I’ve noticed the word “open” has been used a lot lately to describe various learning related phenomena, but four stand out. Each of these uses “open” in a slightly different manner.
1. Open courses: “The idea is to use open-source learning tools to make courses transparent and open to all, harnessing the knowledge of anyone who is interested in a topic.” Read about one example of an open course.
2. Open University: There are several, but the main one I’ve noticed is The Open University of the UK, a distance learning focused institution based in Milton Keynes. It is open in the sense of open enrollment for undergraduates, with most undergrad programs (courses) having no entry requirements and open in the sense of being accessible regardless of student location. From the web site: “The OU was founded to open up higher education to all, regardless of their circumstances or where they live.” Other open universities are: Indira Gandhi National Open University based in New Delhi, India;
3. Open Resources (repositories): The main one I’ve noticed is MIT’s OpenCourseware project. In this context, open means free and accessible resources including syllabus, lecture notes, exams and videos from about 2000 courses taught at MIT. There are several other open resources projects such as Rice University’s Connexions which is a content repository not limited to Rice courses and not limited to a course size chunk of resources. That’s an awkward way to say that you’ll find modules, lessons, and courses there. There’s even an open courseware consortium with 48 US members followed closely by Spain with 41 members. Lots of links to projects from the consortium web site.
4. Then there are Open Textbooks. See this recent article from First Monday . At least partially, open textbooks are in response to the high cost of textbooks for university courses. An interesting business model for open textbooks is used by Flat World Knowledge . I used a free wiki based textbook a couple of years ago to teach a class on learning theory, Mike Orey’s (Ed.) “Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and Technology” available here .
What does all this openness add up to? I’m not sure. For me, as a faculty member in a blended program (University of La Verne’s Org Leadership EdD), it is a trend to watch and explore. I’m not sure what it will mean for us as a program, but in general I think it means a couple of things: (1) Content is widely available and increasing so we shouldn’t necessarily put resources to creating new content; (2) The value of an accredited degree program is not the content but the interactions, guidance, mentoring, peer relationships, and the documentation of supposed learning via a transcript and diploma that is widely recognized as valid; (3) Instructor roles should continue to change to a facilitator model emphasizing critical evaluation of a wide range of resources. (4) If the quality of interactions and relationships take center stage replacing content delivery as main function of instructor, then it’s more important that the instructor be the embodiment of what is taught. I guess we’ve always said this, at least in some circles, but if an instructor could talk about the core concepts and content then we might have been tempted to overlook the lack of “living out” of the concepts. A quick example: I teach a beginning research course in the doctoral program, so I have to model being an inquirer, being a scholarly practitioner as much as I have to be able to talk about it. If I’m not a scholarly practitioner, then I can’t convey or model it for my students even if I might be able to talk about it.
So, nothing new, really. All this has been said before and written a number of times. Writing this post has helped me to organize my thoughts a bit, though. If you read through this, then I’d be pleased to hear what you think, your experiences, and what you might add or disagree with.
Posted in LaVerneU, Leadership, elearning.
Tagged with Laverne, MIT, Open, OpenEducation.
By Peter
– September 7, 2010
I’m a co-chair of this new, interdisciplinary conference taking place Sunday 20th March – Tuesday 22nd March 2011 in Prague, Czech Republic. The Call for Papers just came out yesterday. Here’s the scoop.
The advent of Information and Communication Technologies has changed how we work, teach, learn, and relate to each other. The idea of a virtual world encompasses online communities, communities of inquiry, formal teaching and learning, and horror and fantasy games. The experiences gained in such virtual worlds, whether high or low tech, impact who we are in the analog world (and vice versa): Who am I? How do we relate to each other? What is my role? How can we be productive as a team? What is mortality? How do we resolve conflict? These questions are addressed, to some degree, through the experiences we have in virtual worlds. What are we learning through those experiences? How can we perform better in both worlds?
More information: http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/education/experiential-learning-in-virtual-worlds/call-for-papers/
Posted in Conference, Teams, elearning.
By Peter
– August 24, 2010
Driving home from Norman last night, I listened to Speaking of Faith’s Krista Tippett’s interview with George Coyne and Guy Consolmagno, Jesuit Astronomers, called “Asteroids, Stars, and the Love of God.” The broadcast version of the interview is a funny, fascinating discussion with two serious scientists who are men of faith. This is the uncut/unedited MP3 version of the interview. The conversation touches on a variety of topics including history of science, what it means to be a christian scientist, and much more. George & Guy tell about tells how they got their beginning in science. They talk about a couple of teachers that inspired them. I particularly enjoyed this section of the interview. Here’s the main page with various other links. And, here’s a Twitterscript page, a collection of quotes from the interview that they have paired with a video of Br. Consolmagno appearing on The Colbert Report. I started to pull a few quotes from the interview to post here, but then I decided against it because you really need to get the context of the discussion itself and its ebb and flow.
Posted in Faith, Science.
Tagged with astronomy, Catholic, Faith, Science.
By Peter
– April 5, 2010
As part of a research class I’m co-teaching at the University of La Verne we are conducting some telephone interviews and need to record them. We need to generate quality digital audio and cannot spend very much because most if not all the students will be conducting the interviews.
So far, I have several options, one for telephones (either cellular or landline) and several for Skype.
Olympus TP-7
Option 1: For Telephones — Olympus TP-7 Telephone Recording Device plus a digital recorder. Here’s a description from the Olympus website: “The TP-7, telephone pickup, makes phone recording two sides of the conversation. Just plug the TP-7 jack into the “MIC” jack of your recorder, and put the earphone side into your ear. When speaking on the telephone, the TP-7 will capture both sides of the conversation for recording by your voice recorder.” Here’s the best price I found: Amazon $13.99, Note that this solution also requires a recorder, (around $50, I think) that has a mic input (3.5mm or 2.5mm, assuming the TP7 comes with the adapter as indicated on the Olympus website).
Option 2: For Skype — I make Skype to telephone calls regularly using my unlimited annual skype plan; but a monthly plan costs $3/month I think, or you could pay as you go for a couple of cents per minute (or less). But, Skype won’t record, so you’ll have to add an application that takes the Skype audio and saves it. I have used Pamela Recorder and have been moderately satisfied. It’s been a couple of months since I used it and I think it interrupted the call a couple of times, though I’m not sure Pamela caused it. Pamela Recorder costs around $21. Other call recorders for Skype are PrettyMay ($25) and CallBurner, listed on the Skype website. I’ve not used either, but CallBurner has an attractive 30 day free trial.
Any suggestions?
Posted in LaVerneU, university.
Tagged with audio, interview, research, skype, ULV.
By Peter
– January 24, 2010
From New technologies, new pedagogies: Mobile learning in higher education, chapter 13 (Design principles for mobile learning), Herrington, Herrington and Mantei discuss the eleven themes that emerged from their action research. In earlier chapters, they and other authors described 10 projects that were launched to integrate mobile devices (smart phones, iPods, etc) in teaching and learning. In this thirteenth chapter, they review and reflect on those projects. They call the following themes “design principles for mobile learning.”
- Real world relevance: Use mobile learning in authentic contexts.
- Mobile contexts: Use mobile learning in contexts where learners are mobile.
- Explore: Provide time for exploration of mobile technologies.
- Blended: Blend mobile and non mobile technologies.
- Whenever: Use mobile learning spontaneously.
- Wherever: Use mobile learning in non traditional learning spaces.
- Whomsoever: Use mobile learning both individually and collaboratively.
- Affordances: Exploit the affordances of mobile technologies.
- Personalise: Employ the learners’ own mobile devices.
- Mediation: Use mobile learning to mediate knowledge construction.
- Produse: Use mobile learning to produce and consume knowledge.
I like the thorough, systematic approach to action research here. I also like the open publication of the results. I can use these results, discuss them with my students and with colleagues. Of these eleven principles, number 5, use mobile technologies spontaneously, reminds me of a photographers blog I read the other day (don’t remember where… have to search) in which he claimed that one of the strengths of phone cameras is that you have them with you for spontaneous pictures. So, the fact that a smart phone is usually carried about means that it is available for spontaneous use in spite of the picture, for example, not being of the highest quality.
I like my iPhone for that very reason… I can record a bit of audio, take a short video, upload a picture to Flickr, make a note in Evernote, wherever I am. Learning that takes place in the field, where we live and work, is embedded in that context. We are learning more and more about how learning is tied to context, and I think this makes mobile devices an intriguing prospect for learning.
Posted in Book, elearning.
Tagged with elearning, iphone, learning, mobile, mobilelearning, smartphone.
By Peter
– December 14, 2009
Have you ever heard of the spacing effect as related to memory and learning new information? Discovered by Ebbinghaus in the late 1800′s, it’s “one of the most remarkable phenomena to emerge from laboratory research on learning,” the psychologist Frank Dempster wrote in 1988, (American Psychologist “The Spacing Effect: A Case Study in the Failure to Apply the Results of Psychological Research.”). Yet, it’s almost universally ignored.
Basically, the idea is that forgetting something that has been memorized occurs at a predictable rate and that if reminders are properly spaced, over a period of time, then forgetting can be averted even as reminders are phased out after about 4 instances. Pretty cool, huh?
So, I’m reading this article from Wired Magazine (online of course) and it’s nice: Want To Remember Everything You’ll Ever Learn? Well, it got me thinking about the benefits of the spread-out nature of much online learning. For example, if we have an 8 hour workshop to deliver, I think that it would be much more effective if it were spaced out over 2-6 weeks rather than all attempted in one day. One reason is the spacing effect. In the online class, you would have the opportunity to review and revisit periodically over time, whereas in the one day workshop, you would just rush through the experiences and/or information.
In the article, Gary Wolf writes about Piotr Wozniack and his SuperMemo software that is supposed to help people remember new information by using an algorithm to provide timely reminders until, ostensibly, the new information is stored in the long term memory. Here’s an image from the article that illustrates the timing of the reminders on the curve of forgetting. I like how that sounds, “The curve of forgetting.” It would be a good title for a book or poem. Anyway, here’s the graphic:
from Wired Magazine
What do you think?
Posted in elearning.
Tagged with article, elearning, instruction, learning, memory.
By Peter
– October 21, 2009
So Kara J (a.k.a. K-Jo) and I are doing a presentation at the Oklahoma ASTD conference next week. Our presentation is called “Building Successful Virtual Teams on a Shoestring” and we need your help. We’re going to do a top ten list and we’d like your help to make a video montage.
So, read our list below and when you’ve finished laughing, pick out one or two lines you like. (Feel free to make up your own if you’re so inspired.) Get out your webcam or video camera or super 8. Whatever records moving pictures. Film your amazing self delivering the line(s). Then e-mail the video to karajones86 at gmail dot com. Almost any film format will work, but try for .avi, .wmv, mpeg, mpg, or mp2. We’ll have the finished product at the conference AND I’ll post it here, too, after the conference (via YouTube, of course). (Come to our session. We’ll have candy! And Smencils! Seriously.) We’ll post it to youtube after the conference.
Cross your fingers and wait to see if you win the Quik Trip gas card in the random drawing at our session at the conference.
Top Ten Reasons to Work on a Virtual Team
- You can attend web conferences in your pajamas and fuzzy slippers.
- You won’t catch swine flu from that guy who comes into work with the 105 degree temperature.
- You don’t have to share your cookies with anyone.
- No one can see you rolling your eyes during conference calls.
- With all the money your company saves on travel, it can afford to send your boss to that conference in Cancun: Innovations in Employee Appreciation.
- You don’t have to sit next to that guy who only bathes once a month…for “political” reasons.
- No one says “while you’re up, could you get me some coffee…a doughnut…pick up my lunch?” What am I, your personal assistant? Ask the intern!
- It’s easier to ignore pick up lines from co-workers like “What’s an avatar like you doing in a Second Life like this?”
- When something goes wrong, it’s always easier to blame someone whose cubicle isn’t next to yours.
- You can work anytime, anywhere, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Posted in Uncategorized.
By Peter
– October 15, 2009
