[DG: Teaching & Learning] Teaching & Learning] Teaching and Learning Gathering at Open Apereo Conference (San Diego)

[Kenneth Romeo]

Josh (and everyone on the list),

Thanks for organizing the session, and for sending this out.  Unfortunately
I am unable to attend Sakai this year, but I am glad that the T&L group is
meeting.  If I was there, I'd hope that we could somehow re-orient ourselves
to the current landscape. Quite a bit has changed since the days before OAE,
when we talked about the learning capabilities and design lenses.  However,
I feel that the process you, David, Lynn, and Clay led us through was really
valuable:  we started from an anything-goes list of whatever we wanted and
narrowed it down through successive iterations to seven overarching
concepts.  

It is tempting to suggest that we do the same thing again, but it is
possible that the circumstances are different enough that it would not be as
productive.  At that point we were focused on one piece of software:  the
next generation of Sakai.  In retrospect, it also entailed a number of
assumptions as well, such as a limited range of devices, infrastructure, and
instructional approaches.  Another assumption was that Sakai was an open
collaboration of many freely participating individuals and institutions.  

At least in my own experience teaching and supporting those who teach
(mostly language), while we now have many more options available (Google
Apps, MOOC platforms, blog and wiki software, online courses, tablets for
check-out, classroom video capture, approved 3rd party services, etc), it is
often the case that these don't work together, or don't cover all of our
needs.  Not all institutions are the same, but it does seem that many places
are still trying to figure out how the LMS fits into the solutions that they
offer to faculty, staff, and students.  In addition, all of this is
happening while universities themselves are redefining their identities, and
their budgets.

It might be useful to find different ways to think outside of out of the box
software.  My own paradigm for doing this is high stakes testing, because it
is a big part of what I do.  We do tests of spoken and written language that
require coordinating not just Sakai, but also physical space, network,
hardware and human resources.  It is by no means a perfect system, but we
are slowly finding ways to improve it without just contracting out to
Pearson or someplace else.  As I constantly tell people, if we say anything
about the potential of instructional technology, we have to be thinking
about a way to get rid of all of the blue books that are used on college
campuses.  

There are certainly other ways to approach this (learning analytics and
portfolios come to mind), but it might be useful to loosen our focus on the
LMS just a bit in an effort to see get a better idea of how to move forward.
My guess is that it will have as much to do with partnerships, protocols,
and privacy, but I am sure that there are many other perspectives.  This
certainly isn't something that is going to be solved in a 45 minute session,
but I am hopeful that the T&L group can be a place to start.

Ken Romeo, PhD

[http://kenro.web.stanford.edu]

Academic Technology Specialist [http://ats.stanford.edu]

Stanford Language Center [http://language.stanford.edu]

 

 

 

From: pedagogy-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org
[mailto:pedagogy-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org] On Behalf Of Josh Baron
Sent: Friday, May 31, 2013 9:14 PM
To: pedagogy at collab.sakaiproject.org
Cc: sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org; portfolio at collab.sakaiproject.org
Subject: [DG: Teaching & Learning] Teaching and Learning Gathering at Open
Apereo Conference (San Diego)

 

Note:  Apologies for the cross list postings. 

Colleagues, 

As some of you are already aware, we have scheduled a Teaching and Learning
Gathering at the Open Apereo conference which will be held on Thursday, June
6th from 10:45 AM to 11:30 AM in Diamond I.  For those who may be new to the
community, the Sakai Teaching and Learning Group has been organizing
"gatherings" of this nature for many years as means to organize ourselves,
set priorities and develop plans for the coming year.  I would like to
invite anyone, regardless of your background or role, who is interested in
participating or just listening in to attend.  If you are unable to make it,
please feel free to post your thoughts, questions and ideas on one of these
lists. 

I also wanted to highlight that in addition to discussing our own
activities, we have invited members from the Sakai CLE Technical
Coordination Committee (TCC) to join the gathering to discuss how our groups
might be able to collaborate and support each other.  I see this as a
strategically important dialog for us, as a community, to be having at this
point in our history and hope that folks will attend and participate in it. 

See you next week! 

Josh 

-----------------------------
Joshua Baron
Senior Academic Technology Officer
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, New York  12601
(845) 575-3623 (work)
Twitter: JoshBaron

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