The Association for Learning Technology's annual conference, ALT-C 2008, brought together over 700 delegates and more than 100 speakers from all over the world. Catherine Dhanjal reports on some highlights from the conference.

Here are some highlights from the ALT conference: a report on two presentations from the business sector, and a fascinating seminar on the divide between businesses who use internet and communications technology (ICT), and those who don't.

More at: http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=191719&d=680&h=608&f=626&dateformat=%25e-%25h-%25y

Sebit, LLC, developer of Adaptive Curriculum, announces a partnership with Learning.com, provider of digital curriculum. This collaboration will offer teachers seamless access to Adaptive Curriculum Activity Objects through the Digital Learning Environment from Learning.com. Combining conceptual learning with state-of-the-art graphics, Activity Objects provide teachers with an interactive way to engage middle grade students in math, with the goal of improving students’ academic performance in the classroom.

http://www.adaptivecurriculum.com/us/files/NewsRelease-20080624.pdf

© 2008 John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler. Text illustrations © 2008 Susan E. Haviland. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 43, no. 1 (January/February 2008): 16–32

Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0

John Seely Brown and Richard P. Adler

John Seely Brown is a Visiting Scholar and Advisor to the Provost at the University of Southern California (USC) and Independent Co-Chairman of a New Deloitte Research Center. He is the former Chief Scientist of Xerox and Director of its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Many of his publications and presentations are on his website (http://www.johnseelybrown.com). Richard P. Adler is a Research Affiliate at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto and Principal of People & Technology, a research and consulting firm in Cupertino, California.

Comments on this article can be posted to the web via the link at the bottom of this page.

In studying and/or promoting web-technology, the phrase Web 2.0 can refer to a trend in web design and development — a perceived second generation of web-based communities and hosted services (such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies) which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users.

See some examples:

http://extension.unh.edu/blogs/itde/12704_wh_onlinelearning.pdf

http://www.elearningguild.com/research/archives/index.cfm?action=view&frompage=1&StartRow=1&MaxRows=40&selection=doc.30

http://www.astd.org/  Click on industry highlights

Minutes, 31 Oct Meeting

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In attendance were Alex Devereux, Bobbie Kraver, Richard Brincefield, Oris Friesen, and Maggie Martinez

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Discuss Arizona-wide Research Survey

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Maggie will work on the elearning survey for the corporate audience. The purpose is to generally find out who is doing what. Maggie will try and find an open source survey engine to use for this project. She should have a draft survey available in November for committee review. We plan to launch the survey in January with the membership drive. We will announce the results at the CEO Breakfast and Summit08. We will discuss the results in the Summit08 Research Workshop.

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Suggest a List of Priorities, Initiatives, and Next Steps for 2008

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The committee agreed on two areas to focus in 2008, including the (1) future of social networking and virtual worlds from all perspectives and (2) support of 21st Century skills initiatives. We will announce these topics in our membership drive and at Summit08. We will solicit ideas, comments, and suggestions from the membership and conference attendees.

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How do we emphasize the importance of research for the GAZeL membership
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eLearning and Collaboration In The Global Economy
February 20, 2008
Mesa Convention Center
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Join other Arizona leaders in developing the vision, policies and strategies
to position Arizona as a leader in creating, delivering and adopting
eLearning and collaboration technologies and services in the Global Economy.

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This is your opportunity to participate in deliberations to transform education, support
economic development, train a 21st century workforce, and enable Arizona
businesses to compete effectively in the global economy

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More info? Click the Summit Link!

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Click here for Sponshorship Opportunities

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Join us at the Tech Showcase and Tech Council After5 Reception

If you have 30 minutes a month, you can learn everything you need to know about school technology by reading one great newspaper...eSchool News.

Dear Educator,

Keeping pace with school technology is tough! After all, who knew that being an educator meant you needed to be a student of technology?

Using technology effectively in schools is essential to providing quality education and preparing students for the challenges of the 21st century. And one of the best ways you can stay on top of school technology is reading how successfully schools are doing it day in and day out.

URL:  http://www.eschoolnews.com/

Our Mission and History

ASTD launched Learning Circuits in January 2000. Its goal was to promote and aid the use of e-learning, creating a body of knowledge about how to use technology efficiently and effectively for learning. It delivers a fully interactive Website with discussions, demos and resources, and articles on a weekly basis. A bi-weekly opt-in email newsletter, LC Express, sends news, teasers, and links to subscribers. There are nearly 500 articles currently on the Website.

Readers-at-a-Glance

The core of Learning Circuits's readers are CLOs, trainers and training managers, line-of-business managers, technology and multimedia developers, training suppliers, and consultants. The 2003 survey finds that more than half (51%) of our readers are managers:

• training managers, 22%
• project managers, 15%
• product or division managers, 14%

eSchool News Online reports that "96 percent of teens use social-networking tools
Survey reveals schools have a huge opportunity to harness technology for instruction "

More information at: http://www.eschoolnews.org/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=7304

From Alex Devereux

One of the key areas of focus for research that is most beneficial to corporations and eventually institutions is how to achieve an adequate ROI (return on investment) using eLearning. In every business, ROI matters increasingly with a major investment.

Therefore, as eLearning matures into a widely accepted and critical strategic tool for training, employee retention, continuous development and a catalyst for innovation, ROI needs carfeul consideration.

As shared by eLearning consultant Marc Rosenberg, listed below are several areas companies must include in their strategy to build and sustain an eLearning infrastructure necessary to achieve and sustain eLearning success in an ever changing global market and ROI:

1. Business Readiness for effectively introducing and using eLearning

   
   

From Bobbie Kraver

The research site has many links to additional eLearning sites in the United States and elsewhere. These are on various topics , but all contain information on eLearning.

I am proposing that GAZeL do a long-term project that lists every K-12 school district, private school, charter school, community college and university in Arizona. That our volunteers, or paid personnel if we can get a sponsor, research the eLearning that takes place in all of the above listed schools.

If only one school in a district has eLearning or hybrid learning we should find this out. We can email or speak to the IT person or principal or superintendent. We would have to create a short survey that people would be willing to fill out.

May 31, 2007 - Vol1, Issue2

News and Happenings!

Dear Colleagues:

In this GAZeL Insights issue:

SAVE THESE DATES!

You're Invited to Attend these Strategic eLearning Events

Colleagues;