UIS Blogs, Wikis and Musings on the Future of Online Learning Ray Schroeder Prof Emeritus / Director OTEL

UIS First, Some Musings  Online learning as we know it has been around for a dozen years –Though such systems as PLATO date back a quarter of a century or more  What have we learned? –Hundreds of studies show online learning can be at least as good – in many cases better than – face-to-face (f2f) –Quality online learning in most ways analogous to f2f – engagement is paramount –Consider your best classroom experience

UIS More Musings  Five Pillars of ALN - Sloan Consortium –Access (location, location, location) –Learning effectiveness –Faculty satisfaction –Student satisfaction –Cost effectiveness  Online learning enrollments growing at 25% per year nationally  More than 2.5 million enrolled online in US – fall 2004 (Sloan-C survey)

UIS More Musings  Progressive interest at UIS Progressive interest at UIS  Digital Natives –Largest k/12 population since baby boom –New expectations –New approaches –Gaming, simulations, digital environments  Future –Commuter campus enrollment drops  Energy costs, time costs, continuing ed needs –New immersive environments emerging –No longer “e-learning” – just “learning”

UIS Wiki  Wiki = quick wiki wiki = really quick  Online collaborative tool  Enables multiple parties to edit document  Keeps record of previous versions –So your prior edits are not lost  Comment fields available  Many potential applications in education 

UIS Wiki Spaces  Creating a Wiki – –FREE!  –Editing your Wiki –  Many versions of wikis are available for mounting on your own servers to permit custom and password protection

UIS Blogs  WeB + LOG = Blog  1997 – the first blogs appeared  Reverse chronological order  New blog created every 10 seconds  Enables “public” journaling with comment capability  hnology/uses_of_blogs_in_education.ht m hnology/uses_of_blogs_in_education.ht m

UIS Creating a Blog  Scores of blogging software options –Desktop based –Web based –Hosted / unhosted  Blogger – purchased by Google in 2004  Ray’s Online Learning Update Blog –  Takes just three minutes to set up! 

UIS Pedagogy of Blogs/Wikis  How do these tools fit in?  Pedagogical elements –Student-centered –Collaborative –Constructivist –global in nature  logging/ html logging/ html  =article&id=126&action=synopsis =article&id=126&action=synopsis  wikis.htm wikis.htm

UIS Collaboration  Favorite topic!  Collaboration –Among students working together  Wiki construction, revisions –Among students in different classes  Blogs with comments across disciplines –Among students in different geographic regions  Regional awareness / global awareness  Comment fields  fault.html fault.html

UIS RSS Defined  RSS – method of sharing updates online –Rich Site Summary –Really Simple Syndication –1997 – Radio Userland (blog)  Provides summary of content  XML – advanced version of html XML –Essential elements in RSS XML  Title  Link  Description  Example –

UIS Some Examples of RSS Feeds  News Services –New York Times RSS feedsNew York Times RSS feeds –ABC News feedsABC News feeds –BBC News feedsBBC News feeds –Wall Street JournalWall Street Journal –Chronicle of Higher EducationChronicle of Higher Education  Academic Journals –Law Journal FeedsLaw Journal Feeds –Library Science FeedsLibrary Science Feeds –Biomedical and Health FeedsBiomedical and Health Feeds  Dynamic Pages –

UIS How RSS Works  Really Simple 1.XML file is posted on the web and updated anytime 2.Prospective readers find the address of the.xml page 3.Readers use an aggregator – a simple, usually free, program – to automatically search for updates whenever they are online 4.Other sites can use the.xml files to dynamically-update their web pages (as in syndicate like AP or Reuters)

UIS Aggregators  Aggregators check xml sites at pre- determined times (as often as every few minutes – as infrequently as upon request) –News Is FreeNews Is Free –Sharp ReaderSharp Reader  FeedBurner re-formats the xml into files that can be easily read in IE and all other browsers FeedBurner –Online Learning xmlOnline Learning xml –Online Learning feed burnerOnline Learning feed burner

UIS True Syndication via RSS  Remote RSS site is updated  When visitor visits the aggregating site, a script seeks the latest (updated) rss.xml file, excerpts relevant data (i.e. links and text)  The new page is automatically (dynamically) created for the viewer  Increasing numbers of sites are aggregating Ray’s blogs –Online Learning UpdateOnline Learning Update –Techno-NewsTechno-News –Educational TechnologyEducational Technology

UIS Syndication Sites of Ray’s Blogs *Bloglines *East Tennessee State Univ. *Feedness (Spanish) *MacKenty *OTEL *Portland Community College =index =index *SciencePort Newsfeed *Sloan-Consortium *Technik-Infos *Technology4Teachers *Universiti Terbuka Malaysia *University of Auckland *University of Illinois Online

UIS Not Just Blogs  The future of RSS is booming – just as “blog” was “word of the year in 2004” RSS will be especially “hot” in 2005“word of the year in 2004”  Shareware / Freeware RSS generators  Input either text or html and convert content to.xml file for RSS distribution Without endorsement:    

UIS Contact info More information on RSS, Blogging and application of technology to enhance teaching and learning: Ray Schroeder Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning This presentation is online: