[LizKirrane]

Hi Wendy,

I am so glad to hear that I am not alone!  I seem to have spent ages just working out how to engage, setting up accounts (Twitter, WordPress and so on) and my ocTEL profile and so on!  I am just hoping that I as familiarity grows the time spent per week does reduce to the antipated 5 – 6 hours!

All incredibly fascinating material though so far.

Good luck with your blog…

Liz

[LizKirrane]

Hi Kate and Rich,

There is also a recording available for the session which took place in Week 0 (the registration and orientation week).  I didn’t attend the session as I didn’t register until the start of this week but it is worth a listen; the session is run by Diana Laurillard and is extremely interesting.  If you follow the link below and click on the webinar recording, under the induction and reception heading you should be able to access it.

http://octel.alt.ac.uk/course-materials/

Liz

[LizKirrane]

Hi Imogen, it is definitely available now as I listened to it yesterday lunchtime.  I think it went up about 24 hours after the live session took place.

[LizKirrane]

I agree entirely with you Imogen.

My personal take on the subject of Teaching Machines is that they were as sophisticated at technology in the 1950s could permit.  Of course they are incredibly basic, and could only really test the knowledge of pupils in terms of binary questions, with a right/wrong answer.  However, in a sense they were also very much ahead of their time in terms of the essence of what Skinner was trying to achieve.  I am a big fan of the provision of instant, or at least very prompt, feedback and for learners to be able to self assess.  Of course, this said only limited aspects of learning can be assessed in this fashion, as with MCQs, SGTs, quizzes and the like. Critical thinking, analysis, demonstration of deep understanding and explanation of concepts requires far more sophisticated methods.

Horses for courses though!  I consider Skinner’s work to have been extremely important as a foundation for many of today’s assessment methods.

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