TEL-lingit like IT is

Research, research, research! If there's one thing I've enjoyed most about BERA 2016 it's been the clear focus on serious and rigorous research, right across the educational spectrum. This year was my first BERA, and I'll be prioritising it from here on as one to attend. The format was especially new to me. Less plenaries and many streams meant a lot of travel across the Leeds University campus. The breadth of options gave new meaning to the term 'multiple choice'! Sessions were generally excellent and thought-provoking. Sadly, I am unable to link to the abstracts of the sessions identified below. I do find it surprising that abstracts are not made publicly available! I'll limit myself to those presentations that I personally found noteworthy. Day One The first presentation I attended was Kate Litherland's  Sustainability in technologies for higher education - a review of the literature . Kate's presentation was a highlight for me, as it drew...

Open Learning has released an early online article, " The use of Facebook to build a community for distance learning students: a case study from the Open University ". I've long wrestled with the concept of using social media in formal HE for a variety of reasons - but the format proposed by Callaghan and Fribbance works. I suspect their successful use of Facebook is based on three main characteristics: It's purposeful, and facilitated.  It's optional.  It's cross-programme, rather than intra-module (adding variety and scale).  The authors concludes that "Using everyday technology to connect with students, remind them of sources of informal learning and nudge them to think about contemporary social science issues in a critical way, the Faculty Page would appear to make a contribution to overcoming isolation and creating an academic community". Their work is certainly proof-of-concept; as the authors add, however, more research as to the bene...

Day Two of ALT-C began with something quite unexpected (I suppose I should have read the online bio...) Ian Livingstone! THE Ian Livingstone! His keynote, " Code Create Collaboration " was one of the conferences highlights. There is far too much in what Ian said to be neatly summarised; his keynote was inspiring, nostalgic, challenging, contemporary and very insightful. It is well worth watching in its own right. The first stream of Day Two consisted of five(!) sessions back to back, each 15 minutes' presentation and five minutes' Q&A. The parallel consisted of  Embedding digital identity and employability in the HE curriculum: a case study , which reported on the development of Jisc's Viewpoint cards ;  Putting the learner in control: creating a more user friendly video tutorial , which demonstrated a very effective use of Captivate, using a format of intro (read first), demo (learn how), and practice (have a go) using step-by-step clips;  Different aspects...

ALT-C 2016 is my second ALT, though I'm more likely to be able to remember this one. I was in Manchster for ALT-C 2007, and can mainly recall jet lag. I went fresh(?) from a 24-hour series of flights directly into the first session. I overcame my jet lag the day after the conference, just in time to board for my return to New Zealand. This year's one-hour drive up the A5 was so much better! The day started with a warm welcome from the conveners, then it was straight in to Josie Fraser's keynote: " In the valley of the trolls ". It was interesting and disturbing to be introduced to the tragic tale of TayTweets  (overview from Wikipedia ,  here , here  and here ). Josie's keynote was an unexpected one for me, though its topic quickly became relevant and it generated a lot of debate and discussion among delegates (which is always a sign of keynote success). One interesting comment from a colleague was whether Tay's sad demise was the result of multiple tro...

A colleague recently steered me toward de Jong and Hartog's 2008 Innovative Work Behavior: Measurement and Validation , available here . The article describes development of an instrument for measuring IWB. Critically, and most helpfully, the authors propose four dimensions contributing to innovation outcomes: Opportunity exploration. Idea generation. Championing. Application. These four dimensions serve to better flesh out the concept of innovation itself. Frequently, innovation platforms are obsessed with the first and the second, under the mistaken belief that good ideas sell themselves. I cannot help thinking that a fifth element is also critical, one that more logically links the second and third elements together: Proof of concept It could be, though, that de Jong & Hartog are suggesting their four dimensions relate to getting an idea even to the proof of concept stage (with the proof of concept equated to implementation). The authors are, after al...

The Institute of Educational Technology (IET) at the OU is a core source for innovation and research for higher education. Its work in learning design is particularly noteworthy, and was on my radar well before I started with the OU.   Collaboration via planning activities, based on evidence, are key to the OU model for learning design. An effective design emphasises student activities aligned with overall learning objectives, appropriately paced and varied. The planning events also give a structured opportunity for good practices to be harnessed across new modules. In the latest research article on the subject of learning design at the OU, Toetenel and Rienties demonstrate how a structured approach to learning design decisions results in a richer and less assimilative module for students: http://bit.ly/2bYUOYm . I've long believed in the value of a collaborative approach to what I've come to know as educational design . Learning design professionals, working...

An interesting, and brief story here on the subject of Coursera's new course format. Note in particular the first comment: "So much for the democratization of information, guess Coursera's investors have finally demanded their money back. Oh well least we still have edX." And, further news as the democratisation of online education starts to unravel in at least one online service ( Udemy ). As I've mentioned before , " my own view is that if MOOCs do actually survive the next few years it will be because they have morphed to become what we already know about effective distance education, done online ". MOOCs were the wrong starting point for online education, and if indeed "investors [are] finally demanded their money back" from the privately-funded Coursera this may well be the beginning of the unravelling. It's not easy to depart from free, particularly with a vast alternative supply available. I'm not optimistic...