drop into my deep blue yonder... » e-learning

leisa: waterfall bad, washing machine good

words — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:09:48 +0000

An elegantly simple slide show by leisa reichelt which underlines the interactive, re-iterative, co-operative nature of the design process skillfully using post-it notes.

Are digital natives a myth?

words — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:21:31 +0000

Returning to the theme of digital natives and digital immigrants, I notice that Owen writing in futurelab casts doubts in four areas – citing reputable sources as he does so:

- 20-35 year olds are more into game playing than any other group
- adults phone but teenagers use SMS’ because they are cheaper
- ICT is most used by professionals
- 34-44 year-olds use the Internet most at home in the US

Further food for thought!

digital natives meet digital immigrants

words — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:01:46 +0000

Today I made several discoveries one after the other. Very good for one morning! I set out to find information about digital natives and after using my favourite Copernic metasearch engine I found Apple Learning Interchange. Within that I found Ian Juke’s podcast called Learning Environments for Digital Kids in their distinguished educators’ podcasts series. During the podcast I found my third important link of the day to the committed sardine site and the Info Savy Group.
Near the end of the podcast Jukes asks his audience to say to those around them three things that they learned. Well, amongst many other things I learnt that digital natives are kids born into today’s digital world and that digital immigrants are people like me born into a pencil and paper world. I learned that we tend to process (and teach) in a linear non-visual way and that they learn in a multi-tasking hypertext way. I learnt that chalk and talk lectures might have appealled to my generation but that the more multimedia stimuli the better for them. Two things I would tell others are that Edgar Dale’s Cone of Learning is useful and that teachers and parents need to be up to date on the neuorinformatics Brain Project. One thing that will change for me is that I will no longer allow myself to be dragged back into the past in my teaching methods by educational Luddites.

e-portfolios

words — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 05:59:14 +0000

The only e-portfolios I was familiar with were those used as backup for the language passport and those I saw as a sample from Edinburgh’s MSc so I did some research today. I looked at the OSP opensource portfolio site and took the demo. I also visited the gallery of e-portfolios at Penn State which was striking and informative and best of all read an excellent article by David DiBiase about the rationale behind e-portfolios.

a digital age learning theory?

words — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:16:01 +0000

Learning theories have never really impressed me because I have always stood back, mused over them and thought that they were fine from one standpoint but they always appeared incomplete to me. They almost all seemed to be bound to one viewpoint. Like travelling on a train and seeing drab factory after factory until you look out of the other window across the river and splendid green fields.

A successful learning theory to satisfy me has to incorporate my favourite ‘tools’:

- the helicopter to hover above the idea
- the microscope to examine the detail
- the kaleidoscope to centrifuge the elements
- sleep to allow time for reflection and reforming ideas

Perhaps you can imagine how delighted I was therefore to happen across George Siemens’ theory of connectivism whilst kaleidoscoping the web. Suddenly there was a theory that instinctively rang bells about how I intuitively believe I think and about how the neurobiologist Manfred Spitzer and Vera F. Birkenbihl explain my neural network functions.

Then in that wonderful way that good news follows good news I found Siemens’ audio/slide lecture on the topic Connectivism and Web 2.0 at the University of Manitoba. I could even control it so that the first half could be played at the first sitting so that I didn’t lose the second half by reflecting on the first half. (If you don’t know what I mean then you may as well continue attending one hour lectures!) Why not try it and see if that reflects how you learn in this digital age?

stages of assessment linked to thinking skills

words — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 20:12:28 +0000

I have just read the web article ‘Using the New Bloom’s Taxonomy to Design Meaningful Learning Assessments’ by Kevin Smythe & Jane Halonen and I am interested in the following diagram:

The diagram is based on: Clark, B. (2002). Growing up gifted: Developing the potential of children at home and at school. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

It explains to me why our Waldorf pupils who operate regularly at the evaluation level have such problems with German external exams which mostly test only up to the lower order analytic skill. Maybe the persistence of this type of examination goes some way to explaining Germany’s relatively poor PISA performances? The type of comment frequently heard from our students when we explain what is required is “Oh is that all! They don’t really want us to reflect then, do they?”

online e-learning skills

words — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 05:03:49 +0000

As a comprehensive beginner’s guide to e-learning Derek Stockley’s e-journey on e-learning is impressive. Good links are also provided by Learning Light e-Learning Centre in their library section entitled ‘What is e-Learning?’

Clarifying the learning environment

words — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 17:58:02 +0000

To get oriented I need to understand the environment I will be operating in.
What are the parameters?
These are useful:
Jeremy Hiebert and the PLE
Donald Darrow and the smart classroom LE
M.J. Stiles and Effective learning and the VLE

Getting to grips with e-learning

words — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 14:39:31 +0000

During the past couple of weeks I’ve been preparing myself to update my knowledge of the opportunities available in e-learning. In my searches I found an interesting free e-book from Terry Anderson and Fathi Elloumi at Athabasca which I’m working through at present: ‘Theory and Practice of Online Learning’.

There is also a useful WikiEd reading list on e-learning.

I notice that ‘protectionism’ is still alive and well in academia. If you are a non EU student you pay more to study in Europe and vice-versa outside Europe. So my search for an online masters in e-learning or its equivalent made me rule out a good programme at Athabasca. Because I need to pay myself I couldn’t afford the much higher fees. Within the EU the programmes at Ulster and Hull were attractive but the one closest to my needs was an MSc in e-Learning from Edinbugh starting for me in September I hope. What attracted me so much was the balance of the programme and the rich and varied background experience of the tutors.