How Many Web 2.0 Tools Are Too Many?...

I've been hooked on all things Web 2.0 since even before Tim O'Reilly coined the phrase. Just within my bookmarks on my browser (Firefox, the perfect Web 2.0 browser), I have 85 Web 2.0 tools and applications bookmarked, along with literally hundreds more in my Delicious tags. Those 85 are bookmarked in my browser because I have actually registered with those sites (a common Web 2.0 ploy) in order to try them out and actually used them, at least once. They go from Aviary to Zui Prezi, a compendium of tools and apps that have changed the way I compute. I'm not even counting apps like iTunes and sites like audible.com which have bcome huge parts of my life (and that I consider part of the Web 2.0 space)

You can argue exactly what constitutes a Web 2.0 tool, but in my mind it is anything that pushes information to me or allows me to collaboratively work and share on the Web while using a Web-based interface - the browser as operating system...

My question is how many Web 2.0 tools are too many? Obviously the 85 that I have tried is way too many - besides many of those tools are long gone (have you noticed that another feature of Web 2.0 tools is that the word "Beta" must appear on their Web site somewhere?), Pownce being one of the latest casualties, or been absorbed or morphed by competition. Having tried them as they appear does not mean that they are being used or even useful. Here is a list of the Web 2.0 tools that I use regularly, in no particular order:

1. Blogspot - blogging
2. PBWiki - wiki
3. GMail - mail, chat, video chat, and so much more...
   
4. NetVibes - RSS etc. aggregator
5. Google Docs - office application suite, collaborative groupware and so much more
   
6. Flickr - photos
7. Photobucket - photos
8. Twitter - micro-blogging and social networking
   
9. Delicious - tagging
10. Facebook - social networking
11. LinkedIn - social networking
12. Joost - online video and TV

And I know there are others that I visit on a less regular basis. Not bad - 12 down from 85 - but even with 12, it's become a full time job just keeping up trying to remain a cool Web 2.0 dude. The thing is, do I really need 12 Web 2.0 tools to do what I do on the Web (and what I do is more and more all on the Web, I think my desktop has cobwebs on it...)? I look at that list and it seems all I have done is transferred how I work with desktop apps to Web 2.0 apps - do I need to develop new skills and ways of integrating what I do, or am I looking for that one killer Web 2.0 (or Web 3.0, or Web 4.0...) app that will do it all (and I am becoming more and more convinced that the whole Google Apps/GMail/Google Labs mashup may just become that killer app)? Hmmm...

What Web 2.0 apps are you using and how are you using them? Have they changed the way you get and use information?...

Now That You Have Been Admitted, Will You Stay?...

When does the retention of a learner begin? Admissions, acceptance, enrollment, orientation, first semester... When?

For me this is one of the most fundamental questions I ask as an adult educator. In fact it consumes a lot of my time and is one of the most important things I do as an academic chair - how do we retain learners once they have been admitted into our programmes? Do we want to retain them if they don't want to stay? How do we create an environment where learners want to stay in their programme or if they do leave that they are making an informed decision, not just an "I quit!" impulse?

To answer the opening question, IMHO retention of learners begins before they apply - it starts in the development and delivery of our programmes and in the creation of the materials we use to inform prospective learners about what we have to offer them. Many of the learners that I see who are struggling tell me that the programme they are in wasn't what they expected - that it is different, or more difficult, or just not for them. So for them, they made an uninformed decision about their programme. In some cases we retain these learners as part-time learners over an extended period of time, but many just fade away...

We do some great things here at the College to try and inform learners before they commit to a programme - our College Prep folks are out in the high schools, we conduct "Test Drives" for prospective learners to come in and spend a day with a programme, "Jump Start" events for accepted learners to come in and have their questions answered, and "Parents as Career Coaches" sessions to involve parents, families, and friends in the learner's College experiences. All of these tools help learners make informed decisions.

Then why do we still have significant retention issues - some of my programmes have attrition rates approaching 30% at the end of the Fall semester. Almost without exception these lost learners are ones who enrolled in a programme, paid their tuition, showed up for orientation, attended classes for a few weeks, and then vanished. No attendance, no assignments or projects to evaluate, no grades. Why do they leave? Answer that question and our retention issues are solved. We have had little success getting these learners to tell us why they have left (can't find them in many cases), so their reasons for leaving are not clearly known. We can guess, but that's hardly accurate or useful.

So what can be done to help retain the learners that come through our doors in September having made a decision to be a College student? Here are some things that I think might work:

• Engage prospective learners early - get them in high school or very early in their admissions process
• Explain the reality of their programmes to them - workload, time committments, employment realities - get industry involved here too - expalin the realities of the work place
  
• Assign current learners as mentors. Look at assigning faculty or staff advisors
• Explore the option of pre-admissions testing - aptitude batteries etc. Not as a go/no go barrier, but as more information for prospective learners to decide if a programme is right for them
• Make Test Drives and Jump Starts compulsory components of the admissions/acceptance process wherever possible (develop virtual Test Drive and Jump Start sessions for distance and international learners)
• Do orientation before classes start - many institutions conduct orientaion "boot camps" for a week in August before classes begin. Again a virtual version would be needed for those learners who could not take a week to attend. Orientation would include all of the college/campus/programme "stuff" that are a necessary evil of post-secondary education - save class time for classes.
• Create flexible learning environments that meet the needs of learners - this may be the one best thing that can be done - we do a lot of this now, but need to be better - multiple entry and exit points, flexible deliveries etc.
• Post-admissions testing - see where learners are, what they are missing and offer them alternatives that will allow them to stay at the College
• College 101 - a credit course that will fill in the gaps - numeracy, literacy, study skills, time management - those topics that many learners tell us are factors of their failure. Has to be a credit course or learners will not take it.
• Regular contact with learners throughout the semester - I would suggest at least four manadatory meetings with an advisor - issue is one of time and resources - faculty and staff are very busy now - adding this to their worklod may not be feasile. Several colleges have created advisement and counselling centres that perform this function
• Cheerlead - keep lines of communication open with learners - be visible and engage learners in conversations about what they are up to and how they are doing. Engaged learners are in many cases retained learners
  

These are by no means the only things that can be done to help retention, and I'm not even convinced that they are feasible or would work in all cases. I firmly believe that the key to retention is information - information to prospective learners so they can make informed programme choices, information to current learners so they (and us) can manage their expectations, information to faculty and staff so they can adapt and adopt strategies that will assist learners in staying in their programmes, and information to the college leadership so that informed strategic decisions around retention and enrollment management can be made.

But most importantly remember that ulitimately the decision to stay or leave is that of the learner and that no matter what we do, some will leave...

Merry Christmas and To All a Good...

Merry Christmas everyone! Here's hoping that wherever you are and whatever you are doing that you are having a great day with family and friends, both present and in your hearts. Eat, drink, and be Merry (or whomever you want to be :-). I hope that Santa was good to you and yours.

Take a minute to remember those less fortunate and those who are no longer with us. We will remember them...

Have an amazing and safe Holiday Season...

The Joys Of Winter Travel Or Have We Left Yet?...

As a Canadian, it is my primal right to complain about the weather, and being able to complain not only about the weather, but travelling and weather is the perfect storm.

One of the joys of living on the East Coast is that there is always weather to complain about - we are on the frequent flyer plan of most of the weather that heads this way - storms blowing their way across Canada have this lovely way of connecting with storms sliding up the Atlantic Coast of the the U.S. and holding family reunions over our heads. Not so bad in the summer, just some great bouts of rain and the occasional hurricane, but it is in winter when we truly get to exercise our weather complaining genes - bad weather and travel together - who could ask for anything more?

Now travel, particularly air travel, and particularly this time of year, can be an adventure in Canada. For the purposes of the airlines, Toronto is the center of the universe (this is not an acknowledgement on my part of this fact, just an explanation of the airlines reality), so if the Pearson International Airport is storm-stayed, then air travel across the country is affected. This past week, Pearson has been a mess due to a swath of storms blowing their way through Ontario. On top of that Vancouver has gotten snow and cold tempeartures causing delays there too (and introducing residents of the Wet Coast to the frozen variety of their normal weather), so the result was all sorts of delays - and boy is that good for the real official Canadian sport - weather complaining. I made it here to Ottawa for the Holidays, but even then there were delays because planes couldn't get from Toronto to Halifax to fly other places (and two hours after I landed in Ottawa a storm blew through paralyzing air travel in Eastern Canada). Speaking to friens travelling later during the day, the delays set in and the complaining began...

The other main travel types in Canada are car and train - car is an adventure due to road conditions, and well, rail travel just isn't what it used to be - so that means you meet most of the happiest complaining Canadians in airports across the country - like one of my co-workers who finally got to their warm-weather Christmas destination after three days of trying to get to Toronto, or the family from Vancouver who spent 5 days flying home to Maritimes - the good news is they all eventually made it to where they were going, complaining all the way...

So wherever you are this Holiday Season, or wherever you are going, may you travel safe, and warm, and with only enough complaint to satisfy your Canadian constitution. I know it's not terribly Canadian, but here's hoping your travel is delay and complaint-free and that you and yours have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year...

P.S. I sort of cheated - the picture is from "White Juan" the blizzard that hit Halifax in 2004...

Learn To Change, Change To Learn...

We've been having a lot of conversations about millennial learners - you know those young people who refuse to listen, to learn the way we want them to, to get excited about non-creative linear testing and assignments that they can't relate too. Why won't they just do what we ask of them?

This video sheds some light on why - it's a series of prestigious educators and researchers essentially talking about who our learners are (and I use the term learners not students deliberately - they are learners, hands on applied learners, not abstract studiers), and what we need to do as educators to change and meet them where they are...



I think perhaps the best comment in the video comes near the end "it's the death of education and the dawn of learning". Just think about that for a minute - the death of education and the dawn of learning - we're on the cusp of a sea change in education that will impact the very core of what we do and how we do it as educators. Talk about your paradigm shifts. Hmmm...

40th Anniversary of The Mouse...

It's the 40th anniversary of the mouse first seen in the "Mother of All Demos" done by Doug Englebart at the Fall Joint Computer Conference (FJCC) in San Franciso.



In the demo the first mouse, made of wood was used. Where would we be today without the mouse. Happy anniversary!

The Millennials Are Coming - A 60 Minutes Piece...

There has been a lot of talk about the Millennials - those learners born between 1980 and 1995 - currently in out high schools, colleges and universities, and starting to head out into the work force.

Morley Safer does a great 60 Minutes piece on the millennials - who they are, why they are, and the impact that they will have on the work place. I found one of the most interesting parts of the story the billions of dollars that is being spent to motivate employees - it's become a huge industry.

This video should resonate with educators as well as we are seeing these learners in our courses now - risk adverse, adversity adverse, and with a sense of entitlement that for many gets in the way of the their learning.

As educators we will have our hands full preparing them for the work place - and it is a dynamic changing work place that means we will have to be equally dynamic and flexible in our learning environments - many of our current ways of supporting learning may just not be viable anymore and new ones will have to be developed. I firmly believe that one of my responsibilities is to meet learners "where they are" to make learning relevant and useful. The big question for me is finding where they are. Hmmm...

(Photo: Start of School Year by Damiel)