Recently in conferences Category

Trainers Summer Social

By NATALIE FRANCES HARP on August 12, 2009 10:12 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
John Harwood -
  • the University needs to seriously look at ways to reduce costs. One way to do this is to really look at our training needs and training efforts and see where we're duplication efforts and can share.
  • Also in light of pandemic and seasonal flu, as well as travel costs, we need to look at alternative ways of conducting meetings and training, such as using Adobe Connect
  • increased productivity, increased employee satisfaction


Learning Design Summer Camp 2009

By NATALIE FRANCES HARP on July 21, 2009 9:45 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Disruptive tech - I think eye contact is still important in f2f - perhaps the lecture model is what is becoming antiquated? f2f one on one or in small groups as a way of teaching interpersonal interaction along with smart use of disruptive tech? Here's the key and Cole answered it: faculty no longer have sole control over the classroom, the learning environment is now a two way street. Also I find by my own participation via social media in this conference I actually stay more engaged. Hard to stay focused on just ppl talking but when I force myself to react and create content I remain engaged.

NCLB has generated students who are good passive, rote learners but have the inability to generate content and be active participants in their learning - important we address this. Very important to spell out the processes and expectations in the classroom to make this transition easier. World Campus does well in current economic environment because it pushes out this easily replicated rote content that does not involve much input from the instructor. This needs to change! Students are paying big bucks and tuition is going up!

Assessment  is an issue!

Cole: administrators are not the problem. A lot of the best new tech adopters are the administrators so they are not the usually the ones standing in the way. Is it status quo?

Web 2009 Conference

By NATALIE FRANCES HARP on June 8, 2009 9:57 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Wayfinding the Semantic Web

AD-54 Penn State policy will not be updated any time soon to require semantic metadata

instant history of the Web
  • web 1.0 - series of linked documents
  • web 2.0 - communications
  • web 3.0 - semantic web
purpose of semantic web - add meaning to Web documents
burners-lee - semantic web makes it possible for people and machines to understand web content

We all come into contact w/the semantic Web every day - Google is a good example when it comes up w/intelligent search results.

An Argument For Semantics

words can have different meanings in different contexts and depending on the bias of the observer - machines don't have bias and can't read context well

Question: can we pull non-sensitive enterprise data from a central source?

Semantics: meaning of words or symbols, become really useful when shared betw. individuals and w/in community

Keys - in the absence of meaningful identifiers, we invent a (usually numeric) key to unique data

Demonstration - Firefox add-on Operator. find and save events. Will have to work with it to see how it really works or is useful.

Code demonstration - possible implementations:
  • microformats - class attributes in CSS that are standard, can be parsed out, eg. class="time"
  • metadata
  • xhtml attributes - 
  • RDF - THE language for presenting semantic info on the Web - it is essentially embedded in the html. WILL NOT VALIDATE. Creative Commons licensing is an example.
  • RDFa - embedded as attributes
  • Content management systems do a good job of handling semantic web aspects. They make it easy for developers but don't "make" you do it. Recommend a person w/the role "final release editor", someone w/a librarian mind.

Brian Panulla - get rid of the words semantic web! Moving from metadata to linked data
tagging is NOT the semantic web - too loose and open. can lead to good results w/enough tagging, but not good enough.

higher ed = walled gardens. leads to redundant data. relational databases are about structure and not data. convention may allow us to integrate data across systems, e.g. usps state code, campus 2-letter code. problem - ad hoc identifiers and multiple copies of same data in existence, e.g. college/campus name changes

New W3C language - OWL: Web Ontology Language

Semantic Web means essentially:
  • further the separation of content, presentation, behavior, logic
  • breaking down data silos
______________
Augmented reality
Current AR technology - GE smart grid
Mini automotive ad
topps 3d baseball cards
bmw augmented reality - example on youtube shows AR assisted car repair!!
AR island on Second Life - may be fun to explore

______________

TLT Symposium 2009

By NATALIE FRANCES HARP on April 18, 2009 9:45 AM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Blogging - I largely focused on the Penn State Blogs in this year's Symposium. I am looking at them in the context of their potential application in the iMBA program, and I see enormous potential for the platform, with many potential strengths and applications, including:
    • enabling reflections - blogging is a great way to allow in-depth reflection on a topic, increasing student retention and engagement.
    • enabling conversations - blogs can be easily aggregated into a single source, essentially allowing conversations to occur around a single topic or course.
    • student ownership of content - ANGEL supports discussion forums, chat and other forms of communication that can work in certain situations but ultimately do not give students ownership of their content. That carefully composed discussion forum posting or drop box submission that took a lot of thought and effort to create is essentially lost when the semester/term is over unless the student takes special effort to retain it.
    • portfolio - related to ownership of content, the concept of blog as portfolio has powerful implications. The Penn State Blog platform can be used to support so much more than just blogging; essentially a student can easily set up a whole Web site with a collection of artifacts (pictures, stories, etc.) related to him or herself. The portfolio can represent not only the students' learning in the program but can include any learning or experiences that take place outside of the formal learning environment. Such an e-portfolio is a strong indicator to a potential employer of the depth of a person's strengths and experiences.
The two sessions I went to related to blogging were entitled: Engaging Students with Program Learning Outcomes and ENGL 202C on the Blogs at Penn State Platform. I learned of real-life examples that support my thinking above. The Engaging Students session had students that were using their blogs in the context of a program experience and not just for isolated classwork. They were doing all the things I mentioned above for portfolio, but were also using them for reflections and conversations. The ENGL 202C students were able to share their writing with the class in a much more meaningful and engaging way.

I also attended a session on the future of textbooks in the digital age and a hands-on session on Adobe Connect. The textbook session gave a lot of food for thought about what's in store for textbooks and what copyright means in the digital world. The Adobe Connect session gave me more hands-on practice with Connect and informed me of the detailed help page PSU has in place for the product - I intend to use this as a reference and source of ideas as I revise our own (World Campus) instructions for Elluminate Live.

Finally, the two keynotes with David Wiley and danah boyd were fantastic. All in all a tiring day but very well worth my time and as usual, gave me plenty of takeaways and food for thought.

2009 NMC Symposium on New Media and Learning

By NATALIE FRANCES HARP on March 24, 2009 6:11 PM | No Comments | No TrackBacks
Tomorrow and Thursday I will be attending the 2009 NMC Symposium on New Media and Learning. It is a virtual conference, with all sessions taking place in Second Life. I like to go into a conference by reviewing the sessions offered and defining my objectives for participation. What do I hope to learn, discover or take away from the conference?

The conference actually begins tonight with a reception and poster session at the NMC conference center in Second Life. I like poster sessions - it provides a nice informal opportunity to interact with the poster creators. The theme of the conference is New Media and Learning so I will be paying particular attention to education professionals like myself that are using Web 2.0, learning management systems, Second Life, etc. in innovative ways to support learning. The poster creators will be there to chat with.

The full conference begins tomorrow and there are several sessions I will be paying attention to. I'll name a few, describe them briefly and give my reasons for being "all ears", defining my objectives in italics.

  • Imagination Engine: Rapid Media Visualization and Storyboard Creation Process. Joe Tojek (or his avatar) from Capella University will be demonstrating the process and tools his intructional design team uses to brainstorm and plan new media projects and tools in support of learning. I'll be looking for cues and ideas for how our IT and media shop can work better with the instructional designers to provide input and support as we move to using new technologies in our courses.
  • Digital Media Tools for Replacing Traditional Methods of Instruction. This session will look at Web 2.0 tools used in the support of collaborative learning, and will show how these tools enable us to go beyond traditional instruction. I'm assuming by "traditional instruction" the presenter intends to compare Web 2.0 - enhanced learning with both f2f and older distance learning models. I'll be focusing particularly on how we can better support and provide scaffolding for learning in new environments such as wikis and blogs, and what new learning outcomes we can expect.
  • Going GaGa for Google: Using Google in Virtual Worlds. This session will show how Google tools such as Google Docs, Google Maps and YouTube can be "mashed up" with the virtual world experience to provide a highly textured learning experience (my words). My objective here is primarily for fun - there is an interactive component to this session and we'll actually be building something! I will be paying attention to the possibilities for learning, too, of course. :-)
  • Dramatically Different: Strategies for Socially-Engaged Learning in Virtual
    Worlds.     This session will describe the use of virtual worlds for role-playing and active learning in support of learning in the drama/theatre arts area. This session will support a meta-objective for attending this conference; since the conference is taking place entirely in Second Life, I will be experiencing first hand its power in supporting learning.
There are many other sessions too numerous to mention that have caught my interest. I'm sure I'll be refining my objectives and coming up with new ones as I meet new people and make new discoveries at the conference. I'll be blogging my discoveries so stay tuned.
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