Hi Mark,

Think you are right about administrators being under pressure to “modernize” without having a pedagogical reason for it. Their decisions are based on the competition to stay ahead of the crowd within the world of fellow administrators where educational considerations may not be priority. We have had a “smart table” in the middle of our design office that occasionally gets used for meetings unrelated to teaching, as a coffee table and once or twice as a change table for our media experts young son’s soiled diapers; otherwise it sits like a monument to unrealized “progress.” […]

My Profile (as found on OCTEL LMS)I am a Lecturer in ICT Education at the University of New England (UNE), Australia. I am a long-term adult educator and have created and manage several virtual world spaces including classrooms and a playground for stu…

Hello,My name is Kate Simpson, I am a research student based at Edinburgh Napier University. I have recently begun to teach and in the last few years have been working as an assisted study skills tutor. I am very conscious that-to use a superhero phras…

HiI am Mary Clements from Wests Suffolk College. I as Acting Head of School for Humanities and Teacher education. My subject is History and I have spent most of my career teaching and course directing the Access to HE programme as well as teaching and …

Hi Scott,You said that your instructors stated clearly that they wanted to learn howto use technology to reach students but were frustrated by a focus ontechnical tools. I think this is a common problem and believe it is becausewe are still at an inter…

Hi Jim,Thanks for this interesting question about the difficulty of makingeffective and engaging use of technology in the classroom. I understand thedifficulty of creating engaging learner experiences in an online or blendedenvironment. I see several d…

Jumping in here, our instructors stated clearly today that they want tolearn how to use technology to reach their students but are frustrated byprograms that only focus on the technical. Yes many of them are more clearlydescribed as pig-headed about it…

Hi Vanessa, glad you are here…somewhere. Too crowded here? We’ve beenthrough that before haven’t we? I have this nagging idea that things thatdon’t seem to work as expected are somehow a product of bad planning. Whatif the expectation was based on th…

Hi Scott… finally clearing my way through electronica ~ I won’t lay it all on #octel, more like a negative convergence of factors. I too have strange notions of a learning society untethered from power, politics and Chambers of Commerce.Vanessa

Andrew  That sounds a lot like what I have in mind but have yet to articulate as well or clearly as you have here. I agree with you about the challenge but might use a term stronger than “reluctant.” Vanessa Vaile Mountainair New Mexico, US ________________________________ From: Andrew MacLeod To: OCTEL-PUBLIC@JISCMAIL.AC.UK Sent: Thursday, April 4, 2013 12:56 PM Subject: Re: Activity my experiences and ambitions The single biggest challenge is how to engage reluctant educational professionals. I believe many of them feel a bit overwhelmed by the concepts of “Social Media”, “MOOCS”, “PLN’s” and will retreat to their comfort […]