Learners choose the technology

OLDaily is almost always a treasure trove of good bits to add to one’s own personal knowledge set – I wonder how Stephen finds the time to write all that he does every day. But this post hit me today because I’ve been trying to get people in the faculty to understand that we are a learning and professional development unit that uses technology as the means of delivery if all other factors are equal, or if it’s a “best fit”. Technology is a moving target and has been the boon and bust in the field of education, but the basics of good teaching are established and I can’t do much of anything with an instructor who can’t get a word out of their mouth in a lecture if that is the only format that they are able to present in (yes, there are people like that). If they are willing to try other modes of delivery, then we can explore technology as a means of extending what abilities that they have. So with that in mind…

It’s easy to focus on the technology, but what’s important comes before the technology:

• the learners choose their own technology – whether blogs, discussion boards, audio feeds, or whatever – and the mix of synchronous and asynchronous interaction is up to each individual (nobody is required to join some group from a chat, nor are they excluded from being able to join some group for a chat)
• the content is not imposed on them, but is rather self-selected, which means that it is available on an as-needed basis (hence the popularity of Google search) and also as a feed or a stream (hence the popularity of RSS and blogs, as well as podcasting)

These are the things that I think are essential.

…
In a university environment, I fear, the best that can be done is to mitigate the disadvantages. Basically, what this means is throwing a lot of stuff out there and letting people craft their own course out of it.
…paraphrased/hacked list follows from here…

• Audio lectures are great for people who have commutes or exercise routines.
• I think online synchronous chat sessions are worthwhile. These should be less like lectures and more like talk radio. MP3 audio recordings should be available.
• I think a course blog – or something that provides a focal point for resources, discussion, etc. – is essential.
• there should be a content area for the course. How this is set up can vary widely – it could just be a set of links from the blog posts, it could be a wiki co-authored and organized by the students, it could be a common set of del.icio.us tags – I would discuss this with students and try to find out what would work best for them.
• there should be some sort of course community. I wouldn’t require that students join some sort of social network like Facebook – students should be free to make (or not make) their own social connections.

The post then finishes with a bit of advice to try to create the design of the course in an almost organic nature – molding it to fit the needs as they arise. In my mind, preplanning a course is “old skool” and will likely cause much more stress than “running along”. In the end, the same amount of time will be spent dealing with the prep of the course either way, but the “just in time” will likely produce better results. OLD suggests thinking of the course as streaming content, I’m more apt to think about the course as prepping to cook a meal. A good chef has a range of components prepped and ready to go to match what the pallet of the patron desires.