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Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category

‘We’ll Work for Free,’ Say Retired Professors, but Colleges Struggle With How to Use Them. Really?

December 17th, 2009

This is a good example of how the old business model is so entrenched within the educational institution, that we can’t see for forest for the trees. Experienced, retired professors are willing to teach for free. But we can’t figure out how to make that work. Hmm… perhaps because money interests outweigh education interests? Is that a crowded football stadium I hear roaring??

Where are our priorities? Look what Open University is doing (started by retired professors I remind you). With all our brains, we can’t figure out how to make a new model sustainable? I find that hard to believe. What is easier to believe is that the discomfort faced by the entrenched at the thought of losing their jobs, prevents them for doing their job which is to educate the next generation.

If our forefathers had this attitude when founding our Nation, we wouldn’t have a nation. Self sacrifice for the common and future good took precedence over personal comforts. Who wants to make a difference? really??

Posted via web from Dallas’s posterous

Any student, any subject, anywhere (guardian.co.uk)
Current directions in educational repositories (slideshare.net)
The #Future of #Business: #Innovation and #Sustainability based on what we #love more than what we #measure (greenbananablog.org)

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Posted in Education, Futurism, Government, Internet, Sustainability, Technology

Tags: Add new tag Colleges and Universities Education Educators Open University

Libraries Evolving into Laboratories of Synergistic Learning through “Trends” as Information Commons.

December 17th, 2009

libraries seem to be evolving into laboratories of synergistic learning through “trends” as information commons.

via chronicle.com

I like this definition of libraries in light of how technology is transcending traditional space-time barriers within which they have existed. Technology is stretching the “boxes” outside of which we think; even eliminating the box altogether. Was it ever 2 dimensional anyway? Think outside the cube. Think outside the orb. Transcend the metaverse of space-time. The human spirit – the final frontier?

Posted via web from Dallas’s posterous

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Posted in Education, Futurism, Government, Internet, Media, Technology

Tags: future information overload Knowledge Management libraries Technology trends

Teaching Futurology…

December 12th, 2009

: Image via Wikipedia

The jobs for which our children will be educated do not yet exist. Technological change is emerging faster than we can adapt. The most needed skill is critical thinking. Students need to be challenged to think about their thinking. What makes good thinking and what constitutes poor thinking? Thinking out loud enables groups of learners to hear the reasoning process of others. Higher order thinking is engaged when students extrapolate from given information to consider future possibilities.

For this reason, Future studies (Futurology not to be confused with the artistic Futurism movement) will become an important branch of study in higher education settings. Futurology teaches students how to extrapolate from major trends, what might or could happen in the future. There are many trend researching techniques, many birthed as a result of World War II “what if” scenarios studied by war time analysts.

Today, Futurology techniques for research are used for disaster planning, energy shortage considerations, job market predictions, and the like. The bottom line for those considering becoming a Futurologist? Develop your critical thinking skills. Without quality thinking, futuring will be more dangerous than useful.

Google’s Famously Difficult Job Interview Questions (neatorama.com)
Tough Economic Climate (slideshare.net)
Should schoolchildren be made to listen to a President’s speech and analyze it? (althouse.blogspot.com)

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Posted in Critical Thinking, Education, Futurism, Internet, Technology

Tags: Critical Thinking Education Research Technology

Free google doc spreadsheet template for research writing #etcnau Useful to synthesize your thoughts.

December 8th, 2009

The beauty of this spreadsheet mapping tool* for writing papers is that you end up with all your major points at-a-glance and can truly synthesize your research. It also comes in handy if you have to defend your writing.

via spreadsheets.google.com

Copy and paste to your liking. Share as you like. This tool has saved me countless headaches when organizing literature reviews. Makes writing papers a breeze and revisiting them for a defense, much less stressful.

Posted via web from Dallas’s posterous

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Posted in Critical Thinking, Education, Internet, Technology, pedagogy

Tags: google docs research reporting spreadsheet synthesis map

What are Educational Technologist Leadership Competencies?

December 1st, 2009

The cool possibilities about the more than 200 real-time web 2.0 tools under development (Like Google Wave) is that sync and async are being melded together along with multi-dimensional communication tools such as voice, text, image, video, etc.

When semantic web becomes the standard (searchable text becomes recognizable object) then tagging and bookmarking values will be reduced and personal and group collections will become more useful.

Such collections will not simply consist of some items “saved” to another location, but more likely will consist of “searched” items and “pointed to” results. http://popurls.com is demonstrating the real-time value of aggregating crowd sourced and theme specific topics. Studying such real-time results can be a great source of discussion for critical thinking development.

The most important quality for Ed Tech leaders is to understand trends and adapt their craft to emerging innovations. Higher education may do students a disservice by focusing too much on tool techniques and too little on trend research.

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Posted in Critical Thinking, Education, Futurism, Internet, Media, Social Media, Sustainability, Technology, pedagogy

Tags: Critical Thinking Education future pedagogy Technology web2.0

Arabic Fastest Growing Language Users of Net…

November 16th, 2009

Always great to get up to date charts and graphs that visually represent unique views of who, what, why, and where on the world wide web 2.0.

Thanks to Internet World Stats for this graphic representation of language users on the Internet. Great tools for teachers and educators needing to teach critical thinking skills to students. Note the percent rate of growth. This is important when considering future trends.

Top 10 language users on the internet. Note the rate of growth.

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Posted in Critical Thinking, Education, Internet, Population Growth, Technology

Tags: Critical Thinking Education Internet language statistics

Community is Not Superficial…

November 5th, 2009

Cooperation is working toward a common goal. Collaboration results in collateral material. However, community may or may not be present and/or result from either cooperative or collaborative efforts.

AND COMMUNITY IS THE GOAL!

Which is why teachers should be careful about assigning cooperative and collaborative work without a clear goal in mind of fostering community.

Community cannot exist without a sense of trust and belonging; a sense that each member’s contribution is valued and necessary; and the belief that what the community produces bears significant impact on MORE than the community itself.

I have pondered this phenomenon a great deal recently due to my position with iMMEDIA and have come up with our Mission statement as follows: Shaping communities of impact through professional development targeting technology integration.

My point is that unless we visionize our student groups with the why; then the “what” and the “how” remain irrelevant and dysfunction results. The assignment may get done but not community resulted and in my opinion, we have done nothing more than drive the herd to market. I find this distasteful to the uttermost.

If there is not impact, members feel like they are given busy work. If the only goal is self enlightenment, members grow tired of the monotony of self centered foci.

If we ask them to cooperate, there must be a bigger reason than the subject matter alone. If we ask them to collaborate, the resulting collateral material should impact a wider audience than the group/class itself. It may work for awhile. But eventually everyone will see through the gloss and look elsewhere to satisfy their innate need to pursue the greater good.

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Posted in Education, Futurism, Internet, Simple Living, Social Media, Sustainability, Technology, pedagogy

Tags: collaboration collateral community cooperation Education pedagogy teaching web2.0

eLearn 2009 Chock Full of Useful Tools & Ideas…

October 28th, 2009

When hundreds of educators from all over the earth gather to share current research about the integration of technology in education, the results are bound to be exciting and eLearn 2009 in Vancouver, B.C. has been no exception.

Research about Web 2.0 tools, education trends, learning theory, instructional design, content development and MORE are explained and discussed in dozens of concurrent sessions held day by day during the week long gathering.

The experience confirms my own educational experience is up-to-date. The questions I bring to the table are the same questions being researched around the planet. There are no easy answers but many useful tips are shedding light on the path ahead. Here are just a few encouraging highlights…

1. The digital divide is not just about personal access to technology in a remote region. We learned of many organizations who use technology to raise support for charitable efforts. Those efforts, in turn, benefit people who may still not enjoy direct access to the technology but who receive aide from the organization nonetheless. This needs to be considered when we discuss the digital divide.

2. Gaming research is demonstrating unique possibilities for online textbook design that engages students who need to conquer levels (chapters) in order to move on. They can cooperate online and share tips with one another as they learn the game (material). The possibilities are limitless.

3. Outside forces such as economic stress, are forcing the creation of networked communities in order to accomplish mutual goals and fulfill mutual needs. The communities themselves are distilling various Web 2.0 tools in order to simplify to the lowest common denominator, a platform for collective information and action.

4. Open sourcing, open education, and open publishing are flattening access to scholarship.

5. Technology is the answer. What was the question? The question concerns Wider Access, Higher Quality, and Lower Cost. These are the drivers of current Web 2.0 applications.

Resource links:

http://aace.org/conf/elearn/

Free books: http://aupress.ca

http://publicationshare.com

http://communitiesofinquiry.com

Of course, the same questions many of us have been asking, remain. How do we motivate teachers to create network communities for professional development in light of the time barrier? Many researchers here are working on the creating of Bot Tutors to guide individuals according to the assessment of their aggregated work and present needs and future dreams. As computer processing speeds up, we will see the creation of computer generated simulations and suggestions customized to users based on such things. The future is now. We just need to get rid of the trees in order to see the forest. lol