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Leaving Las Vegas

Reading the following article on Second Life, I am reminded of a few discussions I have had in previous years on the catalysts for change.

When looking at new technologies that have the potential to impact on learning, it needs to be recognised that though research and understanding is important, we also need to be realistic that this on its own does not necessarily change things.

Research allows us to understand the implications and the affordances of a new technology. What we need to be aware of when introducing a new technology of the main issues and barriers that could be faced.

What we must take note of is that research on its own does not necessarily cause change.

Most researchers I have met appear to prefer to build on existing research rather than embed practice based on research. That of course is fine, as they are researchers. It takes a different kind of approach to embed the results of research into mainstream practice.

Another aspect of research based practice is that due to the way it is funded, it often only looks at a small section of an institution, usually a single group from a single curriculum area. I don’t then blame people who look at this research and decide that the best way to move forward is to repeat the research with a different group. The end result is lots of small research project outcomes that are very similar. That is certainly the case with research into Second Life.

Wholesale, holistic mainstream change doesn’t happen because of research, that change comes about because of people.

Good people base decisions on good research, they will recognise the implications of that research and think about how they can use that research to influence and inform strategy to change practices and processes.

ipad, learning

The iPad Pedagogy Wheel

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One question that often arises is how can I use this nice shiny iPad that you have given me to support teaching and learning?




In a previous blog post I talked about assessment and the importance of deeper and higher thinking skills. I mentioned in that post that using Bloom’s Taxonomy is one way of getting teachers to think differently about the type of questions they are asking of their learners.

When designing activities for learning, a taxonomy such as Bloom’s provides a framework that reminds of us how if we are to see learning taking place the types of thinking that needs to happen.

What the Padagogy Wheel does is provide ideas to learners (and staff) the kinds of apps that can support the different kinds of thinking and learning across Blooms.

The Padagogy Wheel

As learners and teachers think about how they are going to undertake the activities they want to do, this wheel provides ideas of which apps on the iPad could be used to support them.

Of course the iPad and apps would not be the only option open to the learners and that’s where the inner circles of the wheel will help those who don’t have, can’t use or don’t want to use the iPad.

The Padagogy Wheel by Allan Carrington is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.  Based on a work at http://tinyurl.com/bloomsblog.

app of the week, ipad, iphone

ToonCamera – iPhone App of the Week

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ToonCamera Image

ToonCamera – App of the Week

tooncameraicon

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s app is ToonCamera.

ToonCamera is an amazing video and photography app that turns your world into a live cartoon. Apply real-time cartoon and art effects to your camera feed, record video, snap photos, and convert existing video and photos from your albums to create instant works of art. Save your creations and share them with friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Tumblr, Instagram, and YouTube, all from within ToonCamera.

£1.49 (currently on sale at £0.69)

ToonCamera

I have an infinity for various apps that convert images into cartoons, one of my favourites has to be Paper Camera. Another app has recently found favour with me is ToonCamera.

ToonCamera is a lovely way to create cartoon images and videos. You can either use images you already have, or use the camera to catch images and video live. It also an universal app so works equally well on the iPad as well as the iPhone.

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You can apply effects on the fly or after you have captured the image.

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There are various tools that represent crayons, pencils, ink, paint. You can also adjust the “thickness” of the strokes.

What for me is a weakness is that it is difficult to ascertain what each of the tools or effects do, so as a result it can be challenging to create a similar effect across a range of images, especially if you are using the app at different times.

After creating your image you can then save to the camera roll or share to various social networks and online services.

IMG_5630

This is a really nice app for creating cartoon style images. These images could then be used in other applications such as Comic Life or Keynote.

Get ToonCamera in the iTunes App Store.

app of the week, ipad, iphone

Frame Magic – iPhone App of the Week

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FrameMagic - iPhone App of the Week

Frame Magic – iPhone App of the Week

FrameMagic - iPhone App of the Week

This is a regular feature of the blog looking at various Apps available. Some of the apps will be useful for those involved in learning technologies, others will be useful in improving the way in which you work, whilst a few will be just plain fun! Some will be free, others will cost a little and one or two will be what some will think is quite expensive.

This week’s app is Frame Magic Premium.

Your best collage maker with tons of layouts, endless options and unique decorations!

150 customizable layouts with up to 36 photos

£1.49

I have seen the results of this app many times on the Twitter and in Instagram, but I have never actually got around to using the app myself until recently.

Continue reading Frame Magic – iPhone App of the Week →

ipad

It’s three years old…

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Three years ago my iPad arrived, it was (as you might have expected) a first generation model; I went with the model that came with 64GB of storage and no 3G. My thinking at the time was that I was going to use this in the main as a portable video device, so needed lots of storage.

I find it interesting how both my use of the iPad and how I view it has changed in the last three years. When I bought my iPad I considered it in the main as a device to watch videos, play casual games and browsing the web. Today I use the iPad very differently, it is a key part of my workflow at college, I use it for communication and social media, reading books and magazines. I have a third generation iPad for work and that has a camera and that added a whole new dimension in content creation. I have reviewed many of the apps available on the blog.

It’s interesting, despite all the attention given to the short life of these consumer devices and how they would need to be replaced more often than a “normal” PC, that I still have it, and I still use it on a daily basis for lots of different things.

This three year old device is still pretty powerful for doing lots of things. Yes there are apps that don’t work as it’s a first generation device, so no iMovie or iPhoto. However that isn’t really much of a problem, as for me the first generation iPad is much more of a content consumption device and I rarely use it for creating stuff.

For me it still works great for accessing e-mail, playing films and using Netflix. Where it is less useful is web browsing, well web browsing when you have more than one tab open. For some reason, memory reasons I believe, mobile Safari on the iPad can only hold a small number of pages (or very few pages) so if you work like I do with lots of tabs, when you return to a tab, after looking at other pages, Safari is “forced” to load the page again. If you are on a poor connection, eg a tethered phone or train wifi then this can be frustrating. There is (or was) a similar limitation on the iPhone.

Having said that I should note that this iPad rarely travels these days, it spends more time in the home than anywhere else. Though it does come on holiday with us, partly for in-car entertainment, “are we there yet” and for watching films in the evening.

The iPad is also used regularly by my children for playing games, and though this won’t play some of the newer graphic intensive games, it will suffice for games such as Monopoly, Battleships, Scrabble, Trival Pursuit, Cover the Orange, Angry Birds and so on…

I am still impressed with the battery life, one concern of any device that has a built-in non-removable battery is that once the battery has reached end of life, there is little you can do with the device, except spend a small fortune having the battery replaced. I would hazard a guess that replacing the battery would probably cost a lot in comparison to buying a new iPad.

So three years later, I don’t think I will retire the device, I would certainly consider selling it and I think it would sell for about £100 which would contribute to a newer model.

alt, assessment, octel, vle

Assessing Assessment – ocTEL

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This week on ocTEL we’re looking at assessment. As part of my thinking I reflected on the use of quizzes in Moodle.

Designing Moodle quizzes is much more than just been able to use the quiz tool from a technical perspective. There is a real art to crafting questions so that they not only allow the learner to test their understanding, but also require a higher level of thinking.

If we look at the following multiple choice questions, the format of which is one of many different types available on Moodle, it provides the structure and the practitioner provides the question and the answers:

Which is these is a mammal?

Shark
Dog
Spider
Crocodile

This question does not test understanding, most students would be able to guess the answer or would not find it challenging. Within Bloom’s Taxonomy this is testing knowledge only, the bottom layer of the triangle.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

In terms of feedback, you can design Moodle quizzes to provide feedback on questions. So you can explain why their answer is wrong or right and where to look for further information or support.

Onto a similar question:

What is the capital of Australia?

Sydney
Melbourne
Canberra
Melbourne

If we look at this question if you didn’t know the answer then you would need to do some research. However as with the previous question within Bloom’s Taxonomy this is testing knowledge only, the bottom layer of the triangle. It’s more challenging than the first question, but if you didn’t know it already then a quick Google search and you have the right answer.

So what about this question:

Which of these is the odd one out?

Odd One Out

The “problem” with this question is that there is no single right answer. The answer needs an explanation, and it’s the explanation that demonstrates understanding of the question, not the answer.

If we look at Bloom’s Taxonomy it is possible with this question to go all the way to the top.

However Moodle will struggle with assessing a question with no “right” answer and certainly would not be able to assess the explanation.

You could provide generic feedback on why there is no “right” answer, but that may not be useful for all learners. Feedback needs to be personalised to be really effective. Students generally don’t appreciate generic feedback.

This doesn’t mean that Moodle quizzes aren’t an useful tool for checking learning, but its limitations in assessing higher order thinking needs to be considered when designing assessment.