EuroCALL 2008 conference in Hungary

Here I am in Székesfehérvár, Hungary (about 67km SW of Budapest), for the 2008 EuroCALL conference on new competencies and social spaces - 2 aspects of the field dear to my heart. I've come here from Antwerp where I attended the international CALL conference on the relationship between research and practice - both very interesting from a [rofessional point of view, but also great catching up with colleagues from all over the world ... and, of course, meetng new ones! :-)

Now I have to get on with going through my presentation one more time, before I get too nervous?!

Research proposals & lit reviews

My students in 702 & I are currently struggling with the parameters of lit reviews and research proposals - what goes into them, how they should be formatted, what "voice" to use, how to incorporate others' findings, ideas or opinions into one's own approach and views - and how to write all this up?? There seem to be conflicts between handbooks, guides, previous students' examples, course instructions, and expectations of faculty ... hmmm. So it's a difficult path to thread through to find the most appropriate combination that will both help them through the course and help them fulfill external expectations.
And I wonder how long it will take for changes to happen in how students present and structure all these - & theses & dissertations ... we are an open university, after all ... How long before all this can or will be done online?
Now that will be an interesting time! :-)

Now what made me think ...?

... that I would have any more time after CNIE to post some more. As Stephen Downes says, you have to make time ... regularly ... hmm
So I've spent the last 2 weeks writing 2 papers, monitoring my teaching website, preparing another couple presentations, working on a new course proposal, turning Twitter back on & the last 2 weeks participating in the SCoPE online conference trying to formulate a Pan-Canadian research agenda for e-Learning ... which has been fascinating :-) but very time-consuming :-(
So I've been thinking a lot more about e-Learning vs Distance learning, the differences in kinds of learners, the spaces & places & best practice. But now I have to get back to writing my last paper ... & I can't even get outside to take a walk & clear my head cos it's been raining now for 3 days ... grrr ...

Until such time as I can think & post sanely, here is the Slideshare link to my presentation at CNIE 08 :-)

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Now back to reading the SCoPE forum postings!

CNIE in Banff

Today is the official day 2 of CNIE in Banff. Some interesting research and considerations so far - especially in the areas of interaction online and the factors that contribute or otherwise to the effectiveness of this. More about this late as I have to get on with putting the finishing touches to my presentation as I am "on deck" in about 3 hours?! :-P Banff is certainly a beautiful location for a conference - though I wonder how many people are skipping sessions to take in some of the scenery, walks and great sunshine that Banff is turning on for the conference. I just hope tomorrow afternoon will be still pleasant as I want to get in a walk or 2 before going back home. Though as "home" is just down the road a bit, I guess the weather is much the same - & there's always the weekend to look forward to. ;-D

Segue-ing into new fields

Finally I finished my marking for 601 & posted the results last week ... some great student ideas for DE projects and agencies - & it looks like some of them are actual, real proposals! So hopefully my comments will be useful in getting these off the ground.
So it is with a mixture of sadness & excitement that I move on to this week: sadness that one course is over and that I may not "meet" with many of the students I have got to know in 601 for many more months - or even ever - again ... :( & at the same time excitement at meeting new voices and people in 702 as I begin teaching that course this week.

And this one will be a totally different pace & style of work, interaction & discourse: the Thesis Proposal. I'm looking forward to seeing the ideas that my new group of students are interested in and to helping them to articulate, refine, manipulate & "give birth to" these in the form of a polished proposal (if the planets align!) :-}

Time flees from me ...

Assignment 2 is over with all the reviewing, posting & commenting. We had an exchange with a class at the the University of Education, Iceland, in Reykjavik that was interesting. It was a pity from the point of view of this exchange, that some of my students chose articles to review that were very specific to Canada or to their local needs ... though of course they were articles that were also very specific to their own interests and needs. Bu at least everyone got to read each others' posts and comments were flying thick and fast across the Atlantic after a relatively slow start.
Solveig (the Icelandic instructor) and I had a short de-brief about how it went & we have some ideas now for how to organize it better next time ... we hope! We also had an exciting presentation by Terry Anderson (one of my new colleagues) on the Social Networking and learning community intersection. I think that tied together well with our exchange and also planted some seeds for our final unit on research in distance education. Certainly from my experience so far teaching this course, there is a dilemma between the need for many students to feel a sense of belonging and have some inter-reliance with other students, and the pressure of the real world (life, family, jobs etc) which produces a conflicting need to just get in, do the work & get out, without interacting with anyone else. So this will be another aspect to continue to observe ad document - how this dilemma or tension can be resolved or planned for, in terms of providing the appropriate and necessary affordances for a user-friendly and user-compatible learning environment.
Now back to marking Assignment 2!