FLANZ - day 2 morning

 

Begins with the keynote with Professor Gilly Salmon.

She presents on ‘Four new innovative futures for learning’. We may not be able to predict the future, but disruptions (as per Covid) have allowed for introspection and to think deeper on what flexible pathways may be.

In the UK, after a year of the pandemic, people have started to focus on the important things. Post covid have reinforced the things that ‘work’. Blended learning that embraces the best of both – allows for greater diversity, inclusion, community building, flexibility, widening access – push mundane elements to digital and blended for interaction which is responsive to learners’ beeds.

Modernising pedagogy by having fewer lectures, small groups, authentic / ditch exams, more rounded and effective online  etc.

Where may flexible education will go next – revert, adapt, evolve, transform. The conference mainly chose ‘evolve’. Proceeded to discuss the landscape of ODFL – Current/contemporary approaches  to innovative and new possibilities. Present – well established preferred pedagogies and technologies and responding o challenges and possibilities TO harnessing new technological opportunities for learning and future proofing by investing in innovation.

Evolution requires shifting towards leveraging off affordances from current and new digital technologies. This shift requires clear look at the pedagogy and how this may become different to prepare learners for the future.

Identification of the ‘drivers’ is important, to ensure that these align with what can be. Pick one thing to do to help ‘drive’ towards that future.

Encouraged mobile learning due to large reach of mobile devices. INTENTIONAL mobile pedagogy suggested. Provided details on a study on how health placement logjam through e-placements was enacted. Key was equivalency and if designed well, outcomes were actually better. Disciplines included occupational therapy, dietetics, diagnostic radiography, chiropractic and physiotheraphy.

Outreach – before pandemic, over ½ of UK teachers/support staff who did not think digitally supported learning was well-developed. During the pandemic, the main call for support (70%) was to help build a sense of community in the digital learning environment! For students, HE learning was much changed in the physical environment but the digital environment was seen to be effective.

Immersive learning (second life etc.) has improved in their usability. Useful for learning skills, complexities, responding to emergencies, focus on specific learning. VR, virtual field trips/tours.Humanoid robots helpful for teaching fundamental principles of programming. Engagement is high due to interactivity. All contribute to authentic learning.

Potentialities of AI – check Clark, D. (2020). AI forlearning. Kogan Page. Long way to go but used now for ‘agile responses, accessibility, student friendly admin, smart materials, smart tutoring. Also future for wearables providing  biometrics, smart textiles in  healthcare, smart textiles, fitness trackers etc.

Proposed ‘education 4.0’ – check Salmon (2019) ‘May thefourth be with you’ – an article discussing potentialities to meet the challenges for Industry 4.0 and the future of work.

After morning tea there are 3 presentations:

D. Himasha. P. S. Gunasekaral working with Professor Cheryl Brown and Dr. Stuart Wise on ‘creativity in practice – Instagram as a divergent thinking tool in creative education. Began with a short video showcasing a portfolio collated to show the development of a range of fashion items, some from ideation and sketching to concept transfer. Social networks have increased, especially amongst youth in developing countries. How can this be leveraged for learning. Introduced Instagram launched in 2010 allowing for visual/textual practices to be shared; has hashtag usages; posting, friending, geotagging and liking; along with associated Instagram for learning. ‘learning by doing’ is a concept in design education. However, creative education where influenced by culture and social contexts becomes divergent. Used digital ethnography to study how Instagram can be used to support learning. Although only 14 participants (5 students, 2 teachers and 7 designers), there were 700 posts. Themes related to divergent thinking were extracted. These themes include self-revealing/inner feeling; peer evaluation; critism and collaboration. Found teaching helped with creative divergent thinking. Summarised some limitations and references.

Supporting Natalia Kurikova from the ‘Digital Learning Environment’ section at Ara Institute of Canterbury Ltd. with her presentation ‘when teaching online is not an emergency – strategies of private language tutors. Began with background on how she came to online teaching and learning. Also covered the context of private language instruction and how many did not have the capabilities to provide online tuition. Learners often choose online due to its flexibility. Study sought to find out how educators transition to online learning; how online tutors navigate the complexities; and data from actual online classrooms is scarce. Focused on opening and closing of online sessions. Relooked at data post-pandemic to see how this coloured data analysis. Used lesson recordings and in-depth semi structured interviews.

Summarised finding and re-couched as strategies to make the most of synchronous sessions. There were: avoid over-reliance on webcam video; utilise it to establish rapport and when activity requires it; reduce fatigue and cognitive load, turn off when not needed. Use classroom time strategically – many used ‘flipped’ processes although did not name it; highlight perceived usefulness and value’ promote reflection, self -assessment, evaluation of goals and progress.  A range of resources (not all digital) used and these have to be accounted for when thinking about ‘distance’. Establishing a shared learning space is important. Use positive ‘learning activities’ to bring about engagement and this leads to co-creation of learning outcomes and how this could be achieved.

Larian Nkomo and Ben Daniel from the University of Otago with ‘lecture recordings offer students flexible and adaptive learning opportunities’. Lecture recordings now common in HE. This study investigates student perspectives on how they use lecture recordings and how they value the learning from these. On top would be flexibility for students, especially for part-time students. Collected data was quantitatively (descriptive statistics) and qualitatively (thematic and sentiment analysis - use of natural language processing (NLP) to analyse text and automate extraction or classification of sentiment). Provided summary of findings. Students felt recordings were useful especially as supplements to review material and to have another run at taking notes from the recording, missed during the lecture itself.