Session with Jon Mott & David Wiley

The Faculty of Education’s new open access journal, in education, is sponsoring a free webinar with two of our authors, Jon Mott & David Wiley. The webinar is scheduled for March 3rd, 2010 at 11 a.m. (CST). The event will be facilitated using Elluminate, a web conferencing tool. You can listen and/or participate using the following link: http://moourl.com/openteaching . It is advisable to join 10-15 minutes early in the case that your computer needs to install software (which, if necessary, is usually an easy process).

Mott & Wiley will be discussing their recent paper, “Open for Learning: The CMS and the Open Learning Network” found at http://ineducation.ca/article/open-learning-cms-and-open-learning-network . The conversation will likely take us to greater issues of openness and innovation in teaching & learning (especially in higher education).

About the Presenters

Dr. Jon Mott serves as the Assistant to the Academic Vice President – Academic Technology at Brigham Young University where he provides strategic guidance on academic technology issues. He is an Adjunct Professor of Instructional Psychology & Technology and also teaches in the Masters in Public Policy Program. He is the former Managing Director of the Center for Instructional Design (now the Center for Teaching and Learning) at BYU. He earned a B.A. in political science from BYU in 1992 and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Oklahoma in 1998.

Dr. David Wiley is Associate Professor of Instructional Psychology and Technology at Brigham Young University. He is also the Chief Openness Officer of Flat World Knowledge and Founder and board member of the Open High School of Utah. He was formerly Associate Professor of Instructional Technology and Director of the Center for Open and Sustainable Learning at Utah State University. David has been a Nonresident Fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, a Visiting Scholar at the Open University of the Netherlands, and a recipient of the US National Science Foundation’s CAREER grant. David is also the Founder of OpenContent.org and was recently named one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business. His career is dedicated to increasing access to educational opportunity for everyone around the world. David lives in Utah with his wife, Elaine, and their five children.

More information can be found at our journal site – http://ineducation.ca/participate

A Conversation With Severn Cullis-Suzuki

Severn Cullis-Suzuki will be our guest at the Faculty of Education, University of Regina this March 4th, from 7:00-8:30 p.m. CST. The title of the talk is “Education for Sustainability: Touching All Of Our Lives”. I will be live streaming the event at my Open Thinking Ustream Channel. We invite you to attend face-to-face or virtually.

Some of you may know Cullis-Suzuki from this viral video titled “The Girl Who Silenced the World for 5 Minutes”, filmed in 1992 when she was 12 years old.

More information about the event can be found here.

Power of the Positive

I am fascinated by PSAs. I am especially interested in what I believe to be a false assumption that the more graphic the ad, the more effective it will be in delivering its intended message to viewers. I can think of recent ads from the UK regarding txting while driving, and ads from Ontario on workplace safety that received much attention due to virality and mainstream media coverage. However, I wonder what effect such videos actually have in the end. Can anyone point to a decent study on the possible correlations?

Aside: The PSA I remember most from the 90’s was about Methamphetamine. And it was not because it was graphic, but because I found the song in the advertisement to be really, really catchy. Not a good thing.

OK, so back to my train of thought. Today I came across a brilliant PSA about seatbelt safety from Sussex Safer Roads in the UK. Wow. A beautifully constructed video with a solid, touching message that hits home. Wonderful!

So I thought, why aren’t there more examples like this? I though of the recent, bizarre political ads from New Orleans and the misdirected, personal attack ads from two of our Canadian political parties. Am I naïve to believe that positive messages can bring us forward as a society, and that all of this negativity is truly a drain on our collective spirits? Maybe this ‘relatively new parenting thing’ is just rubbing off on me, giving me crazy ideas about hope and positivity.

Or maybe we just need to turn the corner.