TEL-lingit like IT is

I'm reading through Matt Bower's Design of technology-enhanced learning , and enjoying it as a refresher. It didn't take long to find a useful link, to the ISTE standards for students . I really, really like the potential of linking TEL practice with student digital literacy, and I think the ISTE standards (with their indicators) are an excellent reference for TEL designers. Weaving these standards into course design leads quite naturally into effective learning design, while contributing to digital literacy. ISTE aims to serve K12 teachers however its work looks directly relevant to all levels of TEL. In some of my own previous work I've talked about the merits of online education, compared with print-based course design . Now, I'm not suggesting that the ISTE list is, prima facie , suggesting online learning as a replacement for print-based material. It is interesting, though, to consider the merits of an online-based approach with the ISTE standards in mind...

I’ve recently been thinking about TEL in the context of quality assurance and enhancement (QA and QE), partly inspired by trying to establish some TEL standards for learning design. It occurred early on that which standards might be appropriate depends very much on the level of practice you’re concerned with. The theme of the next EDEN conference in Genoa is “ Exploring the micro, meso and macro: Navigating between dimensions in the digital learning landscape ”. The three levels of micro, meso and macro encourage different views of practice which are extremely helpful. But what do these levels mean? Fortunately, the three levels can be made to apply to all types of products and services - making illustration easy. Consider your phone; it consists of many features (operating system, camera, storage capacity, etc) that combine to form a single product (your mobile phone), which operates within a given context (the 4G network of your telco). Or, your car; again, a collection of ...