Tech Trends from Educause 09

The Chronicle’s Wired Campus released a short video clip about the buzz from the  Educause Conference 09 in Denver, CO. A few attendees were asked about what they thought the top technological trends in higher education & also their concerns at the conference:

Picture c/o educausestaff on Flickr.

Trends:

• Web 2.0
• Virtualization
• Cloud Computing
• Social Networking
• Mobile Learning
• ePortfolios

Concerns:

• Open Access
• Transformational Course Management Systems
• Security Concerns
• Finances
• Learners’ Needs
• Keeping track of connections made at the conference

Whether you’re at the Educause 09 conference or following from afar, you can stay connected to the diolage on Twitter (hashtag #EDUCAUSE09), Flickr, & via the streaming of select conference content online.

NACADA Conference 09

I’m looking forward to connecting with advisors next week at the NACADA Annual Conference in San Antonio.  I was fortunate get the time off work to travel south, since the conference is being held in my (new) home state of TX. Conferences provide a great opportunity to connect with other  professionals/faculty, share new ideas and learn what is going on in the wonderful world of advising.

Since some of my favourite academic advising friends are not able to make it to the Lone Star state (due to department cut backs and whatnot), my advisor/tech guru friend, Eric Stoller, suggested we continue to use the Twitter hashtag to enable non-attendees the opportunity to virtually follow the conference action. This ideas was quite a success at the NACADA Technology Seminar amongst the seminar attendees. Eric used the hashtag: #nacadatech09 to aggregate all tagged tweets into the NACADA Tech website via a widget from monitter.com. Amazing.

The hashtag for the NACADA Annual Conference  will be: #nacada09
Now tweet your little hearts out, my friends. [Thanks, EDS. You rock!]

How YOU can participate as either a NACADA Annual Conference Tweeter or as a virtual follower  (c/o @ericstoller):

NACADA Tweeters:

• Step 1: Sign up for a Twitter account.
• Step 2: Take your laptop or web-ready cellphone to San Antonio and hope that WiFi is available.
• Step 3: Post updates on Twitter about the conference: session pointers, take-aways, best practices, key issues, etc.
• Step 4: In every 140 character post, include “#nacada09″ (without quotes and a space in front of and after the tag)

Virtual followers:

• Step 1: Follow the virtual conference action via a Twitter search for #nacada09
• Step 2: Repeat step 1.

Open Learning Courses: EC&I 831 and CCK09

Summer always leads to much needed time outdoors and away from the computer. It’s nice to be off the grid, but also good to plug in and reconnect with friends and learning ideas online.

To kick off the new academic year, online education, and career development I have signed up for a couple of online, open education courses to compliment the grad program I start this fall.

Here are the two courses that I am connecting with mid-September:

1. Connectivism & Connective Knowledge 2009 (CCK09)

This course is led by Stephen Downes and George Siemens. The CCK08 Syllabus and supporting content can be found on the CCK09 Wiki.

You can register to receive course information here. Learners can also get formal credit as part of the Certificate in Emerging Technologies for Learning can enroll through University of Manitoba’s Extended Education Faculty. The course will begin on September 14, 2009.

2. EC & I 831: Social Media & Open Education

This is an open access graduate course from the Faculty of Education, University of Regina by Dr. Alec Couros. Although this courses is for credit, there is also an opportunity for participation from non-credit students. All lectures in this course, from September 15/09 to December 8/09 will be publicly available. To access the lectures, look for the appropriate date under “Synchronous Sessions“, then look for the weekly Elluminate link. I will also offer the appropriate Elluminate link via tweet via @courosa.

If you’re looking to learn from interesting and experienced educators, while connecting to peers and resources online, than one or both of these courses may be of interest to you. Sign up & join in the fun. Although I’ll be busy with work & school, I’ll be sure to continue to share my thoughts, ideas and resources that I learn here.

If you are currently interacting and learning from another open course… please share. Happy open learning!

AACE Global U – Social Media Seminars

AACE Global U will be hosting a series of seminars around “Social Media: Trends and Implications for Learning.” I was able to listen to the archived seminar for July, however I hope to participate in a future monthly online seminar:

August 10, 2009, 9:00 PM Eastern USA
September 8, 2009: 3:00 PM Eastern USA
October 13, 2009: 9:00 PM Eastern USA
November 10, 2009: 3:00 PM Eastern USA
December 8, 2009: 9:00 PM Eastern USA

The seminar series, led by George Siemens and David Cormier, is without fee and will include live interactive sessions, in addition to discussions with guest speakers and participants. All sessions are co-sponsored by and will be archived in the Education & Information Technology Library (EdITLib). And you can join in the discussion on AACE Connect.

During these Elluminate sessions, the conversations will be active in the webinar and recorded for those who cannot participate at these specific times.  By using the #SMTI hash tag you can find conversations on Twitter, archives in blogs and resources in Delicious.

Here were a few key discussion pieces I found useful from the first social media seminar:

• Networking in Everyday Life by Bernard Hogan
• Examples of learning outcomes for social media & digital technology use in learning
• The Digital Melting Pot by Sharon Stoerger
• Open Educational Resources: Opportunities and Challenges in Higher Education paper
• Cover It Live
• Educating the Net Generation – EDUCAUSE
• wikiEducator
• FREE by Chris Anderson
• Does Technology Really Enhance the Quality of Teaching & Learning? by Tony Bates

Wiki Summer Camp

Thinking about using a wiki for your learning environment? If so, you might want to head to PBWorks Summer Camp. This interactive, online forum is a great professional development opportunity for educators who wish to engage in discussion, complete assignments, watch virtual presentations and learn from other wiki mentors some best practices in the wiki-world.

Here is the PBWorks camp syllabus:

Week One: June 22-26

How to set up your wiki:

• Wiki Structure
• What lesson plans to wikify and how
• Upload files – like your syllabus- and make it accessible from the front page
• Important features used for this course
  • Folders
  • Tagging
  • Tables
• Beginner tips from our Mentors!

Register for this week’s webinar on June 23rd at 10:00PST: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/497735667

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Week Two: June 29- July 3

Interactive Media and How to use it: Review the media options on our educator site

• Chat rooms – when they work and when not to use them
• Videos – tips on video recording software for teachers, and how to quickly embedd videos on your wiki page
• Images
• What video and image services are there for educators to use for free

Round Table Chat with Kristine and the PBwiki Mentors

• Hear from Mentors and find out where they struggled and where they succeeded with interactive media on their wiki.
• What to be aware of when using photos, video and podcasts (aka – no personal photos on a public wiki!)
• Learn step by step how to use the interactive media features.

Homework week two: (This should take 1.5 hours)

• Create a video and upload it to your wiki.  Use one of the suggested tools

-or-

• Create a survey/poll and upload it to your wiki. Use one of the suggested tools
• Link to your video/poll on your camper page.
• Ask a question, or join the conversation on our site for educators

Register for this week’s webinar on June 30th at 10:00PST: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/913182851

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Week Three: July 6 -10

Security features in PBwiki 2.0 — keep your work private!

• User Permission levels and how to make changes
• Folders & Folder security
• Page level security

Demonstration of the PBwiki Security Features

• The most important webinar of all — learn how to set security controls BEFORE your students join the wiki.

Homework week three: This should take 20 minutes

• Create a new homework Week Three page & place it in the Week Three folder.
• Go to the page on PBwiki Permission levels.  Read over the PBwiki permission levels and answer the questions. Respond to the questions on your week three homework page.
• Go to the page on Folder Security.  Watch the three short videos and respond to the questions about folder security.  Respond to the questions on your week three homework page.
• Go to the page on Page Security.   Watch the short videos and respond to the questions about page level security. Respond to the questions on your week three homework page.

Register for this week’s webinar on July 7th at 10:00PST: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/333808003

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Week Four: July 13 – 17

Three ways to invite your students — including the BRAND NEW Classroom Accounts

• Request Access
• Upload email address
• Automatically create accounts without email address (for students under 13)
• How to introduce your wiki to students so it works
  • Parent permission forms
  • FAQ page
  • Sandbox
• What to expect when your students take over
  • Wiki management

Live Discussion on inviting students and the suprising results

Homework week four: this should take 30 minutes

• Set your notification setting in my.pbwiki.com to make sure you receive notifications of student changes
• Upload your student email address, or print out your student accounts
• Determine what invite menthod works for your class and discuss it on the forum

Register for this week’s webinar on July 14th at 10:00PST: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/983510451

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Final:  Webinar Wrap up on July 21st

• Review and new features for educators.

No Homework — Just new features for your workspace!

Register for this week’s webinar on July 21st at 10:00PST: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/756888211

Sounds intriguing? Then sign up HERE.

Webheads in Action

Looking to engage with other communities of practice online?  Then be sure to check out the Webheads in Action Online Convergence 2009 happening NOW and this weekend (May 22-24, 2009).

The Webheads are a world-wide, cross-cultural, and vibrant online-community of educators with an open enrollment for anyone who wants to join.

I am going to tune into a bit on UStream, check out the traffic on Twitter (hashtag WiAOC) & then call it a day.

Happy Weekend to all!

Where Is the Open Education Movement Going?

This question was posed as the central topic of today’s EDUCAUSE web seminar (May 19, 2009) – Where Is the Open Education Movement Going? hosted by Brian Lamb & David Wiley.

Much of the session focused around:

• Open Educational Resources
• Open Content
• Open Access
• Openness

For those of you who missed the presentation, you are able to access the Educause web seminar archive for the slides or recording of the online event.  This session was also a good prelude for the Open Education Conference which will be held in Vancouver, BC  August 12-14, 2009.

Great comments from the online chat in the session today. Here are a few messages that resonated with me:

• Can’t we set up private areas as well as shareable areas in our online learning environments? Both can be useful.
• Many faculty are online and don’t realize the extent possibly
• Old School Traditional Professors Unite–you have nothing to lose but your chains.
• A lot depends on the way the activities are integrated, and whether the teacher walks the walk him- or herself.

More converstations to follow on Twitter – #opened09

Course Exploration Continues… (Day 2)

Today was the second half of Exploring the Future of Courses: From Courses to Dis/Course web conference.  There great things to hear & learn about from the 3 sessions:

• Identity in the age of the open classroom (D’Arcy Norman) & Identity Presentation
• Pedagogy and web 2 (Grainne Conole) & her Discourse Presentation
• Teaching for Openness (Alec Couros)

It is great to engage with others who share the same passion and interest in the EdTech community. Although there was some great exchange today, I did leave the online conference with many questions and thoughts to ponder. After digesting the wealth of information & presentations I will be sure to share more thoughts.

Many thanks to:

• Martin Weller, George Siemens, and Grainne Conole for initiating the web conference
• All the presenters who shared their experiences & knowledge
• And of course, the many participants who contributed to a myriad of discussions & posts

For more follow up discussions check out the Disc09 Moodle.

Exploring the Future of Courses

Exploring the Future of Courses: From Course to Dis/Course is a short, online (FREE) conference May 14 & 15, 2009. Anyone is able to join in the session presentations & discussions that delve into the topic of online learning and course content that is shared in Elluminate & in Moodle.

Current course models of development, creation and sharing is in question for our learners. Many challenges and changes to digital technologies will impact how to best design course content.

Today’s presentations included:

• How digital technologies are impacting higher education (Martin Weller) – Digital Implications for Universities by @mweller
  
• Connected and disconnected learners (Josie Fraser

• Messing with Data (Tony Hirst)

• Future Course Models (George Siemens)

Most of the sessions discussed how educators are managing the challenges new technology presents and its effect on current course models, data-driven material and learner needs in a digital.

For those of you who could not attend today, be sure to join in online tomorrow OR catch up with the conversation online. If are not able to tune in live, be sure to follow along in Twitter, Delicious or blogs with the hash tag – #disc09

[The sessions in Elluminate will be recorded and archived shortly.]

Great question posed by George Siemens, towards the end of his presentation, to further ponder:

“What is the vital currency of education in a world where the information cycle is no longer controllable?”

TIDE is Coming In for Developmental Educators

The Technical Institute for Developmental Educators (TIDE) will be held at Texas State San Marcos from July 26-31, 2009.  This is an interesting, hand-on technology workshop sponsored by Texas State University, CRLA and NADE fo higher ed folks interested in utilizing technology in their work.

Those who should attend include:

• Developmental educators in higher education who want to learn more about how to use technology
• All expertise are welcome; workshops beginners to advance
• Both PC and Macintosh platforms will be available
• Project support for initiatives at respective institutions
• Opportunity to receive 3 hours of graduate credit or continuing education credit.

There will be at least 6 mini-course sessions (3 hours each) throughout the week, to introduce various learning opportunities with technology and enhance skills.  There will also be daily mentoring group meetings to debrief and support project development.