Thursday, 28 May 2009
The Animal School
Here's a heartbreaking video called The Animal School. A nice promo from www.raisingsmallsouls.com about how all learners are unique. Maybe it'll even convince me that learning styles do exist!Labels: education, learning, learning and teaching, online writing school
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:07 AM
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
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
Friday, 16 November 2007
Do you use Salmon's 5-stage model or E-tivities framework?
Do you use e-learning or learning technologies such as discussion forums etc. in teaching?
Have you used or adapted Salmon's 5-stage model or e-tivities framework in your teaching? Or have you used it at any time in the past few years?Gilly Salmon's 5-stage model and e-tivities framework have been used successfully to support learning in a variety of contexts, courses, disciplines, types and levels of education from schools to Masters to continuing professional development.
References
I am doing some research to find out how they have been applied in learning and teaching across the world in the last ten years. We know that teachers have used them in a variety of different ways, adapting and developing the models to suit their own purposes. As part of the background to a new book, we would like to find out about the models in practice. The general results of this research will be made available to all practitioners.
If you have any good examples of using the 5-stage model or e-tivities,
please would you take my survey?
http://www2.le.ac.uk/.../smeltsurvey
E-moderating: The Key to Teaching and Learning Online
Gilly Salmon, (2004) Routledge Falmer
ISBN: 0415335442
lifelong learning, m-learning, mobile learning, online courses, online learning, online tutoring, technology, universities, wiki-tivities, wikitivities
E-tivities: The Key to Active Online Learning
Gilly Salmon, (2002) Routledge Falmer,
ISBN: 0749431105Labels: collaborative working, e-facilitation, e-learning, e-learning tools, e-moderating, education, elearning, learning and teaching, learning design, learning technologies
posted by Helen Whitehead 12:48 PM
Wednesday, 17 October 2007
Drivers to e-learning
The reasons why University staff are considering e-learning in their courses tend to be as varied as the disciplines they come from and almost as varied as the individuals concerned.
Some of the drivers are:
- from above, e.g., Department or Faculty head: "our modules should use the VLE more";
- from students - our students are arriving more e-literate and they will want to use the kind of digital environments and resources that they are used to at school;
- assessment - can e-assessment be more effective or time-saving?
- new course - time to use some of this e-learning stuff;
- have been using the Web so far and want to find out if the VLE can be used instead;
- have heard about wikis and blogs: how can I use them?
- distance learning courses - for which there are obvious advantages in using e-learning - but what does it mean?
- competition - similar courses have more e-learning - are we falling behind?
- there is a particular topic in the course that students have trouble with - can we solve this with e-learning (answer - it might or might NOT be appropriate!)
Labels: e-learning, e-learning drivers, elearning, learning, learning and teaching
posted by Helen Whitehead 12:40 PM
Friday, 3 August 2007
Join me on the Creativity in E-Learning network
Labels: creativity, e-learning, education sector, elearning, FE, HE, learning and teaching, learning technologies, social networking, universities, Web 2.0
posted by Helen Whitehead 4:06 PM
Thursday, 2 August 2007
Levels of Technology/Web/VLE Use in Teaching and Learning
1 Administrative
Syllabi, submission dates, room allocations, last-minute changes, etc.
2 Supplemental
Materials to support the traditional classroom, but not critical to the course (e.g. notes, handouts, slides, reading lists, Internet links).
3 Essential
Students require regular web access to be productive members of the class. Most materials, tasks, assessments available on website. Teachers require ICT literacy and sufficient course development time.
4 Communal
Course website used for communication purposes. Much course content generated through asynchronous discussions, real-time chats, publication of documents, audio and video-conferencing. ‘Design for e-learning’ expertise and e-moderating skills needed.
Blended courses need go no further than this.
5 Immersive
No classroom-based teaching. Courses are taught online.
(with acknowledgment to Dr Ale Armellini)Labels: learning and teaching, learning technologies, levels of transition, VLE, Web 2.0
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:51 AM
