The midden

These 2 posts (Part 1 and Part 2) by Tony Bates, consider the need for change in Higher Education and the role that technology has in supporting that change.
In reading Part 1, the current 19th Century industrial model of education that universities still cling on to is all too familiar.  While many will see what [...]

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One of the highlights of ALT-C this year.

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Billed as “a resource for educators planning to incorporate technologies in their teaching and learning activities”, this handbook written by George Siemens and Peter Tittenberger at the University of Manitoba,  is a lot more than this. It starts from the premise that Higher Education, whether individual institutions know it or not, is in the midst [...]

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Educause have produced a useful guide to QR codes as part of their “7 Things You Should Know….” series. It provides a good overview on what QR codes are and how they are being used. It also includes a mention of Andy Ramsden’s work at Bath, and also offers the opportunity to contribute your ideas [...]

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This is a useful article by Olivia Mitchell, posted on the Slideshare blog, describing 4 multimedia learning principles that can be applied to improve the learning value of presentations. She distinguishes between graphic design and instructional design and explains why the latter is the most important if you want to help your audience to learn.

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The latest Horizon Report, that looks at the likely impact of emerging technologies on teaching, learning and research, features six examples of tools, applications and devices that will change the way we operate. Two of these technologies, i.e. mobile devices and cloud computing, are already with us and used extensively. With the advent of the [...]

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Just been listening to an interesting presentation by Andy Ramsden from Bath University on QR codes – Quick Response codes. These are like bar codes in that they contain information that can be read by a scanner, but they are different in that they have information in 2-dimensions so can store a lot more than [...]

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While this handbook from futurelab is aimed at promoting discussion around the nature and purpose of innovation in schools, much of the evidence, ideas and recommendations it presents are equally valid for HE.
Transformative innovation is radical and challenging. It is the kind of innovation that challenges our assumptions about how we do things and causes [...]

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Half an Hour: The Future of Online Learning: Ten Years On

This posting by Stephen Downes provides a useful summary of where we are at now and how we got here. He re-visits a previous article written in 1998, noting that many of his earlier predictions have been remarkably accurate. The main areas he discusses include:

new [...]

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Mike Wesch’s latest Youtube video, A Portal to Media Literacy, is essential viewing for all educators. He describes so clearly why we have to change and challenge the present system of educating our young people. He is clearly a passionate teacher and someone who understands the world in which his students move.
His dismantling of the [...]

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