I have been reviewing how best to strategic plan for higher education.  I have been involved in this process before at different places where I worked and planning is usually just second nature, an expectation if you will if you work as a manager, which I have for the last 15 years or so of my career.

First I would like to address, with little or authority or expertise to back this up, what is a strategic plan?  Well I went to the best authority on this subject that I know..Google.   And here is a bit of my findings from that search:

• Strategic planning is an organization’s process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. Various business analysis techniques can be used in strategic planning, including SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats ), PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological), STEER analysis (Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Ecological, and Regulatory factors), and EPISTEL (Environment, Political, Informatic, Social, Technological, Economic and Legal).  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_plan
• A comprehensive plan for accomplishment in relation to stated goals and objectives. Ideally, the plan should cover multiple years; include targets for expected accomplishments; and propose specific performance measures used to evaluate progress towards those targets.
• www.pewcenteronthestates.org/template_page.aspx
• A forward-looking plan that aims to map out the means to achieve longer-term goals and to plan a response to unforeseen problems and opportunities.
• www.mvp.cfee.org/en/glossary.html
• A road map that outlines the long-term goals of an organization or program and details how these will be achieved by adopting specific strategies, approaches and methodologies. www.compass-malawi.com/cglossary.htm
• Strategic plan – A document used by an organization to align its organization and budget structure with organizational priorities, missions, and objectives. According to requirements of GPRA, a strategic plan should include a mission statement, a description of the agency’s long-term goals and objectives, and strategies or means the agency plans to use to achieve these general goals and objectives. The strategic plan may also identify external factors that could affect achievement of long-term goals. [GAO] Strategic planning is a systematic method used by an organization to anticipate and adapt to expected changes. The IRM portion of strategic planning sets broad direction and goals for managing information and supporting delivery of services to customers and the public and identifies the major IRM activities to be undertaken to accomplish the desired agency mission and goals. [GAO] www.ichnet.org/glossary.htm

Strategic planning is not an individual process but a collaborative process, if not done collaboratively, taking into account the different voices of an organization’s constituents then what is the point? The essence of strategic planning it to ensure that all stakeholders of an institution are heard, their needs taken into account, weakness of the institution are considered and addressed, and that the institution is progressive and innovative.   In addition to this resources and resource needs of the institution are also considered in developing the strategies, how the institution will get where it needs to be, to ensure a solid foundation for success.

In these times of fast paced change it is still  essential to have a strategic planning process that provides for input, efficient and effective outputs, and as a communication tool to stakeholders regarding the activities of the institution.  It is also a tool of communication that provides for input on the direction that the institution is travelling ..is it truly on the right course?

Other reasons for strategic planning from others:

5 reasons for its use:

1. Forces a look into the future and therefore provides an opportunity to influence the future, or assume a proactive posture.
2. Provides better awareness of needs and of the facilities related issues and environment.
3. Helps define the overall mission of the organization and focuses on the objectives.
4. Provides a sense of direction, continuity, and effective staffing and leadership.
5. Plugs everyone into the system and provides standards of accountability for people, programs, and allocated resources.  (retrieved from http://www.fpm.iastate.edu/worldclass/strategic_planning.asp )

All strategic planning deals with at least one of three key questions:

1. “What do we do?”
2. “For whom do we do it?”
3. “How do we excel?”  (retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_plan )

Such a (strategic) plan will help you to:

1. Take advantage of your company’s strengths.
2. Eliminate or reduce your company’s weaknesses.
3. Capitalize on opportunities and emerging trends.
4. Take defensive steps to reduce threats facing your business.
5. Bring together all your company’s resources, and direct them toward specific goals in areas such as sales growth, profit, productivity and service.
6. Prioritize and document all the goals your company wants to accomplish over the next three to five years.
7. Allocate resources and assign responsibilities.  (retrieved from http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_homepage/pub_mp21.pdf)

Strategic planning enables you to answer the following questions:

1. Who are we?
2. What capacity do we have/what can we do?
3. What problems are we addressing?
4. What difference do we want to make?
5. Which critical issues must we respond to?
6. Where should we allocate our resources?/what should our priorities be?
7. Only once these questions are answered, is it possible to answer the following:
8. What should our immediate objective be? (See the section on Immediate Objectives)
9. How should we organise ourselves to achieve this objective? (See the section on
10. Internal Implications)
11. Who will do what when?  (retrieved from http://www.civicus.org/new/media/Strategic%20Planning.pdf)

Information gathering is essential to strategic planning.  This may include archival data, the history of the institution, the budget, surveys, needs analysis, and surveys are part of the information needed to design a strategic plan.   Pre-work needs to occur prior to the strategic planning process taking place.  This means having a steering committee that determines who should be involved in the process, how the planning process will take place, and the timeline for the strategic planning process.

Strategic planning is information gathering built upon artifacts of the organization.   It is based upon these documents, budgets, conversations, and surveys that the teams is able to develop a sound analysis of the current status of the organization.    I will post the next part on the details of what to review in your strategic planning initiative.

Several reports or plans related to higher education, education technology, and online learning have been released in the last several months that indicate changes in how students learn, how they access their learning materials, and how that content is delivered.  In addition to this I will also give an overview of Millenials from the Pew Research Center.

In January 2010 the Sloan Consortium released their report on online education.  This report indicates that online experienced a growth of 17% in the last year.  Students in online classes comprise 25% of all students enrolled in higher education today, or 4.6 million students.    This 29 pages report found on the Sloan Consortium website presented the following information:

The issue of retention in online is also addressed in this report.   The question “Is retention in online harder than in  traditional face to face courses?”  This was administered via a survey of Chief Academic Officers which indicated that most were neutral on the question.  However those who agree outnumber of those who disagree.  Specifics on why this perception exists were not asked or provided.

Another report which was released by the US Department of Education is the:  Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies.  I previously blogged on this report however what this report indicates is that online learning, can,  under certain conditions,  provide better learning experiences to students.

Another study with trends to watch in distance education is theK-12 Online Learning reportfrom the Sloan Consortium. this 37 page report, based upon a survey administered to over 10,000 school districts, with a5/4% return of valid surveys,  published in January 2009 indicates that:

Most significant in regards to this report is the growth in online education which is illustrated by:

Regulators Can Help Advance / Slow Mobile Internet Evolution.

Can Facebook be used to provide content, a place for group communication and interaction for academic courses and programs…well all signs indicate a solid yes to this question.  As I have a Facebook page I decided to review sites that are relevant to certain discipline areas.    The aim of this blog is to identify sites where academics have illustrated how they use Facebook and to point you to those sites that are relevant to certain discipline areas.

I would like to hear comments from you.  Does Facebook have an application in education and if so how?  And if you are using it how are you using it?

What tools does Facebook have in place to manage classes, groups, and networking?

Facebook can deliver content in the form of photos, videos, documents that have been scanned to jpg’s, and notes:

For example a search of Facebook for “Calculus” yields:

The Calculuswebsite which is a fan site for students in Calculus and collaboration in problem solving, etc., in that area.    As recent as yesterday, March 20,2010 as I write this blog I noticed that there is a detailed response to a student’s request for help solving a problem.

Another Calculussite states:  This page is based on Mr. Morris’ Calculus 1 class at Las Positas College; however, those not in the class may find the content useful too.  This site provides flashcards based upon up coming exams that students can use as study aids.

There are professional websites such as the English Teachers Site. This club is designed as a place for English teachers to share resources and discuss teaching strategies with colleagues near and far. Share with your fellow English teachers any lesson plans, activities, must-teach novels, useful websites, videos, or books for any grade level… we’d love to hear about it! So please, post away!…

Or this site: English teachers put more thought into a novelthan the actual author did.

Computer Science Student Group: The importance of CS has never been greater. We’re discovering ways to build just about everything out of small, simple mechanisms glued together with software, so no matter what you do, CS tends to be inside. And the scope of this new CS is amazing: We’re at the center of the action in biology, nanotechnology, particle physics. If society is ever going to slash medical costs, CS will play the key role. I see CS as a sort of universal science. We’re beginning to pervade everything.

Mathematics the Language of the Sciences: group is intended for people who enjoy solving and/or contemplating mathematical, physical, engineering problems, and who enjoy going beyond and study the philosophical assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics.  If you’re a mathematics, computer science, statistics, actuarial science, engineering major or you just love Mathematics, if you love to inquire about the philosophy of mathematics, or if you have any question in the field of Mathematics, then this is the group for you.

Health Informatics: This group joins interested people in Health Informatics, Medical Informatics, Healthcare IT, HIT – Health Information Technology, HIM – Health Information Management, HIS – Health Information Systems, Hospital Information Systems, CDSS – Clinical Decision Support Systems, EHR – Electronic Health Records, EMR – Electronic Medical Records, PACS – Picture Archiving and Communication Systems, DICOM – Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine, and many other related sciences and topics.

There are sites such as the 100 ways to use Facebook in the Classroom The Facebook Classroom: 25 Facebook Apps That Are Perfect for Online Education, or  this facebook site.

Application are available in Facebook such as the courses application which will allow  you to:

Courses

Display your courses on your profile for college or high school, find classmates, manage your schedule and assignments, create discussions, post notes, and form exclusive study groups. Welcome to Courses on Facebook.   You can use your Facebook course site as a “live syllabus” which will allow you to post assignments, communicate deadlines, deliver content, especially real time news feeds,  and facilitate discussions.

There is also a Files application which allows you to upload documents, photos, videos and pull informatin from your profile.

Is there an application in Pedagogy that Facebook lends itself to?  If so what is that?

Of course there is the relatively new and as yet evolving theory of connectivism:  a learning theory for the digital age,” has been developed by George Siemens and Stephen Downes based on their analysis of the limitations of behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism to explain the effect technology has had on how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn.^[1] Donald G. Perrin, Executive Editor of the International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning says the theory “combines relevant elements of many learning theories, social structures, and technology to create a powerful theoretical construct for learning in the digital age.”^{[1]  (  Retrieved from Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism_%28learning_theory%29, Connectivism a learning theory for the digital age http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm, wikiveristy)}

Social Learning theory:  that focuses on the learning that occurs within a social context. It considers that people learn from one another, including such concepts as observational learning, imitation, and modeling.

Social Learning Theory; Bandura emphasizes the importance of observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others. Bandura (1977) states: “Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action.” (p22). Social learning theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, an environmental influences. The component processes underlying observational learning are: (1) Attention, including modeled events (distinctiveness, affective valence, complexity, prevalence, functional value) and observer characteristics (sensory capacities, arousal level, perceptual set, past reinforcement), (2) Retention, including symbolic coding, cognitive organization, symbolic rehearsal, motor rehearsal), (3) Motor Reproduction, including physical capabilities, self-observation of reproduction, accuracy of feedback, and (4) Motivation, including external, vicarious and self reinforcement.  (retrieved from http://tip.psychology.org/bandura.html, 3/23/2010)

Action Learning: is an educational process whereby the participant studies their own actions and experience in order to improve performance. This concept is close to learning-by-doing and teaching through examples and repetitions.  Action learning is done in conjunction with others, in small groups called action learning sets or two-in, two-out team. It is proposed as particularly suitable for adults, as it enables each person to reflect on and review the action they have taken and the learning points arising. This should then guide future action and improve performance.  (retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_learning, 3/23/2010)

Action Learning: is a process of inquiry, beginning with the experience of not knowing ‘what to do next’, and finding that answers are not available through current expertise. When expertise fails to provide an answer, collaborative inquiry with fellow learners who are undergoing the same questioning experience is always available. To be effective, this partnership in learning needs to be both supportive and at the same time challenging, deeply caring yet questioning. Such partnerships actually create themselves when different people with different ideas engage whole-heartedly with each other to resolve each others’ problems.  (retrieved from What’s Action Learning 3/23/2010)

The use of Facebook and the potential of it is yet to be explored and documented fully as illustrated in this study by Schroeder and Greenbowe  who stated that “at the very least, the data suggest that students will use Facebook as an alternate mode of communication, particularly when deadlines approach. The results of this study may best be viewed as a case study, showing that for this specific group of students, Facebook proved to be a good medium for communication in the sense that students would use it.” (retrieved online http://gator.uhd.edu/~williams/AT/ChemOfFB.htm 3/23/2010)   Harris noted that the “growing influence demonstrates that the utilization of SNS can expand the dialogue outside of the classroom or campus, build better communication channels with students and may be valuable as a supplemental recruitment tool in higher education…” (Retrieved from   http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0WMX/is_18_25/ai_n30956801/, 3/23/2010)  Heiberger and Harper illustrate the application of Facebook and benefits to the students as:  Facebook gives them opportunities to learn about and self select into programs and services beneficial to them…. Facebook can help students simplify and prioritize their choices, manage their time wisely, and be aware of the wide variety of options available to them on campus…”  (retrieved from http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/sites/cyber.law.harvard.edu/files/Chapter%202%20-%20Facebook%20and%20Student%20Engagement.pdf  3/23/2010)

In conclusion it is evident that the use of Facebook may prove to be beneficial to students as a source of information, tutoring and collaboration as illustrated by the Calculus sites provided, it may serve as a discussion networking site for professional development, and even a connection for future employment opportunities as demonstrated by the Computer Science sites.

There are a variety of communication, content and networking tools available through Facebook such as the files and courses application, and are worth exploring.

For sharing videos with a distributed group you may want to check outSynchTube.
synchtube allows you to create rooms to share synchronzied YouTube videos.
This means everyone in the room is viewing the same video at the same time!                       The built in chat allows you to even discuss the best parts, or share other videos.
Watch videos with friends, or even DJ music with the social playlists — it is up to you

Masher looks like another great site to provide a “mash up” of your videos, photos, music or audio recordings.

These tools and many others like them can make your course development easier, allow you to move away from text based content to video and audio, and finally break that umbilical chord to the publisher’s power points.

These tools can also provide for greater student to student interaction, student to faculty interaction, and student to content interaction. (Tello, Louis, 2008; Lawlor, D., 2008;Disalvio, P. 2008) These interactions have also been demonstrated to be essential to student retention in the review of the literature and are also standards reviewed using the Quality Matters Rubric®.

In their article in USDLA’s Distance Learning for Educators, Trainers, and Leaders Maria Puzziferro and Kaye Shelton ask questions regarding online education and distance learning that we as educators in online courses and programs should be asking ourselves as we review our courses and programs for quality.

One assumption that they question is “how do we define student or learning centered and students are in control of their own learning (pp 10).   this made me stop and think..it is easy to assume that this latest “buzz word phrase,” of the day drives the direction of online education today and education in general.  If we can say that our courses, programs and services are student or learner centered..then job done..we are meeting the needs of students.  But do we really know what this means?  does the student?  Does your educational institution or organization have a common agreement regarding what learning/student centered means and does it matter?   or are these just good PR buzz phrases?  Here are some various definitions of the terms and the institutions who use them…

In today’s economy and rising prices for everything cutting costs for students in areas where we can has become and will continue to be of paramount importance to students and their families in making a choice on where they can go to college.  Mainstream media has jumped on the bandwagon with various articles on free and reduced cost textbooks over the last couple of years.  These include articles in US News and World Report which provides an overview of available textbooks resources from free to reduced cost.

In September 14, 2008 the New York Times reported in an article on the various options of providing textbooks at reduced costs including  print on demand options such as Lulu and Flatworld Knowledge,  allowing free downloads in Word and PDFs versions of textbooks, and sites such as Merlot and Connexions.   In an LA Times article dated August 18, 2008 economic text author McAfee noted that it does take work to find online textbooks and resource.  More on McAfree’s work and rationale for open sourcing his textbooks can also be found in this Inside Higher Ed article.

There are some student run sites such as Textbook Revolution which provides:

Our approach is to bring all of the free textbooks we can find together in one place, review them, and let the best rise to the top and find their way into the hands of students in classrooms around the world…. links to textbooks and select educational resources of all kinds. Some of the books are PDF files; others are viewable online as e-books.

Another similar site to this one, but not student run,  is the Open Textbook Registry which is:

a registry of textbooks (and related materials) which are open — that is free for anyone to use, reuse and redistribute. It is run by the Open Knowledge Foundation.

Of course one must be concerned because the cost of textbooks seems to increase the likelihood that students will engange in illegal activities to get the books that they need for little or no cost as related in this article from Boston.com ..

“We think it’s a significant problem,” said William Sampson, manager of infringement and antipiracy at Cengage Learning Inc., a reference book publisher in Farmington Hills, Mich. Sampson said that in any given month, 200 to 300 of the company’s titles are posted illegally as free Internet downloads. Distributing books for free without permission violates copyright laws and deprives publishers of revenue.”

We will be evaluating the use of Merlot in the months to come, however it is important to note that Merlot plays a significant role in the affordable textbook initiative.  Membership in Merlot provides individuals with the opportunity to contribute learning materials, create a personal  collection, share online expertise, and receive peer recognition. The Open Textbook project for Merlot is found at this link on their website and contains 279 resources.   Of course membership is not required to access the resources on the website.  It is important to note that their resources undergo an peer review and are rated.

Do you use any of the resources below in developing your course content, if not why not?  If you favorite resource is not here would you note that in the comments?  If you do why?  What are the advantages? How are these received by students?

I posed the question regarding free/open source textbooks to the DEOS list serv,  this is a list serv for those who work in the field of distance education, and received information back regarding the Orange Grove. The Orange Grove was also profiled in Inside Higher Ed in September. The Orange Grove is actually an example of a university press providing course/textbooks online and downloadable for free.  Another good example is that Anthabasca Press http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/bySeries/2 which includes:

Anthabasca University Press is part of the growing collection of the Lois Hole Campus Alberta Digital Library (LHCADL). AU Press’s open access, digital collection of peer reviewed scholarly work provides valuable educational resources (e-books, journals, website publications and videos) that support Lois Hole’s vision of accessible research and learning.

Another example of efforts in promoting open access resources is this on e of an individual keeping a resource base of applicable web based resources on the Technology Training Center of Porterville College.  See this comprehensive list of resources here:  http://www.portervillecollege.edu/tlc/resources.htm#OER

Freetextbooks: This site seems to have a little of everything from lecture notes, to free textbooks, and other webbased resources.

Learnout loud:  your one-stop destination for audio and video learning.   Browse over 20,000 educational audio books, MP3 downloads, podcasts, and video.

Further examples of open education resource depositories include Wikimedia. Under the umbrella of Wikimedia is Wikiversity, Wikisource, and Wikibooks both provide accessible resources for textbooks and course content.

Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning.

Wikisource is an online library of free content publications collected and maintained by our community. We now have 135,382 texts in the English language library.

Wikibooks a Wikimedia community for creating a free library of educational textbooks that anyone can edit. Wikibooks began on July 10, 2003; since then Wikibooks has grown to include over 38,399 pages …

Wikia Education; A list of University / Education Wikis

Wikiversity:  a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning. We invite teachers, students, and researchers to join us in creating open educational resources and collaborative learning communities.

Open Education Campaign Wiki:

An open university is one in which

1. The research the university produces is open access.
2. The course materials are open educational resources.
3. The university embraces free software and open standards.
4. If the university holds patents, it readily licenses them for free software, essential medicines, and the public good.
5. The university network reflects the open nature of the internet.

where “university” includes all parts of the community: students, faculty, administration. The Declaration was a joint statement of the community at the [Free Culture 2008 Conference] in Berkeley, CA.

Amser:  AMSER, Applied Math, Sciences Educational Repository, is a portal of educational resources and servicesCommunity and Technical Colleges but free for anyone to use. built specifically for use by those in

Private industry is also getting involved in the opencourseware initiative as well as indicated by the Novell Opencourseware site. They state that:  OpenCourseWare is a collection of educational materials developed by Novell Training Services for authorized courses and other customer training purposes. By making these materials available to the public, we hope to extend to all people worldwide the opportunity to access these high quality learning materials.

Open Culture University: Open Culture brings together high-quality cultural & educational media for the worldwide lifelong learning community. Web 2.0 has given us great amounts of intelligent audio and video. It’s all free. It’s all enriching. But it’s also scattered across the web, and not easy to find. Our whole mission is to centralize this content, curate it, and give you access to this high quality content whenever and wherever you want it. Free audio books, free university courses, free movies, free language lessons and other enriching content — it’s all here. (from their website)

Videos,  I Tunes v-casts, podcasts, etc., all provide the educator and student with access to a broad spectrum of educators in their field of discipline:

Ted Talks: TED.com, we make the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free. More than 450 TEDTalks are now available, with more added each week. All of the talks feature closed captions in English, and many feature subtitles in various languages. These videos are released under a Creative Commons license, so they can be freely shared and reposted. (retrieved from their website)

FORA.tv helps intelligent, engaged audiences get smart. Our users find, enjoy, and share videos about the people, issues, and ideas changing the world.

We gather the web’s largest collection of unmediated video drawn from live events, lectures, and debates going on all the time at the world’s top universities, think tanks and conferences. We present this provocative, big-idea content for anyone to watch, interact with, and share –when, where, and how they want.

With our community of savvy users and an extensive, growing library of smart videos, FORA.tv is at the forefront of the ongoing integration – and transformation – of the traditional media, TV, cable, and online industries from mass-market to high-quality, high-value content. FORA.tv was founded in 2005 and is funded by a select group of investors including William R. Hearst III and Adobe Ventures.  (retrieved from their website)

Psychology/about.com About sites usually provide a detailed list of web based resources in a variety of areas.

LearnOutLoud audio and video resources for Psychology (from their website) Check out 10 of the top free online psychology audio books, lectures, & podcasts. For the past three years we’ve featured dozens of free psychology resources as part of our Free Resource of the Day Emails

EduFire:  Live Video Learning Online Classes Fit Your Busy Schedule Learning is easy with top instructors. Learn anytime from anywhere.. from their website they state:

We have a simple (but not easy) mission: Revolutionize education. Our goal is to create a platform to allow live learning to take place over the Internet anytime from anywhere. Most importantly…for anyone. We’re the first people (that we know of) to create something that’s totally open and community-driven (rather than closed and transaction-driven.

As you can see there is an endless supply of resources on the web and it grows daily.  If this is not enough for you or your class they can collaboratively create their own content via blogs, webcasts, wikis, and podcasts!  It’s a whole new age in education of self-created content, self learning to group activities, collaboration and building on or “meshing’ up the knowledge of other resources.

When I first came into Second Life I was totally lost, I am not a “gamer” and didn’t have a clue what to expect from participation in a three dimensional virtual world.  Now I know enough to know that my Second Life “rez day” is August 1, 2008.  Looking back I laugh, I am not sure but I think it took me a month just to get off orientation island in Second Life, wandering around some darkened city streets, and falling into a “water way” about 20 times while at a live music event.  It wasn’t until I was motivated to look around and evaluate Second Life as a platform for education and learning through my job that I took an active interest in Second Life.  At that point I mad a few investments in my learning about virtual worlds like buying a few books such as Second Life for Dummies, Second Life Grid, and a variety of blogs, research and articles.  In addition to this I joined the active and informative Second Life Educators List Serve and the Second Life Education Roundtable.  In addition to this I quickly learned that there were free classes in Second Life and participating in the Virtual World’s Best Practices in Education as a volunteer.  And while all of these activities were good they did not give me the level of breadth and depth that I was seeking in learning about virtual worlds in general and Second LIfe Specifically.

Because of my first experiences I am excited to write about  John Jamison, Imagilearning and my SLemester Experience colleagues.  It seems like just yesterday that I signed up for the SLemester, but in so many ways, in the rapidly evolving landscape of social networking, virtual worlds, and technology it seems ages ago.  Being a part of Imagilearning and connecting with John has really helped me better understand Second Life.   Before I knew about Imagilearning and the SLemester Experience I learned about John Jamison through his dissertation which I downloaded for review in my quest to learn more about the use of Second Life as a platform for learning and education.

John Jamison is an educator, innovator and researcher in the design, use and application of Second Life for education, training and business. His dissertation, published in 2008, makes John a pioneer in the field of research in virtual worlds.  To date, much that has been done is still based upon assumptions, speculations and little solid research and observations.  John’s dissertation, “Education in a Strange Land, The Experience of Traditional Education When Immersed in Virtual Environment of Second Life,” identified four themes;  social interactivity, environmental adjustment, learning curve and personal reason. I also came to gain more insight about John’s level of knowledge and professionalism by his input and participation on the SLED list serve and this is how I learned about the SLemester Experience.  When John posted that he was starting up the next session of the SLemester I decided, without hesitation,  to join up.  Since that time, May 2009, I have learned a great deal, had the opportunity to engage with others who share an interest in Second Life, and become fully immersed with them in this environment.

By the time I started in the Slemester program I knew a little about several different things in Second Life: shopping (of course!), buying and selling land, setting up groups, communication, terraforming, building, navigation I didn’t know how to do any of it very well..and there are always better ways of doing things in Second Life and John is the “go to guy” for this type of knowledge.  Through my participation in the SLEmester I learned about these skills as well as the inner workings and history of Second Life, through Johnm  a long time Second Life resident. In addition to this I have had the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with colleagues from all over the world because of my participation in the SLemester Experience.   These discussions take us in many directions from talking about books, the future of education and social networking, media as well as challenges faced by virtual worlds in a global environment.   It goes without saying that I signed up for SLEmester II without thinking twice!  I couldn’t wait for it to get started. However even more meaningful than that is the enduring connection that I now have with John Jamison and Imagilearning, his support on a research project I am working on in education and the future of education in Second Life.

But John Jamison’s Imagilearning is much more than the SLemester Experience. According to the Imagilearning website the mission of  this enterprise is:

In addition to the SLEmester Experience sessions one and two John also provides several consulting opportunities in education and training not just in the virtual environment but techniques and knowledge on creating environments in which learning occurs for the student.  Further information regarding Imagilearning can also be found  on this Ning Site:  http://futureoflearning.ning.com/, engage in a dialogue with other colleagues in order to learn about the best practices of teaching and learning in virtual worlds.  John has a cadre of Second Life, social  networking, business and education experts to draw upon to consult and meet your training needs.

The 2009 Horizons report covers six emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research or creative expressing for education.  This report was produced by the New Media Consortium and the Educause Learning Institution.  Based upon information and data gathered these are the trends that NMC and Educause have identified as significant over the next one to five years:

1.)   Mobiles and cloud computer  One-two years  already established on campuses

2.)  Geo-everything and personal web  in common use in other sectors but not education

3.)  Semantic aware applications and smart objects  not yet commonly found in an educational context even thought research In these areas is growing

Definitions of each:

1)    Mobile technology:  cell phones, smart phones, I Phones, ITouch

1. Adopted to a host of tasks for learning, productivity and social networking

2)    Cloud computing large scale data farms, large clusters of networked services

3)    Geo-everything “geo tagged/coded data

4)    Personal web:  aggregate the flow of content, rather than simply  viewing it

1. Collection of widgets that manage online content
2. Can configure and manage the ways in which one views and uses the Internet
   1. i.    Explicit defined to the individual=

5)    Semantic aware application

1. Tools that gather the context in which the information is framed

6)    Smart objects:  a set of technologies that imbues objects with the ability to recognize physical location and respond appropriately

1. Knows information about itself

Key trends that impact how and which tech is adopted:  Increased globalization continues to affect the way we work, collaborate and communicate

• The notion of collective intelligence is redefining how we think about ambiguity and imprecision.
• Experience and affinity for games as learning tools is an increasingly universal characteristic among those developing education initiatives.
• Visualization tools are making information more meaningful and insights more intuitive. As tools of this nature
• As more than one billion phones are produced each year, mobile phones are benefiting from unprecedented innovation, driven by global competition

My observations on trends:

• Financial constraints due to economy
• Changes in job work demands
• Obama administration initiative
• Rapid growth in distance education
• Changing structure / theories of learning. what it means to learn in social networking

IBM’s future trends report identified the following trends that they term five signposts:

• Technology immersion—immersion of students (using technology for learning)  Driven by mobile technologies
• Personalized learning paths—(personal and varied learning paths)  Using semantic web technology to push the appropriate course materials to a student which meets his/her individualized learning needs. Students are also exerting more pressure expecting more individualized learning to meet their needs in the workplace.
• Knowledge skills—(for service based economies)  The third signpost for the future is a shift in the requirements for workers’ skills toward more knowledge-based competencies—i.e. how information is accessed and how it is used to create new knowledge
• Global integration—(global integration of systems, resources, and cultures,  Advancements in technology have eliminated traditional lines that defined the boundaries of an educational institution)
• Economic Alignment—(education’s critical role in a 21^st century economy)

:

My research in each trend from the Horizon’s 2009 report found the following:

BusinessLink ( www.businesslink.gov.uk ) identifies mobile technology as any technology that provides access to the Internet that is mobile:  cell phones, pdas, laptops, netbooks, gps, etc.

There are many types of content that can be accessed via the mobile device:  podcasts, videos, audio bytes,  live events, pictures, pdfs, documents, slide shows.  In addition to this there are many sites that provide access to resources that best demonstrate how to use mobile technology:

Mobile Learning media:

The author of this blog is “Judy Brown a Mobile Technology Analyst who has been involved in technology for learning for over 25 years and with mobile learning since 1996. She coordinates the mlearnopedia.com site.”

Judy Brown’s collection of mobile learning/elearning resources

Handheld Learning:

The mobile learner

Cloud computing in higher education:

Educause resources

Higher education needs a national computing cloud

Smartschools:

The Ups and Downs of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing basically lets you access software applications, hardware, data and computer processing power over the web. You don’t have to purchase and run software in your computer anymore. The cloud, the abstract physical description of what the Internet can do (personal computer, processor, storage), is there for you anytime, anywhere.

Outsourcing and Cloud Computing for Higher Education

To summarize what cloud computing is, what its relationship to outsourcing is, what areas in the information technology arena are available for outsourcing, and what some of the obvious and not-so-obvious challenges of outsourcing are. It will provide a focused check list on some legal and policy issues to address in contracts between institutions and outsourcing entities and, finally, make two recommendations, one for an internal procedure by which to address these issues and the other for a collaborative approach to some of these challenges from the perspective of higher education.

Next Gen Ed:
Cloud computing is when a company or organization connects many computers to distribute processing power. Those linked computers would be called that companies ‘cloud.’ The cloud pulls information from many computers together and then gives the user the final product. This allows for much faster computing

Personal  Web:

About Personal web:

Wikipedia defines personal web as:

Personal web pages are World Wide Web pages created by an individual to contain content of a personal nature. The content can be about that person or about something he or she is interested in. Personal web pages can be the entire content of a domain name belonging to the person (which would then be a personal website), or can be a page or pages that are part of a larger domain on which other pages are located – an example of one such larger site is GeoCities.

Personal web  pages:

Personal Web Page is one published by an individual who may or may not be affiliated with a larger institution. Although the URL address of the page may have a variety of endings (e.g. .com, .edu, etc.), a tilde (~) is frequently embedded somewhere in the URL

About.com  Personal web tools

Information on how to build your own personal Web site from scratch. Create your site with or without HMTL and other Web site codes. Learn how to use layouts, colors and graphics to design your Web pages. Find out the do’s and dont’s of Web site design so you can create great looking Web pages and an easy to use Web site.

University of Florida’s Personal web pages server:

http://usfweb2.usf.edu/university-communications-and-marketing/marketing/web-services/personal-web-pages.asp

Personal Web Pages

USF provides student, faculty, and staff with their own Web pages. These Web pages, as permitted by the university or individual departments, are not included in the Web guidelines but are subject to the guideline located in the appendix I “Personal Web Pages” at the end of this web page.

Cornell University decommissioned their personal web spaces because of so many other alternatives:

University of Minnesota personal web spaces:

Duke personal web space

Personal web tools:

Personal web pages are World Wide Web pages created by an individual to contain content of a personal nature. The content can be about that person or about something he or she is interested in. Personal web pages can be the entire content of a domain name belonging to the person (which would then be a personal website), or can be a page or pages that are part of a larger domain on which other pages are located – an example of one such larger site is GeoCities. Another example would be a student’s website for school. Personal web pages are often used solely for informative or entertainment purposes. Defining personal web page is difficult, because many domains or combinations of web pages that are under the control of a single individual can be used by the individual for commercial purposes, ranging from just the presentation of advertising, to electronic commerce: the sale of goods, services or information; in fact eBay began as the personal web page of Pierre Omidyar. ^[1]

Wikis:

http://www.tiddlywiki.com/

Personal Wiki

What is a PersonalWiki? It’s like WardsWiki, but it’s yours. It can be:

• a free-form database
• a PersonalInformationManager
• a journal (see WikiJournaling)

blogs:

https://www.blogger.com/start

Free patient blogs:

http://www.carepages.com/

http://www.caringbridge.org/

Make a free website:

Weebly:

What can I do with Weebly?

• Create a free website & blog
• Easy drag and drop interface
• No technical skills required
• Dozens of professional designs
• Free domain hosting

WordPress:

Get a free blog here

http://wordpress.com/

Live journal:

http://www.livejournal.com/

Get your own free blog:

http://www.blogwebsites.net/

Spurz has all kind of free website ideas:

http://www.spruz.com/

Geotagging:   is the process of adding geographical identification metadataRSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. These data usually consist of latitude and longitude coordinates, though they can also include altitude, bearing, accuracy data, and place names. to various media such as photographs, video, websites, or

Flickr geotagging group:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/geotagging/

GeoTagging  metadata:

Metadata makes the difference between a shoebox full of unsorted photos and a nicely-organized album that lets you browse photos of your Paris vacation. It’s the data about where, when and how you captured each shot, and most of it comes from your camera, which embeds the data automatically with every shot.

What is still lacking is the ‘where’ for each photo, and that’s where location-based metadata comes in. Location-

Google is finally adding the facial recognition features you can find in Picasa Web albums to its desktop app. With today’s release of Picasa 3.5, when you add a name tag, it scans your entire photo library and applies that name to every match. If it’s not sure it’s the same face, it gives you the option to apply the tag.

Curtis Bonk has certainly inspired many to take a good hard look at open course-ware, free education, and open education resources.  He has promoted his vision on the web through his blog,  Travelin Ed Man, you can find him on YouTube, and the site for the book The World is Open How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education.  In the book, Curtis Bonk suggested that open course ware be cataloged and reviewed, given that mission I want to find open courses in writing; technical writing, fiction, non-fiction and poetry.  I took what I felt was a unique approach to this by first reviewing my Poetry and Writing magazine just to see if there were any Master’s, Fine Arts that were advertising as being fully online, as historically these have always had at least some sort of short residential component.  After reviewing a a magazine from 2006 to one printed in 2009 I did not see that much had changed in how these programs were structured.  So I started to scour the web looking for open courses in writing..well it goes without saying that I am not the first one who has gone on that mission!  I will refer to those great sites such as Smashing Magazine’s 50 Free Resources that will improve writing, the Online Education Database of 150 Resources to Help You Write, to the handful of courses offered by Utah State University in open course-ware,  MIT’s open course-ware initiative, a resource of online courses offered by universities in English, and a site that is not affiliated with a university, The Writer’s Village.    In fact Bonk, himself, has compiled a list of the top 100 education sites, which he refers to in his blog.  One of the big personal websites which compiles learning objects and course ware is that of Dumblittle man, this site seems to link back to lists of links as well.   Finally the Freelance writing site directs writers to a variety of sites which will enhance and develop their writing skills.

The Writer’s Village offers courses via an annual $69  membership, as I reviewed their website I did find the information on the site a bit “stale,” with nothing really updated since last spring.  The site boasts of over 250 courses, offers a 2 month trial registration for $29.99.  You can also take a class for free in order to try out the site.  According to the website this course  is “an introduction to the craft of writing fiction and provides a sample of how courses at the Village are run.  A dedicated team of mentors assists students new to the course, and possibly new to the online learning experience, as they go through this six-week course.”  The Writer’s Village is an example of an educational service which the learner can access for informal learning.

The following sites are not open course but the tools, resources and other support that writers need to be successful.  Smashing Magazine is a design, inspiration, graphics, and creative web based magazine, that illustrates the “how to” of the many aspects of graphic design.  The June 28th, 2009 article,  50 Free Resources that will Improve Your Writing, provides the reader with several resources under each category of grammar, punctuation and composition, common mistakes and problems, general writing skills, practical guides to better writing skills, copy writing blogs, tools, and other miscellaneous sites.   Learn-gasm is a blog that provides resources in several related areas such as resources for web workers who write for the web, literature, and a variety of other areas.

With the rise of publishing to the web self-publishing no longer seems to have the stigma that it once did. Lulu was the premier entry into this field.  Lulu provides writers with a variety of publishing packages which include:  support, publishing the book for the writer, Amazon distribution, getting the ISBN assigned to the book, a variety of publishing options, editorial services, and other services.  Services depend upon the level of publishing option selected.  iUniverse is another self-publishing option which offers publishing services, evaluation services for editorial and marketing needs, a variety of book formats, and design services.  There is a web-list of resources helpful to copywriters, which provides the following:

• links to professional copywriters’ associations
• links to major research databases and cite-able sources–where you can pull all types of stats, current studies, numbers, facts, etc.
• free online trusted style guides–get the final word on grammar, sentence structure, definitions for slang terms, how to cite sources in your web-copy, reference for copyright laws and content usage issues
• links to various niche market sources (under continued construction)

Open and free courses are available in writing as I noted earlier.  Of specific interest is the technical writing wiki. This site provides “Level 1 and Level 2 courses in technical writing, plus a workshop on writing system requirement specifications…”   Of interest to those who are pursuing journalism is the News University site which provides open and free courses to  registered users and learners seeking to develop writing skills in that area.

Second life provides opportunities for writers to also pursue their craft. Sites such as the Stormy Mountain Writing Center,which provides:

• Every month, we’ll pick a book whose author is willing to come into Second Life for the discussion.
• To join the discussion, all you need to do is read the book before the meeting.
• At the appointed time, we’ll all gather with the author for an informal round-table discussion. (You’ll be able to ask the author anything you want about the book you just read!)
• Immediately after the discussion, we’ll proceed to the Story Mountain Stage, where the author will give a live reading.

The Stormy Mountain Writing Center appears to be a great site in Second Life, however the website seems to be a bit stale so I hope that enthusiasm for their project continues, I have dropped Alas Zerbino an IM for more information.  Another site for writers in Second Life is the Written Word, (link to their Website), their Second Life site is here. More in world writing related events and activities can be found at the Second Life events calendar and at the following site; Second Life wiki which illustrates the uses of Second Life in Education. I have, in the past, been able to participate in world at writers groups and hope to do so again sometime, there is nothing like that peer feed back to improve your writing skills.  It was also a great opportunity to meet with published writers who were knowledgeable of what it takes to get published.