G’Day
well April was a busy month reviewing papers and preparing my contribution to an elearning course for health professionals from Thailand; now I have to present it over the next three weeks.
I’m not into ‘delivery’ of courses, can’t afford the 50 cent stamp. Nor have I applied any instructional design much prefer the learning design approach; these things make a difference to the way one thinks. Educational semantics can get you into trouble, if you’re lucky.
I’ll be flipping a few learning environments in an authentic way over the next couple of weeks and hopefully the Thai group will remain on their feet and enjoy the experience.
Hi ho.
In this month’s posting there are links to stuff about Mooc’s. mobile learning, authentic learning,elearning tools, free textbooks,overview of capstone projects, digital literacy,universal design for learning, a learning registry,conferences and the odd one out.
June is just around the corner. Will see what she’s up to in a month
1.Universal Design for Learning. What’s it all about ? and is it worth exploring?
Extract from the site:
‘Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for teaching and learning that includes proactive planning of curricula (goals, assessments, methods, and materials). Planning with UDL does not assume a one size fits all approach; instead it takes into account the variability of all learners. UDL is based on research from a variety of fields (e.g., education, psychology, and neuroscience), and is organised around three learning networks of the brain: recognition network, strategic network, and affective network’
An interesting concept and one that is worth looking at.
http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/whatisudl
2.Mobile Learning in Higher Education.
An interesting and useful set of pages around mobile learning. The information has been collated by students of the ETEC 510: Design Wiki course.
http://etec.ctlt.ubc.ca/510wiki/Mobile_Learning_in_Higher_Education
If you want to explore a huge range of other areas relating to technology enhanced learning environments go to:
http://etec.ctlt.ubc.ca/510wiki/Main_Page
3. Mobile learning Handbook. A very useful comprehensive guide to best practices in Mobile learning.
https://sites.google.com/a/adlnet.gov/mobile-learning-guide/planning
4.Learning Registry.
Extract from the site:
‘The learning registry is a new approach to capturing, connecting and sharing data about learning resources available online with the goal of making it easier for educators and students to access the rich content available in our ever-expanding digital universe’.
Give it a try. I found a wide range and some very useful resources under ‘assessment’. There are a number of well known contributors to the resources on the site , including JISC.
5. Digital Literacy learning outcomes. I thought this was quite a good concise approach to defining and developing learning outcomes for digital literacy (from Canada).
http://digitalliteracy.co/courses/learning-outcomes/
6.Authentic Learning: Resources and ideas about Authentic Learning and authentic e-learning. From the three gurus of authentic learning. Jan, Ron and Tom, an extremely comprehensive an valuable resource site on nearly all things about authentic learning:
http://authenticlearning.info/AuthenticLearning/Home.html
Some complementary perspectives
Authentic Learning:
A Practical Introduction & Guide for Implementation:
http://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/win2003/authentic_learning/index.html
Defining Authentic Learning by Steve Revington:
http://authenticlearning.weebly.com
Authentic Learning Environments:
http://etec.ctlt.ubc.ca/510wiki/Authentic_Learning_Environments
7.Interactive e-learning Tools form the BioNetwork of NC Community College. There’s a lot of useful tools here to engage the learner and improve their knowledge and understanding
Some of the tools are specifically for USA but there are plenty of others which would fit well into many bioscience type courses;try the Ph module.
http://ncbionetwork.org/educational-resources/interactive-elearning-tools
8. Free open education resources:Textbooks in different formats form the Openstax college a not for profit organisation creating a growing number of free, OER, textbooks for students. Well worth exploring maybe to find resources for your courses.
https://openstaxcollege.org/faculty
9. Pedagogy Of MOOCs And Benefits For Modern Professionals. An interesting opinion piece worth reading if you are looking at the efficacy of MOOC’s
10. From The University of New South Wales: Assessing by Capstone Project.
This is a very useful resource which has been well thought out and structured. It could be a useful guide for your students.
https://teaching.unsw.edu.au/printpdf/533
11. Conferences for 2015
11.1 ALT Annual Conference 2015: Shaping the future of learning together
The 22nd annual conference of the Association for Learning Technology, 8–10 September 2015, University of Manchester, UK
Download the Flyer:
11.3 Ascilite 32nd conference. Perth, Western Australia.
Globally Connected, Digitally Enabled: November 30th to Dec 3rd 2015.
Website:
http://www.2015conference.ascilite.org
11.4 8th Annual New Zealand Shar-E-fest: 28th and 29th September 2015.
We are very pleased to announced that adjunct Associate Professor Rob Phillips from Murdoch University, Western Australia has accepted our invitation to to be the Keynote speaker and workshop presenter for the 8th Annual NZ Shar-E-Fest. Here is a brief ‘bio’, more will appear on the Website in due course. Mark the dates in your Diary and commit to attend another great opportunity to present, network and learn.
‘Adjunct Associate Professor Rob Phillips has worked in higher education learning and teaching since 1992, working with staff from most discipline areas. His expertise includes educational design, e-learning, distance education, educational policy development and academic staff development. He has provided professional development and mentoring for academic staff in the scholarship of learning and teaching, and has chaired university committees on Awards and Citations, Learning and Teaching Spaces and Open Education.
Rob’s research interests include evaluation research in e-learning; learning analytics; making creative and innovative use of technology; university policy issues; and project management in educational innovations. Rob has over 130 publications, including 60 refereed papers. He has been principal author of two internationally published books ‘Developer’s guide to interactive multimedia’ and ‘Evaluating e-learning: Guiding research and practice’
Shar-E-Fest 2015 information:
http://wordpress.isle.ac.nz/shar-e-fest-2015/
11.5 Advanced notice. DEANZ conference 2016
Bookmark the page so you can be kept up to date on developments for a must attend event next year. Nothing like being prepared.
http://deanz.org.nz/deanz2016/
12.0 The odd out: Astronomy picture of the day. Fascinating, unusual and spectacular pictures from out in space. Click on ‘Discover the cosmos’ for the archived pictures. Diamond Rings and Baily’s Beads (2015 March 28) would make a nice mural.
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
That’s it for now
Richard
Richard Elliott
The Eternal Macademic
Auckland
New Zealand