“Technology, Colleges, and Community.” The theme for this year’s conference was “Blending Community and Multimedia in Ubiquitous Learning.” I have to admit that not too many people explicitly talked about “ubiquitous” learning; there were presentations on Web 2.0 tools and Second Life, some on accessibility and learning theories, and a few on working and teaching
Lately at work I’ve been trying to brainstorm ideas for potential future online courses. Our audience is mostly practicing K-12 teachers. Our courses are fully online, offered through several colleges in the U.S. They are mostly asynchronous, although some synchronous group work might be possible through a tool like YackPack or Skype. A few weeks
I promise that this isn’t going to turn into one of those personal journal blogs where people just write about what they had for breakfast each day, but please indulge me in a little personal reflection time for my birthday. Today is my 30th birthday. I know a lot of people dread this milestone, but
I’m a bit stuck on a course I’m developing and thought I’d throw this out there to see if anyone else has any good ideas. This is a fully online course is to teach K-12 teachers how to use read/write web tools. I am trying to have a related image on just about every page,
Last week, someone emailed me this article, Writing for E-Learning. to help support a point she was making about adding a search function to online classes. I think her idea of a search function is great, but I mentioned that I disagree with several points in the article, starting with the assertion that “content is
Courtesy of Matthew Nehrling, I just found this article describing the use of text messages to teach English as a Second Language (ESL). This pilot program is from Athabasca University, which I heard of for the first time last Friday during Terry Anderson’s presentation at the Online Connectivism Conference. While mobile learning through cell phones
Yesterday I watched George Siemens presentation on Situating Connectivism in preparation for the Online Connectivism Conference. The presentation was helpful in providing context, but I admit that I’m still not sure I completely understand connectivism. Right now, I feel like I know it sort of superficially, but not well enough to do anything with it.
Connectivism’s Implications for Instructional Design Read More »
Good news today–the Patent Office has agreed to review the overly broad Blackboard patent. The patent in question, “Internet-based education support system and methods” (U.S. 6988138), grants Blackboard a monopoly on most educational software that differentiates between the roles of teacher and student until the year 2022. This patent is very far-reaching and could affect
Stephen Downes linked to a post by Wendy Wickham entitled “You just had to be there.” Wendy has a great picture of something made during a synchronous learning session that doesn’t make any sense to anyone outside the community who created it. Wendy says this: “In a synchronous learning community, in many instances, the process
Synchronous and Asynchronous Learning Communities Read More »