Situated on one of the most beautiful islands in the world, the University of Hawaiʻi Maui College is an accredited college that offers three bachelor of applied science degrees, a wide variety of associate degrees and certificates, as well as … Continue reading →

Social learning is an increasing part of organizational learning, and mobile learning brings a new dimension to social learning in important ways. What do we need to know to do this well? Find out on May 23 in How Mobile Enables Social Learning with mLearning expert Clark Quinn. Register now for this complimentary webinar. You do not need to be a member of The eLearning Guild to access this event.  Check it out: http://www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.2239&utm_campaign=bestof1205&utm_medium=email&utm_source=elg-insider

Educational data mining and rapid A/B testing can produce information for refining and enhancing digital learning systems, but they are less than ideal for answering questions about how digital learning systems are being used in different contexts and how implementation variations relate to differences in outcomes. An emerging research approach that is suited for this... Read More ›

A few months ago I read and reviewed Shelley Gare’s book, The Triumph of the Airheads and the Retreat from Commonsense. I was shaken by the déjà vu I experienced in every chapter. Her book is a treatise on the evolution and spread of postmodernism.Recently, while doing my usual reading and follow-ups on matters educational, I stumbled on a brief clip of Branford Marsalis, renowned Jazz musician and educationalist. I admired Marsalis from afar and for many years I’ve appreciated his musicianship.To hear this iconic, clear-minded musician and teacher talk of his students brought Gare’s almost prophetic words back to me with a vengeance:Airheads, at their most extreme, can worry only aboutthemselves and the rest of the world can go to buggery.Are our learners catching airheadism too?video

The Knowledge Graph enables you to search for things, people or places that Google knows about—landmarks, celebrities, cities, sports teams, buildings, geographical features, movies, celestial objects, works of art and more—and instantly get information that’s relevant to your query. This is a critical first step towards building the next generation of search, which taps into the collective intelligence of the web and understands the world a bit more like people do.Check it out:  http://www.google.com/insidesearch/features/search/knowledge.htmlhttp://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2620861http://youtu.be/mmQl6VGvX-c

Recently, the Bulgarian foundation StartUP started using Eliademy to create a training program about entrepreneurship and the KSL Study Center (Finland) uses the online platform in adult education. E-learning is spreading fast among NGOs and is used in very different … Continue reading →

From The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL) Where is Research on Massive Open Online Courses Headed? A data analysis of the MOOC Research Initiative By Dragan Gašević, Vitomir Kovanović, Srećko Joksimović, George Siemens Abstract This paper reports on the results of an analysis of the research proposals submitted to the MOOC... Read More ›

Jane Hart Social Business ConsultantCentre for Learning & Performance Technologies Tuesday, June 12, 2012 | 10:30 AM Pacific TimeComplimentary for Paid Guild MembersMore and more people are using social media and networks to solve their learning and performance problems in the workplace — connecting, conversing, and collaborating with colleagues both inside and outside the organization. Jane Hart will share her experiences in, ideas about, and predictions for using social media to support workplace learning. Check it out:  http://www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.2241&utm_campaign=tlws1206&utm_medium=email&utm_source=elg-memberp 

I believe that education in the future may not be best achieved in schools. However, this post summarises what I think should be the components of an ideal school of the future. It is not a summary of my idea of where education should be going, or how it should be obtained. Tania Sheko is hosting the 'Green Pen Society' (GPS) writers' club over at Brave New World, for Paul Cornies at quoteflections.Her topic for October is:What would your ideal school look like?Design the school of the future - but do it now!How could I resist a topic like that?Having taught in many different schools, and in different countries, I’ve gathered hunches, likes, dislikes and theories that can help me with ideas for the design of the ideal school of the future. It is a difficult task.A secondary schoolThe ‘ideal school’ is forever a mythical artefact, for by definition a school has to meet the needs of many. No school can serve completely all learners all of the time.As well, its situational constraints must necessarily govern the functions that it can deliver and needs to provide.My ideal school would be a secondary school with a roll of learners from say, ages 12 to 18 years. It will prepare all learners for further learning. It will provide pathways to employment for those learners who, for whatever reason, leave the school to seek employment before having completed all available education levels within the school.School providers and authoritiesAssuming that the school is capable of serving all situational needs of its learners, the first requisite must be that it is affordable.Fine education costs. We should all know that by now. If it results in overspending, however, then ultimately the future availability of good education within the school will suffer.For as much as the ideal resources, pedagogies and learning environments are important, and to whatever specification these may adhere to, if they cannot be sustained, or are not seen to be sustainable by the providing authority, they cannot form the components of my ideal school.GovernanceMy school will have experienced governance, administered by a necessary board of trustees who genuinely have the future situational needs of the learners at heart. To do this, the governance must have a vision for the big picture of what education should bring to learners in the 21st century.ManagementCounterpart to governance, the school’s management will likewise have an eagerness to use such teaching structures within the school. There will be commitment to use resources, pedagogies and learning environments that foster teaching and learning that best suit the future needs of learners.The whole pictureAs boring as all of the above may seem, without them no ideal school will succeed. They are integral parts of the whole picture.The school will have classrooms, workshops, laboratories, a library, recreational areas and halls as fit the needs of its composition. If at all possible, it will have a roll of about 550 learners. From experience this size appears to find the optimum fit when it comes to timetabling and managing resources and courses, especially for the senior learners within the school.Allocation of classes should aim at an optimum size of 24 learners and a ceiling of 28, with some flexibility within reason. This is an ideal school, so depending on the needs of individual learners there may be a call for smaller class sizes for some groups.The best fitI use the term ‘best fit’ on purpose here. Education is a complex thing.I believe it is impossible to provide every factor that makes for good education, simply because of its complexity. Like other complex systems, however, it should be possible to make a best fit for ongoing situations, within and external to the school, that will be neither static nor exist in a state of equilibrium.To this end, the learning resources provided in the school must also be capable of adapting rapidly to current changes. Methods used for delivering resources to teachers and learners must likewise be capable of evolving and adapting to suit emergent themes that will trace and follow the development of the immediate society.A blended learning approach that best utilises the appropriate methods for teaching and learning to fit the learner and topic will be recognised by teachers and teacher management.Elearning platformsIf an elearning platform must be established within the school, it should be open source. The expense of any commercial elearning platform can so easily preclude further development in platforms other than open source ones, so it is best to adopt open source from the beginning. This frees up finance, much needed within the school, for non-negotiable expenses and specific resources that may have no alternatives.A stable, generic learner management system should embrace any learning content management system chosen to meet the needs of the school’s resource requirements. Too easily, the maintenance expenses on such systems can get out of hand, ending up like the tail wagging the dog. This is why good governance working closely with good management within the school is so important.I’m talking in ideal big picture stuff here and purposely not mentioning commercial brands of hardware or software. A school that’s capable of adapting through emerging requirements should not be tied to any specific commercial provider or commodity brand.And this brings me to a conclusion. The ideal school will need to be mobile, as the movement of a flock of birds. It will shift with the elements, yet remain intact as it moves bodily to meet the varying needs of the ever-changing learners within it.A Green Pen Society contribution

CEEDs by WebIT is "The most influential Digital and Tech conference for Central and Eastern Europe" according to Wall Street Journal. Over 3000 participants from 40 countries and top speakers from companies like SAP, Forbes, Philips, Google and of course … Continue reading →