tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75097631414609769872024-03-07T23:33:46.422-08:00Dave's e-stuffDave Brown - Training Designer | PG CERT Online and Distance Education | Here are my thoughts and findings, ramblings and wanderings into the world of L&D (more often than not with a tilt toward e-learning and/or the blend) - oh and a dab of my arid wit...Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-4295115168398721772012-06-29T12:16:00.000-07:002012-06-29T12:16:00.370-07:00COLF, LSG and other acronymsAgain I seem to have been away too long - I blog in 140 characters or less because of it's convenience and speed but often curse at its restrictive nature. Pull your finger out and blog then huh?<br />
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The E side of my life has been quite interesting courtesy of the COLF course I am on. No, that's not a typo and I'm not trapsing through the undergrowth in search of yet another shanked 3 iron; COLF is the Certified Online Learning Facilitator course offered by the Learning and Performance Institute.<br />
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I'm piloting it on behalf of my employers and have to say I've been mighty impressed. I don't think it's a difficult course and there's no rocket science involved but it does provide a well-focused 'best practice' guide on how to facilitate the virtual classroom. At the end of the 9 one and a half to two hour online sessions comes a 25-30 minute assessment and hopefully an accreditation from LPI of what a good facilitator and all round good egg I am. (I'm not sure about the good egg bit from LPIs point of view.<br />
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The course is run by the delightful Mandy Randall-Gavin (who you'll find on Twitter @MandyRG - I recommend a follow). She brings a blend of happiness and professionalism, and the ability to 'say I don't know I'll find out' (important skill that) that has made the 16-18 hours of the course quite literally fly by. The rest of the particpants has helped too: Catherine, Paul, Jonathan, and Steve have all been allowed to show both their serious and humourous sides in equal measure.<br />
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Speaking of online, the Learning Skills Group have had an online conference this year instead of staging the event at Olympia (it's being fixed!). It is something of a paradox to bemoan the use of online sessions to replace the physical conference but I do miss the fact I couldn't go to Olympia for a more human experience. Yes, yes, I know Learning technologies are just that - online, remote, synchronous, of course I get that, and I regularly and happily attend the LSG presentations during the year but the not having the chance to get together is a big loss.<br />
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Perhaps it clarifies the biggest 'shortfall' of online, or maybe it highlights the need for online merely to act as a catalyst to more learning - to start the learning ball rolling. I missed the chance to network, to ask a person a question face to face, to watch a lecture and listen to and watch for the reaction of others. Without the need to physically remove myself from the workplace, the workplace took presidence and I missed all but one of the lectures. I refused to miss the one by Steve Wheeler - I really rarely hang on the word of someone but I truly respect what Steve has to say. He said at the beginning of the lecture that if it had been at Olympia he would not have been able to attend, I would have been at an event to watch someone who wasn't there... I think I've talked mysef into a corner... long live the online experience!! but I hope face to face never dies.Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-43451563992575105362012-01-26T13:21:00.000-08:002012-01-26T13:49:04.443-08:00Reflections on Learning Technologies/Learning and Skills eventWell, if nothing else the event has woken me from my blog slumber where I dream in micro terms - blogs of 140 characters or less.<br />
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I spent the last two days mooching around the exhibitors, partaking of free seminars and wondering what might be happening in the conference above - I'm too poor and indeed poorly connected to get my grubby mitts onto a golden ticket (and associated sparkling gift). Never mind - there's plenty down here for us mere minions to feast upon.... and so....<br />
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The first main challenge is to walk past the toy fair - especially when they are floating giant bubbles about - no fair! (No toy fair as is happens in this case)<br />
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Straight into a great buzz as normal. And the start of day one of smacking people with the huge "bag o' bumpf", there's skill to swinging that thing around safely - one I'm yet to master after three years of attending - maybe next year?<br />
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I heard a funny thing; the phrase - Business Prevention Team for our IT departments, made me laugh *snigger*<br />
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I'm still not greatly skilled at that whole 'walk up to a stall and talk to someone' thing. My background is in software development/web design/e-learning design - I've spent my career avoiding actually talking to anyone.<br />
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I did see a face I recognised though, Lars Hyland on the <a href="http://www.epic.co.uk/" target="_blank">EPIC</a> stand, whose <a href="http://larsislearning.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">blog</a> I've read for a while and I had a nice chat with him. I later revisited Epic to see a demo of GoMo (thanks to Andy Costello) which is very impressive and I'm sure will be even more accessible once Apple bring down the price of publishing to their App store (around the time hell starts to near 0 degs I suspect). Still, mighty impressive tool and one for the wishlist.... "Dear Santa, I've been a good boy this year and would like..." I mean the real Santa, that's not what I call the head of procurement btw.<br />
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The hash tag #lt12uk took a massive battering over the two days and barring the RTs there where some nice little insights in there and proof that there is a place for a backchannel at these events - as if there was really any doubt... On a couple of occasions my Tweet reader of choice (No names but it provides a deck for tweets) threw a massive wobbly, turned to jelly, and collapsed on me. I know this experience was also felt by Niall Gavin (@niallgavinuk) because he said so... in a tweet.... with the hash tag #lt12uk... this stuff could catch on you know?!<br />
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I feel for the presenters - especially the ones who have the tech fail on them - it's not nice, I don't like to see someone in that position, and I doubt if others wallow in your moments (or minutes) of discomfort either. To quote Matt Turner of Brightwave (and the British Government of the late 1930s, not sure who thought of it first...) 'Keep Calm and Carry On', sound advice.<br />
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Some of the other nice people I spoke to were Kineo, DeltaNet, Adobe, thepressure (massage ladies), and Thales - They won't remember me, but I've remembered them, I spoke to a few others but.... ah shucks - that's show business (or an illustration of my chronic Ebbinghaus forgetting curve in action)<br />
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Well done and congratulations go to Don Taylor and his team for yet another expertly run event, the logistics of which make my eyes spin, but I guess that's why I don't do this sort of thing.... I'm pretty good at omelettes, a bit of pencil drawing, and some of that e-learning stuff too, I'll leave the other stuff to the big boys (and girls).<br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Top Tip:</span> Bring your own food - it's £1.20 for a packet of crisps yikes! Thank goodness DeltaNet had pick and mix on their stand - godsend.<br />
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Until the next time we meet - parting is such sweet sorrow (or something I used to be able to do to my hair before I became follically-challenged)<br />
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Dave.<br />
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PS Below I've summarised the seminars I attended. If you presented - have a look, you might be in there, I might have liked what you did - I might not have of course mwah haha (sinister huh?) (No, I know, not)<br />
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Before you get lost in there, or completely flick past it, can I make a quick suggestion to those presenting? Chances are if I've looked at the myriad of impressive topics available in the free seminars I already know what a good company you work for - it will have been one of the deciding factors for me sitting in front of you. Don't waste your valuable 30 minutes telling me how great you are - show me, wow me, impress me with something new and informative - there's no better selling point. You had me at 'Hello', you lost me at 'and we can provide this service for you...'. Mini-rant over...<br />
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Oh and use spell-check on your slides - <strong>success</strong> is only possible if you know how to spell it(!)<br />
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<span style="color: purple;">Day 1</span><br />
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Philip Purver of <strong>TWM</strong> told me how to optimise my learning tech. It all seemed very familiar to me and I realised that the content was essentially what had been discussed in a recent Learning Skills Group webinar... interesting to see how much of it I had retained though, and it did start the phrase that echoed throughout the rest of the event. <em>Quote: "Let the user plan their own future - create something with 'pull'".</em><br />
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A quick whizz downstairs to watch the <strong>Brightwave</strong> boys - Charles Gould and Matt Turner - in action talking virtual classrooms and 'smooth blends'. As always a professional, informative presentation and always nice to see Balotelli acting like a numpty (24/7?). <em>Quote: Sell the hole, not the drill -</em> love it, stealing that one shamelessly for my own use.<br />
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Back upstairs to see Dipak Patel of <strong>Saba</strong> on the use of Social and Mobile learning to make an accessible learning environment. I'll be honest and say there was nothing new there. At least it managed to reiterate and confirm that my personal direction of travel is in line with current thinking.<br />
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Down again (via the zapping lady) to a talent management session with <strong>e2train</strong>'s Rob Caul and Jane Gardner (who looked painfully nervous but who presented admirably). Rob demonstrated that it's possible to still deliver even if people put obstacles in your way - in this case a shonky microphone - and got the message across that it's important to retain and motivate staff via performance management and Staff development. <em>Quote: In four years time 50% of our workforce will be from generation Y</em><br />
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My new friends at <strong>Thales</strong> showed me how L&D plays it's part in transformation programmes. This was an excellent presentation held together well by Dale Kirk who proved that despite a lack of slides (courtesy of dodgy tech) it's what you say that's important. Well done to him - he stayed calm (if a little red) and carried on. <em>Quote: L&D is the glue bridging the gap between people and process.</em><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: purple;">Day 2</span><br />
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I started to watch a presentation which turned into an advert so I ditched it (I warned you...) and went to see 10 ways to improve the learner experience, again with <strong>Brightwave</strong> - this time James Cory-Wright. 10 things we probably already do but bought together in a clear, concise way and with the added bonus of some alliteration a la The Sun newspaper or Sesame Street (todays presentation was bought to you by the letter R; R for Reflect, Respect, Re-purpose etc.) <em>Quote: Reach the people</em><br />
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Hot-footed downstairs (zap) to see Tim Hawkes of Unlimited Potential who spoke a lot of sense about all things coaching culture. <em>Quote: A coaching culture is a place where effective conversations take place</em><br />
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Upstairs in the afternoon and the yawn-fest that was the future of e-learning content on mobile devices. Sorry John Swindall from <strong>Harbinger</strong> (of doom)<strong> Knowledge</strong> but you came all the way from the USA, bowled in with a stereo-typical joke about the weather, and then proceeded the drone on about HTML5 v Flash. I think there were more than a few sighs of relief when your laptop gave out...probably the damp atmosphere we have over here huh?! Tumbleweed.<br />
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Over to the <strong>Saffron Interactive's</strong> very own Ant and Dec team of Alex Webb and Nick Baum (okay a bit more Mark and Sam) and their presentation on gaming. Very good, topical, informative. <em>Quote: Gamification</em><br />
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And downstairs for a final time (zap) to see TWM's take on creating an effective learning culture.....now, where have I seen this before?...Oh, yes, yesterday, and at the LSG webinar...come on guys this is re-purposing gone mad - get some more slides (and it was you who couldn't spell success btw)<br />
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So ditch that and across to Omar Lahyani of Saba on ROI, he gave me my <em>favourite quote of the day: The End is the Beginning</em> - bang on that nail head.Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-30462865835736572482011-12-21T23:39:00.000-08:002011-12-21T23:39:38.525-08:00Time for a re-think?Don Taylor hits the nail on the head here:<br />
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<a href="http://donaldhtaylor.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/if-youre-in-ld-just-what-do-you-do">http://donaldhtaylor.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/if-youre-in-ld-just-what-do-you-do</a><br />
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Perhaps in a way we are all 'building a cathedral' ?Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-41920855474110850872011-11-24T12:21:00.001-08:002011-11-24T12:21:15.848-08:00Funny take on Social MediaThis is funny: www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2011/may/stewart-lee-social-media-bbc<br />
Thanks to @andytedd for the lead...Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-57641444627664419442011-11-24T12:20:00.001-08:002011-12-21T23:52:49.804-08:00Virtual worlds and identity - Second Life<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Having used SL on a few occasions I have to say that it has not grabbed me. I have seen the enthusiasm that others have for it and I think to some extent that has carried me this far but basically I have to conclude that it's not for me.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We can look back at Bayne and our discussions around that. The ability in SL, and I would assume on WoW, to create an avatar that bears zero physical resemblance to yourself suggests to me that there is no merit in such a practice. The advantage of SL giving you a physical presence - making you feel part of the world, where perhaps forums and blogs disembody you, is lost when you can look like something different from your natural form.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">For a teacher, if you require trust, or maybe even respect, you need to have the <em><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">image</span></em>that people have ingrained in them. We can be extreme in this and say someone with a mortar board and black cape, maybe a pair of learned glasses. Ok this is extreme but to take the other extreme are you likely to learn effectively from someone who looks like a punk or animal? (not the one from the muppets but...)</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There have been the mandatory technical issues that new tech brings with it, those who struggle to connect mentally with new tech will disengage readily if they are not able to connect in a literal sense.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I haven't dismissed SL without trying it - I didn't think I would like humus until I tried it so I'm always prepared to be proved wrong. Perhaps it's my PC and the lack of a decent processor or graphics card effecting my experience but it's not something I have bought into...so far.</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-47645147753225419722011-11-24T12:19:00.001-08:002011-12-21T23:53:11.441-08:00The use of cartoons to engage users<span style="color: #666666;">http://edu.xtranormal.com/</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This is work related so it's dry, dry, dry, but thankfully the use of xtranormal movie maker has made it that little bit more engaging.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">CIS is a system that we teach (pronounced C.I.S or 'sis')</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzE0-nSVqco">Course intro</a></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83Td80u6GwE"><span style="color: #666666;">Learning objectives</span></a><span style="color: #666666;"> </span></span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-28619669559276542132011-11-24T12:18:00.001-08:002011-12-21T23:53:25.439-08:00Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;">A Report Prepared for the UNESCO 2009 World Conference on Higher Education by Philip G. Altbach, Liz Reisberg, Laura E. Rumbley. (</span><a href="http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001832/183219e.pdf"><span style="color: #666666;">Link to PDF</span></a><span style="color: #666666;">)</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;"><em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Focusing on section 10: Information and Communications Technologies and Distance Education, the report outlines how there has been a growing need globally for higher education that cannot be met without the aid of distance learning.</span></em><br />
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<em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Overall the report focuses not on the nice shiny tech that we have read about in the previous activities but more on the digital divide that exists between 'us' and 'them', the them being countries where the electricity supply is not robust enough to consider much of the new innovations being laid out before the developed world. It makes fascinating reading and helps to keep your educational feet on the ground.</span></em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span><br />
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<strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Notes</span></strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></span><span style="color: #666666;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">more than 20 terms which describe the employment of the new technologies in education, such as:<br />
Internet mediated teaching, technology-enhanced learning, web-based education, online education,<br />
computermediated communication (CMC), telematics environments, e-learning, virtual classrooms,<br />
I-Campus, electronic communication, information and communication technologies (ICT), cyberspace learning environments, computer-driven interactive communication, open and distance learning (ODL), distributed learning, blended courses, electronic course materials, hybrid courses, digital education, mobile learning, and technology enhanced learning.</span><br />
<em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I should of course add to that list Online and Distance Education!</span></em></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Distance education [..] more as a "method of delivery than an educational philosophy," while "distance is not a defining characteristic of e-learning"</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">ICT resources-like e-mail, instant messaging, and online social networking spaces-provide avenues for academic collaboration, joint research, and personal and professional networking.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">[..] development and use of OER has picked up significant momentum, making notable inroads onto the agendas of the higher education sectors in less-developed countries.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Unfortunately, in the face of a very real "digital divide" between richer and poorer countries and institutions, the capacity for implementation often appears to be inversely proportional to the perceived need and strong desire for access to these resources.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It has been suggested that this disconnect between hopes around ICT and what they have proven capable of delivering hinges on several false assumptions that were highly pervasive during the initial ICT "craze" of the 1990s. Key among these erroneous beliefs were that</span></span></span><br />
<ol type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">time and space were globally problematic in higher education;</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">that the desire to broaden access was essentially universal;</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">that the advantages of the new technologies coming out were self-evident;</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">that there was no significant difference between accessing information and constructing knowledge in higher education;</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">that contemporary students of traditional university age were naturally inclined to like and respond well as learners to emerging ICT; and</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">that the purveyors of the new technologies could not fail to achieve economies of scale and make profits on their innovative products and services.</span></li>
</ol><span style="color: #666666;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In Africa, for example, despite considerable growth in enrolment numbers in the last decade, the gross enrolment ratio there hovers around 5 percent, with considerable disparity by country and subregion.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In many countries around the world, the need for continuous learning and ongoing skill upgrades has become increasingly apparent. In countries where nations struggle to cater to the traditional-age cohort of 18-to-24-year-olds, the challenge of providing lifelong learning opportunities for broad swathes of the adult population via traditional delivery modes of delivery is daunting. In many places around the world, distance education can and has already played a growing role in filling this gap.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Teledensity-"a term commonly used to describe the number of telephone lines per some unit of the population", which can also shed light on the degree to which a community or nation has access to computers, the Internet, and e-gadgets-is not uniform around the world and is an important indicator of the immense divide between "haves" and "have-nots" across the globe.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A greater reliance on cooperative arrangements, such as consortia, to leverage resources and share costs inherent in implementing ICTs in higher education, may occur. And more and different kinds of dual-mode universitiesemploying both ICTs and traditional program delivery methods-may emerge.</span><br />
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<strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The future:</span></strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There are exciting possibilities for the ways in which m-learning may open up access in some of the world's poorest countries, where Internet access is most limited and unreliable.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">"immersive education" offers one window on the next generation of educational technologies, focused on virtual and simulation technologies, 3-D graphics and interactive applications, and gaming approaches. </span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Finally, strengthening capacity in regard to technology issues and open and distance learning is an extremely important objective in a global context characterized by profound inequity.</span><br />
</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-38138333359141846172011-11-24T12:17:00.002-08:002011-12-21T23:53:41.354-08:00BitStrips<span style="color: #666666;">As the kids in the </span><a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/let_them_make_comics_bitstrips_comes_to_schools.php"><span style="color: #666666;">film</span></a><span style="color: #666666;"> say 'Awesome' (hate that word BTW...)</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-47034800306420488182011-11-24T12:17:00.000-08:002011-12-21T23:53:56.317-08:00Crowd sourcing<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8788780.stm</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Crowd sourcing and the Wisdom of crowds is one of my favourite topics for debate.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666;">If you get the chance read <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">‘The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations’ by James <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Surowiecki.</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It's all to do with the weight of a cow!</span></span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-62838502385402934132011-11-24T12:15:00.001-08:002011-12-21T23:54:12.336-08:00Finding out more about mobile practices<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In all cases, learning on the move, or in environments where learners are not confined to sitting in front of a fixed computer, means that the nature of what is learnt, and how it is learnt, is liable to change.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mobile and wireless technologies support learning designs that are personalised, situated and authentic. Can also support learning designs that are opportunistic, informal, and spontaneous.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Personalised learning: learning that recognises diversity, difference and individuality in the ways that learning is developed, delivered and supported.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Personalised learning: includes different learning styles and approaches, and recognises social, cognitive and physical difference and diversity.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">students in formal learning are under a range of growing pressures, time, money, resources and conflicting/competing roles. mobile and wireless technologies can allow these students to exploit small amounts of time and space for learning, to work with other students on projects and discussions and to maximise contact and support from tutors.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It is still not clear how much professionally generated content they will access, and how far - in contrast - they will wish to generate and share content in what Shirky (2002) called 'mass amateurization'.</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-43885211310427165542011-11-24T12:14:00.001-08:002011-12-21T23:54:27.620-08:00We're all being a bit more social - virtually<span style="color: #666666;">http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/social-media-accounts-for-22-percent-of-time-online/</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">According to a study from Nielsen showing Internet usage in April 2010, 22% of the time, we’re engaging with social media.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Do you remember when 'social' meant going out?</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-81577460566347219792011-11-24T12:13:00.000-08:002011-12-21T23:54:42.746-08:00Reflecting on Twitter as a research tool<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">What do you make of the personal messages that appear in a Twitter stream – ones that do not appear to be related to work, but reveal sometimes seemingly banal or trivial matters, such as what a user had for lunch or where they are going for a holiday?</span></i></strong><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span></b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">As the 'Twitter in plain English' video said the little things are sometimes what brings people together. It's horses for courses; I find it banal and trivial unless it carries some form of slant, or irony, or humour.</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">E.g. "I'm drinking coffee"... great, thanks, that's changed my life!<br />
"I'm drinking coffee and I've burnt the end of my tongue"... now I'm laughing (in an empathetic manner).</span><br />
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">In what ways could Twitter be used for the kind of research you have been doing this week to find information on the three key issues?</span></i></strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #666666;">The use of links would seem to be the biggest possibility for sharing information. Links, basically, because there is not room to post anything of any length on Twitter.</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">That information can be 'tagged', and also 'retweeted' meaning that it can reach a large audience quickly and with some degree of accuracy in that audience.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Do you think Twitter does anything different from other common forms of online communication, such as email, forums and instant messaging</span></i></strong><strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">?</span></strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Twitter is a short and snappy, synchronous/asynchronous tool for communicating. It has some advantages over other methods and some disadvantages.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Advantages:<br />
- Instant - synchronous<br />
- Searchable for tags<br />
- Short messages : succinct, key message, bullet-points<br />
- Informal<br />
- Networked<br />
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Disadvantages:<br />
- Instant, yes, but not as 'flexible' as Instant messengers<br />
- Searchable for tags, yes, like Delicious, but only as good as the original tag.<br />
- Short messages : no room to expand when required<br />
- Informal : so are blogs where you expand your message much easier<br />
- Networked : Unlike forums where there is a clear thread I found it hard to follow a stream when other messages were intermingled.<br />
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To my mind Twitter, or micro-blogging, is simply another method which fits the way that some people wish to operate, another choice that, potentially, students could use for educational purposes.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Does it fit my idea of an educational tool? No, not really although it has some potential it is too restrictive.</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-41686928750821685542011-11-24T12:12:00.001-08:002011-12-21T23:54:58.540-08:00The researchers’ perspective - Neil Selwyn 2<strong><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Notes:</span></strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The conversational, collaborative and communal qualities of social networking services are felt to "mirror much of what we know to be good models of learning, in that they are collaborative and encourage active participatory role for users".</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">promoting ‘critical thinking in learners’ about their learning, which is one of ‘the traditional objectives’ of education’</span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Social networking services are used for peer communication and ‘news-casting’ experiences to others</span></b><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">lecturer-led ones can feel overly formal</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Would I agree with Selwyn’s tentative conclusion that ‘the primary educational significance of social networking would appear to be its informal use’? </span></i></div><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Yes, personally and in the readings in the past week, it has been shown that although students like to use these for social reasons few would embrace it as a means for education.</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-69717108158928129902011-11-24T12:11:00.001-08:002011-12-21T23:55:16.107-08:00The researchers’ perspective - Diane Carr<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Notes:</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">capacity to immerse and motivate learners, and the potential to alter a user’s relationship to technology</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">undertaking effective pedagogic design in virtual worlds involves recognising and then selecting from the various offers of the particular application (from the technical to the theatrical) while bearing in mind the needs of a given educational context</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">judging any affective aspects of the student experience in real time in Second Life can be difficult. A motionless avatar could mean a student is avidly following a rapid discussion, or that they are confused and alienated. Or that the student has gone to make coffee.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">While virtual worlds may invite experimental pedagogy, students’ familiarity with the interface and in-world social practices still need to be considered, as do their expectations of what constitutes learning and teaching.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Virtual worlds have the potential to trouble the roles of teacher, learner and researcher in productive ways. These offers - in addition to their more obvious social, technical and creative potentials - are why educators are right to be interested in virtual worlds.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">How is Second Life being used in ways that might counter the fears around Web 2.0? </span></i></div><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">SL is a synchronous event, set virtually but in real-time, so rather than with other means of communication such as forums, wikis, blogs, 'conversations' are in real-time, and also situated allowing the student to feel they are part of something rather than the remoteness they are actually in. Situated in the sense that you may be sharing your course with a robot of course!</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">note: At the time I wrote this I was still to venture into SL as I was so easily distracted, and SL was a whole new world of distractions. I have since been in, maybe twice. It failed to engage me on so many levels that I can't begin to relate them here. I know people who swear by it, and those that swear at it, so it's horses for courses - It's just not for me.</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-91771667012905883222011-11-24T12:10:00.001-08:002011-12-21T23:55:31.321-08:00The researchers’ perspective - Neil Selwyn<strong><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Notes:</span></strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">some commentators have used web 2.0 to generate moral panics about young people and the supposed death of education</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Much of the learning potential of web 2.0 is seen to derive from the co-construction of knowledge.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">heightened disengagement, alienation and disconnection of learners who use Web 2.0 from education</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">the detrimental effect that web 2.0 tools may have on ‘traditional’ skills and literacies</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">creation of a ‘Google generation’ of learners incapable of independent critical thought</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">social networking = exciting educational tools, some critics think they may distract learners from their studies.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">‘the Facebook generation’ who text-message during class, talk on their cell phones during labs, and listen to iPods rather than guest speakers in the wireless lecture hall".</span><br />
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</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;"><em>Selwyn raises a number of fears on page 11, including disengagement and impact on ‘traditional’ literacies. Weller takes a different view. Which side of the argument do you favour at this stage?</em> </span></span></div><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I find myself firmly gathering splinters as I sit on the fence. I agree with both Weller and Selwyn on different aspects. I would like to think that SNSs are used in a positive educational way but I'm also aware of the amount of distraction that they provide. This is a distraction from the course itself but it can also be seen as a 'nice' distraction during difficult times. I'm stuck in the middle somewhere.</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-52397770232112408462011-11-24T12:09:00.001-08:002011-12-21T23:55:50.131-08:00The researchers’ perspective - Charles Crook<strong><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Notes:</span></strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Web 2.0 = ‘many-to-many’ rather than being transmitted from one to many</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The first is the growth in the sheer number of internet users, which we term an increase in engagement.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This increased engagement arises from and stimulates a potent mix of technical developments, notably growth in bandwidth, ubiquity, mobility, and capacity for data storage.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Second, the internet allows the virtualisation of exchange practices.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The ease with which digital products can be upgraded has encouraged a perpetual beta attitude towards design, where products and practices are inherently evolving, rather than comfortably finished.</span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The social networking sites, famously Facebook and MySpace, can be seen as elaborations of this format into more tightly-knit and manageable communities of reflective users.</span></b><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The blog tradition is personal and diary-like.</span></b><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The wiki shares a quality of ‘perpetual beta’ with the blog but it allows other users an equable right to edit and develop content in a common space. Thus it is well-suited to the collaborative building of specialist knowledge.</span></b><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">collaboration = classroom communities</span></b><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">the term ‘literacy’ now has to be stretched to admit other forms of representational fluency than those associated with the printed word.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><em>(a) What does Crook mean by the ‘virtualisation of exchange practices’? (p.6) </em></span></div><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Under Web2.0 the traditional ways of sharing personal effects such as photos, messages, music, and so on have been added to by virtual methods online. Add to this the exchange of money for goods online and the traditional methods of meeting, postal services, going to the shops have all been virtualised. You still need the physical action of having online purchases delivered however - you might even have to open the door and sign for it!</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><em>(b) Would you agree that the learning dimensions that Crook sets out as characteristic of Web 2.0 can be grouped as either more social or more cognitive? (p.9)</em></span></div><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Yes, but only in the sense that he has 'managed' to broadly bracket the activities into four areas, there will naturally be some cross-over between the disciplines.</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-2579378369286261352011-11-24T12:08:00.002-08:002011-12-21T23:56:09.072-08:00I've come up with my first Brownism...maybe my last...<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Online Technology is only as successful as the next click.</span></div>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-5611804850745078752011-11-24T12:08:00.000-08:002011-12-21T23:56:22.358-08:00Drawing the threads together<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="color: #666666;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What are my personal thoughts on the relationship between technologies and educational reform? (For example, is technology itself a cause of reform or an instrument used to encourage reform?)<br />
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I would say that technology is an instrument to encourage reform. As we always keep coming back to - technology has it's place, but that place must be carefully chosen to make it effective. Educational reform appears to be a well-informed, considered process (you might say slow) and so so much led by knee-yerk reactions like the ones we have seen in Noble's article. The fear of being left behind doesn't really seem to be an over-riding concern in education, some would say that they are already behind and as such we have seen studies written about the need to support the Digital Native.<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="color: #666666;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What influence do I think the producers and developers of technologies and services have on university decisions about introducing new technologies?<br />
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As I don't work in a university environment it's difficult for me to give an informed view but here's a nice subjective view:<br />
Educationalists by their very nature are thinkers, and they like to give due consideration before diving in - do a study over a number of years, read some articles, ask <em><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">why?</span></em>.<br />
'Peddlers' from the business world will tell you that if you're not doing it 'this way' then you are doing it wrong - black and white, no room for negotiation, but they have a product to sell, or some other vested interest such as raising their profile.<br />
Do technologies influence decisions? I think the answer has to be yes, but how much they influence change appears to be less clear. </span></div>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-6575331445490328582011-11-24T12:07:00.000-08:002011-12-21T23:56:58.641-08:00Making sense of the student experience<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">notes:</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;">Bennett et al. argue that there is no need for to react to the studies that suggest we are not catering for the educational needs of the Net Generation. They state that those placing content (20ish %) on the internet is relatively low when compared the the users (high 90%). <em><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">If the curricula were more ICT-based this would surely lead to those figures rising significantly?</span></em></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">within the digital native generation as between the generations</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;">the substantially greater popularity of games amongst males compared to females (Kennedy et al2006; Kvavik et al 2005) <em><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">- perhaps this is the stimulus that Selwyn was looking for?</span></em></span></span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Tapscott (1999) urges educators and authorities to ‘give students the tools, and they will be the single most important source of guidance on how to make their schools relevant and effective places to learn’</span></b><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">recognition of the school’s in loco parentis role in protecting them from inappropriate material.</span></b><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Advocates making claims with little evidence are in danger of repeating a pattern seen throughout the history of educational technology in which new technologies promoted as vehicles for educational reform then fail to meet unrealistic expectations (Cuban, 2001).</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Neither dismissive scepticism nor uncritical advocacy enable understanding of whether the phenomenon of digital natives is significant and in what ways education might need to change to accommodate it.</span><br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">1. What do you understand by the use of the term ‘moral panic’?</span></i></strong><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Suggestion from previous studies is that it is not right that we are not catering for the Net Generation when they are the main student base now attending HE institutions. They use ICTs as part of their day to day lives and expect to use they educationally to.<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span></div><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">2. What does this article suggest to you about the technological determinist thrust of the Net Generation argument?</span></i></strong><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The article suggests that it is wrong to assume that just because someone is born into the NG it does not follow that this should predetermine the way they wish to use ICTs (particularly in education) or indeed that they use them at all.</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">3. Is there a theoretical or empirical basis to the arguments that are presented using the terms, Net Generation, Digital Natives or Millennials?</span></i></strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">They are theoretical, or at least the references used in this article talk about conclusions and theories made by others. There may be deeper empirical data in the other articles referred to but only <em><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">limited empirical evidence</span></em> is mentioned in Bennett et al's writing.</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">4. If there is, what do you think are the key features of this change in generations?</span></i></strong><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The <em><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">assumptions </span></em>that Bennett et al refer to are:<br />
- young people live their lives completely immersed in technology and are ‘fluent in the digital language'<br />
- young people do not even consider computers ‘technology’ anymore.<br />
- constantly connected<br />
- ‘today’s kids are always “multiprocessing”<br />
- accustomed to learning at high speed, making random connections, processing visual and dynamic information and learning through game-based activities<br />
- young people prefer discovery-based learning that allows them to explore and to actively test their ideas and create knowledge</span><br />
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</span><br />
<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">5. How might these changes affect education?</span></i></strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></i><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I think Bennett et al suggest that they shouldn't affect education to such a high degree as the writers whom he references are suggesting. The 'moral panic' is pushing for a rapid change in the way that technology is used to deliver the curricula in HE institutions, to bring them in line with the Net Generation, those who make up, and will make up the major populace of these institutions now and in the future.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Bennett et al. are not the only ones to suggest that this needs a 'dispassionate investigation' to ensure that these changes firstly need to take place at all and if they do that they have quality and 'fit'.</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-71483906849659276132011-11-24T12:04:00.002-08:002011-12-21T23:57:14.583-08:00UK students and the Net Generation<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">assumption students inherently inclined towards using the internet as a source of information, and disposed towards academic use of the internet.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Broad et al. (2004: 137): motivation behind the integration of the internet into HE driven by ‘internal political pressures’ rather than by sound educational rationales.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;">burgeoning literature on HE and the use of ICT <em><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">- here's another one</span></em></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">academic use of the internet is heavily entwined with leisure uses, and tends to be curtailed by issues of cost and time</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">discouraged from using ICT due to access limitations and the cost of personal ownership of equipment</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666;"><strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">‘more due to matters of “digital choice” rather than “digital divide”’</span></strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> Brotcorne (2005)</span></span><br />
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<strong><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">influenced by perceptions of usefulness, ease-of-use and other psychological attitudes</span></strong><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">differences in the quality of internet access [...] in terms of differences between ‘public’ and ‘private’ locations of use (Hassania, 2006).</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">institutional and faculty support and resourcing (Eynon, 2005).</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">(Cotton and Jelenewicz, 2006) divisions along the lines of gender, race, educational background and/or technological experience.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666;"><strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">research needs to provide a more holistic view of students’ </span></strong><em><b><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">actual</span></b></em><strong><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> use of the internet in their studies as opposed to what they could or should be doing</span></strong></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">results:</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">internet for educational information was ranked lower than communicative and social software uses, higher proportions reporting frequent use for email, chat-room and social-software applications such as blogging, myspace.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A significant difference in terms of the context of internet access – ‘private’ access to their own computer more likely to report looking for information about university studies/assignments than the 10% who were restricted to accessing the internet in shared settings</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">female significantly more likely than male to look for information about university studies/assignments</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">no significant differences were discernable in terms of students’ ethnic background, age, year of study or educational background</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">notable differences in terms of subject discipline</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">traditionally reported barriers to student internet use (deficiencies in terms of access, skill and know-how) appear to be steadily diminishing</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">minority of students whose use appeared to be compromised either by their reliance on shared, public access points (10%) or lack of competence and/or confidence (1% ‘novices’) [...] these students’ needs should not be overlooked amidst future moves to cater for the majority of competent and confident internet-using students.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">consistent differences were apparent in terms of students’ gender and subject of study</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">during the 1980s and 1990s men’s dominance (Sutton, 1991). Now assumed gender differences have all but disappeared (Mossberger et al., 2003), any differences which do remain are in terms of female reticence. Our data suggest making online learning and internet-based information attractive to male students. <em><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Backed up by what other recent research? </span></em>research should be conducted along more longitudinal lines than the ‘snap-shot’ nature of the present data set</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">subject departments could be encouraged to further consider how online information sources can be made to better ‘fit’ with the demands and nature of the different subject areas</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">have not examined the nature, quality or effectiveness of this engagement.</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-22849627245554187842011-11-24T12:04:00.000-08:002011-12-21T23:57:36.758-08:00Collaborative learning in a wiki environment<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">notes:</span><br />
<ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">the creation of explicit knowledge from tacit understanding of course concepts; </span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">learning through discussion, disagreement, and consensus building; </span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">team working; and </span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">effective communication of ideas to others through networked knowledge environments; articulation, analysis and synthesis of ideas and knowledge-sharing. </span></b></li>
</ul><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;">Leadbeater (</span><a href="http://learn.open.ac.uk/#CIT0014"><span style="color: #666666;">2000</span></a><span style="color: #666666;">) states that:</span></span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We do not need more information, we need more understanding.</span></b><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Learners build on their knowledge by interacting with each other, their educators, and their learning materials. This learning process requires social interaction that can foster a shared sense of belonging and purpose.</span></b><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;">Bruns and Humphreys (</span><a href="http://learn.open.ac.uk/#CIT0002"><span style="color: #666666;">2005</span></a><span style="color: #666666;">) suggest that the pedagogical models need to change from the traditional linear learning paradigms to a social constructivist pedagogical model which includes problem-solving in a collaborative environment that requires students to enact knowledge through a process of shared understanding.</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The key learning outcomes of this course are:</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">to identify the stakeholders of a business problem and its solution, and understand how to interact with stakeholders and to manage any stakeholder conflicts; </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">to solve conflicts, duplicates and ambiguities in the gathered requirements; and </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">to deal with the varying perspectives and views of different requirements engineers in a project-team. </span></span></div><div align="center" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f"><stroke joinstyle="miter"></stroke><formulas><f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"></f><f eqn="sum @0 1 0"></f><f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"></f><f eqn="prod @2 1 2"></f><f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"></f><f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"></f><f eqn="sum @0 0 1"></f><f eqn="prod @6 1 2"></f><f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"></f><f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"></f><f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"></f><f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"></f></formulas><path gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect" o:extrusionok="f"></path><lock aspectratio="t" v:ext="edit"></lock></shapetype><span style="color: #666666;"></span></span></div><span style="color: #666666;"><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The ice-breaker activity has two objectives: students are able to familiarize themselves with the wiki environment, and the activity gives them an opportunity to introduce themselves to their fellow group members.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The marking is based on both the student's own contribution to the activity as well as on the product of the activity. A significant advantage of the wiki is that it records each and every change to the document, which means that there is evidence of each student's contribution.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We had responses from 117 students. Of these responses, we have analysed a random sample of 40 (34%). In this sample there were 9 (22.5%) females and 31 (77.5%) males compared with 20 (17%) females and 97 males in the full data set. All students on the course are adults studying part-time and, in our sample, 23 (57.5%) were studying other OU courses simultaneously with our course.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The students' accounts show that collaboration enhanced their learning on the course through clarification, re-interpretation and re-assessment, and reflection.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Students raised a number of positive reasons why they felt that a wiki is a good medium for collaborative work when they are remote from one another. There were four major themes that emerged: the continual availability of the wiki, its facilitative qualities, cost savings, and traceability.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The students noted a number of disadvantages of collaborative authoring, some of which were ameliorated by the use of the wiki and some that were exacerbated. In the part-time distance-learning environment of the OU, students have the expectation of studying in their own time, and any collaborative activity is considered to be a burden because it imposes additional synchronization points.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;">In an institution such as the OU where flexibility in studying patterns is one of the main advantages that it offers, collaborative work can seem inflexible - <em><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Same experience in H800 when arranging Elluminate sessions</span></em></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;">There has been some discussion in the literature of the need to ensure that student engagement in the use of wikis is dependent on their confidence with the tool (de Pedro <i>et al.</i> </span><a href="http://learn.open.ac.uk/#CIT0006"><span style="color: #666666;">2006</span></a><span style="color: #666666;">, Britcliffe and Walker </span><a href="http://learn.open.ac.uk/#CIT0001"><span style="color: #666666;">2007</span></a><span style="color: #666666;">). However, our students were generally unaware of wikis at the start of the course and certainly could not be said to be proficient in their use, and did not comment upon any difficulties in using the wiki. Nevertheless, we found that a lack of robustness of the software can be demotivating (Chen <i>et al.</i> </span><a href="http://learn.open.ac.uk/#CIT0003"><span style="color: #666666;">2005</span></a><span style="color: #666666;">). </span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">our students were sometimes hesitant to change the contributions of others or comment on one another's contributions</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-10970273979349508452011-11-24T12:03:00.001-08:002011-12-21T23:57:53.066-08:00Reading Conole et al (2008)<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VCJ-4R2H1PC-2&_user=126980&_coverDate=02%2F29%2F2008&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000010439&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=126980&md5=ace0356d2d9446615bc21685d69818da"><span style="color: #666666;">‘Disruptive technologies’, ‘pedagogical innovation’: What’s new Findings from an in-depth study of students’ use and perception of technology</span></a><span style="color: #666666;"> Conole et al (2008)</span></span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Information seeking and handling </span></i></strong><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></i></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">used the web extensively to extend their understanding of concepts and supplement course material. i.e. Wikipedia frequently mentioned.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Google was their first action when trying to get information for an assignment. </span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">they cross-referenced and validated material found on the web with other sources (text books, lecture notes, <i>etc.</i>), to test credibility</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">enabling them to access up-to-date information.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Specialised subject-based sites were frequently cited.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Printed textbooks were considered by some to be outdated and difficult to digest</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Online textbooks were popular in medicine and computing science</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Students recognised the value of library catalogues</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">searching for images (to include in presentations), as well as downloading relevant Podcasts.</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Communication</span></i></strong><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></i></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">communication technologies to support their studies was extensive.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">mobile phones to phone and text each other</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">instant messaging software</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Email was used universally and was the main channel for communication with tutors.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Students expected and generally received quick responses to their emails</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Low cost communication technologies were considered invaluable</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">more ambivalent about the value of discussion forums.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Student use of blogs varied; some used blogs as a means of reflecting on their learning, whilst others used them more as an information source or ‘expert filter’</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Assignment preparation</span></i></strong><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></i></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A high proportion of reported ICT-usage was in connection with assessed work.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Students used Word and PPT to write assignments/notes and oral presentations.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">extensive use of the e-portfolio integrated into their virtual learning environment (VLE) </span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">self-assessment was likely to be an important part of their future post-university continuing professional development (CPD) activities.</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Integrated learning</span></i></strong><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></i></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">VLE only one like to use most, and ten listed a VLE as a dislike.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">appear to centre on whether the VLE was well designed, relevant to their needs and appropriately embedded into the culture of the course</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">alternative sources of course-related information (such as tutor or fellow-student websites), more important</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Tutor usage appeared patchy with only a selection using it as a primary course tool.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">particular technologies served individual learning style and needs</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">students who worked part-time, had children, lived some distance from campus or had heavy work placements, really appreciated access to an integrated set of online course-related information and resources.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">download lecture notes or view course timetables</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">importance of face-to-face contact with tutors was still considered necessary and important</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">benefit of meeting with classmates and tutors to discuss work issues</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Face-to-face contact was considered vital in building a sense of community or ‘belonging’ to the class or study group.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">arguing that online communication did not provide the same quality, value for money or degree of interaction.</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-3028433466844076272011-11-24T12:02:00.001-08:002011-12-21T23:58:07.577-08:00Reading Salaway (2008) and Kennedy (2006)<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;">Salaway et al (2008) </span><a href="http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ERS0808/RS/ERS0808w.pdf"><span style="color: #666666;">‘The ECAR study of undergraduate students and information technology’</span></a><span style="color: #666666;">.</span></span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The scope of the study</span></i></strong><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></i></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">27,317 students/98 colleges and universities - majority being under 25 (78.8%), attending a four year course (87.8%), full-time (84.0%)</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The research questions the authors focused on</span></i></strong><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></i></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;">Ownership of laptops<br />
Internet-capable phones<br />
Student technology skill level<br />
Social Networking Sites<br />
Instructors use of IT in courses</span><b><br />
</b><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The methods used to capture the data</span></i></strong></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;">literature review and review of other relevant surveys<br />
quantitative web-based survey<br />
student focus groups<br />
analysis of qualitative data<br />
comparison to previous survey data</span><b><br />
</b><strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The overarching findings</span></i></strong></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Increase in laptops (2006 - 65.9 < 2008 - 82.2)<br />
Decrease in desktops (2006 - 71.0 > 2008 - 51.2)<br />
Increase in use of SNSs (2006 - 74.8 < 2008 - 88.8)</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Students perceive that more instructors need to use IT effectively in courses </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Students value f2f instruction - year after year </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">SNSs are much-used and valued by students </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Students are increasingly mobile </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Students expect IT to be available </span></span></div><span style="color: #666666;"><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;">Kennedy et al. (2006) </span><a href="http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/sydney06/proceeding/pdf_papers/p160.pdf"><span style="color: #666666;">‘Questioning the net generation: a collaborative project in Australian higher education’</span></a></span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The scope of the study</span></i></strong><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">2120 students - represented 27.2% of first year students, analyses for this study were restricted to students born after 1980 (n = 1973; 25.3% of first year students) to highlight the 'Net Generation'</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The research questions the authors focused on</span></i></strong><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Demographic information<br />
Access to hardware and the Internet<br />
Use of and skills with technology based tools<br />
Preferences for the use of technology based tools in University studies.</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The methods used to capture the data</span></i></strong><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></i></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A four page questionnaire asked students about their access to, use of, skills with, and preferences for an array of established and emerging technologies and technology based tools.</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The overarching findings</span></i></strong><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></i></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">While some students have embraced the technologies and tools of the ‘Net Generation’, this is by no means the universal student experience.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: #666666;">..<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the widespread revision of curricula to accommodate the so-called Digital Natives does not seem warranted and, moreover, it would be difficult to start “Adapting materials to the language of Digital Natives”</b></span></span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">a diverse range of skills exist across the student population</span></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">familiarity with the use of email does not imply expertise in rigorous online debate and discussion</span><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Clearly we cannot assume that being a member of the ‘Net Generation’ is synonymous with knowing how to employ technology based tools strategically to optimise learning</span></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This study clearly provides sufficient evidence to negate the ‘one size fits all’ approach to the integration of ICTs into university curricula.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">While these figures in no way suggest a moratorium on the use of podcasting, they do indicate the need to provide appropriate support for students.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">a number of promising opportunities for integrating innovative technologies into university curricula.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">also want to use it in their studies? [...] the answer seems to be ‘Yes’.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Evidence of who our students are must remain an important factor in informing how we use the array of technological tools at our disposal to design rich and engaging learning experiences for all students.</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">How does the study compare with the ECAR study?</span></i></strong><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></i></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The two come to quite similar conclusions; that there are skills there for core technologies. The ECAR study seemed a little more encouraging in it's 'tone' than the Kennedy study which seemed a little more critical in 'tone'.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The USA study covered a larger study group</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Are similar findings emerging?</span></i></strong><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></i></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There are certain niches where students are working at advanced levels - SNSs, and Podcasts. Ultimately though there is not enough advanced knowledge across the board to warrant the full scale changing of a curriculum to suit a minority.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Care must be taken to use the appropriate technology in the appropriate situation to enable it to be of benefit to the institution, the tutor, and the learner.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Students doing academic courses did not favour IT or online courses.</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Are there any differences in what is being reported for students in the USA compared with those in Australia?</span></i></strong><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></i></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Australians seems more prepared to use IT to replace some of the existing methods whereas the US, despite having a large percentage of IT ownership (and implied usage) still feel that F2F has it's benefit in an academic course.</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-28688628959839070292011-11-24T12:01:00.001-08:002011-12-21T23:58:24.993-08:00Technology in my context<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I am looking at e-learning/online training, as this is my current role and these are questions that I don't always ask myself so there could be some useful issues I raise for my own development.</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Likely impact on the students’ perceptions of the quality of their courses, their approaches to studying and their academic performance?</span></i></strong><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Certainly, from a historical point, e-learning within my organisation has never been well received. Most of the mandatory training that is delivered online is provided by a third party provider. The issues that delegates have simply logging into their system are widespread, and for a student attempting to log in, on shift, outside of normal hours there is little if no support. The result is that the course is not done and the perception of e-learning has been lost before the student has even reached the course itself - bringing us back to the now aging chestnut of 'accessibility'.</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Once in the course the students approach is obviously different from that of a classroom session. Having negotiated the time to complete the course with a line manager the student must then find an environment conducive with being able to concentrate on the training. This again is not always easy.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The course is not being looked at unfavourably - regardless of the quality of the course itself, which are actually of a very good standard and the objectives within them, once met through completion of the course lead to students who are able to complete their roles better.</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Likely impact on the teachers’ perceptions of their teaching context and their approaches to teaching?</span></i></strong><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I work in an office of trainers and their perception of e-learning is equally dimmed by the accessibility issues that have happened in the past. "What have you got on today?", "Oh, I've got to facilitate the diversity e-learning", not happy bunnies. The outcomes again are effective and I think the trainers acknowledge this, they would however argue that they could deliver the material just as effectively in a traditional classroom scenario.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When I joined the diversity training was done in a classroom and the ability to discuss some of the finer points with those present to get views/experiences is invaluable in this context. The e-learning was then bought in to replace the classroom and completed 'solo', this was not so successful. The blended learning approach has now been initiated where the trainer facilitates the package in a classroom allowing for debate - the best of both worlds? The results are only comparable to those obtained from the course as a solo exercise as the classroom session was a pass if you attended. The blended sessions have yielded better results.</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Embodies particular assumptions about the nature of teaching and learning in higher education?</span></i></strong><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">E-learning taken on it's own I would say embodies a large number of assumptions. To name a few; that it will solve issues with getting education to remote areas, that it will save large amounts of money by offsetting costs of classrooms, that training can take place 24/7/365. The reality of course shows this not to be the case although there are benefits that e-learning can bring to a blended learning program.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Taking H800 as an example of a blended experience, where classroom is completely negated, I have found that the different methods of technology we have used to be very effective in delivering the material. I think in this case there has obviously been a lot of thought given to the design of the material and to the method best suited to deliver each part. That said one of the issues that arose early in the course was with the amount of time shown as appropriate for each activity - these timings in practice were different for different people - plans I often find are perfect until you include people.</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Assumptions likely to promote more positive perceptions, more desirable approaches to studying and better performance on the part of the students?</span></i></strong><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">E-learning is still relatively 'young', certainly relative to existing methods of learning delivery and so there is still a need to find where it fits best within the structure of course delivery. There is a lot of proving to be done to give e-learning/online learning a more positive perception both from students and tutors but in my perception there has been large advances in the decade that I have been involved. If those advances continue and the benefits both educationally and financially can be proved then the inclusion of online material will undoubtedly increase. Beyond that there will be an improvement in accessibility and therefore some of the assumptions associated with e-learning may come to fruition. The result would be to allow students to tailor their learning approach to fit better with their commitments, would this ultimately lead to a better performance? A happy student is probably one who will study better/deeper, and deeper learners achieve better results.</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7509763141460976987.post-47422448344642908332011-11-24T12:00:00.001-08:002011-12-21T23:58:43.593-08:00Other benefits of ICT<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Are the possibilities of ICTs being realised in our organisation?</span></i></strong><br />
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<span style="color: #666666;"><em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Access to more/better sources of information:</span></em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> Yes, the suite of products available to delegates has been reduced, condensed into a suite that best fits purpose, not just a huge list to choose from.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666;"><em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Greater flexibility in how/where/when one learns:</span></em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> Yes, specifically <em><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">when and where</span></em> an organisation is 24/7 there is a need for protected learning time - they can use e-learning at anytime of day or night, not being dependant on the availability of a trainer/course, or a classroom.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666;"><em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">More collaborative learning</span></em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">- Yes/No. e-learning loosely promotes learning on your own but there are also situations where team events are held, each working individually on the e-learning but in a room with others where discussion is encouraged. This has the effect of a common knowledge and anecdotal experience can be shared - situating and contextualising the training.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666;"><em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">New/better ways of learning using Web2.0</span></em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> - No.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666;"><em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Better/More tutoring</span></em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> - Yes, the team sessions are often facilitated by a subject expert, sometimes without the presence of a trainer. This increases that experts facilitation/leadership skills.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666;"><em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Better assessment methods</span></em><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">- Yes, a move we have implemented is to have students assessed before being trained therefore leading to more learner-specific training needs.</span></span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Open and distance learning the main beneficiary?</span></i></strong><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Probably, yes, there are other beneficiaries of new ICTs in education. we have interactive whiteboards and such but without ICT the e-learning simply wouldn't exist.</span><br />
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<strong><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; font-weight: normal; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Dis-benefits</span></i></strong><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span></i></b><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I'm not sure that Greenfield offers much in the way of evidence, it seems to contain a lot of conjecture: "It is hard to see how...", yes it is hard to see how but what evidence do you have?</span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">To then suggest that it may cause cancer or autism, without any hard facts is frankly a bit foolhardy and merely sets her up to be shot down. The flip-side of this is that if there were any grounds in what she has said, it has been dismissed as something tantamount to scaremongery and it may struggle to hold any solid argument in the future.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="color: #666666; font-family: Calibri; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">If I believed that something may cause cancer or autism, I would certainly refer my thoughts to organisations like Cancer Research UK and the Institute of Child Health to hear their educated views before making such statements public.</span>Browniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03679185763239782592noreply@blogger.com0