Learning Management Systems

The Red Balloon Project

2010-08-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

Listen to George L. Mehaffy, Vice President for Academic Leadership and Change, AASCU, introduce the Red Balloon Project here:

Introduction to the Red Balloon Project from John Hammang on Vimeo.

And read this article from Inside Higher Ed about this Red Balloon Project.

And finally an excerpt taken from the AASCU web site:

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The Academic Affairs Meeting and the year-long Red Balloon Project will focus on a set of key questions. How can we:

Lower Costs

Maximize cost-effectiveness (either hold costs constant while increasing the number of students involved, or reduce costs)
Make programs scalable (increase the number of students served while reducing per-student costs)

Increase Participation

Create more effective student engagement. Engagement is the key to greater learning outcomes
Produce greater learning outcomes documented by a rich array of instruments and assessment strategies

Respond to the Challenge of Technology

Focus on the development of 21st century skills to create 21st century learning and leadership outcomes
Rethink teaching, learning, and faculty roles

"There is a good deal of discussion about the outcomes needed for a 21st century college graduate. However, absent from the dialogue so far is much attention about how we might reorganize our institutions to achieve these results. For chief academic officers, the core question is about how to create effective and long-lasting institutional change."
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Now that you have the context, I can make my comments.

I like this idea a lot. Can we really get "outside the box" without people kicking and screaming saying "we've always done it this way and it worked for me!" How far outside the box can we go? Will we spend enough time really getting our ears around our future students and those faculty and staff heavily involved in leveraging the technology in teaching and learning? Success lies in a stretch between what people will tolerate and how imaginative we can be!!

I'm particularly interested and curious about how to respond to the "challenge of technology." Most Provosts have had a teaching and an administrative career that didn't include a lot of experience in leading or leveraging technology, particularly today's technology. So is it possible without the experience, language, vision, and current skill set that has leveraged a lot of today's technology, can the conversation get out there far enough? How exposed are Provosts to the future students to know when or if their imagination is taking them far enough to meet the future on the mark? This requires LOTS of listening and a very open mind, not alone imagination when you consider today's student and the student soon to come to college.

And while the CIO has in the last 10 years made it's way in the organization as one of the top executives, can a majority of the CIOs speak to the instructional design processes of effectively leveraging the technology for teaching and learning? Being a techie myself and saying this affectionately, most of them are geeks but teaching and learning with technology requires a different dimension.

I understand that people can lead without being in the weeds of an organization; however, I really think that new formations of higher education organizations are key to making change in order to get more voices with experience in teaching with technology at the top or at least heavily involved in the top-level conversations. I don't know how to change the organization but I do know that "Academic Technologies" or rather "Instructional Technologies" have exploded in the last 10 years. Working within a large state university system, I can see very clearly how people who have been involved in these areas (or perhaps I should say the LACK of people who are available to support these areas) are frequently very dysfunctionally scattered across the institution and in very small numbers which makes big impact difficult. Dartmouth talked about their TRIP project whereby they brought together learning technologists, librarians, and media specialists to support the faculty as a team rather than scattered resources and individuals in different departments in different locations. You can read about this in the EDUCAUSE ECAR article, "Moving Beyond the Org Chart."

There is no uniform "SATO - Senior Academic Technology Officer" in higher education organizations (taken from the EDUCAUSE article "Rethinking Academic Technology Leadership in an Era of Change") to represent this still exploding area of academic technologies on campuses. Some campuses, for example, have NO instructional designers to support faculty in implementing technology in teaching and learning. Shouldn't a Provost recognize that hole in their organization? It seems so glaringly behind the times, about 5 to 10 years. And yet with budget cuts, who is going to create a new area to do this? And regardless of the growth in academic/instructional technologies, most institutions have cut uniformly across the organization rather than consider to hold steady or add support to this area. I understand that there is no money available but priorities and organizations can be changed without cash flow. Who will have the courage to upset the apple cart and "just do it!?" Get a SATO so someone near the top of the organization can focus consistently and over time on the key set of questions stated above in the AASCU Red Ballon Project.

-Kathy

Blackboard Buyout Discussions

2009-09-25T14:15:00.001-07:00

Well, if you ever wonder about coincidences...on the same day, I was given information separately about articles discussing the potential buyers of Blackboard:

Google? - http://blogs.wsj.com/financial-adviser/2009/09/18/five-companies-google-might-buy-next/?mod=yahoo_hs

or Microsoft? - http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning/5_reasons_microsoft_will_buy_blackboard

or a publisher? or Oracle? or ???

Here's an update on the LMS Market and where the California State University stands with their LMS Initiatives and Strategic Planning:
http://www.deltainitiative.com/index.php/Webinars/webinars.html

-Kathy

Kathy Fernandes
Director of System-wide LMS Initiatives

California State University, Office of the Chancellor
Academic Technology Services
Voice: (530) 898-6294
E-mail: kfernandes@csuchico.edu

California State University LMS Updates

2009-08-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

Campus Technology has announced San Jose State's Recommendation to Faculty is Desire2Learn for their new Learning Management System. The article can be found at: http://campustechnology.com/articles/2009/08/19/san-jose-state-recommends-desire2learn-to-faculty.aspx

Meanwhile CSU Northridge will be heavily piloting Moodle in the Fall semester as they have received great help from the CSU Moodle Consortium. This consortium now includes SFSU, Humboldt, Monterey Bay and Cal Maritime working together on several fronts to support one another in their Moodle implementations. Cal Maritime moved to Moodle over the summer. One of consortium's projects includes using QuickGuides as their common online "knowledge-base/tutorials/FAQ" to serve their campus constituencies. Details and project plans are being developed. More information to be shared in the next few months.

There are still other LMS evaluations being done on CSU campuses and hence more results to be revealed within the next 9 months or so.

Rise of Discussion on Changing Learning or Course Management Systems

2009-08-06T06:51:00.000-07:00

This article came into being while searching and reflecting on materials that would provide campuses some assistance in conducting their learning management system or course management system evaluations.

Since the California State University (CSU) system finished the RFP process in early 2009, some of the CSU campuses have engaged or are engaging in determing their next generation LMS. But it appears no matter where I go, BbWorld 09 in Washington, DC or the "2-3-98" Conference in New York, the discussion of colleges and universities evaluating their next LMS is a very hot topic. There is a new Google group: cms-options@googlegroups.com to discuss the options and approaches to doing an LMS evaluation. Also the WICHE/WCET organization has a group that is building a wiki on all issues to consider and things you want to know while managing your LMS/CMS selection or evaluation process. It's not yet ready to be released to the general public but we are working on it.

I found the following article by Michael Feldstein very good:
http://mfeldstein.com/advice-for-small-schools-on-the-lms-selection-process/

Of course, the recent acquistion of Angel by Blackboard, continues to feed this discussion. Certainly the EDUCAUSE CIO list had a large discussion thread on this same topic when the acquisiton was first announced.

Because each campus has its own governing committees and processes, every evaluation is run differently. Many of the evaluation processes are not documented or there are documents that do not provide the full context of the decision-making processes and so campuses may not be willing to share them publically.

But if your campus does have a public web site with information about their LMS/CMS evaluation process and/or decision-making process. We are interested in hearing from you. Create a comment and list your URL.

Thanks.
-Kathy
Director of CSU LMS System-wide Initiatives

IMS Global Learning Consortium 08-09 Survey Results

2009-07-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

The following information is taken from an e-mail sent by the IMS Global Learning Consortium. While the IMS Global organization has a web site, the site changes frequently and the message on the web page is not as clear as the following information.

Initial 2008/2009 LearnSAT Survey Results Showing Competitive Satisfaction Rates for LMS, Collaboration and Content Authoring Products

Although a little more than half-way through the survey period, very interesting trends and satisfaction ratings are developing for many of the learning technology categories and products included in the IMS GLC Learning Technology Satisfaction and Trends Survey (LearnSAT).

For example, see the current satisfaction ratings for LMS, Collaboration and Content Authoring products provided below. To see current results for all of the LearnSAT categories and associated products, or to take the LearnSAT Survey, please visit: http://www.imsglobal.org/LearnSat/index.html. Learning technology product and service providers are encouraged to disseminate this link to their clients as well.

At this time, Angel and Desire2Learn are leading and tied for highest level of end-user satisfaction in the LMS Category with a rating of 6.0 (“Moderately to Very Satisfied”). Desire2Learn has twice as many respondents than Angel to-date, placing them in a stronger position for the lead upon survey closure. Moodle is a close second to the leaders and has the second highest number of responses for this category. Blackboard and WebCT LMS are showing solid response rates, comparatively speaking, with an average end-user satisfaction of “Slightly Satisfied”.

Click to see detailed survey results for LMS products and category or to take the LearnSAT Survey.

In the Live Online Presentation and Collaboration Products category, Macromedia, WebEx and Elluminate are leading the pack based on number of respondents and satisfaction ratings. While Dim Dim and Wimba Pronto are showing very strong end user satisfaction based on a limited response rate from their end-users. The leaders could shift dramatically should response rates increase significantly through the close of the LearnSAT Survey in December 2009.

Click to see detailed survey results for collaboration products and category or to take the LearnSAT Survey.

Camtasia, Adobe Captivate and Microsoft PowerPoint lead the Learning Content Authoring category with the top three response rates. While SoftChalk, Articulate and StudyMate with much lower response rates, comparatively speaking, are showing similar or greater satisfaction rates than the response rate leaders. As noted with Live Online Presentation and Collaboration category above, the leaders could shift dramatically during the second half of the survey period should response rates increase for any of the products surveyed in the Learning Content Authoring category.

Click to see detailed survey results for Learning Content Authoring products and Category or to take the LearnSAT Survey

About the LearnSAT
The LearnSAT Survey and underlying research are conducted to help inform a new and rapidly evolving marketplace in the use of technology to support teaching and learning. Those responsible for implementing and supporting solutions in this new marketplace have very little information other than that supplied by vendors as to the level of satisfaction obtained. This research series attempts to fill that gap. A very unique aspect of this research is that it also looks at trends in how these technologies are being used and supported, as well as the technologies themselves. It is based on over two years of research uncovering best practices for success in Internet-Supported learning. The IMS Global Learning Consortium LearnSAT is the learning community's number one source for satisfaction and trends in the use of technology to support learning. For more information visit: http://www.imsglobal.org/LearnSat/index.html

Are you a part of the IMS/GLC Community? By joining the IMS/GLC Community, you will get access to items such as articles, the usecase repository, best practice information, and ability to download IMS/GLC specifications(pdf), examples and schemas and other great materials. It's free and easy. Sign up now at: http://www.imsglobal.org/register/register.cfm

University of North Carolina - Bb Vista to Moodle

2009-07-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

UNC-Charlotte's evaluation of Bb Vista and Moodle is publically available at:
http://bit.ly/18cBCB

They released their final report June 3 available at the URL above with the following notes:

I. Executive Summary

* Describes the results of an evaluative comparison of the Moodle Learning Management System with the University’s current Blackboard system (Vista);
* Recommends, on the basis of that evaluation, that the University adopt Moodle as its sole Learning Management System; and
* Outlines the consequences of doing so in conjunction with a plan for making the transition from Blackboard to Moodle.

Here are some of the quotes.

"[UNC] demands [an LMS] that is quick to learn, easy to use, reliable,
and able to accommodate our evolving needs"

"no cases in which a Moodle function or tool... was rated by either
faculty/students as being 'worse than Blackboard'"

"alternatives are clear: transition to Moodle or... negotiate a new
contract with Bb & migrate to product they offer."

"Moodle=better/comparable functionality w/ benefit of increased
relevance and control...in the long run... lower cost."

Thinking Strategically : Upgrading to Release 9

2009-07-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

Deployment options for Bb Learn 9

In place upgrade (for Legacy Bb systems)

From release 7.x to 9

Fresh install

Export and import of enrolment and content
CE 4, CE 8, Vista 8, Bb5+ (Archive and restore)

Co-production with LEC (Learning Environment Connector)

CE 4 and CE 8

Co-Production with LEC leveraging Content and Community system

CE4, CE8 and Vista - Moving

Co-production without LEC (side by side systems)

Running side by side WebCT version and Bb Learn 9
Authentication layer (from portal as example) at the top
Two completely different systems

NO USER DATA WILL BE IMPORTED INTO Bb Learn 9

Appraise and align to NG

Determine when is the right time to line up with NG
9.2 multi-institutions implementation

Project Definition and success
FACTORS OF CONSIDERATION
Goals and constraints
End-user impact
Policy
Technical
EFFECTIVE PRACTICES
Project planning
Communication
Change management and governance

Decision through Governance:
Institutional Goals
Constraints
Risks and Risk Tolerance
Available Resources

eLearning Operations
Teachning and learning
Content development
Technology
Enrollment Management
Support an Training
Assessment and Improvement processes

End-User Impact:
Training, Support, Teaching and learning practices, content management

Policy
Enrollment management
Security
Teaching and learning policy

Technical Considerations:
Integrations and customizations
Architecture design and capacity planning (projected growth and demand?)
Requirements fo transition
Data lifecyle
New skill requirements
System Monitoring
Determine suitable method and approach

Vista 8 Considerations before moving
Learning Modules coming in 9.1
Course File Management in 9.1
How much do you use the learning context hierarchy? Wait. (doesn't sound like that's in 9.1)
Cross-listing also not in version 9.1
9.2 for multi-institution

Service Level Definition
Expectations, Downtime widnows, escalation paths, response times, data life cycle (keep how long?)

Change Management
Policy, Operation and Technological

Change Management and Governance
Organizational structure/Committee structure
Communication plan

Project Planning
Phases
Definitions of responsibilities/team development
Timelines
Track success measures

Upgrade Testing
Test environment

Strategize which upgrade path
Plan
Inform

Upgrade Plans?
Tell your Bb TSM - submit a ticket so they it is happening at some point in time.

Tons of documentation at the Bb site
Training and Consulting and Managed Hosting
Upgrade team of colleagues - sign up online

Early adopters have discounted and free offerings:
:Life in bb Learn 9 for WebCT CE/Vista" Workshop
Getting Started with Bb Learn 9 Technical Services (Training) - intro to the "new " system and maintain LEC
Managed hosting

Bb Connect

2009-07-15T06:46:00.000-07:00

This meeting was specifically setup by Bb on July 14 to discuss CSU campuses using Bb Connect.

I was surprised to find that so many of the CSU campuses (15 of them) using this product:

Cal State Northridge

„ Cal State Fullerton

„ Cal State San Francisco

„ Cal State Long Beach

„ Cal State Stanislaus

„ Cal State Dominguez Hills

„ Cal State Pomona

„ Cal State East Bay

„ Cal State Bakersfield

„ Cal State Channel Islands

„ Cal State San Bernardino

„ California Maritime Academy

„ San Francisco State University

„ San Jose State University

„ Sonoma State University

For all campuses but one, the client is the campus safety office. The question is, can we get more value from this system that the campus is already paying for. Knowing that Bb Connect now has many, many uses. For examples:

Call students to remind them to pay their fees.
Call students to remind them of other important deadlines like financial aid.
Call students on issues such as Swine Flu, Fire Updates, Earthquake preparedness, etc...
Call at risk students about their attendance.
As well as notifying students about LMS actvities.

I suggested that campus safety officers are not going to be happy if the University starts sending lots of other "spam" down this channel to students.

What I learned is that you can use the same system, but have an entirely different caller id, e-mail sender signature, and subject lines. So the same system is used but it looks like to the students that it's a different system. So you can have "LMS Updates" and "Campus Emergency" messages appear very differently.

Then we discussed how to approach the CSU about this. My suggestions were:
Since there are 15 campuses purchasing the system, a calif. state univ systems license would be wise so each campus wasn't procuring and contracting each time. This would require licenses to get on the same timelines (at end fiscal year). However, who is the "owner" of this at the CO or at the campus levels? This is obviously not an LMS purchase and hence out of my domain.

This is really about campus communications. Each campus has their own University Communications Director or leader. The vision of that individual may or may not be open to using a communications system in this way; and yet any Vice President might also see it's potential (Business Affairs, Academic Affairs, etc.). So the use of this application spans such a large cross-organization of a University, it's a political challenge to determine who is best to lead a discussion on this.

Other thoughts?

Blackboard Keynote - Chasen and Henderson

2009-07-14T10:49:00.000-07:00

Michael Chasen
Ray Henderson
Jessica Finnefrock

Entertaining "PC vs Mac" videos
Phil Chatterton as Bb NG and John as Old Bb
Ray Henderson descends as an Angel for "meeting the challenges for the future."

Ray to Michael - We need better communications. You can't overcommunicate.
So will publish today on Twitter, Facebook, Bb Blog, E-mail, Ray's blog, etc.

Next Phase of Project NG
The Tribes: BIE, CSC, Bb Clients, WebCT Clients, Angel Clients, Standards Organizations, Partners/Developers

Long-term Strategy for NG

Universal access to Education

Obama - putting money up for free online education courses
Common Architecture
Sharing of courses and programs as more course materials move online

Ability to measure educations results

Plan to open up data set

Utilizing mobile social technologies as a key part of education process

Next Steps of NG

Need to highly personalize and customize the learning experience
Ability to handle more interactive content
Support true K-20 teach and learning
Improve teacher efficiency and flexibility

With cascading style sheets, you can customize your look more than before
The MyCourses page can also be connected to Angel courses as well as Moodle, Sakai, WebCT & Bb
Better interactive content
API pulls in YouTube without copy and pasting all the time
NBC partnership - access to professional newsfeeds
iTunes U - pull in content
Echo360 - capture lecture
Wimba Pronto - instant messaging
Added Wiki technology - add rubric - attach to gradebook
K-12 Lesson Plan
Alignment to state standards
Map standards to assignments
Best of Bb and WebCT - Learning Modules
Management of Course Content - no other license fees needed; Drag and Drop content into the course, organize and view the content.

Higher Education Act

Textbooks & Materials - textbook assigned to this course
Acxiom Identify-X Form - security questions asked to verify they are who they say they are. Can pop up before a test or at other times.

Ray will discuss first 50 Days at Bb
Operationalize Michael's broader description of where we are going
Ray's background

From Kansas
Has been in education most of his life
Teacher, Learner, Textbook publisher, instructional technologists
Was in a "telenet" classes
Science textbooks industry - better personalize instruction for students
Pearson - infrastructure CourseCompass and MathLabs
eCollege 10 years ago
4 years at Angel

Ray's Priorities

Client Support
Transparency
Openness
Innovation

Client Support
Graph of Bb Client Support
- 58% of the problems took 90 days to resolve most issues;
-now 16%;

Features in balance with system/product support

Transparency
Hunger from the customer-base about rationale on decisions being made
Willingness to engage; blogging and linking to others who disagree or see it differently
What's in his blogs including the Mea Culpa to WebCT clients about lack of support in early merge of Bb and WebCT

Openness
His blog mentions leadership in IMS import/export (Common Cartridge)
Direction: First steps on Open Database in NG

Product Innovation
Point of balance with other work to be done
More significant progress in accessibility

Bb Learn Report Card
User experience
Support resolution
Open standards
Other metrics

Request: Plan your path to NG

Back to Michael Chasen

MobilEdu
Bought a company responsible for writing iPhone apps and mobile web applications for Higher Educatio . Stanford, Duke, Texas A&M, UCSD, etc.

Introduction to 2 people who are now Bb employees and programmed these applications.

Maps, directory, bills, courses, athletics, events brought together in one place - your pocket on your cell phone!
Interactive Campus map
Find a friend in the campus directory
Demonstration about how each of these work on the cell phone to get campus information.
Search the University's catalog
Check out news items on each athletic team
Stanford iTunes - watch the videos
News feeds for campus

Video: "Is that your campus in your pocket?"

Final Thoughts

Overview of sessions "not to miss."
Thank you to sponsors.

Final video with the original leaders of CourseInfo, WebCT and Angel with Old Bb and Bb NG.

City University of New York - Multi-Instituional Project

2009-07-14T08:45:00.000-07:00

Delivering a Domain-based Bb Implementation with Central Administration to a Multi-Institutional University

Ron Pristin and Kim Steele
ron_pristin@mail.cuny.edu and kim_steele@mail.cuny.edu

Needed to move off Bb version 6.3;
19 campuses
Decided to move to version 8 together.
Needed central administration yet preserve local identity.

Formed CUNY Upgrade Project Team - coordinating of campus upgrade activities/additional implementation decisions as needed.

Campus Project Teams: Design & execute upgrade planning; define campus communication plan, business process adjustments, campus branding decisions, training, etc.

Campus Bb Administrators - share best practies, coordination training

Came together to make decisions together, building the configuration, relationship building, different school processes, plug-ins, etc.

Started May 2008 for Fall 2008 launch.

Coordinated 17 project teams:
Discuss business process, project plans, communication plans, training plans, shared materials.
Content migration batched to version 8.0
For each school - One day for archiving and one day uploading
Document management
Domain Admin (LMS Admin) Training

For Phase 2

Application Problem Resolution
Posted an issues log, discussed at team meetings and using a LISTSERV, prioritized the issues.
Preparing for Spring Load, monitor to expand PROD environment.
Bb did performance testing for them.

Created a Technical Readiness Criteria to track system performance, application and operational readiness before going live with phase 2 at each campus.
Delivered Campus Readiness Criteria for a go/no-go decision.

Post Implementation Issues
Performance Problems - slowness (system and certain tools)
Hot fixes, monitoring, performance reports
Series of outages - Oracle dbase and Sun cluster
SWAT Team with Bb, Oracle, Sun and CUNY

Largest Bb 8 Domain client
Custom Authentication
High volume of updates to database and content store
Over 6 million documents
Very large volume of existing Bb Content
Root cause of performance issues still not definitively identifed
Configuration changes applied to the file system improved performance and stability.
Moved to a Bb Hosting Environment - successful

Lessons Learned...
Dedicated testing group
Testing environment that's a good replica of production environment

Five Elements of Exceptional Tech. Enhanced Learning

2009-07-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

By Stephen Laster, CIO, Harvard Business School

This is really all about people teaching and people learning
How do we effectively help people teach and learn? Successfully?
Thinking about quality
Why do we care?
We have an obligation to create good models

Sloan Consortium Survey about Online Learning
1) Shows 0nline education is critical to long-term strategy for institutions 58%
We are entering the mainstream!
2) Show enrollments in online courses continue to go up (not counting hybrids)
Student's medium is digital.

Five Elements

Styles
Design
Context
Community
Adaptability

NOTE: Technology is assumed to exist and work (most of the time)

Diverse Learning Styles

Visual - pictures and spatial
Aural - sound and music
Verbal - words, speech, writing
Physical - body, hands, touch
Logical - logic, reasoning, systems
Social - groups, other people
Solitary - alone, self-study

Teaching Styles

Expert - impart their expertise; sage on the stage; not interested in being challenged
Formal Authority - correct, acceptable answers
Personal Model - believes in teaching by personal example
Facilitator - guides, directs by asking, exploring, suggesting, encouraging
Delegator - concerned with developing students' capacity to apply

Characteristics of both sides of the equation should be considered

Design
Without design, you'll probably waste your time. Design is about using your time well.
A well designed course is like a symphony - flow, guided with purpose, invoke action or reflect
Design starts with objectives and outcomes - focused
It's not putting book chapters online or syllabus online

A faculty member starts his course empty. He guides the students to fill-in the course. It ends up different every time!

How much mass customization can we (staff, faculty,organization, etc) support?

Context
Weave course experience into learner's daily life
Dynamic world
Learner centered activities build relevance and context
Freshness of content and delivery

Who should do the assembling of the materials? Faculty or lots of students?!

Community
Learning with and from others
Teams, collective learning models, games and simulations
Leverage collective intelligence (and the network of information we have today)
Distributed around the world

Education is ripe for consolidation!!

Adaptability
Leverage Unplanned opportunities
World events, new communications, new connections, breakthroughs, mistakes, uncharted territory

Encourage feedback regularly
If it is vibrant, fresh -> people are going to learn

Establish a common language
Develop curriculum focused on techniquest
Agree on investment constraints for course design and deliversy
Systematize design and development

Sloan-C Paper on measuring success

Learning Effectiveness
Cost Effectiveness
Faculty satisfaction
Student satisfaction
?One other?

Notes from First Keynote at Bbworld09

2009-07-14T06:44:00.000-07:00

Michael Chasen
Welcomes the Angel Community
Over 2000 people here representing 45 countries
“Bb will be listening” at this conference.

SPEAKER: Seth Godden, author of “Tribes” – Ways and Ideas about how people come together. It’s about change.

Share some ideas about the way change spreads
Joel Spolsky leads small company in New York competes against Microsoft
He runs a tribe!

Education – where it is today?
Ford in the 1920’s – how to build a system; put systems in place
Andrew Carnegie – we will “run” out of factory workers
Invented school to train people to be compliant and to “buy” stuff as in, be consumers
Mass merchandising and mass marketing
Same mindset to the schools
We think this is the only way to do schools

Higher Education needs to step up to something different
Compliance doesn’t work to create value.
Our goal is to create value. We don’t need a TV mindset.
Creating a movement…who is going to lead us? Who else is going there?
Tribal behavior – hundreds of thousands of years it has existed.
Tribes Ascending – they have been:
1) Religious
2) Work
3) Community
4) Academy

People are looking for leaders, models, people to follow.
We all want to be connected and insiders
Basic human need is to be apart of something
Finding people who want to connect with each other
Insiders versus outsiders – your job when trying to make a change, is not about the mob/crowd. Rather, how do I find the tribe who wants to make change?
Tribes matter – bigger than word of mouth

Dean – created “Group One Hundred” – the minute it was limited, it oversubscribed.

Decide to lead!
Kiva – most successful online charity in the world – loans that change lives

Dynamics of tribal behavior
Factories are dead – which includes the learning institutions
Telling people what to do – it doesn’t work so well.
What works is the network, influence, tribal leadership, to be able to create a movement.
Connecting people and taking them where they want to go.

Garr Reynolds – Zen Presentations – Used network and people to sell his book.
Become a “rock star” to a tiny group of people
Triathlons – it’s a tribe mentality because they could all do the event alone

Making change is now called Tribal Leadership
That’s what we do for a living…we make change
What lengths are you willing to go? Tattoo the back of your neck with it?
Movements start with the “committed”

How to create a tribe?
Create a “mindset”
An amplified “positive deviant” – give them a platform

Etsy.com – helping people who want to do crafts for a living

.You don’t need to convert anyone – you just need a few good fans who care - they will spread the word

The Kindle has no “social networking” tools available – that’s a problem for “connecting” with others

Not everyone is going to follow. You don’t need everyone.
Show up and lead.
It’s tempting to go to the median of the curve. Don’t go there.

Heretics – the only tactic available
Every successful tribe has been run by a heretic!
Someone who dared to stand up for something different.

They burned “Joan of Arc” at the stake -- they don’t burn people like that anymore!

“The market for something to believe in, is infinite”

You can lead; Leadership = marketing
1) Challenge the status quo
2) Create a culture that stands for something – are you inside or outside this tribe?
3) Curiosity – always asking why or why not
4) Charisma
5) Communicate (not just down) – communicate in all directions
6) Connecting
7) Commit
8) Create meaning
9) Make a difference
10) Be noticed and have the rest of the tribe feel noticed – they matter

There are lots of free tools out there – that’s not what limits you: Choose to lead!

Inspire you to be inspiring

4v2 – Doing it to people? Fail; Doing it for people? Success

Where’s your tribe?

The obligation? Create a movement!

Beginning with BbWorld 2009

2009-07-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

After 3 years of working on LMS Initiatives in the CSU, I decided it was time to start blogging. Many things have been achieved, many things have been learned and many things in the LMS environment continue to change.

So, we're going to officially start filling this blog (lmsblogging.blogger.com) with information from the BbWorld 2009 Conference being held in Washington DC, July 14-16 at the Gaylord Convention Center.

This place is very beautiful, and of course, very expensive. Thanks to the Hampton Inn across the street from the Gaylord, I'll start off by saving $60/night.

Unfortunately the registration desk closed at 6:3opm (Monday night) so it's up early tomorrow to get in line to get the badge and program 6:45am EDT, ouch! That's 3:45am California time! It's not that I MUST have my badge right away, it's just I got meetings up until the keynote and I don't want to stand in line at that time. I might miss something...or not...

Oh, and furthering my new beginnings and experiments, I'll be twittering too @KathyFern

So until tomorrow...