Tuesday, 4 September 2007
ALT-C presentations on Tuesday
I was certainly nodding at Tim Rudd's exhortation to us to think about learning spaces for the future without being "held back" by starting from where we are now. We must not be bound by cultures and habits from existing methods of teaching and assessment - let's be innovative!
That people are hidebound was demonstrated in the last session I went to. Gill Kirkup of the OU had surveyed students on whether they wanted to use blogs, for learning or otherwise. Not surprisingly they said no - well they probably had no clear idea of how blogs might be used to support their learning. Not until they have experienced an innovative and effective course design involving relevant use of blogs will they appreciate their usefulness. In the mobile learning symposium, John Traxler discussed how difficult it was to ask people what they want - because they give the answer they think you want, they are affected by culture and assumptions and taking things for granted...
John Traxler also reminded us to think differently about the future, talking about the serendipity that gave us Teflon, post-its and SMS.
I was interested to see from Marion Miller that the JISC RSC Summer Conference in Yorkshire and Humberside had a very successful social network set up on Ning. It was interesting that competitions were held with prizes for content - a good push to get people started with contributing - if you can afford it!Labels: ALT-C2007, altc2007, beyond control, learning technologies, social networking
posted by Helen Whitehead 7:44 PM
ALT-C Day #1
I certainly picked a mixture of different topics at ALT-C today. There are so many sessions it is really difficult to choose, and as I'm changing jobs at the end of this current project I don't really know what subjects will be most appropriate! So I picked some topics that I didn't know anything about and some that I did.
Michelle Selinger's keynote confirmed a lot of my opinions - such as the fact that the age-dominated approach to learning is not appropriate for the digital generation. Her descriptions of the chasms between formal and informal learning, between school and HE and between HE in the developed and developing world really rang a bell. She went on to say that it's not a "Knowledge Society" that is needed but a "knowledgeable society" to bridge those chasms.
It was a real shame to see that Creativity was so low on the list of traits that employers want in their new employees - only 22% mentioned it in job specs in the study Michelle cited.
I wasn't so sure about her insistence on podcasts replacing lectures. I think lectures are a format that has worked well and will continue to do so. Podcasts are an addition not a replacement. Personally I tend to prefer lectures - so long as I can actually get to them. Still, Michelle did, in reply to a question, amend her comment to "don't put lectures above everything else, consider the other technological possibilities" which is fair enough!Labels: ALT-C2007, altc2007, beyond control, keynote, learning technologies, michelle selinger
posted by Helen Whitehead 7:32 PM
