eLearning For Teachers: Di Goodman (Epoff)

Last week I attended the UNSW Winter Partnership “Technology Based Teaching and Learning Conference” at Kensington. The School of Education presented two days of workshops and lectures covering ICT pedagogies and current research related to eLearning in our schools.The conference was valuable for me in terms of my role as Director of eLearning as well as a classroom teacher.

Dr Matthew Clarke’s Plenary address explored the idea of technology as a ‘fix’ for education and questioned its potential as a tool to change the world. He proposed that the rise of educational technology is increasingly ‘commercialising’ education and warned that it must be perceived as nothing more than a tool. Its relevance should be determined by asking: Does it add pedagogical depth? Clarke cited a 2007 research project that surmised the slowness of teachers to take up ICT as the result of their need to reflect on the pedagogical efficiacy and potential prior to adopting, rather than technophobia. He maintains that the way forward with technology in our classrooms should proceed via evolution as opposed to revolution.

One of the most enlightening points of his presentation for me, provided a light-bulb moment when he explained that children see technological devices as cultural forms whereas we see them as technology! This perception is crucial to understanding the huge divide between the perceptions of students and their teachers. Schools need to adopt technology, not for the sake of having whizz bang devices and hardware, but for its potential as a cultural form that allows teachers to create learning environments and experiences that match the needs and ‘intelligences’ of their students.

Closing the Gap

In his article,
“Closing the Gap Between Education and Technology”, Chris Riedel refers to Mark Benno’s (Apple guru) claim that our students think in entirely new ways about technology and this is reflected in how they creatively use everyday technology.

Riedel urges teachers to see the value and learning potential of technologies that students use all of the time, and refers to a situation Benno encountered recently involving the use of an MP3 player:

“MP3 players, for example, do not mean by default that the student is listening to music. Recounting a recent experience in an airport, Benno reminisced about asking a college student sporting an iPod and a set of white earphones, “what are you listening to?”

Her reply: “Which ear?”

The young woman he was referring to had two MP3 players and was listening to a chemistry lecture in one ear and music in the other. “It helps me get in the zone,” she told Benno, who shared his amazement at the revelation. Kids use technology in ways many of us would never think of, he said.”

Riedel’s article is well worth a read as it highlights the growing rift between the way teachers currently teach students and the way students teach and learn themselves outside of school.

Traditionally, schools have held a privileged position as the prime point of access for education - places where students go to learn what they need to know to get ahead in the world. Riedel’s article makes me question how long this will remain the case. Benno claims that students don’t ask questions about how to use technology but ask which technologies they might access to solve problems.

They seem to learn the ‘how’ as they solve the problem - they are multi-tasking technological wizards.

Gen Y and the new Gen Zers are much more focused on what they can DO with information and HOW they can do it NOW, than ever before. And they wish to share this process, preferably with their peers.

Problem-based learning opportunities. Collaborative teamwork. Proactive learning. Communal interaction. Process-focused solutions. Visual, social, interactive technology. These point to new literacies, where focus is on what students can DO with information rather than the content itself.

There is a huge cultural shift happening and if we aren’t mindful and proactive, schools will lose their relevance in the very near future.

Profound cultural change implies pedagogical change: a fundamental shift from traditional teaching and learning roles, a re-evaluation of what a 21st century ‘classroom’ encompasses or even looks like and a restructuring of teacher-learner relationships.

Crossing Borders

In attempting to walk-the-talk, I have collaboratively set up an experimental Web 2.0 ‘ning’ social network for TIGS Photography students with a colleague, Kerry Short, from Wanganui Park Secondary College in Victoria - a school chosen for its similar background - a strong community of students who are passionate about photography.

Blended Learning

We have created this network to complement what we both do in the classroom: which is largely develop student-centred programs where students take the initiative in working through a quite rigorous program of scaffolded projects, largely undertaken at their own pace.

Our education.ning site.com site is called ‘Crossing Borders’ and it purposefully challenges stereotypical ideas about teaching and learning. Crossing Borders has multiple functions that contribute to strong educational outcomes and pedagogies: it includes a communal photographic gallery; home pages for students, classes and groups; teacher blogs; community events; information sites for students to access class information at home; tutorial videos made and posted by teachers; and the ability for all members to comment and talk to each other in a safe, transparent and managed learning environment. One of our initiatives is to invite a number of ex-students from both schools (who are now practicing as professional photographers in Australia and overseas). Several are already maintaining a presence on the site and have assumed the role of mentors for our students. This has generated lots of interest from our community of students in a short space of time.

How is it going after four weeks? Currently students are on the site in the evenings and weekends, they have posted photos, talked a bit about themselves, formed new friends, shared comments about each other’s works, posted discussion boards, participated in a community ‘event’, talked to students and teachers from the sister school, shared thoughts with mentors and have grasped the opportunity to interact and share their work and ideas faster than we ever imagined! Students are working well beyond the classroom walls, have accessed tutorials and sites that we posted but not covered in class yet!

Its an exciting project and I’ll keep you posted on its progress.<b></b>

Di Goodman (Epoff)

Learning Technologies 2008 Conference
Friday 7th November

Nancy White:

Full Circle Associates: Stewarding Technology for Communities

This workshop was delivered via videoconference.

Nancy White started Full Circle to provide assistance to business through internet technologies. Her research and specialization focuses on how technology creates learning in communities.

Stewarding technologies for communities is all about learning together. During her research technologies have changed rapidly and she realizes the need to focus on pedagogies – the way people learn with technology, rather than the technology itself.

She outlines different ways of perceiving communities:
•    Learning communities
•    Knowledge Networks
•    Communities of Practice
•    Online Communities

Communities involve me, we and many:

Me: the individual (personal identity, interest trajectory
We: communities (bounded membership group identity shared interest
Many: networks (boundaryless, fuzzy, intersecting interests

These ideas have opened up new areas of understanding in relation to technologies:

Technologies enable people to:
•    Discover and appropriate
•    Build communities
•    Create identities

Key roles in forming communities:
•    Community leaders
•    Technology stewards: people with enough experience working with communities and enough knowledge of technology to support the community in using the technology. Selecting and configuring technology as well as supporting its use in the community. This role is about guiding learning, noticing things and making them happen now for individuals.

•    Network weavers
Read her great book “ Digital Habitat: Stewarding Technology for Communities”: an ecological view of technology in communities

Important polarities of communities:
Togetherness – Separateness: shifting engagement from the group to the individual
Interacting – Publishing: conversing, experimenting, practicing, learning, planning and the tools and processes used to publish
Individual – Group: designed for groups, experienced as individuals. Does not imply homogeneity: need for customization when individual outcomes are required. Multimembership requires attention to both.

Orientations - selecting appropriate tools to support a community:
Develop community activities oriented to:
•    Meetings
•    Open-ended conversations
•    Projects
•    Access to expertise
•    Relationships
•    Context
•    Community cultivation
•    Individual participation
•    Content publication
Steward the activities to nurture the community so that the technology becomes less of a focus and the community becomes the point of practice. Consider carefully the point of the exercise: what is it the community needs to learn, practice, collaborate on?

The technology should become invisible. Building communities is what its all about!

Learning Technologies 2008 Conference

Thursday 6th November

Using social networking tools to connect with clients

Simon Brown’s Case Study

Simon showed us how he teaches and uses video streaming technology when demonstrating techniques and skills with his stone-masonry students at TAFE .

He also uses VeMentoring to expose students to professional industry experts.

Simon builds strong networks through his teaching. His teaching is student-centred and focuses on creating interactivity between students and himself, and employers in the workplace.

He has used ning.com to develop an interactive learning community for his students and has posted photos of the class members on the front page. Each member has their own page. Students have varying degrees of input into the site. The blog post keeps them informed about their work and things like how one of the students who now lives in England is going.

He embeds videos from YouTube about stone masons into the site, and from one of these, he has established a great professional contact for the class.

the tomas ning site

Simon regularly checks out who visits the site through Google Analytics

This provides him with some interesting feedback.

This workshop showed us a real application of how social networking can engage students in the learning process. Simon’s class were a challenging bunch - they werent interested in writing and reading, but preferred ‘doing’. Once they began participating and contributing to the ning class site, their focus changed and most of them eagerly contributed to the class online community in very meaningful ways.

Learning Technologies 2008 Conference

Thursday 6th November

Twittering at the Speed of Light

Howard Effey’s workshop

This is a mind-bending session that explores ideas that link technology with psychology.

In his workshop, Howard asks:

How does technology intersect with polarity or opposite ways of thinking/being?

He mentions some possible polarities to illustrate his point:

- Masculine and feminine

- Introversion and extraversion

I think he is suggesting that technology can shift our way of thinking and being, and can alter previous ideas about ourselves and our personas, enabling us to interact and develop knowledge about ourselves in new ways.

He seems to be saying that technology allows us to exchange information to reduce the distance between ‘opposite’ ideas of ourselves and others.

Perhaps he is referring to the ways in which we use technology to explore aspects of ourselves in ways we may not have previously been able to. For example, when we create avatars online, we can choose to reinvent ourselves and experience opposite ways of being, acting and interacting with others, in virtual worlds closely aligned with reality.

As a counsellor he recognizes that young people often interface online in a more extraverted manner.

Howard refers to Twitter and its potential to develop an exchange of information that furthers our sense of knowing and connectedness. He sees a significance in these new ways of ‘knowing’ and relates them to very traditional ways of knowing - ie intuitive knowing. Twitter has the potential to carry information faster than most other ways. He likens it to being a passenger on an ‘indian train’! During the US election, Twitter was used to exchange information and forecast news.

Twitterers can break news to the world faster than traditional media sources can. I remember when China was devastated by an earthquake in May 2008. Twitter was recorded as beating the media in breaking the news to the world. The following article points out however, that whilst speed is the issue here, quality of journalism isnt.

article: Twitter didnt beat the media: it was quicker

I think that perhaps the point of all this, is that networks like Twitter enable instant connectivity to cyber spaces where our identity and persona can be stretched to the point of our imagination. Exchange of information is potentially lightning-fast, personal and instant. Our fellow twitterers are at our fingertips.

Thursday 6th November

Keynote Speaker: George Siemens, eLearnspace

Analyzing the obvious: technological and social connections

George’s workshop has prompted me to ask the question: What is the purpose of our teaching, or, why do we teach?

If our primary motivation is to prepare young people for the world they will encounter when they leave school, then we need to be thinking now about our current effectiveness. What do students need to survive in the 21st century?  How can we help them learn the things they need to know with technology that is available, affordable and accessible.

On the other hand, if our motivation is to instill a lifelong love of learning in young minds, then we perhaps need to look at how we deliver learning content and how we provide learning opportunities to engage students and allow them to immerse themselves in their own learning processes.

George’s presentation points us in the right direction to think of ways to achieve both of these things: to prepare and future-proof our students, and to empower them to steer their own learning experiences.

He claims that deep knowledge and effective learning occurs when students are connected through networks.

If we understand how and why connections form we should be able to understand how to shape better ways of educating students. If we focus on networks we can create a streamlined process of learning from design to delivery of content. Knowledge is what we seek to teach. Knowledge resides in how we connect things together. Knowledge is a pattern of connectivity – a  way of engaging with and navigating networks. Knowledge is a way of engaging with the network connections.

Learning is networking, putting together the patterns of knowledge.

Three levels of connection are needed for learning to occur:
1.    Neural: how our brains form thinking is through neurons firing to make a pattern of connectivity. Its not the image of the person that forms the memory, but the patterns in which the neurons fire.
2.    Conceptual: how we define the subject matter to form a conceptual map. An expert’s understanding leads to contextual understanding that a novice cant.
3.    Social/external: Technology has amplified the significance of social networking in forming connections needed for learning to take place.

Understanding is dependent upon the breadth of our knowledge: how and what/who we connect to deepen our understanding.
“Connections are to learning as atoms are to the physical world” (Siemens)

The more connections, the deeper the understanding.

There are many technological tools that are now available to make connections for our students: this is exciting. Education is an exciting crossroad.

To understand connections and the patterns they form leads us to understand how people learn, acquire and acccumulate knowledge.

George claims that if we can monitor someone’s thought patterns, the process of forming connections and the patterns they make through this process, then we can enhance learning for them.

“Learning opportunities are determined by how we interact with knowledge and others” (Siemens)

Siemens challenges educators to ask:
“What happens when the tools of control shift from educator to learner?”

The content and the tools of technological learning put the control in the hands of the learner: eg in his lecture some people are blogging (me included), googling, twittering, emailing, typing etc whereas traditionally, learners are held captive by the teacher/lecturer.

Technology can free the learner, empower them and allow them to make choices.

As students increase the number of connections through technology provided by institutions, they assume increased control of the learning process. It seems to me that if that is so, then outside of school, students have almost total control of how they learn, yet as they ‘power down’ when they walk through the school gate, they reluctantly have to relinquish this control, let go of the learning process. This highlights a key deficiency of educational institutions today.

Did you know that the extra 40 plus million voters in the 2008 US election were largely encouraged to vote via interactive connections, online?

Technology amplifies the ability to connect with other people in learning communities.

“Our views of knowledge and learning dictate the shape of our institutions” (Siemens)

George urges educators and institutions to view students as clients and themselves as providers.

If you are in business, when a client’s needs shift, you must shift with them or your business collapses. It makes sense that if our field is about providing and delivering learning and knowledge to students, then as the requirements of these students shift, our delivery methodology (pegagogy) must shift to accommodate their new needs.

Learning networks cater for 21st century learning needs.

A learning network is a group of people and data sources somehow linked. The connection provides an opportunity to learn with someone else (Eg a library, forum, blog). You don’t have to be a contributor, but can participate by the nature of the link or connectivity.

George describes the chief characteristics of networks:
- They vary.
- A social network is a type of learning network but the tasks are not explicit.
- A learning network is task-focused and specific, intentional.

Sustained participation occurs in varying contexts (Klein: Sources of Power) and determines the value of connections and networks.

Sensemakers are people who shape our views of the world: newspaper editors etc. Institutions have traditionally performed as sensemakers.

Today we have to make our own way through complex fields of understanding. We need to become our own sensemakers to negotiate new knowledge, situations and contexts. This is critical for our students.

“Our institutions are about being sensemakers for our students, not making sensemakers of our students”.

George’s message makes me understand that this needs to change.

Our students need to be able to ‘make sense’ of their world. This is how we can best prepare them for their future. Enabling them to take control of the learning process and to participate and engage with technology in relevant ways will encourage a lifelong love of learning that extends well beyond the classroom walls.

I cant help but ask: isnt that what we seek to teach?

Learning Technolgies 2008 Conference

Wednesday 5th Nov

Carol Daunt Skyring’s workshop

Carol’s energy and passion for the content of this workshop had us all champing at the bit to get back to our workplaces and try out audio conferencing, web conferencing, video conferencing and Skype.

This workshop explored the differences between these three different forms of online conferencing.

Online conferencing is used to provide learning environments for students who are off-campus. The online conferencing classroom can provide for multiple students from a variety of remote locations. However, because the ‘classroom’ is effectively a computer interface, the teacher needs to adopt new pedagogies to be effective in the  management of this classroom model. Learning in a remote location whilst sitting alone at a computer screen is not an ideal way to learn fro most people. The technology enables access only; it is the teacher who develops the learning environment to bring the various users (students) together in an effective learning community.

Whilst audio conferencing is relatively simple technology that’s been around for a while, it is dependent upon a ‘bridge’ operator (service provider) who enables the whole process.

Web conferencing is more complex, but offers the user exciting interactive options that facilitate student engagement beyond voice. The visual interface provides the teacher with what resembles an interactive whiteboard, where student responses can be noted and group comments documented. This opens the way to collaborative learning opportunities and can create a more dynamic learning environment for students, if used to its advantage. There are loads of good applications out there such as ivRoom, palBee, lluminate, DimDim etc

Video conferencing seems to be the way of the future however. It looks great and offers consumers a range of options. When introduced a decade ago, it was expensive at the top end and raw and clumsy at the bottom. Carol explained that current solutions are both affordable and accessible. Video conferencing does not have to be a high end solution to be successful! OoVoo, Skype, PalBee and iChat are some examples of applications.

Whilst it looks like TV, its important to note that if students use it like TV, they may fall asleep! An effective teacher will create a dynamic learning community: they will engage students and monitor their active participation and contribution to the online classroom. They will also pull apart what they might normally ‘do’ in the classroom and repackage it for the online elearning environment. This is a real skill that may require a bit of practise.

Carol threw loads of information at us, challenging us to consider useful ways of using these technologies in our teaching, and asking us to be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of each conferencing technology, when setting up online learning environments. All in all, an exciting, informative and thought-provoking session!

A grey drizzly sky greeted me today when I stepped onto the tarmac at Maroochydore airport. I’m up here to attend the three day Learning Technologies 2008 Conference. Since my arrival at Mooloolabah TAFE for this afternoon’s workshops, drizzle has turned to heavy rain! Nonetheless I am excited about today’s workshops and the conference.

I’m anticipating a big learning curve this afternoon as the workshops I’m attending are:

Using Audio, Web and Video Conferencing for Teaching and Learning with Carol Daunt Skyring

and

Blended Distributed Delivery with Kerry Russo and Mark Walshe

Voicethread is a Web 2.0 application that allows you to create and share digital stories over the net. This application is a great tool for getting students to build digital stories, or to annotate slides.

A VoiceThread is an online media album that can hold essentially any type of media (images, documents and videos) and allows people to make comments in 5 different ways:

- Using voice (with a microphone or telephone), text, audio file, or video (with a webcam) - and share them with anyone they wish. They can even be exported to an Archival Movie for offline use on a DVD or video-enabled MP3 player.

A VoiceThread allows group conversations to be collected and shared in one place, from anywhere in the world. Read more

To understand the breadth of what this application has to offer, view the What is Voicethread video

You can create a Voicethread in 3 easy steps: in one minute according to the website:

For an overview, view the 1 minute Voicethread video

1. Browse & Create images, documents and/or video. You can import from Powerpoint, Word, Excel or PDF, and Flickr or Facebook too.

2. Comment: use your voice - record with a microphone, write text etc

3. Share: invite, email, embed etc. there are privacy options

See a sample Voicethread here: Beach

Controls

You can set privacy controls and moderate any comments before they are published by checking the options

Setting up your microphone

- Click on the My Voice tab/menu

- Choose microphone settings button: for Mac or Windows and follow the prompts

Video Doodling

This is a great feature for annotating video clips or drawing attention to details in a clip. View the Video Doodling video for more information

Gickr is a partner Web 2.0 application to Flickr

Gickr.com lets you create online animated slideshows and share them online

Gickr is actually easier than Flickr to use. In minutes you can quickly upload images and create an animated slideshow that you can email to friends or link to a blog

Like Flickr, there are privacy options but the site warns you that once an option is set, it cant be undone

In the future you will be able to upload a Flickr set to Gickr, but for now its not functional. You will need to access images from your computer.

On Monday 11th August 2008, a group of 13 TIGS teachers and staff attended a workshop on using Flickr and Gickr.

Flickr is a Web 2.0 application that enables you to host and share your photos.

• Access all your digital images in one place.
• Show off your favorite photos to the world.
• Share photos with your friends and family.

In 3 easy steps they learnt to:

- Share their photos using Flickr

- Edit, crop, add fonts etc

- Upload and organise files

- Make things like cards, photo books, prints etc

- Explore

You can:

Take a Flickr tour to learn of its potential: FLICKR TOUR

Sometimes (most of the time!) the Upload button doesnt work well with our school network - it may be better from home if you have Broadband. However the single presentation upload feature is better:

Directions

Click the upload button and then click the blue link: Having trouble using bulk upload?  This allows you to upload one presentation at a time and works. the other benefit is that you can set the Privacy option here to restrict who sees the show. Fill in all of the details prior to hitting the Upload button at the bottom of the window.

Hi everyone

This is a summary of what we will do today in our Slideshare workshop:

We will:

1. Register as a slideshare user

2. Undertake a slideshare tour to grasp the basics

3. Browse slideshare to find some slideshows that interest us

4. Click on some slideshare tags to find slideshows related to specific topics that interest us

5. Setup our own Slidespace

6. Learn how to upload a powerpoint presentation and how to set privacy settings

7. Learn how to build a community: add Contact lists and Groups, and invite people to join

8. Learn how to stage and advertise events and invite people to come

9. How to add comments and respond to comments

10. Ask questions!

Slideshare is an online presentation sharing tool.

• If you, or your students create Powerpoint presentations, then you can host, tag and share them online in Slideshare. Your students can access them anytime on any web browser.
• Slideshare is also a great resource where you can share other people’s presentations.

Click on this hyperlink to go to slideshare.net

Click on the slideshare tour to discover several reasons why you might use slideshare

Click on Sign Up to register for slideshare. it is free. If you have already registered, log in by entering your username and password. Its a good idea to record these somewhere

Check out this slideshare presentation that reveals something of the power of visual presentations

You can browse hot Tags to find slideshows related to your interests or topics

This is how I found a slidecast on Podcasting

Or, alternatively you can enter a topic in the Search option

This is how I found a slideshow on Project Based Learning

This is a ’secret’ url to my private viewing of a draft slideshow I setup on slideshare:

DE eLearningDraft

Social networking is a phenomena.

Social networking links people to each other through networks.

eg. My Space, Facebook etc

Social networking is the way in which students choose to interact with friends and contacts, anywhere, anytime, all-the-time.

There are countless social networking sites available free for users to connect to: Wikipedia’s list of social networking sites shows how enormous this phenomenon is!

View the video: Social Networking in Plain English to understand how it works