eLearning eVolution

Wondering what the future holds for eLearning? Well here’s the scoop, according to our Fearless Leader Maurice Heiblum.

Here are some highlights:
- Major factors that have influenced eLearning are the Internet, globalization, and social networks.

- The education paradigm has evolved from institution centered to learner centered.

- Today’s students want to be empowered to learn the way they want to learn with a personalized experience.

- Learning has to be flexible, offering a physical classroom, asynchronous eLearning, and collaborative online learning, portable learning, and more.

- The eLearning technology adoption cycle is speeding up.

- To build a success flexible learning framework, you need three foundational elements: infrastructure that leverages computers and Internet, learning and social technologies for all students, and professional development to facilitate online teaching.

Take the time to listen to the entire session recording. You won’t be disappointed!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

Well, NECC 2008 is over and by all accounts, our launch of the Elluminate Learning Suite is a resounding success! Why?

One reason, I believe, is that we are doing something quite unique. We have a comprehensive famliy of products that address live eLearning and collaboration, not just during the actual real-time, online session but before and after as well. We help you plan, and we help you publish. What a concept!

Second, we’ve also figured out how to help academic institutions facilitate adoption, even by those who are less-than-enthusiastic educational technology users. And we can intelligently connect with any LMS, CMS, or portal out there. We’re here to help - really.

Third, we have a full range of products from a free 3-seat virtual meeting to single-room environments for 10-200 partricipants to an enterprise-ready solution for thousands of users.

And last but not least, we have a great team of people who make it all happen! We actually believe in our mission of providing enabling technology that transforms teaching and learning on a global level.

Forgive me, but I am just feeling a bit celebratory today and really proud of my company.

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

I love shoping, but I’m not a fan of those products that claim they are “one size fits all or most.” Because, quite often, they don’t! On the other end of the spectrum, I hate those stores that have so much product you can’t navigate the display floor. I find almost endless choices overwhelming.

At Elluminate, we’ve made some additions and changes to our products that enable us to have something for everyone.

- New to the virtual classroom. Begin with Elluminate vRoom, our free, 3-person virtual room.

- Need more seats? Try one of our new single-room, entry-level products. Elluminate vOffice is a personal meeting room for 10 or more participants that starts at $999 for an annual license. Elluminate vClass is a classroom for up to 200 students, with customizable meeting/moderator names.

- Once you graduate to multiple rooms, there’s Elluminate Live!, which easily scales from department to campus to multiple institutions.

- The next step is Elluminte Next>, with new Elluminate Plan! for packaging content and activities before the live session and Elluminate Publish! for creating audio podcasts and standalone recordings from session recordings.

So there you have it. Not too big. Not too small. Just right. If Goldilocks was looking for live eLearning and web collaboration, I think she’d be pleased!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

While live interaction in the virtual classroom is key to transforming teaching and learning on a global level, Elluminate understands that the eLearning landscape is evolving to include what happens BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER the live, online session.

We believe the “next big thing” in the real-time collaboration space is a solution that addresses an entire instructional cycle that includes the design, delivery, archival, distribution, and integration of interactive content and activities on a system-wide level. At the same time, this 21st Century eLearning solution must support communities of practice where experiences are shared, creativity is embraced, and innovative ideas are formed.

In the days and weeks that follow, I’ll be sharing what’s new at Elluminate with you. So stay tuned. We hope you’ll be as excited as we are about what we call EDU 2.0!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

One of the early Elluminate case studies I developed was with Val Brooks of Stockton City Learning Centre in the UK. I was impressed, and so for the past four years I’ve been keeping up with all the creative programs Val and her colleagues have developed, like Maths in Motion and Rocks From Space.

Here’s an entry Val recently contributed as a new eTwinning ambassador in which she talks about some of her projects. BTW, the eTwinning concept is also pretty interesting. It’s an initiative that provides collaborative tools and access to experienced educational technology users like Val to enable schools throughout Europe to work together.

As you’ll see in the blog entry, Stockton CLC has created some case studies, videos, and presentations of their own to showcase these wonderful projects. Just go to the Stockton CLC VLE and login as a guest. Pretty cool stuff.

Keep on Elluminating!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

Think the virtual classroom is all about lectures or PowerPoint slides? Here’s an excellent example for you visual thinkers of using live eLearning and web collaboration technology to collaborate creatively. It’s a session from Nancy White called “Drawing Pictures Together Across a Distance.” The idea, as Nancy says, is: Let’s play!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

Or should we say: when worlds collide? Not necessarily. Here’s a provacative topic thoughtfully discussed in this article on user- powered Webupon. Bottom line (of course) is that learning is the ultimate goal. And the technology shouldn’t get in the way. At Elluminate, we like to think of technology as a great enabler that’s transforming teaching and learning world wide.

Case in point: The Flat Classroom Project 2007, the brainchild of two teachers, Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay. It’s a great example of using all kinds of tools (from Ning, Skype, and Twitter to Camtasia, Animoto, and Elluminate Live!) for a global-level, hands-on collaborative project for middle and senior high school students in seven schools in the U.S., Australia, China, Austria, and Qatar.

And if you want to know more about how IT and ID come together, view the recordings from Lance Dublin’s “Back to Basics” webinar series: “Developing an E-Learning Strategy and Architecture,” “Implementing E-Learning Successfully,” and “Understanding and Applying Learning 2.0.”

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts - even online. In two recent webinars about collaborating online, Dr. Janet Salmons of Vision2Lead discusses “collaborative advantage,” what she calls the synergistic outcomes that could not be achieved by any participant acting alone.

Key to achieving collaborative advantage is thinking together, not just working together. And that means developing trust and pro-collaboration systems of communication.

Want to learn more? Just view the Elluminate Live! recorded sessions.

Colalborative Online Learning Part 1: Laying the Foundations

Collaborative Online Learning Part 2: Thinking Together

In addition, here’s a blog entry from Ignatia in Belgium that makes some interesting points about online collaboration and provides some tips for using simple language tricks to facilitate online conversations.

Ignatia also references SCoPE, an open, online community you may want to check out if you’re interested in online educational research and practice.

And if you have any best practices or tips/tricks for improving online collaboration, we’d love to hear from you.

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication