LTERC SEMINAR SERIES PRESENTS

Lectures and the LMS : Alternatives and experiments

Presenter: David Jones (CQUniversity)

Resources

View the presentation

Abstract

Postman's (1998) fifth of five things to know about technological change is that media or technology tends to become mythic. That is, some technologies come to be thought of as part of the natural order of things. It becomes difficult to imagine life without the technology. Postman suggests that this is dangerous because such technology becomes accepted as is and is consequently not easily modified or changed. Such difficulty is a contributing factor to what Truex et al (1998) label as stable systems drag, where an organisation battles against its constraining technologies as it seeks to adapt to an ever-changing environment. There can be no doubt that universities operate in a continuously changing environment (CQU, 2005)

This session consists of a talk and an experiment. Both aim to explore and open up for modification two mythic technologies within higher education: the lecture and the learning management system. The talk will argue for the need for alternatives to learning management systems and describe the implementation and results of such an alternative. The experiment will use various technologies (ustream, Votapedia and Twitter) to demonstrate methods to significantly modify the mythic attributes of lectures and presentations.

You will be able to participate in the talk and the experiment either by coming to one of the ISL rooms on campus or by your web browser. If you do participate, please be sure to bring your mobile phone. If you're really keen, you may also wish to create yourself an account on Twitter for use during the presentation.

Speaker Bio

David Jones is a long term member of CQUniversity's academic staff. In the last year he has been working as the university's sole "eLearning and Innovation Specialist". More details on the position and its purpose can be found here http://davidtjones.wordpress.com/elearning-and-innovation/

Date of Presentation

10 November 2009