I have now signed on to everyone's blog and have made my comments to several posts:
Sheena:- Higher education in a Web 2.0 world and Digital Natives debate
Jean: Higher Education in a Web 2.0 world and Digital Native debate
Martina: Learning styles and ICT trends
Simon: Learning styles and ICT trends.
Vlad: Higher Education in Web 2.0 World(I think!)
This has been an interesting way to reflect on what we have done during the week. I have gone up a very steep learning curve in my struggles to come to grips with Web 2.0 technology. I am still not really sure of how I can incorporate it in the teaching I am doing at present . Having an increased awareness is helpful and there may be occasions in the future when I may be able to make use of it.
The future of ICT appears rosy. Mobile computing is obviously already a fact of life with the availability of so many hand held devices which are internet ready and may be used on the run. Augmented reality, ebooks, gesture based computing etc is predicted for future use but there are already so many applications of these modalities which are in use in many disciplines even now.
As teachers, we need to try and embrace the technology and use it to augment how we teach. Tertiary institutions have to change and we have to change with them or else get left behind.
This is my last post-thanks to all who have read my musings!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
ICT current trends
In this blog, our task is to reflect on an academic article or our choice relating to ICT trends. Talking to Jean and Martina has been very helpful as they are both a mine of information about all sorts of resources and it was through them that I heard of the Horizon Report which I had no idea about. The Horizon Report 2010 edition is produced as a collaboration between the NewMedia Consortium and the Educause Learning Initiative. It is based in the US but does have input from advisers around the globe. It is produced yearly and has been established since 2002 with yearly reports. The main function is to report on ICT trends, critical challenges and 6 new technologies which are classified as "near-term horizon"i.e. next 12 months, "second adoption horizon"i.e. next 2-3 years and "far-term horizon" i.e. next 4-5 years.
The key trends are listed as: the abundance of easy resources and relationships available through the internet; peoples' expectation of being able to live, work and learn where and when they want to; increasing cloud-based technology; increasing collaborative work between students. The key trends are certainly how I see what is happening in the use of ICT in today's world. Increasing cloud-based technology may be the most important trend as nothing else could occur without this. However, the easy and immediate access to information and relationships possibly is what underpins the other 2 trends as I can't see how either could occur without this.
Critical challenges are: the changing role of institutions; evaluation methods lagging behind new methods of authoring,publishing and researching; the importance of digital literacy throughout disciplines and the lack of formal training for teachers; shrinking education budgets. All this certainly makes sense to me. Our tertiary institutions are changing and having to do so under budget restrictions. This is not necessarily as bad thing. Tertiary institutions were quite rarefied places in days gone by and education should be accessible to as many as want it. Bloated budgets may comfort financial controllers but leaner, meaner institutions may perhaps look for better, more innovative ways of achieving goals. The lack of formal ICT training for teachers is a challenge for many of us. Hopefully we will be able to find someone to help us learn the skill we need to learn when we need it. Perhaps universities should look at this in more detail so we can access help when needed; the report also talks about decentralizing support services which may be more efficient.
The aspect of the Horizon Report 2010 I found the most interesting was the "technologies to watch". This was divided into "near-term horizon which listed mobile computing and open content as the two technologies to watch; "second adoption horizon" which had electronic books and simple augmented reality and" far-term horizon" which predicted gesture-based computing and visual data analysis as the hot technology for the next 4-5 years. Mobile computing is certainly a reality now for many people and I was interested to note that a hand-held mobile phone with internet access was a relatively cheap tool for those in developing countries. eBooks are also an interesting thought as one can have a whole library of resources on one device- good for the trees! I was pleased to find the future of ICT was focused on easy- to-use technology. I find the thought of gesture-based computing and augmented reality exciting. I can see real uses for both of these in the medical field in both practice and teaching. In fact, I was interested to note there is a programme around for rehabilitation of Parkinson's patients through gesture based computer games. Augmented reality would be a wonderful teaching tool for unfamiliar skills in practical medicine and there is already work on using visual data analysis in human physiology.
I started this report intending to read only the executive summary but have spent my whole Sunday morning coming to grips with the whole report. I found it very stimulating and thought provoking. I also liked the links that were provided at the end of each section to the various examples that were quoted. There is a rich and varied world out there for our access at the click of the mouse(or perhaps a gesture in the future) and all we have to do is get on board! The future is full of possibilities which even 30 years ago was the realm of sci-fi! Hopefully, we can continue to make progress with our use of technology to improve both our work and teaching. I look forward to seeing what will happen over the "far-term horizon"
Thank you Jean and Martina. I think I am finally excited about ICT!
Ref: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2010-Horizon-Report.pdf
The key trends are listed as: the abundance of easy resources and relationships available through the internet; peoples' expectation of being able to live, work and learn where and when they want to; increasing cloud-based technology; increasing collaborative work between students. The key trends are certainly how I see what is happening in the use of ICT in today's world. Increasing cloud-based technology may be the most important trend as nothing else could occur without this. However, the easy and immediate access to information and relationships possibly is what underpins the other 2 trends as I can't see how either could occur without this.
Critical challenges are: the changing role of institutions; evaluation methods lagging behind new methods of authoring,publishing and researching; the importance of digital literacy throughout disciplines and the lack of formal training for teachers; shrinking education budgets. All this certainly makes sense to me. Our tertiary institutions are changing and having to do so under budget restrictions. This is not necessarily as bad thing. Tertiary institutions were quite rarefied places in days gone by and education should be accessible to as many as want it. Bloated budgets may comfort financial controllers but leaner, meaner institutions may perhaps look for better, more innovative ways of achieving goals. The lack of formal ICT training for teachers is a challenge for many of us. Hopefully we will be able to find someone to help us learn the skill we need to learn when we need it. Perhaps universities should look at this in more detail so we can access help when needed; the report also talks about decentralizing support services which may be more efficient.
The aspect of the Horizon Report 2010 I found the most interesting was the "technologies to watch". This was divided into "near-term horizon which listed mobile computing and open content as the two technologies to watch; "second adoption horizon" which had electronic books and simple augmented reality and" far-term horizon" which predicted gesture-based computing and visual data analysis as the hot technology for the next 4-5 years. Mobile computing is certainly a reality now for many people and I was interested to note that a hand-held mobile phone with internet access was a relatively cheap tool for those in developing countries. eBooks are also an interesting thought as one can have a whole library of resources on one device- good for the trees! I was pleased to find the future of ICT was focused on easy- to-use technology. I find the thought of gesture-based computing and augmented reality exciting. I can see real uses for both of these in the medical field in both practice and teaching. In fact, I was interested to note there is a programme around for rehabilitation of Parkinson's patients through gesture based computer games. Augmented reality would be a wonderful teaching tool for unfamiliar skills in practical medicine and there is already work on using visual data analysis in human physiology.
I started this report intending to read only the executive summary but have spent my whole Sunday morning coming to grips with the whole report. I found it very stimulating and thought provoking. I also liked the links that were provided at the end of each section to the various examples that were quoted. There is a rich and varied world out there for our access at the click of the mouse(or perhaps a gesture in the future) and all we have to do is get on board! The future is full of possibilities which even 30 years ago was the realm of sci-fi! Hopefully, we can continue to make progress with our use of technology to improve both our work and teaching. I look forward to seeing what will happen over the "far-term horizon"
Thank you Jean and Martina. I think I am finally excited about ICT!
Ref: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2010-Horizon-Report.pdf
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Learning styles -day 3
30/06:I haven't done a learning profile on myself as yet but already know that I am very much and reading and writing person in the way I learn. It is a little to easy for me to tune out to aural presentations and start thinking my own train of thought. I also find it valuable to discuss concepts with someone else-generally not too large a group. I need to try the learning style questionnaire tomorrow to see if I am correct.
01/07: I have now done the VARK questionnaire and found that I have a visual score of 1, aural 3, read/write 7, kinaesthetic 5 and I have a mild read/write bias. I am not sure I agree totally with this but it did pick up that I am a read/write person in my learning style and don't benefit much from hearing things.
How can I use this in my teaching? Just really by recognising that students learn in different ways and perhaps trying to use different ways of teaching if possible to account for those students who have different learning styles to mine.
Much of the discussion has centered around collaboration but I think we need to also accept that some people do learn best if they do tasks alone. I am not really sure this will change in an ICT learning environment as we are still trying to achieve the outcomes of enabling learning amongst all out students. I just have to be careful that I don't try to use technology for the sake of it and try to incorporate it in a meaningful way.
I keep on coming back to the fact that my teaching is very face-to-face and using technology may not be the most appropriate method of teaching my students. They come to the classes I teach for practical demonstrations and also for the opportunity to practise clinical skills. Web 2.0 technology may not meet their learning needs -I need to gisve this more thought.
01/07: I have now done the VARK questionnaire and found that I have a visual score of 1, aural 3, read/write 7, kinaesthetic 5 and I have a mild read/write bias. I am not sure I agree totally with this but it did pick up that I am a read/write person in my learning style and don't benefit much from hearing things.
How can I use this in my teaching? Just really by recognising that students learn in different ways and perhaps trying to use different ways of teaching if possible to account for those students who have different learning styles to mine.
Much of the discussion has centered around collaboration but I think we need to also accept that some people do learn best if they do tasks alone. I am not really sure this will change in an ICT learning environment as we are still trying to achieve the outcomes of enabling learning amongst all out students. I just have to be careful that I don't try to use technology for the sake of it and try to incorporate it in a meaningful way.
I keep on coming back to the fact that my teaching is very face-to-face and using technology may not be the most appropriate method of teaching my students. They come to the classes I teach for practical demonstrations and also for the opportunity to practise clinical skills. Web 2.0 technology may not meet their learning needs -I need to gisve this more thought.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Digital native debate
I have a problem with the terms "digital natives" and "digital immigrants". In this world of political correctness, I feel these terms are a little distasteful and should not really be in common use.
It is well known that immigrants work very hard to adapt themselves to their new country and if we apply this to the Web 2.0 world, this may well be what occurs. The generation born before 1980 who are,( according to Prensky 2001) the "digital immigrants" were actually around at the start of the computer age and were probably even involved in the development of the technology. If it is applicable to their lives and work, many appear to embrace Web 2.0 technology and work hard to use it in appropriate ways. The Net-gen use Web 2.0 technology in a more intuitive way as it has always been around for them but are they necessarily better at it? They are possibly more confident about their use of the technology but may have issues with how they deal with the knowledge that is available to them. There is such a rich knowledge base-how do they sift through it to find what they need?
My students are all post-graduates but still fall into the Net Gen. This means that they are very familiar with Web based technology but may not necessarily want this incorporated in their course. I think they will access the technology they require when they need it in the Clinical Skills I teach to 1st year medical students at NDU. They already access web sites, vodcasts, lectures that have been uploaded onto Blackboard. Theyattend the clinical skills session for the face-to-face interaction as well as to practice skills under the tutors' guidance. If I was teaching "digital immigrants", I don't think I would be changing how I teach as they would access the technologies as they needed them.
The debate today seemed to have arguments both for and against the the concept of digital "natives" and " immigrants" My thinking is that to have this separation is probably artificial and I don't know if it helps us to teach our young students any better.
There is also no consideration of socio-economic circumstances in this debate. It applies to those who can both afford and access the technology. Our previous PM promised a computer on the desk of every school child but that does not seem to have been achieved especially in remote and rural communities. How do we classify this group of the so-called Net Gen who don't have free and easy access to any part of Web technology?
Ref: Prensky, M(2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
http://www.marcprensky.com
It is well known that immigrants work very hard to adapt themselves to their new country and if we apply this to the Web 2.0 world, this may well be what occurs. The generation born before 1980 who are,( according to Prensky 2001) the "digital immigrants" were actually around at the start of the computer age and were probably even involved in the development of the technology. If it is applicable to their lives and work, many appear to embrace Web 2.0 technology and work hard to use it in appropriate ways. The Net-gen use Web 2.0 technology in a more intuitive way as it has always been around for them but are they necessarily better at it? They are possibly more confident about their use of the technology but may have issues with how they deal with the knowledge that is available to them. There is such a rich knowledge base-how do they sift through it to find what they need?
My students are all post-graduates but still fall into the Net Gen. This means that they are very familiar with Web based technology but may not necessarily want this incorporated in their course. I think they will access the technology they require when they need it in the Clinical Skills I teach to 1st year medical students at NDU. They already access web sites, vodcasts, lectures that have been uploaded onto Blackboard. Theyattend the clinical skills session for the face-to-face interaction as well as to practice skills under the tutors' guidance. If I was teaching "digital immigrants", I don't think I would be changing how I teach as they would access the technologies as they needed them.
The debate today seemed to have arguments both for and against the the concept of digital "natives" and " immigrants" My thinking is that to have this separation is probably artificial and I don't know if it helps us to teach our young students any better.
There is also no consideration of socio-economic circumstances in this debate. It applies to those who can both afford and access the technology. Our previous PM promised a computer on the desk of every school child but that does not seem to have been achieved especially in remote and rural communities. How do we classify this group of the so-called Net Gen who don't have free and easy access to any part of Web technology?
Ref: Prensky, M(2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants
http://www.marcprensky.com
Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World
The changing environment of higher education in a Web 2.0 world means that I have an increased need to be aware of these modalities as well as to increase my knowledge of them all. This does present quite a few challenges as I studied initially in an environment where computers were huge and opportunities to use them, few!
The increase in the use of networking sites, blogs, podcasts, webinars, ipods, ipads etc has been quite mind boggling in the years since my undergraduate degree. However, if we are to stay in touch with our students, we need knowledge of how to use them. Whatever we use in our teaching needs to be applicable to their learning and provide clear links to previous teaching as well as hopefully facilitating future learning. Using different elearning methods may suit different students and thus extend learning to students who may not have been previously included. It also provides some flexibility as to when students can learn; this may therefore improve access to learning.
The free access to such a huge information landscape can be both a positive and negative. There is no longer any need to chase information-it is all available with a few clicks of the mouse! However, we may need to expand our role as teachers to help our students sift through what is available to find what will help them in their learning.
One concern with integration of elearning to conventional teaching is the time it consumes in preparation especially as I am technologically fairly illiterate! I already spend quite a lot of extra unscheduled time in my teaching and preparation of blogs, wikis etc would add even more to this
I also have issues with the privacy and legal aspects of this technology especially the networking sites. I am very concerned about doing something, albeit unwittingly, which may be unethical or illegal.
The increase in the use of networking sites, blogs, podcasts, webinars, ipods, ipads etc has been quite mind boggling in the years since my undergraduate degree. However, if we are to stay in touch with our students, we need knowledge of how to use them. Whatever we use in our teaching needs to be applicable to their learning and provide clear links to previous teaching as well as hopefully facilitating future learning. Using different elearning methods may suit different students and thus extend learning to students who may not have been previously included. It also provides some flexibility as to when students can learn; this may therefore improve access to learning.
The free access to such a huge information landscape can be both a positive and negative. There is no longer any need to chase information-it is all available with a few clicks of the mouse! However, we may need to expand our role as teachers to help our students sift through what is available to find what will help them in their learning.
One concern with integration of elearning to conventional teaching is the time it consumes in preparation especially as I am technologically fairly illiterate! I already spend quite a lot of extra unscheduled time in my teaching and preparation of blogs, wikis etc would add even more to this
I also have issues with the privacy and legal aspects of this technology especially the networking sites. I am very concerned about doing something, albeit unwittingly, which may be unethical or illegal.
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