Meeting in Second Life

I've been doing a little research for a colleague for a grant they are working on. The idea is to have townhall meetings via SecondLife. Unfortunately, the target audience is FAR from millenials, so I don't really know how it's gonna work out.

Here's an interesting blog post I found which is confirming my fears:

Real Business Meetings in 3D Virtual Worlds Won't Go Mainstream For Many Years, Platform Evangelist Predicts

Real world businesses won't widely use virtual worlds like Second Life to hold meetings for quite some time -- that's the prediction of Erica Driver ofThinkBalm, a consultancy firm which specializes in the use of Second Life and other virtual worlds for business applications. (I wrote about one of their innovative SL applicationsin 2009.) Only last January, Erica predicted that 2013 was the year when mainstream adoption of virtual meetings would take hold. Now, however, as she tells Roland Legrand of Mixed Realities, she considers the 2013 prediction “a little bit aggressive." Since then, as Erica expands on Think Balm's blog, there's been a number of setbacks for enterprise use of virtual worlds: Oracle stopping financing its Project Wonderland virtual work platform, for instance, and "[k]ey roles on Linden Lab’s enterprise team were folded into the broader organization and several folks on the enterprise team have moved on".

more...

I still think Second Life could be awesome for meetings though! Check out this screencast of me wandering around SL looking for meeting rooms:)

Methods for Blended Learning

Margaret Driscoll of IBM write a great article on examples of various methods for blended learning:

Here's the list, see the article for details:

1. Put the assessment online.

2. Follow up with a community of practice.

3. Make reference materials available.

4. Deliver pre-work online.

5. Provide online office hours.

6. Use mentoring/coaching as a tool.

7. Provide job-aids.

8. Access experts.

9. Create a "lifeline".

10. Maximize e-mail and messaging.

I always say that if you teach online the same way you teach face-to-face, then you're not really teaching online. How does your style change when you tech online.

Mac Applications for Educators

Dru Ryan presented this to a group of educators at the LEAGUE conference in Baltimore. There were about 50 MAc enthusiasts in the room and the topic was well received.

Mac Applications for Educators

View more presentations from druryan.

Engagement in Technology

According to a Thompson Netg job security study in 2002, blended learning yielded better results than online learning alone.

They point out:

1. Blended Learning performance was 30% more accurate than e-learning alone



2. Blended learning performance on the real world task was 41 percent faster than e-learning alone



3. Blended learning performance was 159% more accurate than no training



4. E-learning was 99% more accurate than no training

The results of the study say scenario-based exercises are the most effective for face to face and online materials.

For more on Blended Learning, check out the Brandon Hall Report: The Real Story: Blended Learning.

Google Reader .. a screencast

A little screencast I made for Google reader. I learned that zooming is important after this one.

Personalized Learning

According to a Brandon Hall report on Blended Learning:

"Design and development of blended learning requires a holistic approach involving modern pedagogy, learner needs and expectations, and technology.... A key design aspect of blended learning should be aimed at personalized learning with a human or virtual guide to direct and support the individual learner."

Citing research by Sharpe ("Success Factors for Blended Learning"), the following design factors were highlighted:

1. Analysis of successful and successful features of the course content (including learner feedback)



2. Undertaking the design as a team, ensuring staff members have the time to properly integrate face to face and online material



3. Designs that make explicit their underlying principles -- these could be established pedagogical principles, active learning, repetition and elaboration, prompt and frequent feedback, or course outcomes



4. Developing the course iteratively over a number of years



5. Help students develop conceptions of the learning process



6. Disseminate and communicate the results of evaluations.

So how does your blended course stack up? Comments please:)

CTL Blended Learning Blog

The CTL has attempted to use blogs to convey information about fellowships and to publicize activities . . . the blended learning blog was created to share information about blended learning. It was the first WordPress blog for us, we use Blogger mostly, but it turned out well.

View the blog here

What does a high quality online course look like?

An excellent site (from California State University) for assessing online learning. Check it out:

[taken from]

This site is designed to answer the question being asked: What does a high quality online course look like? It is our hope that instructors and instructional designers will use this site to learn more about the Rubric for Online Instruction, and be able to view examples of exemplary courses that instructors have done in implementing the different components of the rubric.

Using Google Docs To Grade Essays

I rarely touch paper when I grade anymore. I typically will hand grade the first assignment (even scanning in papers if needed) because I think there's something special about seeing handwriting on an essay. However, most other assessments are handled electronically.

I've used all types of learning management systems and they all require you to download documents (word, PPT, Excel) and then edit them on your machine. Well, I don't trust students and their often virus-laced files and I've been looking for a workaround for a while.

Google Docs to the rescue! [View video on Google docs] . Google Docs allows you to manipulate Microsoft Office files on the web, making your grading portable.

More than that, you can even share the document with the student to continue the conversation on a paper in a collaborative manner.

So here's my process:

1. Download the papers from the LMS. Every LMS I've encountered provides an option to download files and will typically give you a ZIP file with all of the documents.



2. Go to Google Docs and import the files [not sure how?] into a FOLDER. It's important to keep the assignments grouped. Here's what it looks like for me:



3. Then using Google's Comment and Footnote features to edit the document.



4. Once complete, you have two options (I typically do the latter):
   
   
   
   
   
   • Share the document with the student by providing a URL which they can use to access it
   
   
   
   • 
   
   
   
   • Download the files, en masse, as individual PDF's, and then upload each student's graded essay back to the LMS. [this is also a good way to backup your Google Docs]
   
   
   
   • 
     
       
   
   
   
   

I know I probably left out a few steps, but I covered the BIGGIES. Make grading work for you. Google Docs to the rescue!

Unified Learning and Collaboration:

Meeting the Needs of Education and Training in the 21st Century

Elluminate, though pushing its ware's in the process, provides an interesting paradigm for online learning.



http://www.elluminate.com/Products/Unified_Learning/?id=305/