eLearning For Teachers: Di Goodman (Epoff)

Learning Technologies 2008 Conference

Friday 7th November

Polycom Product Demonstration

I am convinced that video conferencing is the way of the future! The technology has progressed so significantly that it seems quite simple, accessible and affordable. What excites me is the way it opens opportunities to develop and access new learning communities for students, anywhere in the world.

I would like to use it in 2009 to establish a photography network for my TIGS photography students and those from Wanganui Park Secondary College in Victoria. I am curently investigating ways I can work with photography teacher Kerry Short to get the project up and running in Term 1 2009. Students will connect with students from another school to collaborate and learn in an online community through video conferencing, engage remotely with like-minded students through discussion boards, blogs and online galleries and  maybe even collaborate using a wiki.

Kerry and I can access and share each others expertise with all students to expand knowledge, information and ways of learning. This is exciting!

The Polycom demonstration showed how different video formats can now talk to each other and showed an interesting desktop solution. I’ll investigate the options at the exhibitors stands later today.

Learning Technologies 2008 Conference

Friday 7th November

Sparking Up the Network: Tinkle, Bing, Boom

Karen Fainges’s workshop:

Karen talks about how we can get the most out of networks in the classroom.

She is witty and entertaining and provides a light-hearted approach to her topic, and tells us that Gen Y isnt the only ‘logged on’ generation. Grey nomads are some of the best users of the internet: they have the time to learn everything they can, they willingly share information, love belonging to communities and love new technology. They may struggle with the technical aspects but engage with and use the technology to its advantage.

Karen shows us how she has used an online learning management system to create a learning community of Business Studies students.

Her humour creates a nice window to shed some stress in relation to the serious nature of what we are trying to achieve here at the conference.

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

Pauls Rixon’s (Tandberg at TAFESA) workshop

In this workshop, Paul explains how he establishes connections for students living in remote communities using video conferencing.

He uses video as a tool to remove the barriers of remote learning. The visual connection allows students to connect with the classroom (called a meeting room) in ways that are  meaningful for them.

He has developed a highly intgrated system of learning using  range of toos and strategies: video, telephones, desktop computers, lecture rooms etc.

Paul demonstrated the ease with which the user can set up a new meeting room (video conference). He setup 4 feeds that appeared in 4 separate windows on the projected screen, in an impromptu conference to show how easy it can be. We saw:

1. Mobile phone camera capturing live video of us in the lecture theatre

2. Live video of Dave Sobey, in Adelaide

3. Live video of a classroom in Adelaide

4. Live video of himself talking

He also showed and demonstrated how he can also use video production techniques to create rich content for classroom delivery. By setting up video cameras in any number of ways (eg pointing at the teacher, pointing at students, capturing the screen) a range of resources can be used and developed in the classroom.

Whilst this looks great, it seems to me that this technology is quite complex to setup. Most teachers would need a lot of support combining the various elements needed. It is quite IT-support dependent.

Service providers such as Tandberg are providing the technology, software and support needed to create equal opportunities of learning for remote students. The technology they develop and support looks fantastic. I’m not sure how affordable it is? Such opportunities are provider-dependent.

I wonder how he can videoconference/capture live interactive whiteboard feeds?

Wikis are exciting and empowering.

They allow asynchronous communication.

They encourage group collaboration.

They have the potential to develop diverse learning communities.

They are great learning tools for students, when handled appropriately.

Swan View Senior High School’s Wiki. You will need to sign-in first.