The midden » tools

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.”

7 things you should know about QR codes

Will Stewart — Mon, 18 May 2009 10:42:19 +0000

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 on how QR codes could be used in the classroom and on campus. You can download details of this here:

Create and read QR codes on the iPhone and iTouch

Will Stewart — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:57:09 +0000

Creating and reading QR codes on the iPhone is quick and easy with the Optiscan app from Airsource. This app will automatically scan and read a code when you point your camera’s phone at it. It reads equally well from a computer or iPhone screen as it does from paper. Once it has read the code it presents you with the information, e.g. a website, someone’s contact details or some text information.

The software also allows you to generate a QR code for a url, contact or a piece of text. This is very simple to do. For example, to generate a QR code for a website simply select the URL icon on the share tab, and then type in the URL. After you have finished press the “Done” key on the keyboard and the QR code will be shown. There is no need to type in “http://” in front of the URL.

Here is the QR code for a picture of my beautiful partner on the beach in Mingulay.

Here is the url to one of my favourite TED talks.

I can see many educational uses for these QR codes, e.g.

1. Course information such as exam timetables, assessment schedules, lecture notes, powerpoint slides, videos …..etc could be made available via the course website so students could download the information directly to their phones.

2. QR codes could be used in combination with some Web 2.0 tools such as Netvibes or Facebook to give student access to course materials.

3. In museums and art galleries, information about an exhibit could be made available through a QR code.

I’m sure there are loads more examples.

4 ways to improve Powerpoint presentations

Will Stewart — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:08:43 +0000

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.

Horizon Report 2009

Will Stewart — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 16:22:50 +0000

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 3-G iphone and Google’s Android phone the potential for new and innovative forms of learning, assessment and collaboration is huge. Anyone who uses Google Docs, Flickr, YouTube and Mobile Me is already linked into a “cloud”. Educational institutions, certainly in HE, probably don’t yet realise the extent to which their students and, indeed, their workforce are making using of cloud computing.

The other four technologies covered in this report are:

geolocation technology
the personal web
semantic aware applications
smart objects (see recent post on QR codes)

The report describes the relevance of each of these technologies to teaching and learning, as well as providing some useful links to examples of educational applications.

5 myths about Cloud Computing

Will Stewart — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:35:10 +0000

This article in ZDNet Technology News looks at some of the claims being made about Cloud Computing and also gives a good update on where this technology is up to.

There is also a good review of MobileMe, Apple’s successor to .Mac, for those considering Apple’s cloud offering.

AccessApps – a collection of open source and freeware assistive technology applications

Will Stewart — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 07:44:44 +0000

AccessApps is a collection of over 50 open source and freeware assistive technology applications for Windows PCs, that can be used directly from a USB memory stick without the need to install anything onto your computer.
The applications have been collated by the two Scottish JISC Regional Support Centres (Scotland North & East and Scotland South & West) in partnership with JISC TechDis.

They consist of 12 categories of applications with options to download all (the Works), a pre-defined selection (Lite) or your own chosen selection (Pick n Mix). The applications include the Open Office tools, a range of multimedia tools (Audacity, GIMP, Artweaver) as well as some presentation tools and utilities. There are also an impressive collection of assistive applications, such text to speech readers, accessible browsers and keyboard alternatives.
The AccessApps team have also put together a number of excellent tutorials and video screencasts to help get started with some of the main applications.

All-in-all, a useful selection of applications for all learners, including those with additional support needs.

Making it happen: teaching the technology generation

Will Stewart — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:11:44 +0000

This is a video of my presentation to the JISC Regional Support Centre for Yorkshire & Humber on June 10th at Bradford University. The sub-title of the presentation was Beyond “no significant difference”, on the basis that, in education, we use technology to do things the same way as we have always done rather than use it to do things differently. The theme of the presentation was that we, the teachers, rather than our students, are the technology generation. Because the use of digital technology has been completely normalised and fully integrated by our students, they don’t see it as technology. They are the “no technology generation”, and it is us who need to be taught how to use it in ways that engage our students and make their education relevant.

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by willstewart

Death by blogging

Will Stewart — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:45:44 +0000

Take care.

Techno-bedouins: nomads of the 21century

Will Stewart — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:32:18 +0000

This Special Report in the Economist highlights the impact of an increasingly connected world on the way we live, work, communicate and generally spend our days. All those gadgets (mobile phones, laptops, PDAs) that we have been carrying around for years, and which tantalised us with promises of quick and easy access to an online world ( but only if you had a techy friend who knew the 40 steps needed to achieve this) are now finally delivering the goods. Thanks to the arrival of faster and reliable cellular networks, getting connected through our mobile phones is now straightforward. Through an ever increasing number of wi-fi hotspots, connectivity from anywhere is finally happening.

The digital nomad is defined not by the gadgets and devices that they carry, but by what they leave behind. The analogy with the Bedouins is an interesting one. The nomadic Bedouins do not carry water because they know that they will be able to get some at the next oasis. The digital nomad doesn’t carry his documents because he knows that he can access them online when he gets to his destination.

This is a useful report describing the likely consequences of this long-awaited connectivity on the way we lead out lives.