May 2007 - Air-L - lists.aoir.org

Re: [Air-l] Technology Transforming Education--EE-Learning
by Caroline Haythornthwaite 23 May '07

23 May '07

Like Charles, I'm thoroughly enjoying this discussion but having trouble keeping up! Just to add another dimension to the discussion, I want to bring into play the socio-technical (social informatics) consideration. Like Marj, I can point to a Peter Lang publication by myself and Michelle Kazmer "Learning, Culture and Community in Online Education: Research and Practice" (2004). But also a forthcoming edited volume with Sage, by myself and Richard Andrews "Handbook of E-Learning Research" (expected out in August, 2007). The introduction in both of these books addresses how social and technical aspects must be balanced in coming to the right definition of use -- very common idea from many aspects of ICT use, but not discussed as much re elearning where the all online or all on-campus debate sounds much like the "internet good - internet bad" discussion we should have got over a long time ago. The newer book also brings in consideration of co-evolutionary processes -- technology does affect teaching/learning, with then in turn affects technology use, deployment, etc. Again, very familiar to anyone in social studies of technology, but less so in elearning circles. For anyone newly embarking on elearning, do see the wonderful book by Garrison and Anderson (2003) "E-learning in the 21st Century: A Framework for Research and Practice" (RoutledgeFalmer, NY). Their elaboration of social, cognitive and teaching presence is essential reading. /Caroline ---- Original message ---- >Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 06:31:27 -0500 >From: Charles Ess <charles.ess(a)gmail.com> >Subject: Re: [Air-l] Technology Transforming Education--EE-Learning >To: <air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org> > >> Not quite sure how I came to be the champion of the face to face >> classroom - my argument is simply that all teaching/learning methods >> will have advantages and disadvantages for some. > >Hang in there, Marj! >This has been a terrific discussion and my only regret is that preparations >for overseas sojourns have kept me from participating. Now I can't >resist... > >While there are clear advantages to online learning environments - one of >the best teaching moments in my life occurred during a brief stint with >WebCT - because, like Mark Johns, I'm privileged to teach in a private, >liberal arts place with classes ranging between 8 - 20 students each, I'm >also profoundly convinced of the many sorts of teaching excellences that I >can do only in f2f environments. >A great deal of it has to do with what I teach - logic, philosophy, applied >ethics, religious studies, critical thinking, writing. All of these can >deeply challenge not simply the intellect but also the whole person as a >complex, embodied being. First of all, the f2f context lets me gauge how my >students - both individually and collectively - are responding to these >challenges in ways that allow me to then judge (though it's always a >judgment call, and sometimes an incorrect one) whether they're "getting it," >how much further, if at all, they may be pushed, what turns I might take to >help them come along - and what ones to avoid - etc. I know from hard >experience that I can make mistakes in these judgments in f2f - but I make >them even more frequently in online settings (and we're off with the >disadvantages of relative anonymity, etc.). >One of the points that may be missing in the discussion so far - though I'm >being quick here, so if I've missed something, apologies - is the nature of >the "information" at stake. As some know, I've written a couple of articles >on teaching not simply information, but wisdom and virtue vis-à-vis online >environments - wisdom and virtue of the Socratic and Confucian sort. >Following the taxonomies of Hubert Dreyfus (based on a phenomenological >focus on embodiment and learning), I concur that there is much good that can >be taught in virtual environments as they currently exist. But there is >also much that, in my view, cannot be taught in such environments as they >currently exist, because they depend on being close at hand to and with >someone with great and embodied familiarity with not simply the material and >content, but most centrally the _judgment-making process_ (what Aristotle >calls _phronesis_) as it works in a given discipline or area. >My analogy for this is learning to sing in the choir. I suppose such a >thing could be done - up to a point - through an online venue. But I find >it difficult to conceive that a master choir director and even modestly >capable choir would be able to make much progress in an online environment >with helping a novice (such as myself) come along with learning how to >engage with the music - not simply in terms of learning to read notes, but, >more fundamentally, of learning how to produce music out of one's own mind >and body in concert and harmony with others. So much depends on immediate >verbal and nonverbal communication - hearing how the person next to me is >finding his note; seeing the choir director cut us off together at a tricky >rest out of the corner of my eye while simultaneously looking at the music >for the current and next measures; trying to hear how the tenor part blends >(or fails to blend) with the larger choir and the music, adjusting >accordingly, etc. Most of all, what is learned there are judgments about >how to do it right, or at least well (with many possibilities for that, of >course, not just one). So much of this sort of embodied learning seems to >crucially depend on spending hours and hours, weeks and weeks, years and >years, face-to-face and side-by-side with a group of sister and fellow human >beings struggling to learn the same things. >I had exactly the same experience this past year as I struggled to improve >my all-but-non-existent French - reading is easy; repeating drills on the >computer is straightforward. But learning to speak appropriately - not only >to get the grammar and vocabulary right, but also to learn to judge >face-to-face with another human being in response to his or her actions and >responses what the right thing to say might be is an entirely different >matter. > >All of this is to say that I think Marj has it exactly right. Each venue >has its strengths and its limitations. The point is not to fall into false >polarities of "good" / "bad" - but to learn to use each environment >effectively for specified pedagogical goals. > >O.k. - back to packing ... >- charles ess > > >_______________________________________________ >The air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list >is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org >Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/ listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org > >Join the Association of Internet Researchers: >http://www.aoir.org/ ---------------------------------------- Caroline Haythornthwaite Associate Professor Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 501 East Daniel St., Champaign IL 61820

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Re: [Air-l] Academic traditions
by Caroline Haythornthwaite 23 May '07

23 May '07

There is indeed a large movement re online education from many directions. A very interesting transformation, one that I try to follow closely. /C ---- Original message ---- >Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 12:21:23 -0400 >From: "Heidelberg, Chris" <Chris.Heidelberg(a)ssa.gov> >Subject: Re: [Air-l] Academic traditions >To: <air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org> > >Caroline: > >I concur! I am amazed at how many professors in the academic game do not >understand the history and research behind this technology that was >ironically created in large part and tested on the campuses of research >institutions under federal and corporate grants. Your assessment is >correct because the Ivy league schools (Harvard, Yale, Princeton etc), >major private institutions (Duke, Johns Hopkins, Stanford), technology >based schools (Cal-Poly,Georgia Tech, MIT)and many flagship universities >(Cal-Berkeley, Illinois-Champaign,Maryland,Michigan,Ohio State and >Texas-Austin) have already taken their offerings online (Rhodes, 2001)to >match the challenge posed by the University of Phoenix and others. >However, if one were to examine the federal defense based and medical >grants received by these research institutions over the course of >history since WWII, it is clear that the technology is not going away >and new professors will have to get with the program and start looking >at options like online publishing for environmental and financial >reasons (Willinsky, 2006). The key will be the new methods created by >and for learners by professors (Gee, 2005) such as video games. > ---------------------------------------- Caroline Haythornthwaite Associate Professor Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 501 East Daniel St., Champaign IL 61820

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Last Call for the Doctoral Colloquium
by Baym, Nancy 23 May '07

23 May '07

Hi Everyone,especially Ph.D. students: Just a quick reminder that applications for the Doctoral Colloquium at IR 8.0 in Vancouver are due this Friday (May 25). Those who participated last year (students and mentors alike) found it very helpful, interesting, and an excellent way to start the conference with an intense and productive networking opportunity. The AoIR 8.0 Doctoral Colloquium offers Ph.D. students working in internet research or a related field a special forum on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 where they will have a chance to briefly present their dissertations-in-progress and discuss them at length with peers and established senior researchers. Interested students should prepare a 2 page summary of their research. This should provide a context for the research, describe the methods being used, the progress to date and expectations and hopes from the colloquium. Faculty mentors include: - Ronald Rice, Arthur N. Rupe Chair in the Social Effects of Mass Communication, University of California-Santa Barbara, United States. - Maria Bakardjieva, Associate Professor. Faculty of Communication and Culture, University of Calgary, Canada. - Mary Bryson, Associate Professor, Education & Counselling Psychology and Special Education, The University of British Columbia, Canada. - Robert Burnett, Professor and Chair, Media and Communication Studies, Karlstad University, Sweden. - Lori Kendall, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States. We hope to announce additional mentors shortly. Please submit your 2 page application by Friday, May 25 2007 to: Nancy Baym : nbaym [at] ku.edu Applicants will be notified of acceptance by 15 June 2007. Successful applicants will be asked to prepare an 8 page paper on their research and the issues they wish to discuss by 1 August 2007. For further details please visit the conference website at http://conferences.aoir.org/index.php?cf=6 or contact the organizer of the AoIR Doctoral Colloquium, Nancy Baym : nbaym [at] ku.edu The AoIR 8.0 Doctoral Colloquium is sponsored by Microsoft Research. Thanks! Nancy

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Re: [Air-l] Technology Transforming Education
by Marj Kibby 23 May '07

23 May '07

I wrote about my experiences with the pragmatics of contemporary education undermining the pedagogical benefits of hybrid teaching in Brave New Classrooms (Peter Lang 2007) It is still an ongoing battle - "It's online, so there is no problem with space and therefore no need to limit class sizes" "In your hybrid PBL course you only meet students every second week so you should only get half the worKload points of a colleague who has a student-led f2f seminar each week" There are advantages though - initial results suggest that students who Blog as part of their coursework, are more reflective in discussions and written assignments for example. Cheers, Marj Dr Marjorie Kibby, Senior Lecturer in Communication & Culture Faculty of Education and Arts The University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW 2308 Australia Marj.Kibby(a)newcastle.edu.au +61 2 49216604 >>> Steve Jones <sjones(a)info.comm.uic.edu> 05/23/07 9:16 AM >>> <snip> One of the things I'm seeing on a lot of campuses the last couple of years is excitement among administrators about "blended" learning because it promises to free up classroom space, which ties into two important administrative matters, namely an interest in increasing enrollment as a means of increasing revenue, and an interest in keeping a lid on construction costs (or, in some cases, the cost of leased space). I agree that those are important matters, but I disagree that they are sufficient reasons to "re-design" teaching <snip>

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meetup in amsterdam 30May 7pm
by Jeremy Hunsinger 23 May '07

23 May '07

If you are interested in meeting up and talking about internet research, games, and sl next week on 30 may at 7pm in Amsterdam, drop me a note at jhuns(a)vt.edu I'm swinging through amsterdam for a conference and would love to do a meetup. I've done smaller ones of these in Italy in the past, and they work out ok. So if you want to meet up and chat with me and whomever else wants to show up in amsterdam, drop me a note. Jeremy Hunsinger Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (www.cipr.uwm.edu) Words are things; and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. --Byron

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Three Wishes for a Future Internet? GENI Project Will Soon Be At Your Command
by Jeremy Hunsinger 23 May '07

23 May '07

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=109589&org=NSF&from=news this has interesting implications for our group. Jeremy Hunsinger Information Ethics Fellow, Center for Information Policy Research, School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (www.cipr.uwm.edu) Words are things; and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think. --Byron

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Unusual request - Meeting around Internet Research 8.0
by Jan Schmidt 23 May '07

23 May '07

Dear all, this might be a somewhat unusual mail/request, but I thought I'd give it a try: I'm a PostDoc researcher from Bamberg (Germany), focussing on social software / Web 2.0 from the perspective of communication sociology. Most of my contributions are in german (having an fairly sized academic community which is closed due to the language can be both a curse and a blessing.. ;-)), but I have also a couple of english ressources which describe my activities compiled on my blog (http://www.bamberg-gewinnt.de/wordpress/english-content/) Some of you might know me as the co-organizer (with Thomas N. Burg from Austria) of the "BlogTalk reloaded" conference in Vienna last fall (of which, by the way, the proceedings have now been published; see the above link). I'm planning to attend the Internet Research 8.0 conference this october (actually my first AOIR-conference; I'm really looking forward to it), and will make my travel arrangements (i.e. booking a flight) within the next weeks. Since Vancouver is quite a distance from Germany, I'm going to spend not only the conference week, but some more time in the area. I was wondering (and that's the point of this mail) if anyone with similar research fields would be interested in meeting in the week before or after the conference. More precisely, I'm planning to travel (by rental car) around the Pacific northwest (British Columbia, Washington State, Oregon, maybe even Northern California) for about two to three weeks around the conference. I'd be more than happy to arrange my trip accordingly to come to your university or organization, either for an informal exchange of ideas, or for a guest lecture, or for any other cool events that might come to your mind. :) Based on my research interests, I could (for example) talk about the state of Web 2.0 & Social Software in Germany / the german speaking countries; about results from my (then finished) current research project on online-based networking (which focussed mainly on Blogs and Social Networking Sites), or on similar topics (suggestions are of course open to modification/specification). This might even lead to interesting research initiatives - I find there is a lack of thorough internationally comparative studies in this field. Feel free to contact me (off-list) for any suggestions or questions - I'm looking forward to seeing where this request will take me... :-) Best, Jan -- Dr. Jan Schmidt Research Centre "New Communication Media" An der Universität 9 / 501 D - 96049 Bamberg +49 (951) 863 2213 +49 (177) 520 5199 jan.schmidt(a)split.uni-bamberg.de http://www.fonk-bamberg.de/ http://www.bamberg-gewinnt.de/wordpress [including english content]

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What are the "model" online courses delived 100% online?
by Michael Baron 23 May '07

23 May '07

Hi all, I am designing an online course right now that is to be tought via an online delivery mode only. I am wondering, what are the pitfalls that i should be avoiding in order to make sure that the course is valid and the assessments are reliable? thax for your help, Michael -- "My Body is my Temple" "Be The Change You Want to See In The World." Gandhi

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the 16th International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnographical Science
by pangcuiming 23 May '07

23 May '07

Hi, are there anybody interested in organizing panels for the 16th Internernational Congress of Anthropological and Ethnographical Science? Maybe the topic of virtual ethnography? Here is the link: http://www.icaes2008.org/enindex.htm > Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 13:25:28 +1000> From: mhward(a)usyd.edu.au> To: air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org> Subject: Re: [Air-l] Technology Transforming Education> > I'm not clear who 'we' are (people on this list? Academics?) or why we > would limit this engagement to the US. Shifts in the technologies of > learning are happening worldwide.> > Teaching is always being redesigned - the classrooms my children sat in > in the 70s and 80s bore little resemblance to the classrooms I sat in > the 1950s. The classrooms my grandchildren sit in today are very > different again> > M-H in Australia.> > > > Steve Jones wrote:> > ><nostalgia>That takes me back to my UIUC days, and PLATO...Programmed > >Logic for Automated Teaching Operations.</nostalgia>> >> >(That probably gives away my age as much as admitting I have a > >"record collection.")> >> >These are the kinds of discussions in which I wish we could engage > >many U.S. faculty and administrators. One of the things I'm seeing on > >a lot of campuses the last couple of years is excitement among > >administrators about "blended" learning because it promises to free > >up classroom space, which ties into two important administrative > >matters, namely an interest in increasing enrollment as a means of > >increasing revenue, and an interest in keeping a lid on construction > >costs (or, in some cases, the cost of leased space). I agree that > >those are important matters, but I disagree that they are sufficient > >reasons to "re-design" teaching (though maybe in really dire > >circumstances, along the lines, say, of what happened in New Orleans > >and along the Gulf Coast due to Hurricane Katrina, it would be > >justifiable as a temporary solution to buildings that must be > >rehabbed and are unusable in the meantime).> > > >> > _______________________________________________> The air-l(a)listserv.aoir.org mailing list> is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org> Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org> > Join the Association of Internet Researchers: > http://www.aoir.org/ _________________________________________________________________ 使用下一代的 MSN Messenger。 http://imagine-msn.com/messenger/launch80/default.aspx?locale=zh-cn&source=…

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Re: [Air-l] laptops and Internet access in class
by jerichob＠juno.com 22 May '07

22 May '07

This is a bit of a tangent, but it pertains to how technology is used in a particular workplace, and what foundations may be necessary to underly its use, and how best to teach those foundations. Matt's comments (below) remind me of a conversation I had recently with my brother, who is an art director at Electronic Arts (i.e. he designs video games). He was talking about training new designers, and how they are good with the technology in some ways, but they do not understand the basics of design. He will show them how he does the lighting for a particular scene and how it works with the elements in the scene, and they will take his lighting set-up and just cut and paste it into everything, without understanding the basic concepts needed to actually design the lighting to fit the particular scene they are working with. My brother is known within the company as a very good teacher, but he said by the time young designers start working, some of their practices seem to be so rigidly established that it's very difficult to train them to do otherwise, and they seem to think that they can just cut and paste elements from elsewhere rather than designing a scene. He attributes it partly to a lack of imagination that is produced during formal education. His theory is that it's because the young artists are not taught how to design, but how to use computers to design (and even that not terribly well). He himself is a self-taught artist who learned with paper and pencil, and actually resisted computers for most of the 1980s. Now he works both ways - directly on the computer and with paper and pencil - but he thinks it is better to learn how to draw and paint on paper before moving to the computer, because then at least you develop an understanding of how to put a scene together. In his experience, the best designers work on paper as well as on the computer and are fluent in multiple media. Of course, it's possible that he is on the tail end of a particular way of working that will disappear as designers trained solely on computers take over, and that his methods of design are becoming obsolete. I don't know enough about the field to say. However, he feels that the "cut-and-paste" approach of the younger designers leads to an unimaginative and derivative look, and he is worried about it. It reminds me of the difference between students who can write papers that present an original argument drawing from the work of others and students who cut and paste sentences without really understanding how to put an argument together. They use the technology to pull together a lot of information, but they don't know how to present it in a way that gets their point across to other people. They haven't learned the basics of design. Jericho Jericho Burg Department of Communication University of California, San Diego http://www.communication.ucsd.edu/people/g_burg.html -- "Matthew Bernius" <mbernius(a)gmail.com> wrote: Blind faith in technology has become a crutch for student to avoid learning fundamentals. While they assume that an answer is "out there," they more often than not, lack both the desire to seek it out or the skills (or even suspicion) to interrogate the information once they find it. I've found that these so called "digital natives" haven't even begun to interrogate the systems (language, practices, heuristics) that they operate in. If anything, they are far worse at switching digital authoring tools than we "immigrants" who were forced to internalize the language and metaphor of the tools we used. This is a common thread that I've heard from numerous employers -- that recent grad have a real hard time switching between tools (sometimes even between different versions of the same software).

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