Don't Make Me Collaborate

USDLA Session: Don’t Make Me Collaborate by Kat Bailey and Samantha Penney

Some snippets from this session…

A lot of 30 second ideas of things you can do with your cell phone. What can you learn or do in 30 seconds…. well some of them you could post in 30 seconds, but if you were going to think reflectively about them, you couldn’t do it in 30 seconds.

Wikinomics by Tapscott covers these areas:

  • sharing
  • acting globally
  • openness
  • peering

Collaborative culture

  • ceding some control
  • sharing responsibility
  • embracing transparency
  • managing conflict
  • projects take on a life of their own

These are described in this session in the context of teaching online – letting your students experience a collaborative culture. Suggestions for managing group learning online like having student contracts for their work in it.

Vision of Students Today – digital ethnography. When I searched that, there’s a K-12 version of it. Did you know? I’m surprised how many of the participants here haven’t seen this video. Does that mean I’m going to too many conferences?? or reading too many blogs?

Suggestions include – create an infrastructure for collaboration in your class. I think this is what Jazz does – creates an infrastructure for collaboration. I can think of some other groups I’m in where we use collaborative tools to create the infrastructure for collaboration.

The conversations about cell phones at this conference is really intriguing. There was a Marc Prensky quote about learning anything on a cell phone.

There were some hints at constructivist learning – “leave out the piece you want the students to learn” and let them find it.

It seems like the new “must have” for conference presenters is a clip from YouTube. Hmm. There was a cool one with flowers and poetry that was a sample of student work.

Reference to Classroom20Wiki – with a recommendation of using these ideas in the classroom. It’s really about integrating technology in the curriculum, but with a Web 2.0 twist, a distance learning twist, and focusing on higher ed classrooms. Interesting perspective

Engaging your “waiting collaborators”: use the collaborative tools to create surmountable challenges and let them have fun with it.

I think we’re doing well with using the Web 2.0 tools to support our collaborative projects, as well as training such as Jazz. How are you using collaborative tools to support your work?

Mashup or Crashup?

USDLA The Intersection of Real-time Learning Tools with Learning Management Systems by Alan Greenberg from Wainhouse Research. Snippets of ideas and wisdom.

What’s a mashup? Media types, code, data sources, etc. from different sources.

Which of these do you use? vc, web conferencing, whiteboards, wikis/collaborative tools, LMS/CMS, other…

“videoconferencing was the hot technology in the 90s”

A crashup can be the blue screen of death or cars crashing together.

Alan has a great chart with the learning activity down the left and the tool (LMS, VC, streaming, web conferencing, interaction enables). Then whether or not that learning activity is possible in that tool.

Technology creates latency – it’s between you and the learners. You want that to diminish.

The crashup/mashup is happening because you need all those learning activities whenever you need them, not just in this tool or that tool.

A unified collaboration environment has a nice mix of synchronous and asynchronous tools. IM / Web conferencing / interactive writing tools / recording / streaming / classroom vc / web vc / virtual worlds / collaboration portals / audio threads / LMS CMS etc. All these things come together in one environment with infrastructure services.

Interestingly, he asked the audience if they have tried GoogleDocs. 15 people raised their hands. Then he asked, who is using it still? Only 3 raised their hands. I wonder how many people actually seriously collaborate for their work on documents with other people. And of those, how many stayed with GoogleDocs?

How can you take your content and make it for mobile devices? All these tools will converge onto mobile devices. The iPhone broke down the display tech and usability barriers for using mobile devices.

Comments from the audience about Second Life “I don’t have time for my first life”

mlearning – mobile learning. Convergence of educational, consumer, prosumer, enterprise markets based on the Smartphone.

The barrier of broadband and devices is melting away. I wonder about rural areas that don’t have the services offered with the cell phone plans that the more urban areas have. Is that barrier also melting away?

A report referred to: The Distance Education and eLearning Landscape

The silos of videoconference vs. online tools are breaking down. The VC has to connect to the LMS. Greenberg’s prediction: LMS platforms will include IM, presence and VC as a matter of course by 2012. This is interesting because it’s the best of both worlds – VC for the human interactivity and online for the reflection.

Context sensitivity is going to be more important – moods, polls, ways to know the context of the learner.

Check out WRPlatinum as well.

From an audience member – in Afghanistan, everyone has a phone but they can’t afford food. They aren’t learning on a computer, they can learn on a mobile phone.

The session ended with Q&A and sharing from the audience.

Scalability of Distance Learning Initatives

USLDA Conference: Scalability of Distance Learning Initiatives within Current School Models Resistant to Change by Daryl Diamond, Assistant Director, Enterprise Change Implementation, Broward County Public Schools, FL

6th largest school district in the country; first franchise of Florida Virtual School

She started with a “distance learning program attribute checklist” with keys for implementation. It has five categories:

Some of these ideas come from Comprehensive School Reform.

Scaling isn’t just the number of people using a technology or tool. It’s not just pockets of educational reform.

Coburn’s (2003) Dimensions of Scale

  • Spread – increased numbers
  • Depth – changes in teachers beliefs and practice
  • Sustainability – how does it sustain after reform funding ends
  • Shift in Reform Ownership

Think about scaling up vs. going to scale. Going to scale means that it’s integrated into regular practice and becomes the norm.

There are some ways that distance learning is better than face to face – where the online learning model meets multiple intelligences and authentic assessment is used. And face to face is just the lock step workbook page that everyone has to be on the same page by the mideterm.

Do you ever feel like you’re building an airplane in the sky?

Does the distance learning program change the pedagogical principles? Is the project able to continue if funding is pulled?

Broward has videoconferencing systems in all the high schools, used mostly for full courses. They also have VC in the elementary and middle schools. In addition they have a middle & high school level virtual school.

“going to scale” includes changing basic pedagogical practices.

“researchers have been looking at the wrong thing” – only how many teachers are using it? how many students are using it? Instead we should look at how teaching has changed?

We need to move past “it’s innovative, it’s fun, it’s viable, it’s enjoyable”.

Interesting idea she has: use VC to mentor teachers. Both teachers hook up their classes – the mentor teacher teaches both classes while the other teacher learns/observes. It’s implemented in face to face classes to meet the needs of new teachers.

“How many of your programs started with a grant?” What happens when the grant funding dries up?

She sees distance learning as a critical tool to address the mandates for all students to have access to quality learning.

There’s a nice intro to their VC programs here. Their VC courses are supported by web resources.

Then we looked at the checklist again to consider how our programs are going to scale based on the checklist. The checklist isn’t online that I could find, but you can email Daryl – her contact information is on the link at the top.

Ellen Wagner Opening Keynote

I’m at the USDLA Annual Conference listening to Ellen Wagner’s opening keynote. She’s the Senior Director of Worldwide E-Learning Solutions with Adobe Systems, Inc. Here are some snippets of wisdom and ideas.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
Albert Einstein

Shift Happens – watch the presentation if you have a moment. Check out the wiki and the follow-up questions.

“We are currently preparing students for jobs and technologies that don’t yet exist in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problem yet.” From the Shift Happens presentation.

Question: what are you doing to prepare yourself for life in the learning metaverse?

“If no one’s been there before, no one will know you’re wrong.”

How do you collaborate with someone 12.5 hours away? How do you work and collaborate with co-workers 12.5 hours away? Ellen experiences this. She accidentally scheduled a major event during a major holiday in India. Oops! I’ve been thinking it’s time to have a calendar with the holidays in the countries I want to collaborate with via VC.

Wayfinding – a method used by travelers to find relatively unmarked and often mislabeled routes. This is the metaphor she offers as a way to make sense of the rapid change and insane schedule of global learners and workers.

  • Prepare for the quest. Gamers prepare for the quest.
  • Stay the course… but keep an eye on where you’re going. The only way out is through.
  • Leave that extra baggage behind. old practices, old ways of doing things… “but we can’t do that”
  • Engage with your fellow wayfinders. Use your Facebook pages to find colleagues to help you. When confronted with an overload of information, we turn to our friends.
  • “Be excellent to each other” Allusions to patent disputes and issues with proprietary code.

Are you using the technologies for YOU? A thought provoking presentation to consider further….

Pics from the MysteryQuest Classroom

If you aren’t subscribed to the comments on my blog, then you should check out the MysteryQuest USA pictures posted online by Pine River Elementary. They give a great flavor of what the research portion is like in the classroom.

I especially like the picture of this strategy of having a wall or whiteboard or place to write the guesses for all the schools. It gives a focal point to the research. See how the students are working there:

I still have a few spots left I want to fill. If you can’t pay the $50 for the remaining slots, sign up and put “free for blog readers” in the notes field when you register. Hope you can participate!

Holding Posters Still

First session of MysteryQuest USA today! We had a lot of posters in the presentations today, so I thought I’d share some of what worked and what we worked on improving even during the conference!

A couple of the classes were holding posters. As you can see, once they held it still, it came through very clearly. Notice the nice large font, and in the population case, the really thick marker with the important info to write down.

Another class used a document camera. They modeled the best practice of stacking the papers and then pulling them off one by one. It came through so clear that I wasn’t able to grab a screenshot of pulling it off. But this gives you the idea:

Another class taped their posted to the chalkboard. As you can see that definitely held it still. A little hard to read in this picture, but from what I could tell, all the classes could read it.

Then one of my favorite clues from today was this clue for a very small state. Takes a bit of math to figure this one out. Great work, St. Thomas Aquinas, in Waterford, WI!

Finally, one of the classes did so well on research time that they had time to make posters to ask their clarifying questions! I have never seen this before and it worked out really well. They had several questions that made the other class look it up, and it was easier to do with the question written out!

We have a few spots left in the MysteryQuest USA sessions in mid-May. Still time to sign up and participate. Hope you can join us!

One Videoconference System per Child

Did you see this in the Wainhouse Research Bulletin a few weeks ago? Be sure to click the link to see the picture!

MIT Launches One Videoconferencing System per Child (OVPC) Nicholas Nery of The Manchurian Institute of Technology thinks everyone in the world should have a videoconferencing system.
The world famous professor, author, researcher, and diplomat has launched the non-profit OVPC organization to design, manufacture, and distribute the world’s most affordable videoconferencing system, priced at less than $100 and aimed at youngsters in the developing world. With moisture-resistant seals and a crash-proof hard drive, combined with built-in WiFi, colorful cables and connectors, solar panels for mobility and power generation in remote areas, and a high definition camera, this hardly-no-frills system supports 720p video and Siren-14 stereo audio. Prototypes of the SIP-based, H.264-compliant device are due to ship in Q4-08.
The company is concentrating on serving populations in underdeveloped and/or war-torn regions of Western Africa, South East Asia, and Texas.

Texas at the end of the paragraph surprised me. If any of you are involved, please comment and tell us more about it!

There’s also an interesting commentary on this development on the OLPC News site. I hope that those involved can imagine more instructional educationally engaging experiences besides just this:

Imagine entire country’s classrooms, full of children, in a massive multiplayer online conference.

Good that someone’s thinking about the bandwidth implications too:

I just hope that SES Global can handle all that data traffic on its donated bandwidth or there will be a lot of disappointed children (and adults).

So far, we’re still working on access to videoconferencing in each school. One of my superintendents wanted to know how to get VC in all the classrooms, even though it’s highly unlikely (at their present use rate) that they’ll ever do more than one VC at a time. Do you see a time in the future when every classroom at least has VC? Do you think the vendors will ever make desktop VC low cost that has audio designed for a classroom and maybe camera presets too? is that too much to ask for a low cost desktop system? What do you think?

Stopping so you can keep going

My pastor, Dwight Nelson, has been doing a series on the Sabbath – actually two series: The Refreshing Delusion on the day, and God’s Party on the way. (Those links go to the WMV, MP4, MP3 and study guides.) All winter and now through the spring, I’ve been reflecting on the Sabbath’s impact on my own life, my leadership, and my productivity. I thought I’d share a few nuggets with you:

These thoughts are mostly from the God’s Party series, which is on Sabbath-keeping. I guess I’m especially attracted to this series because of the technology hook. The titles are: MySpace, Facebook, YouTube YouToo (today’s sermon), Green Google, and Yahoo. Pastor Dwight is very creative in bringing real life lessons and applications from the world around us with yet a strong Biblical basis.

So, here are some interesting thoughts. This quote is from the study guide for the MySpace sermon.

James Richard Wibberding: “Energy is more precious than time . . . . I can’t use my time without energy. Perceptive people transform our energy needs into dollars, selling everything from energy bars to energy drinks to sugar highs. And, what party thrives without ‘refreshments’? We humans have to recharge or refuel often. This energy deficit can be traced to human banishment from the tree of life (Genesis 3:22-23) but all is not lost. There is something of refreshment still within reach.” (Sabbath Reflections: A Weekly Devotional 87, 88)

I really like this quote because I really do feel like Sabbath refreshes me and refuels my energy. It’s a weekly holiday (holy day) where I set aside work and really rest. What a blessing!

The Facebook sermon focused on sleeping and resting and looking for Jesus’ face throughout the Sabbath. If you’re tired and stressed, you’ll really like the Facebook sermon – listen to it! 🙂 It’s where I got the title for this blog. Mountain climbers never climb straight to the top without stopping to rest. If I’m going to finish my PhD, or keep going at any of my many projects, I have to stop and rest. The Sabbath gives me that weekly rest stop. All my cares flee away for 24 hours. What a blessing!

Today’s YouTube You Too was about “broadcasting” or “bringing” yourself to gather together to worship. Here’s a great CS Lewis quote:

C. S. Lewis: “ . . . [if] there is anything in the teaching of the New Testament which is in the nature of a command, it is that you are obliged to [celebrate the communion], and you can’t do it without going to Church. I disliked very much their hymns, which I considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music. But as I went on I saw the great merit of it. I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off. I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots
in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren’t fit to clean those boots. It gets you out of your solitary conceit .” (God in the Dock 62)

Wow! That just gets you. Not only do we need to stop, but we need to stop together. To fellowship, to study, to worship. To be together. What a blessing to fellowship, knowing my fellow believers are also gathered together around the globe!

I’ve really enjoyed these and thought I’d pass it along… it’s a blessing to listen to how Pastor Dwight weaves in current technology in such an interesting real life application to our daily lives.

You can listen to or watch these online, get the study guides and/or subscribe to the podcast – all at www.pmchurch.tv.

A is for Animal

It’s tough to find a good program for young children, but one of the great choices is A is for Animal from the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The program builds on the sculptures and paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art. At first the presenter asks the students if they’ve done a VC and lets them wave to break the ice.

The program consists of lots of questions and asking questions about what they are looking at. The students comment on what they see and also identify different objects in the paintings or on the sculptures. For example:

  • What sound do you think the dog is making?
  • What does it look like the dog is doing?
  • What would the dog feel like if we could pet him?
  • What do you think the dog is looking at?

Baby polar bearThe students see a sculpture of a cat, a bear, along with pictures of the live animals as part of the lesson. Some of the pictures and sculptures are of imaginary animals. Students identify which animals they see in the imaginary animals.

The students were highly involved, talking, sharing ideas, and learning. This is a great program for young students.

APA Electronic References

My dissertation proprosal is coming along nicely, so while I’m waiting for feedback from my committee I’m working carefully through my APA references.

APA Supplement
In the LEAD 880 Proposal Development class, the instructors linked to a new Andrews document about the new APA rules for citing from the Internet. I can’t find it online to link it here. The document recommends the full APA Supplement – 11.95 – that Bonnie Proctor’s document recommends. I knew I needed it because I’m quoting two blog entries. So I bought and downloaded that.

At first I wondered if I needed to do the doi stuff for all my journal articles – but then I realized I collected almost all of them online – so I guess I had better do so!

Endnote Upgrade
Then I upgraded my Endnote program – (Help, Endnote Program Updates) figuring that might help me.

Updated APA Style for Endnote
Then I googled “Endnote APA electronic” to see if there were any updated APA styles out there. I found this page in Australia – where the librarians fixed the Endnote style for APA so it does it better. I downloaded that to the styles folder (c:/program files/endnote/styles).

DOIs
To test it I entered a DOI for one of my journal articles. I chose the uq_apa5th style for an electronic journal article and then switched back to Endnote’s APA and I could see that the uq one does it right.

Next I’m heading over to http://www.crossref.org/ to collect DOI’s for as many references as I can. You can use the Guest Query for just one reference, or copy and paste a set of references from Endnote (Ctrl+K), add a line between each one, and search with the Simple Text Query.

I’m also fixing my references by sorting the list by RefType. Then I can carefully check all the books, all the conference papers, all the journals etc.

As I’ve been searching and finding the DOI numbers, I’ve discovered that CrossRef.org doesn’t seem to know the DOI’s for international papers. Journals from InformaWorld, for example, have DOIs, but the CrossRef.org doesn’t find them. So I’m double searching for all DOIs, first on CrossRef.org, then on Google. If I know the article came from InformaWorld, usually the DOI is already in the URL field from downloading the reference. So I can just copy and paste it from there into the DOI field.

Editing Reference Styles
As I’m doing this, I’m finding some “odd” ones that I have to figure out from the new APA reference. A powerpoint presentation, a chapter in an electronic book, etc. I figured out that if you go to Edit, Output Styles, Edit up_apa5th [or insert your filename here], then Bibliography, templates, you can see exactly how the reference is built.

I stumbled across this when I was trying to do the chapter in an electronic book. I thought I needed to create a new reference type, but really the electronic book reference has the setup for the chapter as well. If you put the chapter info it, it lists it as a chapter in a book. Otherwise it just lists as an electronic book. So figuring out how the references are put together can help you figure out what data to enter where.

These are the reference styles I edited:

  • Thesis: Author (Year). Title. Retrieved from Name of Database. Retrieved from URL (AAT Accession Number)
    Note: only do this if you got all your dissertations from ProQuest. Otherwise you’ll need the city and university info etc.
  • Online Multimedia: Created By (Year). Title [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from URL

I also created two new ones for the ERIC documents. I’m not positive these formats will be accepted, but if they aren’t, I’ll edit them again here.

First, you go to Edit, Preferences, Reference Types, and choose one of the Unused reference types. Click Modify Reference Type. Then you can turn on the fields by typing in the same name or a different name. I used a similar reference – like conference paper – to figure out what I should do. After turning on the fields you want, then go to Edit, Output Styles, Edit [your style name here], Bibliography, Templates.  I’ve been just adding to the uq_apa5th that I downloaded earlier. Here are the two I did – one for a paper and one for reports.

  •  Author (|Year of Conference|, Date|). Title|. Paper presented at the Conference Name, Conference Location. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ERIC Number)
  • Author (Year). Title. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ERIC Number)

Some of the dots & lines, italics etc. don’t come through here, so you’ll want to make your own by typing it in. But this gives you an idea of what I did.

Hope these steps and tips are helpful for you too! Please comment if you have corrections, updates, or further suggestions.