The ipad launched in NZ last Friday. Although I have had the ipad for a couple of weeks, I have not had much time to really play with it. So far, I have been able to evaluate the ipod touch apps I want to keep and update any ipod touch apps which have ipad versions. Of note is Stanza which is my present ebook reader platform. The added capability which I love is being able to add files off my computer easily and transfer these on to the ipad. Stanza allows various ebooks I have purchased over the years which are .epub files to be read along with .pdf files. So I am now able to more easily access my rather large collection of study / research articles on the ipad. I have always been a fan of reading with a digital device and the ipad’s display really enhances the experience. As recommended on the Stanza FAQ, calibre can be used to convert various file formats into .epub or .pdf. which is user friendly and not only converts the books but also had a nifty ebook reader as well.
However, reading print books on an ipad is rather old hat although more ebooks are now sole through Amazon than hard cover books. So the next thing to work on is to evaluate the collection of elit and also here. This article features the multimodalities possible by bringing digital technologies into books. All require multimedia players and the ones which run on shockwave or flash will not run on an ipad (sigh). However, many of the examples are reminiscent of music videos, with audio of poems running with visual presentations, often with fast moving or scrolling images or using animations. Some have interactive sections or use text graphics to tell the story. Many are art forms rather than actual narratives but all tell a story of sorts. Here is an example which runs on a Mac. A guide to writing elit provides for some interesting approaches and ideas.
So it will be worthwhile looking into the future of textbooks and also children's literature which has been the natural home for interactive books for a while, exampled by one Kiwi company's approach to putting Kiwi classics on the ipad.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Ako Aotearoa tertiary research in progress colloquium - day 2 afternoon
After lunch, the Carl Weiman(University of British Columbia) model of science education was then presented by Dr. Ben Kennedy from University of Canterbury. Carl Weiman measured science learning and attitudes and focused on science education reform. Project involves 6 classes, year 1 - year 3 from two universities. Four phases to the project. First phase of observation and measurement of lectures /teaching styles plus measure student engagement by attention through observation, just begun. Learning goals, concept tests etc to be developed followed by implementation and eventual evaluation to see if interventions are effective. Canadian Resources to refine and align goals & assessments (pre/post diagnostic) to allow for local limitations need to be undertaken.
Tatou tatou: success for all - improving Maori students success in health professional degree level programmes was presented by Dr. Elana Curtis with Dr. Mark Barrow & Dr. Arini from University of Auckland. This project builds on from 18 month qualitative study funded by TLRI on factors which assisted Maori students learning in university settings. Critical incident technique is used to study 40 students' narratives on how non-lecture based activities/settings help or hinder Maori student success. These include tutorials/seminars/workshops, labs, small group clinical teacihng, case studies/PBL, work based placement/internships. Critical incident (trigger, action, outcome) used - can you describe a time when teaching/learning practices helped (or hindered) your success in x? Emerging issues include the importance of MAPAS (Maori and Pacific Admission Scheme) support; MAPAs specific study space/resources; hints of experiences of stigma & racism hinders sucess; efficacy of 'Maori health week'; whakawhanuangatanga; Tuakana/teina - peer support.
Last session of the symposium on 'learning enviroments & student engagement with learning in tertiary settings from Dr. Nick Zepke & Dr. Linda Leach. A summary of a project studying student engagement with nine case studies undertaken at 2 universities, 4 ITPs, one Wananga, one PTE and one community organisation. Presentation also on why multiple case study chosen, key findings and major implications. Key findings include significant differences between institutions; engaging students is complex; teachers and teaching have important impact on student engagement; intrinsic motivation, particularly perceptions of competence, agency and relatedness, very important; and non-institutional influences only impact moderately. Key implications are the importance of teachers and teaching which requires development of teachers and reward good teaching. Teacher development should focus on developinb positive working relationships with learners; enhance student self belief; create challenging, enriching and extending educational experiences for students; and ensure institutional cultures are welcoming to students from diverse backgrounds.
Dr. Peter Coolbear then closed the symposium with a summary/wrap-up and reflection. The National Project fund - 2.1 million so far, needs to be a change fund. The correct type of research seem to be funded so how do we now build on what has be completed? Work is exciting, has a diverse portfolio, robust work (multiple methods, strong sampling, nature of evidence, Kaupapa Maori & Pacific frameworks) and with strong capability building elements. Emerging themes of colloquium include identity (learners, participants in a bicultural society, participants in a discipline, participants in a trade or profession - so identity as professional tertiary teachers? - perhaps accreditation ? Alison Holmes doing a lit review of professional teaching plus Ako Stocktake about to be launched); Building communites (ideas, practice, tertiary education researchers); meaninful, critical relationships; building coherent, accessible knowledge bases to inform practice; learner voice. Most important, how do we get research in front of decision makers?, dissemination is an important next step - peer reviewed publications are not enough, good practice guides / workshops etc. to try to influence at the organisation, system & policy level.
Overall the symposium was a great opportunity for me to connect with the NZ tertiary research landscape and to meet with other researchers, pondering similar challenges and working towards providing for research based information which will better learning opportunities for students/learners in NZ. I will be doing a report to the CED on the various projects, so that the team is informed about ongoing and completed work completed within the NZ context. Look forward to next year when many of the interesting projects will be reporting on their findings plus also what the next crop of projects will be working on.
Tatou tatou: success for all - improving Maori students success in health professional degree level programmes was presented by Dr. Elana Curtis with Dr. Mark Barrow & Dr. Arini from University of Auckland. This project builds on from 18 month qualitative study funded by TLRI on factors which assisted Maori students learning in university settings. Critical incident technique is used to study 40 students' narratives on how non-lecture based activities/settings help or hinder Maori student success. These include tutorials/seminars/workshops, labs, small group clinical teacihng, case studies/PBL, work based placement/internships. Critical incident (trigger, action, outcome) used - can you describe a time when teaching/learning practices helped (or hindered) your success in x? Emerging issues include the importance of MAPAS (Maori and Pacific Admission Scheme) support; MAPAs specific study space/resources; hints of experiences of stigma & racism hinders sucess; efficacy of 'Maori health week'; whakawhanuangatanga; Tuakana/teina - peer support.
Last session of the symposium on 'learning enviroments & student engagement with learning in tertiary settings from Dr. Nick Zepke & Dr. Linda Leach. A summary of a project studying student engagement with nine case studies undertaken at 2 universities, 4 ITPs, one Wananga, one PTE and one community organisation. Presentation also on why multiple case study chosen, key findings and major implications. Key findings include significant differences between institutions; engaging students is complex; teachers and teaching have important impact on student engagement; intrinsic motivation, particularly perceptions of competence, agency and relatedness, very important; and non-institutional influences only impact moderately. Key implications are the importance of teachers and teaching which requires development of teachers and reward good teaching. Teacher development should focus on developinb positive working relationships with learners; enhance student self belief; create challenging, enriching and extending educational experiences for students; and ensure institutional cultures are welcoming to students from diverse backgrounds.
Dr. Peter Coolbear then closed the symposium with a summary/wrap-up and reflection. The National Project fund - 2.1 million so far, needs to be a change fund. The correct type of research seem to be funded so how do we now build on what has be completed? Work is exciting, has a diverse portfolio, robust work (multiple methods, strong sampling, nature of evidence, Kaupapa Maori & Pacific frameworks) and with strong capability building elements. Emerging themes of colloquium include identity (learners, participants in a bicultural society, participants in a discipline, participants in a trade or profession - so identity as professional tertiary teachers? - perhaps accreditation ? Alison Holmes doing a lit review of professional teaching plus Ako Stocktake about to be launched); Building communites (ideas, practice, tertiary education researchers); meaninful, critical relationships; building coherent, accessible knowledge bases to inform practice; learner voice. Most important, how do we get research in front of decision makers?, dissemination is an important next step - peer reviewed publications are not enough, good practice guides / workshops etc. to try to influence at the organisation, system & policy level.
Overall the symposium was a great opportunity for me to connect with the NZ tertiary research landscape and to meet with other researchers, pondering similar challenges and working towards providing for research based information which will better learning opportunities for students/learners in NZ. I will be doing a report to the CED on the various projects, so that the team is informed about ongoing and completed work completed within the NZ context. Look forward to next year when many of the interesting projects will be reporting on their findings plus also what the next crop of projects will be working on.
Ako Aotearoa research in progress colloquium - day two morning
Day begins with Dr. Stephen Marshall from Victoria University presenting on 'elearning & higher education: Understanding & supporting organisational change in NZ'. Introduced the the elearning maturity model (eMM) which was used along with interviews and monitoring of institutional change to find out how technology impacts on the institution's activities. So introduced the concepts for quality enhancement which are knowing what to measure, knowing how to measure and knowing how to improve what has been measured as foundation to the project. Several findings shared comparing PTEs, ITPs, Universities and Wananga.
Second up, Kelby Smith-Han, an Ako Aotearoa Phd scholarship receipient, supervised by Dr. Chrysl Jaye at the University of Otago, presented on his investigation into the undergraduate medical students' discourses of general practice. Kelby went through background of the project, method used and some preliminary findings. Project came about due to increasingly small numbers of medical students moving into general practice. Medical students in their second and sixth/last year of medical school were interviewed to find out their perspectives on vocational choice in general practice as compared to surgery. Also supported with written documents (e.g. medical student magazines) and possible focus groups. Preliminary findings indicate lack of valuing of GP profession with both cohorts of students.
Then Haani Huata, from CPIT, presented the teacher/student view on Te Kawai Kumara - a pilot for the synchronous delivery of a common postgraduate programme in Te Reo Maori across multiple sites - AUT, Victoria University and CPIT. Paper written by Professor Tania Ka'ai from AUT. Haani began with a waiata/song. The programme is a taught Master of Arts using smart boards and video conferencing with 5 papers, Tikanga Rangahu (research), Tikanga (culture), Koreor Whaterei (Maori text), Tuhinga Totoko (creative writing/performance arts) & Te Whanaketanga o te Reo. The aim of the project is to build research capability and capacity of Maori scholars to advance their skills in teaching and learning through research in Maori language. Emerging issues were presented including institutional timelines, impact of weather on video conferencing, teachers/students using technology, breaking silos between teaching sites and limited number of staff available to mark thesis in Maori. Highlights include the nature of the programme which enables, financial benefits for students related to access and potential from understanding technology capabilities.
After morning tea, a presentation on 'maximising learning dialogue opportunities in professional field-based experiences, in the student teacher/counselling context, from Dr. Marion Sanders representing a team from the Bethlehem Tertiary Insititute and also working with NZ Tertiary College and Wintec. Workplace learning is enhanced if students & supervisors are encouraged to undertake learning talks which is intentionally cultivated. This study is an intervention study to find out how Four intentional strategies may enhance the interaction between students and supervisors. The strategies are partnership map (clear roles); belief inventory(shared beliefs); professional article (read article related and students asks questions based on article); and critical incident discussion. Four phases to be undertaken, with stage one, the pre-intervention phase just completed. Baseline data from students through questionnaire and repertory grid and from mentors through a questionnaire collected. Phase two is the interventions phase, followed by post intervention data collection & analysis and post intervention resource development.
Next up, Helen Hughes & Gordon Suddaby from Massey University presented on their project studying how to engage learners in 'the sciences' from the secondary to tertiary transition point of view. Lower levels of school students engaging with science subjects (sciences, technology, maths & engineering) at school led to this project. Key observations include student engagement being influenced by their teachers; there are different perceptions between students and university lecturers; content not so important as delivery; science students want to develop scientific methods skills; and student engagement is now lost during transition from school to university. Derived from questionnaires, interviews, focus groups with university students (1st year, college of science), lecturers, school students (year 12, taking more than 1 science subject) and teachers. Implications include institutional data already available but not used; science disciplines research-led not teaching focused; need to find better ways to manage and gather student expectations; communications need to be improved between schools and universities.
Dr Rhys Jones, representing a team from the University of Auckland, presented on assessing Hauora Maori (cultural competence) in medical students in clinical settings. Two phases, with the first phase involving collaborative work to develop two assessment tasks (modified case report and reflective commentary) completed end of 2009. Second phase, beginning this year, to pilot, implement and evaluate these as used in a clinical setting. Key findings indicate new assessments to be acceptable and students percieve they add value to their learning. Building capacity for clinical teachers to teach, learn and assess Hauroa Maori needs to be undertaken in order for sustainable continuance of this concept.
Second up, Kelby Smith-Han, an Ako Aotearoa Phd scholarship receipient, supervised by Dr. Chrysl Jaye at the University of Otago, presented on his investigation into the undergraduate medical students' discourses of general practice. Kelby went through background of the project, method used and some preliminary findings. Project came about due to increasingly small numbers of medical students moving into general practice. Medical students in their second and sixth/last year of medical school were interviewed to find out their perspectives on vocational choice in general practice as compared to surgery. Also supported with written documents (e.g. medical student magazines) and possible focus groups. Preliminary findings indicate lack of valuing of GP profession with both cohorts of students.
Then Haani Huata, from CPIT, presented the teacher/student view on Te Kawai Kumara - a pilot for the synchronous delivery of a common postgraduate programme in Te Reo Maori across multiple sites - AUT, Victoria University and CPIT. Paper written by Professor Tania Ka'ai from AUT. Haani began with a waiata/song. The programme is a taught Master of Arts using smart boards and video conferencing with 5 papers, Tikanga Rangahu (research), Tikanga (culture), Koreor Whaterei (Maori text), Tuhinga Totoko (creative writing/performance arts) & Te Whanaketanga o te Reo. The aim of the project is to build research capability and capacity of Maori scholars to advance their skills in teaching and learning through research in Maori language. Emerging issues were presented including institutional timelines, impact of weather on video conferencing, teachers/students using technology, breaking silos between teaching sites and limited number of staff available to mark thesis in Maori. Highlights include the nature of the programme which enables, financial benefits for students related to access and potential from understanding technology capabilities.
After morning tea, a presentation on 'maximising learning dialogue opportunities in professional field-based experiences, in the student teacher/counselling context, from Dr. Marion Sanders representing a team from the Bethlehem Tertiary Insititute and also working with NZ Tertiary College and Wintec. Workplace learning is enhanced if students & supervisors are encouraged to undertake learning talks which is intentionally cultivated. This study is an intervention study to find out how Four intentional strategies may enhance the interaction between students and supervisors. The strategies are partnership map (clear roles); belief inventory(shared beliefs); professional article (read article related and students asks questions based on article); and critical incident discussion. Four phases to be undertaken, with stage one, the pre-intervention phase just completed. Baseline data from students through questionnaire and repertory grid and from mentors through a questionnaire collected. Phase two is the interventions phase, followed by post intervention data collection & analysis and post intervention resource development.
Next up, Helen Hughes & Gordon Suddaby from Massey University presented on their project studying how to engage learners in 'the sciences' from the secondary to tertiary transition point of view. Lower levels of school students engaging with science subjects (sciences, technology, maths & engineering) at school led to this project. Key observations include student engagement being influenced by their teachers; there are different perceptions between students and university lecturers; content not so important as delivery; science students want to develop scientific methods skills; and student engagement is now lost during transition from school to university. Derived from questionnaires, interviews, focus groups with university students (1st year, college of science), lecturers, school students (year 12, taking more than 1 science subject) and teachers. Implications include institutional data already available but not used; science disciplines research-led not teaching focused; need to find better ways to manage and gather student expectations; communications need to be improved between schools and universities.
Dr Rhys Jones, representing a team from the University of Auckland, presented on assessing Hauora Maori (cultural competence) in medical students in clinical settings. Two phases, with the first phase involving collaborative work to develop two assessment tasks (modified case report and reflective commentary) completed end of 2009. Second phase, beginning this year, to pilot, implement and evaluate these as used in a clinical setting. Key findings indicate new assessments to be acceptable and students percieve they add value to their learning. Building capacity for clinical teachers to teach, learn and assess Hauroa Maori needs to be undertaken in order for sustainable continuance of this concept.
Ako Aotearoa Tertiary research in progress colloquium 2010 - day 1 afternoon
After lunch, I presented on the project 'belonging, becoming & being: first year apprentices' experiences of the workplace' supported by Charles Hayworth from the Boating ITO & Loretta Garrow from the Building & Construction ITO from 2 of the 7 ITOs participating. Good feedback from the audience with some questions contributing to enhancing the project.
Next up, 'Tertiary bridging tracks: holistic teaching & learning practices of Pacific PTEs' from Lindsay Huthnance and Tautalo Fiso from the NZ Institute of Sport. The project draws on existing literature to build on recommendations for using more holistic approaches of teaching and learning to engage Maori and Pasika people. Firstly to identity approaches which epitomise holistic approaches, then to evaluate how effective these are and to then recommend the approaches which work best. Project has just begun so an overview was presented.
Then Professor Mike Thomas & Barbara Kensington-Miller & Dr. Hannah Bartholomew of Auckland presented on a TLRI funded project - 'mathematics undergraduate teaching: perspectives & interactions' . The project studies lecturers and how they develop as teachers (Lecturer's component); interactions which assist with student learning in the lecturing environment lecturing interactions component); and approaches students take to engage with material presented during lectures (student perspective component). It uses Schoenfeld's Knowledge, Orientations & Goals (Schoenfeld's website), framework to analyse the decisions made by teachers. Mike provided an example of how to apply the KOG in discussions with lecturers on video of their lecture. Barbara provided method used to explore student perspectives and some interview transcripts, exploring students' identity and their relationships with maths. Also the ways in which lecturing can engage students, improve mathematical understanding and find out how questioning strategies may help student understanding of maths concepts.
Following was 'building kaupapa Maori in early childhood education' by Ngaroma Williams, Te Pari Puna Ora o Aotearoa & Mary-Liz Bradley from the Open Polytechnic. This project, which has just begun, is to develop good practice models & frameworks for student & registered teacers / practitioners to learn and apply cultural competency within the NZ early childhood context. The project will be carried out using kuapapa Maori methodology for all aspects. Tikanga research team guidelines include, a call to find knowledge. In order to support this search, support required from all participants via mentorship and organisational support.
After afternoon tea, Professor John Bitchener from AUT & Dr. Martin East from the University of Auckland. Their presentation was on 'best practice in the types of feedback given to thesis students in NZ universities. There seems to be a gap in the literature on response/feedback on thesis drafts. Areas studied included strengths and weaknesses of students' writing; aims and priorities in providing feedback; nature/focus of the feedback and how feedback is provided; expectations and student experiences to feedback; feedback effectiveness; nature of supervisor training and recommendations to new supervisors. Similarities and differences within and across disciplines and between native and non-native writers also considered. An overview of findings, challenges of the project and recommendations for further research was presented.
Last presentation of the day from Mike Hay from Trade & Commerce Ltd. who presented on 'strength-based learner engagment'. Three PTEs involved with Tertiary Opportunities programmes (TOPs) in various areas including trades, computing, alternative ed., retail and automotive. Generally with students with no school qualifications and disengaged from school. Approach is a facilitated programme called 'My Voice' that builds on student abilities to help them discover, explore and understand their strengths. based on work undertaken in the Uk, USA and NZ on positive psychology. This project evaluates tools designed to faciliate strength-based education and involves student/tutor questionnaires and focus group discussions. Tutor provided with training on using the strengths based approach. Comparisons made between cohorts of students who had learning using strengths based approach & students not exposed to approach at all. In general cohort with embeded strengths based approach had more positive learning experiences.
Day closed with Justin Sampson promotion of Ako Aotearoa website and a short reflection fom Peter Coolbear on day 1 session before much anticipated time for drinks & nibbles and time to refresh over the evening for tomorrow's sessions.
A very full day!! Learnt just as much from the questions which came after each presentation, many of which added different perspectives to each project. A good range of projects with several projects exploring similar aspects of student learning including enhancing student engagement, feedback and need for continual teacher professional development albeit in different contexts and with different approaches/ lenses.
Next up, 'Tertiary bridging tracks: holistic teaching & learning practices of Pacific PTEs' from Lindsay Huthnance and Tautalo Fiso from the NZ Institute of Sport. The project draws on existing literature to build on recommendations for using more holistic approaches of teaching and learning to engage Maori and Pasika people. Firstly to identity approaches which epitomise holistic approaches, then to evaluate how effective these are and to then recommend the approaches which work best. Project has just begun so an overview was presented.
Then Professor Mike Thomas & Barbara Kensington-Miller & Dr. Hannah Bartholomew of Auckland presented on a TLRI funded project - 'mathematics undergraduate teaching: perspectives & interactions' . The project studies lecturers and how they develop as teachers (Lecturer's component); interactions which assist with student learning in the lecturing environment lecturing interactions component); and approaches students take to engage with material presented during lectures (student perspective component). It uses Schoenfeld's Knowledge, Orientations & Goals (Schoenfeld's website), framework to analyse the decisions made by teachers. Mike provided an example of how to apply the KOG in discussions with lecturers on video of their lecture. Barbara provided method used to explore student perspectives and some interview transcripts, exploring students' identity and their relationships with maths. Also the ways in which lecturing can engage students, improve mathematical understanding and find out how questioning strategies may help student understanding of maths concepts.
Following was 'building kaupapa Maori in early childhood education' by Ngaroma Williams, Te Pari Puna Ora o Aotearoa & Mary-Liz Bradley from the Open Polytechnic. This project, which has just begun, is to develop good practice models & frameworks for student & registered teacers / practitioners to learn and apply cultural competency within the NZ early childhood context. The project will be carried out using kuapapa Maori methodology for all aspects. Tikanga research team guidelines include, a call to find knowledge. In order to support this search, support required from all participants via mentorship and organisational support.
After afternoon tea, Professor John Bitchener from AUT & Dr. Martin East from the University of Auckland. Their presentation was on 'best practice in the types of feedback given to thesis students in NZ universities. There seems to be a gap in the literature on response/feedback on thesis drafts. Areas studied included strengths and weaknesses of students' writing; aims and priorities in providing feedback; nature/focus of the feedback and how feedback is provided; expectations and student experiences to feedback; feedback effectiveness; nature of supervisor training and recommendations to new supervisors. Similarities and differences within and across disciplines and between native and non-native writers also considered. An overview of findings, challenges of the project and recommendations for further research was presented.
Last presentation of the day from Mike Hay from Trade & Commerce Ltd. who presented on 'strength-based learner engagment'. Three PTEs involved with Tertiary Opportunities programmes (TOPs) in various areas including trades, computing, alternative ed., retail and automotive. Generally with students with no school qualifications and disengaged from school. Approach is a facilitated programme called 'My Voice' that builds on student abilities to help them discover, explore and understand their strengths. based on work undertaken in the Uk, USA and NZ on positive psychology. This project evaluates tools designed to faciliate strength-based education and involves student/tutor questionnaires and focus group discussions. Tutor provided with training on using the strengths based approach. Comparisons made between cohorts of students who had learning using strengths based approach & students not exposed to approach at all. In general cohort with embeded strengths based approach had more positive learning experiences.
Day closed with Justin Sampson promotion of Ako Aotearoa website and a short reflection fom Peter Coolbear on day 1 session before much anticipated time for drinks & nibbles and time to refresh over the evening for tomorrow's sessions.
A very full day!! Learnt just as much from the questions which came after each presentation, many of which added different perspectives to each project. A good range of projects with several projects exploring similar aspects of student learning including enhancing student engagement, feedback and need for continual teacher professional development albeit in different contexts and with different approaches/ lenses.
Ako Aotearoa Research in Progress Colloquium 2010 - day one morning
Was at the ako aotearoa research colloquium Thursday & Friday of last week. Pretty full on two days & this & the next three posts consolidate my notes from presentations on the various projects in tertiary education
funded by both Ako Aotearoa and the Ministry of Education Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) Fund. The symposium provides an opportunity for researchers to share findings and work in progress plus to do the usual networking. I am especially interested in research methodology and approaches used by the many projects along with catching up with other researchers in the field.
The symposiusm was formally opened with a mihi whatatau from Ngahiwi Apanui, Kaihautu Maori for Ako Aotearoa and an introduction and warm welcome from Dr. Peter Coolbear, the director of Ako Aotearoa.
First up, Dorothy Spiller from University of Waikato and Stuart Terry from Otago Polytechnic present on 'Unlocking the impact of tertiary teachers' perceptions of student evaluations of teaching.' Project on 3 tertiary institutions - 2 universities and 1 ITP. Project seeks to find out if student evaluations influence teacher thinking and behaviour, does institutional use constrain teaching innovation, why teachers undertake evaluation and do teachers use student evaluation feedback to improve teaching, do they engage in dialogue with students about evaluation feedback and how can findings from the project be used to enhance the use of evaluations to improve teaching and learning. Progress to date includes literature review and collection of survey data. Lit review reveals gap between acceptance and use of evaluation to inform practice; could using multiple sources of evaluation help? teacher emotions and receiving student feedback important and are there relationships between teaching beliefs and using evaluations to inform teaching? PD/guidance required to support use of evaluations to inform teaching; institutional support & incentives help; perceptions of the ownership of the student evaluation process important. Online survey used with a 45% return rate from 2445 staff. Interviews to be conducted with 10 staff from each institution. Early data indicate new staff tend to use evaluations although established staff in two institutions use them too. Further data analysis to compare commonalities and differences between insitutions to be undertaken form next semester.
Then, 'Help or hindrance: A blended approach to learner engagement' from John Milne, Gordon Suddaby and Dr. Andrew Higgins from Auckland University of Technology presented by Dr. Lynne Jeffrey from Massey University. Based on Dewey's principles of learning through experience, engagement in activities of personal relevance and learning collaboratively and promise promoted by introducing and using technology to enhance learning. However despite heavy investment in technology infratructure within education, may students still tend to learn through informal, outside of school engagement with technology. Study of 8 2nd year business classes from 4 NZ tertiary institutions to find out what engagement strategies may work. These include interactive activities, matching student learning style influences with engagement strategies and collect student feedback on what works or does not. A toolkit is to be developed to help teachers select appropriate blended approaches. Toolkit includes, needs assessments (student, course, curriculum characteristics), development and delivery (design, engagement strategies, communication /inteactive activies, student support, diagnostic/formative activities and evaluation strategies) and evaluation and teacher reflection. Use of blended learning seen as one way to build student engagement with the institution and also the content of their study. Engagement requires a'grab attention phase involving using building on the curiosity of students and need for relevance; Removing both student and organisational barriers; and building social presence through integration of students to obviate feelings of alienation and isolation, helping cohorts/groups congregate /consolidate, personalisation and teacher presence (immediacy and attention).
After morning tea, an overview of the various TLRI tertiary projects was provided by Associate Professor Nick Zepke and Dr. Linda Leach from Massey University. The main objective is to provide information on the projects to date as TLRI has a focus for future projects to build on existing / completed research it has already funded. 18 post-school projects funded so far with 11 reports now available with several more about to come up on website. There are connections between Ako Aotearoa and TLRI projects which can be build on for instance learning dialogues in field- based education( Ako Aorearoa) and learning communities (TLRI). Both focus on teaching practice / building research capability and capacity, also on building relationships between students/ teachers / communities, assessments. Other emerging themes include competence (teachers and students), transition to independent learning, diversity of students, teaching is complex and challenging, impact of institutional and organisational cultures on teaching and learning. Need to network within the small tertiary education community in NZ and to look beyond own little project, to liaise and work on collaborative projects where possible.
Following the overview, a presentation on'Integrating information literacy and discovering voice in the NZ tertiary context', presented by Angela Feekery from Massey University who is an Ako Aotearoa PhD scholarship recipient in 2009. Angela's supervisor is Dr. Lisa Emerson. She reported on the participatory action research (PAR) research project focused on integrating / embedding the development of info. literacy (IL) skills and improving writing. Who provides students with IL debated but the collaborative model between library staff and academic staff most common. The main objective of study is to identify and implement ways students can appropriately work with a wide range of information and relate these to their assessment tasks within their discipline. To begin, semester one studied with a group of 'planning' students. This found many things related to IL which required working with. Last semester, interventions like draft submission/feedback, guided peer review, using i-maps, reading/learning log and evaluating sources. Now investigating key skills via interviews with programme staff and then develop model for IL for this discipline.
Then Dr. Willem Fourie, Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) and Beverly McClelland, Counties Manukau District Health Board DHB present on their project 'dedicated education unit: enhancing clinical teaching and learning. The project now completed so report on findings and recommendations undertaken at this presentation. Concept of Dedicated education unit (DEU) originated in Australia with DEUs established with CPIT/Canterbury District Health Board collaboration since 2007, MIT and Manukau DHB in 2008 and Middlemore in 2009. This study uses action research to identify best practice. In each cycle of the action research, commonalities and dis-similarities were identified. Findings include importance of orientation and planning for both staff and students, roles within DEU, teamwork expectations especially between clinical learning nurse and academic learning nurse, support required from peers, students learning at different levels/years and staff, student learning needs with relevant feedback and enhancing self-confidence for all concerned. Final recommendation is for a continuation with the DEU model. Other recommendations include structure for 3rd year students to support 1st year students, selection of CLN, work on feedback from both staff and students who participated in project, continuing collaborative approach, perhaps a DEU coordinator role to be established and engagement of a multi- disciplinary team across various DEUs, consult with Maori PHOs and to consider student rotation.
A full on morning with a convivial lunch to recover and ready for the afternoon.
funded by both Ako Aotearoa and the Ministry of Education Teaching and Learning Research Initiative (TLRI) Fund. The symposium provides an opportunity for researchers to share findings and work in progress plus to do the usual networking. I am especially interested in research methodology and approaches used by the many projects along with catching up with other researchers in the field.
The symposiusm was formally opened with a mihi whatatau from Ngahiwi Apanui, Kaihautu Maori for Ako Aotearoa and an introduction and warm welcome from Dr. Peter Coolbear, the director of Ako Aotearoa.
First up, Dorothy Spiller from University of Waikato and Stuart Terry from Otago Polytechnic present on 'Unlocking the impact of tertiary teachers' perceptions of student evaluations of teaching.' Project on 3 tertiary institutions - 2 universities and 1 ITP. Project seeks to find out if student evaluations influence teacher thinking and behaviour, does institutional use constrain teaching innovation, why teachers undertake evaluation and do teachers use student evaluation feedback to improve teaching, do they engage in dialogue with students about evaluation feedback and how can findings from the project be used to enhance the use of evaluations to improve teaching and learning. Progress to date includes literature review and collection of survey data. Lit review reveals gap between acceptance and use of evaluation to inform practice; could using multiple sources of evaluation help? teacher emotions and receiving student feedback important and are there relationships between teaching beliefs and using evaluations to inform teaching? PD/guidance required to support use of evaluations to inform teaching; institutional support & incentives help; perceptions of the ownership of the student evaluation process important. Online survey used with a 45% return rate from 2445 staff. Interviews to be conducted with 10 staff from each institution. Early data indicate new staff tend to use evaluations although established staff in two institutions use them too. Further data analysis to compare commonalities and differences between insitutions to be undertaken form next semester.
Then, 'Help or hindrance: A blended approach to learner engagement' from John Milne, Gordon Suddaby and Dr. Andrew Higgins from Auckland University of Technology presented by Dr. Lynne Jeffrey from Massey University. Based on Dewey's principles of learning through experience, engagement in activities of personal relevance and learning collaboratively and promise promoted by introducing and using technology to enhance learning. However despite heavy investment in technology infratructure within education, may students still tend to learn through informal, outside of school engagement with technology. Study of 8 2nd year business classes from 4 NZ tertiary institutions to find out what engagement strategies may work. These include interactive activities, matching student learning style influences with engagement strategies and collect student feedback on what works or does not. A toolkit is to be developed to help teachers select appropriate blended approaches. Toolkit includes, needs assessments (student, course, curriculum characteristics), development and delivery (design, engagement strategies, communication /inteactive activies, student support, diagnostic/formative activities and evaluation strategies) and evaluation and teacher reflection. Use of blended learning seen as one way to build student engagement with the institution and also the content of their study. Engagement requires a'grab attention phase involving using building on the curiosity of students and need for relevance; Removing both student and organisational barriers; and building social presence through integration of students to obviate feelings of alienation and isolation, helping cohorts/groups congregate /consolidate, personalisation and teacher presence (immediacy and attention).
After morning tea, an overview of the various TLRI tertiary projects was provided by Associate Professor Nick Zepke and Dr. Linda Leach from Massey University. The main objective is to provide information on the projects to date as TLRI has a focus for future projects to build on existing / completed research it has already funded. 18 post-school projects funded so far with 11 reports now available with several more about to come up on website. There are connections between Ako Aotearoa and TLRI projects which can be build on for instance learning dialogues in field- based education( Ako Aorearoa) and learning communities (TLRI). Both focus on teaching practice / building research capability and capacity, also on building relationships between students/ teachers / communities, assessments. Other emerging themes include competence (teachers and students), transition to independent learning, diversity of students, teaching is complex and challenging, impact of institutional and organisational cultures on teaching and learning. Need to network within the small tertiary education community in NZ and to look beyond own little project, to liaise and work on collaborative projects where possible.
Following the overview, a presentation on'Integrating information literacy and discovering voice in the NZ tertiary context', presented by Angela Feekery from Massey University who is an Ako Aotearoa PhD scholarship recipient in 2009. Angela's supervisor is Dr. Lisa Emerson. She reported on the participatory action research (PAR) research project focused on integrating / embedding the development of info. literacy (IL) skills and improving writing. Who provides students with IL debated but the collaborative model between library staff and academic staff most common. The main objective of study is to identify and implement ways students can appropriately work with a wide range of information and relate these to their assessment tasks within their discipline. To begin, semester one studied with a group of 'planning' students. This found many things related to IL which required working with. Last semester, interventions like draft submission/feedback, guided peer review, using i-maps, reading/learning log and evaluating sources. Now investigating key skills via interviews with programme staff and then develop model for IL for this discipline.
Then Dr. Willem Fourie, Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) and Beverly McClelland, Counties Manukau District Health Board DHB present on their project 'dedicated education unit: enhancing clinical teaching and learning. The project now completed so report on findings and recommendations undertaken at this presentation. Concept of Dedicated education unit (DEU) originated in Australia with DEUs established with CPIT/Canterbury District Health Board collaboration since 2007, MIT and Manukau DHB in 2008 and Middlemore in 2009. This study uses action research to identify best practice. In each cycle of the action research, commonalities and dis-similarities were identified. Findings include importance of orientation and planning for both staff and students, roles within DEU, teamwork expectations especially between clinical learning nurse and academic learning nurse, support required from peers, students learning at different levels/years and staff, student learning needs with relevant feedback and enhancing self-confidence for all concerned. Final recommendation is for a continuation with the DEU model. Other recommendations include structure for 3rd year students to support 1st year students, selection of CLN, work on feedback from both staff and students who participated in project, continuing collaborative approach, perhaps a DEU coordinator role to be established and engagement of a multi- disciplinary team across various DEUs, consult with Maori PHOs and to consider student rotation.
A full on morning with a convivial lunch to recover and ready for the afternoon.
Monday, July 12, 2010
iPad evaluation
I managed to pick up an iPad just before I left Perth, from the recently opened local Apple Store – a beautifully laid out and designed store with ultra friendly, knowledgeable & young staff. There has been a real demand for the iPads in Perth and I had been following a thread on the local discussion forum as to where there might be one about. So when I went into the Apple store last Wed. morning and had to leave my email to be advised of the next shipment, I was not holding out much hope of getting my hands on one there. It would have to be at least another month or more before the iPad gets to NZ. Anyway, a shipment did arrive & I was able to pick a 16G WIFI model up :) on Thursday evening. Too busy to do much with it until I got back home yesterday and then was able to upload apps, music, videos and photos from iTunes on to it.
Synching everything across went well but the photos were not ported across as my iPad was only 16G & the ipod touch I have been using has 32G. So had to delete several apps & tidy up music to allow for more space. All apps work well although being ipod touch apps, they do not make use of the whole of the iPad’s screen. Will need to explore iPad specific apps next and evaluate a few which may be useful in a voc. ed. context. So if I want to also access email etc. will have to be careful with the types of media the iPad will hold. So 16G may not be the best option if you have lots of media to access. Other option is to store things on itunes and only sync across media you intend to use, archiving others for access when required.
As with the ipod touch, user friendliness of the interface is a great plus factor. The one thing which is really impressive about the iPad is the screen display and this makes it a worthwhile piece of hardware to undertake work on introducing it as a mobile learning device. There have been several articles on how to use the iPad in education including pros & cons, with two Universities in the U S of A making it a compulsory piece of hardware for their students to bring to college.
The screen real estate makes the use of the iPad as a ebook reader & hence a text book a logical progression especially if the text book was much more interactive and there was WIFI available both within & without the classroom to allow students to explore topics in greater depth through featured website links, embedded interactive quizzes, links to relevant discussion forums etc. So lots of possibilities to explore.
Synching everything across went well but the photos were not ported across as my iPad was only 16G & the ipod touch I have been using has 32G. So had to delete several apps & tidy up music to allow for more space. All apps work well although being ipod touch apps, they do not make use of the whole of the iPad’s screen. Will need to explore iPad specific apps next and evaluate a few which may be useful in a voc. ed. context. So if I want to also access email etc. will have to be careful with the types of media the iPad will hold. So 16G may not be the best option if you have lots of media to access. Other option is to store things on itunes and only sync across media you intend to use, archiving others for access when required.
As with the ipod touch, user friendliness of the interface is a great plus factor. The one thing which is really impressive about the iPad is the screen display and this makes it a worthwhile piece of hardware to undertake work on introducing it as a mobile learning device. There have been several articles on how to use the iPad in education including pros & cons, with two Universities in the U S of A making it a compulsory piece of hardware for their students to bring to college.
The screen real estate makes the use of the iPad as a ebook reader & hence a text book a logical progression especially if the text book was much more interactive and there was WIFI available both within & without the classroom to allow students to explore topics in greater depth through featured website links, embedded interactive quizzes, links to relevant discussion forums etc. So lots of possibilities to explore.
Thursday, July 08, 2010
NCVER 2010 day two morning
A later start today, which allowed me to get into town to the local Apple store (beautiful layout) to try to get an ipad. Alas, none available, so put in my registration to be on the list. Not likely I will get one by the time I leave on Saturday. Will have a trawl around the other prospectives this evening if I can fit it in.
First keynote at 9.30am by Trevor Gale from the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Ed. at the University of South Australia who spoke on 'Has equity's time come for VET? How can we embed it into the system. He provided the guidelines between difference & similarity. These include the following myths, difference being innate, social difference is the result of hard work & commitment, difference is everything, difference, difference is about equality:treating everybody the same. Much has been changed but much still stays the same :( VET in Oz has not received the same attention from policy makers on equity issues as compared to schooling. In thi, there is perhaps a clear difference between NZ & Oz, where NZ has for a longer time, had policies to support Maori & Pacific peoples. He proposed 10 equity observations & principles. These 10 equity policies may form a foundation for the development of VET approaches to equity. A thought provoking presentation which covered key principles related to issues of equity.
Then three presentations this morning relating to VET teacher training or teaching. First up, Hugh Guthrie from NCVER on initial teacher training. Research undertaken in late eighties, early nineties and later half of the nineties. Since then, not much done, hence this piece of research. Currently, VET teachers need to have a qualification over & above the level at which they teach & the Cert IV qualification. Also, VET teachers need to also keep competency & currency in the their specialise area. Plus the need to build skills as a teacher. NCVER stats show large number completing Cert IV (26,000) but only small numbers go further (800!) & perhaps 400 complete HIgher Dip. in Voc Ed.There seems to be very few Higher Ed. institutions offering further Voc. Ed. qualifications (only 14). Advocates individual organisations should offer PD relevant towards upgrading VET teachers. Perhaps too many expectations placed on Cert IV & there may need to be recognition of alternative approaches. One reason being that Cert IV tends to replace a need for organisations to put in place their own PD programmes.
Next, Emma Curtin from the L.H. Martin Institute at University of Melbourne on the quality of VET teaching. Emma provided an overview of the project including the conceptual model used. Also provided the context, project phases & some themes. This research is to eventually makde recommendations on quality of VET teaching, VET teacher quals & continuing PD (CPD) & the impact this has on student teaching. Project one of 3 concurrent, the other two mapping existing VET teacher prep programmes (Hugh Guthrie in presentation just before this one) & exploring perceptions of recent Cert IV grads (Berwyn Clayton from yesterday's pecha kucha). Literature review available on ACE website. Data collection mainly completed, data analysis to continue with final report due end of 2010. Initial findings include Cert IV a starting point but needs to be extended further with mentoring / expert guidance for new tutors, CPD needs to be formalised with opportunities for maintaining industry currency, attaining pedagogical knowledge with quals. & CPD as being interdependent. Mixed responses to how quality in teaching can be quantified. there seems to be need from some to recognise VET teaching as a profession - pehaps registration or accreditation? Some thoughts raised by initial data - one size does not fit all, may need to rethink structure of profession, more research needed on VET pedagogy.
Last session before lunch, by Susanne Francisco from the Canberra Instititute of Technology on 'how novicel TAFE teachers learn how to teach' based on her proposed doctoral research. This is a very under-researched area which has implications on VET quality of delivery etc. There is demand for TAFE teachers to have an increasingly sophisticated pedagogical repertoire (Guthrie et al, 2006). Focus of project on finding out how novice teachers learning how to teach through their practice both within and outside of TAFE. Uses Schiatzki which proposes 'bundles of practices & material arrangements'. Practice is made up of 'actions & structures which consist of know how, rules, teleogical - affective structuring and understanding. Also uses Kemmis (2009)who premises practice as doings, sayings and relatings.
First keynote at 9.30am by Trevor Gale from the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Ed. at the University of South Australia who spoke on 'Has equity's time come for VET? How can we embed it into the system. He provided the guidelines between difference & similarity. These include the following myths, difference being innate, social difference is the result of hard work & commitment, difference is everything, difference, difference is about equality:treating everybody the same. Much has been changed but much still stays the same :( VET in Oz has not received the same attention from policy makers on equity issues as compared to schooling. In thi, there is perhaps a clear difference between NZ & Oz, where NZ has for a longer time, had policies to support Maori & Pacific peoples. He proposed 10 equity observations & principles. These 10 equity policies may form a foundation for the development of VET approaches to equity. A thought provoking presentation which covered key principles related to issues of equity.
Then three presentations this morning relating to VET teacher training or teaching. First up, Hugh Guthrie from NCVER on initial teacher training. Research undertaken in late eighties, early nineties and later half of the nineties. Since then, not much done, hence this piece of research. Currently, VET teachers need to have a qualification over & above the level at which they teach & the Cert IV qualification. Also, VET teachers need to also keep competency & currency in the their specialise area. Plus the need to build skills as a teacher. NCVER stats show large number completing Cert IV (26,000) but only small numbers go further (800!) & perhaps 400 complete HIgher Dip. in Voc Ed.There seems to be very few Higher Ed. institutions offering further Voc. Ed. qualifications (only 14). Advocates individual organisations should offer PD relevant towards upgrading VET teachers. Perhaps too many expectations placed on Cert IV & there may need to be recognition of alternative approaches. One reason being that Cert IV tends to replace a need for organisations to put in place their own PD programmes.
Next, Emma Curtin from the L.H. Martin Institute at University of Melbourne on the quality of VET teaching. Emma provided an overview of the project including the conceptual model used. Also provided the context, project phases & some themes. This research is to eventually makde recommendations on quality of VET teaching, VET teacher quals & continuing PD (CPD) & the impact this has on student teaching. Project one of 3 concurrent, the other two mapping existing VET teacher prep programmes (Hugh Guthrie in presentation just before this one) & exploring perceptions of recent Cert IV grads (Berwyn Clayton from yesterday's pecha kucha). Literature review available on ACE website. Data collection mainly completed, data analysis to continue with final report due end of 2010. Initial findings include Cert IV a starting point but needs to be extended further with mentoring / expert guidance for new tutors, CPD needs to be formalised with opportunities for maintaining industry currency, attaining pedagogical knowledge with quals. & CPD as being interdependent. Mixed responses to how quality in teaching can be quantified. there seems to be need from some to recognise VET teaching as a profession - pehaps registration or accreditation? Some thoughts raised by initial data - one size does not fit all, may need to rethink structure of profession, more research needed on VET pedagogy.
Last session before lunch, by Susanne Francisco from the Canberra Instititute of Technology on 'how novicel TAFE teachers learn how to teach' based on her proposed doctoral research. This is a very under-researched area which has implications on VET quality of delivery etc. There is demand for TAFE teachers to have an increasingly sophisticated pedagogical repertoire (Guthrie et al, 2006). Focus of project on finding out how novice teachers learning how to teach through their practice both within and outside of TAFE. Uses Schiatzki which proposes 'bundles of practices & material arrangements'. Practice is made up of 'actions & structures which consist of know how, rules, teleogical - affective structuring and understanding. Also uses Kemmis (2009)who premises practice as doings, sayings and relatings.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
NCVER 2010 day one afternoon
After lunch my paper on Perspectives of new trades tutor was presented to an interested audience.
The afternoon keynote from Linda Howard who is from Macmahon & Doorn-Djil Yoordaning. She presented on the key success factors to indigenous pre-employment training. She reports on the indigenous pre-employment & workplace training at the Macmahon Pilbara operation. Doorn-Djil Yoordaning is a subsidary of Macmahon focused on indigenous people based at Newman which is in the centre north/west of WA. No challenges teaching indigenous trainees how to drive dump trucks but dispositional & interpersonal communications capabilities plus also literacy/numeracy. Students, stakeholders, employers, community etc. consulted as to contents of the programme. Programme run through Pilbara TAFE Newman campus & concentrates not only on practical skills but also the enabling skills – self-esteem, conflict resolution, communication, goal setting, team work, money management, healthy lifestyle plus resume writing & interview skills. Success factors of this programme include the acknowledgement of the importance of relationships (including family, mentors etc.)
The attended paper on 'getting our hands dirty: Participation in a trades communities of practice' with Brett Hoggard (construction) & Tom Colley(plumbing) from Victoria University which has good connections to my paper. They detailed the COP established, through funding from Office of Training & Tertiary Education (OTTE), to assist with the development of better teaching strategies and to provide opportunities for tutors to network. They presented their experiences on how the COP was set up and the advantages agendered by participating in the COP. These include the ability to 'build bridges' between schools in faculties, creates a forum to discuss innovative ideas and opens up sharing of what others are doing.
Day ended with Pecha Kucha sessions - I attended the ones with a voc.ed. /literacy - numeracy focus. These include:
Berwyn Clayton on the Cert IV in Training & Assessment (TAA) - graduate perspectives - completed as an online survey from a range of RTOs. wanted to find out the perspectives of new teachers on the training afforded through the TAA. Did TAA prepare them for teaching? 6 months later, did a follow up (indepth interview) to find out what they used from their TAA course. 97% said after the course, they could deliver learning & 80% confident to conduct assessments. All wanted opportunity to practice new skills & how to motivate learners. novices tended to find the course more useful then people who had already experienced teaching practice.
Shi Sion Tang on 'narrowing the gam between engineering & practice' whereby a study on what engineering work actually involves is reported on. There is a need to go beyond the general perception that engineering is onlye involved with 'nuts & bolts' but needs to also include many 'soft skills'. These include coordinating, collaboration, communication, interacting, importance of teamwork, dealing with subordinates, superiors, customers etc.
Unfortunately, the sessions between the two rooms were not synchronised and by the time I got to the second room, they had finished the other two presentations! Ones I would have liked to find out more about wer Andrew Vodic on 'supprting the transition from practice to research - change management perspective' & Rachael McMahon on 'measuring the 'unmeasurable' benefits of literacy training. Also a session by Wendy Kennedy on the literacy & numeracy support needs of VET lecturers would have been to attend but this one clashed with the session on engineering practice
The afternoon keynote from Linda Howard who is from Macmahon & Doorn-Djil Yoordaning. She presented on the key success factors to indigenous pre-employment training. She reports on the indigenous pre-employment & workplace training at the Macmahon Pilbara operation. Doorn-Djil Yoordaning is a subsidary of Macmahon focused on indigenous people based at Newman which is in the centre north/west of WA. No challenges teaching indigenous trainees how to drive dump trucks but dispositional & interpersonal communications capabilities plus also literacy/numeracy. Students, stakeholders, employers, community etc. consulted as to contents of the programme. Programme run through Pilbara TAFE Newman campus & concentrates not only on practical skills but also the enabling skills – self-esteem, conflict resolution, communication, goal setting, team work, money management, healthy lifestyle plus resume writing & interview skills. Success factors of this programme include the acknowledgement of the importance of relationships (including family, mentors etc.)
The attended paper on 'getting our hands dirty: Participation in a trades communities of practice' with Brett Hoggard (construction) & Tom Colley(plumbing) from Victoria University which has good connections to my paper. They detailed the COP established, through funding from Office of Training & Tertiary Education (OTTE), to assist with the development of better teaching strategies and to provide opportunities for tutors to network. They presented their experiences on how the COP was set up and the advantages agendered by participating in the COP. These include the ability to 'build bridges' between schools in faculties, creates a forum to discuss innovative ideas and opens up sharing of what others are doing.
Day ended with Pecha Kucha sessions - I attended the ones with a voc.ed. /literacy - numeracy focus. These include:
Berwyn Clayton on the Cert IV in Training & Assessment (TAA) - graduate perspectives - completed as an online survey from a range of RTOs. wanted to find out the perspectives of new teachers on the training afforded through the TAA. Did TAA prepare them for teaching? 6 months later, did a follow up (indepth interview) to find out what they used from their TAA course. 97% said after the course, they could deliver learning & 80% confident to conduct assessments. All wanted opportunity to practice new skills & how to motivate learners. novices tended to find the course more useful then people who had already experienced teaching practice.
Shi Sion Tang on 'narrowing the gam between engineering & practice' whereby a study on what engineering work actually involves is reported on. There is a need to go beyond the general perception that engineering is onlye involved with 'nuts & bolts' but needs to also include many 'soft skills'. These include coordinating, collaboration, communication, interacting, importance of teamwork, dealing with subordinates, superiors, customers etc.
Unfortunately, the sessions between the two rooms were not synchronised and by the time I got to the second room, they had finished the other two presentations! Ones I would have liked to find out more about wer Andrew Vodic on 'supprting the transition from practice to research - change management perspective' & Rachael McMahon on 'measuring the 'unmeasurable' benefits of literacy training. Also a session by Wendy Kennedy on the literacy & numeracy support needs of VET lecturers would have been to attend but this one clashed with the session on engineering practice
NCVER 2010 day one morning
At the annual NCVER 'no-frills' conference at Polytechnic West/ Central Insitute of Technology in Perth today & tomorrow. Perth weather has been nice & sunny with cold starts but pleasant afternoons. A great change from the rather gloomy weather we have been getting in Christchurch over the last two months.
Staying with my sister and being well looked after by my Mum & Dad. Took the train in this morning, clean, modern & not too crowded. Looking forward to several papers at this conference and to catching up with some of the researchers from Oz.
First up, A welcome from Mr. Wayne Collier, Polytechnic West and Reverend Seer with a welcome to the land, then the opening address by the Hon. Peter Collier, Minister of Energy; Training & workforce development who has contributed to bringing up the status of 'training' as no longer just a 'non-academic' option but as an important contribution towards building a skilled workforce. WA has just formed the Dept. of Training & Workforce Development (end of 2009) to provide structures for the long term development of work skills.
First keynote from inaugural CEO for the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) in India, Dilip Chenoy. He spoke of the challenges through tapping into opportunities for collaboration & cooperation to skill 150 million people by 2022. He covered the skill challenge presented to developing countries, the Indian National skill development framework, the role of the NSDC and then the opportunities for collatboration & cooperation both nationally & internationally. An interesting presentation on a different perspective towards developing skills for large numbers of people in a developing country. Presented a concept on the 4 collar workforce, white, grey - knowledge workers, blue & rust - skilled workers in construction etc. Skills strategy needs to increase skill training /development eight fold from what is currently available. Currently, need to improve overall quality/outcomes, increase retention & ensure seamless integration between school & work - very similar challenges to developed countries. NSDC has a role to try to be a implementation partner to coordinate training from both the public & private sector towards meeting Indian skill development framework requirements. From TAFE point of view, expertise in'train the trainers' would be sought.
First paper of the concurrent sessions (5 in each stream) with Sandra Condon who manages 'disability services' at Polytechnic West on 'Breaking down the barriers for apprentices with learning disability (LD) '. She presented her research experience, the project & its 'after effects'. Her study investigated teaching & learning strategies that contribute to unit of competency completion rates for apprentices with a LD'. Review of literature revealed some correlation between students who left school early with low literacy / numeracy completion rates to completion rates of students diagnosed with LD - ie low completions. Therefore, important to identify students and also to provided relevant support to assist with completion of qualifications.
Then Sonia Davids from Dept. of Educationa and Training, Queensland. Leading change - vision to reality - a study of the PD strategy for the QLD VET sector.
Developed to assist with PD for VET to run 2007 to 2010 & this presentation on the review of this with proposals for improvement. Sonia provided a background on the QLD skills plan 2006 which led to the VET PD strategy and an overview of the strategy itself. Outcomes of the VET PD include the website, products/services, research,VET futures & VET PD pathways. Large numbers of VET teachers / trainers have engaged through this programme via access to the website, workshops, training opportunities etc. Good outcomes also include focussed PD plan for the sector, initiated & nurtured sector wide collaboration & involvement and provided key resources for RTOs to access & share. The 4 priorities will be interested to the NZ context.
Review undertaking using interviews, electronic survey & discussion forums/interviews with wide range of VET organisations. Results will be used to establish the VET PD strategy for 2011 to 2013. Review revealed the important categories within each of the 4 PD priorities so that the next strategy able to support the ongoing PD process.
Staying with my sister and being well looked after by my Mum & Dad. Took the train in this morning, clean, modern & not too crowded. Looking forward to several papers at this conference and to catching up with some of the researchers from Oz.
First up, A welcome from Mr. Wayne Collier, Polytechnic West and Reverend Seer with a welcome to the land, then the opening address by the Hon. Peter Collier, Minister of Energy; Training & workforce development who has contributed to bringing up the status of 'training' as no longer just a 'non-academic' option but as an important contribution towards building a skilled workforce. WA has just formed the Dept. of Training & Workforce Development (end of 2009) to provide structures for the long term development of work skills.
First keynote from inaugural CEO for the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) in India, Dilip Chenoy. He spoke of the challenges through tapping into opportunities for collaboration & cooperation to skill 150 million people by 2022. He covered the skill challenge presented to developing countries, the Indian National skill development framework, the role of the NSDC and then the opportunities for collatboration & cooperation both nationally & internationally. An interesting presentation on a different perspective towards developing skills for large numbers of people in a developing country. Presented a concept on the 4 collar workforce, white, grey - knowledge workers, blue & rust - skilled workers in construction etc. Skills strategy needs to increase skill training /development eight fold from what is currently available. Currently, need to improve overall quality/outcomes, increase retention & ensure seamless integration between school & work - very similar challenges to developed countries. NSDC has a role to try to be a implementation partner to coordinate training from both the public & private sector towards meeting Indian skill development framework requirements. From TAFE point of view, expertise in'train the trainers' would be sought.
First paper of the concurrent sessions (5 in each stream) with Sandra Condon who manages 'disability services' at Polytechnic West on 'Breaking down the barriers for apprentices with learning disability (LD) '. She presented her research experience, the project & its 'after effects'. Her study investigated teaching & learning strategies that contribute to unit of competency completion rates for apprentices with a LD'. Review of literature revealed some correlation between students who left school early with low literacy / numeracy completion rates to completion rates of students diagnosed with LD - ie low completions. Therefore, important to identify students and also to provided relevant support to assist with completion of qualifications.
Then Sonia Davids from Dept. of Educationa and Training, Queensland. Leading change - vision to reality - a study of the PD strategy for the QLD VET sector.
Developed to assist with PD for VET to run 2007 to 2010 & this presentation on the review of this with proposals for improvement. Sonia provided a background on the QLD skills plan 2006 which led to the VET PD strategy and an overview of the strategy itself. Outcomes of the VET PD include the website, products/services, research,VET futures & VET PD pathways. Large numbers of VET teachers / trainers have engaged through this programme via access to the website, workshops, training opportunities etc. Good outcomes also include focussed PD plan for the sector, initiated & nurtured sector wide collaboration & involvement and provided key resources for RTOs to access & share. The 4 priorities will be interested to the NZ context.
Review undertaking using interviews, electronic survey & discussion forums/interviews with wide range of VET organisations. Results will be used to establish the VET PD strategy for 2011 to 2013. Review revealed the important categories within each of the 4 PD priorities so that the next strategy able to support the ongoing PD process.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Interactive ebooks with Inanimate alice and istories
An great example of the future of ebooks via Evan McIntoch’s edublog. Inanimatealice has been released since 2006 and currently has 4 out of 10 episodes available for download and viewing/reading. The book details how a young girl grows up to become a game digital designer. Each chapter seems to improve in sophistication as the techniques possible through interactive ebooks are explored and modelled. Also, each chapter increases in length, fro 5 minutes to 30 minutes, with greater use of interactive sections. There is some work still to be done on navigation, for instance if you are part way through an interactive section and are interrupted, when you click on the icon to go back to the relevant bit, you need to repeat the entire interaction. So a criteria I would like to see for interactive ebooks is to be able to dip in and out where ever you want to, like in a real book.
There is a discussion on the impact of interactive ebooks on publishingperspectives. Interative ebooks will have many possible applications in education. It is also possible to purchase the platform on which inanimatealice has been developed. Istories is promoted as a straightforward way to construct digital stories which include pictures, text, videos, interactive sections and sound/music. Does cost a bit though.
I have been reflecting on the different literacies our staff bring with them and how to better introduce staff unfamiliar with academic tasks like reading education journal articles. The end objective is to encourage a deeper engagement with the scholarship of teaching and learning. Will think through a possible project to develop an example of an interactive ebook that can be useful to introduce some of the concepts or theories of adult education. Staff can then build their own versions to share with other staff and this can then be a shared resource we can use for future courses. This ebook could be consolidated using powerpoint or better still using something like voicethread or perhaps even live binders. Live binders featured on Jane Hart’s tools this week and seems to be imminently suited to eportfolios with a show and tell type structure. So there are possibilities to explore for interactive ebook authoring and application.
There is a discussion on the impact of interactive ebooks on publishingperspectives. Interative ebooks will have many possible applications in education. It is also possible to purchase the platform on which inanimatealice has been developed. Istories is promoted as a straightforward way to construct digital stories which include pictures, text, videos, interactive sections and sound/music. Does cost a bit though.
I have been reflecting on the different literacies our staff bring with them and how to better introduce staff unfamiliar with academic tasks like reading education journal articles. The end objective is to encourage a deeper engagement with the scholarship of teaching and learning. Will think through a possible project to develop an example of an interactive ebook that can be useful to introduce some of the concepts or theories of adult education. Staff can then build their own versions to share with other staff and this can then be a shared resource we can use for future courses. This ebook could be consolidated using powerpoint or better still using something like voicethread or perhaps even live binders. Live binders featured on Jane Hart’s tools this week and seems to be imminently suited to eportfolios with a show and tell type structure. So there are possibilities to explore for interactive ebook authoring and application.
Monday, June 21, 2010
App Stores, new hardware and mLearncon 2010
Did a catch up over the course of last week on technology in teaching and learning. First up, App stores.Popular mobile operating systems all now have an app store of some kind or other. Apple's itunes App store has over 200,000 apps for iphones and ipod touches. Other app stores include the up and coming Android with it's market, blackberry world, Nokia's ovi stores and Palm's app catalog.
There are also sites which provide assess to multiple platforms with this report featuring getjar and others including Handago recently acquired by Pocketgear and also Handmark and Appboy. For free apps,
Mobango provides a comprehensive list featuring all the popular OS. I will be keeping at eye on these and may put in a formal project to further explore how many of our students actually access and use apps and how readily CPIT caters for students' mobile usage. Also if some apps may be useful in some specific content areas and the apps availabity / integration with Moodle.
Caught up with Engadget's posts from the last two weeks and a few new hardware of interest to the education community. Firstly, an etext book called the kno which is like two ipads joined together. Innovative and a good way forward into interactive books and how to leverage possibilities for learning using ebook technology. Secondly, launch of the iphone 4 OS with video calling capabilites using 'facetime'. will be interesting to see if anyone develops this one further to allow for conference video calling on mobile phones to be a reality. And the launch of the new Xbox360 and kinect provides educators with another challenge, to harness games technology to enhance learning.
Ingnatia from ignatiawebs was attending mlearncon 2010 organised by the elearning guild in San Diego. A foretase of mlearn 2010? Of note was the presentations by Toni Ahonen on the future of learning.
There are also sites which provide assess to multiple platforms with this report featuring getjar and others including Handago recently acquired by Pocketgear and also Handmark and Appboy. For free apps,
Mobango provides a comprehensive list featuring all the popular OS. I will be keeping at eye on these and may put in a formal project to further explore how many of our students actually access and use apps and how readily CPIT caters for students' mobile usage. Also if some apps may be useful in some specific content areas and the apps availabity / integration with Moodle.
Caught up with Engadget's posts from the last two weeks and a few new hardware of interest to the education community. Firstly, an etext book called the kno which is like two ipads joined together. Innovative and a good way forward into interactive books and how to leverage possibilities for learning using ebook technology. Secondly, launch of the iphone 4 OS with video calling capabilites using 'facetime'. will be interesting to see if anyone develops this one further to allow for conference video calling on mobile phones to be a reality. And the launch of the new Xbox360 and kinect provides educators with another challenge, to harness games technology to enhance learning.
Ingnatia from ignatiawebs was attending mlearncon 2010 organised by the elearning guild in San Diego. A foretase of mlearn 2010? Of note was the presentations by Toni Ahonen on the future of learning.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Trip to Singapore - wrap up
Back home after almost a week in Singapore. Left Singapore’s balmy 30’C plus weather to return to wintry Christchurch. Cycled in to work this frosty morning and checked the temps. at 10am to be 1’C.
Managed to do the obligatory catch up with various aunties, cozzies and my mother-in-law. Good to catch up with news in Singapore on what all the various family members are up to. The Temasek Polytechnic International Conference on Teaching & Learning went well. All the keynotes provided good presentations and workshops. There was a wide range of presentations / papers and I have been catching up with the full papers this morning. Of note are: Gary Poole’s paper to support his presentation on ‘I care & I can’; two papers with a problem based learning focus, one on student experiences by Chan Chun Ming (Temasek Polytechnic) and the other by Lisa Lim and Madeliene Lew (Republic Polytechnic) on first year students perception of one day/one problem PBL strategy; and two on feedback – one by Daphne Pan and Kiruthika Ragupathi from National University of Singapore and the other by Min Yan, David Carless, Diane Salter and Joy Lam on Feedback.
The staff at the local Polytechnics and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) seem to all be very young (perhaps it’s just me feeling old), enthusiastic about teaching and keen to learn. Networked with a few of the Polytechnic & ITE academic / staff development staff and they seem to all be focused on student centred forms of learning including an emphasis on problem based learning, especially at the polytechnic level.
Singapore, as usual, has changed physically since I was last there almost two years ago. New buildings including three tall buildings on the waterfront with what looks like a ship on the top of it. The MRT and most public areas were even more crowded that before. Where do all the people come from?? And how many more will be packed into a very small island? So good to come back to NZ where I did the grocery shopping at the local supermarket on Saturday afternoon. Just the usual small number of people about, enough to know that the supermarket was not closed.
Managed to do the obligatory catch up with various aunties, cozzies and my mother-in-law. Good to catch up with news in Singapore on what all the various family members are up to. The Temasek Polytechnic International Conference on Teaching & Learning went well. All the keynotes provided good presentations and workshops. There was a wide range of presentations / papers and I have been catching up with the full papers this morning. Of note are: Gary Poole’s paper to support his presentation on ‘I care & I can’; two papers with a problem based learning focus, one on student experiences by Chan Chun Ming (Temasek Polytechnic) and the other by Lisa Lim and Madeliene Lew (Republic Polytechnic) on first year students perception of one day/one problem PBL strategy; and two on feedback – one by Daphne Pan and Kiruthika Ragupathi from National University of Singapore and the other by Min Yan, David Carless, Diane Salter and Joy Lam on Feedback.
The staff at the local Polytechnics and Institute of Technical Education (ITE) seem to all be very young (perhaps it’s just me feeling old), enthusiastic about teaching and keen to learn. Networked with a few of the Polytechnic & ITE academic / staff development staff and they seem to all be focused on student centred forms of learning including an emphasis on problem based learning, especially at the polytechnic level.
Singapore, as usual, has changed physically since I was last there almost two years ago. New buildings including three tall buildings on the waterfront with what looks like a ship on the top of it. The MRT and most public areas were even more crowded that before. Where do all the people come from?? And how many more will be packed into a very small island? So good to come back to NZ where I did the grocery shopping at the local supermarket on Saturday afternoon. Just the usual small number of people about, enough to know that the supermarket was not closed.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Temasek Polytechnic International Conference on Teaching & Learning - day 3
The last day cosists of two workshops sessions, one in the morning with either Prof. David Boud on 'assessment reform in education' and the other with Ass. Prof. Gary Poole on ' Self-directed projects as assignment options'. The second workshop sessions are in the afternoon. Workshop sessions bracketed with one lot of concurrent sessions along with usual refuel /networking sessions.
I chose to attend the session/seminar Ass. Prof. Gary Poole with the other 1/2 of the CPIT team attending the session facilitated by Prof. David Boud. The objectives of Gary's seesion were to define 'self-direction' in student learning, identify key elements of an effective self-directed project option and to begin designing our own self-directed project option. He is keen to use the workshop, where everyone is prepared to come to do the work and shop for ideas as well :) to achieve the session's objectives.
When self-directed projects are used, the logistics, structure and preparation are crucial to ensure students are provided with sufficient support to complete their project. In particular, the negotiation process to agree to criteria for doing the project, meeting project objectives and assessing or evaluating the project is crucial. This allows for moderation of various self-directed projects to ensure parity between various self-directed projects.
After morning tea, last concurrent sessions take place. I attended the sessions which had an academic/ teacher development focus. First up, Tay Sing Leong & Roger Khoo from Insitute of Technical Education on 'staff active and reflective learning (ARL)' to enhance student management. ARL to assist staff with career exploration, public responsibility, leadership development, intellectual pursuits and professional development. ARL should be a facilitated process. The facilitator's role is to encourage active participation, create a safe space be mindful of power and who has it. Provides a forum for support, building a COP and increasing teaching practice skills.
Then 'exploring transnational approaches to educational integrity: A showcase of work of the work of Asian Pacific Forum of Educational Integrity (APFEI)' by Ruth Walker, Tracey Bretag & Julianne East from the University of Woolongong, Australia. Integrity could be academic integrity / educational values (honesty, trust, equity, respect and responsibility). Generally, the onus seems to be on students to imbibe these values and assumption is that there is a shared understanding of the requirements of academic integrity. However, challenges posed by changing student profile including internation, lower socio-economical status students and changes to social conventions on copyright requires a rethink of perception of integrity. Therefore, need to move beyond 'student deficit' but need ot focus on educative rather than punitive approaches; align policies & practices; recognise need for academics, authors and teachers to model ethical practice; realise implications of using digital technologies & changed 'economies of effort' (competing pressures of popular media culture & pedagogical directives). Approaches to help students come to grips with the concept of educational integrity include various strategies around increasing students' awareness of issues.
Final concurrent session was with Lyn Williams & Robin Graham from CPIT run a workshop on 'the complexities of learning be a tertiary teacher: emerging perspectives on the boundaries between formal & informal learning in tertiary teacher professional development'. The presentation covered the development and initial implementation of a newly developed teaching qualification, research proposal to investigate effectiveness of new qualification and feedback on ideas on how the move forward with this project. Background of CPIT & the qualification within a NZ context was firstly covered. Then the research question 'what do new vocational tutors percieve as the significant influences on and themes of their emerging practice for improving teaching to enhance student learning?' was 'unpacked' to explain the direction & focus of the project. A collaborative participatory model is proposed as a research method. Then the audience asked for feedback and suggestions on what methods, questions, gaps etc. would be useful.
In the afternoon, the concurrent workshops ran with Prof. Stephen Brookfield running one on discussion as a way of teaching and the other with Prof. Diana Laurrilard on 'A learning design support environment for collaborative pedagogical innovation'. I attended Prof. Laurrillard's workshop in order to become more familiar with her ' conversational framework'. Outcomes of this workshop / seminar are to be able to appreciate the complexity of the learning design process; a sense of how this might be embedded in a design support environment and how collaborative online design tools could enable lecturers to act 'like scientists'. Collabortive pedagogy innovation includes teachers collaborating, sharing designs or capturing pedagogy, testing pedagogic design and challenging the technology. Theorectical background includes social constructivism, collaboration, constructionist learning and knowledge building. Need for teachers to be reflective practioners (like researchers as reflective practitioners) which means building on work of other teachers; working in collaborative teams of respected peers; seeking ways of rethinking their teaching; being able to experiment, and reflect on results; and disseminating findings for peer review and use by others. Used SMS aggregation system to provide for interactivity during the session.
Introduced the concepts for capturing good pedagogy (iCOPER - standardised description of instructional model) / and Learning Design Support Enviroment (LDSE) as software developed to try to represent methods of teaching. Founded on work of Beetham (2004) - teachers'knowledge is mostly implicit' Oliver et al (2009) & Dernlet et al (2009) - teachers are not used to recording or sharing their teaching methods and Sharpe & Oliver (2007) - process of course design is complicaed and often remains a private, tacit process. Existing learning design representations tend to not allow 'tweaking' so the two examples presented provide for opportunities by practioners to adjust and customise to their own context, student profile / learning and individual teaching pedagogical approaches. A comparison made of these two 'tools'.
Good pedagogy implies alignment between learning outcomes, assessments and learning activities. Activities are categorised by the nature of the learning activities and there should be a focus on learner time (less directed, more self directed learning time).
There are possibilites for taking an existing lesson and formulating a pedagogical pattern which is generic and can then be customised for other contexts. Example at http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/
Opportunity to work through an example was then used to help the seminar participants come to grips with the concept.
I chose to attend the session/seminar Ass. Prof. Gary Poole with the other 1/2 of the CPIT team attending the session facilitated by Prof. David Boud. The objectives of Gary's seesion were to define 'self-direction' in student learning, identify key elements of an effective self-directed project option and to begin designing our own self-directed project option. He is keen to use the workshop, where everyone is prepared to come to do the work and shop for ideas as well :) to achieve the session's objectives.
When self-directed projects are used, the logistics, structure and preparation are crucial to ensure students are provided with sufficient support to complete their project. In particular, the negotiation process to agree to criteria for doing the project, meeting project objectives and assessing or evaluating the project is crucial. This allows for moderation of various self-directed projects to ensure parity between various self-directed projects.
After morning tea, last concurrent sessions take place. I attended the sessions which had an academic/ teacher development focus. First up, Tay Sing Leong & Roger Khoo from Insitute of Technical Education on 'staff active and reflective learning (ARL)' to enhance student management. ARL to assist staff with career exploration, public responsibility, leadership development, intellectual pursuits and professional development. ARL should be a facilitated process. The facilitator's role is to encourage active participation, create a safe space be mindful of power and who has it. Provides a forum for support, building a COP and increasing teaching practice skills.
Then 'exploring transnational approaches to educational integrity: A showcase of work of the work of Asian Pacific Forum of Educational Integrity (APFEI)' by Ruth Walker, Tracey Bretag & Julianne East from the University of Woolongong, Australia. Integrity could be academic integrity / educational values (honesty, trust, equity, respect and responsibility). Generally, the onus seems to be on students to imbibe these values and assumption is that there is a shared understanding of the requirements of academic integrity. However, challenges posed by changing student profile including internation, lower socio-economical status students and changes to social conventions on copyright requires a rethink of perception of integrity. Therefore, need to move beyond 'student deficit' but need ot focus on educative rather than punitive approaches; align policies & practices; recognise need for academics, authors and teachers to model ethical practice; realise implications of using digital technologies & changed 'economies of effort' (competing pressures of popular media culture & pedagogical directives). Approaches to help students come to grips with the concept of educational integrity include various strategies around increasing students' awareness of issues.
Final concurrent session was with Lyn Williams & Robin Graham from CPIT run a workshop on 'the complexities of learning be a tertiary teacher: emerging perspectives on the boundaries between formal & informal learning in tertiary teacher professional development'. The presentation covered the development and initial implementation of a newly developed teaching qualification, research proposal to investigate effectiveness of new qualification and feedback on ideas on how the move forward with this project. Background of CPIT & the qualification within a NZ context was firstly covered. Then the research question 'what do new vocational tutors percieve as the significant influences on and themes of their emerging practice for improving teaching to enhance student learning?' was 'unpacked' to explain the direction & focus of the project. A collaborative participatory model is proposed as a research method. Then the audience asked for feedback and suggestions on what methods, questions, gaps etc. would be useful.
In the afternoon, the concurrent workshops ran with Prof. Stephen Brookfield running one on discussion as a way of teaching and the other with Prof. Diana Laurrilard on 'A learning design support environment for collaborative pedagogical innovation'. I attended Prof. Laurrillard's workshop in order to become more familiar with her ' conversational framework'. Outcomes of this workshop / seminar are to be able to appreciate the complexity of the learning design process; a sense of how this might be embedded in a design support environment and how collaborative online design tools could enable lecturers to act 'like scientists'. Collabortive pedagogy innovation includes teachers collaborating, sharing designs or capturing pedagogy, testing pedagogic design and challenging the technology. Theorectical background includes social constructivism, collaboration, constructionist learning and knowledge building. Need for teachers to be reflective practioners (like researchers as reflective practitioners) which means building on work of other teachers; working in collaborative teams of respected peers; seeking ways of rethinking their teaching; being able to experiment, and reflect on results; and disseminating findings for peer review and use by others. Used SMS aggregation system to provide for interactivity during the session.
Introduced the concepts for capturing good pedagogy (iCOPER - standardised description of instructional model) / and Learning Design Support Enviroment (LDSE) as software developed to try to represent methods of teaching. Founded on work of Beetham (2004) - teachers'knowledge is mostly implicit' Oliver et al (2009) & Dernlet et al (2009) - teachers are not used to recording or sharing their teaching methods and Sharpe & Oliver (2007) - process of course design is complicaed and often remains a private, tacit process. Existing learning design representations tend to not allow 'tweaking' so the two examples presented provide for opportunities by practioners to adjust and customise to their own context, student profile / learning and individual teaching pedagogical approaches. A comparison made of these two 'tools'.
Good pedagogy implies alignment between learning outcomes, assessments and learning activities. Activities are categorised by the nature of the learning activities and there should be a focus on learner time (less directed, more self directed learning time).
There are possibilites for taking an existing lesson and formulating a pedagogical pattern which is generic and can then be customised for other contexts. Example at http://www.learningdesigns.uow.edu.au/
Opportunity to work through an example was then used to help the seminar participants come to grips with the concept.
temasek Polytechnic International Teaching & Learning conference - day two afternoon
Concurrent sessions this afternoon. I attended the sessions on elearning.
First on was Jillian Lee & Carol Lee from Temasek Polytechnic Engineering school shared a 'case study of students' experience of online learning.' This was a case study of a support course set up for students who were in a remedial class for year one algebra. Instead of standard lessons, these students recieved online delivery via online videos, pop quizzes, a written test and evaluated using an online survey
Effectiveness of the online module showed 2/3 to 3/4 of students able to score 100% on pop quizzes / written test. Useability & student perceptions were evaluated through the online survey. Generally, good feedback for the online option.
The next session was on 'innovative use of technology for vocational education' from Judy Lim Kim Kee, Lim Juat Fong, Soh Guan Kiong and Lim See Yew who are from the Institute of Technical Education. Online portal created to encourage students to be more independent learners, collaborative learning and increase literacy. Blended learning suited to student context. Elearning seen to provide opportunity to differentiation and adaptation of teaching and learning to individualise instruction. mlearning seen as an alternative. This has a fact mode, quiz mode, SMS mode (including a real time quiz - fastest fingers quiz) and video mode (short instructional video clips). Access vis GPRS or by memory card.
Another approach is to use remote virtual educational laboratory (cyberlab). This provides access to and control of real laboratory instrumentation and experiences. Various virtual instruments were provided for students to practice how to set up and use equipment. Students are able to do independent study on equipment to ensure competency.
iDe'lite - used to provide real time / role play type training for service training. Videos used to run through procedures (e.g. facial massage) and especially useful with various service based programmes.
Last session for the afternoon with Noor Fariday A. Rahim from Temasek Polytechnic on ' Web 2.0 with blended e-learning in education to engage youthes and enhance their learning. A case study of using web 2.0, elearning & blended learning in one module 'effective internet research (EIR)', a cross disciplinary subject. Began with covering definitions and examples of Web 2.0 and blended e-learning. Used blogs, wikis, forums, live chats with audio, video, print, elearning with f2f tutorials. These provide a more flexible, stimulating and independent learning environment. Linked to the specialised subject by completing a subject orientated project and also topics which impact on youth. MSN live chat as a ice-breaker and for building rapport. Blogs to reflect on student's learning process. Twitter for tutor to connect with students. Wikis to virtually collaborate and share group project. Discussion forums to learn, exchange and share knowledge about their research interests with others and Web 2.0 with blended elearning activities linked to assessment (graded portfolio).
Need to support/scaffold students into processes like blogging which young people are not as keen to use. This can be done by using a template by providing the points to write about and also model by providing an example. Introduce concepts like metaphors to help students construct better reflective blogs.
Online survey results reveal satisfaction with the teaching approach with over 90% satisfied, learnt a lot, interesting, electures convenient and helped them learn how to search the internet more effectively.
First on was Jillian Lee & Carol Lee from Temasek Polytechnic Engineering school shared a 'case study of students' experience of online learning.' This was a case study of a support course set up for students who were in a remedial class for year one algebra. Instead of standard lessons, these students recieved online delivery via online videos, pop quizzes, a written test and evaluated using an online survey
Effectiveness of the online module showed 2/3 to 3/4 of students able to score 100% on pop quizzes / written test. Useability & student perceptions were evaluated through the online survey. Generally, good feedback for the online option.
The next session was on 'innovative use of technology for vocational education' from Judy Lim Kim Kee, Lim Juat Fong, Soh Guan Kiong and Lim See Yew who are from the Institute of Technical Education. Online portal created to encourage students to be more independent learners, collaborative learning and increase literacy. Blended learning suited to student context. Elearning seen to provide opportunity to differentiation and adaptation of teaching and learning to individualise instruction. mlearning seen as an alternative. This has a fact mode, quiz mode, SMS mode (including a real time quiz - fastest fingers quiz) and video mode (short instructional video clips). Access vis GPRS or by memory card.
Another approach is to use remote virtual educational laboratory (cyberlab). This provides access to and control of real laboratory instrumentation and experiences. Various virtual instruments were provided for students to practice how to set up and use equipment. Students are able to do independent study on equipment to ensure competency.
iDe'lite - used to provide real time / role play type training for service training. Videos used to run through procedures (e.g. facial massage) and especially useful with various service based programmes.
Last session for the afternoon with Noor Fariday A. Rahim from Temasek Polytechnic on ' Web 2.0 with blended e-learning in education to engage youthes and enhance their learning. A case study of using web 2.0, elearning & blended learning in one module 'effective internet research (EIR)', a cross disciplinary subject. Began with covering definitions and examples of Web 2.0 and blended e-learning. Used blogs, wikis, forums, live chats with audio, video, print, elearning with f2f tutorials. These provide a more flexible, stimulating and independent learning environment. Linked to the specialised subject by completing a subject orientated project and also topics which impact on youth. MSN live chat as a ice-breaker and for building rapport. Blogs to reflect on student's learning process. Twitter for tutor to connect with students. Wikis to virtually collaborate and share group project. Discussion forums to learn, exchange and share knowledge about their research interests with others and Web 2.0 with blended elearning activities linked to assessment (graded portfolio).
Need to support/scaffold students into processes like blogging which young people are not as keen to use. This can be done by using a template by providing the points to write about and also model by providing an example. Introduce concepts like metaphors to help students construct better reflective blogs.
Online survey results reveal satisfaction with the teaching approach with over 90% satisfied, learnt a lot, interesting, electures convenient and helped them learn how to search the internet more effectively.
Temasek Polytechnic International Teaching & Learning Conference
day two began with a video produced to celebrate the Temasek Polytechnic 20th anniversary.
First session was presented by four students speaking on their experiences of assessment processes. A good opportunity for the student voice to be heard :) a range of project based / realistic / real-world focused / applied assessments were described by the four very articulate students. The assessments were underpinned by a problem based learning focus including group work, peer assessments, reflective journals and team / individual projects.
The first keynote was with Professor David Boud on "a new assessment agenda: equipping students for the continuing challenges of learning and assessment". His presentation covered why assessments seemed to have failed educationally and pedagogically and how to move assessments and transform them towards supporting longer term learning. A key factor in changing assessment practices is to shift the ways in educational practioners' assessment thinking.
Assessments have failed as it tends to drive compliance, not initiative; foster depenency by learners on assesors and being assessed; backward looking to what has been rather than what may be achieved; makes us fearful rather than build confidence and depletes capacity rather than builds it. Reasons for this state of affairs include a fixation with certification and with measurement (e.g. norm referencing which is based on the performance of student cohorts and the standard is there set by each group!).
Into the future, we do not know what we must prepare for students for as the future is unknown. Therefore, students need to be prepared to cope with the requirements of the future. Assessments mean different things to different people. Assessments have moved from educational measurement to competence, authenticity and attributes and in the future moves to building capacity for judgement. This then provides students with skills to cope with future needs.
Therefore, shift in assessment thinking involves - from teacher to learning centred; from testing knowledge to judging outcomes; assessing subjects to judging professional capability; and testing students to producing learners.
Current agenda of assessment includes assessment based on explicit standards, constructive alignment between desired learning outcomes, teaching & learning activities & assessment; well-timed, high quality feedback to students; and assessment of graduate attributes. Need to move assessments from certification(summative assessments) to aiding learning (formative assesments) and fostering lifelong learning (sustainable assessment).
Sustainable assessments look beyond the immediate context, avoids creating dependency and focuses on higher-order knowledge and skills in context. Needs to develop informed judgement by developing students capacity to make judgement; assessments are about informing students' own judgement and opportunities for developing informed judgement to be staged across a programme. also needs to construct reflexive learners by involving students in assessment, position students to see themselves as learners who are pro-active and generative and focus on reflexivity and self-regulation though every aspect of a course. also forms the becoming practioner as assessments help calibrate judgement; develops confidence and skills to manage their own learning and assessments and develops capacity to work effectively with others to assist learning and mutually develop informed judgement.
After morning tea, the second keynote for the day from Ass. Prof. Gary Poole from the University of Columbia who presented on "I care and I can: the importance of student attitutes towards course relevance and their ability to succeed. Why does it matter to educators that different people have different beliefs about whether they can or cannot do something. Gary covered two items. Why the content of the presentation is important and how pedogogical practices can help to encourage students to succeed.
The ways students think about a subject, affects their learning of that subject. This includes the extent with which students find relevance and value in the subject matter; different students' perceptions about the difficulty or intellectual accessibility of course material. Therefore, I care - beliefs about relevance and I can - beliefs about self-efficacy.
Do we introduce a problem before or after the presentation of content? After - case based, can apply newly acquired knowledge to problem. Before - problem based, can place new knowledge in the context of the problem and can see the relevance of the knowledge early.
how will students know that they can? Then may find out from their teachers or from other students. Students need to be cognisant of the need for effort on their part as an important adjunct to their own natural ability and the help of others. Teachers need to set 'problems' which are clear, challenging and relevant and to know now much support should be provided for students to learn through solving the problem.
Morning session ended with the the results carried out by two students of a student survey on I care / I can carried out at Temasek Polytechnic.
questions include 'for me, the person who usually drives my learning are -- students themselves (70%) with lecturers, parents etc. very much less
'I will accept the diploma if offered to me right now without any work or courses' 90% said NO.
Reasons for answers include I need to acquire the necessary knowledge/skills (60%), i do not feel right to recieve something for nothing, studying gives sense of satisfaction.
how confident are students when they first start? - 90% confident
ability to succeed is within your control - almost 80% strongly agree
factors which help students succeed? Students efford almost 80%, both lecturers & student support also important.
most important factor which motivates learning? acquiring knowledge & getting good job around 35%.
students require relevance of studies to future career - yes.
therefore students care about acquiring knowledge /skills, they are confident and willing to work and if shown relevance of content will maintain motivation.
First session was presented by four students speaking on their experiences of assessment processes. A good opportunity for the student voice to be heard :) a range of project based / realistic / real-world focused / applied assessments were described by the four very articulate students. The assessments were underpinned by a problem based learning focus including group work, peer assessments, reflective journals and team / individual projects.
The first keynote was with Professor David Boud on "a new assessment agenda: equipping students for the continuing challenges of learning and assessment". His presentation covered why assessments seemed to have failed educationally and pedagogically and how to move assessments and transform them towards supporting longer term learning. A key factor in changing assessment practices is to shift the ways in educational practioners' assessment thinking.
Assessments have failed as it tends to drive compliance, not initiative; foster depenency by learners on assesors and being assessed; backward looking to what has been rather than what may be achieved; makes us fearful rather than build confidence and depletes capacity rather than builds it. Reasons for this state of affairs include a fixation with certification and with measurement (e.g. norm referencing which is based on the performance of student cohorts and the standard is there set by each group!).
Into the future, we do not know what we must prepare for students for as the future is unknown. Therefore, students need to be prepared to cope with the requirements of the future. Assessments mean different things to different people. Assessments have moved from educational measurement to competence, authenticity and attributes and in the future moves to building capacity for judgement. This then provides students with skills to cope with future needs.
Therefore, shift in assessment thinking involves - from teacher to learning centred; from testing knowledge to judging outcomes; assessing subjects to judging professional capability; and testing students to producing learners.
Current agenda of assessment includes assessment based on explicit standards, constructive alignment between desired learning outcomes, teaching & learning activities & assessment; well-timed, high quality feedback to students; and assessment of graduate attributes. Need to move assessments from certification(summative assessments) to aiding learning (formative assesments) and fostering lifelong learning (sustainable assessment).
Sustainable assessments look beyond the immediate context, avoids creating dependency and focuses on higher-order knowledge and skills in context. Needs to develop informed judgement by developing students capacity to make judgement; assessments are about informing students' own judgement and opportunities for developing informed judgement to be staged across a programme. also needs to construct reflexive learners by involving students in assessment, position students to see themselves as learners who are pro-active and generative and focus on reflexivity and self-regulation though every aspect of a course. also forms the becoming practioner as assessments help calibrate judgement; develops confidence and skills to manage their own learning and assessments and develops capacity to work effectively with others to assist learning and mutually develop informed judgement.
After morning tea, the second keynote for the day from Ass. Prof. Gary Poole from the University of Columbia who presented on "I care and I can: the importance of student attitutes towards course relevance and their ability to succeed. Why does it matter to educators that different people have different beliefs about whether they can or cannot do something. Gary covered two items. Why the content of the presentation is important and how pedogogical practices can help to encourage students to succeed.
The ways students think about a subject, affects their learning of that subject. This includes the extent with which students find relevance and value in the subject matter; different students' perceptions about the difficulty or intellectual accessibility of course material. Therefore, I care - beliefs about relevance and I can - beliefs about self-efficacy.
Do we introduce a problem before or after the presentation of content? After - case based, can apply newly acquired knowledge to problem. Before - problem based, can place new knowledge in the context of the problem and can see the relevance of the knowledge early.
how will students know that they can? Then may find out from their teachers or from other students. Students need to be cognisant of the need for effort on their part as an important adjunct to their own natural ability and the help of others. Teachers need to set 'problems' which are clear, challenging and relevant and to know now much support should be provided for students to learn through solving the problem.
Morning session ended with the the results carried out by two students of a student survey on I care / I can carried out at Temasek Polytechnic.
questions include 'for me, the person who usually drives my learning are -- students themselves (70%) with lecturers, parents etc. very much less
'I will accept the diploma if offered to me right now without any work or courses' 90% said NO.
Reasons for answers include I need to acquire the necessary knowledge/skills (60%), i do not feel right to recieve something for nothing, studying gives sense of satisfaction.
how confident are students when they first start? - 90% confident
ability to succeed is within your control - almost 80% strongly agree
factors which help students succeed? Students efford almost 80%, both lecturers & student support also important.
most important factor which motivates learning? acquiring knowledge & getting good job around 35%.
students require relevance of studies to future career - yes.
therefore students care about acquiring knowledge /skills, they are confident and willing to work and if shown relevance of content will maintain motivation.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Temasek Polytechnic International Teaching & Learning conference - Day 1 afternoon
After lunch, my presentation on the CPIT mportfolio project took place with a good group attending. The concept used in the project is now so much more easier to put into place with the improved capabilities and range of mobile hardware and web 2.0 based software now available.
Stayed for presentations by two others. First up Nalaka Edirisinghe on managing learner diversity in teaching a year 1 programme. The development and provision to first year Diploma in IT students by using programming languages which are pertinent to their specialisations (eg. game programming). Students could then begin work on the language they would be studying over the course of three years but all the different groups of students were taught in a generalised course. This had advantages for the students but led to more work for teaching staff to set up the relevant examples in all three languages and write assessment questions which could be answered with anyone of the languages taught.
Next up Tan Hock Seng also from Temasek Polytechnic on 'a model of simulation-based learning. This focused on finding out is SBL was actually useful as a learning tool. A good followup to Diana Laurrilard's presentation by providing an example of how a well thought out interactive virtual machine (eg. a lathe) assists or does not assists / enhance student learning. also a similar concept to the 'laying out a building site' simulation used at CPIT to help construction students become familiar with a practical task before actually undertaken the actual practical task.
After afternoon tea, attended a couple of sessions. First up, Chung Yin Wah from Nanyang Polytechnic on the 'accumulated experience sharing system' (AES). Nanyang Polytechnic uses a practice and application-oriented training featuring authentic learning environments. Examples include chemical engineering, engineering, software quality and security and business administration, supported through industry sponsorship and real-life project work opportunities. These help to emulate and integrate real-life industrial environments in teaching and learning. The AES has a repository of over 5000 projects between staff/students and industry projects/services. This repository can then be used by future students to provide examples and also as a way to help other students with information including tacit knowledge they can mine for their own projects. Staff can also use the AES as a teaching resource to show exemplars and model project development stages.
Next up, Catherine Ross from the Open Polytechnic in New Zealand on ' I don't feel so isolated': crossing the boundaries of distance through peer mentoring and support. This project put in place for 1st year students by the Open Poly. to support students, especially those in programmes which have a high attrition rate. Peer mentoring is used by employing experienced senior students to support newer students. Learning motivation theories including Dweck (1999) theories of self, self motivation theory (Cohen, Garcia, Apfel & master, 2008), strengths approach (Anderson, 2003), positive psychology. This approach centre on identifying students' underlying goals /motivation, focus on existing strengths and competencies, draw out past successes and validate effort rather than achievement. The programme help new students to settle into study and peer mentors maintain contact via telephone. Contact times concide with stages which have been found to be times students have difficulties, these include start of course / before the first assignment, second assessment/mid-course and end of year assessment / examination. In each contact time, specific 'scripts' are followed in order to ensure students recieve the appropriate support.
Stayed for presentations by two others. First up Nalaka Edirisinghe on managing learner diversity in teaching a year 1 programme. The development and provision to first year Diploma in IT students by using programming languages which are pertinent to their specialisations (eg. game programming). Students could then begin work on the language they would be studying over the course of three years but all the different groups of students were taught in a generalised course. This had advantages for the students but led to more work for teaching staff to set up the relevant examples in all three languages and write assessment questions which could be answered with anyone of the languages taught.
Next up Tan Hock Seng also from Temasek Polytechnic on 'a model of simulation-based learning. This focused on finding out is SBL was actually useful as a learning tool. A good followup to Diana Laurrilard's presentation by providing an example of how a well thought out interactive virtual machine (eg. a lathe) assists or does not assists / enhance student learning. also a similar concept to the 'laying out a building site' simulation used at CPIT to help construction students become familiar with a practical task before actually undertaken the actual practical task.
After afternoon tea, attended a couple of sessions. First up, Chung Yin Wah from Nanyang Polytechnic on the 'accumulated experience sharing system' (AES). Nanyang Polytechnic uses a practice and application-oriented training featuring authentic learning environments. Examples include chemical engineering, engineering, software quality and security and business administration, supported through industry sponsorship and real-life project work opportunities. These help to emulate and integrate real-life industrial environments in teaching and learning. The AES has a repository of over 5000 projects between staff/students and industry projects/services. This repository can then be used by future students to provide examples and also as a way to help other students with information including tacit knowledge they can mine for their own projects. Staff can also use the AES as a teaching resource to show exemplars and model project development stages.
Next up, Catherine Ross from the Open Polytechnic in New Zealand on ' I don't feel so isolated': crossing the boundaries of distance through peer mentoring and support. This project put in place for 1st year students by the Open Poly. to support students, especially those in programmes which have a high attrition rate. Peer mentoring is used by employing experienced senior students to support newer students. Learning motivation theories including Dweck (1999) theories of self, self motivation theory (Cohen, Garcia, Apfel & master, 2008), strengths approach (Anderson, 2003), positive psychology. This approach centre on identifying students' underlying goals /motivation, focus on existing strengths and competencies, draw out past successes and validate effort rather than achievement. The programme help new students to settle into study and peer mentors maintain contact via telephone. Contact times concide with stages which have been found to be times students have difficulties, these include start of course / before the first assignment, second assessment/mid-course and end of year assessment / examination. In each contact time, specific 'scripts' are followed in order to ensure students recieve the appropriate support.
Temasek Polytechnic International Teaching & Learning Conference - day 1 morning
At the Temasek iternational Teaching & Learning conference today. Conference opened with 10 minute video on Temasek Polytechnic's facilities, programmes and educational philosophies. Welcome from the Temasek Polytechnic Choral followed by official opening address by Mr. Boo Kheng Hua, the Principal and CEO of Temasek Polytechnic. The conference officially opened by guests of honour along with presentation of gifts to the keynote presentation. feedback, comments & questions can be texted to
First keynote, the much anticipated Professor Stephen Brookfield on 'Becoming a Skillful Teacher'.
Who we are as teachers may be premised on who we are as learners. Stephen proposed that being a poor learner helped him to become a better teacher.He illustrated this proposal by telling his story, of how being a student who struggled academically flourished when he was provided the opportunities for self direction and support for individualised assistance when required. From his experiences as a Phd student, he became interested in the importance of building trust between students and teacher. Especially in how this reciprocal trust may be used to enhance the development of critical thinking strategies.
He also spoke of the challenges of teaching, using the term the term 'muddling through' but doing this in a delibrate and reflective manner to ensure the one learns from each teaching situation.
Four assumptions - teaching is helping learning, good teaching = whatever helps students learn, best teaching is critical reflective - checking assumptions informing your practice and most importatnt the pedagogical knowledge we need - how students experience learning. He provided stories from his own teaching for each of the four assumptions. An engaging approach as he was able to built rapport and empathy from the audience. Remember the examples which are also provided in several of his books. He also spoke on his use of the Critical Incident Questionnaire in probing student's perception of learning progress.
after morning tea, a session - pedagogy - in search of a definition - which is background and presentation from the interactive digital media programme at Temasek Polytechnic's Informatics and IT school. Began with overview of digital use by Singaporeans and then of TP students. Findings show a preference for a 'blended learning approach' to teaching and learning. TP using IDM technology to form communities of self-directed learners to help co-create knowledge, personalised to individual learning needs and be accessible anytime/anywhere. An example of better meaningful learning is to encourage sharing of information beween students via shared note-taking etc. to encourage this, some changes need to be made to physical environments, definitions (learning spaces) and pedagogy which encourages not only mastery of knowledge & skills but also knowledge construction and sharing.
Dr. Diana Laurillard presented keynote on 'can pedagogical creativity cross discipline boundaries? The role of learning technologits in collaborative innovation' from the London Knowledge lab. The presentation covered 'why might we need digital tech in learning & teaching?', optimising the learning design process, improving leanring through technology and capturing pedagogy. Need to not just use the technology because it is there but to challenge how technology can actually enhance student learning.
Why? might be through fit to pedagogy (personalised, social and/or active learning, digital skills for work & life), logistics (flexibility, wider reach, better use of teacher time), economics (blended delivery, much more for slightly more and sharing tools, resources & designs), strategic fit and student demand.
To optimise the learning design revolves around encouraging and supporting educators as 'researchers' to adopt, critique, adapt, do and then evaluate. Can be done via "scaffolding the learning design process, embracing a gentle introduction by modelling and visually representing the learning design process, capturing teachers' learning designs for later revision or sharing in appropriate visual representations and foster a community of practice in which teachers can share, take inspiration from, each others' teaching & learning designs". this is based on the concept that the learner (the connversational framework model), in order to understand concepts or adopt practices/ skills (learning concept) is through carrying out an action plan (learning outocome) which is tempered by reflection and adaption. Teachers add to learning by teacher contact (listening / reading) beings guided, students asking questions and through teaching practice which involves working to a goal, providing feedback and by students experimenting and revising. Other learners can also support this via students having access to ideas of others, comparing student outputs and being able to articulate ideas and use all thes to improve on their own learning outputs.
Used an example to explain how to use technology to improve learning by unpacking how 'parts of an engine' can be enhanced. For instance, just using flash to just label parts or reassemble a 3D engine might not lead to greater reflection/adaption. needs to include a more delibrate feedback cycle to encourage in deeper learning, for instance why putting an engine together in various ways affect efficiency etc.
with capturing pedagogy, an example used where by a specific example of a learning activity can be generalised and then contextualised to another use. Firstly, highlight the actual keywords which are learning outcomes, then convert to more generalised description and then adapt to other specialists areas. This can be visually expressed and patterns can be better discerned, adapted, improved etc.
First keynote, the much anticipated Professor Stephen Brookfield on 'Becoming a Skillful Teacher'.
Who we are as teachers may be premised on who we are as learners. Stephen proposed that being a poor learner helped him to become a better teacher.He illustrated this proposal by telling his story, of how being a student who struggled academically flourished when he was provided the opportunities for self direction and support for individualised assistance when required. From his experiences as a Phd student, he became interested in the importance of building trust between students and teacher. Especially in how this reciprocal trust may be used to enhance the development of critical thinking strategies.
He also spoke of the challenges of teaching, using the term the term 'muddling through' but doing this in a delibrate and reflective manner to ensure the one learns from each teaching situation.
Four assumptions - teaching is helping learning, good teaching = whatever helps students learn, best teaching is critical reflective - checking assumptions informing your practice and most importatnt the pedagogical knowledge we need - how students experience learning. He provided stories from his own teaching for each of the four assumptions. An engaging approach as he was able to built rapport and empathy from the audience. Remember the examples which are also provided in several of his books. He also spoke on his use of the Critical Incident Questionnaire in probing student's perception of learning progress.
after morning tea, a session - pedagogy - in search of a definition - which is background and presentation from the interactive digital media programme at Temasek Polytechnic's Informatics and IT school. Began with overview of digital use by Singaporeans and then of TP students. Findings show a preference for a 'blended learning approach' to teaching and learning. TP using IDM technology to form communities of self-directed learners to help co-create knowledge, personalised to individual learning needs and be accessible anytime/anywhere. An example of better meaningful learning is to encourage sharing of information beween students via shared note-taking etc. to encourage this, some changes need to be made to physical environments, definitions (learning spaces) and pedagogy which encourages not only mastery of knowledge & skills but also knowledge construction and sharing.
Dr. Diana Laurillard presented keynote on 'can pedagogical creativity cross discipline boundaries? The role of learning technologits in collaborative innovation' from the London Knowledge lab. The presentation covered 'why might we need digital tech in learning & teaching?', optimising the learning design process, improving leanring through technology and capturing pedagogy. Need to not just use the technology because it is there but to challenge how technology can actually enhance student learning.
Why? might be through fit to pedagogy (personalised, social and/or active learning, digital skills for work & life), logistics (flexibility, wider reach, better use of teacher time), economics (blended delivery, much more for slightly more and sharing tools, resources & designs), strategic fit and student demand.
To optimise the learning design revolves around encouraging and supporting educators as 'researchers' to adopt, critique, adapt, do and then evaluate. Can be done via "scaffolding the learning design process, embracing a gentle introduction by modelling and visually representing the learning design process, capturing teachers' learning designs for later revision or sharing in appropriate visual representations and foster a community of practice in which teachers can share, take inspiration from, each others' teaching & learning designs". this is based on the concept that the learner (the connversational framework model), in order to understand concepts or adopt practices/ skills (learning concept) is through carrying out an action plan (learning outocome) which is tempered by reflection and adaption. Teachers add to learning by teacher contact (listening / reading) beings guided, students asking questions and through teaching practice which involves working to a goal, providing feedback and by students experimenting and revising. Other learners can also support this via students having access to ideas of others, comparing student outputs and being able to articulate ideas and use all thes to improve on their own learning outputs.
Used an example to explain how to use technology to improve learning by unpacking how 'parts of an engine' can be enhanced. For instance, just using flash to just label parts or reassemble a 3D engine might not lead to greater reflection/adaption. needs to include a more delibrate feedback cycle to encourage in deeper learning, for instance why putting an engine together in various ways affect efficiency etc.
with capturing pedagogy, an example used where by a specific example of a learning activity can be generalised and then contextualised to another use. Firstly, highlight the actual keywords which are learning outcomes, then convert to more generalised description and then adapt to other specialists areas. This can be visually expressed and patterns can be better discerned, adapted, improved etc.
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Use of mobile devices on met in singapore
In Singapore this week for the temasek polytechnic international teaching n learning conference which begins on Wednesday. First up a catch up with the rellies. Did several trips on the mass rapid transport system which is clean, efficient and cheap
capacity was crowded to chocker to fully stuffed!! Seems a lot more crowded then when I visited a couple of years ago. Of note is the prevalence of mobile use.ranging from grannies txting to school kids sharing iPods with one earbud for each person to little tods playing games on PSPs. Also usual business types with smartphones and every other person seems to me poking at a small screen. At least 70% seem to be engaged with some sort of mobile device with those not either reading or sleeping. Will visit a couple oh the technology malls tomorrow which will be techy heaven.
capacity was crowded to chocker to fully stuffed!! Seems a lot more crowded then when I visited a couple of years ago. Of note is the prevalence of mobile use.ranging from grannies txting to school kids sharing iPods with one earbud for each person to little tods playing games on PSPs. Also usual business types with smartphones and every other person seems to me poking at a small screen. At least 70% seem to be engaged with some sort of mobile device with those not either reading or sleeping. Will visit a couple oh the technology malls tomorrow which will be techy heaven.
Friday, June 04, 2010
ITPNZ Foundation tutors Forum - 3rd June
Presented a version of the ‘perspectives of new trades tutors’ Ako Aotearoa Southern Hub funded project at the ITPNZ Foundation Educators’Forum at the Wellington city campus of Whitireia Polytechnic yesterday. The title of the presentation was “ITP communities of practice: Their contribution to the induction of new trades tutors.” I used a comparison of various activity theory nodes (subject, tools, object, communities of practice, rules, division of labour, mediating artefacts) to compare the socio-cultural spheres of new tutors who come into ITP teaching careers with a workplace /trades orientation and the needs of ITPs which are focused on the scholarship of teaching and learning. This, along with the concept of vocational identity boundary crossing, presented at the ITF conference in March, provide for a metaphor to explain and assist the transition of trades people into trades teachers.
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Tacit Knowledge
An article on the New Scientist via my iGoogle page caught my attention this morning. This is probably because the term came up as a point of discussion in one of my adult learning principles classes. Several of the students were not familiar with the term and we then did a brief side step during the course of the lesson to explore the implications of tacit knowledge on their roles as teachers. In summary, the article provides a good overview, brief history of how Polanyi coined the term tacit knowledge and the three kinds of tacit knowledge. These are somatic (innate), relational (social/logistical) and collective (contextual/socio-cultural).
Above of use also to my current research in trying to unpack how trade skills (much of which seem to have become tacit in experts/tutors) can be better modelled / taught to novices.
The article above also leads to a website of the University of Cardiff research group, led by Harry Collins, working on expertise. Lots of information on this site to trawl through with up to date information on various aspects of expertise. Links to publications and books produced so it will take me some time to trawl through all the interesting bits.
Above of use also to my current research in trying to unpack how trade skills (much of which seem to have become tacit in experts/tutors) can be better modelled / taught to novices.
The article above also leads to a website of the University of Cardiff research group, led by Harry Collins, working on expertise. Lots of information on this site to trawl through with up to date information on various aspects of expertise. Links to publications and books produced so it will take me some time to trawl through all the interesting bits.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Silicon Coach for studying trades based skills acquisition
Had a look at Silicon Coach with Andy Hearn, CPIT tutor in the school of science who teaches students on the sports and fitness programmes and the new Batchelor of Applied Science. This software is a specialised video analysis tool for sports to record sports activities, review and analyse the movements and then to share the findings.
The software includes a video format converter which is handy. Also nifty tools for drawing lines on to the video to compare angles of movement etc. There is also the ability to run two videos side by side and to superimpose videos one on top of each other to do comparative studies. The software seems to be easy and intuitive to use. Presentations may then be build from various analysis of sports peoples’ performances and exported via email, on to DVDs, or on to ipods.
I can see some use for Silicon Coach in our multimodal study of apprentices’ learning. This is especially if we are comparing, say the movement of the tutor and the students when learning discrete skills. This skill will need to be very specialised in order to make the most of the software. However, there is no facility to annotate the videos unless we transport the videos into another programme or to do thematic analysis on video clips.
So the choice video analysis software will be dependent on what our research goal are for each of our multimodal studies. It will be worthwhile to learn how to use Silicon Coach to do at least one in-depth study of skill based learning as this area does not seem to have received much attention. Something to think about as we embark on next semester’s project on studying apprentices learning in the areas of welding and building.
The software includes a video format converter which is handy. Also nifty tools for drawing lines on to the video to compare angles of movement etc. There is also the ability to run two videos side by side and to superimpose videos one on top of each other to do comparative studies. The software seems to be easy and intuitive to use. Presentations may then be build from various analysis of sports peoples’ performances and exported via email, on to DVDs, or on to ipods.
I can see some use for Silicon Coach in our multimodal study of apprentices’ learning. This is especially if we are comparing, say the movement of the tutor and the students when learning discrete skills. This skill will need to be very specialised in order to make the most of the software. However, there is no facility to annotate the videos unless we transport the videos into another programme or to do thematic analysis on video clips.
So the choice video analysis software will be dependent on what our research goal are for each of our multimodal studies. It will be worthwhile to learn how to use Silicon Coach to do at least one in-depth study of skill based learning as this area does not seem to have received much attention. Something to think about as we embark on next semester’s project on studying apprentices learning in the areas of welding and building.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Comparing nVivo and alasti for video analysis
At present, the qualitative software analysis platform we use at CPIT is nVivo. I am now using nVivo with the ‘perspectives of first year apprentices’ project and the thematic analysis of interview data for the ‘perspectives of new trades tutors’ was completed using nVivo. I have discussed pros and cons of using Vivo before, Presently, I find it is easy to use and generally intuitive with regards to dealing with text analysis although I also take into account that nVivo does impose a certain way of thinking about qualitative analysis.
Discussions with a few other researchers who work with video data reveal several use atlasti. So I downloaded a free trial version of atlasti and have completed transcription of a short video clip with both sets of software. The free version of atlasti allows users to upload 10 primary documents, work with 50 codes, 100 quotations and 30 memos.
Here is a comparison of older versions of nVivo and Atlasti, As a comparison, of my own evaluation of the two, I have jotted down some notes.
The first task is to learn a whole set of new terms!! Atlasti – hermeneutic unit vs project on nvivo. Alasti quotes or quotations vs nodes in nVivo for themes. Networks in alasti vs models in nvivo etc etc.
Atlasti is more ‘windows like’ in layout but nVivo uses the concept of folders to store and navigate through the various layers of data. Atlasti is more intuitive to use for uploading ‘primary documents’ which are referred to as ‘sources’ in nVivo.
Importing videos into each programme meant we had to convert videos to the correct file format which could be read by each data analysis software package. We used any video converter which is a free download and easy to use. Converting between video formats using this tool is straightforward.
Time stamp on nVivo only allows for a minute intervals which are, at the moment, not fine enough with the transcripts we have been producing. Also only one column for timespan and another for comments. However, custom columns can be added.
Had to convert word table of transcripts into a rtf or txt file to upload as a ‘primary document’ in atlasti which mucked up the organisation of the word table. Assigning quotations (nodes in nVivo) was simple, similar to adding comments to a word document. Coding also straight forward using a drag and drop technique. Video coding using an editing technique to snip segments out of the video to code.
Coding video using nVivo also involves a snipping / selection process and then a drag and drop of the selected segment to the code required. The coding summary records the timespan or the transcript fragment.
On alasti, the coding is marked on the transcript on a side screen and the actual video clip comes up.
Will need to work with both nVivo and Atlasti for another couple of clips to become proficient at the technicalities of working with each tool. At the moment, they both complete similar tasks although for the moment, Atlasti provides a better method to access video segments which have been coded.
Discussions with a few other researchers who work with video data reveal several use atlasti. So I downloaded a free trial version of atlasti and have completed transcription of a short video clip with both sets of software. The free version of atlasti allows users to upload 10 primary documents, work with 50 codes, 100 quotations and 30 memos.
Here is a comparison of older versions of nVivo and Atlasti, As a comparison, of my own evaluation of the two, I have jotted down some notes.
The first task is to learn a whole set of new terms!! Atlasti – hermeneutic unit vs project on nvivo. Alasti quotes or quotations vs nodes in nVivo for themes. Networks in alasti vs models in nvivo etc etc.
Atlasti is more ‘windows like’ in layout but nVivo uses the concept of folders to store and navigate through the various layers of data. Atlasti is more intuitive to use for uploading ‘primary documents’ which are referred to as ‘sources’ in nVivo.
Importing videos into each programme meant we had to convert videos to the correct file format which could be read by each data analysis software package. We used any video converter which is a free download and easy to use. Converting between video formats using this tool is straightforward.
Time stamp on nVivo only allows for a minute intervals which are, at the moment, not fine enough with the transcripts we have been producing. Also only one column for timespan and another for comments. However, custom columns can be added.
Had to convert word table of transcripts into a rtf or txt file to upload as a ‘primary document’ in atlasti which mucked up the organisation of the word table. Assigning quotations (nodes in nVivo) was simple, similar to adding comments to a word document. Coding also straight forward using a drag and drop technique. Video coding using an editing technique to snip segments out of the video to code.
Coding video using nVivo also involves a snipping / selection process and then a drag and drop of the selected segment to the code required. The coding summary records the timespan or the transcript fragment.
On alasti, the coding is marked on the transcript on a side screen and the actual video clip comes up.
Will need to work with both nVivo and Atlasti for another couple of clips to become proficient at the technicalities of working with each tool. At the moment, they both complete similar tasks although for the moment, Atlasti provides a better method to access video segments which have been coded.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Using google books for research and teaching
Besides searching the web using Google, the google tool I use the most is Google books. I also have an iGoogle site which has usual calendar/weather plus links to RSS feeds for local NZ news, BBC news and Endgagets plus a few widgets which I use often including a currency converter, scrabble dictionary and a measurements converter. Google scholar also features high on my list of google tools to use as it augments the CPIT Proquest database for scholarly, peer-reviewed articles. I often use google scholar as a precursor to Proquest to get a feel for the researchers working in a pertinent field and then continue on with the Proquest databases.
However, I find myself using Google books at least a couple of times a day to look things up and to add to articles found on Google scholar or Proquests. Since starting the use of google books at the end of 2008, I now have over 500 books categorised into 47 bookshelves. 99% of these offer previews. Often the contents page and first introductory chapter contain enough information to follow through either with an interloan request to the library for a copy of the relevant chapter or a purchase request to the library. I am also now placing GB as a tag on to articles / books stored on Endnotes as a cross reference for me to access the relevant article or book easily.
Google books show up well on my ipod touch as well so with an ipad, the reading experience will be even better. It is really the convenience more than anything else which makes google books such a great resource. When I get the time in the future, I will contribute with reviews of books etc. as many of the books currently in my library tend to be focused on workplace learning, apprentice research, identity formation etc. which are not really books read by the general public.
I have found Google books to be a good way to ease adult education students into reading online. I provide hyperlinks to pertinent and seminal books on Moodle as 'readings' the week before a scheduled f2f or online session. During the session we discuss a few main points I have asked the students to find out by reading a chapter in the book. Almost always, when the class is introduced to Google books, there will be a discussion on how to read a book online, it's advantages/ disadvantages and how to later find the reading again. So using reading archived on Google books is one way to introduce tutors to the concept of ebooks.
Digital literacy for tutors includes debates on the use of interactive white boards and mobile technology along with the availability and accessibility to digital information. These are all crucial components of the classroom of the future, whether f2f or online. Google books is one way to introduce people to how technology has changed the way in which we are able to access information. From there, it becomes easier to springboard ideas about how to integrate technology into helping students learn better in different teaching contexts.
However, I find myself using Google books at least a couple of times a day to look things up and to add to articles found on Google scholar or Proquests. Since starting the use of google books at the end of 2008, I now have over 500 books categorised into 47 bookshelves. 99% of these offer previews. Often the contents page and first introductory chapter contain enough information to follow through either with an interloan request to the library for a copy of the relevant chapter or a purchase request to the library. I am also now placing GB as a tag on to articles / books stored on Endnotes as a cross reference for me to access the relevant article or book easily.
Google books show up well on my ipod touch as well so with an ipad, the reading experience will be even better. It is really the convenience more than anything else which makes google books such a great resource. When I get the time in the future, I will contribute with reviews of books etc. as many of the books currently in my library tend to be focused on workplace learning, apprentice research, identity formation etc. which are not really books read by the general public.
I have found Google books to be a good way to ease adult education students into reading online. I provide hyperlinks to pertinent and seminal books on Moodle as 'readings' the week before a scheduled f2f or online session. During the session we discuss a few main points I have asked the students to find out by reading a chapter in the book. Almost always, when the class is introduced to Google books, there will be a discussion on how to read a book online, it's advantages/ disadvantages and how to later find the reading again. So using reading archived on Google books is one way to introduce tutors to the concept of ebooks.
Digital literacy for tutors includes debates on the use of interactive white boards and mobile technology along with the availability and accessibility to digital information. These are all crucial components of the classroom of the future, whether f2f or online. Google books is one way to introduce people to how technology has changed the way in which we are able to access information. From there, it becomes easier to springboard ideas about how to integrate technology into helping students learn better in different teaching contexts.
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
CORE presentation from Lois Christmas on insights on learner experiences.
Attended to-day’s CORE session presented by Lois Christmas on her Graham Nuttall classroom research trust award . Lois presented on her study of a year 3 to 4 class studying numeracy. She probed the assumptions of how an effective teacher organises a class, provided suggestions as to how to take the pressure off teachers who want to do what they think they have to do, considered teaching as inquiry through a different lens and challenged school leaders to ensure that they allow teachers enough freedom to implement effective learning environments for their students.
A well attended presentation and Lois presented her study well with insightful observations of how children experienced numeracy learning in a primary school classroom. Data was collected mainly through the use of field notes. Photos were taken to assist with stimulating recall with students during one on one interview sessions. A puppet (Mr. Ed.) who took on the role of ‘someone who knew even less than the student’ was used to help illicit responses from children.
The study took place in a NZ classroom which had all the hallmarks of a great learning environment. The class was vibrant, exciting, positive, well organised and student contributions and talk was valued by an excellent teacher. The classroom was also well resourced with games, worksheets, computers etc. to be used as tools to assist the learning of basic numeracy facts.
The organisation of the class was a typical one used in numeracy teaching in NZ where the main objectives is the ‘create new knowledge’ through the learning of strategies and knowledge. Each session begins with a ‘hotspot’ session on the mat which is a whole class session to do learning and review concepts already learnt. Then the class is divided into two groups. As the teacher works with each group, the rest of the class practices, plays games or work in groups. Then the class meets again at the end for a ‘reflective’ session.
One of the findings of Lois’ study is that the teacher has very little time, using the above classroom organisational structure to actually work with individuals or to be able to gauge individual students’ understandings. Flexibility in school leadership to allow teachers to use other classroom organisational structures in tandem with the recommended approach is recommended. In Lois’ study, one student’s misconceptions about place values in adding and subtracting whole numbers was not addressed leading to deeper confusion as the curriculum moved on into more complex numbers.
This study is a good example of how much the private lives/ thought processes of learners are hidden from teachers, even in a classroom which is an exemplar of primary schools in NZ. There is much to learn from this form of research in the vocational education sector, so onwards with our multimodal project.
A well attended presentation and Lois presented her study well with insightful observations of how children experienced numeracy learning in a primary school classroom. Data was collected mainly through the use of field notes. Photos were taken to assist with stimulating recall with students during one on one interview sessions. A puppet (Mr. Ed.) who took on the role of ‘someone who knew even less than the student’ was used to help illicit responses from children.
The study took place in a NZ classroom which had all the hallmarks of a great learning environment. The class was vibrant, exciting, positive, well organised and student contributions and talk was valued by an excellent teacher. The classroom was also well resourced with games, worksheets, computers etc. to be used as tools to assist the learning of basic numeracy facts.
The organisation of the class was a typical one used in numeracy teaching in NZ where the main objectives is the ‘create new knowledge’ through the learning of strategies and knowledge. Each session begins with a ‘hotspot’ session on the mat which is a whole class session to do learning and review concepts already learnt. Then the class is divided into two groups. As the teacher works with each group, the rest of the class practices, plays games or work in groups. Then the class meets again at the end for a ‘reflective’ session.
One of the findings of Lois’ study is that the teacher has very little time, using the above classroom organisational structure to actually work with individuals or to be able to gauge individual students’ understandings. Flexibility in school leadership to allow teachers to use other classroom organisational structures in tandem with the recommended approach is recommended. In Lois’ study, one student’s misconceptions about place values in adding and subtracting whole numbers was not addressed leading to deeper confusion as the curriculum moved on into more complex numbers.
This study is a good example of how much the private lives/ thought processes of learners are hidden from teachers, even in a classroom which is an exemplar of primary schools in NZ. There is much to learn from this form of research in the vocational education sector, so onwards with our multimodal project.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Learning welding #6 - coming to grips with video transcription
Flip and I collected a series of videos and voice recordings over the last couple of weeks and are busy transcribing the material. To begin, we are selecting portions of the videos and recordings to transcribe by first doing a preview of the entire recording. Time codes with pertinent notes are taken at key portions of the recordings. These are noted for follow up.
We then select the recordings which we will focus on studying and transcribe these. This is mainly for both of us to practice video and voice transcription. We then compare out transcriptions to find out the nuances of transcription which are different. For the moment, Flip, with his intimate knowledge of welding is content focused. I tend to be able to put my researcher’s hat on as I am an absolute novice to the welding trade. This provides a good model which I will need to think through when we extend the multimodal project to include other trades. Flip will need to hone his skills as a researcher when he works with other trades as there will perhaps only be the two of us to work with tutors from other trades. This ‘apprenticeship’ model has worked well for the project so far towards building capability for vocational education research focused on trades learning.
Studying the video recordings is providing good practice at honing observational skills. For instance, I now notice the differences in how students touch metal services they are filing down for macro testing of welds. There is touching to gauge smoothness, but also touching to clear the surface of debris. When the surface is being studied for smoothness the tilt of the head is an indication of this action. Whereas when clearing the surface of debris, there is no head tilt. This indicates the importance of being attuned to whole body movements and not to just concentrate on the actual activity. The stance with which the student approaches a filing task seems to also be significant in indicating their confidence at completing the task.
Analysis of voice recordings indicate students who have been learning welding for a term (8 weeks) to be comfortable with the use of technical language related to welding. When the tutor talks to them in small groups, there is general nodding of heads when specific welding procedures are mentioned. In a short recording of the tutor discussing the results of the ‘nick break’, three students other than the student whose work is being evaluated gather around the tutor. All students are focused on how the tutor dissects the results of the ‘nick break’. Through the course of the short conversation of only 4 minutes, at least 16 technical terms specific to welding is used.
The above is a good example of how deeply students have begun to be acculturated into the community of practice of welding, in particular, how the common understanding of welding terms allows them to discuss welding concepts with the tutor. This is a good example of how inter-subjective understanding (Hutchins and Klausen, 1998), as described in paper on airline cockpit communications, is being learnt through the tutor modelling the use of these terms within the context of welding.
We then select the recordings which we will focus on studying and transcribe these. This is mainly for both of us to practice video and voice transcription. We then compare out transcriptions to find out the nuances of transcription which are different. For the moment, Flip, with his intimate knowledge of welding is content focused. I tend to be able to put my researcher’s hat on as I am an absolute novice to the welding trade. This provides a good model which I will need to think through when we extend the multimodal project to include other trades. Flip will need to hone his skills as a researcher when he works with other trades as there will perhaps only be the two of us to work with tutors from other trades. This ‘apprenticeship’ model has worked well for the project so far towards building capability for vocational education research focused on trades learning.
Studying the video recordings is providing good practice at honing observational skills. For instance, I now notice the differences in how students touch metal services they are filing down for macro testing of welds. There is touching to gauge smoothness, but also touching to clear the surface of debris. When the surface is being studied for smoothness the tilt of the head is an indication of this action. Whereas when clearing the surface of debris, there is no head tilt. This indicates the importance of being attuned to whole body movements and not to just concentrate on the actual activity. The stance with which the student approaches a filing task seems to also be significant in indicating their confidence at completing the task.
Analysis of voice recordings indicate students who have been learning welding for a term (8 weeks) to be comfortable with the use of technical language related to welding. When the tutor talks to them in small groups, there is general nodding of heads when specific welding procedures are mentioned. In a short recording of the tutor discussing the results of the ‘nick break’, three students other than the student whose work is being evaluated gather around the tutor. All students are focused on how the tutor dissects the results of the ‘nick break’. Through the course of the short conversation of only 4 minutes, at least 16 technical terms specific to welding is used.
The above is a good example of how deeply students have begun to be acculturated into the community of practice of welding, in particular, how the common understanding of welding terms allows them to discuss welding concepts with the tutor. This is a good example of how inter-subjective understanding (Hutchins and Klausen, 1998), as described in paper on airline cockpit communications, is being learnt through the tutor modelling the use of these terms within the context of welding.
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