PLE vs LMS…

With all the web-based tools that exist and considering they are growing faster than the upstate NY yards this summer, I suggest looking to them to see if they might not be wiser than constructing institutional tools that the university would use to serve their customer/clients (learners). But don’t worry, by the end of this writing I cast my vote for a hybrid system involving “out-sourced” systems (outside the university) with some obvious need for “in-house” hardware, software and systems that must remain totally within the power of the university.

Sometimes called “Personal Learning Environments” the idea relates more closely to concept than a host of “out-sourced” products. In an intimidating way the term can cause confusion because, although tools exist, incorporating their use into some coherent manner is a challenge few have yet to entertain. Using facebook, wikis, blogs, podcasts, vodcasts, netvibes, igoogle, mashable, twitter, youtube, flickr, Delicious, smartphones (notice I didn’t say iPhones….just blew that I guess), sms, rss, windows live, tagging, ubiquitous computing blah, blah, blah just go here to get my point….It’s a new manner of teaching and learning through web 2.0 tools and who is going to step up and say “Oh, I can tell ya how to do that…”

But all this glitz and color may not be just glamour. These tools are used and provide function-at least some of them to millions of people. Like any large group, there’s varying quality and usefulness. It would make sense to me to spend a fair amount of time assessing and evaluating these tools to take advantage of expertise rather than always thinking the institution must and will do a better job. Save your programming and engineering for the needs you consider vital or sensitive enough that it must be totally owned, operated and hosted by the institution. Other than that, consider the market place and as one colleague put it focus on being the “glue” that makes them stick to your organization the way you want them to work for you clients. Creating connections between and among evaluated resources so that the institution will benefit may be the most “efficient” strategy.

This environment is first of all “personal” and not “institutional” by nature. Both a “pro” and a “con”, an environment that harnesses the power of commercially-tested and proven useful tools can be wise from a support perspective. The “con” may be that were not talking just technology but pedagogy and that typically is not quick to change. So we have the case that student modes of learning in the real world are QUICKLY becoming disparate in terms of the not-so-modern classroom. A personal learning environment plan with a subset of skills that can be proven may be a way to enrich the degree they ultimately earn.

If we look at the customer who is a student or faculty member we should also consider the industry. Educational institutions seem to be at their best when they not only deliver a degree to students but when they deliver a “solid” experience that will remain with them. If you were to be able to educate students regarding their chosen major/discipline AND AT THE SAME TIME use the “tools of the world” to do it how much more valuable will their EXPERIENCE be? – particularly after they graduate and are now competing in that same world….Oh, did I mention that most of them already are familiar with these tools just not how to leverage them in an educational/industrious/economic way…

Hopefully my enthusiasm for some of these tools has not been misleading. Regardless of how great these technologies may be, there is reason to keep control over systems and information that the institution believes to be “mission-critical”. But the idea of dynamically managing and delivering “all things digital” in some packaged form is like trying to swallow an ocean wave. After all, that’s why cable tv remote operators and internet users first began to “surf” their environments rather than try to “command” them. It is a strategy in a simple form.

When considering how to incorporate technology into learning, a host of questions will need to be addressed to be sure the customer is served. But approaching the support of higher education and learning need to be wrapped around the idea of creating institionally controlled systems only when necessary and look to the what clients already use whenever possible. Secondly, concerning ourselves with focusing on developing individuals instead of technology means we have remained at the core of education.

Whoa…

Not sure how to take this..

What’s so special about community?

I was coming to work today and being new to much of the culture of the university I have been thinking about it much more than someone who has become accustom to the environment. I was driving in a parking garage when a university parking attendant vehicle swerved in front of me not realizing I was there thus causing me to suddenly break.

The details of the garage is not what’s important. In downtown areas, this instance does not normally result in the offender trying to apologize. Usually someone “flips you off” or throws their hands in the air in disgust. I was not expecting an apology and I try not to get to excited anytime I am behind the wheel but this could have easily resulted in an accident. Walking towards my building one block away form the garage, the official pulled over to apologize to me. I said “thank you and I was probably moving a bit too quickly in the garage” but appreciated the gesture very much….

Why does this happen? I suggest partially because the concept of community. When people are publicly part of a positive community, experiences like mine occur. So I contend that community adds value. Being part of the same community casues members to “validate” one another. There are many kinds of value but whether or not you think so, members of a community all know that the reason they are part of a community is becasue it adds value or meaning to their lives/experiences.

So now I understand why millions of people join online communities. Somewhere along the line, the experience of being part of a social network adds some value to it’s members and likewise should it become something less they can “opt” out….wonder if I could do that in the “real world”?

Real Gaming….

“I just need a blue double” I overheard him say from the basement. He likes to hang out there with all the digital furnishings that we paid for. I don’t mind really because my teenage son and his friends get a lot of use out of the hardware, gaming systems, online subscriptions, television and who knows what else is down there….
These days kids tend to play with all this technology but it is fun to listen to the lingo as they conquer worlds and go on imaginative quests. Some say that it makes them “brain dead” or is not a redeeming pastime and is purely passive entertainment.
“That looks like some kind of transformer, you better hold on to it” his friend says as they chuckle with boyish excitement. “Build the wall so they can’t get in” I hear and think about what I am missing so I decide to give a quick look by venturing down the steps only to hear more clearly the sweet sound I use to hear for hours long ago. The sweeping sound of milling hands among hard plastic pieces-Legos…a child’s first gaming system.