• The student becomes the teacher

    25Jan
    Author: Katherine Pisana Categories: Education, Technology Comments Off on The student becomes the teacher

    So it’s been a while. I have to admit that ulterior motives have propelled me back into the blogosphere. I’m returning to VS not because I’ve been particularly moved by an ed tech article or because I’ve come across a funky new technology I wanted to show you.  To be quite honest, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my short stint away from anything and everything related to online learning. You see…

    I finished my Masters in Online and Distance Education in December ’09, and from the moment I submitted my final piece of work, there was a part of me that knew I needed to take some time to recover. Perhaps that’s a common response felt by many a grad student, but the way in which I’ve been repelled from all things technology (even my shiny new iPhone at a certain point, or the untouched iPod shuffle that’s been sitting on my desk in its original box for over a month now) was quite surprising to me. After all, one thing I’ve learned about myself throughout this process has been that I have a natural tendency to seek out new technologies, determine in what ways they work within an educational context, experiment with new applications, and join emerging groups excited to share their common interests in the field.

    Maybe it was a case of me just overdosing on technology, but funnily enough, I didn’t suffer from the often paired imbalance of information overload. In fact, I’ve been deliriously delighted diving into books – the real PAPER kind! – ever since I officially parted ways with my student self and reentered into the adult world. I’ve even succumbed to redecorating my workspace in an effort to reflect my internal desire to reconnect with the less virtual literary world with which I think I might remember briefly engaging back in high school for a day or two.

    I’ve unapologetically started piling books onto my revamped workspace – not elearning books, not research books, not even learning and teaching books – but the kind of books that you want to fall asleep reading at night and reopen in the morning as you take your first sip of steaming caffeinated goodness. My home office is now adorned with candles propped up on rounded glass plates, next to a crystal hourglass that’s been sitting in its original gift box somewhere in the back of my closet for long enough that I can’t remember when I got it in the first place. The coffee mugs are still there (for what an empty cerebral world it would be without them!) but no more do I have to burrow myself in piles of file folders stuffed with printouts of assessment criteria for upcoming assignments.

    So back to those ulterior motives. They relate to this adult world I speak of, so often associated with mountainous career paths to climb and saturated weekly calendars to survive. It’s time to enter into the working world again, and for many of us instructional designers, our blogs are our calling cards – even more important in many ways then our CVs. So, I welcome this New Year, albeit slightly late, with this first post of twenty ten. Getting back in the game as it were… But now that I think of it, perhaps I did read something recently that’s sparked this train of thought…

    I received a mailing a few days ago from my Alma Mater inviting me to join its graduate association. The group’s slogan is “In my end is my beginning” – a sentiment that so brilliantly encompasses my current state. I suppose you could say that I feel accomplished, but coupled with a presumably organic sense of achievement is this bittersweet taste of being back at square one again, and no matter how many coffees I gulp down, the bitter taste doesn’t seem to be going away. Maybe it’s got something to do with the unemployment rate or with the economy, or with the general uncertainty of the times.

    In any case, regardless of my recent momentary shun of all things technology or of my desire to temporarily disengage from the virtuality of so many of the worlds we live in these days, I have continued to do one very important thing through this whole process. I’ve been determined to remember that many of my experiences as a student in the world of educational technology are most probably also experiences that other online students have shared. And now I find myself holding these thick tomes of lessons learned and knowledge gained close to me as I begin to look around for a new place to put them down so that I can share them with others.

    I think that in the end, the most cherished lesson I take away with me from graduate school is of how important it is to be as observant, tolerant and open minded as we can be when we are students because that is the best way to ensure that we are heard when it is our time to teach.

  • What’s in your orbit?

    16Jul
    Author: Katherine Pisana Categories: Mind Amplifying Tools Comments: 5
    My PLE

    Click on the image to view full size.

    Having played my role of a learning technologist, I am quite familiar with the concept of the virtual learning environment (a.k.a learning management system). It’s quite a controversial topic these days. Sclater provides a nice overview of the issues being raised by both sides of the growing debate.

    My experience has afforded me with proof that VLEs can work – students get more (but not always easier) access to resources, students and teachers can communicate with one another outside of a classroom, and the institution has control over who accesses what information (a neat and tidy way of managing the copyright dilemma). However, this sensitive point about control also forms the basis for an argument against VLEs. Some argue that VLEs fundamentally represent the opposite of what the web is all about – freedom to access, share and create whatever content you want. Enter the Personal Learning Environment (PLE).

    Similar to Martin Weller, I did not start off by thinking about what elements I needed to include in my PLE in order to make it work. I’m conscious that the integration of technologies is a continually evolving process. Some tools have become part of the foundation of my PLE, while others didn’t quite seem to fit and were subsequently dropped. I’ve noticed that this evolution is made more and more complex as collaborative technologies get better at ‘speaking’ with one another.

    When creating a map of my PLE, I have to admit that I had a hard time separating the technologies that I use strictly for ‘learning’ (the definition of which I’m still not clear about!) from those that I also use for plain old socialising or getting around in life. And then there are the ones that I use to build my professional online brand which also didn’t quite fit into the learning or socialising categories. That’s why I’ve chosen to kind of bunch up every technology I use into one overall picture. This way, it seems a bit more reflective of the interconnectedness that many of us are experiencing.

    Looking at my PLE map, you’ll notice that I’ve included the software applications I use, as well as the web-based technologies to which I subscribe (is subscribe the right word here?!). I don’t think that a personal learning environment has to necessarily be ‘connected’ at all times, so I didn’t want to limit this map to just the tools that are fashionable now, or that focus strictly on the social aspects of the web. The more I think about it, the more I’m discovering that I tend to collect information from various corners of the web, but most of my reflection (or digestion) actually takes place using disconnected tools like word documents or plain text files. Whether I choose to share these reflections is another story, but when it comes to my process of developing understanding, it often starts with the web, then goes into software applications, and then sometimes flows back out into the virtual space.

    Although challenging, it would be interesting to have a snapshot of my PLE at different points in time. For example, prior to starting my MA with the OU, I didn’t even know what FirstClass was. Today, it represents a very powerful connector to my classmates and tutors. It would also be interesting to see a map of the tools that didn’t make it into my orbit – and consider the reasons why they failed to make the cut.

    Who knows what my PLE will look like even a few months from now!? For example, I can only imagine how it will change once I finally get an iPhone and the world of developer’s apps opens up to me!

    Oh, and yes, I’ve also include a MMORPG in my PLE because sometimes, learning how to take a break is part of learning how to learn!

  • Higher Education: A stable sector in the midst of the downturn

    10Jun
    Author: Katherine Pisana Categories: Education Comments Off on Higher Education: A stable sector in the midst of the downturn

    10june-postHigherEd Careers published a feature this month on employment indicators in the higher education sector. For a general overview of what’s been happening in the US job market and the mechanisms affecting employment, have a read through the discussion between Andy Brantley, President and CEO, College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR); Bruce Steinberg, Employment Researcher; and John Ikenberry, President, HigherEdJobs.com. In the piece, Steinberg notes that employers are not cutting as many jobs in recent months as they were in the beginning of the year, but I have to wonder if that’s because there just aren’t as many jobs to cut. I also don’t agree with his assessment that the housing sector was what got us into this mess in the first place but rather that it was the first to show signs of what was coming, but that’s neither here nor there.

    To his credit, Steinberg does suggest an interesting approach for academics to adopt in order to gauge the health of their specialist sectors and, in turn, the marketability of their positions:

    Higher Ed Employment Indicators: What Matters?

    To be able to know what the employment and financial health is of the areas outside academia that they are educating students about would be most helpful to make strategic plans about staffing and the allocation of resources. In this manner, they are providing the educational grounding for the next generation of workers and professionals in sectors/industries that will lead the next economic cycle.

    However, what most interested me was what Ikenberry had to say in this interview about the ‘fresh off the virtual press’ Higher Education Employment Report – Q1 2009. Its four key findings suggest that the total number of jobs in higher education has remained relatively stable over the last 18 months BUT the number of advertised job openings in the sector has decreased significantly. It also found that in the first quarter of 2009, colleges and universities shifted their hiring towards faculty and part-time positions and away from administrative hires and full-time employees. Does that mean there’s a growing market for freelance work in HE?

    The message Ikenberry sends out to job seekers looking to snatch up the few opportunities out there at the moment: competition is high, but rest assured that the challenges you face are likely not because of something you’ve done (or failed to do). We’re all facing tough times. Just as you and everyone else on the bus is counting pennies to make it through the rest of the month, so are universities and colleges. Investments are being scrutinized from every direction. Persistence is key. It looks like ’employers are looking for reasons to exclude, not include, candidates from consideration’. Having said that, from my own job hunting experience, I’ve seen job openings pop up on a number of occasions for directors and associate deans of educational technology. The significance there: learning technologists were few and far between when I entered this industry. Now formal divisions of being established within institutions to support these efforts. That’s a good sign.

    It might take some time, but those divisions will start to grow and become more and more a part of the strategic vision of many universities. Growth means new opportunities, and I think that just like with so many other areas of our global economy, we have to see some significant changes in the makeup of industries before we start seeing real upward trends.

    So to end off on what I think is an inspiring note that actually ties into supporting the growth of our industry, here’s Brantley‘s advice to higher education professionals looking to further our careers:

    Higher Ed Employment Indicators: What Matters?

    Those looking to further their higher ed career should be committed to constant learning. If you would prefer to seek a new position, but prefer to stay put for the short-term, invest time and effort into learning new skills and abilities–on the job and outside of the job. The things we do every day to enhance our skills and abilities definitely impacts our marketability now and in the future. There are some great opportunities available, so now could actually be a great time to find that next career opportunity. Job seekers should be focused on their true career aspirations and apply for positions that really match their short and long-term career goals.

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