Students using the Learning Space now have additional access to essential course information. This area is personal to each student, providing a welcome message, personal tutor details and important course documents. It is a minor change that adds a second tab on the front page of the Learning Space. It allows us to provide consistent, useful information up front to students.  Please get in touch if you have any feedback or questions regarding this update. 

Though I would advocate face to face meeting in physical space to help form supportive Communities Of Practice (Lave & Wenger), I’ve been thinking about how these communities can easily move in and out of online/virtual space and that through development of technology there seems to be less and less distinction between the two. I communicate with colleagues across the globe in the same virtual space as I do with the person on the opposite desk and I use similar tools in personal and professional space. On the back of these thoughts, I thought I would post up a few emerging platforms that facilitate continuing the discussion and would be appropriate tools to apply to the SAMR model of technology adoption in learning and teaching. Known/Idkno - The Blog Known’s strength lies in simplicity. Much like Tumblr, it allows a few types of post and a mixture of the short and medium blog format, which is why i’m adopting it to use for my research journal. It also allows you to roll out your own social network if you have some server space and allows you to comment inline on posts, which adds a nice social element to the content. Medium - The Curator Medium Everyone’s stories and ideas Medium comes from the Twitter stable and it’s fastly becoming the go to source of evolved ideas that might have started in 140 characters. A bit like the written version of a TED talk, Medium promotes the sharing of ideas and encourages responses from readers in the form of inline comments or their own stories. Slack - The Team Communication Tool Within teams, people will have different preferences about which tools they like to use for particular communications, this may be based on how they choose to communicate outside the work environment. Slack provides an easy way to integrate many communication tools such as Skype/Hangouts/Twitter in one interface so that colleagues can choose to connect in the way that is most familiar or convenient to them. Slack is currently taking enterprise communications by storm and ET are working with courses at Falmouth to look at how this tool may enable communication outside of the physical classroom. Sublevel - The micro blog Sublevel is a great example of browser led design, so doesn’t come packaged as an app for Android/IOS but works responsively across platforms in any modern browser. It makes use of web standards and is reminiscent of Twitter early on, with the added advantages of inline commenting and no character limit. Despite having no character limitations, like most modern messaging apps it feels conversation like, so you end up self-limiting posts. The community isn’t huge yet, but if you are interested in exploring it more, converse with me http://sublevel.net/the_markness/

The metaphorical truck of Educational Technology careered into Falmouth University’s, Exchange Building today; with Damien, Mark and Oliver in the front seat presenting staff with tea, cakes, festive cheer and the opportunity to find out more about the state of the art within Educational Technology and what lies ahead.  Some really interesting and engaging discussions arose around collaboration, social media, the Internet of Things, video instruction, this years Horizon Report and some of the Projects that the team have been involved in over the past year. We dug out the Apple TV and discussed new ways that Apple supports presentation in the teaching environment and dotted about some post-it notes to find out how staff are making use of technology and what get’s in the way of the day to day.   We also took the opportunity to gauge opinion on the formation of a discussion group to share some of the apps we use on our phones and tablets and it’s an overall positive response, so watch this space for an announcement in the new year as to where and when!  Thanks to all who took the time to attend and we look forward to working with you on some of the exciting projects that come out of these events.  

  This post was inspired by, and based on TEDxCharleston talk by Andrew Roskill: http://youtu.be/J198u5HK0pY entitled Libraries Bridging the Digital Divide.  This talk inspired me to think about content curation, information literacy, research skills, and all of the elegant, engaging, and easy ways we can keep our school libraries relevant in the 21st century! If our school libraries […]

CC BY-NC-SA flickr photo shared by Vince_Lamb So in the last 24 hours the media have gone pretty big with the story that Facebook have conducted a psychological experiment on 700,000 users. Cue outrage and calls for regulation! I think this post demonstrates I'm somewhat on the fence. It's dodgy, but there's a need for this type of research. Read on...I would hope the Universities leading this research (University of California & Cornell University) considered the impacts and ethical dilemmas associated. We don't know if ethics approval was sought mind, and the paper's statement about informed consent relates to the ability of researchers to see the posts from users:"As such, it was consistent with Facebook's Data Use Policy, to which all users agree prior to creating an account on Facebook, constituting informed consent for this research."It may also fit with Facebook's Date Use Policy in that they can use information "as part of our efforts to keep Facebook products, services and integrations safe and secure".On a broader scale, altering what we see has been happening since the dawn of advertising. For years companies have been throwing beautiful women and so-called desired lifestyles into their adverts to sell a dream, not just a product. We have been manipulated for generations, so why all the hullabaloo over this? Well...On a very basic ethical level, participation wasn't voluntary, it was enforced, and as a result people's state of mind may have been manipulated, in my view, without consent. I realise we give Facebook permission to edit their own software however they see fit, and there was clear dissatisfaction when they introduced the algorithms to manipulate the news feed some time ago. But deliberately tampering with emotions is dicey.Having said that, I think it would be highly unlikely that if somebody on my news feed was making negative posts then I would somehow become clinically depressed. However, the dodgy territory relates more to those people who do suffer depression - something not to be underestimated - and the consequential impact negativity has on those people.Facebook secretly experiments on users to try make them sad. What could go wrong? pic.twitter.com/1DUoetnr9i— Lauren Weinstein (@laurenweinstein) June 29, 2014Despite the sensitive nature, I do think this type of research is valid and worthwhile - the more we know about matters of public health, the better. Of course, this study could have been handled better, because I believe other people will value this type of investigation and would have participated voluntarily. What really matters now it's been done, is how this knowledge is used. It could be a bit dystopian like Orwell's '1984', or will Facebook deliberately filter out negative posts to reduce the likelihood of negative 'social contagion'?There are many implications here, but in reality it's probably unethical to filter what we see at all - I've made the decision to 'friend' somebody on Facebook, and if they're having a hard time and post something deemed as 'negative' (according to the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software), perhaps I would want to know about it and if possible, help. It's happened before. If on the other hand, and I'm sure we've all seen them, people constantly moan about everything despite things not actually being all that bad, we can always 'unfriend' them. We've all done that as well.So I'm 50/50 on this. Without doubt there is dodgy ethics in this study, but there is a public interest and knowledge that could not have been gleaned without such evidence-based enquiry. I'd be keen to hear what you think! Will there be a mass exodus of Facebook users, or will they have a moan and continue to use the site? If we now know that our posts may impact on how other people feel, will we be more likely to make more positive posts than negative?Feel free to follow through to the original report from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.Peter@ReedyreedlesThe Reed Diaries by Peter Reed is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

This update sees the introduction of a resource list block within Learning Space, the block provides links to the resources which have been recommended to assist study in each module and can be found on the right of a module page.  A recent activity button has also been introduced to the right of each module page which allows all to see what recent changes have taken place within a module.  Additionally we’ve made some adjustments with the mobile version of Learning Space which will improve navigation using the side menu. 

The 6th Annual Future of Technology in Education Conference, hosted at University of London provided  the ET team with an opportunity to connect with other learning and IT professionals working in Higher Education. Themes centred around Women In Technology, Co-Creation in Learning, Collaboration between ET and IT and Digital Learners. After registration and welcome, Samantha Swift, Product Manager, McAfee Labs took to the stage to talk about promoting role models to bridge the gender gap between women and men in technology leadership. She noted that the public are more aware of key male figures in technology than they are of female leaders. This may be in part due to our seemingly embedded patriarchal society in the west and it seems like it has taken until now to identify that something needs to change in society to enable the gender gap in leadership to be narrowed. The #FOTE14 hashtag for the event was quickly trending on Twitter and colleagues in Educational Technology noted that there were an increasing amount of women in leadership roles within ET. Perhaps this is due to it being an emergent field with less gender predispositions/stereotypes.   In her speech Sarah highlighted that issues of this kind tend to be pointed at in a reflective manner; if we are serious about changing the roles women play in technology then we should be talking about the future and what needs to be done. Personally I felt that the panel after the session drifted into the kind of discussion Sarah was trying to avoid, with panelists reliving past examples where women weren’t as accepted in technology. While these anecdotes were interesting and reflective they didn’t really address or suggest how in the future we can alleviate current issues experienced by women in technology.   The Women in Technology panel that followed, identified some interesting projects such as WIDGIT (Women in Digital and IT) a female technology forum set up in Liverpool, but didn’t really conclude whether there was a problem with the lack of women in tech roles and if so how we might address this.   Coffee break allowed us to catch up with colleagues from UCL and talk about how our teams operate, our responsibilities and relationships with staff. Learning Spaces and staff engagement were topics of conversation   The second half of the morning consisted of three short presentations around the future of technology in education. The first from Dave Coplin of Microsoft was billed as not being a sales pitch, but effectively was a list of Microsoft acquisitions and their developments. We played Microsoft bingo for a few minutes and the talk culminated in the latest MS swoop, "Minecraft" which offers new opportunities for constructing learning online. A list of alternatives can be found here.   Bethany Koby, founder of tech start up Technology Will Save Us was up next. Aptly titled ‘Will Technology Save Us?’ Bethany’s presentation showcased some of the work her company was undertaking, which included DIY Technology kits for children. The kinesthetic nature of this hands on approach really makes technology accessible for younger people; each kit encourages exploration and play to construct gadgets and truly involves students in the process of learning. During the presentation Bethany was optimistic about the future of education and the part that children play in shaping the digital economy. This session was the only one of the day which featured physical technologies, a refreshing change from the abundance of apps and websites showcased as part of FOTE. Working in an area where creative physical technologies are abundant it was surprising that more initiatives of this kind were not featured as part of FOTE.   Miles Metcalfe talked amongst multiple expletives of Co-Creating the Future and cargo cult IT solutionism. He suggested that one-sized solutions won’t fix problems with communication and that the future of technology lies in the hands of the people that create and produce not those that consume and that we need to work across sectors to facilitate this.   The afternoons speakers featured James Clay and Steve Wheeler. James is the Group Director of Learning Technologies at Activate Learning. His presentation was titled "You underestimate the power of the dark side" and started with an homage to Star Wars which nicely illustrated frustrations commonly felt when working with technology. James continued his presentation with reference to good and evil, dark and light and while I related to many of the situations he described, I did disagree with some of the attributes he described of Learning Technologists. While we can be fans of the shiny, an ability to stay focused is something I personally strive to keep.  James also talked of ignorance amongst the dark and the light in understanding the constraints within enterprise IT and the flexibility and forward thinking required in ET. Arguably is it the comprehension of these tired IT processes that prevent these areas working more closely together and driving positive change within education. Nevertheless, we could all agree that collaborative practices and clear communication are essential when working across departments. "Digital Learning Futures: Mind the Gap!" exclaimed Steve Wheeler in our last talk of the day. Steve talked of understanding learner needs and designing learning content to match. The talk suggested that institutional choice of technology might not facilitate learner needs and that students should be empowered to inform those choices. A more comprehensive write up can be found here.  

It’s that time of year again when the Ed Tech team are optimistically looking forward for some some gadgets to magically appear in their stockings this christmas. We’re hoping we’ve made the good list and our festive wishes will be granted, here is what’s topping our lists… Damien would like a new Internal Solid State Drive to improve the speed of his macbook pro, and what better item to accompany this than an automatic brewing machine. Topping Mark’s list is a wireless speaker, either a JAMBOX or a Ultimate Ears would do nicely. Also on the list is a recently funded Kickstarter project: Thingsee One is sensor packed smart developer device, however we’re still not sure 100% what it does!  Amy’s had her eyes on a KitchenAid mixer for a while, a nice brightly coloured one would be fab or failing that a Pure Evoke DAB radio would be much appreciated.   Steph would like a Chromecast so she can seamless stream from her devices onto her TV, perfect for chilling out on the sofa at Xmas.  Oliver’s been on the look out for a Korg MS20 Synthesizer kit this musical equivalent of Meccano allows you to build you own classic synthesiser from scratch. Definitely something to keep you busy come boxing day.  So all in all Santa a varied selection which would keep the team very happy! We hope staff and students have a great festive season, Merry Xmas, Happy New Year and we’ll see you in January!

Season’s greetings one and all. As the Ed. tech team finish the washing up and recycle the wrapping paper (providing we’ve all been good this year), we take a little time out to reflect upon last year and predict what’s on the way for Educational Technology in 2015. In 2014, we predicted technology would enable collaborative activity in the learning environment, that mobile device usage would increase as access to resources became easier and  that data gathering and social media management would be key considerations for the University. We think we can be fairly confident that our crystal ball of learning technology is in good working order. Our projects and general support activity over 2014 would attest to our predictions and have seen these themes cropping up in conversation and strategy over the year. For 2015, we’re backing up our crystal ball gazing with some wider conversation and looking at what the New Media Consortium consider key trends within Ed. Tech. for Higher Education over the next few years. As with the Christmas Turkey/Vegetarian Option, we’ve taken our choice cuts and linked to a few places online, where the thinking and the talking is already happening. Fast Trends: Driving Ed Tech adoption in Higher Ed for the next one to two years The Evolution of Online LearningSuch a huge topic that we can’t really do it justice in one article. But increasing access to technology, huge investment into Ed Tech Startups and study into fields such as game mechanics in learning are changing the way in which we access learning material. In HE, conversation around the role and nature of the traditional, centralised Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) model has been bubbling away for a while (see this panel from ALT in 2009), but surfaced again this year in Audrey Watter’s talk, "Beyond the VLE" and Sheilla MacNeill who talks about first hand experience of living with the VLE dictator in HE. Higher Education presents all sorts of constraints in terms of management of data and interconnectivity between systems, so the VLE may be here to stay for a while longer, but maybe we start to think about it more as a starting point, curating learning material and signposting and guiding learners to and through it. Rethinking Learning SpacesTechnological development is also enabling us to rethink the physical as well as the online learning environment. Browser based applications like Google Apps (and their offline work mode) and Adobe’s experimentation in this direction mean that learners aren’t tied to desktops in dingy locations or relying on sketchy wi-fi provision. Google talk of Democratizing IT administration, in that a lot of the enterprise wide management of IT could be devolved to the learning and teaching community. This might allow for changes in space usage through things like DIY lecture capture using campus Hangouts On Air/Youtube. In terms of physical space, in her post on this year’s Ed Media Conference Amy Sampson talks about creative learning space in Finnish education and the ET team will be connecting with Cornish villages in pubs, village halls through the University of The Village Project. Mid-Range Trends: Driving Ed Tech adoption in Higher Ed for the next three to five years Increasing Focus on Open Educational ResourcesAccessible and freely available resources to aid learning, teaching and research . OER puts the web to work in the way that it was intended, encouraging redistribution and redevelopment/remixing of content. Whilst adoption hasn’t hit the mainstream, OER is becoming central to policy and strategy within education, as the Open/OER movement in Scotland and Wales testifies. In England, Leicester City Council are promoting OER through a range of resources and guides for schools Long-Range Trends: Driving Ed Tech adoption in Higher Ed for five or more years Agile Approaches to ChangeChange is the only constant, as someone might have said. HE is in a continuous state of flux as it responds to funding changes and external pressures from other educational providers and non-traditional models of learning. Process and procedure is often dogged, outmoded and not easily adaptable to change, but agile methodologies adopted from software development allow for iterative project development that can respond to the VUCA world. Falmouth’s Student Course Information Page project facilitated an agile response to a Student Experience audit and added a layer to the VLE that pulls in relevant course data from the various business systems at the University, avoiding document duplication in the Learning Environment. Solvable Challenges: Those which we both understand and know how to solve   Adequately Defining and Supporting Digital LiteracyOne of the key functions of the Ed.Tech team is to nurture and develop literacies in technology; the Why, When, Where of technology use in the learning environment. De Montfort University and Leicester City Council’s partnership in DigiLit Leicester presents an excellent framework and reference of for educators in understanding how we support these new literacies and Mozilla encourages an experiential approach in learning to Teach The Web. These are just a few examples of Educational Technology developments that are responding to current and upcoming trends, but there is some fantastic work being done across the board in HE. 2015’s Horizon report will arrive in the early new year and previous editions are available online for a little light reading over the festive period.

The Association of Learning Technology held their first annual Winter conference last month at the University of Edinburgh. The event focused on Creative CPD in Learning Technology, an area we’re passionate about in our team. Professional development can incorporate creative approaches so it was great to see ALT hold an event around this subject. ALT’s peer-based accreditation scheme CMALT was featured as one such approach to aid professional development. eLearning consultant David Hopkins has recently completed the CMALT qualification and gave a talk at the conference along with staff from UCL and Reading College.  Talks were streamed on the day and can be accessed using the links below.  CPD Rebooted - Creative Professional Development in Learning Technology AM CPD Rebooted - Creative Professional Development in Learning Technology PM