This was a challenging one, as there are lots of people who have influenced me over the years, and it would be difficult to name just one.
Early influences have been and gone and even today I am inspired and influenced by people I meet and chat with.
Though I didn’t post these posts each day in June (and to be honest I didn’t post it each day on the Twitter either) except the final day, I have decided to retrospectively post blog posts about each of the challenges and back date them accordingly. There is sometimes more I want to say on the challenge then you can fit into 140 characters (well 280 these days).
Though I didn’t post these posts each day in June (and to be honest I didn’t post it each day on the Twitter either) except the final day, I have decided to retrospectively post blog posts about each of the challenges and back date them accordingly. There is sometimes more I want to say on the challenge then you can fit into 140 characters (well 280 these days).
Why a meerkat, well I needed a photograph for my avatarand I had a photograph of a meerkat from Bristol Zoo on my hard drive so I used that.
It stuck and I never changed it.
Though I didn’t post these posts each day in June (and to be honest I didn’t post it each day on the Twitter either) except the final day, I have decided to retrospectively post blog posts about each of the challenges and back date them accordingly. There is sometimes more I want to say on the challenge then you can fit into 140 characters (well 280 these days).
40 years ago on 12 June 1981 ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ was first released in cinemas. Indiana Jones is a hero, as well as discovering ancient artefacts, he fights Nazis and does amazing things. Though I sometimes think that learning technologists are like Indiana Jones. Now before you grab your fedora and whip, I am not saying that this is a good thing. No the reason I have a theory that learning technologists are like Indiana Jones is really down to the views of Amy Farrah Fowler in the Big Bang Theory. I should really write a longer piece about this…
Some beautiful weather this weather this week as it felt more like summer, however by Thursday the weather had turned and it was grey and damp.
Monday I went to the office, which was quiet, but the change of scenery and routine was very welcome.
Tuesday I was chairing the Connect More event, which was online.
Wednesday saw myself and Lawrie deliver an online Digital Leadership programme to a cohort of university staff. It has been a few years since I delivered on the digital leadership programme however it all came back and I felt the session went well.
Got some nice tweets about my keynotes I have done over the years. There was this one on the Twitter.
Dave Hopkins blogged about his thoughts on inspiring keynotes. Though I didn’t take the top spot I did get an honourable mention about my FOTiE 14 keynote on the dark side.
Thursday I was back in the office, it was a grey and damp day.
Decided that I would do the #JuneEdTechChallenge and caught up very quickly on the Twitter.
I did a five minute presentation to RUGIT on dual model teaching.
Should we be doing dual-mode or hybrid teaching? Well there’s a question I get asked quite a lot these days by colleagues across the higher education sector.
Firstly, what is it? Well Durham has a nice definition.
At its best, dual-mode teaching combines the face-to-face and online experience into one cohesive whole. It keeps the class together, providing a shared learning experience that works for students who are on campus and those joining remotely at the same time. It allows you to include and draw on the full diversity of your students and their experiences to date.
They add though
The challenge is to provide an equitable experience, to engage with the people in the room and those joining remotely, using spaces and technologies that were not designed for this.
Generally from what I have researched in this space (and this is backed up by the research we have done with universities in the ) is that basically it doesn’t really work.
UCL for example say
‘Dual-mode’ teaching is where students are taught face-to-face in a classroom and online simultaneously. We strongly recommend this be avoided unless pedagogically appropriate for both groups and adequate staffing is in place to manage and integrate remote students into sessions fully.
There are individuals who say that they can do this, but not really seeing the evidence from the students that it is effective. It does require more resource (staff and technology) which makes it more expensive, but still unsatisfying for both the in-person and the online students.
Though I didn’t post these posts each day in June (and to be honest I didn’t post it each day on the Twitter either) except the final day, I have decided to retrospectively post blog posts about each of the challenges and back date them accordingly. There is sometimes more I want to say on the challenge then you can fit into 140 characters (well 280 these days).
Before I knew that I used the quotes to remind the audience that scepticism and concerns about the introduction of new technologies or new ways of thinking are not new and that it is “normal” to be concerned about change.
Now I’ve always had my doubts on the validity or authenticity of the quotes as my brief internet research showed that lots of people used the quotes, but there was very little real “evidence” on their authenticity. However in terms of the message I was getting across the essence of the message was much more important than the content of the message. Audiences related to the essence of the message and the scepticism that they had encountered. In more recent messages I have used actual quotes and newspaper headlines about the “dangers” of technology to reinforce the essence of the message.
I used the quotes in a presentation at an ebooks event at UWE. I posted the slides online and I’ve had a couple of comments plus a really useful link that once and for all casts doubts on the quotes and pretty much says that someone in the 1970s made them up!
This set of statements was printed in the Fall 1978 issue of “The MATYC Journal”, a publication that focused on mathematics education. The quotes were assigned the dates: 1703, 1815, 1907, 1929, 1941, and 1950. But they may actually have been created in 1978. Copies of these quotes have been widely distributed and posted on many websites. They also have been published in multiple books and periodicals.
Ah well…. I knew it was too good to be true.
Though of course if you have listened to my presentations at the time you will realise that the quotes were a theatrical device to make the audience to stop and think about change and people’s reactions to change. This is still valid, the quotes merely add a bit of dramatic licence!
Though I didn’t post these posts each day in June (and to be honest I didn’t post it each day on the Twitter either) except the final day, I have decided to retrospectively post blog posts about each of the challenges and back date them accordingly. There is sometimes more I want to say on the challenge then you can fit into 140 characters (well 280 these days).
I do #LTHEChat now and then, otherwise may interject if I see a tweet, but have rarely followed a tweetchat.
I have done a few in my time though!
Though I didn’t post these posts each day in June (and to be honest I didn’t post it each day on the Twitter either) except the final day, I have decided to retrospectively post blog posts about each of the challenges and back date them accordingly. There is sometimes more I want to say on the challenge then you can fit into 140 characters (well 280 these days).
Probably the acronym I could do without has to be VLE though LMS comes a close second.
VLE is a virtual learning environment, though these days most people equate the VLE with a specific product such as Blackboard, Canvas or Moodle.
You hear people say things like, our VLE is Blackboard. The concept of the VLE is synonymous with a actual product.
For me thought I always saw the VLE as a concept, an online environment which could encompass a product such as Moodle, but would be supplemented with other functions through tools such as Mahara, WordPress even the Twitter.
The challenge then is if you change your VLE, you need to then start referring to a new product as people will associate the term VLE with the legacy product.
You also have that concept that we don’t have a VLE, we have Moodle.
The other issue I have with the term VLE, is that we don’t refer to the physical learning environment in the same way that we refer to the VLE.
So probably the acronym I could do without is VLE.
Though I didn’t post these posts each day in June (and to be honest I didn’t post it each day on the Twitter either) except the final day, I have decided to retrospectively post blog posts about each of the challenges and back date them accordingly. There is sometimes more I want to say on the challenge then you can fit into 140 characters (well 280 these days).
When I thought about this challenge there were quite a few names that I thought about, but upon reflection I realised that there was one person for whom I would call my EdTech icon and that is the most amazing Josie Fraser.
I first met Josie back in the early 2000s and I went to see her at a Sixth Form in Leicester, the wonderfully named Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College. I was then Director of the Western Colleges Consortium and we discussed the concept of the shared VLE.
Over the years I have shared conference platforms with Josie, seen here speak, chatted and discussed Edtech stuff and loads more.
She encouraged me to enter the Learning Technologist of the Year award, she had won in 2008 and I won in 2009.
She did an amazing job in chairing the infamous VLE is Dead debate at ALT-C 2009. Keeping myself and others in check.
She invited me to attend and present at the #140Conference at the O2 on the use of Twitter in education.
Along with Frances Bell, Helen Keegan and others, she developed some great Web 2.0 Slam sessions at various ALT conferences which were so much fun.
We had a great time chatting at the LILAC Conference in Dublin on 2016.
I was particular proud when she was awarded Honorary Life Membership of ALT in 2017.
She has had such a varied career and is a real inspiration and so she is my Edtech Icon.
Though I didn’t post these posts each day in June (and to be honest I didn’t post it each day on the Twitter either) except the final day, I have decided to retrospectively post blog posts about each of the challenges and back date them accordingly. There is sometimes more I want to say on the challenge then you can fit into 140 characters (well 280 these days).
news and views on e-learning, TEL and learning stuff in general…
