Here’s my attempt at live blogging the IT Futures conference at the University of Edinburgh IT Futures conference on the theme of Disruption. The hashtag for the conference is #itfutures The conference is starting with an address from the Principal, Sir Tim O’Shea on disruptions, predictions and surprises and the need for systematic thinking especially on what … Read more
An interesting report on Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) from Open University based academics. The report discusses: 1. what is TEL but in terms of technologies “add value to” (enhancing) teaching and learning rather than being indivisible from or enmeshed in teaching and learning. Can you imagine teaching and learning without any technologies (digital of otherwise)? … Read more
An interesting post from Graham Attwell on mobile learning that quotes Donald Clark: Training Magazine’s annual survey of US L&D professionals shows that just 1.5% of training was delivered via mobile devices. That’s right, after about 7 years of hype and discussion we’ve reached 1.5%. That’s not leaping. That’s trench warfare. The issue here is partly … Read more
A quick few comments on a post from Donald Clark (via Scoop it): Donald Clark has given ten reasons why MOOCs flip higher education. While he makes some valid points, the post itself is overly influenced by the hype surrounding MOOCs and does not really provide a justification for how MOOCs address the problems he … Read more
Here are my slides from a workshop held for the University Forum for Human Resource Development (UHRD) Social media and workplace learning & knowledge from Peter Evans My talk was followed by Amy Woodgate talking about the University of Edinburgh‘s experience with MOOCs. There is a detailed report on the University’s first round of MOOCs … Read more
I came across this survey from Gallup on student satisfaction with digital higher education. The findings make interesting reading from a number of perspectives. While the value-for-money and breadth of curriculum of online learning is clearly acknowledged as key strengths by students. More important are the perceived weaknesses in terms of the quality of teaching, rigour … Read more
I was interested to read the Connected Learning Environments paper over at Educause. The briefing looks at connected learning environments in higher education and states that: While e-learning often connotes delivery of information in a sequential, linear fashion, the connected learning environment is integrative, personalized, interconnected, and authentic. Across higher education, leaders and learners are taking … Read more
There is a wide-spread sense that learning and development functions have not responded at all well to changes in organisations, the work place and the wider environment. As Charles Jennings has identified here, these changes include: the development of the web; organisations increasingly operating on network principles as well as the recognition of the importance … Read more
I’m in the process of reviewing and redesigning an online course. So to get a full visual view of the course, I’ve been experimenting with sketchboarding. The slideshow shows the board as it is the basic design goes up, currently using a temporal frame for the 10 or so weeks course duration. Its clearly far … Read more
I’m listening now to Tara McPherson on humanities research in a networked world as the opening session of the Digital Scholarship day of ideas. (I’ve started late due to a change in the start-time). Discussing how large data sets can be presented in a variety of interfaces: for schools; researchers; publishers and only now beginning to realise the variety … Read more