TEL-lingit like IT is

Elevator tale: this post tries to place TPACK in an ODE context. ODE works best when design is consistent, creative, collaborative, and comprehensive across the student tuition experience. These suggest a team-based approach to TPACK, involving specialist TEL and learning design roles working with subject experts. This teamwork often leads to tensions, which might be managed through a sound design methodology (such as Agile). In the previous post I provided an overview of TPACK and noted that "The goal for all TEL practitioners and online educators is the nirvana of TPACK, where Technology, Pedagogy And Content Knowledge all synergise into an optimal learning experience for the student." In this post I want to suggest how that nirvana might be reached in online and distance education (ODE) contexts. It's important to begin with a description of the main elements of the online and distance context of practice. Four foundational principles for effective online distanc...

In a previous post I mentioned reading through Matt Bower's Design of technology-enhanced learning , and how more posts would likely be sparked by it. Bower's second chapter prompted this post, as, he rightly points out, TPACK "highlights the interconnected nature of key dimensions of technology-enhanced learning" (p.20). This is the first of two posts, 1) explaining TPACK and 2) suggesting a nuance to it for the purposes of open and distance education (ODE) and effective TEL.  If you're unfamiliar with TPACK there are various introductions on YouTube, with options depending on how much of a hurry you're in. There is TPACK in 3 Minutes ; TPACK in 2 minutes ; and, what looks to be the record holder for brevity, a 1:49 introduction . This somewhat longer  clip by Matthew Koehler provides a very useful history of its development, and introduces its open future. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, © 2012 by tpack.org A very useful reference we...

Well, this IS awkward. After almost ten years using my ePortfolio based on Mahara , I've made the switch to LinkedIn . The awkward part is, I proposed and chaired the development of Mahara in 2006-2007. So, why the big switcheroo? Here's how I've been operating up to now. I realised early on in my e-learning career that my best means of maintaining an online presence would be to ensure I have some sort of central profile that I could easily keep up to date and link others to. A customised tinyurl ( http://tinyurl.com/mnichols ) made this very simple, and I would use that URL for a whole host of profiles I would normally have to maintain separately. Think about it: my public blog profile , Student Hub Live profile , EDENprofile and user account profiles for the likes of Faithlife.com , Mendeley and ResearchGate … all are potential online sources for someone seeking information about me, and, without some sort of central coordination, each of them becomes rather dated ra...