'The 21st Century Learner: Blended Learning tools and the use of social networks

Editor's Notes

• #2: Been into digital tools since 1997 Return from travels in November 2008 (had been using travelblog to keep in touch) One of the job options was applying for was as Web Manager, and started to see Digital Strategy increasingly relevant in those job roles, but more interested in how to use it for Learning and Teaching Tools You can see here, that a number of tools and technologies are illustrated on the title slide, but v. Interested in being task/relationship orientated... So what can these tools help us with, what can they do that other things can’t? Started playing with various social media tools, and January 2009, Twitter was the big one in the pack, so will talk about that for a bit, but there are other tools, and Twitter may or may not last...! This will all be on the Learning Network so if I go a bit fast through anything, you can look back through…
• #3: As started to move back towards academia, started to see that there were possibilities… started to learn terms… (popularised by Marc Prensky: http://www.marcprensky.com/blog/archives/000045.html ) Digital Native (technology their first stop) Digital Immigrant (had to learn to use/adapt) Digital Aliens (don’t want to use)
• #4: See Jake , used to sharing through peer-to-peer networks Now the term ‘digital native’ is VERY MUCH contested, as with any group of students, they are not a homogenous group BUT THERE IS the expectation is that more DN’s like Jake (aged 14) are coming to University, and we need to be prepared for them...
• #5: So, now what I want you to do is feed in some of the similarities/differences – I’ll re-edit afterwards, but using this as a virtual board. Some would question if there even are any? 5 minutes to discuss with those on your table then we’ll feed in…
• #6: News story this weekend, about what Universities will look like in 2020 – and we’re already starting to work towards addressing this (and bear in mind, we also need to take into account that this affects staff as well, increasingly part-time, and with a foot in the ‘external’ world too…)
• #8: There’s no comprehensive look at
• #9: Typical digital participation – 9 hours partaking – and so many different ways to access it….
• #10: A more negative version of this picture, with the possible distractions…
• #11: Now, this book is on my “to read” list, but I’ve not had time to look at it yet, but I think, even though it’s already 4 years old, it will offer some insights…
• #12: As with all kinds of learning, it’s interesting to consider the gender split, and which will be the most appropriate tools for different people (as well as for different tasks), and here you can see a diagram which circulated widely last year on the social networks, as to who is registered (and note registered, not necessarily an active user) on each of the sites.
• #13: We also all know that we are keen to have International Students, and it’s important that we make provision for them… different nationalities major in using different kinds of software, e.g. Brazilians and Indians use Orkut rather than Facebook… just a thought!
• #14: The most recent study started in March 2008, dealing with 15/16 year olds, we’d now find the same proportions outlined in the study applying to 12/13 year olds.
• #15: For those who fear that computing is taking over – really good to know that students still value the face-2-face time, and that message comes through over-and-over again, that we are looking at blended learning not e-learning or distance-learning (we’ll come back to that)! The big growth in online is the growth in “pull” technologies – bottom-up information, feeling there is a choice to engage – e.g. signing up for RSS feeds, knowing own motivations, etc. We’ll also come back to the question of Facebook as a private space, and how it IS possible to use it…
• #16: I took this information on board in thinking about where to make a difference within the university – it’s difficult in only 1 day a week, but what are some of the things which will have the most difficult… and Staff time and support issues are critical seemed to be critical – my role is to provide that central person who gets to understand some of the issues which could be helped through the use of technology, circulate examples of good practice, and identify tools which are helpful and begin implementation with those who would gain from them… Believe me, I know how heavy the workloads are – I am teaching 6 modules this semester, and finding it difficult to monitor pieces of paper outside various offices I have access to…, so just as one small example…
• #17: On the Learning Network, I have used the activity “Choices” for the assignment questions. Within this 2 nd year history module, the students each have to give a presentation, so I placed all the options for titles on the Learning Network, and once a student had picked an option, it wasn’t available to any other students (if you want 2+ per question, then you can set that too). I advertised the closing date for choices, and besides having to chase up a couple of students who were still appearing in the left-hand menu, all were in place in time. I have a lot more to learn about the Learning Network, so would love to hear from others who have used it in interesting ways, and find ways to disseminate that information more widely!
• #18: Another publication of interest, referred to me by a Twitter follower
• #19: Think some of you may enjoy going onto this website afterwards, and undertaking a test provided by the BBC/the OU – they crashed the server the first time they tried to get everyone to use this… gives one of 8 possible ‘web users’ – a handful of people have done this at the uni…
• #20: So, another 5 minutes to have a look at the list which has been circulating and think which might you be, and… which do you think your students are – so who needs the help and support?
• #21: First minute of this video… maybe play whilst people are discussing… or whilst handing out papers…
• #22: I have come out as a ‘Web Fox’, which is not surprising for most people – and this is expected to be the most common type for “digital natives” – but as always, not all (and I am considerably older than the typically described ‘digital native’)!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P15WqDKlvwo (1.20)
• #23: So, if I’m in this role of Blended Learning Fellow, what am I doing to impact the student experience?
• #24: As we said before, NOT about e-learning or distance learning, but about finding ways to use appropriate learning technologies to improve the student experience. Sometimes it adds benefits, sometimes it adds another layer, sometimes it maintains relationships/gives a different level… but one thing’s for certain, students will need these digital skills in the workplace…
• #25: Referring back to the idea of ‘informal learning’ Einstein: “Knowledge is experience – everything else is just information” – current problem with e-learning is that it’s e-information , not e-knowledge! Race, p.177 Is possible to EYE-BALL vast quantities of information, clicking away without reflection . Red Magma, the writers of this Slideshare presentation (a space in which to upload/share presentations), entitled this presentation “E-Learning Sucks”, and was picked up by David Hopkins (Bournemouth University) who heartily applauded it!
• #26: At the JISC E-Learning Fair in November, Stephen Sheedy, Queen Mary College, Basingstoke was saying we shouldn’t be talking about what we MIGHT need to do, we need to be doing it now… Previously “youngsters” would have been introduced to a widening world by adults slowly, but these days they are interacting globally with little guidance…
• #27: This image, which has been around for quite some time… if it’s going to take that long (or longer) then how do we guide the students through this and make them CRITICAL and ACTIVE users of the online world… Widely circulated: “Guide on the side”, when for many years academics have been the “Sage on the Stage” (and others have mentioned the “meddler in the middle”)
• #28: Web 2.0 is one of the biggest things that we need to engage with – but what is it – no real fixed definition… Core Characteristics of Web 2.0 Services (http://www.techpluto.com/web-20-services/) By Prashant Sharma 28 November 2008 9 Comments Web 2.0 is among the popular buzzwords in Blogosphere and Social Media today. Still, nobody has yet been able to define “Web 2.0″ in a standard manner. According to us, its not a single line definition but rather a set of several characteristics that collectively represent the actual meaning of Web 2.0. We have described below, the most significant characteristics that a core ‘Web 2.0 service’ does follow : User-centered Design A web design which is created in a way that it fulfills every possible need of the end user and empowers the user to perform certain customizations within the design. User-centered designs are cleaner, often ajax based and easy to navigate. The appearance of the design is given a special preference while creating such a design. iGoogle , a customizable Google homepage is one of the most appropriate examples of a User-centered design. Crowd-sourcing Every small unit of contribution is important to a Web 2.0 service. Millions of such contributions eventually lead the website to state of higher relevance. For instance, any conventional Media company (employing hundreds of reporters) has today been easily beaten by blogging platforms like Blogger and Wordpress in producing extremely frequent and relevant content as millions of users are acting as a contributor, building up a large resource within much lesser span of time Web as Platform Gone are those days when one had to heavily rely on the desktop for accessing various web applications. Today’s Web 2.0 services don’t require a client download condition. Nor is the dependency on a particular OS for accessing the web services. Whatever be the method of internet access(Windows,Mac or Mobile OS),the web 2.0 applications are nowhere affected with it Collaboration Wikipedia takes the first place when it comes to proving the power of collaboration. Before 2001 (year of Wikipedia’s inception), there used to exist only driven information sources such as Britannica Encylopedia, About.com and similar other sources, where collaboration was never implemented. Today, Wikipedia stands way ahead in terms of content quantity as well as quantity. Power Decentralisation Earlier,most of the services used to be administered and not automated.But Web 2.0 services follow a self-service model rather than being a adminstrator dependent.For instance,Google Adsense is a self service platform for Ad publishing.There is no adminstrator for allowing/rejecting the requests from the users.The users get to have a self-service system by Google which helps them deploy Ads on their site/blog quite easily.Same is the case with social bookmarking services such as Digg,Reddit,Stumbleupon etc. Dynamic Content In a generation where blogosphere has overpowered the conventional mainstream media, Web 2.0 services have to be highly dynamic and proactive.If crowdsourcing is there then dynamicity follows by default. SaaS With Cloud computing on a roll,more and more web services are taking the route of SaaS(Software as a Service). Softwares are available as a web service with no platform dependency at all. Rich User Experience Use of XHTML,CSS 2.0,Ajax,flex and simlar other rich media producing technologies have potencially helped making web services lighter,faster,less cluttered and more appealing to the end user.A great user experience plays a big role today,in making users come back again to the web service.
• #29: Web 2.0 – this is what we want to move students towards, but with pedagogical purposes... Web 1.0 was passive Web 2.0 is more active Web 3.0 is immersive
• #30: So, Web 2.0
• #32: The students that are heading towards us now are part of the ‘digital generation’ (however contested that term is), used to informal learning in every situation They tend to think: “ Oh, where is Egypt, I’ll just look it up on Google maps” ( I did that in London with a friend – no need to carry a guide book, just this small piece of equipment… ) “ Who wrote “To be or not to be”, it’ll be on the web somewhere, I might even be able to watch it. They are used to interacting, sharing and creating content, and didactic modes of teaching become less and less effective, as students engage less and less with the process. If you’re interested to see how a university in America visualised this happening last year, check out the link above.
• #33: I’ve never been big on computer games… I tend to use it more for functionality and a communications tool, but there are PLENTY of students who use them… are there ways we could use them in learning? Game too often seen as a solitary, extra-curricular activity, but game creators place engagement first , whilst much elearning places engagement behind academic rigour. Much eLearning is like getting on a train – one speed, set stops, and doesn’t fit the personalised world students are expecting to receive these days. Race, p.178: Huge amount of investment in gaming industry (as this presentation says, with a primary focus on engagement ), means that student expectations are higher, and when faced with basic interfaces, the “want to learn” is damaged. (E.g., did a websitecheck on http://www.winchester.ac.uk, and it said that doctoral level understanding was required – not a good start) Elearning can facilitate more individualised learning – as students can each work in their own FLOW, as we already saw in the web accessibility project this summer – few learn in the same way
• #34: So – is this a good picture of the 21 st Century Learner? I found this diagram helpful , although it refers to K-12 level students (USA, pre-College) As transferable skills have been highlighted by the need for career progression , these kind of ‘soft’ skills become more important. And if this is the approach that educators at pre-HE levels are taking, how much do we work with what students are used to, and how far do we challenge and re-train them?
• #35: In all the discussions I’ve been having online, where SOME people are dismissing certain types of technologies (including PowerPoint), have to say BUT THEY ARE JUST TOOLS, and it’s how they are used (as I had to say about propaganda in my thesis  !)… a lot of the time when you see PPT, you know why people want to get rid of them, and see that as one of my tasks to help students out of that… As Paul Race says, when we’re talking about e-learning, we need to ensure that the LEARNING is put into e-learning ! Use technology where it is appropriate, with reference to learning objectives, not just because you can… e.g. (p. 177) giving learner interesting things to do providing quick/responsive feedback helping them make sense of what they did 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... Associationist/Empiricist perspective – characterised much early learning re: knowledge transmission, building skills from the bottoms up Cognitive: Learning as achieving understanding, development through intellectual activity, rather than absorption of information. Situative: About becoming a ‘community of practice’ (where e.g. use of Second Life has a value, practice without “harm”.
• #36: As we can see from this chart… there has been constant development in the creation of a Web 2.0 world, and that is speeding up…, with constant inventions of new systems… so we need to ensure that we don’t become too attached to any one system, but are more thinking about the applicability of the tools, so that we are flexible enough to drop/take up as the tools change…
• #37: How many of you have seen this video – gives a real insight into how every time a new system comes in, there is an adjustment to be made… (2.25 minutes) , we need to recognise that, and look for ways to introduce systems… e.g., the tool that I’m just about to talk about, I am undertaking my PGCLTHE research/presenting a conference paper at the National Blended Learning Conference in June (with David), so I’m keen to talk to people who are interested in looking at ways to use it – esp to build ‘communities of practice’… That software is….
• #39: Some reports have indicated that Gen Y isn’t interested in Twitter – seeing it as “pointless” and “narcissistic”, but I have noted a number of my students have it, and that seems to be a general trend as this graph illustrates… Why? Increasing ownership of Smart Phones Pressure from employers/tutors Influx of celebrity tweeters Importance as a networking tool
• #40: Password protected accounts allow you to have private conversations, but you can only have one account per email address so think carefully.
• #41: That most famous of users… well maybe apart from Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears… (also tweets as @MrsStephenFry)
• #42: The other week I did a webinar on this – my presentation is available on this URL, so you can find out more. A podcast should shortly be available, but that was undertaken by JISC, and he’s on holiday til 5 th April, so it won’t be there before… Some of the uses we identified for Twitter include: Group Tweeting (for less ‘academic’ information related to the course) Concise writing (stories, news, reflection) Backchannelling – tutor can interact with stories that are appearing repeatedly Collaboration (Last Saturday I got an invite to the Bridge Café, met some people I already knew from Winchester Web, but we’ve started to talk about some collab projects, which we’ll continue to develop online) Crowd-sourcing (Got a lot of the information for my interview for this job from asking my ‘followers’ for the big ideas in Blended Learning – which required that I had already built up a good following… and continue to get a lot of information that way…)
• #43: Now Twitter can have a life of it’s own, but really works when combined with other forms of online media (or some offline!)… one of it’s best roles is to feed traffic to a blog…
• #44: If students post blogs, as they have in Journalism, and they are promoted well (and they have the side benefit of pointing more traffic back to the University of Winchester)… it’s good experience for the student – so much so that 4 of my students are blogging about ‘Dreams and Nightmares’ in history even thought validation requirements meant I couldn’t set it as an alternative to an essay this year… The student can then see whether their content is any good as they start to pick up followers, as to the kind of comments they may be left, whether they can start to collaborate with other institutions… although doesn’t seem to improve their spelling or punctuation!! Also helps them to understand that there are different writing styles!
• #45: I also use mine to publicise my work, a mix of academic conference papers/publications, interesting observations, and general chit-chat around the subject…. This has gained me coverage in the Daily Express, the New York Times, the Independent and on the BBC, and I am still being contacted by people… In January I had 11000 visitors, although it’s steadying out at around 8500 at the moment because I moved host, so I lost some of my Google links… they’ll build back up! Before too long I want to run some workshops for academics in how to boost your academic profile online, and then we can help the students make the best of what they’re doing with similar material – the students are nearly all using social media, but need guidance as to how to use it ‘usefully’, and a bit of encouragement to get going… I tend to blog about my student’s blogs, which gains them a bit of extra coverage…
• #46: Definitely need a lot of thought, and a number of texts have diagrams for setting up a proper process, which emphasises the learning outcomes Must be built into the strategy for teaching, and used where APPROPRIATE – not everything is appropriate to become electronic, and to make the most of it, assess the true value. As Race again says, the medium is current immature, but once it becomes mature it will simply blend with other methods (p185, gives a great checklist)
• #47: Now, people often say that Twitter is just Facebook statuses, but on their own, which is really NOT what they are, but it takes a while of playing with Twitter before you really start to see the value – took me about 3 months, then it really just took off… The big difference I see is that Facebook is for friends whereas Twitter is for connecting with anyone .
• #48: Some tutors are happy to become ‘friends’ with their students, whilst others want to keep that separate – I fall more into the second category!! There are ways to use Facebook without becoming ‘friends’ with your students, and they involve creating group pages or fan pages… Write4Children, ‘Death at Winchester’ and the Library are all groups that are using Facebook successfully! It’s a great way of contacting 1-to-many… Now, there are many other tools I could go on about, and we are collecting information on the Blended Learning Network pages, and I’m also trying to work out a way to make a good quality blog which can work internally and externally… hope to have time to develop that over the summer…, but I will just highlight a few others from within the University…
• #49: Of course you’ve all heard of Wimba, because I’ve been making a lot of noise about it!! We’ve had a couple of sessions on Wimba Pronto and Wimba Voice, and we’re looking to find the time to present more of these internally… Wimba Classroom is coming up next week – still some space on Wednesday 31 st ! Where does this fit into University strategies, which students does it help? E.g. Dyslexics, international students, etc… This isn’t about setting up for distance learning, but to support, and provide options. In a couple of weeks I will be on a panel with Carolin Esser and James Clay (who was Learning Technologist of the Year last year) re: focusing upon the relationships, and looking for means to keep the learning process going, should the snowy weather continue to get worse, etc…
• #50: May have noticed me using this, have found it a great tool for NOT staying attached to the desk – I don’t use the laser pointer as much as I could, but it means I can move around the classroom, stand behind students – can make a difference to behaviour… and the students think it’s fun when I let them use it for their presentations…
• #51: LTDU has around 80 of these, which are ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’ style ‘clickers’. We also have a student available for 5 hours a month to help with the set-up of these – all you need to do is provide a Powerpoint (using only the space below the line, as the software uses the space above the line seen here) with questions and true/false of A-D answers and let Dan know what the correct answer is, and he will ensure the software works. Providing he is available, he will also come to your session and set it up with you (the software is on a laptop), and sit and ensure that it all works smoothly… Brings in the ‘game’ and ‘informal learning’ element we were talking about!
• #52: One thing you will notice with students, as we mentioned above, is that they are ‘web foxes’ – they will skip and find the easy answer… which can involve Wikipedia (amongst other sites…). NOW – Wikipedia can’t be written off, there’s some expert contributors (here’s my entry… and it took me 4 goes to be accepted, so be prepared to be very specific about any information you provide – but worth it as get great hits!)….
• #53: With students increasingly using sites such as Wikipedia, and the easy access to ‘purchased essays’, and the pressure to get a good degree because of the state of the economy, we all know plagiarism is on the rise! The University has a subscription to TurnItIn – plagiarism checking software, which David & (even more so) Eric checked over last year, and some more information is on the Learning Network as indicated here… Students can pre-check their own work before submitting, which always gets my approval – they are taking responsibility for their own learning! Or if we work towards electronic submission (pros and cons!) then all essays could run through this software
• #54: So, what we need to remember is that, as with a book, etc. staff & students can have different levels of engagement… this diagram illustrates the deepening levels of engagement online…
• #55: As ‘the guide on the side’ we can guide the process of proactive engagement with the online world, and the use of other tools and technologies as appropriate… When the pressures on it, it’s time to get creative, so it’s an exciting time to get involved in blended learning!
• #57: Looking at how to pitch future Blended Learning strategy, and I’m keen on ‘bottom-up’ approaches, so keen to know where see the excitement and where to see the fears, and how can we work with those to get the best experience for all…
• #58: What particular issues are you facing that technology could potentially have an impact on?
• #59: We’ve mentioned a few potential tools – there are many – which are people already using that we can start to give a wider audience to?