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

Talk about a great resource! If you don’t know about CIDER (Canadian Institute of Distance Education Research), be sure to check out their upcoming webinars.

And here’s the best part: there’s also a library of more than 40 recorded sessions on just about any topic you could think of, including:

- Online teaching in international contexts
- Use of whiteboards in synchronous online drop-in tutorials
- Using 3D virtual networks
- Problem-based learning in distance education
- Supporting collaboration and community development online
- Engagement through simulation

Take a look. I’m sure you’ll find something that interests you.

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

I was just perusing the CR 2.0 wiki. This site is devoted to building resources for the classroom and professional-development use of Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies.

Their event series is called CR 2.0 Live Conversations and the sessions are amazing! Plus there are recordings of past sessions. Topics include: educational blogging, Ning, reinventing project-based learning, living with learning disabilities, and much more!

This is another resource you’ll want to check out!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

I was struck by the practical advice offered by Simon in the UK, who related what he learned about managing a virtual classroom session and promoting interactivity, which is, after all, what it’s all about. Simon is working on a project with the Trust Development Association, a network of community practitioners who work to benefit rural and urban neighborhoods (often those in economic decline), to trial the use of the virtual classroom for delivering training.

I personally like Simon’s recommendation to use photos, which can easily be added to your profile in Elluminate Live! Since I am the Goddess of Communication at Elluminate, I wear my tiara in my photo–which tells you that it’s not neccessary to use a formal studio headshot.

He’s also correct that you need to relate to attendees as individuals, addressing them by name and actively working to involve all participants in the activities of the session. I think it’s key to get people relaxed and ready to have a bit of fun. An introductory exercise, even something as simple as pointing out your location on a map on the whiteboard, can get things started.

What ways do you encourage and support interactivity in your online sessions? I’d love to hear from you.

- Beth, Elluminate GOC

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

What do you need to know to get started in the virtual classroom? Here are five tips from Bronwyn Beach of GippsTAFE (Technical and Further Education) institute in Australia, where she teaches competencies for those working in drug and alcohol counseling. She began introducing online sessions with the help of her mentor, Vanessa Marsh.

1. Have a co-facilitator.
2. Keep it simple and don’t use too many functions at once.
3. Use pre-session activities to help students prepare for each session.
4. Control hands up; pause for questions at set times in the presentation.
5. Treat it like a normal lesson.

Read the entire blog entry about Bronwyn and Vanessa’s collaboration here.

Elluminate also offers a wide variety of training for moderators and participants. So if you’re just getting started or want to know more about individual Elluminate Live! tools, check it out.

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

A customer recently commented that the virtual classroom enables them to move from a regimented, formal situation to promoting the use of collaborative groups where kids help each other and teachers are facilitators, not power brokers. This fits right in with the discussions I’ve been seeing that debate the roles of teacher versus facilitator in the eLearning environment.

Here’s the thought-provoking blog entry by Leigh Blackall from New Zealand that started me thinking about this. Turns out this topic is on a lot of teachers’ minds as there were 20 comments posted that last time I looked. Here’s a related blog entry from Graham Wegner in Australia. Like Graham, I like the comment from Canadian middle-school practioner Konrad Glogowski who has the roles meeting somewhere in the middle as content or subject matter expert.

I guess I’m thinking it doesn’t have to be one or the other or the other but rather moving from one to the other to the other, and/or some how blending the roles, depending on the age of the student, the content, the objectives, and so on. Perhaps this is a new area for instructor professional development. What do you think? Like my previous post on online learning communities, this topic would be a great one for an Elluminate webinar. I’d like to hear from you.

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

If you didn’t attend the second annual Elluminati Community Conference on October 22 (just prior to EDUCAUSE), you missed some thought-provoking presentations from speakers like Stephen Laster of Harvard, Susan Patrick of NACOL, Blaine Morrow of CCC Confer, Ben Rogers of Duke, Raven McElman of Florida Virtual School, and many more. The session recordings are available now. Take a look.

If you were there, what did you learn? Did you have an aha moment you want to share? We’d love to hear from you!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

Hi,

This post is a place for attendees (and viewers) of the August 7, 2007 vRoom Webinar to interact. The link points to the recording of the webinar.

Best regards,

The Elluminate team