The midden » social

Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning

Will Stewart — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:15:14 +0000

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 of fundamental and large-scale change that will see the transformation of teaching and learning on a scale that we haven’t experienced since the Industrial Revolution.

At the heart of this change is the fragmentation of information. No longer does information only exist in a pre-packaged format, such as books, CDs, newspapers or even as a course. Information is now available in a whole range of formats, and this information can be “personalised” by editing, adding, re-designing so the user ends up with information in a format that makes sense to him.This creation of “personal frameworks of coherence” by users is one of the most important drivers for transformative change within the HE sector. No longer is the creation, delivery, validation and dissemination of information under the control of the lecturer, expert or university. The growth of user-generated content, Google, Wikipedia, Open Educational Resources, Web 2.0 technologies, social software and mobile technologies means that the individual is now in control.

Information Fragmentation and Coherence

The Handbook gives a good overview of the pressures bringing about change and how these impact on the learning process. The discussion on the role of technology in teaching and learning goes a long way to summarising where we are at at the moment and provides some useful guidelines on its effective use. The use of technology by lecturers and departments can help bridge the gap between the traditional and the, as yet undefined, role of education in the future.

The final paragraph really brings home what we in HE are all trying to grapple with:

“Through a process of active experimentation, the academy’s role in society will emerge as a prominent sensemaking and knowledge expansion institution, reflecting of the needs of learners and society while maintaining its role as a transformative agent in pursuit of humanity’s highest ideals.”

There are no natives – we’re all in the same boat

Will Stewart — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:43:23 +0000

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 idea that “to learn is to acquire information”, the basis of our exam-driven school and college system and our institution-centred university system, is a joy to listen to.

He argues that our students might know how to use Youtube, Facebook, Blogger, Digg and MySpace for their own entertainment but they don’t know how to use them to learn or to create something interesting or new. So, in this sense they are no more “natives” than we are. We can’t assume that our students are media literate – even though they use Wikipedia all the time, many don’t realise it’s a wiki and can be edited.

The challenge for Higher Education, and indeed our 5-18 system, is to create “platforms of participation that allow students to realize and leverage the emerging media environment”. Moving our school, colleges and universities out of their “content delivery” model to one where students are participating, collaborating, sharing, creating and evaluating is how we develop an education system that is relevant to the next generation of learners. As I have said before, we have undersold and largely failed the Google generation – those who are in the system at the moment. But it is not too late to do something about the ones who are coming along after them. Put aside some time and watch the entire 66 minutes of this video – in 67 minutes you’ll be inspired to do something!

Education for a digital world

Will Stewart — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 10:17:56 +0000

This book gives a detailed and comprehensive coverage of how digital technologies can be used to transform our present, outdated, industrial model of education. Co-published by BC Campus and the Commonwealth of Learning, it is available as a free download. As we are aware, despite the widespread availability of new technologies, their impact on teaching and learning, particularly in higher education, has been minimal. The only measurable impact of the use of technology in HE institutions has been on the administrative side, with admissions, registration and purchasing using new technologies in order to operate within a much more technological-aware, external business world.

This failure to adopt new technologies in order to transform and enrich teaching and learning appears to be a global phenomenon. The book has been collaboratively written and edited by 50 HE practitioners from around the world and covers a wide range of topics on the use of new Information and Communication technologies to support and transform teaching and learning

It is divided into 5 sections:

The impact of instructional technologies
Creating online course
Implementing technology
E-learning in action
Engagement and communication

Aimed at practitioners, administrators, managers, decision-makers, it provides valuable advice, case studies, resources, tools, ideas and reflections on creating socially engaging learning experiences within an online learning environment.