Lessons learned in China

My trip to China was amazing. I had a great time and learned a lot. Overall I'd say our learning system will work in China. Sight seeing was fun, but mostly Terrie and I enjoyed the shopping. Below are some of the lessons I learned while in China.

Lesson one- All the web 2.0 sites I use (such as this blog) don't work in China. I was planning on updating my blog on a daily basis as well as my Facebook and Twitter status. Of course if I had thought for a minute I would have remembered that none of these sites work in China.

Lesson two- Video sucks in China. YouTube didn't work, but Viddler did. Well, it wasn't blocked, but it still took at least 30 seconds for videos to play. I should not have been surprised by this, but I still found it weird that the people I talked to haven’t ever heard of YouTube. Although Viddler worked, it did not work very fast. Our biggest challenge seems to be streaming video.

Lesson three- There are decent server hosting solutions in China. China telecom is the hosting company run by the government. It basically hosts everything. We got a price from them equal to about 10K/year which does not include any service at all. if something goes wrong and we need a hard reboot- we have to hire somebody to go in for us and turn it off. We then met with a sub contractor who quoted us a price that was only a third of the price and included 24/7 support. So, what should we choose; cheap with service, or expensive with no service? Seemed like an easy decision for me- but apparently China Telecom is what everybody uses because it is so much more secure.

Lesson four- Test speeds indicate that most of our Westminster specific tools work great in China. Some of the test speeds are a little hard to interpret. Some of our wiki pages loaded in less than 3 seconds, and most less than 10 seconds. The video’s we tried to play took between 15-30 seconds to begin playing. The results were pretty consistent between testing on campus, in the hotel, and an internet café. Unfortunately things were noticeably slower when we ran our tests at our interpreter’s house (it was a DSL line but only got speeds of about 500 kbps which might explain the slow load time).

Lesson five- Shopping in the bargain markets is fun especially once you realize how to play the barter game. Always offer 25% of their first offer and stick with it. I love how many of them would finally break down and give me the price I wanted because we were “friends”.

China: Browser tests

While in China I'm going to be testing how quickly our Westminster sites load- particularly our LMS, wiki, and web conferencing tools. To do this test we are going to be taking at three laptops and we will purchase one there. We will be running tests from the hotel, on campus, at a student home, and from an internet cafe.

I have assumed that I should be performing these tests with Internet Explorer. I've heard that China tends to use mostly Microsoft products, but I thought before I go that I'd do a speed test while still in Utah so I have a comparison. I don't use I.E. very often, so I decided to run my own browser comparison to see what is the best browser for the Westminster IT system.

The browsers I've used to compare are:

• Internet Explorer 8.0.6
• Firefox 3.5.3
• Google Chrome 3.0.1
• Safari 4.0.3

The complete results can be seen on this Google Doc: Division of New Learning Browser Test.

There were 27 sites that got tested. Here is a table which shows the total number of sites where each browser was best and worse.

Browser	Best	Worst
Internet Explorer	3	17
Firefox	9	3
Chrome	7	2
Safari	8	5

I find it interesting that IE is the most popular browser in the world, but from what I've seen it has the worst performance.

I'm going to China!

I'm going to be in China the next week and I'm going to try to blog about this as much as possible. My wife is going to be blogging about more of the fun/sight seeing stuff that we do, so you might want to check it out if you are wanting the fun stuff. I'm going to try to blog as many of the technical lessons that I learn about. My hope is that by recording my thoughts while I'm there I won't forget some of the valuable lessons I'm sure to learn while there.

At Westminster we have been building a relationship with a University in Shanghai. The relationship is going to come into fruition next fall when we launch a partner degree.I get to go on a visit to their campus so I can see what their technology systems are like. I'll be testing our online learning tools and trying to figure out how well our servers work from China.

Basically I know very little at this point. I have a few assumptions, but I'm basically going into this without knowing what to expect. I've got a list of tests that I'm going to be running while I'm there, but if anybody reading this has any suggestions or questions that I should be researching while I'm there feel free to ask them in the comments.

Is Tech-Addiction Bad for Learning?

I was just trying out Google Fast-Flip (http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/) which is a new "labs" project by google. Their attempt to rule the world, er um, I mean make information easier to view on the web. Looks nice. The first article that really stuck out at me that I came across was: Tech Addiction Harms Learning which was posted in the education section of the BBC UK website.

The article begins by saying:

"Technology addiction among young people is having a disruptive effect on their learning, researchers have warned. Their report concluded that modern gadgets worsened pupils' spelling and concentration, encouraged plagiarism and disrupted lessons."

The beginning of this article already has me upset. I can just picture the researchers who came up with this study are old-brown-elbow-patch types who hate that they are becoming irrelevant because their lectures aren't as interesting as cell phones. To prove their point- get this- they actually handed out paper surveys!

Ring!!!! Ring !!!!! Um, excuse me, it's for you, 1999 wants their paper survey back.

Of course paying attention to a lecturer is difficult while texting. Of course spelling is worse when people are use to spell-checkers. Of course technology makes it easy to plagiarize. I'm dissapointed that the study did not find that their cursive handwriting and abacus skills are also waning due to technology. Why did we need to get a survey to tell us these things?

From the article: "The research said technology drove a social lifestyle that involved a strong desire to keep in touch with friends." How dare people want to socialize more! I wonder if these are the same people who say that Facebook/Twitter/texting are the cause of our society becoming more antisocial? What is it? Too social or too antisocial?

It doesn't matter. Why does it matter if technology makes us too social (or too antisocial)? Or if it makes us bad at speling (yes, I'm being funny, not dumb)? The technology is not going away, the youth who use the technology are not going away. Instead of pointing at the negative aspects of technology use in the old paradigm, we should be focusing on how we can use it to increase learning in the new paradigm.

Learning doesn't just happen in a classroom. Learning happens when information is applied and synthesized. Today's learners are capable of multi-tasking and quickly digesting massive amounts of information. It is the job of education institutions to create better digital citizens, who can navigate these incredible learning tools, contribute to learning communities, and filter the information that has little worth.

TTIX Conference

I am attending the TTIX conference today, (Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange). Yesterday I attended the pre-conference workshop on Personal Learning Environments (PLE). So far so good, I am excited to learn some more today. I'm doing most of my notes on Twitter, so if you want to see my notes you can go to Twitter -bneiswender- and see what I've posted so far. 

It is refreshing to interact with people who do the same things that I do, and are trying to figure out the things I'm trying to figure out. What is really great is that this conference is only about 35 minutes from home- so I don't have to leave my family.

My New favorite Internet Comedians: Rhett and Link

Ok, so this isn't very edu-tech heavy, but I have enjoyed their goofy music videos I just had to post a couple.

Blackboard this is ANGEL, ANGEL this is Blackboard

My world just got rocked!

I just found out that Blackboard will be acquiring ANGEL. If you have no idea what I am talking about- then you probably do not work in the education technology industry. Blackboard is the "Microsoft" of learning management systems (LMS). ANGEL is the "Apple" of LMS's. A learning management system makes it easy for faculty to create online learning experiences for their learners with tools such as discussion boards, live chats, document sharing, assessments, surveys and online grade-books.

A few years ago Westminster was a user of WebCT which was at the time only slightly smaller in market share than Blackboard. Blackboard purchased WebCT- thus becoming the largest LMS provider by a long shot. There were only a few small companies- that basically had to compete with Blackboard.

You would think these other small companies wouldn't stand a chance. We began to shop around and came across ANGEL and were blown away by the simplicity of their system, their customer service and their vision for where on-line-learning was heading. There were two factors that were very important to us:

1-Modern. ANGEL doesn't look like it was built in some dude's basement in 1997. Because of it being built with better technology it has stayed current better than WebCT/Blackboard.

2- Flexibility. ANGEL only had a small handful of clients. We liked that because we were a small school but got treated like we were a big school. We could make product recommendations and they actually listened to us. What made it even better was they could actually change their product every year and make it better. WebCT rarely made big changes that improved the product because there were too many big schools who couldn't deal with big changes every year.

It was an easy choice to drop WebCT/Blackboard and move to ANGEL- and although our transition wasn't perfect- it was surprisingly smooth. ANGEL is sooooo much easier for faculty to understand and use. I have been proud that I played a big role in moving Westminster to ANGEL.

I'm not sure how to react to the news of the merger- but I am certainly shocked. I feel like I did when Blackboard bought WebCT- "oh no- how can I get out of this?!?" My guess is that there is going to be at least 1-2 years before anything drastic happens with our version of ANGEL, but I would anticipate higher prices, a name change, and being asked lots of questions that I don't know the answer to yet.

It is clear to me that it is time to start looking at new solutions for LMS's- there are so many tools that do similar things but are much less expensive, more flexible, and easier to use. For example, I've found it very easy to do many of the same curriculum type things using a free wiki tool such as http://wik.is. Why pay for an LMS when a wiki does many of the same things, but better? If you are looking for an online gradebook/assessment tool- why not use a tool like Foliotek (http://foliotek.com). In fact- there are even some great open source LMS's available such as Moodle and Sakai.

Interesting enough- yesterday I already started my investigation into Moodle. I also signed up for a webinar from Blackboard on what they plan to do to support smaller institutions better.

I look forward to finding out more details and geek-ing out even more over the changes that are going to come.

Screen Casting

Screen casting is when you capture your computer screen in a video format to share with others at a later time. This is a fantastic way to instruct others on how to do things on a computer. I've been using screen casting for years now to show people how to do things on their computer so I don't have to re-demonstrate that particular task over and over. Screen casting is nothing new, it has been happening for a while- what is new is how easy it is and the vast amount of content that has been created. For a more technical explanation check out the wikipedia page about screen casting.

There is a screen cast for almost everything now. If you know where to find the screen casts- you can teach yourself how to do almost anything on the computer without paying for an instructor. Some of my favorite sites for screen casts (and many other instructional videos) are ehow.com and howcast.com

I recently found two great tools for free screen casting: CamStudio and ScreenCastle. CamStudio is a program that has been around for a while and has been used a lot. I've encouraged my students in the MED class I've been teaching to use it. Screencastle is my new favorite free tool. It is very easy to use and requires almost no technical skill to do it- and as soon as you are finished using it- it is live on the net. There are a few drawbacks such as it makes every screencast available to the world. It also does not have the ability to delete the junky stuff you upload. Below is a video of how to use it from the Screencastle website.

What is happening to the technology classroom?

As some of you know, I teach as an adjunct professor at Westminster College in the School of Education. I teach the "Teaching with Technology" and/or the "Instructional Technology" courses. It isn't something that I do all the time but usually once or twice a year I get to teach a course. I love doing this! It helps me to keep current, and gives me the satisfaction of passing along some of the lessons I've learned.

Yesterday I was told that there is a good chance that the technology classes in the Westminster School of Education will be going away. There is a big push at Westminster (and many other schools) to help students be able to graduate in 4 years. This is particularly hard in the Westminster School of Education- there is a lot of "fat". I applaud the administration for making the choice to trim the fat.

I'm not happy that the technology classes are the first thing that the School of Education administration thought of slashing. This is a crushing blow to me personally, just because I enjoy teaching these classes, but mostly it makes me sad for the state of teaching. I think this shows a mentality that many educators have about technology. Typically decisions like this are made by people who don't understand technology. I think we should cut out all classes that I don't understand- let's cut all chemistry classes because I don't understand it- so it must not help anybody (I'm being sarcastic).

A colleague of mine has a mother who teaches in Arizona as a computer teacher. She has recently lost her job because the school district decided to integrate technology into the classroom- thus not needing the computer class anymore. While I find it fantastic that a school district would encourage technology integration into the classroom- it saddens me to think of removing these important classes from the school.

Here are some of the reasons why I am concerned by the trend of removing technology courses and the technology teacher from the classroom:

1. Technology needs an advocate. Without the technology teacher, there are very few faculty who will be innovative and push for technology integration in the classroom.

2. Faculty won't integrate unless they are given the resources. Obviously this is not true of all educators, but most of the faculty I know do not see the value of integrating technology in their courses. There is a reason why they teach and are not computer programmers.

3. Administrators often assume that students know technology "We don't need to teach them technology, they already know it". These students are often more technologically skilled; however, it isn't focused. Just because a kid knows how to use a cell phone, play video games and surf the internet does not mean they know how to use technology appropriately. Students need to be taught information literacy, ethical use of technology, and technology application relating to careers not just entertainment. Faculty need to be taught to be more like their students and explore and implement technology without fear.

4. The schools and teachers who turn their head at technology are the ones who are going to struggle in the years ahead. To those administrators who think technology can be cut- you clearly are out of touch with your profession. If you don't embrace it, you are going to be beaten by it.

I hope that Westminster does not cut the education technology classes, I hope I can still make a difference!

I'm Tweeting Now

So, I've decided to try out Twitter. For those of you who aren't familiar with it- it is micro-blogging, which basically means that I post 1-2 sentences throughout the day describing what I am doing.

I know what many of you are thinking, "why?!?!". I'll tell you why, because everybody else is. I know that sounds like a terrible reason- but I am very curious to see why it has become such a big thing. I know it is really big in the tech community- so it is time I started to participate.

I can't imagine that anybody out there really wants to follow my daily thoughts and activities beyond what this blog does, but if you are so inclined to do this with me, sign up at http://twitter.com or just follow me at: http://twitter.com/bneiswender

On Friday March 27th, I'll be attending "PodCampSLC" and I'll try to "tweet" my activities and anything interesting that I come across.

Top Ten Education Technology Innovations

I thought it would be interesting to give my list of the innovations that I believe have changed education the most in the last few years. In other words- these are being used by almost everybody and have had a direct relation to engaged learning.

10. Wireless Networking
9. Blogs
8. Classroom control systems/Smart Boards/Star Boards
7. Online Discussions and Chat Rooms
6. E-Portfolios
5. Web Conferencing and Lecture Capture
4. Podcasting
3. Email
2. Wikis
1. Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Honorable Mention: Online Exams and Surveys, Clickers (polling devices), Virtual Learning Environments (second life).


Here is my list of the top 5 innovations that will change education in the near future. In other words, if your school is not utilizing these technologies in the next two years you will be behind!

5. Cloud Computing
4. Personal Learning Environments
3. Social Networks
2. E-Book Readers
1. Mobile Devices

Honorable mentions: Netbooks, Mashups, Faculty Robots, Hover desks, and gym socks that don't get dirty.

If you think I've missed something, or disagree with something, leave a comment and in a week or two I'll give an updated version of my list.

Wiki Wiki Wiki

The topic of wikis has been on my mind a lot lately. For those of you who are not familiar with the term wiki- here is my simple definition: A website that allows the typical viewer to become a contributer and editor of the site. At the bottom of this post I've embedded a video that explains wikis really well.

There are many different wiki companies. A year ago I did quite a bit of research and determined that the best wiki for my needs was done by a company called MindTouch Deki. The wiki they create is called DekiWiki. I've used their services for probably 5 different wikis. The thing that is so great about it is that anybody can create content. Here is a link to my family wiki: http://neis.wik.is.

While my family wiki is cute and nice for my family stuff, there is much greater application that I see. Wikis have changed my perception of teaching and learning. In the Bachelor of Business Administration program at Westminster College we have developed a wiki to host the entire curriculum. I'm amazed at the amount of information that has been composed for this wiki by a relative small group of people. My hope is that it will grow and grow over the next couple of years to the point where faculty don't have to do all the contributions- the community behind it will.

One last thought. Most people think of wikis are Wikipedia- wikis are not necessarily wikipedia. However, wikipedia is awesome, there is so much knowledge stored there it is mind boggling. However, there are many other wikis out there. The problem I see is that these wikis don't work together. I'd like to see somebody write a search engine that searches all wikis. Maybe it already exists? Maybe that should be my million dollar idea? Look out Google, here I come!

Cool new technology: Google Doc Forms

This week I've learned about a cool tool called Google Doc Forms. Google Docs are a really cool tool that comes with a gmail account. It is basically online storage for your documents. The cool thing about it is you can create, edit, share these documents with other people and even see edits happen live. Google docs supports spreadsheets, text documents, and presentations. I've been using these for a while. For example, at church I'm suppose to help collect information about visits made each month along with 3 other guys who help collect this information. We have a Google doc spreadsheet that we all have access to and just go into every month and update. It is so simple and easy to use.

So I recently tried out some new features of Google Docs- called "forms". A Google Doc Form will allow you to create an online form and then have the data that is put into the form populate a spreadsheet. This has all kind of implications and uses. Below is an example of a form I created. The thing that is great is it took me almost no time to create this (seriously- like less than 3 minutes).

If you want to know the basics of Google Docs, here is a great video:



Here is a quick video I made on using google forms:

Starting my blog up again

I've decided to start up my blog again. I'm not sure that anybody besides me will find it useful, but I've just got too many things in my mind that I want to share with the world. I'm hoping it will be therapeutic to pause once in a while and reflect on some of the things going on in my life.

I've wondered what I should blog about. I kind of thought this blog should have a theme- probably something work related since Terrie does a great job blogging about family stuff. However, I'm going to leave this wide open. I might blog about the latest cool technology thing I've learned about lately and the next maybe something about the latest movie I've watched in my theater room. So . . . here goes.