Leveraging technology for engaging learning design

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Ashwini Datt and Trudi Aspden presented on leveraging technology for engaging learning design. They first looked at some strategies to encourage students to complete homework. The presenters identified some assumptions around digital literacy and technical skills, and then identified 4 elements for the learning design - authenticity, motivation, scaffolding and skills development (the main focus). Equity was a really important factor too.

The presenters unpacked a diagram that looked at the underpinning aspects of the design, and then gave the context. The course is a First year pharmacy course (p101), and they have about 100 students per year. There is a group assignment that rund through the mid-semester break with 4-5 students randomly allocated per group. A specific example of a student who had to travel to Auckland to complete the group assignment. Trudi had been to a workshop on Wikis, and Trudi had an ah ha moment where she felt that if they put everything online then the students would be able to complete the course requirements online.

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The final design of the assignments include an ePoster, and orapresentation of the poster, a sritten summary of the work, and provide 3 references with justification.All of these were completed online. The presenters wanted to provide flexible access to the resources and tools, to be able to mointor student collaborations in groups tasks and manage assessment of the assignment better, and they were also keen for students to develop some skills that they could use later on. Information and structure was provided through the course  website, and scaffolded inquiry was developed through the format of a webquest. Collaborative learning was conducted via a wiki (Wikispaces), and social bookmarking was encouraged. Exemplars were provided to help scaffold students.

The webquest was designed around a scenario which also aimed to have a social impact aspect rather than purely focussing on the various concerns around a specific disease. The process was outlined as a list of things students needed to do to complete a specific task, along with access to the rubrics that would be used to assess their assignments. Fifteen percent of the P101 course marks are allocated to this assignment. How To guides were provided around using some of the technologies, as well as guidelines for collaboration, confidence and familiarity with working with other people online.

Results: A pre and post assignment survey (54 out of 99 completed the assignment).77.8% agreed that the webquest added value, 51.9% agreed that the webquest contrained enough informaiton, 68.5% would be confident to use them in future assignments, 51.9% agreed that the assignment tasks helped them develop transferable skills, and 75% thought that the assignment developed their ability to work in a team.

Findings: Prividing the tools does not guarantee student engagement; and targeted strategies for fostering group work are needed beyond the provision of collaborative tools.

A really clear presentation that showed lecturers responding to student needs in creative ways...that ended up getting really good results :-) Will be interesting to see where they go next.

Related articles

• Wikis For The Collaborative Classroom (speedofcreativity.org)
• Wikis in the Classroom: Three Ways to Increase Student Collaboration (hollymccracken.wordpress.com)

Working with Hot Potatoes Quizzes in LMSs and wikis

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One of the teachers with whom I have been working has been experimenting with Hot Potatoes quizzes and trialling them with a variety of media and in a range of platforms. Yesterday we met and went through creating a SCORM package that could be used in Moodle. Chitose then created another quiz and added it to Wikispaces. After quite a lot of frustration she came back with some questions around why certain things were and weren't working and here is my reply. Please feel free to add any other help / suggestions as well, please.

A quick start introduction to Hot Potatoes can be found in this .pdf file: Hot+Potatoes.pdf


"A SCORM package will only work in Moodle (or another LMSs). For the wiki, you'll need to continue how you did when you created the quiz that worked in your Wikispaces (Fig 1 below - click on the Figure links to see the full-size images). With Web pages and wikis the SCORM package won't work, so you need to export everything for a Web browser (see Figure 2 and 3 below).

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3


Also, the thing to remember is that if you have any media embedded in your Hot Potatoes quiz (images, audio, video) the filepath between the .htm page and the media files has to be 'fixed'. You do this by creating a folder first, and then adding all your media files, and finally creating your Hot Potatoes quiz file in the same folder (see Figures 4-6 below for more information).

Figure 4 - creating an initial folder with all the media in it

Figure 5 - what happens when the file links are not 'fixed'

Figure 6 - creating a .zip file in Hot Potatoes


I've added your Getting Around quiz as a SCORM package (see Figure 7) to your Moodle site: http://vpd.vln.school.nz/mod/scorm/player.php?a=5&currentorg=ORG-66CA125C-AD42-401D-8C94-8CBFD91D4C85&scoid=10

Figure 7 - Drag and drop quiz (SCORM) working in Moodle

Related articles

• Introduction to SCORM, Part I (downes.ca)
• A free tool for creating SCORM learning materials yourself (downes.ca)

Confessions of an Online Facilitator (Sarah Stewart at Sharefest)

Sarah Stewart talked about facilitating online, from a personal viewpoint, around her experiences of facilitating 'open courses' (run in Wiki Educator). She also explained what an open course actually is.


The wiki is used mainly as an LMS type approach, but pulls in a lot of other media and platforms. The focus is on facilitation (as opposed to teaching). The facilitators' course is not locked up in a password protected environment, and there is no fee to participate (although there is a charge if you would like personal feedback on your own facilitation).

Other platforms Sarah mentioned that are used on the course are blogs, Twitter, and Google groups. Email was seen as the technology that most participants would already be familiar and comfortable with. The course if for people who would like to learn and interact online, develop learning networks and communities, etc. The course is designed around encouraging the participants to actually use the tools and to actually facilitate events and discussions. The final assessment for the course is to run an event.  Uses a lot of Nancy White ideas around facilitating conversation in virtual communities (e.g. Online Community Handbook).


To date a wide range of people from all over the world have participated in the course to date. The course has to cater to every level of digital literacy. Those participants who are very experienfced have been very generous with their time offering mentoring to other participants. As a facilitator Sarah had to think really hard about how she facilitates such a wide range of people. Adults don't read instructions, and she found much of her time was spent re-directing people back to the course to become more autonomous. There was a need to encourage smaller learning groups to develop within the larger group of the community.

A safe environment was critical to the effectiveness of the course, especially as many participants were very worried about the technology and about making mistakes. Need to develop an environment where people can make mistakes, to play and learn. Careful matching of people with similar interests, but as a facilitator she has had to listen very carefully to her participants. Try not to bombard people with technology, and including instructions with everything were two other recommendations she made. She has definitely moved from a teacher to a facilitator role.

One thing that she stresses she has learned is that she has to give up control to the students. It has been quite hard as her learning objectives might be rather different to what the learners are keen to do.

How to create an OUWiki in Moodle, and embed video in an OUWiki

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This is a short video that shows you (once you have an OUWiki plugin installed - download from: http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=1015) how to set up an OUWiki in Moodle, embed a video and set up further pages. The video is from YouTube, but would work with media from, for example, Bliptv, Vimeo, Voicethread, Slideshare, etc etc etc.

To watch the video full size, click HERE.

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How to create a space in Moodle using the book plugin

A short video, this takes you through the reason why you might want to use a 'Book' format in Moodle, how to create a book, embed multimedia, and link to interactive Moodle spaces such as wikis and discussion forums.

To view the full size video go to: http://blip.tv/file/3801992

Voicethread for general education and second language learning: Examples, ideas and how to

Voicethread has been around for a while now, and what this means is that there are a lot of examples of innovative use in education to be had. One area in particular where it has been used a lot in learner-centered activities - often with a collaborative, social focus - is in second language learning, although there are plenty more from others from a variety of disciplines and education sectors.

One of the great things about Voicethreads is that they can be embedded in blogs, Learning Management Systems (e.g. Moodle), and in ePortfolios if you wanted students to showcase their work. The combination of media can be a great way of encouraging students who prefer an oral/aural and/or visual approach to learning too.

The first question you might want to ask is what is Voicethread? This Voicethread answers just that question:




The links below are to a few key examples and ideas, as well as to some Voicethread communities, along with some to "how to..." resources around the nuts and bolts of using Voicethread.

Examples and ideas for using Voicethread

• The first few examples focus on learning Spanish, and some of the interesting ways in which Voicethread has been used. At Mount Vernon High School, the Spanish teacher there uses Voicethreads to help students practice their vocabulary and pronunciation, to make presentations, and as part of assessments.
• Eve Millard explains that Voicethread helps her students of Spanish with listening, reading, writing and speaking practice, as well as increading opportunities to work on pronunciation, and other specific themes or skills. The featured Voicethread covers using adjectives.
• Two examples of a specific topic being covered using Voicethread can be found here: La Familia Rivera, and here: La nia de los tres maridos.
• For literacy skills for fourth grade classes from around the world, Voicethreads are being used to record students' book reviews on the Books Go Global wiki space.
• Three examples of how 8th grade students are using VoiceThread for oral interpretation of literature
  
  
  • Performing William Wordsworth
  • Performing Maya Angelou
  • Performing Robert Frost
• An example from the world of Geography, where students in Katikati use Voicethread to analyse and practice a past exam question on natural landscapes. The idea was to collect and share a wide range of interpretations of the exam and responses to learn from.
• From a higher education/tertiary sector background, this example looks at using Voicethread for digital storytelling and the enhancement of reflective practice. The featured example illustrates how Voicethread has been used to help medical professionals learn Spanish. At the University of Albany, Voicethreads are being used to create a sense of community.
• A comprehensive collection of Voicethread examples from students and teachers of all ages and groups can be located at the Voicethread 4 Education wiki, where you can also find a page with Classroom Partners should you be interested in collaborating with other classrooms on a Voicethread project. Other examples of Voicethreads in use can be found at the CARLA Technology wiki site.
• For a general collection of Voicethread resources, the My Web 2.0 Adventures wiki is worth a visit, as is the Educational Software wiki put together by Suzie Vesper.

How to use Voicethread...
There are a lot of tutorials available about how to create Voicethreads, not surprisingly with many made in Voicethread. Some of the key ones are:

• A thorough, well designed tutorial in Scribd (can be downloaded).
• Mini-tutorial on VoiceThread
• You can read a Voicethread tutorial from Jennifer Wagner's EggRoll site by downloading this .pdf file: VoiceThreadtutorial.pdf.
• If you need help with how to create a free account for teachers, and student spaces within that account the VoiceThread Help is really useful.

Related articles about Voicethread

• Voicethread (slideshare.net)
• Voicethread Intro (slideshare.net)

What is the difference between blogs, wikis, and discussion forums?

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I was recently asked what the difference was between discussion forums, blogs and wikis. The following is a brief answer to that question. It is really worth looking at the examples of the wikis and blogs in education, and also watching the video about discussion forums as they might give you some ideas of how a learning experience could be extended or enhanced. Please also feel free to share your ideas in the comment box at the end of this post.

• Blogs - this is a good video to watch about blogs - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN2I1pWXjXI. A blog is an online diary or reflective journal where a person can post and publish their thoughts about what they have experienced or learned, and/or text and pictures describing their life, interests and work experiences. The posts tend to be relatively short, but have enough information and interest to engage other readers. Other readers (classmates and teachers) can usually leave comments about the post. You can see some examples of blogs being used in education by following the links on this page: http://my-ecoach.com/online/webresourcelist.php?rlid=4992#2.
  
  
• Wikis - This is a great video to watch about wikis - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY. A wiki is a web page that can be edited by many people - in other words wikis can be co-created web pages. You could, for example, set up a wiki in Moodle and ask a group of your students to create a Web page about Japanese food and traditions around food (including images, text, videos, and sound). Other students will be able to see the information and edit it if they feel it is wrong or needs clarification. A wiki is open and collaborative. (A good example of a wiki is Wikipedia). You can see some examples of wikis being used in education by following the links on this page: http://educationalwikis.wikispaces.com/Examples+of+educational+wikis.

• Discussion forums - This video features a teacher talking about how she uses discussion forums with her students - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7wFrITZ0FA. A discussion forum is a place where, for instance, you can ask your students a question. The students can make separate posts in answer to your question - they cannot edit or add to each other's words, but they can 'reply' to the answers. The other thing you can do is set up a forum, and in it give students a task (like watch a Japanese video) and come up with a summary of the video in text, and also ask one or two questions themselves. Students then go and answer each other's questions.

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Exploring wiki technology in teaching and learning (Michael Verhaart, DEANZ 2010)

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Michael Verhaart (EIT, Hawkes Bay) demonstrated his the wiki site that he uses with his students. He was able to show that wiki technology was suitable for delivering content for blended learning, deliver a wide range of media, allows students to extend content, and is inclusive of new technologies.

The presentation that Michael gave was based in his wiki. He used a plugin tool to zoom into the wiki page so that the text was visible. He emphasised that he believes students have as much to contribute as he does, and uses the technologies to empower them and encourage learners to contribute as much as possible.

It was refreshing to see someone walking the walk as part of their presentation, and to have the nerve to trust the technology not to let him down during his presentation. (I didn't have the guts!!). Also, Michael's enthusiasm was infectious, but what he was saying was obviously based on sound theory, research, practice...and heaps of experience.

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The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book!

"The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book" is a collaborative initiative (coordinated and edited by Terry Freedman) that brings together ideas and experiences from 94 contributors around the world. The hands-on practical aspect of the eBook means that, rather than just talking about Web 2.0 tools, there are how-to suggestions and guidelines, as well as reference to benefits and pitfalls and challenges to be prepared for, and how to handle them. The resource is free, and can be downloaded by clicking here (it's a 2.09 MB .pdf file).

Some of the comments that Terry has received about his book include:

David Kapuler: "This is one of the best collaborative resources I've seen on Web 2.0. It covers everything from wikis, blogs, to digital storytelling and podcasting. Terry Freedman...does a masterful job of organizing the content which has been included from such high esteemed educators from around the world, such as: Kim Cofino, Silvia Tolisano, and Shelly Terrell".

Paul Hamilton: "Any teacher with an interest in effectively reaching every learner in his or her classroom–with meaningful, accessible, and engaging learning activities–would do well to take a look. The book is well organized, with activities categorized according to the general age range of the learners involved".

Stephen Downes: "It's pretty light and breezy, but the information is well-structured (using a template that identifies things like age ranges, applications used, reactions and outcomes) and the content is clearly and well written throughout".

Image by hazelowendmc via Flickr

Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-based Learning

Not only are the conversations on the Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-based Learning (AAEEBL) site lively, but there are some great resources being shared that members have developed. For example, this list of resources around reflection for learning compiled by Helen Barrett. The particular focus is ePortfolios, and it is a good place to start if you are looking for ideas and would like to join in the conversation.

www.aaeebl.org