Old tools for new situations

In my last post I shared a comment from Hal Meeks in regard to this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: Is E-Learning Forever Trapped in a Field of Dreams? The discussion has continued today in our Teaching and Technology Round Table mailing list. I finally weighed-in after this comment from Henry Schaffer:

...before this digital/web/stuff was foisted on us (faculty,
staff and students) there used to be this irritating dance of getting
the course syllabus to the students. Hand it out, but not everyone is
there. Then they get lost - "why don't you bring more to class?" Or
the late night phone call, "When is the next exam?" Annoying to the
instructors, frustrating to the students.

Now we just put the syllabus on a web page - and, as they say, "Walla!"

I don't know anyone who wants to go back to the old game.

I have no desire to go back to the old days either, but the old days now are how we did it three years ago. I'd like to see us change the game entirely. Here was my response to Henry from earlier today:

Except for today there are a zillion ways to put that syllabus online short of spending zillions of dollars on CMS/LMS solutions. Yet, we cling to the technologies of the last decade that neither the faculty nor students prefer. While at the same time, enforcing built-in and totally unacceptable (industrial era) pedagogical frameworks.

It warms my heart that we are at least having these discussions, and the opportunity to challenge the status quo.

Being the ball (again!)

From Martin Weller, Professor of Educational Technology at the Open University in the UK:

You only understand it by doing it - as many people have commented (e.g. Ewan), in order to understand web 2.0 you have to act 2.0. I think too many academics are guilty of seeing social networking, or any popular tool, as something to be researched, but not something to be experienced and used. This is both rather a snobbish attitude and also misses the point. Signing up for an account, dropping in for a couple of weeks, doing a survey and then disappearing does not gain you an understanding of how these things are really being used.

Amen to that! You have to be the ball.

When comfortable doesn't feel so comfortable

I'm having one of those days where this hit too close to home. Hey, where did my dreams and youth go?



Guts or no guts?

QOTD: Robert Paterson

I saw these reflections on the Integrated Media CEO Summit in Robert Paterson's Weblog. I think he is making the same point I have been trying to make about being the ball.

Ideas do not change us. Only experience changes us. Changing experience has to be deep and repetitive to change the habits of a career.

Integrated Media and Beyond Broadcast conferences

I'm in Boston the next two days to attend the Integrated Media Association's Public Media conference, and am staying on another day for a session on Beyond Broadcasting to be held at MIT.

I am a bit of a fish-out-of-water, as this conference is mostly for people working in public radio and television. Being an academic, I'm sure I will be observing from a slightly different perspective. That said, I plan to dive into the sessions, attend everything possible, and capture some reflections here in the blog.

I have to admit to a certain bias going in. I'm feeling like I am attending a conference for an industry where the world has passed them by. Of course, the same thing is being said about many of our more entrenched and respected establishments; e.g. higher education. So it is a positive that this conference is squarely focused on how the world of the media is changing, and how public radio and television fit into the mix. Too many of our older institutions have spent their time and energy trying to protect their antiquated business models through legislation and the courts. It's very refreshing to see this conference focused on change and adaptation from within. This kind of radical transformation is not easily accomplished.

I'm anxious to experience the next three days, and observe as these venerable institutions struggle with reinventing themselves and discovering their relevance in this post networked world.

Tomorrow, besides attending the plenary sessions, I will primarily be attending two tracks: one on social media and the other on research. Of course, I have a keen interest in all things social, and like many of you, I'm trying to get my arms around the quickly changing world of Web metrics. I'm hoping I learn lots.

Look for some posts here tomorrow, and possibly some live blogging on my Twitter pages.