Podcasts and language learning

A novel model of producing and sharing podcasts in foreign languages; a kind of “social podcasting”…

  more about “Podcasts and language learning“, posted with vodpod

and the Linguist blog with the posts on the ideas of freenomics and social production of language podcasts…

and another site, Language Learning by iPod:  An Emerging Model, about podcasts and language learning.

The Blend-XL

The Blend XL EU funded project

Teaching (extra) large groups of students is an increasingly common phenomenon in higher education. Especially in the first year of study, many students follow introductory courses or core modules.

These courses are often taught in large groups in big lecture theatres. This arrangement is often found de-motivating and impersonal by students and teachers. A general lack of communication is one perceived problem but there are more.

As a result, success rates on the exams are usually low as well as student retention rates. In engineering studies, for instance, high drop-out rates have been leading to a serious shortage of engineers at a European level.

The Blend-XL project addresses these challenges and problem areas. The idea behind the project is that large-scale education can indeed be made more motivating and more personal through the effective use of technologies, media and tools.

This is a three-year EU funded project in the Minerva programme. ‘Blend’ in the title is a reference to the development of blended learning and teaching. This ‘blending’ is done on a variety of dimensions such as pedagogy, design, delivery, technology.

Resources from the Connect Media Group

The Connect Media Group, a group from Brisbane, Australia, involved in corporate elearning (online or flexible learning) with a focus on elearning course development, provides pdf resources for people getting started in elearning and looking for some general information.

JISC study on Web 2.0 content sharing in Higher Education

The final report on Web 2.0 Content Sharing for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education can be found on the JISC web site (published in May 2007)

The report provides a brief definition of Web 2.0 and exemplars of institutional practice in the supply of Web 2.0 services. The report then provides discussions of content creation and sharing via Web 2.0
services, the use of Web 2.0 in learning, teaching and assessment, and Web 2.0 concerns and issues for HEI strategy and policy.

JISC : Joint Information Systems Committee
The mission of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is to provide world-class leadership in the innovative use of ICT to support education and research. List of JISC publication

Web 2.0 and Education

From the Blog “e-Learning etc”

- Posted on May 22, 2008

“Control by Web 2.0″ is like “sober Lindsay Lohan”

I am always surprised by the amount of “web 2.0 bashing” by learning and development practitioners. My most recent experience was during a class about educational theory where a guest speaker had
come along to tell us about web 2.0 as applied to learning. Basically -e-Learning 2.0 as defined by Stephen Downes.

I feel compelled to address this briefly as it seems to me to be a contradiction. Web 2.0 is a social tool, it is used socially, that is how it emerged, unlike the classroom, educators do not “own” this domain.

Web 2.0 is designed for collaboration and communication, which presents a conflict with the banking model of education. In a classroom, we seem to face the teacher, who plops information into us while we sit there passively, in web 2.0 environments, those “chairs” form a circle, where everyone’s input is valid and people feed from each other, not just the teacher.

We do not naturally learn by passively sitting in a classroom accepting information, we have been conditioned into this as a result of the industrial revolution because mass production meant that the
kiddies needed to be out of the factory and it seems the same mass production was applied to humans and machines. Prior to this, people learned from those around them in social situations it seems. Consequently web 2.0 presents an opportunity (and a conflict) to return to social learning, where people learn by collaborating and communicating because that it how we use it already. We expect to be able to comment, contribute and collaborate using these technologies!

Is Web 2.0 ‘Designed for Education?

Is Web 2.0 ‘Designed for Education?’ 3/5/2008, by Trent Batson

Designing anything in Web 2.0 requires new thinking.

Higher education for centuries has worked within a closed world where educators could design physical spaces and learning sequences (the curriculum) based on predictable circumstances. An educational designer could work within a much more restricted set of variables than what we see now.

We look at those myriad variables of spaces and sites in Web 2.0 and we find ourselves talking about “learning spaces” instead of “classrooms.” With that noun shift, we’ve let the genie out of the lamp. If primary academic learning can occur in places other than the classroom or lab, then educational designers are faced with too many confounding variables to apply the same traditional formulas and metrics.

Characterising effective eLearning resources

Characterising effective eLearning resources

Allison Littlejohn, Isobel Falconer and Lou Mcgill

Computers & Education, Volume 50, Issue 3, April 2008, Pages 757-771

The widespread availability of digital learning resources in a variety of media formats offers the possibility to make a profound difference in education. This potential has not been fully realised for range of interrelated reasons. In this paper we study the key characteristics of learning resources that have proved effective in changing learning and teaching, and relate them to existing frameworks for understanding
resources. We outline the relationships between resources, their users, and the way they are used, and explore issues that influence practitioners in choosing a particular resource. Our study is based on
a review of resources for e-learning and chemistry in post-compulsory education, undertaken for the UK Joint Information Systems Committees (JISC), as part of a wider study examining ‘The Effectiveness of
Resources, Tools and Support Services used by Tutors in Designing and Delivering E-Learning Activities’.

Blog from a colleague

Angela Thomas is from the Faculty of Education at the University of Sydney. Her blog is at <http://angelaathomas.com/>.

How she describes herself: “I teach English Education and my research interests include digital cultures, new media literacies, multimodal semiotics and digital narratives. In Second Life, where I teach and conduct auto-ethnographic research, I am known as Anya Ixchel.”

She has a new book “Youth Online: Identity and Literacy in the Digital Age (New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies)“ .

Book and research framework

Design, development, implementation and evaluation of open, flexible and distributed learning systems require thoughtful analysis and investigation of how to use the attributes and resources of the Internet and digital technologies in concert with instructional design principles and issues important to various dimensions of online learning environments.

Badrul Khan has developed A Framework for E-learning. These factors can encompass various online learning issues, including: pedagogical, technological, interface design, evaluation, management, resource support, ethical and institutional. Various factors discussed in the eight dimensions of the framework can provide guidance in the design, development, delivery and evaluation of flexible, open and distance learning environments.

The E-Learning Framework was reviewed by scholars and practitioners from various countries around the globe, including USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Netherlands, South Africa, Turkey, Korea and China.

The E-Learning framework has the potential to provide guidance in

1. planning and designing e-learning materials,
2. organizing resources for e-learning environment,
3. designing distributed learning systems, corporate universities, virtual universities and cyberschools,
4. designing LMS, LCMS and comprehensive authoring systems (e.g., Omni),
5. evaluating e-learning courses, and programs.
6. evaluating e-learning authoring tools/systems, LMS and LCMS.
7. designing and evaluating blended learning environments

http://www.bookstoread.com/framework/

LDNet, the support network for learning designers

http://www.flinz.ac.nz/course/view.php?id=18
A site from New Zealand on Learning Design, with five sections:
- Learning technologies
- Learning resources
- Learning supports
- Learning activities
- with the Learning Design process in the centre.