[Portfolio] [DG: Teaching & Learning] Thoughts on a New Focus for the Sakai Teaching and Learning Group

Thu Aug 20 06:58:19 PDT 2009

Luke,

I do very much agree that there is significant value in evolving things 
through small iterative improvements.  If we look at what has improved in 
Sakai from from 1.5 release to 2.6 I think there is good evidence that we, 
as a community, have been doing this and doing it relatively effectively. 
This is not to say that we cannot improve upon our current iterative 
improvement processes, I think we can and should (and I think there are 
groups starting to do so).

What I think we have not been doing a lot of is the longer-term visioning 
that would provide a target or path for future development work.  I feel 
that engaging in such efforts is strategically important as it will 
provide a type of road map for how the product might evolve in ways that 
will ensure it continues to support innovative approaches to teaching and 
learning.

I love your idea of using articles/readings to stimulate new ideas.  The 
Opening Up Education book would be a rich resource for such activities, 
many thanks for sharing this chapter.  I've also thought that things like 
the New Horizons Report would also be a good resource.  As I work on some 
rough pages in Confluence I'll add a place where we can post such 
resources.

Thanks, Josh

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

From:
Luke Fernandez <luke.fernandez at gmail.com>
To:
Josh Baron <Josh.Baron at marist.edu>
Cc:
Janet de Vry <janet at udel.edu>, pedagogy at collab.sakaiproject.org, 
portfolio at collab.sakaiproject.org, sakai-ux at collab.sakaiproject.org
Date:
08/19/2009 06:31 PM
Subject:
Re: [DG: Teaching & Learning] Thoughts on a New Focus for the Sakai 
Teaching and Learning Group

As a self-professed technological conservative I'm sympathetic to
Janet's approach.  There's as much merit in focusing one's energies in
evolving things through small iterative improvements than in thinking
completely outside existing technological boxes.  Both are arguably
innovative activities.  However, if the Sakai Teaching and Learning
Group really feels it should focus on the latter enterprise one might
run a few discussions in precept fashion; assign some interesting
"visionary" reading and then everybody can come together and talk
about it.  For starters, here's one that's catalyzed interesting
discussions on our campus:
http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/0262033712chap3.pdf

Hope this helps,

Luke

On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 3:48 PM, Josh Baron<Josh.Baron at marist.edu> wrote:
>
> Janet,
>
> Yes, I agree completely with your comments on the TWISA.  The work that 
has
> been accomplished through this program has been very significant and 
you,
> Sue and everyone else who has been involved should feel tremendously 
proud.
>
> I too have challenges at times thinking about Sakai-based instructional
> practices in ways that are tool agnostic.  This said, when I force 
myself to
> do so I find it rather liberating in a way as it allows me to move 
beyond
> the "day-to-day" user issues that we all are aware of and really think
> creatively about what the technology might become in the future.
>
> As we look out on the horizon, I think it will be increasingly important 
and
> valuable for those with teaching and learning interests in the community 
to
> be creating these types of "instructional visions" at which future
> development efforts can be aimed.  I believe that such an approach has 
the
> potential for facilitating significant innovation.
>
> It is probably important to emphasize here that I believe we will need a
> process to address those "day-to-day" user issues (something like a 
improved
> requirements gathering process) I just  see that as a separate need at 
this
> point.
>
> I'm looking forward to engaging on this with you and others over the 
next
> few weeks and months.
>
> Josh
>
> -----------------------------
> Joshua Baron
> Director, Academic Technology and eLearning
> Marist College
> Poughkeepsie, New York  12601
> (845) 575-3623 (work)
> Twitter: JoshBaron
>
>
> From: Janet de Vry <janet at UDel.Edu>
> To:
> Josh Baron <Josh.Baron at marist.edu>
> Cc: pedagogy at collab.sakaiproject.org, sakai-ux at collab.sakaiproject.org
> Date: 08/19/2009 05:03 PM
> Subject: Re: [DG: Teaching & Learning] Thoughts on a New Focus for the 
Sakai
> Teaching and Learning Group
> ________________________________
>
>
> Hello Josh and T & L group,
>
> First, congratulations, Josh, on being named Sakai Board Chair.
> Second, I wholeheartedly agree that we should focus on teaching and
> learning strategies rather than on the TWSIA. This does not diminish the
> importance of the award. As Josh, notes, it may become institutionalized
> within the Sakai foundation. We should all congratulate ourselves on a
> job well done and especially Sue Roig for her job this year coordinating
> everything.
>
> I like the preliminary plans and I especially like the work done by
> David Goodrum. The challenge for me if we remove the tool from the
> discussion is that sometimes it is the very presence of the tool and
> using it in one way that causes faculty to imagine new uses. I am
> finding that most faculty I deal with are still primarily interested in
> transmitting information. However, there is growing interest in group 
work.
>
> That said, we need to move in this direction. One reason we focused on
> TWSIA award is that it was concrete with concrete deliverables and
> deadlines. I think we have some good preliminary thinking to get us
> going to make this a more concrete exercise.
>
> Janet
> ___________________________________
> Janet de Vry
> janet at udel.edu
> IT-Client Support & Services
> 021 Smith Hall
> (302) 831-6714
> _____________________________________
>
> Josh Baron wrote:
>>
>> Sakai Colleagues,
>>
>> In lieu of our usual weekly "teaching and learning" conference call, I
>> would like to share some thoughts the future of these calls and some 
new
>> ideas that have surface following the 10th International Sakai
>> Conference in Boston this past July.  I recognize that this e-mail is
>> very long and detailed but I felt that in order to engage a larger and
>> broad audience that a posting to multiple lists, rather than phone
>> calls, was best.
>>
>> I know that this is a busy time of the year for many of us but if you
>> can dedicate a few minutes to reviewing this and posting comments that
>> would be great.  To assist in freeing up some of your time, I'm
>> suggesting below that we not have our regular call for the next several
>> weeks and then reschedule it for a new day/time.
>>
>> As many of you are aware, there were several sessions at the Boston
>> conference focused on the need to find new ways for our community to
>> discuss, identify and document the types of instructional practices 
that
>> Sakai needs to support now and into the near as well as distant future.
>>  Some of this "need" centers around finding new models for the type of
>> "requirements gathering" that has been attempted in the past.  Beyond
>> this, there also seems to be a strong desire to implement new processes
>> that would produce "tool/technology agnostic" visions of the types of
>> instructional practices (ranging from traditional to innovative) that
>> future versions of Sakai should facilitate and support.
>>
>> Following the conference there have been a number of discussions taking
>> place in various groups and settings, including several members of the
>> newly formed Product Council, as to how we might engage in this new
>> work.  Some of the ideas (but not all) and commentary on this can be
>> found in Confluence at http://tinyurl.com/nuzsu2.  In addition, the
>> folks within the Portfolio group have shared some of the "visioning"
>> work that they have been engaged in for some time that many feel could
>> represent a good model for the larger community (likely requiring some
>> small modification).  Examples of their work can be found at
>> http://tinyurl.com/mx5uvb.  I have participated in some of the weekly
>> Portfolio/OSP calls recently and believe that they are interested in
>> engaging in some broader work in this area.
>>
>> WHERE IS THIS ALL GOING?
>> I, and I believe others, feel that in order to move forward with some
>> practical work in this area that we need to establish a regular (I 
think
>> weekly but that is open to debate) conference call that is dedicated to
>> such an effort.  At the same time, we need to broaden the participation
>> beyond the folks who have been regularly participating in the Teaching
>> and Learning calls as means to increase the resources (i.e. people 
time)
>> going into this work and to have a more diverse set of institutions
>> represented (particularly more international schools).
>>
>> Because of these issues, I would like to make two proposals:
>>
>> (1) Re-purpose the Sakai T&L call to focus on "instructional visioning"
>> activities.  This would mean shifting our calls away from the Teaching
>> with Sakai Innovation Award program and other conference-related
>> discussions.  I am currently talking with Michael Korcuska about how 
the
>> Foundation could assist with the TWSIA work (with continued involved of
>> folks from this group) and also believe that we could move the other
>> conference-related discussions to the Conference Planning Committee 
calls.
>>
>> (2) Reschedule the call during a time that will allow a more diverse 
and
>> larger group to participate.  This may end up requiring some creative
>> approaches in order to include various time zones.
>>
>> NEXT STEPS
>> I would like to hear from folks "on list" as to any concerns, thoughts,
>> suggestions, etc. related to these issues and proposed changes.  I 
would
>> like to particularly encourage folks who are new to either the 
community
>> or these calls to share their thoughts.  Having this discussion on list
>> rather than on our calls will allow for greater participation (I hope).
>>
>> I would also like to suggest that we temporarily postpone the regular
>> Wednesday at 11:30 AM EDT "Teaching and Learning" call with the plan of
>> re-starting these calls in mid- to late-September.  This will allow us
>> to some time to find a new day/time as well as free of some time for 
all
>> of us to think about and start to discuss (on list) the details of how
>> we might proceed with practical work.  Unless there is objection to
>> this, I will put out some e-mails over the next couple of weeks in an
>> effort to find a good time(s) for out future calls.
>>
>> Finally, I am going to put some time and effort into updating the
>> Teaching and Learning Confluence page to clean up the older content (I
>> won't remove it obviously, just re-organize it) and try and set up some
>> pages that will hopefully facilitate some of our initial work in this
>> area.
>>
>> I'm looking forward to engaging more on these issues on list with
>> everyone.
>>
>> Thanks, Josh
>>
>> -----------------------------
>> Joshua Baron
>> Director, Academic Technology and eLearning
>> Marist College
>> Poughkeepsie, New York  12601
>> (845) 575-3623 (work)
>> Twitter: JoshBaron
>>
>>
>> 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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