The MITE Team is on the road, traveling the country to participate in a growing number of conferences about education, technology and online learning. National conferences tend to bunch up in the fall, but we also present, conduct workshops and organize round tables throughout the year at smaller, focused, regional conferences. We especially enjoy hooking up with NROC members to share tales and ideas.
Each year there are a few consistently popular topics that pop up across most, if not all, of the conferences. As one would expect, these themes show up when they are somewhere between the second stage of innovation and becoming mainstream. Conferences are one of best venues for spreading innovation beyond pioneers. When a conference room is packed with faculty and staff learning about educational applications of games, virtual reality environments, podcasts and web. 2.0 tools, you can expect to see the tools turning up in classrooms and online programs in non-tech subjects at a campus near you.
This year we continue to see standing-room-only sessions around tools that allow instructors and students to co-create immersive and interactive learning. Techie-pioneers were presenting earlier versions of such tools in previous years; now practitioner-pioneers share their reflections on the realities of using the tools to teach. Educators who advocate for more constructivist learning methods should be delighted at the abundance of these types of tools coming into mainstream use.
It's very encouraging to see an increase in sessions on two important non-tech subjects, which we at MITE have been pushing for a few years: sustainable models for open education resource (OER) projects, and inter-institutional collaboratives for developing and sharing digital content. We'll share some new ideas and highlights as we hear them out there.
What other topics are hot this year? We'll report back from the conference circuit, and welcome your comments.
7/26/07
Meeting MITE
I was extremely lucky to spend part of my Tuesday in Morro Bay, CA with members of the MITE team. Loredana, another intern from Poly, and I carpooled up to meet with the team during a meeting, have some lunch and talk about technology and education (shocking!) and get to know each other.
As a high school student I had a few lame part time jobs, bottom of the food chain type positions where my superiors liked me but I was replaceable and we all knew it. MITE, however, welcomed their two students like we had been with them for years. It was an incredible feeling having several experienced professionals not only ask serious questions about what I've been working on but to then complement my work and discuss future potential. Top it off with a great lunch and delivery of a paycheck, it was a full afternoon.
One of our discussion topics after lunch turned to the question of how often am I using technology for things completely outside my education. And I realized...almost always! My major is fairly lab and computer intensive and so when I am at school I can be found working on a press, sitting behind a big Apple monitor, proofing sheets, etc. But once I leave it pretty much stops. I may have lab assignment to finish at home, work on a document in Photoshop or Illustrator, but that's it. I program things into my GPS unit, send my lovely girlfriend text messages on my phone, carry my laptop on campus to check email, design webpages at home for my ska band, post comments on Digg...notice anything? Though all of those things are pretty enjoyable, the entire reason I live in San Luis Obispo is to go to school but it seems like once I'm off campus that experience stops.
As a high school student I had a few lame part time jobs, bottom of the food chain type positions where my superiors liked me but I was replaceable and we all knew it. MITE, however, welcomed their two students like we had been with them for years. It was an incredible feeling having several experienced professionals not only ask serious questions about what I've been working on but to then complement my work and discuss future potential. Top it off with a great lunch and delivery of a paycheck, it was a full afternoon.
One of our discussion topics after lunch turned to the question of how often am I using technology for things completely outside my education. And I realized...almost always! My major is fairly lab and computer intensive and so when I am at school I can be found working on a press, sitting behind a big Apple monitor, proofing sheets, etc. But once I leave it pretty much stops. I may have lab assignment to finish at home, work on a document in Photoshop or Illustrator, but that's it. I program things into my GPS unit, send my lovely girlfriend text messages on my phone, carry my laptop on campus to check email, design webpages at home for my ska band, post comments on Digg...notice anything? Though all of those things are pretty enjoyable, the entire reason I live in San Luis Obispo is to go to school but it seems like once I'm off campus that experience stops.
7/8/07
MyROC? ROCbook? Something like that.
I think I have laid down the foundation of what I would like to see in the online student-professor environment, I figure I can lay down my "dream system" for stimulating online communication at the academic level.
Right now I only have to remember my Cal Poly email address and my password. That aspect can stay the same, adding additional user names and more passwords and authentication systems would only make things challenging. Students, professors and administrators would all be able to log on. Just like we invite our friends to events and form social networks, professors would establish online groups for individual classes, allowing students to get in touch with the entire class and an instructor from a single webpage. Message boards and folders to upload content would allow discussion and collaboration for labs and projects, leading to peer evaluation and a stronger group dynamic. Professors can upload resources such as lecture notes, podcasts of lectures, relevant external links (to NROC?) and provide feedback on student discussions. Online assignments/assesments would be a possibility, allowing busy students more flexibility in their study schedule. Professors could even create a hybrid environment that allows students to take the class while on a campus while other students are taking the class remotely, all contributing and sharing with each other via this online hub.
A system like this could really be quite simple, it doesn't need to be complex. It shares some similarities with school networks already in use and could make use of the great features developed by NROC, specifically the robust social network and online database.
This may be a ways off and surely would be a large undertaking, but it sure would be nice.
Right now I only have to remember my Cal Poly email address and my password. That aspect can stay the same, adding additional user names and more passwords and authentication systems would only make things challenging. Students, professors and administrators would all be able to log on. Just like we invite our friends to events and form social networks, professors would establish online groups for individual classes, allowing students to get in touch with the entire class and an instructor from a single webpage. Message boards and folders to upload content would allow discussion and collaboration for labs and projects, leading to peer evaluation and a stronger group dynamic. Professors can upload resources such as lecture notes, podcasts of lectures, relevant external links (to NROC?) and provide feedback on student discussions. Online assignments/assesments would be a possibility, allowing busy students more flexibility in their study schedule. Professors could even create a hybrid environment that allows students to take the class while on a campus while other students are taking the class remotely, all contributing and sharing with each other via this online hub.
A system like this could really be quite simple, it doesn't need to be complex. It shares some similarities with school networks already in use and could make use of the great features developed by NROC, specifically the robust social network and online database.
This may be a ways off and surely would be a large undertaking, but it sure would be nice.
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