…”In recent months there has been much talk of the implications of FELTAG, the Further Education Learning Technology Action Group. Much of this has been focused on understanding what constitutes online delivery and what the implications of having to achieve a certain percentage of online delivery are.
One clear implication is that more teachers, technicians, managers and support staff will be using technology for learning, teaching and assessment. This means that more of us will need to know how to use Learning Technology effectively and engage in continued professional development in order to build a sustainable, cost-effective approach to using Learning Technology within our colleges and other learning providers.”…
You can read my full article in FE News here. Published 17 November 2014.
…”With policy and commercial developments firmly focused on ‘big data’ and all that entails, I was interested to come across quite a few sessions and speakers talking about how we use data in learning, particularly formal education at ALT’s Annual Conference earlier this month.
Earlier in the year, as part of ALT’s work for ETAG, the Education Technology Action Group, we had invited contributions from a range of individuals and organisations and received what I think is a really helpful contribution from Simon Buckingham Shum & Simon Knight, from the Knowledge Media Institute, Open University, UK (you can read their submission in full in this blog post from 5 June 2014). Personally, I found the way in which some of the terminology is explained helpful, for example, the way in which the concept of learning analytics was visualised”…
You can read my full article in FE News here. Published 24 September 2014.
With September nearly here I am getting ready for conferences starting with ALT’s annual conference from 1-3 September at the University of Warwick. If you are curious to find out more you can read my preview of the conference in FE News or visit the online conference platform. While I don’t lead any sessions, I am really looking forward to the programme, including many member-led events, which is great to see. You can watch keynotes and other sessions live on YouTube and follow what’s happening #altc on Twitter.
Coming up next will be FOTE 2014, the Future of Technology in Education conference, 3 October 2014 in London. With a new start up competition and other exciting sessions planned, you can find out more by readying the conference preview.
Later in September, 25-26th, in London I am going to be attending this year’s CiviCon. This conference is all about CiviCRM, a CMS that ALT uses to manage a large part of its online services and an Open Source software that I have been using for a number of years now. I am going to be looking out for new developments and anything that can make life easier for users and administrators.
Then, a month later, I am going to be attending and speaking at the annual conference of the Online Learning Consortium, formerly the Sloan Consortium, in the U.S. . This is the 20th conference of the consortium and I am going to be talking about Building a global ed tech future brick by brick on the day before Halloween. There is a really interesting programme of all kinds of sessions planned for the event and I am interested to see what I can learn from this event which expects 2,000 delegates to attend in person and many more to join in online.
If you are going to any of these events and are keen to get in touch, tweet me @marendeepwell.
For the past week I have been involved in running ocTEL, the open course in Technology Enhanced Learning – version 2.0. As well as helping with running the course, I have also done my bit to participate and now that the first few days are behind me, I want to reflect on my expectations of the course as a participant/organiser hybrid… .
So, first up, what am I hoping to achieve by participating? Like everyone else, this has to fit around all the other things I am doing and there are certainly limits to how much time I can spend on it. Still, participating is important to me and in an ideal scenario I would like to:
explore how the open badges impact on my approach to the course and interacting with it;
read a few posts each day to gain insight into what other participants are doing and thinking about;
reflect on how this kind of course and its activities can share my own learning habits.
Thus far, and week 1 has only just started, I have some thoughts on each of these three areas:
First, in regards to the badges, I am finding that I want them! I like looking at who else has earned the same badge and I like the way in which getting a badge or trying to at least makes me more concious about what I am achieving. From a personal point of view then, they work for me – for what I want from the course thus far.
Secondly, reading through the posts of what others have contributed gives me a whole new perspective on what others are up to in regards to using technology for learning, teaching or assessment. It’s inspirational to see how many resources there are that are being shared openly and in particular I enjoy reading contributions from outside the UK and getting a glimpse of the global learning landscape.
Last, but not least, even during this first, at times slightly chaotic week, participating in the course has given me a renewed sense of enthusiasm for learning new things. Exploring random links via Twitter #ocTEL or finding something interesting in a post gives me a sense of shared curiosity. I am enjoying seeing how questions come up and get answered.
So, that’s my thoughts after a week of ocTEL 2.0. For this week, week 1 of the course, I am taking on a tutor role alongside Phil Tubman and others, but I shall still try and get a bit of the participant experience. After that – let the badge quest begin.
Time for a new tool, a new way of sharing “how to” knowledge. This time, I am hoping to use screencasting to make a series of short videos for the purpose of contributing helpful resources for staff development. My subject to start with is financial management. Doesn’t sound too exciting, so that’s why I am hoping video will help. This way, colleagues will be able to refresh their knowledge of processes which may only happen every few months or every year, without having to read a lengthy procedure.
To get some advice, I looked for tips and ideas and came across the Screencasting Handbook, which is an open course resource, published under a Creative Commons licence. Many other sites and blogs seem to provide really helpful ideas, too. If it goes well, I might be able to make a screencast for the blog. For now, I am going to get started.
