Blog Study … Podcasting Some Ideas

Tonight Chris Millet and I sat down to talk about the blogging study he is conducting at the IST Solutions Institute here at Penn State. Chris and I headed down to the basement in our old studio to talk a bit about the study and to share some thoughts with the faculty participating … this is a 50 minute, unedited discussion. We didn’t have notes or any real notion of what we wanted to talk about other than how we’ve used blogs to power our classrooms. There are some interesting things. Enjoy it … the podcast is around 45 MB. Thoughts?

Direct link to the podcast.

Online IST Flashback

I have been spending some time assembling briefing materials for people in my new group. So many of the things we spent years trying to figure out at IST are of real value as the larger University begins to move itself more aggressively into the areas of blended and hybrid learning spaces. As I have been putting stuff together, I’ve been going back through old documents, presentations, and notes so that I can share the things we did successfully in the Solutions Institute with my new team. In doing so I came across a nice white paper my wife and I wrote a few years ago that sort of outlines our approaches … nothing great, but still a nice historical reflection of things done. I just thought I’d share. And BTW, Happy Thanksgiving!

Time to Move On

I’ve been hinting around about this for quite some time now, but today was my last day as Director of the IST Solutions Institute. It has been an amazing place to be the last six years. I was one of the first people in the door for the School of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State back in 1999 … as a matter of fact, October 1st, 1999 was my first day there. The School was a new thing, built from the group up to address the IT worker shortage in the state of PA and beyond. It is a first rate place and one that I leave with nothing but fond feelings for. The people at the School are wonderful, the administration has been very supportive, and the faculty are thought leaders in their respective spaces.

I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time when it came to getting on board. My wife, Kristin, had been hired as the School’s first webmaster — as well as an instructional designer to get the first of many courses online, design a problem based learning curricular approach, and more. One of the first things she did was go directly to the dean and say these plans are too big for a single person. She recommended that he bring some people in to spend a day thinking and talking about the goals … I was lucky enough to be one of those people. That day got me so jacked up about the thought of being part of a second startup that I immediately pressed for a chance to be part of it. So, the next day I was back in the dean’s office getting a job offer.

I spent the first years there building the team, tools, and methodologies that would become the staple of the Institute. We still use the original methods and tools to design courses and other learning environments. The Institute has grown in resources and sophistication, but it still has that start up feel. The thing I am most proud of are the people who have come in and out of the doors at SI … these people have given everything to create the most open and engaging workplace I have ever had the pleasure of being a part of. I was talking with Bruce Claflin, CEO of 3Com, once and he said you are lucky if you have the chance to be part of a great team once in your life on a small project … I was lucky enough to create and work with a team like that for six years. Wonderful.

So tomorrow I show up at my new job … Director of Education Technology Services for the whole of the University. It is another one of those amazing opportunities. I am psyched to get the new phase of my life going, but today I am just going to reflect on the last six years and say thank you to everyone who made it the most wonderful time of my life. The time at IST was filled with highs and lows … my daughter was born, I feel like I built a powerful Institute, made the best friends, created outstanding partnerships, and learned so much from so many people. It was a wonderful time and I will miss it. Thank you everyone!

Working on the Course

After a little drama over my classroom was taken care of, I have been spending some time getting my course site setup. I am calling the space, the Blogs@110 … not sure what else to call it. Right now I have a basic shell of stuff put together and all my students have accounts (even if they don’t know it yet). Given the fact class actually starts Tuesday at 6 PM, I need toget the rest hammered out. Yikes. At any rate, the site is up and running, so go take a look … Oh, and let me know what you think.

Blogs@SI … Interesting Events

I just posted over at our pilot Blogs@SI site … the numbers are exploding — for us. Tonight there were over 600 visitors online. That’s up from a high of about 40 the last couple of days. I am really interested in figuring out where people are hearing about the space and how they are getting there. Any comments about that?

Moving Towards Web Standards

I love it when things start working … the senior webmaster in the School of Information Sciences and Technology at PSU (within the Solutions Institute) took the time to post her thoughts related to the topic of web standards at the blogs@si site. Rose lays out some great concepts in her first post at the site and I thought it was well worth the read. Rose is an amazing webmaster and she has been pushing PSU to think about standards for five years or so … that’s well before the buzz (that’s a dumb choice of words) related to accessibility. If you have any interest in the subject, take the time and jump over to her post. By the way, while you’re there, leave a post and let us all know what you think.

Blogging for Marketing Rising

I think we all knew this and really don’t need a post to explain it, but what the hell! We’ve just started blogs@si — for a different reason, but in the end its all about putting the power of publishing in the hands of the community. A while back I was talking to some friends at Apple, actually egging them on to start some sort of coorporate blogging program … didn’t get too far, but they have started doing it for a few things.

This little read popped into my bloglines this morning and thought I’d shre the link … Micro Persuasion: Corporate Blogging Rising … sort of reminds me of hte research proposal we are organizing around community blogging and shared community ownership. See Higher Education isn’t that far behind!

SI Blogging from ADC Institute

Take a look over at blogs@si–>