e-Literate

Present is Prologue

Category: Upcoming Events

The “Upcoming Events” category provides updates on the e-Literate world concert tour. (Please only buy official concert T-shirts. Buying counterfeits hurts the band.)

  • This Week’s Blursday Social: The CMU/ASU Courseware Platform Collaboration

    Happy not-2020 anymore! In celebration of the slightly-less-awfulness, we are restarting Blursday Socials with a bang. You may have been following my blog post series on the collaboration between Carnegie Mellon University’s OLI group and ASU’s ETX group on a next-generation courseware platform. (It’s actually a lot more than that, but that’s a good place to start in terms of unpacking what it really is.)

    Whenever a whizzy project or collaboration gets announced, the first question that everybody asks is, “Is this a thing?” As in, how real is this, really? And then the next question is, “To the degree that this is a thing, what kind of thing is it?” We will definitely answer the first question and get a start on the second one.

    Leading up this conversation with me will be two good friends. From the OLI side is Simon Initiative Executive Director, OLI Director, and connoisseur of fine bourbon Norman Bier.

    Norman at the 2019 EEP Summit

    From the ETX side, we have ETX Director, ASU President’s Professor, and explorer of habitable worlds Ariel Anbar.

    Ariel exploring a world we hope will remain habitable

    You’ve got questions? We’ve got (some) answers.

    This session is scheduled for this Blursday, 2/4 at 4 PM ET. Dress code is COVID-casual. This will be an informative social event, not a broadcast.

    BYOB.

  • Next Blursday Social (12/10): Filling EdTech Potholes with ReThink Education’s Matt Greenfield

    Welp, it’s been a year, hasn’t it? Everybody, including the EdTech-averse, has had to go all-in on EdTech all at once. And it’s exposed some potholes. Some we knew were there, others we learned to live with and forgot about, and still others we didn’t see coming. Now is a good time to think about lessons learned as we look toward future changes, both foreseen and unforeseen, both fast and slow.

    So we’re going to chat with venture capitalist and friend of e-Literate Matt Greenfield, Managing Partner at the ReThink Education venture capital firm. In a prior life, Matt was an English professor at CUNY, Columbia, and Bowdin. So he’s seen the world from both sides of the EdTech company/academic line. We’re all going to chat with Matt about the potholes that need filling.

    Matt Greenfield, Managing Partner at ReThink Education

    This will be the last Blursday Social of 2020, so don’t miss the thrilling season finale!

    Remember, Blursday Socials are much more conversation and participation than broadcast. Think of it as being like trivia night at your favorite bar. There will be some organized activity, but a lot of it will be just connecting with friends. Some folks will be regulars, others will be semi-regulars, and still others will drop in occasionally. They start every Thursday at 4 PM Eastern Time. The bar closes at 5:30.

    The dress code is casual; BYOB.

    I recommend that you also subscribe to the iCal feed, which you can do by going to this page and clicking on the “iCal Feed” button on the bottom. I have events tentatively lined up for the handful of weeks, which I will populate to the calendar as they are finalized.

    RSVP here: https://www.runtheworld.today/app/invitation/13547

  • Next Blursday Social (12/3): Rethinking Virtual Conferences with EDUCAUSE ELI

    Next Blursday Social (12/3): Rethinking Virtual Conferences with EDUCAUSE ELI

    After a brief hiatus for Turkey and such, Blursday Social with e-Literate LIVE! will back next Blursday, 12/3 from 4 PM to 5:30 PM ET. This week we’ll be talking with some good friends at EDUCAUSE about our experiences, joys, pains, hopes, and dreams regarding virtual conferences to help them think about the upcoming virtual EDUCAUSE ELI conference. Come chat with Kathe Pelletier, Director of the EDUCAUSE Teaching and Learning Program, and Beth Kroll, EDUCAUSE’s Director of Conferences and Events.

    Kathe Pelletier and Beth Kroll

    Remember, Blursday Socials are much more conversation and participation than broadcast. Think of it as being like trivia night at your favorite bar. There will be some organized activity, but a lot of it will be just connecting with friends. Some folks will be regulars, others will be semi-regulars, and still others will drop in occasionally. They start every Thursday at 4 PM Eastern Time. The bar closes at 5:30.

    The dress code is casual; BYOB.

    I recommend that you also subscribe to the iCal feed, which you can do by going to this page and clicking on the “iCal Feed” button on the bottom. I have events tentatively lined up for the handful of weeks, which I will populate to the calendar as they are finalized.

    RSVP here: https://www.runtheworld.today/app/invitation/12965

  • Blursday Social is Off This Week and Next

    The bar is closed for renovations this week and off for Thanksgiving next week. We’ll be re-opening on Blursday, December 3rd.

    Stay tuned for more information about upcoming guests.

  • Reminder: This Week’s Blursday Social with Phil Hill

    Phil and Michael, bustin’ some moves.

    Gang, don’t forget that this week’s Blursday Social guest is Phil Hill. Blursday Socials are conversational, so we’ll all talk about whatever the folks who show up want to talk about. But here are a few topics on my mind for a conversation with Phil:

    • Curricular materials trends: Phil recently updated his cost analysis of curricular materials. But there’s some weirdness in the numbers due to the convoluted way in which publishers bundle products. I’d like to tease out what we know about adoption rates and pricing of courseware and digital homework products.
    • Online education trends during COVID: Phil has been tracking the enrollment numbers that we have so far and sifting through them to find trends among types of institutions, types of programs, etc. I’d like to get his latest take on what we do and don’t know, as well as what numbers he’s watching for.
    • The resurrection of Blackboard…? While I care a lot less about LMS market share these days, I am interested in why different companies are doing better or worse and what that tells us about what campuses value in their LMS and LMS vendor these days. Phil recently wrote about a big win in the US for Blackboard. I want to know more.

    But most of all, I want to catch up with my old friend in the company of other friends, probably with a beverage in-hand. You should come. It’s fun.

    Remember, Blursday Socials are much more conversation and participation than broadcast. Think of it as being like trivia night at your favorite bar. There will be some organized activity, but a lot of it will be just connecting with friends. Some folks will be regulars, others will be semi-regulars, and still others will drop in occasionally. They start every Thursday at 4 PM Eastern Time. The bar closes at 5:30. 

    The dress code is casual; BYOB.

    I recommend that you also subscribe to the iCal feed, which you can do by going to this page and clicking on the “iCal Feed” button on the bottom. I have events tentatively lined up for the handful of weeks, which I will populate to the calendar as they are finalized.

    Phil Hill’s session is Thursday, November 12th at 4 PM ET. RSVP here.

  • Upcoming Blursdays: Amy Collier joining Susan Baldridge, followed by Phil Hill

    Upcoming Blursdays: Amy Collier joining Susan Baldridge, followed by Phil Hill

    So, the bad news is that this week’s Blursday Social has been cancelled. The bar is closed for renovations.

    The good news is that we have some great guests coming up in the next couple of Blursdays. First, Susan Baldridge will still be joining us next Blursday, November 5th. We will also be joined by the great Amy Collier, Associate Provost for Digital Learning from Middlebury College. We’ll be talking about getting everybody on campus working together (and supporting each other) during these times of difficult change. Amy and Susan worked together at Middlebury on engaging faculty in conversation on Middlebury’s digitally-enabled future. So they have some stories to tell about bringing people together.

    Amy Collier

    On the following Blursday, November 12th, we will be talking with Phil Hill about…um…I don’t actually know. It’s hard to predict with Phil. But you get a say. Point him in a direction and we’ll see what happens.

    Phil Hill and some handsome guy

    Remember, Blursday Socials are much more conversation and participation than broadcast. Think of it as being like trivia night at your favorite bar. There will be some organized activity, but a lot of it will be just connecting with friends. Some folks will be regulars, others will be semi-regulars, and still others will drop in occasionally. They start every Thursday at 4 PM Eastern Time. The bar closes at 5:30. 

    The dress code is casual; BYOB.

    I recommend that you also subscribe to the iCal feed, which you can do by going to this page and clicking on the “iCal Feed” button on the bottom. I have events tentatively lined up for the handful of weeks, which I will populate to the calendar as they are finalized.

    Susan Baldridge and Amy Collier will be joining us next Thursday, November 5th at 4 PM ET. RSVP here.

    Phil Hill’s session is next Thursday, November 12th at 4 PM ET. RSVP here.

  • Next Blursday Social: Co-author of The College Stress Test

    Next Blursday Social: Co-author of The College Stress Test

    Last week on Blursday Socials with e-Literate LIVE!, we had the pleasure of chatting with Jeff Young, the creator of the Pandemic Campus Diaries podcast, which is still one of the best ways I know of to get a feel for the varied and changing impacts of COVID-19 on students and educators. (The latest episode dropped this week and I can’t wait to listen to it.) Over the next two weeks, we’ll be exploring topics of what’s coming and how to deal with it as campus communities.

    As I’ve written about in a previous post, we’ll have Inside Higher Ed editor and co-founder Doug Lederman this Thursday, October 22nd at 4 PM ET. Just about every major developing story about higher education crosses Doug’s desk. That puts him in an excellent position to talk with us about what he sees coming next.

    I’m delighted to tell you that next Thursday’s guest will be Susan Baldridge, former Provost and psychology professor at Middlebury College, co-author of The College Stress Test, and a strategy and change management consultant to college leaders. (You may have read one or two of her posts here on e-Literate.)

    Susan Baldridge

    Susan is in a great position to talk about how campuses are managing change—and how they should manage change—during these difficult times. She has a mastery of the financial, mission, and human aspects of the challenge. She is fascinating to talk to. So come talk to her!

    Remember, Blursday Socials are much more conversation and participation than broadcast. Think of it as being like trivia night at your favorite bar. There will be some organized activity, but a lot of it will be just connecting with friends. Some folks will be regulars, others will be semi-regulars, and still others will drop in occasionally. They start every Thursday at 4 PM Eastern Time. The bar closes at 5:30.

    The dress code is casual; BYOB.

    I recommend that you also subscribe to the iCal feed, which you can do by going to this page and clicking on the “iCal Feed” button on the bottom. I have events tentatively lined up for the handful of weeks, which I will populate to the calendar as they are finalized.

    Doug Lederman’s session is this Thursday, October 22nd at 4 PM ET. RSVP here.

    Susan Baldridge’s session is next Thursday, October 29th at 4 PM ET. RSVP here.