Teaching as transparent learning « Connectivism May 29, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentGeorge Siemens: "Let me explain. When someone decides to share their thoughts and ideas in a transparent manner, they become a teacher to those who are observing. Social technology – such as Twitter, blogs, Facebook – opens the door to sharing the process of learning, not only the final product."
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Glasgow Uni launches SoTL website October 25, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : Academic, HE, SoTL, educational development , add a commentIs this a first for a UK university? Glasgow has launched a website dedicated to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), punningly called BeSoTLed — and it’s more than just a page with links to some of the (much more plentiful) sites in North America.
This initiative has grown out of a learning community of teaching staff at Glasgow University, particularly Lorna Morrow (psychology), Rob McKerlie (dentistry) and Jane MacKenzie (Learning and Teaching Centre). Congrats to them. These three seem to have an open and encouraging way of describing their involvement with SoTL — for example, I like the way they
do not see themselves as SoTL experts but as SoTL enthusiasts.
Glasgow University seems to have been encouraging SoTL more actively in recent years. It became the only European member of the Building SoTL Communities project, supported by the Carnegie Academy. The six others are all in the USA or Canada. Glasgow also set up a SoTL journal a few years ago — the Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
The BeSoTLed website points to other activities, too — indeed, there’s an accompanying Moodle site, which sadly is accessible only to Glasgow staff.
Good stuff. Which also it makes me wonder why the HEA hasn’t created something like this, as far as I’m aware, as a central resource to encourage SoTL in UK higher education. Of course the HEA has supported initiatives such as this one at City, where we do our bit for SoTL, too, with an international conference almost annually, and schemes for SoTL research and recognition. Among other things.
Can a computer lecture better than a human? October 24, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentScott McLeod makes the case for covering the basics online. His example is a school assignment but his point has wider application:
"Don’t get me wrong. There’s still a lot of value in human teachers when it comes to explaining difficult concepts, working through students’ misconceptions, inspiring students to want to explore deeper, and so on. We’re not replaceable by robots and software just yet. But […]
There is a wealth of research showing that around 80 to 85 percent of classroom work is low-level factual and procedural work, exactly the kind of work that can easily be facilitated by the kinds of technology-mediated learning activities that I’ve alluded to this post. So why waste an expensive human on those things?"
New image search tutorial from Intute and TASI October 15, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentWorth a look. I find the interface clunky but it's a useful resource to which to point people who might not know their way around this area (from the Intute blog):
"Internet for Image Searching is a new, free online tutorial to help staff and students in universities and colleges to find digital images for their learning and teaching:
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/tutorial/imagesearching/
[…]
The emphasis of the tutorial is on finding copyright cleared images which are available free; facilitating quick, hassle-free access to a vast range of online photographs and other visual resources."
£5.7m to develop Open Education pilot projects in UK October 15, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : Education, HEA, Teaching resources, learning , add a commentFrom the HEFCE press release today:
HEFCE has announced an initial £5.7 million of funding for pilot projects that will open up existing high-quality education resources from higher education institutions to the world.
In plain English, this means making available teaching and related material in digital form — for others in HE (and elsewhere) to reuse and adapt for teaching and learning.
The press notice explains that:
Open educational resources could include full courses, course materials, complete modules, notes, videos, assessments, tests, simulations, worked examples, software, and any other tools or materials or techniques used to support access to knowledge.
Also spotted today: Martin Weller of the Open University writes about SocialLearn, the OU’s project to develop a social network for learning — a few steps on from its Open Education initiative, OpenLearn.
Anyone wanting to keep track of developments in Open Education would do well to check Stephen Downes’ invaluable blog, where it features frequently, eg covering recent publications and events.
Are College Students Techno Idiots? :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education's Source for News, Views and Jobs September 30, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentLarge-scale study suggests poor information literacy skills, including evaluating websites and searching online effectively: "For the study, information was gathered from over 6,300 students found at 63 universities, colleges, community colleges, and high schools (seniors). Each institution selected participants to take an information and communication technology literacy assessment. Because the institutions did not make random selections , caution should be taken when evaluating the results. The challenge was to see if students could identify trustworthy information, manage that information, and communicate it effectively. The results do not inspire confidence. […]Results also show that students might even lack the basics on a search engine like Google. When asked to narrow a search that was too broad, only 35 percent of students selected the correct revision. Further, 80 percent of students put irrelevant points into a slide program designed to persuade an audience."