Thursday, November 29, 2012

Interview Tonight - Jim Groom on "A Domain of One's Own," ds106, and More

Join me today, Thursday, November 29th, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with Jim Groom. Jim is the director of the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies and adjunct professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He has been working for over fifteen years in education with a consistent focus on the development of teaching and learning in higher education. In addition to his extensive experience teaching at the college level, for the past eight years he has worked primarily in the field of instructional technology.

We're going to focus tonight (but not exclusively) on the "A Domain of One’s Own" pilot project from the University of Mary Washington, a collaborative effort between the Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies and the Office of Information Technology Services. This is a topic I've been presenting on myself at conferences (often with Alice Keeler) which we've alternatively called "Your Personal Web Presence" or "Your Digital Profile," and which is the main focus of the Saturday free workshops I'm doing on my http://www.HackYourEducation.com tour. My experiences with helping people (mostly educators) develop a "domain of their own" has been fascinating--there's a tangible emotional excitement that is very fun to be a part of as sometimes years of wanting (but being afraid) to get started turn into reality.

"A Domain of One’s Own" will give 400 students and faculty their own domain name and web space to install a portfolio of work or map to existing systems. They believe this pilot project will give students the flexibility to build out their “e-portfolio” using a variety of software and approaches in a space that gives them the power to easily migrate and transport that data when they graduate. Look for continuing updates on this project at umwdomains.com as the pilot unfolds.

Jim's recent projects also include the Digital Storytelling course ds106 that has innovated around the idea of turning a course into an open, networked community; working with faculty at UMW to implement UMW Blogs, a multi-user blogging environment (powered by WordPress, an open source publishing platform) designed to provide a web-authoring solution to faculty and students that is flexible and open; and working with Claudia Emerson, professor of English at the University of Mary Washington, on a “technology lab” in which four groups of students built their own online literary journals. You can see more of my projects here. (From his bio at the domain of his own.)

Date: Thursday, November 29th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Mightybell:  The Mightybell space with resources is at https://mightybell.com/spaces/16125
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-11-29.1613.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/jimgroom.mp3.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Recorded Interview with Kiran Bir Sethi on Real-World Learning

Kiran Bir Sethi is the Founder/Director of the RiversideSchool in Ahmedabad, India, and her TEDIndia talk (embedded below) has been viewed over 600,000 times. She is also also the founder of ‘aProCh’ - an initiative attempting to make cities more child friendly, for which she was awarded the Ashoka Fellow in 2008. In 2009, she was also presented with the ‘Call to Conscience’ award from the King Centre at Stanford, for the citizenship/liberation curriculum that RiversideSchool implements.

Her initiative – Design for Change School Contest 2010 – won the prestigious “INDEX – Design to Improve Life” Award, in Copenhagen, Denmark in September, 2011, and her DESIGN FOR CHANGE initiative is "the largest global movement designed to give young people an opportunity to express their own ideas for a better world and put them into action." Design for Change has also recently won the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Youth Innovation  Award 2012.

I talked with Kiran via Skype on her phone since her regular Internet connection was down, so the 50-minute (and fascinating) recording linked above is audio only.

INTERVIEW RECORDING LINK:  http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/kiranbirsethi.mp3

Here is her TEDIndia talk:

Monday, November 26, 2012

Tuesday Interview - Self-Education, Life-Long Learning, and the Importance of Intellectual Maturity

Join me Tuesday, November 27th, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview with author and self-acknowledged autodidact Charles D. Hayes. I contacted Charles after finding his books Self University (published in 1989) and Proving You're Qualified: Strategies for Competent People Without College Degrees (1995). I told him that I'm particularly interested in the topics of self-education, life-long learning, and accreditation and how they are changing because of the Web, and he agreed to an interview, but insisted (smile) that we also discuss his newest book, September University: Summoning Passion for an Unfinished Life.

September University goes one step further than his previous books by discussing the imperative for those in our society who are in the second half of their lives to (as one reviewer put it) "step away from superficial things and commit to becoming wise guides for the generations that come after them." Because our education dialog seems trapped between the weird worlds of 1) expectations of compliance, conformance, and dependency, and 2) perceptions of the value of education being primarily measured numerically and financially, I'm hopeful to hear from Charles about how the significant demographic of baby-boomers-turning-seniors has the potential to reshape a more mature discussion of education.

Date: Tuesday, November 27th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-11-27.1725.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/charleshayes.mp3.

Author and publisher Charles D. Hayes is a self-taught philosopher and an impassioned advocate for lifelong learning. At age 17, he dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Marines. After four years of duty, he became a police officer in Dallas, Texas, and later he moved to Alaska, where he has worked for more than 35 years in the oil industry. In 1987, Hayes founded Autodidactic Press, “committed to lifelong learning as the lifeblood of democracy and the key to living life to its fullest.”

Hayes’ first book, Self-University, won PMA’s Benjamin Franklin Award for nonfiction in 1990 and was called the best book on self-education of the decade by educator Ronald Gross. Early in the year 2000, his book Beyond the American Dream: Lifelong Learning and the Search for Meaning in a Postmodern World was selected by the American Library Association’s Choice magazine as one of the most outstanding academic books of the previous year. His other books include Existential Aspirations: Reflections of a Self-Taught Philosopher; September University: Summoning Passion for an Unfinished Life; The Rapture of Maturity: A Legacy of Lifelong Learning; Training Yourself; and Proving You’re Qualified. His recent novel, Portals in a Northern Sky, has readers across the country declaring they are going to read or reread classic literature.

Promoting the idea that education should be thought of not as something you get but as something you take, Hayes’ work has appeared in USA Today, Library Journal, Training magazine, Training and Development magazine, in the UTNE Reader, on Alaska Public Radio's Talk of Alaska, and on National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation...

In 1989, Hayes inaugurated Self-University Week, held annually during the first seven days of September to celebrate the joy of lifelong learning. Since then, his web site Autodidactic.com has continued to provide resources for self-directed learners—from advice about credentials to philosophy about the value lifelong learning brings to everyday living. In September 2004, Hayes initiated SeptemberUniversity.org, a web site created specifically for aging baby boomers. (From http://www.autodidactic.com/authorbio.htm

Friday, November 23, 2012

Nominations Due Monday (Nov 26) for the Annual Edublog Awards!

It is that time of year again! The 2012 Edublog Awards are a go, and I'm pleased for Classroom 2.0 and my Web 2.0 Labs to be co-sponsors again of this very fun annual event. I'll also be co-hosting the awards event live in December. I've been preoccupied with the Global Education Conference, so I'm tardy in helping to promote the event--so notice the due date for nominations coming up this Monday!

The Edublog Awards is a community-based initiative started in 2004 in response to community concerns relating to how schools, districts and educational institutions were blocking access of learner and teacher blog sites for educational purposes.  The purpose of the Edublog awards is promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media.

How Does It Work?  There are 3 parts to the awards:
  • Nominations – NOW through November 26th
  • Voting – TBA
  • The Live Awards Ceremony – TBA
How To Nominate. To nominate your favorites, you:
  • Write a post with your nominations for the different categories on your own blog (or a website – anywhere public)
  • Send the link to your nomination post via the form at the bottom of the Nominations Page
Here are the 2012 Categories. Nominations are open until Monday, November 26th, so (quickly) nominate your favorite blogs, twitterers, community sites, videos, podcasts and more…
  • Best individual blog
  • Best group blog
  • Best new blog
  • Best class blog
  • Best student blog
  • Best ed tech / resource sharing blog
  • Best teacher blog
  • Best library / librarian blog
  • Best administrator blog
  • Most influential blog post
  • Best individual tweeter
  • Best twitter hashtag
  • Best free web tool
  • Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast
  • Best educational wiki
  • Best open PD / unconference / webinar series
  • Best educational use of a social network
  • Best mobile app
  • Lifetime achievement
How To Nominate. 
  • Write a post with your nominations on your blog, link to them and link to this site
  • Use the form at the bottom of the Nominations Page to send a link to your nominations
If you have any questions, you can put a comment on the announcement page or let them know using the contact form.

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Today - Educator 2.0 Preview for Australia Audience, Live and Online

The Educator 2.0 Australian Tour is coming to Australia in February 2013!

Today, live in Blackboard Collaborate, and as part of the
Australia e-Series, I'll be providing an overview of the Workshops and Masterclasses scheduled in February 2.013 in four of Australia's capital cities: Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth. For details on the tour please visit the Digital Capability site.
We are currently endeavouring to get confirmation of sufficient numbers for the workshops in February prior to November 15. This free webinar will introduce you to the Educator 2.0 concept, explore the activities you’ll experience in the workshops, and hopefully entice you to register your attendance before that date. This Webinar is part of the national promotion of the Educator 2.0 Tour.


The Educator 2.0 program is designed to support the effective personal and professional growth of every educator, and is being led by me.  The tour is is part of the “Digital Capability – Doing it Smarter” program.

I'll join those interested in the Australia e-Series Blackboard Collaborate room at 3:00 pm AEST (GMT+11) today, Wednesday November 7 (International times here). 
Log in through Blackboard Collaborate using the Australia e-Series Blackboard Collaborate (click here). Support and configuration help if needed is here.

Thursday Interview - Preparing Youth to Engage with the World

Join me Thursday, November 8th, for a one-hour live and interactive FutureofEducation.com interview (and pre-event for the 2012 Global Education Conference) with Veronica Boix-Mansilla and Tony Jackson about their free PDF book, Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World.
"In matters of national security, environmental sustainability, and economic development, what we do as a nation and in our everyday lives is inextricably intertwined with what governments, businesses, and individuals do beyond our borders.
"This new reality helps us more clearly define the role that education must play in preparing all students for success in an interconnected world. The United States have invested unprecedented resources in education, betting that our outmoded, factory-age system can be fundamentally transformed to prepare students for the rigors of a global economy.  They have challenged states and school districts to set clearer, higher standards and assess student progress in more creative ways, prepare more productive teachers, and provide effective intervention in failing schools.
"These are necessary strategies for change, but insufficient to create the citizens, workers and leaders our nation needs in the 21st century.  Missing in this formula for a world-class education is an urgent call for schools to produce students that actually know something about the world--its cultures, languages and how its economic, environmental and social systems work.
(From the Asia Society website, emphasis added.) 
Date: Thursday, November 8th, 2012
Time: 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern (international times here)
Duration: 1 hour
Location: In Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). Log in at http://futureofed.info. The Blackboard Collaborate room will be open up to 30 minutes before the event if you want to come in early. To make sure that your computer is configured for Blackboard Collaborate, please visit the support and configuration page.
Recordings: The full Blackboard Collaborate recording is at https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2012-11-08.1616.M.9E9FE58134BE68C3B413F24B3586CF.vcr&sid=2008350 and a portable .mp3 is at http://audio.edtechlive.com/foe/globalcompetence.mp3.
Mightybell Space: Resources, videos, links, and conversation about the interview can be found HERE.

Veronica Boix-Mansilla chairs the Future of Learning institute at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she also acts as a principal investigator for the school’s Project Zero. Her research examines the conditions that enable experts and young learners to produce quality interdisciplinary work and develop global competence by addressing problems of contemporary global significance (e.g., globalization, climate change, migration). She recently co-authored Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World with the Asia Society’s Anthony Jackson. In 2012 she also published Disciplinary Foundations: Teaching Big Ideas for Deep Understanding in Languages, Mathematics and Science.

Anthony Jackson is Vice President for Education at Asia Society. He also leads Asia Society’s Partnership for Global Learning, a national membership network of practitioners and policymakers dedicated to integrating knowledge about Asia and the world as a mainstay of American education. Over the past six years, he has led the development of Asia Society’s International Studies Schools Network, an effort within the PGL to create a network of small, effective, internationally-themed secondary schools across the country. In 2011, Jackson co-authored the book Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World, a publication co-developed by the Asia Society and the Council of Chief State School Officers’ EdSteps Program. This book defines the concept of global competence as a consensus standard for the field, and provides a cohesive framework for globally focused K-12 education.