Last week I received a nice surprise in the mail, Changing Cultures in Higher Education (Ulf Daniel Ehlers and Dirk Schneckberg eds.) Springer.

Congratulations, guys.

610 pages for a mere $126. It’s good to see that Springer is maintaining its sense of humor.

Don’t get me wrong. The message is cool:

More and more educational scenarios and learning landscapes are developed using blogs, wikis, podcasts and e-portfolios. Web 2.0 tools give learners more control, by allowing them to easily create, share or reuse their own learning materials, and these tools also enable social learning networks that bridge the border between formal and informal learning. However, practices of strategic innovation of universities, faculty development, assessment, evaluation and quality assurance have not fully accommodated these changes in technology and teaching.

Ehlers and Schneckenberg present strategic approaches for innovation in universities. The contributions explore new models for developing and engaging faculty in technology-enhanced education, and they detail underlying reasons for why quality assessment and evaluation in new – and often informal – learning scenarios have to change. Their book is a practical guide for educators, aimed at answering these questions. It describes what E-learning 2.0 is, which basic elements of Web 2.0 it builds on, and how E-learning 2.0 differs from Learning 1.0. The book also details a number of quality methods and examples, such as self-assessment, peer-review, social recommendation, and peer-learning, using illustrative cases and giving practical recommendations. Overall, it offers a step-by-step guide for educators so that they can choose their own quality assurance or assessment methods, or develop their own evaluation methodology for specific learning scenarios.

The book addresses everyone involved in higher education – university leaders, chief information officers, change and quality assurance managers, and faculty developers. Pedagogical advisers and consultants will find new insights and practices for the integration and management of novel learning technologies in higher education. The volume fosters in lecturers and teachers a sound understanding of the need and strategy for change, and it provides them with practical recommendations on competence and quality methodologies.

I’ve been synthesizing Ivan Illich’s Deschooling Society all day, and I’m still under its influence. Connections matter more important than content. Rather than memorize what’s at the destinations, learners need pathfinding skills and models that will serve them for a lifetime. Rather than talk about what’s in this new book, I’ll describe how I came to be in it.

I am tickled pink to be in the company of co-contributors Steve Wheeler, Gilly Salmon, Etienne Wenger, Tony Carr, Wim Veen, Graham Attwell, Nancy White, John Smith, and other pals.

Befitting our shrinking world, I met Ulf and his wife Virginie a conference in Bogota four years ago.

Ulf is the tall guy in this picture. (Ulf it always the tall guy

Ulf’s delightful wife Virginie (the first PhD granted in eLearning in France) was a fellow speaker. (Why isn’t she in the book, Ulf?)

Christian Stracke gave a great talk about accreditation European style, but my favorite part was when he told us he was from the home of gummi bears AND PASSED OUT FREE SAMPLES.

Bogota was loads of fun. No machine gun fire. Lots of beer, aguardente, and steak. The only coke I saw came from Atlanta.

A wonderful treat in Bogota was sitting with Nancy White. She was Tweeting away. Alone, among several hundred people in the room. Choco-Nancy:

We went up the mountainside on a cable car the next day, a Sunday. My Spanish is bad, but I could understand when the priest announced that the congregation would now say the Lord’s Prayer. The organ began to play. Whoa. This isn’t liturgical music; this is Simon & Garfunkel. You haven’t really worshipped until you’ve heard the Lord’s Prayer enthusiastically sung in Spanish to the tune of Sounds of Silence.

Choco and I cabled back down the hill and enjoyed a fabuloso Aztec meal.

Virginie and Ulf  treated me to a fine dinner in the Potdammer Platz a couple of years later. Heaven knows how, but Ulf recorded what’s now Chapter 4 of the new book while we consumed wonderful German food and wine.

And the book? Oh. I have’t started to read the book yet. I’m sure it will be great. ‘ wiedersehen.

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