And while I'm on the topic

Here's a link to Kamenetz's article for Fast Company from last year about the potential of DE to transform higher ed.

Libraries and the Future of Higher Ed

Anya Kamenetz, who gets the future of US Higher Ed about as right as anyone in her new book DIY U, on the future of academic libraries.

Profhacker has a new home

... at the Chronicle!

Professor Peterson's Podcast Proselytizing

Be sure, if you have time, to register for SLIS's own Gabriel Peterson's March 2 talk entitled "Introduction to Classroom Podcasting" at the Center for University Teaching and Learning. But fret not if you can't make it in person because, naturally, he'll be podcasting it.

Student Podcasting

In an extraordinarily interesting piece published recently in the The Chronicle, John M. Lang wrote a piece virtues and defects of student podcasting. I confess the idea hadn't occurred to me, perhaps because of the time commitment involved, but it's an intriguing possibility, particularly for distance ed. Lang tried it out, I gather in a face-to-face class, and made it a single assignment, which makes sense. It worked reasonably well the first time around except that  (a) the fact that the students all reflected on the same reading led to a certain same-y quality in the podcasts and (b) students had not been made aware enough of the elements of a quality podcast. Even so, it seemed to me that this might be another way of shrinking distance between students--especially if done early in the term--in a DE class. This might be particularly useful with younger/tech savvier groups. 

Synchronous v. Asynchronous

Julie Meloni published a cogent post recently (on the always useful ProfHacker blog) regarding the relative merits of various online discussion tools. Noting that instructors predominantly use asynchronous technologies for discussion--discussion boards, blogs, listservs, etc.--she goes on to sat that "asynchronous communication is by far the more popular model if for no other reason than the barriers to implementation tend to be much lower—many of these tools are free and require minimal hardware and software." The implication here, it seems to me, is that once conferencing technology reaches a certain level of sophistication and buy-in, use of older, less efficient asynchronous communication will diminish markedly if not completely go by the boards. That may be, but I would submit that asynchronous may also be popular because it is peculiarly suited to the online environment. Students are attracted to online- and distance-learning options for their flexibility. Having, perhaps, jobs, families, or other binding commitments, they gravitate to courses that allow them to make their classroom contributions on their own time. Having students show up at an appointed time for a chat or conference somewhat defeats that flexibility. This is to say nothing of the fact that, as the e-learning project matures, classes will tend to become more, not less, geographically diffuse, with students enrolled from all over the country and the world. This fact will make that 3 pm Eastern chat still more problematic.


All of this is not to suggest, certainly, that instructors must choose either asynchronous or synchronous and stick with their choice forever. It is only to point out, like Meloni, that there are a lot of options out there and the more varied instructors can be in their approaches to online discussion, the better.  

On Writing Effective Online Discussion Questions

Yesterday, Professor Peterson pointed me in the direction of an article co-authored by former SLIS faculty member Diane Neal on the topic of composing effective discussion board questions. In "CREST+ Model: Writing Effective Online Discussion Questions," Neal and co-author Lynn Akin propound a method for coming up with good questions. Basically, as I read it, the model calls for instructors to take into account cognitive learning needs of students, desired learning outcomes, course readings, and students' experiences, all the while varying the styles and types of questions asked. If you're having trouble sparking vibrant virtual classroom discussions, this brief paper is well worth a read. While you're at ti, you may well wish to go ahead and check out other (free) offerings from the journal in which it was published, the Journal of Online Teaching and Learning.