Personal Blogs

Thursday 12th November

There are so many tools, Web2.0, mobile apps, desktop applications, that the offer so many opportunities for teachers and learners.  They offer novel ways to learn, authentic ways to leave, collaborative ways to learn.  It is an amazing choice, probably more than ever before.  Having just some from a demonstration  of the new HP Sprout (not a small green vegetable), it is clear that there's even more on the way.  Teachers are faced with a tremendous amount of choice.  It can be incredibly confusing.  Talking to a maths teacher recently, he was confused as to whether he should use voting pads or Socrative, or some other voting tool a colleague had recommended.  

However, the main point to remember is that whatever choice you make it should be based on pedagogy, not novelty, not wow factor.  Technology is not at the centre, learning is.  We need to avoid technological determinism: I have this tool, what can I do with it?  It should be: My learners need to be able to ...  What tool would help my learners the best?  

The Features of digital resources include.

• Storage
• Access 
  
• Multimedia 
  
• Personalisation 
  

These features lead to different ways on which teaching and learning can be enhanced.

These four properties and the ways in which they can add value to learning certainly align with my views on the benefits of blended learning.  Digital technologies also foster greater collaboration by providing more opportunities to co-create.  This develops students' wider skills in collaborative working.  

Another feature of digital technology is that it can open the door to greater personalisation through learning analytics.  Learning analytics is an exciting new area, providing ways to analyse what a student does and feed them new work tailored to their needs.  The OU have several projects trialling this.  See  http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/mar/26/learning-analytics-student-progress. 

The ability to create quizzes that provide instructive feedback, but are machine marked helps students in terms of immediate feedback, particularly for formative assessment.  They also help teachers by freeing up the time otherwise spent marking that can now be utilised for those topics that require more face-to-face teaching time.  

Other ways in which digital technologies change teaching and learning are greater sustainability, with less need for paper. Our recent projects at New College include the roll out of Office 365 to all students and staff.  Teachers are now sharing documents with their class, reducing paper and photocopying usage.  

We have helped teachers set up Class OneNotes as a form of ePortfolio.  For example in Photography we have helped them set up a class OneNote for students to collect resources for their projects.  The teacher can review and comment on the collections.  We are exploring Yammer as an alternative to Facebook. 

We are now using the Video app in 365 to store videos that students can search and view, eg for GCSE Maths.   

Some subject areas, particularly Design and Technology and Fashion are using Pinterest so that students can share their research. 

We also have three pilot schemes using Surface tablets.  Three classes selected from different subject areas have been gifted tablets and the eLearning team are working with teachers to integrate their use onto the scheme of work.

Working with adult learners

Adult learners:

Distance learners are more likely to be adult learners and so this means that we have to not only consider the needs of distance learners in terms of the specific support they need to undertake this method of learning, but we also need to think about their needs as adult learners and ask if this is distinct from young learners.

Greaves looks at the support needed for distance learners. Particularly support for their affective development and the need to create a supportive environment.  It is also important here to provide way for learners to avoid or quickly deal with negative emotions, such as the frustration of not being able to use the technology or find help.  Negative emotions are counter to effective learning. Students develop better in a fully supported environment, which includes technical as well and content support and when they feel supported they are more likely to feel more confident with the new learning environment.  Research has highlighted that lack of support is a considerable barrier to learning for students. MMU (Manchester Met) provided a website to support studying online. 

Support is an important aspect of distance learning.  As the use of online tools increases it has become even more important.  Students are not necessarily furnished with the skills or confidence for online learning and it is a very big barrier to success. The OU has a similar supporting framework to MMU with a very well developed site on Skills for OU study.  For technical help there is the Computing Guide which is well linked from a number of different areas and is very student and beginner friendly.  The library also have information and guidance and hold a number of online seminars on a range of online tools, as well as guidance on how to use the online library. Tutors are also another source of advice and guidance and the tutor group forum is a good place to provide support.  It is important that this support is timely though or it can only add to a sense of frustration.

It is argued that adult learners have different needs and motivations to young learners.  Knowles (2005) work on andragogy suggests that adult learners need to know why they are learning something, feel more responsible for their lives and their learning, are life-centred and usually have a reason for undertaking study which motivates them. The suggestion is that learning is therefore grounded in learners’ experiences and interests. Adult learners are also much more diverse and so a more student-centred, individual approach is required. McKeachie (2002) provides advice on teaching strategies best suited to adults. Lectures should give space for student involvement and activities to help think through ideas and ground them in experience. Problem-based learning is effective, including role play and simulations.  Case studies are useful as they show real world situations to support abstract ideas. Discussion is also suggested as, again, it helps ground ideas in experience and improve learning retention. From experience adult learners generally do prefer to be engaged in activities and discussion.  It is also useful because it draws out prior learning and other examples from people's own life experiences and enriches discussions.  The most effective tutorials are those that are active.  With adult learners the teacher becomes a facilitator (Gagné) and this is very much how I see the role of an OU tutor. We facilitate understanding of the module material via a range of methods and technologies.  Understanding is improved if learners have to think about the material, sometimes giving them a slightly different perspective.  Thus questioning and discussion are the basis of facilitating understanding. We have the benefit of not needing to deliver material as this is achieved though the online and written resources produced by course teams and so we do have the luxury of being focused on the assimilation of knowledge.

Clardy (cited in Rees 2010) provides a critique of the andragogy theory arguing that adults aren't different to children as learners - ie they still learn in much the same way.  Possibly at a fundamental level this is true. My argument is that the different strategies they call upon to make learning effective and their degree of control over their method of learning are different. He does argue that adults are an heterogeneous group, which is true and possibly more so than children and so this is also a feature that draws them apart.  However he does argue that not all adults are ready to be self-directed learners and this is where the need for advice, guidance and support comes in. 

References

Knowles, M. S., Swanson, R. A., and Holton, E. F. III (2005) The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development (6th ed.)California: Elsevier Science and Technology Books.

McKeachie, W. J., Pintrich, P. R., Lin, Y., and Smith, D. A. F (1986). Teaching and learning in the college classroom: A review of literature. Michigan: The University of Michigan.

Rees, D. (2010) Androgogy: Adult learning theory found at http://www.slideshare.net/AtomicMeme/adult-learning-theory-principles-and-practice-4247587 [Accessed 02/05/13]

Put yourself in the shoes of a student on a course you might be teaching,

 •at what points of your course are there opportunities to express opinions and instincts?
 •at what point do you have to absorb information and how?
 •at what points do you work with fellow learners?
 •what percentage of the course is assessed individually or as a group?
 
What do you think this says about your teaching approach, and what would you like to do about it? How might technology help, or hinder, you in this.

An Open University course is subtly different to courses in traditional university settings and technology plays a central role for our students.

There are opportunities to express opinions and instincts at all points though the course.  Students are encouraged to comment on ideas in the course material via the forum and sometimes it generates discussion. As a tutor I sometimes pose questions to get students thinking more about the material.  Within the material itself there are often activities to stimulate thought and ground theory to everyday life and the more familiar. There is also space to express opinions at f2f tutorials and which take place about every 6 weeks and online tutorials which are  more adhoc. The main difficulty is that students are often reluctant to express opinion as they are not confident in their learning.  The trick is to use real life and everyday situations to represent the theories they study.  Then take them back to the theory and show how their opinions relate to it.

Information is being absorbed all the way through as they work through the course material.  This consists of written material, audio CDs, DVDs and online activities. Activities embedded in the material, encourage students to think about the material, possibly creating tables or diagrams. The online activities build on the written material, reinforcing learning.

Working with others occurs in f2f tutorials on the forum.  Some courses have collaborative exercises embedded, such as a group role play activity on the forum which is then used as the basis of an assignment.  Other courses have collaborative activities creating artifacts on wikis or by sharing documents on Dropbox or Google Docs.

Unfortunately almost 100% of the assessment is individual.  Students are assessed by regular tutor-marked assignments and sometimes by examination, as well as other elements such as their contribution to forums or collaborative exercises. The ability to collaborate is an important skill, both academically and in terms of employability.  It would be good to see more use of groupwork and some assessment of how learners work as a group. 

It's difficult to say how this reflects my teaching approach as courses are designed by others to work in this way. As a tutor I see my role as facilitating the learning and helping with the process of understanding and assimilating the information provided by the course material.  I aim to develop students' skills of critical thinking, developing arguments using concepts, ideas and theories, and communicating their arguments effectively. Technology plays a central role in OU study and tutoring and for distributed learners is vital for communication and the discussion element of learning.

Skinner introduced the 'teaching machine' in the 1950s which he argued allowed for self paced learning (Bonaiuti, 2011).  Students were able to work through exercises at their own pace, moving on when they were ready.  The main limitation opf these mahines was their focus on rote learning not developing understanding.  It is only applicable to certain subject areas and is limited to the information provided by the writer of the material.  It does not encourage exploration or discussion and is very much an independent approach. 

Social constructivists would criticise this because for them learning is a social activity where meaning in created through discussion.  Theis is reflected in Sugata Mishtra's 'hole in the wall' experiments.  Learning comes from working together.

Followers of Illich would also criticise this approach (Smith, 1997).  He made a distinction between machines and tools, where tools enable learning and are in the control of the user, whereas machines are in control and users becomne slaves.  Illich argued for the disestablishment of schools and a return to more authentic forms of learning. 

A political critique would come from Paulo Freire who argued that teaching is a political act and takes place within a social context (Clarke, 2012).  He argued that education today aims to maintain the inequalities and principles of capitalist society, whereas education should provide the means to question and change the status quo. It shoudl free the oppressed by helping them to understand their situation and thereby givign them the tools to change it.  He would argue the machine is simply passing on accepted knowledge and not promoting the means to question and change.

Boniaiuti, G. (2011) B.F. Skinner: teaching machine and programmed learning [online] Found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTH3ob1IRFo [accessed 19/04/13]

Clark, D. (2012) 'Friere (1921-1997 educator and activist' Blog post, Donald Clark PLan B posted 11/02/2012

Smith, M. K. (1997-2011) 'Ivan Illich: deschooling, conviviality and the possibilities for informal education and lifelong learning', the encyclopedia of informal education, http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-illic.htm.

Experiment with and/or reflect on different ways of communicating with fellow ocTEL participants. These include Twitter, your blog if you have one, the ocTEL JISCMail list [octel-public@jiscmail.ac.uk], the ocTEL forums, the chat window in the webinar. Try and use at least one channel of online communication that you haven’t used before (or don’t use regularly), and try and find out why other people like it.

·         What forms of reflection, challenge and learning do each of these do best?

·         How do they support relationship forming and community building? Is that important for learning?

·         Which do you prefer and why?

Communicating with others is an important part of any distance learning course as it has to replace the face-to-face contact you would usually have with co-learners and provide a channel for learners to create their own meanings through discussion.  Any form of communication have to be easy to work and easy to manage to reduce frustration and de-motivating emotion.  It need to be easy to navigate to keep up with discussions and to allow a timely response. 

The email option was an early form used in the course and it was clear from responses that this caused a lot of problems for participants in terms of managing the sheer numbers of emails in the in boxes.  This is not an efficient means of discussion with large group sizes and it’s difficult to keep a track of the flow of discussion.

The forum is a better form as discussion threads can be kept together and the flow of discussion is more clear.  The danger with forums is that contributors write too much.  Forum posts should be relatively short and restricted to one or two points which provide a good focus for replies and means that people can quickly catch up with unread posts and don’t have to read essays.  However the forum style use by this course is fairly basic and it is not conducive to easy navigation:

·         Unread posts need to be more clearly highlighted in a thread, eg in another background colour

·         There need to be more that 3 levels – parent and two replies. So that an single argument can be kept together

·         Small groups need to have separate forums so that they can have several threads of discussion.  As the course matures the small group thread are going to be unmanageable

Twitter is a poor medium for meaningful discussion but useful for sharing material.  Using an ocTEL hashtag we can quickly share ideas and resources.

Blogging is my preferred method of dealing with these activities as it gives me time to reflect on what I’m saying.  People also have the option of reading my blog or not and to comment or not.  Longer and more considered answers can be put here.

The chat box in the webinar is an excellent source of back channel discussion and many of the most interesting discussions I have had have been here.   They are always stimulated by a current question and encourage a lot of comment and debate.  The ability to embed hyperlinks also makes it a rich resource. 

It’s difficult to find a channel of communication I haven’t used before or use fairly regularly.  But the main features of a good one are ease of use, being able to keep up with discussions quickly and able to generate meaningful discussion.

The big questions being asked by ocTEL participants were mainly on pedagogy and strategy.  They surrounded ideas about how we can use TEL more effectively, how can we encourage use and how can we tell that it’s making a difference. 

Diana’s view was that one driver of technology is the growing worldwide demand for HE which she calculated required a 1:25 teacher:learner ratio. The argument is that technology will help to make this possible.  MOOCs for example can cater for 1000s of learners with few teachers.  However, the question is do are they effective for learners.  Though many may register the evidence is that retention and achievement are low.  More guided courses are needed to ensure greater levels of achievement which need more tutors, thus the 1:25. 

My view is that technology can provide a means to widen all education globally, including HE. The costs of technology are falling and projects in the developing world mean that computers getting into classrooms resulting in better education of children and adults where previously ancient text books and poorly trained teachers were the only resource. 

I’m still unsure of the value of MOOCs to improving education.  They seem to cater for the highly independent learner and for people with a good educational background.  I’m not sure they will widen participation or support the increasing demand for HE. The OU model of distance learning, for me, provides a better model: small groups, structured courses, a high standard of module materials, good use of a range of online tools. The model can be adapted for larger groups, but there needs to be recognition that there is a limit to group size before a feeling of being part of a group and of being supported is lost. As an independent learner and one who is very used to online courses and working with technology I have found the ocTEL MOOC relatively easy to get involved with, but there are a lot of participants who are immediately finding the experience of being in a group of over a 1000 quite difficult.  My advice is make it easy for yourself – join a small group or two and stick with them.  You can still discuss the week’s activities but you will feel part of a group, get to know a few people and it will be less daunting.

One question that was raised was the issue of assessment in MOOCs or large group courses.  Obviously assessment is important to the student so that they know they are learning something and they can get feedback to help them improve.  For me this is the most important aspect of education.  Not only does feedback have to be timely but it has to be effective and a key skill of any tutor is the ability to give good feedback that guides the student to improve. How is this achieved on a MOOC?  Diana suggested peer marking and electronic marking.  Both are fine for a straightforward grade, but neither can give the quality of feedback necessary to help learners improve.  

I think eventually the MOOC will disappear, it will need to be smaller – perhaps a LOOC (Large Online Open Course).

The competence I chose was experience of audio and visual facilities of the web and the evidence I chose the podcast created in Unit 5.  Podcasting is a skill useful for teaching practise, as a means of communication and involves using specific software.  The content of the podcast was a critique of using forums with online groups and therefore can be mapped against this criterion also.  To create a podcast I used Audacity, a piece of software I have used before, so I was able to explore the editing functions a little more.  The podcast was hosted on Podbean which meant getting to know a new hosting site and exploring is functions. 

I consider my level of competency to be above average as I was experienced to know that I needed to script it, read through to identify tricky words and phrases and work in pauses to keep the pace right. I was able to edit the podcast, adjusting the pitch and amplitude and filtering out noise to create a sound I was happy with.  My experience of other hosting sites, such as Wordpress and Youtube meant I was quickly able to find my way around Podbean and provide a link from the H808 forum. I didn't assess as myself as strong, or expert because I still think there are things to learn about podcasting, such as frequent summaries and better use of emphasis and tone.   There are also still things to learn about audacity.

In this self assessment I have not only decided my own level of competency, but also have defined those levels myself.  Others may have different views on what constitutes below or above average and strong and on my view of my own level. 

Link to Unit 3 grid  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/n0rvuogky0122dc/C7vjiL2ve-

Link to podcast http://kimlesley.podbean.com/.

How can collective work be fairly presented for individual assessment as evidence of competence. Would less technically adept group members be justified in claiming that their own competence had been enhanced by working together on this with others who were more proficient? How could they evidence such a claim?

The assessment of group work has long been under discussion given the more recent interest in collaborative and group learning.  Group work especially prepares learners for the workplace where teamwork is the most usual way to undertake tasks.  However, education also must meet the needs of assessment and the individual's achievement.  There are several models around to assess an individual's contribution to group work, however two difficulties may arise from the fact that the product may be more than the sum of the parts and that it can be difficult to weight the relative roles.  Is the research as important as the person who put together the presentation, in the case of the recent activity?  What about the person who undertakes several small roles compared to someone who makes one larger contribution.  How do you weight the person who encourages and drives the process against the person who makes more concrete contributions?

Belbin (cited in Belbin Associates, 2012) suggests there are nine key roles in a team, Plant (Creative, problem solvers), Monitor Evaluator (Maintains an overview, weighs up the group's options), Coordinator (maintains focus in objectives, draw out team members and delegates work), Resource investigator (looks at the opposition and makes sure the team's idea has relevance), Implementers (plans a workable strategy)' Completer finisher  (Looks for errors and polishes the final product), Teamworker (helps the team to gel), Shapers (provide the drive to keep things moving), Specialist (has area of expertise).  Within our own team we had slightly more defined roles, leader and coordinator, researcher, which was my key contribution, content writers (which everyone did), presentation creator, production person, reviewer (which several people including myself were involved in).  My main contribution was early on, reviewing the literature, adding synopses to the wiki and suggesting questions for the presentation.  I took one idea to write content for and then at the end proof read and made suggestions to improve it.

Laufenberg (2012) suggests that groups work better when individuals know that they will get a fair assessment. She grades work in two parts, one for individual work and one for the group.  Students are assessed on 5 areas, individually on research, knowledge and process, and the group on design and presentation. She also has space for self assessment.  In my own teaching I have also used peer assessment where each person comments on the roles played by others. This would be difficult to apply to the recent collaborative task as without further evidence it would be diffcult to assess the three individual criteria just from the forum discussions.  An addition to this unit it might be useful for  an individual journal of the activity to be uploaded to the blog for the tutor to assess.  From the forum, however, it would be necessary for the tutor to identify the individual contributions and grade them based on the quality of that contribution, eg how would the researcher be graded, or how would the presentation be graded?  It would also be instructive to allow some peer assessment and feed this in. In addition a grade could be given for the whole project and then a weighted final grade given.  My argument would be that the group project should have a slightly higher weighting than the individual contribution to address the difficulties of assessing different kinds of contribution.

However, can the technically less adept group members claim their own competence has been enhanced?  In the case of our own group project I would suggest this is problematic.  One of our group put together a PowerPoint presentation from our combined contributions, however, anyone not knowing how to use PowerPoint would not have learned any technical skills from this, though they would have seen a good example of a presentation. Additionally another member of the group recorded this using Camtasia Studio 7 and again, any who did not know this software would have learnt anything. What group members did learn was a considerable amount about ePortfolios in Lifelong Learning and had the experience of working in a team. Therefore to claim that technical competencies have been enhanced would be hard to substantiate, in this particular exercise.

References:

Belbin Associates (2012) 'History and research' Belbin.com found at http://www.belbin.com/rte.asp?id=3 [Accessed 24/11/12]Laufenberg, D. (2012) 'Group work doesn't have to suck' blog post 1 November 2012, The Innovative Educator found at http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/group-work-doesnt-have-to-suck.html?m=1 [Accessed 24/11/12]

Laufenberg (2012) 'Groupwork doesn't have to suck' Blog post, The Innovative Educator. Available at http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2012/11/group-work-doesnt-have-to-suck.html

Creating a podcast.  The activity was relatively straightforward as I have done podcasting (and vodcasting) before.  I already have audacity and have a reasonable amount of experience using it, including some of the advanced features.  The best way to do a podcast is to have a script and I break it up into clear sections so that the podcast isn't rushed.  I also do about three or four practices sorting out the difficult phrases - it's surprising the words that suddenly become tongue twisters - for example H808.

Having got a version I was happy with I adjusted the amplitude and the pitch, just so it didn't sound quite like me. Setting up Podbean took longer.  I did this before doing the podcast so I could explore it a bit.  Setting up an account was straightforward.  I then played with the theme and worked out how to do things and where to upload files.  I discovered that it was similar to Wordpress and that made it easier.  Uploading the mp3 was therefore pretty straightforward and then I published it to the site with a little bit of an introduction and took a copy of the url to post onto the course wiki.

There was a big thing about podcasts about 3-4 years ago and as a college we were involved in the JISC MoleNet project  (Mobile Learning Network).  We were partnered with several colleges across the south west. The project involved funding for podcasting equipment and training for staff and the setting up of a podcast hosting site, which was our role.  Several podcasts (and vodcasts) were created and uploaded to the site covering a range of subject areas.  I can't say they were of any great quality or particularly engaging which raised a fundamental question about creative skills in this area.  It is not just about having the equipment to create them and the will, but they have to be good learning objects in the end.

The best podcasts in terms of learning were the ones created by the students themselves where they discussed things they had been learning in class.  It made their learning more interesting and having to explain something meant they had to understand it very well.  They also put it into words that their peers understood.  For me this is the best use of them.  As teaching tools they work if they are short and sharp, but they are essentially passive and so best used sparingly.

I've been in education both as a student and teacher for many years and believe that reflection is an important aspect of both.  Being able to reflect on one's learning develops strong independent learners and being able to reflect on content promotes deep learning and real understanding of a subject.  Reflective practice helps a learner build a much clearer picture of their own strengths and weaknesses and to develop strategies to improve.  However, as Moon (2001) suggests this does require some training to help the learner develop good reflective practice, including clear and constructive feedback on their work to inform their reflection.  As Moon also suggests, explaining the value of reflection and providing examples is also important.  On two modules I teach for the OU students have to do a 'self reflection' of 50 words at the end of their assignment on a specified aspect of the experience and this enables me to guide their reflection a little.  In H808 reflection is a large part of the module activities and assessment. Blogging is a useful way to reflect and I've started adding a weekly post to the blog on my eportfolio about how I'm feeling about the module so far and where things have gone well and why things haven't gone so well.  Moon made a very good point about emotion in reflection which I believe is thoroughly underestimated in all learning theory.  Much of my learning and work does involve quite bit of frustration and anxiety, as well as pleasure and elation at times, and I intend to also explore my emotions with regards H808 as well.  My reflective blogs remain private however as I think that if I know they can be read by others then they won't be true reflections as Crème (2005) suggests with regards assessed reflective activity.

References

Moon, J. (2001) ‘PDP working paper 4: reflection in higher education learning’ (online), The Higher Education Academy. Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/id72_Reflection_in_Higher_Education_Learning.rtf [Accessed 23 September 2012]

Crème, P. (2005) ‘Should student learning journals be assessed?’, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 287–96. Available from: http://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02602930500063850 [Accessed 23 September 2012]