Back from Educause, Off to CIT

I'm back from a wonderful trip to Educause with some Instructional Technology Leadership Council faculty members (John Lampignano, Alisa Cooper, and Mary Jane Onnen).
















While Educause National is my favorite annual conference (ps conference materials are now posted, so you can go look for sessions you attended), it is primarily composed of 4-year institutions. Next year, Educause will be in Orlando, FL and I already have lots of ideas on sessions for Maricopa.

This week, for a couple of days only, I'll be at the League for Innovation's CIT Conference. CIT is much smaller, but attended exclusively by community colleges. Chris Dede from Harvard will be keynoting among others.

While at Educause, I heard Dede speak on data mining to assess student learning. While this practice of examining large data warehouses to develop predictive models for various higher education challenges is not necessarily new, we're hearing much more about how it's done (i.e., how the models work) and how it's supporting the strategic use of resources. I attended three sessions on educational analytics at Educause, but there were probably others. If you haven't already done so, check out these recently published materials on analytics.

Diaz and McGee Present at Educause 2007

This Tuesday morning (10/23), Patricia McGee, UTSA Professor, and I will present our preconference seminar at Educause 2007 in Seattle. Our talk will focus on information/learning technology strategic planning, institutional grand challenges (access, accountability, assessment), and forecasting for the future among other topics.

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Second Life: The Numbers Speak

This week, New Media Consortium released [what I believe to be] the first data report on the Second Life community. Over 200 lifers told us about themselves.....very interesting. What did they say? First, they're newbies with 70% having been in SL for one year or less. This may be an indication of "experimental" behavior as opposed to deeper (and consequently) more meaningful use. Second, the vast number of users, 82%, are 35 and older. This tells us that the "Net Generation" is absent from this emerging technology. I think this has to do with SL's lack of social networking potential and heavy emphasis on imitating real life--ironically. Something that should be taken into consideration when using this tool in colleges and universities.

When asked about SL's educational potential, respondents noted that artistic expression, role playing, and simulations (in that order) were the best areas for application.

In any case, NMC asks the right questions and capturing this kind of data will allow us on the sidelines to observe its evolution.

No Life in Second Life?

Now that the (first annual?) 2007 NMC Symposium on Creativity in Second Life has come to a close, it has left me with two questions:

1. Who are the individuals and organizations in Second Life at this time?
2. What are the instructional issues/problems being addressed in this vehicle?

A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: Colleges Are Building in Second Life, but Is Anyone Visiting? makes just this point. As well as How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life.

In fact, with the exception of planned coordinated events that are housed within an already existing social network, like the NMC Conference, there were times where I wondered if I was doing something wrong because no one was around. Yet, several higher education institutions, over 100, have set up spaces in Second Life. See this Case Western Reserve Video Tour for an example.

This new technology, SL, reminds me of Diffusion of Innovation Theory. Since I believe we are very early in this particular cycle, we are simply seeing a technology that is true to the curve. By my estimation, we are seeing only innovators or even pre-innovators in SL at this time.

Those who are
(1) venturesome, desire for the rash, the daring, and the risky,
(2) control of substantial financial resources to absorb possible loss from an unprofitable innovation.
(3) the ability to understand and apply complex technical knowledge, and
(4) the ability to cope with a high degree of uncertainty about an innovation.

Having said all this, I do think that SL has great potential as the world becomes more digitized and use becomes more intuitive.

NMC Conference in SL: Day Two

How does the idea of a conference session conducted entirely in chat sound? Kinda like watching a foreign film with subtitles? Close....

I'm not sure if it had to do with technical difficulties, but there were several sessions today that were held entirely in chat, which was not the case yesterday.

This got me thinking about the things that I truly enjoy in FL conferences: seeing old friends, meeting new people, hearing and watching sessions, collecting materials, etc. Maybe this is a little old school, but not much of that is available in a virtual space. I do understand that SL is still in its infancy and that many things are clunky at the beginning.

Other sessions, like Larry Johnson's Why Creativity Matters were very engaging (and incidentally, very FL).

Also, what's up with the name bubbles that float over our heads--sometimes there are so many of us around that the bubbles block the presenter's screen!

NMC Second Life Conference: Day 1

NMC's Symposium on Creativity in Second Life started yesterday, August 12th. This is my first virtual conference, so I'll be documenting my experience over this week.

This morning, as I would normally do in FL (first life, not Florida), I took a little virtual walk through the exhibit hall, where I found absolutely no one. I found it interesting that the hall looked pretty much the way the FL ones do, but with no one to chat with. Oh, I did spot someone in the center of the hall, but he flew away as I approached. Perhaps it's too early for the conferencees--it is after all the first week before classes.

I'm off to sessions....

I attended a few sessions today, one that showed us how to create, put on, and acquire clothing and another on how to move, dance, and pick up objects. Hmmmmm. I guess this is all very useful if you're getting started with SL and need a chance to practice and learn how to do some basic things.

Tomorrow I'll be attending some sessions that have more to do with teaching and learning in virtual spaces. Stay tuned...

the versatility of the podcast

2007-2008 will be an exciting year for podcasting at Maricopa...

We have many new things planned: a four-level series of podcasting for educators (see http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/ for more information as we get closer to fall); a kickoff of iTunes U at Maricopa, and a new podcasting tool in Blackboard called Learning Objects. The more I work in the podcasting space, the more I am amazed by all of its applications. Check out these resources:

http://mashable.com/2007/07/04/podcasting-toolbox/
http://maricopatech.blogspot.com/2007/07/stop-reading-start-listening.html
http://mashable.com/2007/06/19/blogging-toolbox/

and this Teaching w Technology White Paper: Podcasting.