VIRGINIA BEACH: Brainstorming about research opportunities when Jason & family come to Australia

I have a confession to make. I find it somewhat curious that I am employed by one of Australia's leading research institutions and I have never been particularly excited about research. That is until I met Associate Professor Dr Jason Baker and his family and my visit to Regent University. In fact it was during the recording of the podcast attached to this blog that things really started to change.

Before I actually met Jason face to face, we have had months of online collaboration and during that time Jason has put together and submitted a Fulbright Scholarship application to come to Australia for six months to do research with me and the Centre of Learning and Professional Development. We have not heard back yet as to its success but we are hoping and believing the Baker family will be in Adelaide for 2007. The learning and teaching in both the University of Adelaide and Regent University will be much better off if this happens. How do I know? Just listen to the podcast and consider the possibilities not just for us but may it prompt those listening to think about possible research areas that could help them and their institutions.

Some Highlights from the Fullbright Scholarship Podcast:

• Discussion about the Fulbright Fellowship Process
• Possible research in the effective use of technology to enhance education
• Regent can bring a lot of online experience to the process. They have found their blended courses are enriched by what they have learnt in totally online mode and vice versa.
• We can explore cross cultural opportunities: Not only US and Australian learning differences, but other sub-cultures like smaller private universities and state research institutions, also the social and cultural bias of different ethnic groups in Australia and USA.
• Talked about testing the hypothesis that Indigenous people in Australia are more likely to succeed in online collaborative learning than the "white fella".
• We also discussed the implications to faculty and students when many faculty use the internet as only a document repository.
• We could research the best design models to suit different cultural based learning needs and styles.
• Considered research possibilities in online social dynamics. Most, so far, has been about text based asynchronous learning models. There is need for research into media rich models using such things as audio and emerging technologies with synchronous online collaboration and teaching.
• Discussed the implications when considering the impact of the Net Generation and comparing the student and the faculty experiences.
• We could explore the research verses learning culture and different reward structures.
• Finally discussed how we could explore how technology has changed how we undertake research and also how we distribute the findings.

Please contact us if you would like to discuss anything we have shared in the podcast or have any comments.

Regards
Allan