eLearning Roadtrip

Links to Highlights of the Apple-Adobe Wars.

For all of you who are as fascinated by the Apple-Adobe Flash standoff as I am, here are some links to some of my personal favorite blog posts and articles capturing the highlights of the situation.

As a certain CEO of a certain industry trade association recently commented, "Apple antics are the best soap opera out there! I like watching it better than The Tudors!"

• A very thoughtful piece on the fight between Adobe and Apple
• You can find a pretty good info-mercial for the Adobe Flash Platform by clicking here
• Steve Jobs calls Google "evil" and Adobe " lazy.
• (PS you can buy "Evil and Lazy" t-shirts and coffee mugs from Zazzle, here.)
• My favorite cartoon (and my blogpost) on the subject.
• This is what Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch had to say about Flash being excluded from iPads
• Here is Adobe Flash evangelist Lee Brimelow's angry post to Apple
• Here is a link to Steve Job's Letter about Flash
• IT security pro James Arlen thinks the iPad's anti-Flash design will be the death of Adobe's troubled software.  I had no idea Flash was in such dire shape.
• A recent article in CNET indicated that a lack of Flash didn't have much to do with reasons for NOT buying iPads.
  
• Former Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen and Bill Gates chiding Adobe????? 
• Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayan responds. So does CTO Kevin Lynch.
• Direct from the W3C - The latest on HTML5
  
• Opera (the mobile operating system) jumps into the Apple Adode kerfuffle.

There's plenty more where these come from. Just wanted to be sure to share a few of my favorites. Enjoy!

Deep in the Heart of Texas

If you have been involved in academic distance learning you know about the University of Texas System TeleCampus.  As it says on the UTTC wesite the Telecampus works with all 15 UT System institutions to build and deliver high-quality online courses, degree programs and support services for distance learners in its mission to expand the reach of the UT System.

Since launching in 1998, UTTC has partnered with hundreds of UT faculty members at UT institutions to serve more than 86,000 enrollments in more than 30 online degree and certificate programs. UTTC partners with the same faculty that teach on campus, and provides a full spectrum of training and support services for both faculty and students. UTTC also provides grants to UT institutions to help fund course and program development, including faculty course release time, instructional design support, and course production.

Today's Inside Higher Education carried a story on the decision of the Chancellor of the University of Texas System in which the UTTC was praised for its leadership, their mission was declared a success and the entire staff was laid off. Headline of story: Texas Kills TeleCampus.

There are a number of references to vague dissatisfaction about licensing duplication, and murmuring of taxes for services. Mumblings of how the campuses "owned" courses and students, the TeleCampus didn't (which, is how it's always worked, was designed that way.) Anyway I leave it to you read the fine article.

So here's where I get to vent a bit. And this has nothing to do with WCET. I am just a cranky UTTC stakeholder.

Apparently the University of Texas System leadership doesn't understand that technology companies typically don't mess with Texas - not with Marge Knox protecting licensing at the UT Austin campus, and with Darcy Hardy at the helm of the TeleCampus. We tremble with respect. So I'm thinking that some of these dis-satisfied murmuring may have more to do with other issues best left alone. All I can say is...Gonna be an ugly moment when the Deciders understand just how many Texans are going to find their dreams of completing their degrees compromised by this poorly considered decision.

There continues to be shocking naivete about how system wide academic, library and student services have to inter-operate to make sure things are seamless. I expect there is also a bit of arrogance and hubris at play as well. Desperate times make some people behave desperately. And despicably, I might add. "Thank you for your service excellence. You are canned." Yee Ha.

Sometime people forget that what they may see as duplication is just another part of an interactive system. UTTC made distance education look easy, because they are so good at it. Very few multi-campus distributed learning/management/services systems in the world have ever achieved their metrics. 

There are many institutions, foundations, NGOs and corporations that turn to the UTTC for ideas about how to create systems, online learning and student support services that are the gold standard for quality online learning in the US. So it's particularly sad to watch these goings on at a time when people are crying for better access to academic opportunities, better student retention, more student completion, and when  demands for quality online education is exploding.

I admit it - I'm biased. I'm on the UTTC advisory board. Have been for several years. I've seen the program grow, watched the staff achieve the very things that people long for in an online learning program: student retention in the mid-90%. An exemplary business - profitable in the terms of how it is funded, with steady year on year growth. I've seen what these folks been able to achieve, up close and personal. A fabulous team. Like I said, award winning and world class.

Will be interesting to see the story evolve. This just feels not quite right - at least not the way it's being represented in the system PR. I do hope that the academic press spends some time poking around. Even more than that - I hope that SREB can help the thousands of students whose program just got cut apart with some online course exchange assistance.

"Roadtrip Service Announcement" - Changes in Federal Distance Ed Policy: How You Can Respond

Every so often we offer "Roadtrip service announcements" about events and activities that align with the projects that we are working on.  I especially like to highlight events where colleagues are featured.

Magna Publications will be sponsoring a webinar on “Changes in Federal Distance Ed Policy: How You Can Respond,”  on April 15th. The program will cover the latest developments in Washington regarding distance education, including: student authentication, financial aid fraud, diploma mill legislation, accrediting agencies, and funding for the American Graduation Initiative.  You will also receive recommendations on actions your college should take and resources for staying informed as these issues evolve.   

Russ Poulin from WCET will co-present with Fred Lokken (Truckee Meadows Community College and the Instructional Technology Council) on the April 15 webcast. WCET members receive a 10% discount on their webinar registration.

Contact Magna Publications <http://www.magnapubs.com/wcet/100415.html?s=wcet&p=wcet>  directly for more information and to register.Publish

No More Living in Shame

My Saturday mornings are typically spent with a cup of coffee or two or three, surrounded by various screens, catching up on the news of the week. I used to subscribe to a lot of newspapers. These days I subscribe to RSS feeds and I follow some really smart people on Twitter. Long way of saying that I had lots of "reading" to look forward to this morning. And then I got struck by a proverbial bolt of lightning.

Maybe it was finally having the time to simultaneously "background process" on several of the articles I tweeted on Friday (Hint to non-tweeters: click on the link with the http://, it is a shortened url that will take you to the report or article):

• Very nice RT @toddahitchcock: Another gr8 pub from our friends at SREB > Overcoming Doubts about Online Learning -http://bit.ly/6lemYY
  
• Bet this will get a few hearts pumping in higher ed tech circles  - publics taking advice from proprietaries?? http://bit.ly/7LjCdK (PS read the report, not just the Chronicle summary)
  
• RT @eLearnMag: online learning from student view: http://bit.ly/52xGUo. Online students are still living in shame? Hmm. Very bad.
  
  

Maybe it was that I had just competed trip reports describing some of the highlights from several of the of the elearning conferences that I follow most closely. 

Or maybe it was the catalytic effect of the Baily's Irish Cream.

I found myself wondering: if we are all so smart and good and proud and energized about how great elearning/distance learning/ online learning really is....

WHY ARE ONLINE STUDENTS LIVING IN SHAME??

I hadn't planned for yesterday's tweets to be about elearning quality issues, it just happened that way. Which was telling in and of itself. At the very moment elearning in its various forms is finally being seen as a viable alternative to face-to-face learning experiences we are finding the quality question rearing its head with greater and greater frequency, in increasingly critical and pointed ways.

You think I'm kidding? Have you seen this spoof on online learning that played on the US TV program Saturday Night Live this past October??

Go ahead and click on the links, above. You will see that every one of the articles or reports they lead to are pointing to some tough questions about quality in online learning.

So here is my question to you out there in eLearning Land: How is it that we ever-so-smart online learning leaders are allowing our students, our future alumni, our prospective stakeholders - shoot, let's get real, our prospective CUSTOMERS - to be ashamed of online programs and services they buy from us? Could it be that we've been so busy preening and presenting and yipping at each other that we sorta forgot.

Let's get serious. There is no excuse for online students to be living in shame

I guess I know what issue I will be bringing to the WCET strategic planning meetings in Boulder this week.

WCET 2.0

The team at Sage Road Solutions has taken on a project that is near and dear to my heart. I am pleased to tell you that WICHE (the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education) signed a professional services agreement with my company, naming me as WCET’s new executive director. 

WCET is a membership cooperative of institutions and organizations dedicated to advancing access and excellence in higher education through the innovative use of technology. WCET has been in business for 21 years. We used to be the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications, from back in the days when we in the western US were trying to figure out things like how to cross a LATA line. Things have evolved since those early days. Now, as they say, WCET doesn't mean anything. 

Grrrrr. I KNOW that what people mean to say is that WCET is not an acronym. But it still really rubs me the wrong way to ever hear it said that WCET means nothing. Because it has mattered to me, in a variety of ways, for a very long time. 

Just how long, the chorus asks in unison??

Since my assistant professor days at the University of Northern Colorado. Back when I ran the new distance learning institute for UNC's college of continuing education. Again, after working at WCET as a visiting scholar and project director during my university sabbatical. When I left higher education it offered me a safe haven for staying plugged in to the needs and issues of educational technology practitioners. When I came back to WCET as a member of Macromedia's corporate marketing team I was welcomed anyway. That’s kind of a joke, but as many corporate members will affirm, higher education membership associations can be lonely places for their corporate members. But not so at WCET. They elected me to serve as a member of the Executive Council – and even gave me a lifetime achievement award, the Richard Jonsen Award, in 2008.

After all that, you really didn’t really think I could stay away, did you?

I am especially pleased that the terms of our engagement mean that my Sage Road business partner, Beth Davis, will also be participating in the “new” WCET as our business strategist. Many of my WCET colleagues don't come from the world of software so they may not understand what a really big deal this is. Until I mention Dreamweaver, the HTML tool that transformed the Web. Beth introduced Dreamweaver to the world. Dreamweaver was her first step on her way to being a general manager of the products business at Macromedia. Needless to say, but I will anyway - she is wicked smart about identifying, defining and capitalizing on new market opportunities. 

In the spirit of the new economy, we made a proposal to WICHE President David Longanecker that we focus on renewal, refocusing and re-engaging in the learning tech communities. We asked for a one year contract, designed for flexibility in a time of economic uncertainly. Sage Road will provide executive leadership oversight and management for the next calendar year on a renewable contract. We will be responsible for very specific deliverables that ensure WCET is positioned for success in the post-recession world of post-secondary services and support.

We will be bringing you a first look at WCET 2.0 next month, January 2010. We believe there is a unique place for a community of academic learning technology professionals and the vendors that serve them. Between now and them we have a lot of work to do to make sure that focus on  places where we maximize value and impact. 

Given the consequence of inaction, how could we do anything else?

Online Educa Berlin Trip Report

There's nothing like a quick three day trip from California to Germany and back to sharpen one's appreciation for"anywhere, anytime" distributed communications technologies. 

Even so, #OEB2009 was excellent this year - worth a little jet lag, which was easily cured with a few extra hours of sleep, some aspirin and a good soak in the hot tub.

This was the 10th anniversary of my first OEB, which is now in its 15th year. I've attended seven times. Online learning has done a lot of growing up during the past decade, and OEB has grown right along. Today it is the largest international conference dedicated entirely to online learning in the world. It's an energetic, occasionally seething mix of academic researchers, non-governmental organizations, large global enterprises, small innovative businesses, ministries of education, labor and defense. More than 2000 delegates from 92 different countries. Eye-opening and inspiring.

I know we can read the papers and view the presentations, follow the #oeb2009 tweets and retweet what others are saying. We can reach out and virtually touch someone in a webinar.  But you know...and I know I am speaking heresy here...but sometimes being there, in person, really is better.

<Waiting for lightning to strike....>

Here is my top line summary from this year's OEB trip report:

Opening plenary: Lord Puttnam on education, climate change and the the role of moving pictures and virtual worlds and the future of learning. Brian Durran on the London Grid for Learning. Zenna Atkins from Social Solutions asks if education institutions will lead the news ways of learning or if learners will lead by demand.

The Internet Time Alliance brings us Creating the New Era of Corporate Learning - Jay Cross, Charles Jennings, and Jane Hart in person, Harold Jarche and Jon Husband via Connect from Canada. Jerry Michalski and Jay Cross. Barcamps and Unconferences. Excellent.

Quality time with Jane Hart. I'm a fan of Jane's Pick of the Day. I follow her on Twitter, I read her C4LPT blog, I admire her work with the eLearning Guild. I'm glad we were Battling Bloggers together. More on that in a bit.

The Online Educa Debate. Wow. It's an artform. Nothing like my weinie debate experiences from high school. No offense to my high school.

The Adobe eLearning Suite and Solutions exhibition stand. Okay, I admit it. The Adobe eLearning Suite fell short of what I had hoped to accomplish when I was at Adobe Systems. But I have to say, when I saw the trade show stand featuring "my baby", I was very proud to have been a part of bringing that product to market.

Happy birthday, Jerry Michalski!

Time with Eric Shepherd from Questionmark and discovering my new favorite blog.

Hindsight, Insight Foresight, Oversight: Learning Futures plenary. Professor Gilly Salmon from the University of Leicester, and Aaron Porter, National Union of Students, Artur Dyro from Young Digital Planet and Lisbeth Goodman from FutureLabs. Yours Truly as session chair.

Battle of the Bloggers. Donald Clark and Jane Hart and Clive Shepherd and Bert De Coutere and me. Wow. How very cool for me to share the session with these well known elearning leaders. Thankfully, we didn't really battle - I would have been shredded in a true debate.I am very glad to have met these luminaries in person and am looking forward to ongoing future conversation. Hopefully over beers.

Best of all - reconnections with friends from around the world. Sometimes when I get tired and cranky I think about all these amazing people from all over the world, doing amazing things with learning technologies. Have to say, then I don't feel so tired and cranky.

So, now. We have a new roadtrip in the works.

On to Boulder. It's time for WCET 2.0

MacArthur Funds Cal-Irvine Digital Media Learning Research Hub

A newly-created Digital Media and Learning Research Hub located at the University of California-Irvine will provide a international center to nurture exploration of and build evidence around the impact of digital media on young people's learning and its potential for transforming education. Funded through a $2.97 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Center was announced on October 27th at a national forum at Google headquarter that brought together leading thinkers around the challenge of reasserting American global leadership in education.

Through study of how youth are using digital media, researchers will seek to understand the implications inherent in how this generation of youth - unlike any previous one - is embracing the online world to access information, socialize, and engage in public life. Research is expected to help schools, libraries, museums and other institutions engaged in teaching and learning better prepare students for the 21st century workforce.

With a physical office at UC Irvine and a new virtual destination -- www.dmlcentral.net -- the Center will support emerging research on digital media and learning by hosting international conferences, facilitating workshops and working groups, and bringing together researchers, practitioners, policymakers, industry leaders and others working on related projects. It will also house related research initiatives of the MacArthur Foundation's digital media and learning initiative.  Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the nonprofit research group FutureLab are partnering with UC Irvine on Hub activities.

More information about the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub can be found by clicking this active link.

For more about the  MacArthur Foundation please click this active link. These people are amazing.

New eLearning Guild LMS Report by Sage Road

On Monday October 19th, Sage Road Solutions and the eLearning Guild will be sending out an email blast announcing their newest research report entitled The Evolution of the LMS: From Management to Learning. This is Volume 1 in from the 4-volume series  Deep Analysis of Trends Shaping the Future of eLearning, where we explore issues that are going to have profound impact on elearning practitioners from the point of view of elearning professionals themselves.   

Topics we address in the report include:

• Home-grown LMSs are on the decline
• Moodle moves to the from of the LMS Adoption Pack
• Hosted Options for LMSs are Achieving Popularity
• Open Source, Open Applicatons and Open Education Resources are on the Rise
• Blackboard Gains Corporate Market Share
• Commercial LMS Customers: Less Formal, More Holistic
• Extensibility Matters
• Campuses and Businesses alike are slow to adopt Enterprise 2.0
• Revising Standards, Specifications and Structures

The Sage Road crew looking forward to seeing you at the upcoming eLearning Guild DevLearn conference in San Jose, CA. 3 of the 4 Sage Road research reports in this series will be featured among the program's concurrent sessions:

• The User Generated Content Revolution - Colleen Carmean, Beth Davis, Anne Derryberry 11/12, 10:45 AM
• The Learning Metaverse: Emerging Technologies that will Change e-Learning Forever - Ellen Wagner and Beth Davis 11/12/2009 3:00 PM

And of course....

• The Future of the LMS: A Software Lifecycle Perspective Beth David and Colleen Carmean 11/13 11:15 AM

Happy reading! We'll look forward to seeing you in San Jose.

Mobile Momentum

The past few weeks have represented a true watershed for the mobile Web, for the mobile networks/carriers/device ecosystem and for application developers who have been trying to figure out how to jump on the mobile content creation bandwagon. Still a bit of a stretch to make a direct positive correlation to mobile learning, per se. But the more that mobility is a no-brainer for everything else we do in our work and consumer lives, the more obvious and self-evident is the value of mobility for learning and performance support.

The Handheld Learning Conference (or #hhl, if you follow tweetstreams) concluded mid-week with reports of 1500 pleased attendees who are still churning over the ideas and debates that were shared while F2F. Adobe's MAX, the company's worldwide developer conference, featured lots of news for mobile developers: Flash on Blackberries, mobile Connect, Open Screen Project news  and, of course iPhone Flash compilers for CS5. Not exactly the Flash on iPhone that people have been hoping for, but at least Adobe is stepping up to the fact that Apple won't play with them. I saw a number of tweets from very excited elearning types who were speculating how great this will be for mlearning. Which of course is a whole other blog post. Stay tuned for that.

There were also more company announcements than usual, along with pointers to various industry reports and post. Here are links to just a few:

• Mobile Crunch reports that the mobile internet is experiencing a 34% jump this year, thanks to women, teens and seniors
• CTIA released its Semi-Annual Wireless Industry Survey results describing the telecommunications industry (e.g. number of subscribers, number of minutes - which exceeded 1 trillion for the first half of 2009). Here's a link to their research page. Lots of good, free info. While the full industry survey *is* for sale, there is a top-line, 10 page summary available with plenty of good info.
• AdMob's Mobile Metric Report provides a detailed look at statistics describing the relative mobile usage as reported from AdMob's network. They address things like worldwide operating system share. Top handsets and smartphones for the world markets.
• We're hearing about how Microsoft is going up against the iPhone and Android, Google's open source operating system. And seeing questions such as "Is Windows Mobile’s Relevance Gone Forever?" 
• We're reading about how AT&T Reverses Policy on iPhone Internet Calls - which is code for saying that you can now use Skype from your iPhone in certain markets
• The FCC is jumping into the dust-up with Apple, Google and AT&T regarding Google Voice.
• Verizon Wireless and Google ink a collaboration pact. Next up - Google Voice support. 
• Palm announces that they are offering review free app distribution for the Pre.
• Verizon is investing $1.3 billion USD in LTE. And yes u should know what that is.

What does this mean for learning and elearning professionals (remember, IMHO there *is* a difference, and there are a number of Roadtrip posts that have beaten that topic into the earth) who are trying to figure out how to integrate mobile learning into the toolset? 

Stay tuned for Part 2.

More on Upcoming Learning Tech Conferences

Even though one hears rumors that conferences are falling out of favor, the fact remains that learning technology types really do enjoy finding opportunities to get together, face to face, in real time. 

For those of you who like conferences and want to plan ahead, here is a great link - Clayton R. Wrights's "master calendar" of educational technology events for 2009 and 2010.  While not 100% complete for every single possible conference you can think of, this really is one of the best master conference lists I've ever found. 

The Sage Road crew will be participating in several upcoming events during the next several months. I mentioned the October events in the previous post. Here's a quick synopsis of where you are going to find us in November, early December and late January:

• We're off to Denver for the upcoming EDUCAUSE conference, Nov 3 – 6. EDUCAUSE continues to be a great place to catch up on what is happening in higher education IT circles. We'll be taking a look at LMSs, open education, ebooks, and what's keeping university CIOs up at night.
• Elliott Masie's Learning 2009 is scheduled in Orlando November 8 - 11. This has traditionally been a good event if you are interested in advice regarding learning and technology innovation in large enterprises. 
• Sage Road has a LOT going on at this year's eLearning Guild's DevLearn conference, not the least of which will be the release of new three industry reports we have developed with the Guild. Stay tuned for more about that in the next few weeks. The whole SRS gang will look forward to seeing you Nov 11 - 13  in San Jose (CA).
• I'm pleased to report that Sage Road is going to be involved in this year's Online EDUCA Berlin December 2 – 4, 2009.  I've participated in this event for 10 years now, and continue to be impressed at the strength of the program. Almost as good is catching up on all the gossip at Marlena's Bar at the InterContinental Hotel. In addition to serving as chair for Plenary Session C I will be a part of this year's “Battle of the Bloggers”. Stay tuned for more as things develop.
• Looking ahead to early 2010, Sage Road will  be a part of the ASTD TechKnowledge (TK10). January 28-30, 2010, Las Vegas, Rio Hotel.  I am a proud member of this year's program committee, and at least two of us from Sage Road will be on the program. We've put a lot of effort into developing a program that helps learning professionals connect - apply - transform, and are pleased that we'll be a part of it.

 Hope that we'll see you somewhere on the road.