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The May 2011 Learning Technology Newsletter is now available from the Learntech Newsletter page. This provide full details on current team activity and new activity based on feedback received.
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The Learning Technology team are now available on Skype!
We can’t always be where you need us, but Skype allows us to support you remotely using the screen-sharing tool – we can show you what we’re doing on our screens, or talk you through what to do on yours, without either of us needing to travel. Best of all, it works on PCs, Macs, and even some mobile devices, from anywhere in the world. All you need is the Skype software, a Skype account (free), and a headset (or speakers and a microphone/webcam).
If you already use Skype, or if you think this might be helpful for you, why not get in touch with us to find out more. Each of team has a Skype ID, which you can find listed on the Contact Us page in the LearnTech site on NILE.
Executive Summary
The University of Northampton (UN) is committed to enhancing the quality of its e-learning and this is a central component of its Learning and Teaching strategies and key to the delivery of its new Strategic Plan 2010-15. The QAQE E-Learning Toolkit allows the University to develop, refine and enhance the institutional approach to quality with a particular focus on the whole lifespan of the (re)development of programmes, making use of Open Educational Resources where applicable. The toolkit will particularly assist as the institution moves forward to increase and enhance its distance learning provision and review and develop its curricula.
1) Institutional Context
Since 2007, UN has been working on improving processes for course design and delivery using a method based on the Carpe Diem model (Originally developed by The University of Leicester (Armellini et al, 2008 and 2009)). Over time this process has been changed and refined and is now termed CAIeRO (Creating Aligned and Interactive educational Resource Opportunities).
The CAIeRO process is an opportunity for the course team, Learning Technologists, Librarians, Students and other stakeholders (e.g. academic developer/facilitator(s) who are not part of the course team) to come together over a focused period of time to reflect on current or future courses and rebuild these in a way which is pedagogically focused and makes use of technology where relevant – and where it would enhance the delivery.
‘…….the use of the technology itself is increasingly not a distinguishing factor for organisations, but rather the quality of that use and the way it advances the goals of a change resilient organisation become essential to success.’
(Marshall, 2010)
The style of the events held under the CAIeRO banner have subtly changed over time to incorporate new practices and developments. For example, recent JISC/HEA funding during 2010 has allowed the University to explore the development of Open Educational Resources under the TIGER project (www.northampton.ac.uk/tiger). This has introduced the elements of Designing for Openness to the CAIeRO events so that culture of both using and sharing material is ingrained at the earliest opportunity.
We are also discussing the nature of course development and design with the Director of Learning and Teaching and Head of Quality and Curriculum Services to look at the nature of the validation process and the way in which programmes are delivered within the University.
2) Focus, Scope and Timeline
A team with the following staff will review the toolkit during March and its applicability to the CAIeRO process:
- Director of Learning and Teaching
- Head of Quality and Curriculum Services
- Deputy Director of Academic Services (Information Services)
- Principal Lecturer Learning and Teaching (Health)
- Head of Learning Technology
Whilst the institution has interest in all the stages and the detailed questions which are provided within the toolkit, it is clear that we currently place more focus on some areas than others. We will provide full feedback on the use of the toolkit and would hope to be involved in future revisions.
Two CAIeRO events will be held during March/ April / May informed by the outcomes of the above review and appropriate modifications. Staff involved in the CAIeRO processes will be surveyed about their experiences with particular focus on the value added through the use of the e-learning toolkit.
The feedback will be collated by 31st May, reported on, case study developed and then presented at the e-learning quality conference on 14th June.
As part of our regular programme of NILE maintenance and improvements, this summer there will be two short periods when work will be completed. There may a disruption to the NILE service during these periods.
On the weekend of 25/26 June, the software that underpins NILE will be upgraded to the latest service pack.
On the 26/27 July, NILE will be linked to the staff / student login system.
In preparation for these changes, all users need to ensure that their passwords and email addresses on NILE match those on the main University IT systems, before 25th June. For more details, please see the upgrade information page.
I’ve known about this tool for a while, it was developed in the MS Lab, and it’s a free tool to create 360 panoramas and virtual tours. I’m using the iPhone app at the moment, testing it out. The stitching isn’t perfect, ideally I’d find someone with a fish-eye lens and a digital stills camera, but for a quick and easy 360 tour, Photosynth is pretty good. I’ve uploaded it to the Photosynth site and also embedded a panorama in my NILE training module. The School of Health wanted to look into posting up little tours of their facilities, so this might be of use. UoN marketing paid a company to produce virtual tours a while back but the cost was silly, they may try a use video to achieve the same effect.
This is my first effort, so the stitching is bit off but you get the idea.
Link to Photosynth 360 panorama
Image via CrunchBase
There is no denying that as new technologies go, Twitter is here to stay (as much as any web tech ever is). With a user base of 175 million, it regularly features in the news, albeit sometimes alongside disparaging comments about users posting what they were eating for breakfast. So is it actually useful, and something that you should be paying attention to? I think so, and here’s why.
What actually is it?
Technically, it’s a ‘microblogging’ tool. If that means nothing to you, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Basically it’s a place where people can post short updates (no more than 140 characters, think the length of a text message before the phones that allow you to type forever). These are (mostly) public on the web for anyone to see.
Why is it useful?
Different people have different ideas about this. Below are some of mine. Feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments.
Twitter for CPD
I should probably point out first that my social media accounts (like my email addresses) have clearly defined purposes – Facebook is for personal conversations, and LinkedIn and Twitter are for professional ones. Rarely if ever do the two cross over, which keeps things nice and simple. This means I have a clear idea before I start of the kind of information I want to find on twitter – some people have more than one account to do this kind of filtering.
Although there is undoubtedly a lot of nonsense posted on Twitter, the power of the tool is in the ability to choose who you follow (following someone means you see their updates, or ‘tweets’). For me this is an organic process – over time I might meet people at conferences or see their twitter accounts on email signatures, or recognise names that are well-known in my field. The trick is to gather a list of people that are talking about things you will find useful or interesting (and of course this is why people would follow you, too…)
Following these people gives me a list of updates that I can quickly scan through when I have a few spare minutes (each one is only 140 characters remember), to get an idea of what’s new in my field. Having people follow me means I can post questions, and, if I’m lucky, get answers from someone who knows. It’s also a source of peer review, for everything from informal ideas to papers for publication.
Twitter for marketing
A number of companies, organisations and HE institutions have accounts on Twitter. This allows them to send out updates, as well as track what’s being said about them by other users. You can see some reviews of how universities are using Twitter on Brian Kelly’s blog: he’s covered 1994 Group Unis and Russell Group Unis.
Twitter for learning and teaching
Aside form simply keeping students updated and recommending resources, teaching staff are finding a range of creative ways to use twitter for learning and teaching. The most common ones are:
- ‘crowdsourcing’/collaboration. Using hashtags (a unique word or set of characters with a # sign in front of it) allows you to collect together tweets posted by a range of different users, as long as they all contain the same hashtag. This could allow you to collect resources and information from a group of students. A great example of this way of collecting information is Tim Burton’s collective scriptwriting project.
- ‘backchannels‘ and classroom voting. Having a hashtag for an event or lecture gives you the opportunity to display feedback from the audience during the event. Or, if this sounds a bit scary, you can use polling software like twtpoll to ask specific questions on twitter. Any student with a smartphone or laptop can access twitter in the classroom.
Follow the Learning Technology team: @LearnTechUoN
You can get some more ideas from the links below. Also, look out for training sessions from the LT team.
50 ideas on using Twitter for Education (Cooper-Taylor Training)
Eight Reasons an Innovative Educator Uses Twitter (The Innovative Educator Blog)
The ‘utility’ of Twitter in teaching and learning (JISC RSC)
100 ways to teach with Twitter (Emerging EdTech)
Report on L&T experts group meeting 23rd March 2011 (#jiscexperts11)
Attended by Rob Howe
The main aims of the day were:
- To update the group on the findings from the Supporting Learners in a Digital Age (SLiDA) study
- To update and consult with the Experts on emerging findings from the Lifelong Learning and Workforce development programme
- To update and consult with the Experts on emerging findings from the e-Portfolio Implementations Study
Rhona Sharpe presented on the SLiDA project and interim findings. A number of breakout sessions allowed members to explore some key themes in more depth. I attended the session on ‘strategic emphasis on course design for blended learning.’ The group noted the importance of the correct departmental setup and good promotion of this. Robust technology should be available and staff need to be competent in its use — staff digital competence may need to be addressed (noted that there may be subject differences in enthusiasm and adoption). The use of the CAIeRO process at Northampton does help address a number of the previously mentioned issues. Case studies were noted as valuable but often difficult to obtain. Example from Winchester at wblb.wordpress.com
The group indicated that induction should not be an option and it does impact on retention.
Rhona concluded by indicating that the next digital literacy workshops are now advertised.
The next main block covered how technology is supporting lifelong learning and workforce development. Two points noted in the introduction were the need for flexible institutional policies and a policy on information sharing. Xcri was mentioned several times as a standard for sharing course information between sites. Other potential sites useful to follow up were the maturity toolkit and the Pineapple project. (Apel processes). The projects represented were:
- Workforce engagement in lifelong learning -maturity toolkit3 , Peter Chatterton, University of Bradford
- Partnership investigations into accredited prior/previous learning4, Neil Witt, University of Plymouth
- Middlesex University skills & education planning tool5 , George Dafoulas, Middlesex University
- e-Portfolio based pedagogy for SMEs6, Alison Felce, University of Wolverhampton
- Technology enhanced learning to support a welsh centre for workforce development and Building Capacity project7 , Loretta Newman-Ford, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC)
- Culture Campus Liverpool Portal8, Trish Lunt, University of Liverpool
A detailed discussion on the e-portfolio implementation study followed. This raised a number of questions which may be of use for Northampton’s own strategy within this area.
The final 3 sessions covered :
Circuit Warz – virtual worlds within Moodle
Aston’s development of a CMS similar to BITE
Concept linkage through C-link. This is a search and concept map builder which searches for links between two concepts and builds a map of the relationship. This tool could have potential use within a number of subject areas at Northampton.
Other points of note during the day:
The Jisc on air radio show – JISC’s L:earning and Teaching Radio show
Poss future call for digital literacy development site wide
The E4L Project (e-Learning for Learners) gathered a series of themed and categorised video clips of learners talking about their experiences of using technology when they learn.
The case studies represent learners from adult and community learning, further and higher education undertaking a variety of different courses from various subjects. These clips last anything from 20 seconds to 3 minutes and provide short, sharp and sweet experiences and opinions from the learners that can be used educate and inspire other learners, tutors, developers, management, etc. For each of the clips there is the opportunity to leave comments and reflections and read those left by others.
