Our maturity in online learning

Mar 16 2012

There is a discussion in the ELearning Professionals group on LinkedIn, “Does E-Learning have limitations? Can someone learn anything via E-Learning?…”

One of the responses is from Tony Bates, a name synonymous with e-learning and technologies. I loved one of the paragraphs he wrote and want to share it. So, with Tony’s approval, here it is:

“I think we have matured enough now in online learning that we should be willing to recognize situations where online learning is not the best solution. What we lack though are well-tested theories that identify the factors that facilitate or inhibit its appropriate application. Indeed, for me that is now probably the most important design decision to be made: should I teach this program/topic fully online, should it be blended (and if so what should go online and what done face-to-face) or should it be all face-to-face?”

As we have matured, we are more likely to recognise the limitations of e-learning and technologies. In some cases, these limitations can be addressed, but that may mean more money than is available. I’m thinking specifically of the limitations of a lot of the videoconferencing I see versus a full videoconference room setup. Sometimes, however, while not the best solution, it is the only reasonable solution.

I do still like the approach of considering what can be done with a technology, such as a virtual world, that cannot be done well in other ways. That is one great opportunity with online learning in addition to providing access where education and training would otherwise not be available.

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Three walking tours – a great way to see a part of the city

Mar 15 2012

On our recent trip to England and Paris, my wife and I were treated to walking tours in three cities we visited. My legs held out, the weather co-operated, and the tours were great but completely different. Actually, let me increase the count to four due to one extra activity.

Thanks to one of my PhD programme colleagues, Brenda Padilla (@brendapadilla), for a previously promised visit to the Paternoster Lift at our University of Leicester. With few still in operation, it was to be an ‘experience.’ Unfortunately, we arrived about ten minutes after it was shut down for the night.

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The next stop was to the graveyard where Thomas Cook was buried. Again, due to gates about to close, we did not go all the way in. It was about this time we learned that Brenda, a full-time student from Mexico, is a volunteer tour guide in Leicester. She showed us around the area near our off-campus university offices and ended the tour and our last evening with a hot beverage and apple crumble. Darkness limited the photo opportunities, but here is my Leicester photo set.

Our tour host in Paris is a fellow member of the International Police Association (IPA). We were grateful for the afternoon and early evening spent seeing sites in an area he used to work. This included the fabulous and breathtaking stores of Galeries Lafayette and Printemps. Ladies, imagine individual whole floors of shoes, cosmetics, and lingerie! We also observed major jewelry stores in the vicinity of the Ritz Paris where Diana, Princess of Wales, departed prior to her sad death. Our tour ended at Montmartre where we spent time at Basilique Sacré-Coeur before dinner at La Bohème.

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Back in London near the end of our trip, we were again treated to tours given by, or arranged by, members of the IPA along with a couple of members visiting from Paris. This focused on Westminster, with a guided tour of the Palace of Westminster prior to exploring the area. I am pictured below beside what is known as the world’s (or at least London’s) smallest police station, in Trafalgar Square.

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I mentioned a fourth tour. That was actually in the early part of the trip visiting family in High Wycombe area. We had limited time, but on the morning of our departure (the day after we arrived), my uncle and aunt took us to the River Thames at Marlow. A cool but sunny morning, it was a beautiful place to visit that my mother remembers well from year ago.

These walking tours were enjoyable ways to see and learn what we would otherwise have missed. I’m not doing them justice with such brief explanations.

Photo sets from the trip

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Travelling the trains and underground with luggage

Mar 15 2012

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I’m one to call a cab to take me from the airport to the hotel, but I’ve found that change on two trips overseas. Taking advice to avoid the potentially high priced taxi rides in heavy traffic, I have opted for using public transportation by underground and train. It is not just the arrival and departure. In other situations, using the train service is the logical option to get around the country. The challenge is handling your baggage.

An excellent article written by Stephen Downes (@downes), How to Get the Most Out of a Conference, addressed how to pack and travel with luggage. He provided some good points that I considered in advance and during the trip. For example, I chose not to get upright luggage this time, but I will for the next one.

My experiences in October 2010 (London, Leicester, Turin, Rome) and February 2012 (London, High Wycombe, Leicester, Paris) have emphasised a few key points. There are a lot of escalators, many flights of stairs, and few elevators to be found. Walks around the airports are long, although you can take a slow ride on the moving walkways. Reminders to “mind the gap” are continuous on the underground due to the gaps between the platform and the train. On other trains there are steps to negotiate. Luggage gets in the way on crowded underground trains, and there is not always room to store luggage on the longer national train trips.

On the latter point, I wish my wife and I had traveled first class from London to Leceister on the recent trip. The train had less coaches than expected, so there were some without seats. All of the luggage space was taken in our coach, and there was nowhere to put 2 large suitcases. I can tell you that the cases traveled fine on the seats, leaving us to sit on the edge and stand most of the way.

Planning to travel this way? You will be lifting and pulling luggage. You cannot handle more than 1 case and possibly a carry-on. The weight should be kept as light as possible, and plan to do all the handling yourself. For the next trip, I would switch to upright luggage with 4 wheels for easy manoeuvrability. There are times when the case needs to travel down narrow aisles. I would also do what I could to reduce the weight. It appears we were travelling with about 22 kg per case at most times, with one at 26 kg at one point. Not too bad, but too heavy for the type of travel.

A couple of other options include remaining in one place, so moving from city to city is not a problem, or using a luggage shipping service. The latter could work, but you have to ship a week in advance to be reasonable, and it is unlikely to help moving to different locations throughout the trip.

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CPD: “Understanding Social Media Networks for Financial Advisors”

Mar 15 2012

Advocis, The Financial Advisors Association of Canada, sponsored a 2-hour continuing professional development (CPD) session for members on Understanding Social Media Networks for Financial Advisors on March 14, 2012. My decision to attend was based on a few factors. First, there were 2 continuing education (CE) credits accredited by the Institute for Advanced Financial Education. These particular credits are needed toward the 30 required annually for my Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) and Certified Health Insurance Specialist (CHS) designations. Second, there was no charge. While I do pay to attend sessions, free ones are certainly nice. Of course, we do pay annual membership dues, so it can be seen as extra value. Third, I have an interest in social networks. My interest extends beyond just learning about networks and tools, but it ties with my research direction. I’m particularly enthused when the topic addresseses using social networks in relation to continuing professional development.

The presenter was Jay Palter, noted on LinkedIn as a ‘social media strategist/consultant working with professionals & business owners to build authentic brand identity.” I must admit curiosity, as I have been involved with social media for a number of years and had not hard of Jay. He has been in Edmonton for about 3 years, and I have obviously not been as involved as I should be. I take this as my need to get out more and monitor the Edmonton hashtag on Twitter (#yeg). Jay is @JayPalter.

I counted 37 participants in the room. They were divided between beginners in social media and intermediate (I didn’t note the exact split), with 2 advanced. Only 3 indicated they did not have a LinkedIn profile. While some hands might not have been raised, there were an overwhelming number with profiles. A number indicated they had a Twitter account, but I noted only 1 tweet from 1 other attendee. I posted a number of tweets that now give me an opportunity to review a few key points that stood out.

  • People want others in their network whom they know, like, and trust.
  • Focus on using social media to engage with your current clients to add growth.
  • An important concept in social networking is curation. This is something we have addressed in at least one MOOC (massive open online course).
  • Attendees were definitely interested in compliance issues.
  • Every business is going to need social media skills.
  • Use social media personally before using professionally. You learn as you go.

It was meant as an introductory presentation but sought to provide value to more advanced users. Jay seemed to accomplish that and may have increased interest in using social media in relation to the business and personal activities of advisors.

We missed something, though. The focus was on using social media in relation to clients. There was an opportunity for 37 advisors to become connected professionally. In some workshops in the past, we have created email lists. Here, the sharing of Twitter names and LinkedIn profile links would have been appropriate. Or, perhaps not. What do others think about this? Do you prefer to make such connections only after getting to know someone? I wonder how many connected with, or followed, Jay!

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Disconnected…for short times

Mar 13 2012

During my recent trip, I experienced more time disconnected from the internet than in a long time, although it was really only short periods of time. The question and answer is what I can apply to my research.

I actually had excellent wifi coverage and did not have to pay anywhere. In airports, hotels, stays with relatives and then a friend, and at the university, it was available. The disconnect came during the flight (Air Canada does not offer wifi), on national trains where I chose not to use first class for short trips (bad choice on one), on the Eurostar (not yet available), and during the days when I was out and about. During the sightseeing days, I did connect once in awhile, but it was not a priority. In Paris, there is wifi throughout the city, but I didn’t even get around to asking about how to access the couple of free wifi networks until the end of the stay. The bottom-line is that I did not miss being connected at all times, and there was never anything urgent and pressing awaiting me. My data roaming was turned off to avoid a huge bill, and I did have a mobile if someone really needed to reach me.

What I need to recognise from this is that I should be able to disconnect for reasonably long periods during the day when I am trying to read and write. There are different approaches being used by other doctoral students, such as ‘Shut Up and Write!‘ (can be done in person in a group or online) and ‘The Pomodoro Technique.’ Whether one of these or others is followed, or if I just take some time to read and write, it needs to be uninterrupted at times. I’ve proven I can be away the Twitter and email distractions, so time now to apply that while at home trying to move forward on the literature review.

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Fraud Seminar, Continuing Professional Development, Edmonton, March 7

Mar 12 2012

Since my research is about continuing professional development, I had better not miss opportunities to blog about sessions I attend! Most of mine, beyond that pertaining to my PhD research studies, relate to insurance or to my designation as a Certified Fraud Examiner. This Fraud Seminar was presented by the Edmonton Chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. As far as achieving credit goes, this type of seminar suits many. It was one full day, providing 8 or the 10 fraud related credits required each year. It was inexpensive, there were interesting sessions, lunch was included, and we always attract a great group of attendees. I understand there were 69 attendees (it looked like more), but I will suggest that the majority were not there needing credit. They were members of the fraud investigation/prevention community and were there to enjoy the learning. I should also point out that March is Fraud Awareness Month.

Della Lewis of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) National Centre for Forensic Services-Alberta, a forensic document examiner, gave a presentation on evidence management. While she presented similar material at one of our meetings last year, Della is an excellent presenter and there is always something new or something to reinforce.

March Trudel of the Bank of Canada provided what was probably the best presentation on Canadian currency that I have seen. The new polymer bank note series provided new points to learn in relation to ensuring money is not counterfeit.

Peter Dent, a partner and national practice leader with Deloitte, was on our executive at the same time as me, some time ago, and is no longer in Edmonton. His session was on foreign corruption investigations and increasing enforcement trends.

Julie Matthews is known as “Edmonton’s Trouble Shooter” and is from Global TV Edmonton (television). Presenting on what she does, she included information about romance scams and showed a couple of her stories where she scammed the scammers. You can see the episodes here.

Ken Donaldson, “The Lie Detective,” is a Certified Forensic Psychophysiologist. He discussed how he uses the polygraph to seek the truth, and he showed one of his television documentary episodes.

The sessions ended with Darren Hodson of the Special Investigations Unit, Service Alberta, speaking on facial recognition and document examination. It was followed by a social and networking.

I need to continually think about how sessions I attend may relate to my actual research area that will focus on learning environments for continuing professional development. Ideas are bound to emerge, For example, as personal learning networks form part of one’s learning environment, there is always potential to examine how relationships form and are continued after such events.

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Trip photos from UK and Paris

Mar 10 2012

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I realise I still have to write about my trip, but the photos have been uploaded to Flickr. Particularly those from Paris need further pruning (far too many in the Paris, general set, but I have had requests to see all and time is a bit of a factor. So, while many will be removed later, there is a good number to see now. If there are any questions about certain photos, just let me know.

In a nutshell, the trip commenced February 15 from Canada, arriving February 16 at London Heathrow. After 2 nights in London, my wife and I visited family in High Wycombe for an afternoon and 1 night. It was then off to Leicester for 4 nights, including a research day at the University of Leicester and meetings with my supervisors. This was followed by a side trip to Paris on the Eurostar for 3 nights, a further 2 nights in London, and an overnight stop in Montreal.

Click here for photo sets.

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Research & innovations seminar: Prof Traxler and mobile learning

Mar 08 2012

The Beyond Distance Research Alliance of the University of Leicester is hosting a research and innovations seminar and discussion, online, at 2:00 p.m. UK (GMT) time on March 22, 2012. The title is Mobile learning: Toward a research and learning innovations agenda. The speaker is Professor John Traxler, Director of Learning Lab, University of Wolverhampton, UK.

This session is open to interested colleagues, without charge, and the URL will be https://connect.le.ac.uk/rilstraxler/.

Please pay attention to time differences. While in most of Canada we turn our clocks ahead on March 11, the UK does not change until March 25. This means that some of us will have one hour less difference at that time. Rather than being 7:00 a.m. in Alberta, and 9:00 a.m.in Ontario, as examples, it will be 8:00 a.m. in Alberta and 10:00 a.m. in Ontario.

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Arrived in London

Feb 17 2012

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After a one-hour mechanical delay from Edmonton, I arrived with my wife, Lupe, at London Heathrow at about 10:30 GMT February 16, 2012. The trip is being tied with a visit to the University of Leicester where I will participate in a research day (that I would normally attend online) and spend a couple of other days with my supervisors and colleagues. There is an educational component for me, but this is also a vacation. The first two days have been spent in London!

For accommodations, I was referred to the Union Jack Club, a private facility for members of the Armed Forces. Members of other specified organisations are also welcome; hence my opportunity as a member of the International Police Association. We are here for two nights, and then we return for another two nights at the end of our trip before returning to Canada.

Our first day’s primary activity was an aerial view of the city on the London Eye. The second day took us to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard, followed by a visit to the Tower of London and taking photos of Tower Bridge. Linking to this, I just realised that Tower Bridge Exhibition is something to visit, another time. We ended the day meeting socially with PhD student #phdchat colleagues, Michael Cowen (@kiwicito) and Caroline Cage (@c_j_cage). Mike flew in from the United Arab Emirates on his way to his university in Scotland.

In need of sleep now, photos and more comments will follow.

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It’s official: MDE to MEd alumni conversion announced

Feb 08 2012

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On July 1, 2011, Athabasca University‘s Master of Distance Education (MDE) was officially changed to Master of Education (MEd) in Distance Education. The initial indication was that those with the MDE would continue to hold it. In other words, there was no provision for alumni to convert.

There were reasons that the Centre for Distance Education (CDE) at Athabasca University requested the name change. While I, as an alumnus, am proud of the MDE, we would now be faced with less recognition of it, particularly since it would no longer be awarded. ‘MDE’ on a business card needs explanation, while MEd is more readily recognised. Then we can explain our specialty area of distance education!

It has been known for some time now that a further request was made by the CDE to allow MDE alumni to convert to Master of Education in Distance Education if they wished to do so. Well, this morning I was pleased to note an update on a feed from the CDE website. The process to submit for the conversion has been announced. There is a relatively short period of time to apply, with July 31, 2012, as the deadline.

It is an individual choice, but my application goes in today. Click here for the AU information.

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