Pass the SoLT

The recordings of last week's Learning Futures Festival are now able for open viewing. Over the two days of the event I managed to participate in many of the sessions and personal highlights include:

• Professor Grainne Conole - Digital Literacy Skills for Today's Participatory Culture
• Professor Terry Anderson - Following the Sun to Open Scholarship
• Professor Phil Candy - Boyer and the 5th Element
• Professor Gilly Salmon - Exploring the Future for Learning
• Donald Clark with further thoughts from James Morrison - Don't Lecture Me
• Stephen Downes with responses from Donald Clark and James Morrison - Long Live the Lecture!
• Profesor Ron Oliver - Learning and Teaching in the Digital World of the Future
• Professor Gilly Salmon - Hindsight, Insight, Foresight

Of the above presentations, Phil Candy's session stands out for his thoughtful account of Boyer's concept of scholarship in which he discusses how the wider context of new digital technology can be both an inhibitor and enabler for transformative change in university-level education. I encourage you to take a look at the 5th element of the scholarship of engagement.

I also enjoyed Terry Anderson's session on open scholarship where he started by reminiscing how he organized the first ever virtual conference as early as 1992 and last year wrote a book on this very topic. One of the key messages for me was a point about the need for educators to harmonize the disruptive effects of openness and the importance of balance and leadership in order to do so. Terry also reminded us in the context of the openness movement that 'Education for elites is not sufficient for planetary survival'.

In terms of the openess theme, Terry also asked: Do we define ourselves by the content we produce or the quality of the courses we offer? This question is particularly relevant to current discussions at Massey University as we work on the challenge of educating staff of how 'the game has changed' for traditional distance education providers. Therefore we need to define and adopt new models or designs of study materials for course delivery that recognize how content is no longer the preserve of higher education providers. In actual fact, I've been chairing a group that is doing some of this work and we hope to engage the wider university community in some valuable and potentially transformative discussions over the next few months.

In summary, the Follow the Sun Conference was very successful and attracted participants from throughout the world. The use of Adobe Connect was generally successful in delivering the presentations and helped to demonstrate how we now have new tools for new ways of learning and teaching. Congratulations to the event organizers and all the speakers who contributed to the event.

I'm looking forward to talking with staff over the next week or so about blended learning and the future of distance education. It's a busy week as I'm involved in four or five presentations at the ASCILITE Conference in Auckland and then attention turns to Massey's Blended Learning Event. The event will be an opportunity to share some of the plans and exciting initiatives already underway as we endeavour to provide staff and students with a richer digital learning experience.

Although I've yet to prepare my presentation, some of the time will be devoted to reporting information about:

• the new Stream skin
• the new Stream4Staff website
• the new blended learning categories
• the status of online assignment submission
• the intentions of the Bridging the Distance Project
• the new electronic tools that will be available for teaching in 2010
• and so on...

I hope to see as many staff as possible at the events and I'm particularly looking forward to hearing Professor Grainne Conole's keynote address. We appreciate that the event is a bit late in the year for many people but there will be a Stream environment available with the presentations and additional resources shortly after the Wellington Campus event. Hopefully the event and the follow up resources will contribute to valuable conversations and deeper thinking about the definition and nature of blended learning at Massey.

Mark

Following last year's tradition, in early December one of the leading authorities in blended learning will be sharing her thoughts with Massey University staff on all three main campuses.

Professor Grainne Conole, from the Open University UK, will be the keynote speaker at a Massey event entitled, "Defining Blended Learning". Grainne will be using her wealth of experience to talk about designing for blended learning and the implications of technology-enhanced learning for institutions.

In addition, Professor Ingrid Day, Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International), will talk about the major pillars and distinctive features of Massey's new Teaching an Learning Framework. Ingrid will describe the draft Framework and some of the initiatives planned and underway to promote an exceptional and distinctive learning experience for all students.

And to conclude the event, I will be talking about principles and theories of learning and giving some practical examples of learning designs that promote interactive, collaborative, media-rich and personalised learning experiences. Overall the event provides a forum for staff to discuss the challenges and opportunities confronting Massey as we seek to develop a vibrant digital learning culture.