Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Top ten elearning tools of 2008
I've posted my top ten social media tools for 2008 on my social media and ebusiness blog at Reach Further.
I guess if I were to do my top ten e-learning tools they would be the same - except I would probably say Moodle instead of Yammer :)Labels: e-learning, elearning, social media, top ten tools
posted by Helen Whitehead 10:47 PM
Tuesday, 23 December 2008
Technobabble
Today I had a discussion on Twitter about geek dreams, after I dreamed in Twitter messages (sad, isn't it?) and others admitted to also twittering, as well as dreaming in HTML and CSS. I remember when I was learning Photoshop that I used to see web-safe colour codes on car number plates...
Meanwhile, there has been a Call for eLearning Papers on the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009 tinyurl.com/5dfm22 Deadline 12 Jan 09. Sounds like my kind of year!
Labels: creativity, elearning, elearningeuropa.info, Innovation, twitter
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:14 AM
Monday, 22 December 2008
e-START Digital Literacy Network & Digital Literacy in Europe
The Project of the Month at elearningeuropa.info is the e-START Digital Literacy Network working in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Austria and Finland. e-START is a Network of key players for promoting Digital Literacy in Primary and Lower Secondary (K-9) education in Europe and beyond. The mission of the e-START Network is to provide a universal communication base to support Digital Literacy Policies and Actions in compulsory education. e-START has held a number of international symposia, panels and workshops around Europe and organised the First International Conference on Digital Literacy (see conference website: http://e-start.brunel.ac.uk)
For more on e-inclusion, read the Digital Literacy European Commission Working Paper and
Recommendations from Digital Literacy High-Level Expert Group: this Report presents the outcome of the Digital Literacy Review that the Commission has undertaken as part of the commitments made in the Riga Declaration in 2006 and in the eInclusion Communication in 2007: a series of eInclusion targets, including reducing by half the gap between digital literacy levels of disadvantaged groups and the average for the EU by 2010.
Digital Literacy is increasingly becoming an essential life skill and the inability to access or use
ICT has effectively become a barrier to social integration and personal development. 470 digital literacy initiatives across the EU were analysed together with the results of the digital literacy module of the Community Survey on ICT usage in Households and by Individuals. The main conclusions are:
(1) Member States have invested in large digital literacy programmes over the last ten years
as part of their Lisbon priorities for information society and as a result regular Internet
use has grown rapidly, particularly among young persons for whom skill levels and usage
rates exceed that of the USA.
(2) Digital literacy remains a major challenge and more efforts need to be dedicated to
supporting disadvantaged groups, in particular those over 55.
(3) There is evidence that secondary digital divides may be emerging in relation to quality of
use and more needs to be done to increase the levels of confidence and trust in online transactions and the use of ICT for lifelong learning for all.
The Review also identified good practices to bring disadvantaged groups online and the key
features are summarised, grouped according to: motivation, affordability and sustainability,
content and delivery and accessibility and usability.Labels: digital ltieracy, digital_literacy, e-Start, elearningeuropa.info, european projects, european_projects
posted by Helen Whitehead 5:57 PM
Short thoughts
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- 09:58 Oh my, I was tweeting in my dreams last night - I need to take a break from Twitter! #
- 10:39 @tashaharrison scary, yes, but I'm sure I had some pretty good tweets in my dream and now I've forgotten them! #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:14 AM
Saturday, 20 December 2008
Short thoughts
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- 15:47 I like getting all these Christmas ecards - makes the job of clearing the inbox a bit more enjoyable! #
- 15:51 I miss going to little ones' Xmas events. I remember the Thunderbirds Xmas play I wrote for nursery: made all the craft from cardboard boxes #
- 10:50 Grrr Firefox updated itself and my Delicious icon no longer works. I hate programs that force you into something and ruin your workflow! #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:16 AM
Friday, 19 December 2008
Short thoughts
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- 15:31 discussing emotional intelligence in leadership of social enterprise #
- 10:45 chasing up final bits of projects - estimated chance of all being finalised before everyone goes on hols low but possible! #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:22 AM
Thursday, 18 December 2008
Short thoughts
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- 21:40 Writing up a couple of bids... #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:13 AM
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Short thoughts
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- 18:40 Hurrah, online va a mobile broadband dongle! #
- 18:43 @jclarey if one is being professional certainly one checks :) as one would for any public appearance - I'd use the webcam #
- 18:47 @shanitomorrow any news on CCC starting in Nottingham? #
- 19:16 @gpirie sorry I won't see you :) Have a nice celebration! #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:18 AM
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Short thoughts
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- 14:27 Drupal community site looking good for launch - just the posting guidelines to slot in and it's ready #
- 07:36 Looking forward to launching our small business portal today #
- 09:01 A new approach to assessment in HE tinyurl.com/6ocsxp #lff09 #
- 10:02 Does calling Firefox "Netscape" show one's internet age? #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:18 AM
A new approach to assessment
Assessment is a key driver of student learning and at the heart of the student experience. From the student point of view, assessment defines the curriculum. Assessment can be an important route into engaging students in new ways of learning.
At the online Learning Futures Festival in November from the Beyond Distance Research Alliance at the University of Leicester Professor Margaret Price, director of the ASKe Centre of Excellence at Oxford Brookes University, spoke on "Shaping Assessment for the Future".
She established first that assessment practice isn't currently ideal - the types of assessment we currently use do not promote conceptual understanding and do not encourage a deep approach to learning. Problems with reliability mean teachers shy away from deep and contextual approaches to assessment. Students can become more interested in marks and grades than in the subject they are studying. Learning to pass the test becomes more important than learning about and interest in the subject. There are also issues with setting standards and criteria and encouraging involvement of and participation by student.
Prof Price introduced us to Assessment Standards, a manifesto for change, the results of two days of expert discussions. There are six tenets to the manifesto principles that need to be embedded before assessment techniques are redesigned.For me it was summed up with the comment from tenet 4 that It is when learners share an understanding of academic and professional standards in an atmosphere of mutual trust that learning works best. This is clearly the case and must be applied as much to assessment as to other aspects of designing learning, and indeed, is essential to those other aspects being successfully implemented.
- The debate on standards needs to focus on how high standards of learning can be achieved through assessment.
- We need to move beyond systems based on marks and grades because reliability issues get in the way of valid assessment.
- Limits to the extent that standards can be articulated explicitly must be recognised. There are important benefits of HE which are not amenable either to the precise specification of standards or to objective assessment.
- Assessment standards are socially constructed so there must be a greater emphasis on assessment and feedback processes that actively engage both staff and students in dialogue about standards.
- Active engagement with assessment standards needs to be an integral and seamless part of course design and the learning process.
- Assessment is largely dependent upon professional judgement, and to have confidence in such judgement suggests of establishment of forums for development and sharing of standards within disciplinary communities.
More information at http://www.business.brookes.ac.uk/learningandteaching/askeLabels: assessment, HE, learning, learning and teaching
posted by Helen Whitehead 8:30 AM
Monday, 15 December 2008
Adventure Island - creativity for young writers
Information about Adventure Island - the creative participatory game/story/digital mutimedia that's part of my young writers site Kids on the Net has been hitting the blogosphere this month, with Tom Barrett and Larry Ferlazzo talking about it. There have been qite a few requests for logins recently.
I'm thinking of creating a Camtasia video to show how the island plan works, I think some teachers find it a little awkward to get to grips with. Perhaps a Christmas activity? Then it would be ready for the rush of signups we usually get in the first half of the year.Labels: Adventure Island, children's writing, creative writing, Kids on the Net, literacy
posted by Helen Whitehead 5:37 PM
Friday, 12 December 2008
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- 12:58 There always seems to be one person in our Elluminate meetings who can't talk for some reason despite having a working mic... #
- 12:59 Community engagement plan thoroughly discussed - now to write it all up! How to get more people doing things - the neverending conundrum #
- 22:28 @tombarrett literacy fun www.kidsonthenet.com/about/activity.htm #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:11 AM
Thursday, 11 December 2008
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- 08:57 Children uploading video - what's your opinion? Encourage? Discourage? #
- 10:58 Tried out a Nokia E71 - still prefer my TyTN despite Windaz Mobil #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:12 AM
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
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- 13:12 @gpirie simplicity, navigation, content and content! #
- 15:54 @josiefraser everyone's got to start somewhere! And you are just well known enough to be the first person they know... #
- 18:21 Phew - proofreading elearning is much more difficult than print where you can use the traditional proof marks - how to mark up a screen? #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:12 AM
Tuesday, 9 December 2008
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- 09:54 My interview appears today on the Wrike website www.wrike.com/story/reachfurther.jsp #
- 09:55 @jobadge sorry you had a fall again. #
- 10:45 I apologise for missing many tweets last week and this - problems with snow leading to a nasty cold. Trying to catch up on the twnews :) #
- 10:45 Reserving judgement on the Twittergroup good/bad debate till I see how they work and if they're any use.... #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:12 AM
Monday, 8 December 2008
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- 20:56 chatting with the australians agan. we have snow, they're on the beach... #
- 08:45 Watching the news about possible new primary curriculm and thinking it sounds very like the RSA's Opening Minds tinyurl.com/5sznfs #
- 08:47 How nice to have a Twitter Group for edubloggers twittgroups.com/group/edublogger #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:11 AM
Sunday, 7 December 2008
Short thoughts
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- 15:56 sorry to miss the tweetmeet - not too well today #
- 10:20 Useful wma to mp3 and other audio file converter: Switch tinyurl.com/5oc4zo #
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:12 AM
Friday, 5 December 2008
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- 08:47 Catching up after a surprisingly unwired few days... #
- 09:28 @xicanowan SnagIt works well for me #
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:23 PM
Monday, 1 December 2008
Technology-enhanced learning in the Teaching and Learning Research Project
Personalisation of learning involves using the responsive and adaptive capabilities of advanced digital technologies
It's all about inclusion about improving the reach of education and lifelong learning to groups and individuals not well served traditionally. It promotes flexibility and productivity.
What's more important for managers and strategists, it enables institutions to achieve higher quality and more effective learning in affordable and acceptable ways.
The TLRP (http://www.tlrp.org) felt it important that their technology-enhanced learning (note not e-learning) projects were interdisciplinary.
They were intended to support the co-evolution of the understanding of learning & technology avoiding the problems of communicating between groups who don't normally talk to one another.
The research found that the introduction of innovative technology into learning settings can lead to changed activities but can also lead to a change in the technology itself. Both the activity and the technology are adapted to serve the needs of teaching and learning. While technology may change the activity to better meet the learning outcome the technology itself must be adapted to meet the needs of learners. In some contexts, technology has been seen as the leading influence in this context, but learning design and activity is just as important if not more so.
The question is: is this appropriation or transformation?
Short thoughts (as LoudTwitter isn't currently doing its job..)
- I have 3 online courses at critical points - two near the end, one halfway through - but is there ever a non-critical point? !
- Anyone have any interesting examples of digital taylorism (including workplace surveillance)?
Labels: e-learning, elearning, learning technologies, personalisaton, technology-enhanced learning
posted by Helen Whitehead 10:49 AM
