Hey!  This is Global Investigator Caitlin!  I am packing my bags to bring you insights into the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada.  What are we going to investigate?  Everything that has to do with the people of the World!!!  Why do they gather in Vancouver?  Where do these people find their spirit and enthusiasm?  What is it about the Olympics that is so special?

As I put the last toothbrush and sweater into my suitcase for my departure to Vancouver, Canada–I am reminded of the words of Astronaut Joe Edwards.  Mr. Edwards talked with some 1st grade students last year about Space Exploration and his travels aboard the Space Shuttle.  He said that one of the greatest memories of the is seeing the earth without any borders that fill the maps we see everyday.  

One of the interesting things is that the Space Shuttle Endeavor is up in Space currently and they are viewing this borderless World!  As people gather in Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, we will see a borderless world.   The clouds must look like the skiing trails that will be in Canada at the Winter Olympics!  We begin our journey tomorrow to Vancouver, Canada for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.  Can’t wait to share the journey with you!  Global Investigator Caitlin

It is amazing, just a few days after the anticipated announcement on Apple’s iPad—there are so many blogs downplaying the WOW factor for the consumer market.  So, have to have the $500-800+ iPad, but can begin where they are.  This might be a few laptop carts, a half a dozen desktop labs and a new smart phone policy on campus.

So, Apple’s iPad is to Blackboard, as the Blio eReader is to Moodle.  When we look at it from an educational perspective, we need to look to history to see where we are going.  It may not be the Apple iPad, or the Blio eReader, but, somewhere instantaneously they are “selling” it to education.  Certainly, much has been made about Amazon’s Kindle DX and the Barnes and Noble’s Nook with no certain fanfare.  Is the iPad the eReader/eTextbook’s Knight in Shining Armor?  Before we rush out and think that the iPad is going to replace textbooks, we need to look at the history of open-source in education.

Certainly, you recognize the two LMS (Learning Management Systems) in my title, Blackboard and Moodle.  In the history of LMS systems, Blackboard, and others, have been that standard in Enterprise Systems.  Then we saw the rise of Moodle, Open-Sourced and Economy-friendly.  For Education, this was a game-changer!  There was now an affordable market for individual schools, districts and states to create and develop learning content themselves.  As a consequence of this Open-Sourced development, several of the Enterprise Systems merged and focused their product.

This same, cat-and-mouse type of development will be seen in the eReader market too.  We can already see the set up of the development game.  Apple and their iPad are moving us closer to a hybrid environment for the eReader that includes both text and dynamic content.  However, on the sideline and quite possibly the Moodle of this equation is the Blio eReader.  If you are not familiar with Blio, you can read about them here.

Blio can convert any book into the Blio format and bring it to the reader in rich color-format.  It will not only allow for text to speech, but also synchronize unabridged audio with digital text (they call this print + audio).  Blio can also customize research tools and bind together LMS-type functionalities inside the eText.  All of this in a product that can go from reading it on your laptop in class (you get to page 23), and continue reading in on your iPhone on the bus home (it will load to page 23).   How cool is that?

For Education, this multi-platform reader is ideal.  If a school wants to ramp up the eReader program, everyone does not in between.  The Flex option is most likely where we may land.



Teaching Weapon: SMS Text

The American Superpower has created a brand new weapon, SMS text.  To my knowledge, this was not created from a Pentagon design, but rather the ever-emerging evolution of social media.  Ever since Neil Papworth, an engineer with Airwide Solutions sent a simple text message, “Merry Christmas” on December 3, 1992—this weapon of TEXT messaging has been refined.  Over the past week, the American Superpower has leveraged this weapon to raise millions of dollars for our brothers and sisters in Haiti.

You see, the individual becomes a collective power through new media.  We saw this power in the 2008 Presidential election and we can see it in the Red Cross text message donation campaign.  It is a mechanism to connect and impact “the crowd” without ever assembling.  If CROWDSOURCING, as the keynote speaker experiment that ISTE performed for their 2010 Conference in Denver works, how could the power of this medium be a tool in education?

Sure, education can use it to text announcements and updates on school closings.  On a rare-snow day in North Carolina, might I receive a text message rather than a call from the Science teacher who has me on in the “Phone Tree list?”  Absolutely!  However, these solutions are just the beginning!

The real power is in students molding my teaching by the feedback they provide to me. Can that feedback happen in seconds and have less than 140 characters?  Sure! There are tons of tools to do this (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc) and many educators are beginning to do this.  However, are we creating these “crowds” of Learners with our students?

Twenty years ago, a teacher might put a suggestion box in their room and periodically get a pulse to drive instruction.  Ten years ago, a school district might analyze a parent/student survey sent home on a bubble sheet to influence their strategic plan.  Five years ago, students might email an expert to get a quote for a research paper.  One year ago, my students posted and answered technical questions through a Discussion Board.  Two months ago, I began subscribing to these discussion boards so that it was sent via email to my mobile device.  One week ago, I wished that I could reply faster to my students question at 3 am in the morning.  One day ago, I answered the 3 am question.  Tomorrow, I hope that I can text that student right back.

Immediacy, is an element of the “crowd source”—Can it be worth 140 characters?  Could texting make our students “smarter” and more productive?  It may just be a weapon that we need to point in our direction.

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