Nanette and I arrived in Los Angeles around 10:30 last night. Since we flew into LAX, we had quite a transfer to get to Hollywood; we were finally in our room by around midnight. It was definitely time to crash; Monday morning would arrive early.
Figuring that waking up would be, well, complicated, I set two alarms. I needn’t have bothered—nervous energy and the trusty internal alarm clock effectively awakened me about an hour ahead of my schedule. I was early for registration and passed the time reading a little Hunter S. Thompson before facing the day. Once registration was behind me, it was off to a quick breakfast, then on to the first event of the day—the keynote.
Always Start Your Day with a Good Keynote
Tracy Futhey, VP and CIO for Information Technology at Duke, focused on the delicate balancing act involved in launching new initiatives, including the innovative iPod First Year Experience that provided iPods to about 75% of the freshman class (AY 2004). The portable devices were used in creative ways in more than 35 courses to gather information, help students review for quizzes, and provide a platform for playing back lectures. A curious project, to be sure, but one that seemed to work; it provided enhanced learning for students and new teaching modalities for interested faculty.
Surprising Facts
When we think about large research institutions, we (at least I) assume that such places have tight coordination of effort. That’s why I was a bit surprised and confused when faculty presenters from a MAJOR, WORLD-CLASS institution of research and higher learning candidly revealed that their university currently operates almost 30 different delivery platforms for distance learning, and rolls along with nearly 50 different email solutions on its vast campus. Who knew?
Blended Instruction Insights
An entertaining and informative session on what we would call hybrid instruction left me with the conclusion that we are actually some distance ahead of even major universities. The initiatives described by the team from UCLA were launched only after considerable preliminary work with college representatives at the provost, dean, and department chair levels. The classes developed and deployed were successful, at least based on initial analysis.
I found it curious that the developer’s choice of tools required that a separate quiz tool be implemented to accommodate the import of question sets. After having worked with both WebCT and Respondus, I’m convinced that I have a serious set of tools to confront most situations. I can’t really imagine going out to find bolt-ons. Of course, there is a tendency for groups to implement their own proprietary solutions. I haven’t quite figured this out, however. Perhaps the logic of it will come to me in the shower.
Save It—Don’t Throw It Away!
Terry Ryan of UCLA Library offered up some great ideas in her session entitled “Dynamic Models for Saving, Finding, and Reusing Learning Content.” She and her colleagues are busily developing protocols for archiving the information, learning objects, and even entire Web-based courses developed by UCLA faculty. The team first finds out if faculty are willing to share content, then they determine whether the content is, in fact, worth keeping (or legal to keep). Provided that all the signals are encouraging, the staff then works with appropriate faculty and departmental representatives to determine the best way to archive the resources. One compelling argument for placing such information in the hands of the library staff is that libraries are in the business of creating and maintaining repositories of information. Second, creating an accessible archive helps the academic community retrieve and reuse content in other courses. Seems like a viable labor saver, but there are plenty of questions that will require deeper reflection, including the best way to tag data for easy retrieval and whether to convert resources to some sort of standardized file format. More on this, perhaps tomorrow.
The Exhibit Hall: Opportunities for Spirited Adventure
I do so love wandering the exhibit hall floor during a technology conference. Because the sessions today were held at UCLA (far away from the conference hotel), I’ll be denied my bliss until sometime Tuesday afternoon. I look forward to learning about new technologies and registering for the chance to win free software. If all goes well, I’ll bring home some good things to share. At the very least, I will end up with a handsome collection of professionally-produced marketing materials.
It's getting late, and tomorrow will be busy.
