distance education

Dawn of the Age of Digital Learning [Moe & Rajendran]

On 05/06/2020, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, blended learning, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, disruption, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, Europe, face-to-face, faculty/staff, flipping -- inverted learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, hybrid learning, ideas, India, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, liberal arts, lifelong learning, microlearning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, organizational change, pace of change, personalized/customized learning, platforms, remote teaching and learning, social learning / networks, society, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, teaching online, technology (general), traditional / tradition, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Dawn of the Age of Digital Learning — from medium.com by Michael Moe and Vignesh Rajendran
An Acceleration of Trends That Have Been Building for Years

Excerpts:

Some of these new online learners will sink. Some will crawl out of the pool and never go back in. But we believe most will get the hang of it, like it, and will no longer be confined to the shore. Effectively, the genie is not going back in the bottle… digital learning has come of age. We have a B.C. (Before Coronavirus) world transitioning to A.D. (After Disease).
…
The Coronavirus has brought forth the Dawn of the Age of Digital Learning — a time for builders to create the platforms, tools, and technology to propel society forward.

From DSC:
So many of the things in this article reminded me of the things, developments, trends, needs, and possibilities that I have been tracking for years in this vision of a next-generation, global learning platform that I have entitled:

My guess is that the large, primarily online institutions/organizations will come out of this ordeal in much better shape than the majority of the traditional institutions of higher education. It won’t matter what faculty members at liberal arts institutions think about online learning. And as much as some faculty members won’t like to see or hear about it, students will no longer need for such faculty members to be sold on it. Students will come to realize that it was under those faculty members watch that their own enormous gorillas of debt were created. And they are beginning to witness and hear that it’s taking (or will take) older family members decades to pay down their debt.

So, I think that the market will decide the fate of many traditional institutions of higher education. Lifelong learners will vote with their feet — and fingers actually, by typing in a new URL — and simply move to the SNHU’s, ASU’s, UMass Online’s, WGU’s, and Liberty University’s of the world. After 5-10 years of investments in online learning, there will likely be some pretty amazing learning experiences out there.

OLC Innovate™ 2020 Conference Moves to June with All-Virtual Format

On 05/01/2020, in 24x7x365 access, active learning, adjunct faculty, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, engagement / engaging students, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, innovation, IT in HE, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, multimedia, online learning, online media, pedagogy, platforms, remote teaching and learning, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, United States, universities, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

OLC Innovate™ 2020 Conference Moves to June with All-Virtual Format — from prweb.com
Produced by the Online Learning Consortium, in partnership with MERLOT, OLC Innovate 2020 Virtual will gather digital learning leaders and practitioners, online, June 15-26, to focus on innovation in digital, blended and online learning.

Excerpt:

BOSTON (PRWEB) MAY 01, 2020
The Online Learning Consortium (OLC) announced today that its annual OLC Innovate™ Conference is moving to an all-virtual format for 2020. OLC and conference partner MERLOT will gather the digital learning community, online, June 15-26, for OLC Innovate™ 2020 Virtual Conference (#OLCInnovate). This year’s theme, “Building Bridges in Digital, Blended and Online Learning,” frames a 10-day online program that highlights inspiring innovators and thought leaders from higher education, K-12, military, health care and workforce education.

Highly likely #AI-based tools like this will be integrated into these types of arenas/applications [Christian]

On 04/29/2020, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, journalism, K-12 related, languages and translation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), online learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, society, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, transmedia, universities, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

DC: Otter for Teams:Useful for #legaltech?Most likely so, if not already, at least eventually. #AI-based tools like this will be integrated in2 #legaltech #legaloperations #lawschools #lawyers #legal #highereducation #telelegal #interviewing #transcription https://t.co/GgH3j3cPch pic.twitter.com/4ne2OxUgFJ

— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) April 29, 2020

From DSC:
Some of the areas likely to see such tools integrated into their arenas, operations, and ecosystems:

Will tools like Otter be much more integrated into our future learning ecosystems, meetings, & teleconferences?

On 04/29/2020, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, languages and translation, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, Legal operations, legal technologies, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, smart classrooms, technologies for your home, technology (general), telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, tools, TVs, by Daniel Christian

Per Jeremy Caplan: “Try this easy, free transcription tool.
Transcribe Zoom calls, interviews or meetings. Or just dictate.”https://t.co/Y3nZ1s7WTm #videoconferencing #transcription #productivity #recording

— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) April 29, 2020

With thanks to my sister, Sue Ellen Christian, for forwarding me Jeremy Caplan’s site/newsletter.

Also see:

Otter.ai Selected for AI-Powered Zoom Live Transcriptions — from prweb.com

…and this one as well:

From DSC:

Will tools like Otter be much more integrated into our future learning ecosystems, meetings, & teleconferences?

From DSC:
If you are teaching from home and you have two displays (which is highly recommended)…

The link to the PDF file (below) presents a printable graphic that relays a great way to organize your applications as well as the panels within Cisco Webex. The printable graphic also relays two quick, easy, and effective methods of switching between applications.

Setting up your apps with two displays (printable graphic in this PDF file).

From Pearson:
Just about every task and activity you carry out in the classroom on a daily basis has a digital equivalent. This chart shows specific ways that teaching and learning can transfer to an online environment.Use it to help pick the most effective tools for your course.

Shared Responsibilities: What It Will Take to Deliver a True National Lifelong Learning Ecosystem [Amyot]

On 04/20/2020, in adult learning, business, business side of he, Canada, career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, consortiums, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, curriculum, disruption, distance education, education, face-to-face, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, microlearning, more voice more choice more control, new business models, online learning, organizational change, reinvent, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, United States, universities, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Shared Responsibilities: What It Will Take to Deliver a True National Lifelong Learning Ecosystem — from evoLLLution.com by Denise Amyot | President and CEO, Colleges and Institutes Canada

Building a more flexible and accessible postsecondary sector will require concerted efforts from postsecondary institutions, governments, and employers, all of whom have a role to play in making the culture of lifelong learning a reality.

From DSC:
Let’s hope that Cisco Webex learns from Zoom, Blackboard Collaborate, and likely other products/vendors as well — in terms of providing easy-to-setup and use, seamless breakout rooms.

The breakout rooms in the Cisco Webex’ Training Center product are audio-only, which represents a major gap/disadvantage for numerous courses out there. (And, last I knew, there aren’t breakout rooms in the Cisco WebEx Meeting Center product.) The idea of community, presence, and collaboration is supported by providing audio and video. Video is critically important in certain courses.

Plus we are finding at WMU-Cooley that we need to create main rooms PLUS additional breakout rooms and assign students to each breakout room. But then, audio and video issues abound. Such a complex setup requires that the faculty member (i.e., the host) of such meetings needs to be pretty savvy in order to make things work well.

The transitions of going from the main meeting room to breakout rooms needs to be quick and easy. Bb Collaborate did a great job with this, and I hear Zoom does a good job with this as well. Cisco Webex does not.

Cisco — if you’re going to be in the world of higher ed and in the K-12 world, you need to fix this ASAP.

Flipping things around…Zoom, you had better learn from Cisco Webex if you want to play in the worlds of education as well. Your “Zoombombing” and security-related issues are not good.

New York City bans Zoom in schools, citing security concerns — from techcrunch.com by Zack Whittaker
San Diego ‘Zoombombing’ incident highlights need for schools to use safety controls — from sandiegouniontribune.com by Kristen Taketa
etc.
etc.

Also see:

Google bans Zoom software from employee laptops — from reuters.com

The shift to remote learning: The human element — from insidehighered.com by Doug Lederman & Company

The current response is triage. We are adapting to maintain as much of the familiar learning and community engagement as we can in the short term. Yes, we should adopt the technologies and strategies that support effective online learning. To that end, we will benefit from the excellent prior work of online education researchers. Right now, we need the simplest and most effective methods for our students to achieve the resolution they desire, as we seek to sustain the community and connections we have formed in residence.

It’s one thing to do this online when you are already starting from that premise — where your community has self-selected for that environment. It’s quite another when your community hasn’t.

Kristen Eshleman

Making change in higher ed is typically a daunting prospect because of these silos, but they have been broken down now in ways that I hope will be long lasting and will lead to effective responses, programs, policies and networks in the future.

Joshua R. Eyler

It will be interesting to see if this embrace of flexibility sparks a broader shift in higher education. For too long we have mistaken rigor for academic integrity when in fact, from a definitional standpoint, rigor simply means rigidity, severity and harshness — the exact opposite of the flexibility we so need during this crisis.

Penelope Adams Moon

The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching & Online Learning [Hodges, Moore, Lockee, Trust, & Bond]

On 03/29/2020, in adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, distance education, education technology, elearning, faculty/staff, higher education, online learning, remote teaching and learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching and Online Learning — from er.educause.edu by Charles Hodges, Stephanie Moore, Barb Lockee, Torrey Trust and Aaron Bond
Well-planned online learning experiences are meaningfully different from courses offered online in response to a crisis or disaster. Colleges and universities working to maintain instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic should understand those differences when evaluating this emergency remote teaching.

Excerpt:

Researchers in educational technology, specifically in the subdiscipline of online and distance learning, have carefully defined terms over the years to distinguish between the highly variable design solutions that have been developed and implemented: distance learning, distributed learning, blended learning, online learning, mobile learning, and others. Yet an understanding of the important differences has mostly not diffused beyond the insular world of educational technology and instructional design researchers and professionals. Here, we want to offer an important discussion around the terminology and formally propose a specific term for the type of instruction being delivered in these pressing circumstances: emergency remote teaching.

Many active members of the academic community, including some of us, have been hotly debating the terminology in social media, and “emergency remote teaching” has emerged as a common alternative term used by online education researchers and professional practitioners to draw a clear contrast with what many of us know as high-quality online education. Some readers may take issue with the use of the term “teaching” over choices such as “learning” or “instruction.” Rather than debating all of the details of those concepts, we selected “teaching” because of its simple definitions—”the act, practice, or profession of a teacher”⁵ and “the concerted sharing of knowledge and experience,”⁶—along with the fact that the first tasks undertaken during emergency changes in delivery mode are those of a teacher/instructor/professor.

COVID-19 Resources for Higher Ed — from EDUCAUSE
With the help of the higher ed community, EDUCAUSE continues to compile resources to help you manage the implications of COVID-19, including information on working remotely, online education, campus advisories, and higher ed continuity planning and emergency preparedness.

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Also see:

9 strategies for effective online teaching — from pearson.com

K-12 resources for teaching remotely

On 03/27/2020, in distance education, education, education technology, elearning, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, online learning, online media, online tutoring, remote teaching and learning, student-related, teachers, technologies for your home, tools, youth, by Daniel Christian

Updated: Free Resources for Schools During COVID-19 Outbreak — from thejournal.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

(Updated March 26; originally published March 13) In response to the number of states, districts and schools that are shuttering schools to students over the next several weeks in response to fears about the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), education technology companies have stepped forward to help educators reach students in virtual ways. In many cases, the companies are making their paid services free through the rest of the school year; in other cases, they’re lifting limits to services and/or adding premium features to what’s free. The following list will be updated regularly as announcements are made.

Also see:

EducationDive.com
Getting Through from gettingsmart.com
Edutopia.org

My thanks to a friend for causing me to further reflect on this article: “Can computers ever replace the classroom?” [Beard]

On 03/26/2020, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, distance education, education, education reform, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, Europe, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, India, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, law schools, leadership, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, more voice more choice more control, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, platforms, policy, political science, programming, society, teachers, teaching & learning, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, training / L&D, UK, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I’d like to thank Mr. Eric Osterberg — a fraternity brother and friend of mine — for sending me the following article. I wrote back to him. After thanking Eric for the article, I said:

Such an article makes me reflect on things — which is always a good thing for me to try to see my blindspots and/or to think about the good and bad of things. Technologies are becoming more powerful and integrated into our lives — for better at times and for worse at other times.

I’m wondering how the legal realm can assist and/or help create a positive future for societies throughout the globe…any thoughts?

Can computers ever replace the classroom? — from theguardian.com by Alex Beard
With 850 million children worldwide shut out of schools, tech evangelists claim now is the time for AI education. But as the technology’s power grows, so too do the dangers that come with it.

Excerpts:

But it’s in China, where President Xi Jinping has called for the nation to lead the world in AI innovation by 2030, that the fastest progress is being made. In 2018 alone, Li told me, 60 new AI companies entered China’s private education market. Squirrel AI is part of this new generation of education start-ups. The company has already enrolled 2 million student users, opened 2,600 learning centres in 700 cities across China, and raised $150m from investors.
…
The supposed AI education revolution is not here yet, and it is likely that the majority of projects will collapse under the weight of their own hype.

The point, in short, is that AI doesn’t have to match the general intelligence of humans to be useful – or indeed powerful. This is both the promise of AI, and the danger it poses.

It was a reminder that Squirrel AI’s platform, like those of its competitors worldwide, doesn’t have to be better than the best human teachers – to improve people’s lives, it just needs to be good enough, at the right price, to supplement what we’ve got. The problem is that it is hard to see technology companies stopping there. For better and worse, their ambitions are bigger. “We could make a lot of geniuses,” Li told me.

Moving to remote instruction immediately: Where to get started — from thejournal.com by Dian Schaffhauser
To help schools make the transition as quickly and comprehensively as possible, THE Journal reached out to education technology experts across the country to answer the questions we believe nearly every educator is rushing to answer right now.

Learning ecosystems across the globe are going through massive changes! [Christian]

On 03/25/2020, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Australia, business side of he, Canada, change, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, Europe, face-to-face, faculty/staff, flipping -- inverted learning, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, India, instructional design, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, Michigan, mobile learning, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online media, online tutoring, parents/guardians, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, remote teaching and learning, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telecommunications, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, TVs, UK, United States, universities, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Due to the impacts of the Coronavirus, learning ecosystems across the globe are going through massive changes!

Each of us has our own learning ecosystem, and the organizations that we work for have their own learning ecosystems as well. Numerous teachers, professors, and trainers around the world are now teaching online. Their toolboxes are expanding with the addition of several new tools and some new knowledge. I believe that will be one of the silver linings from the very tough situations/times that we find ourselves in.

Expanding our teaching toolboxes

At the WMU-Cooley Law School, our learning ecosystem is also fluid and continues to morph. This blog posting speaks to those changes.

Learning from the Living [Class] Room: Due to the impacts from the Coronavirus, this is happening today across many countries. But this vision is just beginning to develop. We haven’t seen anything yet.

Learning Ecosystems

This chart shows specific ways that teaching and learning can transfer to an online environment. [Pearson]

The Difference Between Emergency Remote Teaching & Online Learning [Hodges, Moore, Lockee, Trust, & Bond]

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