though it could well be argued that many in Western countries fall out of the education system due to access restrictions - even where tuition is minimal, the expense of content access is prohibitive). While we are becoming a global education community, the needs of each country differ. It's challenging to present broad-based reform when some don't have access to a computer...and others are trying to figure out how to integrate online video lectures into courses. A Tectonic Shift in Global Higher Education: "The scale of change in higher education in the coming decades can be shown simply by applying the modest target of a 35 percent participation rate to the four billion people in the world's poorest countries. This would yield 150 million additional students, far more than today's global total. Undoubtedly, tens of millions of young adults in the third world will be seeking postsecondary education in the coming years."
Tutoring works. It's social, personal, and effective. It has worked well for decades in physical education environments...and it works well in online spaces (many corporations are using etutoring to bring new staff onboard or to connect experts with those entering new markets or dealing with new clients). Big challenge for many students in the public education sector is the cost of tutoring. Enter outsourced 'e-tutoring'.