 |
 |
Education + Social Networks + Games + NBC Video |
 |
| |
|
I get weekly emails toting some service that is going to take e-learning to the next level, several steps forward, into the next century, etc. If this was even the case half the time I get a notice, e-learning would already be in the 25th century. But, obviously we're not there yet.
So I wanted to take a skeptic look at a new service by NBC called iCUE. And I did, but I also think they are on to some great ideas here. What is iCUE? Well, basically, it's a learning environment built around NBC video archives. It uses social networking to connect with friends and discuss activities, and educational games to make it fun. Not a bad mixture.
One quote caught my eye: "Our mission is to demonstrate the social, cultural, and educational potential of video games." Well, its about time... or maybe a little late? Grand Theft Mind-Number CCXXVIII might have already calloused millions against even considering the educational potential for video gamers - but let's hope not.
Elliott Masie also posted a podcast interview today with Adam Jones, Sr. Vice President of Network Development & CFO of NBC News about iCUE, if you want NBC's take on this. Listen to the podcast over at The Masie Center.
Hopefully, we can see other television networks in the US and abroad get in on this, maybe even all collaborate together? It would be so interesting to see different perspectives on world issues or historical events from India, England, Russia, etc. Just a dream of mine, I guess.
I need to still sign up and kick the tires on it a bit, but just wanted to report on the idea. Only time will tell if this actually works out, but it is fun to test out new stuff, regardless of whether or not the hype is over-the-top.
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Instapreneurs in Education |
|
| |
|
Greetings guys and gals! Great to be back ... kind of. I do miss my little gal. Janelle is doing *great*, by the way. :)
I read an article recently in Wired called Rise of the Instapreneur. The article discusses sites that allows anyone to upload designs/blueprints for furniture, houses, clothing, etc., and a user/shopper can browse through these user-generated ideas and actually purchase the final product. It gives the example of a man who designed a piece of furniture, uploaded the design document to a site, made it available to shoppers, and so far two of his pieces have been sold.
So I began to think about how this could affect education, and I began to realize how learners increasingly have the opportunity to get a type of on-the-job training. It's easy to see how Web 2.0 has affected the areas such as journalism and creative writing with the inception of blogs, podcasts, vodcasts, etc. Students' work can immediately be published for the world to access, critique, and potentially collaborate with. Now people can publish their ideas and potentially make a profit. What started with sites like Cafe Press that provide the ability to upload homemade graphics and instantly get them printed on t-shirts, ballcaps, etc. is evolving into sites that will allow learners to publish their ideas/projects for the world to peruse and potentially purchase. As a learner, teacher, consumer, and potential designer, I'm intrigued.
Posted by Katrina Adams @ 09:24 am |
Tags: Web 2.0
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Teaching a Class Entirely Through YouTube |
|
| |
|
I read an interesting article on Wired Campus today called "What Happens When a Course Is Taught Entirely via YouTube?" The basic idea was that a class was taught entirely through YouTube - class interactions were filmed and posted, discussions happened through comments, etc. Of course, this design does violate just about every Instructional Design standard in the world. Not surprisingly, the instructor felt like it was a failure.
I have to say - of course it was. Why design a course entirely in YouTube, only about YouTube? Here are some of my thoughts on this:
- Why not make it on something more interesting than just YouTube? Why not try to do something on art, history, culture, or a hundred other topics more suited for the medium?
- Why not use Google Videos in the first place - and keep the videos private?
- Why not use Google Groups to discuss the videos, and upload other assignments?
- When you use a site that was not built for social presence, of course you are going to lose social presence and immediacy. Try using some tools that can increase social presence, like maybe Google Sites?
Just taking these suggestions in to account would have negated most of the criticisms on the accompanying blog post. Most of these reflections I would have predicted before the class even happened, but I think this was still an interesting experiment. I am interested to hear if anyone has used Google Sites to teach a course? I am setting something up in there now, and it is an interesting free tool.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Re-Thinking Learning Management Systems: StudentLink |
|
| |
|
In a field full of hot-topics, one has been catching my attention lately: getting rid of the Learning Management System (or Course Management System, or Virtual Learning Environment). I understand the sentiment driving this discussion: most people are tired of how long it takes for new advances in technology to actually be integrated in to most programs. They want to ditch the LMS application and go to something else. I say, why throw out the baby with the bath water? Why not re-think the learning management system?
Harriet and I recently attend a session about a new e-Learning software solution: StudentLink. They are really re-thinking a lot of what we do in online education. You can see their list of features on their page. We were impressed by the podcast feature, and the fact that they have all class content on one page (like Moodle) and not buried under layers and layers of links (like... [a-hem]... others). Most of the other features were also really nice. Here are four things that I really feel help them stand apart from others:
- The class page feels more like a FaceBook profile than a course. FaceBook, to me, really hit that sweet spot of putting everything you need on one page, but organized in a way that doesn't make your head hurt. This is, of course, before you go adding 20 million applications....
- Groups and organizations are integrated and easy to create. This is pretty rare in LMS programs - getting students communicating across courses.
- Need a new feature? Just ask them and they will make it for you. Yep - you read that right. They create new features by request. If fact, at the conference we were at we started talking about how instructors really wanted blogs inside of classes, and the guys doing the presentation wrote that down as a good idea. We asked them about another feature that our professors love, and they said that they could add it no problem.
- They have a website where you use their software for free. Yes, you also read that correct. Straight from their literature: "Studeous is a free web-service with many of the same features as Campus Suite™, although there are some structural differences (no administrator access, no branding, no parent accounts)."
So, off to a nice start. The Campus Suite is not a free program, but it is priced much better than... [ahem...] others. Keep an eye on this one to see where it goes.
Posted by Matt Crosslin @ 11:33 am |
Tags: LMS
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
More Insanity From "The Lawsuit" |
|
| |
|
To be honest with you, I hate picking on Blackboard. I really do. They just make it so easy. Campus Technology published an interview with Blackboard's Chief Legal Officer Matthew Small. I'll just quote the article - no need to embellish what was said - it's funny enough.
"this was in a very sophisticated patent jurisdiction that hears a lot of patent cases with a very sophisticated judge."
I nearly fell over laughing on this one. I'm from Texas, and this jurisdiction was East Texas. Texans hate to be called "sophisticated" in general (to us, it's better to be a "good 'ole boy"). I don't know if they realize that they actually might have insulted the people they were trying to compliment. But, in all seriousness, this one smacks of propaganda. I guess there is just no nice way to say "this was in a rocket-docket jurisdiction that hears a lot of patent cases and always finds in favors of patent holders regardless of prior art." Blackboard, if you want us to go for this, try filing in a jurisdiction that finds closer to 50-50 on these cases.
"I think what's happening is there are some people in the e-learning community who quite frankly don't understand patent law, and, if they understood what is typically patentable, what a patent looks like, what a good patent looks like, they wouldn't read the Blackboard patent and say, "Oh, I don't think this should be a valid patent." I think for many of the commentators, this is the first patent they've ever read"
The same old tired line from Blackboard - we are too stupid to understand something like patent law. I get tired of shooting this one down, because it is just plain insulting. Patent law is not hard to understand. Get over it. You can't come up with a good counter argument for most "commentators," so you resort to blowing smoke. And what does the first patent thing have to do with anything? If that means anything, then why are you trying to patent something that was the first thing you created in 1998? If being the first at something means that you don't know what you are talking about, then what does that mean about you patenting being the first CMS to have multiple roles for a single user? Hmmmm.....
"When you look at the facts, at the end of 1998--a decade ago--when you look at course management systems and see how many of them allowed a single user with a single logon and a single user account to have multiple roles across multiple courses, none of them did."
What is sad is that many CMS companies have pointed out that they did have this back even in 1995. It's even sadder that Blackboard thinks that there is this huge wall of separation between online education and the rest of the online world. For at least a decade prior to 1998, bulletin boards had the ability to allow a single user with a single logon and a single user account to have multiple roles across multiple boards. It would be comparable for someone to come along and patent the concept of a blog in CMS because they were the first to stick one in their software. The course management system did not grow up in a vacuum separated from the rest of the online world.
"But in late 1998, it was not obvious that you would take role-based access control and apply it in the way that we did to a course management system."
This one makes me sick. I remember discussing this exact issue in an education class while working on my Bachelor's degree. And I graduated in 1997. Sigh......
Posted by Matt Crosslin @ 11:51 am |
Tags: LMS, Current Events
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Digital Native Myth |
|
| |
|
I love getting together with people that think like I do. So that is probably why I like the annual TxDLA conference. I just got back with a load of new information to process. I was also thrilled to see that many people are getting tired of some of my least favorite Ed Tech buzzwords: "digital native" and "digital immigrant."
It seems like whenever I bring up the term digital native or digital immigrant, I get at least a few (if not more) stories from teachers that can't seem to find many of these "digital natives" out there. Those of us that are ready to let the students loose in the digital world that they are supposedly native to are getting blank stares from said students. I polled my wife's 9th grade class last year and found that most of them had no idea what a blog was. Really - no clue. Do you know why? They don't own a computer at home. Over 80% of them didn't. There is this thing called the digital divide that is very real and very ignored.
Chris Duke sent me a link to an excellent blog post he wrote called “Millenials” are NOT different learners!! I think he makes an excellent point:
"Millenials have the opportunity to learn with grander and newer technologies than the those available to their teachers when their teachers were in secondary or undergraduate education."
So, in other words, learning is the same - its just that society has changed and given our natural desire to learn new directions to grow that were not available just a decade ago. We're tapping in to stuff that we always wanted, but just didn't have the technology to do.
Just because someone was born a certain year does not mean they will have access to a computer and therefore become a native. I know that there are those that grow up with a computer at home and they technically are a digital native. But there is also this implication that they are automatically more tech-savy than any given digital immigrant on any given day. This is just not true. Think about all of the people that you know who are true early adopters. I am thinking of some now... and no natives are coming to mind. I am usually the one convincing my 20 year old sister-in-law that she needs to sign up for a new website. Not the other way around. I do recognize that there are differences with every generation. Always has been, always will be. We need to know what these differences are. But won't focusing so much unnecessary attention on the differences just serve to drive a larger wedge between "us" and "them"? There are also huge similarities. We should stop acting like younger generations are an entirely different species than us. Recognize the differences, but learn to focus on the positive stuff that is there.
I originally posted this on the TxDLA 2008 blog and edited it to repost here. On my original post, Rick Tanski left a comment that had some great links on this subject:
Here are also some past EduGeek Journal posts on this issue:
Also, if you are interested, here is the link to the original Digital Native Myth post for context.
Posted by Matt Crosslin @ 12:18 pm |
Tags: Current Events
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Year That Online Education Died |
|
| |
|
I'm getting this ominous feeling right about now. Dark clouds are gathering. Crazy things are happening. Is this a sign of the beginning of the end? How bad can this Blackboard patent get?
Campus Technology published as insightful article yesterday called "Desire2Learn CEO Makes Case Against Blackboard Patent, Court Ruling." I'm glad to finally get to hear from Desire2Learn. I've heard plenty from Blackboard's side of things.
At one level, though, the article is very frustrating. Frustrating because John Baker (CEO of Desire2Learn) has to do verbal back flips to make sure they don't call down the wrath of Blackboard. Is this really what education needs - we now have to spend more time watching what we say and being careful not to infringe some patent then do any actual innovation. Reason number one that this patent might kill online education this year.
Something about this whole situation has always bothered me, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. This article helped me figure it out. Blackboard went out of their way to justify their purchase of WebCT by pointing out that they had competition from Desire2Learn. And then they turn around and sue Desire2Learn to prevent them from competing. How can the U.S. government stand by and watch a company so blatantly do what it can to become a monopoly? "Blackboard's representative at that trial said with a straight face that if [Desire2Learn] weren't here, [Blackboard] would have the entire market." Once again, another reason that online education is being choked to death this year.
This quote really got me: "Blackboard fought against us by using words that weren't in the patent and weren't in the claim construction." They attempted to confuse the jury, use some smoke and mirrors, etc. A year ago, I might have given Blackboard the benefit of the doubt on this one. Not anymore. It's sad enough that Blackboard even has to start a fight over this; now they prove that they can't even hold a clean fight. (The public statements made by Blackboard's CEO are a prime example of trying to confuse people with unnecessary words, so I have little problem believing that they would used the same tactic in the trial.)
The end of the article gives a good summary of what this fight means for online education. Pretty chilling, indeed.
Posted by Matt Crosslin @ 01:28 pm |
Tags: LMS, Current Events
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Open-Source Hardware For Education |
|
| |
|
Yes - the title is correct. I meant to say hardware, not software. I read a really great article on TechLearning about a new 3-D printer with educational potential. One of the features of this printer, called a fabber, is that is is built in a clear case as an open source tool. According to the article, this "means you have access to their design specifications and can modify them and develop your own improvements."
You can read the article here: 3-D Printing a Goo Goo
The printer itself is fascinating - priced and sized to be used in homes and schools, it also uses a wide range of substances from clay to goo to chocolate to cheese to create 3-D objects. So it is also safe.
In the article, Hod Lipson (one of the gurus behind fabber) pointed out the reasoning behind making this printer open-source. He speaks of how we are becoming detached from technology, possibly to the point of not understanding it. All because we can't crack open the case and mess with a tool without messing it up.
Could we ever hope to see this approach take root and grow in other technology markets? Sure, there are other open-source tools out there, but they are pretty few and far between. Just like open-source software, open-source hardware will not be for everyone. But for those that could benefit from it (see article above for examples), we need to see more products like the fabber.
Posted by Matt Crosslin @ 11:22 am |
Tags: Web 3.0, Open Source
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Is Moblogging Ready to be the Next Big Thing? |
|
| |
|
According to Wikipedia, "a moblog is a blog published directly to the web from a phone or other mobile device." Usually, this is in the form of photos, but videos, text, and audio can also be an option. Moblogging has been around for a while, but seems to have flow under the radar. Many online photo and video sites allow users to share what they capture with their cellphone. Blogger allows users to email in blog entries along with attachments. Several services allow users to record podcasts through their phone.
The problem is, there isn't one application or site that lets you text in a message, picture, or video to site at the same time that you can record a video, and then format all of that as a blog entry. That would be a sweet online suite.
Also, if you can tell from the brevity of the Wikipedia article, moblogging just isn't that popular either. I think it could have incredible educational potential. Converge Online published an article this week that looks at hoe one educator is using moblogs in class. Very interesting stuff. See the article here:
Moblogging in Schools
The article points to an actual moblog. Poking around those links leads to other moblog sites. I looked at those sites and saw that several of those are using several sites to hack together a true moblog. Interesting stuff.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
| Activity since Friday, 9 May 2008, 06:32 PM
Nothing new since your last login |
