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Opening Session Info (Frank Prochaska)

  • Theme: Building Connections
  • 8th UNC TLT conference
  • largest yet, close to 500 registered attendees
  • large number of private, community college, and K-12 folks here (in addition to UNC system folks)
  • ed tech no longer an add-on, it’s a mission critical component for learning in 21st century
  • Pointed out UNC Online program (to be announced later this spring)
  • A discussion of “online quality” (a group is working on this in the UNC system)
  • Another major initiative in course redesign across the system
    • National Center for Academic Transformation
  • Pointed out workshops (they’re at another location). This is what I’m doing with Bob King.

Plenary session: Accelerating Educational Innovation and Transformation Through Learning Communities and Knowledge Networks (Toru Iiyoshi)

  • Sr. Scholar/Director, Knowledge Media Laboratory
  • The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
  • Should accept the reality we’re facing, broaden & deepen understanding of teaching, shouldn’t stop asking “why”
  • Studio Physics transforms traditional classroom teaching into studio-based active learning (somewhat similar to our info lit classes, no?)
    • don’t rely on lectures
    • learn from peers
    • faculty as mentor/facilitator
    • some students don’t initially like it; came to university to learn from faculty
  • New Modes of Learning: MySpace, blogs, SecondLife, World of Warcraft, Google, Wikipedia, YouTube
  • What can be taught and learned in these participatory spaces?
  • Virtual U as an educational World of Warcraft?
  • Open Education: Open Technology, Open Content, Open Knowledge
  • Open Tools: Increased quality, more use, greater pedagogical knowledge
    • Sakai CMC
    • Help customization, innovation, deepen understanding of tech in ed, “catalyze new ways of collaboration and innovation”
    • Goal is not to just create another Blackboard: create something new!
  • Open Content: Sharing teaching and learning resources
  • Opening up education: sustainability?
  • The presentation then went into great detail about open courseware, the who, what, where, when, whys of it all. Also, pretty technical. If you want to chat about it, let me know!
  • Use instructional design principles in developing open courseware in a community:
  • Open Knowledge: pedagogical, content, pedagogical content knowledges
  • Web2.0 Collaboration, discussion of buzzwords & excitement, but correctly questions where we want to go with these technologies. Suggests a change in values.
    • Discuss long tail concept
    • teaching and learning in “fat head”
      • 85000 presentations, etc, belong in long tail, but might be useful for someone out there, allows reaching out to niche communities
    • What’s next? A commons for teaching and learning.
  • Sharing
  • Cultural and institutional change IS needed
  • Open Education: A Prelude to Learning 2.0 (Minds on Fire)