TDU E-Learning Blog

When I got back to work I read an article by Henry A. Giroux entitled ‘Rethinking Education as the Practice of Freedom: Paulo Freire and the Promise of Critical Pedagogy‘. Paulo Freire was an educational theorist and practitioner largely remembered for his book ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’. Giroux was a friend of Freire’s for 15 years prior to his death and gives an account of what critical pedagogy is all about and argues that this approach is more relevant today than ever in American Public schooling stating:

“teachers are increasingly reduced to the status of technicians and deskilled as they are removed from having any control over their classrooms or school governance structures. Teaching to the test and the corporatization of education becomes a way of “taming” students and invoking modes of corporate governance in which public school teachers become deskilled and an increasing number of higher education faculty are reduced to part-time positions, constituting the new subaltern class of academic labor.”

Yeah I know… that damn word starting with P…what would it have to do with e-learning? Well, while Giroux is referring to the education system in America much of Friere’s work raised in this taster article can be applied to teachers and their engagement with e-learning. Why? Because a range of factors are encouraging (if not forcing) teachers to utilise e-learning which in effect requires a partial self-reflection upon one’s practice. As I work largely with teachers in relation to e-learning I am not going to argue the merits of e-learning.

Teachers may say ‘why should I do this?’, ‘whats in it for me’, ‘why fix what aint broken’ etc. Meanwhile educational developers, educational leaders etc may say ‘how do I get teachers to want to take on these new things that will benefit their students and/or the institution?’ In some cases teachers and educational developers become at odds (at least in a subversive way) over the topic of e-learning or is it something else that is the main point of disconnection?

There is not a single answer, however we are not exclusively talking about e-learning technologies as the problem. Therefore the educational developer can only preach so far and in fact needs to find a pedagogy which will encourage teachers to look critically at their reality so that the discussion moves from oppression to opportunity and action.

Often people speak of pedagogy in terms of a method of teaching, something that is either guarded by some kind of secret society or in fact a script of moves that could be compiled in a book and sold to the highest bidder. Giroux sums up a Freirian approach to pedagogy as something which

“is not a method or an a priori technique to be imposed on all students, but a political and moral practice that provides the knowledge, skills and social relations that enable students to expand the possibilities of what it means to be critical citizens, while expanding and deepening their participation in the promise of a substantive democracy”.

In essence its all about encouraging critique that moves to action, and while the political context of the Giroux article may seem far removed, I argue that there is much that can be learn’t from facilitating sustainable e-learning by referring to the work of Freire.

Have a look sometime.

To get the ball rolling in 2010 I thought it would be worth commenting on a post from Harold Jarche ‘Sharing Tactic Knowledge‘.  He states “We are using tools that assume simple, or at most complicated, problems when many are actually complex. A mechanistic approach to problem solving is inadequate in complex adaptive environments.” In the context of our work here at UB it is easy to dismiss such a big statement on the grounds that ‘we do what we do, and have been doing it for a long time’. However for people new to the organisation, the obvious is not so clear? Where does a new employee, whether it be a sessional teacher, administrator or manager get a broad brush understanding of what is actually going on?

While there are a range of text based resources that can help one understand things such as TAFE specific acronyms, how is this information contextualised by the employee? He/she is obviously going to pick the brains of those in closest physical proximity, although in many cases it may not be those closest who have the appropriate answers or there may not be anyone around. Likewise, another logical strategy would be to contact those persons in positions whom because of their position title should be in a position to provide the appropriate information. Finally, another strategy may be to attend some formal training provided by one of the university professional development/support units.

All age old common sense strategies that can be used in conjunction with one another, but Jarche states “Formal training has only ever addressed 20% of workplace learning and this was acceptable when the work environment was merely complicated. Knowledge workers today need to connect with others to co-solve problems. Sharing tacit knowledge through conversations (the only way to do this) is an essential component of knowledge work.” While it is probable that the vast majority of people would work collaboratively in their respective groups on a wide range of work related tasks, it is likely that they will undertake some formal training at some point delivered by one of the in-house professional development groups and/or attend a vocational education teacher training program. But if only approximately 20% of workplace learning comes from these formal sources, then what in-formal strategies could be employed by in-house professional development groups and in-house teacher training programs to maintain/increase their relevance into the future? Whilst all groups would currently employ informal strategies, UB currently being in the process of a restructure is a great time to have such conversations.

This morning I finally got around to watching Big Thinkers: James Paul Gee on Grading with Games @ edutopia.org.

He spends a good deal of the video advocating use of video games in education as they enable a level of problem solving not dissimilar to the learning challenges we face in the real world….but are fun. While not heavily into playing games, I agree with his point when there is a game that works with the context of what is being undertaken.

A few years ago I was temping for a couple of weeks as a YR 10 history teacher in a secondary school and while colleagues I worked with in my regular teaching job were advocating gaming in a big way…I was most definably a skeptic. The topic was WW2 with a group of students bored out of their brains reading the prescribed text.

Having seen my brother in law spend copious hours at night shooting virtual Russians in the Battle of Stalingrad it made perfect sense to me as the desperate teacher to introduce the game ‘Call of Duty’ to the students. After getting one of the students to show me how to install the game across the network, we spent the next 90 minutes playing the game. While a few students begged for a continuation the next class, the students had a wealth of questions that then other students couldn’t help but answer before I could open my mouth. Despite getting a bit of a kicking from the co-ordinator for breaking a few rules…I was sold on gaming, but I’m unsure that there is always such a good gaming fit for a range of contexts…however as the contexts of games continue to diversify maybe there will will be a game for everyone?

Moving on from gaming, James makes a great point in the video where he states that learners like to learn with someone who is also learning. This person may be a step ahead, but the point is that they are in the mindset of learning. Hence I believe that there are two key points:

1. Teachers whom feel a bit intimidated by technology should not see this as an impingement on facilitating a great learning environment, provided they have identified a means/method by which they are going to continue to learn as they experience challenges. This may adapt as they learn from the students etc etc, however the core point is that they need to feel that they are not going to never never land…as I have being asked (in previous positions) to deliver sessions using technologies that I have had very little use with….ahh

2. For those teachers whom are tech savy and aim to bring students and/or their peers along for the ride, the questions I ask is ‘how do you get into the novice headspace?’ and ‘how do you demonstrate that you are still learning and that being a so called expert is not sitting on a summit?’

Simple questions…yes, but possibly not so simple to answer

There are a few gems scattered in this video (see below) his definition of collaboration is a good one worth revisiting…

If your someone who is a little unsure as to why there are a growing group of educators excited about the prospects of using online hosted applications, I came across this list of potential benefits at Dereks Blog.

Here are a few of the points: (see Derek’s Blog for reasoning behind each point)

• Reduced and/or simplified expenditure on software licensing
• Enabling greater ubiquity of access for students and staff
• Allows for greater experimentation, choice and agility in terms of applications used
• Reduce barriers to participation, contribution, sharing
• Infinitely expand resource sharing opportunities

As the title of this post clearly states ‘idelistic’… (well I don’t have a problem with that as its a university…not a bank and no one is getting hurt…) I think with any system and/or approach there are limitations and constraints, however the big picture is that there is scope for us all to use technology in ways that are empowering and not simply a case of ‘oh another thing I have to do’ as choice is central to all participants. If members of the UB community have reliable Internet access at ideally a combination of home, work and/or on campus then the first hurdle has been crossed.

A little while ago I came across Aviary which is in essence like having an online version of Photoshop, Illustrator etc. Whilst I was skeptical at first, I have found that if I were teaching multimedia again I would be definitely encouraging its use. Although there is scope for the application to used by students in any situation where they are required to produce/modify images.

The main benfit is that work can be shared, however I suspect that free features will gradually become pay services and therefore a try before your buy apporach is always good.

check it out here

An interesting article was mentioned the in the conversation that Stephen Downes had with a couple of Queensland based teachers (see link). Entitled “Pupils to study Twitter and blogs in primary schools shake-up“, the article refers to a leaked draft paper (to be released in the next few weeks) from Sir Jim Rose, with the intention being to drive an overhaul of the UK primary school curriculum.

Here is the first snippet:

Children will no longer have to study the Victorians or the second world war under proposals to overhaul the primary school curriculum, the Guardian has learned.

However, the draft plans will require children to master Twitter and Wikipedia and give teachers far more freedom to decide what youngsters should be concentrating on in classes.

The proposed curriculum, which would mark the biggest change to primary schooling in a decade, strips away hundreds of specifications about the scientific, geographical and historical knowledge pupils must accumulate before they are 11 to allow schools greater flexibility in what they teach.

Being interested in e-learning, it would be very easy to look at this as a win for those with vested interests in the area. However the real win is for students who will be potentially provided access to a classroom environment that supports/promotes informal social learning, the style of learning often central to the aquisition of new skills and knowledge.

I had a similar discussion with a friend of mine who is trying to decide which school would be most suited for his son. He and his wife are trying to decide between a school that functions traditionally similar to most primary schools in the area and a newly established school with a specific focus on collaborative and self-directed learning, with a larger than normal use of technology.

His initial thoughts were that there was a complete lack of structure at the new school and referred to the structure of the typical classrooms we were both members of for eight years to rationalise his position. “I like how they have access to new computers, but how do I know they are going to learn everything they need to know when the teacher does not have to cover it?” Similarly, I used our experiences as a counterpoint asking “how much did we learn from Teacher A, B, C, D etc” and we agreed that there were only a small number of teachers whom we were able to identify with and become engaged simply from the commonplace chalk and talk sessions that they presented us with.

I then (after about next beer) asked him “so where did you learn the things that you now use in your job etc?”….. “well we nutted things out between us”… or “I would work with Dad re-building engines, and now I still apply those same skills in my job operating f***king expensive machines”.

If this draft becomes somewhat of a reality, I’m guessing there will many a similar conversation between old school buddies in the UK. Its just a pity that we graviaite the tools and not what is underneath…

Today I came across a very useful little plug-in for your UB (or Wordpress) blog. The plug-in is called: “Wordpress Mobile Edition“. You can simply enable the plug-in for your UB blog by going to your Dashboard and activating “Wordpress Mobile Edition” under the Plugins options.

This plugin detects whether your visitor is using a desktop-based computer or a mobile device. If a mobile device is detected it will switch to the mobile-friendly theme.

This makes your blog accessible on more devices.

Yesterday, I came across YouTube Education which features learning content (eg. lectures) from a range of Universities such as MIT, Yale, UC Berkeley, NYU, Stanford  and UCLA. Much of the content that can be found through this search has been on YouTube for a while, however it is now a bit easier to locate educational content using this new site.

Hopefully you come across something that is useful….

Here is an example clip:

This morning I came across an interesting post from Chris Brogan entitled “say what you want” and it bought to a head a thought/question that I have had for a while…

Why do Learning Management Systems (LMS eg. Blackboard/WebCT) bother to include social media elements such as inbuilt wikis, blogs etc. I could surmise a gamut of sceptical responses, along with some practical responses such as the ability for teachers to manage collaboration undertaken using such applications.

However I always thought that the inclusion of such applications actually inhibits the LMS from being recognised/understood for what it does well. As a consequence it is very easy for us to confuse an LMS with the wider notion of e-learning. For example, a teacher may say “Im using Blackboard…I’m doing E-Learning, why should I consider anything else?”

The answer to this question will vary depending on what the teacher is aiming to achieve with his/her students, however as the LMS continues to build in collaborative applications (eg. blogs/wikis etc), I suspect this question may become even more common place. The tools are there (at least in name…depending on the system), however do they provide the scope for the same educational outcomes possible with the (often externally hosted) application that has gradually become popular in an educational setting?

This is why I particularly liked the McDonalds analogy raised in Chris Brogans post. McDonalds now offers healthy alternatives just to get us to continue visiting, but are we actually eating the healthy alternatives? or are we simply sticking with the Big Mac?

Citing a range of sources, Siemens & Tittenberger in the recently released Handbook of Educational Technology (2009) believe that most learning has four broad components:

1. Social: Learning is a social process. Knowledge is an emergent property of interactions between networks of learners.

2. Situated: Learning occurs within particular situations or contexts. Both “learning and cognition…are fundamentally situated”, raising the importance of educational activities mirroring actual situations of use.

3. Reflective: Learners requires time to assimilate new information. Learners require the “opportunity to reflect on, defend, and share what they have learned if it is to become part of their available repertoire”

4. Multi-faceted. Learning incorporates a range of theory, engagement, “tinkering” or bricolage, and active construction.

An LMS used in isolation, (especially in distance ed settings) cannot aim to provide teachers with a platform that facilitates learning encompassing all the aforementioned components.  Will the addition of inbuilt social media tools provide such scope? I don’t think this will be the case, however they may function in a transitional type way for some teachers….although I think we may end up with a McDonalds type scenario.

With UB currently reviewing its LMS, we should be also thinking about developing a greater understanding of what is acceptable use of externally hosted services and applications. Otherwise if an application is available (at least by name) as part of an LMS,  teachers can be tricked into thinking that the embedded example (that may not be flexible enough to achieve the desired educational aim) is representative of what can actually be achieved.

Food for thought, I wonder if Hungry Jacks has healthy alternatives?

For some time now people have heard the word, but never really understood the use or simply dismissed it as just another ‘geek thing’. The question is, however, how long will people be able to ignore its impact?

This past week I’ve been stuck primarily in bed and in front of the TV because of an unexpected appendix operation. The interesting observations I’ve made during this week was how twitter was starting to surface even in my un-connected bedridden state. So I’m writing this post just as an observation and will be giving a few examples…

1. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Not being able to do much I had countless hours channel surfing lying back on my parents’ couch watching Foxtel. Being a fan of comedy I decided to watch the Comedy channel. I noticed that Jimmy Fallon was replacing Conan O’Brien and was curious to see what he would be like. It was a very Twitter episode!  Here’s a link to an article that says it far better than I can:  Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht Go On Jimmy Fallon, Plug Twitter

2. Rove Live

Talking on the phone to my very special friend on a Sunday night, she asked me a question completely out of the blue… “What is that Twitter thing? They just spoke about it on Rove and made quite a big deal about it.”  Intrigued I decided to search more about it on the RoveFeed website. Here is what they had to say:   Rove Feed: Twitter

Searching for Rove and Twitter I also came across this video on YouTube, not particularly useful, but interesting anyway:  YouTube: Lilly Allen talks to Rove about Twitter (PG)

3. Shaquille O’Neal

This one is one I’ve actually known about for a while now. Out of curiosity I’ve been following Shaq just to see what on earth a Basketballer quite possibly be twittering about. I was surprised. He is really into it, tweeting about his gadgets and inviting fans to meet him and joing him at a coffee shop.  But here is the story that got all that started: The Real O’Neal Puts His Cyber Foot Down

4. Earthquake in Melbourne (6′th of March)

On Friday I saw a few tweets flying around about an earthquake in Melbourne (also saw some updates from friends on Facebook). I didn’t know at the time that something like that would actually make news in The Age. This was published on The Age website on Sunday the 8th:   The Age: Did the earth move for you on Twitter?

5. Twurgery?! Surgeons Tweet while Operating

This morning when I got back to work, semi-recovered, I noticed something that obviously now peaked my interest. Through one of my sources I came across this article with one of the most bizarre uses of Twitter I’ve seen so far (ok, not as wierd as the twitter user who connected a device to his wife’s stomach to let the world know everytime the baby kicked). Henry Ford Hospital in the states are now using twitter to let followers know what they are doing while operating: Twitter Surgery - Awake Craniotomy (on the 18th of March)

What does all of this have to do with education? With comedians, celebrities and even surgeons out their evangelising new and exciting uses for micro-blogging, we can be certain that it would amount quite a following. Jimmy Fallon’s talk show alone caused quite a surge in Twitter usage as he challenged the world to make cartoonist Bryan Brink the most followed person on Twitter. Here are some figures to show the amazing growth-rate of twitter users:  Twitter Now Growing at a Staggering 1,382 Percent

With such amazing growth, why would it not have educational usage? The media is by far the leader when it comes to twittering in the industry, but educational tweets are on the rise. So here is a leading question: How can you use twitter to enhance your student experience?

I know that many people are probably already thinking, “yeah thats great, but why would I want to let my students know what I’m having for lunch” or “i’ve seen how people use it and I really just don’t find it relevant” (probably referring to other people talking about what they’re having for lunch… *guilty!*). But twitter usage is changing as the platform is maturing:  On Twitter, mindcasting is the new lifecasting

Like I said, these are just a few things I’ve stumbled across in my almost-not-connected life on the couch during the last couple of weeks. I hope that it would challenge you or even just intrigue you to give twitter a go.

If you do, you can follow:

• me at http://twitter.com/rheinardkorf and/or
• Steve Linquist at http://twitter.com/loungingman