https://showtime.gre.ac.uk/index.php/edu/tel-conference/schedConf/presentations Apologies, arrived late for Allison Littlejohn’s keynote presentation: 'Collective Learning: enhancing learning, transforming practice' - She got us to discuss in group a new dimension in learning technology. It’s always good for a bit of interaction, even in a keynote. Her current research has been modeling ‘expert’ behaviours of informal learning in industry. She is trying to formulate a different way of mapping these activities that allow colleagues/students to learn from each others methods. Really interesting research. What worries me is in large organisations, informal networks and learning methods happen within human social political environments. These can distort the honesty/trust within the system. Basically some people play different games in order to take advantage. Not all the informal networks can be accessed at the same level by all. I’m reminded of the Al Pacino character in Glengarry Glen Ross.
We were asked why H.E. is slower at adoption than secondary school sector. I commented about the size of organisations or teams, which was poorly considered, but I still think I had a point. There is lots of research exploring the effect of trust in smaller teams, e.g. all the stuff that comes from the Dunbar studies. http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic514568.files/Dunbar_Neocortex%20size%20as%20a%20constant%20on%20group%20size%20in%20primates.pdf
True, all large organisations are made from small teams, but the larger the organization the harder it becomes to direct. What I really meant was the different cultures and diversity of values are more complex.
Sasha van Straten from Berkhamstead School commented that he comes from a very large secondary school, were they are making many innovations. But, what helps is the school head is behind the development. Any chance of a job!
Allison also mentioned swirl another interesting tool from google. This provides a different viewpoint on banks of images and content. Allison should look up the ensemble project
Idealism
Someone else questioned the level of idealism within Allison’s vision. And this theme continued for me with some of the other presentations.
Break
I chatted to the pupils, teacher and Sasha from Berhamstead in the break. He does have a very well organized programme of staff development and all the right motivational tools to get engagement. The project they were here to present was very interesting. Using google docs for staff to give live feedback on, and students watching and/or making changes as they go. Oh. . . that’s nice. I know a few people who would enjoy trying that out.
Transforming a face-to-face PGCert for an online environment: a transferable pedagogical model. PowerPoint show Will Stewart
I went to Will’s session, he outlined is framework for a online activity centred model of distance learning. His energy was infectious, although I do think there would be problems scaling up this model. Mostly because you can scale up Will, who I suspect is one of the main reasons why this model works. The model itself is closely connected with e-tivities type courses.
Then went to see
Nesting in, taking flight: Embedding innovation and inspiring new practice with distance Masters students in the DUCKLING project PowerPoint show Terese Marie Bird
Some great research, that has 'nested in, and 'taking flight'. It also shows how fast the technology is moving. Their research into e-books as distance learning delivery tools has been completely surpassed by ipad development. The data about the effect from the introduction of podcasts within the vle was very useful. Forgive me if this is wrong but it appears it had a big impact on retention and efficiency for staff. I asked if the money from the project had made a difference in the level of engagement from the staff. Helen Beetham (JISC) was there and the evidence from jisc is that money does make some difference but not as much as giving the project a name and all the internal kudos that surrounds it.
Lunch, were I discussed the future of H.E. with a few people. One reflection was the lack of future scoping and market research that is undertaken in the sector, something that was latter commented on by Helen Beetham
After lunch I did my talk Digital Identities – the fine art of blogging. I was expecting to have very low attendance because of the subject area is very particular and not easy to replicate. But I got around 30, which freaked me a bit. Questions were a slow coming, which worries me that I delivered too much, too fast. Met a great contact afterwords with someone working in the same area and using wordpress. Our institution charges around 250 a year to run this software, which is frustrating, but might be something to work on.
Ten Tales of Transformation PDF Helen Beetham was very, very useful. She presented 10 stories of projects in developments that meet the current challenges. Some of the projects I have heard of but others could be very promising. But it is also a little depressing that we are not this far ahead, and are still a little distracted and confused. The general picture is of instigating programme level of change and supporting this with looser quality procedures built on trust.
I asked my usual question, and still don’t have an answer.
http://www3.surrey.ac.uk/sceptre/Co-Lab.htm Internal student run consultancy. Wow needs to run one of these for us
http://viewpointsproject.blogspot.com/ workshop idea using cards, similar to carpe diem
All in all very useful, interesting bunch of people and some good presentations.
Posted via email from abstractrabbit (Jim Turner) posterous
