Interactive Conference Sessions

Kathy Sierra has a great post entitled Creating Passionate Users: Interactions vs. one way communication. She compares some active learning vs. site and listen conference experiences, and comments on how odd some people find the active learning model.

She writes:

So why does this happen? Why aren't sessions more interactive? Three main reasons:

1) It's just not the way it's done.
2) The speaker doesn't have the kind of classroom-management skills needed to pull of group exercises, especially in a large room.
3) The session is really more of a briefing than an actual learning experience or tutorial, so it's not really appropriate.

Take a look, she makes some excellent points.

MAKE Textbooks

O'reilly media has two interesting projects -- the first is a new magazine called MAKE. The magazine will feature how-to articles on hacking and playing with technology. The first issue has an article on aerial photography using kites -- cool. This sample article is available for download. I got my copy, and my kite is ready to fly, so look forward to some aerial photographs coming soon. As a kid I was a Popular Mechanics and Popular Science subscriber, back when those magazines had DIY articles on making airplanes, and boats and all sorts of other cool things. The best way to learn and understand technology is to play with it.

The other thing O'reilly has going is something called SafariU. I haven't taken the full tour of how this all works, but the idea is you can create your own custom textbook from parts of O'reilly publications. You can also build a syllabus and book list for students. For teachers of technical subjects this looks like a great idea.

And you can hear all about these from Dale Dougherty in a talk posted at IT conversations. The talk is more like an infomertial than a real lecture, but its short and I thought pretty interesting.

Nifty Corners are Nif-tee

Here is a cool use of CSS. Rounded corners used to be a pain to create but soooo nice looking. Now you can have your rounded corners AND still have a standards compliant website. I've got several web projects in the works, so I'll need to work in some rounded corners.

Simulations and E-learning

Boy, what a month. I can't believe it has been several weeks since my last post. But I haven't been goofing off...

In the podcasting world, two recent shows from IT Conversations deal with the subject of simulations and games for elearning. One is an interview with Henry Jenkins, the program chair at MIT's program in comparative studies. In the interview he discusses his view that the millennial generation is wired differently than us older folks. He draws the line right around age 35, which leaves me eight years shy. The point is that the extensive use of video games for children under 12 leads to different neural paths in their brains. After around age 12 the pathways are set. This generation compares to the baby boomer generation, who were equally different from their prior generation, due to the early influence of television on their brains. I am all over the idea that learning and approach to the workplace will change as this group comes through our institutions. But I'm not so convinced that they see the world all that differently than us older folks do.

The talk by Clark Aldrich is terrific. He lists 6 qualities that are essential for simulations and learning in general:

1. Linear content
2. Systems of content
3. Cyclical content.
4. Simulation elements that model reality
5. Game elements that provide familiar and entertaining interactions
6. Pedagogical elements that ensure the students’ time is spent productively

He discusses the creation of, and results from the virtual leader simulation that he developed. The game elements in these types of simulations, and their immersive nature lead to strong learning experiences. If you are going to learn to ski, which is better: watching other people ski or doing it yourself? Obviously doing by learning leads to more memorable learning. And that's what the millennials are expecting.

Project Completition

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originally uploaded by rodeworks.

Well, Ethan got his project done on the cold war, but I still have several I need to get done. Including my final paper for my Capella Assessment/Evaluation class. So no big essays for another couple of days. You can check out my two latest webdesign projects here:

http://www.yale.edu/summercabaret/2005
http://www.jinxl.com

Both are in still in progress but coming along (more projects!)

Active Conference Plan

While driving home from NERCOMP in the snow I started thinking, why, at a conference where active learning and technology-enabled learning is all the talk, are we still stuck in the old teaching model. The speakers sit up in the front of the room with their carefully prepared PowerPoint slides and we all sit dutifully in neat rows facing them and taking notes. Isn’t it time for something different? Here is my active conference plan:

Registration – The registration process is done online.

Registrants create a username/password that will give them access to conference materials and activities. They also fill out a detailed questionnaire that is designed to assess their specific interests, learning goals, learning styles, opinion on conference topics and even personality characteristics. Think of this as a combination professional questionnaire and personality test. All who respond are treated to a summary view of all the responses, so that they can see where they fit into the mix.

Based upon the topics that people are interested in, the conference planners develop several broad questions/issues that are to be addressed by conference participants during the conference. Teams of registrants are created and are assigned to address one of these questions/issues. The team assignments are planned to be cross-functional/cross-disciplinary based upon the survey responses.

Pre-conference activities

Once teams are assigned, registrants participate in a pre-conference introduction forum. They upload a picture, describe themselves, post a link to their personal websites, etc. The first team activity, conducted online, is to design a team logo. From the logo a t-shirt will be created and given to team members when arriving at the conference. Maybe the team also selects their topic/question from a list of possible topics?

The conference website also would include short FAQ/training information on technologies to be used during the conference – podcasting, RSS, blogs, etc.

At the conference

The conference itself would have many of the standard trappings of today’s conferences – the exhibitor floor, continental breakfasts, keynote speakers, topical presentations, panel discussions, etc. But there would also be extensive time and dedicated space set aside for team activity. The expectation would be that team members would each attend the sessions they personally found of interest, then return to review the information with their team, share information, and discuss how it all related to their topic. Information learned at the sessions, from discussions with vendors, and other conference activities would now be used immediately in discussions with fellow professionals.

Individual blogs – each member is assigned their own blog to post notes/impressions during the conference. Blogs are organized by team, making it easy for members to share information.

Wireless networking – everywhere, with participants encouraged to bring their laptops everywhere. Encourage session leaders to work laptop use into their presentations (having all access the same website, etc.) Also have a vendor who can rent/loan laptops for the time of the conference.

The final activity would be presentations from all team groups on their findings/conclusions regarding their topic. Presentations would be brief, 10 – 15 minutes in length. If there are a lot of teams they may need to be multiple sessions, as any one sessions shouldn’t exceed 90 minutes in length. And food should be included. Final presentations posted online and become a part of the collective blog postings.

Implementing the Plan

This idea is flexible enough that it could be executed with a small group of people registered at a larger conference. There could be “normal” conference goers there alongside the “active” conferences.

There are a lot of details to still hash out with this idea, BUT this is starting to sound like the kind of conference I would like to attend. Everyone gets to be a active participant, you get to work with and meet new people, and you come out of the conference having really done something.

Nercomp Conference Day 1

Back from a tiring day at the Nercomp conference. And look, I'm listed as a session convener for the Online Graduate Application talk.

The first session I attended, on ePortfolios in New England, was probably the best one of the day. I've been thinking that ePortfolios is exactly the type of thing we need at Yale School of Drama. But in looking for software and real examples of how they are being used, I didn't find much that was really concrete. It turns out that is because the whole concept is still really emerging, and everyone is implementing their own version in their own way with their own combination of tools. The Open Source Portfolio initiative sounds promising.

I find it ironic that in education we so often talk about active learning, and other new models for education. But then we go to conferences and sit in neat rows, facing a speaker who uses static Powerpoint slides to talk at us for an hour or so. Even for good speakers the format is sooo dry, and for less than good speakers its ghastly. We need a better conference model! Too much talk not enough action!

folks vs the man

In this month's Wired magazine, the article The Resurrection of Indie Radio offers some good news for fans of good old radio. Clear Channel, the company who probably killed good old radio, is starting to re-introduce local programming in some markets. And for these shows the DJ s actually pick the music and play their own stuff -- imagine that! The future promise is HD Radio, which promises both better signal quality AND more radio stations over the same bandwidth. You will need to buy a new type of radio to receive these broadcasts, but at least your old radio will continue to work, although limited to the old broadcast band.

I wonder though, will this really fly? Sure it sounds good to have 5 stations where we only have one now, more choice, and so forth. But will we really get innovative programming, or more of the same old crap. The way I see it these big radio stations are built on maximizing revenue and minimizing expense. These additional stations may build the overall listening audience, but each individual one will have less than the one station does now. But they'll need to be paying to produce 5 times as much programming. Can they really do this creatively?

The problem is that as a commercial producer tries to respond to greater choices, the complexity grows quickly, and outstrips their ability to keep up and still stay profitable. Eric Raymond, speaking of Linux, described exactly this problem with operating systems. They are getting very complex these days, and its tough for the commercial software companies to catch all the bugs -- there's just so much code. In contract the open source software, like Linux, has an army of programmers all over the world working on it. And as more features are added, they have more volunteer programmers.

Cory Ondrejka, creator of the on line game Second Life, made a similar point about video game programming. He sees the future of games in virtual worlds, like Second Life and the SIMS. Int these environments the players actively contribute to the game environment -- in fact you could say the other players are the game. Traditional video games, where the programmers create all elements of the environment, can't add new story lines and features fast enough to keep players engaged. The strategy as Cory sees it is to create a compelling experience and lest the users provide the creative force.

Which leads me back to the radio model. More stations controlled by a corporate giant will be better. But they can't compete with the user-driven, crazy, creative world of the new radio, Pod casting. In pod casting anyone can have a radio show, and anyone can be a listener, when they want, where they want, and what they want. I don't see how commercial radio can keep up.

Egocasting or Narrowcasting?

"They encourage not the cultivation of taste, but the numbing repetition of fetish. And they contribute to what might be called “egocasting,” the thoroughly personalized and extremely narrow pursuit of one’s personal taste. In thrall to our own little technologically constructed worlds, we are, ironically, finding it increasingly difficult to appreciate genuine individuality."

So writes in Christine Rosen in The Age of Egocasting from The New Atlantis. Her concern is that as we wrap ourselves into our own private worlds we will start to withdraw from the society around us. And I think that is somewhat true. Since Christmas I have noticed a lot more earphones in the ears of people in the YMCA fitness facility. And while I listen to my own iPod its just struck me as funny that here we all are in the same room, doing the same thing, but also all in our own little worlds.

But you know what? Even when I didn't wear headphones, I didn't talk to anyone else there. And the few I do recognize now, we pull out the earbuds and talk. For me its not a matter of egocasting, but rather narrowcasting. With my iPod, filled with my music, Podcasts and other items, I can listen to what I want, when I want, participate in ideas and discussions that I want to be part of. I used to just listen to whatever was on the TV station in the gym, normally forced to watch something of little interest.

At one time most people in our country participated in the same events. Everyone watched the Milton Berle show, or Ed Sullivan -- they didn't have much choice, because that was all that was on. Now we have many options for entertainment, and it is rare that everyone watches (or listens to) the same thing, much to the chagrin of the Academy Awards folks and their advertisers. So I agree that some shared experience is lost, but were these really quality experiences? I think what we gain through narrowcasting more than makes up for what we lose.

For another take on the subject please check out Regina Lynn's article at Wired News.