NMC News

Please take a moment and welcome the new NMC Members who joined in October 2008!

• Australian Flexible Learning Framework
• Australian Learning & Teaching Center
• Champlain College
• Dickinson College
• Henry Ford Community College
• Loyola Marymount University
• Middlebury College
• St. Cloud State University
• Washington College

The twelfth in the series of NMC Virtual Symposia, Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning, opened last night at NMC Conference Center with a nicely attended reception.

This fourth of these online conference held completely in Second Life, Rock The Academy is intended to explore the ideas and activities that are changing/revolutionizing the shape of education today. With some meeting and greeting, NMC staff welcomed attendees from as far away as Hong Kong, Australia, and Austin ;-) and one NMC staff member stationed in Iceland.

At the reception, participants took on the challenge of our Treasure Hunt; you can try it yourself by looking for the instructions in the treasure chest placed out in the Grace Hopper Expo Center. This activity had people looking all over the Conference Center sim for the magic lamps that handed out clues to a puzzle. Top prizes (L$2500) went to Marcia Kjeller and Chimera Cosmos for getting in their answers first-- and Marcia was gracious enough to turn over her prize to the avatar that was newest to Second Life- Shaffer Parx who had made his avatar at just 1:00PM yesterday.

We then went down to the Cooper Coliseum for some fabulous live music from the very talented Jean Munro:

There is just something that is so exciting and what makes Second life special to be virtually together with a live performance.

The Symposium opens today with a welcome at 10:00am PDT by NMC CEO Larry Pixel (aka Larry Johnson) and we have a great opener in Desideria Stockton (aka Beth Ritter-Guth) on "Teaching Naked: An A-Z Guide to Open Access Teaching". Other sessions today touch on using Wikipedia and YouTube in Academic Research; Virtual Cinematography, History of Ideas via the BBC's In Our Time. and Infrastructures and Sandboxes in Second Life.

Today we are really rocking!
http://www.nmc.org/2008-fall-virtual-symposium

Today the NMC announces the release of its newest white paper, produced in conjunction with the Economist Magazine and in collaboration with Apple, Inc.  The paper, entitled "The Future of Higher Education:  How Technology will Shape Learning " reports the results of a study of nearly 300 CIOs and technology leaders inside and outside of education.

In a novel collaboration, the New Media Consortium (NMC), the Economist Magazine’s Intelligence Unit (EIU), and Apple jointly designed and conducted a study of nearly 300 CIOs and others inside and outside education around the world. The study was designed to uncover perceptions among these leaders specifically related to the use of technology in higher education worldwide in the coming years.

The report, which will be released today at a special CIO Roundtable hosted by Apple in conjunction with Apple, is free-of-charge, and is being disseminated under a Creative Commons Attribution license; the report may be freely copied so long as its 32-page entirety is included.

The effort, designed by the NMC and conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit in July and August 2008, included responses from 289 participants: 189 responses came from higher education and 100 came from companies. The US accounted for slightly over one-half (154) of all respondents, with the remainder distributed through Europe (69), Asia-Pacific (43) and the rest of the world (23).  Additionally12 telephone interviews were held with a mix of university chief information officers and leaders in the private sector.

NMC Platinum Partner, Apple, Inc, plans a series of CIO Roundtables to further discuss the implications of the report and to expand awareness of its findings in the field.  The first of these invitation-only events is being held October 27, 2008, in Orlando, Florida.  Given the timing of the release, EDUCAUSE was chosen as the official setting for the release of the 32-page report.

Read the Economist’s press release ( 272Kb)

Download the Report ( 1.4 Mb)

As you may have noticed, the NMC is deploying lots of new web tools to gather information of interest to its members. The newest of these, our Two Minute Surveys are literally designed to take no longer than that -- no more than three questions, with a focus on current topics in New Media.
Image Credit: Flickr cc license photo by nafra cendrers

For these first two surveys, we are publishing the results in the open immediately, but with future surveys, you'll need to have an account on our site to see them early.  As a member benefit, individuals from NMC member organizations will have access to the results one month before we make them public to the world.  How to see them early if you don't have a login?  See this handy Flowgram that Alan set up and get one!

See the results of our first two surveys on mobile-related projects and cool iPhone apps at http://www.nmc.org/2minute-survey   Enjoy!

Got an idea for a new survey? Let us know!

Since we launched the new NMC web site in April 2007, more than 3000 people have/created used the site for registering for events, participating in online activities, or contributing content. Because we use the web site as our main directory, it is important to us to have accurate contact information, but also, the content in your profile provides ways to share your new media work and connect with colleagues.

Therefore, we are contacting all users of the web site to ask to update or edit their online profile, which you can access when you are logged into the NMC web site, and look for the My Account link under your name on the left hand sidebar. To explain the steps, we have used a neat new web casting tool called Flowgram, that allows you to voice annotate live web pages and documents (this is a fabulous tool for providing overviews and tours of web sites!) to create a guide through the steps of editing your profile .

As described in the Flowgram, profile information is only available if you are currently logged into the web site. This information is used directly when you register for NMC events or submit conference proposals, so it is important to have accurate details for everyone.

Register Now! Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning

Registration is open for Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning, a special 2-day, live online event to be held November 4-6, 2007 via the Internet.

For full details, see www.nmc.org/2008-fall-virtual-symposium

To register now, see www.nmc.org/2008-fall-virtual-symposium/register

Join keynote speakers and colleagues from around the world as we explore the implications and possibilities of new modes of teaching and learning.

About the Symposium
Rock the Academy, the twelfth in the NMC’s Series of Virtual Symposia, will explore the kinds of ideas and activities that are changing the shape of education today. Revolutionary practices are breaking apart old models of teaching and learning; students are using new tools to construct meaning and contribute to the design of their own education; teachers are sharing the power that has traditionally been theirs alone. Examples of unconventional, yet highly effective, methods of teaching and learning may be found in pockets all over the world, at all levels of education. When the multitude of examples are taken together, we begin to sense a profound change in the making that will alter our concept of education itself.

The symposium will examine themes such as open education resources and open content; social networking and global connections; guerilla learning, games, and activist learning; the next killer apps for education; alternatives to course management systems; real-time data, maps, and mobiles; backchannels and alternative communication tools; students who do research in their fields; and any technology or practice that shows promise for engaging students and supporting subversive teaching and learning. Proposals are encouraged under any of these or related themes.

The symposium venue will be adapted to fit the topic, and will make use of online communication technologies such as the Adobe Connect 2D web environment, the Second-Life-to-website communication tool Chat Bridge, and the 3D virtual world of Second Life.

For more information on the preliminary schedule of events, please see http://www.nmc.org/2008-fall-virtual-symposium/program

Please take a moment to welcome the new NMC members who joined in September 2008!

• California State University, San Marcos
• Lawrence Technological University
• Millersville University
• Salem State College
• University of the Sacred Heart

For the last three weeks I have been touring in China, Hong Kong, and Japan, and taking advantage of my time here, took the opportunity to visit with some of our NMC colleagues in the region. The last leg of this trip was in Japan, when I visited with Tatsuya Umezakii with NMC Member Hitachi Information Academy.

The Hitachi Information Academy provides training and eLearning for Hitachi, which is an international organization with more than 300,000 employees. They make more than computer parts; I saw all kinds of mechanical devices in Japan with the Hitachi name, including things like escalators.

Tatsuya was very interested in learning about NMC's projects in Second Life and has been experimenting with both a sim his organization owns and trying to develop some content in OpenSim. If anyone reading this has some experience in OpenSim, Tatsuya is interested in connecting with you.

While in Japan, I also had the opportunity to do a presentation on the Horizon Project for NIME - the National Institute of Multimedia Education where several in the audience were already familiar with the Horizon Report. This group had a strong interest in helping us publish a translation of the report in Japanese language.

The week before this I was in Hong Kong to spend time with Nick Noakes and NMC member Hong Kong University of Science & Technology (HKUST).

I did a version of 50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story to a group of faculty, staff, and some graduate students at HKUST.

The primary purpose of this trip was an invitation to be a featured presenter at the Learning 2.008 Conference in Shanghai, which focuses on the use of technology at International Schools. Presentations at this conference included ones on the Horizon Project, GigaPan Technology, and Storytelling with photos.

Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning
The 12th in the NMC Series of Virtual Symposia
November 4-6, 2008 via the Internet

Proposals for presentations for Rock the Academy: Radical Teaching, Unbounded Learning, a special 2-day, live online event to be held November 4-6, 2008, are being solicited through October 6.

About the Symposium
Rock the Academy, the twelfth in the NMC’s Series of Virtual Symposia, will explore the kinds of ideas and activities that are changing the shape of education today. Revolutionary practices are breaking apart old models of teaching and learning; students are using new tools to construct meaning and contribute to the design of their own education; teachers are sharing the power that has traditionally been theirs alone. Examples of unconventional, yet highly effective, methods of teaching and learning may be found in pockets all over the world, at all levels of education. When the multitude of examples are taken together, we begin to sense a profound change in the making that will alter our concept of education itself.

Symposium Format and Topics
The symposium venue will be adapted to fit the topic, and will make use of online communication technologies such as the Adobe Connect 2D web environment, the Second-Life-to-website communication tool Chat Bridge, and the 3D virtual world of Second Life.

Proposals are encouraged on any of the following themes, but this list is not exhaustive and selections will not be limited to these categories:

• open education resources and open content
  
• social networking and global connections
  
• guerilla learning, games, and activist learning
  
• the next killer apps for education
  
• alternatives to course management systems
  
• real-time data, maps, and mobiles
  
• backchannels and alternative communication tools
  
• students who do research in their fields
  
• any technology or practice that shows promise for engaging students and supporting subversive teaching and learning

Proposals may be submitted online.

This event is the twelfth in the ongoing series of specially focused online gatherings that explore new ideas and issues related to technology and learning. The NMC Series of Virtual Symposia is itself an exploration of emerging forms of collaboration and tools.

Additional information about the Symposium can be found at the Symposium website.