I've just signed up to participate in my first Massively Open Online Course (MOOC). It's free and runs from Sept 8-30th. The focus of "MobiMOOC" is Mobile Learning, and hundreds of educators from around the world are already "enrolled". Sounds crazy - and very interesting.

What to join me? Keep reading to learn more...

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Ask anyone who has attended an online webinar presentation, a live "broadcast lecture", or viewed a lecture that has been video podcast, and chances are they were multitasking - big time. Let's face it: Without actually engaging the audience, a lecture is highly ineffective - and if it's an online, non-interactive lecture, it's like watching a television show - minus the entertainment value of advertising.

Thankfully, innovation in instruction and technology is changing the equation, as is the case at Georgia Tech Savannah...

With support from an HP Technology for Teaching grant in 2006, and a follow-on HP Leadership Grant in 2008, Elliot Moore and Monson Hayes, co-PI's and faculty in engineering, used HP tablet pcs and DyKnow software to make their synchronous, distributed learning courses come alive.

From their project website:

Currently, Georgia Tech Savannah (GTS) provides engineering education to students located across 4 different universities.  One of the primary initiatives at GTS is to develop a blueprint for building a campus that utilizes computer-based technology to enhance the effectiveness of education in synchronous distributed learning (DL) environments.  In this scenario, the professor and students engage in a live classroom session via videoconferencing equipment that allows the students and professors to be at different geographical locations.  This type of DL environment typically suffers from several challenges that create significant barriers in effective student learning and teacher instruction including:

• 1. Poor transmission of live lecture content


• 2. Limitations on basic classroom interaction among the instructor and students


• 3. Challenges in class administration of basic assessment activities (e.g., in class examples, exams, etc.)

These problems have contributed to a poor opinion overall of DL courses by students and instructors.  The results of this project have shown the following measured improvements in student attitudes and opinions regarding the learning environments created in the DL courses for this project as opposed to traditional DL courses:

• 1. Students felt the presentation of the lecture content was more clear and easy to follow than in traditional DL courses


• 2. Students preferred the use of the Tablet PC for taking and receiving notes


• 3. Students felt more involved in class discussions and learning activities


• 4. Students felt the in-class interaction through the Tablet PC helped them learn the material better and pay more attention in class

The comments from the students support these findings:

"I liked that the professor could ask questions and have us submit answers. It caused me to pay more attention than I normally would. I think I also grasped the concepts better by actually doing them during class." (Spring 2007 Student)

"The Dyknow interface allows students to actually LISTEN to what the instructor is saying without scrambling madly to write stuff down and missing important point in the process. I would highly recommend it!" (Spring 2007 Student)

"LOBBY TO MAKE OTHER CLASSES USE TABLET PCs!! It worked very well. Not only was having all the notes readily available great, but working problems in class with you giving feedback and showing popular incorrect answers was nice too. I'm actually getting a tablet pc for Christmas because of this class, no joke." (Fall 2007 student)

Keep up the great work, Georgia Tech Savannah!

PS:

This experience at Georgia Tech is only one of many. Richard Anderson, creator of Classroom Presenter software, has created a similar synchronous distance learning interaction in his computer science course (see my previous blog posting, "Enhancing "Live" Distance Learning with Classroom Presenter").

Also, check out the Virginia Tech video posted on the DyKnow site "...I can take an auditorium, a theater, and turn it into an active learning place..." (Tom Walker, Associate Professor of Engineering).

Jim Vanides, B.S.M.E, M.Ed.
Worldwide Education Programs
HP Global Social Investment
Hewlett-Packard
Twitter @jgvanides

For information about the HP Global Social Investments, visit www.hp.com/hpinfo/grants

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Let's face it - there are more conferences on the planet
than one can possibly attend. While I always appreciate the opportunity to
participate and share stories about "Re-Imagining the Classroom", I simply
cannot be traveling all the time. So I have recently tried using HP Virtual
Rooms - and it's a whole lot of fun!...

There's nothing particularly new about video conferencing.
Those of us with loved ones far away have been appreciating the Glorious magic
of Skype video calls - and some are switching to Google Video Chat. But what's
missing from both is the ability to show and annotate. Having used a tablet pc
for several years now, it's hard for me to imagine talking without
simultaneously drawing - so you can imagine my frustration with most video
webchats.

That's all changed now.

I finally have had a chance to use the HP Virtual Room service
that we granted to our 2009 HP Innovations in Education awardees in the US. The
version we granted is the Multimedia version of HP Virtual Room, which supports
webcam video streams and Voice over IP conversations, so participants can see
and hear one another without an extra phone line. Like all HP Virtual Rooms,
the room's content is persistent (you can upload presentations and keep them
there for future use). It really is "your room".

I recently used my HP Virtual Room Multimedia
account as a Presenter at two conferences, neither of which I could attend in
person - the Workshop on the Impact of Pen-based Technology in Education (www.wipte.org) held recently at Virginia Tech,
and the Next Steps Institute, a K-12 science education conference hosted
recently in Huntsville, Alabama, by the Association for Science Materials
Centers (http://www.kitsupport.org/).

The setup was simple: I have a computer, webcam, external
mic, earbuds, and an HP Virtual Room. I create an event and send the room URL
to the conference organizers, who have a room full of people, a computer (with
headphone output connect to their house P/A system, a webcam, a digital
projector, and (preferably) a wireless house mic connected back to the mic
input on their computer.

The result is an easy way to have a video conference with
window sharing. Below is a screen shot of what the NSI event looked like this
morning:

If you can't be there in person to give a presentation, it
sure is nice to still have a way to participate... and in this visual, multimedia
world, being able to show, point, and scribble is very important - and couldn't
be easier!

Jim Vanides, B.S.M.E, M.Ed.
Worldwide Education Programs
HP Global Social Investment
Hewlett-Packard
Twitter @jgvanides

For information about the HP Global Social Investments, visit www.hp.com/hpinfo/grants

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In our ongoing quest to find ways to share the expertise of innovative educators, we have been collaborating with ISTE in the use of Second Life as a professional networking venue. The education talk show, "ISTE Eduverse Talks" has just completed its 8^th episode - and each one is worth watching...

ISTE Eduverse "talk-show" events are recorded before a live studio audio in Second Life. The archives are then posted on the ISTE Eduverse blog. These one-hour interviews are done "talk show style", featuring HP grant recipients and other experts who have valuable best-practices to share. As described on the ISTE-Eduverse blog, "Filmed and broadcast from Second Life, the series highlights innovations in educational technology, in both real life and Second Life."

You are all welcome to attend the recordings "live" (well, your Second Life avatar is welcome to attend). But even if you don't have a Second Life account, you can still view the shows the ISTE Eduverse blog, or view videos chunked into sections and posted onto Youtube. I've pasted samples of the Youtube recordings below for your reference.

Enjoy!

Jim Vanides, B.S.M.E, M.Ed.
Worldwide Education Programs
HP Global Social Investment
Hewlett-Packard
Twitter @jgvanides

For information about the HP Global Social Investments, visit www.hp.com/hpinfo/grants

Episode 7: Living in the (Virtual) Moment: A Case Study of Association Member Engagement in Second Life - Learn how the International Society for Technology in Education expanded into Second Life and used this virtual world to support member professional development, networking, and leadership in this episode featuring some of ISTE's most active volunteers and members!

Full Episode, or partial sample from YouTube:

Episode 6: Revolutionizing Instruction With Tablet PC's - Are you ready to learn how to use web-based tools in your classroom to improve the sharing of ideas, problems, questions and solutions among students? Join host Kevin Jarrett (SL: KJ Hax) for a discussion with cross-disciplinary team of educators from Clemson University who successfully integrated Tablet PC's into their curriculum as part of the HP Technology for Teaching Grant program. Hear classroom success stories and lessons learned from this diverse group of educators

 Full Episode, or partial sample from YouTube:

Episode 5: Flat Classrooms: Using Web 2.0 Tools to Level the Playing Field between Students and Teachers - Want the inside scoop on The Flat Classroom Project-a collaborative effort that utilizes Web 2.0 tools to foster communication, collaboration, and creativity between educators and students across the globe? Join host Kevin Jarrett (SL: KJ Hax) and project co-founders Vicki Davis (SL: CoolCat Whitman), the IT Director of Westwood Schools in Camilla, Georgia, and Julie Lindsay (SL: Charlotte Ozigard), the head of IT and E-Learning at Qatar Academy in Doha, Qatar, for an exciting discussion about the evolution of this project as well as tips for flattening your own classroom.

Full Episode, or partial sample from YouTube:

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It happens every time - a word becomes part of the popular
lexicon and it becomes so generalized or over-used that its very definition
becomes unclear. I am no Historian of Words nor am I a Linguist, but let me at
least share with you how I think about "e-Learning"...

The intent of the "e" in e-Learning was to describe a
learning experience that is mediated by some form of ICT (information &
communication technology), usually in a setting that is NOT a traditional
classroom. The "e", I believe, was referring to "electronic" - not
"existential" or "excellent". To some it implies the use of any technology that
is electronic, distinguishing the experience from learning that uses
"non-electronic" technologies, such as books, chalk, paper, pencils, slide
rules...

Now that just about everything is mediated by electrically
powered (batteries or otherwise) gizmos, the word "e-Learning" is becoming a
bit too broad, almost to the point of being unhelpful. If we expect clear and
meaningful dialog about how to design exemplary e-Learning experiences for
students, I think we need to clarify what is meant by "e-Learning" and what has
now become its many variants.

There are many types of e-Learning experiences that are
being tried. Some of them are powerful and exciting, finally addressing the
needs of a large number of students for whom large, lecture-style classrooms
are not effective. One-size-fits-all instructional design is not working, so
some of the permutations in eLearning bring welcome innovation. Unfortunately,
other forms of e-Learning are (trying to be polite) "modest" in their
effectiveness - dreadfully so, I'm afraid. The worst offender is the "self
paced corporate training module" that you click through while reading your
email.

So whenever I'm involved in a discussion about "e-Learning",
I always ask, "What type of learning experience are you referring to?"
Usually the discussion is about online learning of some sort, so let me share
with you my current online learning taxonomy (if that's really the right way to
describe my list below):

Asynchronous Online
Learning - oLearning(a)

These are the types of online experiences that don't depend
on "being there" at any particular time. Unlike "showing up for class at 9am",
you can login and participate 24/7. Conversations are usually in the form of
threaded discussion "bulletin boards", or now rising in popularity, micro-video
or audio postings.

One of the interesting characteristics about oLearning(a)
experiences with groups of learners is that the conversations are often much
more reflective & meaningful - if the instructional design and facilitation
of the experience are both wisely done.

Synchronous Online
Learning - oLearning(s)

These experiences bring together people at the same moment
in time, just like a face-to-face classroom that meets at a specific moment, an
oLearning(s) experience requires that you show up at the same time.

There are many versions of this, such as webinars where the
audio comes through the phone or VoIP, and the visuals are delivered to your
web browser; video chat through a webcam; high-resolution rooms that create face-to-face
experiences so realistic that you forget the other half of the room is across
the world, (e.g. HP HALO rooms); Second Life "avatar-to-avatar" experiences;
and many more.

oLearning Design Dimensions

But "synchronous" vs. "asynchronous" is still inadequate in
capturing the details we need in order to consider what type of experience
design is best for the learning objectives being addressed. So, here's my
checklist of "design dimensions" for your consideration:

• PACE: is the learning scheduled,
  self-paced, or ad-hoc (on-demand)?


• HELP: who/what provides the
  scaffolding that guides students through from novice to expert? Is the
  experience led by a PERSON (instructor, content-expert, facilitator,
  mentor) or by a MACHING (artificial intelligence, cognitive tutor, etc)


• COHORT: are the learners alone, or
  in a structured cohort, or in an informal community?


• FORMALITY: is this a "formal"
  learning experience for credit, or an informal learning experience that
  fills another need?

So here is how I describe the learning experience of the
students in the online course I designed and deliver for Montana State
University: The course is
a conceptual physics course on the Science of Sound, designed specifically for
teachers of students in grades 5 through 8. The learning is entirely online,
asynchronous, scheduled (there are assignments due each week), instructor led,
with a cohort of students who are earning 1 unit of semester credit (see www.scienceteacher.org for more
info!).

I'm sure my taxonomy, as it were, is incomplete, so I
welcome your comments. There are many wonderful resources for online learning
design. Let me suggest two:

• Seven
  Steps to Better E-Learning by Clark Quinn (via a Twitter post from
  Steven Anderson, @web20classroom)


• Facilitating
  Online Learning  by Collison,
  Elbaum, Haavind, and Tinker - a wonderful book to read if you are teaching
  online or designing an online, human-mediated experience

What I really hope this does is help us all have more
precise discussions about what's working and what does not work, so that more
students are successful the pursuit of their dreams...

Jim Vanides, B.S.M.E, M.Ed.
Worldwide Education Programs
HP Global Social Investment
Hewlett-Packard
Twitter @jgvanides

For information about the HP Global Social Investments, visit www.hp.com/hpinfo/grants