E-Learning Now !

E-Learning Roundup (weekly)

2009-07-19T09:33:00.001+01:00

50 Useful Blogging Tools for Teachers
tags: blogging, elearning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

E-Learning Roundup (weekly)

2009-07-05T09:34:00.001+01:00

Science of the Invisible: PLEs at HEA
Personal Learning Environments at the HEA Annual conference
tags: PLEs, elearning
- Personal Learning Environments at the HEA Annual conference
elearningpapers
They are also increasingly using ICT for any learning purpose, often outside the classroom. This gives rise to a "new learning generation"
tags: elearning
World of Warcraft in Schools
This program would use the game, World of Warcraft, as a focal point for exploring Writing/Literacy, Mathematics, Digital Citizenship, Online Safety, and would have numerous projects/lessons intended to develop 21st-Century skills.
tags: MMORPG, elearning
Readin', writin' and raidin': the World of Warcraft learning experience
You are a level 10 character. You have a quest to kill 10 mottled boars which yield 120 experience each. The quest reward is 1000xp. How many extra boars do you need to kill to level up? Yes folks, World of Warcraft is the new educational medium.
tags: MMORPG, elearning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

E-Learning Roundup (weekly)

2009-06-28T09:29:00.001+01:00

Wiki-tivities bibliography - Learning Lab Wiki
greate examples of wiki use in education
tags: wikis, elearning
Educational Blog examples
Some great examples of educational uses of blogs here. When will I get the time to look at them....
tags: blog, elearning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Wikipedia + Edupunk = Murder, Madness, and Mayhem?

2009-06-22T16:48:00.002+01:00

Apologies – this is a very long post but the role of this blog is duel purpose: to disseminate information and to act as tool of reflection. So it’s a long post as there’s a great deal I wish to internalise.

Okay so this is possibly one of the bravest exercises I have ever seen using learning technology let alone wikis. Imagine letting your students loose on the web, freely collaborating under the scrutiny of, and in some cases, collaborating with the outside world.

Murder, Madness, Mayhem & Wikipedia
This is exactly what academic Jon Beasley-Murray, University of British Columbia, did for his course ‘Murder, Madness, and Mayhem’ which covers Latin American literary texts.

Essentially he decided to include Wikipedia as a central part of a course he was teaching. Conscious of the often cited weakness of the encyclopaedia in terms of poor quality content, which in turn is often referred to by students in their work, the exercise centered on the belief that only through engaging in active contribution to Wikipedia will students would learn about its weaknesses, as well as its strengths. Accordingly the assignment brief was that, in groups, the students should edit and where necessary create Wikipedia articles on texts associated with the course. Not only that but the students were required to bring up the articles to "featured article" status. And this is not a walk in the park since Wikipedia defines a "featured article" as an article that "exemplifies [its] very best work and features professional standards of writing and presentation." The standards are very high so much so that fewer than 0.1% of Wikipedia's articles are featured.

Edupunk = Teaching –Blackboard + DIY + The Clash
Digressing slightly, this exercise has been cited as example of ‘Edupunk’ – a term depicting an educational movement which received some degree of notoriety last year. ‘Edupunk’ was initially coined by Jim Groom in his blog (Murder, Madness, Mayhem is so EDUPUNK) and later expanded by The New York Times who defines it as "an approach to teaching that avoids mainstream tools like PowerPoint and Blackboard, and instead aims to bring the rebellious attitude and D.I.Y. ethos of ’70s bands like The Clash to the classroom.", (BTW – apt definition but I always regard the Clash as fake punks). Stephen Downes conveniently refines the definition into 3 aspects: reaction against commercialization of learning; do-it-yourself attitude and thinking and learning for yourself, (as reported in "Edupunk" Rocks the (Virtual) House - some good comments here BTW recognizing that despite all the hype many commentators are still referring to Edupunk as taking place within the classroom context and in doing so ignore the universal fact that a great deal of learning takes place outside of the class). Anyway back to the exercise

What’s wrong with Wikipedia.
Not a question but a statement. Murray actually recorded and journalised with, great openness and honesty, the exercise as it progressed here. So we can have a look at a few choice details, insights and reasonings behind the project and of its consequences.

Firstly he outlines the ongoing issue. Basically in terms of it’s core mission of collecting and transmitting knowledge Wikipedia is a huge success. It’s currently ranked as the 7th most visited site on the web, with 2,918,778 content pages generated through 314,194,836 edits (since the site began). However students use the site without knowing how it works (try this – ask your students if they have heard of Wikipedia and then if they have heard of ‘wikis’ – you’ll be surprised). Furthermore they are often told not to reference the site but not told why in terms of the reliability of the content, background of the authors, lack of accredited peer review etc.

Assignment Mission Statement
Murray’s assignment attempts to communicate these issues to the students by requiring them to directly engage in developing articles on the system such that they can experience these issues. Primarily this is achieved through the students developing an article worthy of featured article status. However there are a number of ancillary objectives:

• First off it would serve to improve Wikipedia’s coverage of the course content.
• But of more significance it involves the students in a ‘real world’ project in which their efforts are publicly viewable possibly on a permanent basis (unlike most course essays).
• “Revision is (almost) everything” as the students are encouraged to constantly review and reflect the work becoming aware of the importance of revisions to good writing. Contrast this with the finality of receiving a graded essay wherein there is no further incentive to revise the content after the grade has been given.
• It’s public and so the collaboration will occur not only between the students but might extend to involve contributors from outside of the class.
• Finally, and I really like this, the assignment grade will not be determined by the tutor’s professional judgement but rather from outside the class through the articles’ external impact. On the outset the tutor declared that a group that turned its article into a "featured article" would receive an A+, (no questions asked!!!) and a group that achieved "good article" would receive an A. According to Murray therefore the grade would be determined by collective, public, peer review.

It’s worth mentioning that the assignment was not the sole assessment taking place for the course. The students were required to blog on a weekly basis with a mid and end semester exam. Nonetheless there were a number of pitfalls to consider. For example the students might not engage with the project or on the other extreme end up in edit wars (where competing authors argue over the content). And of course there are the attendant risks with allowing the students to develop their work under public scrutiny.

What’s astonishing is that Murray was not overly concerned if the final article was not all of the students’ own work. Primarily because an integral part of the project is for the students to work with other users. The thought did occur that someone could be paid to generate the article as a whole but Murray cites Wikipedia’s system which tracks each users contribution – most wikis do this, you can see in detail each students contribution – how much they added (or removed) and when.

What happened next…
Anyway along the way the project attracted the attention of Wikipedia’s FA-Team – a group of experienced Wikipedia editors whose aim is to increase the number of featured articles. They became involved providing advice on
the meticulous process of editing Wikipedia articles to a high standard.

Interestingly, although the assignment was concerned with teaching students the drawbacks of using Wikipedia as a source, they still made the same mistakes when creating their article. Namely they still added information which was unsourced, poorly referenced and from other websites. But Murray cites this as a benefit since, as the Wikipedia editors insisted that every item in the article had to be referenced, the students were forced to reveal their sources. So the students had to go back and re-evaluate their sources, finding better ones, and trying again.

So the assignment is a very powerful mechanism for bringing out the weaknesses in students' research skills and then teaching that research is a lengthy process involving critical thinking critical thinking the information they come across and about their own writing.

And the results are…
Are pretty spectacular. In all the class developed 3 ‘featured’ articles, 8 ‘good’ articles and 1 ‘B’ article. Here’s one of the featured articles - El Señor Presidente. The other articles are listed at WikiProject Murder Madness and Mayhem, together with a brief outline of the project.

E-Learning Roundup (weekly)

2009-06-21T09:28:00.001+01:00

Digital Britain: The Final Report
tags: elearning
- The report contains actions and recommendations to ensure first rate digital and communications infrastructure to promote and protect talent and innovation in our creative industries, to modernize TV and radio frameworks, and support local news, and it introduces policies to maximize the social and economic benefits from digital technologies.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

E-Learning Roundup (weekly)

2009-06-14T09:28:00.001+01:00

Blogging with students… how and why
Provides useful suggestions with regards to assessing blogs
tags: blogging, elearning
Committee of Inquiry’s ‘HE in a Web 2.0 World’ report
tags: elearning, web2.0
- Findings from the report show that students typically spend four hours a day online, a figure that looks set to rise as teenagers make increasing use of Web 2.0 technology in their daily lives. One of the challenges for the higher education sector is therefore to ensure that staff can keep pace with the advancing technology which many of their students rely on every day, using the technology to enhance the student learning experience.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

What is Next Generation Learning?

2009-06-11T14:29:00.004+01:00

Becta have initiated the 'Next Generation Learning' campaign which aims to raise the profile of effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning and education.

They've created a range of very interesting videos, involving primary and middle education schools, covering a variety of topics:

Breaking down the Barriers (1 of 4): students and teachers at the Parkside Pupil Referral Unit in Ipswich, Suffolk, explain how the use of gaming technology can re-engage learners (Nintendo DS, Wii Fit):

Breaking down the Barriers (2 of 4): Twynham secondary and 6th form school demonstrates how students learn to use online content responsibly. Parents are encouraged to learn about e safety and be involved in their child's use of technology at home.

Breaking down the Barriers (3 of 4): plagiarism! - Twynham secondary and 6th form school explores how students can make the best use of the internet for research, whilst taking responsibility for sourcing and writing their own homework.

Breaking down the Barriers (4 of 4): "Is technology for learning good value for money?". Through use of a learning platform alongside traditional teaching methods, learners are more engaged and motivated, learning is enhanced and the general standard of achievement is raised.

It's worth saying that the videos don't really delve into the benefits of elearning it shows a lot of technology in use within and outisde of the classroom, and it's all very exciting but it's down to you as the viewer to extrapolate what's being shown to your own teaching context - particularly in terms of judging as to whether alternative forms of teaching and learning might be just as good. But again it's another example as to how schools are leading the way in terms of exploring and integrating learning technology into mainstream course delivery.

Finally the video below explains their concept of 'What is Next Generation Learning?' . Well shot with plenty of learning opportunities shown but I cant help feeling that the makers dropped the ball on this one - the family in focus can hardly be described as mainstream and so you wonder who the expected audience is.

Blogging with students: How and Why

2009-06-11T09:30:00.003+01:00

Short but useful overview of blogging by Lindsay Jordan (full post here).

Blogs are essentially online diaries and as such are very powerful tools for reflection. Lindsay points out that if you intend to use blogs for reflection then the subject needs be of 'value' in terms of offering the students discrepancies, uncertainties and dissatisfactions, i.e. the subject needs to be something that the students can explore.

Valuable advice on assessing students' reflective blogs is also given. Rather than assess the content of the blog you should focus on their level of reflective thinking in terms of critical analysis (presentation of arguements, evidence, etc.).

Wiki as an E-portfolio – but it’s so much more than that…

2009-06-10T16:31:00.001+01:00

Thanks to Vicki A Davis (@coolcatteacher) for twittering this (student Hope B’s efolio).

I was initially attracted to this as it shows a great example of an e-portfolio developed by a 9th grader. On further viewing I was delighted to see that the e-portfolio was created through simple use of a wiki page. The student had gradually built up the resource through repeatedly adding content to the page. And this is great since wikis, when used in the educational context, are often associated with collaboration. In other words students get together and create a single resource by re editing the wiki page. And obviously this is great.

However what is often overlooked is that a wiki can be used for other purposes, specifically to support independent learning where students are provided with their own space to create a resource.

And that’s what’s happened here. In similar cases I’ve seen students use a wiki as a log of their own activity and as a reflective journal (similar to blogging) but rarely as an e-portfolio. And this is good example.

So the e-portfolio is a single wiki page to which the student has to record particular achievements, citing specific artefacts from their learning journey, (each student is provided with the same template).

Naturally it’s worth visiting an example (here) but let’s have a look at some particular points of interest.

For instance the student has to provide evidence of ‘Applications Proficiency’. In other words they have to produce artefacts which, in their view, represent the best of their efforts in this area. This is split into 3 sections: word processing; presentations and spreadsheets. For word processing they have to relate to their use of Microsoft Word but also Google Docs (the later is increasingly making it’s mark in education). Student ‘Hope B’s’ Word artefact is interesting, revealing their use of other technologies for instance: “We provide lessons for our parents, teachers, and other students on how to be digitally connected... I write about photography, creating a YouTube Channel, and screencasting with Jing.” Similarly the Google Doc artefact records “We used Google Lively (a virtual world – no longer available, AO) to teach children how to act on the internet”.

For presentations they had to create a PowerPoint including the 7 most important things that they had achieved this year. They then had to upload it to Slideshare (it’s like YouTube but for sharing PowerPoint’s) and then embed it on the e-portfolio. For bonus marks they were encouraged to turn the PowerPoint into a slidecast (a PowerPoint with audio).

For ‘Online Proficiency’ the student has to present artefacts relating to blogging (independent learning) and wikis (collaborative working). For the blogs they have to link to their 2 best posts and justify as to why each particular post exemplifies their best work. For the wiki they have to provide evidence of good achievement in using a wiki for two contexts: first for using the wiki to teach a lesson to others and second using a wiki to collaborate internationally on a current trend and event, (called Digiteen).

Finally there’s a video piece for which each student has to summarize a different technology. The video has to include: a brief description of this technology; a sample of how it is used in the classroom and real life and an interview with 1-2 people about how they use the technology. The finished video has to be uploaded to a YouTube channel associated with the project (you can create group based YouTube channels) and then embedded within the e-portfolio.

It’s worth noting that this work is being produced by 9th and 10th grade students (US system - I think equivalent to UK year 11 and year 12). Basically 14 through to 16 years of age. Granted the use of wikis and related technologies and associated teaching strategies are not widespread throughout the secondary school sector but they are gaining a foothold. And, as in this case, are being used in an increasingly sophisticated context in which the technology itself is not the focus but rather the process and outcome of the learning experience it promotes. In this case we have a range of learning experience from personal journey through to community based learning while the use of wiki technology in this context is almost incidental.

E-Learning Roundup (weekly)

2009-05-31T09:31:00.001+01:00

Social Software in HE Study Report
Report on the JISC funded study on the Effective use of social software in HE in the UK. Useful section on benefits to the students/challenges of using social software in education. Thanks to Cathy Tong for this.
tags: elearning
Improving Your Digital Footprint - Handout - Matt Lingard
tags: elearning
Twelve Interesting Ways to use Voicethread in the Classroom
tags: voicethread, elearning
7 Things You Should Know About Personal Learning Environments
tags: elearning
- The term personal learning environment (PLE) describes the tools, communities, and services that constitute the individual educational platforms that learners use to direct their own learning and pursue educational goals. PLEs represent a shift away from the model in which students consume information through independent channels such as the library, a textbook, or an LMS, moving instead to a model where students draw connections from a growing matrix of resources that they select and organize. The use of PLEs may herald a greater emphasis on the role that metacognition plays in learning, enabling students to actively consider and reflect upon the specific tools and resources that lead to a deeper engagement with content to facilitate their learning.
Twenty-Five Interesting Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom
tags: elearning, twitter

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

E-Learning Roundup (weekly)

2009-05-10T09:29:00.004+01:00

Independent Review of the Primary Curriculum: Final Report
The final report of the independent review of the primary curriculum which the Secretary of State for Child, Schools and Families invited Sir Jim Rose to undertake in January 2008.

"strengthen the teaching and learning of information and communication technology (ICT) to enable children to be independent and confident users of technology by the end of primary ."
tags: elearning
Canadian Forces Base Symposium on ELearning
Presentations from a symposium, held at Canadian Forces Base (CFB) Gagetown. A number relate to using games for instruction.
tags: virtual, worlds, games, elearning
SMART Table in my Classroom - Addition with Fingers
tags: SMARTtable, collaboration, elearning
- It is intriguing watching the children’s first attempts and how they realise they need to work together. As the challenge is small scale, once they have been successful they begin to refine their approach, communicate better and so get to later answers quicker.
Professors experiment with Twitter as teaching tool - Annotated
e-Safety
Some interesting case studies with regards to college use of Facebook.
tags: elearning
- Safeguarding further education (FE) learners, and providing them with the skills to safeguard themselves when using this technology, is a vital part of the education that organisations should give to learners.
New Study on Use of Web 2.0 Applications in Classrooms
tags: elearning
- Study spotlights the discrepancy between attitudes toward Web 2.0 and use in the classroom.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

E-Learning Roundup 05/04/2009

2009-05-04T14:28:00.004+01:00

New Study on Use of Web 2.0 Applications in Classrooms
tags: elearning
- Study spotlights the discrepancy between attitudes toward Web 2.0 and use in the classroom.

Prezi
Interesting concept - I like the way you can zoom in and expand concepts
tags: elearning
3 Word Story...
Interesting collaborative use of Twitter. Shame about the story but nice concept though
tags: twitter, elearning
- 3 Word Story
Blogging from the 'mud-movers': e-portfolios
tags: elearning, eportfolios, reflection
- Whether people collate their 'tweets' or maintain e-portfolios, it is the process of reflection not the medium, that is important and we must encourage staff to reflect in their own way and act on their thoughts to enhance activities for students and staff.
Touch Screens with Pop-up Buttons
tags: elearning, SMARTtable, Touch Screens
- Researchers at Carnegie Mellon discuss a touch screen that also has morphing buttons.
How to measure innovation in eLearning. The i-AFIEL methodology
tags: elearning, evaluation
- This paper presents and discusses innovation in relation to the European project Innovative Approaches for a Full Inclusion in eLearning (i-AFIEL) and, in particular, the methodology applied to measure innovation in eLearning projects developed by the Spanish OVSI Foundation.
FriendFeed Blog - the new Twitter
The next step up from Twitter?
tags: elearning, social networking

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Is this real teaching?

2009-05-03T14:22:00.001+01:00

An Open Letter to my Students by Dean Shareski (Web Link)

"Because of institutional requirements and societal norms, I’m required to give you a grade. This grade falls between 0-100 and in some way is intended to inform you and others how well you did in this course. The importance that number is given is appalling. While I do my best to provide you with some outcomes, indicators, rubrics and feedback I still feel my assessment of your learning is fairly trivial or at best a thin slice indicator of what you’ve learned. I realize many would love to believe that the number or grade you get is pure, accurate and will provide future instructors, institutions or employers an indication of your proficiency, understanding or knowledge. If anyone of these groups were to ask me about you, I could tell them what I’ve seen and observed. That may have value, the grade, not so much." And much more here.

And then there's this:

Professor makes his mark, but it costs him his job (Web Link)

"It was not his job, as he explained later, to rank their skills for future employers, or train them to be “information transfer machines,” regurgitating facts on demand. Released from the pressure to ace the test, they would become “scientists, not automatons,” he reasoned." And then it gets really interesting

On the track of unknown informal learning spaces

2009-04-30T15:11:00.000+01:00

Interesting article (Web Link) from the Academic Innovation Team, (Sheffield Hallam University), which considers the relation of learning to serendipitous meetings and the ad hoc use of those "in between" times between taught sessions, between focused study, between study and home. Basically focuses on the students’ use of informal learning spaces and how the institution might we can support these through effective provision of space, resources, and integrated online and face-to-face activities.

What’s really interesting is how they ask their test group "Where are you learning?" rather than "What are you doing?" (using Twitter that is). The intention is that the students reply offering insights into their learning patterns, activities, and environmental triggers. I might employ the same for our forthcoming conference to gain a view as to where the learning is taking place and use the data gathered to inform future events.

A really nice, short article which gets you thinking. How could I enable my students to make greater use of informal learning spaces? Provision of more coffee breaks? (seriously – more breaks to allow students to relax and exchange views in a less formalised context). But then if I do that am I not formalising informal learning…

Social Networking in Education

2009-04-30T14:33:00.000+01:00

By Terry Anderson. A draft chapter by Terry Anderson for the forthcoming STRIDE handbook for The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

A good read with some great follow up references. Also a nice reminder that ‘Social Networking’, as a term, has been in use only since 2003.

The chapter splits the learning application of social networking into three areas: socializing, sharing and sojourning.

Socializing – Quite rightly points that many forms of distance education (and their e-learning derivatives) focus far too much on provision of content with limited contact between student and teacher and no opportunity for student-student interaction. Meaning, in particular for distance based learners, no opportunity for students to connect with each other for mutual support and engage in cooperative or collaborative work. I mentioned this before but I and my colleagues see the need for MLE’s to change and to accommodate networking elements which allow users to find others who share not only the same interests but have the same career aspirations. Currently the trend is to view the former is always seen as a trivial element and whilst ignoring the potential of the latter.

Sharing: Essentially sharing content such as favorite web sites, photographs, videos, music, travel recommendations, references, books in such a way that they can be shared, embedded, re-edited, annotated, rated and commented on by others. As Terry states these resources can be combined with other people’s resources to create aggregated collections allowing students to discover what others have found. And again the content need not be trivial – it may also include teaching resources, wikis, blog entries, references, essays and reports. And the article points out the obvious, (yet it needs to be stated), in that the collections need not be bound to particular course or cohort.

Sojourning: not convinced this is entirely different to ‘socialise’ since it relates again to the opportunities social networking offers in association with meeting others with similar interests and intent. Chiefly this relates to the increased opportunities and varieties of, collaboration.

What seems to be missing or needs emphasising in my opinion is the value of socialising. The value of those connections you make with others. Again I’m moving fro the trivial, and what is rapidly becoming a stereotypical, view of students getting together through favourite film interests and the like, but rather considering learners making contact with field practitioners , i.e. industry experts who have also forged a link with the institution either as student or tutor. Such practitioners can offer real life anecdotal (basically evidence based research) content and insight which can augment the current learning experience.

Blog as Eportfolio

2009-04-30T09:56:00.000+01:00

Can blogs be used as an eportfolio? Because my blog is part reflection and part dissemination I have never needed the use of an eportfolio. I can see the benefits of eportfolios but for the time being blogging suits me just fine.

Anyway way this post from Jeff Utecht (Web Link) got me to consider as to how you might encourage students to use blogs as eportfolios.

in Jeff's own words "It’s an easy concept once you understand how blogs work. Create a category for each subject…students collect digital documents via, mp3, images, uploads, etc. throughout the year reflecting on there learning. When it comes time for the Student-Led Conferences (SLC) students can go back through their year’s reflections pick the ones they want to share with their parents and simple add it to the Student-Led Conference Category.".

So you could ask students to collect particular pieces of evidence and store them under an agreed tag.

I like this idea as once again it shows the power of tagging and categorising posts. These elements provide a great deal of flexibility in terms of the context and purpose of the blog.

Jeff reflects on the long term benefit of doing this "Thinking long turn this blog continues to grow each year. Daniel continues to add his thinking, his reflections, his documentation of learning. As his content grows he’s able to not only reflect on what he’s learning now, but go back in history on his own blog and link to that prior knowledge and thinking from years past.".

Interestingly he also touches on the issue as to whether reflection should occur in private or in public space, citing the latter as being a more powerful learning experience. There are plenty of arguments against this - some students are not comfortable with sharing their views. However I do know that the possibility that this post might be read does make me put more effort into outlining arguments and so as a result is a more more powerful learning opportunity.

E-Learning Roundup 04/29/2009

2009-04-29T09:29:00.001+01:00

SMART Table in my Classroom - Pass Me That Video | Space for me to explore
tags: elearning, collaboration
- It is the heightened sense of access and of sharing the digital imagery, combined with the fluid resize, rotate and placement controls you have that makes it a powerful learning tool.
MathConnections
Fantastic example of a wiki used for collaboration - school sector
tags: wikis, elearning
eduwikius - home
Good list of wikis used in education
tags: wikis, elearning
indispensibletools
tags: elearning
- The following list of ICT tools was crowd sourced from individual educationalists and not companies when the question 'What Indispensible ICT tools do you use in education' was asked and is not meant to be exhaustive in any way.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

More Smart stuff

2009-04-28T21:49:00.000+01:00

More from Tom Barrett (Web Link). Absolutely jaw dropping stuff. More video of Smart Table use, this time as part of an educational exercise. Note the fluid way in which the students not only manipulate the pictures (and video!) but also the manner in which they rapidly pass the files over to other ,members of the team.

In Tom's words: "It is the blurring of that physical and digital space that I am intrigued with. The children passed each other video footage. ... Film clips can be placed alongside each for comparisons; moved and sorted according to a custom background or even moved into a shared storyboard format.".

View the full post (with more videos) here.

Media App, Manipulating Images and Video on the SMART Table (5) from Tom Barrett on Vimeo.

Blogs in education part 2

2009-04-28T10:04:00.001+01:00

Okay. Onwards in my quest to find examples of using blogs for learning and teaching. I’m particularly after straight forward examples of their use for which I can then summarise and pass on to those of you who are interested.

Stuart Glogoff’s article ‘Instructional Blogging: Promoting Interactivity, Student-Centered Learning, and Peer Input’ (Web Link, as mentioned in an earlier post provides a range of examples. In particular he uses blogs to encourage guided discovery and knowledge construction. In one of his modules, for example, he asks students to do additional reading on specific topics while referring back to the course materials. After this exploration, the students synthesized their views through blogging in which they presented what they had learned as applied to real-world situations. Commenting by other students was actively encouraged since, as Stuart recognizes, this encourages collaboration - the students are working together to build knowledge. As Stuart observes, they are engaging in cognitive scaffolding through which they revisit the learning space, build upon prior knowledge, think about what they have learned, and drill deeper for more information.

Often individual student blogs are usually the main focus of these articles. However it’s worth realizing the power of the class blog when used in association with personal blogs. Class blogs can be used to post summaries, (BTW class blogs are available on the module website within StudyNet). For instance students could be required to summarise their entries on their personal blog into one blog entry for the class blog. Or as Stuart notes the class blog can be used to supplement the blogging exercise in which the tutor provides additional information such as summaries of important classroom discussions, reinforce the sessions key learning’s, and clarify points that students had struggled to understand. In either case you should take care to make full use of the tagging facilities when using the class blog as this helps to add some order to the entries made there. For example you could categorize particular entries left by yourself (‘assignment’, ‘’new topic’ etc.) or encourage the students to add tags relating to the subject of their entries.

Finally blogs in themselves may only be part of a bigger picture. Christian Dalsgaard’s article, ‘Social software: E-learning beyond learning management systems’ (Web Link), describes as to how he uses blogs to direct students towards problem solving. In this context the blogs are tools with which the student can use to solve problems on their own and in collaboration with others students. He further stresses that, and this is something I often talk about, blogs should not be used on their own. Any activity which by it’s nature is problem-based and requires collaborative effort needs tools which support construction, presentation, reflection, collaboration. So we’re talking about personal blogs being used in association with forums, wikis, class blogs etc. He even goes so far as to identify the need for tools for finding people and other resources of relevance to their problem – basically social networking elements which again is an issue close to my heart and the subject of an earlier blog entry relating to the future evolution of socially based MLEs. And the result? We have ‘An open-ended learning environment provides students with multiple possibilities for activities.’

Interesting Ways to Use a Wiki in the Classroom

2009-04-28T10:03:00.002+01:00

Well in fact 9 interesting ways. I picked this up recently via Tom Barrett on Twitter (twitter.com/tombarrett). This is collection of slides held as a Google Doc. A variety of authors have come up with a number of unique and interesting ways in which wikis can be used to support the student learning experience. Most of these are aimed at school level education but have equal applicability to the HE context.

Among my favourite suggestions are:

* Create a subject-specific repository - students are made responsible for their own pages.
* Ask for student to respond on projects, classwork, class discussions, visiting experts.
* Allow Students to create pages:for fun, to communicate, to relieve stress, to organize for presentations.
* Sharing teaching techniques among staff - build up a library of techniques.
* Use the discussion elements as a forum for students to air issues relevant to them,e.g. they could create separate wiki pages relating to certain issues, (stress, useful resources etc.). I like this because it emphasises the fact that each wiki page has its own discussion forum which allow students to talk around the issue.

(just realised I’ve listed nearly all the uses! - still have a look at the presentation as this has more detail).

Anyway have a look yourself (Web Link). If you’re new to Google Docs there’s some really interesting features. For instance in the bottom right corner is a ‘view together’ option which allows you to see anyway else who is view the presentation and exchange ideas via a text box.

Blogs in education part 1

2009-04-28T10:03:00.001+01:00

Okay, so as promised some more on blogging – their use and assessment of. To help me along I found a very useful resource called ‘Instructional Blogging: Promoting Interactivity, Student-Centred Learning, and Peer Input’ by Stuart Glogoff, (link). There are some very interesting and very useful methods outlined here relating to how he incorporated blogging into the curriculum.

His course assignments requires each student to:

* Post entries to their own personal blog (available in student)
* Read entries on their classmates blog and leave 3 substantive comments per week

Stuart points out that the comments help not only to ensure active participation but also provides feedback and validation of the initial student’s contribution from their peers. It’s worth noting that the student on realizing that their work will be up for public scrutiny may make an extra effort in terms of creativity and recognizing the contribution of others. The outcome of such an exercise is a positive learning community.

A good idea is to extend the exercise bringing in further collaboration. Personal blogging as outlined here is very good for independent learning and building confidence and ownership of the blogged content. What the tutor could now do is exploit these outcomes by having the student post to a communal class blog (also available in StudyNet on the module website) where everyone has equal rights in terms of adding content. So the class could be tasked with coming up with a final solution or argument using the class blog to explore the issues raised in their personal blogs.

Stuart demonstrates this by creating a class blog to act ‘as a common space for students to explore individual findings related to one of the course’s main themes’, in his case ‘recognizing and explaining real-world uses for new technologies’.

The students are required to:

* share new insights with each other
* read each other’s entries
* use the comments feature to add new content.

The key issue here is off course blending this into the course delivery. It wont happen by asking the students to go away and do these things. I know form experience that such activity needs an appropriate face to face element for the tutor to outline the task, Stuart outlines the process of knowledge construction for a blog entry for instance.

Assessing blogs

2009-04-28T10:02:00.000+01:00

How do we assess blogs in teaching? In the past I have tended to focus on the benefits blogging can bring to education. And this is an area I will continue to focus on. However for the next few weeks I’m going to look at assessing student blogging as an academic exercise. I’m not saying that the experience should be led by the method of assessment but what I intend to do here is explore as to how other practitioners have assessed student blogs and in doing so provide some tips. At the same time I hope to outline examples of how some of blogs have been used.

First off some useful ideas on how to get things going provided by David Warlick, (blog). They focus on getting tboth author and reader to ask themselves a series of questions. I’ve altered these slightly to put a tutor: student context to them.
When writing a blog, the student should ask:

1. What did I read in order to write this blog? What do I know and where did that knowledge come from?
2. What are all points of view on the issue?
3. What do you wish the readers to know, understand, believe, or do?
4. What will not be said? What are some of the remaining questions about the issue? (I like this one).

From the tutor perspective (or if you the student if you are using peer assessment) when reading a blog, ask yourself:

1. What did the student read in order to write this blog? What did they already know and where did that knowledge come from?
2. What are the other points of view? What are the other sides of the story?
3. What did the student want readers to know, understand, believe, or do?
4. What was left unsaid? What are the remaining questions and issues?
The next post will look at some practicalities.

E-Learning Roundup 04/27/2009

2009-04-27T23:29:00.001+01:00

SMART Table in my Classroom - Two Introductory Videos | Space for me to explore
tags: SMARTtable, elearning
- The children worked very naturally with this application and it was fun listening to them chat away about how they liked it.
7 Things You Should Know About Lecture Capture | EDUCAUSE
Lecture captureis an umbrella term describing any technology that allows instructors to record what happens in their classrooms and make it available digitally. In its simplest form, lecture capture might be an audio recording made with an iPod; alternatively, the term might refer to a software capture program that records cursor movement, typing, or other on-screen activity. Lecture capture systems offer three important benefits: an alternative when students miss class; an opportunity for content review; and content for online course development. Lecture capture enhances and extends existing instructional activities, whether in face-to-face, fully online, or blended learning environments.
tags: elearning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

7 Things You Should Know About Location-Aware Applications | EDUCAUSE

2009-04-27T22:07:00.001+01:00

7 Things You Should Know About Location-Aware Applications | EDUCAUSE

tags: geotagging
- Location-aware applications deliver online content to users based on their physical location. Various technologies employ GPS, cell phone infrastructure, or wireless access points to identify where electronic devices such as mobile phones or laptops are, and users can choose to share that information with location-aware applications. As mobile devices offer greater amounts of data about the environment through which we move, location-aware systems will become increasingly effective at predicting what users would like to know about in the geographical space around them, offering a layer of knowledge superimposed on the physical world that can be accessed for information and convenience.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Twitterfeed

2009-04-27T21:39:00.000+01:00

Exploring the limits of this blog. I'm hoping that this post will be sent to my twitter account via twitterfeed

Tips for a Successful Wiki

2009-04-26T21:02:00.000+01:00

By James Everett Web Link

Not all relevant to HE context since it's mainly geared towards business and relates in part to deciding on what type of wiki to sue etc., but some tips do resonate with my experience such as:

* Tip 5 - Create a Structure.
Since users can create additional pages and determine which page links to which, the wiki structure can rapidly become chaotic. So it's best to determine and get the students to agree on a structure on the outset, ideally related to the project needs. Encourage them to think of the structure in terms of sub folders / hierarchies. Once that's done they can go off and create the pages and you'll see the wiki evolve. A good suggestion by James is that the first page should present the most pertinent information.

* Tip 6 - Give each project its own namespace or area. Or if requiring students / groups to keep their own develop content provide them with separate spaces. It's a good idea to do this in advance of introducing the wiki to the students. Another way forward is to pick a volunteer from each student group and ask them to initially populate their group area with member pages etc, (this will cut down on edit collisions in the initial phase of using the wiki).

* Tip 8 - Train Users in Stages. Absolutely agree with this. Start them slow. Most students are not as familiar with this technology as staff expect them to be. As such they can be easily overwhelmed. So have a small introductory session with 5 minutes tasks each building slowly in complexity, e.g. edit some text, insert an image, create a page.

And a couple of my own tips:

* A good idea would be to establish a 'wiki help' group staffed by student volunteers to whom the others could ask for help in terms advice on how to create new pages, add images, formatting etc.

* More importantly make sure enough in-class time is given over for the groups to meet, discuss progress, assign tasks etc. Online collaboration is to be honest only part of the picture since many successful wikis often rely on F2F as well as the internet.

Collaborating with Google Documents

2009-04-24T14:56:00.000+01:00

Okay. So now I’m exploring Google Docs a bit more (I know I promised more about blogging but that will have to wait till next week).

I’ve found this presentation below. Basically part of a series created by Tom Barrett. Kick started by Tom the presentations also include contributions made by others, (you cant just dive in and edit a Google Doc – you have to be invited, so basically in this case interested parties email Tom with their suggestions which are then duly added to the presentation).

Anyway a brief look at some of my favourite suggestions (and tips) for use:

1 - Use Spreadsheets for a first collaboration session. If using Google docs for the first time get things started by first using the spreadsheet.

2 - Share pulse raw data. Following on from point 1 again use a single shared spreadsheet for the whole class and add the students’ names in the first few column. Then design an experiment which requires the students to add raw data (in this example it was pulse rates) simultaneously. The pooled data can then be explored, averaged, charted etc.

3 - I am Unique! Good for students at the start of a module. Ask the students to individually work on a single shared Document and finish a sentence, in my case “The most important concerns about using Blended Learning are…”.

4 - Collaborative Homework. Touched on in previous posts, ask students to work on a shared presentation / spreadsheet / document.

5 - Use the chat window. I suspect similar to the comments facility on Flickr and the wiki page discussion tabs this feature will be sadly overlooked. Clicking on the ‘view’ opens up a chat window allowing those who are viewing the presentation to exchange comments. The interesting aspect is that, as Tom points out, you can encourage the students to respond to verbal questions in the chat window DURING presentation. OR even better have questions prepared on the slides for them to respond to.

6 - Inline Video and Images in Chat. A great idea building from the previous. You can display videos in the chat window and play them during the presentation, e.g. YouTube. This is interesting as you could direct the students to research, find material (or anything they have pre created) and display and play the results right there.

Health warning - Worth knowing that Google Docs only have limits. 10 people can edit a Presentation at the same time, 50 people can edit a Spreadsheet simultaneously and 10 people can edit a Document at the same time.

Farewell to wikis and all that? Part 2

2009-04-23T14:20:00.000+01:00

Another really exciting application, collaboratively speaking, is Etherpad. This is gorgeous. All it is, is a simple application, similar to notepad, which you can share online with others. So it’s similar in concept to Google documents except that the changes made to the document happen really fast and appear before you. What’s really interesting is that you can have several users making changes to the same document with different users adding content in different parts of the document, (e.g. user A works at the top and user B works at the base etc.). Each user is colour coded so that you can see who’s doing what.

This is very similar in notion to collaborative editing as reported by Educause, (Web Link). You could imagine a scenario where 3 students are working on the same document with each assigned to a particular role. For example note taking during a lecture. Student A might type down content as it is being spoken, student B might tidy up the text as it is being typed by student A and Student C might insert comments / links to other class material. You can copy and paste from within the document but also from Word as well. So for instance Student D might take thing s further by pasting in existing content from Word for the other students to rationalise into the document. So students could take on specific roles: scribe, researcher, formatter etc.

Have a look at the video below. Myself Ian Glover and Jon Urwin quickly put this together. Basically we’re creating a list of capital cities and their associated landmarks. My text is coloured green, Ian is red and Jon purple. The video shows simultaneous addition and modification of items including cutting and pasting. Enjoy.

Farewell to wikis and all that? Part 1

2009-04-23T12:20:00.000+01:00

I mentioned in a recent post the joys of using Google documents for collaboration. There’s plenty out there illustrating their use and if get the time I’ll gather some up and post them here, (in the meantime check out Tom Barrett’s ‘100 Interesting Ways’ post – Web Link).

What strikes me about Google Docs is how you can get a group of people to work on a common document for which the data changes in real time. In other words the changes appear rapidly in front of you (it’s not real time really as there’s a 2 second or so delay). This got me thinking in relation to a wiki a assignment I gave out as part of my CPAD teaching. Part of the assignment requires the student to co-create an online presentation using the wiki itself. I might swap this element out for Google documents instead. Specifically I’m talking about the Google Presentation application which looks to all intents and purposes like PowerPoint. I can imagine the students working on a common presentation with the changes appearing rapidly in front them. The only issue is that they need to have a Google account to edit the presentation.

Another useful feature is the spreadsheet facility. As with the presentation you share a spreadsheet among students. Imagine the students plotting in data using their laptops to a common spreadsheet which in turn is centrally projected spreadsheet to the rest of the class.

Well don’t take my word for it have go (docs.google.com).

Blurring the distinction between blogging and wikiing

2009-04-22T14:55:00.000+01:00

Picked this up via Josie Fraser’s twitter.

Nice presentation on the relative merits of using blogs and wikis. I wish I was there to here the presentation. It seems to echoes may thoughts as to how blogs (particularly class blogs) and wikis can overlap. On the one extreme blogs are very powerful for inculcating autonomy and independent learning while the wiki works at the other extreme through requiring people to interact, engage, compete and criticise. The overlap can occur where in both instances learner’s exchange ideas leading to further generation of knowledge - exchange naturally occurs through negotiation on the wiki while from the blogging side this occurs through commenting.

Enjoy - particularly slides 5 - 8

Pelc 2009 Mashups

View more presentations from Steve Wheeler.

Older blog posts

2009-04-22T14:51:00.000+01:00

I made the switch from edublogs to blogger.

To access some of my earlier posts please visit : http://drandyoliver.edublogs.org/

E-Learning Now !

E-Learning Roundup (weekly)

E-Learning Roundup (weekly)

E-Learning Roundup (weekly)

Wikipedia + Edupunk = Murder, Madness, and Mayhem?

E-Learning Roundup (weekly)

E-Learning Roundup (weekly)

What is Next Generation Learning?

Blogging with students: How and Why

Wiki as an E-portfolio – but it’s so much more than that…

E-Learning Roundup (weekly)

E-Learning Roundup (weekly)

E-Learning Roundup 05/04/2009

Is this real teaching?

On the track of unknown informal learning spaces

Social Networking in Education

Blog as Eportfolio

E-Learning Roundup 04/29/2009

More Smart stuff

Blogs in education part 2

Interesting Ways to Use a Wiki in the Classroom

Blogs in education part 1

Assessing blogs

E-Learning Roundup 04/27/2009

7 Things You Should Know About Location-Aware Applications | EDUCAUSE

Twitterfeed

Tips for a Successful Wiki

Collaborating with Google Documents

Farewell to wikis and all that? Part 2

Farewell to wikis and all that? Part 1

Tag Clouds - More Possibilities

Blurring the distinction between blogging and wikiing

Older blog posts