EDUCAUSE | Teaching and Learning

LAMS's 'Trojan Mouse Strategy': Ed-Media 2008 Conference update: Thursday

catherine — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 06:55:18 -0500

Report on ’Sharing Learning Designs: Lessons from the LAMS Community’, presented by James Dalziel, Macquarie University, Australia

I'll begin by noting that James’s presentation was not designed for an audience of ‘specialists’ or LAMS practitioners - many attendees were totally new to LAMS, or else use ED-MEDIA as their annual opportunity to glean news on the latest updates. James began by introducing LAMS, explaining that it is a toolset for adding structure / scaffolding to the learning process, and in particular, building a framework for educational activities "that a simple list of course resources on a [web] page [or LMS site] doesn’t have".

The main news on the LAMS development front is that a major new version of LAMS was released just a couple of weeks ago. It features greater branching (including group branching), more 'student-selectable' activities (a big plus, in my view), and better VLE integration (including Moodle and Sakai). Someone designing a learning activity in LAMS can use data from previous tools/activities to drive branching. Previously, this would focus on ‘high leverage’ data such as test scores, but this feature has become more sophisticated: and could now include, e.g., the number of forum postings a student has submitted. Everything in LAMS is still available as open-source software. The LAMS community remains a major resource and focus for development - James uses the phrase 'open source education', in relation to the community. He highlighted that LAMS users are truly an international group, and that LAMS is now translated into 25 languages. See: http://demo.lamscommunity.org

James’s presentation then took a more critical and reflective turn. The vision for LAMS is that it should 'change teaching as we know it', but he acknowledged that it is still 'early days'. The issue of the value of specific, ‘content-heavy’ learning sequences, as opposed to generic sequences, is very much a live one. In theory, designers and instructors gain the greatest value from generic sequences, but the lesson from practice is that educators "get fired [up] by discipline content". There is still not a lot of what might be termed “direct reuse” out there. James described this issue as "a significant debate that we need to explore, probably over the next decade." There are still issues around sharing: educators are reluctant to share things that aren’t “perfect”, and some may see community ratings through the lens of peer review—and find them a poor substitute for established academic practice. James questioned whether this might be a generational/IT experience issue, or a cultural frame of reference issue. I think he’s absolutely spot on there—surely it’s both.

I think many of the challenges for LAMS are far from new, and as I listened to James’s presentation I realised that many of them are all too familiar from a related sphere of work, digital repositories and learning objects. Creating the right e-learning tools/support ‘mix’; teacher motivation and rewards; lack of evidence for educational benefits; IP concerns around sharing. We’ve heard all of these before and, undoubtedly, they are still major barriers. But there are others, perhaps even more deeply entwined with educational practices and processes.

Educators in large institutions, such as universities, generally have to go through formal course approval processes that, in many cases, do not support learner-centred design processes. Many aspects of these institutional processes are entirely external to LAMS, yet they can seriously limit its impact. That’s one problem. Here’s another: can LAMS ever really aspire to introduce time-poor educators to pedagogic practices that are unfamiliar/alien to their discipline? And is this really what it should aspire to? Finally, I’m still not entirely convinced about highly formalised approaches to learning design. So much of LAMS is focused on making educational knowledge and practice explicit, when it is usually implicit—‘tacit’, to use Polanyi’s term. Judging from today’s presentation, the ideology or philosophy of 'learner centred' education remains the dominant educational paradigm for the LAMS community, yet this points to an enduring tension with LAMS's overall approach to learning design; which is highly 'instructional', structured, and LMS-friendly.

The next avenue for LAMS is to explore higher-level design processes and pedagogic planning (moving onto similar terrain to Oxford’s Phoebe project and the London Knowledge Lab pedagogical planner project, which Diana Laurillard is involved with). In a nice analogy, James describes this as the “Trojan mouse strategy'”. Pedagogic planning is certainly a hot area right now, and the UK will shortly see a slew of related projects starting up, with support from the recent two JISC calls on curriculum design. In LAMS, this planning tool will exist as a new layer on top of LAMS that will provide good practice templates, advice on choosing and editing, and simplifed authoring (NB: under development—currently “Vapourware” - but the LAMS team is building it, and it will exist “soon”). Keep an eye on the LAMS community for further developments.

New ELI 7 Things... Brief Explores Second Life

pkurkowski — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:21:23 -0500

Second Life is a virtual world with tens of millions of square meters of virtual lands, more than 13 million "residents," and a thriving economy. The ease in which users can build and modify virtual spaces has made it an attractive choice for experiments in learning space design and educational experiences such as virtual field trips or the creation of galleries to display student-created media. The 7 Things You Should Know About Second Life, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative’s (ELI) latest brief in the monthly series, examines how Second Life lets educators easily build and modify learning spaces to test how different strategies for a physical space affect learning and how a similar approach can be taken toward educational activities in those spaces.

Browse the complete 7 Things You Should Know About… monthly series.

Podcast: Supporting Faculty Adoption of Emerging Technologies: Wanderlust or Creating a Campus Roadmap?

gbayne — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:41:10 -0500

This hour and thirteen minute podcast features a panel discussion from the EDUCAUSE 2008 Southeast Regional Conference. The participants of this general session, "Supporting Faculty Adoption of Emerging Technologies: Wanderlust or Creating a Campus Roadmap?," include:

W. Gardner Campbell, Professor of English, University of Mary Washington
Jean Ann Derco, Executive Director, Educational Technology, The University of Tennessee
James Groom, Instructional Technology Specialist, University of Mary Washington
Dolly J. Young, Full Professor of Spanish, The University of Tennessee
Session moderator: Julie K. Little, Interim Director, ELI, EDUCAUSE

Faculty who are early adopters of technology are experimenters and risk-takers; they broaden the landscape of effective teaching and learning with technology. Yes, they push the envelope, but they also offer partnership for identifying what’s scalable and sustainable for broader use. Our panelist share their campus perspectives on adopting emerging technologies from Web 2.0 to virtual worlds, their successes and challenges, and the partnerships they’ve formed.

EDUCAUSE Now - Show #4 – Cybersecurity, Cyberinfrastucture, Fear 2.0

gbayne — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:39:26 -0500

EDUCAUSE Now is a monthly podcast, focusing on the intelligent use of information technology in higher education. Each episode features a variety of stories, interviews, and views that relate to IT in higher education. Let us know what you would like to hear at podcast@educause.edu.

Subscribe to EDUCAUSE NOW RSS feed

This episode of EDUCAUSE Now features:

Lessons Learned in Cybersecurity
(01:37―07:24)
We speak with security professionals from Ohio University about their highly publicized 2006 security breach and what they've learned from the experience. The presented a session at the EDUCAUSE 2008 Security Professionals Conference entitled, " The Lifecycle of a Security Breach."
New Research Study―" Higher Education IT and Cyberinfrastructure: IntegratingTechnologies for Scholarship"
(08:04―14:09)
Cyberinfrastructure is a term that has confounded and confused many of us in higher education. We speak to ECAR Fellow Mark Sheehan about this new study on how institutions are using cyberinfrastructure successfully and what you need to know about it.
A Commentary from EDUCAUSE President Diana Oblinger
(14:10―17:01)
Diana considers a few of our assumptions about new and old technologies in a changing world.
ELI in Conversation: "Fear 2.0"
(17:20―22:35)
A conversation from the ELI 2008 Annual Meeting. A group of higher ed professionals discusses Web 2.0 tools and how they are shifting education. Participants 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

This is an excerpt of a longer conversation.

Music for EDUCAUSE Now:
"Groove IT" by Denis Kitchen
"Zune 2" by Sebastian6
"MOAQ" & "Kalimbabumbum" by Kelly Walker
"Amber" by Dan Tharp

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

Australia's Digital Education Revolution

catherine — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:16:49 -0500

Check out this innovative series of multi-site symposia, organised by the Australian Council for Educational Research and education.au, which runs until 12 June. Mark Pesce's key note, 'Those Whacky Kids', will raise your eyebrows and make you think.

The symposia theme is "to explore and illuminate the possibilities and the realities of the implementation of the Digital Education revolution (DER)." Now, I think I get it with regards to the digital revolution, but I have to say, "DER" strikes me as a somewhat pointless acronym, and an unintentionally humorous one at that. More creative thinking hats, and more collaborative events like this one, please -- and less acronyms.

June 5: Free Web Seminar on the 2008 Horizon Report's Emerging Technologies

pkurkowski — Thu, 29 May 2008 12:25:48 -0500

Planning for emerging technologies is an important part of much of the work people do supporting IT in higher education. The Horizon Report can assist with this effort, as it identifies "emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression within learning-focused institutions."
In this free June 5 EDUCAUSE Live! web seminar, The Horizon Report, Inside and Out, presenters Malcolm Brown, director of academic computing, Dartmouth College, and Julie Little, interim director, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, will explore how this annual publication, a joint undertaking of the New Media Consortium and ELI, is produced and structured. They will also examine the community resources available through the Horizon Project and share ways in which people can put the report to work at their institutions.
Access the 2008 Horizon Report.
Those unable to attend may wish to visit the archives after the event.

Learning Landscape Project highlighted in report on widening access to higher education

catherine — Thu, 08 May 2008 06:36:34 -0500

At CARET, we're proud that the Learning Landscape Project has been highlighted in a recent report on widening participation in higher education, from the Von Hügel Institute at St Edmund’s College. Written by Michael Watts, David Bridges and Jonathan Eames, the report is titled “Widening Participation and Encounters with the Pedagogies of Higher Education” (2008), and was produced with funding from Aimhigher. Aimhigher is a national-level, government-funded education programme, run by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), with support from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS).
The report seeks to highlight case studies and examples of good practice in pedagogy and support for student learning, in the context of improving access to higher education for all. The Learning Landscape Project was one of a range of pedagogic initiatives highlighted at Cambridge, with the Learning and Teaching Support Initiative and the Teaching for Learning network (TfLN) (two projects that we enjoy good relationships /connections with) also mentioned.
The report is available to read online at the Centre for Educational Research and Development at the Von Hügel Institute.

Tune In May 6: Free Web Seminar on Digital Visual Literacy

pkurkowski — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:01:04 -0500

As international culture and commerce become increasingly reliant on visual communications, visual literacy has developed into an essential skill for 21st-century college graduates. With advancements in technology and the digitizing of information, digital literacy has also grown in importance. Digital visual literacy (DVL) is the ability to critically analyze digital visual materials, create effective visual communications, and make judgments and decisions using visual representations of thoughts and ideas. These skills, which actively engage our cognitive processing of visual images, have evolved from concepts at the intersection of a range of established disciplines.
In this free May 6 EDUCAUSE Live! web seminar, Digital Visual Literacy: Interdisciplinary Skills for the 21st-Century Learner, presenters John Gibson, Glendale Community College, Oris Friesen, Mesa Community College, and Florence Martin, University of North Carolina–Wilmington, will discuss this exciting new literacy, showcase the free materials developed under a National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education grant, and share recent feedback from instructors who have integrated these pioneering instructional modules into their courses.
Those unable to attend may wish to visit the archives after the event or browse related EDUCAUSE resources on Visual Literacy in Higher Education, Prisms Around Student Learning: Information Literacy, IT Fluency, and Media Literacy, Net Generation Learner, Information Literacy and Fluency.

Podcast: Growing Up Tech: Beyond the Hype and Fear

gbayne — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:35:07 -0500

This podcast features a keynote session by Tracy Mitrano, Director of IT Policy and Computer Policy and Law Program at Cornell University. The speech is entitled, "Growing Up Tech: Beyond the Hype and Fear". It was recorded at the EDUCAUSE 2008 Western Regional Conference.
Why is technology often blamed when bad behavioral things happen? This session will address how higher education provide American society with leadership on how to understand the role that technology plays, not only in our classrooms but also in our homes and families, as a conduit for the creation of culture and as a medium for individual development and identity formation of youth.