Blended learning for PhD Students

'THE 21ST CENTURY LEARNER: BLENDED LEARNING TOOLS’ Dr Bex Lewis [email_address] 24 th May 2010

http://johnwilborn.wordpress.com/2008/08/23/the-digital-natives-are-here/

A Digital Native: Jake’s Story
“ Jake told the executive that he never goes directly to a brand like this man’s newspaper or even to blogs he likes. ... he reads a lot of news – far more than I did at his age. But he goes to that news only via the links from Digg, friends’ blogs, and Twitter. He travels all around the internet that is edited by his peers because he trusts them and knows they share his interests . The web of trust is built at eye-level, peer-to-peer.” (Jarvis, p.86, my emphasis )

http://nkilkenny.files.wordpress.com/2006/08/generational_learning.jpg

Discuss
Similarities
Differences

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8577272.stm (20th March 2010)
The current financial squeeze, which is set to continue for the next decade, will accelerate a transformation that has begun in many universities.
Already more than one in three students studies part-time and one in six is from overseas .
There will be more mature students , more studying part-time, more living in their own or their parents' homes , and many more studying online.
There will be more tailor-made vocational courses, operated in partnership with individual companies and employers.
There will be more "pick-and-mix" degrees , with students accumulating course credits at different universities, even across different countries, and with gaps for employment in between.
Students will increasingly become "consumers" as we reach the tipping-point where their contribution to the cost of the degree is greater than that made by the government.
Private providers will take over an increasing share of the university market.
The all-round university will increasingly lose out to more specialised institutions.
Finally, universities will become more global.

SOME REPORTS

http://www.clex.org.uk/
Government Report by Sir David Melville, published March 2009
The impact on their experiences and expectations
Their use of social networking
Their adoption of new technologies
Developments at schools, colleges, campuses, including institutional developments.
Read Summary: http://digital-fingerprint.co.uk/2009/11/jisc-e-learning-fair/

Some Highlights:
A 2007 Study and a 2008 Report found that most students had been exposed to “push” technologies (i.e. top-down), and especially valued face-to-face contact.
Late adopters are learning first, knowing that they have to be ‘equipped for the real world’.
There is evidence that students ARE using social networking for L&T, especially for enhancing group work. A key question is what is the nature of that space, and who controls that space.
There was a strong feeling that Facebook was a “private space”, that these shouldn’t be used formally, that students could set up their own Facebook groups if they desired, and that staff could only be invited in by the students.

Some Findings:
Use of Web 2.0 is ubiquitous from the age of 12.
New technology is different, but is it better?
There’s been a patchy take-up from staff even when there is a strong drive from management (tools can take a long time to use properly, and VLEs don’t always help)
Students are not yet demanding change, but note not yet .
Critical/evaluative skills are a deficit area and likely to get worse (e.g. “The 10 Second Researcher”: Google/Wikipedia facilitate “shallow research”. ) It’s hugely important that we find ways to impact deep research.
New skills that technology can foster for future workplace demands.
Staff time and support issues are critical.
It’s not just familiarity with the technology, but where they fit strategically.

Informal Learning
“ This book offers advice on how to support, nurture, and leverage informal learning and helps trainers to go beyond their typical classes and programs in order to widen and deepen heir reach. The author reminds us that we live in a new, radically different, constantly changing, and often distracting workplace. He guides us through the plethora of digital learning tools that workers are now accessing through their computers, PDAs, and cell phones.”
Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways That Inspire Innovation and Performance Jay Cross, 2006

2020 and beyond, June 2007 http://bit.ly/9PuIu4
To what extent are we prepared, as a society and as educators, for the massive changes in human capabilities that digital technologies are likely to enable in the next 13 years?
To what extent are our future visions for education based upon assumptions about humanity, society and technology that are no longer valid?
To what extent can we, as educators, help to shape the developments of technology in order to enhance human development?
“ the best way to predict the future is to build it” . (Douglas Adams)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/webbehaviour

Which are you?
Web Bear?
Web Elephant?
Web Fox?
Web Hedgehog?
Web Leopard?
Web Elk?
Web Octopus?
Web Ostrich?
Which do you think those you work with are?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/webbehaviour/articles/eightanimals

Impacting the Student Experience

What is Blended Learning?
“ The term is commonly associated with the introduction of online media into a course or programme, whilst at the same time recognising that there is merit in retaining face-to-face contact and other traditional approaches to supporting students. It is also used where asynchronous media such as email, forums, blogs or wikis are deployed in conjunction with synchronous technologies , commonly text chat or audio.”
Janet Macdonald Blended Learning and Online Tutoring: Planning Learning Support and Activity Design , 2008, p2

Learning/Pedagogy http://www.slideshare.net/redmagma/elearning-sucks?src=embed

Student Expectations?
Global (Used creating their own YouTube videos, and expecting a quick response – from anywhere in the world!)
Responsive (Used to rapid response/feedback, 3 week guarantee “too long”)
Flexible (Used to having more than one starting point)
Interactive (Looking for a relationship of trust, staff/student partnership: The teacher has a role of leader, but needs ‘distributed leadership’)
Often facile or trivial

Web 2.0: Characteristics
User-centred design
Crowd-sourcing
Web as Platform
Collaboration
Power Decentralisation
Dynamic Content
Software as a Service/ Cloud Computing
Rich User Experience

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasdhaliwal/4437804293/in/set-72157619503976393/

With the web you can... http://digital-fingerprint.co.uk/2009/09/fully-convergent/

The 21 st Century Learner http://mscofino.edublogs.org/2008/11/30/a-meeting-of-minds/

But how can we use it?
Technology is just a tool? http://www.camb-ed-us.com/school/standards-assessment.asp

Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer

http://blog.twingly.com/2009/08/19/guest-post-social-media-adresses-the-hierarchy-of-needs/

http://bit.ly/buZ0mM , September 2009

What is Twitter?
140 Characters (based on SMS) known as “Tweets”
Displayed on author’s profile page
Read by subscribers (known as “Followers”)
Different from Facebook
More interest/thematic based
Not time/geographically dependent
Not as “personal” ‘I had toast’ does not cut it!
Twitter is about relationship building, you can’t just “broadcast” announcements out, you need to engage with your followers.
Retweets (a mark of approval)

@stephenfry

http://www.slideshare.net/drbexl/twitter-for-jisc-1-march-2009

What do you want to do on Twitter?
Build personal brand
Find friends with similar interests
Show your expertise
Drive traffic to your business/course
Find new readers for your blog
Share your passion
Communicate what you’re working on with colleagues
Image: http://digital-fingerprint.co.uk/

http://twitter.com/ https://twitter.com/invitations

http://twitter.com/drbexl 1 2 3 4 5

TASKS
Set up your Twitter account/user name
Short is sweet!
Set up your profile
Full Name
Location
Link to personal or winchmfs website
http://winchmfs.wordpress.com/
Bio: 160 characters, think ‘keywords’
Photo (of your face!)
Can use e.g. http://www.twitbacks.com/ to change the default background
Image: http://doubleyourincomechallenge.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/twitter-name-copy-300x300.jpg

FIRST TWEET
Tweet
Simply type (140 characters or less), then press ‘Tweet’
The shorter you keep it, the more options you give others to “RT”
Learn that ‘text language’ http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php
Congratulations, you’ve just sent your first tweet!

Retweets: A Mark of Approval

TASK
Find 20 people to follow
http://mrtweet.com/
http://www.twellow.com/
Find an appropriate message and ‘RT’ it
Image: http://social-shirt.com/wp-content/uploads/retweet_me_shirt-p235424843409036863o1o7_325-300x300.jpg

FOLLOW & BE FOLLOWED
@drbexl
@winchmfs
@markshaw
@jamesclay
@nwjerseyliz
@lisaharris
@mattbuck_hack
Start Following
Finding people to follow

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasdhaliwal/3647896402/in/set-72157619503976393/

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/group.php?gid=106375376072443&ref=ts

http://theterracottawarriors.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/blogging1.jpg

http://ww2poster.co.uk

Synchronous Conferencing http://www.elluminate.com/ ; http://www.wimba.com/ ; http://www.webex.co.uk/

Specific Academic Social Networking?
http://winchester.academia.edu/BexLewis
http://www.mendeley.com/profiles/bex-lewis/
http://www.sciweavers.org/
http://www.humbox.ac.uk/
Most are moving towards using software that others are using.

Slideshare

Blended Learning Pages on the Learning Network: http://learn.winchester.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=1203

Blended learning for PhD Students

by Bex Lewis on May 24, 2010

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Blended learning for PhD Students — Presentation Transcript

http://www.slideshare.net	11
http://digital-fingerprint.co.uk	10
http://ltinpractice.blogspot.com	2