I started a new adventure this past month. I began a Ph.D. program through Walden University. The degree is in Applied Management and Decision Sciences with a specialization in Learning Management. So after 10 years designing and developing online learning I decided it was time to start using an online environment for my own professional development. As I research and write papers as part of my Ph.D. over the next few years I will post my findings on this blog.
Walden uses a technology that seems to be quite old. However, I believe this is a condition in most online university tools. They appear to have outdated interfaces. They look like the message boards of the early 90s. So for the level of online engagement is linear online forum. The forum does not group discussions into topics and it does not have a search feature. With so many social networking technologies on the market to make online collaborative learning work, I have been surprised by the lack of innovation on the part of Walden which is a 35 year old distance learning organization.
Last week I sat through a demo of Protosphere which is a product of Proton Media. They develop 2nd life style environments for companies. The idea is to have a 2nd office environment where you come into each day, as oppossed to jumping into email. Your virtual office can be a large Manhattan corner office complete with a walk out balcony and you own conference table. From your virtual office you can have meetings, check on the latest news, read your mail of course and also launch into a learning activity. You can add simulations complete with automated character bots to add to the learning aspect of the environment. It was definitely a step into the future. For some companies it is the present. I plan to focus my research over the next few years on this technology and it’s impact on developing a learning organization.