Podcasts: Independent .education and careers supplement 15th November

Interesting article on p6 by Andy Sharman. Not sure who he is, there is no indication, so not sure quite how authorative his views and reportage are.

Anyhow he is posing the question,do prepared Podcasts spell the end of traditional lectures? He examines the case of Dr Ashraf at Bradford who abandoned lectures in favour of podcasts supported by email questions to him which he answers on his blog. This sounds progressive to me but really very limited in scope and sounds as though it is embedded in the "traditional transmission" paradigm rather than a more "constructavist" paradigm. The technology offers great advantges to the students but probably needs more than just email support if there are no face to face occassions.

Experience of a fully on-line (no attendance) undergraduate degree at Anglia Ruskin shows that students can thrive in a setting of fully online education if they are supported by well moderated forums and social spaces where peer to peer support is a key element. Ideally such approaches are endorsed at Institutional level.

Further relevant information and reading can be found at http://www.e-pedagogy.uk.net/

Professors-keep out 18th October 2007 Independent

An interesting article in today's Independent Education P8. Looks at social spaces and how students are using them to the consternation of some lecturers. The academics worry about the control of the content and the fact that big money players are now content providers.

Seems to me that if we are sold on student centred learning and constructivist education we only need to be concerned about what is submitted for evaluation and to be sure it is adequately referenced and contextualised. The source becomes unimportant provided that the material is adequately analysed and evaluated by the student. Our goal should be to teach students to analyse and then synthesise solutions, that is to become problem solvers.

In a past life I was involved perifally with a fully on-line degree and the provided social space was an important part of the student experience, but importantly it stood outside of a highly structured VLE, and was thus widely available.

We need to encourage lecturers and others to embrace the changes and push the limits and use the technology in innovative ways. If this means that Institutions need to change there entrenched attitudes to learning by students then so be ii

Frustrating sort of day last Thursday, the system I was working on kept going down and I lost work and track of where I was at.

It was really annoying as Friday was my last day there, at least for the time being, so I wanted to finish what I was doing. And what happened Friday? same thing!

Old Friends

Just had lunch with Matt, Hal and Alex old friends from Ultralab days. They seem to have the creative juices running and be enjoying life. Pleased to hear Matt is now engaged, but bells are still a little way off!

Me, I have been enjoying some part time work at UEL helping update their student guides for their VLE aka Blackboard which is undergoing a University wide upgrade and migration