Pontydysgu – Bridge to Learning

Here is the podcast version of our first programme from this year’s Online Educa Berlin. More details will follow.

Here is a quick summary of this week;s live radio broadcasts from Berlin. To listen to the programmes just point your browser to http://bit.ly/uEmhus and open it in the program of your choice (e.g. iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc.)

Wednesday November 30
Live Radio: Welcome to ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2011
Time: 18:00 – 1830 CET

Thursday December 1
Live Radio: Question Time Debate
Time: 1215 – 1255 CET

Friday December 2
Live Radio: OEB Live on Friday
Time: 1100 – 1200

GoAnimate.com: Episode One – Jenny Jobseeker by elleemployability

I’ve been working on a series of webquests on the use of the internet far careers guidance and counselling. And I stumbled on this great blog by Elle Dyson. Elle is making a a mini cartoon series following the journey of ‘Jenny Jobseeker’ as she battles through the unemployment jungle. As she says there are limitations to the free version of Go animate (the online tool she used to make the cartoon) but, she says, “it serves as (I think) a rather nifty tool for engagement – providing a little bit of advice, giving them a bit of a laugh, and most importantly engaging them in the service, encouraging them to access support from us, and in accessing local opportunities.”

Last week I took place in a seminar on mobile learning – called SOMOBNET, organised at the Institute of Education in London and supported by the EU Stellar network.

A few things from the seminar have kept me pondering in the days since. Firstly, it seems that although there is a lot of anecdotal evidence as to the widespread use of mobile devices in the workplace – and I think we could speculate that such usage is including learning if only in the form of ‘ring a friend’, we have few if any studies such informal use. Furthermore the present frameworks and theory of mobile learning are very much based on the use of technology for learning within formal educations settings and are of limited relevance to the ways we are using mobile devices today.

To develop such a theory I think we need to look more closely at the nature of practice.

I included two slides on practice in my presentation at the seminar (click on slides below to see full size versions).

Yishay Mor tweeted something like ‘Attwell is proposing practice as an alternative to competence’. I had not realised I was doing that, but thinking further on Yishay’s tweet it makes some sense. Competence as a construct is clearly alienated from the reality to work practice. Yet we have needed such constructs just because we have been unable to directly capture practice as it happens. Furthermore learning and knowledge development have also largely been seen as happening at a distance form practice, through formal curricula and in training centres. The ability to use mobile devices directly in the work process and to capture those work processes through new media removes the need to mediate through externally and often expert derived competence constructs. More on this to come.

In the summary discussion chaired by Sonia Livingstone, I once more reiterated my opinion that mobile devices were most interesting for learning in the context of vocational education and training and occupational practice. Sonia threw me a little when she asked me if this was because I despaired of the school systems. I am not a great fan of secondary schooling systems which I think are largely dysfunctional. But that is not the reason why I am so interested in the potential of mobile devices for learning at work. I see teh ability to use such devices as extending access to learning to the many people who are outside the formal education sector. And I tend to feel that both research and practice in the use of mobile devices will be held back whilst it remains the preserve of educational researchers working from a  schooling paradigm.

This week is Online Educa Berlin, Europe’s largest e-learning conference. And we will be there, presenting a full programme of internet radio programmes on the Sounds of thee Bazaar in conjunction with DS106.

If you are at the conference, come and join us. If not just tune in live.

Wednesday November 30
Live Radio: Welcome to ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2011

Are you interested in internet radio? ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN has its own radio channel this year, provided by Pontydysgu. You are invited to take part as a guest on the programmes or to help produce the shows.

In the first of a four part series, we will capture delegates’ expectations of this year’s conference and highlights from the pre-conference events. We will be talking to the organisers about behind-the-scenes activity, as well as asking exhibitors why OEB is important to them and giving speakers the chance to advertise their sessions.

The programmes are being broadcast live in association with ds 106 radio. To tune in, just download the appropriate file from http://bit.ly/uEmhus and open it in the program of your choice (e.g. iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc.)

Time: 18:00 – 1830 CET

Thursday December 1
Live Radio: Question Time Debate

Are you interested in internet radio? ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN has its own radio channel this year, provided by Pontydysgu. You are invited to take part as a guest on the programmes or to help produce the shows.

In the second installment of this four part series, OEB will host its very own live radio debate. With a colourful panel of experts responding to your topical, polemic or simply whimsical questions about technology and learning, there will be plenty of chances to fight back. The audience and panellists will be kept under control by our ruthless chairman, Graham Attwell.

Time: 1215 – 1255 CET

Live Radio: Have Fun with Internet Radio Workshop

Are you interested in internet radio? ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN has its own radio channel this year, provided by Pontydysgu. You are invited to take part as a guest on the programmes or to help produce the shows.

In this third session of OEB Live Radio, participants are offered the opportunity to dig in for a hands and ears-on radio experience. What is internet radio? How can it be used for teaching and learning? What equipment is needed and how much does it cost? This workshop will answer these questions and more. You will also have the chance to create content, structure programmes, learn presenting, interviewing and studio skills and put them into practice for Friday’s live radio show!

This workshop will be located in the Conference Lounge, on the first floor of the conference centre.

Time: 15:00 – 16:30
Location: Conference Lounge

Friday December 2

Live Radio: OEB Live on Friday

Are you interested in internet radio? ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN has its own radio channel this year, provided by Pontydysgu. You are invited to take part as a guest on the programmes or to help produce the shows.

In the  final Live Radio session, there will be a full hours’ programme of news, views and gossip. The programme will include interviews with speakers, as well as a chance to catch up with key issues from sessions you missed. You will have an opportunity to hear feedback from delegates and if you wish, a chance for you to contribute your opinion. For the first time at ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN, this live radio programme will be produced by OEB participants, cast from Thursday’s Radio Workshop.

Time 11-12 CET

Konferencja „Rozwój e-edukacji w ekonomicznym szkolnictwie wyższym” odbyła się 17.11.2011. na Uniwersytecie Ekonomicznym w Krakowie. Przedstawiono na niej szeroką paletę tematów związanych z e-edukacją, m.in. wybrane przykłady e-learningu w Polsce i innych krajach europejskich i pozaeuropejskich , e-learning z perspektywy globalnego systemu wyższej edukacji czy rozwoju kompetencji kluczowych, interesujące koncepty dydaktyczne dotyczące moderowania kursów społecznościowych, webcastingu akademickiego, wykładów online czy scenariuczy opartych na Project Based Learning, a także ważne aspekty związane z e-edukacją, takie jak aprobata kształcenia na odległość, motywacja nauczycieli akademickich czy psychologiczne uwarunkowania efektywnego korzystania z e-zajęć przez studentów (program konferencji).

Moją prezentację na temat „E-portfolio jako osobiste środowisko uczenia się: przykłady zastosowań w edukacji niemieckiej” udało mi się, mam nadzieję w miarę zrozumiale, przekazać w języku polskim (link do prezi). Muszę przyznać, że było dla mnie wyzwaniem przede wszystkim napisanie mojego piewrszego artykułu naukowego po polsku. Jeszcze raz dzięjuję za opiekę merytoryczno-językową Pani Marii Zając. Chociaż włożyłam w przygotowanie sporo pracy, z perspektywy czasu cieszę się bardzo, że przeszłam ten proces – wspaniale było odświeżyć polski i być w Krakowie. Naprawdę z łezką w oku wsiadałam do pociągu jadącego na lotnisko …

Poza sesją otwierającą konferencję, w pamięci pozostała mi szczególnie sesja moderowana przez dr Marię Zając, podczas której uczestnicy w małych grupach pracowali nad odpowiedziami na takie pytania jak: Czy stosowanie nowoczesnych technologii zmienia  sposób w jaki uczymy się? Podczas tej sesji dowiedziałam się o wielu ciekawych innowacyjnych konceptach, takich jak Gapminder, New Learning Institute, czy Khan Academy.

Podzcas konferencji dowiedziałam się też o inicjatywie Akademii Przyszłości, na którą chciałabym tu zwrócić uwagę czytelników.

Podsumowując: Bardzo miło wspominam konferencję, szczególnie spotkania i ciekwe rozmowy z wieloma nowymi osobami oraz tymi, które do tej pory znanałam tylko wirtualnie. Na przykład: W końcu, po latach stanęłam, realnie, twarzą w twarz, z moją współblogerką (sic!). Miałyśmy czas porozmawiać m.in. na temat naszego blogowania i podjełyśmy tu następującą decyzję – wkrótce, najpóźniej od początku roku 2012, blog „Paradygmat 2.0” wróci do pierwotnej formy z jedną blogerką w mojej osobie. Szkoda, że inne zajęcia i obowiązki Asi nie pozwalają jej czasowo na blogowanie. Mam nadzieję, że uda mi się jeszcze kiedyś namówić Asię na wspólny wpis na bloga ..

It’s Willets* who says it; not me! The instructions to assessment panels are that they must judge on the basis of quality, quality, quality – not location, location, location. So individual researchers can submit pieces of work that have appeared … Continue reading →

That technology is a disruptive element in education is hardly a new idea. What perhaps is new is that the disruption is becoming a subject of debate in the popular press and by bloggers outside education technology.

And in the process the debate is being mightily confused, perhaps deliberately. Take, for example, the recent blog entitled ‘Why online education is ready for disruption, now‘, written by online journalist  Courtney Boyd Myers about a talk by Clayton Christensen, who quotes an article by Alvin Tofflers “The Third Wave” at Edutopia.

Tofflers says:

The schools of today are essentially custodial: They’re taking care of kids in work hours that are essentially nine to five — when the whole society was assumed to work. Clearly, that’s changing in our society. So should the timing. We’re individualizing time; we’re personalizing time. We’re not having everyone arrive at the same time, leave at the same time. Why should kids arrive at the same time and leave at the same time?

So far so good. The article goes 0n to document the rise of online education in the USA. And then this is used to slag off Harvard as making no investment in making its teaching better in comparison tot he university of Phoenix, which it claims is investing 200m dollars a year in improving teaching.

Phoenix is always quoted in these articles. And certainly the number of students passing through the university is impressive. According to Advertsing Age:

The school heaps more than $100 million a year into measured media alone and is a highly efficient marketing machine that spends more each year than Cheerios or Tide.

In a field where most old-line universities spend a few million a year at best, the University of Phoenix is an anomaly for its approach to both education and marketing. It’s the country’s largest private university, with more than 400,000 students and 230 campus and learning-center locations. Its parent, Apollo Group, posted more than $3.1 billion in revenue during fiscal 2008 (Phoenix represents about 95% of Apollo’s net revenue).

In the interview Chrsitensen goes on to compare teachers with the Luddite movement in the UK, popularly regarded as a metaphor for resisting technology. What is not pointed out was that the Luddites were protesting aginst lack of jobs due tot he introduction iof technology, not against technology itself.

The article continues:

The rise of online education could effectively render terrible teachers redundant, while bolstering the careers of talented educators. There’s a word for this; it’s progress

How these terrible teachers are identified is not clear, or indeed why they are so terrible, nor indeed for the assertion “Human beings with the best education tend to do the best in the marketplace.”

However that word ‘marketplace’ is revealing. The privatisation of education is being presented as progress, as inevitable progress driven by disruptive technologies. Its a lie. And is not good for anybody, except for advertising agencies and private corporations.

From Futurelab:

Aimed at teachers and those interested in using games with an educational intent, this handbook aims to provide some useful anchoring points for educators to make sense of the area and to develop practical approaches for the use of computer games as a medium for learning.

It is assumed by some that the models games employ lead to learning, as young people effectively learn how to play without necessarily being explicitly taught, doing vast amounts of reading or interacting with others; while others see games as boring, tedious, time-consuming, and repetitive.

Both of these viewpoints can be true: as stated the impact of a game is dependent on the game itself, but also the player, circumstance of use, mediation of the teacher and other players. In fact, many academic researchers of young people’s uses of digital media argue, counter to the hype, that computer games have been insufficiently well researched as a medium for learning.

In this handbook we aim to summarise not only the key theories around why they are considered to have potential, but how they have been used in the past, how they are used for learning in a family context, which attributes lead to learning, and considerations for using them with young people.

Download the book

No apologies for featuring another video from the Occupy movement. The Tent City University blog reports that on Wednesday we have Tristan McCowan, Rosie Peppin Vaughan and Elaine Unterhalter (all of Institute of Education, London) who will be looking at how universities can and have connected to social movements and on Thursday  we have Ken Jones, Clare Kelly and Maggie Pitfield (all of Goldsmiths, London) hosting a discussion on the ‘The School and the Street’.

They have a great programme and its a lot cheaper than most other English universities!