New Media Consortium

So the University of Ottawa recently became a member of the New Media Consortium, “an international 501(c)3 not-for-profit consortium of over 260 learning-focused organizations dedicated to the exploration and use of new media and new technologies” based in Austin, Texas.

You’ll find some amazing content on their website which I have yet to fully explore. However, I might start off reading their 2008 Horizon Report [pdf], “that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have considerable impact on teaching, learning, and creative expression within higher education”.

With membership to this consortium, you can opt to join the Technical and Pedagogical Discussion List. I’ve only been on the list for a day or so and I’ve already read some really fascinating and rich discussion threads. It’s a private list so perhaps I’m not at liberty to divulge all that’s been going on but let’s just say that the topic of experimentation with Facebook and MySpace in academia was brought up. One article that someone pointed to describes BJ Fogg‘s “Psychology of Facebook” course. Très intéressant…