Probably...
It's essentially easier to pop out 140 characters of 'content' than it is to create something worth reading with 140 lines...
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Learning Skills Group Conference - Olympia
Tuesday 14th June meant a trip on the train up to Olympia for the Learning Skills Group Conference. I made a mental note on the way up of the number of technologies that people were using on the train. Essentially everyone had a mobile phone of some kind, some of whom were using them for using music - others had dedicated music players. The surprise for me was the number of Kindles, I expected one or two but there was a glut of them - I had missed how popular they have become.
At the conference after the opening welcome by the ever-engaging Don Taylor we were treated to the work of Professor Chris Bones. Great speaker - excellent rhetoric in his material about how to manage change. The crux being to lead, but to let the people you have run free in the search for a solution to a problem - let them provide the answer - don't give it to them. As a leader you are there to be allow the collective to succeed, not be the hero yourself.
Thought-provoking stuff, he also provided me with my favourite quote of the day "You can trust me on this - I'm a professor".
Next session was with my new Learning Tech hero - Professor Steve Wheeler. He spoke of the tech of the past and where we're going. A difficult if not impossible thing to predict but it was equally difficult to suggest that his thoughts might be wrong. He spoke of the significance of personalising learning - letting the learner decide how, when and where to learn - the move from Managed Learning Environments and the rise of the Personalised Learning Environment.
The future is to draw on the 'listening culture', augmented reality, visual through 'infographics', and of course the ubiquitous mobile device.
The steps of learning become:
Learn to Learn >> Critical thinking >> Collaboration >> Creativity >> Reflection >> Evaluation
I chatted with Steve in the lunch period and was fascinated by his stories - very inspirational guy. One of the things he said was that 'Intelligent Semantic Technology' has been developed and is coming soon. A device reading your facial expression and reacting accordingly. When it sees confusion on your face it will offer more help and so on - amazing, mind-blowing technology.
My afternoon was spent watching Andy Tedd, formerly of the BBC and now the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice, who spoke of the use of Social Media and the right choices to be made in order to use it successfully.
One of the main pitfalls would seem to be to provide your learner with something that is too complete - an "I'm telling you" didactic approach - rather than giving the learner space to think and to go with thier gut. People learn most through conversation.
It was a very well-organised and informative day and I was able to make some interesting connections - which may bear fruit - that remains to be seen but my ever-optimistic fingers are crossed :o)
At the conference after the opening welcome by the ever-engaging Don Taylor we were treated to the work of Professor Chris Bones. Great speaker - excellent rhetoric in his material about how to manage change. The crux being to lead, but to let the people you have run free in the search for a solution to a problem - let them provide the answer - don't give it to them. As a leader you are there to be allow the collective to succeed, not be the hero yourself.
Thought-provoking stuff, he also provided me with my favourite quote of the day "You can trust me on this - I'm a professor".
Next session was with my new Learning Tech hero - Professor Steve Wheeler. He spoke of the tech of the past and where we're going. A difficult if not impossible thing to predict but it was equally difficult to suggest that his thoughts might be wrong. He spoke of the significance of personalising learning - letting the learner decide how, when and where to learn - the move from Managed Learning Environments and the rise of the Personalised Learning Environment.
The future is to draw on the 'listening culture', augmented reality, visual through 'infographics', and of course the ubiquitous mobile device.
The steps of learning become:
Learn to Learn >> Critical thinking >> Collaboration >> Creativity >> Reflection >> Evaluation
I chatted with Steve in the lunch period and was fascinated by his stories - very inspirational guy. One of the things he said was that 'Intelligent Semantic Technology' has been developed and is coming soon. A device reading your facial expression and reacting accordingly. When it sees confusion on your face it will offer more help and so on - amazing, mind-blowing technology.
My afternoon was spent watching Andy Tedd, formerly of the BBC and now the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice, who spoke of the use of Social Media and the right choices to be made in order to use it successfully.
One of the main pitfalls would seem to be to provide your learner with something that is too complete - an "I'm telling you" didactic approach - rather than giving the learner space to think and to go with thier gut. People learn most through conversation.
It was a very well-organised and informative day and I was able to make some interesting connections - which may bear fruit - that remains to be seen but my ever-optimistic fingers are crossed :o)
Thursday, 14 April 2011
The use of cartoons to engage users
This is work related so it's dry, dry, dry, but thankfully the use of xtranormal movie maker has made it that little bit more engaging.
CIS is a system that we teach (pronounced C.I.S or 'sis')
Course intro
Learning objectives
CIS is a system that we teach (pronounced C.I.S or 'sis')
Course intro
Learning objectives
Love of the mixed metaphor
"If we can hit that bullseye then the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... Checkmate"
Okay, okay
I know, I know, I'm slack and lazy and ought to adhere to my blog needs a little more. Lots of stuff happening and no apparent spare time to steer into here. That's not true of course, there is always a few minutes to spare at some time during a day but sometimes those minutes are spent better with a cup of tea or having a quick tweet (that's not a euphemism for something else!)
Since I last was here it's been Christmas - Merry Christmas, the New Year - Happy new year, the death of my father-in-law - RIP Rog', my wife ill in hospital - Get Well Soon K..... It goes on.
I have decided that I will post some of my blog postings from my Open University course (H800 - Post Graduate Certificate in Online and Distance Education) - they are on the OU system and I have no way of guaranteeing that I will be able to access them forever, so I'll pop them in here: http://davese-stuff.blogspot.com/ along with other L&D realted bumpf. Some are meandering madness but some are interesting and I hope at least one might peak someones interest....
Some also contain reference to documents that I no longer have access to so apologies for that but it will increase your online literacy if you succeed in tracking them down *silver-lining*
Since I last was here it's been Christmas - Merry Christmas, the New Year - Happy new year, the death of my father-in-law - RIP Rog', my wife ill in hospital - Get Well Soon K..... It goes on.
I have decided that I will post some of my blog postings from my Open University course (H800 - Post Graduate Certificate in Online and Distance Education) - they are on the OU system and I have no way of guaranteeing that I will be able to access them forever, so I'll pop them in here: http://davese-stuff.blogspot.com/ along with other L&D realted bumpf. Some are meandering madness but some are interesting and I hope at least one might peak someones interest....
Some also contain reference to documents that I no longer have access to so apologies for that but it will increase your online literacy if you succeed in tracking them down *silver-lining*
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Hello my little lost blog
It's been a funny old couple of weeks - funny in the strange sense - certainly not in the amusing sense.
My mum fell and broke her hip on the 1st October. After complications - basically due to her previous poor health - she died on the 11th - she was 63 years old.... sad :o(
Mum had health problems as a result of enjoying her life up until those excesses came back to bite her firmly on the bottom. She smoked, she drank, she enjoyed herself. The smoking led to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, it was that which led from a simple accident to her body not being able to cope with the operation on her hip.
She was great my Mum, loved her to bits, still do and lots of people who attended her funeral yesterday said the same thing to me. She was a Mum to me and my brother, and Grandma to her six grandchildren, and also a friend to many.
I miss you Mum and I hope you're having a nice cool glass of Pinot Grigio with your feet up somewhere - rest easy.
My mum fell and broke her hip on the 1st October. After complications - basically due to her previous poor health - she died on the 11th - she was 63 years old.... sad :o(
Mum had health problems as a result of enjoying her life up until those excesses came back to bite her firmly on the bottom. She smoked, she drank, she enjoyed herself. The smoking led to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, it was that which led from a simple accident to her body not being able to cope with the operation on her hip.
She was great my Mum, loved her to bits, still do and lots of people who attended her funeral yesterday said the same thing to me. She was a Mum to me and my brother, and Grandma to her six grandchildren, and also a friend to many.
I miss you Mum and I hope you're having a nice cool glass of Pinot Grigio with your feet up somewhere - rest easy.
Wednesday, 29 September 2010
Been a fortnight
I've been a little remiss in keeping up to date here. I have been working hard to complete my Open University course - Post Graduate Certificate in Online and Distance Education. I should get the results by December so fingers crossed - it's been quite a 'journey' as they say on reality shows.
Anna has started school full-time so there's a landmark in life - I am officially old. She's doing great and loves it which is all we can ever wish for. I am putting myself forward as a parent governer at her school so I'm hoping that will successful. It will be a good opportunity for me to use some of my new knowledge, and some of the old stuff too, for the good of Anna and her friends.
I'll leave you with a quick joke I heard and liked. "I dreamt that I had written The Lord of the Rings - turns out I was Tolkien in my sleep"
Anna has started school full-time so there's a landmark in life - I am officially old. She's doing great and loves it which is all we can ever wish for. I am putting myself forward as a parent governer at her school so I'm hoping that will successful. It will be a good opportunity for me to use some of my new knowledge, and some of the old stuff too, for the good of Anna and her friends.
I'll leave you with a quick joke I heard and liked. "I dreamt that I had written The Lord of the Rings - turns out I was Tolkien in my sleep"
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