New blog

I am now blogging internally at Rhodes State Blogs, a platform we deployed based on WordPress MU (the same WordPress MU that powers wordpress.com!).

So, redirect your attention to…:

http://blogs.rhodesstate.edu/edwardsm

Upcoming Event: Faculty Professional Development

I and a guest, Corinne Hoisington of Central Virginia Community College, are presenting this week to the Rhodes State faculty on technological tools they can use to enhance their classes and engage their students. Details below:

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Thursday, Sept 17, 2009
Tech Lab, Rooms 111 & 129
Rhodes State College

Session 1: 9:00AM-NOON
Lunch: Noon-1:00PM (Pizza in TL Lobby)
Session 2: 1:00PM-4:00PM

Grab a seat and prepare to learn about a multitude of online tools you can use in your courses.

• Learn about Blended Learning pedagogy that will equip you to make the most of teaching tools available online and for your classroom.
• Get hands-on experience with online tools.
• Ask questions and enjoy quality discussions.
• Learn about tools such as ChaCha, Ustream, Google Sites, and many more!

See the flyer I made:

Google Wave: The Future of Online Collaboration

This is cutting edge, breaking news in web products. Google announced Wave yesterday.

General information
http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html

In a way, it’s a combination of several familiar forms of communication, including:

• Email
• Discussion Boards
• Wiki
• Instant Messaging
• Text Document
• Image sharing, files, etc.

You can have interactive conversations, threaded discussion, and “living documents” all at once. It’s a mashup of email, discussions, wiki, blogging, everything in real time. Google is making it open source and extendable, meaning that anyone can freely take the platform they create, tinker with it for their own needs, and deploy it themselves.

Hard to explain in words, so if your interest is piqued, set aside some time and watch the unveiling here and imagine how we will be able to use this in education.

Why should you care?

This will make engaging, interactive collaboration EASY. It will bridge the gap between these many “separate” tools we have sitting out there, and, here’s what I think is huge: Wave will make it possible to seamlessly shift between different forms of communication fluidly. We can leave messages but also immediately discuss them as well as edit previous mistakes. Finally, there is a way to review what happened in a chronological fashion. Media can be tied into it. You can add/remove recipients on-the-go, so if you think someone should be part of an already ongoing discussion, you can add them just like you add a recipient to email.

It’s all searchable, and based upon contacts/friends akin to email or facebook, but this is email for the 21st century — doing away with some of the old post office metaphor.

It’ll be intuitive, including drag-and-drop support for image sharing and using the latest web technologies included in HTML5.

It will be mobile friendly, both because smart phones are becoming more widespread but also because the technology behind it is all about connectivity.

I know there is lots of skepticism about both the innovativeness and the disruptive potential of this, but in my opinion this is the next big thing. The fact that Google is making it open source is even better. The need for proprietary software is shrinking with tools like this. Imagine the day when the old post office metaphor for email is no longer the dominating understanding of communication.

We should keep it near and dear on the radar to see how we can take advantage of this for distance learning.

Sloan-C: Designing for a Blended Community of Inquiry

Designing for a Blended Community of Inquiry

Karen Swan introduced Norm Vaughan (Mount Royal College) as he delivered an interactive workshop about blended learning across two sessions divided by a break.

Sloan-C: Great Ideas series

Great Ideas series

A series of short (10 minute) presentations of ideas and tools for blended learning.

Sloan-C: Blending With Purpose

Blending With Purpose

Anthony “Tony” G. Picciano facilitated a panel that included George Otte (City University of New York), Karen Vignare (Michigan State University) and Tony himself.

Before the panel format began, Tony talked a bit about the emergence of blended/hybrid courses over the past 6 or 7 years. Tony had put together a multimodal model of blended learning intended to address both learning styles, student learning outcomes, and relevant web technologies and tools to create quality blended learning environments that are interactive, engaging, and collaborative.

Sloan-C: Welcome & Introductions

Sloan-C Blended Workshop

Mary Niemiec kicked things off at the 2009 Sloan-C Blended Workshop by speaking a bit about the evolution of blended learning. “When we first started it was an invited 30 people. Blended learning wasn’t well defined (hybrid? tech-advanced?).”

“It took almost two years to agree on a common definition that seems to be permeating both the US and Canada.”

Blended learning, she explained, is an intentional blend of online and face-to-face instruction. That could be just a blended course or an entirely blended program.

Data Collection

Other problems she noted were the lack of a consistent method of collecting data about these courses. Generating data about performance, retention, and more remain issues regarding blended learning.

The dominant theme she sees is that blended learning is becoming a part of almost every institution, especially as budgets get tight.

Niemac, finally, stressed her hope that we would leave this workshop (“Not a conference, a workshop!”) with new ideas for planning and teaching in blended formats, but also to become committed to collecting good data and assessments of how blended courses and programs are working.

Attending: Sloan-C Workshop on Blended Learning

I will be attending the Sloan-C Workshop on Blended Learning and Higher Education this weekend hosted by the University of Illinois at Chicago in Lisle, Illinois.

You can find more information on the conference page, but during the event I will be:

• Blogging from this elearning blog.
• Tweeting from my twitter account, http://twitter.com/medwardsrhodes.
• Recording video on my Flip Mino HD for later editing and posting to my Vimeo account.

Blogging In Education

I am presenting to some Allied Health faculty today on using Blogs in education. Check out the pdf:

Blogging In Education – (PDF 1.6MB)

LLT09 Video Highlights

LLT09 Highlights from Michael Edwards on Vimeo.