Monthly Archives: December 2021

Ed Tech must reads – Column 16

First published in Campus Morning Mail on Tuesday 30th November 2021

Edtech people weekend challenge – Twitter discussion

I found this stimulating discussion started by @BenPatrickWill on the weekend. “If you (hypothetically) had 15 mins to address your university senior managers about the future of edtech, and it was your best chance to bring in some critical perspectives, what would you highlight?” If you’re a leader, and you ever wondered… (Or if you ever wondered what you’d say if you were trapped in a lift with them)

How to hold a better class discussion from The Chronicle of Higher Education

Class discussions can be a lottery – one day everyone is excited and engaged and the next, you struggle to extract one-word responses. Jay Howard shares some invaluable practical advice in this piece that draws on 30 years of research. Some top tips – put the work back onto the learners, ask more complex questions that support creativity, encourage students to call out great ideas from their peers.

 Why aren’t Professors taught to teach? from Tech & Learning

The fact that I thought twice about sharing this piece, which is fairly inoffensive in itself, says something about the politics around this in Higher Education. Institutions do, of course, offer a range of services and specialists that provide support to academics in teaching and ed tech – this is part of the work that I do and this is my community. This article asks the questions that I’ve been hearing a lot recently – are we doing enough and where do we go next?

Pedagogy for Higher Education Large Classes (PHELC) 2021 proceedings from PHELC (Open Access)

One of the areas where pedagogy/andragogy and technology enhanced learning veers dramatically away from K-12 learning is when it comes to large classes. The PHELC21 symposium was held in June and the full proceedings are now available. This collection of papers includes work on engagement, course redesign, problem-based learning at scale and drawing classes.

Ed Tech must reads – Column 15

First published in Campus Morning Mail on Tuesday 23rd Nov

Working paper: What does it cost to educate a university student in Australia from MCSHE & Pilbara Group

One of the common concerns raised (or benefits posited) around online and technology enhanced learning is that it is cheaper than face-to-face teaching and is introduced to cut costs rather than raise standards. People working in the space have argued for years that this isn’t the case (in either instance) but there has been something of a dearth of reliable data about the costs of teaching in HE. This working paper from UniMelb’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education, in partnership with the Pilbara Group, suggests in proud academic tradition that ‘it depends’ – based on degree level and mode. The paper also delves into a range of other factors including discipline, campus location and funding clusters.

Is the ADDIE model outdated or still relevant? From TaughtUp

When I started working in the learning design space, the ADDIE model (Analysis – Design – Development – Implementation – Evaluation) was somewhat considered the be-all and end-all. It offers a useful set of steps for thinking about the creation of a learning resource or activity but also seemed as much a linear project management system as anything else. This article outlines the history of this model and what has come to replace it as development has moved to more iterative AGILE-oriented approaches like SAM (Successive Approximation Model). As with many things, it still has its place.

Digital higher education: a divider or bridge builder? Leadership perspectives on edtech in a COVID-19 reality from International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education

This article examines the use of education technologies starting out from a position that vendors overhype their products but it eventually comes to the conclusion commonly held by people working in the sector that this doesn’t actually matter and a judicious combination of technology, pedagogy and capability building can in fact make a difference in education. Laufer et al. interview and survey Higher Ed leaders from 24 countries for their perspectives on the impact of education technologies in the last two years, covering opportunities and barriers for both individuals and institutions. Well worth a read for the big picture overview.

Webinar – Pathways to Learning Design (and more) – skill or luck? Thursday 25/11 12 noon AEDT

ASCILITE’s TELedvisors Network wraps up the 2021 webinar series with a bang, with Prof. Michael Sankey (CDU) and Jack Sage (JCU) sharing the findings of research they undertook this year into what it takes for people to enter the growing profession of Learning Design (and adjacent roles) in Australian Higher Ed and what the future looks like for these kinds of roles.

Science Fiction is a Luddite Literature from Medium

Respected author in the tech ethics and society space, Cory Doctorow, makes some valuable connections between the Luddite movement of the early 1800s and some key tenets of science fiction – namely that it is generally all about the meaning of the impact of technology on the world than the tools themselves.

ASCILITE 2021 Conference Day 3 – notes on the fly

(Oops, I thought I’d published this on the day)

Lines of thought: the emergence of meaning through collaborations and remix – Wendy Taleo and Sarah Honeychurch

Looking at learning with technology through the lens of creative projects

Remixed into representation in colours

Remixing the collaborative poem into music

Sustainable learning design in large transformational teaching and learning initiatives – Courtney Shalavin and Elaine Huber

Birgit acknowledges that describing the spread of innovation as a virus probably isn’t the best thing to do these days 🙂

Exploring industry-university partnerships in the creation of short courses and micro-credentials – Rachel Fitzgerald and Henk Huijser

This feels like another one of these discussions that haven’t changed for a decade. I’m glad that it is still on the agenda but is this a fundamental flaw of research – a hesitancy to take a position and move forward?

I asked Henk why movement has been so slow in this space – he feels it comes down to a lack of shared understanding and challenges for unis in dealing with the business models needed

Lots of rich discussion – this is clearly something that still has relevance to a lot of people.

Creating presence, currency and connection in digital learning with video blogs – Jo Elliott and Chie Adachi

Reflection on the design process

https://www.deakin.edu.au/course/master-digital-learning-leadership#tab__1–2

Nice

And that’s it for me – sadly, the real world is calling.

Thanks to everyone that has shared their ideas and work, it has been great. Thanks also to ASCILITE for putting this on.