e-learning tech trends.

Podcasts and wiki's and mashups...oh my. Mobile devices, multi-channel learning, and "mashups" of many technologies make the future of e-learning, in a word, exciting. One of the best parts of this course for me has been the opportunity to "play" with these emerging techs. In second life I learned that you can use virtual characters to represent teachers, coaches, and learners. I believe this may be the killer ap that breaks the curse of "educational games" Collaboration and social networking software like social text or edu 2.0 has moved e-learning from a model of instructor-led teaching of individuals to the more engaging learner-led finding, doing, and collaborating. Peer-to-peer technologies help users share resources and collaborate interactively in educational environments.

e-learning instructional designers and learners will be the great benefitters of these emerging and burgeoning trends.

User centered design

So how does one employ good user-centered design? According to Don Norman one should do the following.....

1. Use both knowledge in the world and in the head

2. Simplify the structure of tasks

3. Make things visible

4. Get the mappings right

5. Exploit the powers of constraints-Natural & Artificial

6. Design for Error

7. When all else fails, standardize

project management

Who would have guessed that one of the most mundane sounding topics would turn out to be the most interesting topic of the whole semester. First off, I was deeply surprised to hear you could be certified as a project manager. To me I always thought of project manager as a position one attained....like shift manager at a MickeyDees or something. I have a couple of engineer friends who have described themselves to me as project managers and I just assumed they rose to that elevated title b/c they were the most capable on the project. I still think that is the most logical pathway to the position but I now I have a better understanding of what's involved in the job....and I find it rather interesting in an odd way.

I couldn't help thinking how different things might have been if we had applied some of the principles of project management to the planning and building of our camp at burning man this year. An epic undertaking with no real project management to speak of.....in fact, a distinct desire for no "management" whatsoever. I believe our camp would have benefited greatly from some of the basic criteria of project management; not the least of which is the decompression/review session when the project is finished.

check out what it's like to have real project management at burning man.

Digital learners.

I teach digital learners. I'm living with the reality of their adjusting to the shifting paradigm of their own learning environment. We are all struggling together to make sense of how we are going to use these "newfangled" yet somehow familiar tools. The blog, they twitter, we made a facebook page together for our chemistry class. The short attention span, "I can find a better explanation of this on the internet," generation are my peeps.

The most amazing thing I've seen that addresses this topic is the following video. I've seen a few different iterations but it never fails to amaze. It's more eloquent that I could ever be, so here it is......

Did you know 3.0

connectivism and cyclic learning.

Connectivism is most definitely an important theory (or is it a theory at all??) to consider in this web 2.0 class. According to Siemens himself, “Connectivism is a learning theory for the Digital Age” With connectivism, learning is a cycle in which the individual feeds info into the system...which feeds info back to the individual....who in turn feed in back into the system/network/cyberspace. It's all connected see !!! For connectivists, learning is a process that has a variety of shifting....sometimes rapidly shifting elements. Because of this fluidity and shifting nature of knowledge, it is of paramount importance that the learner be able to filter and evaluate content to determine validity, and to re-evauate prior decisions/beliefs based on updates to that knowledge base.

For me, a teacher, this is the most important learning theory (or is it?) that I've come across. The implications are pedagogy changing.......

The ability to learn/evaluate/incorporate new info is more important for students that memorizing what's currently known. The foundations of knowledge can change and it's important to be able to adapt one's personal knowledge base to accomodate this new info.

The ability to "connect" with information is more important than the information that is available

Students are able to learn by connecting to the information that is available and then build upon the information to form new knowledge which can then be shared back onto the network for other students to access......cyclical learning.

Information is in a constant flux. Learning can be enhanced thought the connection of a network and this “amplification of learning, knowledge and understanding through the extension of a personal network is the epitome of connectivism" (Siemens, 2004).

presentations part deux

I really enjoyed this class too. It's just so amazing to see the diversity of projects that people come up with when given a basic prompt...."build something based in Web 2.0 tech"


As I've said before, I love Arl's project...it's what I want to do when I grow up. My goal is to build something similar for my school. My tech director is already excited and on board already. I just need to develop some skills.

Alex...cool as always. Only you would think to use prezi to jazz up your presentation. Do you ever sleep or do you just wander around the internet day and night finding interesting things.

Tai's idea is truly awesome...a fantastic idea to use Web 2.0 tech to develop a communal communication structure

Lance/Brian...Great concept...nicely done presentation. CMS in Joomla was interesting. I've checked out both Joomla and Drupal for my final project design. thanks for engaging in the debate.

tracy... I know you think we all know aboun ning but in reality it was great to see your presentation b/c it made me think about what I could do with it.

Diedre: loved your presentation on SEPAL. I am department chair in science at my school and I get a lot of mail from SEPAL. Your presentation will make me reconsider their offerings.

Andy. very quick and to the point. Nice idea tho. deserved more time b/c it's a deep concept.

Hai/Mindy. I can't believe the fight you are having to make this happen at your school. I wish you were at my school. Your ideas would be embraced.

Jeff....of jeff's balls fame...I think you should open a restaurant called Jeff's Balls...filling but not greasy. Fascinating idea to attempt an elearning project on language aquisition. I think you're right to focus on blended interaction b/c of the need to talk in front of others. Clear well put together presentation.

Marc: Oh wait...that's me. nevermind.

and so this blog ends....

First round of presentations

What a great class to finally see my fellow classmates present their stuff. I really enjoyed the round of discussion on privacy. It's a very big topic and the ramifications are only starting to be considered. Obviously it's more acute with minors, but adults using Web 2.0 tools indiscriminately are starting to feel the heat. Lot's of stories of mistakes being made, people getting fired for posting to facebook, students finding themselves under scrutiny for what they say online. Cyberbulling has led to suicide, students get their acct's hacked by other students, adolescent angst gets permanently codified. Alex's comment about netiquette was well made. I chatted with my students about it the next day and they said the rules change daily.

Web 2.0 is an evolving organism. New game, new rules, new paradigm. It's fun to be a part of it, or at least to sit on the side an deconstruct it as it's happening. Glad we didn't have cell phones or the internet when I was in high school.