G’day
Maybe a very busy month. The Thailand Health Professionals completed a demanding three week course during which time all 15 of them produced a reasonably comprehensive course in Moodle for their subject area.These people do work really hard and the outcomes of their efforts are really useful resources for their student learning.
There’s lots of other activity on the horizon with Shar-E-Fest 2015 and DEANZ 2016 fast approaching; no rest for the wicked and none for the righteous either.
Really great that we have
as a GOLD sponsor of the Shar-E-Fest event.
This posting has a distinctly digital focus, so pull finger out and..
In this posting there are links to teachertube, App decision tool, managing groups, free online book’Teaching in A digital Age’, designing for accessibility, digital learning resources, FREE e-book ‘Theory and Practice of Online Teaching and Learning’correct English,open badges,preparing for the digital university,conferences and the odd one out.
Peruse at your leisure
1.Tony Bates does it again! Tony has now completed his mammoth effort on ‘Teaching in A digital Age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning for a digital age’ It’s online and its FREE! It’s an excellent resource, well worth the time to read and digest and apply
2.PreParing for the digital university: a review of the history and current state of distance, blended, and online learning. This new, comprehensive metastudy of the role technology plays in higher education urges universities of tomorrow to capitalize on technologies that effectively support student learning, to embrace blended learning environments, and to customize degree programs to serve the needs of students in a digital age. George Siemens, executive director of The University of Texas at Arlington’s Learning Innovation and Networked Knowledge Lab, is the lead author. Well worth reading.
http://linkresearchlab.org/PreparingDigitalUniversity.pdf
3. Correct English, no. This is for those of you who love the vagaries of the English language and the way people abuse it. This is an interesting read with some links to some nice diversions( try the pronunciation poem). If you have some time to spare, it’s worth reading and contemplating.
4.Managing group work. Getting individuals to participate and collaborate with group work is one of the major challenges of on and offline activities. The two sites provide some useful guides as to how you might like to go about getting the best out of the students.
and
5. Opinion piece: Issuing an Open Badge is easy, but making it valuable is hard. An interesting opinion on Badges and their value. If you think Badges are the way to go in authenticating achievement, have a read
Doug Belshaw’s blog adds to the comment and debate:
http://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2015/04/16/three-biggest-problems-with-badges/
6. App decision tool. Here is a useful online tool to help with deciding what app you might like to use in your mobile learning and teaching environments
http://e-standards.flexiblelearning.net.au/implementation/app_decision_tool/
7. 7 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about Accessibility. This is a good read with some common sense pointers on designing better web resources and pages.
8. Another one of those sites that collects lots of videos on all sorts of interesting things you always wanted to know about and to teach your students. Lots of interesting teaching resources here.
9.Your Guide to the Theory and Practice of Online Teaching and Learning. A FREE e-book from Rutledge with some well known authors contributing to content.Need to register to get your copy. Worth while.
10. Digital Learning Resources. Definitely for the more technically minded, but if you are not, there is always someone around you can ask for help.
There is a wealth of information here on how to use different tools and Apps. You could spend a lot of time perusing and finding something that would work for you.
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:
11.2 Ascilite 32nd conference. Perth, Western Australia.
Globally Connected, Digitally Enabled: November 30th to Dec 3rd 2015.
Website:
http://www.2015conference.ascilite.org
11.3 8th Annual New Zealand Shar-E-fest: 28th and 29th September 2015.
The organising committee is delighted to announce that
Ako Aotearoa, the National Centre for tertiary Teaching Excellence
, is a GOLD sponsor for the event. The committee is also very pleased to learn that the NZ Ministry of Education Tertiary eLearning reference Group will hold their meeting in conjunction with the Shar-E-Fest
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 elearning; 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 DEANZ conference 2016
Bookmark the page so you can be ket 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: Do you know what a ‘Lexophile’is? Have a look and prepare to have a laugh or two or maybe more.Lovely play with words.
https://nrhatch.wordpress.com/tag/lexophile/
That’s it until July in waiting.
Richard
Richard Elliott
The Eternal Macademic
Auckland, New Zealand