Frances Bell’s Blog

I am writing this in morning coffee break of Tuesday morning.?

Diana Oblinger from Educause talked about today’s learners and how they behave differently from a previous generation because of the different experiences they have had read more here? .? She raised issues such as immediacy, social and multi-modal communication, informal learning, choice.? Changed behaviours are not just evident in young people, we are all behaving differently in the digital age - checking email whilst speaking on the phone.? Diana said she was part of the World to the Desktop metaphor whereas our students live in an Alice in Wonderland , multi-user virtual environment.
She also spoke of (Siemens’) connectivism and the importance of social connections in knowing - knowledge is in the network.?? Also the importance of physical spaces in learning.? Interesting example of participatory game for learning about genetics where students move around the room ‘mating’ by infrared seeing what difference this makes to DNA.? Students using live data (National Ecological Observatory Network).
Finished by speaking of formal and informal environments - “harmonize space with learning theory”
Speakers introduced themes ( more details here ) of next generation learners, next generation learning, next generation providers, next generation technology, raising questions for delegates to think about them - the idea is that these speakers will follow these themes through the conference and report back at the end.? We’ll have to rely on these theme speakers to some extent (as well as ALT-C bloggers - tell us more please) as there about 160 short papers, research papers, worshops, symposiums, posters? and demonstrations - gulp !!!

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Other blogging ALT-C include Christopher Sessums , Workshop WIKI, Catherine Howell, Josie Fraser, David Sugden Seb Schmoller

Please let me know of others.? I am hoping you can help me improve the account of the conference I’ll write for the ALT Newsletter.?

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