[Using Sakai] Teaching & Learning] Teaching and Learning Gathering at Open Apereo Conference (San Diego)

[Josh Baron]

Ken,

I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts and input 
on list prior to our meeting.  My time is limited at this moment but I'll 
be sure to reply back to your comments and also share some outcomes from 
the meeting as soon as I can.  For now, I just wanted to say thanks!

Josh

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



From:   "Kenneth Romeo" <kenro at stanford.edu>
To:     "'Josh Baron'" <Josh.Baron at marist.edu>, 
<pedagogy at collab.sakaiproject.org>, 
Cc:     <sakai-user at collab.sakaiproject.org>, 
<portfolio at collab.sakaiproject.org>
Date:   06/05/2013 04:19 PM
Subject:        RE: Teaching & Learning] Teaching and Learning Gathering 
at Open Apereo Conference (San Diego)



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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