Elearnspace

I just landed in Vancouver after a short trip to Shanghai to present at the IADIS conference hosted by East China Normal University. One of the faculty members (Ren Youqun, I believe) from this university translated Knowing Knowledge into Chinese. This is my second trip in the last three weeks – I was in Guangzhou at the end of November visiting South China Normal University and Sun Yatsen University.

IRRODL continues to solidify its reputation as the leading journal in the educational technology field that balances thoughtful research with very timely and relevant journal themes, as indicated by the latest special issue – Emergent Learning, Connections, Design for Learning. IRRODL seems to capture the zeitgeist of online learning more rapidly than others. Congrats to Terry Anderson (editor) and Rod Sims & Elena Kays (editors of this special issue) for an outstanding publication.

I’m in Rijeka, Croatia. It’s my first visit hear and it’s a beautiful country. The scenery is spectacular. Unfortunately, most of my time has been spent in a hotel room writing and getting caught up on email/work, etc. Wasn’t traveling fun *before* we could take our work with us?!
I’ve uploaded the slides from my presentation this morning:

Have a look at this video (a few static images kick off the video, but the fun stuff begins shortly after):

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

EDUCAUSE publishes short papers on 7 things you should know about… that provide an overview of emerging topics and trends. Their most recent publication is on 7 things your should know about MOOCs (.pdf). From the paper: “But perhaps the most significant contribution is the MOOC’s potential to alter the relationship between learner and instructor and between academe and the wider community by potentially providing a very large and diverse forum and meeting place for ideas.

Anytime individuals get together to reclaim social justice and fairness or to empower themselves in the light of gross inequalities, I’m heartened and encouraged.
I’ve been following the #Occupy movement with tremendous interest. The inequalities in society are increasing. The small % control the majority.

Outside of taking courses in XML, programming logic, and Python, I am not a programmer. I understand the importance of being able to program. I can get by with HTML and CSS. There are few things more irritating, however, than having ideas that one is not capable of activating in a meaningful way. It’s like having a desire to communicate but lacking the ability to speak. This isn’t a huge liability – as long as you have access to people who can translate your ideas into code. Or apps. Or something digital. You need to be part of a team that covers your weaknesses.

I don’t know how my writing comes across to others. When I was a teenager, I had a few general issues with the world (I know, likely the first teenager in history with this affliction) and very specific issues with authority. This attitude produced a number of difficult situations for me. At one point, as I was engaged in paying the consequences of a particular act in the form of a solid tongue lashing from a judge, I remember this odd feeling of “I’m not like that…I’m a pretty good person”. But, in reality, people can’t evaluate us by our thoughts.

Data, big data, analytics, and visualization are significant trends in education. We need to pay attention. There is much to be alarmed about with analytics, including the mechanization of teaching, learning, and assessment. Additionally, the data and analytics that are easy to collect and conduct risk becoming a simple veneer over the complexities of learning and cognition. Or, as Gardner Campbell states: “Current NGLC/NCLB paradigms create great risk of analytics-generated edu-hell.”

At the EDUCAUSE 2011 conference today, I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Hal Abelson – founding director of Free Software Foundation and Creative Commons. He presented on the state of openness in education. While on the surface openness is gaining traction through scholarship and publication, content providers and journal publishers are starting to push back.