Making Sense of Video Analytics: Lessons Learned from Clickstream Interactions, Attitudes, and Learning Outcome in a Video-Assisted Course (Feb., 2015) Michail N. Giannakos, Konstantinos Chorianopoulos, and Nikos Chrisochoides Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway, Ionian University, Greece, Old Dominion University, USA Traditional lectures may no longer primarily serve the purpose of disseminating information, which... Read More ›

Eliademy is used worldwide by numerous academic institutions, like Oaklands College, the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Buenos Aires or the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Zaghreb. Within academic institutions, Eliademy is used as a … Continue reading →

The Skill Mastery Hyperdome - SLENZ Project - Foundation Studies Build, KowhaiAuthentic learning is a solution to some of the problemsthat arise in schools, workplaces and in society today.Isn’t it funny that at a time when training is being heaved out of the workplace by a change of organisational thinking, it must find in-roads to secondary schools where, purportedly, it is desperately needed?Last week, I attended the Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu All-School Forum 2010. This was an international occasion for Te Kura.Three Keynote speakers - Viv White from Australia, Elliot Washor from the United States and Stuart Middleton from New Zealand - gave their perspectives on ‘authentic learning’ in schools.Stuart could not attend the Forum. He gave a recorded presentation outlining how he saw the history of what has happened globally to education in the past 50 or so years, and how those changes are impacting on what is happening to the youth in society today.ROSLAClearly, the raising of the school leaving age, by several years, has brought about changes in how education is delivered. It has also altered how society looks on school-leavers who go about looking for jobs.A number of associated changes have accompanied all this.The origins and reasons for the changes are complex. But the situations for prospective employment of school-leavers are implicit. Over 40 years ago it was acceptable for kids to leave school without having any formal qualification. There were plenty of jobs for them. They were trained and educated on-the-job, and stories of their successes in life are numerous. Education through ‘the university of life’ was not an uncommon occurrence. As well, night classes became very popular. These provided a useful adjunct to the education of that group of learners.But the gradual societal changes, brought about through the raising of the school-leaving age and the programs introduced to schools to cope with these, meant that jobs for inexperienced and unqualified youths became less and less plentiful. What’s more, the general calibre of those jobs is now of a lowly nature and night classes are disappearing.Hands onToday there is a desperate need for kids who are likely to leave school early to be introduced to vocational possibilities during their remaining school years. It’s being recognised that preparation for the workplace in a hands-on manner and while kids are still attending school, is an effective way to accomplish this.It so happens that the standards-based qualifications system adopted in New Zealand early this century was adapted from the trades schemes. Argue as you may, there is more training taking place in schools today than was delivered there 40 years ago.It’s now recognised that the vocational access routes available for learners in schools are still not enough, a situation which is driving ‘authentic learning’ schemes into schools. I agree that more of this is now needed. I just wonder at what society is doing to education.Knowing what to doEducation is supposed to be preparation for life. It has been said by many educators that "education is knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do". When schools become geared to providing training for kids so that they can step into a job as soon as they leave school, isn’t there a possibility that ‘preparation for life’ will have to be diminished and/or postponed? When does that start if it has been displaced by the need for more immediate training in schools? Listen to Elliot Washor speak on Big Picture Learning with Kathryn Ryan.

Poll Everywhere for iPhoneI've just published a new post over at my Faculty TEL blog, guest written by an academic in our Vet School, who has looked at using Communicubes, Poll Everywhere and Turning Point with 4th year students. Interesting reflections that might be of interest....Head over to the full post for more info on Denis' little trial.Peter@reedyreedlesThe Reed Diaries by Peter Reed is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

Can Game Design Be Leveraged to Enhance Cognitive Adaptability? Patrick S. Gallagher, Ph.D., Shenan H. Prestwich Principal Researcher, Serco, performing on contract to Advanced Distributed Learning, Alexandria, Virginia USA Next Generation Learner, Researcher, Katmai, performing on contract to Advanced Distributed Learning, Alexandria, Virginia USA Abstract: Adaptability is a metacompetency critically important to the United States... Read More ›

We are extremely happy to announce that Eliademy received Gold award in category "Living, Working and Learning" during gala event in New York this evening. Being recognized with an Edison Award is one of the highest accolades a company can … Continue reading →

photo courtesy Jack AllanIn April 2009 I wrote a futuristic verse. It was a contribution to meetBud the Teacher’s deal to write a poem a day for the whole of that month. The verse looked only a little way into our possible future.In the last stanza I predicted that Stephen Hawking might never have had a chance to say what I assumed had been running through his mind."It’s been a long time since Cataclysm.They said in the beginning it might bequite a journey. And so we are all herein one form or another. No one knewit would be so simple to start it off.Even Fermi didn’t, though more than mosthe had the insight. ‘So where are they all?’was what he put to them, knowing full well!Fermi? He’s over by the supernova.Can’t get him away from it. Addictedthey say - he always was fanatical.Apparently he was among the firstto congratulate Hawking when he got here.Hawking knew all along of course. It wasonly a matter of time. And beforehe let it all out it was far too late."I may have been wrong about Stephen's timeliness. I hope I was.If so, I offer him my sincerest apology.Let’s hope that Stephen’s advice is timely, to assist us to survive so our successors can tell a different tale a few hundred years from now.

CC BY SA Flickr User PlanetaOur new Technology Enhanced Learning Strategy focusses on a number of key themes, one of which being a student skills development plan.I believe we should be developing student's digital literacies as a key component embedded within every programme we offer - it's important students can make the most of technology to support and enhance their studies. Not only that, it's important graduates are comfortable with digital practices more generally to prepare them for the world of work.Focussing on one aspect of the TEL strategy, the University has formed an internal Developing Digital Literacies Working Group, and we're looking at the Open University's Digital and Information Literacies Framework as a basis to build upon. It's broken down into five competence areas, with progression for each level of study:Understand and engage in digital practices;Find information;Critically evaluate information, online interactions and online tools;Manage and communicate information;Collaborate and share digital content.It looked like we would use the framework 'as is' at one point, but we collectively felt we should use it as a foundation instead. There are a couple of points that I personally would have liked to pick up on:The framework is quite heavy on information literacy, and quite light on digital practices and 'creating' the web. Almost to the point where this framework could be related to Web 1.0. Of course creating the web is only one subset of the wider digital and information literacy set, but I just think it should be a larger part and more fundamental to the framework.For me, the competencies of 'Find information' and 'Critically evaluate information' are one and the same. They can't possibly be separated because, for example, we are constantly critiquing and evaluating our searches in the process of finding information. And given the workflows of many people, the next logical step is to save the content (be it in the form of bookmarks and web clippings, etc) and sharing that content with friends (be it in course discussion forums, Facebook groups and on Twitter). These are not necessarily distinct categories, but rather activities on a broader process or continuum. I also think there are a lot of issues that run across the competences. Take for example, online/professional identity. This is a pretty core aspect within the 'Understand and engage in digital practices' theme, particularly for Medics, Dentists, etc, but it's also something that links in with 'managing information' and 'collaborating and sharing information'.The more I think about it, the more relevant I see Doug Belshaw's work on web literacies - his/their themes of Exploring, Building and Connecting seem applicable here - perhaps their specifics are too specific for us, but the themes are interesting and could provide a framework to build on...This is not an attempt to critique the OU framework, but I'm rather thinking critically on what a framework might look like for us at Liverpool. I'm wondering if we can visualise this in some way that makes sense; thinking how Doug's work might link in; and wondering if we should focus more on student's actual day-to-day working practices as a means to inform any such framework. Have any others engaged with the OU framework, or even gone a different way? Thoughts welcome...Peter@ReedyreedlesThe Reed Diaries by Peter Reed is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

This year, the New Zealand Ministry of Education displayed a list of terms in a draft instruction sheet for learners of Chemistry.The proposal is that page 3, labelled for student use, may assist learners to reach the standard and achieve a rudimentary qualification in secondary education (NCEA Level 1).Learners at this level must have a "comprehensive understanding" of aspects of basic Science. Here’s a sentence from the draft sheet:A comprehensive understanding means you are able to link ideas to integrate the relevant chemistry through elaborating, justifying, relating, evaluating, comparing and contrasting, or analysing.The new Bloom’s Taxonomy, a tool for teachers, lists the same and similar terms as in the sentence shown above. It is understood, however, that teachers using Bloom’s taxonomy are either familiar with the meanings of the terms or have the initiative and required education to find out about these for themselves.Terms like justifying and evaluating are not easy to define clearly, even for some teachers. Most teachers do not draw a clear distinction between the processing skills of contrasting and comparing, say.Yet these are just a few of the difficult terms that are found in a draft instruction to NCEA Level 1 learners.As teachers, of course, we must teach/coach/train our learners to be able to recognise the difference between such terms as contrasting and comparing. The learner needs to be introduced to what each of these analysis processes has to offer.Why do we end up asking kids to get their head round the lingo that teachers may well have difficulty grappling with? I wonder if this intellectuality is really beyond the stage that most NCEA Level 1 learners are at, given that many already have difficulty with literacy at this level.It seems that responsibility for learning continues to devolve.It is as if learners are now expected to know the meaning of terms (or at least acknowledge their existence) often before they have the chance to get any real practice in the skills they are the labels for. These are skills that learners may not yet have the developmental ability to permit them to understand.

21st Century Learning Starts With IT Planning Infographic By now, 21st-century skills such as communication, creativity, and collaboration are on everyone’s radar. Your school may even have an ambitious plan for instilling 21st-century skills in your students. But the reality is these plans don’t get too far if your computers don’t work and you can’t... Read More ›

Today, we are proud to welcome on Eliademy the Czech Non-Governmental Organization PASOS. PASOS stands for Policy Association for an Open Society. It is a network of independent policy centers in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia who have … Continue reading →

AUSTRALASIAN ASSOCIATION OF DISTANCE EDUCATION SCHOOLS29 September - 1 OctoberVenues: Te Kura (Day 1) and Te Papa Museum of New Zealand (Days 2 and 3)Wellington, New ZealandSUMMARY:I was privileged to attend the AADES Leaders' Forum 2010.This was a well attended three day event, with speakers from New Zealand and afar. While I attended all three days of the Forum,I did not attend every session and there were some that were held concurrently. However, I report on all the keynote speeches here. This was essentially a listeners’ event, though there was a little opportunity for participation from the floor.Day One consisted of a late afternoon powhiri held at Te Kura.Marcus Akuhata-Brown was the facilitator for Days Two and Three of the Forum, at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. His humility, balanced approach and sense of humour were evident in the elegant way he conducted the programme.A feature of the Forum was the Māori music and harmony. Each guest speaker was thanked in a traditional way by music and song, a true mark of respect. It is a credit to Mike Hollings that he joined in with every one of those musical occasions (I’m sure he engineered them all) most times accompanying on his guitar. This part was altogether a most memorable, entertaining and cultural contribution to the atmosphere of the Forum.DAY ONEThe Forum began mid-afternoon with the gathering of staff, contributors and visitors and a powhiri in Kauri room, Te Kura, followed by congenial time for refreshment.Then followed brief welcoming addresses from Mike Hollings, Trish McKelvey and the Chair of ADDES, Bronwyn Stubbs, as well as short speeches from Karen Sewell and Janelle Cameron.Karen SewellKaren spoke of the future that lay in the education of children. She spoke of the trauma that children suffered during and after the recent Christchurch earthquake, and how Te Kura had stepped in extremely quickly to provide support with this.She talked of the complex and uncertain future that children will follow. Education must transform, not reform ‘the system’ in order to permit children to navigate intricate pathways. Teachers have a part to play in changing our children’s future.Janelle CameronJanelle spoke of the digital divide - how she was still grappling with the technologies - how the digital age seems to overwhelm many people of her age.Her metaphor for the happenings in learning today was like "a train going through (a station) and not stopping".She referred to the Internet and its use as a teaching tool and to what she called "Bloom’s Pedagogy", the new "Digital Taxonomy" and their part in teaching today.Day One closed with drinks and nibbles and a chance to network.Return to topDAY TWOHekia ParataHekia gave us a National Party view of where teachers are at in 2010. She spoke of them focussing "on teaching rather than learning"(I think she was referring to their learning rather than the learning of their students). Hekia explained that teachers do not seem to learn from learning, and referenced this to education research.She referred to the mind/brain as the most important part of the being. Yet kids, all over the world, are still sitting in classrooms being taught by a single teacher using traditional teaching methods. Hekia specially referred to the 1 in 5 students that were clearly being failed by the system - that schools focussed on crowd control rather than on learning.Hekia’s description of Ruatoria formed a large part of the manifesto-like speech she delivered. She spoke of her family/ brothers, sisters/ community and what they did when she was a child. Hekia spoke of the demography of New Zealand and of how many children were uninspired at school.She spoke of the money New Zealand borrows every year to spend on education and the community. Hekia referred to the 1 in 5 ratio and that for many, the model is not working. Her concern was mainly about what she called "brown students", and referred to their place in the diverse population that is evolving in New Zealand.She spoke of professionalism that customises skills to give a service, and that such a service was needed by the 1 in 5 children in New Zealand: those that needed to find a job, for instance - a sector that "deserved all the attention teachers can give". Hekia summarised her speech by referring to the triangle of Identity, Community and Education: three important areas that provide the basis for learning in an individual.Liz McKinleyLiz examined some of the statistics on Māori success in education from the Starpath project, University of Auckland. Her quote from Niels Bohr, "Nothing exists until it is measured", summarised her approach.She also examined some recent government statistics of Level 2 NCEA results, from 2003 to 2008, comparing Māori with non-Māori. Only 40% of Māori learners get to year 13. Less than half of these go on to study at tertiary level. She showed graphs indicating that in percentage achievement and in success rate, Māori learners were substantially behind learners from other ethnic groups.Liz analysed these results in a number of ways: that 32% of Māori learners in a year 13 group will eventually go on to further study - that 18% of those will have achieved university entrance qualification - that 6% will actually enter university - that 2% will finish the courses with a degree - that 0.4% will go on to doctorate study.She explained that Starpath, led by The University of Auckland in partnership with the New Zealand Government, is a research project (now in its 6th year) that focuses on the educational outcomes of New Zealand learners who under-achieve at secondary school. Starpath utilises:research teams,5 high schools,1 university and 1 technical institute.Liz spoke of the need for evidential material that schools require in order to make informed decisions - that schools were not getting help with bringing all available useful data/ideas/strategies together and with aligning these so that they could be used to improve learner outcomes.She explained that schools do collect data on student learning and achievement, but the data is not centrally stored. She asserted that schools do not feel that ownership of this data is important. She stressed that there was a real need for concerted strategies so schools could usefully collate data related to student achievement and use this to accomplish an improvement in learner achievement. Liz spoke of the Academic Counselling and the Target Setting (ACTS) programme and how they improved final year NCEA completions. The biggest gains were made by Māori and Pasifika students, with 16% more Māori students and 20% more Pasifika students achieving important learning in NCEA Level 1 Numeracy and Literacy.Liz concluded by warning that gains for Māori learners were lessening - that many schools had a plethora of programmes, 84 in some, based on teacher interest rather than what could benefit the learner. She appealed that this was actually a moral issue that needed attention, by all parties including teachers in order that it be addressed effectively.Bentham OhiaBentham, CEO of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, gave an overview of the Open Wānanga - a "Māori Higher Learning Tertiary Institution" of 37,000 learners - 40% of those do not have a secondary education.He put a number of questions:What counts as knowledge? What knowledge counts? Who decides?What counts as success? What success counts? Who decides?What counts as assessment? What assessment counts? Who decides?"Te Wānanga o Aotearoa is unique:kaupapa wānangaunique programme-offering deliveryhome based kaitiaki (guardian) supportedmonthly cohort enrolmentscentralised supportminimised restrictions.Viv WhiteViv spoke briefly of Big Picture Education Australia (BPEA). She then looked at some learner statistics and other related learner information: 14% learners not learning or earning - 50% in some places20% fail to complete year 12 - 50% in some placescomplex social backgrounddistance education is not immune to the same problems that exist in F2F systems.She stressed how serious these facts were and that a new model was called for. Viv then put the question that I had asked her at TCS Forum in May this year(!) - basically:"Can we create a Big Picture Distance Education model?"Viv then returned to the Big Picture model:1 learner at a time (which is how Te Kura works)small by designadvisory 1 - 15 | 1- 17 |Learning Training Internship. Learners could achieve improved outcomes: engagement - graduation - tertiary learning. She spoke of beginning with network connections - developing a community of practice and commitment to collaborate - building a system of influence: not with critical mass but with critical connections (BPEA and Te Kura).Jen McCutcheonJen defined authentic learning in the context of Te Kura, explained the process and outlined some of the approach used - one that focussed on the learner in context. She spoke of how it relies on rich conversation between the Learning Advisor, the learner and whanau. Jen explained how finding the centre of what interests and impassions a learner was an all important part of that process. It’s then that a start can be made on building relevant programmes around the learner and nurture these with frequent ongoing discussions.Jen went on to define what constituted a ‘rich conversation’: goal setting - identifying ‘aspirational’ goals - career exploration - interviews and talking with people - job-shadowing - resetting goals. She mentioned the part that Gateway, Star and other programmes can play in the development of this process.She described the ‘tail of underachievement’ and mentioned the consequential 25% of people aged 15 to 19 years who are unemployed.Westley FieldWestley is Director of Online Learning, Skoolaborate. He began his delivery by demonstrating an online delivery/facilitation by an avatar in Second Life (SL). Westley then Skyped his friend, Chris, who was the person behind the SL avatar.Westley spoke briefly of the developments in online learning at MLC School. He spoke of how technology makes the routes to achievement more facile, and not just in learning but also in creating commercially useful objects, such as the Doritos commercial he showed us and that was made for $150 by a teenager using readily available equipment.He encouraged that we should "try things new" - to "move forward with real action". He spoke about personalised (online) learning. He spoke of how to get the attention of learners if they have computers in their hands. He spoke of how "knowledge", and how to use it, takes on a new meaning with the developments in technology, Google and the Internet.Westley talked about giving people experience in the use of technology - in particular giving young learners safe, ‘unblocked’ experience in technology use. He spoke of the technologies that can change learning, including the development of the e-book such as the Amazon Kindle.He referred to the improved success by learners using online learning productively with other learning methods compared to those learners who are in the classroom without such technology.Sandy Dougherty & Nathaniel LouwrensSandy and Nathaniel gave a presentation on their experiences in trialling Active Worlds. The study was to evaluate Active Worlds as a learning technology and also its suitability in a distance education setting.They demonstrated a treasure hunt that had been built in the 3D environment of Active Worlds. Some of what they reported was about their own initial experiences in the 3D environment - some of the seeming ‘chaos’ perceived by people who are new to this technology - which later developed to a successful resolution.Their intended focus was to be on working with learners collaboratively and how to get learners to work together. The reality was slightly different.Sandy and Nathaniel found that young learners (years 7 to 10) learnt the technology skills for themselves very quickly, skills that the teachers had taken 2 terms to learn. They also reported that the learners preferred online (txt) chat rather than using the voice chat, though they were comfortable with the teacher using voice chat in instruction.Sandy was careful to get useful (and fascinating) feedback from her learning group, to which she put a number of questions. Asked how they learnt, Sandy’s students gave a number of interesting answers, among which were ‘playing’ and ‘practicing’.Asked if they needed a teacher there was met with a resounding, "YES". The children preferred the teacher speaking to them rather than using the chat box. The common feeling expressed by learners was that the whole learning experience was "awesome!"About the technology . . . learners felt that though it was a bit clunky, it was like playing a game that was really school. Navigation in commercial games technologies tend to be far more facile in comparison and the 3D renditions are often superior to what they experienced in Active Worlds.Return to topDAY THREEMike Hollings - Walking in Two WorldsMike spoke of the money poured into education and the efforts that are not actually achieving learning. He cited Cisco’s The Learning Society and stressed that the cost of education should be tax-efficient.A successful education system has to be based on the principle that it is for everyone and must embrace ones personal culture while at the same time supporting innovation. He stressed that there was a need for a huge change in present systems. He cited Phillippe de Woot’s need for societal educational metamorphosis and referred, once again, to Allen Curnow’s Landfall into Unknown Seas:"Simply by sailing in a new directionYou could enlarge the world."Mike spoke of leadership today and the huge diversity of theories that are based largely on western ideas. He asked of leadership, "what could we learn from other wisdom?"He drew attention to how Māori people spend a lot of time ‘going back’ to their cultural places, communities and the related pursuits. The educational system in New Zealand does not acknowledge this cultural aspect as much as it does that of western cultures in activities such as music, opera, and dance.Mike gave an overview of some of the wisdom from Māori leadership, and how it focussed on the needs of people and the resources they needed - the understanding of communities and their tribal/cultural boundaries. Māori leadership qualities are not necessarily accepted or respected in the wider community in New Zealand. Mike listed some of the elements of that leadership: Manākitanga - hospitalityRangitiratanga - weaving people togetherWhanaungatanga - interdependenceWairuatanga - spiritualityKaitiakitanga - guardianshipWhakapapa - genealogical connectionsTe Reo Rangatira - Māori languageMike observed that community intellect is at risk when languages are lost. He also spoke of the worth of trust and the value of openness - that for trust to exist, intentions must be clearly understood and patently visible.Mike summarised the thrust of his speech by saying "we cannot (always) rely on western systems". He referred to the importance of locality in determining who we are and where we are at in New Zealand. He used lines from the poem Lost, by David Wagoner, to illustrate this:LostStand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside youAre not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,Must ask permission to know it and be known.The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,I have made this place around you,If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.No two trees are the same to Raven.No two branches are the same to Wren.If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knowsWhere you are. You must let it find you.Jen McCutcheon and Viv WhiteThis was a panel session introduced by Marcus Brown where Jen and Viv spoke freely of their vision of the Big Picture.Jen gave a brief summary of the Big Picture process including some of the best practice used. There then followed a brief session of questions from Marcus and from the floor. Jen and Viv both spoke to the questions that were asked.Brenda FriskBrenda summarised her vision of what she called "visual knowledge" and its place in 2010. She spoke of the need to reduce the barriers that may exist between people and their use of available technology, and also of the need that industry has to learn to manage technology. She posited that teenagers lose trust and respect for people in industry when they see that they do not have skills to use the technology effectively.Brenda spoke of tacit knowledge, implicit knowledge and cultural knowledge and their use to the people employed in a company. She emphasised the need to have online portals for children to access at any time of the day.She spoke of the frustrations that an organisation has in finding and in accessing data with technology and that there was a need to have technology built for people, not just for the technologists to use. Its property and function need to be relevant, evidential, contextual, credible and collaborative.Brenda spoke of two important reports, the Horizon Report and Learning Powered by Technology, and summarised some of the key elements brought out in these. She then spoke further on visual knowledge and explained and demonstrated how 3D (stereoscopic) visualisation could give a better perspective in viewing machines and other structures in context.Hine WaitereHine introduced herself from her tribal background, then spoke of ako, a pedagogical concept that encompasses both teaching and learning as parts of the same process. She illustrated how ako had been brought out in the Forum with reference to those presenters who had told of their experiences in learning (and teaching) during their presentations, and the stories they told.She spoke of Māori carvings and tukutuku and how these also have stories to tell. They are different forms of literacies. Hine spoke of her appreciation of landscape but also recognised that there was much there she did not understand.Hine read the story, Butterflies, by Patricia Grace, depicting ‘difference’ without a need for that difference to be fixed. She went to the heart of this idea by referring to how the grandfather did not correct the teacher, but simply explained where she was at.She also illustrated how teachers have power and authority to direct ‘values’. She asked,"What are the values that lie at the core of our (teaching) practice?"She then talked about the tail of young learners who struggle with their ‘education’, listing the 5 Ds:DeficitDeprivationDisadvantageDifferenceDiversity.Return to top

As I've previously blogged, the University of Liverpool are looking to introduce minimum standards for all modules within the VLE, with the concern of 'consistency' across module a key priority. I'm part of a working group to investigate this in more detail, so as many people will know, I canvassed the ALT-Members email list in an attempt to crowdsource a document to detail which Universities are looking to introduce, or already have introduced, VLE minimum standards. I was also interested in the specific items/criteria that different Universities include in their minimum standards, threshold standards, and baseline agreements (there is a range of terminology related to this).In total, 24 responses were received from the following institutions: Aberystwyth; Bath; Bristol; Durham (Physics and Arts & Humanities); Edge Hill; Exeter; Goldsmiths; Greenwich; Institute of Education, University of London; Kent; Leeds; Liverpool; London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Newcastle; Nottingham; Northampton; Salford; Southampton Solent; Swansea; York St. John; Warwick; Univ. of Malta; and University College London. Whilst this doesn't cover every University in the UK, it does provide us with a useful insight!Some of the responses indicated minimum standards might be school/faculty based, rather than institution-wide e.g. Durham, and some institutions promote the use of the ‘Blackboard Exemplary Course Program’, which provides rubrics to extend the use of the VLE further. The program focuses on four key areas: Course design, Interaction & Collaboration, Assessment, and Learner Support. Chart 1. Subscription to minimum standards75% (n=18) already have VLE minimum standards in place, with 25% (n=6) looking to introduce minimum standards in the future. For those institutions with minimum standards currently in place (n=18), respondents were asked to identify the specific criteria included (Chart 2). 24 different criteria were identified, with the most common items being:Dedicated VLE areas (100%, n=18); Staff Profiles/Contact Details (89%, n=16); Further/Recommended Reading (83%, n=15); Module Description/Outline inc. learning outcomes, etc (83%, n=15); Assessment Requirements (83%, n=15); Lecture handouts/slides (61%, n=11).Chart 2. Criteria for inclusion in minimum standardsThe data collected suggests a small set of criteria are commonly included in minimum standards across the sector, however there are a wide range of items which appear in a just a small number of cases. The most commonly included criteria (detailed above) demonstrates some correlation with the views of staff and students at Liverpool (from the data I obtained in some research).So overall, introducing minimum standards appears to be a big issue across Higher Education. Many HEIs are already doing 'something', with others looking to get on board soon. There are other debates circling which suggest introducing a 'minimum' might mean staff don't do any more. From my perspective, I think this minimum is what students want from a hygiene perspective i.e. to prevent dissatisfaction, and well ultimately, something is better than nothing!Thanks to all those that completed the data in the Google Sheet, which of course will remain open for further editing and viewing by interested parties!Peter@ReedyreedlesThe Reed Diaries by Peter Reed is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

We are glad to announce a new functionality of Eliademy: you now have the opportunity to earn a Printed Certificate delivered right to your place, upon completion of an online course on Eliademy. "This is one more service offered to … Continue reading →

A rare commodityWater is amazing. It is truly the universal solvent. While there are solvents that can dissolve some things far better, there is none that dissolves as many different substances as can water.It’s all to do with the structure of water’s molecule - that particle scientists refer to when they talk of the tiny bits that some things are made of. Water molecules can cluster together and share parts of each other to form other discrete particles that have unique affinities for different things.Sugar is made of molecules. Common salt consists of two very different bits, called ions that are positively and negatively charged.Though sugar and salt look very similar, their fundamental differences, at the sub-microscopic level, make these substances behave so very differently. Very few solvents can dissolve both sugar AND salt for this reason. But water can.This strange property of water - the ability to dissolve molecular substances as well as those that are made up of ions - is one reason why it is extremely difficult to obtain pure water.When it rains, droplets of almost 100% pure water form high in the atmosphere. Yet it’s not long before this water has dissolved all sorts of substances, often before it reaches the ground. Pure water is actually an extremely rare substance.Repositories for everythingNear-pure droplets of rainwater that drench the land eventually find their way into the oceans. There is a little bit of everything to be found in the world’s oceans. This is because water dissolves just about everything.Gold is one of the world’s rarest and most precious metals. Yet we are told that the world’s oceans contain enough dissolved gold to provide every person with a tiny piece weighing over 8 tonnes!Gold is just one of the billions of substances that water washes into the world’s oceans, every day. The seas and oceans throughout the world are repositories for all that is washed off the land.End to fresh waterAll over the world, beautiful freshwater lakes represent a half-way house for water that makes its way to the sea. These wonderful reservoirs are topped up by rivers and streams fed by water that takes many paths, from slow percolations of ground water to direct runoffs.Fresh water reservoirs contain water that has had only a relatively short time in contact with the earth. Most contain water that is near pure. They have enjoyed a place in the eye of the beholder for thousands, perhaps millions of years. Lakes, and the streams and rivers that contribute to them, have served living creatures with necessary fresh water during that time. But this service is literally drying up.Something in the waterSupplies of drinkable water are dependent on readily available fresh water sources. The demand for water of this purity is increasing every day. I’m told that about 24 litres of fresh water can be used during the entire production of just one hamburger. Yet the world’s fresh water supplies provide water only at a worldly rate.That rate is huge, and hitherto has been unvarying. While that rate is now not sufficient to provide the world’s demand for fresh water, there is much now happening on the surface of the earth to actually decrease the rate of this provision.Wastes from farming, industry and the effluent from the people who rely on these present day processes are fast diminishing the usefulness of water sources. Many fresh water reservoirs are now becoming polluted and the level of pollution and the occurrence of this are always increasing.Now running to groundAbout 20% of the world’s fresh water is drawn directly from the ground. It is seen as a way of safeguarding against periods of drought while providing an almost unvarying year-long supply of fresh water - water that slowly percolated its way through the ground. Such water sources are still vulnerable to pollution, however, as surface pollutants can percolate through the ground and contaminate the ground water. Moreover, the removal of ground water at a rate higher than the natural recharge rate means that these sources diminish in time and can affect water replenishment of nearby reservoirs.A global contributionFurther to this, some people who support theories of global warming believe that the usage of ground water may actually contribute to global warming, a proposed climatic effect that may also contribute to diminishing the supply of available ground water.The world’s use of fresh water is now outstripping the rate of its supply. And there are factors brought about through industrialisation and land use that are serving to reduce the suitability of otherwise useable fresh water.Clearly the world’s populations cannot continue to consume water the way they have been up till now - and it will take more than just a token act of water conservation.

CC BY NC SA Flickr User Paul SnellingI was asked recently to run a session on Twitter for colleagues in the School of Health Sciences, so I thought I'd share the slides up here for those interested. I've actually reposted this from my Faculty TEL Blog here.This was aimed at a starting level for colleagues new to Twitter, and the discussion we had probably provided a richer experience than the slides might suggest but there are still some interesting examples in there.I spoke about examples from my own experience of using Twitter with undergraduate students, so if you're interested in that you could always follow through to the journal article I published last year in Research in Learning Technology. Otherwise, here are the slides embedded below.Slides themselves might not say much, but I've included the associated notes for each slide below. Introduction to twitter - session for colleagues in the school of health science from Peter Reed 1. -2.This slide asks if there any participants in the room that already use Twitter. Why or how do people currently use Twitter, or want to use twitter? What do you want from today’s session?3.Today we’ll cover an intro to Twitter, terminology associated with twitter, why ‘people’ use twitter; who uses twitter and how you can use Twitter.4.Twitter is technically known as a Micro Blog in that it only allows ‘tweets’ of 140 characters or fewer. This can be restrictive at times, but over time you do get used to it. Twitter generally works by people ‘following’, or being ‘followed’, by other users. Over time other functionalities have been added, such as the use of Lists to help organise or categorise the people you follow.5.For me, Twitter is about making connections. I personally use Twitter in 3 ways; i) To keep in touch with family and friends (although my 14 year old nephew has ceased engaging since I’m the ‘Twitter-police’ when he posts inappropriate content. ii) To follow and engage with people with shared interests. I always relate back to my diverse follower base - a split between colleagues interested in higher education or technology enhanced learning, and the group of Everton fans who regularly tweet about football issues. This can prove a tricky task in balancing my tweets but I’ve started to focus more on professional uses and tweet less often about football. iii) I also follow people that I might like to know - or perhaps people that I might be interested in. So this might still include people from the elearning field, but it might be football players or celebrities such as Stephen Fry.6.Over 500 million people use Twitter - I use it both on my work computer and iPad as well as my personal laptop and iPhone. I’m always connected, and so can you be!7.Twitter has started to emerge as a news reporting service, as regular passers-by tweet the news live. This is much faster (and probably a more accurate representation) than news services responding and scrambling to scenes to report news. One of the most famous examples was the ‘miracle on the hudson’ where passers-by tweeted as the plane was landing on the Hudson river in New York.8.I came across an infographic demonstrating the top brands on Twitter - some you may have heard of and some you will not. But Twitter is becoming a huge platform for companies to engage in consumers. http://www.nestivity.com/the-top-25-most-engaged-brands-on-twitter-today/9.Two of the companies I follow include Mr Porter (a high end online fashion retailer) and Sky News (a very popular news reporting account). You can see by the number of followers in the sky account that they really are engaging with ‘customers’ (in a different sense of the word I suppose). People can access the news wherever they are when they follow an account like this, or people could live report incidents and include Sky News in the tweets. Lots of potential in this area.10.Many companies use twitter as an effective customer services channel - take this example (start at the top). A passenger is angry at his delayed flight and the airline (obviously monitoring any tweets mentioning their name) respond to de-escalate the situation.11.And this nice example of one of the people I follow providing feedback to Virgin Trains.12.So given these examples, how might we use Twitter to support our professional roles?13.Here are some examples of UoL Twitter accounts and their uses14.15.16.I like this example of a conversation between the school of Dentistry and a potential student17.And this example from the University computing services account engaging with a future student about the wifi availability in halls of residence18.These are two other accounts I follow from colleagues at the university - lots of people are active so it’s worth looking at Twitter’s recommended people to follow feature…. It’s based on an algorithm that looks for people that are followed by the people you follow (if that makes sense).  19.But there’s more theoretical underpinning to using Twitter than mindless sharing of nonsense. Chickering and Gamson’s principles for good practice in UG education can be applied. We’ve already seen examples of #1 - student—faculty contact, but having used Twitter to support my teaching in various module, I can attest to it’s suitability to the other principles as well.20.Every piece of research around the use of twitter in higher education has been positive. I like this quote from Ray junco (an active researcher of social media in HE)21.And these are some of the quotes from my own students - comments like ‘Tutor on Demand’ and ‘it’s better than email’. Sure, you need to manage expectations, but all of my students who engaged with twitter reported positive benefits. I’ve published this work in Research in Learning Technology, so if you want to learn more head over http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/1969222.Of course there are some downfalls or cautions to be aware of.23.I suppose in my own teaching I’ve seen students expecting a 24/7 service, but is that any different from email? I think we also need to be mindful of professional identities of students, as well as ourselves and our professional/corporate identities24.Recognise this guy?25.He’s the chief executive of a cash strapped NHS organisation, who, whilst making severe cuts, etc, tweeted about buying a new boat. Sensitive much? This is a good example at how we must consider this things we post online...26.But despite the scary stories, most of the time you just need to think about what you’re doing and apply some common sense.27.The university also produce some guidelines to help staff think about their twitter use. http://www.liv.ac.uk/media/livacuk/corpcomms/pdf/social-media-guidelines.pdf28.Rheingold identifies 5 key literacies in order thrive online.1. Attention2. Crap Detection3. Participation4. Collaboration5. Network know-how(Rheingold, 2012: How to thrive online).These are important when we think of information overload, and some believe this information overload is actually filter failure - it's our own fault for not 'detecting the crap'...29. 30.31.This is my page when I log in32. This is me, who I follow, etc33.And this is where the tweets appear from all the people I follow34.You will need to be mindful of some terminology though35.We need to include a user’s twitter ‘handle’ (username) if we want to send them a tweet. So if you want to tweet me, you’ll need to include @reedyreedles I will then receive a notification to say you’ve tweeted me. Be careful though, everyone can see what you’ve tweeted36.The retweet is pretty self explanatory. It allows you to share something that another user has tweeted i.e. re tweet it.37.A modified tweet (MT) has evolved from the RT so you can still retweet something but you might want to add a comment to it, etc.38.Hashtags are a great way to use a keyword or categorise/search tweets. These are popping up everywhere now, even at the beginning of tv programmes.39.So my advice is to figure out how and why you want to use twitter and jump in . Don’t forget to follow people otherwise it might get a bit lonely.40.Remember, there are more online services you can use to develop and manage your online identity. It’s important our students realise this too - Facebook is notorious for bad practice, and Linkedin is growing from a professional identity perspectivePeter@Reedyreedles$nbsp;The Reed Diaries by Peter Reed is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

Do you know what it takes to learn effectively in a crowded but possibly lonely MOOC space? Are the required skills to learn in MOOC learnable? Findings from detailed studies of two MOOCs from the University of Melbourne: The Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (ATC21S) MOOC, which registered over 18,000 participants, mostly experienced practising teachers; and Introduction to Macro-Economics... Read More ›

"A long time ago, in Newsday for November 15, 1994, Billy Tashman said with reference to a large, government-sponsored field test of different instructional approaches: ‘The good news is that after 26 years, nearly a billion dollars, and mountains of data, we now know which are the most effective instructional tools. The bad news is that the education world couldn’t care less.’The same holds true today." James KauffmanWhen I first began teaching, I bristled with the desire to instruct, inspire, coach, and enlighten. I’d just been through Moray House College of Education, Edinburgh, where my tutors and mentors truly recognised the worth of excellent instruction.Yet for the past 30 years and more, I have felt like a disillusioned school teacher who is old fashioned, out of date and not really understanding what’s happening in education. The other day, a good friend and colleague passed on to me a recent article from Teachers College Record, by James Kauffman. It was written as an introduction to his recently published book,The Tragicomedy of Public Education:Laughing and Crying Thinking and Fixing.As I read through Kauffman's article, I recalled how I felt when I read Shelley Gare’s book,The Triumph of the Airheads and the Retreat from Common Sense.I experienced déjà vu at every page.James Kauffman is Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. In his review article, entitled Reforming Public Education: A Tragicomedy, he explains how some people, working within education, fail to recognise the most important factor in improving learning:"Truly ridiculous statements about reforming schools have been made by generally intelligent people who happen to botch thinking about education. Too often, their silly statements are taken seriously, making matters worse. Some would-be reformers ignore what produces most learning — instruction."Kauffman draws attention to all the areas of stupidity in education that I’ve complained about, for decades . . . . . . about improving teaching:"They might say we need better teachers without defining "better." People aren’t necessarily better teachers because they’re smarter, know their subject better, or have taken more courses. We need standardized tests, but good teaching isn’t easily measured as "value added." "Better teacher" doesn’t necessarily mean "higher average pupil gain score." Good instruction is defined by what a teacher does.". . . about pursuing change without recognising what needs to change:"On January 2, 2010, Kevin Huffman published in The Washington Post his heartfelt opinions about how to reform education, including suggestions that we recruit talented teachers and fire bad ones, base policies on student achievement, and get parents to demand what’s best for their children. He quotes a U.S. Senator from Colorado, who says that the education system must change, but he doesn’t say how. Any change will do? Sorry, Kevin and Senator, with all due respect, we don’t need just any kind of change. Unless it’s the right change, we’ll get nowhere.". . . about the misunderstanding and misuse of statistics:"One reason the "thinking" of so many earnest reformers is tragicomic when it’s taken seriously is that you can’t have all of the children (or teachers or any other group we measure) reaching any percentile higher than the first group any more than you can have all of the children (or teachers) above average.". . . about setting education goals that are absurdly unachievable:"No Child Left Behind (. . .) set the goal of universal proficiency of students by 2014. That goal is a will-o’-the-wisp that anyone else who understands the most basic mathematical-statistical realities knows is impossible.". . . about teaching methods inappropriately applied to all learners:"Direct, systematic instruction is more effective than other approaches like "discovery learning" (essentially, letting kids find out for themselves) and a lot of the other popular but failed ideas about teaching. Go to www.adihome.org/ to find out more.". . . about using test scores to judge success.Kauffman lists his criteria for judging success:effective instruction,students’ engagement in productive activity,homogeneous grouping for instruction,positive emotional climate,clear school-wide expectations,positive support for desired behaviour,involvement of parents and communities.Check out:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpAFlbncygMThe Tragicomedy of Public Education: Laughing and Crying Thinking and Fixing,James M Kauffman, FULL Court Press, 2010 - ISBN 1-57861-682-4The Tragicomedy of Public Education - DESK COPY

The US-based NGO All Hands Volunteers recently joined Eliademy’s community. Founded in 2005, All Hands Volunteers provides "immediate, effective and sustainable support to communities in need by harnessing the energy and commitment of dedicated volunteers" [1]. They intervene worldwide to … Continue reading →

I've been banging on about it for a little while now, so a lot of people will already know I've been looking into VLE minimum standards quite a bit. Well, thanks to the ELESIG (Evaluation of Learners' Experiences of e-learning Special Interest Group) Small Grants Scheme, I'll be sharing some more info.I'll probably be duplicating posts, but my primary blogging venue for sharing this work will be over at ELESIG - if you're not signed up there, then do. And then follow me :-)I think the ELESIG Small Grants Scheme is a great initiative to help us share the work we're doing more broadly so others can benefit from it. The great thing is applications are turned around really quickly so you're not playing the waiting game too much - applications are to be submitted by the 20th of each month and you find out within 4 weeks!I think I already work 'in the open' quite a bit, but this might make my work even more transparent, and of course ties in nicely with the newly formed North West ELESIG group that my colleague @Tundeva (Tunde Varga Atkins) has been so involved with.As well as blogging over at ELESIG, I've also committed to producing a 'research toolkit' (of sorts) that will offer a completely transparent view of what we've done and how, including sample questions for surveys and focus groups, as well as ethics application forms. The idea here is that other people interested in this area of work could essentially reuse what I've already done to help them get started and engaged in this area of research. I've also offered to record some video footage of students talking about what they want from minimum standards, how they access this content and why it's important, etc, etc.So... lots more to come about this and I can't wait to get going. See y'all soon!Peter@Reedyreedles$nbsp;The Reed Diaries by Peter Reed is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License

At 12.51 pm on Tuesday, 22 February, the beautiful city of Christchurch, New Zealand, was devastated by a magnitude 6.3 earthquake.This was only one of the hundreds of aftershocks, following the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that shook the city on the morning of Saturday 4 September 2010.Miraculously, few people were injured in this huge shake for the city was asleep when it struck and despite its magnitude, its centre was 30 to 40 km west of the city centre. Christchurch was well on the way to recovering from this earlier devastation when the second major shake struck on Tuesday at a depth of only 5km.Tuesday’s shake caused devastation that reduced many of the homes and buildings in the inner city to rubble. Over 120 people so far are known to have died, crushed by falling debris or within collapsing buildings. Over 200 people are listed as missing. Hundreds are injured, many of them severely.The people of Christchurch have a strong spirit and they have a fine mayor in Bob Parker, whose civil defence leadership skills are second to none. But the people of Christchurch need you.Please help by donating to the Red Cross 2011 Earthquake Appealhttp://www.redcross.org.nz/donateor to the Christchurch Earthquake Appealhttp://www.christchurchearthquakeappeal.govt.nz/

IEEE Actionable Data Book (ADB) is an open standard for ebooks based on the ePub3 standard and the latest learning standard Experience API, xAPI, for data-driven learning design. The IEEE ADB project grew out of a paper, presented at the IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference in 2011, about a broadly applicable framework for building educational... Read More ›

With the beginning of a new month come new promises of improving yourself and getting out of your comfort zone. In May, take up the challenge of learning brand new things on Eliademy! At Eliademy, we’ve prepared you a selection … Continue reading →