If I were starting in e-learning again...

Then, I'd really have appreciated someone pointing me in the direction of these resources...

JISC Digital Media - http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/

Has loads of advice and updates about all things connected with digital media - from production to presentation, technical to legal.  It's a great resource and definitely worth looking through their advice section.  They also have some free tutorials which you might want to look at but primarily, the advice is the main resource you'd want to use.

WebAIM - http://webaim.org/resources/

Web Accessibility in Mind is an excellent resource if you want to know more about accessibility within e-learning.  Their screen reader simulation (on the resources section) is definitely worth having a go with and the WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool is another resource you might want to bookmark.

JISC - http://www.jisc.ac.uk

Just tons of stuff about education and the use of technology.  It's a massive site, so take a look at their Publications section first.  You can order hard copies of some of their materials and a good starting point is http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/generalpublications/2009/jischeasupportingacademicstaff.aspx from them which gather together a lot of handy stuff.

HEA - http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resources

For pedagogical resources, the HEA is a good place to start, particularly looking at their EvidenceNet repository too.  Again, a massive site, but set yourself up an account there and subscribe to their newsletter as a start.

JISC Legal - http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/

Another JISC service, this time covering legal aspects affecting technology in education.  They have a free helpdesk (as do JISC Digital Media) and if you're wanting to understand the wider implications of the use of a particular piece of technology, then this is a very valuable resource to know about.  The Copyright Law Essentials is also worth bookmarking too.

JISC TechDIS - http://www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/

More from JISC, this time about accessibility and assistive technologies.  Lots and lots to draw on here, but their Accessibility Essentials is very handy as are their free resources too.  They also run 'Web2Access' which if you're wondering about using web 2.0 tools in education, then that's a useful service to know about as it helps to understand the accessibility implications of those tools.

OpenLearn - http://openlearn.open.ac.uk

Lots of openly available courses from the Open University, but of particular interest is 'Accessibility of eLearning' which is a module from their Masters in Online and Distance Education and is worth working through (takes about 15 hours).   Also 'Repurposing open educational content' is handy too.

ALT - http://alt.ac.uk/

The Association for Learning Technology's website which gives a pretty good idea of what a learning technologist is - or at least what they should be able to do if you take a look at what's involved in their CMALT certification - as well as their Research in Learning Technology (used to be ALT-J) journal to sink your teeth into.

For more general technical / technology news then...

Read Write Web - http://www.readwriteweb.com/

Mashable - http://mashable.com/

Guardian Technology - http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology

... are all good starting points.

Obviously there's a fair bit of JISC-flavoured stuff on there and it's all from a pretty UK-ish perspective.  But if I wanted to try to bridge the gap between tech and teaching... these are the places I'd start looking.

What would you add?

Faces on Facebook

Was just having an idle muse about identity on Facebook and what we choose (or not) to reveal to others. For example, there are options to 'find friends' and though your memory of School days may be hazy, a picture can help you to think - yup, I do know them. But... looking at the avatars people choose, there seem to be a few different types... so... here they are and here's my completely and utterly non-scientific opinion about what they might represent:

• Self-portrait - I haven't time for this
• Pet - I LOVE cats / dogs / fish!!!!!!! YEAH!!!
• With partner - someone loves me! Woot!
• Group of friends - more than one person LOVES me!!!
• Group of friends partying - people LOVE me AND I know how to have FUN!!!
• Tattoo - I may have a bit too much fun...
• Kids - my kids look better than me
• Baby - I also have a BABY ON BOARD sticker on my car. I have a baby. Yes. A baby! YAY!
• Computer generated avatar - I like to stay in
• Holiday snap - I like to stay away
• Random graphic - the lights are on... but...

... you might like to take all of the above with a pinch of salt. :o)

I wonder how much we thought we were giving away when we chose the 'thing to represent us' online?

PS Mostly I use a plain ol' picture of me... apart from when it comes to sites where I share photos - in which case I use a flower or a pair of shoes. Go figure.

Keynotes and controversy

Have just sat through Donald Clark's Keynote at Alt-C and wanted to capture a few brief notes about it.

Firstly, he seemed to manage to polarized the audience... but, to be honest, it felt like style over substance a lot of the time regardless of which side of the fence you decided to sit. I couldn't quite follow how you could start by arguing for scientific method and then proceed to fill your lecture with generalized ranting. Incorrect facts (the OU does have on campus students but hasn't been going for 50 years if you're interested, Donald) and single sample anecdotes. Do as I say not as I do.

Secondly, it was a strange old Keynote topic. Talking about the death of the lecture... in a lecture. Using a very traditional style. And, further to that, demonizing the face-to-face conference while he was at it. Apparently, he would never go to a face-to-face lecture or conference... while being okay to attend one as the Keynote. Most strange.

Thirdly, it was essentially a single point made over and over. And over. And over. But, it was the same negative point all the while. Lectures are rubbish. They are. They are. And did I mention... they are? But nothing about where to move from here. Where was the vision? Where was the light at the end of the tunnel?

I don't know. I get that he was there to get a reaction of some type to get people thinking. But, from where I was in the auditorium I saw people emailing, writing apps, eating, surfing the web, writing reports and preparing presentations. He was there to convince us lectures were bad. I'm convinced.

CMALT - update

Well... sorry for the blogging break... again... it's been horrendously busy with work for the past month (marking over 150 exam scripts and providing feedback on what seemed like tons of the things) as well as wrapping up other bits and bobs from work before going on leave for 4 weeks (hooray!) and 'enjoying' a re-organisation at work which is currently rating as one of the most confusing experiences of my life.

Anyhoo... in between all that, I managed to get my CMALT porfolio completed and submitted.  It felt kinda draft-ish and I know I could have made it more concise but anyway... it passed!  Which is great!

Have to say, the process of going through putting together the portfolio was really intense though also a good opportunity for reflection.  Kind of makes you realise a) yes, I do generally know what I'm talking about b) yes, I am interested in this field and c) creating an ePortfolio is about far more than dumping a load of examples together and hoping they stay together purely by the magic of ePortfolio-ness.  Definitely takes a lot of thinking about and sifting to get it anywhere near coherent.  But... a useful process. 

Lifelong learning with ePortfolios doesn't tend to make sense to me (for various reasons which I'm sure I've wittered on about before)... but targetted, purposeful use of them?  Absolutely.  Good stuff!

So, if you're going to do CMALT then be as methodical as you can when you go through it all.  Work through each section, think of examples.  Get together evidence.  Reflect on it.  Share it with others to get feedback.  Go through another iteration or two.  Oh, and work openly if you can.  Using Google Sites helped me to be brave enough to expose my evidence to others for feedback and made me really consider what I was writing as I was writing it.  Overall, use the experience - it's a handy process to go through.  Bit like an MOT for your professional practice.

PS  YAY!  My portfolio passed!  PHEWIE!
PPS  If you're wanting to use Google Sites, then you might find my YouTube video on getting hold of my CMALT portfolio template handy.

OU Conference - a spot o' reflection

So, over the last couple of days the OU's Annual Learning and Teaching Conference has been held.  Normally, that would involve schlepping to the OU's campus in Milton Keynes but this year, the conference was organised by Martin Weller and ended up online instead.  Using a handful of 'rooms' in Elluminate, the programme involved both internal and external speakers and the opportunity for a moderated discussion after each session.  At this point, I should say that I was one of the moderators so there's going to be a tadette of bias creeping in soooo... y'know... pinch o' salt and all that good stuff.

Anyhoo... here are a few reflections on the experience... 

1.  A great speaker is a great speaker no matter whether that's face-to-face or online
Wikipedia creator, Jimmy Wales had the closing keynote and I have to say he was excellent.  Engaging and interesting - and the discussion was full of great questions with which he engaged well beyond his allotted time.

2.  A bad speaker is a bad speaker no matter whether that's face-to-face or online...

3.  ... and when it's online-only, bad becomes terrible
With only bullet-pointed slides and a monotonous voice which cuts in and out, the chance of absorbing what's being talked about slips away almost entirely.

4.  It requires more dedicated concentration
Conferences using Elluminate seem to be far more concentration-intensive than face-to-face, which means that the chance to tweet about the event, or take questions from sources other than text-chat or voice diminish unless someone specifically has the task of co-ordinating external questions... that wider live engagement dips.

5.  Online conferences and open-plan offices do not mix!
I had such a struggle trying to follow the speakers when I was using a headset in the open-plan office where I'm based for most of the days.  On both days, I ended up leaving work a little early so I could get home and work using my own laptop with headset.  No-one seems to respect that you're 'attending a conference' if its online.  You're visible.  You're fair game.  Your concentration is broken.

6.  No chance of networking
Well, not in the 'just bumping into someone from so-and-so institution' or arranging to meet because there are no private / informal social spaces where that can happen.

7.  But a real chance of being able to engage with the speaker through moderated discussion
The fact that people didn't have to speak and could use text seemed rather liberating for many.  I know that at 'normal' conferences it can be intimidating to have the roving mic shoved in your face... well, none of that with Elluminate.  Far more equitable, it seems to me.

8.  I'd attend another Elluminate conference
There.  That one surprised me as I was a bit 'hmmm, kinda like face-to-face ones really'... but this one gave me the chance to attend without too much hassle, Martin's feat of organisation was outstanding and the technology (more or less!) behaved itself so that at least 95% of the time speakers could be heard and slides could be viewed.

PS  My main point is still number 1.  Presentation skills matter.  They really and truly do.

PPS If you attended, let them know what you thought about it!

What if...

... today you wiped the slate clean

... today you didn't make excuses

... today you started the things you put off

... today you stood out

... today you explored

... today you created

... today you had fun

... today you stepped up

... today you took a chance

What if?

CMALT ePortfolio

As it's (almost!) quietish at the moment at work as everyone else is buried under piles and piles of marking, I thought I'd have a proper go at getting together my portfolio for CMALT. Their portfolio submission form is currently a Microsoft Word document, which is fine... but an ePortfolio would be handy too. The CMALT FAQs say that people can use their own ePortfolios... so... to help that along, why not create one using Google Sites? It frees you from problems of a lack of openness of some institutional ePortfolios, is easy to use and... with the use of an appropriate template... becomes a cinch to complete.

Oh, and while I was at it, I created a CMALT ePortfolio template for Googles Sites and made that available. How to get hold of it is dead straight forward just follow these steps:

1. Use your Google account to create a new Google Site
2. Click Create New Site
3. In the templates section at the top, click Browse the gallery for more
4. Change the language to English (UK) using the drop down menu to the left hand side
5. Click Public
6. Type CMALT into the Search box and click Search
7. Click on the CMALT Portfolio which comes up, then in the next screen click Select
8. Name your site (make sure it has a unique name), type in the code they give you... then click Create Site

That's just about it! If you want to see a video of how quickly you can get it sorted or just want to see how it's created... then this'll help too:



The structure follows that given on the CMALT porfolio submission form, as well as including prompts and guidance from the CMALT Guidelines. One nice an' easy ePortfolio. Done. :o)

Blogging break and the power of online community

Just a quickie (am going to write a proper post later)... but just wanted to wave and say 'hello!'.  I've had a bit of a blogging break for the past month and a half.  My Dad died very suddenly a few weeks ago and my head has been a little empty of anything to say about technology or education or anything 'proper' for a while.  So... sorry for the blogging break.

However, I also wanted to record and reflect on what's happened in the weeks since he died because I did carry on being online in one form: photography.  I used my daily photo journal at Blipfoto to record my experience of loss as a way of trying to make sense of an extremely traumatic event in my life.  Somehow having an image to talk about was easier than trying to talk about anything more abstract.  The thing I found surprising and extremely moving were the comments left by people who looked at my journal.  Despite only having been using Blipfoto for the past three months, I was amazed by how supportive people were... many of whom who knew me only through my photographs and in no other context.  They not only shared images with me but wrote freely about their experiences, gave unconditional empathetic support - and encouragement to carry on just being however I needed to be.

It's unexpected, touching experiences like this which give me real hope for technology enhanced education.  Despite no face-to-face contact, despite there being no reciprocal expectation and with nothing more than the possibility of giving support... people wrote and shared from wherever they were.  There are plenty who say there is no substitute for face-to-face.  Well, I can see where they're coming from in many ways.  But, when for no other reason than they can... people connect and form supportive communities without ever needing to meet the other person... that's a powerful thing.

Browsing via Delicious

Just noticed a nice little beta feature in Delicious - the ability to browse through a user's bookmarks.  Now, it doesn't sound like anything particularly special... but there's something really handy about not just seeing a list of links (and descriptions if people have remembered that information) and being able to browse them in the way that you might with Google Reader etc.  You can also go back to the bookmark details if you want to from the browsed version and add it to your own bookmarks if you like.

Would be really handy if they extended this to allow you to browse through bundles of tags etc... but this is a nice little step, particularly if you're one of those people who 'knows what they're after when they see it' and a linear list isn't really doing it for you.  :o)

Using online chat in teaching?

It's been a busy few weeks but amongst the things that I've been doing was a presentation on some research I did to finish off my MEd last year at our Annual Learning and Teaching Conference which I thought might be interesting to share (interesting in a vaguely nerdish kinda way!).

What was my research about?  Well, the focus of my project was to attempt to understand what happened to educationally rich dialogue within online chat when students were left on their own, or when there was a tutor present.  Anyway, it was an interesting little project and the results were also pretty revealing (and I'd really like to look into this area further), and it led me to wonder whether or not there is any kind of pedagogy for using chat in teaching?  Surely we need one if we're to know how to use chat productively.  Not least since  according to the 2009 CLEX report 'Higher Education in a web 2.0 world' students are familiar with and comfortable using instant messaging (CLEX, p.21) - but it seems that we give them minimal guidance on how best to use it and rarely exploit (for want of a better word!) this familiarity or comfort with online chat.  Additionally, there is really very little research into what happens to dialogue in synchronous online chat and in most of the research I looked at, either tutor or participants were novice users to some degree which I felt negatively impacted on their dialogue to some degree.  In my project I was careful to make sure that everyone had had prior experience of learning / teaching via chat so as to try to minimize this technological learning curve. 

Having looked into things a bit... I decided to try to draw some conclusions from my experiences.... both from the research itself, but also based on my experience of using chat in teaching for the past decade.... which led to this presentation!  So, here ya go:

Knowing when to let go - pedagogy for online chat

View more presentations or Upload your own.

If you want to have a look at the notes to see what I was waffling about at each stage, you're more than welcome to -  they're available online at the Slideboom hosted version.

So, how to use chat in teaching?  There really are no hard and fast rules, but here are a few basic guidelines:

Give students the right building blocks (and these happen either side of the chat session)

• Clear purpose - make sure it isn't simply a bolt-on optional extra
• Clear introduction - explain how it's going to happen, have some intro sessions first if needed
• Clear topic - provide a topic which works at lots of different levels so a discussion *can* happen
• Clear timings - 30 to 45 minutes with a group of between 3 to 5 is probably about right
• Clear plenary - the chat session should feed into *something*, a summary, a shared transcript... but there needs to be an end just as there's a beginning

Then…

• Clear off - well, while the session's running anyway!

The things I've discovered?  You don't need to be present within a chat session for it to have educational value.  Provided you structure the activity design so that the chat session is bookended in someway (where you can have some involvement) and you bear in mind the type of dialogue you want, i.e. if you want a fairly Q&A-based session then it may well be appropriate for the tutor to be involved in the session; if you want something more free-flowing, then the tutor is probably best off not being a participant too.