1. Technology Enhanced Assessment Presentation will be available on: http://www.slideshare.net/ drbexl Dr Bex Lewis, Technology Enhanced Learning Fellow [email_address] 24 th January 2012
This presentation will be available online on Slideshare afterwards.
3 minutes Interested to know what the group already uses, that would come under the heading of ‘technology’ – be aware that many say ‘I don’t do technology’, but you’ll find when the right motivation is there (e.g. online shopping, Googling something on the spot) then people will turn to the technology. Danger is that we push the technology for novelty’s sake… and sometimes experimentation can be valuable… How have you shared this knowledge?
On 2 JISC projects … joining in a lot of Webinars at the moment – gives me lots of access to expertise within my interest group. Wanted to highlight this one as wanted to check in your notion of what your students are capable of technologically…. For 10+ years had the concept of ‘Digital Natives’ ((Immigrants/Aliens)– which has been discredited by its founder… Yes, many who are younger have grown up with technology around them, but that doesn’t mean they are comfortable using it, or can use it well! The idea of Visitor/Resident can be seen here… and as we said – it’s all about motivation to engage! This webinar itself is a good definition of that motivation. This uses Blackboard Collaborate (the replacement for Wimba – hard to “sell” because “we” couldn’t see a compelling reason for use) … I want to be engaged with those conversations, so I learn to use the technology… and find it’s pretty simple – so I can concentrate on the content!
We are familiar with the idea of ‘ informal learning ’ – and technology can make great use of that… (if combined with students passionate about their studies). Einstein: “ Knowledge is experience – everything else is just information ” – current problem with e-learning is that it ’ s e-information , not e-knowledge! Race, p.177 Is possible to EYE-BALL vast quantities of information, clicking away without reflection .
At the JISC E-Learning Fair in November 2009, Stephen Sheedy, Queen Mary College, Basingstoke was saying we shouldn ’ t be talking about what we MIGHT need to do, we need to be doing it now… Having said there there is a lot of differentiation, there are signs that expectations have changed… Previously “ youngsters ” would have been introduced to a widening world by adults slowly, but these days they are interacting globally with little guidance…
Yes, this is pre-the fees, and so many look quite different, but many of these stats can still impact our practices…
So what examples can we look at – and note that the outcomes of TESTA were that students don ’ t want TOO many options/choices, as they feel that they don ’ t have a chance to learn how to use one format, before they ’ re onto another…
So, Web 2.0 … Several things to think about, but really, we ’ re looking at a tool kit – you can apply the same quality issues to it as you can to any other piece of teaching… So let ’ s have a look at a few case studies… am building up more…
On the Learning Network, I have used the activity “ Choices ” for the assignment questions. Within this 2 nd year history module, the students each have to give a presentation, so I placed all the options for titles on the Learning Network, and once a student had picked an option, it wasn ’ t available to any other students (if you want 2+ per question, then you can set that too). I advertised the closing date for choices, and besides having to chase up a couple of students who were still appearing in the left-hand menu, all were in place in time. This fits with the idea that students have no need to come to a physical space outside your door to make appointments (you can use this for your office hours also), and also saves on any arguments – students literally have to be first-come-first-served… and if you ensure that this is done in a class on campus – they are near computers, so no issue with ‘ technological access ’ …
Replaced 2 extremely TEDIOUS modules – neither staff nor students liked them – in basic academic skills.. As a result of the TESTA project – this became a testbed to try something different… Uses action learning, a constructionist framework… (learning is most effective when making something) Website: is publicly available (yes, has caused some debates with marketing) – so students are expected to use this. Core admin paperwork, etc. is on the Learning Network, and Justine has chosen to put her lectures on the LN … whereas mine are on here (embedded using other online tools).
4 Projects which the students work on collaboratively… They are given a clear brief… you will see that this one is an essay, which is written as a group, and then has to be presented on PowerPoint, using the narrate feature, then posted onto Slideshare, so that we can mark it. The academic rigor is emphasised. The first assignment was to make a max 3 minute video encouraging students to continue to university despite the £9k fees. The emphasis was on the CONTENT, rather than the production values. They had to work out what was possible within 3 weeks, and it needed to be ‘good enough’ for us to watch…. (and received consultancy sessions in between with us – to which they have to take a lot of responsibility for their work)… If you’d like to see an example of the quality…
3 minutes… We watched these videos as a whole class. The students got 1 minute to introduce it, we watched it, then they went outside whilst we discussed feedback, then they came back in for 2-3 minutes of questions. Last year that was it – the students just got a mark, but the students couldn’t understand their grade, so this time we have pre-set sheets with names/roles and write comments in as we are watching, meet together & produce a 1-2 sentence piece of feedback to accompany the mark (but emphasis is on feed-forward).
Now, the common complaint that we get with group work is that a weak member lets the others down. Although we feel that we have ‘ spoonfed ’ a little more than we would have liked, we have clear criteria for each role, so we can see where the weak links are. Marks overall have gone up from an average of aroun 40s/50s to more 60s as they are clearly understanding it… (entire course has been restructured based on this –double- module) Students also have a blog where they can outline what they are doing, so they can indicate where they have gone above & beyond, ‘constructively’ comment on the role of others in the group.
The blogs are linked from here – you can see we’ve given guidance as to what/why we expect, and then all the links are publicly available... Which means the students have to think more about whether they are happy with what they write… and we continue to remind them that electronic material may have a quick turnover, but it has a long half-life!! We expect to see at least a weekly post (during term time), of good academic quality, correct spelling/grammar (equivalent to a written essay), fitting the guidelines that we have provided (e.g. images must be legal), in which they are developing the skills of reflective practice. We have a new task tied in this year – the Project Manager must hand in a sheet, signed by the whole group, with at least 5 things they are proud of and 5 they think they could have done better (the coaching approach)… Whoever is their tutor for the consultancy sessions reads & comments on the blogs on a weekly basis – helps us with the consultancy/tutorials – although we have discussed more about peer comment…
A course that has used blogs successfully for at least 3 years is the journalism course, and with much larger cohorts, the students have grown used to commenting on each other’s work … with the expectation that the tutor may drop in any time!
So, let’s look at the interview that we did with Chris for Capture a couple of years ago… the importance of the public context… when we tell students their work isn’t good enough, their consumer brain tells them that we’re wrong… if someone externally feedsback…!! Psychology is about to start using blogs. With Wordpress you can set up blogs that are private for up to 25 named viewers, so if privacy is an issue…
A further thought on blogging – it is a useful exercise for you as academics to engage in… I also use mine to publicise my work, a mix of academic conference papers/publications, interesting observations, and general chit-chat around the subject…. This has gained me coverage in the Daily Express, the New York Times, the Independent and on the BBC, and I am still being contacted by people… Get anything between 5000-12000 visitors in a month … I run some workshops for academics in how to boost your academic profile online, and then we can help the students make the best of what they ’ re doing with similar material – the students are nearly all using social media, but need guidance as to how to use it ‘ usefully ’ , and a bit of encouragement to get going… I sometimes blog about my student ’ s blogs, which gains them a bit of extra coverage…
LTDU has around 80 of these, which are ‘ Who wants to be a millionaire ’ style ‘ clickers ’ … think they may be creaking a little, as the concept is great. Has worked best in institutions where the entire student body has them – then the teacher can use in ALL sessions… Just create a PowerPoint and then use software to define the right software. Brings in the ‘ game ’ and ‘ informal learning ’ element we were talking about!
We had tried this for the module that Manipulating Media replaced… got the strongest feedback from the students – enjoyable/learnt from it.. Initially they weren’t keen on the idea – see lots of cons … by the end many of them had changed their thinking. The point of the exercise was getting them to think about how an audience survey might work, so they were learning by doing here!
Watch first 2-3 minutes of this… brilliant examples – in class can take evaluation – rather than end of semester…
We largely use this to ensure that the students can easily contact each other. We still haven’t 100% joining (although know that one of the group doesn’t use Facebook, so it’s not compulsory)…. We post the odd notice, knowing that they should see it (although emails are still compulsory) – but happy to leave them to go & talk to themselves… Last year we asked students to submit the URLs for their blogs via email, and still hadn’t got them all by the end of Semester 2 (not sure how they thought they were going to be marked) … this year most submitted them v. quickly via FB, as they saw one had joined, so the others joined… Groups can be public (all can see/join), open (can see/need approval to join), or closed (need a specific URL invite).
You could also use the format creatively to encourage students to write stories – here someone has produced an entire book of classic literature – presented as Facebook statuses.
Password protected accounts allow you to have private conversations, but you can only have one account per email address so think carefully. Tool we ’ re looking to for community, conversation and conciseness…
This is useful for you, and your community of practice – you’d need to come on the separate course I run on doing this, but you can find lots of other people working on the same kind of thing as you, and rather than reinventing the wheel, you MAY have easy access (depends how many in your profession are on this)… You are then tying your students in with the latest research – even that which is unfinished? Networking/Community of Interests Follow calls for funds (@JISC) Follow sources such as @timeshighered Put out calls for conference papers Crowdsource: Questions to gauge opinion Quickly identify & share news & resources “ Attend ” conferences virtually Publish NOW, for free ()
At the University of Winchester, a new course in Politics “ China:21st Century Challenges ” attempted to use Twitter to help build a community of practice within the course… Twitter: additional/informal means of communication Tutor subscribes to relevant feeds that students can follow Tutor “ broadcasts ” admin notices re: other material on the Learning Network (our VLE) Tutor can also tweet AROUND subjects studied in class, but not directly academic Grouptweet – allows a “ Direct Message ” from any one user to appear in the feed/to all other members Use of Twitter is voluntary – many students don ’ t really know what Twitter is outside of the fact that Stephen Fry uses it Use = experimental, will determine later whether it appears to have done anything to enhance learning. This was a couple of years ago – more students are now using Twitter (although it ’ s nowhere near the popularity of Facebook), and I certainly get quite a bit of interaction from my students… they also see us as human beings as they get a fuller picture of us as a whole (this is not necessarily for everyone)…
So many possibilities are already available online, needs a careful assessment of the value of these, some suggestions here... Journalism: Follow the development of a news story, both collecting and distributing stories Creative Writing: A Twitter novel?! Reflection: On lectures, on their own performance, etc. Griffith University in Australia: “ "We basically got them to tweet about the processes they use and to think about the problems they encountered and how they overcame them," Dr Ewart said. ” Gets the students to reflect on their own practice Enables the tutor to get a better sense of their students progress Backchatter … (next slide)
Monica Rankin, History Professor at the University of Texas-Dallas conducted The Twitter Experiment in her on ground history course during class time. 3.20 She projected a class Twitter account on a screen and asked students to tweet about the topics being discussed during the class time. The result was that Twitter equalized the discussion platform, allowing for more students to contribute in written form. Students were also free to continue the discussion afterwards because Twitter is a public platform. http://www.digitalpedagog.org/?p=84
One idea I ’ ve seen used is Poll Everywhere… Draw students into your presentation Ask for their opinions and display their tweets directly in your slide… You can INVITE, but block inappropriate/off topic tweets Ask multiple choice questions, and see the graph evolve as people vote.
Using Twitter and YouTube – the Royal Opera House produced the first ever Twitter Opera, September 2009… selecting from submitted tweets - it ’ s about being prepared to experiment. Many voices – a novel created by “ Mr Mayo ” from Maryland with young students… collaboratively written
Dan Cohen, Associate Professor in the Department of History and Art History at George Mason University, conducted a crowdsourcing experiment that simulated the traditional “ author ’ s query ” where “ a scholar ask readers of a journal for assistance with a research project ( Cohen, 2009 ). ” His employment of Twitter illustrates how such tools can be utilized to problem solve collaboratively. the #digdil09 hashtag . http://www.dancohen.org/2009/04/29/the-spider-and-the-web-results/ Can we INSIST that students have Twitter? Concerns about privacy? Set up a PRIVATE (locked) account. Is it a voluntary add-on, or can it be used as a form of assessment? “ Twitter is anything but complicated ” Plenty of websites offering help on how to get started. Much to gain, lots to share Save re-invention of the wheel Widen the student learning experience
Natalie Norton had been using Delicious for a while, but now requires a Yahoo login (old content can remain where it is – is kind of content that needs to be frequently updated anyway), so using Digg this year – Says: Also a link on the LN if you want to see it embedded. Does really nice toolbar extensions, and also shows your diigo results at top of google searches Good facilities to highlighting passages, adding notes etc
You’ll be able to find the slides from today here … has been great for sharing documents when you don’t want them locked down behind the Learning Network, but can’t find appropriate spaces on the winchester site … and all the slidedecks that you make can be embedded into blogs, etc… Is a great starting point – for those more visual learners – to find materials – and note this is what we have used to get the students to submit one of their assignments using…
90 seconds… This is particularly good – you could embed these in a blog, but if you’d rather have e.g. a paper format – students can embed QR codes into pieces of paperwork, and add audio/video sections to what would otherwise be text only material…
What about wikis? Used extensively by JISC to share material from projects in an ONGOING format – rather than waiting until the end of any projects…
I’ve been using it on the portal (yes, the new version) to set up the pilot project to test the 4 piece of software for web conferencing/lecture capture. Very simple to do – although there’s an issue with tracking who has done what that I still need to get my head round… Tina Welch & Carolin Esser have both used Wikis successfully in the past.. Rather in a blog sense for many – as in regular uploads, to produce a finished project.
Definitely need a lot of thought, and a number of texts have diagrams for setting up a proper process, which emphasises the learning outcomes Must be built into the strategy for teaching, and used where APPROPRIATE – not everything is appropriate to become electronic, and to make the most of it, assess the true value. As Race again says, the medium is current immature, but once it becomes mature it will simply blend with other methods (p185, gives a great checklist)
Note the kind of thing use Google docs for – e.g. writing up my PhD – can’t meet my ‘cheerers on’ but we can work collaboratively on documents – using it extensively now as do so much work remotely… is a great ‘Comment’ tool, which can then be resolved or responded to… Prezi works well for those who like mind-mapping, think more visually – and you can develop a presentation from opposite sides of the world… can have around 10 collaborators.
With students increasingly using sites such as Wikipedia, and the easy access to ‘ purchased essays ’ , and the pressure to get a good degree because of the state of the economy, we all know plagiarism is on the rise! The University has a subscription to TurnItIn – plagiarism checking software, which David & (even more so) Eric checked over last year, and some more information is on the Learning Network as indicated here… Students can pre-check their own work before submitting, which always gets my approval – they are taking responsibility for their own learning! Or if we work towards electronic submission (pros and cons!) then all essays could run through this software
Going to an event on audio feedback tomorrow, so look out for my blog post … I’ll be taking notes on my iPad (can come back & give an overview of some useful apps – we haven’t done this is any ‘determined’ way yet, so keen to hear of others… Lecture capture/podcasts – do in smaller chunks so people more likely to listen to them…
So, what we need to remember is that, as with a book, etc. staff & students can have different levels of engagement… this diagram illustrates the deepening levels of engagement online…
As ‘ the guide on the side ’ we can guide the process of proactive engagement with the online world, and the use of other tools and technologies as appropriate… When the pressures on it, it ’ s time to get creative, so it ’ s an exciting time to get involved in blended learning!