Personal Blogs

Last week I spent 2 days at ALT-C.  This is the third time I have been to this conference and a therefore I wasn't surprised when I saw the extensive programme.

Here are the key points I have picked up and my thoughts.

The first keynote Donald Clark Don't Lecture Me; got a varied reaction.  Donald argued that lectures are a hopeless pedagogical techinique but in my opinion didn't give evidence of knowledge of up to date lecturing prefering to give examples of when he was at university.  He delivered this talk in a condescending manner with many personal opinions not backed up with peer reviewed evidence. There was also a lack of alternatives to the lecture. Whilst I would agree that learning happens when there is good teaching and perhaps in some cases a lecture is not always good teaching.

A session entitled "Development through Change"showed three ways in which technology is being used in delivery of teaching.

Darren Gash and Ian Gardner showed how they are using Wimba for facilitating learning via synchronous online classes.  I have not had any experience of this tool and am planning to look into the use of it.

Neil Witt and Anne McDermott from University of Plymouth showed how they have investigated the use of Web 2.0 technologies to support foundation degree students. (Namely, Delicious, Elgg, Wikis, blogs and iGoogle).  As part of the project they looked at what technologies the students had used in the past and how confident they were using different tools. One of the interesting things reported was that students could use Google as a search engine and not much else.  This does put into question the concept of Digital Natives and as teaching staff we need to take this into account.

Naill Watts from University College Dublin showed how online teaching using vodcasts and formative assessment is being used to in the Medical school to bolster the short placements.  This is hosted in blackboard and was built using Articulate Engage. Students and tutors are encouraged to engage with each other using the notebook and email embedded.

Ann Ooms from Kingston University reported how students are using their own mobile devices to integrate their learning on field-trips.  This is an interesting concept as in my work in HE in FE I have repeatedly been told by teaching staff that students do not want to use their own devices. One of the major findings in this project is that students need prompting to use technology in the learning environment even though they are keen to use it in their personal life. It is important that they see teaching staff using it and are prompted to do so themselves.

Kate Radar and Mark Cameron looked at how students engage with mobile technology and reported that students want to access information on their mobile devices but do not want to use them for learning.  She questioned whether, in fact, students are Web 1.0 when in fact we want them to be Web 2.0.  This does link in to the findings that Ann Ooms reported.

Liz Masterman from University of Oxford reported that students have near universal use of laptops and mobile phones but that the use is often independant of technical proficiency. This often being limited to email, search engines and word processing. This perhaps shows that time needs to be invested in learning new technologies.

Emma Purnell and Jon Bernardes from University of Wolverhampton continued the discussion by talking about the Eluctant student. They have also found that not all students are digital natives and some are reluctant to engage with technology educationally but will do so socially.  Lorenzo et al found that one cannot assume that net generation is synonymous with knowing how to employ technology strategically to optimise learning experiences in university settings.  It may be that many students do not want technology to be a significant part of their education experience.

Juilan Ryan from Sheffield Hallam University reported that developing a content repository which integrates with the VLE had a number of benefits.

• Ability to reuse materials in multiple module sites
• Sharing and joint preparation of learning resources
• Collaboration of staff internally and exeternally.

Jennifer Parr of University of Leeds looked at whether asynchronous events prevent one student taking over in a class discussion.  Advantages shown were:

• time for reflection
• can widen access
• may increase social cohesion of group
• can extend teaching contact time.