eLearning eVolution

It’s the title of an article by Charlene O’Hanlon that was published in THE Journal in March, which is about the need for educators to adopt technology products for education. It’s not only good for the students, it makes an educator’s job even more interesting.

For me it means that it’s critical for educators to get on the bandwagon for using Web 2.0 and online collaborative technology–like Elluminate Live! and our soon-to-be launched LearnCentral social learning network–or get left in the dust.

If you’re going to NECC, stop by our booth #3542 to learn more about LearnCentral, as well as new enhancements to the Elluminate Learning Suite, like best-in-class breakout rooms.

Elluminate aside, there is so much wonderful educational technology out there, it boggles the mind! Now, I have to admit, all this blogging and twittering stuff put me off at first, but I’ve grown to understand the power and benefit of it. The same is true of tools that are designed to transform teaching and learning. So my advice, is to just jump right in. A good place to start is LearnCentral, where you get a free vRoom when you join. Tours will be starting next week.

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

Hi, Gary here,

Flickr started out as a place to post photos, yet has created a new approach to social  interation that happens to use digital photos.  Google maps started out as a way help you get somewhere, yet its SDK and Google Earth and “My Maps” have hastened the spread of tools to analyze and visually present personal and organizational information using maps.  Computer-based digital audio started out as a way to deliver music and has expanded into personal, educational, and political podcasting with “long tail” characteristics.

Are conferences at hotels ready to morph into something else as well?  Why, yes, they are. (They won’t be replaced 100% by something else, they will be morphed and enhanced into something else.)

Why must a conference be expensive and centralized?  Why shouldn’t large percentages of people attend (or present) remotely?  Why shouldn’t the entire conference be online?  Why shouldn’t the interactions continue in a formalized way AFTER the “conference” ends? With interactive real-time conferencing, recordings, moodles, wikis, flickr, del.icio.us, and boatloads of other tools, isn’t it time to include and interact with those who can’t afford to travel?  And, perhaps more important than reducing travel costs, can’t we leverage these tools to create ongoing discussions, creation of work-product, and deep relationships amongst people around the world who would otherwise not interact anywhere close to “personally”?

I think the Connectivism conference, the Illinois Online conference, Moodlemoot, the Keystone conference, the Future of Education conference, and the Horizon Project, amongst many others, are beginning to document and illustrate the critical success factors of conferences that are not “conferences” but the same time confer even more “conference-ness” than a “real” conference.

Best to all, Happy Mother’s day, and keep on onlinin’

Gary

Hi,

Gary here.

We helped Harold Jarche (http://www.jarche.com/?p=1122) with service for a webinar the other day.  Great webinar Harold!

But, we failed him (sorry Harold) and likely others in that we need to do a better job of explaining what Elluminate can do.  Elluminate is indeed not designed just for for “presentations” and, in fact, more than one person can speak at the same time. I’ll try and keep this “blog length”, but feel free to jump in in the comments area.

Multiple speakers: Elluminate can have more than one speaker (up to 4 simultaneous speakers can be mixed in full-duplex mode).  Elluminate sessions default to one speaker at a time – and this is often a good thing, especially in webinars with many newbie participants, because it eliminates the possibility of an audio feedback loop.  However, when you have “regulars” (like in a regular class or a group of peers or other groups that you know all have headphones OR an echo cancelling mic) you can in fact have heated, multiparty discussions and ignore the Elluminate “mic” button.  Important caveat – headphone or echo cancelling microphone is a must when you want multiple simultaneous speakers.

Highly interactive: While Elluminate, like other webconferencing solutions, can facilitate “death by PowerPoint” we include a plethora of facilities to allow a facilitator (notice I didn’t say presenter) make a session highly interactive.  I enjoy Elluminate most when the facilitator doesn’t use PowerPoint – but instead does a number of other things. Here are a few of these things:

• Hand raising to allow “audience” to interact (fairly obvious)
• Application sharing and passing of control  – Share any arbitrary application (like PhotoShop or the mimio studio interactive whiteboard or Microsoft Journal on a tablet PC) and then the Elluminate session becomes an ideal tool for multiple location creation of work product.  Not just presentation but interactive creation of stuff!
• Breakout rooms – Facilitator can assign a problem and group participants into breakout rooms.  Each small group can work on the assignment and the facilitator can “visit” privately with each group (just like in the real world model of breaking up students at different tables).  Then, at the end of the activity, each group can present their solution / opinion and discussion can ensue
• Facilitator can make a participant the presenter for a while 
• The facilitator can place a drawing, a table, or a graph on the whiteboard and multiple participants can simultaneously add their comments or check marks. (Example from a vRoom webinar:  Find a photo on Google Images of your best example of something and place it on the whiteboard.  Example from Florida Virtual School – multilocation middle school book club – Table with character names across top and characteristics across left.  Ask students to mark which character has which characteristics.  Watching both of these things is like watching a real-time art or statistics project unfold in front of the session!)
• Facilitator or participant “web tour” to a site to demonstrate a point 
• The Quiz facility to send out pre-prepared quizzes to students
• The Polling facility – and letting the moderator ask and publish ad hoc polls and their results in real time
• Facilitator or presenter does an ad hoc screen capture to place on the whiteboard for discussion and team markup

These are just some examples of the ways in which Elluminate can be used beyond being a mere a remote PowerPoint slide injector.  Assignment (not specifically to Harold, but to all!):  In your next web conference, try not to use PowerPoint at all and see what magic happens.

Best regards to all, and keep onlinin’

Gary

Hi,

Gary here, after three long weeks on the road. (Yes, that is ironic from a webconferencing company – but managing ongoing relationships takes occasional F2F and the frequency of rich interactions that webconferencing allows.)

So, anyhow, the three conferences I attended were very interesting.  I have boiled down one big question from each of these conferences.  Clearly, there were many more questions answered and raised – but hey, this is a BLOG and not a book.  (Not yet anyway.)

Here they are…

From the Alliance for Distance Education in California conference – my big question:

• In universal design, a vendor can address it at the start of a product’s design, or try to (less effectively) “add it on” after a product is designed or even after its first release. How do we bring the idealistic view of “build it from inception” closer to the practical reality of “bolt it on after” in order to bring universal accessibility to products?

From the Apple Digital Campus Leadership Institute and the Georgia Digital Innovations group at Georgia College and State University - my big question (after I watched a student presentation on their trip overseas):

• Who has it “better” – an international exchange student circa 2007 who can blog, videochat, IM, Flickr, podcast, e-mail, and have free VoIP talks with their friends and parents back home essentially instantly, or an exchange student from an earlier generation (say, oh, Fall 1985 at Kansai Gaidai?) that had the two-week or greater latency of a handwritten letter to communicate back home with friends and family?

From CoSN 2007 – my big question:

• Is the interactive whiteboard a boondoggle, or does it create a new way to learn (especially when combined with real-time webconferencing)?

As you may imagine, I have my opinions on these questions.  However, what are yours?  Please comment!

Warm regards, and keep onlinin’,

Gary Dietz

Earlier this month I attended a great conference here in Phoenix. ”The Marketing Revolution – Exploring the Impact of Social Media” was loaded with information and resources for someone like me who is just getting started in the blogsphere. (Can you tell?)

Speakers included Robert Scoble (blogger extraordinaire) and Chris Heuer (co-founder of the Social Media Club). And two panels covered launching social media campaigns (lively interaction) and shared social media case studies (great examples).

Presentations, video, and audio are available for your edification and enjoyment. Check ‘em out!

One of the conference partners was Social Media Club Phoenix, which has a blog and wiki, of course! These local organizations are a great way to get together with other enthusiasts for a lively discussion about all things social media.

 And one last thought (shameless promotion, actually). I’m thinking that web collaboration tools (like Elluminate Live! and Elluminate vRoom) would be a great additions to your social media toolset. Offering online access is also a good way for social media groups to get more attendees at their meetings and events.

- Beth (Elluminate “Goddess of Communication”)

Hi. This is Gary coming to you from Milledgeville, Georgia at Georgia College & State University.

First, I’d like to welcome the new Digital Innovations Group at GCSU to the Elluminate Community Partner program!

Next, thanks to those that stayed and participated in my session about 34 unexpected uses of webconferencing.

Third, please comment on the presentation with your own ideas. (A trackback or two would be cool as well. Not that I get paid by the trackback or anything, but hey, the number of trackbacks a post gets has some value [this month at least]).

Fourth, I promised you that I would reveal a big secret if you actually visited Elluminate’s blog. So, here it is! (It could be worth $250 or $500 to you or one of your students!)

Fifth, well, there is no fifth.

Thanks GCSU for your hospitality and warmth and keep onlinin’,
Gary Dietz

EDIT: 22-Mar-07 9:38am EST -  Here is the link to the ADCLI conference blog: http://podcaster.gcsu.edu/weblog/