April is just around the corner. Some say it brings Spring showers, but I know it brings jazz and learning in New Orleans. I am looking forward to the NOLA Jazz & Heritage Festival (1st time for me!) and welcoming the many conference participants to the NEW 2016 OLC Innovate (#OLCInnovate). Less than one month from now, we are excited to kick off the new conference with the opening session with the #OLCInnovate Lightning Talks!
This opening session, on Wednesday, April 20th from 5-6:30 pm, will host a series of rapid-fire talks to introduce a variety of themes around the topic of innovation, including pedagogy, structure, workforce, and the challenges we face in learning. The format for the #OLCInnovate Lightning Talks are as follows – each presenter is given 6 minutes to talk while their 20 slides automatically advance every 18 seconds. We hope the quick-pace of these mini-keynotes introduce you to the concepts of innovation inspire you to think further about the conference experience ahead. Here’s the speaker line-up for the evening:
Title of Talk: Reachin’ Out to Meet the Changes
Rolin Moe (a.k.a. @RMoeJo), Seattle Pacific University
About Rolin’s Lightning Talk: Embracing the structures of education means understanding the complexities of all members of the community. There are no shortcuts. 20th Century poet Laura Riding made it her life’s mission to create a universal dictionary where every word would only have one meaning. This would clear up ambiguity and allow people to communicate more effectively. Since this is probably the first you have heard of Laura Riding, you can imagine the fate of her dictionary. This is a victory for language; it is the imperfection of the human state that creates the most meaning.
Using Core Values to Collaborate, Innovate, and Educate
Julie Larsen ( a.k.a. @julieclarsen), University of Washington
About Julie’s Lightning Talk: Starting with values identification allows peer educators to name their own “why” and develop better mentoring relationships. Give your learners the toolbox, and let them build their own course.Training and development is most often focused on policies and procedures. Innovation lies in creating a mentoring and peer education program founded in values-based education that focuses on the “why” more than the “how.” By encouraging students to use discernment and judgment, retention and satisfaction with experience will follow.
From Redlining to Digital Redlining
Chris Gilliard, Ph.D. (@hypervisible), Macomb Community College
About Chris’ Lightning Talk: Digital footprints serve discriminatory purposes similar to traditional forms of redlining that are now outlawed. Academic IT policies risk complicity with such discrimination. Where redlining was once a geographic classification for channeling financial advantage to the white, middle-class, it has been reinvented in digital practices that affect finance, employment policing, and education. In education, digital redlining arises out of uncritical policies that regulate the engagement of community college’s working class students with technology.
Today’s the Day: Balancing The Reality of Faculty Scholarship with Innovations in Digital Authorship
Nori Barajas-Murphy (a.k.a. @nononi28), University of La Verne
About Nori’s Lightning Talk: It’s time to rethink the definition of faculty publications. Authoring course texts and designing curriculum are the products of innovative faculty and should be considered scholarship. Developing cultures of innovation for faculty across institution types requires restructuring traditional emphasis on scholarship and publication. Institutions that honor the time needed to develop digital content with course releases and course development sabbaticals will fuel innovation and offer students course materials beyond a textbook cartridge.
There’s A Lot More Going On Behind That Screen
Paul Gordon Brown (a.k.a. @paulgordonbrown), Boston College
About Paul’s Lightning Talk: Moving learners from external to internal motivation and how the developmental process plays out online. Research into the impact of digital and social technology on student development remains relatively new, therefore, consider how we reflect on some of the same questions asked of our learners. To trigger discussion and share strategies, this talk will instigate how practitioners can be more when engaging their learners about digital identity development.
That being said, we hope you are actively contributing to the opening program as well. These fantastic speakers plan to INVOLVE YOU by presenting a question, introducing a challenge, or prompting participants to chat with one another about the central message from their talk. We encourage ALL OF YOU to create a “digital make” using the conference hashtag, #OLCInnovate, to share your thoughts and reflections. And since we are in New Orleans, we will, of course, have drinks and snacks to enjoy. We hope this dynamic welcome allows you to ponder a few innovation ideas and allows you to connect to the OLC and MERLOT community.
OLC Innovate: Women in Ed Tech Scholarship Award
Applications for the women in the field of #EdTech who exemplify leadership qualities in the field of online learning are OPEN! In 2015, the Women in EdTech Scholarship was established by the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) in conjunction with the Women in EdTech dinner, an event sponsored by Loud Cloud at OLC’s 2015 #ET4Online Conference. The scholarship honors women in the field of EdTech who exemplify leadership qualities in the field of online learning and who contribute to the field through the adoption of innovative practices or new research in the field. This scholarship will be presented at the 2016 OLC Innovate conference in New Orleans April 20-22, 2016. This scholarship includes an OLC Innovate conference registration, 2 nights at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel to use during the conference, attendance at the 2016 Women in Online Leadership Dinner and a commemorative plaque.
This blog post has been cross-posted on the Online Learning Consortium blog.
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