Wow, this event is massive – there are seven thousand people here with another one thousand missing the opportunity of coming as it was full a few weeks ago.
We began with a man who introduced a woman who introduced another man- who introduced the first speaker, Doris Kearns Goodwin – a Pulitzer prize winning author and historian who worked with Johnson in the Whitehouse, and is an authority on Abe Lincoln. Her talk was on Abe and his leadership style and how we as IS leaders can learn from that. At any time now, I think I could be in any one of around 20 different locations – there are lots of things I wish I could go to but there’s only one of me – regardless of appearances!
Anway, back to Abe. He was a chap that had to educate himself, his Mother died when he was fairly young and his chief ambition was to leave the world a better place for his having been a part of it (good ambition!). For him it wasn’t about the power but about overcoming and motivating himself in the face of comprehensive adversity. He was often unpopular but didn’t have many long term enemies that he didn’t eventually win over. He liked gossip and was willing to have enemies around his table if they could do their job. He wasn’t afraid of being surrounded by people who thought that they were better than him and disliked him. She gave illustrations of the following lessons from Lincoln’s leadership style:
1 Listen to different peoples opinion and encourage debate – but realise when to make a decision and avoid paralysis by analysis
2 Learn on the job and be ready to admin your mistakes
3 Share credit for success – you can do anything if you don’t care who gets the credit.
4 Be willing to take the blame for subordinates
5 Understand the weaknesses of others and work around them
6 Control your emotions and write letters that you may never send. If you do, make sure you follow up with positive action.
7 Always stick to your fundamental values and goals – its the long term not the short term
8 Know how to relax and shake off anxieties – have a great sense of humour
9 Get out into the field often.
She ended with his death and reconciliation with his wife – very moving and inspirational talk. I have learned and will act.
Next, Thomas Reeves, Professor of Instructional Technology, University of Georgia
I have to get the slides from this one as there are great references. Some studies show that students are possibly more miserable than they were ever before. Today for example, most students know somebody who has cheated – much more so than fifty years ago. Technology is not sufficient as a change agent on its own. US national study of student engagement shows some interesting results. Faculty have fairly low demands on students but the study finds that less than half approach that requirement. So what kind of academic challenges are we giving our students? If it hasn’t been assessed then it hasn’t been learned – Bernard et al 2004 and others indicate that the use of technology alone does not enhance learning in any way – so we need to change he pedagogical interaction and focus on assessing the complete range of assessment outcomes. We can use some of this stuff at Newport and possibly even get involved with some research.
Next up, I attended Joanna Robinson on the pedagogy of participation. She is a research assistant at British Columbia’s masers in digital media programme – and the conjunction of physical and virtual learning spaces. Unfortunately, it was mostly about her and her programme and not much about pedagogy per se, though there were some interesting examples around what you should do if students turn up naked or shooting you in second life…
Lunch …
okay – it took me 2 hours to get through the exhibition area – this thing is MASSIVE. – and there is no way I got to nearly all the stands. Still, at least I don’t have to think about Liz’ Christmas present any more (she’ll just love this light-up pen, lol) …
Next up – Jennifer Stringer on setting up small group learning spaces – based on a med School experience. Some great work but with very local nuances me thinks. Having worked for many years within a med school, I kow what a challenge it must have been to get “mature” clinicians to change their ways and adopt new methods. They had sixty thousand slides scanned and choose some cool furniture – but just like us, they are finding that powered desks mean that you have to really reduce the flexibility.
Before the next talk, I had an opportunity to wonder around a little. It is screamingly hilarious to see everyone gravitating to the powerpoints or electric outlets that exist in various locations and dark crevices within this vast centre. Its gettin late and everyone’s batteries are getting drained, lol. As the lady next to me this morning commented, “there’s a lot of geeks in one building”. Oh yea.
Well, next up is Bas Cordewener looking at whether social software in the HE arena is an accident or the start of something big. Lets hope I’ve chosen well – the last 2 weren’t that earth shattering …
Hey, take a peek at all the geeks gravitating to the powerpoints and see 3 macs in a ros! – that’s Chris S in the foreground …
Well, this started with an example of somebody using a wikki – or did I miss something? Then SURFgroups as a means of providing research blogs and forums as a means of allowing people to work together more effectively. Well, still not heard anything radical – I see where we are going now… Not where I had thought it might from the outline. Now the Educause Connect site – a show of hands indicates that not that many have joined in…
I wonder if we (HE) need to recognise that other people do some things so much better than we do and that we should use those. However, and this is what they should be talking about – what happens when this use becomes a corporate dependency? Do we rely on facebook – I don’t thnk so – but we can’t create anything near as good – and even if we did, nobody would use it because we have asked them to! Maybe this is why MS are so interested in FB because it has its base and if you can then turn it into something that is backed up with a sla for institutions then maybe we’re getting somwhere – but the balance has to be fine so as not to loose the very thing that gives it value – the people …
We’re still talking in the room about terminology and taxonomy ugh. There will be a question and answer session but I wont ask – not because I’m scared but because it is completely ergonomically impossible for me to get a look in – literally – to the person with the mike …
Anyway, next bit is about the horizon report – how many people know about it? Nobody – well, lets move on then. Am I sounding grumpy?
The thing is, I know that it is hard to bring people along who are so so far away from what we are capable of today – but this room is not full of those – or it shouldn’t be anyway, should it? We’re just looking at another basic example of a wikki! Hold on, its sounding a little more intersting – its a tool for bringing new tech in HE ideas together and voting on the – I’ll check it out – hz08 is apparently the key tag to use on del.icio.us etc
Hey, less of the geek comments!
Did you know a geek was a circus performer who used to do weird things like bite the heads of live chickens? Apparently they used to perform in a geek pit.