tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11762336993738126312024-03-27T23:53:30.197+00:00Kinda Learning Stuff... a blog recording interesting technology or learning-related snippets... or anything else that takes my fancy. If it makes me stop and think, it'll probably end up here!Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.comBlogger433125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-65067556634347642102014-09-03T12:20:00.000+01:002014-09-05T21:59:49.918+01:00Learning vs marketing when it comes to openSo... here's the thing... I haven't blogged in ages because I had an experience a while ago which really put me off blogging... but... I feel the need to write down some notes about a thought that's troubling me about open education at the moment.<br />
<br />
The proviso is... THESE ARE MY OWN VIEWS. NOT MY INSTITUTION'S. AND IT IS POSSIBLE TO HAVE OPINIONS WHICH MAY NOT BE THE SAME AND... THAT'S OKAY.<br />
<br />
Look at me! I went all caps lock and everything just then!<br />
<br />
Right, where was I? Okay... The troubling thought. I am currently at ALT-C and it's been a good conference so far, which is great. And there is a lot of talk about openness. Which is also nice.<br />
<br />
But... I keep on hearing the phrase 'the benefit of open practice is in raising your profile'. It is the slightly more personal version of 'institutional reputation building' and it has an ugly auntie called 'establishment of brand identity'. And some how it is all over 'open'.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I don't get it. Well, I do. In a cynical marketing kinda way. But I can't really reconcile the whole brand identity thing with how I felt when I started to share learning resources more than a decade ago. It didn't cross my mind about the marketing opportunity. I just felt it was the right thing to do. That other people might benefit from something I'd created. It was fun to create things and I liked hearing that others found them useful. I loved it when someone would volunteer to write something for me because they wanted to contribute to the resources I'd created. I loved the fact that I got to play and explore new ways of sharing stuff... and other people were kind enough to give me feedback and support me in doing it. I would think about things that I'd found tricky, write something about it... and then share it. If there we're mistakes, someone would inevitably tell me and I'd happily make corrections.<br />
<br />
I learned loads by being open. I made connections. I reflected on what was important to me educationally. It was an outlet for creativity and thinking.<br />
<br />
It was not driven by a marketing strategy. Ever. I never thought to myself that it was a self-promotion opportunity. I wanted to be helpful, to be useful. Until someone unlocked my love of learning, I didn't realise how important those things would become to me. And the thing that unlocked that love was when I got the chance to make a difference to the way a course was being delivered when I was a mature student. Someone listened. Someone found an idea valuable. Someone gave me a chance to make a difference. Someone told me not to call myself 'only a student' and a lightbulb went on in my head. It was an amazing empowering feeling. It changed my life. I wanted to help others feel that feeling. And I started to share openly. And when I started to teach, I carried on doing that with my own students.<br />
<br />
I guess that my point is really that it troubles me that open has become much bigger news lately. FutureLearn, Coursera, Kahn Academy etc... the big boys are paying attention and beavering away to create MOOCs. And over and over again I hear presenters utter those dreaded marketing-laden words about brand identity, sector positioning, profile raising. And the motivation for being open is wrong.<br />
<br />
If you're not truly open in your practice. If you don't really believe that it's worth doing for your learners. For your networks. For your community. For your own satisfaction and development. Then, you will only get a formulaic attempt at education. And it is not really about learning. <br />
<br />
You have to give a monkeys. You have to care. Don't you? You have to believe, right down to your toes, that learning is where it's at.<br />
<br />
Learning is messy. It is creative. Messy. Chaotic. Passionate. Amazing. <br />
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And it isn't dragged along by a marketing strategy which wants to increase its marketing share in some misguided manner.<br />
<br />
The fact that those who should share a passion for learning are spouting a marketing strategy when talking about their forays into open is unsettling. Really unsettling.Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-73751536025206638402013-09-17T09:53:00.001+01:002013-09-17T13:05:25.682+01:00My highlights from ALT-C 2013 *wipes dust off blog*<br />
<br />
Cripes, it's been a long time since I wrote anything on here! Here's the potted version of why it's been such a long while...<br />
<br />
1. I changed jobs in January<br />
2. I've spent the rest of the year improving my work-life balance<br />
3. Now that I'm balanced again, I fancy blogging!<br />
4. Ta daaaaaaa!<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fgTSUODYpUU/UjbE7LTakKI/AAAAAAAAMCQ/xACSEHYVCAc/s1600/0f3eb7f1-ba96-4c4c-a338-ff87792aa907" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fgTSUODYpUU/UjbE7LTakKI/AAAAAAAAMCQ/xACSEHYVCAc/s320/0f3eb7f1-ba96-4c4c-a338-ff87792aa907" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ALT-C Begins...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Okay, so... <a href="http://altc2013.alt.ac.uk/" target="_blank">ALT-C 2013</a> has just finished, having taken place last week from the 10th to the 12th of September and this year it was super duper local for me, being held at the University of Nottingham. Three days of 'no commute' were blissful, it's true, but actually the whole conference this year had a positive vibe about it which was great. I'm not saying that it's been particularly negative in previous years, but on occasion there have been prickly moments which weren't always that great. This year - all constructive and all good. Which was great!<br />
<br />
Some highlights...<br />
<br />
<b>Rachel Wenstone's keynote</b><br />
Over-riding themes seemed to me to be about partnerships, co-operation, openness and connection and a large slice of digital practice. I found the opening keynote by Rachel Wenstone - VP for Higher Education from the NUS - refreshing. Especially to hear a rejection of the 'student as consumer' concept which has been heartily shoved down people's throats since '<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/31384/11-944-higher-education-students-at-heart-of-system.pdf" target="_blank">Students at the Heart of the System</a>' was published a couple of years ago. Instead, Rachel talked about students as partners - not just 'survey fillers' but as real participants in shaping their use of learning technology... and involved in supporting the development of staff skills too (which sounded like a really interesting idea - and so far a missed opportunity). <i>Real </i>student engagement, <i>real </i>academic partnerships and <i>real </i>defense against students as consumers. Refreshing stuff!<br />
<br />
<b>Digital practice sessions</b><br />
I also found the sessions on the digital practitioner useful. It's good to hear what other people are doing / thinking about the issues attached to digital literacy. <a href="http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/15997/" target="_blank">Liz Bennett from the University of Huddersfield</a> offered several different ways of thinking about the digital practitioner and shared the thought that what drives uptake of new technology is not necessarily the skills and functional access to technology, but the willingness and attitude of those who may or may not engage with it. She also offered the following questions for consideration:<br />
<br />
How do we move the focus from the tools and skills to practices?<br />
How do we cultivate application in situated practice?<br />
How do we support risk taking?<br />
How does the institution allow for radical form [sic] that are not constrained by the institution's barriers?<br />
How does the institution value attributes of the digital practitioner?<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cA7PstP7vq4/UjgRvl0QXrI/AAAAAAAAMDU/S_k3tU3ICPM/s1600/c3d9eca6-bcd6-43ef-81f9-0010cd5101b6" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cA7PstP7vq4/UjgRvl0QXrI/AAAAAAAAMDU/S_k3tU3ICPM/s320/c3d9eca6-bcd6-43ef-81f9-0010cd5101b6" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lesley Gourlay and Martin Oliver sharing their<br />
definition of digital literacies</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I definitely don't have the answers to those, but I know that they feel like the right questions to be asking and engaging with. She also made the point that in terms of developing as digital practitioners, mimicry, vicarious learning / unintended exposure to others' practices, ventriloquism (i.e. adopting new strategies and resources without necessarily buying in to them) and modelling were more effective than staff development courses. So, an additional question emerges - How do we support a culture where the vicarious, the co-operative and connected informal learning and sharing of practice can take place and develop our digital practitioners?<br />
<br />
I also got a lot from Lesley Gourlay and Martin Oliver's session 'Why it's not all about the learner' - which, again, focused on digital literacy. Rather than trying to report the detail of their presentation, I'll instead link to <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/lesleygourlay/gourlay-oliver-altc-2013" target="_blank">Lesley's presentation slides</a>, which include the quotes and definitions which were so useful during their engaging session. They've also got a blog about their project at <a href="http://diglitpga.jiscinvolve.org/wp/">http://diglitpga.jiscinvolve.org/wp/</a> which is worth taking a look at as well. Some key points - really small issues (like logging off times / printing arrangements at universities) have big impacts on student learning space choice. Control of space is important for learners. The material campus is now saturated with digital mediation - we aren't in an 'optional extra' culture where digital is concerned. And finally (sorry for the disjointed points!), the meaning making aspect of digital literacy is important as well as the situated aspect. Context and purpose - as ever - are vital to understanding of digital literacy.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--63LFcEGkjw/UjbGFSWt3NI/AAAAAAAAMCs/4HDxUC6f014/s1600/33b4d7dd-c7d3-4a20-93c7-e5ce6f21128b" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--63LFcEGkjw/UjbGFSWt3NI/AAAAAAAAMCs/4HDxUC6f014/s320/33b4d7dd-c7d3-4a20-93c7-e5ce6f21128b" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stephen Downes presenting and handling multiple<br />
communication channels like a master!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>Stephen Downes</b><br />
The final highlight - though to be honest, there were others! - was Stephen Downes' keynote entitled '<a href="http://www.downes.ca/presentation/326" target="_blank">What are Cultures of Learning</a>'. He made some fascinating points about the change in MOOCs and what they seem to have morphed into from the origins of his first Massive Open Online Course. One of which stuck out most of all - that it was a mistake to have called them 'courses' - and I think that taps into the heart of the problem of determining whether or not MOOCs are successful. It's a little like the oft quoted 'Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it'll spend its whole life believing that it is stupid' (Albert Einstein) - if you judge success of MOOCs by completion rates then, as in the analogy used by Downes, it's a little like judging the success of a newspaper by whether or not people have read every single word, front to back. Success and effectiveness of newspapers is the impact on society. Did / does the paper act as an agent of change? Does the MOOC act as an agent of change for the learner / society?<br />
<br />
He said that the reason MOOCs 'fail' was because they're courses and they're trying to do something formal in an environment that is essentially informal. Additionally, massive discussion forums don't work for MOOCs because they are an alien space in which people cannot make human-scale connections. You come across this over and over again - an observable ingredient of something that's successful turned into a formula for success. Conveniently leaving out the people and informal connection which actually makes the difference.<br />
<br />
I loved his points about 'Why the Web Won':<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>big is beautiful - one network prevails - think Facebook</li>
<li>scruffy works: let the links fail to make it scale</li>
<li>democracy rules: open, free and universal</li>
<li>but we lost (for a time) conceptual and contextual - the semantic web</li>
</ul>
<div>
From being a 'MOOC failure' myself, I can feel a renewed interest in the thing that got me fascinated by technology enhanced learning in the first place - people learning together and being amazing together, discovering new potential and possibility, connection, cooperation and community - without ever having met. Enthusiasm being shared is a powerful catalyst. I would never have thought of an astronaut tweeting from space being a 'MOOC' - but <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2013/may/13/chris-hadfield-the-astronaut-s-best-tweets-photos-and-videos" target="_blank">Chris Hadfield's incredible Pied Piper job of playing a tune</a> that everyone wanted to follow, is a slice of learning and sharing which was freeform, scruffy and big. And not a course in sight. Fabulous exciting stuff!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Oh, and Stephen's also a multi-communication-channel-juggling genius. He actively used the back channel and drew on his experience of the conference to create a performance not just a presentation! It might be a bit Marmite with some people disliking the distraction element - but I thought he was fabulous. If you're going to be all about open and online... work it! And I stand by my tweet - he has awesome hair. Fact. :o)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So, overall ALT-C 2013 in Nottingham was well worthwhile. 20 years of ALT, celebrated with constructive, thought-provoking opportunities for meeting with colleagues and making new connections. Even if the weather was kinda pants! </div>
Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-78528409919749493182012-12-20T11:55:00.001+00:002012-12-20T11:55:34.325+00:00Free and the stuff that disappears in the nightOne of the biggest frustrations with Google stuff (tax issues aside!) is this sort of thing:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/winter-cleaning.html">Winter cleaning | Official Google Blog</a>: "On January 4, 2013, we’ll be shutting down several less popular Google Calendar features. You’ll be unable to create new reservable times on your Calendar through Appointment slots, but existing Appointment slots will continue working for one year. In addition, we’ll discontinue two Calendar Labs—Smart Rescheduler (we recommend Find a time view or Suggested times as alternatives) and Add gadget by URL. Finally, Check your calendar via sms and Create event via sms (GVENT)—U.S.-only features for creating and checking meetings by texting information to Google—will be discontinued today, as most users prefer mobile Calendar apps."</blockquote>
<br />
Now, I know that free comes at a price. And I know that for every 'free' tool you use online you should have a back-up plan. A little contingency thrown into the mix. But if your job is to see a tool for its worth in a learning and teaching context... and promote / support the way in which is might be used... and the rug gets pulled on the feature or functionality that actually makes a difference to people... then, going Google can be a frustrating experience. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh0EGjPTQr_Uo0lYWHlIvEZe6nmVJttCwW18453IC46m85xG5SpsEKcWP_4mLc-zA3IueFypFihT-9RRDXPcUTk1hq8pTy324fjpH7bewPKhNM1ibnJo5C3KnL9QdnLORumu41GYIoWrQ/s1600/Tears.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh0EGjPTQr_Uo0lYWHlIvEZe6nmVJttCwW18453IC46m85xG5SpsEKcWP_4mLc-zA3IueFypFihT-9RRDXPcUTk1hq8pTy324fjpH7bewPKhNM1ibnJo5C3KnL9QdnLORumu41GYIoWrQ/s320/Tears.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No point crying over disappearing free stuff...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I guess some of it is because they're always concentrating on their core stuff rather than the extra faffy, sometimes experimental stuff... but unfortunately, it's that stuff that can be most useful. So far, they've culled Google Notebook - which I found brilliant for online research; they're culling Appointments - which are fantastic for organising those one-to-many relationships where a group of people need to speak to you one-to-one; Gadgets disappeared from spreadsheets; Google search timeline went and support for Picasa on anything other than Windows drastically reduced. Am sure there are others, but it is a pain.<br />
<br />
Using free stuff is one thing. Depending on free stuff or imagining it'll never change is another. Maybe it's a nudge to us to continually look at what we're using and whether that needs a tweak too. But one thing's for sure. Imagining that that 'essential' tool you've found online is going to be there for the foreseeable future is going to leave you with a very sad look on your face!Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-44677734931578873262012-12-12T16:28:00.001+00:002012-12-12T16:40:15.651+00:0010 Ideas for using Google Sites in Education<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIFn0TDLuSPexpP6wPl7aeYppdpKrxaDEzJIOLx5IFuhZ7AseBahd7NDvRmcT9EEoflQ2gQhCxdPJln3Pw7FdIOLY1LqdlLyQPUhMFgVrlqH6AMk8s-UTlyO0m92z_xgnPe3MNcFloXSc/s1600/Perched.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIFn0TDLuSPexpP6wPl7aeYppdpKrxaDEzJIOLx5IFuhZ7AseBahd7NDvRmcT9EEoflQ2gQhCxdPJln3Pw7FdIOLY1LqdlLyQPUhMFgVrlqH6AMk8s-UTlyO0m92z_xgnPe3MNcFloXSc/s320/Perched.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gotta love a bit of working together...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I was just creating a few bits and bobs for a workshop on <a href="http://sites.google.com/site" target="_blank">Google Sites</a> for collaboration and thought that it might be handy to share my '10 ideas for using Google Sites in Education'. They're dead easy to use... no, they're not the most advanced, slick thing out there... but for sheer ease of creation and collaboration, they're a brilliant little educational tool!<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Student-created discipline specific sites </b>(what a mouthful!)<br />
One of the best ways of knowing if you know something is trying to explain it to others, so why not use a Google Site to get your students doing that? For example, <a href="http://allaboutlinguistics.com/">AllAboutLinguistics.com</a> - brilliant site which shows the power of student collaboration and along the way improves students’ digital literacy as well as providing a great resource for prospective students<br />
<br />
<b>Team wiki</b><br />
Create a Google Site to act as a team wiki with page templates to structure the content people put in and get them collaborating! You’ll have a living breathing dynamic wiki started in no time.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Club or society site</b><br />
Belong to a club or society and want to promote it to others? Why not try a Google Site? You can embed a Google Calendar to share important dates of events as well as share files / photos / reports from the club too.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz4vLczNkuwC0JF4jE4cGMV8zUdNIbrlMh_BjLcw1Sxtr-GZ4J-8SpqK__Br-7M3mtoeWfg71gqarhJwKKN4jyXFFgJ32A8iQRLawI0Qecz69O3b-6hx7p6B1mcBFu9WMEO8Og42VfvW4/s1600/Sites+eportfoliio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz4vLczNkuwC0JF4jE4cGMV8zUdNIbrlMh_BjLcw1Sxtr-GZ4J-8SpqK__Br-7M3mtoeWfg71gqarhJwKKN4jyXFFgJ32A8iQRLawI0Qecz69O3b-6hx7p6B1mcBFu9WMEO8Og42VfvW4/s320/Sites+eportfoliio.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An example Google Sites ePortfolio, this one's for<br />
Certified Membership of the Association for Learning Technology</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>ePortfolio</b><br />
Get students to create themselves an ePortfolio using Google Sites where they can use pages to structure the items they want to share and can embed media-rich examples such as video, audio, presentations etc, to demonstrate competence across a range of areas.<br />
<br />
<b>Research presentation</b><br />
Have your students research a particular subject and get them to present their findings using a Google Site. They can include docs they’ve created, videos they’ve found as well as use pages to put their findings into their own words<br />
<br />
<b>Open online classroom</b><br />
What about creating an online learning environment using a Google Site? If you want to collaborate between the university and the wider community, giving access to all parties can be problematic with standard virtual learning environments... but using a Google Site to share lessons / content / tutorials could be a great way to open up your classroom.<br />
<br />
<b>Departmental website</b><br />
If you’ve got documents you’d like to share with a large group of colleagues, then sorting out sharing for all of them and making sure that they don’t disappear if someone leaves can be a problem. A Google Site, complete with page permissions to give authorship to the right individuals, is an excellent way of giving people a central place they can find out what’s what.<br />
<br />
<b>Help and support resources</b><br />
Tired of answering the same question over and over from your students? Maybe a Google Site where they can easily find answers... and contribute their own as the course goes along... could be a great way of making life simpler for everyone. It doesn’t just have to be text, it’s easy to insert videos into your pages too.<br />
<br />
<b>Cross-departmental working</b><br />
Students on French courses sharing work with Engineers? Chemists and Musicians? A Google Site could be a great way to get students from different departments sharing and for you to share content with them.<br />
<br />
<b>Online staff development </b><br />
Finding time to attend a staff development event can be a complete pain in a busy schedule. A Google Site with resources which people can work through at their own pace is a golden opportunity for you to support others while demonstrating how useful online learning can be! What do you know about that others might want to know about? Could you get a group of people together to create a Google Site sharing their expert knowledge for others to work through? That could be the starting point for something excellent!<br />
<br />
There ya go... 10 ideas for using Google Sites in Education!Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-23221876066567765512012-11-27T14:18:00.000+00:002012-11-27T14:18:04.028+00:00Top 10 books to shape your TEL thinking...<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_GWgHeISq6A/ULSeCkS0TnI/AAAAAAAACiM/fveIFkYeDdI/s1600/232579341_a520b51a10_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_GWgHeISq6A/ULSeCkS0TnI/AAAAAAAACiM/fveIFkYeDdI/s320/232579341_a520b51a10_z.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pnoeric/232579341/" target="_blank">Eric Mueller</a>, under a<br />
CC <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en_GB" target="_blank">BY-SA 2.0</a> license</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Okay, so this is <i>my</i> top 10 (and they're in no particular order) and you may well have other books you rate... but here are some books which have really influenced my thinking / proved useful for reference when it comes to technology enhanced learning and I thought it might be useful to share them. <br />
<br />
Rather than linking to book sales sites with each book, I've linked to related resources you might find interesting! If you want to buy them - Google is your friend.<br />
<br />
<b>1. John Biggs and Catherine Tang - <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/DianaMQuinn/john-biggs-and-catherine-tang-2008-presentation" target="_blank">Teaching for Quality Learning at University</a></b><br />
I have many rant-worthy subjects which, if triggered, will be produced and put on display for the audience... not understanding that we are involved in the practice of educating and learning... and not understanding that we also have to model practices to others is one of those trigger points. Understand processes of learning. Understand learning design. And if you're a learning technologist, working with academics / students, speak the language of learning! Start here.<br />
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<b>2. Rhona Sharpe, Helen Beetham, Sara de Freitas - <a href="http://design-4-learning.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Rethinking Learning for a Digital Age: How Learners are Shaping Their Own Experiences</a></b><br />
Another of those books which gets across the learner perspective brilliantly - and gets you to challenge yourself with your own learning and teaching practices in the process.<br />
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<b>3. Ormond Simpson - <a href="http://www.ormondsimpson.com/" target="_blank">Supporting Students in Online, Open and Distance Learning</a></b><br />
When I had not long started working for the Open University I picked myself up a copy of this book - and it was just SO useful to me supporting my distance students. Now about to come out in a third edition, I still rate his learner-centred approach highly and the clarity of his writing is spot on. <br />
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<b>4. Malcolm Gladwell - <a href="http://www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/" target="_blank">The Tipping Point : How little things can make a big difference</a></b><br />
Heard someone use the phrase 'the tipping point'? You probably have... and if so, then this'll tell you all about it. Why is this useful for technology enhanced learning? Because spotting that moment when things tip from being 'just a few' to 'just about everyone' is part of the trick of seeing what needs support and where the potential areas for future development lie. And understanding how you can influence that too is also important.<br />
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<b>5. Chris Anderson - <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/chris_anderson_of_wired_on_tech_s_long_tail.html" target="_blank">The Long Tail: How endless choice is creating unlimited demand</a></b><br />
You can't avoid the technology bit of technology enhanced learning (nor can you focus on it too heavily, it should be said!), so why not understand how and why technologies become established? It'll help you see where tech fits and get you to think about what might be just around the corner too. It'll also help you think about the value of that niche you might just have ignored, but which was existing and thriving in the long tail.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" scrolling="no" src="http://embed.ted.com/talks/chris_anderson_of_wired_on_tech_s_long_tail.html" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<b>6. Daniel Pink, <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html" target="_blank">Drive - the surprising truth about what motivates us</a></b><br />
Now, this one may seem like a bit of a random recommendation, but I honestly believe that if you're going to work in any area connected to learning and teaching, you <i>have</i> to understand where people are coming from to help support them get to where they could go. You want real engagement? You need to <i>get </i>motivation.<br />
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<b>7. Etienne Wenger - <a href="http://www.ewenger.com/theory/" target="_blank">Communities of Practice - Learning in Doing</a></b><br />
Another of my rant-triggers is people bandying about phrases without understanding them in anything more than a superficial way. For a while 'communities of practice' was that phrase! It is a really important concept when it comes to e-learning and learning support / engagement - and for getting your head into what learning is and where it might exist, blurring the boundaries between formal and informal education. An influential work.<br />
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<b>8. Jane Seale - <a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/E_learning_And_Disability_in_Higher_Educ.html?id=2d67isitcYUC" target="_blank">E-learning and disability in higher education</a></b><br />
Of all the things that technology can do, opening up the possibilities for accessing education / learning to a wide range of people is one of the most exciting things. So, why not understand the landscape of e-learning and disability as well as pick up lots of hints and tips too?<br />
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<b>9. Garr Reynolds - <a href="http://www.presentationzen.com/" target="_blank">Presentation Zen</a></b><br />
If you're going to work in Technology Enhanced Learning then communication is vital - and getting yourself some solid presentation skills that are going to get your ideas noticed, and your presentations appreciated should be pretty high up your list!<br />
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<b>10. Chip and Dan Heath - <a href="http://www.heathbrothers.com/madetostick/" target="_blank">Made to Stick: Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck</a></b><br />
This kind of goes along with the presentation skills I mentioned with Garr Reynolds book. Present ideas beautifully... sure... but present beautiful ideas which will stick and then exciting things can happen! You have to be a salesperson for your ideas - and this is especially true in technology enhanced learning. It's not necessarily the tech that's the biggest issue... getting people to get on board and to engage with your ideas... that's where the tough stuff lies!<br />
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There's not a great deal of tech there, I admit it... but what there is are books that will get you thinking. Get you reflecting. And provide a platform from which you can build your own practice.<br />
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And that has to be worth it, I think!<br />
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What would be on your top 10 list?<br />
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SarahSarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-4573639957441925782012-08-02T08:41:00.002+01:002012-08-02T08:41:58.498+01:00Top 10 Power Searching with Google Tips...<div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">
I recently completed the '<a href="http://www.powersearchingwithgoogle.com/" target="_blank">Power Searching with Google</a>' MOOC (massive open online course) and thought it would be useful for me to share some of the tips I picked up along the way... here goes...</div>
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<b>1. Image searching is far more useful than you might have realised</b></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j4szlzydw-Y/UBjZwODExwI/AAAAAAAAB2A/ILScITQQOJY/s1600/powersearching_01+Aug.+01+08.24.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="264" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j4szlzydw-Y/UBjZwODExwI/AAAAAAAAB2A/ILScITQQOJY/s320/powersearching_01+Aug.+01+08.24.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a></div>
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Searching for infographic CVs on Google</div>
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If you're looking for an example of a CV you'd just type 'CV example' into Google, right? Well... what you might not have thought about doing was going to the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://images.google.com/" target="_blank">images search</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and typing it there instead. The reason this is great is it's a really quick way of doing a visual search for layout ideas... or diagrams... or visual explanations of concepts etc. Brilliant for that!</div>
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<b>2. Google search is not case sensitive</b></div>
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Y'know, I just didn't realise this... but it isn't. If you search for 'NASA' or 'nasa', it won't matter - the results would be the same either way.</div>
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<b>3. But word order matters</b></div>
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Searching for 'green grass' and 'grass green' will produce two very different sets of results. Think carefully about the order in which you enter search terms as this<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>will</i> affect your results.</div>
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<b>4. Using the site: operator can help narrow your results</b></div>
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If you're after results just from academic institutions then simply add<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>site:.ac.uk</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>to your search criteria (no space between site and the domain extension) - this can be a really great way of finding what other institutions are doing on particular subjects. Equally, restricting it to site:.uk will keep your results from UK domains etc. Simple technique but very effective.</div>
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<b>5. Using the filetype: operator can help you track down more than just pdf files</b></div>
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Did you know you could add in filetype:pdf and it would just find you pdf files? Nor did I... but nor did I know that it could search for other file types which could be extremely useful. For example, search for something with<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>filetype:kml</b> (kml are Google Earth files) and you'll be able to see your results in Google Maps - perfect for tracking down walks / routes to places even historical expeditions which have been mapped.</div>
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<b>6. Search features can short cut you to answers quicker</b></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YAlukANMsk0/UBjcPRL8aZI/AAAAAAAAB2I/Pyl0kvbA-4k/s1600/powersearching_02+Aug.+01+08.35.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="94" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YAlukANMsk0/UBjcPRL8aZI/AAAAAAAAB2I/Pyl0kvbA-4k/s320/powersearching_02+Aug.+01+08.35.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a></div>
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Using the weather Search Feature in Google to</div>
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quickly track the fact that it's going to rain!</div>
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Want to find out the weather in Sheffield (it's rainy, by the way!)... just type in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>weather Sheffield</b> and it'll come straight up. There are a whole host of '<a href="http://www.google.com/help/features.html" target="_blank">search features</a>' which do things like this, from finding out the time in other cities to sunrise times in your holiday location to definitions, performing calculations, converting units, looking up health conditions and more. There are tons of them which you may have noticed producing quicker results but not realised this was a feature... it is and it's excellent!</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tqc3cJirqQk/UBjdau2NdiI/AAAAAAAAB2Q/7l9_GhiOxJ8/s1600/powersearching_04+Aug.+01+08.40.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tqc3cJirqQk/UBjdau2NdiI/AAAAAAAAB2Q/7l9_GhiOxJ8/s320/powersearching_04+Aug.+01+08.40.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="119" /></a></div>
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More search tools</div>
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<b>7. You have more search tools than you might realise</b></div>
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If you click on<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>more search tools</b> on the left hand side of a search window it'll drop down to reveal some more search goodies. You can restrict items by the time they were published (which is great if you want to find out the latest news or blog posts on something or articles published within a particular period)... you can search for sites with images, for content at a particular reading level or even do a '<a href="http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1734130&topic=1221265&ctx=topic" target="_blank">verbatim</a>' search which will search for<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>exactly<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>the terms you want with no 'help' from Google.</div>
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<b>8. Google's translation functionality is superb</b></div>
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Yes, you can come up with some wonky translations but did you know you can search pages from other countries which have been translated? It's in the more search tools section mentioned above so is straight forward to access. Why would you do it? Well, want to know what other countries are saying about the crisis in the Eurozone? Want to know how an event was reported elsewhere to give additional context? This is a terrific way to do just that.</div>
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<b>9. Don't think like your query, think like the results you want to find</b></div>
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This sounds a bit mad, but actually makes sense. If you're trying to find an answer to something you'd think you should type in the question but this won't necessarily get you what you're after - the search engine doesn't answer questions just finds results. Instead think about what terms might appear on the pages you want and enter those as keywords instead. Be aware that this might skew your results - so choose keywords with an awareness of their impact (i.e. searching for the place 'Londonderry' will bring up different results to searching for 'Derry' because of the political history attached to the name). To include both terms in your results use the OR<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=136861&rd=2" target="_blank">operator</a>.</div>
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<b>10. Image searching is brilliant</b></div>
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Drag and drop an image into a Google search and</div>
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it'll find it on the web (if it exists there)</div>
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Yes, I know I've already mentioned this, but how many times have you come across images / diagrams where a student has referenced 'Google' as the source or (lazily!) said 'I don't know where I got it' (as if it just landed itself on their computer one day in an act of academic magic). If you save that image to your computer and then drag it into the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://images.google.com/" target="_blank">images search</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>bar - you can find other instances of it on the web and most likely track down the source.</div>
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There you have it - my top 10 'power searching with Google' tips (there were more than these and I bet I'll come back to this post and think 'why didn't I mention that?!'). If you've got a bit of time to squeeze in some new ideas, then explore<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.powersearchingwithgoogle.com/" target="_blank">Power Searching with Google</a>. I bet you'll get a few tips from that too!</div>
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Sarah</div>Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-29095465822818083582012-07-20T19:06:00.001+01:002012-07-20T19:06:53.198+01:00Finished a MOOC!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Get me! 100%! Okay, so probably<br />everyone got 100%... but even so... :o)</td></tr>
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Hooray! I finished my first MOOC!!! The <a href="http://www.google.com/insidesearch/landing/powersearching.html" target="_blank">Google Power Searching one</a> which wasn't massively complex... and it didn't feel massively massive either! It came in a pretty standard format. Watch a video... do some simple activities... repeat... do a mid-course test... watch video... do simple activities... do post-class test.<br />
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The thing is, I completed it. Which is more than I've done with any other. What was different about this one?<br />
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1. Well, the format was familiar. No, it didn't set the world on fire in terms of jamming in every technology under the sun... and no I didn't take part in the discussions (though I did look at a couple)... but it was straightforward.<br />
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2. It was genuinely useful. The search techniques are immediately transferable into practice and though a lot of it wasn't new, there were sufficient 'ah ha!' moments to make it worthwhile.<br />
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3. It was short. The sections were digestible. 6 x 50 minute sessions with videos which were anywhere between about 3 and 8 minutes long was perfectly easy to dip into. And the end was in sight quick enough for it to fit with everything else.<br />
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4. I felt in control. I didn't have to join in with the interactive bits if I didn't have time. If I didn't even have to watch the main videos if I didn't want to - there were text alternatives provided which made it scannable. There were no hurdles of forced participation and that worked for me.<br />
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For me, what makes a successful MOOC (so far)?<br />
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A format that isn't too complex, a tangible payoff from studying and timings / delivery which fit in with everyday life. MOOCs that haven't worked for me have bombarded me with 'stuff' to the extent where I felt I was drowning. Or encouraged me to join in with others and gave me activities which would require a hefty chunk of my time to complete and share (sharing something always makes you spend more time on it than you would do if you were on your own and didn't have to show it anyone). Plus, if there are no bits which are transferable then you really *really* have to be motivated to stay on course. <br />
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Would I do a MOOC in this format again? Yup.<br />
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And I quite enjoyed it!Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-13034005983761293602012-07-02T09:35:00.002+01:002012-07-02T09:47:08.154+01:00Audio feedback - some thoughts on 'A Personal Voice'<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: right; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0.5em; margin-left: 1em; orphans: 2; padding: 6px; text-align: right; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><tbody>
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Image from<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/auralasia/4381121155/in/photostream/" target="_blank">Kenn Delbridge</a>, available under a</div>
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CC<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/" target="_blank">BY-ND 2.0</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>license</div>
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Last Friday, the 29th of June, I attended an HEA symposium at the University of Leicester called '<a href="http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2012/seminars/disciplines/DW167" target="_blank">A Personal Voice? The whys and hows of effective audio feedback</a>'. It took the form of a couple of workshops and then some presentations and discussions.</div>
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Which sounds simple enough, but when the workshops involve a group of people from a range of Higher Education Institutions coming up with Olympic themed-limericks and drawing pictures to illustrate... then you can see that it wasn't your ordinary event! In fact, it was a whole lot of fun as well as being really engaging and thought-provoking. Oh, and if you're wondering, the limerick exercise was a route into getting us to provide written feedback, reflect on that feedback and then have a go with audio feedback. It also got everyone talking - and if in the future I run a staff development session and there are limericks involved, then the organisers of this event are to blame! :o)</div>
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Our Olympic themed limerick illustration</div>
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In terms of the experience of providing audio feedback, each of the four groups used different technologies - from Jing to an mp3 recorder, Adobe Acrobat and - I think - the iPad app 'Explain Everything' (though I'm not 100% sure on this one, sorry!). The experience of recording feedback in this way was fascinating. Many people really struggled with getting started - there's a real anxiety about recording your own voice which is hard to overcome.</div>
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Our group were given Adobe Acrobat to insert voice comments on the 'script'. The advantage was that this is a free tool and that it's relatively straightforward. The issue for me, at least, was that it's seriously difficult to spot your comments once you've put them on a script. And the interface isn't intuitive in the slightest especially when it comes to reviewing or even editing your comment (the edit function is non-existent). Putting specific comments within the script also sounds like a good idea, but because of the lack of structure to this - where do students start when it comes to retrieving their feedback? - and the artificial fragmentation of breaking your comments into lots of short recordings was just a strange experience. You lose the flow of your thoughts. The temptation to be too curt is there. And from a student's perspective, the ability to quickly scan through comments is removed entirely - without indexing of comments, using them as an ongoing reflective tool is extremely difficult.</div>
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When we reviewed the feedback given by the group using Jing, this seemed far better. It felt like you were being talked through the feedback rather than just having it drop on you in individual chunks. It also felt as if it were a slightly more natural experience for the person giving feedback too - though obviously since this wasn't me, I'm only guessing!</div>
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Things that came out of this workshop? <b>Don't script</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>your feedback - it sounds dull and is dull to receive. However,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>do structure</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>your feedback - help the learner to find their way through it, 'I'm going to be covering three things, a, b and c in this feedback' etc are helpful. It's useful to signpost which bits of the script you're talking about - with the mp3-only option this was particularly important since the script was not on-screen at the same time as the audio. Additionally, talk like a human being and personalise where possible!</div>
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It was interesting to hear about the '<b>A Personal Voice</b>' project and '<b>AUDIBLE</b>' as well from Jennifer Beard, University of Leicester. They looked at various aspects - Contiguity (in context vs out of context comments); Working memory (chunking feedback vs a single overall feedback file - presenting more material results in less understanding!); Personal vs. community experience (do you provide individual or group feedback?); Nuance (is it the way we say things or do we choose to say things differently via audio?). It will be good to see the results of their work - some of the initial findings were shared and a couple of things particularly stood out. Firstly, the fact that distance learning students<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>didn't</i> prefer audio feedback to written, especially compared to on-campus students who liked it far more. Secondly, students didn't just want icing on their feedback cake - they want sprinkles too... audio feedback is one thing but they like audio<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>and</b> written feedback. The fears of workload overload loom large, I fear.</div>
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After Jennifer came<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://blog.uelconnect.org.uk/warren/" target="_blank">Warren Kidd</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>who presented on his experience of using audio to deliver feedback to trainee teachers at the University of East London with '<b>Why haven't you written on my work?</b>'. He's an engaging speaker and it was interesting to hear him say that he goes for a structured rather than scripted approach (confirming the earlier thoughts during the morning's sessions). Things to consider when thinking about structure:</div>
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<li><span style="background-color: white;">What is the purpose of recording?</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">How long should the recording be? (theirs were around 3 - 4 mins)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">How should the recording start? ('Hello this is x giving you feedback on y, you may wish to have your assignment with you during this podcast etc..')</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">When should the grade be disclosed? (they elected to do this towards the start of the feedback with the normal caveat about the grade needing to be confirmed by exam boards - randomly placing the grade was artificial and unhelpful)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white;">What is the relationship between what you do or don't write on students' work?</span></li>
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<span style="background-color: white;">He said his workflow involved jotting down a few key points as a skeleton and using those to guide his feedback. Helpful and practical advice!</span></div>
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Warren also spoke about getting over the scariness of the mic through his work with producing podcasts prior to giving audio feedback (you can get a flavour of his<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://blog.uelconnect.org.uk/warren/" target="_blank">podcasts on his blog</a>) - how to get people through that particular issue is something to reflect on, I think. He emphasised the importance of giving feedback rather than feed forward and viewing the audio feedback as a form of personal tutorial. Although they have an anonymous marking policy, they were able to adapt this to reveal the students' identities after marking - so, scripts were marked anonymously, but feedback given slightly later with identities known. This really helped them give that personal feedback and the feeling that students were being talked to as individuals. Warren played an example of his audio feedback and it really was great to have the opportunity to hear this. He recalled having seen - through chance - his student receiving their feedback and seeing them nodding along in agreement, then later mailing him to thank him for helping them understand points they'd previously just not grasped. It clearly is an engaging format for learners.</div>
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More drawing and limericks in workshops from</div>
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now on, I think!</div>
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Questions I came away with, however... is it the fact that this is forcing practitioners to think about what is the purpose of feedback and how it fits into the curriculum which makes the difference? Or can we honestly say that it is the audio format which is the key? As someone who's used to providing a very conversational and personalised form of written feedback I didn't really recognise some of the issues which were presented about written feedback. It was interesting to note that no staff development work on feedback was done prior to the research from the University of Leicester. If you haven't controlled for that variable in some way, then how can you know that it was providing feedback in either audio or written form which made a difference? There are always better ways to do things - and feedback in audio form doesn't automatically transform into being 'better' simply because of technology... just as feedback in written form doesn't instantly become 'worse'. The elephant in the room about the ability to provide meaningful, useful feedback / feedforward in whatever format just didn't get addressed. </div>
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Also, viewing feedback as being 'conversational' simply because you could hear the conversation doesn't mean it<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>is</i> a conversation if the participant is given no voice. In other words, it's still mono-directional in a way that a personal tutorial isn't. </div>
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Finally, if you're looking to audio as a way to make the marking and feedback process more efficient / easier, then I don't think you'll find that it is - especially if there's still a need to provide written feedback too. If anything, the workload seems to be expanding! This is definitely a point to ponder further!</div>
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A really interesting and valuable day - many thanks to the organisers at the University of Leicester!</div>
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Sarah</div>Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-72816198718474732082012-06-19T21:53:00.000+01:002012-06-19T21:54:14.216+01:0010 Tips for using images in presentationsHave just got around to uploading a few bits and bobs to SlideShare and thought that it might be handy to share the '10 tips for using images in presentations' slides I did. They're dead simple...<br />
<div id="__ss_13384227" style="width: 510px;">
<b style="display: block; margin: 12px 0 4px;"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Sarah.Horrigan/using-images-in-presentations" target="_blank" title="Using images in presentations">Using images in presentations</a></b> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="426" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/13384227?rel=0" style="border-width: 1px 1px 0; border: 1px solid #CCC;" width="510"></iframe> <br />
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View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/thecroaker/death-by-powerpoint" target="_blank">PowerPoint</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Sarah.Horrigan" target="_blank">Sarah Horrigan-Fullard</a> </div>
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<b>1. Fill the screen for more impact</b><br />
Using a small image can be okay sometimes, but for a really punchy slide filling it with the whole of an image can work brilliantly - it not only helps you emphasise your point but keeps you from jamming on too much text (which just won't be read)<br />
<br />
<b>2. Make sure your image leaves enough space for the text</b><br />
... so, when you're looking for images to use - keep that one in mind!<br />
<br />
<b>3. Don't use clipart</b><br />
... well, not if you can help it. It's kinda stuck in the 1990s and looks amateurish. It can be okay if you edit the clipart so it fits in with your overall style for the slides, but generally best to avoid<br />
<br />
<b>4. Avoid busy images</b><br />
Too much stuff going on in the image makes it hard to read any text over the top - if you *need* to use *that* image, then consider using a slightly transparent fill behind the text / applying a little bit of shadow to the text to help it stand out.<br />
<br />
<b>5. Avoid pixelated images</b><br />
The normal culprit here is using an image which either isn't high enough resolution or is too small and you stretched it to make it larger on the presentation. Don't! Find good / appropriate quality shots and use them instead. Pixelated = poor quality.<br />
<br />
<b>6. Work with your colour scheme</b><br />
Don't have a colour scheme? Get one! You can search for particular colour images in <a href="http://compfight.com/">compfight.com</a> and finding something that complements what you're trying to do with the design of your slides is really what you're after. The exception here is if you're deliberately using the colour to make a point. I might use a darker image to create a particular mood then contrast that with one with bright blues and greens etc to open things out again. Whatever you do, think about the impact those colour choices have on the message you're trying to get across.<br />
<br />
<b>7. Avoid cheesy shots</b><br />
Stock images with smiley models posing awkwardly? Not so much! Don't be too literal either. I remember seeing a presentation one time where every point was illustrated with a literal image. Where they talked about 'building bridges' - up popped an image of a bridge. 'Reaching out to students' - there was an image of someone reaching out. It's just a bit... well... awkward... and in the end takes the emphasis off what you're trying to present!<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOuG8x4kY_GYtrpx0i_0XYHOcEJlYTvYGF_S9mRdlxp57idKdsg974y1dUdU9tzxgsllz764mCBm7eKmnbY8eETOLrj1ly8-_E35e8q-S7NydYu5iZJf5ODvHcnDlPP127oghzhCU9vsI/s1600/Sparkly+two.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOuG8x4kY_GYtrpx0i_0XYHOcEJlYTvYGF_S9mRdlxp57idKdsg974y1dUdU9tzxgsllz764mCBm7eKmnbY8eETOLrj1ly8-_E35e8q-S7NydYu5iZJf5ODvHcnDlPP127oghzhCU9vsI/s320/Sparkly+two.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Everyone likes a little bit of sparkle in their<br />presentations... right?</td></tr>
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<b>8. Don't let the image dominate</b><br />
Remember, this is a presentation which *you* are giving - the images are like visual punctuation. They can help make points, they can emphasise or set a mood... they can illustrate... but they shouldn't take over. If the audience are mesmerised by the images you've used... they're not listening to you!<br />
<br />
<b>9. Use the rule of thirds</b><br />
Actually, use basic design principles. <a href="http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2005/08/from_golden_mea.html">Presentation Zen</a> has a wealth of these that will apply perfectly to your presentation and the way you use images. Go... have a read. It really will help you get away from that boring bullet point style and get you feeling comfortable with using images to good effect.<br />
<br />
<b>10. Don't infringe copyright</b><br />
This is SO important. Either get permission, use Creative Commons licensed images (in accordance with the license) or use your own shots. It's not hard to take okay shots and it'll keep you on nice safe grounds with your presentations. Equally, there are <a href="http://compfight.com/">tons of fantastic images</a> with a CC license that you can use. <br />
<br />
As long as you're thinking about the images you use, how you use them and why... that's a much better place to be than just glueing bad images onto a bullet-point heavy presentation. Trust me on this one. :o)Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-45690049860952750372012-05-18T21:54:00.000+01:002012-06-30T06:26:32.770+01:00MOOCing - First Steps into Learning & Teaching in Higher Education<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgncU69MpvVsZLrl1HnelO83917JQ3f9XzN6-UjxzXjKbf_QgaArad9zEKry0OTOEcIsvuPi5fNR8xIxthDZ0akuY6qRFJtTP-chwzoYJoyuQjxtOn-5yv_0e1PXFU0QLkK2R_0GFvdal0/s1600/Portland+Building+-+UoP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgncU69MpvVsZLrl1HnelO83917JQ3f9XzN6-UjxzXjKbf_QgaArad9zEKry0OTOEcIsvuPi5fNR8xIxthDZ0akuY6qRFJtTP-chwzoYJoyuQjxtOn-5yv_0e1PXFU0QLkK2R_0GFvdal0/s320/Portland+Building+-+UoP.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="http://openbrookes.net/firststeps12/">First Steps into Learning & Teaching in Higher Education: 21 May – 22 June '12 | #fslt12 The Open Line mooc – HEA/JISC/Oxford Brookes University</a>: "Welcome to the First Steps into Learning and Teaching in Higher Education massive open online course (mooc). The course will run from 21 May to 22 June 2012. This mooc is developed by the HEA/JISC funded OpenLine Project at Oxford Brookes University. Registration is open."<br />
<br />
<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pengoopmcjnbflcjbmoeodbmoflcgjlk" style="font-size: 13px;">'via Blog this'</a><br />
<br />
Had forgotten that I'd registered my interest in this... but... I have... and it starts on Monday... so... here goes. Attempting to participate in a MOOC and actually do it this time around!<br />
<br />
Come on brain cells... you can do this...Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com148tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-20275077231270464042012-05-09T14:35:00.001+01:002012-05-10T08:38:26.243+01:00Google+ Hangouts On Air for Education<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr-PVfSfSYDjxvbBStPo9dLypZ1PIXOvbnDvwnABOkaYwmRBilbfKtoojPOu31vgtVmoT4amqoF-XveObeOKqGfWiwRacJ_KfWDpCe4UFmsynMRqB-MM0PwsoC4CZvmVlssZboaWY7A3Y/s1600/Hangouts+on+air+enabled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr-PVfSfSYDjxvbBStPo9dLypZ1PIXOvbnDvwnABOkaYwmRBilbfKtoojPOu31vgtVmoT4amqoF-XveObeOKqGfWiwRacJ_KfWDpCe4UFmsynMRqB-MM0PwsoC4CZvmVlssZboaWY7A3Y/s400/Hangouts+on+air+enabled.jpg" width="292" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hangouts On Air enabled</td></tr>
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Well, in the last few days, <a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/google-hangouts-on-air-broadcast-your.html" target="_blank">Google have been opening up the 'Hangouts On Air' facility</a> within Google+. What this means is that you now get the opportunity to stream your hangout live and have it recorded on YouTube - which is fantastic.<br />
<br />
However... though I think Hangouts On Air for education could work well for sessions you want to be completely open - webinars are a prime example... wherever you want your students to engage and discuss things in an honest, open - and sometimes vulnerable way... I'm not sure that the recording / streaming of a Hangout On Air outweighs the potential barrier that lack of privacy while the hangout is live would present.<br />
<br />
Equally, it's also worth thinking about your institutional policy on the openness of your teaching? Does your institution allow you to broadcast to the rest of the world? That's going to impact on this too... and is important to bear in mind!<br />
<br />
Here are a few of the 'early days' pros and cons... am happy to be corrected / have others add things to this list. It'll be interesting to see Hangouts On Air develop as a product and to see what Google prioritise...<br />
<br />
<b>Pros:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Easy to use</li>
<li>Free</li>
<li>Readily available if you have Google Apps enabled for the campus</li>
<li>Can stream live to YouTube and reach a global audience</li>
<li>Can invite specific people to take part live - but have to do this ahead of going 'On Air'</li>
<li>Can share apps within the hangout (as with normal hangouts)</li>
<li>Recording made of the hangout which can be downloaded from YouTube</li>
<li>Can control visibility of YouTube video after the event</li>
<li>Can embed video within an institutional VLE</li>
<li>Can create screencasts using a Google+ Hangout On Air - you don't need an audience to hang out</li>
<li>Can edit the recording using YouTube's video editor - including annotation, closed captioning </li>
<li>Can take advantage of Creative Commons licensing within YouTube for the resulting video</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Cons:</b><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDasv3a25_M0FjRxr4lCj5pzSo9n0FVml-xLmCRwezVC5Um5t_8vUtIhOEdx8iZCE4LSt4d03gClSQyla-dimsPPb8iQ-QeE_BA_qeKORGcwwkHDCE-qGHu4LPGSQgMikQwB0hv72xL2M/s1600/Copyright+hangout+on+air.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="129" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDasv3a25_M0FjRxr4lCj5pzSo9n0FVml-xLmCRwezVC5Um5t_8vUtIhOEdx8iZCE4LSt4d03gClSQyla-dimsPPb8iQ-QeE_BA_qeKORGcwwkHDCE-qGHu4LPGSQgMikQwB0hv72xL2M/s320/Copyright+hangout+on+air.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Copyright notice / participation agreement<br />
on entering a Hangout On Air</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<ul>
<li>Cannot limit the audience on YouTube when streaming - it's either public or public</li>
<li>There are <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/hangouts" target="_blank">extensions on Chrome</a> which will allow people to 'find' your Hangout On Air easily too - and which further publicises your hangout and diminishes any privacy</li>
<li>Cannot share resources for which you don't have permission / have the copyright </li>
<li>Difficult to moderate comments on YouTube whilst running the session</li>
<li>Because when it's live on YouTube it's public, random strangers can comment on your Hangout On Air </li>
<li>Learners might be put off participating because of the public nature of the Hangout</li>
<li>You can't kick someone out of a Hangout - only block them</li>
<li>If the URL of the Hangout On Air is shared then anyone with the URL can join even if they weren't invited</li>
<li>As the broadcaster, you have to <a href="http://www.google.com/+/policy/hangoutsonair.html" target="_blank">take responsibility</a> for others copyright infringements</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Useful further resources:</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2553248" target="_blank">More on Copyright in Hangouts On Air</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2459411&topic=2553242&ctx=topic" target="_blank">Commons questions about Hangouts On Air</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.google.com/+/policy/hangoutsonair.html" target="_blank">Hangouts On Air - Terms of Service</a> <br />
<br />
<b>Final thought:</b><br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcNbfyXOrQhb4Mf7oKPhFXy93Q6_BhYpOOb3jmyPmvyXwlTRKgQ5g_ZMq6oRDUHsrNJOCyHtGoakaXX7Xf3syJ9LXDCLS7viwGTS3PNt8Vl8E9VqxUCk7-zgGfJZoYv11e33KyKHCL2Vg/s1600/Hangouts+on+air.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcNbfyXOrQhb4Mf7oKPhFXy93Q6_BhYpOOb3jmyPmvyXwlTRKgQ5g_ZMq6oRDUHsrNJOCyHtGoakaXX7Xf3syJ9LXDCLS7viwGTS3PNt8Vl8E9VqxUCk7-zgGfJZoYv11e33KyKHCL2Vg/s320/Hangouts+on+air.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hangout On Air live and public on a Google+ stream</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I think that Google+ Hangouts which you can limit to very specific groups - circles and individuals (or even an institution) will be a more comfortable informal learning environment for now... unless Google allow a finer control of the live audience for Google+ Hangouts On Air. The advantage of built in recording and integration with Google Apps sites really makes Hangouts On Air a very attractive teaching tool... but since part of learning is about admitting what you don't know and experiencing failure - I think that having a 'safe' environment in which that can take place is vital. Google+ Hangouts On Air aren't that space at present while Google+ Hangouts can be.<br />
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It takes a brave person to learn in public. It takes an *extremely* brave person to learn in front of a potentially global audience!Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com72tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-39521706224814385432012-04-29T15:42:00.002+01:002012-04-29T16:29:33.673+01:00Technology in the classroom? Always a good thing?!<a href="http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/getting-out-of-the-box-20120427-1xq44.html">Getting out of the box</a>:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"How to teach the so-called soft skills demanded of tomorrow's workforce - creativity, problem solving and the ability to work in teams - is a conundrum preoccupying educators. Once upon a time, schools prepared the workers of the future for the industrial age, according to leading British education expert Professor Stephen Heppell. Children sat in rows with the teacher at the front of the classroom. The teachers had all the answers; they were the sole purveyors of knowledge. Students absorbed what they were taught and regurgitated it in tests.
After graduation, they worked in factories that mass-produced hubcaps or they joined the typing pool. Ingenuity was not particularly important. But while such schools may have worked in the 1950s, Heppell says the third millennium poses new challenges. The internet means children have access to more information than ever before. Teachers are no longer the font of all wisdom."</blockquote>
<br />
<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pengoopmcjnbflcjbmoeodbmoflcgjlk" style="font-size: 13px;">'via Blog this'</a><br />
<br />
Just read this interesting article on a primary school in Australia which Microsoft have declared a 'mentor school' because of their use of technology. On one level, it sounds fantastic. All those kids engaged in their learning. Brilliant.<br />
<br />
But...<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglvEb3y471XU1ToSinn4uedJ4FMhJ6RCyctBgiz7Jc3vaEqYwGgmwnKslY7lvMUa56aAmh0BOO0ECR_V7F3BT25Ukz2Lmw9phS45BZBsxrZ0UVWos5UYvZ2ENTzNhEum-Yz_XqYTj1XLk/s1600/Reading+by+the+fire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglvEb3y471XU1ToSinn4uedJ4FMhJ6RCyctBgiz7Jc3vaEqYwGgmwnKslY7lvMUa56aAmh0BOO0ECR_V7F3BT25Ukz2Lmw9phS45BZBsxrZ0UVWos5UYvZ2ENTzNhEum-Yz_XqYTj1XLk/s320/Reading+by+the+fire.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
... I don't know - there's something about it that makes me feel rather uncomfortable. Too much of a 'good' thing? The quote 'Education extinguishes the skills that you actually need in life' might be true, but why do they feel that exposure to technology which will be hugely dated by the time those children enter their independent adult life is the solution, I'm not sure. Imagine if there had been the insistance that all learning for children in the early / mid 1980s was mediated through BBC Micros (and I know there was some, but the cost of the kit prevented it from being ubiquitous in the curriculum) - those weren't the skills that would have been useful now. Encouraging the skills of curiosity, a love of learning, the ability to reflect and challenge - those are surely key skills which haven't changed? There is so much time for children to get to grips with technology - and so many different avenues in which they can. But, instead of thinking about face-to-face social skills and how to nurture those, their faces are instead turned towards a screen of some sort. They're going global before they even know that *they* exist as an individual in the world.<br />
<br />
As soon as someone points to the iPad / [insert name of other hot shiny technology] to enable learners to become 21st Century citizens, I think how we would have laughed in the 1990s if someone from 1912 was declaring that they had found the key to being a 20th Century learner. <br />
<br />
It isn't the <i>thing</i>, it's the <i>thinking</i> we should be focusing on.Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com59tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-57647217718562082332012-04-20T18:16:00.002+01:002012-04-20T18:16:51.163+01:00RSS feeds from tagged items on Delicious<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilKbcZXbNbdTW37F-fY8RCOgYpYXAlq_t693FkD57D8-wekh3NaDhjgNdIyvgssoCoe58QHazQeHigZq3qsOJfMfqANl2HBoDYSzQ1x2sHxSSAGP7AKMQbWG9uB9HKSZR5jSReTCbDfyI/s1600/Fownd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilKbcZXbNbdTW37F-fY8RCOgYpYXAlq_t693FkD57D8-wekh3NaDhjgNdIyvgssoCoe58QHazQeHigZq3qsOJfMfqANl2HBoDYSzQ1x2sHxSSAGP7AKMQbWG9uB9HKSZR5jSReTCbDfyI/s320/Fownd.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
In the good old days, you used to see RSS feeds all over the place for <a href="http://delicious.com/" target="_blank">Delicious</a>. The subscribe option was at the bottom of just about every page. But then... they disappeared. And all of that aggregating loveliness disappeared. Yes, you still get an RSS feed for your personal Delicious bookmarks and that's easy to subscribe to - and of course you can subscribe to other people's RSS feeds too. However, one of the very nicest things about social bookmarking is... well... the social bit. And subscribing to a particular tag from all users is just not easy at all.<br />
<br />
I'll just go back a step and answer the question 'Why would you want to do that?' before I waffle my way into oblivion. Well, subscribing to a tag rather than an individual is perfect if you have a team that's constantly finding useful resources on the web and they're all linked in some way - just ask them to tag them with whatever they want <b>plus</b> your unique tag and you can happily bring all of them together to share with others. It doesn't matter who's saving it, you can bring it together with a unique tag. For example, in the past I've used the tag 'NTUEDU' as a unique tag and asked anyone at Nottingham Trent University to tag resources they saved on Delicious with that tag. What I could then do was say to other people 'this is what we're interested in, this is what we think are good resources about learning / technology' and get them to subscribe to that link or bring them into places like NetVibes. Equally, you can use services like <a href="http://ifttt.com/">ifttt.com</a> to tweet a link that's been saved to Delicious from any user - provided you have an RSS feed for it. Or use something like <a href="http://reader.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Reader</a> to find out if anyone's using a hashtag to save resources for a conference you're going to attend.<br />
<br />
However, those RSS feeds for tags saved by multiple users disappeared from Delicious a year or so ago that makes trying to do the above things kinda frustrating!<br />
<br />
But, I've just been tinkering about with setting up a new NetVibes page and wanted to share what items are being saved from me and others which relate to our work. Easy. Just aggregate the things people are saving with a unique tag. Ah. Problem. The missing RSS feeds.<br />
<br />
I tried to track them down. I spent a while messing with <a href="http://feed43.com/">feed43.com</a> to create an RSS feed from my searching for the tag I wanted on Delicious. And it <a href="http://feed43.com/cicsdelicious.xml" target="_blank">worked</a>. But mangled my head en route with all those {%} doobries, extraction rules and the like. And it just doesn't seem like an easy solution. But it is one way around it.<br />
<br />
However, after doing that, I did a bit more Googling to find out the back story to the missing RSS feeds and spotted this from someone else:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://delicious.com/v2/rss/tag/web2.0">http://delicious.com/v2/rss/tag/web2.0</a><br />
<br />
And the lightbulb moment happened. <br />
<br />
Just change that end bit - and there's your RSS feed.<br />
<br />
http://delicious.com/v2/rss/tag/<b style="color: red;">changethisbit</b><br />
<br />
If the tag you want to aggregate is '<b>elearning</b>', your RSS feed would be http://delicious.com/v2/rss/tag/<b style="color: red;">elearning</b><br />
<br />
With that little RSS feed you can then aggregate, auto-tweet, auto-save, easily share and really use some of the benefits of social bookmarking.<br />
<br />
Oh, and if you prefer to use <a href="http://diigo.com/" target="_blank">Diigo</a> for your social bookmarking, then you can do that, but set up the 'Save to Delicious' function in <a href="http://www.diigo.com/tools" target="_blank">Tools</a>, and it'll automatically push your bookmarks, complete with tags, to Delicious. To be honest, this is the option I do because I prefer Diigo, but have always like the RSS-ability of Delicious!<br />
<br />
The final RSS treat I discovered on my RSS traipsing was a list of all the <a href="http://developer.yahoo.com/rss/" target="_blank">RSS Feeds for Yahoo services</a> - I accept this is a little nerdy, but if you like your RSS and like squishing it together with other services / tools, then it's useful to know what else is readily out there.<br />
<br />
And here endeth my geekish stuff for the week!Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-13451368345124165982012-04-16T11:00:00.001+01:002012-04-16T11:00:07.196+01:00Google+ Circles in Plain EnglishOf all the things about Google+, one of the things that took me longest to get my head around was Circles. They just didn't intuitively make sense to me.<br />
<br />
However. The penny has finally dropped. So, if you're not sure about how a Google+ circle works... this is as simple an explanation as I can manage!<br />
<br />
1. Circles are a way for you to organise people you're interested in and to restrict the audience for your posts<br />
2. Putting someone in a circle allows you to follow their <b>public</b> posts<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AbvIdy0lJWc/T4rTno1BXVI/AAAAAAAAClk/khKD-35IzJM/s1600/A7337EE0-DD87-4942-9705-D009BC8AF980.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AbvIdy0lJWc/T4rTno1BXVI/AAAAAAAAClk/khKD-35IzJM/s400/A7337EE0-DD87-4942-9705-D009BC8AF980.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
3. It does <b>not</b> mean that if you share something with the circle you've put them in, it'll appear in their stream<br />
4. They can see what it is you shared <b>if</b> they happen to visit your profile<br />
5. For it to appear in their stream, they'd have to have you in a circle too<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cClK4ukll9c/T4rTnhdQVOI/AAAAAAAAClk/k9aDzLWtJA8/s1600/DA92B291-AF15-4F55-8B9D-A818E8496CE9.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cClK4ukll9c/T4rTnhdQVOI/AAAAAAAAClk/k9aDzLWtJA8/s400/DA92B291-AF15-4F55-8B9D-A818E8496CE9.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
6. Remember... a circle is <b>not</b> a lasso that you throw around someone else to yank them into a circled conversation!<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y8X-Gsp8ih4/T4rTntn4wgI/AAAAAAAAClk/i3gRN-OwQn8/s1600/78249914-F0A8-4BAA-9412-ED03DDBE8B31.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y8X-Gsp8ih4/T4rTntn4wgI/AAAAAAAAClk/i3gRN-OwQn8/s400/78249914-F0A8-4BAA-9412-ED03DDBE8B31.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
And that's about it! Circles have to be mutual for there to be conversation, otherwise all you're doing is following someone's public posts.Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-49833148287220454972012-04-13T18:34:00.002+01:002012-04-15T15:22:00.798+01:00Ten ways to use Google+ in Education...Google+ is a funny thing. Just the other day, Google were saying that the service had over 170 million users with 100 million of those active in the previous month. And yet, if you've thought you'd have a go yourself, it can feel eerily quiet. Well, I've had that experience too and at first found it extremely off-putting. Add into the mix a confusion between my personal Google account and the university Google Apps account I've got, well... let's just say it took me a while to get my head around it!<br />
<br />
However, because I think that as learning technologists it's our job to see the potential in things and to explore them fairly and fully - I persisted. And I have to say that I'm glad I have. So, I thought it would be helpful for me to share <b>ten of the ways I've used Google+ </b>which have helped me to find a role for it in the portfolio of online tools I currently work with.<br />
<br />
<b>1. Sharing curated content with comment</b><br />
<b><br />
</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3k2NW9_KQRo/T4hiF2obFCI/AAAAAAAAASw/wi7XAjhSFxw/s1600/Sharing+resources.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3k2NW9_KQRo/T4hiF2obFCI/AAAAAAAAASw/wi7XAjhSFxw/s400/Sharing+resources.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Link shared with comment on Google+</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
One of the advantages (or disadvantages, depending on your perspective) of Google+ is that you can't auto-publish content to it. This means that rather than feeling spammed you know that every item involved someone thinking about the way it was shared - and that's a good thing. Because there's theoretically no limit to the number of characters (although I believe it's around <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/30/status-update-character-limit/" target="_blank">100,000</a>) people can use to comment on a link, it means that you can get the context of whatever's been shared and it can help open up items for further discussion and sharing. Overall, it boosts the quality of what's there and means that dipping into Google+ is more likely to pull up something useful.<br />
<br />
<b>2. Sharing with a very specific audience</b><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V5z8Tm5Kl0Q/T4hL1CasDBI/AAAAAAAAAQo/tI6BqBXawL0/s1600/Share+photos+with+limited+audience.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V5z8Tm5Kl0Q/T4hL1CasDBI/AAAAAAAAAQo/tI6BqBXawL0/s1600/Share+photos+with+limited+audience.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photos of our new offices, shared only with the team</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
While it's easy to send out an email to multiple recipients, it's very easy to share with specific groups in Google+. You just create a circle with those people in it, and then whenever you want to share something with them, you chose that circle as the audience. It means it goes only to them and for things like shared images / video, you don't open them up to the world or weigh down someone's inbox. For example, when I took some photos of our new offices, I knew only my team would be interested - so I uploaded the photos, shared it with my 'Learning Technologies Team' circle - provided they had me in a circle, it would appear on their Google+ stream.<br />
<br />
<b>3. Carrying out asynchronous interviews online</b><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-07VCH0TvsY0/T4hPXnGXbcI/AAAAAAAAAQw/_TnR6hAvU8g/s1600/Interview+via+Google+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-07VCH0TvsY0/T4hPXnGXbcI/AAAAAAAAAQw/_TnR6hAvU8g/s400/Interview+via+Google+.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interview via Google+ with David Read, April 2012</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
There are lots of ways of interviewing someone. In person. On the phone. Via Skype. Via email. But what about Google+ too? I've recently done an interview with David Read - one of our teachers from the English Language Teaching Centre at the University of Sheffield - on his experience of being at the Google Teachers Academy UK. And since he was away from the university and I was working from home, but neither of us around at the same time, that left us with my emailing a list of questions to him. Or... using Google+. So, I posted a message on Google+ with just David as the audience (you can share with individuals as well as with circles / making things public)... and away we went. Easy. Like chat but asynchronous. If we had wanted to chat 'face-to-face', then starting a hangout from the post would have been just a single click away.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Yr511Sm9Lk/T4hgBNY_GDI/AAAAAAAAASg/UE3FQ5BgZCM/s1600/Hangout+from+interview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="191" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Yr511Sm9Lk/T4hgBNY_GDI/AAAAAAAAASg/UE3FQ5BgZCM/s400/Hangout+from+interview.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Starting a hangout from the original interview post</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
There are lots of other ways that using circles and Google+ posts could be used - especially for small groups. If you were wanting pairs of students to work together, then getting them to use Google+ is an easy way of having them chat to one another - and keep their work private too.<br />
<br />
<b>4. Setting up a Google+ page for an interest group</b><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iAGXlh2c9No/T4hVBN2aceI/AAAAAAAAARQ/Z6ehAkZUGU8/s1600/Learning+Technologies+Team+Google++page.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iAGXlh2c9No/T4hVBN2aceI/AAAAAAAAARQ/Z6ehAkZUGU8/s1600/Learning+Technologies+Team+Google++page.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Learning Technologies at the University of<br />
Sheffield Google+ page, April 2012</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Whether this is for a class project or for a team - setting up a Google+ page is like creating yourself a mini web presence in just a couple of clicks. You can have Hangouts with 9 other people, you can share links and ideas, photos, videos - but unlike an ordinary web space, you get the ability to control what content goes to which audience with the use of circles. You can have multiple people manage the page too, so as with the <a href="https://plus.google.com/109691880878456914960" target="_blank">Learning Technologies at the University of Sheffield</a> Google+ page which I recently set up, it's not only proving to be a great way to have additional places for people to chat about learning technologies - but having multiple managers means the responsibility for looking after the page doesn't fall entirely on one person's shoulders.<br />
<br />
<b>5. Sharing content... and seeing where it went</b><br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fLcZ9qdC8dg/T4hSGIHJ2DI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/dAeOXbDVV9g/s1600/Ripples.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fLcZ9qdC8dg/T4hSGIHJ2DI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/dAeOXbDVV9g/s400/Ripples.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ripples for a public share on Google+</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Ever wondered what happened to something you shared with others? On Google+ if you share something and it gets re-shared by someone else - that's what's called a 'Ripple'.<br />
<br />
Well, those ripples can go pretty far and wide - and it's fascinating to see how something went viral. And even for things that got shared with only a few people, it's still great to see where things went.<br />
<br />
<b>6. Creating a form in Google docs... then sharing it with a Google+ circle</b><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XNhLBn6a9pg/T4hSsjloJiI/AAAAAAAAARA/hsQuWBrK-tM/s1600/Share+from+Google+doc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="172" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XNhLBn6a9pg/T4hSsjloJiI/AAAAAAAAARA/hsQuWBrK-tM/s400/Share+from+Google+doc.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sharing a form with a Google+ circle from within Google docs</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The integration of Google+ with other Google services is one of its strengths and if you've created a form in Google docs recently, you may have noticed a little Google+ share button at the top when you've been editing. It not only means that you have another way to share / promote things like surveys, but that you can quite finely control the audience by using circles to control who it goes to. For example, a staff survey going only to particular members of a team or a sign up sheet going to certain students. <br />
<br />
<b>7. Taming the information flow</b><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rfY-deCeY5c/T4hUilglnxI/AAAAAAAAARI/JJ3yngef_qM/s1600/Control+the+flow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="137" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rfY-deCeY5c/T4hUilglnxI/AAAAAAAAARI/JJ3yngef_qM/s320/Control+the+flow.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Drag the slider to allow more or less content from a particular circle<br />
to appear in your Google+ stream</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
One of the problems with social media - Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr etc is that sometimes it can feel like the information flow is less of a flow and more of a torrent. Well, not only is the curation on Google+ one built-in way of controlling that flow, but once you've sorted out your circles, you can then adjust how much content from people in that circle appears in your stream. From everything to nothing. That really helps to put some of the control back in your hands.<br />
<br />
<b>8. Sharing connections with others</b><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nMtT7oRh2pY/T4hWKL_td0I/AAAAAAAAARY/4OR9C2WSoI0/s1600/Share+a+circle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="304" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nMtT7oRh2pY/T4hWKL_td0I/AAAAAAAAARY/4OR9C2WSoI0/s320/Share+a+circle.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sharing a circle with other people</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Why would you want to do this? Well, if you want to recommend other people to follow, then sharing your carefully curated circles (and that's the trick - make sure you think about how you're grouping people) can really help people make connections and find relevant and interesting people. If you've got a circle for your team, group or class - then sharing it with a colleague is just a click away. If you're setting up groups for an activity, create them as circles, then share the circles. Simple!<br />
<br />
<b>9. Collaborating with others</b><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ss5doAhD-Vc/T4hXN7LqnaI/AAAAAAAAARg/BK2WHrLKF9U/s1600/Hangout+from+post.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="183" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ss5doAhD-Vc/T4hXN7LqnaI/AAAAAAAAARg/BK2WHrLKF9U/s400/Hangout+from+post.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Creating a hangout based on a shared item in your Google+ stream</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Hangouts are fantastic for collaborating. Where 'hanging out' is the very Google+ specific hanging out. So far I've used them to remotely participate in a meeting and to collaboratively author a document with a colleague (Google docs is well integrated into Hangouts). The possibilities for small group work are vast and whether you want to create hangouts on the fly or off the back of particular discussion topics / at prearranged times, the fact that they're so well built into Google+ makes them very straightforward to use.<br />
<br />
<b>10. Using unique hash-tags to aggregate content and discover related items</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Searching for the #cicsltt hashtag on Google+</td></tr>
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I'm a big fan of hash-tags for tagging and aggregating content - whether that's on <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/search/%23cicsltt" target="_blank">Twitter </a>or on services such as Diigo or Delicious, tagging is a powerful thing. And on Google+ it's fantastic for tracking your content, not least because when someone re-shares something you've created (and tagged), they can't edit that content and the tag travels with it - which again, means that you can find what's happening to your resources. You do that by searching for the hash-tagged items - and then save those searches for future reference. If you're working on a project and want to bring together items from multiple sources, getting people to use a unique hash-tag is the way to go. We use the hash-tag #cicsltt (CiCS Learning Technologies Team) for our Google+ posts - but I also tag things with #elearning or #edtech in case other people are searching for those terms - it means our content is more likely to be discovered.<br />
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So, there you go. Ten ways of using Google+ in education. How are you using it? Have you got to grips with it yet?<br />
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SarahSarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-85493034771770005592012-04-03T14:40:00.001+01:002012-04-03T18:17:43.679+01:00What makes a good learning technologist?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was pondering this question just the other day. I'm involved in the professional development of learning technologists as part of some of the work I do and over the years I've worked with plenty of them who've zinged with knowledge, enthusiasm and understanding. What makes the difference? What makes a learning technologist stand out as being a really 'good' learning technologist?<br />
<br />
Some of it is wrapped up in how you define the role of a learning technologist at all. Just because someone has the job title of 'Learning Technologist' doesn't mean they are one, just as someone who is a Librarian or a Lecturer isn't automatically *not* a learning technologist because they lack that place holder on their CV. If you think that a learning technologist is someone who can bridge the gap between learning and technology, can translate between the two fields, can spot opportunities and help make change happen within teaching practices and importantly, understands the context of learning in which they're placed... well... there are some key attributes that people who excel in this area seem to possess.<br />
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First of all they're... <br />
<br />
<b>Curious</b><br />
One of the biggest and best tricks a learning technologist pulls off is to go around with an open mindset. And one that actively *wants* to find out new things and to learn to do new stuff. That spirit of curiosity permeates their working life. They need to find answers. They want to see how things work. They ask questions when things don't go as expected. A good learning technologist always comes with a good dollop of curiosity. They're also...<br />
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<b>Playful</b><br />
Great learning technologists tend to be playful people. I don't mean this is the sense of a session down the local activity centre or adventure playground. But, they know that you don't just learn things first off. It takes a bit of play (and failure and a fair few mistakes) to explore and find out what something and someone can do. The very best learning technologists I know don't restrict their work to the working arena. Their 'play' leaks into everything they do. If they find something interesting to do with learning or technology out of hours, they'll play. They can't stop themselves. They just don't clock off because why would you clock off completely from something which was inherently fun? And that leads into the next attribute because you'll also find that they're...<br />
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<b>Connected</b><br />
If you're a learning technologist and you know how to make connections between ideas, people, things and beyond - I'm betting you're good at your job. Ideas aren't picked up in isolation, instead, connections are made and boundaries become elastic and movable. An ability to look inwards and outwards, to shape your perspective by bouncing ideas off others, to be open to finding out what else is going on through the myriad of connections you've made. Working openly and collaboratively is the norm. The people I know in this field who stand out - well, this is a common trait for them - as is the fact that they're...<br />
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<b>Proactive</b><br />
Here's something. I bet if you care about what you do in your work it isn't enough to be passive. Sometimes you have to create opportunities, talk to people you haven't talked to before, listen and understand - and keep on keeping on even when the initial answer is 'no'. If something sounds interesting, then great learning technologists will find a way to make time to look into it. Excuses aren't good enough because trying to make learning brilliant is too important for that. This means that they're spotting trends and perservering with a new technology or approach rather than dismissing things because they're 'just not that kind of person'. Their proactivity makes a huge difference as does the fact that they're...<br />
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<b>Passionate</b><br />
The best moments I've ever had in education have been when I've been talking to someone for whom passion is like electricity flowing through their body and sparking out in conversation or presentation. Passionate people create enthusiasm. They care. They inspire. They're not ashamed to tell you they love doing something. Or that something is fantastic. The best learning technologists I know make me want to explore and do more than I'm already doing. And this passion for their field means that they're also...<br />
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<b>Learners</b><br />
This is the really big biggie of them all. If you're bridging the gap between learning and technology, academia and the technical... you have to be able to talk the language of your context. And it never stops needing to be learned and refined. Let's face it, you can't *not* do your research when you're working with people who are professional researchers. You can't do things in a sloppy fashion when you're working with those who have a keen eye for detail. You need to build evidence and underpin what you're saying with solid foundations. You need to share ideas. You need to understand. You need to analyse. And you need to know there is no end point. To be a brilliant learning technologist you are forever a learner. And you accept it.<br />
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It's funny. The best learning technologists aren't all about the technology. They're not all about the pedagogy either. They walk the line between the two and care about what they do and what they *could* do as well. And if you come across a really good learning technologist - talk to them. They'll fire you up so that you'll believe you could do anything with your teaching!Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com58tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-52379986859055877792012-03-30T08:45:00.000+01:002012-03-31T08:18:49.027+01:00All that's good with Google+<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3wIV6viU9bmubrNMjnOJkmLzXlz5LnaCPdv3uo3iFl7AeAoL6cGR6AAygVsTPC7uUgbCC0-YyGHggHipLRHP-Ofe-oyPoizLVs-mUnoFDSfN9YUxY7YpCsHTUWlvloux-UTyoz20aDu0/s1600/6780548246_51fc05f7a7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3wIV6viU9bmubrNMjnOJkmLzXlz5LnaCPdv3uo3iFl7AeAoL6cGR6AAygVsTPC7uUgbCC0-YyGHggHipLRHP-Ofe-oyPoizLVs-mUnoFDSfN9YUxY7YpCsHTUWlvloux-UTyoz20aDu0/s320/6780548246_51fc05f7a7.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I admit it, I struggled to <a href="http://kindalearning.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/can-i-tell-you-secret.html" target="_blank">get my head around Google+</a>. I just couldn't quite see where it fitted between Twitter and Facebook. It didn't seem to be one thing or another and I found the stream of posts ranged between sparse and baffling. However, I've been really trying to explore its use and it's gradually, slowly starting to make sense.<br />
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<b>So, what is Google+ actually good for?</b><br />
<br />
<b>1. Sharing resources for comment by others</b><br />
This takes it beyond Twitter. Whereas on Twitter I can share a link and perhaps a couple or so words of comment. That link may or may not have some comment made on it, but following the conversation / having multiple participants in a conversation on the link quickly gets confusing. On Google+ the opportunity to share and discuss is far more contained and easy to follow. It's a very clean environment with no distracting ads or intrusive elements of Facebook - it makes Facebook look like MySpace.<br />
<b>2. Discovering quality resources</b><br />
On Twitter, I have to admit, I do a fair bit of automatic tweeting - whether that's new blog posts from this blog, my <a href="http://www.blipfoto.com/sarahhorrigan" target="_blank">photo journal</a> or the <a href="http://learningtechnologiesteam.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">work blog</a> I contribute to - there isn't always the greatest amount of thought behind my Tweeting. I share resources with others from apps such as Zite or articles I think people might like, but in terms of bringing things together for in depth discussion and consideration - Twitter just isn't like that. Google+, on the other hand, doesn't allow you to auto-post content. Every bit has to be selected and the amount you can write is, apparently unlimited (or <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/30/status-update-character-limit/" target="_blank">approx 100,000 characters</a> if other sources are to be believe) - which means that Google+ feels more like a mini-blog than a microblog. The curation is its strength.<br />
<b>3. Getting site traffic</b><br />
I know this sounds rather cynical as an advantage - but looking at the Google Analytics for a couple of sites, I can see that for every 10 visitors coming via Twitter, 7 are coming from Google+. As an additional source of traffic, this is really handy.<br />
<b>4. Sharing with very specific groups</b><br />
If I just want to update a couple of people on what I'm doing, Google+ is brilliant for that with the use of circles to control audience. Sharing photos with just a small group is far easier on Google+ than Flickr, Facebook and far less space hungry than a group email. <br />
<b>5. Discovering how content has spread</b><br />
Re-Tweeting on Twitter is fine for seeing where your link has gone, but if you get dropped from the tweets as the share goes wider, then you lose track of it. Google+ Ripples let you see where all the public shares of your posts have gone and how they're linked. This is interesting for your own content, but it's also fascinating to be able to see how other posts have gone viral, just by selecting the drop down arrow on any post that's been publicly shared and choosing 'View Ripples'.<br />
<b>6. Sharing resources with other tools</b><br />
I really like the fact that I can easily <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/byte/howto/personal-tech/desktop-apps/231601253" target="_blank">send a Google+ post to Evernote</a>. It sounds trivial, but you can't easily do this with Twitter and having an offline copy that I can think about and save for later is brilliant - especially if I'm trying to pull together a load of resources and ideas. This pushes Google+ as yet another source of handy information.<br />
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<b>What else has potential?</b><br />
The thing that I haven't really played with very much yet but can see the advantages of are<b> Google+ Hangouts</b> - as a collaborative space for learning they are simple, flexible and potentially integrated for any educational institution using Google Apps. Being able to <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/117272804393056744845/posts/CycRaZE29r9" target="_blank">share, collaborate on and discuss documents</a> easily, use a sketchpad for collaborative diagramming, sharing your screen and being a good mobile environment - well, all strengths (though the screen sharing is not a great quality). I also noticed yesterday that <a href="http://lifehacker.com/5897175/google%252B-hangouts-get-apps-including-slideshare-and-diagram-tools" target="_blank">apps are coming to Google+ hangouts</a>... and that really seems like a bit of a game changer in terms of collaboration.<br />
<br />
<b>Google+ pages</b> also look like they could well have value in an educational context. For bringing people together and working collaboratively / communicating with a wider audience they look great. However, not having a critical mass of interested people to experiment with this feature has meant that I haven't explored it to the extent I'd like... but am on the look out for interesting uses.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLK8Awc8lbjZobh6qleUgwMc2kSMHovT_tTvtDqEE5pK4syDs78vGE1N9ZTamGGcOehENfSWmQhoB5bioFaYtkHydKaPD9lUO7dfc2FcRU4f9hIjoFGadpixbkvvIj1aNA_zeOl90dIrE/s1600/G++images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLK8Awc8lbjZobh6qleUgwMc2kSMHovT_tTvtDqEE5pK4syDs78vGE1N9ZTamGGcOehENfSWmQhoB5bioFaYtkHydKaPD9lUO7dfc2FcRU4f9hIjoFGadpixbkvvIj1aNA_zeOl90dIrE/s200/G++images.jpg" width="200" /></a><b>What are the niggles?</b><br />
The one thing I still haven't got my head round is <b>managing multiple identities</b>. I have a Google Apps account through work. I have my own Google+ account through gmail. Working out which one to use and which one to invest time in building a network / connections has been difficult. I don't think that Google handles the complexity of online identity well and the lack of advice on this one is a real barrier. For me, my work G+ account tends to be more for stuff I want to draw people's attention to internally, my personal account is for reaching my wider network. I use slightly different photos with 'my work account' and 'my personal account' as part of the photos to help me differentiate, but mistakenly posting items to the wrong G+ account is a source of frustration. From experience, I'd advise against including your alternative identities in your circles, i.e. your work G+ account in your personal G+ circles and vice versa, because seeing multiple instances of content you've shared gets extremely confusing.<br />
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Not being able to select a <b>default Google+ account</b> is also irritating. When I log in to my work email (we use Google Apps), it then means that if I +1 anything it goes to my work Google+ account and I don't get to switch accounts. Yes, you can switch between accounts at other points - but even then, logging in and out of accounts is frustrating and I'd far rather set a default which would 'stick' than have to remember that the default account is the first one I've logged in to.<br />
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Generally, it's <b>not quite as intuitive as it might be</b>. Getting rid of the 'what's hot' content was a relief, but it sure wasn't easy to find! Understanding how circles work is kinda confusing! You always have this nagging suspicion that you may not be seeing what others are seeing because you're not in the circle they've shared something with. It's hard to know what you're missing when you just can't see it - and for people who are yet to build up a network or find a purpose, the sheer emptiness of Google+ can be a real turn-off. If you're already active on Google+ and have got some circles set up which you think would be of interest to other people, then <a href="http://google-plus.com/1832/how-to-share-circles-in-google-yes-now-you-can-share-your-circles-with-other-people-or-other-circles/" target="_blank">share them</a>. It'll help build up other people's networks which in turn will help engage them in using Google+.<br />
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<b>Sell it to me then...</b><br />
If you're after a tool that provides a nice clean environment where you can connect with others to share and comment on resources, to follow tags and discover ideas, to work collaboratively - synchronously or asynchronously, to fit nicely into a professional context... then there's a lot to be said for Google+. It could even be the personal learning environment for those who don't want to collect together a bag of separate tools and technologies.<br />
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And if you'd asked me about it 6 months ago, I'd not have been able to say that. Stick with it, it'll grow on you!<br />
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<script type="text/javascript">mbgc='f5f5f5';ww='300';mbc='cecece';bbc='3F79D5';bmobc='3b71c6';bbgc='4889F0';bmoc='3F79D5';bfc='FFFFFF';bmofc='ffffff';tlc='cecece';tc='6a6a6a';nc='6a6a6a';bc='6a6a6a';l='y';fs='16';fsb='13';bw='100';ff='4';pc='4889F0';b='s'; pid='101237338357049475254';</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetsplus.com/google_plus_widget.js"></script>Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-85991549610558362852012-03-29T07:24:00.001+01:002012-03-29T07:30:19.394+01:00Google+ Hangouts Get Apps<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nerdy things to get you excited...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Spotted this bit of news about Google+ today. Oh the possibilities for learning, collaborating and sharing...<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://lifehacker.com/5897175/google%252B-hangouts-get-apps-including-slideshare-and-diagram-tools">Google+ Hangouts Get Apps, Including SlideShare and Diagram Tools</a>: "After launching a Hangout, look for an "Apps" button at the top of your screen (and don't worry if you don't see it today or tomorrow—it is, like all things Google, "rolling out"). Click it, and you can choose to add another layer to your Hangout. One of the neatest tools is Cacoo, a free diagram/flowchart tool we've previously covered in its webapp form. As a Hangout tool, though, you can hear tips and approvals from your small crowd as you piece together your inter-connected charts. There's also a SlideShare app, so you can pull in presentations on the popular sharing site to show to the crowd. You could previously show Google Docs Presentations in a "Hangout with Extras," but SlideShare is a good, popular option to have handy."</blockquote>
This is making me think that in terms of a personalised learning environment... Google+ is starting to shape up...Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-7685377891240319222012-03-21T08:00:00.000+00:002012-03-21T08:00:11.253+00:00Ronseal sites for educators<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is my little collection of Ronseal sites - sites that do exactly what you want, just when you want them to. It's hard to know how to categorise the following other than they're 'sites that once you know about them you'll find them pretty darned useful even if you didn't realise you needed them'. And they're especially useful for educators because part of the battle of working online / blending face-to-face with online is trying to manage your time, so anything that can help make the online bit easier is all good by me. So, here they are. My top five Ronseal sites:<br />
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1. <a href="http://ifttt.com/">http://ifttt.com</a><br />
I've gone on about this before but it's a brilliantly simple idea - <b>If t</b>his <b>t</b>hen <b>t</b>hat. You create recipes from tasks which are associated with services - the recipes basically trigger things to happen automatically. For example, when a new blog post occurs here, create a note in Evernote there. When I favourite a tweet here, create a bookmark in Diigo there. There are so many combinations and 'recipes' other people have created before which you can use / adapt yourself to get you started. Definitely one of those 'didn't realise that would do what I wanted' sites.<br />
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2. <a href="http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/">http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/</a><br />
Down for everyone or just me - I barely need to explain this one. If you want to use a site and it doesn't appear when you go to visit it, it can be extremely frustrating. That's where this site comes in. Just enter the address and you'll know straight away if the problem is yours or not. Very handy to know about.<br />
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3. <a href="http://www.moreofit.com/">http://www.moreofit.com/</a><br />
More of it is a hidden gem - I only discovered it recently but there are plenty of uses for it. For example, the classic of a particular website or service being blocked (YouTube is frequently victim of the web filter police within education) is frustrating, but all you need to do is go to 'more of it' and enter the name of the site you're wanting to find similar sites to, and it'll suggest some. Great simple idea.<br />
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4. <a href="http://www.google.com/analytics/">http://www.google.com/analytics/</a><br />
Google Analytics are absolutely fantastic - and free. The reason they're so useful is that once you've installed the simple little tracking code you get access to a whole load of stats about how your content is being used. If you've created a wiki or a blog for use with your students, then knowing how and when they're accessing it / knowing what they're looking at and how long for can give you great immediate feedback and food for thought with designing your content. Don't be put off by the need to install a tracking code - it's straightforward and with things like Google Sites or Blogger, it's just a copy and paste exercise and you're away.<br />
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5. <a href="http://alternativeto.net/">http://alternativeto.net/</a><br />
Very like 'more of it', but this time with applications / software. You can choose free, open source, commercial alternatives to just about anything you can think of. Again, very handy for the educator who might not have the biggest budget when it comes to getting software and needs to know what options are out there.Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-18836965934191130002012-03-19T09:00:00.000+00:002012-03-19T09:00:01.643+00:00Stabilisers vs. balance bike...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I had a thought this morning... and it came off the back of a conversation about my kids learning to ride their bikes. With my daughter, we dutifully bought a bike with stabilisers - because that's what you did. She would pedal furiously to get herself going - backwards. And go nowhere very fast. When she did get herself going, if the road was at all bumpy, she would wobble and scare herself and stop. Or, the stabilisers would form a stubborn bridge, suspending the wheel in the middle so that it could gain no friction to get her moving. Going up hills was torture. And the noise of the plasticky wheel on the ground. Eurgh! <br />
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When my son was about three, rather than getting him a bike with stabilisers we bought him a balance bike. How much fun did he have on that? And the speed he got up to! And the independence! And the freedom... for him and us. It was brilliant. Rough surfaces he scooted over with ease. Slopes were walked up and were simple. And it was quiet. We could go walks with the children and they would whizz ahead on their bikes, scooping up the space ahead of them with gusto. Co-incidentally, one of our friends had also bought my son a balance bike for his birthday, so we had two - which meant one each for the children and my daughter discovered how much fun riding could be as well.<br />
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One day, when he was four, we were walking around a lake with him on his scoot bike and my daughter, by now aged 6 and riding a 'proper' bike. Out of curiosity I said to my son, 'do you fancy having a go on her bike?'. 'Yes', he said. And we swapped the children over. I held the saddle, he sat on it. And started to pedal... and that was it. He rode the rest of the way, pedalling happily and never ever fell off once.<br />
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My thought this morning was about the way people learn and how it relates to those two different approaches to supporting their learning. The first, provided a rigid scaffold which is then removed. The second, a far more authentic experience of bike riding - attain balance and experience, then move to pedals later. Stabilisers present the bike as a given, and then add on the metal struts and wheels to support it. A balance bike strips back the experience of learning a bike to the most important bits - getting your balance and feeling the freedom of riding.<br />
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I'm wondering whether scaffolding students' learning is the wrong approach.<br />
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I'm wondering whether we're approaching things by saying 'this is the whole and I want you to get there... I'll support you en route' rather than 'this is how it truly feels to be competent in this area, I'm going to light that fire of enjoyment which gets you to take it further'.<br />
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This really is just half a thought. I just wanted to record it before it slipped away. Does any of what I've written strike a chord with anyone? Or even vaguely make sense?Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com49tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-8236128420969423412012-03-16T20:34:00.001+00:002012-03-16T20:36:17.565+00:00Print to digital... the Britannica moves on<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The final print version of the Encyclopedia Britannica was announced this week and it seemed worth a little ponder. And this little quote in The Guardian stood out to me...<br />
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<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/from-the-archive-blog/2012/mar/16/encyclopedia-britannica-worth-treasuring?INTCMP=SRCH">Online or in print, the Encyclopedia Britannica is worth treasuring | From the Guardian | guardian.co.uk</a>: "There was a certain romance to the ritual of making the physical effort of pulling the volume from the shelves, finding a reference, enquiring further and being led from one volume to another.<br />
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But that was another era, when there was a more leisurely way of doing things. People had time to wander into the library to do a bit of research, have a chat, and enjoy the serendipitous nature of flicking through the pages."<br />
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<a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pengoopmcjnbflcjbmoeodbmoflcgjlk" style="font-size: 13px;">'via Blog this'</a><br />
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That was another era. It was, wasn't it? When I was little, I remember the encyclopaedias shut away in a glass cabinet. A cabinet all to themselves. Distinct. Apart. Special. When... if... you were able to look at them, it was like going on a journey. One entry leading you to the next. Tracking down the page / chapter references and finding out new stuff. Only, it wasn't really new stuff at all. It was old stuff. And the longer the books gathered dust in their cabinet, the older that 'new stuff' became.<br />
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The end always was on the cards for the Britannica once the 'no going back' moment of the internet came at the turn of the century. I don't think it was just having an electronic version of the information, as Microsoft's Encarta managed - though that in itself was a novelty when it first appeared. But the ability to search an unknown quantity of information via the web. Now *that* really was something special. And then, web 2.0 and wikis... and that 'new stuff' could become dynamically changing and evolving 'new stuff'. It really was new. And that ability to keep things fresh and vibrant changed the landscape again.<br />
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Though my own children will discover things as they read books, when they want to find something out, it's an electronic world which holds the key. 'Can't you just Google it, Mummy?', they'll say. And these are from children who really don't have very much direct exposure to computers. The idea that the sum of all knowledge could ever have been locked up in a finite number of books would be a strange concept to them, I think.<br />
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I wonder whether we design online courses for students with a print Britannica mindset though? We put them together and then they sit there. In a glass case to be admired. Removed once in a while for a quick leaf through. And then put back. The energy and effort goes into collating and collecting. But it's done in fits and starts and doesn't quite managed to harness the potential of the digital environment in which it now exists. I wonder what would happen if you took that old knowledge exploring spirit of going reference to reference in the old print Britannica... and transformed that into allowing students to create their own pathways, making their own connections and build their own learning?<br />
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What has Higher Education and online / blended education has to learn from the experience of the printed Britannica Encyclopaedia? We can't peddle chunks of rarified knowledge anymore. That much I know.Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-76494900489087544522012-03-14T06:35:00.000+00:002012-03-14T06:35:00.552+00:00Exiting Facebook<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Recently, I thought I'd close my personal Facebook account (I have another I use for work purposes). For a variety of reasons really. But the decision to close it had been reached. So, I went to get rid of it.<br />
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Now, bearing in mind I've been on Facebook for the best part of five years, there was a lot of baggage to leave behind. Rather than going cold turkey and hitting the delete button, I decided to deactivate it. I didn't tell anyone that's what I was doing. I just did it. The way different people reacted to that was a lesson in fascination. Most, I presume, didn't notice. But definitely not all. The reaction from the 'not all' group gave me lots of food for thought!<br />
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Anyway, it turned out that by getting rid of my Facebook account, I was causing myself no end of grief because I'd forgotten that I'd used it to log in to a range of services over the past few years. Services I may only periodically have remembered I had. Stuff I didn't even notice I needed. Until I needed it. And then I couldn't log in because my Facebook account wasn't around.<br />
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In the end, I reactivated it. I haven't actively used it since then, I just want to have the account to simplify getting into the various services I need until the point at which I've nailed all of them and reset the account details. It has all the privacy settings turned up to the strongest level I can manage while I'm gradually extracting myself from it. It could be a VERY long process.<br />
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Aaargh!<br />
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It turns out that we're not involved in social networks anymore so much as a form of social wool which has knitted and knotted itself together and is darned difficult to untangle yourself from.Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-67645256160222646962012-03-10T08:00:00.000+00:002012-03-10T08:00:06.506+00:00What's in a name?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A few days ago, I had an interesting discussion over on Google+ (think this may be the first time I've ever said that!) with A.J. Cann - which we both wanted to share publicly but resharing would lose the conversation we'd had... so... here it is. He'd commented on a blog post I'd made and in return I'd asked him what he would rename virtual learning environments if he could and the exchange went as follows:<br />
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<a class="k-Qf-C-RySO6d oP" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/107962914038670635598" oid="107962914038670635598" style="color: #3366cc; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><img alt="A.J. Cann's profile photo" class="tg Abw9Vd st hf" height="32px" oid="107962914038670635598" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TlcdiN589uI/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAAAA/ZBEocMvpTfQ/s32-c-k/photo.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left; height: 32px; margin-left: -40px; width: 32px;" width="32px" /></a><br />
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<a class="cs2K7c qk xs" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/107962914038670635598" oid="107962914038670635598" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3366cc; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">A.J. Cann</a> - <span class="kH">Virtual? So 1980s :-)<br />Learning? That debate's going to run a while...<br />Environment? <warning! alert!="" geek="" jargon=""><br /><br />Let's ask ourselves:<br />a) What would students call it unprompted (generic, not brand)?<br />b) What message do we want to send to staff who will use it?</warning!></span></div>
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<span class="WKExab"><span class="oj" style="color: #999999;" title="6 Mar 2012 12:23:15">6 Mar 2012</span></span> <span class="Yg14nf zo" style="float: right;"></span></div>
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<a class="k-Qf-C-RySO6d oP" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/101237338357049475254" oid="101237338357049475254" style="color: #3366cc; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Sarah Horrigan's profile photo" class="tg Abw9Vd st hf" height="32px" oid="101237338357049475254" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-HQkB7Xidt1Y/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAB54/nZE1D9iDkUY/s32-c-k/photo.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left; height: 32px; margin-left: -40px; width: 32px;" width="32px" /></a><br />
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<a class="cs2K7c qk xs" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/101237338357049475254" oid="101237338357049475254" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3366cc; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Sarah Horrigan</a> - <span class="kH">Okay - terminology... what would a student call it? They probably wouldn't. It isn't really a thing, they're just going to do the thing they're doing. I'm not 'facebooking', I'm 'chatting with friends / sharing a photo / playing a game'. They don't say they're going to use the 'Office Productivity Suite', they write a document. I wonder if the name is actually relevant to students in any way? VLE certainly implies that learning will magically happen in the 'environment'.<br /><br />Will return to that thought in a bit... (meeting interruptus)...</span></div>
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<span class="WKExab"><span class="oj" style="color: #999999;" title="6 Mar 2012 13:01:16">6 Mar 2012</span></span><span class="Kg" style="color: #999999;"> - </span><span class="c-C c1NkRc uo" role="button" style="color: #3366cc; cursor: pointer; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" tabindex="0">Edit</span> <span class="Yg14nf zo" style="float: right;"></span></div>
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<a class="k-Qf-C-RySO6d oP" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/107962914038670635598" oid="107962914038670635598" style="color: #3366cc; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="A.J. Cann's profile photo" class="tg Abw9Vd st hf" height="32px" oid="107962914038670635598" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TlcdiN589uI/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAAAA/ZBEocMvpTfQ/s32-c-k/photo.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left; height: 32px; margin-left: -40px; width: 32px;" width="32px" /></a><br />
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<a class="cs2K7c qk xs" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/107962914038670635598" oid="107962914038670635598" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3366cc; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">A.J. Cann</a> - <span class="kH">I think it needs a label. Facebook is now a verb.<br />I'm into positive psychology here. "Learning Space" is too twee. Are we headed back to Nathan Bodington here?</span></div>
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<span class="WKExab"><span class="oj" style="color: #999999;" title="6 Mar 2012 13:05:28
(edited 6 Mar 2012 13:05:49)">6 Mar 2012 (edited)</span></span> <span class="Yg14nf zo" style="float: right;"></span></div>
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<a class="k-Qf-C-RySO6d oP" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/101237338357049475254" oid="101237338357049475254" style="color: #3366cc; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Sarah Horrigan's profile photo" class="tg Abw9Vd st hf" height="32px" oid="101237338357049475254" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-HQkB7Xidt1Y/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAB54/nZE1D9iDkUY/s32-c-k/photo.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left; height: 32px; margin-left: -40px; width: 32px;" width="32px" /></a><br />
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<a class="cs2K7c qk xs" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/101237338357049475254" oid="101237338357049475254" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3366cc; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Sarah Horrigan</a> - <span class="kH">Please let it not be the Nathan Bodington Building! Learning space is twee - but increasingly it seems to be what 'they' are calling buildings / rooms at universities anyway. In some ways I've often thought that calling VLEs 'Content Management Systems' is more honest than implying that they are doing much more than helping to administer what may or may not be going on inside them. You have got me thinking though. Is a VLE a 'thing that needs a name' at all? And what is it that we're naming? Why does something that so routinely strips all learning from learning need us to get hung up on its name. Aren't we at the 'next please!' stage already?</span></div>
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<span class="WKExab"><span class="oj" style="color: #999999;" title="6 Mar 2012 14:28:04">6 Mar 2012</span></span><span class="Kg" style="color: #999999;"> - </span><span class="c-C c1NkRc uo" role="button" style="color: #3366cc; cursor: pointer; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;" tabindex="0">Edit</span> <span class="Yg14nf zo" style="float: right;"></span></div>
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<a class="k-Qf-C-RySO6d oP" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/107962914038670635598" oid="107962914038670635598" style="color: #3366cc; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="A.J. Cann's profile photo" class="tg Abw9Vd st hf" height="32px" oid="107962914038670635598" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TlcdiN589uI/AAAAAAAAAAI/AAAAAAAAAAA/ZBEocMvpTfQ/s32-c-k/photo.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; float: left; height: 32px; margin-left: -40px; width: 32px;" width="32px" /></a><br />
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<a class="cs2K7c qk xs" href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/107962914038670635598" oid="107962914038670635598" rel="nofollow" style="color: #3366cc; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">A.J. Cann</a> - <span class="kH">Let's come at this from another angle:<br />What's the difference between Blackboard and WordPress?</span></div>
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We never got round to finishing the discussion but it has made me think about what exactly *is* a VLE? I suppose I'm coming round to the point of view that the name things are given can matter greatly if they're given the wrong name. Or a name which implies they do something automatically. For example, I could call my daughter's bedroom a 'domestic learning environment' (DLE - I do like a new acronym!) because she loves to spend hours reading books up there. But that doesn't make *all* bedrooms DLEs. Just as with VLEs, you might well have learning which goes on in them, but the name doesn't magically transform them into centres of educational excellence or negate the fact that learning may never happen there. <br />
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Back to the question of the difference between Blackboard and WordPress. Okay, so there are lots of differences. However, there are a few which stand out:<br />
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1. <b>I</b> stand a chance of being the designer and creator of a WordPress-powered site. If I'm a student, that won't happen where Blackboard's concerned.<br />
2. I can customise WordPress the way I want within broad limits, Blackboard is customisable only within narrow limits. And not in any truly meaningful way if I'm a student.<br />
3. With WordPress, I am the creator of the content. As a student, I am the recipient of Blackboard content - and any content I do create is within the artificial bounds of the 'learning journey'.<br />
4. WordPress, my content is open. Blackboard, my content is closed.<br />
5. WordPress, I create the account / install WordPress. Blackboard, *you* create the account for me... and close it again when you say we're done.<br />
6. WordPress = mine. Blackboard = yours.<br />
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So. What is a virtual learning environment? If you're a distance learning student, the VLE *is* the university. It's attending class. It's discussing things with your classmates. It's a centre of administration. It's a place to get help and support. If you're a campus-based student, the VLE is just another computer system that they use. The name of it can quite happily be the name the institution has bestowed on it (at the University of Sheffield, for example, our VLE is called MOLE - My Online Learning Environment). Just as when talking about cleaning the carpets and the words vacuum cleaner and Hoover are interchangeable. When I talk about 'doing the hoovering' you know what I'm talking about. The context of the use and terminology is more important than the overall label where students are concerned.<br />
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For staff, the name 'Virtual Learning Environment' allows us to exist in a blissful state of positivist ignorance. Otherwise, we'd call our institutional VLEs 'Document Dumping Grounds' and congratulate ourselves on our brutal honesty. Have you been on your institutional DDG lately?<br />
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Otherwise... Computerised Learning Administration Support System. CLASS. What happens in CLASS varies according to the teacher / student mix that meet within its digital walls.Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-42758552600023775962012-03-08T07:50:00.001+00:002012-03-08T07:50:00.953+00:00What's hot is NOT hot... disabling 'What's hot' in Google+<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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... otherwise known as 'how do I get rid of the unwanted rubbish that's appearing in my Google+ stream???'<br />
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I'm currently trying to get my head around using Google+ and it's turning out to be most useful as a professional tool. Which is fine, apart from the fact that by default Google have a seriously annoying 'what's hot' feature which pushes random content into your stream, disrupting the flow of conversation / ideas and essentially spamming you with nonsense. Now, I can hear my inner fuddy-duddy shouting that last sentence out, but it really isn't a helpful feature at all. I had a penny drop moment the other day when someone described Google+ as having the advantage of being 'curated' content, i.e. people choose to share stuff there rather than it automatically happening. What's hot doesn't fit in with that sense of the curatorial at all... but getting rid of it is not as easy as it should be.<br />
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So, since I've just been through the process, I thought I'd describe the three easy (but not obvious!) steps to clearing your Google+ stream of twaddle.<br />
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<b>1.</b> Click on the 'What's hot' link on the left hand side of your Google+ page<br />
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<b>2.</b> Find the slider at the top of the 'What's hot' page which allows you to select how much of that content is shown on your stream - it's not obvious, it's a little grey circle on top of a faint grey line<br />
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<b>3.</b> Click on the slider and drag it to the left. This changes it to 'Show nothing from what's hot in your stream' - which de-clutters things nicely.<br />
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Oh, and this doesn't mean I've completely warmed to Google+ yet - it still feels like wandering into a cavernous room and trying to start up a conversation by just talking into the sparsely populated space... then wondering if you're in the right room at all. But, I'm getting closer to getting it...Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1176233699373812631.post-5915951024298770962012-03-06T12:57:00.002+00:002012-03-06T12:57:08.684+00:00Creativity and potential...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3164/2374440799_d4d7c9b44c_m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3164/2374440799_d4d7c9b44c_m.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 100%;">Just seen the following quote on Steve Wheeler's excellent blog:</span><br />
<div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.com/2012/03/content-is-tyrant.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FcYWZ+%28Learning+with+%27e%27s%29">Learning with 'e's: Content is a tyrant...</a>: "The internet is better as a creative space that it is as a repository. This is due in no small part to the gradual evolution of so called Web 2.0 tools and services, the majority of which are richly social and participatory in nature. The capability of social networks to connect people with similar interests from across the globe also promotes the need to create, organise, share and consume content within appropriate contexts. As a society, and within our communities of practice, we need to be able to discern the good content from the bad content."</span></blockquote></div><div style="font-size: 100%; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I think this could easily be applied to virtual learning environments too. The traditional 'document dump' use of a virtual learning environment is the equivalent of giving sawdust to a parched man. When people crave interesting, engaging, exciting, inspiring... and what they get instead are PowerPoints and pdfs... the potential of that creative space disappears in an instant.<br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 100%;">Doing more than the simple repository version of online education is quite a feat, however. The structure of a virtual learning environment isn't the structure of the learner. When I browse the internet for content, I move around making connections which suit me. So often this isn't the case in institutional online spaces. Adaptive release forces learners into the predefined processes of the author. Chronological chunking drip feeds learning in pieces which don't encourage the flow of the motivated learner. The technological complexity of constructing a well-designed activity is a hurdle too high for many time-pushed academics.<br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 100%;">If web 2.0 is about user-generated content, creativity and connection... how can we turn the spaces we've got - the institutional VLE into a place where real learning happens? </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 100%;">What would be the elements which went into the transformation of online / blended learning from the mundane to the magical?<br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 100%;">Y'know. I really don't know. I know there are lots of different approaches I'm trying. From solid support for the basics to helping people to connect with one another to develop their innovative practices. Being responsive. Being flexible. Keeping in mind the bigger picture and all that stuff. But it never quite feels like it's enough. I go to conferences and every time get that same sense of d</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">éjà</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 100%;"> vue as the same problems and the same attempts at the same solutions are presented.<br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 100%;">The VLE is better as a creative space than a repository. Right?<br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 100%;">There just has to be a better way...</span></div>Sarah H-Fhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09659147785218309965noreply@blogger.com0