Sloan C International Symposium: Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning

I am so fortunate to be able to be here in Carefree, Arizona as part of the NMSU contingent. It is absolutely beautiful - what a great idea to bring the best of the virtual and real world (hikes in the desert with experts, complete sessions in Second LIfe, and a vast assortment of other hybrid sessions involving Moodle, Elluminate and even more).

Our keynote presenter is the director of eLearning at Adobe ! How cool since we use a lot of Adobe in eLearning (in particular Adobe Connect). Her presentationis Wayfinding in the Learning Metaverse.

Questions posed...
What are learning stakeholders doing with all of this stuff?
Does real learning take place in a mobile environment?
What happens...in the Metaverse?
When the physical world and the virtual world together definethe real world?
We need to pay attention to the mixing of learning, play and recruitment (as in the Army Game).
Staggaring statistic: percent of growth rate for online enrollment (9.7%) exceeds then overall higher education student population growth rate... (1.5%). Can we get an OMG people?
How do we move from fascination to sustainable innovation? Ellen Wagner introduces us to the notion of 'wayfinding'- the way you get around when you have no map, no plan to follow.
How to wayfind:
1) prepare yourself for the quest
2) chart your course so you don't get lost
--research
--reference models
--effective practices
--community
3) keep an eye on where you're going
4) leaven the extra baggage behind
5) 'be excellent to eachother'

Must add great announcment - Flash and Flash Video will be open through the Open Screen Project!!!