National Institute of Digital Learning (Ireland) - top 10 good reads for 2022

 The National Institute of Digital Learning maintains a topical blog with congent updates on the introduction, application and evaluation of digital technologies into education.

One of their latest blogs, summarises the top 10 reads in 2022, prefaced as -from theory to practice and back again. All the articles featured are open access and there is one recommendation from the 'closed' literature.

The blog provides links and undertakes a good overall survey across the articles (journals published in , countries etc.) and summary of each of the articles. Articles include two on the topic of learning design; Stephen Downes update on constructivism; topical ones on the metaverse and AI; and papers on research theory and how they can inform practice.

Using inaturalist - citizen science and vocational education

As blogged earlier in 2018, I have been using inaturalist(previously naturewatch) to archive photos of plants found on walks in the NZ outdoors. Photos are taken on my phone (currently a Samsung Galaxy s5) which automatically transfer to my Google photos. I sort these when I have wifi access and shift the best shots / notable plants into my flora and fauna album.

I then work through the photos, providing an indicative identification. The date and location is captured on the phone although I input locations manually when the phone is used off line.

When I get home, I transfer the photos along with my ‘best guess’ identification on to inaturalist. The site has a ‘suggestion’ feature which is about 50% accurate. Given photos of plants are often ‘busy’ with lots of other plants lurking in the background and being photo bombed by strands of tussock /ferns or lichen, the AI on inaturalist is actually quite good at honing in on the target plant.

The version of inaturalist on my ipad has a google lens feature which does a similar thing but is perhaps not as focused as google lens is not specialised on plants only.

A check on location is also important as many plants have regional specialisation.

Once the post is up, there will usually be affirmation or suggestions within the hour. The main identifiers on inaturalist NZ are more often then not, professional botanist. Some plants, exampled by orchids, are shifted automatically into the NZ native orchid site. No doubt, many botanist use the site to build distribution maps of the species they are studying / interested in. An example of citizen scientists' contributions is provided in this article and a NZ example from NZ Geographic. Therefore, for novices / amateurs like myself, there is ready access to expertise which is timely and collegial. I have learnt much about the nuances of plant identification, along with the challenges of identifying plants which are comparable.

Field trips, bio blitzes, nature 'weeks' etc. are all hosted on inaturalist, providing a means to archive a portfolio of learner generated data for later reflection and reference. Therefore, inaturalist provides a good exemplar for similar endeavours in other fields. Vocational education project-based learning approaches will be well supported if there is availability of related platforms. 

ob3 - ocean browser 3 - examples of application

For several years now, the midwifery programme at Ara Institute of Technology, have used a platform called OB3 - or Ocean Browser 3 - to keep in contact with their students through a highly blended learning environment. There is an Ascilite paper from 2014, detailing the approach. A more recent 2017 Ascilite paper, provides examples from the opthamatrist programme at Otago University. At the moment, I am working with another programme to embed OB3 into their teaching. This programme will be highly blended as well and have a large amount of text based anchored discussions and learning activities. Approaches which match well with OB3's current capabilities.

Basically, OB3 works well with text based discussions because the discussions can be carried within the content, rather than separately as with other LMS. This ability to bring activities into the content, creates a seamless and user-friendly experience for both teachers and students. One drawback is that the webpages generated can become quite long, requiring scrolling through copious texts. One needs to be part of the whole discussion to be able to keep track of all the threads, springing forth from either teacher embedded questions, or from students adding discussion points through the document.

OB3 allows for quick upload of a range of content, including multimedia - pictures, videos and podcasts. Both teachers and students are able to upload and share these items. This process supports a co-constructivist form of learning. An important aspect is that students need to be scaffolded into the OB3 approach, otherwise, the content becomes overwhelming. However, if students participate through the process, they 'take ownership' of the content, leading to engagement and deeper learning.

OB3 allows students access to their content post-qualification. An eportfolio type add-on will be available next year.

Into the future, it will be good to stretch the capabilities of OB3 and to see how the concept can be applied to programmes which are less text rich.

James Gee on ‘opportunities to learn’ and ‘beyond mindless progressivism’

Working through one of the comments brought up by one of the examiners of my PhD dissertation. The context is to ensure that ‘affordances’ to workplace learning is not conflated to cover all aspects of opportunities for workplace learning. The reference suggested to check was one on ‘sociocultural perspectives on opportunities to learning’ by James Gee.

I have come across Professor Gee’s work via my interest in researching elearning, mlearning, reluctant learners and vocational education. His background is in linguistics as informed by socio-cultural frameworks and so I have used references to his work on several occasions. Of note is his work on identity and its role in education research. He proposes four views (nature, institutions, discourse and affinity identities) as lenses that can be used to study how socio-cultural influences impact on learners and their eventual perspectives of learnt concepts/ideas. Antother aspect of his work, is on video games and its contribution to education with an example here  being one of several publications of games and learning.

A recent blog on ‘beyond mindless progressivism’ argues for the introduction of a ‘post-progressive pedagogy ’ form of situated learning. Many of the 17 points he brings up, are relevant to our current Ako Aotearoa Southern hub funded project, using net tablets to encourage students to create their own content. The main gist is to encourage, provide learning opportunities and tools for students to become ‘constructors’ rather than consumers of content/knowledge

Professor Gee's blog contains thought provoking content, along the lines of another edublogger I follow, Artichoke. Both bring up topics that are in accord with much of my work. Keeping in touch with these blogs, provide a source for my continual critical introspection on where my work goes plus affirmation that I am on the right track most of the time.

Student generated content on net tablets

The CPIT Foundation has approved a grant to purchase hardward for the interactive etextbooks on net tablets project. So, we are now able to move ahead with the etextbooks / eworkbooks on tablets project. One of the objectives of this project is to not only provide tutors with the opportunity to upload content, but for students to also generate content.

Katrina Fisher (barista tutor) and Peter Sauer (automotive engineering tutor) are the two tutors involved with this project next semester. Katrina and her students will use ipad 2 tablets and Peter's class on Android tablets. I have made a request to IT to purchase both the ipads and the asus eee pad . IT will be investigating Android OS tablets and have made a suggestion with the Acer Iconia Pad which also as a Windows 7 OS version. So might work on a Windows OS tablet version of the project early next year with the Engineering manufacturing team who have learning resources in the Windows environment.

Having had an ipad to play with for just on a year, I have been able to test several apps for students to generate content. These include note taking (Bamboo Paper), sketching (Doodle Buddy), post-it notes (BugMe! lite), card sorts (iCardsort), pdf annotation (pdf-notes), audio note taking (live notes lite), mindmapping (SimpleMind+) and aggregators to bring together the various items (Evernote, Scribe Lite and Catch Notes).

The equivalents of the above I have tested on our Archos are note taking and sketching (free hand note lite), post it notes (bugMe!), card sorts (flashcard maker pro), pdf aggregators (ez pdf), audio note taking (Audio Notes recorder), mind mapping (mind map memo)  and the aggregators (evernote, catch notes, emobilenotes).

So there is a good choice of apps to evaluate as to fit for purpose and user friendliness over the course of the project.

Content can be uploaded by tutors on to any of the above, or on to the photo or video players on the tablets. Plus we can also use ebook readers like Stanza for the ipad and FB reader for the Android tablets. If all else fails, we will pay for documents to go, which is available on multiple platforms. Not yet available for most Android tablets as yet with only the Archos 5 on the list (but for free).

The overall objective is to keep things simple, to explore and study the use of the apps as tools for constructive learning and for archiving / recording the learning journey, and to build guidelines for how to best use this concept to engage students, enhance learning and help students become self-directed lerners.