2009 Day 1 4:15-4:30 Synopsis: e-Learning Group affiliation

From OUCEL Wiki

Discussion on E-learning Group Status and Affiliation (lead by Richard Pinet)

• OUCEL members needs to make a decision on status;

• Essentially we need to make a decision whether to stay informal group or to become more formal

• We are invited to become members of Ontario Council of Life Long Learning (OCULL) and Council of Ontario Educational Developers (COED); the poll conducted was split

• Value of formalizing the status or joining partnership with some other formalized groups – for example, some people could not come to this year’s summer institute because the group is informal

• Another question is what can we produce; perhaps research or facilitate research

• There is lack of information on certain topics and OUCEL can illustrate many things in relation to educational technology

• There is a problem with ed. tech. longitudinal research

• Concern about research – can we really do it? Research is typically not part of our mandates; we should be careful not to set up our expectations too high

• We need a vehicle to support ed. tech research; it is not our mandate to do the research, but we can ask researchers to do it on topics and issues that are of interest for our group

• The question of visibility is also important; if we want to be recognizable, formalization would help with that

• We need to think of all these issues and make a decision at the end of the Institute - i.e. how do we move forward.