http://www.ngtech.org/edprogress 21st Century Learning Fri, 18 May 2007 11:47:38 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I was presenting at a conference the other day (the Faculty Summer Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign) and all of my preparation and planning was foiled by some simple settings.  When I arrived at the location (30 minutes early as is my usual practice) and connected my ... http://www.ngtech.org/edprogress/2007/05/teaching-with-tech-have-a-backup-plan/ We need to adapt.  I know many professors who can't see that the students that are coming into their classes are different than those of, say, 20 years ago.  First of all, these students don't much like books and rarely use them.  Second of all, they want learning to be more ... http://www.ngtech.org/edprogress/2007/03/the-art-of-adapting/ Online courses have taken off, but are they all good?  They range from PowerPoint slides without narration (i.e. "read the chapter and look at the PowerPoints") all the way to sophisticated courses that use a variety of technologies, foster a great deal of interaction, and have actual learning taking place!  ... http://www.ngtech.org/edprogress/2007/03/evaluating-online-courses/ The Illinois Online Conference was a great success.  Here are some observations: The live Elluminate sessions were great.  There was a lot of interaction between participants.  Even in the concurrent sessions there were at least 20 participants, at least in the sessions I attended. It was interesting how many ... http://www.ngtech.org/edprogress/2007/03/ioc-conference-a-great-success/ If you want to participate in a conference that is rich in ideas for online learning but flexible and easy to attend, try out the Illinois Online Conference.  There are both synchronous and asynchronous sessions and a wealth of information and ideas about online learning. If you are interested in ... http://www.ngtech.org/edprogress/2007/02/illinois-online-conference/ For the past couple of years, I have spent most of my research time and travel funds presenting webiners, conference sessions, and workshops on network theory and learning communities.  In a nutshell, my philosophy is that social networking can be leveraged by teachers to supplement "traditional" instruction.  In order to ... http://www.ngtech.org/edprogress/2007/02/network-theory-and-learning-communities/ Over the past week or so I have moved this blog from a server at my house to one of my servers at my web host (1and1.com).  My server at home is primarily a test platform I use for research and programming.  Originally, I had put the blog on that ... http://www.ngtech.org/edprogress/2007/01/reflections-on-change/   I am testing out Windows Live Writer, a free Microsoft tool for posting entries to blogs.  Instead of logging onto the blog itself, and then going through the normal editing process, Windows Live Writer is a client that you download to your computer.  You create your posting in WLW and then upload it ... http://www.ngtech.org/edprogress/2006/12/testing-windows-live-writer/ Last month I put 20,000 miles on my frequent flyer tally, mostly going to conferences and workshops about educational technology. Having attended many of these conferences over the past 6 or 7 years, I have these observations: Educators and policymakers are doing all they can to make the current paradigm ... http://www.ngtech.org/edprogress/2006/11/paradigm-shift/ I am in Hawaii, having survived yesterdays earthquake, and had some observations I shared with my graduate students. Here is the posting from their class blog: I had mentioned in class that I would be gone most of this week presenting a paper at a conference. The conference is ... http://www.ngtech.org/edprogress/2006/10/news-from-the-pacific/