Monday, October 01, 2007

Looking forward to mlearn2007

Just about counting down the sleeps before mlearn 2007 in Melbourne. I will be in Melbourne for just 6 days, where besides the conference, I will do a catch up with one of our corporate clients and also have some time with my sister-in-law & family.

Downloaded the programme this morning and there looks like lots to keep me occupied and many papers that will be relevant to my mlearning project. There are papers on mobile phones, mobile blogging plus a few on student perceptions of mobile learning as well. Looks like a busy few days!

I am not sure if the organisers intend to set up a conference blog, like the one set up by Brandon Hall Innovations in Learning conference. It has a couple of slideshare shows embedded which are very interesting and provide a bit of a feel of what the speaker presented. Of note are the slideshare on an open-source approach to rapid authoring of e-learning by Rueben Tozman and the development of elearning 2.0 by Stephen Downes. Stephen had 77 slides (not sure now long presentation time), so being able to look at the slides on the blog, must help bring much needed ‘reflection’ space to his presentation. The blogger who put the items on the blog also commented on how she ‘zoned out’ part way through the presentation and was also distracted by the ability to input comments which were presented synchronisely on another screen. A bit like my experiences thus far with video conferencing / elluminate type presentations. Too much happening all at once – powerpoint, questions, audio output plus the video images of the presentation. I will need to find out how many others (who are usually efficient multi-taskers) find their experiences with this method of interaction.

I hope that there will be wireless access at the conference as it will allow me to blog about the papers as they are being presented at mlearn2007. They form a valuable memory jogger for when I find time to reflect on the individual papers and their contribution to the way in which our mlearning project develops.

4 comments:

Sue Waters said...

Hi Selena

I am also looking forward to Mlearn but am worried about whether I will have enough energy to get through all the days. Interesting reflections on Elluminate -- I have done several presentations using it and am interested as a presenter what works best when you attend these online sessions? And what you don't like.

Sue Waters
Mobile Technology in TAFE.

selena said...

Hi Sue,

thanks for comments.

yes. mlearn will test my mental stamina too! there will be much learning to do.

For video conferencing type presentations, i find it easier to follow if there is one item to keep up with at a time, not two or three things happening all at once - leads to confusion and info. overload!

Although if things were kept short - say max. 10 mins. re-running and reviewing the session, with all the various inputs (video / audio, comments, slideshow, screen shots) happening in a very packed 10 minutes, will help provide a better context for some of sessions - ie. showing how to use web based software.

Hope this helps, Selena

Sue Waters said...

Are you part of Leigh Blackall group in New Zealand? As he has been running the 10 minute lecture series and I agree what a great format.

Sue
Mobile Technology in TAFE

selena said...

Hi Sue,

nope, not formally but I follow his blog:)

selena