I was recently invited to deliver a plenary talk at the 2013 Emerging Technologies for Online Learning conference, hosted by the Sloan Consortium. Steve Wheeler will be giving a keynote and I am excited to hear him talk. My presentation will pick up where Emerging Technologies in Distance Education (download it for free here http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120177) left off, and will take readers through a set of stories intend to clarify how emerging technologies are, and are not, changing education.

The talk is entitled Seven Tales of Learning Online with Emerging Technologies, and I described it as follows:

During the last few years, emerging technologies and online learning have dominated narratives regarding the future of education and the potential role that technology may play in education. Are we reaching a point where “anyone can learn anything from anyone else at any time?” Or, are Google, Facebook, and Twitter “infantilizing our minds,” distracting us from meaningful learning and purposeful living? As societies, governments, and other social groups adapt and change over time, so do institutions of learning, the work that they do, and how they do that work. In this presentation, I will share seven research-based stories describing the integration of emerging technologies in learning environments. These stories paint an intricate picture of online learning with emerging technologies and demonstrate how (a) emerging learning technologies have impacted educational practice, (b) the use of emerging technologies “on the ground” is often negotiated and contested, and (c) a “culture of sharing” may be finding increasing acceptance in education under emerging phenomena such as Massive Open Online Courses, Open Educational Resources, and social media use by scholars. These stories highlight how learning and education are (and are not) changing with the emergence of certain technologies, social behaviors, and cultural expectations.

I recently gave a presentation in which I sought to capture some of the activities that I see happening when researchers are using social media to enact scholarship. In this presentation I argued that while faculty members have always shared their work with each other (e.g., through letters, telephone calls, and conference presentations), techno-cultural forces are prompting educators and researchers to share scholarly work in an ongoing and open manner. I also argued that “sharing” is a value and literacy that we should embrace and teach, not just because it is compatible with the purpose of higher education but also because it may contribute to a more equitable society.

Authors are invited  to submit abstracts and participate in the 63rd International Council for Educational Media (ICEM) Conference that will be held in Singapore from 1 – 4 October 2013.

The late 1990s saw the emergence of e-Learning.  Many schools and institutions have embarked on campus-wide initiatives that comprised content-driven and technology-enhanced pedagogy until the advent of Web 2.0. Now, however, the educational model is undergoing a complete change of approach and both the blended learning model and participative learning have become more possible and meaningful, especially when combined with the changing profile of Gen Y students.

The conference theme ‘we-Learning: Content, Community and Collaboration’ recognises these pervasive and rapid changes that are having a profound impact on education and society.  Education at all levels plays a central role in shaping the way these changes affect the economy, society and a new generation of knowledge workers.  Knowledge and content are now a touch away and the new classroom has no physical boundaries. People and resources are linked across borders allowing for new types of collaboration.  What does this mean for learning and teaching in tertiary education? This conference explores the paradigm shift from e-Learning to we-Learning, and the broad consequences for education in a changing world.

Conference Date and Location
Date: 1 – 4 October 2013
Location: Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Topics of interest to this international event include, but are not limited to the following:
·         Social and Collaborative Learning
·         Participative Learning
·         Integrative Learning with Technology
·         Learning Design (Theory and Practice)
·         Games and gamification in education and training
·         Borderless mobile learning
·         Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs)
·         Social media and learning
·         Distance education and Web 2.0
·         Educational media
·         New media, new literacies
·         Research and evaluation methods in educational technology
·         Professional development, teacher education and lifelong learning
·         Social media and learning
·         Creative learning and teaching models
·         New learning spaces and technology
·         Changing conditions of higher education
We encourage the submission of a variety of papers and works including but not limited to position papers, empirical research, case studies, classroom implementations, case studies with applications of educational technology, theoretical discussions, and critical reviews of literature.

Abstract Submission Guidelines
The abstract should include a brief introduction, research questions, research design and methods, and (expected) results in no more than 500 words (approximately 1-2 pages, single spaced).

Submit your abstract here:              http://icem2013.elite.sg/

Abstracts submission deadline:          31 March 2013
Acceptance notification:                       30 June 2013
Final camera ready papers due by     15 August 2013

More information of the ICEM2013 conference is available at http://icem2013.ntu.edu.sg

A facebook conversation from yesterday encouraged me to share one of the assignments that I developed for my instructional design course. The goal of the class is for the students to understand, experience, and apply instructional design in a variety of educational contexts.

One of the assignments I developed for asked students to enroll in a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and analyze the instructional materials within the course using one of the rubrics provided by Dick and Carey (the instructional design book we use in class). It was a lot of fun and the students appreciated the exercise. Given the lack of presence and voice by instructional designers in MOOC happenings, the lack of valid, reliable, and serious research that exists on the topic (though Rita Kop’s work on cMOOCs is admirable), and my desire to engage students in contemporary events, I came up with this assignment to embed MOOC analysis in my course. The assignment is available for download on https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2533962/instr-materials-veletsianos.doc and posted below for those who just want to skim it without downloading it. Enjoy and feel free to use it:

Instructional Material analysis assignment

Individually, you will examine and report on the instructional materials of one popular digital learning initiative. An analysis matrix will be provided to you, and you will use that to matrix to evaluate these initiatives.

Length: Minimum 500 words.

This task requires a few hours of research before you can actually complete it. Even though this is an individual task, if you would like to discuss the assignment with any of your colleagues, please feel free to do so.

Mechanics

First read the chapter and the rest of the materials for this week. Without reading those, I can assure you that your understanding of the issues presented will be superficial.

Second, examine the rubric provided by Dick & Carey for evaluating instructional materials (p. 250-251 – see below for the rubric). You will be completing this rubric for a digital environment, and it’s a good idea to understand what it encompasses before you proceed.

Third, select one course provided on one of the following platforms to examine:

• A course on Coursera (select a course that is occurring right now or has been completed. DO NOT select a course that has not started yet): https://www.coursera.org/courses

• A course on EdX (select a course that is occurring right now. DO NOT select a course that has not started yet): https://www.edx.org/courses

• A free course on Udemy (select a course that includes at least 5 “lessons/lectures”): http://www.udemy.com/courses

You can also choose to examine DS106: http://ds106.us/ I am including DS106 on its own because it is a course as opposed to the above (Coursera, EdX, and Udemy) which are platforms. If you pick any of these three (Coursera, EdX, or Udemy), then you should also pick a course (e.g., Within Coursera a possible course is https://www.coursera.org/course/friendsmoneybytes).

Assignment

Once you have made your selection, it’s time to research your course. Spend time looking around, examining and evaluating the instructional materials provided. You will use the rubric to keep track of the criteria that need to be assessed, and then using this rubric you will write a report assessing the instructional material for the course.

You should start your report by stating the course and its provider. A link would also be helpful. For example, using the example above, I would start my report by stating the following:

“I am examining the course entitled Networks: Friends, Money and Bytes (https://www.coursera.org/course/friendsmoneybytes). This course if offered through Coursera and is taught by Mung Chiang who is a Professor or Electrical Engineering at Princeton University. The course is an introduction to the topic of X and its objectives are XYZ.”

Your report should be specific and detailed in its evaluation of instructional material, and should be guided by the five criteria families discussed by DC: Goal-centered, learner-centered, learning-centered, context-centered, technical criteria. I would like to see that you understand each criterion and that you are capable of applying it to evaluating your course. For example, at the very least, I would expect to see statements such as the following:

Instructional designers use five criteria families to evaluate instructional materials. Learner-centered criteria focus on XYZ and refer to X. The instructional materials for this course appear to be adequate for this criterion because <provide list of reasons here>. The course could be improved in this domain by <list of additions/revisions here>. However, because item X was not disclosed in the course, I am not able to evaluate Y.

Let me reiterate that to complete this assignment you will need to do background research on the course and the platform. For example, your background research on Coursera will reveal that some of these courses have more than 80,000 students from around the world. This fact alone will impact your evaluation!

Instructional Material Evaluation Rubric

Rubric is copyright of: Dick, W., Carey, L. & Carey, J. (2008). Systematic Design of Instruction, (7th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

A. Goal-centered Criteria:
Are the instructional materials: