Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Issues regarding use of blogs with students
Some questions to think about when planning to use blogs with students:
- What is the purpose of the blog – make sure it is clear – is it linked to assessment? If it isn’t assessed will they bother to use it – probably not?
- Do you use a class group blog or individual blogs? Perhaps you only need one blog in wwhich you as tutor post the questions and assignments etc., and the students merely respond via comments.
- Will they have a choice which blog to use and whether or not to make it or bits of it public?
- What if they already have a blog and prefer to use the same blog, perhaps with a specific tag to make it easier for you and anyone else to read? otherwise they may end up with many blogs, e.g., for each class plus private ones – which is difficult to manage.
- If you specify what blog tool they use, will you use an internal blog provided by the institution or an external one, with all the disadvantages of hosting off-site?
- Do you insist they have a “professional” identity – do they need guidance in the tone and theme of the blog? Can they use a pseudonym or other less formal identity?
- Will the tutor be reading the blog or will everyone in the class be expected to read one another’s? Will students be expected to comment on one another’s posts?
Labels: academic blogs, blog network, blogging, blogs, collaborative working, reflective learning, writing
posted by Helen Whitehead 12:02 PM
Monday, 17 December 2007
Edublog awards 2007
While I've been away with a virus (head rather than computer...) the winners of the Edublog 2007 awards have been announced. They are a great selection of blogs. I was intrigued by the "most influential blog post" which is the one by Karl Fisch back in 2006 which started the "ShiftHappens" meme.
We are about to show the latest version of the video to the staff at an FE College as part of an inspirational e-learning day. I hope they find it as intriguing as the 10 million people or so who have already seen versions of the presentation or video.
It's always as interesting to check out the nominated blogs as well as they winning ones, and some nominated blogs have won in the past...Labels: awards, blogs, e-learning, FE, Fisch, Shift Happens, shifthappens
posted by Helen Whitehead 5:24 PM
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
E-learning Advent Calendar
I've been writing less in the blog at the moment - lots of effort is going into the ELKS "Advent of Technology" Calendar, full of people's favourite tools for teaching and learning with technologies.
You don't even have to be a member to see the calendar :)
DIRECT LINK to calendar
Today's entry (December 11th): Google and Google ScholarA good search engine has to be among the “best tools”. And can I be controversial and recommend Google Scholar too? Although it’s nothing like as good as the databases and services your institutional library undoubtedly offers, I find it’s a great place to start my literature search to get a bit of a feel for the subject and its primary exponents.
It’s surprising how many students don’t know how to use a search engine properly, or how to evaluate the results when they get them. It’s something that a group of us at ELKS have started creating guidelines for. Hopefully the guidelines can be used by any tutor for any class where students need to search the web (there’ll be a section on Wikipedia as well… but that’s a ‘whole other story’ !).
Labels: advent calendar, e-learning, elearning, Google, learning technologies
posted by Helen Whitehead 8:34 AM
Monday, 3 December 2007
Advent (of technology) calendar
This December at ELKS (the community of expertise which I manage for the UN's Global Alliance for ICT in Development initiative) we've adapted a December tradition to produce an "Advent of technology" Calendar - with a resource, tool or tip about e-learning for every day of December.There are 30 days to fill - so we need your contributions! Tell us what tool (including software, hardware or gadgets), or what resource (such as website), or what conference, journal, model of best practice, or even person has greatly impacted on your practice as a teacher using technology. What's been the greatest boon? What changed your life? Well - at least what changed your teaching practice, at least a little!
Email helen.whitehead AT le.ac.uk with your suggestions to add to our calendar, the sooner the better. If you can accompany it with a photo related to your location (as square as possible), that would be even better. You'll see December 2nd is a view up the Attenborough Tower at the University of Leicester, where the Beyond Distance Research Alliance (where ELKS is based) has its offices.
There's also a discussion - please let us know what your tool, resource etc. means to you.
To find the Advent Calendar go to ELKS and click on Showcase in the left hand menu. Click on the Advent of technology Calendar then double-click on today's picture and "view details" to see the resource behind it. You don't have to login to see the calendar.
If you have an interest in the role of e-learning in development, and would like to become a member of ELKS, just get in touch with me and I'll send you a password. helen.whitehead AT le.ac.uk
Labels: calendar, e-learning, elearning, elearning tools, ELKS, learning futures, online communities, UN, UN-GAID, universities
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:39 AM
