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Baby Salma Uses iPhone to Learn ‘Apple’!

7 Apr


I suppose a 36 second video clip would make more sense now:

FLASHCARDS
In the video clip above, my wife is teaching baby Salma new words using voice narrated Flashcards. The cool thing about apps like My First Words, is that you can also record your own voice, and even create your own Flashcards. Cool!

If you notice, baby Salma is not satisfied by simply watching passively my wife clicking the ‘NEXT’ button. Instead, she wants to grab the iPhone (Ownership), so that she can hold it and play with it herself. We all know what happens, when babies don’t get what they want. However, what about students?

In other words, when we teach or facilitate learning, we should perhaps provide more opportunities for students to explore learning, and take ownership of their own learning process, which is often more inspiring than being told what to do for 15 weeks per semester.

99.999% of us love to learn, but how many of us like to be taught? Or have you ever been inspired to learn by following instructions?

Think about it!

LADYBUG
Baby Salma simply loves Frank Leto’s ‘Ladybug Ladybug’ Song, which she sings (and claps her hands) along in her own baby ‘GAGA’ language.

Yes, what if we could learn boring stuff through songs and poetry? Wouldn’t that be cool? Here is a reasonably convincing example:

But then again, is it worthwhile spending so much time and effort to create ‘a learning’ song covering perhaps just one concept? I suppose we could instead empower students to create their own learning songs. Or perhaps they could mind map their learning into a rap song. I wouldn’t mind a rap song teaching me history!

TED TALK

Alright, my baby Salma 36-second video clip and short reflection is not going to award me with giving a TED Talk. However, if I catch every moment of my daughter’s life for the next 3 years using multiple cameras wired up in my house, requiring 20 terabytes of storage, so that I can understand how she learns a language… WOW! Too late! MIT researcher Deb Roy did just that, and then he (or his research team) parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch his son “gaaaa” slowly turn into “water.”

In other words, it will be thrilling to listen to Salma’s “Ta-Ta” turn into “Apple” over the coming days, weeks, or perhaps months. Perhaps the iPhone, or coming iPad 2 (to me!) might speed up the learning process.

I skipped iPad 1, as I usually keep away from first versions of anything, but I will probably invest in iPad 2 when it comes to Malaysia (officially!). Based on my kids’ (3) obsession to play games with iPhone, I suppose I will only be able to use the iPad for self-learning when they all are asleep!

Although, I am no fan of having babies or young kids stuck in front of an iPhone or iPad (or mobile devices) all day (Hint: Radiation and Glasses!), I suppose a few minutes a day learning something useful won’t harm too much. Would it?

What do you think? 🙂

Social Media Infographics Built to Last?

25 Mar

REALITY CHECK!
When you first discover a social media infographics goldmine, you are like…WOW! Now, I can really spice up my presentations with some sizzling social media infographics to stimulate the audience. But, then you start to look at the statistics found in these infographics, and then you realize (I hope!) that much of the data shared are outdated and kind of useless (at the moment of discovery).

Yes, the infographics look cool, but should coolness override showing relevant and updated data?

The problem with many social media infographics is that the social media numbers are still radically changing, and will so for some time to come. For example, Facebook has around 650 million users now, but is expected to grow to 1 billion by 2012. Or worse yet, your super infographic shows 400 million Facebook users!

So, can we find social media infographics that are built to last (at least for a year or two!)?

FUTURE INFOGRAPHICS?
For finding updated Facebook infographics/charts (not totally cool, but at least reasonably updated), Socialbakers is a great place to find tons of stats, including informative details on your country. But, you will still have to manually update your slides with the latest Facebook stats once a while to ensure that they are updated and still relevant.

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could use a dynamic plug-in or widget plucked into your presentation (PowerPoint/Keynote), which via the Internet could continuously keep your social media stats updated and relevant? Better yet, it allowed presenters to manipulate or play with the data, and then we could visually experience the process from inception to present, besides the final snapshot. Gapminder is a perfect example of how I would love my dynamic (social media) infographics to work.

Another good example would be Gary’s Social Media Count:

http://www.personalizemedia.com/media/socmedcounter.swf

Besides these three (3) examples above, I am pretty sure that there are many more dynamic social media infographics to discover and use, and that I hope YOU can share with US (Thank you!). I will add them below as we discover together.
In a nut shell, dynamic infographics should:

  • Provide easy access to continuously updated and relevant data/information.
  • Have an embed feature (script/widget/plug-in) making it easy to add to our presentation (or website).
  • Be self-updating every time you access the Internet.
  • Show the changes over time (start to present) of what it is illustrating (if applicable).
  • Enable us to manipulate the data/information (if applicable).

Have you found any dynamic infographics that meet some, or all the criteria specified above? Now, that would be cool… PLEASE SHARE 🙂

My #CCK11 Talk – Sharing to Connect, Interact and Learn!

15 Mar
My #CCK11 Talk – Sharing to Connect, Interact and Learn! http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=sharingtoconnectinteractlearnslideshare-110315053224-phpapp02&stripped_title=my-cck11-talk-sharing-to-connect-interact-and-learn&userName=zaid

View more presentations from Zaid Alsagoff

This presentation explores openness in education, and my own journey embracing openness in what I discover and learn.

It was presented (Elluminate session) during week 9 (Openness & Transparency) of the ’Connectivism & Connective Knowledge 2011‘ (CCK11) course facilitated by Stephen Downes and George Siemens.

RECORDINGS
For those that want to recap or missed the session, here are the Elluminate and MP3 recordings:

Click here to view all CCK11 Recordings.

FEEDBACK

Based on the feedback from Stephen, George, and the participants it seems like my online talk during CCK11 went reasonably well.

I have infused some of the (positive) comments received into the cool mash-up graphic to the right.

Overall, participants seemed to enjoy my cool graphics, informative slides, and found my voice (or me) to be passionate and full of enthusiasm.

Looking back at 2010, one of my goals was to work on my voice to reflect my passion and enthusiasm for learning (enthusiasm is contagious!!!!), and based on this session… Mission Accomplished!

But, what about the talk’s substance? Mission 2011!

Although, I am receptive to positive feedback (appreciate that!), I do have my own self-evaluation sensor, which at times can be pretty brutal and unrealistic. Though, this beast is also my secret and most powerful weapon to awesome learning, so I am not going to let it go. Instead, I will celebrate it with a receptive and reflective laugh!

REFLECTION

I really enjoyed the online talk at CCK11, but I have to admit I was really exhausted after a 60-hour marathon, which included 1 lecture (Social Media & Web 2.0 for Learning), 2 workshops (IMU and UTHM in Batu Pahat), 2×4 hour (to and back driving) trips to Batu Pahat, and doing all this with a flu trying to cause havoc (Panadol and Vitamic C to the rescue)!

But thank GOD I managed to somehow get through without too many bloopers and mistakes! Though, after listening back to my talk (MP3), I realize I said ‘Amazing’, an amazing amount of times (too vain to count).

Also, my voice was stumbling more than usual (‘Hm-ha’), which could be due to the fact that it was my first Elluminate session with my new MacBook Air (CTRL Vs Command! Touchpad!), or perhaps my limited brain power was just running out of fuel. Or could it be that especially the first part of my talk (Openness in Education), I explored areas that was not exactly my specialty, except for finding great learning resources. But then again, I always like to challenge myself, and felt that I wanted to cover it, as it was inline with the theme of the week (Openness & Transparency).

Moreover, I had problems following smoothly the lively chat-board discussion while giving the talk (produced 3000+ words during the 1-hour session). But that is something I can easily improve with a bit of practice.

In addition, I did mess up names as usual. For example, I said Stephen Downes when referring to George Siemens (on slide 31), in reference to the ‘Open Education Open Debate‘ resource’. I suppose that is why I would be a really bad MC!

Finally, I believe the 3 reflection scribbles on the Elluminate whiteboard (Openness in Education? Why share? Moodle wish?) was something the participants collaboratively enjoyed. Some participants even found time to scribble on the slides, especially Stephen and Wiley’s faces when they occurred. I believe Stephen was the ultimate scribbler (No evidence to prove it, unless he admits), and no doubt he has artistic ability that needs to be nourished.

Overall, I have no complaints, and the participants were absolutely fantastic. Also, George and Stephen didn’t give me a hard time at all, which could be due to the fact that our views on openness in education are not so different. Yeah, I did praise and promote them a bit, and that surely didn’t hurt their connective egos either.

It was a great learning experience and adventure that is now completed (history!), and I am truly grateful to George and Stephen for giving me this opportunity.

Thanks 🙂

Use Twitter #Hashtags to Amplify Your Learning!

24 Feb

Today, I don’t spend much learning time following people or particular lists on Twitter, but I do spend time following, reflecting and interacting with relevant learning hashtag conversations (streams) taking place around the world.

If you are confused about what Twitter hashtags are, you have come to the right place to understand the power and possibilities that these learning conversations can do to amplify your learning!

WHAT ARE HASHTAGS?

“The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages” – Source

For example, #edchat is a well-known and influential hashtag used by many to discuss educational or learning related issues on Twitter. By following (saving) this hashtag you will be able to see all the tweets shared on Twitter including the #edchat hashtag.

Also, please keep in mind that Twitter hashtags can occur anywhere in the tweet, and that they are not case sensitive, as shown in the example below (#cck11 or #CCK11 = No difference):

Today, Twitter hashtags are widely used for conferences, events, courses, topics, trends, etc. enabling people to easily follow and participate via hashtag learning streams relevant to them.

WHERE DO I FIND JUICY HASHTAGS?
Actually, if you are looking for global (or country) trends you can for starters discover some on your Twitter homepage, which will display the top 10 trends at that particular moment.


If you are looking for (#hashtag) trends, then tools like What the Trend?, Twitterfall and Tagalus should be useful.

But then again, I give two hoops what ‘Lady Gaga’ and ‘The Bebiers’ tweets, and instead I am looking for educational and learning streams (hashtags), which will most likely never appear on my Twitter homepage. Of course, you could start using Twitter Search, but that is perhaps not the best place to start (unless you know what you are looking for).


Actually, sometimes you can discover enriching hashtags by accident, when reading tweets from people you follow. However, the fastest way (to me) is to Google up educational hashtags and find a gold mine like this one: Educational Hash Tags (Cybrary Man)

Here some interesting learning hashtags that you might want to follow (Save):

HOW DO I FOLLOW (SAVE) A HASHTAG?
There are several ways, but if you want to simply follow (save) a juicy hashtag from Twitter itself, you can first:

  1. Copy/Paste the hashtag into Twitter Search (Or simply click the hashtag on your Twitter page) and then Search.
  2. Then click ‘Save this Search‘
  3. Click ‘Home‘
  4. Select the hashtag from your ‘Searches‘… Done!


However, many today hardly spend time on the Twitter homepage itself, and prefer using their mobile devices and tools like TweetDeck to check Twitter updates regularly (every 3o seconds!).

In addition, some prefer real-time updates on tweets and hashtags (a flowing learning stream), and tools like Monitter, TweetGrid and TweetChat are awesome for exactly that. For example, you might want real-time Twitter updates during an event, or learning session on a big screen (or projector), meaning you can reflect and discuss on the spot issues streaming down the screen (no refreshing needed!).

Besides real-time updates, some might prefer getting daily updates from the hashtag(s) they are following in the form of a sizzling self-organized online newspaper. paper.li could do that without you basically doing anything, except for signing up and feeding it your hashtag (e.g. #CCK11 Daily). Really cool!


If you find your Twitter homepage messy for having conversations, you could try Twitoaster, which threads and archives your conversations in real time. This tool could help you improve the way you communicate with your students or connections (followers).

https://i0.wp.com/1.bp.blogspot.com/_337GUHQH0FY/TK0oDAPxeMI/AAAAAAAACA8/oatZSUHp_Fk/s1600/Jane+Bozarth.JPG

HOW DO I CREATE A HASHTAG?

That is so easy! Just remember to keep it unique, short and simple, because we only have 140 characters to make a point, and we certainly don’t want the hashtag itself to take up too many characters.

Also, try to avoid commonly and widely used terms like ‘#elearning’, because then you’re learning stream could be diluted and overwhelmed with too many non-related tweets. For example, the ‘Connectivism and Connective Knowledge 2011’ hashtag is shortened to #CCK11.

Finally, once you have created your unique, short and simple hashtag you need to promote it to your target audience, and here are a couple of articles on how that can be done:


Now, that you know how to find, follow and create Twitter hashtags, you have a powerful…I shall say no more!

Other excellent resources that explore Twitter hashtags:

WOW! That wasn’t so difficult, was it? 🙂

The Linguistic Genius of Babies (Patricia Kuhl)

23 Feb


LINGUISTIC GENIUS OF BABIES

“Patricia Kuhl shares astonishing findings about how babies learn one language over another — by listening to the humans around them and “taking statistics” on the sounds they need to know. Clever lab experiments (and brain scans) show how 6-month-old babies use sophisticated reasoning to understand their world.” – Source

Of course it easier to learn a language when you are younger, especially when you are a baby. What do you do besides eating, playing, exploring, sleeping, crying and ______?

However, I don’t agree with the diagram above, because I believe it is much more to it than simply getting stuck in the age thingy about learning a language. No doubt human being’s ability to acquire a new language declines with age to some extent, but there are many more factors to learning a language than just the decline of the brain, which could vary dramatically from person to person, depending upon how they use it during their lifetime.

What about interest and passion to learn a language? For example, if a 30 year old dude has the interest and passion to learn a language, I am pretty sure he or she will learn a language much faster than a 3 year old kid, especially if given the same amount of time to achieve it.

Perhaps the brain power has declined, but by using learning and thinking skills acquired fused with passion and interest… No contest!

Well, that is my opinion, and I don’t have a Magnetoencephalography (MEG) to prove it. Neither am I a linguist (and I am crappy at learning languages, too!), but I have met passionate people my age, or older that have a gift for learning languages really quickly. So, age might be one factor, but the interest and passion to learn fused with effective learning methods, I am pretty sure we can continue to learn new languages pretty well until we expire 🙂

What do you think?

Crash Course – Social Media & Web 2.0 for Learning

11 Feb

(Still Under Construction)


Social Media & Web 2.0 for Learning (2nd Edition) http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=socialmediaandweb2-0forlearningvsslideshare-110310185836-phpapp01&stripped_title=social-media-web-20-for-learning-2nd-edition&userName=zaid

View more presentations from Zaid Alsagoff

WELCOME!
Welcome to this ’Crash Course’ (still under construction) to get you started with social media and web 2.0 for learning and teaching. Today there are thousands of exciting learning tools to explore, but sadly most teachers do not have the time to explore all, or figure out which ones to use.
This presentation and site provides all the resources shared during the ‘Social Media & Web 2.0 for Learning’ workshop (I facilitate), which focuses on several of the most essential learning tools that we can use to facilitate learning and build an effective personal learning environment and network.

Site (Workshop) Contents


WORKSHOP?
Although, the presentation slides are pretty much done, the website will be under construction for the next few weeks. I will first be facilitating this workshop online (1/2 day) to a group in Saudi Arabia next week (20th February, one of the pre-workshops for the 2nd International Conference – E-Learning & Distance Learning, Riyadh), and then again I will be facilitating a similar workshop (face-to-face) in March at the AMEA 2011 Conference (another pre-workshop), and after that who knows where (if anywhere!)…
So, to make it a bit more interesting this time, I have decided to share the workshop (presentation slides, resources and site) with all of you, and then hopefully get some constructive feedback, so that I can improve further.
Still early days, but with a bit of work this workshop could evolve into something quite special, which could benefit people beyond those just participating. Isn’t that what Social Media and Web 2.0 is all about?
Reaching out and making a positive difference beyond the brick walls of a class, hall and building?
What do you think?

Use Linkedin to Collaborate with the Corporate World?

31 Jan

“While Facebook is a goldmine for connecting people and having social fun, Linkedin is the present and future goldmine for connecting students and ideas to the corporate world.”
– Zaid Ali Alsagoff

Not that this is so exciting, but as universities around the world are striving to create industrial or corporate linkages, and explore innovative ways to connect their students and research projects with relevant companies, professionals and experts out there, Linkedin looks increasingly like a great connector.

WHAT IS LINKEDIN?

Today, Linkedin has over 90 million registered users, and the company is growing at a rate of around 3 million new people per month. Although, most of its current users (as of January 2011) are located in US (52%), European Union (25%), India (8%) and Canada (4%), I predict that the user demographics will dramatically change in 2011, and you will see mega growth in many other countries, especially in South-East Asia. Linkedin has already members in 200+ countries, and delivers around 1 billion pageviews per month (Source).

It is already being touted by Josh Bersin to radically transform corporate recruiting, which means companies like Jobstreet.com and Monster.com might be facing tough times ahead, unless they can keep on innovating, and encourage people to continue to use their services.

Though, I am not going to waste or fickle my words on that, but instead focus on what Linkedin can do in terms of facilitating corporate learning connections.

WHY NOT USE FACEBOOK INSTEAD?
I have already discussed earlier on this blog about how Facebook can be used for learning and creating learning communities. It is still a useful tool to do exactly that, but I have to admit I am getting more and more annoyed with the increasing number of distracting picture adverts (4-5 adverts per page) taking over the Facebook interface. We were first introduced to 3 annoying picture adverts per screen (mostly irrelevant ones, too!), and at one time I am sure it was 5 (getting dizzy!), but now it is 4… What is going on?

From a learning point-of-view:

  • GOOD
    Facebook is great for connecting me to friends and uploading baby pictures to keep my Mum connected with what is going on, while living thousands of kilometers away. It is also a great tool to communicate and interact with students, create small learning communities, play games together, promote ourselves…More
  • BAD
    Facebook is increasingly becoming a BIG BUSINESS, which is understandable when you have 600 million users, and still growing significantly. Though, this also means more adverts, spam, rubbish, junk, distractions, etc…You name it! I actually respect Mark (Seen to be notoriously uninterested in money in the past) for keeping the Facebook interface clean from annoying adverts for so long, but sadly that is no longer the case.
  • UGLY
    Have you ever seen a Facebook junkie at work. I have! If your colleague is checking Facebook updates and pictures every 3 minutes, and is always busy (doing nothing work related), then you have seen one. Did you know that a study showed that 54% of US companies ban Facebook (and Twitter) at work? Working when connected to Facebook is like having a daddy day care full of kids screaming in your ears nonstop. It can be done, but you need discipline!

Having said that, we should not blame Facebook on all this (or should we?), but instead discipline ourselves (and others) to use it appropriately, because if used appropriately it can be an amazing connector and a great learning tool.

It will be interesting to see how Facebook evolves, but for me I will be exploring Linkedin more in 2011, and see how it can be used to connect and transform learning.

WHY NOT USE LINKEDIN FOR LEARNING?
Actually, I have been on Linkedin for several years (since 2005 or 2006, If I am not mistaken), but it wasn’t until recently that I felt the urge to explore and really use it. I had just completed a 3-part series discussing my frustrations with the Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS):


Although, I didn’t get many comments on the blog, I noticed there was an interesting BOS discussion taking place on Linkedin, which was initiated by Dick Lee (CEO and Chief Innovation Officer at Value Innovations, Inc), using my BOS article as a trigger.

Me being me, I joined the group and as a result, I experienced a refreshing and truly insightful discussion, which ironically was triggered by my bashing or ‘Critique of Blue Ocean Strategy’ as Dick Lee articulated it. Reading and reflecting arguments by people that have been initiating value innovations for decades was really enriching, and then that got me thinking…

Why can’t we encourage more students to participate or join relevant groups in Linkedin. Professionals and experts out there are always looking for refreshing ideas and suggestions, while students want to learn from experienced people in the corporate world. Bingo!

Also, Linkedin is becoming more user-friendly, the discussion forum is not too bad, and it will probably be introducing more collaboration tools in the near future. WOW, what a potential!

Why not use Linkedin to link up students and educators with awesome people in the corporate world, and explore ways to create value innovations and win-win situations, etc…! Yes, why not?

Finally, I have to agree with Professor Thomas Baker that both Facebook and Linkedin are valuable for their own reasons, and that we should use both to good effect!

What do you think? Do you have any learning experiences with Linkedin to share?

I am still learning the Linkedin way to learn 🙂

#CCK11 – Connectivism & Connective Knowledge in Action!

27 Jan

CCK11

This is my first reflection (posting) for the Connectivism and Connective Knowledge course (CCK11), which is a 12-week open online course facilitated by Stephen Downes and George Siemens. This course will explore the concepts of connectivism and connective knowledge and explore their application as a framework for theories of teaching and learning. Participation is open to everyone and there are no fees or subscriptions required….Register here!

Important links:

Click here to read my experience participating in PLENK 2010, which was also conducted by Stephen and George.

WEEK1: WHAT IS CONNECTIVISM?

“At its heart, connectivism is the thesis that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks. It shares with some other theories a core proposition, that knowledge is not acquired, as though it were a thing. Knowledge is, on this theory, literally the set of connections formed by actions and experience.
Readings list for week 1

So, what does connectivism and connective knowledge mean to me? Instead of dwelling upon my own contextualized remixed or mashed-up version of this theory, I will instead share with you a true story that I believe manifests the potential effect of embracing connectivism, and connective knowledge.

BASED ON A TRUE STORY

A couple of months back (November 29th, 2010), I posted an article on this blog entitled, ‘Islam, Higher Education & The Virtual Campus!‘, which Stephen Downes spotted in his RSS galaxy (I assume), and then he shared and reflected it on OLDaily. And as a result:
“Zaid, I read with interest the ZaidLearn blog that Stephen described in OLDaily. Great column! (And thanks to you, Stephen, for including it. This is what I meant when I sent you a note lauding your service to the educational community. You get people like Zaid and me together!)…”
– James Morrison (via E-mail)
First, thanks Stephen for connecting me to amazing people like James L. Morrison. I have probably lost count of how many amazing people and renowned educators, Stephen Downes has connected me to (knowingly or unknowingly) ever since I first appeared on OLDaily (in 2005). Those 26 appearances on OLDaily over the years (until now) have been magical in terms of connections and plugs to amazing people around the world, so I certainly owe him in appreciation and respect for that. THANK YOU!

JAMES MORRISON
Interestingly, thanks to this awesome Zaid-to-Stephen-to-James connection, I got to hook up with James L. Morrison for half-a-day, when he came to Malaysia on the 2nd January (2011) to conduct a couple of lectures and one workshop. If you are not familiar with this renowned educator and futurist, perhaps these 3 sites will enlighten you more about his contribution to mankind:

  • Horizon
    This is where (his homepage) you will find all his shared resources, including articles and workshop/presentation slides. And when you have written more than 200 articles, and conducted more than 240 lectures/presentations/workshops around the world, it becomes like….WOW…Thanks for sharing! This site has been hit more than a million times, so surely it must have had some impact on educators and learners around the world.
  • Innovate
    Founded and served as editor-in-chief, Innovate (2004 to 2009), a journal of online education.
  • The Technology Source
    Co-founded and served as editor-in-chief, The Technology Source (1997 to 2003).


What even amazed me more was his eagerness and excitement to have a learning conversation with me, which was really humbling, and I honestly felt a bit embarrassed. Here is man who has contributed so much to learning and education, and he is going all out to meet me. Who the ___ am I? Anyway, it didn’t get to my head, and I showed similar genuine excitement to hook up with him, because surely I could learn some gems from this exceptional guru.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN TRANSITION
As I was recovering from a flu, we could only meet up a few hours before his Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah Distinguished Speakers Series Lecture at Sunway University (3rd January), which was entitled, ‘Higher Education in Transition‘.

We met at 2.30 pm (3rd January) at Sunway Resort Hotel, and soon after a car sent us to the lecture hall at Sunway University where he was to deliver his lecture at 5.30 pm. Yes, 5.30 pm! Although, James has done more than 200 official lectures around the world, he still likes to take his time to setup his Mac, rehearse his presentation, and get comfortable with the environment before delivering his lecture. I certainly found that amusing for a man that has delivered lectures for decades, but then again that is one of the signs of a great educator, which is that they are always striving to improve whatever they are doing.

Besides the preparation, he was eager to go through his slides with me, and get my feedback and insights to improve further. Those couple of hours before the lecture was probably more valuable and enriching than the actual lecture, because I got to have an enriching learning conversation with him, and see how a great educator prepares for a lecture.

“Higher education is in a major transition period that will fundamentally change the way colleges and universities will conduct their business in the coming decades. Although change in social institutions is seldom rapid, the combined forces of demography, globalization, economic restructuring, and information technology are forcing colleges to reconceptualize their markets, organizational structures, and pedagogical practices. This presentation focused on the impact of these forces on American and Malaysian higher education.” – Source

Click here to download presentation slides.

The lecture itself was also crispy and refreshing, as it also explored the new evolving paradigm of learning, and the importance of facilitating more authentic learning (e.g. project-based learning), instead of lecturing students through too much theory without allowing them to explore and experience the possibilities. Let’s enjoy and reflect the recorded lecture broken down into 3 parts:

 
Higher Education in Transition, Part I from James Morrison on Vimeo.

 
Higher Education in Transition, Part II from James Morrison on Vimeo.

 
Higher Education in Transition, Part III from James Morrison on Vimeo.

After the lecture he insisted that I join him for the special dinner in honor of him. I suppose Sunway University Executive Director Elizabeth Lee, and Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Bignall were surprised, but obviously I would not turn down an opportunity to continue the learning conversation with a renowned futurist. In short, it was an inspiring learning experience and a great connection.


LESSONS LEARNED

So, what lessons can we draw from this inspiring experience, and connectivism and connective knowledge?

First, if we have a reasonably good Internet connection today we can all connect with amazing learning resources and exceptional educators around the world. However, by simply passively connecting to content and people, and just consuming without contributing ourselves back to learning ecosystem and connective world, we will probably never experience the learning possibilities that connectivism and connective knowledge can empower.

In other words, if you really want to experience the empowering learning possibilities and inspiring connections, you need to take an active role, which means sharing your ideas and discoveries openly, and joining actively in the learning conversations (relevant to you) taking place online around the world.

“The juicier your shared discoveries and ideas are, the more likely people will want to connect and interact with you.”
– Zaid Alsagoff

On January 19th, to my big surprise George Siemens wished me Happy New Year, and asked me whether I was available to present to CCK11 this year. I have to admit I nearly choked when I read the e-mail, and was thinking have you gone ___! Anyway, challenging it may be, I am not planning to chicken out, and will be hopefully be giving my online Elluminate presentation to CCK11 on Wednesday 16th March (Week 9 – Openness & Transparency).

Oops, what have I agreed myself into! If you have any tips to share, or topic you want me to discuss during my CCK11 presentation, I would certainly appreciate that. For once, help me out here…Please 🙂