Speaking at the WCET Conference - Best Methods of Collaboration in Inst. Design

Best Methods of Collaboration in Inst. Design
November 13, 2010, 8:00 AM-9:00 AM - Pavilion
WCET Conference - http://wcetconference.wiche.edu/

Presenter: Terence Armentano
Presenter: Michael Edwards

In today's connected world, instructional designers and content experts have multiple ways of collaborating on projects. From video conferencing and social networks to blogs, wikis and simple emails, options for collaboration abound but can almost be overbearing. This roundtable will focus the discussion on how best to select and deploy the best and most efficient methods for effective collaboration in instructional design.

I'm Presenting at the 2009 Sloan-C/Moodle Moot Conference

Just a quick update to let you know that I am presenting at the Sloan-C/MoodleMoot 2009 Conference in San Francisco, CA.  I am in San Francisco right now and enjoying the area.  This is my first time in California. It's a bit chillier than I thought it would be ( high 60's) compared to Ohio (80's).  I'm looking forward to the conference as there are quite a few presentations that interest me.   Here is info about my presentation. Feel free to contact me if you are at the conference.

TITLE: 
University 2.0: Open source as a cornerstone

PRESENTERS:
Amanda Rondeau, Director, Emerging Academic Technologies Distributed Education and Instructional Technology Office of the Senior Vice President & Provost, University of Minnesota
Terence Armentano, Assistant Director, Center for Online and Blended Learning, Bowling Green State University
Marc Oehlman, Interim Director, Center for Academic Technology, CSU Monterey Bay
Andrew Roderick, Technology Development Manager, Academic Technology, San Francisco State University

DESCRIPTION:
As budgets decrease, the use of open source software for enterprise-level applications has increased within higher education. This session will examine current open-source development and integration projects at four different campuses and strategies each campus has implemented related to teaching and learning, technology management, and organizational administration.

Colleges consider using blogs instead of blackboard: Getting closer, but not completely thought through, in my opinion

The article titled, "Colleges Consider Using Blogs Instead of Blackboard" in the Chronicle of Higher Education, gets some things right and some things wrong, in my opinion. I want to keep this somewhat short because I could write a novel on this topic. First, they understand that paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for Blackboard might not be the best technological solution to facilitate learning. Second, they have experienced the sheer power of the Wordpress blogging platform, which can be used to develop websites that facilitate online learning, eportfolios, blogs, and more... PLUS it's OPEN SOURCE. Yes, it's license free. "What? Something must be wrong with it then." Nope, only one's inability to understand open source software and how it works. We have implemented Wordpress at BGSU as the foundation of our web 2.0 learning landscape. The platform enables the brilliant minds of our university to easily consume, collaborate, communicate, and create content. It facilitates the publication of audio, video, images, and presentations quite easily. In fact, I am giving a presentation on our Wordpress project at the 2009 Moodle Moot/ Sloan-C Conference in San Francisco. In essence, the Wordpress Platform is very powerful and customizable and could be used to deliver great content. If the only thing they wanted a learning management system to do was to present content and provide an interactive platform for learning, then it would meet their needs just fine, but the Learning Management System must do more than that. Wordpress, without tons of customizations to the core, cannot and does not provide the same functionality that a Learning Management System can provide. A better direction for CUNY to go would be to continue to support Wordpress because it is an amazing teaching and learning platform, BUT ALSO look into implementing Moodle, an open source learning managements system, to replace Blackboard if they are unhappy with Blackboard. I personally think Blackboard and Moodle are equals with very different price tags. Either way, the technological infrastructure of Moodle and Blackboard is designed to do different things than the technology in Wordpress. For example, Moodle and Blackboard both have grade books, test creation tools, advanced discussion forums, assignment drop boxes, and they interface with a variety of Student Information Systems for enrollment management. To draw an analogy from a brick and mortar classroom, Moodle/Blackboard would be a classroom with a locked door equipped with chalkboard, desks, computers, projector, and other cool teaching and learning tools. Wordpress would be like equipping all the computers in the classroom with state of the art technology that enables the teachers and students to take teaching and learning to another level that neither Learning Management Systems can provide on their own. Yes, they will both claim to have blogging features, but as I stated before Wordpress is much more than a blogging platform. My point is that CUNY would be better off looking at Moodle and Wordpress as an open source alternative to Blackboard instead of just Wordpress.

LLT 2009 Conference

I just got back from presenting at the LLT Conference in Columbus, Ohio. It was a rich learning experience and great place to meet colleagues from around the state interested in technology and education.  A  colleague of mine from Rhodes State, Michael Edwards, has a well written review on his blog about my presentation as well as a very neat short video he put together of the Monday sessions featuring Carolyn Kraut, Dr. Bruce Edwards, and myself. 


LLT09 Highlights from Michael Edwards on Vimeo.

OLN Expo, resource of the day, and ipods

It has been about a month since my last posting so I plan on getting back into the swing of things. It has been a busy month! I was recently honored that the Ohio Learning Network chose to highlight the BGSU Weblog and Podcast Solution as their resource of the day on April 22nd. They started doing the resource of the day back in march 2007 and they actually highlighted a web 2.0 wiki I put together back then as well. I'm glad to be able to contribute to their mission as they do a great job aggregating "services and resources so Ohioans can meet their learning potential, Ohio’s economy can grow, and Ohio colleges and universities can continue to be knowledge leaders. "

They also invited me to do a break out session about the development, implementation, and administration of the system at the OLN Teaching and Learning Expo 2008 on May 19th in Columbus, OH. Every educator in Ohio should check it out if they can go that day.

In keeping with the theme of weblogs and podcasts, I thought this article was pretty cool. It lists 10 ways you can turn your ipod into your own portable personal learning environment.

Presentation and Check Sheet

Stephen Downes makes a good point in his comment on my previous post. Why not post it online? So I thought I would do one better and post them both online and make the check sheet a wiki so that others can build on it. Thanks.

Check it out here
The password to edit the wiki is "online"

My Presentation - Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning

If you attended my presentation at the Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning and would like a copy of the Blended Program Development Check-Sheet and Presentation, please send me an email and I will forward you a copy. My email is terence at bgsu dot edu

Distance Learning Conference - Key Note - Dr. Mark David Milliron

I am here at the Distance Learning Conference in Madison Wisconsin and just attended Dr. Mark David Milliron's key note, titled "My Generation Your Generation We’re All in this Together." Much of what Dr. Milliron spoke about, I have observed or written about on this blog. One thing that really stuck out was how he suggested that online courses and blended courses will be mainstream because they offer value added situations and experience for students. Universities that keep putting online against face to face and in it's own category miss the point. Many students want to take a couple face to face courses and a couple online courses. Students want to be able to flex their schedules, take the courses they want from the teachers they want, and interact online. See my University 2.0 post. Another idea that stands out is that traditional marketing and advertising will be less effective for university's because of the social networking that goes on online. Schools can advertise all they want, but if students want to know about a school they can find out online. See my web 2.0 and higher ed post.

The following are the scratch notes I made during the presentation. These are meant to help me remember key concepts, but if you find them helpful then great.

- Take out all-in one device (trade it with the person next to you). People get nervous since we are becoming more dependent on these devices.
- Changing infrastructure for how we live (virtual)
- Mainstreaming distance education
- Vision, Planning, Fundraising (capital funds, operational funds, maintenance plans), Building
- Hybrid – The middle of the bell curve - the way of the future – They already know it...we do everything online (banking, cars, etc). The action is in the middle
- Get away from what is better (online vs. face to face)
- Believes Itunes-like system will be the learning infrastructure of the future (DRM, labels, etc)
- Example - A student has 2 morning classes 4 hour gap until 3rd class (wants to work online in between courses)
- Mobile lifestyle
- Thinks games will be a big part of the learning economy (I somewhat disagree) –(my observation: people play games to escape reality, not engage reality.)
- (showing youtube videos – Blackberry, teacher throws cell phone, wii) (grandpa bowls with grandson 3 states away on the wii)
- He says the data shows gamers are very active people
- Pepperdine bought real-estate in second life (info for Justin)
- Social Networking – Marketing and ads will do less because people will check you out via networking – students checking email less (IM, texting, facebook)
- Kettering – innovative stick figure animation about the university – connects with students
- Internet2 – holographic lab – the future
- Techno-Cro-Magnon theory “Technology…Good”
- Analytics, diagnostics, and evidence based education. Book recommended “Completing on Analytics” – Risk analytics – Credit Card story about company tracking woman’s habit and called her when it wasn’t her buying pattern. They were correct.
- Though we are connected more than ever before, people can still feel lonely. Integrate the human experience. Book recommendation – Social intelligence by Daniel Golman.