Posted 9:22 PM by George Siemens
Medium, Method, and Message: Why we can measure the pedagogic effectiveness of instructional technology via Technology4Teachers
Quote: "Although computers have been used for teaching purposes for over three decades, a debate has persisted in all this time over their merit and value in assisting and mediating instruction...At the core of this Thirty Year War over the merits of instructional technology is this question: can we use computer technology to effectively enhance or replace traditional instruction-that is, to teach people?"
Comment: The author details the difficulty in answering the question of medium effectiveness...largely because the media and message are intertwined...and "it has been impossible to hold the methods constant and simply test the medium." It is obviously very difficult to assess the learning effectiveness of a medium like the Internet...too many other variables play a role that are not Internet-based - student profiles, instructor teaching techniques, student support, need for student to know the content, etc.
However, as the author highlights at the end of the article, the attributes of certain media can be defined and then selected to support the learning process (i.e. - for which outcomes is video most effective? When should a software simulation be utilized? What is best instructed using audio?...). The task of media attribute analysis and learning outcome suitability falls into the lap of instructional designers...hug one today...

Posted 9:00 PM by George Siemens
Faceted Metadata via Web Word
Quote: "Metadata is information about information: more precisely, it's structured information about resources. This can be a single set of hierarchical subject labels, such as a Yahoo or Open Directory Project category. More often, the metadata has several facets: attributes in various orthogonal sets of categories. This is often stored in database record fields and tables, especially for product catalogs.
Comment: Great, visual-based overview of faceted metadata...particularly for use in searching.

Posted 8:52 PM by George Siemens
Nest of Pirates
Quote: "I was shocked to discover a nest of pirates yesterday, operating brazenly right here in my hometown. They were gathered in a large nondescript building, reading and talking quietly and in some cases listening to music. Some kind of social club, perhaps? Yes, but with a profoundly subversive theme: "sharing" content. This establishment houses large collections of books, magazines, audiotapes, videotapes, CDs, DVDs. And it "shares" these with its patrons. I watched in amazement as people left the building carrying armloads of these content assets, which they "borrow" without paying a nickel to the copyright holders. It's frightening, really. Who knew?"
Comment: This sarcastic post of content usage will become reality if certain organizations (RIAA) have their way.

Posted 8:47 PM by George Siemens
Compliance va. Creation
Comment: An great list of various traits in compliance/creation companies. Essential thrust: companies that are focus on rules/rigidity/order are not tomorrow's organizations. Same holds true for classrooms...

Posted 8:29 PM by George Siemens
James Robertson has some thoughts on the future of content management...which seem pretty much on the mark for elearning as well. In elearning, the current concept of profit generation is still built on classroom models. Much future elearning will be free - as corporations use it as a marketing tool (Macromedia is a leader in this). In higher education, the cost of learning WILL drop (globalization)...content providers will need to revisit the business plan (learning objects will alter current activities)...management systems will be less critical to elearning (I mean, sooner or later, education has to wake up to the fact that an LMS is (can be) a great tool...but it is not the backbone of elearning)...and many current content and software providers will go out of business...and somewhere in the process we'll give up on the notion of standardization and follow the Internet model of HTML (simple/effective) vs. SGML (complex/hard to adopt).

Posted 8:18 PM by George Siemens
Factors Inhibiting Change
Quote: "Technology change is not simple. Even if a change is seen as desirable, it costs little, it helps students, it makes it easier for administration, it is little effort to teachers and it is acceptable to the community - then it may still not be adopted.
What are the factors that make it hard to introduce technology change into education organisations?"
Comment: EXCELLENT! I've often stated that the issue with technology adoption is not technology...it is resistance to change. This wwwtools article clearly addresses the social component of tech adoption - linking to numerous change management resources.

Posted 8:10 PM by George Siemens
Lately, I've seen an increase in the number of bloggers focusing on the education field. Two bloggers new to me: EduResources--Higher Education Resources Online and Ed Tech Dev

Posted 8:01 PM by George Siemens
Learning is a Recursive, Self-Reflexive System Process (Individual Level)
Quote: "Interestingly systems thinkers, developmental psychologists and Dewey concur (though using somewhat different vocabulary) that learning occurs because of disequilibrium. Piaget, for example, mentions assimilation and accommodation as constant tidal process which influence individual becoming. One process tends to map one's expectations onto the environment until the environment no longer does 'the right thing'...even if corrected (via what some call 'negative feedback'). This mapping onto the environment is called assimilation."
Comment:The learning process sometimes defies definition...and attempts to describe learning as a system miss it's "other than" nature. Most everything that we do is an enactment of what we know/believe to be true. Learning is the process where this understanding is challenged/altered. As a result, to clearly define learning requires an understanding that it is "other than" every other activity we engage in. Learning is a shaping of who we are to become, based on reflection and understanding of who we are now...and how new information fits into that scheme - virtually impossible to systemize the outcomes (i.e. learning...), though it is possible to describe (structure?) the process. The author describes it well: "It's a constant , recurring, process, in the general sense, but its products vary. The new product becomes the basis for the new assimilative behavior only to be evolved once again at the next disiquilibrium. It's a recursive, self-reflexive process."