New forms of conversations are emerging across the Web that are shaping the nature of our institutional responsibilities. Remix culture is impacting the future of discourse on levels that make many of us uncomfortable. Let’s explore the notion of the “conversation” as it exists across the social Web – to see how we, as educators, can take cues from this emerging dialogue. It is our responsibility – not to dismiss these forms as passing fads, but to realize the embedded pedagogies that exist within these emergent spaces – pedagogies we must understand to fully imagine what the future of digital media means to scholarship.

Cole Camplese is the director of education technology services at Pennsylvania State University. He oversees university-wide initiatives that impact teaching and learning with technology. His primary area of focus is integrating emerging technologies into learning spaces. At Penn State, the challenge is providing scalable solutions that the 94,000 students and 10,000 faculty can successfully use to enhance their teaching and learning environments.

In our media-soaked culture, the cliché exchange rate of 1,000 words per picture seems quite low. The mechanics and art of photography unveil an intriguing metaphor for thinking about learning. For a photographer, the operation of cameras – exploiting apertures, shutter speeds, optics, filters – coexist with the artistic skills of pre-visualization, framing, composition. We meld with the camera, the boundary between tools and our human capabilities blur. Taking the metaphor farther, creating an engaging learning experience is much more than point and shoot. Few successful photographers are born innately with their skills – it is a craft, as is learning, that often improves in the act of doing, trying, and reflecting.

Alan Levine is vice president for the NMC Community and chief technology officer for the New Media Consortium (NMC), an international consortium of learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies. Alan is widely recognized nationally and internationally for expertise in the application of new technologies to educational environments and was a pioneer on the Web back in 1993.

Shirley Thompson, Distance Learning Coordinator, North Lake College , vs. Dr. James Olliver, Provost, Seminole and eCampus, St. Petersburg College
Moderated by Dr. Michael Catchpole, Professor, North Island College

Pro: Instructors do not need to be html or graphic experts to create viable, vibrant courses. Faculty-developed courses are fluid, relevant, and tailored to suit the population served. “One size fits all” is not the best way to serve students who want to choose from a variety of courses – a choice they have in the face-to-face arena. Online education cannot be created by those who only know how to create a link, a button, or a video -- faculty members are the content experts and should be allowed to craft learning experiences with expected learning outcomes, rather than forced to offer students the same modality for years to come.

Con: Creating excellent online courses requires considerable skill – to incorporate best practices, pedagogically-sound learning concepts, continuous interaction, ongoing assessment, and tools that address students’ varying learning styles. Faculty time is better spent working from well-developed course materials – we hire faculty to be teachers, not developers. Most (especially adjuncts) have neither the time nor the interest to research, test, and incorporate the latest online tools. This isn’t “one-size fits all” – it is a model that focuses faculty attention on content – where it belongs – with the flexibility to pour that content into a shell which reflects the best in pedagogy and the latest in proven technology tools.

Higher education has lost its way. We seem to have forgotten the core values of education: sharing, giving, and generosity. Like the frog in the famous parable, we have unwittingly allowed the water around us to be brought slowly to a boil while we sit in a pot of selfishness, restriction, concealment, and withholding. New media and technology have a critical role to play in the future of education. However, regardless of the potential they show, they will only get to act in the parts in which we cast them. The only legitimate role for new media and technology in education is to increase our capacity to be generous with one another. Because the more open we are, the better education will be.

Dr. David Wiley is associate professor of instructional psychology and technology at Brigham Young University, where he also serves as associate director of the Center for the Improvement of Teacher Education and Schooling with responsibility for the research unit. He is founder and board member of the Open High School of Utah and chief openness officer of Flat World Knowledge. David is also the founder of OpenContent.org.

ITC 2011 Awards for Excellence in eLearning

The following award recipients were reviewed and chosen by panels of judges that were comprised of members of the ITC board of directors, past award winners, attendees at ITC’s annual leadership academy, and other ITC members. The judges spent a great deal of time reviewing the courses and materials the nominees shared with ITC. They held all of the winners to the high, best-practice standards exemplified by previous ITC award winners. The recipients are indeed exemplary members of our community.


Lifetime Achievement Award
John R. Sneed, Director of Distance Education, Portland Community College

Outstanding eLearning Program
Sinclair Community College

Outstanding Distance Learning Faculty
Dominique Charlotteaux, Associate Professor of Education and Psychology, Broward College
Joan Doolittle, Professor, Psychology Department, Anne Arundel Community College
Cathy House, Professor of Computer Information Technology, Truckee Meadows Community College

Outstanding Use of New Technology and/or Delivery System
SRT Maker and Accessible YouTube Video Player, Michael Carnahan, St. Petersburg College

Outstanding Student Services
Bucks County Community College

Outstanding Technical Support and Service
The FAST Team, Faculty Access to Supportive Technology – LeCroy Center for Educational Telecommunications

Outstanding eLearning Student
Nicole K. Stalker, St. Petersburg College

We’ve seen many major industries undergo dramatic changes in the last decade (i.e. manufacturing, newspapers, and customer service). While education seems “untouchable” to those within the system, there are many “levers of change” that have the potential to dramatically restructure of higher education. Online courses, adaptive computer assessment systems, open-source textbooks, edupunks, pay-by-the-month degrees … these are just some of the levers that are prying at the corners. Maria Andersen will identify the levers of change that have the potential to shift higher education and provide a few scenarios that describe the future of higher education.

Maria Andersen is a math instructor at Muskegon Community College in Michigan. She is president of MichMATYC, and director of AMATYC Technology Workshops. She is leading expert on teaching with technology and has recently begun experimenting with the use of "play" and non-linear learning in her math classes.