EDUCAUSE | Collaborative Technologies

ELI In Conversation: The Fear 2.0 Group

gbayne — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:06:22 -0500

Web 2.0 tools have the power to transform education. Such a transformation requires that faculty, students, and institutions take risks. With those risks comes fear, which is often unarticulated. How do you tackle this fear and make real change?

In this 43 minute podcast we feature a conversation from the ELI 2008 Annual Meeting. Our particpants consist of a group of five higher ed professionals who co-presented the session, "Who's Afraid of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and the Big Bad CMS? A Digi-Drama About Fear 2.0."

They include:

Laura Blankenship, Senior Instructional Technologist, Bryn Mawr College
Martha Burtis, Director, Teaching and Learning Technologies, University of Mary Washington
Barbara Ganley, Lecturer in English and Writing Program, Middlebury College
Leslie Madsen-Brooks, Teaching Resources Center, University of California, Davis
Barbara Sawhill, Director Cooper International Learning Center, Oberlin College

ELI In Conversation: George Siemens and Michael Wesch Talk About Future Learning.

gbayne — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 01:48:53 -0600

In this podcast we feature a conversation between George Siemens, Associate Director of the Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba. and Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University It was recorded at the ELI 2008 Annual Meeting.

Michael Wesch presented a session entitled, "Human Futures for Technology and Education" at the ELI 2008 Annual Meeting. He also produced a video, which is referenced in this conversation, entitled "The Machine is Us/ing Us".

George Siemens presented a session entitled, "Connectivism" at the ELI 2008 Annual Meeting.

ELI Annual Video: Human Futures for Technology and Education

gbayne — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:51:45 -0600

The slides and video of this presentation can be found here. The speech is by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, and is entitled, "Human Futures for Technology and Education". It was delivered at the ELI 2008 Annual Meeting.

Digital information technologies have profound implications for education and force us to rethink how we teach, what we teach, and who we think we are teaching. Understanding these implications and rethinking education will help us prepare our students to build a more human future in an increasingly digital environment.

ELI Podcast: Human Futures for Technology and Education

gbayne — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:42:42 -0600

In this hour long podcast we feature a speech by Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, entitled, "Human Futures for Technology and Education". It was delivered at the ELI 2008 Annual Meeting.

E07 Podcast: An Interview with Ulrich Rauch, Director of Arts Instructional Support & IT at The University of British Columbia

gbayne — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:21:27 -0600

In this 21 minute podcast, we feature an interview with Ulrich Rauch, Director of Arts Instructional Support & Information Technology at The University of British Columbia. He has recently been involved in a project called Ancient Spaces at UBC, which uses gaming and virtual world technology to recreate locations from antiquity. He also participated in a session at the EDUCAUSE 2007 Annual Conference entitled, "Indigenous Cultures: From Observing to Experiencing, from Videography to 3D VR Immersion".

Ulrich Rauch organizes the implementation of educational technologies for instructors, students and staff in the Faculty of Arts at the University of British Columbia. As the director of a technical and an instructional support unit, and as trained sociologist, Ulrich combines his experience as an instructor with his perspective on learning technologies to research and apply e-learning strategies in support of collaborative learning.

Podcast: Outsourcing and Partnering for Student Collaborative Services - An Interview with O'Neal Smitherman

gbayne — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:47:48 -0500

In this 14 minute podcast, we feature an interview with O'Neal Smitherman, Vice President for Information Technology at Ball State University, from the 2007 Seminars On Academic Computing conference. Ball State University has partnered with Microsoft to bring a number of services and upgrades to their computing services. Mr. Smitherman discusses how Ball State approached this succesful partnership, some of the challenges a university faces in partnering with a vendor, and how to assess if a partnership is right for your institution.

O'Neal Smitherman was part of a collaborative session at the 2007 Seminars On Academic Computing entitled, "Outsourcing for Student Collaborative Services".

Communication Tools: the Whole Enchilada

smiltenb — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:30:09 -0600

Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on project communication tools! As
we have been researching tools and recommendations, the institutional needs
for these systems has started growing. In addition to project management we
are wondering about how collaboration tools can also meet communication
needs within our department:

as a repository for documentation (how to install...)
to provide an overview of what is going on in the department (this
week...this month)
as a place where all the bits of information can be brought together into
a big snapshot

I have no expectations that technology will provide us with the sole
solution to improving communication and workflow, but I¹d really like to
hear more ideas and stories about how other institutions are effectively
using collaboration applications. We narrowed down our list of possible
solutions to four: mediaWiki, drupal, typepad and Teams.

And since drupal consolidates many kinds of content (wiki, blog, RSS, etc.)
we felt that it was the product most worth looking at. Yeah...simple,
right?

One of our graduate students did most of the initial research into
the applications and he presented his findings to some members of the
department who lead academic technology and some who lead administrative
technology. We started zinging ideas and brainstorms until we happened upon
the real solution: we want the whole enchilada.

We want tools that help us improve intra-departmental communication, manage
open-ended projects and communicate with those outside our institution. And
while we¹re at it, can¹t this same system be used for distance learning and
course management? Can¹t we have galleries of student work, class lectures
from instructors and course reminders?

Oh yeah, and we want to be mostly free and standards based and EASY to use.

Spang Bovey
(http://connect.educause.edu/blog/nspang/lms_vs_social_software/2540) and
William Allen (http://connect.educause.edu/blog/wallen/end_of_lms/16635)
have interesting posts about the future (or not) of LMS systems. We have
decided to take a divide and conquer approach < I will spend a bit more time
with drupal and see if it meets our needs (with a focus on communication,
collaboration and project sharing) and my academic counterpart will spend
time with moodle and other systems to see what they might offer.

Thoughts, experiences, warnings and insights much appreciated!

January 30 EDUCAUSE Live! Web Seminar on Digital Libraries and Collaboration

cluckett — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 14:32:43 -0600

Libraries must chart the engineering of new architectures for teaching, learning, and research in order to accommodate making science and artistic expression more readily available, in concert with the increasing sophistication of commercial partners and the development of distributed, interactive forms of publishing. During the January 30 EDUCAUSE Live!, Peter Brantley, Director-Designate of the Digital Library Federation and Director of Strategic Technology, Academic Information Services, at the University of California Office of the President, will discuss how digital libraries must work to forge the new collaborations required to enable and build teaching, learning, and research services. This hour-long, free Web seminar is open to the public. Unable to attend? Visit the archives. Peruse EDUCAUSE resources on digital libraries and digital library services.

Southwest Regional Conference 2007 to Focus on Strategic Collaboration in Higher Ed

cluckett — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:05:20 -0600

Brian L. Hawkins, president of EDUCAUSE, will present a keynote session on why collaboration is no longer an alternative strategy but rather the only means of competitive survival for higher education at the Southwest Regional Conference, "Strategic Collaboration Is the Competitive Advantage: Leading, Understanding, and Building the Collaborative Community," February 21–23 in Austin, Texas. The conference program will also cover leadership and strategic initiatives, partnerships and consortia, and technology tools and infrastructure. Register by January 24 for discounted rates.

E2005 Podcast: Electronic Collaboration with Academic Medical Centers

podcaster — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 17:57:36 -0600

This 26 minute recording provides coverage of the 2005 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference Session entitled Electronic Collaboration with Academic Medical Centers in the Post-HIPAA Environment.