Jim Groom Speaks at Elon University and Publishes Article

Jim Groom, instructional technology specialist, presented the closing plenary at Elon University’s 8th Annual Teaching and Learning Conference on August 18, 2011. His presentation “Independent Domains – Thresholds to Teaching and Learning on the Open Web” featured the innovative work being done by faculty and students at UMW in regards to teaching and learning technologies. Following is an excerpt of the positive reception of the session from Elon University’s Teaching and Learning Center blog as well as the slides and audio from his presentation.

In the closing plenary, Jim Groom, in a lively display of humor and insight, posited that independent domains and open web tools provide students, faculty, and people outside the university from all walks of life and around the world opportunities to express, exhibit, and be discovered online with the encumbrance of institutional rules and regulations. He described how MWU [sic] applied simple blog technology (WordPress MU) to create a living nexus of business, information, and highly creative self-expression. The platform also enabled unprecedented participation in open courses by people from around the world.

Groom also published a piece on the problems of learning management systems in the crowdsourced book published by the University of Michigan Library titled Hacking the Academy.

This volume was assembled and edited by Dan Cohen and Tom Scheinfeldt of the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University from the best of over 300 submissions received during a spirited week when the two editors actively solicited ideas for how the academy could be beneficially reformed using digital media and technology. For more on the unusual way this book was put together, please start with Cohen and Scheinfeldt’s preface.