I cant believe i am writing this post! I am a big advocate of the traditional VLE and have long since seen the deeper benefit of a carefully managed resource to help enhance teaching, learning and assessment. As a student myself I have seen other VLE's in action and also my job affords me the luxury of seeing other efforts across the region. I like the fact that you can manipulate the platform to meet your needs and use a variety of tools to better improve the features offered such as quizzes, online lessons and good integration with videos, photos and HTML etc.
But this is the problem. To better improve. As a lecturer and living in a fast moving technology based world I don't want better, I want best and I want it now! Furthermore the time and effort and potential cost put into shaping this environment is vast and generally creates a 'Marmite' type of appreciation. VLE's divide staff teams and also does not offer a consistent approach for learners and its no surprise that Ofsted have started to chip away at the value of VLE's and have released an E-Portfolio of their findings from the past 3 years. It can be found here.
One of my biggest challenges is motivting staff to use a VLE in a constructive, active and participate way and also asking learners to buy-in on that journey too. Surely there must be and easier way and this is why i propose the question 'VLE or not to VLE?
I could be here forever discussing the range of fantastic free resources for e-learning that are available on the web, that can be used in better ways than those present on a VLE. Google Docs for instance can be used in dozens of collaborative and sharing ways which resolves issues about sharing documents with learners. Furthermore it allows use of easily created forms which can be adapted into quizzes and populated to a spreadsheet for tracking purposes. If sharing resources is a must then Dropbox or Google Drive is of real benefit and if you want to share videos then uploading content onto Youtube and embedding on a group page is a must. Let's not forget Flickr, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook to name but a few that will allow you to create a dialogue with your learners. Other pages like Slideshare, Prezi and Animoto give a tutor the platform for presenting lesson content and as with many of the aforementioned they are also available on most main mobile devices and operating systems. With free web-hosting or running a web-server, hosting other packages is breeze too.
In short, times have moved on and perhaps the time of the VLE has come and gone. Its successor, 'The Cloud' has made it's battle cry, loud and clear. Perhaps as we increasingly live life in the cloud, its time for institutions to make that leap?
Recently I went through my back up disks in order to see what I had that I could use now and also I wanted to check my data back ups. I haven't got anything fancy, just an 80gb usb drive and a 120gb FireWire drive which I use one for backing up my music and photos and the other for my documents, files, work related things and the odd movie here and there. Normally I think I am quite an organised person but the other day I had a trip up to the loft and discovered the extent of my other hoarding!
There is certainly a lot of sentimental items in there but the majority of things are just random things that I think ' oh I'll use that again one day, best keep hold of it!' Yeah right! They have been in a box for several years and I've always felt comfortable in knowing that they are there just in case. However when you move hose or need to make room for kids something has to give, hence a de-clutter in preparation for the car boot season.
So I got to thinking about the sort of stuff I had lying around on my hard drives and seeing if there was anything of actual value or had I become a 'Digital Hoarder'? As it turns out there was a whole host of random things such as old ticket receipts in PDF from several years ago, an occasional music program that would only work on Mac OS 9 and assorted music, photos and documents. Now, I have plenty of spare storage space and these files are doing no harm but I had a dilemma as to wether delete them and feel cleansed or to keep them just in case? Now dilemma number two. Would I miss them and maybe If i wouldn't, could i capitalise on them, perhaps financially. I'll manage to shift half the stuff in the loft and put this towards something useful but what about some mp3's I don't use or the odd teaching document that someone else might make use of. There are current wranglings about wether you can sell your used mp3's and I'm sure there could be much controversy over it but how about a digital car boot where you can sell on things that others may find useful?
Are you a Digital Hoarder? The answer is probably yes but I think there are ways to make this easier by transferring things to the 'Cloud' or even sites like YouTube or Flickr and leave a legacy at the same time. Oh and the other day I found a box of old back up CD's (remember those!) I wonder what's in there!?
Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, and innovator in the field of education and learning. He offers deep experience and insight into educating today’s youth and into using technology — including social media, virtual worlds, programming, games and apps — in powerful ways for learning.
It’s not that we did education wrong in the past—it’s that our past education no longer works in today’s context. Time to adapt!
Blended learning is a term that is thrown around a lot in e-learning these days. Teachers may see it as an effective pedagogy for delivery wheras many others see it as this cool approach that is fashionable and the 'hip' way to learn today. Perhaps they are both right but I believe that blended learning is not really that new but has the potential to provide a grewt opportunity to support a learners educational journey. Ever since technology has invaded the home from the humble radio to fibre optic Internet there has been an opportunity to explore a blended approach. How often would you watch or hear something at home from one of these technologies and then continue a discussion at school or work the next day?
This has been made much easier by the accessibility that is brought from the Internet as well as the advancement of new online technologies such as Web 2.0. So blended learning can be summed up as a combination of technology or online assisted learning supported by traditional face to face methods or a way to digitise the learning environment.
I consider that there can be three levels of blended learning
1. Integrating technology in lessons This approach is very basic but considers Learners using a range of online or technology resources within traditional tasks to help develop learning and in some cases help provide evidence for assessment. On a basic level this is digitising the learning and requires more teacher direction and little reliance on learners taking a lead. It can include using certain websites as a vehicle for traditional tasks such as discussions or brainstorming or using digital cameras within teamwork activities.
2. Using online technology to teach and assess With this level teachers sre expected to deliver most learning within the classroom which is supported by online materials to extend and in some cases assess the learning. This can be done using a VLE or even encouraging learenrs to use blogs or social media. This is the middle ground where there is less reliance on self driven learners but still offers a range of support for learners outside the classroom.
3. Flipped classroom approach This is where the majority of the learning is done online in pre prepared activities from the tutor. The theories and knowledge can be delivered by video lectures, assignments, revision tasks etc which would lay the foundation for the follow up practical session. In this way the tutor can spend more time in the session providing formative support and can differentiate easier offering greater opportunity for stretch and challenge of learners. This model requires a tutor that can meet the learner needs in a competent way and learners that are very self driven.
Blended Learning can be used very effectively to support and drive learners forward and with these levels, can be implemented quite easily. I would expect higher level learners to have more input and ownership by level 3 but perhaps also the levels can be considered as a stepped approach to find where your learner are best situated.
So anyone who is reading this must have an idea about e-learning and thus perception is a defining factor when discussing this and being able to agree. Electronic learning has many formats. It's online, technology based, computer based, interactive and creative amongst many others. In my jobs over the years I have chatted to many people about the uses and benefits of e-learning. It's interesting to hear other people's views on what e-learning is and I am still not surprised that some people I have spoken to over the years consider it just to be some sort of online course or just a Virtual Learning Environment. Also some educationalists i have spoken to consider it boring and not appropriate for their Learners. Who am I to tell them that they are wrong but I would urge these people to hold conversations with their Learners to see if these assumptions are founded. After all a teachers job is to meet a learners needs and in the most effective and sometimes efficient way possible. But i am concerned that some people have never considered e-learning, e-assessment or e-teaching as justifiable methods for teaching and learning. I wonder how many of these people use some form of technology in their everyday life? When I go to conferences or training events I get great opportunities to share in the good e-learning practice of others. What I can tell you is that these experiences are rich and diverse and showcase a broad range of e-learning practice. Seriously go out there and check them out to make up your own mind. Very rarely do I see just presentations about 'online courses' or projects centred around e-learning that did not have some learner impact. It's interesting to speak to these people as they can help you make up your own mind. Never have I had an idea forced on me nor have I been told 'this' is the only way. Instead I meet passionate, creative and forward thinking people that openly share their experiences and ask for nothing in return. Oh and they share their failings too in a bid to help others learn from their mistakes. They are essentially 'open source techies' that are willing to 'beta' test e-learning and then share the good practice. I am proud to be involved with such people and know the future of electronic learning is safe in their hands.
So what about jam? I love analogies so what I really want to say is these people and the e-learning they practice and deliver is the 'Jam' in the education sandwich. Its the filling that makes it all worthwhile. Jam comes in many varieties and flavours, colours and textures. Some of us prefer Strawberry others Raspberry and some people even like Pineapple jam! This is the same for learners too, and we need to accommodate their tastes if we hope to deliver effective learning. Give them a menu and see what happens!
So next time you talk to someone who has fixed views on how e-learning doesn't work stop them and ask what type of jam their learners eat and perhaps you can persuade them to question their perceptions.
Class Dojo is a secure web based tool that allows you to
reward students for positive behaviour during lessons and visually discourage
negative behaviour. With some clever planning this tool can work for different
learners in a range of subject areas from 14-19.
The software allows you to set up custom classes and
input your students details accordingly. There is a handy copy/paste option to
make adding lots of students easy. Students can have custom avatars or use the
stock ones provided and perhaps even be creative with their names; remember
this should be fun as well! Once you have set up classes you can use
pre-defined buttons to award or take away points for specific behaviours such
as participating in discussions, not being on task, talking with respect or
following other classroom rules. There are several to choose from but you can
also add you own custom rules with appropriate pictures and the idea is for the
tool to stay visible, where possible, and students are actively reminded of how
they behave in the class.
Once your session has ended, you can view a session
report on each student and type further comments as appropriate. There is even
an option to send the reports to parents should they wish to check on their
child’s behaviour. If they don’t have email a special link can be created for
later viewing. Students can also be invited and use their accounts to create
their own avatars and also check on their points at home.
Class Dojo is mobile friendly so you can award and
retract points on the go or even outside the classroom when on trips or special
events. There are several customisation options as well including playing
sounds, the way rewards are shown and the layout.
I have trialled this with specific groups and have found
it is a great tool for promoting positive behaviours. It takes much of the
leg-work out of complex reward systems and can easily be linked to tangible
rewards at the end of the week or term as you see fit. I find it adds a degree
of Gamification and creates come healthy competition within the group. I advise
doing some research first and see if you can positively use this in your group
as some learners may not be on board with it. Spend some time setting up your
classes and be specific with your goals. What main areas do you have problems
with? Once you have assessed that then you can target Class Dojo to tackle
that.
iPads and iPhones are great bits of kit and can be used very effectively in teaching. Creating a short film with sound fx and music is one of these features and can be used to film a range of educational movies such as induction videos, video diaries, health & safety films or how to guides.
This article will demonstrate how to film and edit a movie using iMovie then add user created music from GarageBand. Finally the film will be uploaded to an existing YouTube account. Ive tried to keep things very simple and need to thank my 12 week old daughter for her help!
You will need:
iOS device either iPad 2 or above or iPhone 4 or above
iMovie App
GarageBand App
This guide is not a complete guide to using iMovie of GarageBand and assumes you have some knowledge of the program's, but instead just shows the process of filming, editing, scoring and uploading your film. A full guide to using iMovie can be found here
This is the basic video screencast from the iPad with narration. Written guide below.
Step 1
First you need to film some clips either using the camera or via iMovie. My clips were filmed earlier and show up automatically on the video pane in iMovie. Place the clips in the timeline by selecting the clip then clicking the arrow. Once you have all your clips you can edit and add transitions. When you are happy with your basic edits then open GarageBand.
Step 2
We will use GarageBand to create the music for the film. You can add loops or create your own music using the instruments available. If you have a guitar, bass or microphone attached you can take this a step further and add more professionally produced sounds. As a guide 120 bpm for 32 bars is about a minute so you can gauge how long you wish to create or perhaps you just want an intro jingle. iMovie will allow you to add music tracks from the iPad and sounds effects if you prefer.
Step 3
Once your song is complete and the levels checked then you can export the track directly into iMovie using the share button on the GarageBand song select page. This will then open iMovie and ask if you wish to add to a new project or the last used. Select the last used or in my example 'my day with daddy'
Step 4
Now you have added your song to the film you can finalise edits and check the levels. Remember you can always keep coming back to change things if you wish. Return to the movies project select screen and click the share button at the bottom. There are several options here so it can be quite flexible. I selected YouTube and then entered my account details. Depending on the settings and length of film it can take a while to upload.
That's it your done you now have a film on YouTube. You can view my effort here. http://youtu.be/XMnmMKvjTlo
In the future I hope to also look at the 'trailer' option for iMovie as is great for planning short movies or fun projects for Learners. Please feel free to leave comments for things that could be improved!
Blogging has had an epidemic rise in interest of late and everyone seems
to be contributing their ideas and thoughts to a growing social media
community. People blog about games, technology, education, flowers, Lego, cars, the latest products and so on. Retailers are now also using
blogs effectively to add new advertising and promotional properties to
their business without getting their hands dirty to speak. Instead they
rely on an ever willing fan base of bloggers who's reward for promoting
the company is products or its monetary equivalent. If you are
unfamiliar with blogging please check out these guides:
With this shift to online commentary it would be apt that our learners
embraced the blogging revolution as necessary part of their e-education.
I have used blogs in my teaching and learning in several different ways
including online diaries, personal research, staff development and this
e-learning blog and with the range of blogging platforms available today
and the perks of social media compatibility, there are opportunities to
use blogs for many more educational reasons. Here is a sample with some
associated pros and cons.
Research
Blogs offer a wealth of information to whoever should access them. With
blogs that are tagged you will be surprised to find interesting articles
that perhaps you never thought might fit your research. They are a
great way to find reviews of websites or resources or simply to view another persons ideas about something you are passionate about.
Generally the more professional blogs are linked to or hosted on their
own servers and can lead you to a whole new range of e-resources and
online commentary.
In a twist you could encourage your Learners to use a blog as their own
research journal where they post and share their own research findings.
This way it offers greater evidence of work and when the work was
discovered. Tis can be of benefit when logging a learning journey.
Group Blog
In the past my Learners have completed group projects sometimes as a
larger group and occasionally in smaller sub groups. A blog offers an
opportunity for the Learners to create and online account of the project
from its inception right up to completion. Because blogs allow
embedding of pictures, videos and other media they are great for making a
simple account of what they did that day into something more attractive
and meaningful. Furthermore blogs such as Blogster (other good
platforms available!) offer fantastic connectivity with a range of
services like YouTube, Google+, Picasa, Twitter and Facebook. This
allows Learners to easily access advanced features with little knowledge
and also offers great opportunities for promotion. This in itself
introduces questions about Safeguarding and E-Safety but many of the
major platforms have excellent privacy controls and blogs can be limited
in their access. Finally most of the platforms have smartphone and
tablet apps so blogs can be accessed and posts made literally from
anywhere at any time, perfect if you encourage your Learners to bring
and use their own devices.
Community Hub
This blog is edited and maintained by three like minded authors who
share a common interest in e-learning in education. Many blogs form
parts of communities such as Parenting of DIY. In these communities
there may be several groups of people that blog about particular topics
and generally share ideas with other bloggers. The more popular blogs
may receive some financial backing and thus offer competitors or rewards
for offering your ideas. With education blogs like this, one interacts
with like minded groups of people that share and comment on the blog
postings which in turn offers great opportunities for expanding learning
and is another way of linking with subject specialists. Similar to the
group blog, whole course groups could interact with a community blog
provided by the course leaders or a chosen few from across the year
group. This is a great way to evaluate learning opportunities with a
greater emphasis on qualitative data that can be achieved in an informal
and anonymous way. Again with the correct social media interaction the
community can be increased from a course group to a whole subject area
across the whole world, excellent for distance learning and diverse
learning groups.
Hopefully this overview has been helpful for some simple uses of blogs
in education. There are however still pros and cons to using blogs and
the choice to use them must be informed by the need of the Learners and
the subject content being appropriate.
Pros
Blogs can offer Lots of information but in bite size chunks
Connect to like minded individuals
The better blogs are updated regularly
Great social media connectivity
Good safeguarding and e safety controls
Accessible by many devices.
Cons
Validity of information can be an issue in higher level work
Most blogs are Opinion not fact unless research based
Some blogs may be run for profit so offer incentives to become involved which can lead to spam and sharing your details.
Monitoring larger or several individual blogs can be time consuming.
Learners need to learn online etiquette before posting to prevent slander and abuse.
So Santa was kind this year and I got something I've looked at for a while. I've seen many uses for the Livescribe Pen and I intend to keep you posted on my progress with it over the year.
The Livescribe is a digital pen that writes in ink but records everything you write digitally. This can then be downloaded onto your computer as a 'Pencast' or video replay of your writing. What's more it can also voice record as you write and with special dot paper. This can be taken one step further by instantly recalling the audio at the time of writing by simply putting your pen on the page.
It's taken me a while to get aquatinted and the set-up process is not the simplest but the range of features and available apps for the pen is in impressive. This will be of great benefit in meetings or to help prepare notes for presentations while there is potential to create diagrams that can be embedded into Powerpoints.
Watch this space for further updates as I let you know how it impacts my workflow.
Meanwhile check out the potential by seeing pen casts here. http://www.livescribe.com/int/pencasts/
Hi and welcome to our new blog. The Innovate and Educate blog is authored by 3 like minded tech educators. We all love technology and teach a range of Learners with a range of abilities, across different establishments and subject areas. Our mission this year is to share our love of technology and education with this blog. Innovate & Educate aims to offer a laid back approach to technology and e-learning that we use or endorse in teaching whilst also offering advice on how to integrate effectively in lessons.
We would love to hear of any topics that you would like to see explored on this page as well as any articles you may wish to share and publish with us.
Feel free to communicate via the blog or with me on Twitter (@rossthetechie)
