Dr Ashely Tan spoke about Jail breaking education with mobile Learning at mobilearnAsia 2013. His argument was that learning happens every where not just inside the classroom. To take advantage of all these opportunities learners should be allowed to connect use different tools and resources such as audio, video and image capture to provide evidence, to enable learning that is beyond the traditional classroom.
One of the key themes was: "We have 21st century learners being taught by 20th century teacher in 19th century classrooms" It was also highlighted that current assessment are inadequate to measure more outcomes differently. The ability to trial new things, allowing students to use the technology to be innovative, take responsibility and authority for their own learning and providing opportunity for such environment was necessary in the 21st century. Link to Ashely's presentation :http://t.co/dxDNO7W3y2 At MobilearnAsia 2013 Terese Bird presented on BYOD in UK Schools: Premise, Promise. Her presentation suggested that with an idea why you are proceeding with BYOD, identifying infrastructure required with a well communicated expectation it is possible to progress with BYOD concept to bring benefits to all involved in teaching and learning.
She suggests Figuringitouted suggests ideas how to proceed. Comparing to standard PC or laptops other mobile devices are capable of handling other functionalities such as easy photo taking, video recording, portability, and surfing the net. With large number of students owing these smart devices it is a pity that we do not use the capabilities of these resources for teaching and learning. Terese suggested some areas to consider: 1. Environment 2. Infrastructure - suggested site 3. Plans for good digital citizenship Challenge 1: Define the current ecosystem One of my tasks in my role is to build capability of academic staff to use Technology to enhanced student learning experiences. For this purpose I conduct different professional development workshops, eModerating course (similar to David Hopkins), Carpe Diem courses for facilitators, as well as Carpe Diem workshops to build learning resources. None of the professional development courses/sessions that I run have any certifications. eModerating course awards a certificate that indicates attendance and completion. The capacity building workshops are generally 1-2 hours and they are either faculty based requests or based on a new upgrade to the LMS or as an introduction of a new tool. The eModerating course runs online, for 5 weeks. Three badge system for the eModerating course will fit in well within its learning outcomes and requirements. 1. Making a start(week1) 2. Creating an etivity(week 4) 3. Completing the Personal Development Plan (week5) Offering of badges for the professional development sessions is more complex than the above case. It would be two stage tasks. 1. Learning Badge: Offer a learning badge when the professional development is attended. Since the sessions are about a particular technology or how to enhance teaching and learning, it would be important to record the PD undertaken. 2. Skill Badge: This badge will be offered when the evidence of how the knowledge/skill gained s used to deliver a course is produced. 3. All these courses are specific to the university 4. They are either undertaken by the academics who are:
5. Some are very experienced academics while occasionally new recruits join the PD session to learn how to use technology for Teaching and Learning. 6. Learning resources are developed and made available to all staff through various media through the website, LMS and print and softcopy versions. 7. The concept of badging will need to be piloted within a small group. This will require support from higher level managers as well as an enthusiastic Badge tester group. Such a pilot will assist identifying problems, areas that need improvements etc. It will enable a safe environment to fail and/or trial something new. The PD groups are for academics and the pilot will bring feedback on two key area: a) about the badge system b) how/why they will/will not use such a system in their course delivery. 8. Once the trail is complete based on the results either, it will have to go through another iteration or will have to be communicated with other managers, coordinators etc. the results will be show cased at Learning Technology forums, Teaching and Learning forums, IT and HR forums, Research forums and committees etc. This process will lead to seek senior management commitment for the badging and recognition PD through badging. The process will blend well with evidence portfolios which also enable to gather professional development evidence. 9. These badges can be collected into a backpack that will then assist towards Graduate Certificate Units. It will be a great opportunity for the participants as well as the Deans/HR/Coordinators to track what PD have been undertaken, how staff have used technology for teaching and learning etc. 10. My thoughts have create a plan for the university and how they could use badges to provide a better learning environment as well as motivate staff to be involved, while maintaining a record system There are many tools to create Inforgraphic, a pictorial representation of some information, idea or even facts.
Some of the tools are: 1. http://infogr.am/ 2. http://www.easel.ly is another tool that has some free templates that can be used to set a background and then change according to the needs. Objects can be easily dragged and dropped to create the inforgraphic representation. Games for Innovation was presented by Anton Rossouw at LAST conference 2013. He suggests that Use if innovation games as a better way to collaborate and innovate with teams within the organisation, even with customers and end-users. It was also suggested that instead of boring "requirements gathering" meetings.
Some of these games can be found at:https://innovationgames.com there are few free games that can be played. Luke Hohmann the CEO of the innovationgames company has also written a book on innovation games. Important areas for me: reading the above paper! Fishbone analysis of traditional (distance) mode of online learning This represents a typical educational model where there re different types of people, infrastructure, delivery methods and learning resources. Many educators would agree on this and even would be able to relate it to their own organisational settings. Leading change: Applying change management approaches to engage students in blended learning Diana Quinn, Yousef Amer, Anne Lonie Division of Information, Technology, Engineering and the Environment University of South Australia Kim Blackmore, Lauren Kane, Malcolm Pettigrove College of Engineering and Computer Science Australian National University Areas considered important: · Staff and course re-development · Student engagement and its relationship to change · Using change management principles to re-engage learners for change · Organisational change as 3 separate phases (Lewin, 1952); 1. unfreezing of the old culture and setting the stage for change, 2. making the change happen, and 3. re-freezing, to make the changes stick. · Communicating the vision through an induction experience Kotter Kotter has introduced 8 steps to lead change. He also found that all eight steps needed to be present and in the right order for the change process to be successful. Kotter acknowledged that these steps also take time, and warns that moving onto the next step before enough time has been spent on the preceding step will only give the illusion of progress. It was interesting to read about Kotter model, and how the universities used this model to implement their project. Also the thoughts about how they would change their current processes and improve to make it happen as well as making it stick was quite fascinating. Kotter, J. (2007). Leading Change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, The Tests of a Leader. January 2007, 96-103. http://www.stratafrica.com/media/2a8f73ccf40110beffff80be7f000101.pdf
Kotter, J. (1995). Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business Press. Learning and Teaching Unit (2010). Teaching Options in learnonline. University of South Australia http://resource.unisa.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=3494 Important areas for me reading the paper:
Applying Leadership Theories to Distance Education Leadership by John Nworie, Kent State University The purpose of this paper is to examine leadership theories that could be beneficial to distance education leaders. Transformational leaders are charismatic, motivational, intellectual, and considerate and often display the qualities of self-confidence, honesty, and integrity (Bass & Steidelmeier, 1998; Dixon, 1998). Transformational leadership have sought to
According to Portugal (2006) DE leaders must be transformational leaders and innovative visionaries with the ability to motivate, energize, inspire, and encourage followers.. The situational leadership theory proposes that effective leaders play the roles of leadership and management Situational leadership attributes are relevant to management of rapid environmental change that involves varied cadre of staff members. Complexity leadership theory introduces a new dimension to how leadership is perceived as it shifts focus from the individual leader to the context, a shift which influences the performance of the leader and on outcomes. This method encourages collaboration, flexibility, systems thinking, reflection, innovative solutions, and adaptability of organizational structures If you have used Wordle (http://www.wordle.net/) creating images with words then you would love Shape Collage. It is similar to Wordle, The difference i that you can create a collage with images. It is a great tool for projects where large number of images. Shape Collage is a tool where images are used to create a Collage. Check out for more details: According to Watkins & Marsick [14,16,17], the characteristics or the seven complementary action imperatives of LO are to: 1) create continuous learning opportunities, 2) promote inquiry and dialogue, 3) encourage collaboration and team learning, 4) establish systems to capture and share learning, 5) empower people toward a collective vision, 6) connect the organization to its environment and 7) provide strategic leadership for learning |
KulariDr. Kulari Lokuge has been in the education sector for more than twenty years. She has been educating student using latest educational technologies while facilitating professional development to her staff to use technology for education to provide engaging and interesting learning experiences. She has initiated and successfully managed several e-learning projects. Archives
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