The future has already arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.
—William Gibson
Imagine you could have any current technology, in it’s current or slightly reworked form, to help you in a in-person classroom setting. The technology would be used by both the facilitator and the learners. It could be used outside of the class’s meetings, or both in- and outside of class.
What would you choose? How would you use it?
In my short time as an Instructional Design graduate student, I see increasing evidence that learning is most effective in a social, community setting. As a “netizen” I see networked tools increasingly contributing to community formation, enabling connections and discussions. As a student, I continue to see (and often have to use) technology that delivers poorly. Uninspired design, non-current technology, there could be many factors. I believe the future Gibson was talking about has not arrived in the education community. Yet.
I want to reverse this.
With your help, I can find the tools that we should start with. We can see what’s been done with them thus far (”best practices”) and I’ll report on the current state of affairs, offer suggestions and design prototypes of future directions. Tools should be as inexpensive as possible (open-source preferable) and interoperable with a wide range of tools, services and non-school technologies.
I know that there must be some incredible work already being done. But I’m having trouble finding it. I don’t want to reinvent any wheels, and I want to lend a hand where I can. Where should I look?
This semester I have what amounts to an independent study where I can build a piece of this project. I would like this piece to be a foundation, a beginning to the rest of my studies going forward. I also want to spread the best ideas as far, as wide and as freely as possible for others to benefit from.
The result of this semester’s work will be reported here on this blog and possibly as presentations, which would also be announced here. I intend my research-in-progress to also be shared here.
My current, but not necessarily final, idea is the use of a blog as a lightweight replacement for the monolithic institutionally deployed learning management system (LMS, eg, WebCT, Blackboard, et al.). I am already involved with one at another institution that is being used in this manner.
I need more examples of current web technology being harnessed in ways that supplement the classroom experience, aiding in- and outside class discussions. This is only one place to employ simple, open technology in education. I have grand ideas (and diagrams) of larger, web2.0-ish systems that could be deployed institution-wide. But current institutional systems are almost universally disliked.
Change needs to start small.
Can you help? Help me to help you? Are there existing tools you use or have seen used well? Are there technologies that just need some adaptations, or a fresh coat of “user friendly”? Please leave me a comment or an email. Please pass my plea on to your opinionated, passionate, creative friends. With your help we can start distributing the future, today.