Blended learning for_english_creative_writing_feburary_2010
•Download as PPT, PDF•
1 like•866 views
Bex's first attempt at going to a department and giving an overview of blended learning options...
![DR BEX LEWIS BLENDED LEARNING FELLOW LEARNING & TEACHING DEVELOPMENT UNIT HTTP://WWW.WINCHESTER.AC.UK/LEARNING Dr Bex Lewis [email_address]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/blendedlearningforenglishcreativewritingfeburary2010-100630210741-phpapp02/85/blended-learning-forenglishcreativewritingfeburary2010-1-320.jpg)
![What is Blended Learning? ,[object Object],[object Object]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Viewers also liked
Similar to Blended learning for_english_creative_writing_feburary_2010
Similar to Blended learning for_english_creative_writing_feburary_2010 (20)
More from Bex Lewis
More from Bex Lewis (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Blended learning for_english_creative_writing_feburary_2010
- 1. DR BEX LEWIS BLENDED LEARNING FELLOW LEARNING & TEACHING DEVELOPMENT UNIT HTTP://WWW.WINCHESTER.AC.UK/LEARNING Dr Bex Lewis [email_address]
- 6. The 21 st Century Learner http://mscofino.edublogs.org/2008/11/30/a-meeting-of-minds/
- 7. Synchronous Conferencing http://www.elluminate.com/ ; http://www.wimba.com/ ; http://www.webex.co.uk/
- 10. Wimba: Pronto, Voice, Create
- 13. What’s out there? http://blog.twingly.com/2009/08/19/guest-post-social-media-adresses-the-hierarchy-of-needs/
- 18. A Visual Guide to Twitter
- 24. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME QUESTIONS? http://learn.winchester.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=1203
Editor's Notes
- Important to establish what we’re talking about before we start talking about it…
- Looking at e-learning , where the focus is on LEARNING, rather than the tools, a lot at the moment is simply e-knowledge : Three factors in all those empty wikis: “ There is insufficient purpose to the e-intervention; it is solving a problem that does not exist; It is not built into the regular face-to-face teaching of the course or its assessment structures; Insufficient time is available to set up and then diligently maintain the activities.” Fry, H., Ketteridge, S., Marshall, S., Enhancing Academic Practice: A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education , 2009 (3 rd Edn), p.91
- Hopefully already aware of this. Adding more and more information… Want to engage interaction more, with which the main format would be a blog
- An approach being taken in the states, pre-University, but these kinds of soft skills are becoming prized by employers, and tie in with debates about informal learning (of which I need to learn more)
- Now, you asked me to talk about Wimba…. Conferences I had been to before this role, had used Elluminate, so had some experience of it – great for conferencing, attended conferences couldn’t otherwise go to. Still miss the f2f element, but better than not attending at all!
- Still in the early stages of use with Wimba, we have another meeting next Wednesday, which should take us further. Support is provided 24/7 by Wimba, so: encourage people to use it, feed back their experience, share experience. Intuitive. Great for international/research students, and also for remote attendance at meetings when all can’t get there, or where it seems ecologically wasteful. Did any of you come to the event we held?
- Jewel in the crown, and where I suspect we’ll be focusing much of our energy. Will be hosting another event where can see in action, which makes a lot more sense, but essentially, it is a VIRTUAL classroom. Students can be present, or can be at home (or overseas) – they need a headset/microphone, and their computer (any modern one should) to be able to download a snippet of code (which it will do automatically). Wimba Classrooms can be assigned to modules and hosted on the Learning Network. Talk way round: PPT/screen area Editing (privileges) Chat area Student participation (including emotions) Archive (esp useful for slower learners, who can watch/listen again afterwards) Presenter (privileges) Can you see any particular uses for it yet within your subject area (you know it much better than me?)
- These are the other parts of the Wimba Suite, which we are also investigating. Pronto: rather like Skype/MSN, but internal (so safer), and grouped by module, so can connect specific members (can also create personal lists) Voice: MP3 options, can give conversation (has been successful in language teaching, in practising pronunciation), are experiments in MP3 feedback for assessments under way Create: Convert Word docs to webpages (not yet convinced by this one, think blogging platforms offer better options) There are a number of issues still under debate, so this first year is very much an internal experiment!!
- Use technologies for what e-learning is really good at, and abandon everything else.. : Race, p. 177: Giving learner interesting things to do, providing quick/responsive feedback, helping them make sense of what they did, and deepening learning. These provide benchmarks to work towards, in 10/20 years won’t even think of using such material, but process needs to be hastened by collaboration... http://www.slideshare.net/lisaharris/using-social-media-for-research (possibilities for academics)
- Moving into the 21 st C, Marc Prensky popularised the classifications Digital Native (technology their first stop) See Jake , used to sharing through peer-to-peer networks Digital Immigrant (had to learn to use/adapt) Digital Aliens (don’t want to use) The expectation is that more DN’s like Jake (aged 14) are coming to University, and we need to be prepared for them... The classifications, identified, or maybe just popularised by Marc Prensky: http://www.marcprensky.com/blog/archives/000045.html http://www.slideshare.net/lisaharris/crossing-the-chasm-1831246 Term has been contested , as being over-used. Heather Fry noted that not all are equally savvy, although others find University a real drop-back technologically on what they have experienced before STUDENTS and TUTORS may need training alongside, to demonstrate the advantages. As we can see in Lisa Harris’s presentation (and also mentioned by Fry at the ALT 2009 Conference - what students want and what students need may be two very different things) They may be used to using social networking, but for leisure, rather than for learning, so the term educational networking has also been coined, partly to remove those negative connotations.
- ALK: Considered the options that are out there – rather mind-boggling, don’t you think?!
- I found this diagram a bit more useful, as we need to look through the tools that are available, see where they have real value and train users in implementation, being aware of the ever-changing nature, so Twitter may be the big thing this year, but what’s coming next (Google Wave). Twitter Blogosphere Facebook Flickr YouTube/Vimeo Social Bookmarking Convergence With only 1 day a week in the role, and a real desire to focus on the community building aspects, it can be hard to know where to focus the attention, but I’ll show you some of the things that have been happening across campus.
- You Tube, used well by Winchester Journalism (Stanford University is the leading University demonstrating how it can be used): Good content Regularly updated Good descriptors All feed back to the University site http://www.youtube.com/user/Winchesterjournalism This is a showcase for student work, specific to the subject, but I have found that my students are coming through with basic video editing skills, and are keen to put them to use in different ways (Helen, Media FYP, interviews… space to experiment/space to succeed or fail) Also: session tasters for prospective students – could get students to do student to student… Potential to put lectures online and use the sessions for more interactive sessions, but obviously caught up in IP debates, etc.
- Bookmarking sites (there are a number of them, but this one seems easy to use – need a Yahoo login though)… started a very simple link for Media & Film Studies. Have seen this used really well in Enterprise, where students are encouraged to provide e.g. 5 links between sessions. There’s space to comment on the link, so they build critical skills, and it’s also possible for them to work collaboratively, if they agree a set of “tags” with which they will “save” content. Literary texts? Critiques of authors? Histories of language? It’s a great way to pull the power of the crowd together – so each of them spends half hour finding content, and then they can investigate each others content/commentary.
- Christina Welch in TRS using this Facebook group “Death at Winchester” very well. As a group or fan page, there’s no need to be “friends” with students, and also enables a wider audience. For an upcoming conference, Christina has got people engaged, encouraged abstracts for the conference, sent out messages with updates. http://www.facebook.com/drbexl?v=feed&story_fbid=246785575842#/group.php?gid=104742819300&ref=ts Difficult to know whether it’s the appropriate forum for engaging with students, as they see Facebook as “their” social space, but I suspect they’ll get more used to using it for updates, etc. as is already happening with business. One use specifically for you guys: http://www.geekologie.com/2008/11/gods_facebook_genesis_edition.php, creative writing – e.g. people have written The Christmas Story, Story of Creation in Facebook status updates – e.g. God became friend’s with Adam, etc. so using the FORMAT, rather than the product has a real writing value – thinking of their audience, writing differently, etc. http://www.slideshare.net/nicole.landguth/facebook-bootcamp-for-pr
- Now Twitter was the other particular focus you asked about Again: a writing purpose – concision – maximum 140 characters (including your user name) Concise summaries of arguments or texts, following a debate over time, linking to interesting information, engaging with other people interested in the same subject. Often used as ‘backchatter’ for conference.
- Now took me 25 minutes to explain Twitter within a PGCLTHE session, so a link to that talk is included there, and I will be giving an online seminar via Wimba in w/c 1 st March (still arranging a time), largely based upon that. Above is a screenshot for a Twitter feed that I am setting up for the School of Media & Film, where we will be looking to encourage the students to join in (so it will become an extra notice-board feed), but, more importantly, it will be a space to bring in information the students may find helpful – specifically using the (new-ish) tool of Lists – we’re listing Print, Advertising, TV companies, etc. – giving students quick access to useful feeds of information. The trick with Twitter is to ‘dip your toe in’, rather than trying to absorb it all, and use lists judiciously to collect information. Twitter has a secondary important purpose in that each Twitter link is an individual entry so far as Google is concerned, so drives more visitors back this way – one man, 50% drop in visits to his blog when he didn’t Tweet for a week… Students are starting to use it more…
- David Rush & I have put forward an abstract for the Blended Learning Conference: “ In developing both inter- and intra- communities of practice there is a range of recently developed social media tools that are candidates to be used as the means of facilitating communication. One of these is Twitter, one of the largest social media platforms. Despite an average user age of 25-54, it has a growing number of younger users and, with rising Smartphone ownership, increasing functionality. Twitter has provided new means of communication with students for purposes such as polling, question setting and passing administrative information. But as yet these have been peripheral activities in course delivery. Difficulties encountered include not all students wanting to use Twitter or seeing Twitter as an adjunct to their social life, rather than a part of formal education, and an association with a culture of celebrity. Blended Learning enthusiasts face two related tasks in developing communities of practice. Internally they must support and encourage academics from across the institution, in many disciplines, requiring multiple approaches to e-learning. Externally they need to connect with blended learning enthusiasts in other institutions. One of Twitter’s key capabilities is relationship building, and we have started our use of Twitter concentrating on building external links. The presentation will report on how this can be done and give ways of estimating the effectiveness of Twitter in the HE context. Topics to be addressed include building an academic identity, developing a research network, the nature of tweets and use of crowdsourcing. Results from a later development to introduce Twitter to enhance an existing internal community of practice will also be discussed. This experience shows what Twitter has to offer alongside other social media. It also facilitates the identification of additional capabilities of communication tools such as Twitter that might be added to increase their utility in HE.” KEY PURPOSE: ACADEMIC CONNECTIONS, etc. but the students benefit from their tutors being on the cutting edge, and can engage with the debates themselves. Over 1800 “followers” on my personal tweets, over 400 on my social media tweets, and around 250 for my academic research, so if I choose to send a tweet to all 3, I can reach 2500 people, who may republish my information – led to Time Magazine, New York Times, BBC Inside Out. Note online/offline, not real/virtual!
- Carolin working on Wikis, so you’ll have more inside knowledge than I have. Websites – project 2001/2 on usability, structure… are great. WordPress, most commonly used blogging platform, can also function as a web editor so the 2 can be integrated. Only note of caution, Chris Horrie using in Journalism and with 100-odd students finding it hard to keep on top of it all. Blogs – the heart of any social media strategy, what you are bringing people back to, needs to be regularly updated, short-sharp, etc. – a very particular writing style – needing to get across a message in a short space of time. Space for reflective journalling. (Blogger, can have private blogs, and invite readers)
- Learning Network: Want to find more ways to use, so want to collate examples of use – e.g. this dept very strong on e-assessment and want to pull more from that. Podcasts: Ryan Lavelle, successful Electronic Submission: Know there are strong arguments for/against this, especially as time-pushed students prioritise assessment over learning. Has to be appropriate to the type of assignment, but for written essays, allows easier checking of plagiarism, and online marking (if desired), or print/mark if not. This is a SENSITIVE ONE Clickers: A bit like “Who wants to be a Millionaire” on a short time leash. Tutor needs to create a PPT with multiple choice answers, and LTDU has a student who can do 5 hours a month. Media Studies already booking a lot in! Within Arts: Are people writing iPhone apps and investigating the possibilities of m-learning (Loykie) SkillsNet: A project I’m working on, which started in the Faculty of Arts – will be the contact point, whilst have commissioned another postgrad student to do the content/exemplars. Second Life: Carolin & I are looking into possibilities for trialling this for the Anglo-Saxon BA – creating a replica village – I think history is where it has a strong purpose. Learning curve can be a bit steep, so need to decide if it’s worth it. Online treasure hunt: leading to the library!
- Of course, you all know about the new website, and it will allow functionality of some of these elements, right hand column … although I would recommend if individual academics planning to blog use an outside platform… getting trained this pm, so we’ll see how restrictive it is. Which of that whistle-stop tour do you think it would be helpful to produce training sessions for? Blogging Twitter ?
- Thank you Happy to answer any questions !