The Teacher Persona. Is it you?

Lecture 4 and this time Prof A is looking at the Teacher Persona. Not sure about this lecture as some of what he says is good but some of it is quite old school.

He argues that teachers need to develop a teaching persona that is not necessarily the same as your normal persona and that you are to a certain extent playing a role as a teacher. As a teacher you are not a friend or a family member but a teacher and need to keep a certain distance from your students. Although you need to get to know your students this should be more intellectually than socially. He goes further saying that personal friendships with students shouldn't happen and in many instances are a form of professional misconduct. One of his interviewees talks about his early teaching career where as a young lecturer he wore the same sort of clothes he had done as student. The students just saw him another member of the class. When he began dressing differently, in his case in a tie, the students saw him differently and he was able to create his teacher persona.

Prof A continues by saying that you set the rules and are centre of attention. Here I think he is talking about old style formal mass lectures. In fact one of the people he interviews challenges this and says the only rule he has is mutual respect and that he doesn't like taking a parent role in the classroom. Prof A later tempers his ‘you are the centre of attention and set the rules’ argument by saying that it is perhaps more a situation of benign inequality. He spoils this a bit by then showing a clip where he enforces his no laptops rule and makes students print out the readings for the week. One student makes a reasonable argument that it’s slightly ironic to insist on paper printouts for class on the environment. He is then quite belittling of the student in his response saying that there a more trees in America now than there were in 1900. (A strange argument indeed! There may be more than in 1900 but surely there were more trees in America before 1492.) He said that he had resolved the situation with humour. Some might now call this banter but it looked like bullying to me.

Whilst I agree with the concept of the teacher persona, that you have a particular role to play and that you are not there to be friends with the students, I don’t agree with his you are in charge approach. In a previous language teaching role, in the first class one for the activities was for the class to set the rules of the class. Even though class after class produced the same things I might have suggested, they had created them, had ownership of them and made sure they kept to them in order for the class to run smoothly for all of us. It also got them speaking to each other in the target language and began developing a community within the class from the off.

Yes, teachers should not be friends and there is a role to play but surely it’s one of guide and enabler not dictator.

After some delay it's back to 'The Art of Teaching'

The next lecture in the Great Courses series The Art of Teaching is ‘Starting out right’, where he talks about the importance of the first day of class. He argues that it’s really important to set a strong sense of what’s expected right from the first day. Not for him spending the first day outlining the syllabus and telling people what’s going to happen. It’s much better to get students working from the start. As before he interviews a number of teachers about what they do on the first day including one who sets an assignment that need to be completed for the first class and is then used in that class. One person takes a photograph of each student along with their name on the first day and then puts them up on their office wall. Another makes sure that they have learnt as many of the students name as they can before the class! All of them argue that building a relationship with students is key to good teaching and knowing their names shows that you are prepared to put the effort in to do this. The next element of the first day is to let the students know that you find the material fascinating and why understanding it matters. Following this all of them challenge the students from the off, getting them to work early and setting the expectations for the rest of the course. There are some other somewhat ‘interesting’ parts of the lecture where he talks about being in charge and his right to set the rules. Not quite sure about all that.

The basic tenets of the lecture are to get right into the course on the first day and get to know your students.

So it begins. The Art of Teaching: Best Practices from Master Educators.

The first lecture sets the scene and Professor Allitt talks about the changing nature of education and his own career as a student, a lecturer and as Director of the Emory Centre for Teaching and Curriculum. All very interesting. It’s the second lecture, ‘The Board Range of Learners’ that where the course really starts. Why does everything really start in the second lecture? He argues that we are all teachers in one way or another and that teaching is one of the fundamental human activities. In addition, if you want be a good teacher, you have to be a good learner. To that end he thinks that one of the best ways of learning is to teach and that we should give our students every opportunity to teach each other. Several students are interviewed to say how much they have gained from doing this. Peer teaching? Peer marking? All very MOOCy form the Old Skool Prof :-).

There are various interviews with lectures and students throughout the course who talk about their various experiences in a wide range of disciplines. This makes the watching experience a bit more like a documentary than a traditional lecture and gives viewpoints other than Professor Allitt’s. Professor Allitt's philosophy (his inner teacher?) seems to be to help every student to be their best whereas one lecturer in Business marks on a curve, making marks a competitive process in an attempt to mirror the business world.

Prof A, as I shall now call him, argues that one of the key elements is building a rapport with your students and then inducing them to think in new ways. Teaching is not just about transmitting a body of knowledge but also a way of thinking. For example students need to know about being an historian as much as they need to know about history itself. Also, as a teacher you need to know when you don’t know and a capacity for self-criticism is an essential part of professional development.

This lecture, and to an extent the one before, made me think about teaching, which is I guess the aim of any lecture. Prof A and the other lectures interviewed seem to care about their subject, teaching and their students. So far all of them seem to see teaching as way of passing their excitement about their subject onto others. The key themes that have come through to me so far are that teaching is a vital component of being an academic and the role of reflection on their professional development. All things that are at the heart of the HEA Fellowship scheme that I’m involved in setting up and in the Post Graduate Teaching Certificate we are about to rewrite.

“Teaching is more than a job. It's a responsibility"

“Teaching is more than a job. It's a responsibility—one of the greatest responsibilities in civilized society. Teachers lay bare the mysteries of the world to us. They train our minds to explore, to question, to investigate, to discover. They ensure that knowledge is not lost or forgotten but is instead passed on to future generations. And they shape our lives in limitless ways, both inside and outside of the classroom.”

So says Professor Patrick N. Allitt of Emory University and the lecturer on ‘The Art of Teaching: Best Practices from Master Educators’, a course from the Teaching Company. The Teaching Company has been running since 1990, based on the concept of finding the top 1% of college professors in the world selected entirely for their ability to teach (now there’s a thought) and using feedback from customers to help craft courses into formats uniquely designed for the lifelong learner. Over 10 million courses have been sold and they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee, “If a course is ever less than completely satisfying, you may exchange it for another of equal value at any time. You may also return any course, within one year of initial purchase, for a full refund.” Shall we try that here?

I know I’m a bit sad but over the last few years as I walked to work along the seafront, I’ve gone through the following ‘Great Courses’ -

• Origins of the Human Mind
• How We Learn
• Theories of Human Development
• Story of Human Language
• History of the English Language
• Legacies of Great Economists
• Economics
• Understanding the Fundamentals of Music
• Elements of Jazz: From Cakewalks to Fusion
• History of Russia: From Peter the Great to Gorbachev

However, times are changing and what place does the Teaching Company have in this brave new world of MOOC and OER? (I have signed up for numerous MOOCs but sadly never completed any. Their time based nature means if you fall behind you’ve had it. Perhaps MOOCS are the new exercise bikes?) The Teaching Company are still here but do have a 70% sale on all of their courses at the moment. Hence my £29.99 investment in ‘The Art of Teaching: Best Practices from Master Educators’. There are twenty six lectures each lasting around thirty minutes on topics including Teacher Student Relationships, Creativity and Innovation, Dynamic Lecturing and Maintaining Your Enthusiasm. There is also a course booklet with a summary of each lecture, a toolkit of tips for each topic and a bibliography. I get a DVD and online version of the lectures and they can be watched at any point in the future. So far so good but is it any good? Can I learn anything form this ‘course’? Will I make to the end? Does it matter? How does this slightly old skool approach match up in 2014? I bet you can’t wait to find out! I’m going to make notes as I go through and blog about it here.

Wish me luck :-)

Feedback. Hendrix lives?

I completed my assignments and posted them to the course site and the sound files to Soundcloud but then completely forgot that I had to grade 5 other students; until about half an hour before the deadline. I also hadn't quite twigged that we were supposed to write as much for the feedback as we had for the written assignment, as each was an analysis of a solo. I thought the written assignment was hard but this was even harder, especially for beginners. I’m not sure a I really have the knowledge or vocabulary to do this. I think this is a really interesting and powerful way of learning, with the critical analysis of each other’s work being a major part of learning, but in this context I think it is a bit in at the deep end, especially as the next assignment is to play around with some scales rather than a full blown solo and analysis.

Initially some students thought that the first assignment was an audition piece and that Gary Burton would listen to them all and put us in groups according to our ability, much like a Jazz summer school. It is slowly dawning on some people that the man himself is likely to only listen to a few if any of the thousands of assignments and that it is up to each of us to listen, critique and encourage each other. In the end I went thought the assignments and graded (sorry that should be marked – I've gone native!) them the best I could in the time I had. I must have missed something though as I was marked down 20% for not completing the full grading. I’m not sure what I did or didn't do but it took my mark down to just below the pass mark and there is no comeback. In Coursera world a fail is a fail so suck it up. I’m not really interested in the mark but if I was, I wouldn't be a very happy trumpet player.

Something else I've noticed is how good some of the musicians are. Some are good musicians but new to Jazz but several are experienced jazzers and even Berklee graduates. The might be useful for marking other students but are pretty daunting for newbies that feel their work is up against them. This seems to follow from reports that a high proportion of the students in Coursera and the like are already graduates. You have to be a pretty confident, independent learner in Coursera world. Not quite opening up education to the masses eh Dr Koller? Only two days until I have to submit the next assignment and the week 3 videos are already out. I’ll try not to collect another penalty this week.

My first Jazz MOOC assignment

This first assignment was in two parts -

Part one was a "solo analysis" of of a solo played by the tutor.

For part two we had to download an MP3 play-along track for a set of harmonies and a chord chart PDF and "Do your best to improvise a solo on the song."

I found the solo analysis quite a hard thing to do as I'm not sure I really have the vocabulary or experience to do this. I don't think I made much of job of it either.

The playing part really daunted some of the other students, some of whom have never improvised before. It wasn't a particularity easy piece either with some quite complex chord changes. We all had to record our efforts and post them to Soundcloud.Quite a tough first assignment.

Week Two is looking at chords and scales, which might have helped some people with Week One but might have put them of before they started. I'll trust the tutors judgement. He is the best in the world at what he does after all.

Interestingly, after my comments about the constructive nature of the dialogue on the course site there has been a bit of change. There is now a fair bit of negativity towards the Tutor and Coursera. Some people haven't quite grasped that this is a free course and also that learning is not all a bed of roses. Learning is a disruptive process. If learning is successful, it changes you and change is never an easy process. However, there seems to be an attitude of I want it as I want it, I want it now and I want it for for free. Hmmm... not very healthy for the future of learning.

Anyway, here's my effort

A MOOC for International JAZZ Day

I've been involved in a few MOOCs before and have been exploring them from the point of view of my day job. So far I've not managed to complete one but it hasn’t been the reason I’ve been following them. Some, especially the ones on the subject of learning technology itself have had bewildering amounts of information. It seems as though some of the learning technologists on them are spending a good portion of their waking hours reading, posting and tweeting to the echo chamber. However, this one is different. I’m taking the course because I want to take it for itself. It’s entitled ‘Introduction to Improvisation’ and is being run on Coursera by Gary Burton. Not only is Gary a Professor at Berkeley, counts Chick Corea and Pat Metheny among his former pupils and is known to be a great improviser, he is also generally considered to be the best vibes player that has ever lived. Quite a CV eh? It was interesting that in a recent MOOC seminar one of the Professors present said, when looking at a Berkeley MOOC, “Who are these people?” and then argued that the people running the courses might as well just be actors. Well, the teacher being the best person in his field who has ever lived is good enough for me. He has even managed to get Learning Technology into the latest issue of Jazzwise magazine.

One very interesting element of this course is that Gary Burton has long been involved in Berkeley distance education and their online programme. This shows in the opening videos for the course. In fact he spends the first four videos talking about the course, what’s expected and the challenges of learning online. Peer review is a key element of the course and he carefully points out that comments should be supportive helpful and constructive. There should be no ridicule and that in a course of this nature “a lot of respect is called for”. Although there has not been any peer review yet the early comments on the forums seems to be following that advice. Sadly this has not always been the case in other MOOCs I have been on. He also points out that the course will not lead to success overnight or even during the duration of the course. Improvements and success will be seen in the weeks and months to come after the course has been completed. This is something that is true with all learning but that is not always acknowledged in an employability driven, satisfaction survey obsessed and learning outcomes focused world.

There are not as many short quizzes in this course so far. In previous courses there were lots of multiple choice quizzes where by watching the videos you could get the answers correct without actually having to learn anything. Not that I’m against multiple choice questions but using them just as a way of demonstrating you have remembered what you have just watched doesn't seem to be the learning revolution trumpeted by Daphne Koller et al. Instead the assignment for week one is to analyse as short improvisation by Mr Burton himself and then to record your own improvisation of the same tune using the backing track provided. These will then be peer reviewed. Some people are pretty daunted by the second part of the assignment as they are either new to Jazz, improvisation or both. (There seem to be quite a lot of prog rockers on the course. Down with Edupunk. Eduprog lives!) However, others seem to have been inspired by the culture of ‘a lot of respect’ and have already started posting their improvisations. The respect culture seems to be there in the comments as well – these are general comments rather than peer review. Some people are clearly early in their musical careers but the comments have been really supportive and constructive. None of the YouTube style ‘you suck man’ comments.

I plan to blog throughout the course and I plant to complete this one!

5 years on

I’ve been in my current post over 5 years now and in a recent office move I found notes from a series of meetings from when I first started. After the previous VLE officer moved on, two e-learning support officers were employed, with one of the roles to expand the use of technology to support and enhance learning and teaching from a pedagogical rather than technology perspective. When I arrived, I discovered that the prevailing view in the department was that e-learning and the VLE were one and the same thing and anything outside that definition was not what would be happening here! One of us took on the VLE support role and the other one, me, was left in a kind of limbo. The VLE support didn’t require two people, even when training was included. So there I was, fresh off my masters, in a new city, an interesting sounding new job and ready to go but nothing to do. However, I’m not put off that easily. With the help of a keen and very supportive academic, I searched around for people with an interest in e-learning (I’m going to use e-learning as a term because I can’t be bothered to keep typing "technology to support and enhance learning and teaching" ) and asked if they would be happy to meet and share their thoughts. My aim was not to tell them what I wanted to do but just to listen and find out what was going on. I managed to find 10 people who were willing to give up some of their time. The notes I found have each person's comments divided into three categories - positive comments, negative comments and areas to explore. I'm not sure why I chose those categories but it obviously seemed like a good idea at the time.

So what did they say?

The positive

"It has changed out of lecture teaching. It's more efficient - I do different things."
"Initially it was time consuming but later not so bad."
"I use the VLE to deliver lecture notes, PowerPoint slides, spreadsheets for modelling and links to web resources."
"Some lecturing staff are very keen"
"The school has a group of believers."
"It's useful for seminar groups."
"Useful for links to websites."
"Nearly all lectures in my school use the VLE to some extent."
"It's useful for visually-impaired students who can print off in braille beforehand."
"I think many lecturers would be keen to move to the next level."

The Negative

"The VLE interface can be clunky."
"The VLE interface can be clunky." (No i didn't type this twice by mistake)
"Classes are too big for e-learning."
"Some lectures have problems such as the time it takes, not wanting to learn new skills, thinking 'it's not for me' and worrying that student won't come to lectures."
"Many lecturers are very anti the VLE."
"At the moment it's all about the tools in the VLE and not what the benefits of e-learning are."
"e-learning at the University is all just the VLE!"
"Not keen on the VLE. I don't see the point!"

The areas to explore

Virtual classrooms, podcasts and video for tasters of upcoming lectures
Virtual whiteboards
Interactive whiteboards
Blogs and wikis.
Collaborative social spaces for networking
More research into the effectiveness of e-learning
The University to run an MSc in e-Learning
JISC Plagiarism tool
As students have little contact with tutors during projects, explore the use of blogs and wikis to improve interaction.
Tools to ease content creation
Online surveys for module evaluation.
Use of audio to support students with accessibility issues
Would like to know more about what e-learning is.
Examples of good practice
Collaborative work
The use of video
Tools for content creation
More training
Want to provide something different for in and out of lecture time. Want to encourage students to think.
Keen to explore tools for formative assessment.
A question of knowing what's available
More flexible training schedule - one-to-one, department wide etc
Content creation tools
JISC plagiarism tool
Collaborative e-learning
Problem based learning
Scenarios
Easier content creation
Collaboration with outside partners such as the NHS
Use of streaming video in class - through the VLE?
Move beyond document store use of VLE
Learning objects to supplement class teaching
More advanced use of e-learning

So what does it all I mean? I'm not sure really. I'll take some time to think about this - about what's changed over the last 5 years, what's hasn't changed, what's new, what's worked and what hasn't - and return to it in another post.

The Hippocritic Oath

Something a little different and not about educational technology. Unless I can pretend it's about the demise of old media....

The Hippocritic Oath- cyganski (2002)

I'll bring you down with poisoned prose
While I shove cocaine up my nose
and swear by the hippocritic oath.
I'll fill the page with your indiscretion
While I indulge my own obsession
It's all part of the journalistic game.
I'll stand in judgement on you all
and twist the knife again.

Then I'll run away
I'll always run away
I write my lies and ruin your life
And then I'll run away.

The story's out I've got it wrong
Have to tell the truth and then move on
To look my victims in the eye.
Do you really think I'd be contrite?
I'm a journalist. I'm full of shite
Don't expect honesty from me.
It's my right to judge you all
Because I've got an English degree.

And I'll run away
I'll always run away
I write my lies and ruin your life
And then I'll run away.
I'll always run away.

Mobile blogging

Just testing apps for blogging to blogger

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.1

Learning Technologists Anonymous?

I've been in the process of migrating a Technology Enhanced Learning site to a more general Learning and Teaching enhancement site and wondered whether what's below should go on the new site?

It's designed to go against the fahionista element in learning technology, where learning technologists rush from one new technology to the next and where, if you are still using what they have just left, you are told, "Oh, that's so last year?"

"Facebook that's rubbish we all use Twitter now." "Twitter? We're all on Grunter darling!"

Something similar is raised in this interesting post from the Ed Techie Thanks to @MrSimonWood for the link.The same people who were shouting about ePortfolios have now moved elsewhere. Always promoting the next thing in the same way they promoted the last big thing they are now dismissing without pausing to examine what they are actually doing. Is is just self-promotion? Is it the result of a JISC project fueled culture? Is it insecurity, thinking that anyone can do this job so I'd better look busy?

Why are learning technologists always trying to sell something? The latest tool they have found or that a salesman has shown them. And why do they think that what works for them (or more often their son, daughter, niece, cat...) should work for everyone else too? Don't get me wrong I think technology can be really tremendously powerful in supporting and enhancing learning and teaching but perhaps learning technologists are the biggest barrier in it's successful adoption.

Anyway on to Learning Technologists Anonymous. The first step. My name is Chris and I'm a Learning Technologist.......

Many men and women have heard or read about the unique Fellowship called Learning Technologists Anonymous since its founding. People who once used learning technology to excess, finally acknowledged that they could not handle learning technology in its current form, and now live a new way of life.

Learning Technologists Anonymous use the following 12 step programme.

1. We admitted we were powerless over the latest learning technology -that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn developing our strategies over to the learning community as we understood it.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to the learning community and to ourselves the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked the learning community to work with us to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through Appreciative Inquiry to improve our conscious contact with the learning community, to understand their needs and find ways to work together to support those needs.

12. Having had a ‘spiritual awakening’ as the result of these steps we tried to carry this message to learning technologists and to practice these principles in all our affairs

Moodle "Official" Music Video

A class project, would you believe, from Taylor University

Do we need teachers in Higher Education?

Interesting article by Paul Ramsden on the THE website about how "Producing graduates who are critical thinkers requires teachers who can bring scholarship and leadership to the academy."

As with many others, I have long thought that teaching is unbelievably undervalued and often poorly done in higher education. He argues in that although Student Satisfaction is now all the rage in the UK, universities are often barking up the wrong tree. How much marketing literature shows happy, smiling students studying on the beach and then walking off into the sunset with a good degree and a dream graduate job? The pressure to produce more happy students with a 2:1 misses what I think is fundamental about higher education. We could make students happy by handing out free beer at lectures, putting soft porn on the VLE and ensuring all students get a 2:1 but I'm not sure that would fulfill the mission of a University. We can often get dangerously close to thinking of students as customers to be serviced. However, when I go to a restaurant I'm not asked to think about the meal I'm about to eat. I don't have to go away and research the ingredients. I don't have to read about the great chefs who have cooked this meal in the past. I don't have to explore the cultural significance of the meal. I don't have to understand how to cook the meal and I'm not then asked to cook it myself, perhaps with my own individual take on the recipe. In a restaurant you are a customer, as student you are not a customer, more a partner in you own (and ideally the university's) development. As Ramsden argues, “Teaching in higher education should never fool students into thinking there is an easy path to success. Rather, it should make the hardest road enjoyable to follow by communicating complex ideas clearly and succinctly” and also that "Accomplished teaching is the single most important method of producing graduates who can reason and act for themselves, and can apply theory to practical problems - precisely the skills that any employer wants to see."

He also discusses the emphasis that is put on research to the detriment of teaching and argues that when interviewing successful researchers about their teaching he discovered that, “the researchers who were good at teaching - who went about it by focusing on students and their learning (rather than their own teaching performance or transmitting information) - were not those who necessarily produced the most research. They were the ones who focused on the underlying structure of their investigations, on the broad conceptual framework of their subject, rather than isolated individual problems within it - the ones who were scholars in their discipline.”

He concludes that, "The rationale for university teaching is not satisfying students, distributing information to them nor changing them, as some condescendingly say. Rather, it is enabling students to change for themselves." And that way to do that is through excellent teaching.

The learner experience of transition - ELESIG Summer Symposium

Last week saw the 3rd ELESIG Summer symposium; this year in Leeds. ELESIG is “an international community of researchers and practitioners from higher and further education who are involved in investigations of learners' experiences and uses of technology in learning”. The website can be found at http://elesig.ning.com/

The first day was a mix of past projects sharing their stories and new hopefuls pitching their ideas

Terri Rees from Plymouth in her work with international students experience of e-learning talked about the how learners often have different levels of participation on and off line. Some individuals contribute less online than they do in class and some the other way round. She talked about the importance of rapport building before learners go online in order to build community.

Alice Lau from Glamorgan also talked about the experience of international students, with the iLExSIG project. Her presentation had the added bonus of having two students with her to talk about their experiences. You can find out more about iLExSIG on the ELESIG site.

The second day combined with the Aim Higher conference, with a keynote on Transition by Bill Johnston from Strathclyde. Among many areas he talked about were -

The need to look at transition in broad societal terms

The idea of Transition in and out of higher education. Do the careers service have an input?
Transition is about any aspect of the first year when individuals have to make a change – learning, social …....... many areas

Students often start excited but then dip in motivation and performance. “I only need 40% to pass that's me, I can get by.”There is a need to look more at what success is. Learning goals or assessment goals? Marks of real learning? Do we want students to learn or pass? Just passing will end up with everyone unhappy eventually.

Don't look at why students drop out, look at why they stay. What was it that made them stay, particularly if they were thinking about dropping out. Sounds like a case for Appreciative Inquiry to me :-)

He also asked what is success in higher education and illustrated his thoughts with a few quotes -

“to prepare students for lifelong, self-regulated, co-operative and work-based learning” Jan D Vermunt 2007

“used to think that academia, like the Vatican and prostitution, was great survivor of social upheaval”

“information literacy is the adoption of appropriate information behavior to identify, though whatever channel or medium, information well fitted to information needs leading to wise and ethical use of information in society” – Johnston & Weber

Hmmm…. Ethical? BP and RBS managers are graduates!

But how to embed Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship (ESDGC)into the curriculum? He argued for an Information Literate University, which has information literate staff, curriculum, students and graduates. It’s much more than creating knowledge workers for an information society

This was followed by a very interesting workshop by Kyriaki Anagnostopoulou and Deeba Parmer from Middlesex University, where we looked at what could be done to help some fictitious students make the transition to university life.

One of things that Middlesex has done is to show the real university, warts and all, in bridging materials before students come. Obviously marketing didn't like this. “Where's the sun and happy students?” they cried. “This will put them off” To which the response was that if they are put when they arrive and leave, the university is no better off but if some have a more realistic view of university life, the transition process may be smoother and some who may have dropped out will stay.

Old videos never die...

Just back from Gregynog 2010 - several days of library, IT and e-learning presentations. There were and number of good sessions and lots of interesting people. I don't know why but on Thursday my mind drifted to an old Lunch and Learn session ...............

Is Powerpoint evil? from Chris on Vimeo.

Sustainable e-learning?

Last week I was at the 8th International JTEFS/BBCC Conference "Sustainable Development. Culture. Education at UNESCO in Paris. The picture is the view fron the UNESC canteen :-) I presented in the Education for Sustainable Development and E-learning strand, which looked at what are the challenges of e-learning/blended learning for higher education institutions? E-learning as the issue of non-formal education and E-learning and communication. My presentation was entitled "The Digital Natives Meme. Why context is more important than technology with the following abstract -

"Rising student numbers, greater funding pressure and an increasing consumerisation of education pose dilemmas for educators. Additionally, we are told that technology is going to transform education; that a new breed of young people, who have not known a world without pervasive electronic technology, are entering education; that this will lead to a paradigm shift and those unable or unwilling to make the change will be swept away. However, recent research shows this may not be the case. Using examples from an ongoing study of university students' experiences of using technology, this paper argues that a debate that is framed by thoughts of an army of homogeneous digital natives will produce technology 'solutions' that are unsustainable. It will go on to argue that a more context based approach towards the use of technology is needed in order to provide sustainable solutions to the issues facing educators in the 21st century."

The Digital Natives Meme. Why context is more important than technology

View more presentations from Chris Hall.

Overall the conference was pretty good with a number of excellent presentations from Dr Peter Purg(Slovenia),Dr Richard R. Jurin(USA) and Dr Mark Mifsud (Malta)

A final thougt

A tag cloud from my posts on Poznan.

although arrived beer class course debate different e-learning election english events flat guard helped interesting jestem language later learning lecture lots ma maybe nice number online people phone planning poland polish poznan presentation quite security senate session students sunshine sure teaching think thought today traditional university used wall week work

created at TagCrowd.com

And so the end is near....

So, today is my last day at AMU. I can't believe that it has gone so quickly and I could quite happily stay longer. Just starting to get into the swing of things and now it's time to go home :-( It has been a great experience and I've been made to feel part of the team by Prof Włodzimierz Sobkowiak, Dr Przemyslaw Kaszubski and Dr Michał Remiszewski as well as the other staff at IFA.

I'm currently looking at some work being done by Dr Przemyslaw Kaszubski that 'provides a platform for annotated concordancing activities for EAP learners and teachers' http://ifa.amu.edu.pl/~ifaconc/ We're meeting up later, my final session, to go through the project in more detail.



However, my Erasmus trip is not completely over. On Wednesday we had some technical problems with the Second Life session so we have rescheduled it for a couple of weeks time. I wonder if you can get expenses for going into SL?

Is teaching online different?

So, my final session with the MA ICT in EFL class and my final presentation of my stay here. They are a very nice group of students and it has been a pleasure to work with them, albeit briefly. This session was about what similarities and differences there may be between teaching online and teaching in a more traditional classroom situation.

MA ICT for EFL - Is teaching online different

View more presentations from Chris Hall.

It was an interesting session but I'm not sure if I 'performed' as well as the week before. I felt I got pretty waffley in the second half of the lecture when talking about blogging. We some very interesting discussions though, particularly towards the end when there was quite a debate on what constitutes a 'real' conversation. One student proposed that she liked the idea of using blogs for teaching and learning writing in English, as the 'conversation' between the blogger and those making comments would be more 'real' than in a rather more 'artificial' traditional writing exercise. This sparked another student who felt that any such 'conversation' could not be real in the way that a face-to-face conversation is. The debate flowed back and forth and interestingly mirrored some of the conversations the IFA staff had had about what it means to meet. All very interesting stuff that I left Prof Sobkowiak to deal with later in the course :-)

Research, development and IPR?

Today, as well as planning for tomorrow's lecture for the MA ICT in EFL class, I had a chance to look at some very interesting work being done by Dr. Michał Remiszewski Assistant professor in the Department of Computer Assisted English Linguistics here at IFA, AMU.

He's working on a powerful assessment tool, which has great potential for teaching as well as providing a good deal of research material. I'll be very interested to see where this goes. It also led to an interesting debate on universities attitudes to Intellectual Property Rights. A recurring theme around the world I think.