Merlot Finale

Well, we have come to the end of the MERLOT conference...this one ended somewhat anticlimactically, having no event to really wrap it up; but the morning plenary was truly awesome. Barabara Dieu (from Brazil) addressed the room, bringing along a few of her friends from all over the world - who joined us in Second Life, Alado.net, webheadsinaction.org, and a couple of other technology gatherings, including a number of voice feeds from all over - from Canada to France, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and who knows where else. I am one who is nervous adding PowerPoint technology to a presentation or lesson, and Barbara joins up six or more to bring the world to MERLOT. No fear - that's the only way to go.

Well her talk was about the architecture of collaboration, so whether the technology worked or didn't (as she explained to me), the point would be made about what we need to do more of, better, faster and with higher stability is to keep developing the architecture and infrastructure that breaks down the barriers to bringing the world together. She threw in a sort of social comment slide early in her presentation that I really didn't get until just now - on reflection. The slide was of a child in some "inner city" sitting on the curb between two obviously busy lanes of traffic (maybe in the aftermath of Katrina?). The child looked the picture of poverty and the comment from Barbara - that this is too often the image of the inner city - was lost on me in the discussion about architecture and collaboration.

Maybe that was the point - to make us all stretch to figure out what technology and collaboration can do to change the reality of poverty and to improve the human condition. I think there are at least three points that could be made for us related to what we heard and saw: first, that the technology can offer an escape from the reality of the city and inspire us to create a reality that is more positive; second, that bringing the world together brings the hope that we can become a world culture - accepting and welcoming of our differences and working together to make it a better world; and that through technology we can be aware, conscious, motivated, concerned, and energized about making that change.

I still can't believe she pulled off that much technology, so smoothly....awesome!

I took in only a couple of short sessions today, but one of them - just a 30-minute presentation really got me thinking about how we might use wikis in problem-based learning. I also got introduces to a fairly substantial new set of technologies, tools, and tactics. I will put together a list of technologies and a basic taxonomy of learning that applies as a result of my learning here. My buddy Caroline C. has suggested I present something at the college; but I am thinking about how I might just make that available in another format - something that uses the technologies I have been introduced to or given the chance to play with.

MERLOT itself is the most important resource with which I have become familiar and I intend to help others use this on my return. I will also use it myself if possible to put together a couple of courses on eBusiness in a technology collection of some sort...still reflecting: still learning.

Time to head home - through Washington on the return trip. It will be nice to sleep in my own bed, but will certainly come back to New Orleans before too long. Bon voyage, cher.

MERLOT Conference Thursday

Another very full day in the great State of Louisiana. The breakfast plenary by Dave and Don Megill ("Teaching Blue") was the highlight of the conference so far. Dave and Don are identical twins but the keynote speaker was announced as Dave Megill who started the morning address talking about the impact of technology on music...both the good and the bad. The whole room could relate to the only slide in his "Apple Keynote" deck that had more than three or four words on it; the first one that had three bullet points on it:

• It's the info between the bullets that matters


• If you are reading this you are probably missing something


• If I'm reading this, please shoot me!
  

Words that some of our presenters could have learned earlier!

Dave went on to discuss the evolution of music from a technology perspective...how, like literature, the Gutenberg Press also revolutionalized the distribution of music; how music recording (Dead Music) resulted in live perfromance taking a hit; how the MIDI evolution democratized composition; and how musical ownership has taken a hit from the development of the internet.

What's next? In keeping with the purpose of MERLOT (re-usable learning objects), he talked about what the Ultimate Musical Learning Object (UMLO) might be, and introduced his twin brother (who was hidden up until then) as his UMLO - "another me"! the two Megills went on to totally change how we thought about teaching of abstract notions, and things that defy teachable competencies; like the inner ear, the tonal centre, musical time, and musical abstraction. A good music instructor can recognize, comment on, grade and even fail a student on those things; yet there is little proof. Try proving the someone gets the notion "blue" - does the blue in your mind look the same as the blue in mine? OK, prove it.

Developing a useful ultimate musical learning object will be a challenge if we are to make it as powerful as the notions that are floating about the MERLOT and educational technology world. My favorite part of the address was when he spoke about how he teaches...he says he is such a nut about teaching that all you have to do is come near him and the teaching switch goes on and he just starts teaching...that's why a lot of his students try their best to avoid him....they're usually too busy learning. In fact his approach to teaching is to let the students know where he is going to be and they come to him when they're stuck. He says that getting a student un-stuck (which ought to be the essence of all teaching) usually takes about five minutes..."so what the heck did I used to do with the other 55 minutes of a period?"

After breakfast, I joined a group examining the eFolio Minnesota Initiative. In Minnesota they have decided that every state citizen and resident can have an eFolio, and the State offers a service/application that they can go onto to create their electronic portfolio (is this a vision for Canada's Portfolio College?). The application is quite neat and there are currently 70,000 people who have active portfolios on the statewide system. We got the chance to try it out in a hands-on workshop, and the application interfaces looked pretty good, and with decent enough presentation and security capabilities. When I asked about standards and interoperability it became obvious that they had not really adopted any standards and this was another locked-in eportfolio that might have some intrinsic value for an individual, but from the point of view of transferability, interoperability and deep integration with other systems (like PLAR, articulation engines, HRMIS and other important transitions), Minnesota's eFolio project has taken a page from e-learning before standards and may very well suffer the same early fate.

During the demonstration, I also popped out for a short presentation on rich multimedia objects from Xavier University and met Dr. Marion Carroll from Xavier. That inspired me to join two other short presentations by Dr. Carroll - one called My Office Hours, which is a podcast of conversations between students and Dr. Carroll (upon approval of the student), and another called Dr. Carroll's Notebook - which is a way to use a wiki to present lecture notes and multimedia demonstrations (mostly narrated screen captures using Camtasia) to facilitate his blended classroom.

My learning experience took a different path after lunch as Mary Elizabeth and I took on a Paddle Steamer tour of the Mississippi from Jackson Square (which includes the Cabilda where the Louisiana Purchase was signed). We finally got to see the levees that protect New Orleans from the Mississippi - which at the levees is 14 feet higher than the landmass that is the city. We saw where the levees failed (took my chevy to the levee?) and some of the tremendous damage that collased docks and homes closest to the river. We watched the amazing trade that happens in this part of the Missisippi; barges loaded with gas, sugar, grain, and asphalt constantly traveling the river and its many tributaries and locks. It was hot as heck, but mercifully the central dining room was an air conditioned refuge we could jump into from time to time.

After the tour we got back to the conference and took in a couple of late sessions, then joined the conference for "A Taste of Merlot" - and other wines - for a jazz reception. Lots of fun and Mary Elizabeth won one of the major vendor prizes to top off our day. We invited two colleagues to join us at supper at Olivier's on Decatur (amazing Creole food) and we got to taste Creole Lapin and filé gumbo.

The week has been going so fast...and I wish we could take more time to see the city, but another time!

MERLOT Conference Day Two?

Wed. 6pm
"Okay - so what happened to Day One?" you might ask. Well I am going to cover both in this post...and it had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact I stayed late at a reception titled "A Taste of New Orleans" including a taste (or 6) of Merlot ;-)

No, seriously, this is really Day One - Tuesday was the pre-conference activities day, and Mary Elizabeth and I made sure we took in some strategic sessions. While Mary Elizabeth took in a technical pre-conference in which she deployed a new wiki for faculty development, I snuck into the MERLOT presentation "Cultivating a taste for Merlot: How to enhance faculty development on your campus". We were both delighted with the outcomes and I was particularly happy to find out that anyone can become a member of MERLOT for free; to consume, develop and publish learning objects and to develop personal collections of learning objects. Go to MERLOT now! Become a member! Get some stuff! Add some stuff! It is amazing the content that is there...and unlike some collections (like Wikipedia for example), the content is peer reviewed by folks who know what they are doing. You could become a peer reviewer in some area, and I'd encourage anyone who develops courses, whether face-to-face, online or blended to start using this amazing resource.

The reception was great, if a little sparse for delegates (excellent for me, lots of extra food to choose from). We caught some jazz from the LSU Jazz Stars. Counting the evening before and today, it looks like we have finally hit nearly all the major food groups of New Orleans diet including gumbo, jambalaya, alligator (yes, it tastes like chicken), remoullade, beaudion, po'boys, crawfish pie and white chocolate bread pudding. I guess the only thing left is cajun/blackened gulf fish and I think we'll cover that tonight...maybe a little catfish at the Napolean House Restauarant.

Today was definitely a full day of learning although I have finally learned to pace myself in terms of overall learning absorbption at these events...considering of course that we also delivered our 2 hour workshop today. The morning plenary "The Coming of Age of Online Learning - Now What?" was delivered by Bruce Chaloux, Director of Southern Regional Education Board. Among the points he made are many that pertain to our focus this week on strategic decision-making on digital assets, processes, products, applications and intelligence as well as the suggestion that we need new ways to measure scholarship in teaching.

After breakfast, we toured the connections room and browsed the vendor swag collecting the obligatory stamps and signatures for our raffle entry. The swag wasn't as rich as some conferences I have attended, but the raffle prizes look awesome (lots of tech toys) so I pressed the flesh and made the rounds without looking too interested in anyone's software and services. The first morning session fro me was with IMS Global Consortium "The Common Cartridge: Educational Content Standard". It wasn't for the uninitiated and many left the room with glzed eyes after the first 5 minutes recognizing they wouldn't know an XML feed from a runtime engine...yup, really super-geeky stuff that had me riveted!

IMS has defined a number of global standards for learning objects including ePortfolio standards that could really help to reduce the complexity of the market that accompanied the evolution of pre-SCORM e-learning software proliferation. More than just a set of meta-tags and XML standards, it covers formats for nearly everything in the overall learning object development field from inline testing to built in multimedia engines, packaging drawn from best practices of the SOA, Web 2.0 and Web Services experience.

Our own presentation was received very warmly, and we made sure that folks attending our workshop didn't think it was the after-lunch nap...we got them into a pretty neat rotating thought-builder around strategic considerations for the adoption and implementation of ePortfolio for Faculty Development. The level of questions, comments and participation (even though there were only ten participants) throughout the session seemed to be well appreciated by the fine group we facilitated.

Although our session didn't end until 3:30, I was still able to catch a couple of short sessions at the end of the day including "Where is the scholarship?" - adiscussion on Research and Scholarship that suggest that where publication is a standard for tenure and promotion, online development shoudl be seen as an equally valuable scholarly activity. The final session I joined was on motivating faculty to complete digital portfolios...which I guess I didn't find too awfully relevant since the speaker comes from a university where faculty are "required" to complete a very specific form of digital portfolio. Some intersting strategies there, though and I'll report them in my final report for this conference.

OK - well it's off to the Napolean (which, by the way Napolean never visited, but was invited to - sort of like "George Washington almost slept here"?). Catch you on Day Three...or two, or something. ;-)

Good Mawnin N'Awlins

It's hot and humid here - 35 degrees C this morning with 80% humidity so it feels like 43 C. We went for breakfast in a little place just down the road (eggs, grits, and a darned good French roast coffee).

Went for a walk down Bourbon Street and found it as colorful as promised...actually a little too colorful for about 5-6 blocks of all "gentlemen's clubs" - but some interesting side streets and galleries! We have seen very interesting historical places in New Orleans over the last couple of days: like the Cabildo, originally the seat of government in Spanish-owned Louisiana - and the site of the Louisiana Purchase - now the Louisiana State Museum.

The city has some striking views, but so far not as pretty as I had expected. The smell - in the French Quarter at least - is distinctive (a combination I think of Eucalyptus trees, breweries and the Mississippi River) and not particularly pleasant for a non-native. It's so hot for Northerners like us (and not likely to cool down much) but we will try to get used to it and spend some time in the hotel pool each day. Air conditioning is everywhere, but when you leave a shop that is freezing and walk out in the heat of the day, the impact is unbelieveable...as it is going back into an air conditioned building.

We are considering a walking or Steamboat Tour (my choice would be steamboat...walking is just too warm) and hope to see some of the hurricane damaged areas during a tour. The conference registration starts tomorrow and we will try to take in a couple of pre-conference events then.

The Big Easy

"Hey, how about that - the Big Apple and the Big Easy in the same day" Mary Elizabeth exclaimed as we landed at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans. Our journey included a 2.5 hour wait in Laguardia Airport in New York. The flypast in NY was awesome - we went the length of Manhatten Island and then turned to double back for our approach to Laguardia, along the way getting a couple of great views of the Empire State Building, Statten Island, Rykers, Lady Liberty and Ground Zero. (pics to follow)

Another 3-hour flight put us in New Orleans 15 minutes ahead of schedule (unfortunately our gate wasn't ready so that just meant sitting on the runway for a quarter hour extra). The temperature gauge in the airport limosine read ninety-two degrees fahrenheit at 1pm, and I think it went up another seven or eight degrees through the afternoon - with the high humidity here as well, I was wringing wet after an hour of walking the quarter. The Sheraton New Orleans is a really beautiful hotel and ideally situated at the very edge of the French Quarter where we spent our afternoon touring. A tribute concert to Sachmo at the old mint on Esplanade Street was our destination, and along the way we caught lots of jazz and blues jams, and a few local specialties including a taste of genuine Louisiana pralines.

A stop for supper at Hard Rock Cafe New Orleans and that was it for us for this day. Tomorrow the work continues on our presentation and we will have some touring to do as well - maybe get a chance to survey some of the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina and still not cleaned up.

Well, as the Hip wrote in their song "New Orleans is sinking man and I don't wanna swim".

S.

MERLOT Preparation

It's Saturday and we're getting ready for our trip to N'Orleans...the Big Easy. Anticipating Cajun cookin', po'boys, creole, gumbo, etc...and of course that famous Louisiana jazz & blues. Our conference is in the heart of the French Quarter and I am eager to check out Toulouse Street, Bourbon Street, and the mighty Mississippi River.


The conference looks quite exciting too; the program is full of great collaborations of technology with pedagogy. We have prepared a 90-minute workshop that we hope will begin a conversation to develop a strategic planning tool for Digital Portfolios in both the educational institution and the corporate training department. We are still hoping to define a fuller set of adult educator competencies to load into the Digital Portfolio we will be demonstrating (thanks to Winvision - http://www.winvision.nl/), but if necessary may borrow some from those listed in the CCEDP program at NSCC.


A key activity of our workshop will be a rotating thought-builder on strategic considerations for the adoption and implementation of digital portfolio in the institution. Our plan is to put together 3-4 stations around areas like technology orientation, Portfolio focus, Educational philosophy, etc. as well as a station for Brainstorm...whole strategic areas that may not be covered in the other stations. We'd love to hear from you, too, if you have some ideas about key strategic areas that need to be considered when adopting ePortfolio.


The plan is to post up the input we get from the workshop and share it for a continuing discussion as we work on a strategic tool - either web-based or maybe a spreadsheet-based application.


N'Awlins, here we come...y'all come back now y'hear?