Thursday's Forums 1 & 2
Today I attended two great forums at the DL Conference in Madison, WI. The first forum was lead by panelists, David Metcalf, Jake Blanchard, Bob Regan and Thomas Smith. The theme of the forum was "New directions in delivering and designing distance education using mobile communication devices." Since many students have time management constraints there is a need for mobile learning technologies that remove barriers such as "time and space." As an instructor I want to make it easier for my students to learn content, and therefore I would like to learn more about mobile tools that will be effective in assisting students' learning. Also, I am concerned about the "digital divide" and I think mobile learning tools can decrease the digital divide. Currently, the learning effects of mobile learning tools being used in Africa is being conducted. As I said yesterday during the workshop, we need to conduct empirical research in order to determine the learning outcomes associated with the use of any technological tool.
Well, there was a plethora of information shared with participants about mLearning (modern mobile devices, theoretical frameworks, design, mobile games, and standards) during the forum. The link associated with this entry on Forum 1 &2 is to the "mLearn" conference being held in Banff, Alberta, Canada in October, 2006.
One of the panelist was David Metcalf, author of the book "mLearning" and the keynote speaker on Thursday afternoon. Actually, some of the content in his keynote speech was a part of his case study presented during the forum. A great presentation!
Thursday, Forum 2
This was a very important forum because the panelists discussed the different types of research that is applicable to DE and mobile technologies. The panelists were Traci Sitzmann, Robert Threlkeld and Roger Hiemstra. All of these individuals are very experienced distance educators and evaluators of the effects of DE in higher education and the US military. These panelists were very creative and sent out a survey to all of the DL conference participants prior to the forum. The results of the survey were reviewed during the forum and we broke up into groups and looked for "themes" embedded in the open-ended question at the end of the survey. That open-ended question asked the DL conference participant to share their research ideas in regards to distance education.
It was a great day! I learned so much during these forums and the networking was fabulous! I am having a great time at the conference and it is great to see so many of you throughout the day!
Thank you for attending our hands-on workshop yesterday! And, please feel free to contact me per email if you have any questions about podcasting! Keep on "blogging" the conference!
Well, there was a plethora of information shared with participants about mLearning (modern mobile devices, theoretical frameworks, design, mobile games, and standards) during the forum. The link associated with this entry on Forum 1 &2 is to the "mLearn" conference being held in Banff, Alberta, Canada in October, 2006.
One of the panelist was David Metcalf, author of the book "mLearning" and the keynote speaker on Thursday afternoon. Actually, some of the content in his keynote speech was a part of his case study presented during the forum. A great presentation!
Thursday, Forum 2
This was a very important forum because the panelists discussed the different types of research that is applicable to DE and mobile technologies. The panelists were Traci Sitzmann, Robert Threlkeld and Roger Hiemstra. All of these individuals are very experienced distance educators and evaluators of the effects of DE in higher education and the US military. These panelists were very creative and sent out a survey to all of the DL conference participants prior to the forum. The results of the survey were reviewed during the forum and we broke up into groups and looked for "themes" embedded in the open-ended question at the end of the survey. That open-ended question asked the DL conference participant to share their research ideas in regards to distance education.
It was a great day! I learned so much during these forums and the networking was fabulous! I am having a great time at the conference and it is great to see so many of you throughout the day!
Thank you for attending our hands-on workshop yesterday! And, please feel free to contact me per email if you have any questions about podcasting! Keep on "blogging" the conference!
posted by M2H at 4:22 PM
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