Baby Nesi #2 has not arrived at the time of recording/release of this episode but I can assure you that he will be here before episode 43 is released on August 30, 2015. The sub $5000 kitchen project is officially complete and the end of Summer is fast approaching!   This episode of House of #EdTech is sponsored by:   TodaysMeet.com   HelpHub.me   Audible.com   House of #EdTech VIP: Tina Monteleone   Complete shownotes at: http://www.chrisnesi.com/2015/08/dog-days-of-teachers-summer-part-2.html   FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: mrnesi Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: @mrnesi   Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com

  Baby Nesi #2 is here! Listen to get the latest update.   FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: mrnesi Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: @mrnesi   Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com

There are two conflicting themes floating around the wider worlds of technology-enhanced learning at the moment - the notion that the lecture is dead, and at odds with this, an increasingly loud voice from researchers and students who believe that all lectures should be filmed and made available to students for later viewing. Let’s take each of these separately. Item 1: the lecture, apparently, is an outmoded form of teaching and learning that may once have been a useful way of conveying knowledge to an illiterate populace, but has long since had its day. This is by no means a modern notion. Indeed, the lecture format has been questioned for many years.  Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) long ago produced his own straightforward critique of lectures: ‘People have nowadays…got a strange opinion that everything should be taught by lectures. Now, I cannot see that lectures can do as much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken…Lectures were once useful, but now, when all can read, and books are so numerous, lectures are unnecessary.’ A quick search of the Internet suggests the term ‘the lecture is dead’ before I have even finished typing my search query. A quick scan through the first half a dozen blog posts, online articles and journals repeat the same message: ‘nobody learns if you talk at them for 3 hours.’ This is doubly true for the guys who fall asleep during such passive experiences I guess. Ok. So let’s agree then, that the traditional lecture is no longer required as we can find what we need to know ourselves, and sitting passively in a lecture theatre for long periods of time does not teach us anything anyway. On to item 2: lectures should be filmed so that students can watch them online in their own time. Lecture capture is certainly front and centre at my institution, with four big-name providers showcasing their brands in the next few weeks. It’ll be like Dragons’ Den, with all four companies being scrutinized for the chance to provide the entire university with a solution only their company can deliver. I have already written about my experiences with lecture capture elsewhere in this blog, so won’t cloud the issue by repeating them here. Now, if I were a student who didn’t need to attend a live lecture because I could watch it whenever I wanted - with the added benefit of being able to pause, rewind and re-watch, or even spread the whole thing over a few evenings to make it more manageable- then that’s exactly what I would do. And this brings up a new issue: if nobody goes to a live lecture because they know it’s being recorded, then what happens? Does the lecturer ‘perform’ to an empty auditorium? And hang on a minute - isn’t the lecture supposed to be dead anyway? Should we be spending vast sums of money kitting out lecture theatres with HD cameras and sophisticated microphones if the same spaces are empty and the concept of the lecture obsolete? Should we, perhaps, be making better use of our resources? One solution would be to support academic staff to sit in front of their computer with a web cam and a microphone, and to show them how to use screen-casting software. They could go on to record their lectures at a time and in a location that suits them, and upload the results at the fraction of the cost of lecture capture hardware and software. In the future, disused lecture theatres could then be repurposed and turned into cinemas. Or fast food outlets. I’d like to know what you think.  Is lecture capture something you champion?  Please cast your vote here: Take Our Poll

That’s not a plea to set fire to my current place of residence, but the name of a bi-monthly presentation night hosted at a The Glee Club in Cardiff Bay.  The premise is simple. 10 presenters deliver a talk about absolutely anything. But there is, of course, a catch: each presentation lasts no more than 5 minutes and is build around 20 Powerpoint slides timed to last exactly 20 seconds. Until a colleague mentioned Ignite, I had been aware of neither the presentation style nor concept of events based around them. However, I was aware of - and have used - PechaKucha, of which this is a variation.  I still have no idea what impelled me, but I found myself checking out the website and, on an impulse, applied to be a speaker. I truly believed that I would not be invited to speak, so was delighted when I was. I abandoned my first presentation. ‘We’re not so Different, you and me’ looked at the many and varied similarities between Wales and Cornwall but my heart wasn’t in the subject so I couldn’t feel enthusiastic about the finished product. I spent many frustrating hours tweaking my slides, but only felt truly happy when I decided to change the subject completely and settled on a theme that I feel more comfortable with: Doctor Who, or more specifically, ‘How Doctor Who Saved me from Becoming an Evil Overlord’. Having delivered dozens of presentations and addresses over the years I was surprised at how nervous I was. It’s easy to espouse the benefits of student analytics and QR codes to your peers and nerves have never been an issue for me. I enjoy speaking publicly (but, oddly, clam up in public when around anyone I don’t know) and a larger audience doesn’t intimidate me. This time though, I experienced a proper dose of stage fright, as you can see in my very nervy performance: Though I wasn’t terrible, I certainly couldn’t compete with most of the other presentations I saw that night. But that’s alright. It has made me look at my delivery from the ground up and there’s certainly some stuff to I need to work on (pace, stance, language use and hair style being just a few). And I’ll tell you what: in a year I am going to ask if I can present at a future Ignite event, and if they let me I am going to be a whole lot better.

NOTE: this post was written in August 2014, but has been languishing, unseen, in my ‘Drafts’ folder since then.  As a result, it’s probably very out of date by now - technology years are like dog years - but it may still have some merit! In part 2 of my ocassional ‘Tools Roundup’ serties,  I’m going to look at a couple of tools that teachers can use to make their own online learning resources / lessons / activities.  As with part one of this series, these tools need to hit certain criteria in order to be considered: They are free to use (or have a free basic account) They are easy to use - so if you only have enthusiasm but no IT skills, you can use them without throwing your laptop out of the window in frustration. Here at Cardiff, as with many educational institutions in the UK, the free online resource-authoring tool of choice is Xerte, and there is nothing wrong with that.  Indeed, I have been using Xerte on and off for several years now, and it’s pretty good (plus objects can be published in a variety of formats, making them playable on any device, be it a computer, tablet or smartphone).  However, it can look a bit intimidating to those who have enthusiasm, but not much in the way of experience, confidence or time.  This is why I’m looking at these alternatives, the first of which is: Tool #1: TED Ed This is a very quick and easy way to produce a stylish, interactive online lesson or resource.  Simply pick a film on TED Talk or YouTube to centre your online lesson around, copy the film’s link and a framework for constructing a lesson is provided. Adds your own text, questions and discussion headings, press a button, generate a link and you’re done.  This does mean you are tied to whatever happens to be on TED or YouTube (so it may well be that there is nothing there that quite ‘fits’), and although I do like TED…and I know that this may not go down too well with some fans…I do find it all a bit evangelical and smug sometimes. Sorry. I have made a very quick and dirty lesson about Genetics (and called it part one of three. I like to set myself unobtainable goals by thinking I’ll have time to make parts 2 and 3, when really, all I want to do in my spare time at the moment is ride my bike and eat ice cream).  In this instance I have chosen to make my lesson public: though when you do sign up for a free TED Ed account, can make a lesson and you can choose to keep it private, so only those who you choose to share a link with can access it.  Here’s Genetics Part 1: Tool#2: Versal This tool is very new, so still in Beta stage, and provides users with a very clean and simple interface based around dragging and dropping customisable gasgets (such as text areas, quizzes, surveys, videos and Prezi presentations) on-screen, then adding content via a very basic WYSIWYG editor. This makes for a very logical and visually engaging experience - you start, effectively, with a blank canvas then build your content using these gadgets as digital ‘Lego’ blocks. Content can then be published and made avaialble as a URL or embedded into a VLE or blog.  Paid membership as a single user or an institution also gives the user the ability to publish content as SCORMs Versal have added a really nifty collabroation feature that allows users to work together to create courses and lessons. I’ve not tried this yet, so don’t know if this happens synchronously or whether only one user can contribute at a time, but I’ll be checking this out later. I mentioned a few of the gadgets avaialble to users a little earlier, and will admit that in the short course I’ve made while learning how Versal works, I have stuck to the very basics: text, video, multiple choice quiz and survey.  There are many, many more examples of gadgets such as interactive diagrams and maps, an anatomy gadget (which I am going to have to look at, as it could be especially useful in my line of work), and several that do look a little tricky to figure out… Here’s that short course I mentioned.  Surprisingly, it’s called Doctor Who 101… Oh - bear in mind that you need to set up an account to view the course. Tool#3: Office Mix Another tool still in its Beta stage, Office Mix is a free bolt-on for Microsoft PowerPoint.  Download it here and, once installed, you will find your copy of PowerPoint now includes a shiny new ‘MIX’ tab.  You can now add screen recordings, voiceovers, videos, polls, true and false / multiple choice / free response questions and a whole ranfege of nifty things.  student analytics can be recorded, presentations published as SCORM packages and the finished content can be accesseds on any device, be it a Windows-based laptop or a smartphone running iOS. This is ideal if you are already familiar with PowerPoint (and as it’s ubiquitous, there’s every chance that you are) but not so familiar with the software used to build online resources.  It’s free, it’s very easy to use…but it is only available to those who use Windows-based machines, so if you’re running Office for Mac on your MacBook, you won’t be able to download or use Office Mix.  With Office 2016 for Mac coming out at the end of the year, I can only hope that this issue is fixed.

Working as a Learning Technologist (LT) means that it can be hard to feel a true sense of identity. Rather than sitting squarely in one camp - be it academic or professional support - the LT often has a foot in each tent flap. As far as my particular role (Learning Technology Manager) goes, I am aligned to the professional support framework, so I am a member of several administration-themed committees and working parties along with colleagues from our student data, marketing, admissions and assessment teams. I do spend some of my working week carrying out various administrative tasks including but not limited to enrolling staff on our LMS, checking student alignment to modules, setting up rubrics in Turnitin and copying content from one area of Blackboard to another. However, I spend more of my time talking to academic staff about where to embed technology into their curricula, their modules and their individual sessions. I discuss with them the pedagogy of online and blended learning, the best methods to use to enhance learning, to improve students’ critical thinking skills and to allow students to engage reflectively on course content. I show academic staff how summative and formative assessment can be carried out with real accuracy and validity using digital enhancement and how web apps and smartphones can make a session more innovative and interactive. I develop online resources and modules for national and overseas students that nod to a variety of learning theories and engage users via a multi-sensory, multi-media, truly two-way experience. I also show academics how to best use a toolkit of technology-based artefacts to enhance teaching and learning and I explain why this toolkit is just so bloody valuable.  And if there is time, I spend the rest of my working week reading, researching and writing around the subject of education and technology. I started reading The Really Useful #EdTechBook by David Hopkins on the plane back from *INTED2015 last week, and was struck how different institutions perceive the role of Learning Technologist in very different ways. This, I assume, has a lot to do with the fact that it’s very hard to categorise or pigeon hole what a LT is. ‘In reality‘, states Peter Reed, one of the contributors to Hopkins’ book: ‘the Learning Technologist is a complex professional (and academic) role, and its variations and derivatives have increased over the years.’  However, Oliver suggests the practices of Learning Technologists are ‘little understood, even within their own community.‘ (Oliver, 2010) Reed expands upon his original statement: ‘ Think of the Learning Technologist as the middle person in the complex relationship between learning and teaching and technology.  Typically, the role involves a good appreciation of both elements.  Critically though, a thorough understanding of learning and teaching precludes an understanding of technology.  This is imperative, as we must first identify the challenges, within and of, pedagogy, before applying theory to practice.  If we don’t understand these core aspects of what it is to learn, or indeed teach, how can we possibly advise on how technology might be an influencing and enhancing intervention?  The understanding of technology and its place in education, for me at least, will always come second.  Thus the role of the Learning Technologist sits comfortably alongside academic staff within curriculum development initiatives with a particular focus on applying theory to practice.’ So there seems to be a growing consensus of opinion that the role of the LT is firmly entrenched in the academic side of institutional life.  This then highlights an issue that needs to be unknotted.  If Learning Technologists are working with academic staff to shape their teaching practice (and don’t forget, we have the word ‘Learning’ in our title), then perhaps we should be aligned to the academic side of our institutions’ lives?  That way we can help to shape teaching and learning with technology at grass roots level. Here’s one final quote to finish off: ‘Learning Technology teams are typically considered a professional service - some institutions, (which Selwyn suggests is derogatory) consider them non-academic, non-Faculty or ‘support’ staff (Selwyn, 2014, p56), but the very placement of the team can have consequences for the role and how they are seen by academic staff.’ References: Oliver, M (2002), What do Learning Technologists Do? Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 39(4), pp. 245-252.  Available at http://eprints.ioe.ac.uk/3083/1/Oliver2002What245.pdf, date accessed: 18/03/2015 Reed, P (2015) The Structure and Roles of Learning Technologists within Higher Education Institutions: The Really Useful #EdTechBook, published by author under Creative Commons Licence Selwyn, N (2014) Digital Technology and the Contemporary University: Degrees of Digitalization, Routledge *INTED2015 post-conference blog post to follow. Honest!

Every evening, at 6.30 I settle down to watch the local news, and (just about) every day, without fail, the lead story involves failings within the Welsh NHS. It’s disheartening, and is starting to feel like propaganda: designed to make the populace hate the NHS to the point where we will agree to a fully  privatised health system. That or I’m paranoid and need to lay off the George Orwell novels and stop listening to Russell Brand. Anyway, here’s what I had to say: Dear Sir / Madam I just don’t get it. I moved here almost 3 years ago from my native Cornwall having fallen in love with Wales, and now work at UHW, Cardiff. Not for the NHS, but Cardiff University. So I may not be a medic (I’m actually an elearning designer for health care students. But that’s neither here nor there), but I do see hospital life up close every day. Ah, the NHS. Now there’s something you should be proud of. Your service here (despite what David Cameron may say) is fantastic. Your doctors and nurses are awesome. You have free prescriptions. GPs and receptionists alike are kind, patient and caring. And you invented it all. The Welsh are awesome. So why are you so intent on damning it every single day? It started off as a bit of a joke in our house: we turn on the local television news at 6.30 and have a bet that the leading story will be about failings in the NHS. Inevitably, I win. Funny (and lucrative at 50p per bet) at first…but now it is making me pretty fed up. And my partner (who is Welsh) is starting to find it all a bit upsetting too. The NHS makes mistakes. Though it’s so underfunded, understaffed, over-managed and overlooked, and staff on the frontline so exhausted and demoralised, it’s a wonder it doesn’t make more. What it needs is funding, but just as importantly, it needs support. And to have the same nation who came up with the concept of a National Health Service savage their own system every evening (and, in turn, planting the seeds and then fanning the flames of mistrust and anger in your audience)-it’s like me going back home to Cornwall and telling everyone that pasties are evil. Flippancy aside, please would you consider turning down the relentless criticism? The NHS is having a terrible time across the UK as it is! I’m not expecting to receive a reply, and I’m not the type to write letters of complaint - but bloody hell, I feel better for having had a rant!

It’s been a busy few months with a pretty full social calendar, a dissertation to finish before the end of September, and a landslide of work-based projects, all of which have conspired against me to stop my blogging. And, to be brutally honest, despite the aforementioned social life outside of work, I’ve been feeling listless, unenthusiastic and devoid of mojo for a couple of months.  And, it goes without saying that when you feel as if all the pleasure you once had for all things learning technology-esque have buggered off, it’s pretty much impossible to think of anything to blog about. However, an office move, a couple of work-based quick wins, an invitation to sit on the advisory board for an international conference and a couple of speaking engagements have all pulled me out of my temporary rut.  The icing on my ‘happy cake’ was provided at a Jisc event yesterday when a delegate approached me to say how much they enjoyed reading my blog nposts. Well, clearly, I have a public to entertain!  Which is why I was rather pleased when, whilst floundering in the bath last night I had an idea for a post that captured my interest.  So here it is. At yesterday’s event, one or two common themes cropped up across the day.  One of these was the notion that the digital native did not exist.  As some of you may know, I hate pigeon-holing, and am frustrated at the notion that ‘anyone under 25 is a digital wizard, and anyone over 30 is a digital dinosaur.’  You may as well say that anyone with a shoe size larger than 8 will only eat pepperoni pizza while those with smaller feet will always stick to spaghetti. Nonsense. Yet it appears that putting every aspect of one’s behaviour, personality, abilities and preferences into clearly labelled boxes is here to stay, so I’ll add my two penneth and posit that people of my age (I’m 45) are probably at the BEST age to understand technology and to ‘get’ the concept of digital literacy. And that’s because we know when to use if to enhance what we are doing  and when to stick to ‘old school’, non-techy methods. And that’s p[robably got something to do with the fact that we were there at the start. When I was 7 I played my first ever video game.  It was 1977, it was Space Invaders, and yes, I was very lucky because my parents were publicans who were fortunate enough to have one of the very first arcade gaming machines in the country in their pub. I remember being fascinated and terrified in equal parts - after opening the doors of the pub for the evening I was happy to watch my dad zapping that curtain of crab-like, pixelated blobs moving down the screen, terrified that a customer might come in before he lost his three lives and the joystick would be passed over to me to finish his turn.  (Before being sent upstairs - not  good for business to have a 7 year old running around the public bar demanding ‘gimm and tommics’ at 6.00 in the evening). Soon it was the 1980s and the first rudimentary home computers were making their mark. I remember getting a scorchingly average grade in my CSE Computer Studies exam in 1986. Thing is, as much as I liked trying to programme in BASIC, I was entranced more with the Commodore 16 my parents had bought my brother and I for Christmas in 1986 and had become obsessed with playing Mercenary and those text-based ‘choose your own adventure stories’, so had never really practiced coding.  But with a Commodore at home and a suite of BBC B models at school, I can say that I was there, right at the start of the digital revolution.  We had a top loading video recorder at home too.  And a microwave. Ha!  Who are the digital natives NOW then? Thing is, because I was there when technology started to become mainstream but before it became an established part of daily life, I still have a heap of non-digital skills that I use regularly.  Note taking, when done with a pen and paper, is much more meaningful than simply taking a photo of notes on a whiteboard, or recording a lecture to listen to or watch again later.  That act of putting pen to paper - of having to think about forming the correct shapes in the correct order - commits the word to your brain in a way typing never will. And books!  Yes, those proper, smelly books, with their cracked and bent spines standing proudly on shelves - nothing can beat that (other than wandering into Waterstones and browsing for an hour). And yet it feels incredibly liberating to go on holiday armed with 16 books on a Kindle that weighs less than a bag of ‘Monster Munch’. I was there when the Internet started to become popular, so was able to navigate it while it was still constructed of 16 pages. On the way, I learned about how I projected myself online, and how best to manage my growing digital identities (professional / social).  I did this just in time for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to start making their mark. I know instinctively when technology will make a difference and, vitally, where it doesn’t. I have learned as the Internet has grown how to be secure. My parents did not post photos of my achievements all over Facebook, so my childhood was very secure and totally private. I played outside, developed social skills by talking to my friends and see the value of disconnecting and living as I did pre 1995, with no telephone, and no tethering to the digital. Indeed, once a year I purposely stick all my gadgets in a cupboard and take a tent to the middle of nowhere so that I can have one of those ‘digital detoxes’ that seem to be trendy amongst Guardian readers. I had a Walkman when I was a teenager and a Discman in my 20s so getting an iPod in my 30s felt like normal progression rather than something new. Developments in technology don’t scare or overwhelm me, but neither am I on the eternal hunt for an upgrade to my smartphone or 1,000 more Facebook friends. So today I will copy and paste this document from my OneDrive to my blog site,  I will have a quick blast on Witcher III on my PS4 when I get home, check Facebook on my iPad after dinner and go to bed with a cup of tea and a book. Made of paper. With smells.

This spring I have sent Ji Guo to Chengdu to collaborate with the iPad classroom in a first grade.His report seems to indicate that teachers are in the replacement and augmentation phases of technology integration. They very ably use iPad linked to projectors as agile white board applications for sharing content (through projection) and presenting.At the same time we are seeing a few creation apps used to create videos that are then shared with peers. This is a huge development for all partners in the project. What we are having a harder time is having student discussions that include critical feedback. That said they are only first graders and they are busy creating video, writing, and sharing.What is clearly emerging is that beyond the affordances of the specific technology, there is an overarching theme. Technology seems to create a non-trivial opportunity to transform instruction. This transformation is not just about technology integration (although it is also about that), it is about student centered, differentiated practices that focus on engagement, participation and creation. The question that still remains is what impact it will have on more traditional measures of achievement.

Working in China exposes the cultural differences AND the similarities of concerns. Despite all the concerns and challenges our project just won first prize in a National competition for Technology Integrated classroom. This is a great boost to our work and I am excited to continue.I think that in the following excerpt from Chinese media in Chengdu you can see what concerns the Chinese public and how my comments are interpreted.WCC: With the introduction of technology into traditional teaching, whiteboard, book bag, IPAD all applied to the classroom, how do you see the development proceeding? 　　Dr. Guy Trainin: Today's kids are exposed to smart phones, computers every day. Their parents and teachers are still from the 20th century. Without technology the teacher, the school can not meet the needs of 21st century child's development. So the idea of how we can use technology to help teachers to teach  21st century kids. 　　WCC: Chinese schools require the exam, how will students do on traditional exams? Do you have parental support? 　　Dr. Guy Trainin: In our classroom (with Du Yu as teacher) students have mastered more words, electronic production than other classrooms, their overall quality has improved significantly. Support from parents is not difficult to imagine, as long as parents to see the students really active and growing, parents will be supportive. 　　Today, young parents are more willing to accept new ways of education. If schools do nothing to change the direction, either to promote any new technology or method, students will not be ready to learn and work in the 21st century. Technology integration with our project TechEDGE has been practiced for several years in the United States, transfer to other countries with different national and cultural backgrounds, ideas differences, makes us need to find a new path to our ultimate goal and effect. Link to original story.