LearningTimes Green Room

The World is Open author Curt Bonk joins LearningTimes Green Room hosts Susan Manning and Dan Balzer to explore a range of issues, including mobile technologies, open learning, and the notion of a digital scholar.



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Show Notes:

The World is Open author Curt Bonk joins LearningTimes Green Room hosts Susan Manning and Dan Balzer to explore a range of issues, including mobile technologies, open learning, and the notion of a digital scholar.

Online education has become so much more mobile over the past two or three years, and this podcast is more than emblematic of that shift. Susan mentions how her daughter help set up this very talk with texting by proxy in the car, while Curt comes to us from the edge of a forest, via Skype. Curt talks about how quickly communication systems have changed, and the freedom and mobility given by our fast-paced technology boom.

Akin to Susan’s daughter helping her with her phone, learning new technological skills is often like an apprenticeship, both in and out of the classroom. Dan tells us about a class facilitated by his brother, using technology to teach marketing in a hands-on fashion.

Yet as Curt explains, there is even more potential for the field of education than simply the growth of technology in the classroom. Perhaps we have caught up with the Active Learning movement, and can no longer ignore the importance of new technologies that give so much independence and self-direction to learners. From here, Curt is heading into informal learning environments, “extreme learning” situations bringing education out into the world. As he discusses in his book, The World Is Open, non-traditional learning has become the norm, extending the learning environment into our new “century of learning.”

In light of Curt’s work published for free over the web, Susan asks how he deals with intellectual property, and pressures by established universities for educators to follow a traditional publishing path. Digital scholars are having trouble finding academic acceptance for their new methods of publishing and research, but there are certainly ways to promote non-traditional education. Curt has set up a portal for video online, and a set of 27 videos on how to teach online, commissioned by Indiana University. These illustrate how to use blogs, wiki, and various other important tools for online education, and are available on YouTube.

Susan and Dan thank Curt and wrap up by promoting the Jossey-Bass Online Teaching and Learning Conference and inviting listeners to continue this conversation. Listeners can also further unpack this topic by posting at www.ltgreenroom.org or talk to us in LearningTimes! We facilitate discussion in LearningTimes.org or call us at 1-800-609-9006 x8055 (US and Canada) or 678-255-2174 x8055 (outside US and Canada). You can also find us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ltgreenroom.

About the Guest:
Curtis J. Bonk, Ph.D., is professor of Instructional Systems Technology at Indiana University. Drawing on his background as a corporate controller, CPA, educational psychologist, and instructional technologist, Bonk offers unique insights into the intersection of business, education, psychology, and technology. A well-known authority on emerging technologies for learning, Bonk reflects on his speaking experiences around the world in his popular blog, TravelinEdMan. He has written many articles and coauthored several widely used books, including The World is Open, Empowering Online Learning, The Handbook of Blended Learning, and Electronic Collaborators. He is also president and founder of SurveyShare and CourseShare.

Susan and Dan are joined by Rita-Marie Conrad and J. Ana Donaldson, authors of Engaging the Online Learner.

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Show Notes::

Susan and Dan are joined by Rita-Marie Conrad and Ana Donaldson, the authors of Engaging the Online Learner.

In the 7 years since publishing this first edition of the book, what’s changed? Rita starts with a reminder that interaction and collaboration have always been key in traditional education. The big change is that students now expect to be engaged. Getting them to the point where they expect to be the people leading the engagement might take a bit more time.

Ana thinks the change in expectations is due more to technology than generational differences. Social networking and web 2.0 tools make it possible for people to always be connected, including older adult students. Our challenge is to be able to bring the social part into the learning environment and make it viable. Ana’s explanation helps Rita re-think her position!

Susan references this research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Dan adds that early adopters are often men 50-55 who have disposable income and therefore can afford to grab up new tools (toys).

Dan asks about the model in the book and what new insights they’ve gained since the first publication. They’re updating the current version and working on a new book, tentatively called Continuing to Engage the Online Learner. Rita walks us through the phases.

• Phase one is Connect. Connect with the people here.
• Phase two is Communicate. Expand the conversation from social to academic.
• Phase three is Collaboration and Cooperation. Now they’re in one phase together.
• Phase four is Co-Management and Co-Leadership. We’re all in this together, learner ownership.

Ana tells how the model is being affirmed through faculty stories.

Susan asks if it takes longer to get to the fourth step? Rita thinks it takes less time! Younger learners want to lead. What gets in our way as adults is trust. The less mature learners want learning to be “handed to them on the plate,” but as we ask students to take more responsibility for learning, it may be a change for them to do that.

Rita tells about how she saw the power of taking responsibility in a traditional community class years ago and how this turned around the level of engagement.

How does this change with global, diverse student audiences? Ana shares that you may need to spend a little more time in the earlier phases. Taking control of one’s learning is not part of all cultures, but students across the world have strong social network skills. It’s also important to model what you say you’re going to do!

Susan thanks Rita and Ana and wraps up by promoting the Jossey-Bass Online Teaching and Learning Conference and inviting listeners to continue this conversation. Listeners can also further unpack this topic by posting at www.ltgreenroom.org or talk to us in LearningTimes! We facilitate discussion in LearningTimes.org or call us at 1-800-609-9006 x8055 (US and Canada) or 678-255-2174 x8055 (outside US and Canada). You can also find us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ltgreenroom.

Jonathan Finkelstein from LearningTimes joins Susan and Dan to talk about a couple technologies that are enhancing the synchronous world.

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If you’re not familiar with Jonathan, he’s not only the Executive Producer of LearningTimes (the fine folks who bring you this podcast and many, many other services), but the author of Learning in Real Time. We consider that the authoritative book on teaching with synchronous tools.

The focus of the discussion is two new features that are making a difference: closed captioning and virtual graphic facilitation.

Captioning has been going on for a while, but we’re figuring out how valuable it is for community building. It creates a more inclusive learning environment. Some of the more novel uses of captioning include what Jonathan coined as “Cclogging” (closed captioning blogging, explained on page 121 of his book).

Captioning also helps people focus. It’s a quick scan of what’s happening in the event. And it addresses a variety of learning styles. Some of the web conferencing platforms have this feature built in.

We’re looking forward to the day when captioning can be done automatically, but in the meanwhile, good stenocaptioners will remain employed 20/20 Captioning and WGBH / NCAM handle real time closed captioning exceptionally well, and are partners of LearningTimes for their events.

Moving to another kind of “capturing”, the group discusses what LearningTimes calls Virtual Graphic Facilitation. Readers and listeners, check out the illustrations at this link!

• LearningTimes Virtual Graphic Facilitation (VGF)

Here’s another example:

A good graphic facilitator visually captures what’s happening in the room and adds organization to the ideas. One who works virtually does this at a distance and brings together participants who are at a distance with the images.

Having seen Dan Porter work his magic, Jonathan approached him about trying it virtually. It’s been a hit ever since. One of the lessons Jonathan has learned is to be very intentional about what purpose is being served by virtual graphic facilitation. It seems to work very well when the conference session is open and free form and the facilitator can use his drawing skills to bring it together.

A slightly different use was to summarize the sessions at a recent Smithsonian conference. You can see examples above. Here, the audience was drawn into the graphics! The visual summary is a
takeaway. It also acts as a teaser to make people want to go back and watch the archive.

(By the way, archives are available at http://www.smithsonianconference.org/expert.)

You’ll see other examples of use of graphics in the new LearningTimes website at http://www.learningtimes.com. Above all else these tools are about making the environment more human.

We’d like to hear from our listeners as to how they see using these strategies for instruction. And Jonathan is offering a reward for the best idea for how you might use closed captioning or graphic facilitation beyond the obvious uses. The best idea wins a free Virtual Graphic Facilitation!

Post your ideas at ltgreenroom.org or talk to us in LearningTimes! We facilitate discussion in LearningTimes.org or call us at 1-800-609-9006 x8055 (US and Canada) or 678-255-2174 x8055 (outside US and Canada). You can also find us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ltgreenroom.

Susan and Dan revisit a topic that drew many comments several years ago: Lurking!

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Show Notes:

So much has changed since the pair recorded the first episode where they explored the concept of lurking. Social media now positions readers and followers to stay on the fringe of conversations. The pair unpacks what that means.

Three or four years ago we were concerned about how much participation a student should have in an online course. Those who did not participate were considered lurkers. But today the conversation has changed. Today, we ask students to participate outside the boundaries of the course. What does it mean to be in a community or following someone?

The learner decides how intimate they want their personal learning network to be. Dan’s brother, who is starting to teach full-time and thinking of online components, asks whether he should ask students to follow experts in social media and how he might integrate that.

Susan asks about assessment. How do you measure engagement and participation in an online course? Dan tells a story about meeting an online instructor while camping. Susan suggests that person needs a free copy of Online Education for Dummies.

Susan recalls a model she heard about where student engagement was not measured weekly, but rather twice a term.

Back to social media and Dan’s brother. The question is how far to let students go and how you bring it in to a meaningful way. Susan relates this to finding current events when younger.

People on the periphery build bridges to others in different networks. Insular spaces lead to echo chambers. There is value to those who live on the edge.

Interesting distinction between lurking and loafing. Maybe students need to be pushed out into other networks to learn skills to interact (after they have a knowledge base and learn the proper scholarship).

Listeners, how have your views changed over the years? Are students better at networking now that they’re using social media tools? Continue the discussion by posting at ltgreenroom.org or talk to us in LearningTimes! We facilitate discussion in LearningTimes.org or call us at 1-800-609-9006 x8055 (US and Canada) or 678-255-2174 x8055 (outside US and Canada). You can also find us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ltgreenroom.

In this episode, Susan and Dan (who openly covet the iPad) interview the owner of a game development company making games for the iPad.

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Show Notes:

In this episode, Susan and Dan (who openly covet the iPad) interview Rett Crocker, owner of ZapGun, a game development company. Having started out in educational games, Rett has developed games for the iPad and helps the hosts understand the significance of where we’re headed with computing.

First Rett chronicles his dizzying career over 20 years, which leads Susan to ask how educational games have changed in that time.

Gaming has become more lifelike, we can integrate all kinds of media, and now educators are involved (for better or worse).

The iPad is a major change in how people interact with computers. Rett unpacks that idea by talking about the challenges of some users. Touch and physicality redefine how we interact with computers.

The demographics for iPad owners: older than iphone owners, early adopters with an interest in technology. In other words, middle age men with discretionary money. (Dan is middle age but has no discretionary money.)

Because of the audience, Rett has to consider whether he can make a game’s buttons obvious or build in hidden interactions. Older users want directness.

Side note: Links to two of Rett’s iPad games:

• The Squadron
• Slug Wars: To Shell and Back

How might the iPad change the way we learn. It’s small, portable, can carry huge amounts of data. And you can have fairly complex interactions on it. In other words, educational games work on the iPad, especially considering the rich and compelling 3D environment.

Skype cut out just as we got into a discussion about game and story…

“Compelling” comes back to our vocabulary.

Listeners, dream up what kinds of applications you’d like to see people like Rett develop for our collective future! What games do you need for what you teach?

Continue the discussion by posting at ltgreenroom.org or talk to us in LearningTimes! We facilitate discussion in LearningTimes.org or call us at 1-800-609-9006 x8055 (US and Canada) or 678-255-2174 x8055 (outside US and Canada). You can also find us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ltgreenroom.

Susan and Dan unpack a real-world situation from Dan’s work. He describes how they measured the outcomes of computer based training.



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Show Notes:

Following computer based training (CBT) the learners self-report how confident they were at completing that skill. They are at performing the tasks for which they were trained. At the same time the trainer observes the skill and reports how well it was performed.

Interesting to compare confidence levels between groups that had CBT and those who were trained face to face. The CBT group lacked confidence even though they performed better. A modification for the future will be for trainers to provide more feedback so learner realize the CBT has worked.

Susan uses this example to clarify the difference between assessment (measurement) and evaluation (judgments and changes based on data). She also clarifies the different between formative and summative assessment.

The power of data!

How do you know what you should measure? This is where setting clear objectives comes back into play. You can’t measure if you don’t know what you’re looking for.

Listeners, we want to hear your stories about how you measure transfer of learning and/or how you embed assessment or evaluation into your training.

Continue the discussion by posting at ltgreenroom.org or talk to us in LearningTimes! We facilitate discussion in LearningTimes.org or call us at 1-800-609-9006 x8055 (US and Canada) or 678-255-2174 x8055 (outside US and Canada). You can also find us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ltgreenroom.

Susan and Dan discuss mobile computing in this brief episode.

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Show Notes:

The conversation begins with reference to a blog posting by Marc Rosenberg.

The rest of the discussion centers on what we do with our phones and ways they could be used more effectively. Some of Susan’s and Dan’s uses:

• Reading email
• Reading office documents
• Photos
• Web browsing and staying up on web resources

This raises questions about how to design for mobile learning. The trick will be to chunk content into manageable segments.

A few resources:

To test if your content is mobile ready- http://mr.dev.mobi

Software to design mobile learning – Hot Lava Mobile

Continue the discussion by posting at ltgreenroom.org or talk to us in LearningTimes! We facilitate discussion in LearningTimes.org or call us at 1-800-609-9006 x8055 (US and Canada) or 678-255-2174 x8055 (outside US and Canada). You can also find us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ltgreenroom.

Susan and Dan talk to Jim Dator, University of Hawaii, and one of the keynote speakers for the upcoming TCC conference. Jim is a futurist and will be looking at the possible futures of education.

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Show Notes:

Societies have gone through several stages. What comes after the information society? Jim calls it the dream society of icons and aesthetic experiences and you’ll have to hear about this at the conference.

Will we get to the dream society? Jim outlines reinforces that the future is not one, but alternative futures. There are factors that may prevent us from getting where we want to be: energy, environment, economic and governing problems.

Education has been oriented toward one future. What do we do knowing that there may be alternative futures? If we take sustainability seriously, this may change who, what and how we educate.

Listeners, get registered for the conference so you can interact with Jim and learn more about this!

http://www.tcconlineconference.org/