ELI2007

In this 56-minute recording from the 2007 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting, we'll hear from William Dittoe, Deborah Bickford, and David Wright in a session entitled Creating New Spaces for Learning in Community. Using examples from the University of Dayton, they will share how spaces can be created to foster learning in community.

In this 1-hour and 11-minute recording from the 2007 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting, we'll hear from Chris Dede in a session entitled Emerging Educational Technologies and Neomillennial Learning Styles.  Dede will share examples of middle and high school distributed learning experiences based on immersive game-like educational simulations and discuss the implications of students' neomillennial learning styles for higher education.

In this one-hour recording from the 2007 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting, we'll hear from Julie Evans in a session entitled K-12 Students Speak Up About Technology: Are We Listening? Evans will share results from the 2006 NetDay SpeakUp online survey, which asks K-12 students about their use of technology and their expectations for technology in the classroom and in their social lives.

In this 41-minute recording from the 2007 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting, we'll hear from Carl Berger in a session entitled The Millennium Student: And Now, Evidence for the Millennial Instructor. Berger shares results from research at the University of Michigan that indicates a new millennial instructor is emerging, sometimes resembling the millennium student, and sometimes the traditional faculty member, but most often unique.

In this 52-minute recording from the 2007 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting, we'll hear from Richard Baraniuk in a session entitled Connexions: Building Communities and Sharing Knowledge. Baraniuk will explain how Connexions, an open source software tookit, is helping authors collaborate and publish; instructors rapidly build and share custom courses; and students explore the links among concepts, courses, and disciplines

In this 53-minute recording from the 2007 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting, we'll hear from Kate Wittenberg in a session entitled While You Were Out: How Students are Transforming the World of Information and What it Means for Publishing. Wittenberg discusses the partnerships that publishers must create with online game developers and search engines, among others, in order to keep pace with the next generation of users

In this 52-minute recording from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual meeting, we'll hear from Carie Windham in a session entitled Father Google and Mother IM: Confessions of a Net Gen Learner. Learn what goes on in the mind of a Millennial learner and how to bridge the generational divide.

In this 48-minute recording from the 2007 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting, we'll hear from Joel Smith and Candace Thille in a session entitled The Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative: Cognitively Informed Web-Based Instruction. Learn how Carnegie Mellon is using expertise from the congitive and learning sciences to produce high-quality online courses and how studies of student use inform both the next iteration of the course and learning theory.

In this 34-minute recording from the 2007 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting, we'll hear from Laurence Johnson, Rachel Smith, Cyprien Lomas, and Diana Oblinger in a session entitled The 2007 Horizon Report: Six Technologies to Watch. Learn the results of the annual Horizon Report, a joint publication of the New Media Consortium (NMC) and ELI, which highlights new technologies for teaching, learning, and creative expression.

In this 50-minute recording from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting, we'll hear from Bryan Alexander in a session entitled First Generation Ubiquitous Computing: Social, Mobile, and Gamelike. Alexander explores how gaming, social software, and mobility have synthesized the first generation of global, ubiquitous computing.

In this 53-minute recording from the 2007 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting, we'll hear from Tracy Mitrano in a session entitled Youth, Technology and Privacy. Mitrano will share anecdotes and interviews from traditional-age college students to delve deeper into the issue of privacy in a digital age. She'll ask, "Are expectations of privacy different between students and administrators?" And, if so, what implications do these new definitions of privacy have for university regulations and public policy?

On Monday, I walked into the very first talk to find a ballroom full of round tables encircled by chairs rather than the typical lecture format of chairs linearly set up throughout the room.  I could have my laptop open, typing notes (making these posts easier to write) during sessions set up like this, but the real purpose of this format was, as we [the conference attendees] were told, was to promote dialog and continue discussing the ideas presented during the talk even after the official talk ended.  “New Learning” forms were also scattered throughout tables for participants to write down new insights they may have had during the seminar. I’m really curious to find out what people said on these cards.  As convener for two sessions at ELI, I encouraged people to fill these out.  Convening (I didn’t fully know what it entailed until I arrived at ELI) gave me the opportunity to get to know some speakers and their areas of research/interest a little better, dig a little deeper into topics that interested me, and play a role besides Newbie Student at the conference.The ELI 2007 conference has come to an end, but I’m being sent back to Fairfax armed with tons of information and new insights in learning and technology.  Time and time again, social networking sites (particularly Facebook) were addressed and scrutinized as to how (and if) these in any way could be used in an educational setting.  More statistics: 55% of online teens have created a personal profile online, but they’re not leaving everything open to the world: 66% limit access to their profiles, according to Tracy Mitrano of Cornell University (you can read her entire study here), and 48% visit social networking sites daily/more often. If (she seemed excited about this possibility) schools could adopt a model similar to Facebook, she believed it truly could be used to enhance students’ learning. It’s obviously popular with the kids.  What do you think?

In “Emerging Educational Technologies and Neomillennial Learning Styles,” Chris Dede (formerly of GMU!) mentioned Tom Friedman’s “The World is Flat” and put a new spin on one of Tom’s ideas.  (By the way, I met Tom and heard him speak in Richmond a few years ago – he is fantastic!).  Chris told his daughter to “study hard, because someone in India wants your job.”  I remember only a few years ago we were worrying about programming and telemarketing jobs being shipped away. But the day is here when it’s more than just those jobs...I suppose almost any job can be shipped away, but the higher ed/IT field really appeals to me because so much of it is interactive and hands on, and the projects I am/will work on will always be changing.Chris focused on several emerging “next generation” interfaces for distributed learning, such as MUVE’s (Multi User Virtual Environments) whose title characters were avatars (virtual representations of ourselves), and MMOG’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Games).  However, these environments which were once a figment of someone’s imagination are here NOW and are almost ubiquitously being used by this new net generation of young learners. Problem is: the content of these games is basically garbage! The challenge: how can we use these tools in education to facilitate learning?  One way that’s already in practice is the River City Project (which you can read about), and research indicates that children who typically received D’s and F’s performed as well as students earning A’s and B’s in this type of learning environment.

My first 3 postings are excerpts taken from my blog "Immerse Yourself" which I am keeping as a tool for reflection on my graduate program at George Mason University.  In May I will graduate with a Master's in Education in Instructional Technology. The program is known as the "Immersion Program" because it is full time and allows students to earn a master's degree in one year!Just a few hours into the conference and already I’m learning and networking – it’s been great thus far!  It’s been fascinating to talk to people in the instructional technology field and find out how they got there – no two have the same, or similar, stories.  I ran into Lisa Andion (Instructional Support Manager at George Mason University) in the elevator – despite the fact that we are at the same institution, I only had to look at her nametag to figure out who she was. Julie Evans, who spoke at the very first session “K-12 Students Speak Up About Technology and Learning: Are We Listening?”, presented some very fascinating statistics to the audience (she later said she was going to be in northern VA Thursday of this week surveying a high school through her New Learning Project).  She revealed some things which were pretty shocking (or at least insightful):

In my final preconference interview before the ELI 2007 Annual Meeting, I talk with Bryan Alexander, Director of Research for the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE). Alexander is presenting the 3:00-4:00 PM featured session on Monday, January 22; his topic is "First-Generation Ubiquitous Computing: Social, Mobile, and Gamelike."Our conversation starts with Alexander explaining what NITLE is and what it does, and how his role as research director allows him to explore emerging trends in teaching, learning, and technology. He then discusses some examples of how gaming, social software, and mobile technologies are converging to create the ubiquitous computing environment of which he speaks. Alexander also highlights the implications this developing environment holds for higher education, as well as the importance of gaining and maintaining historical perspective on these changes.For more information about NITLE, please see http://www.nitle.org.