ELI_Conference09

=ELI 2009 Conference page=


 * ==ELI2009 Notes and Links== || ==Sessions & attendee== || ==Blogs== ||
 * [|The ELI Annual Meeting proceedings]

[|Conference papers]

[|Audio&Video recordings] of general sessions and featured speakers

[|Seven things you should know] --an Educause library of quick explanations of current trends || See the sessions that **Bill ** attended--included are blog notes and links (see below) || [|Gardner Campbell] of Baylor (head of teaching innovation center and assoc professor in Honors College)

[|Jim Groom] of Mary Washington (instructional technology specialist)

[|Alan Levine], VP of New Media Consortium

[|Steve Greenlaw] of Mary Washington (professor of economics)

[|Serena Epstein] of Mary Washington (undergraduate student) ||

=Sessions Bill attended:=

Tuesday Jan. 20th =The Role of Play in Learning with Technology=


 * [|Barbara Draude], Assistant Vice President for Academic and Instructional Technologies, Middle Tennessee State University
 * [|Gail Matthews-DeNatale], Associate Director, Academic Technology, Simmons College

From Plato and Piaget to the current day, scholars have noted the critical role of play in learning, yet the concept of playful learning still encounters significant resistance in higher education. Designing playful learning is a deceptively challenging task, one that requires a sophisticated understanding of play itself. In this workshop, you will hear from faculty about their experiences incorporating play into their courses, consider how technology can support playful learning, and try your hand at designing some "serious play." You'll also receive a booklet with examples, questions to consider in designing playful learning, and an annotated list of resources. [|Session link] [|Blog post]

=Virtual Worlds as Naturally Occurring Online Learning Environments= [|Constance Steinkuehler], Assistant Professor, Educational Communication & Technology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

//The Fifth Annual Robert C. Heterick, Jr., Lecture// Despite dismissals, video games have emerged as an important research topic. Recent studies suggest that engagement in video games, particularly virtual worlds, promotes valued forms of thinking and learning. This session will review findings of a five-year investigation into the forms of cognition and learning that arise in virtual worlds and how they function as naturally occurring versions of successful online learning communities, present findings from across a range of topics, and highlight how certain intellectual practices coalesce into "pop cosmopolitanism"—a form of civic engagement that’s shaping the everyday lives of today's adolescents and young adults. [|Session link] [|video podcast]   [|Blog post-VW]

=2009 Horizon Report= The annual Horizon Report, a joint publication of the NMC and the ELI, highlights new technologies for teaching, learning, and creative expression. This session will review the research and process behind the report. The 2009 Horizon Report and its findings will be officially released at this session. [|Session link] Blog post (forthcoming)

=Personal Publishing and the New Classroom Conversation: It's Not Your Grandpa's Blog, It's an Enterprise Collaboration Platform //(Learning Technology)//= The presenters have evangelized open personalized publishing platforms and have struggled with establish closed environments as the basis for teaching and learning with technology. Their overall quest has led them to find powerful and flexible online publishing platforms. In a series of lightning talks, the presenters will share work at their respective organizations that they believe to be useful to others in the teaching and learning community. Each will select a project or problem that poses a significant challenge, which will then be discussed by all attendees. [|Session link] [|Blog post-notgpblog]

Wednesday Jan. 21st =From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-able: Experiments in New Media Literacy=

It took tens of thousands of years for writing to emerge after speech, thousands more before the printing press was invented, and a few hundred more for the telegraph to arrive. Today, new ways of relating are constantly created and a new communication medium emerges every time someone creates a web application—a Flickr here, a Twitter there. How can we use new media to foster the kinds of communication and community we desire in education? This presentation will discuss both successful and unsuccessful attempts to integrate emerging technologies into the classroom to create a rich virtual learning environment. [|Session link] [|video podcast] [|Blog post-wesch]

=The Map Is the Territory: Course "Engagement Streams" as Catalysts for Deep Learning //(Innovative Practice)//=

What if course portals, typically little more than gateways to course activities and materials, became instead course catalysts: open, dynamic representations of "engagement streams" that demonstrate and encourage deep learning? The session will begin with case studies in enabling and designing such course portals, from both administrative and faculty perspectives. Participants will then form groups to imagine and design their own catalytic course portals. Finally, the presenters will discuss action steps that can lead to effective innovation at participants' home institutions. Presentation resources, including a record of the participants' design work, will be posted to an online collaborative space for continued discussion after the session. [|Session link] [|Blog post-map]

=Using RSS Aggregation to Promote Quasi-Collaborative Learning= This project explores the use of a suite of web-based tools, including blogs, Google Docs, and a wiki, all linked by RSS aggregation, to construct a course environment that promotes genuine collaboration and substantive interaction and results in a tangible product of sufficient quality to be used as a resource in subsequent courses. Each course topic had a page on the course website, which was designed to be a one-stop location for information on that topic. The information included readings on the topic, each student's critical reflections on what he or she read, a Delicious feed on the topic, and collaborative notes from class discussion. [|Session link] [|audio] (mp3)

=Chaotic Fiction, Alternate Reality Games, and the World’s Cheapest MMOG: Web 2.0 Storytelling in Education= The cornucopia of Web 2.0 projects offers many new approaches for telling and sharing stories. This session will explore some of the ways we can do this, drawing on academia, gaming, and pop culture. Alternate reality games will be shown and played, social media narratives will be explored and contributed to, and lightweight and accessible tools will be demonstrated. [|Session link] [|Blog post-storytelling]

=From E-learning to V-Learning: The Advantages of Virtual Immersive Learning Environments in Times of Economic Downturn= Because much of the curriculum of the Masters of Digital Media Program at Great Northern Way involves real-time, team-based collaboration, we have been developing a virtual learning platform to enable geographically distributed students to work together in real-time immersive "spaces" supported by a strong sense of individual and team "presence." This session will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of several potential v-learning environments including Second Life, //World of Warcraft//, Sony Home, //Sauerbraten//, TokBox, Dimdim, Google Docs, //Wonderland//, Xbox LIVE, and our very own //Great Northern World//. The session will conclude by exploring the advantages of v-learning environments in times of economic downturn defined by shrinking education budgets and declining consumer spending power. [|Session link] [|Blog post-vlearning]

Thursday, Jan. 22nd

=Publish or Perish: Online Reformation to the Rescue?= Online scholarly and research publishing isn’t new. Low cost, quick access, and high positive search rates promise easy success, yet high failure rates abound. Should such publishing be abandoned, as one publisher’s association has advised? Or are there new factors that could make an online publishing reformation work? We'll explore ideas for using promising new tools from the digital native, the millennium instructor, and the hooked-in editor. With a dash of economic models, a measure of credibility, and solid dose of sustainability, there’s hope for those who must publish or perish, and, more importantly, for all in our profession. [|Session link] [|Presentation slides] (ppt) [|Blog post-pub]

=Deploying Collaborative Technologies in Learning Spaces: A Practical Guide //(Learning Technology)//= Promoting student collaboration is accepted as a good idea, but what challenges do institutions face when implementing and assessing technology solutions? Physical spaces enable students to use technologies with in-person discussion and collaboration, whereas virtual spaces allow for one-dimensional collaboration, even when it occurs in real time. Both physical and virtual learning spaces are integral to the student learning experience; students move back and forth between physical and virtual spaces, using a wide variety of collaborative technology solutions. How can institutions evolve data-driven approaches that advance the state of the art in creating diverse collaborative environments on today's campuses? [|Session link] [|Blog post-collaborative]