Last spring I moved from being a consultant and part-time instructor to a full-time employee and part-time instructor and realized I really need to stay in the consulting and teaching arena. It's what keeps me passionate, happy, actively connected and learning.  I made that change in August and feel great about it.However, over a year ago I set up an automated job search using a meta-search job agent called Indeed. It delivers results to my email each evening. Sometimes I look at them, sometimes I don't.  You might ask yourself why on earth I'd bother looking at these job postings when I'm not looking for a job.  Well, because I consider it part of my active learning experience about higher education. I like to see what other types of jobs other colleges, universities, and states are hiring for. This provides a good indication about how other academic organizations are solving problems.  Last night I saw a posting that turned a light on for me.  Improving educational problems with emerging technologiesI teach online for a community college in California and I am thirsty to understand how to improve some of the big challenges the California community college system faces.  For one, how can we, as the largest system of higher education in the nation -- comprised of 112 colleges serving more than 2.5 million students and more than 50,000 faculty (most of whom are part-time) -- fully harness the potential that today's emerging technologies offer?  With about 25% of the state's headcount coming from online classes, the topic of teaching with technology is a provocative one and so are the topics of student success, retention, and access given the state's financial challenges. These are all factors that played into Governor Brown's recent support for MOOCs and the  controversial bill that would grant students credit at California's public institutions of higher ed for completing MOOCs (something that I wrote about here last spring).  All in all, I have been pretty silent about MOOCs through the whirlwind popularity they have experienced in the recent years. Mostly because they have done little to excite me, as a community college educator (read the word educator as "teacher").  I've observed little about a MOOC that can support the diverse needs of community college learners and they undercut the importance and value that student-teacher relationships play in the community college learning experience. Mt. San Jacinto College, one of California's community colleges and the college where I teach part-time, developed a MOOC titled Crafting an Effective Writer: Tools of the Trade this year. It was funded by the Gates Foundation and it was designed to support the writing skills of students as they prepare for college level writing courses.  That's a unique and fresh approach to MOOCs at the 2-year level, as it is clearly a self-directed journey through which a student travels on his or her own to success.But yesterday, I read about Bill Gates' message to more than 2,000 community college leaders at the Association of Community College Trustees' meeting.  He spoke about the benefits that flipped MOOCs could bring to community college students, serving to improve learning and increase access (as there is the possibility of employing this approach to slightly decrease the time spent in class and open more "seat time" for more students).  Ah...now we're getting somewhere.  Despite the intense disdain you'll read in the comments of the Chronicle article about Gates' idea, I think there's merit to this approach.In 2009, before the word "flipped" was ever used, I followed that nagging "itch" one gets when you know there's something about your class that needs to be changed, that just is not right, that is not reflecting your authentic teaching self.  I think we all get that itch but some of us can ignore it more than others.  Mine keeps me up at night when it gets really bad.Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation It was painful to make the change; I fought it for well over a year.  It's really difficult to put into words how much college professors -- even those who relish risk taking, like myself -- resist the notion of letting go of "the lecture." And encouraging professors to let go of lecturing will be the issue at the the heart of the controversy of embracing the flipped classroom in higher ed.  It will be disguised as many other issues -- but, really, if we look inside ourselves, this will be what's driving the controversy.  I believe we need to address these concerns and talk about them, as ignoring them only makes them worse.  I was scared to death.  I have never felt more vulnerable in my classroom than when I announced to my students I would "not be lecturing...(gulp)."  But as Brene Brown has discovered in her insightful research, vulnerability is at the heart of innovation.  Seems to me we should all be following this itch, not pushing it away if we are truly committed to making changes in teaching and learning.Despite my deep-rooted insecurities, I decided to give it a try. In the spring of 2009 I finally chose to eliminate all the lectures from my face-to-face History of Women in Art class and had my students listen to (or read them -- they had a choice) before coming to class.  They also had to participate in pre-class formative assessments that I designed in VoiceThread.  There's much more to this model and I've presented on it many times and have produced an entire online ePortfolio about it, and it's detailed in the Introduction of my book, Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies. The flipped model is good teaching For those of you unfamiliar with the flipped model, it's fairly simple. It is based on the concept of making the time that students spend in class with their instructors more active and less passive. Active learning has been at the core of effective learning research for decades. This is key. The flipped classroom fundamentally embraces many of the tenets of good, effective teaching.  Classroom time is spent applying, analyzing, critiquing -- moving up the pyramid of higher order thinking skills.  The lower order thinking skills are fostered outside of class by building a foundation of background knowledge through listening to the lectures and completing a brief online assessment prior to coming to class. The assessment is really key, as it serves to ensure students completed the lectures and also gives the instructor a picture of the class's overall knowledge of key topics and concepts prior to the start of a class.  In the end, class time is spent digging into the topics that are not understood, while those that have been more fully mastered can be filtered out -- this makes all the difference.  Why teach the same thing to everyone everytime?Uses technology to support needs of diverse learnersThe flipped classroom also puts technology to good use by having students view brief videos, curated around key topics, prior to coming to class.  The format of video is important, as it provides students with the ability to pause, rewind, and replay -- features live lectures do not offer. These features are like built-in accommodations for students with learning disabilities like dyslexia, which are more common in student populations at public 2-year institutions.  I would advocate for these videos to come along with a text transcript, as well.  When I provided my students with the option to view a visual enhanced podcast or read a transcript, my evaluation of the students' learning at the end of the semester revealed that 40% chose to read the lecture, 15% listened to the lecture, 30% did both, and 15% toggled between reading and listening throughout the semester. What amazed me here is that 30% of the students chose to listen and read at the same time (view video of student data results overview here).  I noticed some of my students doing this before class and when I asked them why, they shared that it really helped them to remember the content when they could hear my voice and highlight the text or make notes in the margins simultaneously.As I reflect back on it, the results of this experiment were dazzling.  Not only did I feel more engaged with my class and passionate about my teaching than I had in many years but my students reported significant gains in deep learning and the multiple methods of representing the content (reading or listening to lectures and students completed formative assessments about the lecture content prior to class in VoiceThreads that were visual and supported voice commenting) helped students to meet the learning objectives more effectively. You can listen to a 20-minute audio interview with me and three of my students here.Moving from experimentation to focused pilotsBut little traction has been made to systemically research the effects of flipped classrooms at the community college level in California and, admittedly, expecting community college faculty to develop their own online lectures would be rough.  Few community colleges I know of are equipped with the instructional design staff needed to support faculty through this time of endeavor.  And there are benefits to curating a collection of existing videos from different subject matter experts for students to view.What does this discussion about my flipped classroom experiment back in 2009 have to do with looking for a job?Well, yesterday in my Indeed job search results I saw a posting for a position at Maryland University College's new Center for Innovation in Learning for an Online Learning Innovation Scientist. Key responsibilities include: Take responsibility for conceptualizing, proposing, and directing innovation pilots and/or assisting in collaborative multi-unit pilots.  For each pilot assist with a research and evaluation framework tied to adult learning and use scientific principles to support  (a) learning innovation, (b) technology tools to improve the efficiency or quality the learning experience; (c) evidence based non cognitive improvements for the comprehensive learning experience. Document and disseminate the results of research and/or development projects through publication and presentation.  Publication includes peer-review journals, peer-review conference proceedings, patents, books and book chapters, and other print media. Presentation may be at international, national, or regional conferences, and internal audiences. Create a culture of understanding learning science throughout the pilots and those collaborating units.As I reflect on these two methods of improving education through the use of emerging technologies (the example shared from Maryland and MOOC bill in California), there's a big difference between creating a center for learning innovations and staffing it with high quality researchers and educators who are dedicated and trained to examine and study the effects of emerging technologies on learning, while collaborating with regional/statewide constituents to collect, evaluate, share, and reflect on metrics than having politicians react to a national trend, create a bill at the state level, and expect institutions of higher education to follow suit.Thanks for reading. What are your thoughts about flipped MOOCs for community college students?

What is the snowball effect?  When there's a systemic problem within an organization that creates a particular way of thinking and prevents organizational members from seeing valuable opportunities for improvement.Today, I read an article at Education Week about the need to make schools "socioemotional places." I couldn't agree more with the main point of the article -- that education today has lost its focus on cultivating the socioemotional development of children, as standardized assessments have taken over the spotlight in the recent decade. I touched upon a similar topic in this related blog post back in April, 2012, which extends the relevance of this topic to college instruction.But what I disagree with is how the article snowballs online learning into this very broad problem.  The authors state, "[Online learning] has several potential disadvantages, including: removing or minimizing the human interactions that are important to real learning; taking the joy and camaraderie out of education; isolating and limiting students’ voices and involvement; and making education lifeless and dull."  I agree that this can be true...but it's true for any type of class, depending on how it is designed and taught.  I would argue that if an online class is designed effectively and taught by an engaged, active instructor, an online class holds more potential to foster the socioemotional skills for more students in the class than in a face-to-face classroom.  In an online class, all students have a voice and more shy, reluctant students are likely to blossom and flourish.  The words we use to frame topics are powerful and, as such, educators should recognize the interactive, human, and personalized learning experiences that online classes can bring to students -- experiences that may be difficult for some students to find in face-to-face classes.  This is a fragile moment in education and the conversations we have about online learning are critical.  Thirty two percent of college students is enrolled in at least one online class. Online class enrollments are increasing at the K12 level too, following the expansion we have seen in higher education. When an online class is designed with technologies that are collaborative and involve asynchronous voice and/or video interactions and facilitated by an active, engaged instructor who is visible, supportive, and provides frequent feedback to learners (in voice and video), learners are often more compelled to share, reflect, take risks, and feel like they are part of a connected community.Recently, I asked some of my online students, "What makes an online class feel more human?" Here are some of their responses (shared with permission):Join me for a free webinar this Wed, 10/9Humanizing Your Online Class 12pm Pacific/ 3pm Eastern Register here: https://events-na3.adobeconnect.com/content/connect/c1/1002564123/en/events/event/shared/default_template/event_landing.html?sco-id=1234175794

Finding the best way to incorporate social learning communities within an e-learning environment can be challenging. Dr. Tina Sartori, Turning Technologies, has addressed the challenge with a combination of robust instructional design and innovative technology.Welcome to an interview with Sartori, who addresses how to develop social learning communities that are effective in a variety of

E-Learning Queen readers may download a free pdf of E-Learner Survival Guide, a collection of articles, insights, instructional strategies, lesson plans, and more. For individuals who would like a printed copy, it is available in perfect-bound paperback at Amazon.com. This 325-page book has the low price of $26.95. E-Learner Survival Guide: This broad reaching collection of essays on e

I have presented many webinars in my life ... but yesterday's Inside Higher Ed webinar, Humanizing Your Online Class, was pretty special. I saw the attendance number tick past 600 at one point! The question stream was dynamic and the Twitter chat was fabulous too -- thanks to Whitney Kilgore for Storifying the Twitter chat here and to Academic Partnerships for sponsoring the webinar, as a kick off for their free Human Element (#humanmooc) micro mooc (learn more here). If you missed the webinar and would like to view it, the video archive is embedded below and may also be viewed here.Some of my takeaways from the conversation were the concerns expressed by faculty about the amount of time it takes to "humanize" an online class in accordance with the examples I showcased in the webinar. My examples exemplify the use of free to low cost and easy-to-use tools which, to me empower faculty who have little to no technology experience.  For example, creating a warm, friendly welcome video with a tool like Animoto is really something that can be done by anyone (really ... try it! and I bet you'll even have so much fun doing it that you'll make another one...maybe for someone you care about).As I reflect more deeply on the conversation in the webinar, I continue to ask myself one thing. Should the question at hand be, "How to humanize an online class?" or is the question we should be reflecting more deeply on, "Why aren't online classes more human?" Are the real issues lack of technological ability or lack of time? Or are these issues deeply entangled with more sensitive topics that are generally undiscussable? For example, how vulnerable professors feel when revealing our personal stories, "real" expressions, and relating to and with our students on a more equal level in asynchronous voice or video exchanges (all important to community building)? I don't have the answer to this question but it's one that I'm thinking a lot about right now. And it has me replaying Brene Brown's fabulous Ted Talk over and over in my mind, as I think all members of higher education (including students) need to embrace her research driven finding that vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation and creativity. Get the Goody Bag of web resources here. View the slides (with built-in videos) on Slideshare here. The link to the video is here.

Developing effective e-learning content and instructional strategies for deployment at a massive scale, such as that of Florida State College at Jacksonville, can materially change the lives of many students who otherwise would not be able to continue their education and training. There are challenges, though, and the endeavor requires planning, coordination, and a willingness to be aggressive

Career colleges are experiencing dramatic growth, primarily because they connect directly to the workforce, where learners can train to enter new jobs and careers. Their lives are transformed by their education, and their goals. Welcome to an interview with Michael Platt, PlattForm Advertising.1. What is your name and what is your involvement with e-learning? Michael Platt. I have been

The Center: a new online community, connecting California's community college faculty, staff, and administrators Google+ Community:  http://gplus.to/TheCenterTwitter:  @center_edThis month I began an exciting new project for @ONE, a professional development program for California's community college system. @ONE has a longstanding history within the system for providing valuable technology training programs for faculty and I have enjoyed working with them in the past on other projects including the development of their Online Teaching Certification program, the development of their Introduction to Online Teaching and Learning course, and the course, Building Online Community with Social Media, which I developed and taught for several years. @ONE is a treasure in California's community college system, as most faculty have very limited support resources available to them on campus to assist them with teaching with technology and many faculty today find themselves without funding for conference travel.The exciting program that launched this month is called The Center and it is designed to improve communication, sharing, collaboration, and innovation across California's 112 community colleges. To achieve this lofty objective, The Center is leveraging the power of social media to bring faculty, staff, and administrators together in weekly conversations about meaningful topics.  I am thrilled to be part of this exciting endeavor and can't wait to meet more of my CCC colleagues and learn from you fabulous, creative, dedicated individuals!  :)Ideally, topics for The Center will be suggested by the community but it takes time for communities to develop.  Cultivating community is like harvesting a crop.  We are in the early stages and spreading the word is like planting the seeds (we need your help!).  Until we have our roots, I am reaching into The Center's active group of members to identify volunteers who have practices and stories to share (links are set up in the Google+ Community to volunteer for a Hangout and submit/vote on topics).Each topic will engage The Center for a period of two weeks. First, it will take the form of a Hangout on Air and then a Twitter chat.  The Hangout on Air and Twitter chat are bridge by Center Challenges which offer CCC colleagues an opportunity to try something new and reflect on their new experiences by sharing a post (via a blog, Tweet, or Google+ update) with the community.How The Center's Conversations Foster a Learning Culture Hangouts on Air are live, online video conversations launched in Google+. In these Hangouts, I interview a small, invited group of individuals from CCC colleges to discuss the topic at hand for a period of 30 minutes. The Hangout on Air is broadcast live to a public, online audience and members of the audience are encouraged to Tweet questions using The Center's hashtag, #CCCLEARN. I moderate this feed of questions during the Hangout on Air and share any incoming questions with the participants. After the Hangout is over, it is archived to YouTube (see below), providing for direct viewing access for anyone who was unavailable for the live event.After the Hangout, Tweets (tagged with #CCLEARN) and a G+ update is shared in The Center's Google+ Community to encourage participation in the related Center Challenge. The week after the Hangout on Air, the same topic is discussed in a #CCCLEARN Twitter chat. The Center's Twitter chats are scheduled for every other Thursday at 3pm Pacific (join us this Thursday, October 18th!!). The day and time of the Twitter chats was collaboratively decided upon by the community using a poll in early October.An Example!Last week, we held our very first Hangout on Air. The topic was coordinated in support of Connected Educator month: "Stories from CCC Connected Educators: How Social Media Has Improved My Teaching & Sense of Community." In this Hangout, I was joined by +Jennifer Garner, who teaches Biology part-time at Pasadena City College and Glendale Community College and +Mark Lawler  who teaches Geology online part-time at Lake Tahoe Community College and West Hills College, as well as three other institutions outside of CA and he resides in New York.  You are warmly invited to view the conversation below (my apologies for it being cut short due to a technological issue on my end!).The Center Challenge for this topic is for community members to share how participating in social media has impacted their connectedness as an educator.  Members are encouraged to share these reflections in a blog post (and Tweet the link using the #CCCLEARN hashtag) or share a post in the The Center's Google+ Community (filtered into the category "Center Challenges").We are holding a #CCCLEARN Twitter chat this Thursday, 10/18 at 3pm on the topic of "Becoming a Connected Educator."  Please join us and bring a friend!  This is a terrific opportunity to learn how to use Twitter in a supportive, academic environment.To participate in the Twitter chat, you need a Twitter account and this should be created prior to the 18th to be sure you are ready to go. At the start of chat, you may either go to Twitter.com and enter #CCCLEARN into the "search" box to view the flow of the conversation.  OR you might want to try going directly to the #CCCLEARN Twitter Chat room, which provides a more focused (less distracting) experience for Twitter chats that many users prefer.The #CCCLEARN Tweet Chat room is accessible at: http://tweetchat.com/room/CCCLEARNPlease share this post with your circle of CA community college colleagues and meet me in The Center! Join the Google+ Community today and follow The Center on Twitter @center_ed.

Welcome to an interview with Vikram Savkar, Nature Education, who has dedicated energy and time to promoting science education that is truly collaborative, and which leverages new technologies and social networking to engage students and to make them comfortable with discovery science. He has led the development and launch of a new product, Scitable.com, which offers online learning, a social

Ken Douglas BY-NC-NDIn 2007, I sat down at an edtech conference and took a blogging workshop from two elementary school teachers. I remember thinking, "Hmm. This would be a great, easy way to share ideas and reflections about art with my students."  This is the blog I started in that conference workshop. Quickly, it turned away from a student audience and away from the subject of art and turned towards an audience of educators and embraced topics related to online learning and using emerging tools to improve teaching and learning.  I was at a transformative moment and this blog was a big part of my change.Two years later in 2009, I sat reluctantly at another conference watching a woman on stage talk about this thing called "Twitter." Ugh. I sooo did not want to use Twitter. Where was the relevance in 140 character messages to my deeply, meaningful life? She went on to reference something called a "hashtag," which I did not understand and did not offer any explanation (and that bothered me). I think I kind of took it as a challenge but I was still reluctant...very reluctant.  Until something happened. I had the Twitter feed for the conference hashtag open on my laptop during a session. As I sat there, I could see Tweets being sent from another session that had wanted to attend very badly, but chose not to. I realized at that moment, I had the best of both worlds.  With Twitter, I had access to the reflections and thoughts of others in the alternative session who were Tweeting links to resources and other goodies shared by the presenter. That was it. I was in. Today, I follow more than 2,100 Twitter users. I also use Google+ and have my own YouTube channel. I know what some of you are thinking..."but that's so much work. Who has time for that?"  You're right, it is a lot of work. However, when you have found what you believe to be your calling in life -- the thing that drives you, the thing that you feel such belief in that sometimes it hurts -- and you have learned that you can't make the impact you want towards improving the problems you have identified, life can get difficult.  You can find yourself feeling frustrated...and that can undercut your passion. When that happens, there's a certain fire that burns inside a person to figure something out.  I believe that's where I was when I started blogging.  Before I started blogging and using Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn, I was frustrated with the lack of change in education. Since becoming engaged and connected, I have learned a great deal about myself and about the underlying context of education. And I have found so many amazing, spirited, forward thinking individuals that continue to dazzle me with their new, inventive ideas.  The opportunity to read honest, reflective posts of other educators has shed many illuminating lights on issues for me throughout the past several years.  I have often found myself breathing a heavy sigh or shedding a tear after finding someone else who shares experiences like my own. As I reflect on my journey to becoming a connected educator, there are three characteristics that I believe were most important for me.  They are described below. 1. Be Vulnerable If you have never written a blog post, you really have not experienced vulnerability.  If you have never shared a public video on YouTube with the comments enabled, you have never experienced vulnerability.  Readers and viewers of online educational technology content want honest, genuine ideas.  They don't want to read some polished, robotic assessment of the state of MOOCs.  They want your voice.  They want to know how you use a tool or what your thoughts are about MOOCs.  That is what makes readers come back to a blog.When you expose your genuine feelings in a public web setting, you get a feeling of butterflies in your stomach each time you click that "Publish" button on your blog. And, yes, you need to use professional parameters to negotiate what is appropriate to share and what is not (I have learned some hard lessons about this...I think all bloggers do).  But the more you share openly and genuinely, the more you feel compelled to do it because you learn the value that being vulnerable brings back to your life. As the enlightening work of researcher Brene Brown attests, vulnerability is the key to living a genuine life. And when we share our honest feelings and thoughts openly online, the connections we build with others are authentic and true.  This is not a path everyone is willing to follow.  But they are values in the life long learning journey I push myself to achieve.  And I am hopeful they will be values that spread to all educational leaders (and I use that phrase because I believe any connected educator is an educational leader).2. ShareI enjoy making things and knowing that others are learning from them -- isn't that the essence of being a teacher?  Giving to the community in this way has been a valuable learning experience. I am often greeted by complete strangers at conferences who tap me on the shoulder to say thank you for all they've learned from my blog.  That's an awesome feeling. There have been times I've thought, I worked really hard on this and here I am again, giving it away for free.  I listen to those words because I do really, really believe that faculty deserve to be compensated for their work(!). That's one of the reasons I wrote my eBook, by the way, to push content into one, packaged bundle that I can sell to a particular individual with a particular interest.  I do believe my work has value and I do believe we will reshape the market through how we, as educators, position our content.  Sharing is critical to this shift. In a community, members give what they can and they ask for help when they need it.  I feel comfortable reaching out and asking for help when I need it because I know that I am making contributions.  If you have learned through what others have shared, try to identify a plan for giving back by sharing ideas or content from your own blog, YouTube, Vimeo, Google+, SlideShare, VoiceThread, Prezi, etc. There are so many options!3. BelieveUnderstanding what you believe in is important.  And standing up for those values is even more important.  I believe that technology has the potential to support learners who have not been traditionally supported in mainstream higher education. This means viewing technology as something much more than a method of increasing access to learning. I believe if technology is integrated in inventive, new ways into learning environments, online learning has the potential to help foster rich faculty-student relationships and warm, human student-student interactions, which are links in improving the quality of learning and degree completion. I also believe that each member of the educational community is living during what is potentially the most transformative time in the history of formalized education. Technology has delivered to the masses not only access to content but platforms and environments that shift the power of creation and publication to the masses and enable it in visual and textual formats from the palms of our hands. Each of has the power to speak, to publish (in writing, voice, or video), to just listen and reflect on a global conversations, to step up and make a difference in the future. Now that I look at these characteristics: vulnerability, sharing, believing...what I find intriguing about them is how childlike they are. Seth Godin once wrote a great blog post about the difference between childish and childlike.  I will leave you with Godin's insightful thoughts to close this post. Childlike vs. Childish by Seth Godin Childlike makes a great scientist. Childish produces tantrums. Childlike brings fresh eyes to marketing opportunities. Childish rarely shows up as promised. Childlike is fearless and powerful and willing to fail. Childish is annoying. Childlike inquires with a pure heart. Childish is merely ignored. Perhaps the lesson here is becoming connected educators teaches us to unveil our true values through self-reflections and learning from peers.  In this process, we are returning to our inner child.

Welcome to an interview with Dr Mark Luetzelschwab, of BrainHoney.com, a new learning management system that state standards into the entire teaching and learning process, which, in the past, has been a stumbling block as developers attempt to create K-12 courses for learners in different schools, or as colleges develop Advanced Placement courses for individuals in high schools in located in

Learning Spanish online, in virtual worlds or via distributed instruction (virtual tutors, etc.), continues to expand as people find interacting in real time via avatar or chat to be stimulating, engaging, and effective. Have the reference materials kept up? Have virtual dictionaries expanded their instructional strategies? It is a tough question and one we pose to Christopher Cummings, CEO of

This post originally appeared on the GETinsight blog.by *Psycho Delia* CC-BY-NC I often hear faculty debate the challenges of teaching with emerging technologies at the community college level.  Community college classes are the epitome of diversity — in any given class you are likely to find a mixture of students who are learning English as a second or third language, students with known and undiagnosed cognitive learning disorders (dyslexia, dysgraphia, etc.), students who have not yet passed basic skills requirements, students at advanced levels of learning, and students who are facing unimaginable economic challenges and other forms of personal hardships.  These diverse student groups also hold some of the most stunning, life changing teaching experiences an educator could ever dream of.Generational diversity is often cited by instructors as a significant challenge when implementing emerging technologies.  While younger students aren’t always "savvy" in technology, as trends like to generalize, older students have more fear and skepticism about technology and that can create additional obstacles for success and challenges for facilitators.  How can these be remedied?  Or can they?  What concerns can an instructor mitigate and what accountability falls squarely on the students?  And what is to be gained from having our older students overcome their technological bias or disinterest?  Will they acquire skills that will make them more employable in our digital, mobile society? Learning from DianeLast January, as I prepared for the spring semester of my online class, I reflected on one student from my previous fall semester class.  Her name is Diane (and I use her real name here with her permission).  Diane has shared with me that she is in her late 50s (and given me permission to make that known too).  Her age is important to this story, as she is not part of the typical digital native generation.Before enrolling in my online class, she had successfully completed many online classes.  These other online classes were designed in a traditional course management system and used the built-in discussion board as the nexus of interactivity between students.  By the end of week one of my online class, I had secretly tagged Diane as a "high risk" student and I was seriously concerned that she might drop.  I have my students complete at online survey that allows them the option to share with me how they are feeling about the class.  Diane shared that she was nervous and unsure about using the social tools integrated into my class.  I emailed her directly, making an effort to reassure her that I was there to help but I could sense she was skeptical.My online class is not exactly traditional and it's common for the design of the class to disrupt student expectations.  That is why I pay extra close attention to my students' nerves and anxieties in the first couple of weeks.  I use the course management system but only as a place for students to authenticate, access their list of course assignments and due dates, review their scores, ask questions in a general course Q&A forum, and read my private feedback about their assignments.The core of the students’ learning occurs in two external web-based tools called VoiceThread and Ning. In VoiceThread, students engage in personalized voice and video conversations as they respond to videos and prompts I have arranged about the course content. I am present here too and leave personalized video and voice feedback to my students, providing me with extra opportunities to expand my teaching time with them and take their learning out into spontaneous and relevant niche areas of our content, just as we would in a classroom conversation.  My comments diverge between feedback and "micro lectures" -- sometimes including links to additional websites or images and in some video comments I hold up examples of historic photographs to demonstrate what I'm referring to in my comment.  Ning is a closed (or private) social network in which each student continuously develops his or her own blog throughout a course.  The blog, like the VoiceThread comments, are shared only with other students in the class (they are not accessible by the general public) and commented on by other students, creating a learning community.Most of my online students say, "I’ve never had a class like this one." That comment almost always transforms into a very positive response by the end of the class, but in the first week, students are often unsure.  I work hard to support those who are nervous about these new learning methods. Identifying and Supporting Student ReluctanceThrough many years of online teaching, I’ve learned the importance of designing a high-touch approach in the early weeks of my class so I can understand the needs and challenges of my learners.  As a teacher, I refer to these early weeks as the "red zone."  One of the simple mechanisms I have in place for week one is an online survey that students complete after reading the syllabus and reviewing some essential resources shared in the course site.  The content they review before completing the survey introduces them to many important things about the class, including my policies and philosophy about teaching, grading information, the fact that they will be participating in voice or video conversations using VoiceThread, and also creating their own blog in a closed social network referred to as Ning. Diane, and the rest of my students, completed the online survey and I reviewed the responses.  In the survey, there is one question that I always hone in on quite emphatically.  Toward the end of the survey, I asked students, "In one word, how are you feeling about the class?"  This single-word answer was a golden nugget for me.  Nearly all students responded with a word that was either positive or neutral, like "excited, "good," "fine," "curious."  But there are usually two or three students (out of about 30) who reply with something more concerning like "overwhelmed," "scared," "nervous."  These are the students I reach out to.  And this is the group that Diane fell into.I reached out to Diane after week one and mentioned, in an e-mail, that I had read her survey response and I wanted to assure her that I’d be here to support her through any questions she might have.  I asked her to elaborate on her response and to help me understand her reasons for being "nervous" about the class.  She wrote back and explained to me that she had taken many online classes before and she had been successful in those classes too.  But none of those classes had been like this one.  She was not comfortable with the idea of speaking in the VoiceThreads and also shared at one point that listening to her own voice was like "nails on a chalkboard." She was not familiar with VoiceThread or Ning (by the way, I do not expect any of my students to be familiar with these tools) and she was skeptical about the value they would bring to her experience. Fading OutI soon also began to learn that Diane also was a very busy woman.  She worked more than one job and these extra technologies were intrusions into the flow of her life, intrusions that weren’t planned and weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms.  I candidly shared with Diane why I use VoiceThread and Ning and just how valuable they are to my online learners in creating community and motivating students to learn in relevant contexts.  I asked her to keep an open mind and wait three weeks.  By week three, I assured her, things would settle in.Well, by week three, Diane was blossoming and I could begin to scale back my high-touch support.  In her VoiceThread group, she was quickly becoming a leader to her peers.  And on our voluntary "check in slides," she was candidly reflecting on how surprised she was to be enjoying the VoiceThreads so much (sigh of relief!).  On Diane’s blog, not only did I observe thorough, critical writing in response to my prompts, but she was actively enhancing her blog with non-required posts that were "inspired" (her word) by our readings and other course content.  She was reaching out and engaging her peers in dialogue by leaving valuable comments in their blogs that both engaged them in critical conversation and encouraged them for jobs well done.  Diane was emerging as a community leader in the class, a role that is filled to some degree each semester by one, two or three students and she was really flying to new heights. Overcoming Fear Leads to New JourneysDiane had been faced with a risk. Rather than running away from it, she tackled it head on.  As a result, she grew in new and unexpected ways. And one more unexpected outcome would arrive soon too.  Diane, apparently, was a budding freelance writer.  After conquering her unfamiliarity and fear of technology, she acquired the skills and the confidence to be hired by a major newspaper as a blogger.  Wow! My class — an online, History of Photography Class at a community college — resulted in a reluctant, older student securing a 21st-century journalist position.  Quite an unexpected outcome, I’d say?As Diane completed her journey in our 17-week class, I invited her and all my students to record a comment on my Wisdom Wall, a special VoiceThread in which I invited departing students to share advice with incoming students.  This tradition is a great way to end a class and provides a beautiful, warm entrance experience for my next group of nervous, reluctant learners.  Please take two minutes to listen to Diane’s reflection by clicking on the video below. (Shared with permission.)The Golden Rule of Teaching with Technology: "If you do not believe your students can do it, you are right."Teaching with the right technologies is essential when you are teaching online.  And your decisions should always be guided by pedagogy.  Once you choose to adopt tool into the design of your class, you are the key to your students’ success. Technology, no matter how powerful it may seem to be, will never replace the emotional value of a human mentor in a learning experience.  When you have students who are reluctant, overwhelmed, and nervous, only a person will be able to shepherd them through that experience successfully.  Thus, much of the success of these "reluctant learners" comes down to you. If you do not believe your students can do it, you are right.  If you are skeptical about whether or not your students will succeed, they will smell your reluctance and they will not perform.  You must be a strong, motivational, inspirational, leader.  Look within yourself.  If you don’t believe that your students can and will succeed, you need to adjust something in your class.  If you exude confidence in your online students and do so through warm, video communications so they can know who you are (something that can’t be obtained through text), they will be more likely to be motivated to want to make you proud. For more teaching tips and strategies, visit the resource site for my book, Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies or pick up my eBook How to Humanize Your Online Class with VoiceThread Kindle or Nook.

Developing technologies that facilitate discussion and encourage learners to engage is critical to maintaining student engagement and motivating them to stay active in the course. Welcome to an interview with Bryan Orme, co-founder of CreateDebate, an online debate forum.What is your name, your affiliation, and your connection to e-learning?My name is Bryan Orme, I am a co-founder of CreateDebate

How do we innovate education with technology? That question is such an important one for educators to think about in our digital, mobile society, as we continue to find new challenges and opportunities upon us.Last week, I had the great pleasure of presenting a keynote at the 12th annual Focus on Teaching with Technology, a regional conference held at UMSL (the University of Missouri, St. Louis). The event was fabulous. My presentation was titled Humanizing Learning with Emerging Technologies and I was elated to engage the participants with an energetic backchannel via Twitter.View the Storify archive of the keynote Twitter backchannel here!Now that I'm settled back on the west coast, I have been reflecting on the energy, enthusiasm, and innovation I witnessed at UMSL and am left with a great deal of respect and admiration for the solid teamwork, professionalism, and appreciation for treating people with courteosy that I experienced in my brief visit. That may seem like a simplistic take away when attempting to examine the question "How do we innovate education with technology?" but I don't think it is.  Carl Hoagland was the individual who introduced me before I spoke on Thursday.  Carl had taken the time to read my blog and shared an excerpt that I had written just a few weeks ago that told the story about how I had started my blog in a workshop led by two elementary educators in 2007.  He credited me with being a "learner," which I found very refreshing coming from an educator of such high achievement.  Carl is a noted visionary at UMSL and credited with leading the effort on campus to create the E. Desmond Lee Technology and Learning Center. Carl walked me through the center and quietly shared with me that the team in the center has always been taught to understand that the way people are treated is always more important than the fancy tools and technology contained within the center itself.  Carl's message and the warm, welcome I received from Keeta Holmes, Margaret (Peggy) Cohen, Michael Porterfield, Dylan Herx, and the rest of the CTL staff resonated with me.  In many ways, I saw connections with the presentation I shared that day.  Meeting a passionate leader who not only has a track history of taking a vision and implementing it successfully but remains connected within his/her community as a learner him/herself seems like a rare find to me and that shouldn't be.  As I look back at last week, I feel like I met about a half dozen Carls within the Technology and Learning Center staff. As we all continue to seek ways to leverage technology to improve learning, we must never lose sight of the importance of the human touch.  Ensuring people are treated like individuals with unique needs will always be central to effective learning.  Thank you for a memorable visit, UMSL. :)

E-Learning Queen is launching a case studies series to discuss applications of e-learning, including mobile learning. We're excited to kick off the series with an investigation of how elearning was used in the Special Olympics World Winter Games. Welcome to an interview with Heather Hill, Special Olympics World Winter Games, and founder of H2 BrandWorks, LLCPlease describe a case in which you

Integrating the learning management system with a student information system is often tedious, expensive, and fraught with incompatibility problems. Welcome to an interview with Isaac Grauke, Populi (http://www.populiweb.com), which has devleoped a system that brings together SIS and LMS functions.What is your name, affiliation, and relation to elearning?I’m Isaac Grauke and I’m the CEO of

CC-BY-NC Jim BumgardnerThe Center: Increasing Innovation in California's Community Colleges    brought to you by @ONEGoogle+ Community:  gplus.to/TheCenterTwitter:  @Center_EdAs Community Coordinator for The Center, I have the awesome job of harnessing the power of Google+ and Twitter to increase collaboration, sharing, and innovation throughout California's 112 community colleges (the CCC system). How cool is that?Two community interests are showcased each month as a combined dialogue that starts with a Google+ Hangouts on Air, extends into a Center Challenge, and wraps up with a Twitter chat.  The Hangouts on Air are live video conversations in which I engage in casual conversations with CCC educators about innovative practices pertaining to the topic. The Hangouts stream live to the web and viewers may submit questions via Twitter using the hashtag #CCCLEARN.The week after a Hangout (every other Thursday at 3pm PT), a Twitter chat is held, giving community members an opportunity to engage in an interactive exchange of sharing (in addition to the broader public who is welcome to join in), discussion and Q&A. The two events are bridged with a Center Challenge which is like a call to action to encourage individuals to share deeper reflections, ideas, or strategies related to each topic through blogging, Tweeting, and the Google+ community.  The Center leverages the hashtag #CCCLEARN.Supersize the Online Learning Sweetspot: Hangout on AirHere is the 30-minute video archive of the Hangout on Air, "Supersize the Online Learning Sweetspot."Last week, I was joined in a Hangout by +Katie Palacios (@katiepala) an instructional designer from the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD), and +Samantha Hurst (@sammhurst), an anthropology instructor also from SDCCD.  Katie shared a conceptual framework of her own, which she describes is an effort to encourage online instructors to, "Supersize the Sweetspot of Online Learning."  In her model, she explains the importance of embracing the full potential of active learning when designing and facilitating an online class and stresses that most new online instructors gloss over the need to consciously build in active learning, because these types of learner engagement opportunities often occur spontaneously in face-to-face teaching (think "socratic teaching" style).  Therefore, Katie proposes a model to "supersize this sweetspot" which involves "mushing" content, interaction, and assessment together into a fabulously, messy learning experience (picture making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich).  After Katie's brief, engaging, and information presentation, Samm joins in to share a teaching innovation of her own that was inspired by Katie's supportive instructional design efforts.  She shares with us how she is using Video Everywhere, a building block for Blackboard that enables students and instructors to post communications using a webcam (videos are recorded to YouTube, posted as Unlisted, and then they appear in Blackboard where students and the instructor may view them).  Samm has her anthropology students share video blog posts to describe an experience using non-verbal communication (body gestures, for example). Fascinating! In the Hangout archive, you have the opportunity to see two examples of fantastic videos shared by Samm's students (who provided permission to allow us all to view them -- thank you!).  Supersize the Online Learning Sweetspot: Twitter ChatAfter you view the video, if you'd like to continue the conversation about Supersizing the Sweetspot of Online Learning, join me and other CCC educators for a #CCCLEARN Twitter chat this Thursday, October 31st at 3pm PDT!

On-demand online technical courses are often fairly static and do not involve interaction with fellow learners. GoGogh incorporates social networks in an innovative way to bring in interaction, engagement, and to enhance conditions of learning.1. What is your name, affiliation, and your connection with e-learning?My name is Marianne Cherney and I own Dashcourses and www.gogogh.com. I have been

I am passionate believer that humanizing our online classes is a severely under explored use of emerging technologies in higher education.Why is it important to humanize online classes with emerging technologies?Achieving deep learning in an online learning environment requires more than cognition.Achieving deep learning demands the full engagement of the affective domain.The affective domain involves the interplay of learning and emotions.Emotions are engaged through the use of video (tone, gesture, the human presence) and images (visual metaphors). Smore for humanizing online learning.Smore is touted as a visual flyer creator and it is a fabulous tool for that particular objective. But I see many other possibilities for this tool in education.  With a free account, a user can select from a small but ample collection of themes and background images and add a variety of "blocks" to the flyer page.  These block options include text that can be formatted and hyperlinked (but you can't customize it with html); simple links; online videos from YouTube, Vimeo, or Viddler; a picture; bio; audio file; event link; and more! Adding blocks is simple and they can be clicked and dragged into new locations with no issues.  The interface is fluid and a refreshing change from trying to work with templates built into MS Word or Pages (which I treasure for multiple page flyer/document creation).The "flyers" you create with Smore cannot be multiple pages. This rules out creating visual syllabi (hint, hint Smore developers -- big opportunity here for education!).  They can be shared with a link, embedded on a website (as I have done below) and they can also be printed, creating a lovely transition between the digital and text-based world of teaching.  Even more wonderful is the fact that the flyers render nicely on mobile devices. I tested my flyer on my iPhone and it rendered well; the video played great too! Social media sharing is integrated nicely with Smore and analytics are even provided (your flyer must receive 30 visitors or views to unlock your analytics, a nice incentive for sharing, I think!).There is a special discounted premium account option for educators -- hooray for Smore! For $59/year the educator account allows your flyers to be set to private by default (all content with a free account goes to public as a default but you can change it to private).  I am not sure yet what "private" means exactly.  For example, if my flyer is "private" does that mean only I can see it (this is what "private" means in YouTube).  Or is Smore's definition of "private" the equivalent of YouTube's "unlisted," which means anyone with the link has access to it?  These nuances are confusing but important to understand. Wouldn't it be nice is if all social tools used the same sharing lingo? Also included with the educator account are additional background images (it would be nice to preview these), full access to flyer analytics (no 'view' requirement), and the option to remove Smore logos from your flyer.Humanizing online class schedules with Smore.OK, now that you know how Smore works, here's how I would encourage online instructors to use it if I had a magic wand. I want my students to be able to peer inside my class simply and easily (without the barriers of an LMS) to understand if the learning environment I have designed in my class is one that will fit their needs.  I know my class is different. Some students love this. They find it refreshing. Others feel surprised, yet rise to the challenge and learn a great deal about themselves, as well as about the history of photography. These are the most meaningful experiences. Some students decide they want an online class that is just like their other classes.  They want comfort. They want discussion forums and multiple choice quizzes. They don't want to be challenged to try new things.  These students end up dropping the class, creating inefficiencies in the enrollment process.This is a problem that has happened for decades. I dropped classes in college I didn't like the first week of college...and I bet you did too. Today, the issue is more severe as classes are harder to "get" as budget cuts have slashed course offerings.  I WANT my students to know me. I want my students to experience a taste of my class. I want them to have a chance to hear what my past students have shared about the class too.  What if they could see this before the clicked "register"? Click here to view this flyer in a new window: https://smore.com/phhcI created this with Smore in about 45 minutes. Most of this time was spent writing my original text content and deciding on my background image and theme. :)  The welcome video was already made (created with my free Educator account from Animoto and exported into my free YouTube account, allowing me to simply plug the URL into Smore), the Wisdom Wall is a link to a VoiceThread that I give my students to option to leave a comment on at the end of each class (no points are given, it is entirely voluntary), and the was linked from a PDF I have uploaded on my free box.net account.  My students use VoiceThread throughout the entire class (yep, they learn out loud and it does make a difference in how they learn and how they relate to me and each other) and I pasted the course description from my college class schedule and wrote the "What to expect" section on the fly.Imagine, just imagine if these "humanized class descriptions" could be linked into a college or university's online class schedules for students to explore before the register for classes.  How would this shift the student experience? I plan to share this link with my students at the end of the term so they can send it to the peers who might be interested in taking the class next semester. Thanks Smore for creating a fabulous, much needed tool for education!!How will you use Smore?

Real-world education and training needs have quirky issues and time challenges that make you wonder, Does anyone else go through this? E-Learning Queen realizes we can all learn from each other's experiences, success stories, and "lessons learned." So, welcome to another installation of our new "E-Learning Case Study Series." In this interview, we talk with Tim Riesterer, CMO and SVP,

CC-BY-NC-SA Jim BumgardnerMonday, November 18th3pm-4pm PSTOnline Assessment Roundtable - Hangout on Airhttp://tiny.cc/assessmentRT Today at 3pm PST I will be moderating a public Hangout on Air for The Center, a learning community that connects California's 112 community colleges, that will feature a dynamic panel discussion about online assessment.  This event is geared towards all educators who teach online or who are preparing to teach online.You are invited to view the live online video conversation, which will stream inside the Google Event, and ask questions through the Twitter backchannel (using #CCCLEARN) or the new Google+ "Submit your question" button, which we'll be trying out today.The panelists for today's Online Assessment Roundtable include: +Kathy Damm - Instructor of @ONE’s Designing Effective Online Assessments Course; Assistant Professor of Psychology, Saddleback College+William Doherty  - Instructor of @ONE’s Designing Effective Online Assessments Course, Former Director of @ONE; Owner, Third Star Consulting & Education+Sandra Haynes  - Professor of Art History, Pasadena City College; Mentor for the @ONE Online Teaching Certification Program; 2009 Winner Blackboard Exemplary Course Award+Kara Kuvakas  - Adjunct Physical Geography Instructor, Hartnell College; Adj. Professor of Chemistry & Environmental Science, Brandman University; Adj. Professor of Geology & Environmental Science, American Public University; Course Developer, Brandman University; Co-Founder of Connections Co-op for Homeschooling; Doctoral student at Brandman University; and Homeschooling Mom at Dehesa Charter School.The Center is brought to you by @ONEGoogle+ Community:  gplus.to/TheCenterTwitter:  @Center_Ed 

It is often difficult for learning management systems to keep up with social networking and collaborative technologies. Their architectures are a bit clunky, and even when they allow embedded html to link into social networking, it's often difficult to incorporate them in an outcomes-based way. Further, they are not dynamic and it is difficult to integrate mobile activities and devices.In these

Many years ago, I recall reading the New Media Consortium's annual Horizon Report for the very first time. I remember getting the same feeling inside me that I used to get when I'd walk home from school and discover the scent of freshly baked cookies wafting from the kitchen where my mom was.  As a diehard chocoholic, I guess that's when I realized I had been bit by the edtech bug.  You can imagine how I felt this fall when I received an invitation to participate on the Advisory Board for the 2014 Higher Education Horizon Project!  What is the Horizon Report?If the Horizon Report is new to you, it is a valuable, thought-provoking collection of significant trends in educational technology that are most likely to impact education over three horizons: 1 year or less, 2-3 years, and 4-5 years. While nobody can predict the future, the report captures a collaborative vision of the dynamic ways emerging technologies are expected to impact higher education around the world.  The trends are identified by the global, 52-member advisory board through a multi-step, collaborative wiki process that is facilitated by the impressively organized Samantha Becker of the New Media Consortium.  2014 TrendsHere are the six technology areas identified for this year's report  -- and more information, including a description of each topic, is provided in the attached Preview (PDF).Time to Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less• Flipped Classroom  • Learning Analytics  Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years• 3D Printing  • Games and Gamification  Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years• Quantified Self  • Virtual Assistants   How to ParticipateIf you know of examples of the trends noted above that could be included in the 2014 Horizon Report please use the brief web form at http://go.nmc.org/projects to share them with the New Media Consortium. The form asks for a title, a URL, and a one- or two-sentence description; you also will need to select which of the six topics your example falls under. The process takes about two minutes.Example submissions are requested by Monday, December 16, but no matter what, we'd love to hear about what you are doing!  All we really need is a sentence of description and a URL -- we'll do the rest.