conferences

What Do Educators Really Want in an LMS?

If you were at the session that Harriet and I presented recently at the Sloan-C Emerging Technology conference, you probably saw us take a different approach to the session.  Well, other than the play dough and Tupperware Shape-O-Ball toys we used.  Props are just standard for us.  No – what we first did was asked the people there what they wanted in a Learning Management System.   Harriet wrote those suggestions down, no matter how far out there they were.  Most sessions don’t start with feedback like that… maybe at the end, or as they are going along.  But we wanted to start with feedback first and then go from there (and, to be honest.. I didn’t even know Harriet was going to do that. She just walked in with this huge piece of paper.  That’s just how we roll…)  We got a surprising and intriguing list from the participants:

  • a menu of tools
  • adaptability / accessibility
  • interactive virtual agents
  • ease of collaboration
  • seamless integration
  • tactile activities for any sense (smell, touch, taste, etc)
  • modular learning (customizable)
  • holodeck
  • capture, evaluate, and weigh user created content
  • useful
  • game based interaction with in game assessment
  • simulation
  • translate into different languages, including American Sign Language

As you can see, quite a diverse list… even some crazy ideas.  I like crazy ideas.  This was at our presentation on New Vision for Learning Management Systems.  Interesting how people that had come from all over the country came up with many of the concepts we are trying to capture with New Vision.  Coincidence?

Sloan-C Emerging Technology Conference

One conference down, one more to go.  I’ll be heading out to NUTN 2009 next week.  But this past week I was at the Sloan-C International Symposium on Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning.  Quite a mouthful.  I saw some interesting sessions on some new products that I plan on blogging about in the future.  I want to give each one of those their own post.  But for now, some issues that I pondered while at the conferences:

  • One general session had a panel with an author and representatives from Google and Microsoft.  While the Microsoft and Google people were speaking, I couldn’t quit thinking “Hello, I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC.”  I’m beginning to think that certain companies really do attract and hire certain personality types….
  • During one session, the presenter asked what people do to increase student engagement.  One gentleman raised his hand and declared “animated gifs!  Kids love them, and you can finds thousands of little ‘banging hammers’ and ‘flying birds’ out there for free!”  I had to strain to resist the temptation to smack my forehead so hard that they wouldn’t have heard it in the next session over.  Other people in the room actually began nodding and agreeing – “oh, yeah – students love media that moves!”.  A colleague even told me that the same man shared the same idea in another session. (We’ve had to ban animated gifs where I work for the most part, because students complain that they are distracting, boring, and make us look really, really ancient.)
  • I sat in a session about creating realistic avatars of instructors that speak to students.  Basically, you spend hours (or days) creating a realistic virtual image of a teacher, then have the teacher record some speech, and then spend some more hours or days syncing the words to the avatar, adding blinks and stuff like that.  Or, you can just spend an hour or two actually filming the teacher and be done with it.  Seriously – it seems like no matter how far technology advances, some people just can’t get away from the talking head we’ve had in education for millenia now.  Do we really need high tech cutting edge talking heads now?
  • Augmented reality made an appearance in a session (even though the session was about something else).  You don’t hear many people talking about educational uses for that, but they need to.  More on this on later.
  • Adobe always has impressive products, but they always seem to be off people’s radar for some reason.  But they really do some interesting stuff.  They are trying hard to get Flash working on all media devices from smart phones to HD television.  That could prove interesting.
  • One presetner asked “why should we pay so much for sales and marketing of textbooks, when we already need them in the first place?”  Or something to that effect.  70% of the costs of some textbooks goes in to those two categories.  But there are solutions for that – and many of the other problems that textbooks have – I’ll be blogging more about that later.
  • Bing was brought up a few times.  It was actually spoken very highly of.  “It has a gorgeous interface” someone said.  Actually, it just has a gorgeous picture prominently in the middle, surrounded by a hideous interface that hides in the glow of the cool picture in the middle.  Ed-Techers get criticized that we are so distracted by coolness and flashiness that we tend to forget functionality.  And here we go proving that criticism to be true….

Upcoming Conferences

Some of the EduGeeks will be traveling to conferences in the near future, even doing some presentations.  Come hang out with us over a meal or something and talk geek stuff if you are at any of these.  Of course, the economy could change our plans for these, but we’re still planning to go as long as the money holds out.

I will be presenting at all three, the first two with Harriet.  Some of the other EduGeeks will be at TxDLA – other than Katrina, not sure who all yet or what they are doing there (such as presentations), but will keep you post.

Harriet and I will be presenting “Will Web 3.0 Make Us Change the Way We Educate? A Call for a New Learning Management Program” at TxDLA and Sloan-C.  I will be presenting with Tim Gottleber of DCCCD at NUTN. The session will be called “Get Those EduPunks Off of My Lawn!”  :)

Reflections on the NUTN 2008 Conference

Last week I presented at the National University Telecommunication Networks‘ 2008 conference. I have to say that it was one of the best conferences I have ever been to. Not that others were bad, I just really enjoyed this one. Maybe it was the beautiful mountains of Park City Utah. Or maybe it was the really good food (just as Patti promised). Here are some of my thoughts.

First of all, if you go through all of the trouble to pick an interesting city to host a conference in, then also be like NUTN and plan to integrate some of the cities attractions in to the conference (not just as after hours activities). Like a trip to downtown Park City for networking dinners or the gondola ride up the mountain for an awards dinner – great ideas.

My presentation on the future of the Internet was fun. I was a little surprised at the resistance to meta tagging that was voiced (“that will take too much time with no return benefit”). Of course, these people were in the minority I found out, as other people came up afterwards and told me they loved tagging and found it very useful.

I was also in a session that looked at the future of pedagogy and instructional design. Basically, three presenters each defended their position: tried and true (aka “the talking head”), expansion of current policies, and cutting edge. After they talked, we discussed. I was surprised at the support for tried and true lecture-based instructional delivery (both in face-to-face and distance learning). Passive learning has long proven to be ineffective at delivering instruction (no matter how interesting the presenter is), but I guess some still feel they are doing something while up there yapping. A great discussion nonetheless.

The keynotes were excellent. The opening keynote was Kurt Bedell, who had been with Apple for 10 years. He showed us some back-door stuff for iTunes University and even a little bit about the new iPhone :) I am always a little suspicious of podcasts because people tend to promote passive learning when using podcasts, but done correctly they do have their place.

We also had Mary Cullinane, who basically was the School of the Future Technology Architect for Microsoft. They seem to be doing great things for the future of education. That is, if you want to go to a four year college. She seemed to indicate that she believes that the only way to successfully complete your education is to finish a four year college degree. I didn’t get to ask her if she meant to imply that, but we do tend to think that way in suburbia America. The problem with this is that many people just are not interested in four year colleges. Technical schools, community colleges, and on-the-job training are all very acceptable alternatives to job development after high school.

Then there was the closing key note – Chris Melissinos, the Chief Gaming Officer of Sun Microsystems Inc. Yes – Chief Gaming Officer. He was incredibly funny, and not to mention really smart. He gets to play and develop games for a living – and go around presenting about them. Think video games are too violent? According to Chris, less than 20% of all video games sales are rated Mature (can’t remember the exact number). He spent a good chunk of time debunking myths about video games in education.

Also had a blast doing a geo-chaching activity. Did I mention there was also good food? I did manage to take some pics and a few short videos – mainly of the scenery:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mcrosslin/NUTN2008
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2717213734838364471&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=459153142681737867&hl=en

So, plan on attending next year in Saratoga Springs, New York. You won’t be disappointed.

Podcast: Region XI Distance Learning Conference Live

Listen in as Katrina, Matt, and Harriet discuss online educational epiphanies during lunch at the Region XI Distance Learning Educator Conference. Reflections include thoughts on new educational sites as well as teacher issues with online learning. Recorded live from a cell phone using Gcast. See the Podcast tab at the top of the page, or listen to the streaming audio below.

EduGeekJournal Podcast ep002

IOL Presentations – Web 2.0 and Second Life

Greetings all! Darren, Matt and I are back from a very successful conference. Our two presentations went very well. Below are the presentations for your viewing pleasure! Email us if you have any questions!

Has the Academic World Forgotten the Digital Divide?

Some have proclaimed that it doesn’t exist, but I am sorry – the digital divide is alive and well. I know someone who teaches at the second largest high school in the nation. She is attempting to integrate technology into her classes. She also has a hard time finding all of these so-called “digital natives.”

I just got out of the keynote speech for today at the 2007 IOL conference. The speaker brought in several college students to demonstrate to us how today’s generation is different from previous generations. I loved hearing what they had to say – they did a great job. I was disappointed in the fact that the panel was not very ethnically or economically diverse. I’m sure they aren’t all rich – but they all mentioned owning things that most of the students I mentioned above will never own. I’ve surveyed those students on technology, and I have found that all of their responses were radically different than ANY fact presented to us at this session. And these students are predominately African-American.

Of course, if you travel across the digital divide in Dallas, you will see that every student is just like the ones that we saw on this panel. And – I want to make sure I point this out – I liked the panel. I thought the did a good job of representing their side of the digital divide. What I am concerned about is that I haven’t even heard the digital divide mentioned at the last 3 conferences I have been to (I’ve only been to three in the past year). But, now thanks to more scholarships and grants, we are having more students from what I call the “forgotten side” of the digital divide going on the college. Time for a wake up call…

IOL Conference Jaiku

Greetings all! Just a quick note to let you guys know that Matt, Darren and I are currently at the IOL Conference in Austin, and we’re planning on posting to Jaiku throughout our workshops and sessions. Check out my Jaiku page or Matt’s Jaiku page to see exactly what we’re up to!

TXDLA Conference Highlights

I’d like to reflect on the Texas Distance Learning Association’s (TXDLA) 10th annual conference for a minute. This was my 5th time going and, in my opinion, this is one of the “can’t miss” conferences held each year. This year I think it drew somewhere near a thousand educators. Here are a few observations:

  1. Moodle was everywhere. For whatever reason, I have not paid much attention to this open source LMS in the past. It has my attention now. At one session, that gave a broad overview of Moodle, someone asked, “This does everything that Blackboard does. Why would anyone pay when you can get the same features for free?” Good question. Over the next few months I hope to have some answers for you. In my spare time (cue laugh track) over the next few months, I am going to set up Moodle 1.8 and create a course. I will report back on the pains and pleasures of the experience.
  2. I attended a session on the implementation of a course, “Going Online to Teach Online Faculty About Teaching Online.” Allison Peterson from Texas Woman’s University gave an outstanding presentation on why the course failed. I took away a *lot* of good info from this session. Of equal importance, it was nice to know that I am not the only one who has been a part of a misstep or two. We need more honesty like this to advance our field. Nice job Alli.
  3. The most memorable quote occurred while standing in line for lunch. The gentleman behind me was praising a colleague on his ability to pick up technology. He said, “He is good …really good. He is going to be a Digital Native before long.” I had a flash to the Aflac commercial with Yogi Berra in the barber shop.
  4. The statement that got me thinking the most was made be the Keynote Speaker, Elliott Maise. He said that teleconferencing is on the verge of really taking off. Being more of an asynchronous learning guy, this really hasn’t been on my radar. I worked with teleconferencing at The Medical University of South Carolina a while back, and the experience did not leave a great lasting impression. The technology was expensive, clunky, and it seemed to interfere with learning more than promote it (I often had to baby sit the equipment to make sure it behaved). It should be noted that this was five years ago and the technology is vastly improved. I’ll stay tuned.
  5. People are curious about Second Life. They aren’t sure what to do with it yet, but they are interested.