Advancing Learning Conference - Bridging the Gaps

What a wealth of fabulous learning conversations and sharing at the Advancing Learning Conference in Rainy Sarnia. I wanted to get a few of my notes/thoughts organized while they are still fresh and in context :) They are mostly point form…

The event that had the biggest impact for me was Micheal Wesch and his keynote address. He was unable to be with us in person and had to connect via Web-conferencing (Elluminate). Although it would have been 100 times better to have him with us in person it ended up being a great great way to demonstrate using technology to bring experts to an audience who are willing, able and anxious to connect. It was also an excellent example of how having the right person (who is passionate, relevant, technically savy, AND has lots of personally created media clips) results in a highly motivating Keynote making use of appropriate technology.

Title of the Keynote: Making Connections - Experiments in Learning in New Media < — Note: connections can be made virtually and be almost as effective!!!

Key points for me: (none of this is new to you - but for me - I was witnessing the use of these in context :)

Collaboration is the key – even in reading/researching – Diigo.com is an excellent way to share, annotate and learn from a community of learners.

Youtube.com is a powerful way to share personalized stories – sharing and producing reflective personalized learning

Question: Why does the video medium appeal so much to Micheal? What is his motivation?? (I’m always curious about what motivates people - I did get an answer - its down a bit farther) 

Wesch is an advocate for using new media to create a more participatory and collaborative learning environment. Learners are engaged, encouraged to create and document their learning and knowledge building. The medium definately shapes the message in fact it sometimes is the message…

Purpose driven course –> transparent – active – collaborative

Feedback is critical – it provides constructive criticism for personal reflection, dialog and editing in order to build on your own learning.

Wiki for the course – can capture the rss feeds for the students personal blogs – something to build into any planning – if a student already has a blog or wiki – why not incorporate it into the course/learning (for me, this highlights the need to have a common, accessible platform for sharing. Nothing needs to be reinvented artificially if it already exists)

It’s important to leverage all of the knowledge in the room – its important to make all the connections and hear all of the voices and ideas.

Allow backchanneling in the learning space – it’s critical and can be critical - allows participation in the moment and can be done with large groups.

The power will be in getting them to answer the really important questions – like – why am I here?? Not will this be on the exam???

Videos: You’ve seen these ones but wanted to include them as reference

The machine is Us/ing Us
Rethinking Education

After the keynote presentation, Micheal conducted a focused workshop via elluminate (web-conferencing) so that we could get a better idea of how you create, assess and manage (foster) these types of collaborative learning experiments - what his motivation was, the time spent, the benefits and challenges etc., 

Personal reflection: Through technology these experts are more accessible to us - and wouldn’t it be great if we could invite a world class expert to come and work/motivate our faculty and it could be done using technology. Way more sustainable and cost-effective while also giving great examples of how collaboration can occur in a supported, wired environment.

The answer to the question about why use video - To have a voice and be a good citizen, you can be equally literate in video. It can be a medium that learners are very comfortable in and using. 

Session - Model for Connecting College Communities:

startmeupseneca.com site - partnered with Ryerson who have setup a similiar ‘community’/portal. The site is comprised of:

• wordpress site
• LinkedIn Groups
• Twitter
• Blackboard - which houses the teacher/course resources

I liked the idea of what they are trying to achieve - connecting professionals, students, graduates, businesses etc., Very important to promote and build these types of communities that aren’t artificially setup in Learning Management Systems and can be accessed from anywhere by anyone.

Some resources that were shared during the presentation:

marcgordon.ca - small business expert - videos available on site
sim-u.com cool business simulation - running business as a class assignment
Create Debate - an online tool for debating
craigconnects.com - from the makers of Craig’s List - “Connecting the World for Common Good”

Session - Use of QR Codes in Education

QR codes typically are used in advertising campaigns but there are lots of interesting ways folks are thinking about using them in education: putting them on faculty doors so that students came obtain a link to their course notes for the week, scavenger hunts, interactive testing etc., 

QR Codes in Education

Session - Building Online Community In your Hybrid or Online Course

Community was a common theme at this conference - and I think its very timely. This session focused on how to encourage and maintain a sense of community in online and hybrid courses including why its important, what the benefits are and what the issues can be. The format was a facilitated discussion where tips, tricks and tools were shared. I’ve included a link to a great tools resource farther down in this post as part of another session.

Community of inquiry/practice

Teacher is trying to create the same type of online community

1. Social presence
2. Teaching presence
3. Cognitive presence

Learning community

Important to make the community real and active – learners should be encouraged to be both reflective and actively engaged

Best practices in teaching are best practices in teaching - should not matter if you are teaching online or in a face-to-face setting.

Perks – potential to achieve both high levels of communication and a sense of community.

When choosing different online tools think about the the types of  tools and how they can be used to increase presence in all three ‘presences’.

Session - Free, Open-Source Cloud Tools for Teachers

I was not able to attend this session, but the session was to introduce teachers, technologists and administrators to a resource that is designed to introduce a tool, provide examples of its use and tips for how to use the tool. In other words, the complete package :) Tools are categorized according to how they can be used: create, engage, collaborate, research, communicate and organize.

Free, Open-Source Cloud Tools for Teachers

<end of Part I>

28 May 2011 ·