Introduction

[mattybrom]

Wasn’t sure where i should post my introduction, but here looked good – if this isn’t the place – please feel free to delete!!

http://matthew-bromley.blogspot.co.uk/

I have been teaching for 6 years, and have experimented with lots of different TEL approaches and technologies, with differing results!

I used to be a senior lecturer teaching in management areas for students on campus and all around the world. My favourite session used to be an online lecture using Wimba Classroom on a Friday morning, while students in Australia were listening in with a glass of wine before bed!
 

I now work for the University of Derby Corporate as a Curriculum Development Manager so deal with all things quality, development of new programmes and enhancing technology in learning, which I find fascinating!
 

At UDC, I develop programmes exclusively for employers and most learning is work based, an approach that recognises that the workplace is a legitimate source of knowledge production. As such, I work primarily with adult learners, who expect relevant, timely, self directed learning that allows them to build on their prior experience. That’s means that technology has to work, first time and the closer this gets to being both intuitive and invisible, the better!
 
More broadly, my stance on technology is that it is often used lazily, to replace an existing classroom activity (sometimes for convenience or even cost!), with little thought of how this supports learning. For me, it’s about technology and teaching informing each other so that learners benefit from both the positive elements, ultimately resulting in much deeper learning.
 
I am fascinated by the current changes in technology and the effect its having on society, education, business, politics etc etc. Three recent (and quite scary) statements sum it up:

 

•Eric Schmidt of Google said there is more content being created in 48 hours today than was created from the beginning of time ‘til 2003!
•All of the tools and apps are driven further by mobile technology and there are now more mobile devices in the world than there are people (Meeker and Wu, 2012).
•Leonhard (2013) recently said: Mobile means the end of learning monopolies (for institutions) and the end of “I don’t know” (for users).
 
Education is not immune to these changes, nor should it wish to be! If technology can provide advances to education and more importantly learning, then we should embrace it, if it’s appropriate and can be implemented following (careful) consideration.
 
I am looking forward to the discussions throughout the course and wish you all the best!
 
Matt

[alastairjc]

Thanks for your intro Matt. I too am seeking a quiet corner (within the Mooc rules to post my response to the essential activity this week. The forum seems a more personal place than that maelstom of emails hitting the mail group so here goes.

your previous experiences with TEL and what technology was involved

Quite a lot – having worked for 9 years on national projects to promote use of E Learning in adult education ( National Institute of Adult Continuing Ed) . We supported intro of Learning Platforms to local authority adult ed providers and I looked at paper -free methods of recording progress and achievement. More recently I have run workshops on use of video and montage as a contructivist learning method.

what about the technology made the way you absorb, reflect, discuss, act different

Chances to navigate in interesting ways, and re visit my own digital creations to note how I have progressed.

 

your experiences as a student, a teacher or a learning technologist or indeed some other role.

I refer the honourable reader to the answer I gave a few minutes ago

if this is your first experience of TEL, the expectations you have of it.

Not a TEL virgin so question is not for me.

[Roger Harrison]

Hello, my name is Roger and I’m a senior lecturer in public health, teaching on a fully online distance learning programme in public health and primary care (MPH). I’ve been a course unit leader and tutor on the MPH for about 7 years now. I really enjoy working the opportunity of teaching students all over the world, with our international student base bringing a real flavour to the challenge of public health. I’ve written three new course units, and at UoM we have to use Blackboard as the LMS/VLE.  Most of our students on the course are part time, and usually already working in a professional capacity in public health. The international context and that many area working, brings in a number of factors to consider in terms of access, connectivity, and synchronous versus asynchronous learning.

Recently I’ve started to become more interested in some of the course design aspects, pedagogy and technical considerations and possibilities. My research career in public health was very much focused on quantitative research and randomised controlled trials and wonder if some day I’ll be doing an RCT of a MOOC or some other aspects.

In fact I’m hoping to be involved in designing and running a MOOC so this OcTEL is a great opportunity to learn from. I’m also interested in finding out more about Open Education Resources – I think this present some real opportunities for supporting professional development and learning amongst public health professionals (and of course all sorts of professional groups and public). I tend to have a lot of ideas but following through with them is tricky as still new to much of this and just starting to get on my feet really. In the back of my mind I have a potential area for research which is looking at developing web opportunities for ” in time learning”, a phrase I’ve coined which is more of an assertive and planned approach to learning, albeit at the time of need, compared with just in time learning, which has a sense of panic and risk about it. I’m also developing a few ideas about trying to set up like an information portal/social learning platform, naybe using NIng? focused for public health people. Personally I love using Facebook for sharing information and think this could be a good way to support courses and a little surprised that this isn’t been used here on OcTEL.

Not sure if I’m answering any of the questions here, sorry! To try and put some perspective then to OcTEL course: It’s not uncommon for people to say that it is important that we don’t use the technology to determine how we design education/teaching etc and that we need to start by asking, what is it that we want to do. I partly agree with this, but I think back to what the inventors of the motor car must have thought – I doubt they’d have thought, “how do we get people’s shopping delivered to their home?” and then thought, I know, lets invent the van. To me, I think the development of future education strategies need to be more organic and itteratie and interactive. At times it might be the educational need starting as the question and then the technology providing a solution. At other times it might, hey, look at Diigo, perhaps we could use this as part of a learning experience for our students, or Wikis, I wonder if we could use these to help foster some group working amongst our class.

So I suppose in terms of the Big Questions, it’s about what influences what. I’m also interested in following the recent explosion in open online learning and open educational resources etc to see what and how universities are going to respond, with what and how. After all, they do need to make an income to pay their staff like me. And finally, another big question is about how we ensure that we do not disenfranchise people more by relying on technology, when some individuals and some countries/areas, have poor if any internet connections.

Enough said!

thanks for reading if you did,

Roger Harrison

 

 

 

[Kulari Lokuge Dona]

Hi everyone in the quite corner,

I am from down under (Melbourne). I have been highly involved with TEL since 2002, when I stop and think back it is a long time. With various teaching and learning positions (Senior Lecturer, E-learning advocate) I have been trialing and using various tools and resources in the e-learning world to make better learning experiences.

As an educator I have tried my best to provide different levels of support to my students through media and digital tools, while leading projects providing professional development to staff to do the same. Innovative tools were introduced to staff based on their requirements and supported online course design and delivery. With Gilly Salmons 5 stage model I have been involved with the e-moderating course  and use of Carpe Diem model for course development. With a background in IT,  playing with new tools evaluating them for their capabilities for course delivery.

Matt, I like the quote you included in your post “Leonhard (2013) recently said: Mobile means the end of learning monopolies (for institutions) and the end of “I don’t know” (for users)” for two years I was working with a developing country, which gave me so much insights to what and how these tools can be used to eradicate education divide. I am looking forward to explore great ideas and share idea within this course. I also like to explore Google tools (hen will be joining that group to learn how people are using this tool) .

Looking forward to working with you.

Kulari

 

[AliSheph]

Hi Everyone

Reading with interest the diversity of experiences here.   I’m also not new to TEL, but not expert either!   My intro and big question are on my blog.  http://alicesadventuresinedtech.wordpress.com/

[Roger Harrison]

Hi Kulari, sounds like you’ve got a lot of experience across a range of institutions/organisations and settings. I’m keen to find out more about how online can be used for education in developing countries, especially as my background/current main work is in public health. Whilst teaching on a masters in public health with a fully online distance learning course, I know that students find access to the www a problem, and these are the ones who have been able to sign up for our course. I’m more interested now in finding out how we can get the skills development out to people in other areas perhaps in more need, but who have no or little internet connection.

I’ve never used Google tools much – I’ve done one or two google hangouts with webinars in America but the connection was intermittent at times, and I know my colleagues are not big fans. But the idea of group working through the cloud etc brings possibilities for students so would be good to learn more.

 

regards

 

Roger

 

[Roger Harrison]

Hi Ali, I’m in the process of starting a blog, so a first for me. I can’t work out some of the page settings yet and seem to have a blank in the middle of the front page which I pressume is to get a picture in. I’ll play with it and this is a learning opportunity I suppose. Do you know how the blogs then get fed into the Forum space on here for people’s blogs and twitter?

http://octelrogerharrison.wordpress.com/

 

regards

 

Roger

 

[jamesclay]

Make sure your blog and blog RSS feed is in your profile and it should then be automatically picked up.

[Kulari Lokuge Dona]

Hi Roger,

One of my passions is to support the developing countries with their education. Google is great with most of their tools but the Hangouts – has not been that great. Skype has been better with Synchronous sessions. But with the people who have no connection, old Distance Education methods work better. With one group, what we did was created the resources and gave them a resource CD. But they needed to come to community houses to get connected to (access net) to participate  in the discussions and other activities that they were expected to participate. This really worked well. They read the content and did some of the work that they had to do and then participated in the discussion and other activities when they came to the community centre.

I was involved in another project where the participants were given mobile devices as part of the course materials 🙂 (well if your participants live in an area there is no connection at all this is not a solution). But that project kicked off so well, and they were adult learners who found use of mobiles quite entertaining, and they started using the device in very innovative ways ( at that time couple of years ago it was quite fascinating to see rural people using the mobile to communicate with embedding photos etc they were farmers questioning about problems about crops etc).

I have a group of students from Uganda, who rock up into their college and use one computer, project it to the big screen to talk to me, and take a class from me( I live in Melbourne).

Hope I did not bore you with all my examples, but more than happy to share ideas and learn from you too. Looking forward to working with you all in this course!

Kulari

 

 

[Roger Harrison]

Hi Kulari, thanks for such an interesting reply and your experience and examples were great to read. We provide our students with a CD or others can download everything themselves, which helps those with intermittent contact. In fact we find that many of our students seem to prefer to download the materials and just go online for discussion boards, or to access links to online resources. We have considered in the past providing students in remote areas with mobile phones but we could never get the funding for that and to fund the course for them aswell which is a problem for students more generally now as well.

So we have some common experiences too. Can you tell me a bit more about the work with the Ugandan students and how that is going? We’ve had some scholarship students in Uganda and my colleague went over and did a few days tutorials with them but I always said it would be better in future to do over the internet. But we’ve always thought the internet connection to be unpredictable based on what we were told – what’s your experience been for that?

 

regards

Roger

 

[mazwaite]

Hi Roger

Good to meet you in OCTEL. It sounds as though we have a lot in common. I am Marion Waite from Oxford Brookes University and I run an online MSc In Nursing Studies, which is for qualified nurses who want to top-ip to a masters. Like your MPH students the students are international, diverse and bring a great flavour to the programme and each other. One of the modules is evidence-based practice and like you I have many questions about the differences and similarities in what is construed as evidence within healthcare practice and educational practice both disciplines have a lot to gain from one another.

I also have an interest in public health, my undergraduate degree is in public health nursing and I have worked in primary care both as a health visitor and nurse practitioner.

I would be very interested to hear about your MPH MOOC.

I helped to run a MOOC last year #FSLT12, which will be run again this May #FSLT13, which is an introduction to teaching and learning in higher education http://openbrookes.net/firststeps13/

I am very interested in MOOC participation, which on the surface does seem to appear tricky. I have joined a few over the last year. Although it is early days, this is my most positive experience so far.

The content is great, it has been really well thought out and there is a community feel. I don’t know how the volunteers have been organised but clearly things are working well so far.

Marion

[Roger Harrison]

Hi Marion and thanks for teh reply and insight into some of the things you are involved in too. As you say, a lot in common. Perhaps it would help to keep our emails too roger.harrison@manchester.ac.uk

I’d like to chat more at some point about in particular your experience of teaching EBP – I wrote a course a couple of years ago on this, and changed some of the fundamental ways in which it had been taught in the past. Now I am a tutor on that course as too busy to lead it. I’d also like to find out about the public health degree in nursing – we are keen to try and encourage more wider people to our MPH course – which we generally have.

I suppose I just like finding out about what people are doing, why and how. I think I might be enrolled on the teaching MOOC through Oxford Brookes – I’ll have to check as I’ve enrolled on a few MOOCs this year and easily get confused!

I don’t find that there is a community feel to thsi MOOC though and I think these Forums are tricky to naviage through and not sure if the groups remain through the weeks of learning, in terms of where we post to. I think I lack some confidence in navigating through as I don’t want to miss the things that will really help me.  As for our own MOOC – we have put our proposal to those responsible and hope to find out soon. My manager is leading it but I will be involved. I think though the reality will be different to what I would like to see, but it is our first go at it, and will be a learnign experience.

I love the postings from Stephen Downes – if you’re not linked to his blog I would recommend it – the most informative resource I’ve ever found and I dont’ know how that guy does what he does! The link to his blog is on my own blog for this course octelrogerharrison.wordpress.com

Right, must dash, running a workshop on supervision – joy!

[MeganSanderson]

Thank you all for this quite corner to post my intro. This is the first MOOC that I’ve participated in, and I’m trying to resist the urge to be passive. Even though I work in Technology Services, I’m still new to posting for the world to see. Feels a bit odd. Anyway, here’s a bit about me.

My previous experiences with TEL and what technology was involved: I work as a Distance Education Specialist at The Ohio State University. My experience is limited to about 3.5 years and I mostly work with videoconferencing (which we use to conduct undergraduate courses), our LMS (Carmen), and other learning technology like AdobeConnect.

What about the technology made the way you absorb, reflect, discuss, act different: For me, distance is no longer such a barrier. I think to myself, okay, if someone cannot attend this workshop session in person, can I include a webconference, or record for viewing at a later date? Technology really has given us so many options for accessing information and collaborating. Sometimes it can be overwhelming.

I don’t teach, but I do support the above technology for those that do. My goal with this MOOC is to come away with new applications and creative ideas for TEL that I can pass along to instructors here. Also, since this is my first MOOC, I want to gain experience with that course format.

Thanks!

[Roger Harrison]

Hi Matt and Alastair, good to read your posts in this part of the Forum. You both sound as if you’ve a lot of valuable experience to bring to this course. Alastair I can’t get your wordpress link to open – is the address correct for it in your profile? Also, which countries were you working in – France?

Most of my teaching experience has been for adult learners, helping to run a postgraduate masters in public health, which is a fully online course – about two thirds of our students are in full time work, across the world, making it interesting but challenging at times. I think it’s really important to make a distinction between adults in higher education who are working or not and this isn’t always clear in the literature, and something I tend to blur over at times as well.

I’ve done a couple of MOOCs before but still not confident as don’t like to miss out on anything, which is impossible achievement for a MOOC as so many participants posting etc. Not sure either how the best way is to take some of our discussions and shared interests forward – ideas welcome. Maybe we could try hosting a webinar/google hangout type event, just as a one off and no fixed agenda

 

regards

Roger

 

[Roger Harrison]

Hello Megan, good to hear from you and I identified with some of the things you posted. Do you have a blog set up? if so, can you put your blog address in your profile or add it here, so I can connect with your thoughts etc. mine is octelrogerharrison.wordpress.com

I’m keen to find out about your experiences from the States in teaching – I get the impression that generally the higher education sector/universities are more ahead with online learning?

Do you know Curtis Bonk from MIT? well worth looking up (I’m linked to his blog on mine blog page), I met him when he came to Manchester, UK for a meeting and he is extremely enthusiastic/motivating to listen to and extremely knowledgeable / expert on all these things

 

take care

 

Roger

 

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