What's your thing??

As I've been working to develop my blog, it has occured to me that it might be useful to begin a collection of materials and resources specific to a topic or area of interest. For me, at this time, that area is blended learning. Toward that end, I've started a wiki on blended learning resources. Over time, I'm sure this will grow, evolve, and attract readers :)

iTunes U + Maricopa

iTunes U has arrived at the Maricopa Community Colleges, forever blurring the lines between education and entertainment. At least, this is one of many desired effects. A few universities have adopted iTunes U: University of Wisconsin, Stanford U, Duke U, ASU, and now.... Maricopa.

At this time, most of our sites are private while we work out authentication and copyright issues. We plan to roll out a few iTunes U events in the fall and continue to work on developing podcasting in teaching and learning. More to come...

Podcasting 101, 201, 301...you get the idea

Since I've been at Maricopa, it seems that our prof-lings (professors in pursuit of excellent teaching and learning) are extremely interested in podcasting. Toward furthering that interest, we've sponsored one of our faculty members to support and develop in that area. Behold, Alisa Cooper: http://soul4real.wordpress.com/. I won't take up your time here, but to go to this comprehensive site to learn about podcasts in education, how to create a podcast, where to locate free music for your podcast, and much more.

Sloaning to the Blended World

I just returned from the Sloan-C Blended Learning Workshop in Chicago. This was my first Sloan/Blended Learning-dedicated event. It turns out the number of blended learning pioneers is smaller than I thought, much smaller, with only about 150 participants. Who are the leaders? Well, the UCF gang was there: Joel Hartman and Charles Dziuban (the data wizard). Also notable is the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: Bob Kaleta. Between these two organization, you have everything you ever wanted to know about blended learning and then some.

The surprise here was how many blended learning "newbies" are actually out there. Sloan has a vast collection of blended learning resources, including data, best practices, models, contacts, etc. The workshop had two tracks: one for foundational knowledge and another for those who are interested in expanding their current initiatives.

The takeaways..... 1) figure out how you're going to collect data on everything you do--this will help tremendously as your program matures and you need to justify its existence (trust me on this one); 2) don't reinvent the wheel--even though this area is relatively new, a few leaders and leading organizations can really help get you started and avoid mistakes; 3) this is a hugely exciting field that brings together many exciting educational movements: instructional technology, course redesign, and hybrid education.

Well, it's exciting for some of us anyway :)