Whats Possible With Educational Technology

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Notes on slide 1

Danger graphic: Modified from http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/2686237951/ Burning Money: http://www.flickr.com/photos/visualities/2061072441/

This diagram developed by Anderson (2003) emphasises the complexity and importance of learning interactions. All of these are needed for effective teaching and learning in general and for the effective use of educational technology in teaching and learning. At the centre of this diagram we see the ultimate goal – deep and meaningful learning. This implies that students engage at a level beyond what’s needed to pass exams so they make the learning their own. It also means that students will learn attitudes, perspectives and practices with relevance and application to their lives as professionals. Student – Teacher: Students still need some direct contact with educators to ensure that there is a learning relationship with experts. In this way students are pulled into a community of practice where they can learn attitudes, perspectives and practices from educators who are steeped in the discipline. However give the small number of educators in relation to student numbers we can’t rely exclusively on student-educator interaction for learning to happen. Teacher-Content: Educators will prepare and select content which will structure student learning about the discipline. Content in this view includes designed learning activities as well as textbook explanations, core readings and lectures. Student-Content: This is where most learning activity happens through student engagement with course content chosen and developed by the educators. The course content extends the effectiveness and reach of an educator way beyond what would be possible if learning could only happen through personal contact with educators. One of the implications is the scope for anywhere anytime learning. Student-Student: Peer learning is a major resource to students both in terms of learning about the discipline and in terms of learning networking, social and communication skills. Peer learning will happen whenever students are gathered in the same learning and physical spaces. As educators we can decide to tap into the energy of student-student learning interactions in forms such as collaborative learning. Teacher-Teacher: Educators develop through formal training and through engagement in informal networks of peers. Such educator communities of practice can accelerate the development and diffusion of good practice. Content-Content: With new web technologies such as newsfeeds it is possible to renew content automatically by drawing on the latest available information. Anderson, T. (2003) Getting the Mix Right Again: An updated and theoretical rationale for interaction. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 4, No 2. Available at http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/149/230. Graphic available at http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/viewFile/149/230/481

At a practical level level educators want to facilitate learning activity by students. Teaching alone is no guarantee of learning unless students are able to: Engage with the core course materials (Student-Content interaction) Explore their areas of interest within the discipline (Student-Content interaction) Engage in learning conversations including key debates (Student-Content, Student-Student and Student-Educator interactions) Practice new skills (Student-Content interaction) And ultimately produce/ perform in a way that shows the development of graduate and professional skills ((Student-Content, Student-Student and Student-Educator interactions) Most of the rest of this presentation will focus on how educators can use educational technologies to support these goals. Based on Laurillard, D. Rethinking University Teaching: A Framework for the Effective Use of Learning Technologies. Routledge Falmer 2001.

Audio files have always been a powerful learning resource across several disciplines but we now have access to a wealth of digital audio files in almost every domain and the ability to easily develop and share these ourselves. These files can be used to support reflective learning on the move wherever students have access to computers, cheap mp3 players or mid-range cellphones.Some useful sources of educational podcasts include the Education Podcast Network at http://epnweb.org/ and the education page on IdiotVox at http://www.idiotvox.com/All_Podcasts_About_Education_19.html. The pervasive availability of digital video allows access to teaching resources by experts across the world and opportunities to share local expertise globally. These services work best with a broadband Internet connection and sometimes terms of use don’t allow educators to download and share files locally. Teachertube (http://www.teachertube.com) is a counterpart to YouTube where educators from several continents share educational videos.

Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com Clusty: http:/www.clusty.com Wikipedia: http://www.wikipedia.com

Students and knowledge professionals need to learn effective strategies for keeping informed about the latest developments in their fields. The increasing use of newsfeeds across most kinds of websites from blogs to news sites and journal sites means that there is no longer a need to face bloated e-mail inboxes or to routinely visit the key sites in your browser favourites or bookmarks. Just subscribe, scan and click through to what interests you. Two of the most popular and powerful free tools to aggregate newsfeeds are Google Reader and Bloglines. Google Reader: http://google.com/reader Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com

Intute is available at http://www.intute.ac.uk

Alternative development and publishing models are emerging for both course content and peer reviewed journals. The old proprietary publishing systems are still dominant but the balance is gradually shifting towards open educational resources and open access research. Universities cannot afford to ignore these. Connexions: http://cnx.org/ OER Commons: http://www.oercommons.org/ Public Library of Science: http://www.plos.org/ Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.doaj.org/

Conversing Flowers: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bensonkua/2743081060/

All the qualities that we associate with deep face to face learning conversation can be taken online. These include excitement, discovery, trust, intense listening and flow. As in face to face interaction this requires good facilitation. What’s different is the effective use of the online environment to provide conversational spaces and tools. Great Conversation Qualities: http://www.flickr.com/photos/choconancy/429918010/

Student blogging can support the development of voice and fluency in chosen genres. It can also support reflective learning. In this example from University of Cape Town a student blogger grapples with the issues of identity which are debated in a first year Humanities course. The full post is available at http://blogs.uct.ac.za/blog/zamandosi/2008/08/24/identity-does-not-stay-constant.

This exercise from University of Cape Town involves engineering students in analysing the results of an ultrasonic probe of faults in the hull of a ship to test for metal fatigue. More details about this example are available at http://www.cet.uct.ac.za/BrandonReed .

Students can control several variables to investigate their impact on simulated chemical reactions in this simulation from Colarado University. See http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/sims.php?sim=Reactions_and_Rates for further details. Students can control a simulated microscope to view a range of samples at different levels of magnification. See http://www.udel.edu/biology/ketcham/microscope/scope.html for further details of this simulation from University of Delaware.

This example is from a third year Economics course in the History of Economic Thought. The educator set an assignment where students had to work in pairs to develop entries to a wiki of Economic Thought. The educator set a template to structure student engagement with the task and to ensure that they would not simply be able to copy and paste from Wikipedia. The better entries then served as revision resources for the whole class. See http://www.cet.uct.ac.za/ExperimentOLE for more detail.

Photo of Masters in Educational Technology student at University of Cape Town who is researching the use of lecture podcasts.

This slide shows a summary of many of the ways that educators can use educational technologies to facilitate student engagement in learning. Online learning environments can serve as containers and integrators of all the features shown in purple.

The computing power available on current entry level computers together with improved bandwidth available in many countries has led to many educators considering the use of 3D virtual environments such as Second Life as online learning environments. Such environments are currently unavailable to most university educators and students in Africa because they mostly require fast broadband connections. Environments such as Quest Atlantis developed at University of Indiana offer alternative 2D interfaces for low bandwidth conditions. This may provide a more appropriate model. Second Life image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jokay/782411189/ Quest Atlantis: http:// atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu/

Ultimately we may need to shift our thinking from a focus on learning environments which are sealed off from the rest of the Web to ecologies of interconnected learning spaces which allow us to reach beyond the walled garden. Next Generation learning Environment: http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm06/erm0643.asp

The Computer is the Network: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/129/409982301_1333516f9b.jpg?v=0 Cheap mp3 player: http://www.digitalplanet.co.za/images/PRODUCT/medium/103945.jpg

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Whats Possible With Educational Technology - Presentation Transcript

How might Educational Technology support Teaching and Learning in Higher Education? POSSIBILITIES
Objectives
- Provide a conceptual framework for thinking about educational technology choices
- Exposure to a range of technologies used for teaching and learning purposes
- Facilitate reflection on possibilities of appropriate use in the local context
- To present a few possibilities which are on the horizon as well as those which are immediately available
A Cautionary Note Educational Technology will NOT solve all your problems Time and money spent on technology and online teaching will be wasted unless interventions are driven by good educational design.
Teaching Theory & Technology Behaviourism Cognitivism Constructivism e-Activities: Discussion forums e-Mail contact Productivity software e-Activities: Rote based tutorials Online assessment Online lecture notes e-Activities: Social interactions Online libraries Online Chat Counselling
Learning Interactions Anderson, T. (2003). Towards a Theory of Online Learning, http://cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/ch2.html
Learning Interactions & Tools Anderson, T. (2003).
Five Challenges for Educators Laurillard, D. (2001). Rethinking University Teaching: A Framework for the Effective Use of Learning Technologies . Routledge Falmer
Read Course Materials This used to mean the textbook and prescribed readings … But now we can also use…
Read Course Materials
- Electronic Text Files : Downloaded to either an electronic reader or computer.
- Audio Files : Downloaded to either a computer, iPod or mobile phone.
- Video Files : Downloaded to either a computer an iPod or mobile phone as MP4 files
Read Course Materials Both commercial and open education services are available to help students access top quality academic materials
Five Challenges for Educators Laurillard, D. (2001). Rethinking University Teaching: A Framework for the Effective Use of Learning Technologies . Routledge Falmer
Explore within the discipline?
- This used to mean reading books and paper based journals but now there is a tsunami of online information.
- How do we help students to deal with this?
Newsfeeds & RSS! Newsfeeds mean that you no longer need to come to a web page to see what’s new. Instead you can gather all of this in one place and click through to what interests you
Explore: Discipline Specific Portals Sometimes Subject Based Information Gateways are more useful than general web searches e.g Intute offers portals for a wide range of disciplines.
Explore: Open Access
- There is a wealth of information available as Open Educational Resources and as Open Access Research including resources from many of the world’s top universities.
Five Challenges for Educators Laurillard, D. (2001). Rethinking University Teaching: A Framework for the Effective Use of Learning Technologies . Routledge Falmer
Engage in Learning Conversations?
- This used to mean a discussion in a tutorial or lab session or individual consultations
- but now new technologies offer a richer experience..
- Online discussions - Online chats - Blogging - Text messages - e-Mail
Qualities of Conversation All the qualities that we associate with deep face to face learning conversation can be taken online. These include excitement, discovery, trust, intense listening and flow. As in face to face interaction this requires good facilitation. What’s different is the effective use of the online environment to provide conversational spaces and tools.
Conversation: Blogs
- strong authorial voice
- separation of content from appearance
- easy to start
- easy updating,
- listing of postings from most to least recent
- collection of recommended links
- Newsfeeds/ RSS
Conversation: Forums
Five Challenges for Educators Laurillard, D. (2001). Rethinking University Teaching: A Framework for the Effective Use of Learning Technologies . Routledge Falmer
Practicing Skills
- This used to mean mostly drill and practice of standard techniques , but now electronic tools can provide a richer experience ....
- Interactive spreadsheets
- Simulations
- Role Play
- Games
- How can we facilitate student learning of skills and techniques with real world application?
Skills: Spreadsheets Example of an Excel based exercise on metal fatigue that runs on a local network at UCT’s Engineering depart.
Skills: Simulations Internet based simulation on chemical reactions and a virtual microscope from Colorado University http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/sims.php?sim=Reactions_and_Rates
Skills: Simulations Virtual microscope used at University of Delaware
Five Challenges for Educators Laurillard, D. (2001). Rethinking University Teaching: A Framework for the Effective Use of Learning Technologies . Routledge Falmer
Producing
- Students must be able to produce knowledge in forms such as reports, models, performance or media....
- The newer tools include collaborative writing environments and specialist production software to support flexibility and creativity
Producing: Wiki
Producing: Specialist Software Often students will need to use specialist software to develop and show professional skills e.g. CAD software for architects, film editing software for Film and Media students in a production stream.
Interaction Summary
Online Learning Environments
- OLE act as containers/ toolkits/ integrators for many of the electronic tools highlighted
- Learning Management Systems (LMS) / Virtual learning Environments (VLE)
- Institutional choice: proprietary vs. open source?
Environments: Virtual Worlds In countries with ample bandwidth many universities are starting to use virtual worlds such as Second Life for research and teaching
Next Generation Learning Environment? Ali Jafari, Patricia McGee, and Colleen Carmean, Managing Courses, Defining Learning: What Faculty, Students, and Administrators Want
… and with low or no bandwidth?
- Everything on the local network – resources, software, online learning environments
- Caching of websites for local use
- CD-Rom/ DVD
- Flash memory including generic (cheap) mp3 players
- Mobile phones
ET Beyond e-Learning
- Information Systems : It is taken as a ‘given’ that the university is also supported by an electronic information system that provides accurate statistics:
- Admissions
- Student and staff records
- Accounts
- Academic Records
- Library etc.