Digital Learning Will Change Knowledge Creation

by Katherine Vander

In The Scholarly Kitchen, Alix Vance made a important realization: Scholarly publishers need to recognize, if they have not already,  that they are part of a larger knowledge creation sector that is changing rapidly–a fundamental shift that is not limited to the academia world. Knowledge creation happens in nonprofit research institutes, corporate R & D labs, in startup companies, and even on blog sites like this one.

Scholarly publishers are not alone in this shift–technology is affecting every aspect of our lives. Alix pointed to the Digital Learning Council–a rapid virtual policy development collaborative sponsored by the Foundation for Excellence in Education–as an example of a new form of knowledge creation.  The DLC included  representations education, policy, technology, publishing, and research (but, admittedly, not many).

Alix points to reasons that digital learning will ultimately impact the course of digital scholarly publishing:

Significant transformation in digital learning and educational technology will not be confined to or defined by traditional market boundaries—K-12, two-year, four-year, graduate, professional. Scalable technologies and commercial incentives virtually guarantee that what is embraced in one educational arena will quickly translate to the other.




Support for customized, technology-centered learning will advance the obsolescence of the traditional textbook model that many publishers have taken great pains to defend.




To the degree to which textbook publishers do not join the virtual learning movement, there will be new opportunities for scholarly publishers to downstream their content to virtual learning applications, in partnership with course delivery companies or open access platforms.

Universities have begun to create departments surrounding digital scholarly publishing. NYU created Digital Scholarly Publishing, innovative publishing services linking NYU Libraries and NYU Press. Most colleges and universities are in the process of transferring their information to an online system.

Note: Mike Smith’s OER post included a great list of open content sources for higher education.

This article was originally posted at http://ping.fm/Mdtrv

Game-Based Learning for Health in Denmark

The BODYexplorer Project
By Jan Gejel

The Aarhus Social and Health Care College in Denmark is a key player in three initiatives that promote connecting game developers to educators, and developing high quality learning games. One of them involves a pilot project called BODYexplorer

Lifestyle diseases, such as obesity, are taking on epidemic dimensions in Europe, especially among disadvantaged groups and communities. The people who are most in need of changing their lifestyle to prevent these diseases have not responded to traditional public campaigns, nor have they been shown to attend traditional health care education programs.

These two major obstacles— ineffective public campaigns and disinterest in learning about disease prevention— are jointly addressed in a forthcoming project called BODYexplorer. Both shortcomings should be addressed by transversal initiatives, as they both relate to all kinds of disadvantaged citizens.

We need to create new, interactive, inclusive, technology-based learning opportunities for disadvantaged people, especially young people from less educated families who are also at risk of dropping out of school.

The BODYexplorer project is an in-development virtual program that meets these needs, while also presenting itself as a model to other lifelong learning projects.

BODYexplorer

During the two years of preparing the project, the project promoter analyzed the learning game market and found that no learning games existed in Europe for lifelong learning among disadvantaged citizens [1-4]. One of the reasons for this is that very few educational stakeholders are able to mobilize the technical, design, and financial resources needed to launch such initiatives, and the world of computer games, embedded in a highly competitive market, is a very long way from the everyday business of lifelong learning. With BODYexplorer, we hope to demonstrate that this does not have to be the case.

Games about learning, exploration, and problem-solving can indeed be a part of lifelong learning. BODYexplorer engages the user as a researcher in an exploratory journey in the human body, travelling along the animated body's own natural "communication" lines—the lines of the blood, lymph system, and nervous system—along which the user, as researcher and problem-solver, meets a number of challenges, such as imbalances, symptoms, and other variables. These challenges appear to the user as different kinds of tasks to solve.

The game is not linear, but dynamic, meaning that the user is able to begin from different starting points. The game continuously captures and reflects the user's choices and actions while she or he plays.

In designing the game, we wanted the player to be able to act as a researcher at a very basic level, solving simple tasks and challenges, but also on a quite advanced level where the problem-solving requires the player to combine and analyze the competencies she or he has cultivated so far in the game.

The "language" of the learning game is based on the animation genre, and the plot is based on the "language" of advanced and dynamic game programming.

The virtual environment reflects the classic narrative traditions of The Odyssey and Journey to the Center of the Earth, as well as classic detective stories. In his excellent analysis of the mechanisms of narration, Peter Brooks in Reading for the Plot (Harvard, 1987) highlights the importance of narrative techniques for any production of meaning. The narrative mechanisms have not yet been recognized as important organizers of learning in the world of education, as the academic world often opposes narration to the discourse of science and facts. However, this resistance to narrative is now being challenged due to the growing number of the successful outcomes from game-based learning.

The body exploration itself will be situated within a net-based knowledge context, an online collaborative form, organized around and in close contact with the game itself, in which the users of the game help each other, discuss, and compete. It will also act as a resource for part of the problem solving, but the macro environment is the internet, drawing on its immense resources.

Although the focus of the game is the inside of the body, it's not as if the world around the body does not exist. The world influences the body, of course, but the player only experiences the effects from within the body itself. The game's simple graphic design combines animated and video-based elements, and it dispenses missions to the learner from the learning environment (teacher, mentor, online collaborator). The player is then invited to travel along the animated body's own transportation routes and search for symptoms, changes, or other signals of disease.

Information, challenges, and new tasks can be found around the elements presenting the symptom, where the learner will be provided with knowledge about the external real-world source of the symptom or change. In most cases the learner cannot solve the problem on location and will have to travel the animated body to search for and analyze other symptoms, as well as search for specific information via the Internet or other resources in the platform surrounding the game itself.

The important gaming element is that certain tasks must be accomplished, certain roadblocks overcome, and certain knowledge collected to progress and level up.

The points of departure might be cases, a crisis, or a lack of knowledge, but also simple curiosity. The narrative discourse will reflect the classic and modern and perhaps even post-modern plot tradition.

The learning game will be of special importance to non-academic and disadvantaged children and young people, who prefer the visual and interactive learning style to the reading of long texts.

This wide scope of usability, at the same time justifying the market rationale of the program, is based on the fact that the program can be used at different levels, and on the fact that the Internet context ensures access to new information and knowledge. It must be possible to insert new elements in the game without interfering with the basic programming.

BODYexplorer is, of course, closely related to other health subjects. The standard version should offer a full exploration environment, "general exploration of the body," and specific versions of the program should build on this standard version and add more or less complex or focused narrative content.

This article was originally posted at http://ping.fm/CmC3K

THE TOP 3 EDUCATION TRENDS OF 2010

This a guest post By TeachStreet. Teachstreet is a website that provides online and local classes, including SAT Prep Classes.
2010 was a year of experimentation, change and flux, as educators scrambled to lay a foundation for a 21st century style of learning. Among the top trends in education were:

1. Mobile Devices in the Classroom

This year, Notre Dame set up an experimental classroom where every student was given an iPad. While some critics said that introducing mobile devices would be a distraction to students (as they can play games on the devices), others pointed out that iPads in the classroom may help the teacher make the classroom experience more interactive and engaging. The verdict is still out on whether or not mobile devices are a help or a hindrance, but this trend shows no sign of slowing down.



2. Emphasis on Teacher Evaluation

The “Race to the Top” program announced by the Obama administration last year had a big effect on how teachers were evaluated. Each state that competed for the $4.35 billion in funding had to make serious reforms in order to qualify for the program. A big part of meeting those qualifications were to create more merit based incentives for teachers who did well. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation jumped on the teacher evaluation bandwagon and provided over $335 million dollars in funding to place webcams in classrooms to better understand just what “star teachers” did in order to create a great learning experience.

3. Remote Learning

Although remote learning has been around for a while, many more universities are offering remote learning courses, including prestigious Universities like Stanford and Columbia. As webinars and other streaming video technologies become more reliable and ubiquitous, it only seems natural for this trend to continue. This is going to be especially handy for working students who will be able to fit their coursework around and between shifts.

As usual, technology was a big driver for changes in education in 2010. It’s still unclear where these changes will lead us, but that many will point to 2010 as a key year of change.

This article was originally posted at http://www.eduinreview.com/blog/2010/12/the-top-3-education-trends-of-2010/

Mobile Learning for Mobile Learners

Education is changing, and teachers need to change with it. This article explores the impact of using wireless and mobile technologies in the classroom to enhance teaching and learning, and it explores the hardware behind this new mobile learning revolution.

21st Century Learning

The potential of wireless and mobile technology to enhance teaching and learning is so great that it is currently at the forefront of technological advancements in education. Mobile learning is here and it is impacting how students learn and how educators teach. Students are more technologically aware than ever before, and this has led software and website developers to produce applications that are tailored specifically for the classroom. The demand is high and shows no signs of waning any time soon. Wireless and mobile technology is here to stay.

What is Wireless and Mobile Technology?

The wireless devices being used are portable, and usually wi-fi enabled. They are mobile in as far as they are not confined to one room in the school. They can be shared between classes, and used in any part of the school.

Examples of such mobile learning devices include Apple's innovative iPod touch. The versatile iPod Touch has many great uses for the classroom. Another very popular option is netbooks. These light, portable computers have the ability to run a huge number of free web 2.0 sites, and are increasingly cost effective. Netbooks can be used with all ages of students, and they are appearing in more and more schools because educators can see the promise of using wireless and mobile technology to enhance teaching and learning.

Perhaps the most controversial of all mobile learning devices, is the cell phone. Love them, or hate them, if you are a students are teenagers, then the chances are very high that they already own a cell phone, and tech savvy educators are beginning to integrate them more and more into their classroom routines. The students already own this technology, and need very little teaching on how to use it, so some educators think it would be remiss not to take advantage of the opportunity that they present.

The last example of mobile learning devices that are used in the classroom is tablet computers. The launch of Apple's iPad has sparked a resurgence in tablet computing with computer giants like HP also launching their own machines. While some schools are skeptical of these tactile machines, others are queuing up to get them into classrooms as quickly as they can.

Why is Mobile Learning so Popular?

There was a time not so long ago when installing a computer suite at your school was about the best thing you could be seen to be doing with integrating technology into your curriculum. While they are still undoubtedly useful resources, teachers soon found that they were not without their downsides. The biggest drawback with computer labs, especially for elementary school teachers, was that you had to physically move your class to that location. The computers could not come to you, so the students, textbooks, stationery, and lessons had to go to them.

Mobile learning cured this problem, and made integrating technology into the curriculum a lot easier. Netbooks and iPods are loaded onto computer carts and wheeled into classrooms so that the teachers can use these devices as part of the instruction, and not waste time moving students and resources to and from the classroom. Students can also take these devices to the library, or other classrooms, and continue their activities in another part of the school if needed.

Space is another big advantage with mobile learning devices. No longer do schools need to devote a whole room to 25 computers, because the size and portability of devices like netbooks and iPods mean that they can be stored in a classroom, or media room, without needing to be used there.



However, as useful and versatile as these devices are, perhaps the biggest reason for the rise in popularity of wireless and mobile technology to enhance teaching and learning is financial. These devices are more cost effective that they have ever been, and even the smallest school districts are finding that they can find the money to add this technology to their schools.

The immediate future of technology in schools is now destined to mobile, because the advantages are too great to think otherwise. Students find them intuitive, school districts find them affordable, and teachers know that they are flexible enough to use across the curriculum. The mobile revolution has begun.

This article was originally posted at http://ping.fm/nlIYd

Supportive systems for continuous and online professional development

We highlight four differences between formal educational systems and supportive systems which have to be taken into account in order to design a system rooted in online environments and social media. These differences are: 1) from pre-produced to user-generated content, 2) from individual subject motives to joint qualification interests, 3) from limited duration to continuous and sustainable activity, 4) from subject and thematic areas to a broad perspective on the participants’ skills.

On the basis of the four prerequisites, some fundamental features of a supportive system are outlined. The system is based on existing forms of online environment but which are further developed and supported methodically and systematically. A supportive system can consist of a combination of individual PLEs (personal learning environments), which are coordinated via shared online learning communities (OLC) or a PLN (personal learning network). A developed methodology based on circular ways of working supports processes in the various media and works towards progressing the individual’s development.

Source: gfbertini.wordpress.com

Digital Learning and Splayd Learning

I started a new Instructional Design project last week. It’s my favourite kind of project with just the right mix of playfulness (Ilinx with a bit of mimesis, if you want to get technical).

It’s made me think, a lot. Here’s three things I’ve thunk:

It’s no longer useful to think of what I do – at the moment – in terms of eLearning. And probably never was.

If you work in the messy world¹ then eLearning’s only useful function is as Performance Support or mnemonic/study aid. For me, this means it has to be short (or capable of rapid and/or non-linear navigation), specific, indexable, open, shareable and customisable (or, at least, capable of being annotated). Most eLearning is none of those.

Nick Shackleton-Jones says this:

What I eventually discovered (and confirmed experimentally) was that it was perfectly possible to apply a great many theoretical approaches (such as learning styles, modes of representation, proximal development, meta-cognitive approaches) and build something that, ultimately, was no better than reading a book. In fact, the market was full of examples of really poor elearning content which nevertheless adhered to standard ‘instructional design’ principles.

My view is that, ultimately, most eLearning isn’t even as good as reading a book.

We can point to occasions when, as it turned out, eating people was the right thing to do. But they are so few and far between, relative to our general experience, that it makes little sense to say, “Eating people is wrong – except when you’re trapped in the High Andes as a result of a plane crash through no fault of your own.”

eLearning feels wrong.

It’s mostly been a step sideways (or backwards) rather than progress. For people working in the messy world, I think the right way to go is collaboration, Performance Support and Learnscaping.

So I’ve taken to describing this project as Digital Learning. We’re really trying to do something interesting here, with hermeneutic depth, wabi-sabi and breadth of scholarship.

Do I need another piece of jargon in my life? Probably not, but it’ll make those introductions at parties much easier. So, what do you do . . . ?

All learning projects should have this as the first action on the To Do list. No exceptions:

Spend a day on The Google. Just like a motivated learner would.

If you can’t beat The Google, go home.

(Back when I used to do a lot of training commissioning, I once asked a group of potential associates this question: if I locked my delegates in a cupboard for a day and asked them to think very hard about the subject matter of your course, would they be any worse off for missing your training? My favourite response was a guy who started to say something, did a double take and then just drifted off into thought. Of all the people there, he’s probably the only one I’d hire these days.)

I saw Roger Hart give a talk called the Spork-Platypus Average at TCUK10. And I find myself using his analogy, in my head all the time.

It’s simple. Here’s a platypus:



They are, basically, awesome. They’re venomous mammals who hunt by electrolocation.

This makes them hard to categorise.

And here’s some sporks:



Sporks are anything but awesome. They’re kind of like Swiss Army Knives designed by committee.

They are, however, very easy to categorise.

As I’ve begun to discover recently, it’s much easier to sell a spork than a platypus.

[Update: this might be it, partly, from Clive Shepherd. I think the real Digital Learning will look a lot like an RPG with courses as a dungeon. With Wabi-Sabi.]

¹ By definition, the messy world is hard to define. But that sounds like ducking the question. I’m using it to mean Knowledge Work ie non-repeatable, creative stuff

Images: Towards a Grand Unity of Cutlery from Les Jones

Doug Belshaw’s presentation on Models of Learning has some good stuff (full disclosure: this blog is included in the talk) on breadth of scholarship and Puentedura’s SAMR model (a big influence in my thinking of why eLearning has been such a disappointment). If you’re a practitioner, he’s also done something really interesting with his screencast using Spezify. Rapid eLearning indeed.

Roger Hart’s presentation is here:

The Spork / Platypus Average: Content strategy at Red Gate Software

View more presentations from Roger Hart.

And finally, it’s worth remembering that sometimes what looks like a spork may well be a runcible spoon.

Source: hypergogue.net

Mobile Learning is the New Reality

In the December issue of TED, the article “Six Trends That Will Change Workplace Learning Forever” discusses the increased use of mobile devices in mlearning. The article cites an IBM study published in January 2010 that defines the two main reasons for mobile phone use as 1) in-field performance support and 2) access to just-in-time information that is specific to a project or task. However, the more important reason for adoption of mobile learning solutions is due to demand:

The need to make social media and mobile learning a part of the workplace to attract, engage, and retain the younger generations is forcing learning professionals to explore new and innovative ways to deliver learning on these inexpensive devices, anytime and anywhere.

The advertising battle between Apple, Android, and BlackBerry emphasizes the enormous growth and advancement of the mobile marketplace. Phones, netbooks, laptops, and tablets are all growing in popularity as consumers and the workforce desire greater mobility in their daily lives. While the Millennials are probably the greatest proponent of mobile technology, it has been adopted by everyone due to the format’s flexibility, timeliness, and utility. Morgan Stanley estimates that by 2015, more users will connect to the Internet via mobile devices than by desktop PC. This means learning organization will have to design learning solutions that will work for the new, constantly-moving learning environment of its users. The day is coming when on-demand, anytime, anywhere learning will be the norm, and that day is not far off.

Source: bizsum.com

Health Care Providers Exempt From Red Flags

Congress passes legislation clarifying definition of "creditor."

By Peter W. Crownfield, Executive Editor

After delaying enforcement of the Red Flags rule for more than two years while debating which entities should be covered under the rule and thus required to develop and implement identity theft protection protocols, Congress has passed legislation that clarifies the definition of "creditor" in the rule's language.
In so doing, doctors of chiropractic and other health care providers are now effectively exempt from complying with the rule. The Red Flag Clarification Act of 2010 (S.3987) passed the Senate on Nov. 30, 2010 and the House of Representatives followed suit on Dec. 7, three weeks before the Jan. 1, 2011 deadline for enforcement of the rule. President Obama signed the legislation into law on Dec. 18, 2010.

Creditors, as described in the Nov. 9, 2007 Federal Register, which published details of the rule when it was announced, were originally defined as organizations or other entities ("financial institutions or creditors") that "offer or maintain covered accounts ... A covered account is (1) an account primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, that involves or is designed to permit multiple payments or transactions, or (2) any other account for which there is a reasonably foreseeable risk to customers or the safety and soundness of the financial institution or creditor from identity theft."

While S.3987 does not specifically mention doctors of chiropractic or other health care practitioners, the key language from the amended text appears to be the following: "Excludes from the definition of creditor ... any creditor that advances funds on behalf of a person for expenses incidental to a service the creditor provides to that person."

red flag The Red Flags rule was originally scheduled to take effect Nov. 1, 2008, but pressure from Congress and various health care organizations, including the American Chiropractic Association, led the FTC to delay enforcement of the rule five times; first for six months (until May 1, 2009), then until Aug. 1, 2009, then Nov. 1, 2009, June 1, 2010, and finally Jan. 1, 2011. The initial delays were intended to give health care providers and other "creditors" more time to develop and implement identity theft protocols; then to allow time for Congress to decide whether health care practices/practitioners should be exempt from the rule altogether.

While few will argue that protecting customers from identity theft is important, who should bear the responsibility for that protection is another issue altogether. Concerns were raised after the rule was announced that, among other considerations, credit-card companies / banks are the true creditors, not the business / practice that accepts credit as payment for services rendered.

The Red Flag Clarification Act of 2010 appears to exempt not just health care providers, but also other entities previously required to comply with the rule who now meet the exemption criteria as defined in the amended text. Nearly 30 organizations supported passage of the legislation including the ACA, the American Medical Association and the American Bar Association.

In commentary widely quoted online, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chair of the Senate Banking Committee, said the legislation "makes clear that lawyers, doctors, dentists, orthodontists, pharmacists, veterinarians, accountants, nurse practitioners, social workers, other types of healthcare providers and other service providers will no longer be classified as 'creditors' for the purposes of the Red Flags Rule just because they do not receive payment in full from their clients at the time they provide their services, when they don't offer or maintain accounts that pose a reasonably foreseeable risk of identity theft."

Source: dynamicchiropractic.com

Mobile will become our gateway to the world

2010 marked the year in which infrastructure, technology and design finally intersected in the mobile space. For the first time, sales of smartphones outpaced sales of desktops and laptops, iPhone and iPad applications were downloaded more than 7 billion times and research shows e-mail access is now on the rise on the iPhone while declining on the computer.

With the foundation in place, in the coming year we will witness the scales tip: Mobile device users will interact with content, companies and the Web more on their phones and iPads than on their computers, and IT and service providers will create solutions that are defined by our mobile consumption and use behaviors. "The highway has been there but until now we needed a special car to get us to our destination, so the average pedestrian was not going to get there. Now that technology barriers have been lowered, mobile will become an extension of who we are," said Philippe Suchet, CEO of MyShopanion, and the recipient of the Web2.0' Summit 2010 award for most innovative startup in the mobile shopping category.

From social shopping on the go, to easy paperless transactions and check-ins, to watching (and creating) videos with friends abroad, to in-class learning and collaboration, to managing our health real-time - prepare for an explosion of connected experiences across all points of interactions between people and people, people and companies, and people and information in the cloud.

Source: edustange.posterous.com

How To Train The People Behind The Skills

Many organizations suffer the consequences of poor training in the simple procedures of soft skills.

An organization’s success depends not only on hard technical skills, but its members’ ability to work together effectively. Success can be jeopardized by factors such as inter-staff politics, personal agendas, lack of energy and commitment to organizational goals, and poor communication.

How can your organization avoid these dangers and achieve actionable outcomes with LMS online training?

The purpose of any kind of training is the acquisition of skills. So what kind of skills are teachable? What skills can you expect to nurture in online training? The truth is that all skills, both soft and hard, are teachable-and critical to an organization’s success.

Soft skills, or “people skills,” are utilized in both professional and personal life, and include all the procedures involved in effective communication.

These include listening, engaging in dialogue, providing feedback, functioning in a team setting, resolving issues and conflicts, and contributing in staff meetings.

Hard skills, on the other hand, refer to the occupational requirements of a position. These include technical or administrative skills related directly to the organization’s business. Examples include typing, software knowledge, operating machinery, and speaking a foreign language.

Hard skills are often contrasted to soft skills and defined as specific and “teachable” abilities which can be quantified and defined. However, unlike a personal attribute or natural talent, a skill is always something that can be learned, and converted into a personal and professional attribute.

It’s simple.

In order to learn any skill, you need to learn and recall information accompanied by certain steps to follow. Then you need to apply the information and steps. It isn’t necessary that a learner understand all the principles behind the subject matter in order to gain the skills required to perform the tasks well, but that he or she understand what steps to take and how to take them in a given situation.

So how can you deliver effective LMS training for project management and other In order to deliver effective online training in soft or hard skills, there are three simple steps: 1. Provide the information and steps. 2. Reinforce through practice and exercises. 3. Use quizzes and tests to confirm knowledge.

Source: websitepoint.co.cc

Mobile learning sessions at MSTC 2010

More of the fun at the Midsouth Technology Conference. Previously, I included the link to the “Web 2.0 from the Beginning” workshop. Here’s the two other workshops that I gave on mobile learning. There are some really good stuff here, so I encourage you to browser through.

1. Mobile learning: What is it? What’s it look like? How’s it done?

Presenters: Michael M. Grant, The University of Memphis; Monte Tatom, Freed-Hardeman University; Kyle Menchhofer/Scott Newcomb, St. Mary School District, Ohio

Mobile learning, or mlearning, is a buzzword in all levels of education right now.  But what is it, and what does it mean?  This session will examine what mobile learning is, who’s doing it, and how it’s being done in K-12 classrooms and in higher education.  We’ll take a look at some schools that are implementing mobile devices into teaching and learning. We are also planning to Skype some folks in —just like Oprah—to give you some first-hand accounts.

Link to resources: Mobile Learning – What is it

2. Making Teaching and Learning Mobile

In this hands-on workshop, we’ll explore how to make teaching and learning mobile.  You’ll experience a number of technologies to create mobile teaching and learning opportunities for you and your students.  From using cellphones, smartphones, iPod Touches, iPhones, and iPads, we’ll look at ways to make learning engaging with tools your students may already have.  BYOM—You are encouraged to bring your mobile devices with you.

Link to resources: Making Teaching and Learning Mobile

Source: viral-notebook.com

Mobile Blogging: Benefits and Resources for Teachers

Many teachers reflect on their daily classroom interactions using a classroom blog that’s accessible to parents and students. Frequently, these blogs reflect on the content, skills, and resources used in class on any given day. “What worked” ,“what didn’t work” , and “what I’d do different” are common themes amongst many teacher blogs.

The primary issues I’ve had with the blogging process for classroom reflections are consistency and accuracy. Since I typically blog at the end of the day (or lately, the end of the week), I forget some of the meaningful and trivial events (both of which many parents like to hear about) that happened during each specific class. Rather than waiting until the end of the day to blog, why not do it during class as I’m walking around the room and monitoring student progress? Mobile blogging provides a great solution for achieving this.

Benefits of Mobile Blogging for Teachers:

• Builds student accountability for progress: when students see their teacher providing an electronic transcript of classroom events on-the-spot, this serves to help students stay on task


• Enhances classroom reflections: mobile blogging removes memory gaps that typically occur at the end of the day


• Provides “real-time” reflections


• Seamlessly publish classroom media (images of student work, audio reflections, videos, etc.)


• Leverages teacher time during formative assessments


• Provides additional legitimacy for the use mobile devices in the classroom, which may helpadopt new norms and school policies


• Constant communication: if you use Twitter as a blogging tool, you can receive instant notifications when someone replies to your classroom tweets (students could also do this from their mobile devices in class, which would provide you with instant and archived communication)


• Classroom management: while both “traditional” and mobile blogging foster a community of learners, mobile blogging makes you more accountable for your classroom management. Who wants to write about how students are acting out of control? That’s certainly one thing I’m inclined to forget at the end of the day, but if I’m blogging right then-and-there, I make more efforts to cease ill behavior.

Right now, the biggest concern I’ve had with mobile blogging is my typing abilities on the iPhone. Has blogging from the iPhone been more efficient than simply writing down what happened during each class and then inputting these reflections into my blog at the end of the day? Not by much at this point. However, I do know that I have become far more efficient with the iPhone keyboard interface as a result of mobile blogging. Additionally, we can continue to expect the keyboard on these mobile devices to improve over time. While I may not be saving a whole lot of time right now, I’m acclimating myself to the processes associated with mobile blogging.

If you’d like to get involved with mobile blogging, consider exploring the resources below that describe a multitude of mobile blogging tools.

Source: k12mobilelearning.com

A Win for Expanded Learning

The movement to give American kids more time and opportunities to learn took a giant leap forward with action in the Senate this week.

The Senate introduced an omnibus spending bill that includes two significant advances for which we have long fought, along with many leaders, in after-school and education reform. Under this bill, funding for 21st Century Community Learning Centers would be increased by $135 million next year, potentially helping 135,000 more kids in the hours after 3 p.m. and during summers.

More historically, passage of this bill would allow states to fund expanded learning time programs as a viable school transformation strategy, while maintaining the growing national network of high quality after-school and summer programs. States would be able to use 21CCLC funds to re-design and expand the school day and year, in addition to supporting more traditional after-school programs.

And this is key: if schools choose to re-invent themselves through longer learning days, they must work with partnering community organizations to add both more time on academics plus enrichments that inspire kids to love learning. By taking this step, policy-makers protect against a system that penalizes poor kids by allowing these funds to support remediation-only school day extensions, denying the lowest-performing kids the kind of broad and rich education more affluent communities provide.

Just a few days ago I visited one of TASC's Expanded Learning Time schools in a section of the Bronx, Mott Haven, that author Jonathan Kozol famously characterized as one of the bleakest points on America's educational map. The Haven Academy charter school there is working with the community organization New York Foundling to send community educators into classrooms, alongside teachers, every day from noon to 5:45 p.m. Kids - a third of whom are in foster care, a third of whose families are in preventive services and another third who come from the neighborhood - not only get more intensive small group math and English instruction, but they also get support for their healthy emotional and physical development. They dance and make music and cook - just kids having creative fun together.

This looks like the school of the future to me, the thriving center of a community of learners.

To get to this point, historic allies in building after-school opportunities had to struggle toward a consensus over whether and how to deliver to kids the longer learning days many desperately need. Thanks to the close relationships we've built through organizations including the Afterschool Alliance, the Collaborative for Building After-School Systems and the Partnership for Children and Youth, we achieved a double victory.

The Senate bill preserves local choice so that states and communities can decide what kind of expanded learning opportunities best serve their kids - after school, during summer or through longer school days. And with greater support for Expanded Learning Time schools, we can help more kids get a world class education.

Item one on my agenda now is urging Congress to make this bill a law.

Source: huffingtonpost.com

eLearning Design: Interview with The eLearning Coach, Connie Malamed

It’s been an incredible year for the learning industry. Innovations in mobile technologies, the arrival of the ipad (was it just this year?) and the continued evolution of social learning, are just some highlights of a year that saw learning design continue to mature along side emerging and maturing technologies. What a ride! Useful tools and helpful resources in a wide array of media help make consulting, managing, designing and developing much easier than even 24 months ago. One such helpful resource is Connie Malamed’s eLearning Coach blog. I had the pleasure to chat with Connie to find out more about her and her design insights.

MA: For those who don’t know you or your blog, can you briefly share your story?

Connie: Like many people in our field, I’m passionate about education and training and think it’s a path to solving individual and world problems. I’ve been designing and creating learning experiences for over 20 years and love this career (except when I’m working till 2AM).

At some point I realized it was time to start sharing what I’ve learned, so I started a blogazine about Instructional Design and online learning, called The eLearning Coach. My focus is on providing practical advice as well as learning theory to those just starting out in the field as well as to experienced designers and developers. A wonderful unexpected byproduct has been how much I’ve learned by meeting people, researching new ideas and interviewing others.

Because I have a background in art too, I felt compelled to research and write a book that presents visual communication principles based on cognitive science rather than intuition. The book is called, Visual Language For Designers: Principles for Creating Graphics that People Understand. There’s a hard back and Kindle version on Amazon.

MA: I love your blog because there is a pragmatic approach to your posts. How does this pragmatism render in your designs and/or consulting?

Connie: I guess I’m pragmatic in the way I think about design and implementation simultaneously, which might not be the best approach for brainstorming. So when a client or the content requires a creative approach, I also think through the ramifications of the idea. For example, if we decide to use photos and audio of 10 customers in an eLearning course, I’m simultaneously thinking about how we can save costs by getting 5 narrators who can perform two unique voices each. Head in the clouds…feet on the ground.

MA: In your blog, you expertly discuss the value and interplay of cognitive psychology, visual communication/design, information design, and learning theory in learning products/solutions. What is the typical pushback you experience from clients about any elements of this philosophy and how have you overcome it?

Connie: Hey, I’m slogging around in the same mess that everyone else in our field experiences. Clients who don’t understand that less is more; that visuals are often better than text; that creative storytelling is more engaging than lectures; or that just-in-time information and performance support are often more effective than a grueling 8-hour course.

I truly like and respect my clients and want to help them, so I try to meet them where they are at and attempt to educate them about the most effective approaches to learning. Often, I can only make incremental changes in their thinking. Then I just do the best I can with what I’ve got.

MA: I’ve found a common up-front inhibitor for producing effective learning products is clients or SMEs insisting that adding more content to a learning product is better. What are some of your best practices to help content stakeholders understand that simple, streamlined content focusing on the single-most important actions the learner needs to know and do is better?

Connie: A few things that have worked for me are getting clients to stay focused on the skills and actions that their employees need to perform, by consistently pulling the client back to the key goals. I’ll ask, “Will that extra information help learners get the most important skills they need?” Sometimes this can be difficult when working on certain types of compliance courses, where pure knowledge is the end goal. Also, I find that Bob Mosher’s Five Moments of Need is a good model for explaining when an audience needs performance support and when they need training.

MA: What do you see as the top three most important learning design trends (meaning a trend that broadly encompasses visual design, cognitive psychology, information design, and/or learning technology) in the last few years that will have the greatest long-term impact on the eLearning industry. How?

Connie: One trend is the broader recognition of the importance of visual thinking. For example, in March of 2010, the Obama administration appointed Edward Tufte (design thinking guru) to an advisory panel. The visual problem-solving book, The Back of the Napkin, was Amazon’s #5 Business Book of the Year. And a few months ago, news outlets around the world announced research findings that showed doodling can improve concentration. This heightened awareness should eventually impact and improve the visual side of eLearning.

Another trend is the mainstreaming of information graphics and data visualizations. There’s been a huge jump in the number of information graphics (online and offline) used to explain data and concepts in newspapers, magazines and on websites. As people learn how to understand infographics, they’ll be used more in online learning.

A third trend I’m seeing is a greater acceptance of the “less is more” philosophy, mostly due to the fact that people are oversaturated and overwhelmed with information. If this persists, it could improve the clarity of instructional visuals as well as the technologies we choose. For example, businesses might be more likely to implement micro-courses or visual performance support tools on smart phones, realizing that people have limits with how much they can absorb at one time.

MA: In one of your posts , you mention you do not to use ADDIE as framework for developing online learning. (I also do not use ADDIE as a framework.) Can you shed more light as to why?

Connie: The ADDIE model, though very worthwhile, seems to be geared to creating Instructor-Led Training. I think we need a model that fits the eLearning design process and that also fits our current project, audience, content and client.

If you’re creating a high-end interactive course, then you might want to create serial prototypes to get the job done. If you’re using a Rapid Development approach, Design and Development might merge. If your project is very large and complex, then you might perform many different analyses at the start. I still think it’s good to learn a formal or classic approach first (I learned Dick and Carey’s method in Grad school) and then modify things as you gain experience.

MA: What’s next for you in the next few months? Where will you be speaking or what are your current projects? Where do you see yourself in 1-2 years?

Connie: Presenting is a great way to share knowledge and to continue to learn from your audience. I enjoy speaking about how to design for the human mind, so in the next few months, I’ll be presenting at the ASTD’s TechKnowledge Conference in San Jose and also at the eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions conference in Orlando. In the long-term, I’d like to write more books, particularly self-published eBooks. Then you can update them and send out a new version to your audience whenever the book is revised. Really, I have endless ideas of what I’d like to do. We’ll see what the future brings.

Thanks so much Connie! Great interview!

Source: marianklein.com

Hottest Trends Of The E ? Learning Software

As the computer technologies are now widely developing, that involves all related niches into that process. Learning with using of computer technologies are called Electronic Learning and that word become popular nowadays. This article is about modern possibilities, features and trends of E Learning software, mostly learning management systems. Due to the constant improvement of E learning software that are available on the market there are a lot of instant trends of E learning software development. Here are some of them:

All of the companies that make such software are constantly improving the speed and the quality of the program working process. By doing this they are getting good costumers and are building client base from all over the world. This program is famous all over the place online. Nowadays there are many companies that are making E learning products and all of them are making their software to work more and more effective, powerful and with great number of possibilities, updating them all the time.

Most of the largest companies in the world are integrating and using corporate learning management systems into their infrastructure. That kind of investment gives great results. That is why for now there are Learning Management Systems courses for each and every sector and subsection of industry.

Most of the market available learning management systems are offering on the job training for all of the candidates, because the schools are not able to produce qualified specialists in new niche as fast as the modern business processes requires.

All the time there was a problem to get the education needed when the institute needed was located in other country. Modern E Learning technologies offers courses and media services which are available through the computer networks, like internet.The learning management systems are offering for all of the people, who are looking to get some training in foreign country better opportunities.You will not have to travel abroad to get the education you need.You can do it in your own country without any difficulties and in the same level; this is one very good chance for the people who are looking forward to it.

Many of the governments in the world are constantly improving the use of learning management systems all over their structures,because that is one of the easiest ways that people can perform learning.

As we can see,modern technologies develop rapidly.All of the partners and collaborators are using learning management systems to get in the same page.That is quite useful for both small business and large companies, because it will help all of the people,who are working there to be properly informed.There is a constant improve on all of the wireless features that learning management systems have.This will help all of the users of training software to maintain a connection in their program no matter where they are located.And surely, this will also improve the quality of E Learning technologies and will help to cut the cord.

Source: dragonparadox.com

After one semester, students and staff love iPads at St. Cat's

RACINE - Seated at his school desk Thursday, sixth-grader Nicholas Rodriguez placed his fingers on an Apple iPad touch-screen and began typing the findings of a group science experiment onto a slide for a class presentation.

At a desk across from Nicholas, fellow sixth-grader Sam Letsch used another iPad to search the Internet for photos to be included in the presentation. Upon finding them, he quickly e-mailed them to Nicholas who placed them in the presentation file.

Around Nicholas and Sam, 25 other sixth-graders in the Middle School Program at St. Catherine's High School did similar work on iPads, which are very thin, light and portable single-panel touch-screen computers.

Students in St. Catherine's Middle School Program, which started this fall with 54 sixth- and seventh-graders, have been using iPads all school year in place of textbooks, spirals and standard computers. Students and staff said after some adjustment at the start of school the iPads are now working well and they'd never go back to classes that use regular textbooks, paper and pencils.

"All our books are on (the iPads). We don't have to carry around our big books anymore. Instead of writing everything down you can type in notes, e-mail them to our teacher and they can grade it right at their computer," said Nicholas, 11, adding that means assignments are returned quicker so students know sooner if answers are right or wrong and if they need help. "The old way is slower."

The old way is also less engaging, said Diane Putra, middle school science and math teacher at St. Catherine's, 1200 Park Ave. Petra said the iPads keep her class lessons moving faster and keep students attentive because they allow for so many interactive activities that can involve each and every student.

"I couldn't go back to the other method," Petra said of teaching with regular books, paper and pencils. "This has so much to offer."

Using the iPads, students can access electronic versions of their textbooks that include online activities and video tutorials. The iPads also have a word-processor program, an electronic dictionary, a drawing program, school-appropriate Internet access, interactive learning games and a calendar for recording homework assignments, explained Sam, 11, clicking through the programs on the iPad Thursday.

St. Catherine's is the only school in Racine County and in much of the country to provide iPads for individual students, a decision made to expose students to the latest technology - for a per student technology fee of $400, which replaces a textbook fee.

St. Catherine's plans to increase iPad use among students to include eighth-graders next school year and high schoolers the following year.

So far no iPads have been stolen, damaged or lost and the new machines have caused only a few problems, including occasional screen glares and students sometimes getting distracted during lessons by all the iPad features. Petra said those problems have been largely fixed by closing blinds in classrooms, the wearing off of the iPads' novelty and rearranging student desks so teachers can see their screens.

Petra also said her students picked up the new technology fast. Watching them in class Thursday the students typed with ease on the iPads and quickly switched from program to program with no difficulty or confusion.

"It was hard at first," Sam said. But the iPads include a typing program that taught students to use the iPad keyboard and frequent iPad use has accustomed students to the machines. "It really does get a lot easier as the year goes."

Source: journaltimes.com

Red Flags: Physicians Exempt from Rules Under New Law

Well, it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. Because in Washington, the politicians and bureaucrats just keep on giving.

First, we learned that the big Medicare rate cut set to hit physicians' practices on Dec. 1 was delayed for a month while Congress hammered out a longer postponement. Yesterday, we learned that the longer delay -- all the way through the end of next year -- is at hand, though the sides had not yet agreed formally. We've also learned a of Medicare's plans to begin covering a new annual wellness exam and to bump primary-care physicians' pay 10 percent next year.

And now we learn that the dreaded Red Flags Rule, which requires lenders to develop plans to ensure that consumers' financial information is kept secure, will not apply to physicians, after all, thanks to legislation passed yesterday in Congress.

We've been writing about the Red Flags Rule for at least a year and a half now. The rule, separate from HIPAA patient-privacy rules (to which you are absolutely still beholden, of course), required creditors to demonstrate a protocol "for detecting identity theft red flags, preventing and responding to identity theft, and for keeping their program up to date." Under the Federal Trade Commission's interpretation, physicians had been considered creditors if they bill patients for fees not collected at the time of service -- which is to say, everyone except maybe a cash-only walk-in clinic.

Now, I still think that having a protocol for preventing identity theft and checking for so-called financial red flags is a good idea. Check out the article linked above by Sara Michael. She suggests things like checking every patient's ID, separating clinical from financial information, and looking out for "suspicious activity." Surely you can do those things.

The Red Flags Rule was (and still is, for those covered by it) about protecting consumers from identity theft. Under the new law, you needn't do anything formal to prove to the government you're complying. And that's great news. But your patients are giving you their credit cards, their bank account information, etc., and you still ought to do what you reasonably can to look out for them.

Source: physicianspractice.com

Congress Approves Red Flags Exemptions

The U.S. House has passed by voice vote legislation--identical to that recently approved in the Senate--to exempt health care providers, attorneys and certain other service providers from provisions of the Red Flags Rule to combat identity theft.


That means the bill, S. 3987, now goes to President Obama for his signature. The Red Flags Rule from the Federal Trade Commission requires businesses that act as "creditors" to take specific steps to minimize identity theft. The newly approved legislation clarified creditors who must comply, in effect, exempting providers and others who do not loan money but permit payment to be deferred.


Text of S. 3987 is available at congress.gov.
--Joseph Goedert

Source: healthdatamanagement.com

Digital Transformation Key to K-12 Success, Council Says

Online-learning advocates are calling a new report that recommends 10 ways for states to change policy to increase access and equity in digital learning one of the most comprehensive efforts of its kind.

And with two former governors leading the promotion of “Digital Learning Now”—the first document released by the Digital Learning Council since former state chief executives Jeb Bush of Florida and Bob Wise of West Virginia announced the group’s creation in August—there are growing indications that policymakers outside the online-learning realm are considering the potential of digital technologies.

But whether the council’s goals are realistic remains to be seen.

“Do you negotiate for the status quo plus an incremental change, or do you make it aspirational?” said Mr. Wise, who conceded that some of the suggestions—such as restructuring school funding models, teacher-pay structures, and course-completion guidelines—could require daunting policy overhauls in most states.

“What we put down [in writing] today, in a year, technology can rapidly make obsolete. But at least this provides a road map to every governor and every state chief policymaker and educator about steps we can begin implementing right now.”

In a meeting with Education Week editors and reporters, Mr. Wise and council consultants Tom Vander Ark and Bennet Ratcliff emphasized that most of the suggestions were already being carried out in early-adopting states. For example, during Mr. Bush’s tenure in Florida, a 2003 state policy change allowed state education funding to follow students who wanted to take courses from the Florida Virtual School, which operates as its own district and now serves about 97,000. That allowed the school’s enrollment—free to all Florida students—to grow exponentially since then, unlike virtual schools in other states where political pressures have kept state virtual school funding, and thus enrollment, capped.

Mr. Wise and the consultants said other recommendations, such as transferring all state assessments to a digital platform and expanding state infrastructure to make a more hospitable environment for digital learning, are boosted by initiatives such as the common academic standards effort and the Federal Communication Commission’s National Broadband Plan.

“It comes along at just the right time, because now you’ve got 41 [44 at press time] states who have said we want these [common] standards,” said Mr. Wise. “This gives states a chance to really look at how they’re going to implement the common core in curriculum, in teacher preparation and development, in assessments, and how best to do that online.”

While the council—which convened entirely virtually and consists of 100 members from across education, business, technology, and research industries—plans to issue ratings a year from now based on how closely states are following their suggestions, there’s still no guarantee states will listen. Experts say the recommendation to link teacher pay to student course completion and performance could face opposition from teachers’ unions across states, and the suggestion to explore multiple providers of high-quality digital content may in some states necessitate abolition of textbook-adoption policies.

“I think that one of the things we noticed most was that it tends to look at developing policies as if there weren’t any prior policies on the state level,” said Bradley J. Hull, the deputy executive director of the National Association of State Boards of Education. “There’s going to be a lot of work for states to look at what they already have in place.”

John I. Wilson, the executive director of the National Education Association, said advocating performance pay is a recycled idea that does not represent the 21st-century view the report is trying to promote.

Despite a suggestion calling for high-quality digital instruction, he added, the voice and role of teachers is absent from the report, though he does support its call for competency-based pathways that would let students progress at their own pace after mastering course concepts.

With more teacher input for the report, “it would’ve come out very clearly that technology is not a teacher; technology is a tool that enhances the teaching process,” said Mr. Wilson. “You can tell there’s no teacher imprint in this document. I think that it’s a very corporate kind of document.”

‘Driving Innovation’

Some of the report’s guidelines may even garner concern within the online-learning world. For example, while all 16 member states in the Southern Regional Education Board have statewide online schools, Myk Garn, the Atlanta-based organization’s director of technology, said many may have reservations about the suggestion that all students have access to multiple content providers.

“I’ve got to kind of talk to my folks and see how well this aligns with their thinking and their directions,” Mr. Garn said. “What I’m hearing from the Digital Learning Council, and their discussion, which makes sense, is less about the idea of driving quality, but driving innovation; that we’re not going to have the wealth of creative ideas coming in unless we have multiple providers.”

Mr. Garn also said that while the report is comprehensive, it shouldn’t ignore the realistic goal of incremental progress. He noted that policymakers in Michigan are more receptive to the idea of seat-time waivers that allow students to progress through courses at their own pace as a result of a policy passed in 2006 that requires high school students to take at least one online course before graduation, and thus exposes educators to the self-paced nature of online courses.

And, while still difficult, the state level may be the best bet for sweeping technology reform. Educational technology champions generally have praised federal government initiatives like the National Broadband Plan and the National Education Technology Plan, federally generated outlines of how to increase broadband access in communities, and how to integrate technology to transform learning. But they say they understand a Republican-controlled House of Representatives and a Democratic-controlled Senate—the political makeup of Congress come January—could mean a lack of federal push for those goals, even if they are understood as being relatively apolitical.

With Mr. Bush, a Republican, and Mr. Wise, a Democrat, leading the Digital Learning Council, they say the body may have a strong chance to push more substantial reform.

“There are fundamental questions at the national level about what business we’re going to be able to get done,” said Douglas Levin, the executive director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association and a member of the council’s executive committee. “To have [the governors] cross the aisle and say that education is important and that we actually agree on a fair set of ideas … reflects a growing consensus that is not partisan, but plays out in a partisan environment, about productive ways to drive some positive innovation in education.”

Source: www.edweek.org

No Longer Alone With E-Learning

No Longer Alone With E-Learning

In past, online learning programs suffered high dropout rates and poor satisfaction of students because of the tedium of endlessly sitting alone at a computer working through exercises without social stimulation. But with the advent of inexpensive, robust and feature rich Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and video conferencing software that situation is very rapidly changing.

More and more frequently, institutions are brining an animated, personal element to their electronic learning programs through the use of voice to voice communication of electronic video conferencing. With the continuing growth of faster, less expensive video-conferencing hardware and software and the rapid expansion of broadband access has made video conferencing for educational purposes more accessible than ever before.

The equipment requirements of online learning and video conferencing continue to drop, giving the flexibility of using a web camera or the most expensive networked video camera that a user cares to purchase. This technology is now being utilized by many other sectors, but its broad applicability in the online learning field is very clear.

Giving the ability to co-operate in new and unique ways, through new concepts such as “Wiki’s” which allow users with correct access to edit and re-edit information on a subject, as well as virtual whiteboards on which many users can work at once, technology is providing online learners with engagement and co-operative learning advantages not even presently available to institutional students.

Because of the new methods of collaboration offered by distributed internet technology, video conferencing, “Wiki’s”, and other advancements, some believe that online learning is becoming more relevant than institutional coursework for many kinds of graduate and post graduate studies. Time-crunched business people trying to juggle family, career and learning are increasingly making use of online MBA programs as well as online language courses as a way to simultaneously hone their technology skills and to accomplish more in the small windows of time that they have available for study.

Many students of online learning institutions are interested in pursuing education while maintaining a career, family, or both. Because of these technological advances, electronic learning is coming to be regarded as highly as institutional education despite early resistance from traditional bricks-and-mortar educational institutions. As technology continues to advance, the lines between online and offline worlds continue to blur, with full-time institutionally enrolled students taking electronic courses over the summer or in addition to their regular courseloads as a way of fast-tracking through a degree program. Online learning is definitely the wave of the future, and as technology advances it becomes more accessible and more enjoyable for potential students the world over.

Source: www.languagestudyabroadprogram.com

E-learning Training, Will it Improve Your Employee Capital?

It has been said that if you take care of your employees, they will take care of your customers. Thus, empowering the employee capital is critical in keeping one’s competitive edge in the market race. A business can never be complacent if they want to get ahead of their competitors. They have to be innovative and always keeping up with the times. Like in any sport, the athlete who has the best equipment in training will most likely get the gold. Employee training then becomes a powerful tool for companies who want to invest in human and intellectual capital. And this is where e-learning comes in.

E-learning as a training choice for the human resources has been tried and tested by multitude of companies and has certainly proved its worth. In the fast-paced business environment, where new information today could be obsolete the next day, e-learning has become the solution for companies who want to stay on the top. But before implementing e-learning, a company has to determine its goals and perform a needs evaluation in order to form sound training requirements. This will be the basis in creating a relevant e-learning solution. A well-designed e-learning training program can go a long way for an employee and for the company.

Corporations that offer professional development trainings have the benefit of a higher rate of employee retention and a more knowledgeable and skilled labor force. E-learning recognizes the learner types and styles, with the diversity of delivery mechanisms, and maximizes information transfer. As a result, it boosts the confidence and morale of the individual which equates to maximized employee retention. Better trained professionals improve the company’s way of doing business, building a more productive corporate culture.

The company’s website is not only limited to the training program but can also serve as corporate community, a place where a universe of ideas are exchanged and innovated. Best practices shared from the site can be translated to better performance and growth for the employees.

In the end, the results of e-learning training eventually lies in the company better serving the customer and being on top of the company’s industry. The most valuable and enduring contribution of e-learning training to the employee capital will be evident in the definite increase in knowledge and understanding of the company’s business. With e-learning, it will happen because the employee has the best and real-time information anytime and anywhere. An empowered and valued employee translates to more satisfied and happier customers and at the end, success for the business.

Source: www.articley.com

5 K-12 Technology Trends for 2011

As technology continues to infiltrate every corner of the K-12 educational space, administrators, teachers, and students are undoubtedly curious about what's coming around the bend in 2011. Will the cloud continue to reign? Will more schools embrace student-centric mobile devices?

To get the answers to these and other pressing questions, THE Journal spoke with a handful of technology experts and came up with a short list of top tech trends they said you'll want to watch in the new year.

1. There will be more momentum for mobile devices in classrooms with an eye toward affordable alternatives to traditional 1:1 rollouts.

The popularity of 1:1 laptop implementations and related initiatives have left many school districts wondering how to introduce mobile computing into the classroom in the most seamless, affordable manner possible. Some schools are rolling out 1:1 and related initiatives, while others are tapping into the existing technology (laptops, PDAs and iPads, for example) that students already own. Doing so allows districts to skirt budgetary issues while still staying on the leading edge of the technology movement.

Expect this trend to gain momentum in 2011, said Roland Rios, director of instructional technology at the Fort Sam Houston Independent School District in San Antonio, TX. "Schools are smartening up and letting students use their tech tools in innovative ways," said Rios, who added that he expects such initiatives to be centered on concepts like "ubiquitous learning" and 24/7 access to technology.

The schools that "get it" will be the ones that stay ahead of the tech curve. "As educators, we really need to stay on top of this stuff," said Rios, "instead of constantly playing catch up."

2. Web-based instruction will gain more traction at the K-12 level.

Already being used extensively in the higher-education space, Web-based learning is expected to continue proliferating for both high school and middle school students. Crowley Independent School District in Dallas is just one of many districts that's already embraced distance learning across various disciplines, most recently for its summer school program. The move not only pushed the district further into the technology age, but also saved it some money.

"Like many other districts, we needed to find ways to conserve budget dollars," said Theresa Kohler, chief instruction officer. "We offered the online courses to students who wanted to gain accelerated credits, or to make up credits for classes they'd failed."

Using a password-protected system that was put in place in 2009, students either logged in from home or used the school's computer labs. "It was a pretty successful program," said Kohler, "and one we plan to expand and utilize more of in the future."

3. More tech-based monitoring and assessment tools will be incorporated into to the instructional mix.

There's nothing quite like being able to pull up a dashboard on a laptop or desktop and quickly figure out exactly where a student stands, and what enrichment is needed to get him or her up to speed (or, provide the student with more advanced instruction). Automated monitoring and assessment tools do just that, and continue to gain in popularity in the K-12 space.

Take classroom "clickers," for example, which teachers can use to engage students, even in the most crowded of classrooms. Combine the assessment tools with the clickers, said Kohler, and teachers can quickly ascertain whether a lesson has "sunk in" or determine whether further instruction is needed.

"We've had really good results with this technology, which gives our teachers real-time data instantly," said Kohler, "instead of having to wait for the graded papers and tests to come back."

4. The cloud will help ease the financial burden on schools while helping to expand technological capabilities.

No longer interested in building their technology coffers with expensive hardware and software, today's K-12 school districts turned to more cloud-based applications in 2010 and are expected to continue down that path in the coming year. "We're doing a lot of cloud computing in our district," said Lynn Reedy, educational technology specialist at Stafford Public Schools in Stafford Springs, CT. "We keep all of our data on a network that's shared among teachers, and we encourage them to use the cloud."

Recently, for example, all the district's K-12 classrooms began using MimioConnect as a resource for sharing lessons and information, and for uploading files. "We don't have to worry about space because the files are all stored in the cloud," said Reedy, "and accessible to everyone."

5. Teachers will have access to expanded professional development programs.

All the new technology in the world isn't going to do students any good if teachers can't use the tools, or show students how to use them. To fill the void created between classroom teachers and new technology, Reedy said her district is expanding its professional development options, both in terms of scope and timing.

"We're trying to get to a place where professional development is available all the time for our staff," said Reedy.

Stafford is also partnering with other districts to create online educational options for teachers who need further enrichment on topics like "how to use your whiteboard" and "how to develop interactive lessons for your science class." Reedy said the expanded professional development helps "keep teachers on top of things and in tune with new technology."

Source: http://thejournal.com

Digital Learning Now!

On Wednesday, Governors Jeb Bush and Bob Wise released a road map for the future of American education. In a letter to governors, they described their shared vision:

Our vision is an education that maximizes every child’s potential for learning, prepares every child with the knowledge and skills to succeed in college and careers, and launches every child into the world with the ability to pursue his or her dreams. By unleashing the power of digital learning, America has the ability to realize that vision today.

Digital learning can customize and personalize education so all students learn in their own style at their own pace, which maximizes their chances for success in school and beyond. With digital learning, every student – from rural communities to inner cities – can access high quality and rigorous courses in every subject, including foreign languages, math and science.

This summer, the governors convened the Digital Learning Council with leaders in education, government, philanthropy, business, technology and think tanks to define the actions that lawmakers and policymakers must take to spark a revolution in digital learning. More than 100 people from across the nation invested countless hours and energy in this rapid virtual policy development process.

As Governor Wise frequently points out, America faces an achievement gap, a teacher gap, and a financial gap. These gaps can only be closed by expanding access to learning online and by encouraging schools to incorporate the best of online and on-site learning.

The Digital Learning Now report outlines the 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning and the associated actions required of state legislators and policy makers:

1. Student Eligibility: All students are digital learners.

• State ensures access to high quality digital content and online courses to all students.


• State ensures access to high quality digital content and online courses to students in K-12 at any time in their academic career.

2. Student Access: All students have access to high quality digital content and online courses.

• State does not restrict access to high quality digital content and online courses with policies such as class size ratios and caps on enrollment or budget.


• State does not restrict access to high quality digital content and online courses based on geography, such as school district, county, or state.


• State requires students take high quality online college-or career-prep courses to earn a high school diploma.

3. Personalized Learning: All students can customize their education using digital content through an approved provider.

• State allows students to take online classes full-time, part-time or by individual course.


• State allows students to enroll with multiple providers and blend online courses with onsite learning.


• State allows rolling enrollment year round.


• State does not limit the number credits earned online.


• State does not limit provider options for delivering instruction.

4. Advancement: Students progress based on demonstrated competency.

• State requires matriculation based on demonstrated competency.


• State does not have a seat-time requirement for matriculation.


• State provides assessments when students are ready to complete the course or unit.

5. Content: Digital content, instructional materials, and online and blended learning courses are high quality.

• State requires digital content and online and blended learning courses to be aligned with state standards or common core standards where applicable.

6. Instruction: Digital instruction and teachers are high quality.

• State provides alternative certification routes, including online instruction and performance-based certification.


• State provides certification reciprocity for online instructors certified by another state.


• State creates the opportunity for multi-location instruction.


• *State encourages post-secondary institutions with teacher preparation programs to offer targeted digital instruction training.


• State ensures that teachers have professional development or training to better utilize technology and before teaching an online or blended learning course.

7. Providers: All students have access to multiple high quality providers.

• State has an open, transparent, expeditious approval process for digital learning providers.


• State provides students with access to multiple approved providers including public, private and nonprofit.


• States treat all approved education providers- public, chartered and private – equally.


• State provides all students with access to all approved providers.


• State has no administrative requirements that would unnecessarily limit participation of high quality providers (e.g. office location).


• State provides easy-to-understand information about digital learning, including programs, content, courses, tutors, and other digital resources, to students.

8. Assessment and Accountability: Student learning is the metric for evaluating the quality of content and instruction.

• State administers assessments digitally.


• State ensures a digital formative assessment system.


• State evaluates the quality of content and courses predominately based on student learning data.


• State evaluates the effectiveness of teachers based, in part, on student learning data.


• State holds schools and providers accountable for achievement and growth.

9. Funding: Funding creates incentives for performance, options and innovation.

• State funding model pays providers in installments that incentivize completion and achievement.


• State allows for digital content to be acquired through instructional material budgets and does not discourage digital content with print adoption practices.


• State funding allows customization of education including choice of providers.

10. Delivery: Infrastructure supports digital learning.

• State is replacing textbooks with digital content, including interactive and adaptive multimedia.


• State ensures high-speed broadband Internet access for public school teachers and students.


• State ensures all public school students and teachers have Internet access devices.


• State uses purchasing power to negotiate lower cost licenses and contracts for digital content and online courses.


• State ensures local and state data systems and related applications are updated and robust to inform longitudinal management decisions, accountability and instruction.

Over the coming year, Digital Learning Now, a project of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, and partner organizations will provide support to state policy makers to guide the historic pivot from print to personal digital learning.

American K-12 education is facing it’s “GM moment” when it must do more with less. Digital Learning Now offers a road map to meet the academic and financial challenges of the future

Source: edreformer.com

Digital Learning Council Recommendations Missing Details on Quality

This morning, Digital Learning Now, a new advocacy effort led by former Governors Jeb Bush (R-FL) and Bob Wise (D-WV), published 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning, a set of state policy recommendations to spur further growth for not only virtual learning, but also the use of digital and multimedia content (see report). Taken together, the ten recommendations, which advocate for states to eliminate restrictions on student access to virtual education, allow students to choose among multiple learning providers, call for removal of seat-time requirements, and judge schools on results rather than inputs such as class size, would enable all students to access virtual education and end many of the regulatory restraints that stifle the development of innovative options.

But, while the recommendations accurately identify the barriers that constrain virtual education, they are light on details for ensuring that innovation actually leads to more high-quality educational options. They suggest, for example, that states evaluate “the quality of content and courses predominately based on student learning data,” yet provide few details on how to accomplish this difficult task. Likewise, recommendations for “Quality Providers” focus heavily on the removal of barriers to competition, but offer little discussion of how to enact the recommendation for “a strong system of oversight and quality control.” Too often, the recommendations assume that quality will naturally result from regulatory relief.

Virtual education is in a time of rapid growth as school districts, for-profit providers, and nonprofit start-ups all move into the online learning world. But without rigorous oversight, a thousand flowers blooming will also yield a lot of weeds. In many ways, the K-12 virtual learning market called for by the 10 Elements resembles the one that exists in higher education, with many providers and funding that follows students. There, we have seen innovative ideas to make college more accessible and affordable. And, we’ve also seen a lot of abuse, poor performance, and deep-pocketed lobbying to resist oversight — all from institutions that are fully-accredited.

States must not overlook one important sentence in the recommendations : “Providers and programs that are poor performing should have their contracts terminated.” Recent experiences with school districts, charter authorizers, and even higher education demonstrate that shutting down poor programs is extremely difficult. Markets alone will not drive quality and independent entities, with the data, authority, political insulation, and willpower to close schools/programs, are essential.

Overall, as guiding principles, the recommendations make sense. But, as the nation’s charter schooling experience demonstrates, policymakers must fully confront the difficult issue of quality at the same time as they seek new and innovative approaches to schooling. It’s better to think of the 10 Elements as important pre-conditions, but not nearly the complete set of policies needed to ensure high quality learning.

-Bill Tucker

Source: educationnext.org

Engaging with Technology: Relate, Create, Donate

Engagement is a critical element of good instructional design and elearning. A theory of engagement, designed to serve as a framework for using technology in learning, was articulated by Kearsley and Shneiderman in 1998.

According to Kearsley and Shneiderman, a learning opportunity should allow a learner to:

• Relate—through collaboration and social networks


• Create—through project-based learning challenges


• Donate—through learning that’s grounded in real-world problems

Although Kearsley and Schneiderman recognized that engagement certainly occurs without technology, they also recognized the power of technology to enhance engagement in innovative ways. At the same time, they stressed the differences in types of interactivity that can occur in an elearning course. They note that engagement theory is a shift away from the idea that the learner benefits most from interactivity with a computer interface to the idea that the learner benefits most when the interface facilitates connections with other human beings.

The role of technology in the theory is to facilitate all aspects of engagement. The use of email, online conferencing, web databases, groupware, and audio/videoconferencing significantly increases the extent and ease of interaction amongst all participants, as well as access to information. The vast array of software tools available for analysis, design, planning, problem-solving and making presentations enable students to do sophisticated and complex tasks. Technology provides an electronic learning mileux that fosters the kind of creativity and communication needed to nourish engagement.

Written more than a decade ago, I think their article is still very relevant.



Reference

Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1998). Engagement theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Educational Technology, 38(5), 20. Retrieved from http://ping.fm/NCn7r

http://ping.fm/RKqrc

Mobile Safety and Teen Perspectives

PEW has some interesting research on what teenagers think about mobile phone safety. Below is a PowerPoint presentation from senior research specialist at PEW Amanda Lenhart that show some recent statistics.

Highlights:

• 58% of teens from schools that forbid cell phones use them during class anyway


• 31% of teens that take their cell phones to school send text messages during class everyday


• 4% of teens age 12-17 have sent a "sext message"


• 15% of teens age 12-17 have received a "sext message"


• 8% of older teens sent "sext messages", 30% of older teens received them


• No gender difference in sending or receiving "sext messages"


• 52% of teens talk while driving a car


• 34% of teens text while driving a car


• 26% of teens have been bullied via text message


• Girls text message more than boys

Teens and Mobile Phones: Exploring safety issues as mobile phones become the hub for American teens - FOSI 2010

Source: http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com/