This Wasn't on the Syllabus

Well, here we are, at the end of EME6414. It’s hard to believe that another six weeks have gone by. While I could talk about the incredible resources and the amount of practical knowledge I’m able to use on a daily basis, I think I’ll use this last blog for this course to talk about something that wasn’t on the syllabus, or in the readings, or mentioned in any of the videos – a personal experience that I could never have foreseen.

I expected interactions, but I didn’t expect a network of support. The relationships we’ve built have formed so organically. Through our experiences, we’ve found our very own communities within the class, and each interaction seems to be one of support and encouragement. Although our focus has always been on the course material, we’ve each been afforded opportunities to make the experiences personal and relatable. With every blog, every tweet, every VoiceThread, we’ve gotten to know each other a little better.

I think that’s what has been so powerful about this course. We’ve been studying how people connect, and in the process, we’ve connected with each other. We’ve joked several times about how this experience has been very meta, and that is the most perfect way to describe everything about it. I know we don’t have to write any more blogs, and I know today is the last day of the course, but it won’t be for me. This blog, these connections, those tools, all of them will continue to be a part of my life, and for that, I thank all of you.

To the future!

With gratitude and admiration,

Melissa

Social Networking & Faculty: A Plan to Build More PLNs

Now that we’ve come the last day of the course, I’ve been thinking a lot about the approaches I am going to take to implement some of the great ideas we’ve shared. Since I work directly with faculty, the process is a little different than if I were building a course. In some ways, I think the students would be much more accepting of the use of these tools, but I look forward to forming a network of faculty who are interested in ways to incorporate more Web 2.0 into their classes.  

In a few weeks, we’ll be opening up a faculty development course on education technology. The course is an elective and tends to be one of the most popular. Since those faculty are actively choosing to learn more about ed tech, I’ll be able to show them several of the tools over the eight-week course. Many of them, I believe, will be most interested in blogging, maybe Twitter, and some of the curation resources.

One of the approaches I am going to take will shift the focus onto the faculty. I’ve built in an activity that asks them to implement one of these Web 2.0 tools (or one of their choosing) and reflect on the process. This idea is a modification of my produsage project, which I will also be launching as a collaborative learning course, and I think it will work well with ed tech participants.

Another way I plan to leverage some of these tools is with our “Tips” plan that we’ve been developing. Working alongside my team, we will be sharing “Teaching with Tech Tips” that will be disseminated to our faculty. The idea came out of our need to promote some of the resources that are available, but underused, by faculty. By incorporating much of the work I’ve done in this class, I’ll be able to create mini-sessions on what a tool is and how it can be effectively incorporated into classes, from both a technology and teaching perspective.  

We’ll undoubtedly have early adopters and faculty who are already using Web 2.0 on a regular basis, so I plan to rely on their knowledge and enthusiasm as well. Much like Web 2.0, faculty development works best when you have supporters who are willing to share their experiences with those who are in their PLNs.

I’m tremendously excited about the potential to incorporate so many of the things we’ve learned in this class into bite-sized sessions for the faculty. And just maybe, I can even collect some data on how they are being used. J

What a Difference a Decade Makes: Privacy, Digital Footprints, & Education

The very first class I taught at the university level was ENC 1101, almost 10 years ago to the day. While the Department granted a great deal of academic freedom to its instructors, there were three major writing assignments that every 1101 student was expected to complete. I don't remember the details of two of the assignments, most likely a personal narrative and descriptive essay, but the details of one assignment have never left me. It was a light research paper, in a compare/contrast format, about the benefits and complications of social media. Looking back, I'm not sure if we were ahead of our time or way too late. 

As my wide-eyed, nervous freshman sat staring back at their equally wide-eyed, nervous professor, I asked them to work in small groups to think about the ways social media was changing communication. Being a novice instructor, I wasn't exactly sure how to frame the discussion in an academic context, so we focused mostly on how people used language (on Myspace, which was the main form of social media at the time) and the benefits of staying in touch with people you wouldn't otherwise see. I relied pretty heavily on my own experiences. I wasn't quite 30 yet, so the people in my age group were using social media to find high school and college friends that had long since disappeared from our Nokias and Blackberries. 

Nearly every paper I got from that project was exactly the same. I read over and over again about how powerful it was to have a personal digital space and about how scary it was to actually live in there. They cited cyber bullying and predators as contrasting points to family reunions and the ability to be "friends" with celebrities. And while many of these points are similar to ones we could raise today, the one thing no one talked about was privacy. 

As I finished this week's readings on privacy, and thought back to our conversations from the data analytics class, I couldn't get that first set of students out of my head. That project didn't show up on the syllabus after that school year, but I think its objectives were noble and not so far removed from many of the points raised in the readings. While we may not know everything about privacy, I do think we, as educators, have a responsibility to learn as much as we can. And I want students (and faculty) to consider the ramifications of their own digital footprints, yet I recognize how important collecting some of that data can be. 

In fact, I've just gotten off of a planning call for an upcoming faculty development workshop. In that workshop, we're going to show faculty how to collect data from the LMS to measure engagement rates and, hopefully, improve the academic success of their students through a very structured approach. Much like the 1101 project, we are doing this with the purest intention - we want to be able to help students be successful - but doing that involves looking into their habits and patterns. This is by no means new or different that what other institutions are doing, but it does put us in an interesting place when we look at privacy. In education,  I still think the benefits of collecting data outweigh the complications, but would I feel differently about it if it were a company, rather than an institution, doing it?

As we continue to navigate the complicated world of privacy, I think the key is transparency with our students. But it's much more about helping them understand the permanency and reach of their online lives than it is to create fear or distrust, which can sometimes be the case when we talk about privacy. If I had it to do all over again, I don't think I'd change too much about that social media project from a decade ago, but I do have some ideas about how different my role would be. 

In the Palm of Your Hands: Considering the Role of Mobile Learning

Last week, I promised I'd share a little about the conference I attended in Las Vegas, and as we find ourselves planted in the final week of the course, I thought now would be a perfect time. The conference, Fusion, was hosted by D2L, a Canadian-based learning management system provider whose history, mission statement, and philosophies rival that of a Silicon Valley company much more than a standard LMS organization. The university I work for uses D2L, and the more I build in it, the more I like it. Their goals are lofty, and they seem to spare no expense when it comes to research & development and training, and that alone is enough to make me want to support them. Considering they also rented out Omnia nightclub for us in Vegas, they also know how to throw one heck of a party.

I was fortunate enough to be a participant on two panels, and presenting at conferences is one of my favorite ways to build my network. I am also one of those people who refuses to miss a breakout session. Ok, I may have skipped one this time - I mean, when a company rents a club, you go. At every conference, a theme emerges, something that didn't necessarily take center stage, but seems to be dominating the breakout sessions and the coffee chats. At Fusion, it was mobile learning. Everyone, including my team, was talking about the necessity of placing learning, quite literally, in the palms of our hands. 

Now, at this point, I feel like I should admit something. I love innovation, and once I'm given an idea, I can easily adopt a clear vision and make it come to life. I like to think creatively, and leading brainstorming sessions is something I consider a strength. However, I have absolutely no ability to predict, with any level of success, what the next big "thing" will be. Remember when texting was first made available? Yeah, I thought, no one will ever use this. Kindles? Who wants to read on a screen? So, needless to say, I'm not sure what the future or our hands will hold when it comes to mobile learning. 

I see a lot of potential for AR and learning, and much of AR happens now with aid of our mobile devices. And when we consider the incredible possibilities of feedback and participation with Web 2.0, our mobile devices seem to be personalized learning hubs. I'd even argue that they are already where we do most of our informal learning.

At the conference, one of the big reveals was the new mobile platform that D2L has created, and it is beautiful. As far as design theory and UX, they've done everything right. But I'm still unsure as to what role mobile learning will have in the big picture of higher ed, or formal learning in general. What type of learning will take place? Will it still be supplemental? When we look at the 21st Century learner, where do we place mobile learning?