International Speakers on Educational Futures @ TRU

With the generous support of TRU Open Learning and the Faculty of Human, Social and Educational Development, I am collaborating on a couple of events for October of this year: A panel presentation for October 20, and a keynote and reception for Oct. 21.

These events are intended to complement and augment related efforts on blended learning and teaching practices, and are open to everyone at TRU. Here's some advance info on the presenters who have been confirmed:

Dr. Wayne Mackintosh,
who is a committed advocate and user of free software for education. He is the founder of WikiEducator (www.WikiEducator.org) - an international community of educators collaborating on the development of free/libre teaching materials in support of all national curricula by 2015. He is also is the founding director of the International Centre for Open Education at Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand and serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the OER Foundation. Wayne is a strategy innovator with a passion for making educational futures happen.


Dr. Lalita Rajasingham,
whose research focuses on ICT in multicultural education, has co-authored two ground-breaking books. The first, In Search of the Virtual Class: Education in an information Society (1995) helped pioneer future directions in education for the next decade in many parts of the world, and introduced the concepts of virtual classes, HyperClasses, virtual universities, and virtual learning on the Internet. The Global Virtual University (2003) similarly breaks new ground, and sketches a philosophical foundation for the future of the university in an era of rapid technological change and globalisation.

Success in Dual Mode Institutions

Following up on our successful Blended Learning Workshop, I've been looking into "Dual Mode Institutions." TRU, of course, is dual mode (combining distance and face-to-face), and there are apparently many of these kinds of institutions around the world.

One article that looks into some of these is titled Factors for Success in Dual Mode Institutions (PDF), focusing mostly on Australasian universities. It discusses a wide range of factors related to the success of these institutions --some relevant to TRU, others less so. But many are definitely thought provoking; for example:

The quality and reputation of distance provision in dual mode universities has been assured by the development of an integrated structure in which courses are planned, developed and taught by the same academic staff to students who are able to receive an identical qualification whether they are located on or off campus. Special resources are provided for distance study and systematic forms of support are provided for all aspects of the distance student’s engagement with the institution. Since on- or off-campus describes a mode of study rather than a category of learner, students have always been able to move between study modes at their convenience.

More to follow as my reading continues...

Tony Bates on the Digital Future of HE

Another item to consider in advance of our June 14 workshop: Dr. Tony Bates' keynote here at TRU in February. Tony polls the audience about quality, quantity etc., particularly near the beginning of the video: it makes for a good watch!

In keeping with the priorities to a blended learning institution, this event was live streamed, and the video stream archived and posted for future reference.

Article on Transformation in Higher Ed

Hot off the press, here is an article from our Workshop guest and keynote, Anya Kamenetz: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/138/who-needs-harvard.html.

Anya reports on the "Edupunk" movement, one that might at first sound a bit flash in the pan, but that has been around, morphing and gathering steam for some years. (In fact, as I showed in a couple of presentations and an Open Educational Resource on the subject, Edupunk's combination of technology, openness and disruption has a quite respectable genealogy, from Palo Friere to the "Experimental University Center" at the Vincennes in Paris).

I definitely don't think that the university will be irrelevant in 2020, as one of Kamenetz' sources predicts, but I know there is much to learn from the experiments and initiatives that the young "edupreneurs" she reports on are undertaking.

-N

Welcome to TRU Blended Learning

I've set up this blog in anticipation of our June 14th workshop on Blended Learning at TRU.

I'll be posting resources, thoughts and materials that will be (hopefully!) discussed at the workshop.

Looking forward to sharing with you all!

-Norm