Year: 2009

I have been neglecting the ‘Canuck’ lately and wanted to take a few minutes on this last day of 2009, to share a few odds and ends that I’ve been meaning to write about.

Earlier this month I had a great time in Second Life doing a guest appearance with Ross McKerlich in a  Danish Education Masters Class with Mariane Riss blogged by her SecondLife Avatar Mariis Mills at http://milmariis.wordpress.com/2009/12/24/case-mil09-didactic-design-discussion-4/. I was presenting on Community of Inquiry Model and our work on identifying COI indicators of social, cognitive and social presence in immersive environments. Technically the presentation went well, slides and audio was clear and then we had fund answering questions by positioning our avatars on a large wheel – with 5 point Likert like scale inscribed (see Mariis blog for a picture). Having to move and see where others clustered (and changed our locations) gave a more real expression of individual and collective ideas and gave opportunity to talk or whisper to others with same answer. A simple but engaging illustration of the value add of immersive contexts.

This month also marked the release of another distance education related book from AUPress. Dietmar Kennepohl edited Accessible Elements: Teaching Science Online and at a Distance that focuses on the unique challenges of teaching science (including labs) at a distance. I haven’t read all the chapters, (OK, I skimmed through my own :-)) but thought the book has both theoretical and practical insights into the special challenges of teaching science when physical labs and face-to-face interaction are not possible. Like other AUPress books, the full text is available online and paper copy can be purchased for $40 (Canadian).

I also noticed this week a new online journal (published by the E-learning Network of Australasia, using the Open Journal System) Impact: Journal of Applied Research in Workplace E-learning.  I have often thought that we focus too much of our time and energy as DE researchers on formal education, ignoring the value and impact of Net based learning in the workplace and informal learning. The first issue features articles on Connectivism, Heutogogy (the study of self-determined learning), a good lit review of e-learning the workplace and a couple of good articles on evaluation. I look forward to following this journal into the future and congratulate the editors on offering a quality, open access journal in an important area of study.

Finally, I see that Gilly Slamon and her colleagues in the Beyond Distance Research Alliance at the University of Leichester are offering their 5th online/F2F learning and research festival. Positively Disruptive: Learning Futures Festival Online The week long affair features Elluminate keynote sessions, break outs and lots of blog and twitter action. Seems like good value and likely good learning for 70 pound registration fee

Well, Best of the season and New Year to all!

Terry

This has been quite an eventful last week. It started with the 16 hour flight to Melbourne and the publication  of a short article in the Journal of Distance Education.  A Rose by Any Other Name: Still Distance Education – A Response to D.R. Garrison Implications of Online and Blended Learning for the Conceptual Development and Practice of Distance Education. In the article, I challenge Randy’s assertion that distance education is really only independent study and that e-learning has a completely different epistemological history. I came out in favour of the inclusiveness of the term “distance education” to encompass print, mass media, conferencing and other web based mediated forms of teaching and learning.

But since being in Australia, I see that the term distance education is quite out of favour. I spent three days at a symposium at Deakin University that focused on flexible learning. Flexible learning is defined very broadly  at Deakin but MAY (where appropriate) include pace, place, content, approach, form of interaction, teaching types, content etc. We spent some time trying to clarify the “where appropriate” and realizing that sometimes flexibility is either too expensive or not even desired by students – and then of course a teachers’ perspective on flexibility may be radically different than students’.

I then prepared for a presentation on Boundless Learning” for a group from Haaga-Helia University of  Applied Sciences in Helsinki Finland, that I presented using Adobe Connect. I won’t whine about the performance of Connect, except to say the sound quality, not to mention the dropping from the system, leaves it far behind competitive web conferencing systems. After a few reboots of both my own machine and the Connect server, I managed to do the show, but it wasn’t great. I tried to explore some of the potential of OERs, open publication, open courses etc the need to form some sort of boundaries – on the boundless and often overwhelming opportunity of learning in a new infused society.

All of which, made me realize again that “distance education’ at least when considered from a geographic notion of distance, is but one dimension of flexibility, boundlessness and openness. Maybe I will have to give up the term, but then, to be inclusive, I’d have to become Canada Research Chair in Boundless, Flexible, Open, Customizable, Adaptable, Configurable, Learner-centered, and Distance Education! I think I’ll keep with the status quo for my last 2 years as Canada research Chair in Distance Education!

Glenn Groulx, a student in our Masters of Distance Education programming, has been doing significant work on EduBlogging. He presented at a CIDER session last month (recording here and Powerpoints here) where he outlined a set of metaphors that helps us recognize and appreciate the different types of blogs and motivations of bloggers in educational contexts.

Most recently he has also done a series of two podcasts with graphics  on Field blogging – blogging where and whenever  the occasion is right. These postings will help newcomers get a handle on both blogs and podcasts as very inexpensive ways for learners and teachers to express themselves digitally and gain network presence.

Thanks for this work Glenn- much appreciated.

open access week-Athabasca

Like many academics around the world we are becoming more interested (and informed) about the opportunities afforded by open access. As “Canada’s Open University” this is a natural fit for us, and thus we are pleased to take the opportunity to participate in the international Open Access Week Oct 19-23 2009.

As our contribution to the gala week, we are hosting a series of five noon hour (Mountain time UTC/GMT -7 hours) sessions focusing on various components of open access. The 60 minute sessions run on the Elluminate webconferencing system and all are invited to attend. The sessions will also be recorded and linked from http://openaccess.athabascau.ca/

The first session (Monday Oct 19) with myself as speaker, focuses on the general theme of open scholarship. The Tuesday session features a presentation on research opportunities and issues related to open access presented by Patrick McAndrew from Open University UK, who co-leads the OLNet research initiative.  The Wednesday session features Athabasca University President Frits Pannekoek on Open Academic publishing and features an overview of the issues surrounding the founding and operations of Canada’s first open access scholarly publisher Athabasca University Press. Thursday’s session,  by AU Librarian Tony Tin, focuses on open institutional archives and repositories. Rory McGreal winds it up on Friday with a session on Open Educational Resources.

All the sessions are open to the general public and you are welcome to participate. The URL’s for participation (and longer descriptions of the sessions) are available at http://openaccess.athabascau.ca/

Mark your calendars and be ready to ‘open’ your mind during Open Access Week!

Terry