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Monday, January 07, 2002


The Daily Links newsletter produced by elearningpost.com is a resource I find very valuable. Today's links include a reference to a whitepaper produced by the The Pew Learning and Technology Program.

Innovations in Online Learning: Moving Beyond No Significant Difference, is the result of a symposium held "on December 8 and 9, 2000, in Phoenix, Arizona, [that] gathered a group of faculty and administrators--those who were already 'moving the ATMs outside the bank,' so to speak--to consider the question of how to move online learning beyond being 'as good as' traditional education."

Prior to meeting for the symposium in Phoenix, we are told, "participants [were asked] to think about how information technology can be used specifically to address the major challenges of higher education: improving quality, increasing access, and reducing costs."

The paper also contains a series of case studies of innovations in online learning.

The "no significant difference" of the title refers to the research that indicates that there isn't any "significant difference" when it comes to knowledge transfer in online courses as compared with that of "traditional" courses.

The paper closes with suggestions for reducing the costs associated with online education and prescriptions for "sustaining innovation" when developing and delivering online education.

Sunday, January 06, 2002


This entry is related to assigned readings for the week of 07 January, 2002 for CTL1602 at OISE/UT

Peter Drucker's article from the Atlantic Monthly (Oct/99)
Beyond the Information Revolution tells us that the information revolution is actually a knowledge revolution. This revolution means more and more organizations rely on knowledge workers to be successful.

Attracting and keeping these workers is crucial for successful knowledge-based organizations. Furthermore, Drucker tells us, attempting to bribe the knowledge worker will "simply not work." Drucker closes his article with a prescription for motivating those within knowledge-based industries:


Increasingly, performance in these new knowledge-based industries will come to depend on running the institution so as to attract, hold, and motivate knowledge workers. When this can no longer be done by satisfying knowledge workers' greed, as we are now trying to do, it will have to be done by satisfying their values, and by giving them social recognition and social power. It will have to be done by turning them from subordinates into fellow executives, and from employees, however well paid, into partners.


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Internet Paradox: A Social Technology That Reduces Social Involvement and Psychological Well-Being?
Robert Kraut and Vicki Lundmark; Michael Patterson and Sara Kiesler; Tridas Mukopadhyay; William Scherlis
Carnegie Mellon University

This paper is ripe with references and graphs relating the outcomes of measures and experiments, and I need more time with it. So far, I've been struck by what may be contradictions -- maybe this can be attributed to the paradoxical nature of the Internet;)
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ADDED: 09Jan02
I'm finally getting back to the paradox.

The paper's abstract closes with:

"In this sample, the Internet was used extensively for communication. Nonetheless, greater use of the Internet was associated with declines in participants' communication with family members in the household, declines in the size of their social circle, and increases in their depression and loneliness. These findings have implications for research, for public policy, and for the design of technology."


I'll be back with a post regarding the "implications" listed.


Saturday, January 05, 2002

Searches for "detailed design documents" brought me back to Knowledge Objects (KO). Along the way, I encountered a whitepaper by M. David Merrill Suggested Self-Study Program for Instructional Systems Development (ISD). Merrill's paper is a fine example of the "self-serve" educational resources available on the Internet.

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) seems to lend itself to an object-based approach to learning. Bits of data -- concepts, principles and procedures -- are indentified, detailed and addressed at the granular, modular or "object" level.

Learning interventions can then be brought to bear on defined "training needs" and "performance gaps" in the organization. Object-based online education addresses training needs and gaps at their root. Small chunks of information are delivered via several modalities to accomodate different learning styles.

Online training offerings might include:
  • PDF-based "page-turners"
  • Synchronous ("live") chat
  • Instructor-led group discussions and presentations
  • Videos
  • Web-based, self-administered quizzes and exercises
    NOTE: Hot Potatoes offers a suite of seven--and counting--applications for making Web-based learning activities. Some REALLY good stuff!


This entry marks the beginning of a diary of learning. Over the course of the Spring term of 2002, I intend to use this blog to record my learning experiences as a graduate student at OISE/UT.

I hope to learn more about Knowledge Objects (KO) and their application in Instructional Design and delivery environments.

My research on the Internet has produced resources on the subject. Chief among these is the Reusable Learning Object (RLO) used by Cisco Systems, Inc.. RLO are based on the work of Ruth C. Clark and M. David Merrill. I especially like the object-based (i.e., following Object-Oriented Software Engineering (OOSE)) nature of this approach and hope to use it in my work as Training Developer with SMART Technologies, Inc.

All this resulted from my work to design and produce "design documents" that we'll use at SMART to produce training materials. Materials will be produced and delivered in a number of media and will eventually lead to a "blended" approach to training delivery for customers, clients and staff.