[Post by Arden Rose, Account Manager at GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc.] An article published in the Winter edition of Training Industry Magazine dispels some neuromyths or "false information that leads to faulty assumptions and incorrect theories." Written by Jeremy B. Teitlebaum of California Polytechnic State University, the article provides the truths revealed by recent research, including that human brains can’t really multitask. Read the rest beginning on page 16 in Training Industry Magazine’s Winter Edition Or visit Training Industry’s website: www.trainingindustry.com

Last Thursday saw Mark, Steph and myself don our finest and head out to the annual Staff Excellence Awards. We were fortunate enough to have been shortlisted for the Exceptional Contribution to the Student Experience award.  As a team we are really proud to be nominated for this award. Student experience is at the heart of what we do and so to be recognised in this area is a real achievement for us.  The event was a great opportunity to meet others at the University who had been nominated in additional categories such as Rising Star, Outstanding Contribution to Research and Innovation and Service Excellence.  With the DIME core team being nominated for the International Collaboration of the Year award it meant that Damien found himself in two categories on the night.  Each shortlisted entry was accompanied by a short video outlining the nominated team, individual or project. It was really great to hear so many testimonials from staff at the University passionate about the shortlisted entrants. Judging finished earlier on in the evening and Rosie Sellwood picked up the Exceptional Contribution to the Student Experience award. Well done Rosie! Congratulations also to the DIME Team (including ET’s Damien Hogan) for winning the International Collaboration of the Year Award. It was a great evening and one we hope is repeated year after year!   

Students are now added to their modules on Learning Space automatically. Information is being fed through from SITS (the student information system) to identify students’ modules and add them to their accounts; they will see them listed on the My Modules tab after they login.What this means:Students are reliably added to the modules on Learning Space and are no longer required to self-subscribe to see and engage with activities online. It also means that any communication through the modules on Learning Space will be delivered to them as long as they are fully enrolled through SITS.What this doesn’t mean:Students will still need to add Course Pages and Technical Resource areas to their accounts by self-subscribing to them.

There’s been quite a bit of change within the Educational Technology team over the last few months with the addition of some new staff and farewells to others. We’ve also moved to Falmouth Campus; we are now in the Interior Design building on the first floor.We have two new members of staff, Adel Gordon and Adam Grice. Adel is a Learning Technologist and is part of the core Falmouth team, and Adam has joined as a Learning Technologist for Exeter.Adel has moved from Northampton where she worked at the University, also as a Learning Technologist. She looked after the School of Science and Technology and worked closely with the teaching staff to design and enhance teaching with the use of technology. She has particular interests in technology for assessment, mobile, and learning systems integration. She has spent the last couple of weeks or so finding her way around Learning Space and contacting staff in the Schools that she will be the point of contact for at Falmouth. Those being: the School of Architecture, Design & Interiors; the School of Communication Design; the Fashion & Textiles Institute; The Games Academy, and the Business School. If you’d like to see a list of Adel’s research output so far have a look at her ResearchGate profile.Adam joins us from University of the Arts London where he worked as a specialist technician (learning and teaching) for learning technologies and as an associate lecturer (PGCHE) teaching design software for a number of access, BA and MA courses. His role focused on supporting students and staff across a range of technology enhanced learning and e learning functions championing blended learning approaches. During his time at UAL he has developed an online resource for technical services information and the Universities video channel and lecture capture platform Replay.arts.ac.uk.  As Steph Comley’s maternity cover Adam will be taking on her responsibilities for supporting Exeter courses based at the Falmouth campus. Contact etsupport@falmouth.ac.uk to get in touch with any of the EdTech team.

In this series of articles, the Educational Technology team will be providing an insight into existing practice using technology for learning and teaching at Falmouth University and also at projects being undertaken within the wider HE sector.Our previous articles have looked at Assessment, Feedback and Open Education.The term ‘Digital Literacy’ has origins which date back to the 1960s as Doug Belshsaw notes in What is ‘Digital Literacy’? and encompasses comprehension and understanding around use of technologies. Henry Jenkins describes it as the ability to effectively and critically navigate, evaluate and create information using a range of digital technologies. It requires one "to recognize and use that power, to manipulate and transform digital media, to distribute pervasively, and to easily adapt them to new forms". One of the best definitions in my opinion comes from Josie Fraser who describes it in terms of function and socio-cultural development: Digital Literacy = digital tool knowledge + critical thinking + social engagementFraser’s work with the  DigiLit Leicester project presents an excellent framework of reference for educators in understanding how we support these literacies. It has led to the local council driving forward use of OER and giving express permission to schools and colleges to make use of open materials in the physical and virtual classroom.From 2011-2013 Jisc ran a project around digital literacies, which built on a Digital Literacy framework developed by Beetham and Sharpe (2010) to describe 7 elements that combine to form our digital literacies (Fig.1). A further ongoing project looks at the digital capabilities our institutions need to scaffold the development of these literacies.Figure 1 - Seven elements of digital literacies from the JISC Digital Literacy project.Online, Mozilla continues to encourage people by using an experiential approach to learning, with Teach The Web and Code Club partners volunteering with community groups to teach coding to kids.In Finland, digital literacies are embedded in the core curriculum and the recent House of Lords Digital Skills report urges Universities to ensure the digital competency of their graduates so that they have the necessary skills to thrive in the future workplace. At Falmouth, the ET team organises a range of drop in events aimed at sharing practice, trying out new tools and discussing the ever evolving world of Educational Technology. Last year we ran a series of 10 workshops ranging in theme and included a mobile learning speed geek/picnic, where staff got to move around the room discussing ‘mobile first’ design approaches to learning and new apps and technologies in the mobile environment.We’re always up for doing more of this kind of stuff and talking about developing student literacies within taught courses, so get in touch if you have any thoughts/ideas around the subject.

Educational Technology were recently invited to host a session as part of the Lunch and Talk series. In this session we discussed current initiatives we are working on as well as a brief summary of the last academic year. We finished the session with a mapping activity. We wanted to get participants thinking about learning technology from different perspectives and using post-it’s asked them to make contributions to these areas. We included examples of the types of comments we’d like to see to give an idea. We asked all to map the following:  Experience - Your experiences of teaching and technology, within Falmouth and external to it. Courses you’ve attended, things you’ve seen implemented or discussed at conferences. Example: I’ve seen lists of tweets at HEA conference and I’d like to use it. TagboardExpectation - Your expectations on the students for the ways they should be using technology, i/e - assessment methods, resources accessed. Students expectations, what technologies do you feel they expect to be using at University. Example: Many of my students have mobiles, I’d like to help them utilise them. Digital Student project.CPD - What opportunities are out there for supporting use of learning technologies, what would you like to have made available for you.Example: I find it difficult to attend scheduled sessions, but I’d like to broaden my skill-set. Video resources/10 min CPD.We had a positive response to the session and would definitely suggest it as a method to gauge staff and student opinions. A selection of the responses include: Experience: "Need easier ways of sharing information on Learning Space (VLE) - e.g share button""Mixed…different courses use it (VLE) more or less effectively."Expectation: "An assumption that all students are tech savvy""That staff are current" "Face to face contact with academics and peers"CPD:"Windows 10 - students are arriving with laptops with this on""How to create interactive flowcharts"Taking these responses into account we can aim to ensure that staff have the resources and tools to meet expectation, experience and CPD demands. If you would like us to come and run a similar session with your course team, please get in touch. etsupport@falmouth.ac.uk  

Last week I attended a joint QAA / Jisc event at the University of Southampton about embedding digital literacies in higher education. It was a valuable event that offered plenty of opportunities to hear from learning and teaching experts, and network with colleagues from other UK HEIs.The QAA hosted the event and kicked it off with a short introduction to parts of the The Quality Code that relate to digital literacies. They asked some thought provoking questions about how organisations support and lead the way in the development of student and staff digital literacies. How are they assessed? Are teaching staff equipped enough in their knowledge and skills to be confident in their use of technology in their teaching. These are all questions that the Educational Technology team can help to answer. One of our main responsibilities and interests lay in researching good practice in these areas, and coming up with ways that Falmouth can tackle answering these questions. This event was part of that research; I heard case studies from Brighton, Southampton, Oxford Brookes and Trinity Laban about how they are promoting digital literacies at their institutions.Mark touched on the Jisc digital capabilities project in his Lens on… series post about digital literacies the other week, and I also heard from Helen Beetham at this event about Jisc’s work. Helen spoke about how, first of all, they are trying to move away from the term ‘literacies’ towards ‘capabilities’ and I like that they’re doing this. It is more representative of what is being achieved through building digital skills. The project is running 2014-2016.So far they have built a framework consisting of 6 elements that describe the skills needed by staff in a range of academic, administrative and professional roles. It is intended to provide a structure to help users understand what they’re aiming for, and the types of tools that can used or developed to support them. Digital Capability Framework, JiscThe case studies I then heard about helped to put the framework into context for me throughout the day. First of all, we heard from Fiona Handley about the University of Brighton’s impressive Digital Literacies Framework which was built as a response to an institutional goal relating to ‘digital transformation’ in 2012 and has continually evolved since. It has been developed for staff and students at Brighton to guide them through a series of items on which they can reflect; including research, communication and collaboration, administration and learning and teaching specific skills. It is included as part of their PGCHE programme.We then heard from Fiona Harvey from University of Southampton about the iChamps, or DigiChamps, project at Southampton. A network of multidisciplinary students from Undergraduates to Postgraduates who work with all staff, including academics at the University on initiatives relating to developing digital skills. They are guided and supported by a network of Student Champions who oversee how they work, and ensure academic rigour. Students can put themselves forward to become an iChamp, and staff can choose who they work with. iChamps build up a portfolio of evidence through their work with staff and can achieve digital badges to evidence their achievement through the iChamp scheme.Next up was George Roberts from Oxford Brookes who gave an enlightening overview of their approach to developing digital literacies. They have combined Digital and Information Literacy skills into the Brookes Taxonomy of Digital and Information Literacies. Within this taxonomy there are three digital and three information literacy skills; some of which are centred around being confident in navigating your way around technology, and your engagement in activities involving digital tools for reflection, recording learning and collaborating. And some of which are centred around building confidence in your ability to choose appropriate actions and strategies to obtain information, assessing if it is actually what you’re looking for, and applying and/or communicating it effectively.And last but not least Louise Jackson from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance gave us an overview of how the Arts focused institution has taken an effective approach to embedding digital literacies outside of the creative space, but maintained a more traditional approach within the studio. Dance students have been using blogs to reflect on their work and plan using post-its and transferring that to digital format. It sounds like it would be duplicating, but they find it effective. Louise described their approach as building trust through communities of practice with the students:"Embodied experience of writing is different to digital upload: this matters to dance students"Staff have been encouraged to develop their skills through the attainment of HEA fellowship and skills development is aligned to the UKPSF.There was a discussion session at the end of the day and we talked about the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). I don’t think anyone would disagree with me when I say that the introduction of the TEF will impact the expectations that students and anyone else that should have an opinion will be arriving with. So it’s time to start thinking about how that impacts on our own skills and how they can be developed and/or re-purposed to create excellent learning experiences for the students… amongst other things.Overall the day was a valuable learning experience, and it was great to see some old and new faces. I have come away from it with some ideas for Falmouth, so if you’re interested in getting involved in your own, your team’s or department’s development of digital skill/literacies/capabilities then do get in touch.

In this series of articles, the Educational Technology team will be providing an insight into existing practice using technology for learning and teaching at Falmouth University and also at projects being undertaken within the wider HE sector. Our previous articles have looked at the process of Feedback, Open Education, Assessment and Digital Literacy.The term ‘Blended Learning’ is interpreted in various ways depending on the practitioner that you are talking to. A good definition is that it is learning that takes advantage of the best of both physical and digital learning environments. As a result, open-ended activities take place which engage the learner and enables them to control their own learning in a directed setting, alongside face-to-face interaction with their tutors and peers, and structured activities which are focused and purposeful (Schmidt, 2007). There are a lot of pedagogic and instructional models and theories of learning that are adapted to describe teaching and learning processes and facilitate ‘blended learning’. Applying these into the process of designing learning in both digital and physical environments results in excellent learning experiences for your students.It isn’t always as simple as that though. There are many modes of learning when you consider mobile, social and personal, synchronous and asynchronous, online, face-to-face etc. Sometimes the student’s learning preference doesn’t co-exist harmoniously with the style of teaching; so formalising, or structuring the delivery of teaching and combining it with a flexible approach to learning gives the student the flexibility to learn in a way that is effective for them; but be guided by purposeful and meaningful learning activities.If your course/module is due for a re-design, or yet to be designed, then we would recommend that you talk to us about good practice that is already proved to be highly effective in the field.The Hybrid Learning Model developed by the University of Ulster combines events that take place during the learning cycle and suggests a clear approach to applying each event into practice. The model brings together 8 learning events model developed by LabSET, University of Liège (Verpoorten et al, 2006), and Sue Bennett from the University of Wollongong’s 30 verbs, to focus the mind on the human element of learning and teaching and the interactions between participants in the learning process. The CAIeRO process, used as an essential part of validation and periodic subject review at the University of Northampton, takes teaching teams through a set of six stages (listed below). The workshops are participant-centred, and are facilitated by Learning and Teaching experts.Blueprint: for the course or module - a revised and agreed spec.Storyboard: The storyboard incorporates any face-to-face and online components (synchronous and asynchronous), aligned to the learning outcomes and assessment.Prototyping: We design specific elements of the storyboard. Not content, but what learners are expected to do with it (activities and assessments).Reality checking: Students are invited to review the team’s work and feed back any changes.Review and adjust: We take those suggestions on board and modify things accordingly.Action Plan: Participants commit to specific actions by certain dates, which will be reviewed at the follow-up session.Institute of Learning and Teaching, University of Northampton, 2015Take a look through participants’ reflections on the CAIeRO process at Northampton on their LearnTech team blog.Embedding the Hybrid Learning Model into CAIeRO (mashed up with other teaching and learning models throughout the six stages) is a great way to make sure that those excellent learning experiences I mentioned above are created, and that they are delivered in a blended environment. So, essentially, Blended Learning is mixing two or more modes of learning together - like face-to-face sessions and an online lecture - and designing an activity that will help the student to take part in them, create meaningful pieces of learning that they can digest, and can reflect on to consolidate it all. The CAIeRO model’s early days actually started as the Carpe Diem model from University of Leicester (now called the 7Cs of Learning Design Workshop). CAIeRO has been adapted over a number of years, and successfully used in a variety of disciplines ranging from hands on sciences, health and education to fine art and performing arts (plus many more!). During the research for this post, I discovered that the original Carpe Diem model was used at Falmouth with MA Professional Writing back in 2008 as part of the original CHEETAH project with Leicester and 5 other UK HEIs.The Educational Technology team are here to help you with the design stage of course development, as well as implementing it into the Learning Space, or the most appropriate technology to facilitate it. Get in touch to have a chat about setting up a session for your course or module.ReferencesVerpoorten, D., Poumay, M., Leclercq, D. (2006), The 8 Learning Events Model: a Pedagogic Conceptual Tool Supporting Diversification of Learning Methods. Interactive Learning Environments [e-journal] 15(2). Available at: <http://hdl.handle.net/2268/10129> Schmidt, J.T. (2007), Preparing Students for Success in Blended Learning Environments: Future Oriented Motivation and Self-Regulation. Ph.D, LMU München: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences. Available at:  <https://edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de/6561> [Accessed 16/10/2015].

In this series of articles, the Educational Technology team will be providing an insight into existing practice using technology for learning and teaching at Falmouth University and also at projects being undertaken within the sector. The student experience is increasingly mediated through use of technology; timetabling systems, online learning, Student Information Systems, Customer Relationship Management software, mobile devices… all things that staff and students will need to engage with in one form or other to navigate their way through life at University. ‘Digital Wellbeing’ is concerned with exploring and improving these interactions in a personal and social context. Social media tools are incredibly useful and popular in teaching and learning, but are often built around a Culture of Participation; the more ‘likes’ you get the more influential you are. This in turn exacerbates the Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) - if you’re not connected then you’re not part of the crowd. Some technologies are designed to help us improve our wellbeing; running trackers, calorie counters, sleep timers all attempt to provide us with feedback based on quantifying our day to day activity, but do they in themselves enhance our wellbeing? Technology proliferation and a participation culture within the HE sector, can lead to increasing anxiety amongst students and staff, so there is an increasing need for the individual and the institution to recognise and makes steps to mitigate this. JISC/NUS’s Student Experience Benchmarking Tool can be a great conversation starter in this area; note where you are on the scale of First Steps to Outstanding and plan to improve. Some courses at Falmouth University are addressing this head on by encouraging group discussion around stress and anxiety; there are various signs up inviting people to meditation groups and the University promote both internal wellbeing services and external Talking Therapies like BE|ME. A recent #LTHEChat that explored Digital Wellbeing asked participants to reflect on technology that enhanced their wellbeing, many focused on social connectivity that isn’t restricted by place/time and the ability to share. In thinking about how technology detracted from this, answers centred around not being able to ‘switch off’, being ‘all over the place’ and a saturation of ‘info’ and ‘spam’ that could be considered digital noise. So how do we manage our digital wellbeing? Suggestions from the chat were to set time boundaries for checking social media, literally switch off devices and step outside the bubble of your own technology use. It is also important to encourage discussion and development of our digital capabilities and as JISC/NUS suggest, provide space for self-reflection. Falmouth’s Student Union have identified ‘Mental Health Support’ in their Top10 issues for 2015/16 and have also established a ’Green Living’ project and ‘Digital Detox Series’. These events focus on removing oneself from the day to day technology and engage in outdoor making and horticultural activities as a means to improve wellbeing. The series was organised by a recent graduate who I had the opportunity to ask about the concept of Digital Wellbeing. He talked about access to the internet, movies and online games as "another layer of insulation from the outside world, a further excuse to stay indoors." and "a constant stream of stimulation, rendering anything outside of a virtual world boring." He acknowledged the benefits of online learning and video/audio chats, but said that above all the means of technology to play music was one thing they couldn’t be without. I also talked to a member of academic staff, who saw the benefits of technology in making you feel connected and providing avenues of accessibility, which chimes with the #LTHEchat. She also mentioned the negative impacts that mobile technology can have on our physical health, such as carrying the items, using the items incorrectly and sharing workstations adding "Right now, my laptop is on my knee and I am looking down at the screen. That can lead to a form of whiplash but in slow motion - accreting over the years." As working online is such a part of our daily lives, we’re often using the internet as a distraction instead of taking time away from the screen. A common theme was that access to online stuff can "suck you in", so techniques that break tasks up such as Pomodoro can be useful. Our staff member has introduced "an early morning switch off policy - going for a walk/run instead…I feel better for it". They suggested that less or better use of email could aid wellbeing, but although this has been discussed over a number of years, it remains hard to implement. It’s fantastic to see this concern being raised at national and institutional level and the JISC/NUS tool leaves us with an important consideration regarding implementation: "Most of the ‘outstanding’ practices involve staff and students working in partnership. The partnership needs to be meaningful in order to work, which means that both groups must listen, recognise each others’ skills and resources, and be willing to compromise. "

Over one billion people, 15% of the world’s population, live with some form of disability. Removing barriers to their participation creates a better world for all. December 3rd, marks the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities and this year’s theme centres around inclusion. The Equality Act 2010 asks us to make reasonable adjustments for disbaled people. With this is in mind, the Educational Technology Team have put together a set of good practice principles that staff can factor into their Learning Space module design. Involve a diverse groups of learners in the design of your online module to provide feedback and advice and help you iterate. Provide multimedia alternatives to text; close captioned videos, audio and supportive visuals can break learning into chunks. Provide a contextual description for the files you upload. Your Learning Space is your voice guiding learners through the module. Test your content using some of the accessibility features of popular browsers and devices Chrome, Apple, Windows, Firefox, Android. Read More. JISC have a range of resources published around the areas of disability, accessibility and special educational needs We’d encourage you to pick one or two of these and act on them to recognise today’s international effort.