Activity 9.2 - synthesizing educational use of blogs (suggestion)

from Jim Buckingham (January 6, 2008)

Suggestion

Wondering if the rest of you have encountered similar issues with the wiki here.
would like to suggest the use of

1) a better collaborative tool ?
The Open U wiki while basic and adequate for realizing this, may slow us down in realizing the task. Nigel's suggestion to use Google docs - likely a spreadsheet - is a good alternative on the grounds that it's easy to use, has limitless width, has a built in chat tool to facilitate collaboration, and supports "real time" revision (i.e. I can "see" another person revising whereas this one blocks out everyone until the person on is finished) . Another suggestion is a wiki in Wetpaint. I've set one up at this link to a wetpaint site and I've got a Google Spreadsheet ready to go .

• Google docs ..New development: now this page opens direct at this link (no gmail account needed?)
• http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pFZM7Vxc2GIEr9BpGoDRmWw

• caveat w/ Wetpaint .. people need to register to get on http://h808annesgroup1.wetpaint.com/ but once on can immediately begin editing

2) a communications tool to support interaction?
I think Google docs has a built in chat function which can be used alongside the spreadsheet.
With Wetpaint, I can add an easy to use chat widget next to the spreadsheet or we could use the discussion threads that are automatically included at the bottom of the page.

In an effort to support such a move, I'll try to copy what has been realized here into both of these options for now..

_________________________________

from Jim Buckingham (January 7)

Note

I'm not fond of simply posting and responding via the wiki (to put it mildly) . I am really missing some sort of a communications tool to be used alongside it.... to make decisions .... especially when we're all time starved. Latency between each other's posts makes this exercise seem like its going on for an eternity - sort of like "Chess by mail" (a bit of an exaggeration but if anyone has had the experience ... you would immediately "get it") .

Now that I've vented :-) ... Can't spend too much more time with this exercise ....

Activity 9.2 - Synthesizing the educational use of blogs (group activity)

(copied from H808 wiki website - January 12, 2009)

This is the link to the final version of a synthesis of educational blog categories (in Google Docs) with contributions from Jim Buckingham, Julie Carle; José Martel Peñate; Emma Nugent; Nicola Robinson; Keely Laycock and Nigel Smellie.

We're sure it's not a final document and many of you can add to it, we started with approx 15 categories and through discussion and voting, Nigel was able to reduce this to 3 over-arching categories.

If anyone on H808 has any comments on our group work please post them here or to the H808 Cafe where we held our discussion.

For good measure a copy of this same FINAL TABLE is also posted to a further page in this wiki.

Activity 6.2 - The Profession of Learning Technologist

Source

Oliver, Martin (2002) ‘What do Learning Technologists do?’, Innovations in Education and Teaching International , 30(4), pp. 245-252.

Wow!!
This has been a tremendously useful article to me for a number of reasons.. Number one? It's given me a clearer sense of the unusual nature of the educational technologist position - one that in essence, I have but with a different wording - Senior Educational Technology Specialist.

The three categories of LTs

• new specialists - multiskilled, going from place to place with learning technology as the core of their identity
• academics who have incorporated learning tech into their existing professional identity
• learning support professionals who are in non academic roles but support access to and effective use of learning technology

I really have to wonder which of these three classifcations I and others in my H809 cohort fall into. (create a survey) . I have always considered myself an educator first and directly involved in the use of technology in education for at least fiften years now. In the last 10 years I've worn the EFL instructor hat but that's also been a field active in finding ways to integrate technology to realize learning outcomes.

I feel I've aspects of all three....

LTs need each other .. but why aren't they connected and where are they to connect?

No 1 ranking was the need to keep abreast of current developments in learning technologies. Yes.. and typically not directly supported or assessed by my current employer.. seems to be too little time to realize this... thus fostering my need to network with others to see how they realize this ... I've been actively seeking out such online communities and have found them in all shapes and sizes. To make the task more manageable, I've chosen to connect with those that are from back home.. But noticeably absent is any work on similar online communities in the Gulf region thus encouraging me to perhaps realize this to support networking amongst other LTs in this region.

Typical job description? collaboration

Oliver mentioned a three step process .. essentially

• Step 1 - identify opport for collaboration w/ discipline based academics
• Step 2 - provide meaningful input to the collaboration (tech advice) and using the opport to learn more about the collaborator's values, concerns, and context
• Step 3 - select, adapt, and present relevant "cases", expertise, research material, to support, challenge, foster refection for critical discussion with collaborator

Note that this suggests an advising role but an LT is armed with a fair amount of knowledge that can in effect direct the instructor in their selection of tools to meet instructional objectives. This really rang true to me - personal experience with it and it was conforting to see this spelled out in such clear cut terms. An LT is in effect, a change agent - armed with information about tech, but also armed with an understanding of learning theories so that there is some understanding of how the tech can be integrated into instruction. At least one very important, missing ingredient to make change happen .....?

Context is king!

However, for any of this to happen, understanding the "needs' or "interests" or "culture" of the instructor has to be seen as a clear cut starting point before anything can be realized. Oliver's use of the term "learner centered model for professional development" summarizes this.. and is something I've direct experience in doing, each time I work with a faculty member. I still struggle with the description of this being a model of professional development as "expert learning".

Professional aspect?

This need for specialized knowledge and deeper understanding of a variety of elements -

• managing change,
• collaborating with a wide variety of clients
• understanding pedagogical frameworks / learning theories

Self monitoring of when and how to introduce, integrate, impart such information to the benefit of a client - drawing on knowledge (from experience, from reading, from networking with other LTs) much like a doctor does to help a patient (?). Inferring a fair amount of autonomy when collaborating with a client ...

Key processes?

• Collaboration (which requires huge amounts of time to build goodwill and trust)
• Specialist expertise (understanding of current developments / issues in elearning; strategies to help uncover and address them)
• Rhetorical skills (to influence development and decision making by others)
  

autonomy + lack of authority + initiator of change

Key weakness? Perception of LTs by those they seek to serve

Credibility in the eyes of academics. "If (LTs) cannot establish their credentials with hte academics, then it is unlikely that fruitful dialogue will follow, since the collaborator will see them as a service provider rather than an expert."

Activity 1.4 Drivers Template - Reflections on the process

Making Assumptions about my colleagues

I realized how I was immediately forced to make assumptions about my colleagues largely because I had very very little information about them .. what their abilities are, their experiences are, their attitudes towards ICT and elearning are. This was in the context of being asked to work with them online to realize a common task (which I wasn't quite sure if I understood the same way they did) and then to do so under time constraints (access to communication tools, differing time zones, differing work / domestic routines) . Problem is further compounded by the absence of immediate feedback that one would typically have access to when working in groups and making decisions in a face to face situation.

Importance of Introductions

As a result, the introductions posted earlier actually took on more importance for me. I went back to them to try to get a glimpse into who my colleagues were and how much they might know about ICT in general or specifically in this case, wikis.

Making Decisions

Extremely difficult to do .. impossible to arrive at consensus (at least on this occasion). Decisions on what to do, in what time frame, what communications tools to use, very little structure or framework in place to realistically arrive at a decision... etc. etc.
All were being made .. but I was very conscious of the need to make such decisions in such a way that they would hopefully realize buy in by my colleagues .

Assuming a leadership role

In the absence of any movement on the task, at least by a point when I expected something to have been initiated, I found myself in an odd position. I felt the need to lead on the task (i.e. setting up a wiki) . Even more odd was to be asserting not one decision as it turned out but a series of decisions without any sort of consensus .. yet time was moving on. It also made me conscious of the need (perhaps even a feeling of guilt) to share my rationale for making such a decision with my colleagues .. on the belief that to do so.. supported "buy in" by them .. to not do so projected a certain "arrogance" which isn't who I think I am. Certainly whatever I did choose to do .. needed to be done with what I now look back on as a set of guiding ethics - fairness, inclusion and respect for my cohorts - hopefully common to them and appreciated by them. This led to the set up of a thread on the wiki entitled "A confessional - why Wetpaint for a wiki?"

Awareness of the need to support

Once the series of decisions was made (i.e. setting up a wiki but not on the Open U system).. I found myself assuming more responsibility for it.. a need to set up support. Even the decision to use Wetpaint was founded on the belief that it would do a better job of facilitating collaboration and discussion amongst colleagues then the Open U wiki. That meant posting links to the wiki on the FC system ..posting a rationale for a possible next move, etc. Expecting a possible challenge from Anne Bradbury. Looking for and carefully observing input from my colleagues Peter and Lisa to see if I was on the right path. Producing new pages. Posting notes on the "utility" to be found on the Wetpaint wiki.

Still a sense that this could be improved upon..

Perhaps by reading the reflections of other members of my cohort .. I'll learn more about the effectiveness of this process and how it could be improved. I have realized for awhile now .. likely through my experience over the years .. the value of "feedback loops" and the need to incorporate them into any decisions on online efforts if I want to ensure their success. The number, type, frequency and immediacy of those responses by my colleagues served as valuable feedback on my decision making in the past.. and I expect that will continue into the future of this task.