How To Look Good Glaikit

How To Look Good Glaikit may seem an odd title for a CPD event but it looks like it's going to be an interesting couple of days. The two-day event will look at ways of creating and sustaining online learning communities in Glow.

{Live-ish blog to capture some of the things that strike me as the day progresses.}

Help or hinderance?

© R. A. J. Muir 2010. Used with permission.

Chinese proverb: When the winds of change blow, some people build walls while others build windmills.

CPDScotsman says, "You can't lurk collegiatly". Can you force people to contribute? What about the concept of virtual learners? An interesting discussion developed initially in the room but then in the Twitter backchannel. One Tweet that caused a bit of discussion came from @ewanmcintosh:

Fact: 90% of users won't contribute anything. But without them your community dies. Taking w/out contributing is part of ecosystem

I was going to comment on this and include some of the other discussion but I think it deserves a blog post of its own. I'll try to do something on it tonight.

We had to list five things we want our online communities to achieve. My five are:

1. Foster a sense of belonging. The online community should support social as well as educational activities.
2. A place to learn. This should allow people to learn by watching as well as by contributing - it is possible to over-emphasize the value of contributing.
3. Effective contributors. Different levels of participation possible but as people become more comfortable in a community, they may grow into being effective contributors. (See Salmon's Five Stage Model.)
4. Creative users. The online community should free people to be creative, not constrain them to one way of working.
5. Help rather than hinder. If the online tool gets in the way of learning, find a better tool! See the cartoon above - the tray is supposed to help you, not add to your burdens.

It was a think, pair share type exercise and, eventually, four of us working together came up with an agreed set of five aims. A dot voting exercise (see dotvoting.org for an online example of this type of activity) was then employed to identify the aims that got the most votes from the community. The voting will be summarised and shared later and I'll try to post the results here when they are available.

Towards the end of the day, there was a demonstration of a CPDMeet web part which was designed to make it easy to set up online events. This template included a series of buttons (Glow hotspots) in a follow up activities section. One of the buttons was, "Say thank you", which sends an email to the organiser/presenter. I like this. If you want to up participation levels and minimise lurking, make the participation bar as low as possible. In facebook terms, give users a Like button to click.

It is now the end of the day, and to be honest, I'm not sure I did what I was supposed to do (i.e. set up or improve a Glow group) but I learned a lot, participated in some cracking discussions and shared resources... and I had fun! I may get into trouble tomorrow for not doing what I was told to do today but I'll cross that online bridge when I come to it!

Torbay RTC: Personalised Pocket Learning

Live blog from #torbayrtc

Personalised Pocket Learning - making a distinction between handheld learning and netbook type devices. Studywiz uses a variety of interfaces to deliver their stuff. Can have Studywiz Mobile - browser based designed to work on mobile devices (e.g. iPhone) and also a portfolio iPhone App eLocker. Two way interactive products. eLocker and Mobile can be used as voting devices, camera, dictionaries, spirit levels... Teachers even saying they save on photocopying costs and can deliver content that might otherwise have gone on Interactive Whiteboards.

There is not a substantial body of research on mobile learning - partly because there is no stable mobile environment. Current mobile devices are convergent devices pulling in a range of functions and tools into one, pocket sized device.

Advantages include ubiquitous access - learning beyond the classroom. Includes home/school links and international links. See Travis Elis's (Ellen? - not sure of name) Travis Allen's YouTube video about the iSchool Initiative - he wants to see every school student with their own iTouch. {Update: Sorry about messing up Travis' name but I'm pleased he left me a comment that allowed me to fix it and add some other links. Clearly Louise's Australian accent threw me - "Allen" via Australian became "Ellen" :-) }

Children want to personalise their learning. Pupils want a space they can personalise and meet with other learners. Pocket Learning devices can increase motivation (speaker says the engagement lasts - not just novelty factor) and makes learning fun. Pupils are engaged but important to engage the wider community - parents and teachers need to know how the pupils will be using the devices educationally. It is not about goofing off in class to listen to music. Develop an Acceptable Use Policy and explain what you intend to do to pupils, parents, teachers, management...

Louise Duncan (the speaker) thinks that many paper handouts are lost or wasted but this doesn't happen to material delived to pocket devices.

Suggests that you implement in stages - don't try and do everything at once. Start small and build on successes. Asked how long it takes from discovering a piece of software to getting it installed and usable on school machines. It can take a long time! With pocket devices, such as iTouch, it is easy to get new apps onto all the devices - sync with teacher machine to share to all pupil devices. (As an aside, she said that searching YouTube with an application name often brings up video of applications in use - gives good idea of what they are like.)

Showed a slide with some iPhone/iTouch applications. Leaf trombone, classic books, story kit, Civilisation Revolution (history simulation), Wurdle, Geared (used in science classrooms). Strip Designer used to create activities based on screenshots and maps to create geography activities - three images side-by-side map/street view/pupil folder of same location. Google earth and virtual field trips, etc. Another simulation game for iPhone/iTouch is Virtual Villagers. Numeracy: iChoose random choice tool - great for probability. Timers, spreadsheets etc. Can also give gallery of images, e.g. coins, or images to represent fractions. Engaging students in science: TouchPhysics. Brushes: goes beyond the doodle - share and comment on other children's work. Also, can show animation with Brushes Viewer that plays back creation of picture. Literacy activities include podcasting, film as text, collaboration. Storynory allows ownload of audiobooks with online transcripts - words can be clicked on and defined. Etch-a-sketch lite.

Lyrics: tune wiki can bring up album art and lyrics as it is being played. Turn presentations to movies to the pupil's pocket devices. RSS feeds can pull relevant content directly n to pupil's devices. Can use flip style video recorders, bring into iMovie and then share out to pupil iPhones/iTouches. Sound recording directly onto device. Worth looking at iTunes U at least once a week {Must find chap from Cupertino who Tweets about good stuff happening on iTunes U - DDM}

Reflections
The age we are does not determine how we use technology but it is our role as teachers to ensure relevant learning takes place and that pupils don't use devices simply to have fun. Worth integrating the devices with school admin system to deliver daily bulletins etc. Give teachers the devices six months before the pupils! Teachers at Louise's school found that pupils very quickly integrated into their lives and used much more effectively than textbooks/notebooks. Notebook and pocket devices have a three year lifespan so sustainability is an important consideration. Need configuration tools to make it easy to set up devices and add certificates to allow school internet access and filtering. More generally, a strategy to sync devices is important (e.g. ParaSync for iPods). Even basic issues like how will pupils charge their devices.

Louise has a blog that details loads of information and you can find her on Twitter at LouiseEDuncan.

Torbay RTC: iTunes U

Live blog from #torbayrtc

John Hickey talked about iTunes U and how it came from Dukes University who provided their students with iPods but wanted to give them a way to use them educationally. Originally started just by recording their classes but this meant students had to keep going back to the site many times a week - so much information that it becomes too hard to deal with.

• Basic Literacy
• Information Literacy (How do people cope with the sheer amount of information?)
• Media Literacy (From consumer to participant)

New students expect learning environments that support and accommodate the way they interact online outside of school.

Duke University came to Apple and talked them into making minor adaptations to iTunes that ultimately allowed the creation of iTunes U. This is not something Apple planned but they believe that iTunes U is now the largest repository of online educational content. Not Apple content - comes from and is controlled by the institutions themselves. Cambridge University, Teachers TV, LTScotland, Open University, and many others are on iTunes U. It has over 5,000 public courses from (currently) 77 countries.

For use in schools, it s possible to turn off the commercial side of iTunes and just leave iTunes U.

What are the tools for 21st Century learners?

Torbay RTC: Cambridgeshire RTC

Live blog from #torbayrtc

David Fuller and Paul [Didn't Catch it] are talking about what they are doing formally and informally in their school - Thomas Deacon Academy.

For example, they run an animation club (informal) where the pupils created "stages" using cardboard boxes for stop motion animation. Also run Digital Cre8tor and showed great photo slideshow with You Got A Friend In Me as the background music.

Also showed some Illustrator work that used live trace to produce impressive results. Also, used Illustrator in Literacy Day activities to illustrate a poem. Young children (year 9?) also producing Julian Opie style portraits (see this photoshop How To...) which they said was a great way to introduce layers.

They have a fantastic looking school newsletter (although "newsletter" does not do it justice) which is pupils produced and a radio station which the children not only host but also do the technical stuff.

Clearly a school that is using technology in very creative ways.

Torbay RTC: e-Learning Foundation

Live blog from #torbayrtc.

Kevin Pay is talking about overcoming the digital divide. The e-Learning Foundation aims:

"...to reduce the effect of this “Digital Divide” by working with schools, parents and other stakeholders to ensure that all children have access to the learning resources that technology can make available, when and where they need them, both at home and at school."

They have three core principles:

1. Equity of access
2. Sustainability
3. Home use

The third is seen as important - it is not a way for schools to get extra kit! Becta are distributing the funds and it is going directly to families. The Home Access fund is means tested (based on eligibility for free school meals. Home access but the child will bring to school so has educational benefits too.

E Learning - Computer from School Website on Vimeo.

There is also a School Affiliation aspect to their work to help schools provide personal ICT access for their pupils.

21st Century Assessment

I read an article on Internet use in exams on the BBC news site with interest. It begins:

"In Denmark, the government has taken the bold step of allowing pupils full access to the internet during their final school year exams."

From: Danish pupils use web in exams

One Of These Buttons Will Get Me Out Of Here
Originally uploaded by Cayusa

Now that's eAssessment! For some time pupils in Denmark have been able to choose whether to handwrite answers or type them on a computer. I suppose it could be argued that this is just a logical extension. The article says that on the morning of the exam, the students are helped to set up "their laptops". It is not clear whether they are the student's own laptops or if it just means the laptops they will use. The opportunity to use your own machine, with the software etc. set up just the way you like it would be an interesting.

Clearly, allowing Internet access changes the nature of what you assess. For example, the article notes, "The teachers also think the nature of the questions make it harder to cheat in exams. Students are no longer required to regurgitate facts and figures. Instead the emphasis is on their ability to sift through and analyse information ."

There is a Have Your Say page linked to this article and the responses are fairly polarised. I find the number of people posting comments such as, "An even better way to ensure success would be to give them the examination answers already, that way nobody has to fail and feel upset." slightly depressing. Is that really what people think is happening or is it trolls at work? In the response page there is a clear school of thought that believes memorising and recalling facts is the only thing that assessment can do and that any deviation from that undermines and devalues examinations. And why is there an assumption that changing what is assessed and how it is assessed is about dumbing down? Analysis and synthesis are much higher order skills than factual recall.

What are your thoughts? Good thing? Bad thing? What kind of change would that bring to the kinds of exams we set and the way we teach if a system like that was introduced here?

Podcasting as a new educational means (#ecer2009)

Live blog captured during presentation by Raphael Struck, Heikki Kynäslahti*, Olli Vesterinen and Seppo Tella from University of Helsinki, Finland.

Podcasting as a new educational means — Students as content producers

Investigated mobile learning in the 1990s - using mobile devices to collect and transfer information. Also interested in student's pedagogical thinking (a new area of study) that becomes more important in Web 2.0 and user created content.

Comes from research on pedagogical thinking which considers that something has to sit between teaching and learning - studying. The student's pedagogical thinking supports their studying.

Worked with media education students who made podcasts in groups on a topic of their choice from the module they were studying. Research looked at what they learned while creating their podcast rather than what they learned from listening to others. They developed a number of skills: they developed pedagogical thinking, learned to express themselves in a concise manner and developed technical skills.

Mobility was not as great as expected - in general they created the podcast on a computer rather than a mobile device. However attitudes to mobile methods, especially listening, were positive.

The researcher considered where conflicts may arise. For example, if a student's pedagogical thinking considers the use of ICT to be important but teachers do not require it, there could be conflict.

The researchers think they could have explained why the podcasts were to be created and the students found it frustrating that nobody listend to their podcasts.

Blackboard to Monitor (#ecer2009)

Live blog captured during presentation by Roman Svaricek and Jiri Zounek from Masaryk University, Czech Republic.

Blackboard to Monitor, or Empirical Research of E-learning in University Level Teaching

{I think the title refers to the move from teaching using a physical blackboard to using virtual tools accessed through a monitor. - DM}

The researchers analysed 430 courses from the Faculty of Arts. They studied a variety of types of courses including distance, blended and face to face with electronic support.

They identified a number of advantages such as the mediation of materials, monitoring of student work and motivating students. It gives power to the teacher - for example "ICT is fun" and can be used as a reward {Not sure I have understood the point he was making here. - DM}

They also identified three types of teachers: Constructivists (consciously using constructivist methodology), Intuitivists (unaware of constructivist theory but using aspects in their teaching anyway) and Technologists (using the technology with no real understanding of the pedagogical issues).

They found that some people were beginners with eLearning systems but through themselves enthusiastically into using the system and spent many hours developing the system.

They see eLearing depending on the activities of an orchestra of people - tutors, students, IT support, ... eLearning systems should not just be about the delivery of stuff but be the medium that supports learning.

ECER 2008 - Effects of web based educational games on students’ success

Live blog from a session at ECER 2008.

Presented by Gulten Senkul Gungormus of Baskent University, Turkey and Ahmet Mahiroglu of Gazi University.

Games are entertaining and motivating. Using learning games may help gain student's attention. Internet based games creates the possibility of supporting a community of players as well as allowing any time, any place access.

The problem however is to determine the effect of the games on learning. The researcher wanted to check success and permanency of learning measured against a group not using games. The study looked at a group of 50 1st year students. Twenty-five in test group and twenty-five in control (non-game) group.

The games developed were based on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. It didn't look like it was multi-player.

The game playing group was significantly more successful. [I wonder if it was the enforced revison time that made the differnce rather than the game? - DM] They also compared with two tests- one harder than the other. They suggest that the games are more effective for harder tests [Again a revision effect? - DM] Also suggested something about web based materials without games were also effective. [I think... but I missed a bit here. - DM]

In answering, she says control group spent the same time doing online revision questions covering the same stuff as the games, so my revision questions can be ignored :-)