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...

TEL isn’t just about the techie stuff, though I do like that. As I mentioned in the second post to this blog , TEL is predominately about learning, even though the ‘Learning’ part of TEL comes last. I try to read up on learning as much as I try to keep up with technological developments – and I admit that I often find the learning literature more interesting! A few years ago I purchased Daisy Christodoulou’s book Seven myths about education  (see The Guardian's review here ). The book is brief, authoritative, clear, and punchy. Christodoulou suggests that there are seven pervasive myths about how students learn, and how teachers should teach. The myths find their expression in education ministries, teacher's colleges, and right across the schooling system. I reckon the same myths are equally applied across the HE sector.  Critically, the myths are in opposition to good education practice. Her book is well worth the provocation; here’s a quick overview.  M...

The day began with a series of back-to-back keynotes; livestream here . Keynotes were all excellent and drew from their existing work: Paul Prinsloo's "The Increasing (Im)Possibilities of Justice and Care in Oopen, Distance Learning" drew on his and colleagues' IRRODL work Educational Triage in Open Distance Learning: Walking a Moral Tightrope and Big(ger) Data as Better Data in Open Distance Learning .  Isa Jahnke's "Studying Learning Expeditions in Cross Action Spaces with Digital Didactical Designs" from her book Digital Didactical Designs:  Teaching and Learning in CrossActionSpaces . Looks so good I bought it from Amazon...  George Veletsianos's "A Scholarly Life Online" drew from his own web site's  scholar's use of social media  (also, his keynote slides here ).  The first parallel session I attended was excellent, with two presentations. Kristie Naidoo from UNISA gave a presentation called "Integration of Learni...

I recently finished reading Make it stick  by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roedigger III, and Mark A. McDaniel, published 2014 by Harvard University Press. The Kindle version is available here ; a summary version is also available on Kindle here . What I like about the book is summed up in this paragraph: Much of how we structure training and schooling is based on learning theories that have been handed down to us, and these are shaped by our own sense of what works, a sensibility drawn from our personal experiences as teachers, coaches, students, and mere humans at large on the earth. How we teach is largely a mix of theory, lore, and intuition. But over the last forty years and more, cognitive psychologists have been working to build a body of evidence to clarify what works and to discover the strategies that get results (p.7).  The difference is between common sense (likely a projection of our own preferences!) and evidence when it comes to promoting effective learning. Wi...