elearningWatch October 2012

G’day
Today is the start of the 5th NZ Shar-e-fest in Hamilton NZ, followed by regional symposia. The theme this year is ‘Using learning technologies to design and support innovative and effective student learning experiences’
Professor Diana Laurillard from UK and Dr Geoff Mitchell from Australia are the keynotes and both are focussing on co-creation. Diana on’Teachers as co-creators of pedagogical patterns for learning and technology’ and Geoff on’Learning to Learn: The importance of co-creation in learning space design’. I’m looking forward to both of them.
The rest of the programme is populated with what appear to be some very interesting presentations. So I am going to be busy for the next week. Usually try to keep my working week as a two day event so this week means the veggies and the roses will miss out on undivided attention. However always good to part of a creative and innovative community of practice.
This month’s posting includes links to teaching with tablets, discussion on MOOCS, Badges for learning, couple of infographics on learning analytics and tech tends, iPad apps, Rubrics, free online courses, coursebuilder, Google apps, conferences and the odd one out.
November is time for ascilite. Cu then.
1. Edudemic: The 60 second Guide to teaching with Tablets.
Self explanatory, although I think learning with tablets should have a spot somewhere.

http://edudemic.com/2012/08/teaching-with-tablets/

2. Credentials in the cloud: how will MOOCs deal with plagiarism?
Interesting opinion piece that raise amore than a few questions.

http://theconversation.edu.au/credentials-in-the-cloud-how-will-moocs-deal-with-plagiarism-8581

3. Thoughts on Badges for Learning. Some useful debate about an area which is gaining momentum. Has it’s good and maybe not zoo useful aspects.It will be interesting to see how the movement evolves.

http://www.andrea-zellner.com/archives/847

and

http://dmlcentral.net/blog/doug-belshaw/badges-lifelong-learning-reframing-debate

4. Understanding New Trends In Educational Technology [Infographic] This is a bit different. Provides some basic descriptions and information on various areas relating to education technologies. You probably know it all but it’s always useful to get someone else’s definitions. May need to enlarge the graphic to read it all.

http://mgleeson.edublogs.org/2012/07/22/educational-technology-buzzwords/

Here’s another on Learning Analytics.

http://newsroom.opencolleges.edu.au/learning-analytics-infographic/

5. Rubrics. Some guides and links If you are using Rubrics, interested in using them or want to know about how they can be used, this Webpage has a lot of links with all sorts of useful information.

http://www.uni.edu/assessment/documents/rubricdocument.pdf

6.Essential paid iPad Apps for schools. Maybe just not for schools but for any education institute. A useful list if iPad Apps that can make a real difference, and they are not expensive.

http://mgleeson.edublogs.org/2012/08/21/essential-paid-ipad-apps-for-schools/

7.The M-learning Teacher and Trainer guide: Focused on Australian vocational education and learning but very much applicable to organisations that are developing or using mobile technologies.
The M-learning Teacher and Trainer guide illustrates the way mobile learning standards can be used in teaching and learning in the vocational education and training (VET) system.

http://e-standards.flexiblelearning.net.au/implementation/mobile_technology.php

8. Coursera: Take the World’s Best Courses, Online, For Free.
Take some time to womble through the catalogue and evaluate the types of course available. There are some pretty good offerings here, especially if you want to improve knowledge and skills in specific areas. Along the lines of the MOOCS.

https://www.coursera.org/

9. Google Apps: The Administrator Guide to Accessibility
Probably more for the techies amongst you, but still a useful overview of how accessibility to Google papas can be made easier and more efficient for the user.

http://www.google.com/support/enterprise/static/gapps/docs/admin/en/ gapps_accessibility/gapps_accessibility.pdf

10. Course-builder from Google. Google enters the world of online education through an open source initiative. It will be interesting to see how this evolves over the next few months. I think there will be a lot of people giving it a go.
Extract from the site:
‘Course Builder is our experimental first step in the world of online education. It packages the software and technology we used to build our Power Searching with Google online course. We hope you will use it to create your own online courses, whether they’re for 10 students or 100,000 students. You might want to create anything from an entire high school or university offering to a short how-to course on your favorite topic’.

https://code.google.com/p/course-builder/

11. Conferences
11.1 The seventh JISC online conference takes place this year on 19-23 November 2012, with conference activity week running from 13 November.
The conference has an excellent line up with keynote speakers that include Dr Sue Black, James Clay and Ian Gilbert. The conference will explore topics relevant to a wide range of delegates from further and higher education through live presentations and asynchronous debates and will share the latest thinking about the benefits and challenges of enhancing learning and teaching with technology.
The title of the 2012 conference, Shaping the future, reflects the changing educational environment and addresses the challenges that institutions and practitioners are facing. The conference will focus on some of the innovative solutions being developed to: engage students and stakeholders; enhance learning, assessment and feedback; develop digital literacies and employment potential; improve and sustain organisational efficiency; facilitate openness and sharing; and manage organisational transformation.
Follow the conference on Twitter @jiscel12 and contribute your views using #jiscel12
The fee for Innovative e-Learning 2012 remains unchanged at £50, outstanding value for what participants last year described as ‘A brilliant return for minor investment’ and ‘the most productive conference of the year’
Visit the conference website to find out more at:

http//www.jisc.ac.uk/elpconference12

and register now at:

http//www.bit.ly/jiscel12registration

11.2 ascilite 2012: Future Challenges, Sustainable futures
Dates are 25th to 28th November, Wellington New Zealand
Registration is now OPEN.

http://www.ascilite2012.org/home

12. The odd one out: The World Wonders project. This is a fascinating, educational and entertaining project. Search through the various categories. The link below takes you to Antarctica and Scott’s hut, inside and out. Places and castles provide some amazing images as well. You could spend a long time here.

http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/worldwonders/scotts-hut/

That’s it until November produces a few more fireworks.
Richard
Richard Elliott
The Eternal Macademic
Auckland
NEw Zealand

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