Introducing myself

Priscilla in EDC by bronwynannh

You may be wondering why I am introducing myself with a picture of a kune kune piglet. For me she represents diversity. I am an Educational Developer, and work with a broad variety of people, as well as teaching the Flexible Learning course. A couple of years ago, Priscilla was one of our customers in the Educational Development Centre. She was such a gorgeous wee thing and kept us entertained for an hour while we waited for the SPCA to arrive. She was a wanderer from one of the local student flats, brought in by one of the polytechnic students who found her out the front on Forth street. Yes this is me in the next picture, after one of my weekend walks in the bush with hubby. It is a great way to forget about the academic stuff.

I have been involved in teaching this course since 2006, and helped to develop the Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Learning and Teaching. I entered the staff development side of things in 2001 when I was appointed the Blackboard coordinator for the organisation. Before that, I had been teaching bioscience in the nursing and midwifery degrees - both online, on-campus distance and in block courses. My interest in eLearning has taken me on a very interesting pathway in teaching and learning. I have recently submitted my Doctorate in Education and am now playing the waiting game. My focus was on using reflective frameworks for professional learning and practice.

I also teach an online course called Evaluation of eLearning for Effective practice. This is part of the Graduate Certificate in Applied eLearning now run by Manukau Institute of Technology, and originally developed as a TANZ initiative when I was involved in their elearning group. I really enjoy keeping up with the latest trends in learning and teaching. This includes not only the technologies which are springing up everywhere, but also innovative thinking around learning. I have recently been involved in running workshops on critical thinking, self-directed learning, reflective practice, ePortfolios and Web 2.0 tools. Oh yes, and I do lots of work with learning design, and have led curriculum development and research projects. I am really looking forward to reading your blogs.

How to convince students to share their ideas on a blog

Seated Woman with Blog, after Picasso by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Is a blog a good or a bad thing for sharing ideas with your classmates? Lets deal with the good stuff first. Blogs are a great way to share information - websites, photos, videos, the latest gossip, and of course your ideas, and what you are learning in class. Here are some examples of blogs to get you thinking.

It can be interesting to find out more about the people sitting opposite you in class - what they are interested in and what they believe in. So it is a good way to get to know each other better. You will probably be pleasantly surprised to read about others' hidden talents. It is a good way to see things from different angles and reading what others have written helps you to do this. And to state the obvious, blogging really can help your writing, and your learning especially when your classmates give you helpful hints.

Posting on a blog can also help you to express the ideas you might be too shy to say out loud. It is good practice for learning to express your ideas too. It is really cool when someone reads what you have written and leaves you a comment. Just knowing others are interested in your thoughts is a real confidence booster.And of course, it is a great way for your teachers to give you feedback about your work, and to challenge you to think.

Sure it can be scary when you start to think that others will read what you have written, but it can also be addictive seeing how many people are reading your posts, and who is leaving comments.  The more you do it the easier it is and the better you get at doing it.

The main thing to remember is to be respectful to each other when leaving comments, and it is a great way to show that you are interested in their work. By posting to a blog and sharing what you are learning, you are hopefully going to have fun and do some learning at the same time. So you can learn from each other if you share your work with the class as well as the teachers, and if your blog is open on the web you might even get some interesting people looking at your work.

It is also possible to set up a mobile blog where you can send texts, images and video directly to your blog....but that is another story, and one for you to explore. When you get really good at blogging you might even be able to attract advertising and make some money - lots of people do....but that is something for after class.

So what are you waiting for - lets get started.

Starting 2012 with a thought freedom of expression on the Internet

Open by tribalicious

Is this a new year's resolution or just a considered way forward for 2012. I lost my way with blogging last year what with the Doctorate and one thing and another. So I have decided to post a blog about something at least once per week or whenever a item of interest - even if vaguely connected to education - comes up. So here is my response to the discussion facilitated by Hazel Owen about Wikipedia blacked out protest. She has lit my blogging fire so to speak after I discovered her blog at Ascilite 2011.

I have also signed the petition for a free and open Internet , and reject the ratification of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), which would destroy it. This is open to anyone to sign via Avaaz.org

My response re an open Internet and freedom of expression
The idea of removing information because it is offensive for whatever reason is a tricky one. Well we already do it in society all the time - offensive human beings are removed to prison. This happens when the authorities get involved. When people act without involving the authorities people who offend also get removed, in one way or another. Vigilante behaviour is not favoured when it is against the law. Freedom of expression is important but offensive material and bullying behaviour via the Internet is not. I also don't agree with one group controlling the masses. 

To be effective people can learn to be assertive, ethical and responsible - and also may need to 'harden up' if others don't agree with them or challenge them. I believe that we learn appropriate behaviour best from our peers and by observing others. I believe that the Wikipedia model has shown us the power of networks in keeping things open and 'safe', and has done a great job in showing us how to 'share our toys' without throwing them out of the cot when things get sticky. Copyright does nothing in reality, but line the pockets of those who are probably already rich (in majority world terms) or have the money to sue - in contrast copyleft opens up a whole world of possibilities for anyone....if everyone plays fair and gives attribution where it is due. The question is how can we make enough money to live if we share our creativity freely with the world - or does this actually more likely our creative works will be seen, and we will make money anyway?

This is certainly a concern for educational institutions. Surprisingly enough sharing content and ideas can actually attract money. If an organisation is open and willing tio share, more people are given the opportunity to hear about what they offer. This can lead to more enrolments and opportunities for research and collaborative projects. My teaching materials are open on WikiEducator because it is important for me to model this to other teaching staff. Occasionally, someone comes along and contributes and adds to my work, and for me this adds richness to my work. I would love people to contribute to the Flexible Learning Guidebook, and this year I am going to use a student-generated model with the staff who take my course - this will be an interesting year.

Ascilite 2011 - what a buzz!

Hobart harbour from Wrest Point

Hobart is the venue for this year's Ascilite conference and I love it - probably because it is so like Dunedin. It even has a hill with a pregnant woman shape just like at home, and the plants are very similar. The conference has had some really interesting topics. People really are doing some amazing innovations and research. I was particularly impressed with Gilly Salmon's keynote and the plenary sessions on the first day. It was hard to move from there as everything was so interesting. More about that later. Gilly told us about the Media Zoo, (she developed this while at the University of Leicester) to promote PD for learning design using a metaphor - different animals represent different types of professional development projects. She also invited people to contribute examples of good practice in onine facilitation for her new e-tivities book coming out soon.

Following my presentation I got talking to Belinda Allen and Kathryn Coleman about ePortfolios and their ideas of creativity that they mentioned in their talk. Kathryn told me about the Assessment toolkit they had developed at the University of New South Wales.  It looks good. I was fairly pleased with my presentation - Is reflective writing an enigma? (Also in the title - Can preparing evidence for an electronic portfolio develop skills for reflective practice?) As soon as I get home I will record some audio to accompany it - otherwise it doesn't mean much. I was asked lots of questions after the session and during fodder breaks. The Reflective Framework provoked lots of discussion which was excellent. I will post more later once I get to some decent broadband - balancing the laptop on my knee at my motel door to get connectivity means the post is going to be short.Check out the wonderful art created by Gilly's partner (I presume) who also does this kind of artwork for her presentations. He drew this as she talked about the different areas of scaffolding. Building the scaffold in action.

Building a scaffold for future learning by Gilly Salmon

using mobile learning to stimulate critical thinking

The mobile Phone 1974 by catmachine

I am a little behind the eight ball with my responses to the discussions, so you are forgiven if this topic is well forgotten. I was intrigued to read about the M4Lit project where phones are being used to engage teens in creative storytelling and interactive writing. Sabine has responded on the group email with a great post discussing the merits of reading and writing for stimulating critical thinking. " ... reading and writing is the most important, and most efficient way to develop critical thinking".  Here I am using material from my Doctorate thesis (in progress) to support this claim.  For example, Menary (2007) claims “writing is thinking” (p. 361) because writing helps to re-structure and manipulate a person's thoughts.  

However, there is also the belief that guided thinking needs to occur before writing reflectively and critically, using dialogue for stimulating critical thinking. In any case, I believe it is important to develop critical thinking skills, but these may or may not be associated with the capacity to write reflectively and critically.  If a tool such as a mobile phone can capture the interest of students to engage in activities which stimulate critical thinking this is a good thing.  I don't believe we should despair if reading and writing is not a component, because critical thinking can also occur when viewing multimedia, and engaging in conversations - if the right prompts are in place. There is plenty of evidence that guided reflection can stimulate critical reflection (Fook & Gardner, 2007; Reiman, 1999).  In my opinion, we need to move away from reading and writing as the only way to see evidence of critical thinking, and embrace other exciting methods of stimulating evidence of critical thinking. 

It may well include writing, but for example, if students uploaded images to Flickr, or Youtube or their blog or ePortfolio etc, and using quiding questions were encouraged to reflect critically on the meaning of the images or video sequence, they could write or speak (through using an audio recording) or video to describe the meaning of the image or video, or other material, wouldn't this be more fun than preparing the traditional essay? All this could be done directly from their mobile phone.

Fook, J., & Gardner, F. (2007). Practising critical reflection. A resource handbook. New York: Open University Press.

Menary, R. (2007). Writing as thinking. Language Sciences, 29, 621–632.

Reiman, A. (1999). The evolution of the social role taking and guided reflection framework in teacher education: Recent theory and quantitative synthesis of research. Teaching and Teacher Education 15 (1999) 15, 597-612.

 

Sharing how I use my mobile device for learning

My response to week 1 questions in MobileMOOC

1.      Share how you use your mobile device now, is there any learning you do at this point?

I take pics of whiteboard work in class - like the one above - and video on my mobile phone - a Nokia, and this week started sending directly to Flickr and Youtube, and also to my blog. It is so easy, and saves all that downloading and uploading. I have added my blog, youtube and Flickr emails addresses to my contacts so it is now quick to do.   I am not sure what the cost will be yet but work pays for it.

I wonder how students feel about the extra costs if asked to use their mobile phones for this sort of thing?

2.      Pick one of the following mLearning tools: qr-codes, pictures taken via mobile device, movies via mobile device, ... and show us how you would use it for learning via either a descriptive picture, movie taken with a mobile device.

I have uploaded pics taken of the whiteboard in the classroom to Flickr - as shown above, and also to my blog - as you can see here. I have also taken a short video on my nokia cellphone and sent it to You tube. I don't fully understand QR codes and will give it a go. Starting with QR planet and Kaywa.

learning to send images to blogger from my mobile

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I just joined the mobimooc google group to undertake an open course about mobile learning. These are the two photos I sent via email on my phone - my provider does not support SMS posting. I am going to try connecting my posts on my blog with the Google group - that should be interesting - to save me having to post in two places.

Now I have finally set up my cell phone contacts with email addresses for blogger, flickr and youtube so I can send photos directly to these accounts. Next I will connect with twitter and facebook so I am truly mobile. Although it took me a bit of time getting set up, it is going to save me so much time in the long phone. I now have my eye on an iphone4, but realistically I should use the Nokia which has basic features which most students have, and will allow me to work to the commonest denominator. 

Really what is the point in having fancy features on my cell phone, while I am learning what is possible, if my students don't have the same capacity on theirs?