Online Conference Discussions.

The eLearning Guild stopped merely "thinking" about this a year ago. Online discussions are now a routine part of their symposia, and they are also now offering monthly online events. Participant response has been great -- at the first event offered this way, 30% of the participants were online. You don't have to be a member of The Guild to participate (although you do get a substantial discount if you join). I recommend that eLearning professionals go check them out. -- BB

Online Conference Discussions: "Increasingly conference organizers are thinking of adding an online discussion to the in-person proceedings. This is a good thing to do and strongly encouraged, since it adds a dimension not possible to achieve with a strictly in-person event."
Comment: Good overview of how to extend conferences (and one could easily include classrooms and workshops) beyond the limitations of face-to-face proceedings. Conference organizers should note the advice given...after all, a pre-conference discussion, during conference blogging, and post conference discussion can significantly improve the experience (and value) for attendees.

12:59:05 PM    

Truth in curriculum descriptions?

When I saw this brief clip from Brian's post, I thought he was being critical of collaborative learning. Turns out he's being critical of the time-honored practice of having TA's "deliver" courses but charging the same tuition as if the courses were being taught by tenured (and presumably expert) faculty. I think it's worth a read, and I also doubt whether universities will change their less-than-honest practices any time soon.

Toward the end, he asks a really good question: "Why not simply create well-crafted collaborative experiences that cut across the artificial boundaries of first year, second year, etc. as a normal part of the program delivery?" I am not looking to see any universities do this either, but it's a very good idea. -- BB

Collaborative Learning: An Easy Way Out?. A while back I wrote about an educational environment that led to a Loss Of Learning. A related practice came to my attention recently and that is the use of "collaborative learning" methods to "enhance" the curriculum. The idea of... [Inside Learning Web Log]

12:53:21 PM    

Don't be afraid to say "training."

You can read my comment on Evan's weblog. My feeling is that it's a waste of time to get hung up on what to call what we do. The question really ought to be, "Does my work enable people to make their lives better?" -- BB

Training... yikes!.

Evan's got a good post on the horror that the word 'training' induces in people and why that is. Not to spoil the conclusion but:

"I have gone so far as to remove the word "training" from my vocabulary, lest I give away my secret past. Instead, I use words like "workshops", "group mentoring" and "educational experiences" to describe what might otherwise be known as "training"."

I'm also a trainer and I also feel that it gets a hard line... problem is though that I've also been 'trained' many times and it's been, well, 99.9% rubbish. The qualifications required for becoming a 'trainer' often seem to be no more than a rudimentary grasp of the product and moreoftenthannot 'training' is so driven by institutional objectives "You must cover this this this and this!" that it becomes just an information 'transfer' session anyway.

12:35:43 PM