Virtually learning

Explaining social media

2012-02-09T18:02:00.000+13:00

What more can one say, really...?

Social Media Explained a la @ThreeShipsMedia http://instagr.am/p/nm695/

Modern art?

2012-01-31T16:22:00.000+13:00

I love it when people use existing technologies in new ways. We've all seen how apps can make items on tablet screens tilt and orient themselves spacially, but this is a really clever next step. Of course, I'm not sure I'd want one of these paintings on my wall - every time someone walked past the darn thing they'd tilt it, and then leave the painting AND it's contents lolling drunkenly askew. Hell for those of us who like things just 'so'.

Still Life from Scott Garner on Vimeo.

Illustrating learning

2012-01-22T18:20:00.000+13:00

I have been looking for different ways to present information in online learning packages. It is all too easy to fall into the trap of long paragraphs of text, but alternatives such as animations and avatars are simply out of my budget.

I have just started playing with online comic design tool, Pixton. It has taken me an hour or two to figure out the basics, but it seems to be a really user-friendly piece of software, and the gallery of comics created by users certainly shows that there is a wide range of options. And at $6/month, I can't complain about the cost!

Neither art nor entertainment, but it adds variety to a learning package!

Interactive back seat windows

2012-01-22T09:59:00.001+13:00

How things have changed. Like the author of this article, when I was young [she said, in a quavering voice] the best the back seat window had to offer was a screen for drawing in the fog created by my breath.

What doesn't seem to be covered by any of the proposed technologies, is how to manage the consequent smeary finger marks on the glass, which, in my family, usually precipitated roars of annoyance from the front seat!

SOPA

2012-01-22T09:28:00.001+13:00

SOPA has certainly polarised people, and it has been interesting to follow the global reaction to it. The day of internet blackouts and other protests certainly seems to have changed the minds of decision makers in the US. Whilst I'm relieved that the Bill won't be passed, if this infographic is to be believed, the speed with which members of the US Congress flip-flopped makes me cynical. I'm sure their change of heart has more to do with elections than conscience.

There is a part of me that admires the 65 supporters who continue to support the Bill despite the weight of opinion swinging to the other side. Are they the only members who actually have convictions, or are they simply those whose financial support comes from the entertainment industry, I wonder.

Image: SOPA-opera count via Whale-oil-beef-hooked

The flipped classroom

2012-01-14T16:03:00.002+13:00

There has been considerable debate in the blogosphere recently about the pros and cons of the 'flipped' classroom. Working in a blended degree programme that leans more and more to the online as it progresses over the three years, I have (probably rather unthinkingly) always been in favour of flipping. It makes so much sense. Why waste time downloading concrete facts and content in the classroom if you can 'preheat' your students by providing them with this information online, before they come to class. Theoretically, when students then appear in your classroom, you can spend your time troubleshooting and engaged in critical thinking tasks based on the stuff they've already downloaded into their brains via your online content. There is a fair amount of anecdotal evidence to suggest the efficacy of the approach - lots of teachers post about improved pass rates and increased engagement, and the popularity of the Khan Academy must be coming from somewhere. (Although it is worth noting that slightly more rigorous research into flipping the classroom with Khan academy shows that the difference in grades, post-flip, is not very large.)

Those opposed to flipping the classroom frequently cite the unfairness of it; the fact that it increases the digital divide by favouring the students who have online access at home, and who have the home circumstances that favour study and online learning. Obviously many students don't have these luxuries, and in a flipped classroom, they are going to be left behind very quickly.

But is this a valid argument against the flipped classroom? If I were still teaching in schools, and I had students in my class who did not have access to the internet at home, I would be acting unfairly and incompetently if I designed my classes to be based on flipped learning. On the other hand, if I had a class full of 'wired' students (and let's face it, there are very few high school students who don't have a Facebook account) why wouldn't I flip, even if it does increase the gap between the haves and the have nots?

Infographics

2011-12-23T10:12:00.000+13:00

I'm rather partial to infographics or 'data visualisation'. In the right hands, an infographic can make complex information accessible and interesting. This blog post not only contains links to a number of really useful tools for the creation of infographics, but also made me realise that their scope is so much wider than I had imagined. Better world flux in particular caught my interest: it has the potential to be a fabulous tool for teachers of the social sciences and geography. Sadly I couldn't get the website to run in any of the recommended browsers. Their demo video here shows the potential of the tool (ignore the over-production); hopefully the website will be more accessible to you than to me.

And just in case you think infographics is just a fancy name for a poster, take a look at this one explaining the population explosion.

Zeitgeist?

2011-12-19T14:34:00.000+13:00

Google Zeitgeist gives a rather damning comment on society today. Under the heading, 'What mattered in 2011' Google has compiled a list of the top searches for the year. Number 1? Rebecca Black... most famous for singing badly on Youtube. Apart from the Fukushima Reactor, everything else on the top 10 list centres on celebrity (and generally not very noteworthy ones) or Apple. The spirit of our times is a superficial one indeed.

School reports: shedding pseudo light on non-problems?

2011-12-14T18:54:00.001+13:00

Yesterday was a school report day in my family. As an ex-teacher with many years of report-writing experience, I can't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for teachers at this time, although that twinge is tempered by the fact that in New Zealand, it seems teachers only report formally once a year. A far cry from the detailed quarterly reports we had to churn out!

The report we received was interesting, in a confusing sort of way. Unlike some NZ schools, J_'s school has implemented national standards, a system that requires schools to score each child as 'above', 'at' or 'below' the national standards for reading, writing and mathematics at their age. Exactly what each individual standard entails is a little harder to find, but I remain hopeful that another few hours on Google will be fruitful. I am all for standards. I don't think it's demeaning or harmful to find out that my child is 'below' the national standard (whatever that might actually be) for mathematics. On the contrary, it's a useful alarm bell, providing me with an opportunity to arrange extra lessons, or whatever else might be required to improve his performance. (And when one considers that in New Zealand, apparently just 'one third of students going into secondary school are numerate', that alarm bell is ringing pretty loudly.)

What confused me about the diagnosis of 'below standard' is the feedback that accompanies it. Apparently elder-son has made 'significant progress with numeracy..., is clever at solving problems which involve thinking out the box... has worked hard... is capable...can do well'. Now, apart from the slight equivocation of 'can do well' the rest seems pretty positive. So why am I confused? Well, earlier this year, we had parent-student-teacher interviews instead of a formal written report. I like these occasions when the parent, student and the teacher talk together about achievements, progress and improvements. At this interview, I was told that my son was performing 'at the national standard' for mathematics. Six months later, he is below standard. That really does not sound like significant progress to me, unless progress and success are inversely proportional! So I queried this with his teacher. Take a look at the reply I received, and if you can interpret it, please let me know!

The Interim Reports and interviews were based on J__'s results from the first half of the year. The end of year results were based on the whole year which included OTJ's (teacher judgements) Numeracy, Statistics, Probability, Measurement and Geometry, which is why there is a difference in the levels. J__ has made significant individual progress within these areas. The National Standards are aspirational [???] and there are wide variations within each level.

What is really interesting about the whole thing is that despite some fairly lengthy searching online, I still don't know what exactly the standards are for each level, and what being below standard actually means. I'm sure it would be much more useful for parents to be told that their precious offspring is a lazy git who would do better if he talked less and worked more than to be told that as a result of 'significant progress' said child is now below standard.

The other child's school issues their reports tomorrow. Interestingly, this school is one of the renegade schools that have refused to implement national standards, and they've done a lot of touting of the fact that their reports will be 'written in plain English'. I look forward to the evidence of this.

On a slightly related note, the same school report tells me that my son and heir was 'able to make connections from his 1970's research and transfer this to his character on stage' [in the annual school theatre production]. I trust you are impressed. You would be less so if you knew that said son was one of ten masked characters who marched onto a stage amongst about sixty classmates, stood utterly motionless at the very back of the stage throughout the piece, and then marched off again.

iPads in the classroom

2011-11-05T17:07:00.000+13:00

More than once I have expressed my cynicism about the hype surrounding iPads in the classroom. Make no mistake, I really would like to have my own iPad to play with, but observing iPad users (in the education environment at least) so far as really shown me that they are proving the adage, 'using new technologies to teach the same old way'.

I recently attended a demonstration where a technology teacher was showing how he was using the iPad to transform his teaching. He was using the camera on the iPad 2 to photograph his students working on their projects, then uploading their photographs in slideshow or video format to Facebook. Whilst I have no doubt that the students enjoyed seeing their work online, I can do the same with my mobile phone, and for a great deal cheaper. Yes, there are people using the iPad to show videos and animations, but again, it's nothing that we aren't already doing with existing technologies.

So, it was a relief to read Johnston and Stoll's article, 'It's the pedagogy, stupid...' about iPads in in eLearn Magazine. Whilst the first part of the article makes similar (but much more coherent) comments about the iPad to those I have made, in the second part they outline some interesting and innovative ideas which suggest that, while the transformation won't be as immediate or as universal as the hype will have us believe, iPads and other tablets will be disruptive technologies in the classroom. Well worth a read.

Image from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7c/1stGen-iPad-HomeScreen.jpg/250px-1stGen-iPad-HomeScreen.jpg

The flattery of social networking

2011-10-02T11:23:00.002+13:00

Yesterday, as a backup, I uploaded a couple of powerpoints that I use infrequently to Slideshare. They're slides I use in presentations to students, and would be of little interest of relevance to anyone else. Imagine my astonishment then to receive this in my email this morning:

How exciting, thought I. Fame at last! Recognition from the international community of Slideshare! And, because I am vain, I went straight to the Slideshare site to see how many views my apparently wonderful presentation had had in the 14 or so hours since I had uploaded it. The result:

So what does this mean? It was rather flattering for a moment, but 0 views does rather burst the bubble! Is this a cunning ploy designed to encourage us all to upload more slideshows? Is there simply a lag between their view counter and their email system, and in fact, this trivial and visually unappealing presentation, last updated in January 2010 (unlike Facebook!) really is one of the most popular uploads of the day?

And just in case this isn't enough to make you cynical about Slideshare, I received a SECOND email:

Two uploads; two of the most popular presentations of the day. If only that actually meant something.

21st century skills from a 21st century classroom

2011-09-13T18:09:00.001+12:00

A year ago I blogged about 21st century literacy skills, asking whether we were still using definitions of literacy that are out of sync with our new, technological world. Since then, I have had the privilege of watching my son negotiate his first year of intermediate school in a laptop class. Make no mistake, he is in an innovative and challenging school, and observing his learning, both planned and accidental, has been fascinating, but it leaves me with more questions than answers.

I have no doubt that the experience of being connected to his peers on a more or less continuous basis has enabled him to develop relationships. The school uses Adium as the social networking tool (students are banned from accessing Facebook at school or on their school laptops) and my son seems to spend an inordinate amount of time chatting online. So in that way, I suppose he is improving his skill at building relationships with others. Or is he? When I browse his chat history (and I do, because I'm a parent and I believe that is my responsibility) I am overwhelmed (and relieved, I admit) by the superficiality of the communications that take place. Is a relationship based on a dialogue such as:

son: wuu2

friend: nm u

son: nm. brb

friend: k kewl - g2g, etc., etc. (find translations here) really a valuable or meaningful relationship? Certainly, it is cross-cultural - in fact it is an entire sub-culture of its own and it gives me a headache to read it, but how far is it going towards that wonderful goal of solving problems collaboratively? Certainly he and his friends are very proficient in the use of these tools, but for what purpose? nm?

There have also been some tough lessons for him this year around the ethical responsibilities of the online environment. These lessons have been the products of chance rather than planned, and have probably been much more powerful as a result. Learning about the dangers of posting criticisms and gossiping online is invaluable, but the lessons can only be taught if there is someone monitoring the discussions. More often than not, there is no one. And so instead of students being helped to address those ethical considerations, bad, even dangerous, habits are entrenched.

Having said all that, I have recently been watching my son engage with his first virtual world, Minecraft. This challenges him on a whole range of levels. He interacts with a group of friends all building in the same world, he has to share ideas and collaborate online, and, he tells me, all in a context that has taught him all about architecture! It certainly has engaged his interest and his creativity, and would devour hours of his time if allowed. And it has provided him with a place to apply other forms of learning. Yesterday we watched some of the 9/11 memorial coverage. Somehow, despite living almost his entire life in the post 9/11 world, he'd never really been aware of the specifics of that day, and it made for some sombre conversation. What has interested me however is the outcome of that conversation: his new build in Minecraft is a tower that will be more resistant to terrorism. Sad, but a really concrete example of engaging with the responsibilities of the new and complex environments we live in.

Online learning design

2011-08-25T21:37:00.000+12:00

This was one of the featured presentations on Slideshare today. Ellison gives excellent pointers for clear and effective learning design. Designing for cognitive disabilities

View more presentations from Ruth Ellison

Instructional designers: Gatekeepers of the internet?

2011-07-22T15:00:00.000+12:00

I love this!

A visit to Christchurch

2011-06-04T19:37:00.002+12:00

Yesterday I flew to Christchurch for a work-related visit to CPIT. Despite it being my first trip to the South Island, I opted not to take my camera, for fear of being ghoulish. It was a sobering visit. At first glance, the place seems very normal. The taxi drive from the airport into the city gave glimpses of homes under repair, but nothing too unusual, apart from a relatively high number of patched or missing chimneys. The road winds through Hagley Park, which is a large area filled, at the moment, with the with trees carrying the last of the autumn colour, and people doing normal things like pushing prams and walking dogs- hard to reconcile with the images of people camping out there in the hours after the quake.

Arriving in the central city though, breaks the illusion. The first thing, and the thing that struck me most, was the number of buildings with florescent orange, spray-painted, 'clear' notices with dates and initials on them... notices for searchers that the building had been checked for the dead and injured. Many of the buildings are red-stickered (no-entry, awaiting demolition), and I wonder about the people who went into them in the days that followed the quake, risking their own lives if one of the 5000-odd subsequent tremors were to strike whilst they were inside.

The taxi driver also undermines the illusion of normalcy. He talks endlessly about the quake. (It seems everyone does. Snippets of conversation heard during the day all seem to have the quake as a theme: how they are coping, what they will do if there's another big shake that brings down the building, why they won't use elevators any more....) He adds another aspect of realism to what, for me, has been, until now, a largely academic understanding of what it all has meant. He talks about realising that he can't have faith in the ground he stands on any more... of how it feels like he is standing on 'porridge' that will one day shake hard enough for him to sink. I found that oddly disturbing - solid ground is a cliché that we assume is completely valid. What must it mean to no longer be able to rely on that? I can't imagine.

The CPIT building itself is largely unscathed. The nursing school I was visiting was on, I think, the 4th floor. One lecturer no longer uses the elevator - people had apparently been trapped for hours in elevators with no power and constant aftershocks. We were shown to the office allocated to us and left to our work, with strict instructions to take handbags, laptops, etc., with us, even on trips to the loo, in case of another shake. After the February quake, people were stranded outside of buildings with no phones, and no car keys, unable to contact family members to let them know they were safe. The surfaces of the office are covered in a grey, gritty dust - school had only re-opened three weeks prior to our visit, following inspections by engineers, and many parts remain as they were in February, with fallen shelves and thick dust covering everything. Lecturers had been carrying on business as usual from their homes and Lincoln University, 20km away. The view from the office window is over Cathedral Square. The damaged cathedral looms whitely against the grey day, its corners sliced open. Men in a gantry hanging from a crane work on the dome despite the wind. Shipping containers are piled against one side to prevent further collapse.

Lunch brings more reality - lecturers chat casually of where they were and what they had done after the February quake (rushing to find children or having to walk long distances to get home because their cars were in no-go areas) and of life now with no flushing toilets and no heating (an awful thought at the start of a South Island winter). We followed this with a short walk down to the main areas of destruction, literally a few hundred metres from CPIT. Even looking at the streets in the red zone, it was hard to comprehend what had happened. It looked like the images of Beirut that we used to see on television. Although the streets have been largely cleared, the pavements are still buried under rubble. Buildings with missing facades show interiors of shops and apartments left exactly as they were that day, Marie Celeste style, as if people will come back and pick up their interrupted lives. The Grand Chancellor Hotel lurches overhead, more crooked than it seems on TV. Ironically, the artist supplies shop on the corner of the street is open for business - its window display contains decoupage papers of the tower of Pisa. Blinds and curtains flap through broken windows in the old city council buildings. Gusts of wind bring the smell of sewerage. Angry posters protesting the delay in accessing these final streets, and urging a respectful rebuild of the high street, are everywhere. Faded memorials are poked through the wires of the barriers surrounding the red zone. Dead roses; artificial lotus flowers, some ribbons which probably held things that have blown away in the wind. A still-legible card sends love to someone. Amazingly, traffic still flows through the streets.

Everywhere, there are people taking photographs. And it doesn't seem wrong. In a year, or two, or five, the city will be rebuilt, and in the way of humans, the world will have moved on and forgotten. To a large extent, it already has. We've already forgotten Japan and Haiti, and Pakistan, and Chile... It will be good to be reminded of the scars. Perhaps it will remind us to be human whilst we too sail calmly on.

Musee de Beaux Arts - W H Auden

About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

A rose, by any other name...?

2011-04-21T18:10:00.001+12:00

There's been an interesting discussion on the TANZ e-learning advisors' forum. Vasi Doncheva, from Northtec, asked forum members about the status (academic or general staff) of instructional designers at the various polytechs which belong to the TANZ group. Judging from the responses, there doesn't seem to be any consistency across (or even within) the polytechs that replied to the query.

Are instructional designers 'academics'? I'd say not, at least within the conventional sense of what an academic is, but at the same time, they are integral to the success of many academic programmes, so perhaps they should be classified as such. Two respondents felt that the fact that they did training as part of their role meant that they should be regarded as academic, which certainly broadens the definition (if there is one) of what an Instructional Designer really is. While we're at it, perhaps we need to broaden the definition of 'academic' too?

Interestingly, there also seems to be a view that instructional designers and e-learning advisors are one and the same. Is this a reflection on the pervasiveness of 'e'-based learning in tertiary courses? Although in my role as instructional designer, I use a range of e-learning technologies and strategies, I see my role as more closely linked to course content and development than that of an e-learning 'advisor'. Am I wrong in this?

Many of us work in fairly small departments. There's huge pressure on individual staff members to be all things to all people. Does this blur the boundaries of conventional job descriptions; meaning that we tend to be jacks of all trades, with the accompanying risk of being masters of none.

The perils of social networking

2011-03-02T10:30:00.000+13:00

David Hopkins remains a phenomenal source of great links and ideas; this one, about the potential perils of social networking, is so well designed it should be an integrated part of first-year orientations.

PS, and by complete coincidence...

2011-02-26T13:28:00.000+13:00

...this blog, in its own way, reinforces the points made by the article I mentioned earlier by Judith Boettcher. It looks at the problem of plagiarism and the importance of changing the way we assess in order to meet the challenges of a world inhabited, if that is the word, by Watson and his (its?) progeny.

Moving beyond traditional assessment

2011-02-26T13:16:00.001+13:00

Vasi Doncheva recently tweeted a link to Tony Bates' blog which mentioned this article about online assessment. (Attributions can be so complicated!) In the article, author Judith Boettcher makes the point that online assessments offer numerous opportunities for engaging, informative assessments. She asks the question, 'Why is the traditional paper so prevalent in assessment, and how can we move beyond it to alternative evidence of student learning?'

In his blog post about the article, Tony Bates comments that Boettcher's article 'has major implications for course design. It suggests that online technologies allow for different learning outcomes and objectives, rather than merely mirroring the learning objectives set for classroom teaching. Indeed, thinking of how best to assess ’21st century skills’ should be an integral part of decision-making around course content, forms of delivery, and choice of technology.

How often do we even consider the 21st century skills in our course design? I fear that, all too often, we continue to design courses for 21st century learners using 20th (or, if Ken Robinson is to be believed, 18th) century paradigms. I was recently asked why I was spending time building an interactive online content package when our students already had a textbook. The question was asked sincerely, and out of a desire to reduce staff workloads, but it made me wonder if, in the often very traditional world of tertiary institutions, we are missing the boat by not focussing our energies as much on educating the decision makers as we do on educating the students. As Judith Boettcher indicates, we may spend all the time in the world creating engaging online resources for students, but if we continue to resort to the traditional assessment forms of papers and exams, we may miss opportunities to identify 'real understanding and growth' in our students.

Are instructional designers, content developers and e-learning specialists brought too late in the course design process, when key elements such as assessments are already decided, approved and cast in stone. How we go about bringing a transformation in assessments at tertiary level that reflects the transformation in learning, literacy and the information-soaked world in which we live? I'm not sure that I have the answers to this... I hope that someone out there does!

Setting the bar

2011-02-05T08:30:00.003+13:00

I was fortunate to attend the recent Inspired Impact conference in Palmerston North. There was a powerful line-up of keynote speakers (including Sir Ken Robinson and John Edwards), and some really practical and inspirational workshop sessions. The theme of the conference was Nurturing Creativity, which possibly doesn't seem immediately relevant to someone working in a School of Nursing, but there was wonderful food for thought.

Despite the international big names, the highlight of the conference for me was a session by Albany Senior High School Deputy Principal, Mark Ambrose, on e-portfolios. Of course, e-portfolios are the flavour of the month, but this school has been using them with both staff and students, for several years, so not only are they pretty far down the road of ironing out hitches, but they have a deep understanding of how e-portfolios can be used to enhance the student experience AND improve staff self-management. They've taken e-portfolios from being the latest pedagogical buzzword, and made them work in meaningful and understated ways.

This school also has scheduled classroom-free days called 'Impact Days', in which students work on self-designed projects. The limits of the project are that they must be designed to develop the students' knowledge, and they must benefit the community. So a group of students worked together and built a jet engine. They organised engineers and lecturers from the Albany branch of Massey to come and give guidance, and they built a fully functional jet engine. Along the way, they didn't just learn about engineering, but they developed professional networks, project management skills, research and collaboration skills, and a practical understanding of health and safety regulations! Another group is doing research into the restoration of a piece of indigenous bush near the school, including biodiversity studies, species counts, etc.

All students are required to maintain a reflective journal in their e-portfolios which they document their learning from their Impact projects. The level of introspection in some of the posts was truly impressive, and without a doubt those students have learned skills way beyond anything that could have been taught in a traditional classroom.

At a completely different level, my older son has just started Intermediate, and is enrolled in a laptop class at Ross Intermediate here in Palmerston North. Of course, school has only been running for a week, so I may be speaking too soon, but I am excited by the way he has already been completely hooked by his teacher.... She is dealing with students with a range of IT skills, and I have been so impressed by the way she is measuring their levels of understanding without them even knowing. For example, her class blog contains all sorts of bits of information which the kids need to evaluate in order to decide whether they are relevant to the blog, or should be tidied out of the way. Without noticing, my son has watched a video clip explaining digital narratives (in words he understands, of course) and he has evaluated a series of educational games.

This all begs the question... how are those of us who work in tertiary education preparing to meet the expectations of these students? Do we truly understand the level of the innovation that is moving through the school system, and are we really ready to meet it? Does the traditional (archaic?) structure of tertiary institutions, with its accompanying mass of committees (and we all know the story about camels and committees) condemn innovation at tertiary levels to always being slow and behind the times?

Image CC-BY-SA from www.flickr.com./photos/catechism/4794100381/sizeso/inphotostream.jpg

Disruptive innovation.

2011-01-13T08:17:00.000+13:00

Steve Wheeler's post on disruptive innovation is thought-provoking and essential reading for those of us in education. “…Getting education right is the most important priority for all of us. It’s the whole ball of wax. No state education system will be any use, unless it trains and sustains good teachers. Teacher education in a digital age, using the best and latest technologies is a must”

Google body

2010-12-17T20:13:00.000+13:00

This is an amazing example of the democratisation of education by the internet. I think it will be a fantastic tool for our health science students.

Using online communities in the classroom.

2010-11-23T17:29:00.000+13:00

I've neglected my blog recently! And this doesn't really count as a post, but this is a lovely video (no embed code, sadly) and some great resources for teachers. It shows how teachers could use a number of the popular online community tools in their everyday classroom activities.

Changing Education Paradigms

2010-10-28T16:42:00.000+13:00

Recently I added a video of Sir Ken Robinson talking about changing education. Today, David Hopkins wote a blog post about the animation that has been done to illustrate the talk. It's pretty amazing. I wonder how long it took?

It's A Book - By Lane Smith

2010-10-19T20:15:00.000+13:00

I love this - good to be reminded of the simpler things!

21st Century Literacy

2010-10-18T12:32:00.000+13:00

As an ex-English teacher (that should read, ex-teacher of English) my concept of literacy has, until recently, always been fairly conventional. I was interested to read a tweet about 21st Century Literacy, and the new definitions adopted by the American National Council of the Teachers of English.

Their new definition of literacy requires students to:

Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments.

Their rationale for this makes for interesting and thought-provoking reading, and it's not very long! I wonder how much of this is considered in the New Zealand National Literacy and Numeracy assessments, currently being rolled out with much fanfare at polytechs around the country?

The article reminds me that definitions of literacy amongst our students are probably rather old fashioned. As a result, we run the risk of assuming that, because they meet outdated definitions of literacy, our students are able to cope with the much more challenging literacies of the 21st century.

Stephen Heppel's keynote from Ulearn 2010

2010-10-18T09:36:00.000+13:00

I was not one of the fortunates who managed to get to Ulearn this year, and I have to admit to more than a twinge of jealousy when I hear Heppel describe the conference as one of the best in the world. Anyway, in this keynote he talks about technology, learning spaces, and the opportunities for mobile learning in the classroom.

Why online learning needs to get social

2010-10-05T10:13:00.000+13:00

This article post talks about the role of social networks in online learning, and contains further links to some pretty amazing online learning courses. Seemed pretty relevant to FOC2010!

Why we should all be playing games

2010-10-04T19:48:00.000+13:00

I'm really interested in the value of gaming principles in education. This short presentation by Stephen Knightly looks at a selection of different games and the skills they teach. (This blog entry is almost short enough to be a Tweet! Is a blog crossed with a Tweet a bleet?)

Getting networked!

2010-09-26T11:59:00.000+13:00

I am one of those people who haven't really been inspired by LinkedIn. Quite frankly, keeping up to date on my blog is challenging enough, never mind maintaining Fb and Twitter accounts! LinkedIn really has fallen by the wayside for me. However, by pure coincidence, I think getting into Twitter has solved my problem! I have discovered that Tweetdeck allows me to consolidate my Twitter, Fb and LinkedIn accounts in one place. Whohoo. No doubt I'm the last person on the planet to figure this out, but I got there in the end. So over the next few weeks, I'll pay more attention to LinkedIn. Hopefully those people (including my Canadian cousin, whom I last saw in 1987) who I see tried to link to me and whom I have so rudely ignored, will forgive me!

Twitter in itself has been interesting. Joyce Seitzinger, e-learning guru at EIT (@catspyjamasnz ) sung its praises at e-fest last year, and so I made an attempt to understand it, but I just didn't 'get it'. Too much trivia. So I closed my Twitter account and remained terribly superior and disengaged. Now, partly as a result of the FOC 2010 course (thanks, Sarah), and partly as a result of David Hopkins (@hopkinsdavid), who proclaimed that using Twitter was like sitting next to the smart kid in class, I'm having another go (@jeanjacoby). And I'm finding it remarkably different. There seems to be much less of the info-babble, and a lot more useful information. Has Twitter changed, or am I just getting better at picking people to follow? I've had some good guidance from the FOC course, and from Donna Thompson (@donnathompson) at UCOL, so it might be the latter...I'm not sure. I'd love to hear from established Tweeters... has Twitter become more useful?

Citizens as Gatekeepers

2010-09-26T10:28:00.000+13:00

I heard Dr Luke Goode from Auckland uni on the radio this morning, discussing his recent contribution to the university's Winter Lecture series. His comments on the pros and cons of 'outsourcing' news to anyone who can connect to social media are really interesting. What caught my attention was his comments on social media heavyweights such as Twitter and Facebook, (and Google) and how our assumption that these apps democratise information is naiive to say the least. He bases this on the fact (one that I have never thought about before) that any online app is governed by the algorithms they run on, and these algorithms are created by people, all of whom have individual biases. Thus, all of these algorithms are designed to sift information in particular ways.

It seems that the sooner we acknowledge that the online environment is not a 'neutral gateway to information', the better we will become at managing it.

Of course, this raises another, (but not new) issue, of where the power will lie in the future: it seems more and more likely that it will be in the hands of the intellectual technocrati who know how to use social media most effectively. Should we be embedding social media skills into school curricula as urgently as the current push to embed literacy and numeracy? What do you think?

The transcript of Dr Goode's lecture is available here.

19 Reasons to Use, or Not to Use, an iPad in Education

2010-09-24T19:08:00.000+12:00

I'd love to have an i-pad, but realistically, I still don't now how useful they are in tertiary education just yet. Would love to know what other people think!

19 Reasons to Use, or Not to Use, an iPad in Education

Tech Learning TL Advisor Blog and Ed Tech Ticker Blogs from TL Blog Staff â€“ TechLearning.com

2010-09-24T18:21:00.000+12:00

This is a really useful list of tools!
Tech Learning TL Advisor Blog and Ed Tech Ticker Blogs from TL Blog Staff â€“ TechLearning.com

Why should we care about social media?

2010-09-20T08:48:00.002+12:00

(Best watched with audio muted!)

Something for everyone involved in education

2010-09-18T18:20:00.001+12:00

Take the time to listen to this...Robinson is entertaining and inspirational, and reminds all of us in education what it's really all about.

Word of the day

2010-09-08T16:27:00.000+12:00

Tweckle (twek'ul) vt.
to abuse a speaker only to Twitter followers in the audience while he/she is speaking.

Don't you love the way technology can hijack our lexicon?

Linking up my social networking

2010-09-07T18:11:00.001+12:00

(This blog post is really an experiment to see if I can get my blog to link to my Facebook account.)

Part of this week's assignments for FOC 2010 is an instruction to 'join a social networking group such as Facebook, Ning or LinkedIn'. Well, I already have accounts with all three, so I thought I'd reflect briefly on my experiences of each before trying to figure out how I could link some of my accounts together.

I joined LinkedIn about three years ago, and haven't found it overly useful. Of course I only signed up for the free version which is really limited. One of the major drawbacks of this version was that it would only allow me to link to other members in the same country. As a new immigrant to New Zealand, my local professional network was really small, and because of the account restrictions I couldn't use LinkedIn to connect to my existing network in South Africa, which was a pity because I used to do a lot of freelance work. I have also noticed that lots of people (like me) join but don't really do much with their accounts.

I loved Ning, when it was free. I liked the fact that it was simple and easy to use, and that I could create multiple networks really easily. It is much more user friendly (I think) than Facebook, especially in terms of the privacy settings. But it is no longer free, and I feel duped!

I use Facebook, sporadically... it has certainly enabled me to make contact with long-lost friends. I think Facebook is an interesting tool, but it doesn't really do it for me - I like more depth to my connections. In the spirit of intellectual curiosity (!!), however, I'm going to try to figure out how to link my blog to my Facebook page. I'd love to see some South African dots on my visitor map!

Christchurch earthquake

2010-09-04T18:40:00.000+12:00

Strength to all of the FOC 2010 team who have been affected by the earthquake this morning... the devastation is staggering, and the fact that there were no serious casualties is a miracle. What can those of us who weren't affected do to help?

Game Dynamics

2010-08-31T17:11:00.000+12:00

At the risk of sounding like a David Hopkins echo, he posted this really interesting clip on his blog recently. Game dynamics are something I haven't really thought much about, but this presentation certainly made me reflect on how I could apply it in my work building online learning for tertiary students. The clip is 20 minutes long (although I think, given the speed at which Priebatsch speaks, it should really be 30 minutes!) and the word-for-word transcript feels a little disjointed, so here's my summary of Priebatsch's main points.
Game dynamics – the motivations that keep people gaming - can be used to motivate study behaviours. Four game dynamics mentioned in his talk are:

1. The appointment dynamic – in order to succeed, players have to do a predefined thing at a pre-defined place. In real life, this is reflected in practices such as ‘happy hour’. Examples that can be seen in the gaming world include Farmville in Facebook – water your crops every few hours or they’ll wilt…
Using this dynamic to motivate student learning, we could award points for students completing certain formative activities within a certain time frame, or deduct points if they don’t.

2. Influence and status - the more points you get, the higher your status. Banks and airlines already use this by awarding ‘gold’ cards and platinum status to customers… the attached status means that more people want them. In online gaming, status allows you to go from this to this:

In schools, the same principles are applied at a very basic level, where your grades can go from an E to an A. According to Priebatsch, Princeton University is extending the gaming dynamic by offering opportunities to ‘level-up’, so if your grades are low, you can complete a series of quizzes which earn you experience points, allowing you to improve your grade level.
I guess we already use a basic version of this by using the Moodle quiz results block which displays the names of the students scoring highest (or lowest) on a particular quiz. We don't really provide level-up opportunities, and the implications for getting such an idea through all the curriculum approval hoops boggles the mind, but it is a really interesting (and student-centred) idea.
3. The progression dynamic – many games require you to move through a series of graded steps in order to make progress. When presented with a progress bar, people are driven to do what is needed to move the slider across from the left to the right. We could use the progress dynamic to drive students to certain activities in order to complete the progress slider and unlock rewards.
I have done this to some extent when using the Moodle lesson function, but I haven't attached any reward to completion other than personal satisfaction. It would be fun to create some sort of nurse-avatar who could earn equipment and move up levels as a result, wouldn't it!
4. Communal discovery – everyone has to work together to reap rewards. A real example of this was when the website Digg got going – Digg is a news website where people contribute the news stories. People could move up and down a leader board based on points readers awarded to the stories they posted. The gaming aspect of the leader board became so powerful that it overtook the purpose of the website. A group of seven at the top of the leader board joined together and worked to make sure that they remained at the top by closing out other people’s stories while recommending their own.
I guess this one is key, and it links to the FOC 2010 course by reinforcing the value of social networking and collaboration. We're still not doing this one particularly well, although we are getting better at it. Encouraging students to see the value of networking and collaboration is an ongoing project requiring constant reinforcement and modelling.

Game dynamics is definitely something I want to learn more about... I know from observing students engaging with Moodle for the first time, that the resources they access first and spend most time on are those that involve interaction and gaming, even if at the most basic level. Whilst I'm not an online gamer myself (give me a good book any time) I can see the power that gaming strategies could have to transform education.

Social networking

2010-08-29T14:52:00.001+12:00

Another infographic this one by Jess3...

I was surprised to see that Skype is so much bigger than Facebook. People certainly are connecting.

Blogging is child's play...

2010-08-29T14:33:00.000+12:00

Yesterday my family and I had dinner with friends. Andrea Bing is a primary school teacher, currently working with a small group of new entrants (5-year olds) at Manchester Street School here in Feilding. After supper, she showed me her classroom blog. Working as I do with tertiary students, it was refreshing to see what people do with social networking at the foundation level. Andrea's blog provides a wonderful way for parents to keep in touch with what their children are learning and doing at school, and it provides a great place for the children to display their achievements. I particularly liked the idea of students recording themselves reading and uploading the resulting MP3 files - what a wonderful way to motivate reluctant readers! Andrea has some lovely gadgets on the page, such as picture puzzles and scratch cards, which should keep young visitors well entertained! One I particularly like is the visitor location map (available from Cluster Maps) which I've added to my blog... imagine how exciting it would be for 5-year olds to see people from all over the world visiting their blog! It's a free geography lesson too!

Skype etiquette...skyptiquette?

2010-08-26T08:57:00.001+12:00

David Hopkins' blog, Don't Waste Your Time, is one of my favourite resource-sharing blogs. His posts are always detailed, thoughtful and balanced, and he provides great links. He tends to deal with themes rather than having one-off posts. His latest post, on Skype etiquette, contains a link to a great video which will strike a chord with anyone who has accidentally hit the enter button mid-message (watch below if you don't feel like clicking through to the blog itself).

The blog itself struck a chord with me because I haven't trained myself to ignore comfortably the skype ring, and I am occasionally ambushed online at an inappropriate time, such as during a training session, by a call from the other side of the world. And boy, are some people persistent! If only they'd get the message and hang up after 4 rings! My other issue with skype is to do with the webcam... we have it set up so that the kidlets can stay in touch with family and friends in South Africa, but I always find myself frantically checking what I (and the room behind me) look like before I hit answer!

FOC 2010 Week 5 Reflection

2010-08-25T17:49:00.001+12:00

As part of our 'homework' for the course, we are asked to write a reflection on what we have learned over the last 5 weeks, with the following questions as a guide.

What is online facilitation?
What skills do you need as an online facilitator?
How does a facilitator build an online community or network?
What are the key things to remember when facilitating an event, meeting or education course, especially when working with people who are new to online technology?
What is the difference between teaching and facilitation?

Some of these questions appear deceptively simple, but I think answering them is probably not easily done in a single blog post, so please forgive me if my responses seem a little superficial...!

My understanding of online facilitation has definitely evolved over the past weeks. At the start of this course I saw the role of the online facilitator as a simple one of preparing a course with online resources, and being available to students as they work through it. I have come to realise that the role is much more complex. It appears to me that the online facilitator weaves multiple roles, including teacher, technology advisor and community builder, together to create a flexible backdrop against which students can construct their own learning. To do this a facilitator needs to be a skilled juggler, crisis manager, multi-tasker and problem solver, unflappable under pressure, ready to step in at any time but confident enough to take a back seat to allow student-centred learning. As if this wasn't enough, an online facilitator probably needs to be a bit of a techie-junkie too, as clearly remaining up-to-date with the latest technologies will be key to successfully facilitating online.

Things to remember when facilitating? I think it would have to plan, plan, plan... and then have a back-up plan, just in case. I haven't actually facilitated a session yet, but my experiences of the elluminate classroom suggest that the sessions that appear most effortless and flow most smoothly are probably carefully planned and strategised beforehand. Being a newbie to any technology can be really intimidating, and so making sure that things run as smoothly as possible seems essential. Giving students time to practise using the technology in a 'safe' way, as Sarah did at the start of this course, was also really helpful. I also like the way that, throughout the course, facilitators have been comfortable admitting that they don't know it all... I think it's really reassuring to a student to see lecturers solving problems collaboratively and without flapping!

The differences between teaching and facilitation are probably more appropriate to a PhD thesis than a brief paragraph in a blog! In one respect, good teaching is facilitation, but the two are not interchangeable, are they? Facilitating implies that one is allowing students to create their own learning using their own pathways, whereas teaching seems more like the old, traditional chalk-and-talk, but it really is all just a matter of semantics. Or is it? Would an online facilitator always teach, or could they simply facilitate the teaching of others. And if so, does that not make them de facto teachers too? I'm looking forward to reading other posts on this topic.

The Value of a Social Media Fan….Priceless

2010-08-25T16:46:00.000+12:00

This was tweeted on The Next Web today - a really interesting look at the commercial value of Facebook.

The Value of a Social Media Fan….Priceless

Using discussion forums

2010-08-25T11:14:00.000+12:00

I've just caught up with Lorraine Mockford's discussion on facilitating asynchronous learning, which is part of the FOC2010 course. It was interesting to hear her describing her approach to discussion boards, and listening to the discussion helped crystalise some ideas that I have had floating around, but hadn't really tried to formalise.

Lorraine talks about having a Week Zero, before the course actually gets going, in which students engage in a mix of synchronous and asynchronous activities in order to facilitate the development of an online community within the group. During the week she does things like getting students to introduce themselves in a forum post; provide a fact about themselves that she woudl be unlikely to know otherwise; post a favourite link or website, etc. These are all great ideas which would help students overcome their nervousness of posting to a public forum in a pretty non-threatening manner.
Lorraine talks about the importance of the lecturer holding back. This makes sense - after all, one is trying to enable the students to develop a community amongst themselves, rather than a series of one-to-one relationships with the lecturer. I have to admit that I have a tendency, when students put up a technical query, to jump in with the solution as quickly as I can, but I think I need to step back and allow the students to help one another instead.
She also sets up discussion boards before the course runs, and allocates a specific board to 'off-thread' discussions. This is a great idea as it provides a place for students to share ideas and ask questions without interrupting the flow of a particular discussion.
Finally, Lorraine mentioned using rubrics to assess forum posts. This is something we are currently grappling with... assessing forums would make students more likely to post to them (or would it?) but then it does detract from the spontaneity and the community aspects of a discussion forum. I'd be really interested to know what other people think and do regarding this. Does anyone have examples of rubrics that they could share?

Improving e-learning

2010-08-25T10:14:00.001+12:00

As part of my 'homework' for the FOC2010 course, I watched a presentation by Stephen Downes entitled Web 2.0 and Your Own Learning and Development. In it, he talks about 'guerilla tactics' for e-learning. I have read and listened to Stephen on a number of occasions and he never disappoints. This particular video lecture was especially interesting to me because we are grappling at the moment with ways in which to help students become better e-learners, and Stephen works through this so methodically and thoughtfully. Some of the points he makes are:

The importance of interaction and participation in a community. I have realised this myself in my engagement (or lack thereof) with the FOC sessions. Having human contact makes it so much easier to stay engaged and current. Watching recordings of the ellluminate sessions isn't nearly as satisfying as participating. I will be working on helping lecturers to find ways to maintain the human element when their students are engaged in working online.
Usability and simplicity. I got this wrong when I first started working on Moodle, and my Moodle pages were long and needed lots of scrolling. I've definitely improved in this respect, and the students have responded well to my new design. However, I still have some way to go. I design interactive learning objects using, primarily, Adobe Captivate. This produces a great finished product, BUT, we have had no end of trouble with students being unable to access them because of browser updates or uninstalled flash players. I think perhaps that I have become so caught up in the intellectual exercise of producing 'clever' learning objects that I have forgotten that most basic rule that 'form follows function'. I will definitely be revisiting this based on what I have learned about online learning.
Relevance. I'd like to think that all the learning we require of our students is 'relevant' to their desire to become nurses, but I have to wonder if we convey the relevance clearly and accurately enough. Would they engage more with the independent learning if we were better at convincing them of the relevance of it to their success? (Beyond the, 'it's in the exam approach'!)

I have embedded the presentation below as an aide-memoire to myself - I need to watch it regularly to help me stay focussed. It's 20min, but well worth the time.

Time's winged chariot

2010-08-12T17:13:00.003+12:00

More than a week has past and I've fallen horribly behind with the Facilitating Online Course.. and it's going to get worse before it gets better. I'm learning to have a new respect for everyone out there who manages to juggle study, work and family life. I realised just how out of touch with FOC2010 I have become when I received an email today from a work colleague who sent me a link to a really interesting article called 15 practices to deepen human connection and engagement online. It's a great article, and it suggests some simple and practical ways to improve social engagement online. Turns out though that she got the link from a tweet from Sarah Stewart! And here I thought I'd be able to bring something new to the group when I finally managed to catch up! Just goes to show the efficacy of Twitter though!

I have been reading some of the blogs of other course participants. One member blogged about her first experiences of Second Life, which were fairly unpleasant. I had similar experiences when I first got into SL, encountering all sorts of funny-bunnies making all sorts of strange propositions. What struck me most though was the visceral nature of my reaction to these rather odd avatars... I actually felt panicky and anxious and found the experience quite upsetting. (A colleague sitting next to me even started whispering in case the avatar on the screen could hear her!) Reflecting on the experience made me realise exactly how powerful a tool Second Life can be for that very reason - if an encounter with an oddball avatar could make me react so strongly, the scope for semi-real-life Second-Life learning experiences would be huge. Although there has been little uptake of SL at my institution, for a number of different reasons, I do believe virtual worlds are a technology whose time has yet to come.

Reflecting on facilitation skills

2010-08-05T16:51:00.004+12:00

I have just been going through the assignments for the FOC2010. The video, Seven key skills of workshop facilitation, gives a really clear overview of some key skills. It also got me thinking about my own teaching. I realise that I relied heavily on body language when I was a teacher. Moving around the class; being a physical presence; creating and holding eye contact, all these were strategies that I used as part of classroom management.

What I am wondering is how one compensates for this when facilitating online? Does it become as intuitive as it does face-to-face? I imagine it must be much harder to get the feel of a bunch of voices, most of which belong to people one has never even met! I'm looking forward to trying out some online facilitation and getting the 'feel' for the virtual classroom.

On a completely different note, Heather Lamond, the librarian in charge of distance students at Massey University was at Ucol this morning, showing us some of the independent learning packages the Massey library staff have developed to assist students learning how to access information in the library databases, and so on. They work mainly in Captivate and Presenter, and they've produced some really useful, interactive stuff. Heather clearly ran a very well-organised and planned project to get these learning objects created, and it was good to hear her talking about how she went about things. She was also talking about the value of creating a virtual repository for learning objects, where these sorts of things could be stored, in an editable format, for people from other organisations to access and download.

I know many tertiary institutions are moving towards the Creative Commons approach and sharing materials, but wouldn't it be amazing if there were an organised library of these learning objects? A sort of one-stop-shop where materials developers went first, instead of reinventing wheels! The Open University, UK, is already doing something along these lines... check it out here.

Image downloaded from Sthacker's photostream,http://www.flickr.com/photos/sthacker/13622219/sizes/m/in/photostream/CC-BY-SA

FOC 2010 Goals

2010-08-02T20:02:00.003+12:00

Looking Ahead at Social Learning: 10 Predictions

2010-07-28T19:33:00.001+12:00

Having just blogged about social media, I came across this article about social learning. It covers a diverse range of learning topics such as augmented reality, games and simulations, mobile learning and learning networks. Well worth a read.

Looking Ahead at Social Learning: 10 Predictions - 2010 - ASTD: "Looking Ahead"

Words, words, words

2010-07-28T19:10:00.001+12:00

David Hopkins (Don't waste your time) blogged about this today. I would have called it a useful diagram, but thankfully, now I know that it's actually an infographic I won't embarrass myself in public! Although I haven't really caught the social media wave, I do think a lot of the tools have similar applications for those of us in education.

According to the CMO website "Infographics help communicate information in a digestible manner, as they creatively present data in an understandable and engaging format." I think we used to say, 'a picture is worth a thousand words'!

If you're interested in social media, you can download a large pdf of this poster (oops, infographic) at the bottom of the CMO website.

Instructional design and online learning

2010-07-26T20:47:00.001+12:00

Sarah Stewart posted a comment on my blog recently:
I do not call myself an instructional designer but that seems to be part of my work these days. I am really looking forward to talking to you about how we design activities and events to engage people in the online environment. What would you say is a really important to take into consideration when designing online activities?

I guess in some ways that's what I hope to find out by joining the Facilitating Online course. Off the top of my head I'd say 'scaffolding'(if that's the right term) to be sure that people have the techie basics right before the course gets underway. I thought this was done really well in the online classroom session on Thursday - it was worth spending the time testing our sound and mics so that we knew what we were doing, even though it meant the session ran over time. I also think that you have done an excellent job of getting information out regularly via your blog, ensuring people are engaged and ready to roll with the course.

I spent this afternoon doing similar work (albeit on a much smaller scale). Our mid-year intake started today, and I spent a couple of hours with our second-year students showing them how they could use some of the Moodle tools to facilitate study groups and build their personal learning networks! This year, for the first time, I have allocated a class group their own Moodle page over which they have complete control. Usually they tend to be on the receiving end of course delivery, able only to react to forum posts and activities designed by either the lecturers or myself. This time, they have complete control over the course - they can upload resources, create and share forums, design activities, whatever takes their fancy. It will be interesting to see what the uptake of this is over the upcoming year.
Oh, and Sarah, although I call myself an instructional designer (mainly because that's what it says I am on my card at UCOL) I have to say that I still haven't quite figured out what I do. Like most of us in e-learning, I guess that I'm really a jack-of-all-trades... and hope eventually to be a master of (at least) one!

Image downloaded from Augapfel's photostream CC-BY-SA from http://www.flickr.com/photos/qilin/71522478/

Facilitating online - The first online class

2010-07-24T10:46:00.001+12:00

Thursday evening saw the first online class of the 2010 Facilitating Online course, run through Elluminate. Although I had tried unsuccessfully to get into the classroom earlier in the evening, I had no troubles accessing the session. I was blown away by the experience. I had never used Elluminate before, and I can see why people speak so highly of it. It would be great to get our lecturers and nursing students using the tool as a way of supporting and facilitating their independent learning. What I enjoyed most though was the range of participants from all over the world. (And wow - the dedication of people getting up at 4am to participate was really impressive!) What an amazing experience being able to share so easily in their knowledge (and all while enjoying my evening glass of wine.) I've already learned of new tools to use to streamline some of my tasks, and I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into them. Watching the course 'staff' was also great as they modeled online facilitation strategies. What could have been a tense experience for a newbie rapidly became enjoyable, and I was sad that I had to leave before the session closed. I'm really looking forward to the next online session.

It has also been wonderful to have people reading and commenting on my blog. My original intention with the blog was more along the lines of a diary and thought-store for myself, but there is something really satisfying about having people visit and comment! Having looked at the blogs of some of the other participants though, I'm feeling the need to dust off my html and have a go at updating the look of my page! It's amazing how extending one's learning network immediately extends one's creativity.

Bloom's taxonomy

2010-07-21T17:01:00.000+12:00

Donna Thompson, UCOL's Moodle guru, sent me a link to this today - it really helps to bring Bloom's taxonomy into the e-learning world.

View the whole wiki page here... you can even sign up and add your ideas to the image.

(Image CC-BY-SA, Attributed to Michael Fisher, http://mikefisher.pbworks.com)

Online communities

2010-07-21T16:44:00.001+12:00

Sarah Stewart's facilitating online course started on Monday - accompanied, on my side, by vague feelings of anxiety. I wasn't terribly sure what I should be doing as years of F2F lectures and teaching clearly have me conditioned into a fairly inflexible mindset. So what a wonderful surprise it was to log into my blog today to discover a whole lot of comments awaiting - mostly from people I have never met! It's really quite exciting to realise how rapidly one can expand one's personal learning network! So the anxiety has gone and I'm really feeling enthusiastic about what I can learn from everyone.

Isn't it amazing how these great opportunites invariably coincide with busy times at work? Today Stevie Smith's poem, Not waving but drowning kept popping in to my mind! I did some very small research at the end of last year in which I looked at how our first year students were accessing (or not) our LMS (Moodle). I got a lot of really great feedback which I have been implementing into the design of the new Moodle pages. Unfortunately it's quite a radical shift from what we had before, and I really need to redesign the early pages so that they are consistent with our new, improved approach. And the new enrolments start next week. Eek! I guess if I don't sleep between now and Monday I'll be fine!

Facilitating online

2010-07-02T18:14:00.003+12:00

I have just signed up for Sarah Stewart's Facilitating online course which starts later this month. I had intended to do it last year but we all know about the road to hell and good intentions! Anyway, hopefully I'll get myself more organised this time around. I'm looking forward to being forced (although that's probably too strong a word) to reflect on online learning in a slightly more formalised manner, and I'm equally looking forward to meeting other people involved in online education and learning from them. As an instructional designer I spend much of my time developing materials for online delivery, and it will be wonderful to think more deeply about how to facilitate the delivery of these more effectively. Although I love e-learning, it's a world that I landed in almost by accident, and much of what I do is based on feel or instinct, rather than any sound theory!

Plagiarism awareness

2010-06-15T09:04:00.001+12:00

This was posted on David Hopkins' blog this morning. Sometimes all the sincerely earnest academic talk in the world isn't as valuable as one clever video presentation! Imagine working where there were budgets for this sort of thing!

Access the translations by clicking this button, or select 'cc' if viewing on Youtube itself.

Wallwisher

2010-06-10T20:04:00.006+12:00

It's been a while since I've come across a really clever, easy to use freebie, but Wallwisher definitely fits the bill! It's a really clever site designed to allow users to post (sorry) post-its on a 'wall'. I'm currently usnig it to gather ideas from staff for content on some new curriculum papers and it's working really well. It's incredibly simple to use, it only allows 160 characters, so people have to be pithy and get to the point, and it allows viewers to see all the ideas at a glance - no clicking, no scrolling. The site designers suggest using it for party invitations and the like, but I can see that it has great potential for students' pre-learning; brainstorming, reflecting on the lessons, and the like. It would even work well for primary school children.

This screenshot shows postings by lecturers listing key content for a new paper. Wall editors can edit the appearance and re-arrange the sticky-notes, and there's even an option to moderate postings before they appear on the wall.

Wallwisher is still in beta, but it's well wort a visit.

Mea culpa!

2010-06-03T19:07:00.004+12:00

I have completely neglected my blog for the last few months, so imagine my shame when, on returning to it this week, I discover comments that have been awaiting moderation since JANUARY! I harp on all the time about the importance in e-learning of timely responses to emails and comments from students, so clearly, it is a case of do as I say, not as I do. Mea culpa!

It hasn't been an empty six months, though. We're finally getting Questionmark up and running at UCOL, and every time I use it I am impressed by what an incredibly powerful piece of software it is. It is certainly revolutionising the way we do online assessments within the School of Nursing, and it has amazing potential as an adaptive learning tool too. What I particularly like is the fact that I can build simulations and learning content in Captivate, and embed these into Questionmark as the basis for assessments.

We recently took delivery of a fancy new simulation mannikin from Laerdal (admittedly a doll that groans and breathes seems somewhat creepy to me) and the intention is to install an interactive whiteboard in the skills lab, and then create simulations and scenarios using Captivate, Questionmark and the mannikin to really challenge the student nurses in their learning! What with Flip video cameras, laptops, podcasts and live viewing, the e-world is our oyster!

Image: http://beginnerbaby.com/blog/?p=100

The Future of Education?

2010-06-01T19:05:00.002+12:00

Apparently this video was originally commissioned by DoringKindersly as part of an internal training/marketing session, but it's 'gone viral', and with good reason. Although I no longer work in publishing, it struck me that one can substitute 'education' for 'publishing' and the message is as appropriate for those of us in e-learning and education. What do you think?

The Future of Publishing - created by DK (UK)

Virtual International Day of the Midwife

2010-01-13T19:25:00.002+13:00

Sarah Stewart is an educator, midwife, Second-Lifer (see the SLENZ project here) and all-round collaborative-e-learning-evangelist. I have followed her blog for a while, and am always interested in the scope of her work. Currently she is organising the Virtual International Day of the Midwife, a 24-hour online event of sharing and collaboration, and I got to design the logo... see it on the top right of my blog.

It's always fun to get the chance to do something a little out of the ordinary, and I love to play in Photoshop, so thanks, Sarah, for the opportunity!

The best things in life are free...

2010-01-13T19:13:00.006+13:00

If you're anything like me, you're probably counting the costs, both financial and to the waistline, of the festive season which has passed. In the spirit of giving, I thought it apt to look at some of the useful freebies I found out there last year!

I recently received an invitation to Google Wave (thanks, Donna!) and after my initial glee at being one of the supposedly select few, I have to say that I can't see what all the fuss is about. But maybe that's because I'm not the world's greatest social networker.

Subscribing to blogs is a great way to find new free stuff, usually the blogger has already done the hard work checking out new programmes and applications, and identifying the pros and cons along the way. Jane's e-learning pick of the day is a great site, if you can keep up with it, and David Hopkins (Don't waste your time) can be relied on for thoughtful consideration of e-learning tools and developments. Some suggestions for tools that I gleaned from Jane's picks last year are Screentoaster, Sliderocket and Lovely Charts... all of which offer good quality online resources for free.

The best freebie I learned of last year though was as the result of a chance mention by Peter Vanderbeke, MD of GoVitual Medical Simulations (more about this another time) in Auckland. Dropbox is a fantastic online file-sharing service - not only can you access your files from any computer, anywhere, but you can also share folders and files with other people. This has been invaluable for a group of us at UCOL who worked over the Christmas shutdown developing resources for papers launching in February. It provided us with a single, collaborative space where everything was stored and backed-up; earlier versions of documents remained accessible; and best of all; documents which I accidentally deleted whilst having a new-year purge of my desktop were easily restored with the touch of a button! Dropbox offers 2Gb for free, more for a subscription. I'm sorely tempted!

On a more expensive note, I recently upgraded my home computer to the 'latest and greatest', and I'm revelling in the increased speed and all the bells and whistles that come with it. At last I have space to install Premier Pro, Captivate and the Adobe Design Premium without everything coming to a grinding halt. (If only these were free too!) Flicking between programmes is instant, and I find it hard to tear myself away from work. The fun I can have! Windows 7, however, underwhelms.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/akabilk/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

I have a hunch...

2009-11-28T08:26:00.007+13:00

Okay, so this is a little frivolous, but I've just discovered Hunch... a new 'decision-making tool' by the creators of Flickr. It's quite entertaining too. I tried out their tour, which takes you through the decision of one thing you should really do before you die. I opted for something to do solo that matched my age and had to be done in the next five years (not that I'm planning to hop the twig by then, you understand, I'm just an impatient sort) and the top suggestion was 'write a book'. Not only that, the site linked me to websites that would tell me how to do it! How cool is that?

So then I tried pretending I was my 'significant other' (their words) and searched what to buy me for my 40th. The result: a foot-spa. Hmm... not so sure about that one. Not very original, is it? Not unless it comes wrapped in a fancy hotel. But the decision-making process is interesting. Have a play and see for yourself!

I wonder what the educational implications of this are, if any.

Image from Flickr Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/photos/somemixedstuff/2403249501/sizes/m/

Learning through listening

2009-11-13T19:57:00.009+13:00

The School of Nursing at UCOL has been in the process of implementing a new curriculum. Underpinning everything in the curriculum is the precept that the learning must be student-centred. This has led to some interesting discussions about what exactly student-centred learning is. Is it the same as student-directed? Does student-centred mean that they can choose what they need to learn, and if so, what does this mean in a School of Nursing?

In the past, when I was working as an English teacher, I used to allow (carefully selected!) junior secondary classes to create their own curriculum for the term. This was usually an interesting process that involved students debating and discussing what they thought was important to learn, and how they wanted to learn it. I found that classes who took part in this were (usually) more committed and involved in their learning. But that was English. How student-centred can one feasibly be with a course that not only has life-or-death consequences (unlike Shakespeare?) but also needs to meet the standards set by the Nursing Council and the National Qualifications Authority.

The creation of online learning modules goes some way towards shifting the School of Nursing at UCOL towards student-centeredness by allowing students to do 'wherever, whenever' learning. Online discussion forums and chats allow students to take part in discussions around their learning, even though they are not on campus, and lecturers upload their notes, usually as PowerPoints. The feedback from students is generally positive about all of this.

The online modules do have drawbacks. They are time-consuming to create, and require some level of computer expertise. A solution to this that has been widely adopted around the world is podcasting, which allows students to listen to audio of lectures wherever they are. It certainly can't be faulted for convenience... more students have some sort of iPod/Mp3 player than have computers, and they're a lot easier to carry around than laptops.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the School of Nursing is going to be developing a library of podcasts in the coming year to support the new curriculum. We're still in the early planning stages, so there is a lot of work to be done, but my plan is to create podcasts or vodcasts to support all the papers running in the second year of the programme. Some of our lecturers have already been doing this for some time, so I will be relying on their experience and expertise to help get things moving. I'm looking forward to getting things up and running.... If any of you out there have had experience in developing podcasts, I'd be really interested in hearing from you.

While thinking about all of this I came across this presentation on Slideshare. Steve Wheeler, a UK-based lecturer with research interests in e-learning, describes himself as an International Man of Misery - I like him already. It's interesting how people all over the world are considering the same issues... what's amazing though is how easily and freely the ideas are shared.

Podcasting and the Listening Culture

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

In the meantime, watch this space for updates on how the School of Nursing podcasting project develops.

Image: cc Beverly Kahuna (http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkadog/3353936487/)

eLearning Sucks

2009-11-03T16:13:00.001+13:00

I was reading David Hopkins' e-learning blog, always interesting and thought-provoking, and I came across this... although it's really a corporate advert, it still sums up pretty clearly what we're doing wrong with e-learning. I guess the problem is putting the wrong stuff right takes time, and costs money.

eLearning Sucks

View more presentations from Red Magma.

What I was actually looking for was this video - an excellent reminder of why we sweat over e-learning at all.

Second Life

2009-11-02T10:21:00.000+13:00

I was in Wellington last Friday to meet nurse educators and SLENZ movers and shakers, with a view to planning a way forward for nurse education in SecondLife. Not that we're on the cutting edge - overseas nursing schools are way ahead of us and there is some amazing stuff out there. We're lucky to have the SLENZ team as guides and to temper enthusiasm with sensible reality checks.

There is clearly a lot of interest amongst NZ nursing schools in the opportunities offered by Second Life. The shift of nurse education from the hospitals to the polytechs and universities does seem to mean that nurses have less contact time with patients, and spend less time applying their learning in 'real-life' situations. Whilst they have a good grounding in things like nursing theory, there seems to be a limited time in which students can practice key workplace skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and clinical judgement. Role-playing scenarios in the classroom offers a limited solution - one is constantly aware of the 'pretendness' of it all. Second Life offers us an alternative that seems to mimic real life more effectively than anything else. I'm looking forward to seeing where this collaboration takes us.

One idea that came out of the meeting was that we develop a clinical interview /health assessment scenario using bits of the existing builds created by the SLENZ group. This seems to me to be a really sensible option, and it would enable us to assess how our colleagues buy into the whole SL thing before we get too carried away.

Take a look at an example of the SLENZ project here:

On a very micro-level, I found out about the UCLA Davis Hallucination build, which I'm looking forward to exploring with a view to using as part of a mental health paper for second years.

An unexpected bonus of the jaunt to Wellington was the guided tour of the bays and surrounds provided by Susie lePage.... Since my experiences of the city have previously been limited to dashes to the airport or trips to Te Papa, it was a pleasure to be chauffeured around the scenic route on a gloriously sunny day. And a stop-off in Otaki on the way home introduced me to a street full of outlet stores (we call them 'factory shops' in SA) to be visited at regular intervals.

Reflecting on e-learning

2009-10-09T10:03:00.000+13:00

Since I'm reaching the end of the first year of my two-year contract at UCOL, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on my experiences of designing and using e-learning. With any luck, putting it all down will help me to clarify the good, the bad and the ugly, and I can work more efficiently next year.

I suppose I need to be upfront and say that I love e-learning, and I tend to get carried away by the opportunities it offers. As an ex-teacher (is one ever ex-?) I am convinced that using blended learning allows more learners to access more knowledge and skills in ways that best suit them, and at times which suit them. So I'm probably more than a little biased...

For me, time is the biggest barrier to e-learning. Although I believe it speeds up the learning experience, creating effective e-learning is time-consuming. A couple of months ago I created blood-pressure and urinalysis simulations to run via Moodle. The entire activity probably took students about an hour to do, assuming they did every step. Designing and building the simulations, on the other hand, took me days, and I am forced to question whether this is the best use of my time, given that I work for the entire school, across four sites, rather than on one paper.

Another issue is engagement. I often wonder how often students, particularly those form a more traditional education background, actually engage with the 'e' components of their courses. I am trying to measure this at the moment by surveying the use of Moodle by first-years, but this will give me fairly limited data. As we move towards an increasingly blended world, it seems essential that we consider if and how learners use e-learning before we run too far in what may be the wrong direction.

Resources will always be a problem with e-learning. The 'e' world changes so fast that it is almost impossible to stay up-to-date with all the technologies, and the cost of installing new software and training people to use it is a real issue in the current political climate in New Zealand. So e-learning will probably always be under-resourced and under-staffed, and therefore probably under-utilised!

The ability to reach people from diverse learning styles and educational backgrounds must be a primary advantage of e-learning. At UCOL we cater for people from a huge range of backgrounds, and e-learning allows us to meet more of their needs. A number of our students are also in part-time employment, and so the flexible nature of e-learning is important for them.

The nature of our students is changing. More and more students have access to e-learning technologies and use social networking on a regular basis. Failing to shift the way we deliver learning to accommodate these students would be foolish, especially when one considers the additional opportunities that accompany these. So, for example, I want to try using Twitter to deliver science vocabulary to our mid-year 500 level students. I've designed flashcard-type quizzes that can be downloaded to their mobile phones, and I'm going to be working with the clinical skills lecturers to trial using mobile phone cameras to video students practising their various clinical skills. These clips will be uploaded to a site such as www.livestream.com, and their peers can comment on (i.e. formatively assess) their performance in real time. With any luck we'll have a smart board in the skills' lab which will make all this even more immediate.

I subscribe to David Hopkins' blog, e-learning blog//dontwasteyourtime, and a while ago he posted this video clip, which brilliantly sums up why we need to move forwards with e-learning, and mobile learning in particular.

So much to do, and so little time!

Thoughts after e-fest

2009-09-30T18:44:00.000+13:00

So here I am facing a blog from the inside for the first time. It feels really strange - I can't imagine that there is anything that I have to say that could be of interest to anyone else, but having spent the last two days with people who know, I've been sufficiently convinced of the value of blogging to give it a go!

What is it that I want to get out of blogging? I suppose it's a great way to consolidate my thoughts, which tend to meander with the project of the moment. At least I'll be writing them down, and with any luck, the odd good idea will emerge. I've heard other people talk about how blogging changed their lives... so with that in mind, here goes. Any guidance from anyone who still remembers starting out on their blogging journey would be gratefully received.

So...e-fest... The first time I've attended - not quite so shocking, I hope, when you realise I've only been in NZ for two years, and definitely not the last! It was great to be around so many people speaking the same language and so many of them a lot further down the e- road.... What amazes me repeatedly about the e-learning community is the generosity of so many of the people involved, and their willingness to share, collaborate, and simply give away really great ideas.

I was in a session facilitated by Clare Atkin, aka Arewenna Stardust (sp?) in which she took us through the SLENZA midwifery project, which I have been following for a while via Sarah Stewart's Blog. The project itself is impressive, but the people involved are really amazing, and their enthusiasm for what they do is infectious. A number of us in the School of Nursing at UCOL have caught the SL bug, so hopefully we can get something together! With any luck we'll get a push start from people like Clare who are so much further down the road.

It was also the first time I participated in 'open-spaces', and I have to admit that I have mixed feelings. I'm not sure that 'whatever happened is the only thing that could have happened' works for me! I was involved in two sessions that were run this way, and whilst one was interesting, the other was 'hijacked' by some very dominant personalities who ran a three-way discussion that took up most of an hour, and which had nothing to do with the session title (Are LMSs dead. I still don't know. Are they? Please tell me!) And whilst, in theory, I could have voted with my feet, the reality was that the venue was so small that leaving would have required some undignified clambering over some equally trapped souls. So my jury's still out on open spaces. I'd love to know what other people think.

I've also been motivated to sign up on Twitter - we'll see how that goes. I can't see myself doing much 'tweeting. Once I signed up, I could see that the e-people from the conference were wining and dining in town, while I was cooking mac 'n cheese for hungry and grumpy kidlets... not really worth tweeting about. I was too jealous, anyway!