Month: September 2007

Literacies in Learning Landscapes (NML_UPEI)

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Currently sitting and listening to Will Richardson’s keynote address at UPEI for the New Media Literacies in Learning Landscapes conference. You can follow live at EdTechTalk and I’ve added some photos (more to follow).

Will touched on themes such as “the web as classroom” and “who are the role models for using MySpace and Facebook”. He also asked the educators in attendance if anyone was teaching reading and writing in in hyper-linked environments. Not many hands were raised. Also check out the Flat Classroom Project that Will mentioned.

Over lunch Dave Cormier described his experiences in working with the OpenSim project, which shows great promise.

Update: Will Richardson neatly summarizes the conference.

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Photo: Cynthia Dunsford and Dave Cormier discussing something very important, while I snap a quick picture with my computer webcam.

Heading back from BH Conference (IIL07)

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I’m just getting ready to catch my early morning flight back to the East Coast, with an overall positive impression from my experiences at the Brandon Hall Conference this past week. I’ll have some time to reflect and will post my notes in the next few days. In the meantime. take a look at the Hitchhikr site that Janet Clarey set up for the conference. I’d recommend this aggregation tool for any conference (that’s a hint, Dave).

New Media Literacies in Learning Landscapes Institute (NML_UPEI)

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Edublogger Dave Cormier is behind the New Media Literacies in Learning Landscapes Institute, a participatory learning event for professionals, which starts this coming Saturday morning at 9:30 am in the Wanda Wyatt Hall on the University of PEI campus.

Will Richardson will be the keynote speaker. Both the Saturday session of the Institute and the online only Sunday session will be streamed live by Jeff Lebow.

There’s still room for further registrations but register by Thursday, September 27th. The registration table will open at the Wanda Wyatt Hall at 9 am Saturday: the $20 fee (can’t beat that) gets you a lunch ticket as well as entry into the prize draw.

Informal Learning with Tomoye (IIL07)

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Eric Sauvé, of Tomoye, presented on informal learning in the enterprise. Tomoye’s clients include the US Army. Initial questions from the audience were:

  1. How do you prove that informal learning has value?
  2. How do get management’s buy-in?
  3. How do you ensure accuracy of content?
  4. How do you track legal issues & HR units/credits?

Eric views informal learning as something that adds value or augments formal learning in an organisation (I would say the opposite, but I’m just a learning radical). He also discussed the notion of employing workers/learners as a primary source of learning content; or the “YouTube-ification” of content. Other advice for implementation of Tomoye’s system, which looks like a blog/discussion forum mix for your Intranet, is to keep you tools simple . This follows the Web’s small pieces loosely joined design philosophy. Other points were to add a mechanism for positive reinforcement of good content and to use informal environments to validate the formal training that has been conducted.

Eric closed with a short discussion on collective intelligence or the wisdom of crowds. Overall this session was quite practical advice with some examples of one way to facilitate some aspects of informal learning.

e-Learning 2.0 with Stephen Downes (IIL07)

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Stephen is addressing the conference with his opening keynote this morning. I’m sitting way back in the audience of about 500 people:

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This conference is an excellent mix of presenters, vendors and participants. I’ve found the level of conversation more in-depth than larger conferences I’ve attended. Stephen has set up a back channel with an ad hoc chat he’s set up on his web site. We’re starting to get several comments coming up on the dual screens. I think that the back channel is very new to many in the audience and there’s some confusion with multiple sensory inputs. Of course, it’s normal for anyone doing collaborative learning on the web.

Life in Beta and learning as flow, are my own recurring themes here. Stephen is talking about connectivism and network learning (as well as unworkshops, unconferences, messiness, etc.). Good themes to launch this conference.

Innovations Outside of Learning (IIL07)

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Tom Crawford opened the conference today with ” Innovations Outside of Learning: How external forces are changing our world”. It was a great way to get the ideas flowing and people thinking about the last 100 years of technology and learning. Tom listed his top 10 nine technologies of the past five years that have affected learning. I really liked his first pick, as I think that we have only touched the tip of the iceberg with performance support on the Web.

  1. Performance support
  2. Gaming and simulation
  3. Self-publishing
  4. Collaboration
  5. Web services and mash-ups
  6. High bandwidth to the hand
  7. New input devices (e.g. wii)
  8. Video and image search
  9. Embedded devices

Innovations in Learning Conference (IIL07)

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I’m in Santa Clara for the Brandon Hall Innovations in Learning Conference. Last night we went to Santa Cruz for seafood on the pier, with the sound of sea lions around us. It was too dark to get a photo of these interesting animals, but I thought this sign was kind of neat. We did not feed the birds.

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Janet and I will be presenting our workshop tomorrow. For pictures, go to the Flickr group, and if you’re attending, please post and share.

The end of content-centric business models

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Fewer people believe that “content is king” in the online learning world. However, many e-learning business models are built on some aspect of content creation. Community and context are the two critical factors in developing e-learning environments. For example:

  • Courses online; Community = your cohort; Context = a relevant (to you) credential
  • Performance support; Community = your peers; Context = current need
  • Knowledge Management (especially PKM) ; Community = those with shared interests; Context = Maslow’s higher needs of esteem and self-actualization.

These thoughts were triggered by Rob Paterson’s post that Getting paid for content is over:

All business models must be based on something that is legitimately scarce. Today, no matter how expensive it is to make, content will become freely available quickly. So much music is free that you cannot legitimately charge much for a song. So much film is free that you cannot charge much for a move. So much information is free, that you cannot charge much for it (Britannica). This is a reality – so you have to get over it and find another area that is legitimately scarce where you can find value. So where is it?

What happens to e-learning business models when content declines in value? Will it be more profitable to a have a learning content management system or a people connecting (e.g. Facebook) system? If the best lectures & videos are available online for free, why build mediocre substitutes? What will happen to custom content development?

I’m not saying that these changes will happen immediately, but there does seem to be a trend toward free and ubiquitous digital media. Isn’t it just a matter of time before it hits the e-learning field?

The knowledge economy is the trust economy

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From the Creative Class blog is part of a WSJ article on telecommuting:

“When companies allow employees to work remotely or from home, they are explicitly communicating to them that ‘I trust you to be dedicated to the accomplishment of the work, even if I’m not able to observe you doing it,’ ” says Jack Wiley, executive director of the institute, which is in Minneapolis. “It boils down to respect,” he says. “I respect you and I have confidence in your commitment to the work — to do this under the conditions and at the time you feel will be most productive for you.”

Lack of trust is a major barrier to using decentralized methods and processes that enhance information sharing and collaboration, two factors for success in a knowledge economy. However, many of our industrial organisations are not exactly jumping on the telecommuting bandwagon. Articles in the main stream press are indicators that the status quo may not last.

As I’ve been working on my own for several years now, I see first hand the advantages of distance work. It’s good for the environment, cheaper, and I’m happier and more productive when I’m in control of my schedule. Meetings are less frequent and usually more focused. I’ve noted before that collaborating at a distance is sometimes more effective than being in the same room.

Trust is the glue that holds knowledge organisations together, not rules and regulations.  It’s something to consider when developing a recruitment and retention strategy.