A common topic of conversation amongst educators when discussing learning technologies is the time and space they need to find out about the various tools in the VLE and redesign their courses.  It is no secret that in my context of HE time and space is sadly lacking.  What they are saying is that they need time and space to learn.  Online, many of the standard communication/collaboration tools available to educators are best used asynchronously.  Asynchronous learning activities are time and space learning activities.  Well designed courses using such tools to scaffold students' learning through a series of activities which give them time for reflection, time for critical thinking, time for articulation and clarification.  The communication can, therefore, be more meaningful and of a better quality all round.  Within the sessions, within any synchronous learning event, the quality of any dialogue is compromised by the immediacy of the responses.  There can be little time for reflection in such an environment.  Some cope better than others with this but overall it's just not as good.  I should put potentially at the end of this of course as other factor impact on the learning.  But, in essence, the potential for critical thinking and deep learning is better within asynchronous learning activities because...Asynchronous = time and space learning.

"The first step in redesign often entailed the externalisation of pedagogic principles which had previously been tacit."This quote is from report on the PREEL (From Pedagogical Research to Embedded E-learning) project which ran at the Institute of Education a few years ago. It was one of those initiative which tried to help educators with their e-learning design. Interestingly, there were deliberate attempts to link research and practice through the promotion and incorporation of IOE's own e-learning research output.  This post and the above quote is about educator knowledge of their own pedagogy, the way they teach.The quote promotes the tactic of asking educators to verbalise how they are teaching a particular course.  In articulating this out loud it helps clarify for themselves how they teach.  We are not talking learning theory here just how they do things.  For some how a session is structured and taught may have evolved over the years.  A particular educator may have a natural default pedagogical stance and the reasons why are not clear even to themselves.I've talked in the past about how some educators don't have an understanding of their own pedagogy stance or indeed an understanding of pedagogical theory in general.  I've speculated that this hinders moves to talk about internet-based communication/collaboration tools in terms of pedagogical affordance.  The above tactic is instructive because it suggests that this doesn't really matter as the knowledge is there albeit latent and not externalised.  It's your job (as a learning technologist) to bring this out of them.  They know how they teach and why they do it.  And you don't need to be judgmentally about this, you just need to listen and teach them how, and to what end, they could use what's available.  What this also says is that it's not about lack of understanding, it's about lack of time and sometimes about lack of learning design.  For the former, an educator doesn't have the time to think about their learning design.  They are too busy. For the latter, they can't be bothered.  This is rare but there's good and bad in every profession.

A fews days ago I went to an interesting event promoting a new report published by the Pearson Centre for Policy and Learning here in London.  It is called:  Tweeting for teachers; how can social media support teacher professional development?  I'm going to use it to reflect on the social media and education.I'm going to give detailed analysis of the parts that interested me to help me reflect and articulate my thinking.Overall, it's a useful and worthwhile read but it promises more than it delivers.  The overall message is noble and it could act as a inspirational call-to-arms for educators to start investigating social media. I saw some of this at the event and I hope the message can reach out there.  The recommendations are sounds although a little obvious.  There are also some interesting case studies about initiatives I wasn't aware of.  There is a deliberate link to teachers' CPD which is good and the review of research is interesting.  However, there's a distinct lack of 'how to'.  More on this later.Firstly, the event I attended was well organised and free.  Their #tweetingforteachers worked well as they had dedicated people looking after it.  I ended up participating quite a lot as things occurred to me.  The usefulness of micro-blogging to facilitate communicate in events cannot be disputed.  It's a pity they didn't have the stream setup on the screen but there was a fair bit of interaction.  It helped that I got a good 3G connection.  Interestingly, most delegates didn't participate in this showing how far we have to go.Next, the title - tweeting for teachers.  I don't like this.  It's catchy yes but it's a marketing phrase which is misleading as the overall scope of the report is social media. It's true that lots of the examples were about twitter but if the report wants to be about social media in general then it's not an appropriate title.  Tweeting for teacher is a great title if you were to extrapolate the bits about twitter and add practical guidance on the processes involved in twitter.Overall, it's a report that can only scratch the surface of this subject.  Social media is a huge, huge area.  In a 36 page report it's not going to happen.  Also, the contexts with which it can be used a numerous.  The case studies consist of 3 people that blog and tweet for their own learning, a local authority blogging facility that worked well, a video competition, #ukedchat and Teachmeet.  Of these, #ukedchat and Teachmeet are the most inspirational.  They are both established synchronous events which can be engaged in.  The others are interesting but they would benefit from guidance on how to act if you're inspired to setup something similar.  Also, where are the dynamic image creation and sharing tools, the video creation, use of audio, mindmapping tools, social bookmarking, multimedia posters, social networking/group sites etc.  I worry about teachers will read this report and think that the case studies cover everything that's possible.Finally for this post - categorisation.  with some about self-directed learning and personal learning networks and others about sharing, reflective learning and still others about synchronous event, the report is crying out for careful categorisation so that content is made "meaningful to teachers and manageable within the context of teaching practice."(p20 of this report).This is the massive gap we have in education with learning technologies.  We have to make things easier for our teachers and academics.  We need to show them how and in their context.  Something like http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/ and http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ are more useful in this regard.  There is a wealth of policy advice and a wealth of how to use tools advice but it's the middle ground of putting it in our context which is lacking.  I believe that largely teachers can do this for themselves but only if we promote and facilitate it.In my next post, I'll reflect on the key recommendations from this report.

This post continues discussing the newly released report Tweeting for teachers.  They list 5 recommendations for school leaders and 5 for policy makers.  My first thought is how many school leaders will read this?  Probably very few unless they have a strategy for promoting it beyond a website.  I'll discuss each recommendation which you can read about on p30-33:1.  School leaders should learn about and engage with the social platforms that their teachers, parents and pupils are using every day;Yes, indeed.  The idea that springs into my mind is that what we need to do is get teachers in general using social media for themselves.  By using it for themselves ideas will spark about how they can use it in their teaching.  Trying to teach using something alien to the rest of their lives isn't easy but this is what we are often asking them to do.  Social media are ways of communicating, they are new communication channels.  Ways of communicating SHOULD be of interest to us in education.The logical next step for me is to try and conceive of a training event which caters for this need.  This could be a sister session to my 21st century tools for teaching and learning session and would concentrate on how educators can use social media for themselves, in their own learning.  This would also fit nicely with the sentiment of this report.As a bullet point to this recommendation, there is the old chestnut of justifying them using these tools themselves to understand the kids' world.  I remember saying this to National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) participants 10 years ago.  It's true enough but many argue against it.  Practicing what you preach applies and it all comes down to a human beings unwillingness to learn after a certain age.  It's incredible how many resist it.2. School leaders should use a social media tool as part of their communications with the schoolcommunity;This would be a good way of establishing it's validity.  The problem is that the only relationship much of social media has with formal education is to be banned, it's associated with negative things.   You have to stick your head above the paraphet to alter this.3. validate and support their staff in using social media tools for ongoing professional development;This is a positive strategic move which also give the mode validity for learning.  This could start with one tool that some people have good experiences and understanding of within the school or institution.4. turn online activity into offline actions, in order to harness the benefits of face-to-face interaction alongside those of online interaction;This is about using technology within the classroom.  Tablets will impact on this in the future.  However, this is whole new area in itself.  In the classroom or for homework there is scope for both but shouldn't be blurred together as both need carefully planned learning design.5. implement robust systems for evaluating the impact of CPD on teacher effectiveness and student outcomesNo comment on this one.The next post will consider the recommendations for policy makers.

More on Tweeting for Teachers although it's more using it as a launchpad for my own reflections.National and local policymakers should:1.  publish guidelines and support for teachers and leaders to help them use social media in schools;There are various social media strategies out there.  The emphasis should be on the potential for teaching and learning.  Most guidelines I've seen are about control and read like rules and regulations which put teachers off and fit with the "danger" ethos as its mantra.  It's true that to write informed guidelines about potential for the various types of tools but it doesn't have to be detailed just give encouragement and a green light to this area.  I drafted some guidelines myself which hopefully will be used by my institution in the future.  I share them here for anyone to look at.2. consider how they will begin to unfilter social media sites for use in schools;Consider!  Just do it.  It highlights a contradiction in the way we educate.  In formal education it's necessary to control communication - quiet in class, no chatting, pay attention.  Social media is extra communication channels.  So we control it.  The problem is we need to use them for teaching and learning.  Banning social media is like banning talking in schools.  Sure you have to control inappropriate use but we cut off all that learning potential by banning it.3.  recognise and celebrate self-directed professional learning by teachers using online tools, and the role of social media in this learning;Building a culture where this is valued is important.  There are lots out there but they are isolated and poorly known in the mainstream.4. create a common online space where the whole education community can find each other;This is a bit vague and I have visions of a controlled, unwielding space with poor usability if something is done at a national level.  In the case study about Edubuzz, I was hoping for some information about how to do this for myself because it's this kind of purposeful initiative that I could see working for groups of schools. 5. ensure that all Initial Teacher Training courses demonstrate a strong focus on the use of social media tools for ongoing professional development.Yes, make this law.  Can't see this happening any time soon.

A few points on this subject as I return from holiday.Synchronous is what we are used to, it's what learners know and expect. For learners with a history of success in the formal education system, it works just fine. To articulate how asynchronous learning activities can work well, you need to highlight the breathing space such activities afford the learner when gathering their thoughts before they express themselves. Asynchronous is about time periods lasting days not hours.  This could be exemplified using online discussion where you are engaging with the content and other participants.  Through a dialogue, the learner's views are challenged and their own views get refined.  This is learning and learning is hard.  For me, an asynchronous context gives this process more chance of success. This is because the learner can engage in an iterative process of thinking, articulating (usually through writing text) and refining their views.  Thinking about a journal, blog type of asynchronous tool, you have more engagement with the content/own experiences than other participants. It's important when thinking about asynchronous/synchronous learning activities to acknowledge the importance of being comfortable in the mode of learning the learner's find themselves in. Of course, I am well disposed and well used to learning asynchronous online. Many are not for various reasons. Whatever the reason, good practice involves process/navigation support where process support means how a learner should engage with the activity. You could also call this pedagogical support - how to engage pedagogically in what is usually a collaborative ethos. In a sweep of research I did earlier this year, a theme that came through strongly was the importance of learning how to learn. Online, its a misconception that the technology is the main stumbling block. This is wrong, it's the collaborative pedagogical design learners can't handle. This is because they don't know how to learn this way as they are not used to it.

I've been thinking about the basic strategy for an individual, group or institutional with their online learning design.  Trying to draw together all the principles, processes and techniques I recommend.  To plan strategically, think about the following.Essentially, what you want to do is:1. raise knowledge/understanding of the various online learning activity tools2. educate staff about the design process itself3. illuminate for them the strategic issues that need addressing in their context And then:4. work with them, guide them through a real learning design process. What you often get is just the first of these points together with offers to help with the last point. The other points might be addressed in passing but often don't get enough attention. It's about educating before direct assistance in an actual process.Now more on each of these points.1. Knowledge of toolsThis is knowing about how to use any online tool.  For a learning technologist, you want to do more than just demonstrating navigation. You want to help them understand how they can be used, how they are commonly used, show working examples, decontextualised templates, pedagogical affordances etc.2. The design processEducating about the design process is about:getting people to think in terms of time periodsmaking judgements of teaching hours and learning hoursensuring understanding of asynchronous/synchronous and how to handle the different types of activitiespromotion of a scaffolded learning processEstablish the basic building blocks of bespoke content and learning activitiesFor content, raise awareness of the various types of media they can use for contentFor activities, explain what the tools are (this could include 1)Explain how assessment can be linked. 3. StrategyYou want to think clearly about the rationale for altering your mode of delivery. Are you looking to open out into new markets? Are you looking to improve engagement through more flexible access? Whatever the rationale makes sure it’s clearly understood by everyone. Articulate your timeframes both for the design process and the course itselfIdentify and involve people that will teach on the course. Large-scale you need to organise a tutor training programme. This would involve raising knowledge/understanding of any online tools used and information about the learning design. It’s at this point you broach contextual cans of worms that needs talking about so they don't become elephants in the room. You would work hard in advance to talk about ways through these issues. The difficulty in HE is opening cans of worms that often fall across departments or even between departmental responsibilities. Engaging with marketing, engaging with IT, engaging with registration, engaging with assessment/exam boards, broaching issues such as academics time and space to design learning. A consultation role would highlight potential areas for scrutiny.4. Doing the designThis is best done in face-to-face meetings with the individual or group designing the course.  Having the knowledge/understanding from 1-3 could mean they can undertake this alone but it's preferable for a learning technology type person to be present.So how are 1-3 realised?Face-to-face sessionsCommon are events about particular tools, technologies explaining how, why and, if you're lucky, in what way you can use it. Now you need these. But be careful that this isn't all you do. Just doing this reinforces misconceptions about it just being about the technology. Sessions about 2 and 3 are desirable but rare (I do these). Pedagogically, I favour hands on workshop, and collaborate teaching involving activities and discussions.ArtifactsIt's common for institutional initiatives promoting blended/purely online learning to make stuff/make artifacts for people to engage with on their own: Stuff like advice documents, templates, case studies, videos, screencasts etc. I could talk about which ones I favour and the work I've done in this area. I worry about Institutional strategies which just do this and move on. Just as you would in an online learning activity, you need to support the process by helping staff one on one and in groups engage with any artifacts created.  This is to help them contextualise the artifact.  Without this process they are meaningless.In an ideal world you would have an:All emcompassing face-to-face eventIf you're lucky, you can get design teams in a room at the same time with time and space to first learn and then to practice or actually do their own learning design. Effective strategies from the research include Leicester's carpe diem initiative which involved having a captive audience for multiple days. Essentially, this allows you to take people through a learning journey from start to finish then do so on this subject. Within such events you could engage in a variety of teaching methods to iteratively teach or facilitate the learning of the 3 main points. You could introduce and facilitate engagement with any artifacts you've created. All this before guiding teams of people of people through a design process whilst the learning is still fresh in their memories. Finally a point about motivation.  A lot depends on the backing of the senior management. Not just hollow words, but financial commitment and resources. It's difficult to engage the majority of academics in blended/distance learning in their teaching and learning help of this kind would show that they are putting their money where their mouth is. It’s also important to utilize the trailblazers, peers who can show what they are doing and give validity to what’s new to others.

Originally published on ETC Journal.Connecting formal education to social media/web 2.0 tools is a relatively new area. Educational institutions hope that by purchasing a virtual learning environment (VLE) all of their learning technology needs will be met. However, the world moves fast, and some educators find that our suite of communication and collaboration tools doesn’t cater to our teaching and learning needs as well as they might. Interestingly, VLEs are usually more suited to managing rather than learning (but that’s for another day). So there is an argument for looking outside of the VLE to expand and enhance our options for engaging students in learning activities using technology. When it comes to thinking about social media or web 2.0 tools, we are looking at tapping into the affordances such tools have towards communication and collaboration. There’s a creative process involved in this, and it takes time, space and a certain amount of risk. However, it’s worth exploring if you want to keep developing as an educator and are always looking to improve the learner experience.Usually the stimulus for such a process comes from seeing or hearing about a particular tools used in a particular context. In these instances, the process is focused and relatively easy. However, what if you want to explore for yourself what’s out there and make informed decisions on what tool to use?Firstly, it’s useful to have in mind a set of criteria like the Sloan Consortium’s:AccessUsabilityPrivacy & Intellectual PropertyWorkload & Time ManagementFun Factor Visit the weblink above for details on this. What I’ll do in this post is reflect on the stages I go through when scoping our internet-based tool for teaching and learning. I’ve split it into different stages of the process:What type of tool?If you have no idea what’s available then you’ll probably need to talk to someone in the know. This will give you a starting point. From here, it’s about finding what this tool does and how that can be applied to learning. So for a mindmap, it’s about creating mindmaps for brainstorming, visualisation, reflection. You’ll notice that it’s not one simple concept here and it rarely is. What’s important is that you know what you want to use it for, choose a tool which is suited to this task and can articulate this clearly to the learners. Confusion can occur with tools that could conceivable perform a large variety of functions. Any collaborative document tool like google docs could be used for a multitude of learning activities. As long as you are clear about how you want the learners to engage in a tool and why, you’ll be OK. Just make sure you are not shoe-horning an activity into a tool that isn’t well suited to it. This process is about finding the best fit. For example, I could conceivably use a group blog for an asynchronous discussion. However, for this learning activity, I might be better off using a message board, a discussion forum embedded within a VLE or social network.Scoping out tools?The next step is to choose the particular instance of the chosen tool. For this, you need to scope out the available tools. This is something I do a lot. It isn’t an exact science, and you have to be aware that there will always be good ones you’ll miss. In fact, the hard part is finding the time every few month to find new instances that spring up. Also, in the fickly web 2.0 world, tools come and go so you need to check for disappearances — you usually get warning on this.I like to start with sites that already scope out tools for educational use — Free Technology for Teachers and Richard Byrne’s Favorite Tech Resources for Teachers. There’s also Robin Good’s Best Online Collaboration Tools 2011, but there’s a lot of rubbish there, and it can be difficult to load up and navigate. What I want to avoid is googling. Although it’s not to be ruled out, you want to start from an informed place rather than a random one.So what should you be looking for?Cost: The first thing I look for is cost. Commercial products are a no-no for me. I want to recommend free tools where I can. Sometimes minimal cost tools are OK, but anything more than a few pounds/dollars is ruled out. When it comes to internet-based tools for use in teaching and learning, starting off by paying lots of money isn’t necessary. You can often tell by the look and feel of a commercial website. They will have pricing or product as one of their main pages and will often be aimed at businesses. Most tools will have different levels based on cost. If the lowest level is a free version, then it’s worth investigating. This is especially true if there’s a free upgrade for education. Free tools aren’t necessarily amateur looking, but there will be more variety in their layout.Trying it out: The next thing is to try it out. Good tools will allow you to try it out quickly and easily. Ideally, there will be a video explaining and showing the features on the front page. Watch this first. This way you can decide quickly whether to dismiss it or not. It’s vital that you record the process you go through when you first start testing something. Answer for yourself questions like:How intuitive is it?How many stages are there?How easy are key functions?Does it do what I want it to?Is the language and terminology they use right for my context?How much learning would it take for learners to work it out?How does it look, and is this what I had in mind?The hard part of this is judging whether your learners will have the same experience as you did when trying the tool. My advice would be: Don’t assume anything. A simple process that you were able to move through easily can derail an entire course if taken for granted. I know, I’ve seen it. I’m blessed with an inability to pick things up quickly. This gives me little scope for assuming too much. Providing a three minute screencast can go a long way. The quick learner can simply skip this.Usually by playing around for a few minutes you get a feel for whether this could work for you. If you are scoping a few services, make a note of them (better still bookmark them) and move on. It’s common to not find anything you really want so you use the best you can find.It’s worth mentioning the importance of account creation. You should always bear in mind that you want to keep additional logins for your students to a minimium. In this regard, tools embedded within the VLE will always win. However, you’ll be looking outside the VLE for tools that have no internal equivalent. Some tools can be used without creating an account, but most will require it. I’m talking here about communication/collaboration tools that require students to become actively engaged. If the tools are educationally inclined, they may allow the educator to create accounts for a group of students (e.g., Diigo).For content creation tools like Prezi, only you will have to create an account and simply share/embed the results. You can usually get away with asking students to create one or two accounts on particular tools if the reasons and the benefits are clear. Anything more than that isn’t advisable. In general, account creation is getting easier with possible links to existing accounts you might have (like google). Be careful about linking with social networking accounts like facebook. I advise against it. It blurs the boundaries between the professional and the social. When it comes to using a social network service as the hub of activity, I prefer to go down the Ning or Grouply route rather than Facebook.A process that needs investigating is the interaction between two instances of the same tool if this is what you want to realise in practice. Most of the time you can test this out yourself on the same machine, but you might need to use different machines or even involve another person. I am often employing different email accounts so that I can create different accounts on the same tool. I have one or two emails that only really get used for this purpose.If you get to the stage where you think you’ve found something to use, you’ll need to try it out for real, hopefully with a friendly test audience. How it interacts with your VLE needs careful thought. A lot depends on how much you use your institution’s online environment currently and what its capabilities are. It might be as simple as providing a weblink with words around it. If you’re lucky, you can embed it somewhat. What’s important here is to think through what process/navigational support you need to provide. For a tool type that is new, you’ll need to clearly describe how you expect the learner will engage with the tool, with the other learners and to what end. So it’s more than explaining where to click. It’s about purpose and learning outcomes.I hope this rambling rundown gives some insight into the process of scoping out and choosing an internet-based tool for teaching and learning. As always, I find it personally useful to articulate my thoughts in this way

When grappling with the concept of learning I often talk about the importance of reflection.  However, another key concept is asynchronicity (I'm not entirely sure that's a word).  I've reflected on this previously within Asynchronous = Time and Space Learning.  In that post I talked about how learning is more likely to occur when given time and space.  I wanted to tease this out a bit more in relation to learning itself.Learning is hard, really hard.  It's a skill just to recognise when it's happening and cultivate it effectively.  Often, the pain associated with it is viewed negatively.  But the pain needs to gritted out because this is an important stage of the process.  Marilyn Taylor characterised learning as a continuous process of disorientation, exploration, reorientation and equilibrium (see p53 of this).  It's a cycle and the desired state is multiple loops through the cycle.  For every stage the flexibility, time and space offered by asynchronous learning activities is preferable to a purely synchronous involvement from formal education.  Of course, for synchronous learning events you always have the time afterwards to reflect.  But if you have a formal learning experience where everything is synchronous, the asynchronous times the learner has alone are not facilitated, not supported and without structured communication or collaboration when they need it the most.  You may be thinking "so what" but this is the point of formal education - to structure, facilitate and, in some senses, manufacture the learning.  When you structure in asynchronous learning activities through the various guises of learning technology tools and carefully facilitate such activities the stages of Taylor's cycle are given the best chance of being rowed through by the learner.  It's easy for learners to capsize in the first time they encourage the disorientation stage and they'll keep doing this every time they encounter it.  Pretty soon they shy away from the mental states associated with the learning cycle.  I think this has contributed to the a vast mass of humans who don't really know how to learn properly.  They grew up on a diet of synchronous learning and the difficult process of moving through the learning cycle wasn't supported in any way.  The tragedy is they carry it through their adult life and have trouble becoming lifelong learners thus inhibiting their potential.  I am still honing my learning skills but I keep trying and am able to support the process through various social media tool (like this one).  BTW, learning overall is great.  The "ah ha" moments are worth the pain.  It's a bit like going for a run but that metaphor can wait for another posting. A couple of asterisks to this post.  There is, of course, a lot of literature out there on learning theories and models.  For this post, I chose one that describe a process I recognise.  Also, the statement: "there are vast mass of humans who don't really know how to learn" is based on anecdotal evidence.  I think I have a somewhat informed decision but would welcome insights from others on this.

Happy new year.We are learning all the time. Structuring and directing this learning doesn’t need to be confined to courses and formal education. For an individual learner it is possible to construct your own personal learning environment utlitising different online tools for different purposes. It’s always been possible but social media tools make it far, far easier than previously possible. I’ve conceptualised some of the possibilities in this mindmap: I’ve divided it into two categories: Personal Learning and Collaborative Learning. However, because social media is inherently social there are opportunities for communication and collaboration throughout. It’s important to think about the type of learning activity a particular tool ‘affords’. I find affordance a useful concept when thinking about technology and learning. It basically means what a tool lends itself towards doing. Mindjumpers is all about articulating for companies what each social media tool affords for them in terms of marketing; for me, its learning. So, in the above mindmap, I don’t just say blogging, I say written reflection; because this is the part of the learning process that this social media tool affords.I could sum up the personal learning side of the mindmap by saying:You can use different social media tools to seek out knowledge/content, aggregate it so that you can store it/find it later in an organised fashion, reflect on this knowledge perhaps using visualisation tools and articulate it in writing.This post continues thinking from http://tpreskett.blogspot.com/2011/10/in-post-social-media-supporting-teacher.html

This post continues reflection on the learning design process I am currently engaged in for a session I run a couple of times a year and am running again on 7th Feb: 21st century tools for teaching and learning.  In a previous post on my blog, A learning design process using social media: Brainstorming and Aggregating, I wrote about using a noticeboard tool and a bookmarking tool to help in the design process.  I created a noticeboard representation of the existing session to help me reflect on where I was at and where I need to revisit the learning design:21CT 01/12(I'd advise you to right-click and open the above in a new tab/window)Looking at this allowed me to see that there isn't enough practical components.  I wanted more and, following a scoping exercise, I added a few bits:21CLearning Session: 07/02/12(I'd advise you to right-click and open the above in a new tab/window)Teaching internet-based tools for teaching and learning in a practical way requires careful thought.  Here are some golden rules I follow:Simple or no account creation - you can’t have participants spending 5 minutes creating an account. Email validation is a big no-no too. There is fine for real life personal use but if you want participants to try things out, it needs to seem easy. Always make the point that there are many examples of any tool type.  Of course, it needs to be free, see Choosing social media/web 2.0 tools for use in teaching and learning for more on this.Good usability - I try to teach tool types not specific websites.  Therefore, I try and show a few different examples.  For them to practice I choose the one with the best usability, the one with the lowest learning threshold so they can have a go as quickly as possible.  Once you've done this you can share the pros and cons of the different services you have identified.Learn the processes inside out - This is a logical point but an important one (as are the others really).  Teach them the basic usability by doing it yourself and float and help whilst they play with it.  It's vital that each click is explained, mistrust of new online tools is quick to take hold so it needs to appear as easy as you can make it.  With their personal ICT skills you will get to know who to concentrate on, but in the beginning don't assume anything.  This is biggest problem people have with any hands on session involving computing.Give them an authentic task - I've struggled with this in the past.  The more you know about their context the better but there is a usually a generic type of activity you can think of so that they start inputting into a particular tool in an authentic way.  One way of doing this is by requesting participants bring content to the session.  However you do it, it's important to try and get participants to think about its use in their teaching context.  The best way to do this is with them performing an authentic task using the tool.

There's lots to reflect on when you teach.  Rarely do we get a chance or have the inclination to do this fully.   For my role as a Learning Technologist in a Higher Education institution (Institute of Education, London, UK), I don't do a massive amount of teaching.  There is some but mostly the help and advice I provide is done informally in one-to-one meetings.  Anyway, I want to reflect on some teaching I did recently as I'm looking to improve and develop this particular session.On Tues, 7th Feb, I ran a session called 21st century tools for teaching and learning.  I've blogged about the planning of this session before if you are interested -  http://tpreskett.blogspot.com/search/label/Web%202.0 .  There's much to reflect on, but I wanted first to think about how I structured and presented it.  The biggest challenge with this session is the amount of different websites I ask the participants to visit throughout the day.  There are lots of different types of tools to demonstrate and practice using.  To facilitate this process I have always create a website to act as the hub for the day.  In the past I've used a social networking facility like http://www.ning.com/ or http://www.grouply.com/.  However, this time I switched to a normal website creation tool.  The reason is that the social networking services are geared towards communication and don't present content particularly well.  As participants weren't really using the communication tools within the sites during the day (despite my encouragement) it seemed preferable to display the content as dynamically as I could using a tool more suited to this task.  I chose http://www.weebly.com/ mainly because I've used it before and it allows for embedded outside tools, videos, documents etc.  So I created a website with a different page for each type of tool I was teaching about:BackchannelsWeb 2.0 technologies in educationNoticeboardsWord cloudsDrawing toolsMindmappingCollaborative bookmarkingTool explorationMultimedia PostersDigital Story-tellingChoosing an online toolCreative Commons/CopyrightMap ToolsTimelinesGame sitesQuick Feedback toolApplication first stepsWithin each page I had a consistent structure of a short presentation, embedded or linked example and activities.  The activities were setup so that the participants could practice using the tool within a relevant context.  Unfortunately, I can't share this website with you.  It was paid for session so it seems silly to give away for free what others had to pay for.  However, I've duplicated the word cloud page and it's available here if you are interested in seeing how the pages were structured:  http://wordcloudtools.weebly.com/.Overall, the system worked well.  Some reflections:- Some of the ICT co-ordinators were interested in the tool I'd used to create the website.  - I'm not sure the presentations I embedded onto each page were necessary.  It didn't feel quite right presenting from slides in this context and environment.  I would be better served simply talking about the subject matter from memory when I visited each page.  - Having the weblinks on the relevant pages worked well and made the navigation and structure very clear for all.  - The website serves as a resource after the session for participants.  They simply revisit the site to download anything relevant and revisit the tools I've highlighted.  They seemed to like that idea.- I didn't give them much paper as everything was on the site.  Any presentations were added as files to download.- The activities mostly worked well although I will reflect about specific tool-types in later posts.Had I used a normal powerpoint I would be forever toggling between the internet and my slides it would have been chaotic.  I can recommend using a free website service like weebly to act as the hub of any workshop you do involving lots of internet based activities. 

I thought I'd write a series of posts articulating my current thinking on different types of internet based tools and their use within education. My expertise in this area is largely based around finding things, playing with them and assessing their potential for teaching and learning. My last few posts have been based around this subject in some way or another.  However, I've not done much about specific types of tools. Firstly, backchannels. This is a where you use a micro-blogging or chat based tool to facilitate a text-based dialogue within a live session.  My focus here is an its potential for the classroom, but they are primarily used within conferences.  For the classroom, backchannels lend themselves to a context where mobile device are used - so smartphones or tablets or laptops.  I would guess that many readers of this blog would be familiar with backchannels at conferences. Mostly, this would occur using a twitter hashtag - #. This is appropriate for conferences because conference organisers would want dialogue around their sessions to be public. Also, the only people that would entertain participating in such a dialogue would be active micro-bloggers and they would already have twitter accounts.  I've been a few sessions where it's been a pointless exercise to even have a backchannel as its ignored throughout.  However, I've also been to events where dialogue on twitter forms an integral part of the event.  They have people monitoring it and feeding into the face-to-face conversation.  Of course, it works best if the speakers are involved in this.Within formal education, you want your own space for the dialogue, a space that a teacher can setup and control.  So twitter is probably not the right environment.   There are a number of services where you can quickly and easily set up a backchannel and embed or link to within your website/VLE.  The only one I've actually used in a real class situation is http://neatchat.com/which worked well.  There are other similiar tools like http://www.chatzy.com/ and http://stinto.net/.  I nearly used http://todaysmeet.com/ as I liked the tidy interface but the 140 character limit meant I shied away from it.  Generally, you want the freedom to write more than a few words but todaysmeet and other micro-blogging alternatives still have use as its a good skill to have to articulate your points within this character limit.  I've not mentioned edmodo because this is more than a backchannel, its more of a virtual environment where a number of things can occur.But why do this? What are the benefits? Here are some obvious points:- Question asking/question answering- Feedback- Communication amongst students- Alongside and in reaction to a spoken event, video, image or presentationHowever, you can do all of this anyway using this thing called a voicebox - I hear you cry.For me, this extra communication channel CAN add value to any learning context - it's called Technology Enhanced Learning.  The degree to which this occurs will vary from student to student.  The main logistical point is that it allows for engagement without having to wait for the end of any presentation of content - allowing the student to articulate their thoughts as they occur to them.  I have found this really powerful during conference presentations.  Being able to bang out tweets greatly increases the value of such sessions.  It's about contextualising the learning, putting it in my words so that the knowledge gets subsumed into my understanding.  The variety comes with the comfort level an individual student has with using a backchannel - with engaging by typing short messages.  For some, they will be more comfortable engaging via a backchannel than by raising their hand and speaking.  For some, the opposite will be true.  What's important is that educators don't close their minds to tools which wouldn't suit them - your students might not be the same.  So, you could sum up by saying backchannels:- Engage students who otherwise might not contribute- Evens the playing field for involvement- Can't be dominated by the loudest voice- Allow students to ask questions on the fly without interrupting- Allow teachers to see and answer questions quickly- Give teacher feedback on the level of understanding or confusion in the class- Provides a record of the dialogue for future reference- Demands engagement with the material to participateAn important point which should not be overlooked is the development of writing skills.  It will improve writing and a student's ability to articulate themselves quickly using text.  There's also the development of keyboard skill if laptops/tablets are being used.  The difficult with a backchannel is in the management of it.  It's important to work out protocols for use AND how you, as the teacher, will engage with it and when.  It's important you are clear about the use and benefit of the tool.   You want to avoid false expectations and feeling overwhelmed by the dialogue.In the only session where I setup and managed a backchannel, I found that I would have to manufacture its use.  Some valuable ideas were shared which I could then share after the session, however it didn't flow as well as I liked.  This might have been due to the room setup and the fact that we were using desktop computers but I wonder what the different would be if I was teaching children rather than adults?

As usual for me, I'm breaking away from an existing train of thought in these posts for something different.When you work with VLEs/LMSs you deal extensively with the text-based communication tools that exist in all systems.  The 3 biggies are the discussion/forum tool, the blog/journal tool and the wiki tool.  Explaining how each can be used to facilitate learning within learning activities is a key challenge for the Learning Technologist.  What's really important is that you articulate clearly the subtle differences between these tools and what their pedagogical affordances are.  Here are my attempts to sum things up:Discussion/forum toolUse the asynchronous online discusssion tool for engaging students in a text-based dialogue:to facilitate a meaningful learning dialogue amongst studentsto develop students‘ written communication skillsto allow time and space for tutors and students articulate clearly and thoughtfully when engaging in a dialogueto flexibly engage with studentsBlog/journal toolUse the blog/journal tool:to facilitate reflection amongst studentsto facilitate individual feedback from tutor to student through private journal/blog structuresto develop students‘ written communication skillsto allow time and space for students articulate clearly and thoughtfully when reflecting on their learningto flexibly engage with studentsWiki toolUse the wiki tool for co-construct text:to facilitate collaboration amongst students the editing and refining of eachothers words within a group project contextto facilitate co-operation amongst students through the allocation of tasks within a group project contextto allow time and space for students articulate clearly and thoughtfully when writing on a particular topicThere's much more to it of course.  However, I'm trying to summarise here and give the key messages.  I welcome the views of others.

To continue the series of posts on the theme of internet-based tools for teaching and learning, here is my latest thinking on collaborative bookmarking in education.Firstly, the term I'm using is collaborative bookmarking rather than social bookmarking.  This is because I'm trying to put it within a educational context.  The emphasis, therefore, is collaboration or co-construction of knowledge and understanding and using an online bookmarking service as part of such a pedagogical design.The best way of experiencing online bookmark is to experience it for yourself and, unlike other online tools with potential for education, there is a clear rationale for personal bookmarking as it's a much, much better than saving website links than the old favourites, folders way.  Part of this is about digital literacy, we really need to help our educators understanding and experience key social media concepts for themselves to help them comprehend how formal can utilise such tools.  For example, for social bookmarking tagging is key.  The power is in the multiple tags you can put against single sites so that sorting and categorisation can be nuanced and flexible.  Although tagging exists across all social media, it's amazing how it isn't used by the vast majority in most tools/services.  With bookmarking you pretty much have to tag, so it's a good way of forcing people to learn this skill and experience its benefits.  This is the folksonomy concept.The learning context is simply - group creation of a relevant weblinks so that the workload is shared and the useful resources people find can be built up into a bank of resources for groups in the future.  The principle is sound so what are the tools?I've used two services: http://www.delicious.com/ and http://www.diigo.com/.  Delicious has changed much over the years.  As a pure bookmarking tool, in its current version, this is my favourite.  It's brief marriage to yahoo didn't do it any favours (I went elsewhere whilst this occurred) and its progress has been set up a few years as a result.  It's strength is its simplicity and the stacks feature is a good one.  I can see how stacks could be utilise for student activities where they are asked to find and present as a resource relevant websites on a particular topic.However, for a group learning context its not ideal.  For this I would recommend http://www.diigo.com/ as its more geared towards education.  A free education license (http://www.diigo.com/education) gives you the ability to create accounts for students in a group.  You could use such a group to share resources and I've helped a number of colleagues do this for their courses.  What's good is that you get a url for your group area which you can share and post to your vle area websites.  Also, with diigo you can make notes against each bookmark or make notes on the webpage itself.  I've used diigo to plan sessions like this one http://groups.diigo.com/group/web20_learning with colleagues.So what's my experience of bookmarking in my UK HE institution?  Overall, I would say the courses I've helped with haven't made much use of their group bookmarking facility. Its worth reflecting on why?Usability has an impact as it's not great.  Ok, there's a diigo toolbar but what if your educational institution won't let you do this? Well, you are left with their rather cumbersome usability. Also, access to any diigo requires a login.  Although you can create this for students its still an extra step.  I advise where possible you duplicate other logins they may have.There's an ethos of sharing at the heart of social media and when shoehorned into a formal education context it often doesn't sit well.  There's an element of competition, an element of selfishness ingrained into the mentality of learners who have come through schooling and have arrived at higher education - at least at the moment.The common context for use has been as a course wide sharing of readings and references related to the writing of the assignment.  Technically students should be collecting these throughout the course.  However, its common for this to occur in a mad rush at the end.  There's no time or use for sharing resources at this stage.  It would be preferable to relate the sharing of web resources to a particular learning activity so that the rationale and incentive is clear and you can quickly reach large number of bookmarks.  It's only when you have lots that you see the benefit of having a dedicated bookmarking service.  Otherwise, students will simply paste via a forum or email.I've had a section within my session 21st Century Tools for Teaching and Learning on bookmarking since I started it a 3 years ago.  I've been able to create a diigo create and hand out logins for people to try out the uploading process.  It's worked well.  At the last day I did on 7th Feb there were interesting ideas of using it for sharing resources amongst staff and parents.I'd welcome any comments about your experiences of bookmarking in education, whatever the context.

In our rush to  promote knowledge and understanding of dynamic, creative and engaging internet-based technologies within formal education, it's easy to lose sight of the importance of core text-based interaction tools like discussions or forums.  Such communication channels can be a really good way of eliciting a reflective dialogue when setup and facilitated effectively.  The key point is that the asynchronicity allows for reflection and considered articulation of your thoughts (something I've reflected on in Asynchronous = Time and space learning , The difference between asynchronous and synchronous learning activities and The learning cycle and the power of asynchronous learning activities ).  For me, the process of rearranging and retyping words in a forum post is as close to a manifestation of the learning process as you can get.  Your knowledge and understanding is being refined and crystallised based on the thoughts of other learner's. In addition, you are presenting your position and making a conscious effort to get your point across.  In addition, regular engagement in text-based learning activities have a really positive effect on developing a learner's written articulation skills.I work in UK Higher Education where its rare for courses to make use of learning technologies not to design in some discussion based learning activities.  A common technique for those involved in helping educators design such activities is to use representations of practice.  This could include case studies, or pedagogical templates.  Quite often, learning technologies come up with their own and I am no different.  I try to use representations which have pedagogical rigour but are also easily digestable.  The level of abstraction needs to be somewhere between being too abstract for easy application and too specific to be adaptable.  Also, a consideration for easy digestion is the length of the representation.  Basically, its not good to be too long.Below are a set of representations that can be used for any online discussion tool.  Each box represents example wording that can be adapted for use within any learning activity using this tool.  You will notice that there is lots of process support in each wording.  This covers how the learners should engage with the activity and explaining how the tutor/facilitator will engage.  Such process support is a vital part of the design of online learning activities and often overlooked. Open publication - Free publishing - More educationIdeally I use these activity wordings as part of learning design consultation.  It helps educators new to e-learning visualise how such activities could work.  It also highlight the different types of discussion you can have.  I've grouped the wordings within a scaffolded learning process - it happens to be Salmon one but I could have used others.  The point of this is to show how discussions can be used at different stages of a scaffolded learning process.  What's interesting is that other tools like wikis are more suitable for later stages in the learning process whereas the discussion tool is a versatile and can be used within lots of different contexts.  I hope you find these useful.

I wanted to blog again as it's been a while.  Amongst all the different facets of my work recently, the area that is most stimulating my thinking is ipads and the potential of tablets in formal education.I feel strongly that tablets have the potential to have really positive impact on our formal education in the classroom.  Internet based technology have a duel function within formal education.  Use within the classroom and as the hub of activity for homework assignments.  Now with tablets and the excellent ipad, we finally have a technology with the potential to widespread use in the classroom.  It's in the classroom where technology can truly be blended into the learning design.  Homework is fine but formal education is 99% face-to-face.  Rightly or wrongly, this is our reality.  And technology that can fit seamlessly and unobstructively into this environment is what is needed.  Ipad provide this.Within my training event 21st Century tools for teaching and learning, I don't really talk about the context for use but I'm aware that widespread use of the internet within the classroom is difficult logistically for most educational institutions with current hardware.  The only way it can work within the classroom is within laptops/notebooks - until now.  I'm started to find blogs reflecting on ipad trials (e.g. http://ipadsontrial.wordpress.com/ and http://rossettschool.realsmartcloud.com/category/staff/ipad/).  I'm going to keep and eye on these as I start this new strand to my learning process.  Now I own one myself I was try educate myself on the apps.  The apps are the focus but use of internet tools not packages in apps should not be ignored as ipads are an excellent browsing tool.  The key affordance is the potential for engagement - annotation, highlighting, interaction, creation etc.  So dynamic content can be created, delivered and actively engaged with by each student.I see this as an introductory post on a subject which should occupy my thinking over the coming months so plan to explore different aspects in future posts. 

Today I ran a short session where I shared how I use social media to enhance my learning. I've blogged previous about this topic in the post Social Media for YOUR learning but now I've refined my thinking and developed a better presentation about this I thought I'd share my thinking again.I decided to represent my thinking in the below pearltree.  Pearltree is a website where you can create mindmap-type groups of bubbles which links to websites.  I've started using it as my main bookmarking site.  It took a bit of getting used to but its good if you want to group things and is certainly more visually appealing than a normal bookmarking service.Making sense of how I use social media to aid my learning is a tricky business.   However, I have a sort of system and this what I wanted to share.  Although the process is iterative some types of activity do present themselves.  An important point is that different aspects of the same tool fit into the different categories I identify.Seeking and consuming knowledge - This is mainly my RSS reader and twitter.  I use google reader and have a carefully refine list of blogs and learning technologies news services which I subscribe to.  With twitter, I don't spend as much time as I could or should on this.  I'm following 170 or so people and it purely about learning technologies.  I have a seperate account for fun stuff as it's useful to differentiate between my learning and social life.  In the pearltree below I've also included google and linkedin as these are also important places I look for things.Aggregation - Very closely associated with seeking knowledge is the aggregation of knowledge.  You need to aggregate before you can consume in a discerning fashion.  RSS and the process of subscribing are fundamentally components of this.  Gradually twitter is muscling in on my time but I still love my google reader.  Also included below are evernote where the different folders I create and the notes I take are a form of aggregation for review later and diigo.  I use diigo because it allows for groups which, along with the normal tagging, allow me to easily find types of bookmarks.Website note-taking - I tend not to do this in its purest sense but it deserves its place as there are a host of services which can be utilised for this purpose.  Of the sites listed in this pearl below, my activity is mainy confined to evernote which I use to copy/paste the best bits, the golden nuggets of knowledge I find.  By creating a note for each set of such nuggets, I can include a weblink and tag for future reference.  The important point here is that you find time to review later - that's the learning.  I also ensure that when I bookmark in diigo I write a few words to remind myself what the site is about.  However, with bookmarking proper tagging are key.  Bounce and scrible are note-taking on the website tools.Knowledge sharing - This is an important part of the ethos of social media and web 2.0 - you share as well as consume, you give as well as receive.  My chief forum for this is twitter where I get benefit from articulating the key points in a tweet and from generating more contacts to follow and be followed.Brainstorming/sense-making - Here I've included a drawing tool and a couple of mindmapping tools.  I use mindmapping tools a lot to helping create relationship between concepts and play with my ideas.Text-based dialogue learning - This will be different for everyone.  My networks for this include a couple of learning technology groups and some linkedin groups, but I've also included my blog where dialogue can occur in the comments.Writtern reflection - This completes the circle.  It's what I'm doing now and it a vital component for my learning.  The fact that I've not done much blogging over the last few months isn't good and I know I learn less when do less blogging.  The process of articulating for an potential audience is right at the heart of learning.  By refining my words, I refine my learning. Personal learning using social media and Seeking and consuming knowledge in TomPreskett (tompreskett)I would be interested in hearing anyone's thoughts on my PLE and hearing about the tools you use.

My summer was dominated by my MA dissertation.  One of the knock on effects of this was a absence of blogging.  It was one of many things that fell by the wasteside.  The overriding emotion was one of stress.  Stress whilst writing and stress whilst not writing accompanied by a feeling of guilt.  When I look at the output, there's nothing remarkable about the components and it doesn't seem like it should have been so difficult.  So why was it so bad?Writing a dissertation involves actually doing a bit of research.  It may be small but it's research.  Each component is an unknown quantity and involves learning.  Learning is hard and learning is messy (the learning is messy blog is worth a read by the way).  But the reason I let things get in such a negative place was my inability control the process.  Over the last few years I've prided myself in taking control of my own learning.  I've used social media to probe for knowledge and understanding of learning technologies and the unknown has been stimulating and interesting.  However, the key point with this is that I control what I learn about and the pace at which I learn it.  Even though I chose to do this MA, it felt forced upon me and, at times, overwhelming.  Working full time and studying part time is a careful balancing act.  But enough of my neurosis.  I'm better for the experience and know a hell of a lot more about what the research literature says about the role of learning technologists in UK Higher Education.  If you are interested in finding relevant research on this area, I would start with anything by Martin Oliver, Grainne Conole and Diana Laurillard.There were two key challenges.  Firstly, establishing a focus.  This is hard because you have to establish a focus before you fully understand the subject.  You also need a focus in order to undertake the research.  I probably changed and refined my focus a dozen times.  This delayed the research stage considerably causing a flurry of activity over the last few weeks.  However, I had to do it this way as it had to make sense to me and I had to be in a position to ask the right questions.  Looking back, I could have done with another refinement or two but I ran out of time.   The second key challenging is writing critically.  This is a skill which I found hard to pick up.  To truly master it I would need to continue my academic learning with further qualifications (a path I don't plan to take).  Firstly, you need to have read widely enough to have a good understanding of what is already written about a subject.  As I lacked confidence,  so I read and read and read.  You then have to internalise it quickly before you can write about it.  Throughout the process, you are still learning so until the very end, you don't fully understand what it is you are being critical about.  This makes it very hard to do.  Also, being critical involves disagreeing with established research.  This, also is hard to do when you are still learning the subject.  I am naturally respectful of established opinion until I know enough to be able to challenge it.  In this process, I had to rush to challenge in a timescale that seemed rushed.  I guess this is a necessary stage to go through but its hard.Let's hope I've done enough to pass.

I recently undertook a study to help me go my job better.  I was about the practice of learning technologists.  More specifically I looked at the processes involved with supporting UK Higher Education academic staff in their design of online or blended courses.  I did this by researching my own practice and how I supported my colleagues in their learning designs by studying through learning design processes I have been involved in recently.  Through study of the research literature, themes emerged which impact on the design process and it was under these headings that I organised the write-up.  Here is a summary:What has positive influence on the professional practice of a learning technologist in supporting online learning design?  The main areas impacting on the professional practice of a learning technologist supporting academics in online course design are: contextualisation, the socio-historical context, academic perceptions/attitudes and the role of the learning technologist. To positively influence this practice, a learning technologist should be cognizant of all these areas. With regard to the study question, it is clear that contextualised support should be central to the remit of a learning technologist. Therefore a focus on this should be adopted. The fact that generic support is valuable but perceived as secondary by academics is a useful finding because it shows that they can positively influence the learning technologist's professional practice but are subject to negotiation as the academic(s) may need convincing to participate in interactions of this nature. Therefore, a learning technologist should identify opportunities and, where possible, take opportunities to provide this type of support.Learning technologists should be cognizant of the wide variety of socio-historical contexts and how the different contexts can be linked to certain types of behaviour and restrictions. By having this awareness, learning technologists can tailor their support to provide the maximum positive influence on the online learning design. From this study, there is evidence that online course redesign processes can be subject to colleague restrictions; representations of practice have use when redesigning learning activities; time constraints limit the extend of the design process and the amount of interactions that can occur between the learning technologist and the academic(s); and academics colleagues with previous experience of online teaching are given credence over and above learning technologists.Learning technologists should be cognizant of the wide variety of academic staffs’ perceptions and attitudes and how they can be linked to certain types of behaviour. By having this awareness, learning technologists can tailor their support to provide the maximum positive influence on the online learning design. This study demonstrated prevalence for positive attitudes towards online learning and a link has been established between how positive the academic is and the extent to which he/she engages with the online course design process, the learning technologist and the number of support roles the learning technologist can provide. Similarly, there is some evidence to suggest that academics with a student and learning focused pedagogical outlook will give a higher profile to design for learning within their module design than academics with a teacher and content focused pedagogical standpoint. There is also evidence to suggest that validating knowledge and interacting in a facilitative manner can help build the confidence of academics engaged in the process of designing online courses. Learning technologists should be cognizant that the roles they can play in supporting the online design process can be restricted if they are not deemed credible as a teacher by the academic(s). In these cases, their credibility as a pedagogical designer is not present. Also, a common curriculum of interactions between a learning technologist and an academic(s) does exist and consists of multiple iterations of the academic teaching the learning technologist about the context followed by the learning technologist teaching the academic about suitable learning technologies or knowledge and understanding of online course design. By having awareness of these issues, learning technologists can tailor their support to provide the maximum positive influence on the online learning design. Here are summary bullet points of the main findings: Contextualisation:Contextualised support should be central to the remit of a learning technologistGeneric support is valuable but perceived as secondary by academicsSocio-historical context:Online course redesign processes can be subject to colleague restrictions.Representations of practice have use when redesigning learning activities.Time constraints limit the extent of the design process and the amount of interactions that can occur between the learning technologist and the academic(s).Academic colleagues with previous experience of online teaching are given credence over and above learning technologists.Perceptions/attitudes:There is a prevalence for positive attitudes towards online learning amongst academics.The more positive an academic, the more he/she will engage with the online course design process, the learning technologist and the number of support roles they can provide.Academics with a student and learning focused pedagogical outlook (Entwistle and Walker, 2000) will give a higher profile to design for learning within their module design than academics with a teacher and content focused pedagogical standpoint.Validating knowledge and interacting in a facilitative manner can help build the confidence of academics.The role of the learning technologist:Learning technologists not viewed as credible teachers by academics will not have credibility as a pedagogical designer.A common curriculum of interactions between a learning technologist and an academic(s) does exist and consists of multiple iterations of the academic teaching the learning technologist about the context, followed by the learning technologist teaching the academic about suitable learning technologies or knowledge and understanding of online course design.

I wrote a few months ago about how I was planning to use this space for regular reflections on the use of ipads in education.  Now that I've starting running workshop using ipads, I'm in a position to start this off in ernest.  This is the first such post.  My context is that I now have 15 ipad2s I got funded to run some income generating sessions (described in point 1 below).  However, I will try and do other things with them to enhance the practice of colleagues within my HE institution.This is how I aim to promote the use of ipads in education:1. By running workshops inviting teachers to come and try out a sample of apps and think about using them for teaching and learningThe idea is to run workshops along similiar lines to the 21st Century tools for teaching and learning session where I present and demonstrate different tools types whilst they practice for themselves on carefully selected apps which exemplify each tool type. I'll market it to London schools.  2. Within the Institute of Education, London (where I work) for enhancing personal productivityMy plan is to give them to colleagues for use in the workplace. I'll promote this by populating devices with relevant apps and teaching them how they could use them.  I'll concentrate on my department initially but hope to set up an institution wide Special Interest Group.  3. Within the Institute of Education to enhance teaching and learningA longer term goal which flows naturally from the workshops I run.  Generally, schools are more receptive to innovative use of learning technologies than Higher Education and I predict this will be the case with tablets.  However, I aim to promote their use in our lectures with colleagues.So that's my strategy as I start.  More to follow....

Yesterday I ran my first session promoting tablets in education.  It was to students and staff in my institution and only 40 minutes.  I decide I didn't have time for any substantial presentation and focused on a structure of showing/playing with a few apps.  I haven't quite settled on how I want to articulate and differentiate different types of apps yet.  I've found plenty of other's categorisations but I want to do my own.  These will no doubt come to light as I continue learning.Because of this and the time constraints I decided to pick 7 apps which I articulated as representing and exemplifying different types of activities you can use ipads for.  I chose free apps, ones that had good usability and no account creation to try them out.  The session worked well.  For each, I did a quick demo and then they played using the ipads I provided.  As I suspected a few already had ipads and, because they were free apps, downloaded them in the session to play on.  For the others they borrowed one from me with them pre-loaded.  I'm anticipating that future sessions will be a similar mixture of ipadded and non-ipadded participants.  I need to be mindful of this.Below are the apps I chose.  They are good starting point if you have an ipad and want to start thinking about possibility for use in teaching and learning.Make DiceA fun way to randomly choose the next activity. Create a dice and label each side with words. Then roll the dice by shaking it. The free lite version gives you enough functionality to use effectively.iBrainstormOnline noticeboard web apps have been around for a few years. This is a simple ipad version which VisualizeSuitable for creation of content by teacher and for individual/group project work for students. There is a strong creative element to the design of any visualize project. It's about mixing different media to make an effective poster-like display.UbersenseThis app introduces the video possibilities of this device. By being mobile its able to be versatile in its location. This app is specifically for sport movement analysis. Try it and see how it works. SimplemindThere are hundred of mindmapping web apps and many have produced an ipad version. There are many free examples. This one you can paly with without creating an account.SkitchDrawing and annotating on a blank screen, a photo, a map or a screenshot. A versatile app which can be linked to evernote if you use this. Easy to use.SocrativeThis is a slick, live Q&A tool which works well with both tablets and smartphones. You need to teacher app to create the questions or quizzes and the students need to student app to see and complete the quizzes. You can see/display live results and email them to yourself.  ------------------- Finally, I've started a website which I use as a resource to support the use of ipads in teaching and learning.  It is found here - http://ipadsioe.weebly.com/The next post will concern logistical issues with this type of session.

As a result of running one teaching workshop with multiple ipads I've encounter a lot of the logistical issues you come across.  Some I foresaw, some I did not.The easiest way to integrate ipads (or any other tablet device) into formal education is to buy each student a device to manage themselves.  This is a luxury most institutions don't have and would constitute a huge leap of faith.  It's more likely that you start with buying a few and piloting them - as we have done.  However, this involves more managing and more setting up as some of the managing issues fall to the institution rather than the individual.  Not being a technie I don't have exhaustive knowledge and what's required.  However, I was able to make it work with limited funds and a DIY approach.  I'll outline the issues I faced and how I overcame them below.1. The wifi - it's pretty good at our place when it works.  There are 2 networks.  However, they have been known to drop out, usually at the same time.  The IT department are working hard to improve this.  As it's uneven across the building I checked it out in the teaching room the day before.  Using apps you can work ok offline to a certain extent.  However, connectivity gives you much more options in the design of teaching and learning with these devices.2. Wifi access for the devices - Manage carefully access to the wifi of each device.  I was able to connect to a network that, once logged in, would not log out for the rest of the day.  This jumped this hurdle effectively.  I also had backup temporary logins for the another network if this one dropped out.  The ipads have been used twice.  The first time both wifi networks were switched off as maintenance work was going on!  Not good.  Luckily, this session wasn't run by me and my colleague planned only minimal ipad use so this wasn't too disruptive.  For my first teaching session using the ipads workshop this week, it worked fine.3. Itunes accounts - Each device needed its own itunes account.  Also, each itunes accounts needs to be associated with a different email address.  So I went through the laborious process of creating multiple emails accounts and multiple itunes accounts.  I established a format which had the same text  and a different number for each device.  I then used the same password and identical security information.   Each device was then labelled and setup with the appropriate itunes account and email.  This was, and is, fiddly - but its essential.  I did this before anything else.4. Getting the right apps on each device - As described in the previous post Using ipads in teaching and learning - an introduction, I needed to put the same apps on each device.  This was simple enough.  I decided to put the ones for the session last week in their own page to make things easier for the participants.  Although my first session involved only free apps I played around with associating a payment card to each itunes account so that I'm prepared when I start buying apps.  You may be lucky and have a work credit/debit card, I don't.  So it's me paying and claiming back.  However, I discovered that apple doesn't like you using the same card for more than 5 itunes accounts.  Following consultation with a colleague, I discovered gifting apps.  This is a good solution.  I can now use my main itunes account to purchase apps, gift them and then redeem them within each device.  The moral issue with apps on multiple devices is that I think you can get away with buying something once and then downloading on more than one device.  This is wrong, don't do this.  However, I didn't think about this issue enough when I sought funding so I'm a bit short of money for apps.  I'll have to be creative.5. Linking up to a projector - We have PCs in our teaching rooms so it's pretty simple.  We bought an Apple Dock Connector to VGA Adapter.  If we had macs in our teaching rooms I would have a host of apps to achieve the same thing which would be preferable because a lack of wires would free me up to wonder around the room.6. Baby wipes - I used these to wipe down the ipads after use.  I intend to continue this practice.  This is very different to normal teaching in an HE institution where you book a room, make sure you work the PC/projector and bring a memory stick.  A learning technologist lives and dies by logistical preparation.

Earlier this week I delivered my second session about ipads using ipads.  For this session I built on the same idea from the first one (see Using ipads in teaching and learning - an introduction) - presenting a pot pourri of free apps to give participants a taste of the types of activities that can be performed using such devices.  Again it worked well although the group was a small one.  Below are the apps that presented and had them practice using:Paperport notesA good, solid example of note taking app. Good usability allowing for text, drawn or narrated notation. You can also import pdfs to annotate. The sharing options are extensive.. Mind mashSimple note taking app organised in sheets allowing for text, drawing and photos. Inspiration liteA good mindmapping tool with lots of template to work from and lots of display options. Can do 5 maps in this free version.Popplet liteMindmapping with the bonus of using images and drawing. Colourfully displayed this is worth exploring. You can only create one popplet in this free version. However, the pay version isn't too expensive at £2.99.Creative padDigitial storytelling tool with more background, character, object options than most. Music background is a bonus and you can share by pdf/email. Flip boomCreate your own animations with a series of images. There are many such apps and this is good starting point as it only takes a few minutes to master. As with many of the above the free version doesn't allow you to build up a library. However, you can play with its full functionality.Mental classA flashcard creation and storage app. The core purpose would be for students to create revision notes but there is scope for teacher use too. Notes can be combination of text, images and audio and organised into subject cases. To share you need to pay but you can use it effectively for yourself for free. Note: search for MENTAL CASE to find it in the app store.Start lite - Web to pdfThere are many ways to convert a web page to a pdf. Unsurprisingly, there are many ipad apps fro this too. Start lite is a free example allowing for 3 such conversions per day.