Category Archives: conference

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Rates of Change

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Slides from my recent keynote at the Teacher Training and Technologies Conference 2012.

Cloud computing, mobile, tablets, 4G, internet TVs, social learning, learning analytics, game based learning, augmented reality and e-books are all being used now or are just on the horizon. Change is all around us and the modern teacher needs to be adaptable and innovative. The rate of technological change appears to be getting faster. Can our existing cultures allows us to take advantage of the potential of emerging technologies? Or do we need to change the way we change?

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Emerging Technologies

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At the AoC Conference I was part of a presentation that looked at emerging technologies and how FE Colleges need to be preparing for them. As well as myself speaking for the first part of the presentation, Donald Taylor, did the second half.

There then followed a workshop session where the delegates looked at the barriers and opportunities that FE Colleges would face with these emerging technologies.

Here are my notes and references, though they only cover my slides.

Future

So what does the future hold?

VR Glasses

Do you worry about costs?

Do you worry about breakages and theft?

Are your staff resistant or sceptical to technology

Well you’re not alone and concerns and scepticism about new technology is not new.

Lets go back 300 years….

Emerging technologies

Impact

What new technologies will be having an impact on teaching and learning over the next five to ten years?

Potential

How should colleges prepare and utilise the potential that these technologies will bring?

Preparation

We need to prepare and so lets see what is on the horizon….

Electronic Books

Who here has a Kindle or reads books on their iPad?

Amazon have said they sold more e-books than paperback books in the last quarter of 2010. They have sold millions of Kindles.

Apple sold 15 million iPads then they released the iPad 2.

There are numerous academic e-book platforms and collections, including the free JISC Collections e-book collection of 3000 books.

We’re using that a lot,  as are Oldham Sixth Form College who last month accessed the collection and they viewed 50,561 pages. We did 7,882 pages…

Mobiles

So when was the first mobile phone call?

1946

When was the first handheld mobile phone call?

1973

Mobile phones are not a new technology. However the phone as a mobile computer, the smartphone, though about ten years old now, will dominate the phone market.

National Star College, used 3G phones with GPS to enable learners to access information,  guidance and content to support them for independent living. The phones would tell the learners how to catch a bus, where to catch the bus, when to get off, how to get to their workplace.

Augmented Reality

…is the application of a digital information layer over the real world. Hold up your phone to a building and get information on its history and current use. Hold up to a college and see what courses that organisation offers. In an engineering workshop, hold your camerphone up to a piece of equipment and overlaid will be information, on what it is, what it can do and relevant health and safety information.

QR Codes are another way to add digital information to a physical space, at Gloucestershire College, we use QR Codes in the library on the shelves to provide easy and curriculum relevant access to online resources to learners.

Game-based Learning

Casual and mobile gaming is really big now in the UK. From the Nintendo Wii , the DS to the iPhone and iPad, as well as the Playstation and xBox. Gaming is huge and lots of different people do it.

When we talk about learners having a short attention span, can’t sit still for ten minutes in a lesson, how is it these same learners can play World of Warcraft for four hours…

Using games for learning is not new, as an old economics teacher I use to use paper based business games a lot. However video games now offer so much more and there are lots of ways that gaming can be used to enhance and enrich learning.

Many colleges, including my own, have been using Brain Training on the Nintendo DS to support the teaching of numeracy and encourage learners to enjoy maths.

Gesture-based Computing

The iPad is all about gestures. Microsoft Kinect allows you to play games without needing to use a controller. It won’t be long before we control our devices by waving our hands about!

Henshaw College who were already using the Nintendo Wii, are now using Microsoft Kinect to enable their blind and visually impaired learners to interact with a computer.

University of Portsmouth have already built an audience response system, MARS Motion Based Audience Response system, that can anaylse the hand interactions of the audience for answering questions without the need for the audience to use clickers or voting units.

Learning Analytics

You probably already know a lot about your learners, colleges gather huge amounts of data about each and every learner, about them, their progress, their success and their failure. The question is are you making use of that data to make business decisions? Are you analysing learners on entry, during their course and where they go, in order to make decisions about which courses you are running and importantly which courses you should close.

Learning analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimising learning and the environments in which it occurs.

IBM are able now to sell you a product that does this all for you. Making sure the right learners get on the right course and achieve success.

4G

3G already offers fast wireless speeds, the future though will be 4G which will allow learners to have download speeds in excess of 20 Mbps, or even faster. This means that learners will be able to stream video content, access a range of media using mobile devices where and when they want to.

Of course 4G isn ‘t yet available, however Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education have demonstrated the potential of 3G technologies, by putting 3G wireless routers in their coaches, so that learners can access the internet, the VLE whilst on the bus journey in. Making use of “dead time” for learning.

Connected Televisions

80% of televisions sold today can be connected to the internet, they can be used to access content and resources. Whether they are actually connected is a different question. However popularity of services such as YouTube, BBC iPlayer, 4OD and other content delivery systems, demonstrates that this could be a real way to deliver learning in the home.

The College of West Anglia has developed Springboard TV to create and deliver video content to their learners. Connected TVs will allow learners to access this content from the comfort of the sofa is going to enhance and enrich the learning process.

The key though is are we ready as organisations to make this transition to take advantage that these new technologies offer?

Emerging Practice

It is not just a matter of the technology changing, we also need to change our practice and how we do things to realise the potential that emerging technologies will bring to our colleges.

Social Learning

The internet and networking, means that learners can learn wherever they want to? Of curse they have always done this, what the connectivity means is that they can access a range of different content, communicate and collaborate. Individual learning, becomes social, this means we need to rethink about the social spaces we have in our institutions and how they need to change to support and promote learning.

Blurring informal and formal learning

In the past (and now) students have come to expect to learn formally in formal learning spaces. However new technologies mean that learners can “attend” college without actually being physically at college through remote delivery and webinar technologies. We are blurring the demarcation between informal and formal learning.

Changing Culture

As a result colleges need to change their traditional cultures of resistance and sceptism and embrace a new culture…

Innovation

One that encourages innovation and new ways of working…  A culture that sees new technologies as an opportunity…

Experimentation

A culture that rewards experimentation and innovation and encourages learners and practitioners to utilise new technologies as part of their joint learning journey.

Future

There are other technologies as well: fibre broadband, voice recognition, voice commands, cloud computing to name a few. New ways of working, studying, all these will have an impact.

The future is coming, it always has and it always will, are you ready and will you always be ready for the future?

References

Martin Bean, Keynote at ALT-C 2009

2011 Horizon Report from Educause

Connect to Succeed Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education

QR Codes in the Library

Springboard TV

MARS

Student Analytics for Success

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Innovating e-Learning 2011 – Can you afford to miss it?

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The JISC Online Conference, Innovating e-Learning 2011, has opened with a pre-conference Activity Week preparing the way for next week’s main conference programme 22-25 November.

Are you interested in?

  • Technology-mediated learning and teaching
  • Institutional efficiency and curriculum transformation
  • Open educational practice
  • Introducing change in assessment practice
  • Digital literacies
  • Students as agents of change in curriculum enhancement

Do you want to know more about?

  • Using Facebook in learning and teaching
  • Using Web 2.0 technologies to create online communities for non-traditional learners
  • Using mobile devices in the classroom
  • A range of freely available online tools and resources to enhance your practice

Can’t afford to take time off work?

You can still register for this big conference experience with a low carbon footprint. But don’t delay. The main conference programme commences Tuesday 22 November.

Follow the conference on Twitter @jiscel2011
Contribute your views on Twitter using #jiscel11
Programme and booking at www.jisc.ac.uk/elpconference11

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Mobile Learning: Catalytic Change – Online Webinar

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The recording of my online webinar is now available.

James Clay of Gloucestershire College will deliver an online seminar (webinar) on the implementation of mobile learning across a college. The session will consist of a definition of mobile learning, looking at learners, learning as well as devices. It will look at the issues of a whole college approach to mobile learning. The session will demonstrate how mobile learning can be used to improve teaching, learning and assessment.

Thank you to LSIS for funding the session and the JISC RSC SW for hosting the session.

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Mobile Learning: Catalytic Change – Online Webinar

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On Wednesday 27th July 2011 I will be delivering an online webinar.

Mobile Learning: Catalytic Change – Online Webinar

James Clay of Gloucestershire College will deliver an online seminar (webinar) on the implementation of mobile learning across a college. The session will consist of a definition of mobile learning, looking at learners, learning as well as devices. It will look at the issues of a whole college approach to mobile learning.

The session will demonstrate how mobile learning can be used to improve teaching, learning and assessment.

The session will be hosted by JISC RSC SW and is part of the LSIS Technology Exemplar Network.

The webinar takes place on Wednesday 27th July at 11.00am, it is expected to take around an hour. The session will be recorded.

More information and how to get to see the webinar here.

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You’ve been quiet!

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Regular readers of the blog will have noticed that things have been a little quieter than usual with me posting a lot less.

The main reason for this is that I have for the last week been attending the JISC Innovating e-Learning Online Conference 2010 which has been taking place in… well online as you might expect. I am going to write a more evaluative piece on the conference later.

I was the conference blogger at the conference so as a result I was posting a lot of blog entries there instead of here… Most of the blog entries on the conference blog (which is not available to non-delegates) were about the conference itself, however some were on more general web and e-learning issues. These will be expanded upon and published later on this blog – so you won’t miss out.

Running a conference blog has been fun, if exhausting, but I’ve had a lot of nice positive comments back from people, so well worthwhile.

A conference blog is something that you sometimes you see at other conferences, but I certainly would recommend that other conference organisers think about having a conference blog for their conferences.

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Challenging Discussions

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Virtually every conference you attend will have keynotes and presentations. One of the strengths of any conference is the level of debate and discussion that takes place, however symposiums aside, most of the discussion at a physical conference, aside from the few minutes for questions, takes place between small groups over lunch or coffee. With an online conference however you will find much more discussion and debate takes place than at a traditional conference. For me this is the real value and one of the key advantages of an online conference.

Due to the textual and asynchronous nature of the discussion it is possible to engage in the conversation either immediately or after a period of reflection over the two days of discussion for each of the themes. it’s a real opportunity to take the time to debate the issues that arise out of the presentation with fellow practitioners and experts.

You can challenge the experts as well as yourself and other practitioners. I do think that this is one of the real advantages of the online conference. In many ways it can be easier to engage with the presenters than it would be at a physical conference. You know the conference where the chair asks, “are there any questions?” and it can be intimating to put your hand up. Even if you do, there are usually others and there is very little time for lots of questions. Keynotes can be even more intimidating especially with six hundred odd delegates in the auditorium. It’s not that an online environment is not as challenging, more the online environment evens the playing field for delegates and presenters. It is, according to people I have spoken to, much easier to ask questions in an online conference than at a physical conference.

Another advantage of the online conference is that if you do have a question for the presenter, however you want to check something first, you can. Before you ask your question, you can go back and read that paper you referenced last year, check with a colleagure via e-mail that the evidence for the study is online, etc… try doing that in the “few minutes for questions” you get at a physical conference.

So if you haven’t already can I suggest you sign up to the JISC Innovating e-Learning 2010 Online Conference. If you have never attended an online conference before, now is an ideal opportunity (and great value at £50). If you have attended a JISC Online Conference before, but didn’t engage, maybe time to give it another try.

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Make mine an Americano….

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I don’t know about you, but what is it about conference coffee? Why is it so bad?

I do understand large scale catering, in the past I have worked in the industry so know a bit about the issues.

It is a real challenge to provide coffee for three hundred plus delegates in less than 30 minutes.

The main reason for poor conference coffee is poor planning and an audience that doesn’t really care.

I was aware at one conference that the catering team decided to use instant coffee for the conference, as they couldn’t work out how to do a large amount of filter coffee for that number of delegates so decided to go down the easy route…

Another conference the mid morning coffee was actually prepared a couple of hours earlier! So by the time it was served to the conference it had been hanging around for so long that it was rough and bitter.

Another factor in the awfulness of conference coffee is that conference delegates don’t really care how awful it is… most of the delegates probably only drink instant coffee or Nescafé at home or work and only drink “proper” coffee now and again. Even then they probably go to Starbucks and any coffee aficionado will tell you that Starbucks coffee is certainly no where near good coffee should be, as it is slightly over-roasted.

So there is no hope is there?

Well at two conferences I attended last year what was nice was there was for delegates a choice. They could either go with the standard conference coffee experience that was free, or they could if they wanted pay for a real proper coffee experience if they so wished. At Ascilite 2009 there was free conference coffee, but upstairs at the University of Auckland there was a coffee shop and I could go and buy a proper Flat White with an extra shot.

At Handheld Learning 2009 outside the venue was a wonderful invention, a Piaggio Apé conversion that had a real coffee machine in the back. So during a break (even though it was raining) I could go out and buy a proper Americano with a splash of milk.

The issue here is not about conference organisers and conference venues providing free decent coffee for all delegates, because to be honest I don’t think  many of them would appreciate it. It’s about providing delegates with a choice. Enabling those who prefer and are willing to pay for decent coffee, can get one, likewise those who aren’t can get a free conference coffee!

There is one conference coming up that has the perfect conference coffee, well perfect for me, as I will be making it. That conference is the JISC Innovating e-Learning 2010 Online Conference. As it is an online conference I can not only choose and make my own coffee, I can also choose when I want to drink it. I can drink my coffee during the keynotes, whilst in discussions, debates and in the social area.

Okay it isn’t the same as drinking a coffee at a face to face conference, but when it comes to an online conference you can at least choose when and what you drink.

Make mine an Americano….

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Social awkwardness

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I am sure if you ask a lot of people why they attend conferences, in addition to the keynotes and sessions, one aspect that will come out is the networking and social aspects of the conference. Those moments over coffee where you discuss the omissions and errors in the previous presentation; or the conference dinner where you reminisce over past conferences and nostalgically reminding the person sitting opposite that they aren’t like they use to be; pr at the reception where you think there’s going to be something to eat only to find a few nibbles and a cheap white wine, resulting in a desperate attempt to find someone who didn’t eat before they came to the reception so you have a companion for dinner; or at the organised social event, where you turn up to find everyone else has gone off to FAULTY or something like that and there’s just you and that guy who has an ego the size of the Blackpool Tower who you have been avoiding all conference, and now he has you cornered….

Conferences are more than the sum of the presentations, the networking and social side can turn a conference from an interesting experience to an event to remember.

This November, JISC will be running another of their excellent conferences (and yes once more I am the conference blogger) and unlike other conferences this one is online.

So isn’t all this social and networking all lost with an online conference, I hear you cry!

Well in a way, yes! And in a way, no!

As you might expect the social side of an online conference is different from a face to face conference. But it is still there, and it is still possible to socialise and network. At previous JISC Online Conferences we have had a virtual conference dinner in Second Life, there have been lots of discussions over coffee in the social cafe area of the conference and the instant messaging component ensures that networking not only can happen, but does happen.

Just because a conference is online doesn’t automatically mean that it will be an individual isolationary affair. On the contrary it can as a social experience as you want it to be.

If you are a researcher, institutional manager or practitioner involved in technology-enhanced learning and teaching, Innovating e-Learning 2010 will be of interest to you. Delegates from further and higher education and from overseas are welcome. Proceedings take place in an asynchronous virtual environment which can be accessed wherever and whenever is convenient to you.

Find out more about the JISC Innovating e-Learning 2010 Online Conference.