In the wake of my post yesterday I received a trio of comments that have each added a valuable insight to my present state of thought regarding the root cause of the relatively superficial usage of online learning environments we tend to see in education – or at least higher education.This in turn has evolved into a more fundamental look at teaching practice in general, and now, as pointed out by Ed Webb, a look at what appears to be a deeply rooted cultural and systemic reality with regards to …

One of the topics that’s really been at the forefront of what I do these days has been the notion of pilot programs, and an emerging discussion of what they look like, how you plan and implement them, how you evaluate and assess their outcomes, and what their scope and scale is or perhaps what it should be.
I have fairly established opinions on this whole topic, which have gradually evolved over time; but I don’t think I’ve ever taken the time to actually articulate what they are. So for …

I’m finding myself researching the topic of openness in education and research more and more these days, even when I don’t set out to do it. Tonight while watching an episode of Nova on YouTube called “Absolute Zero“, for example, I was struck by a very interesting historical example.
As the name implies, the episode was devoted to the history of cold research and endeavor, from historical perspectives on cold as a mystical, magical phenomena, to the early periods of research into its nature, through the industrial revolution and on …

The Centre for Research on Computer Supported Learning and Cognition (CoCo) at Sydney University recently announced plans for the 2009 Learning Technology Research Symposium taking place October 1st from 10 am to 2 pm.  Several colleagues and I attended the previous symposium held late last year (details from 2008 here) and it was a great event.  If you can spare the time I’d recommend going.
From the CoCo website:
“The Learning Technology Research Symposium is a half-day event inviting the community of researchers and practitioners in ICT-supported learning to exchange ideas, showcase …

This week I attended a two-day workshop put on by members of the Library staff that discussed the nature of research publications, the implications for which journals you publish in and how you recognise the differences in quality, and above all the whole notion of maximising your research impact.
None of these are factors I’ve ever thought about; none of them are things I’ve ever had to think about.  As a non-academic, I have no mandate to publish, no quota of annual publications to meet, and therefore not the slightest clue …