thoughts from eLearning Symposium today

25/01/2008 by nicola.

Presentations now available
1. There was a mixed audience, some discussion around using technologies in learning/e-learning at all (some universities do not have eLearning or learning technology teams yet) and at the other end of the scale, learning in virtual worlds such as Second Life. Some discussion around use of Web2 (anyone got an online charity ’swear box’ for people who use the term web2 this year and organising content although metadata and basic tagging still most common - but pedagogical, meaningful tags related about the learning experience and/or ratings can be helpful.

Jon Dron of Athabasca Uni also mentioned wisdom of crowds vs stupidity of mobs and how people are often led by what they hear first. Similar to he who shouts loudest….. I guess.How many of us just take something because we hear it first and don’t meaningfully reflect on it. Younger students are web savvy but not necessarily so in terms of web research - the cut and paste generations. Emma from University of Bristol mentioned how one student had recently handed in assignment where the whole web page, complete with banners and adverts had been inserted ! There was general agreement in the room about the need for web or internet research skills being essential for inclusion in / prior to UK degree courses. Intute developed by academic community, offer free tutorials, feeds, blogs and integration with HE websites/VLEs, to assist in this process. I know we do something with this at Surrey but need to check what.

2. Wikis at Uni of Plymouth - Steve Wheeler has developed a 5 stage model for wiki use : Exploration, Exhibition, Explanation, Elaboration, Evaluation. EEEEEsy to remember and highlights similar themes for any online community building or project work in an online space.The model takes students through a process of understanding an online editable space that is viewable by everyone. Students remarked in several cases that it has improved their practical writing skills (no inbuilt spellchecker or grammar tool)and also concerns about their views being public - so their viewpoints were relevant, well referenced and better written. This is similar to corporate wiki use, people are concerned about writing in a space that ‘anyone’ can look at and depending on how familar they are with previous shared online experiences, may take a lot of time initially to make any contribution or see the value - which brings it back to the overall reason why wikis work or not work - motivation (IM not very HO at times!).

Has seen not seen much evidence of students editing others contributions - people felt ‘protective’ and e.g. there is a locking feature in wikispaces.No serious concerns about privacy which differs from corporate use, (regulation about what can be said being a key factor in whether corporate wikis are public or not), the students saw the wiki as being related to the ‘institution’ whereas something like Facebook is their own personal uncontrolled space where they can express things differently, in some cases. Mentioned that there is an argument about whether plagiarism is a serious offence or not - some people may believe that some of the skills involved in apparent plagiarism may be part of the essential process of developing ICT and web research skills. I agree - plagiarism tools can be used as self-diagnostic tools in an effective way of trying things out.

3. Second Life - there was a demonstration of activities used for language learning in second life including commercial businesses providing these services as well as a pilot teacher group investigating options and potential activities - linking what is discovered whilst exploring SL, back out to blogs and promoting discussion on either. Another option would be about preparing students for their placement year by role playing some of the situations they might encounter (as well as visiting islands where only that language is being used - there are a few around) Some questions around amount of time it takes for a newbie to be able to do basic navigation and conversation within SL - estimating around 2+ hours with things like building or shopping for items taking additional time. Lots more events taking place in SL offering educators opportunities to take orientation in a way that is more relevant to them.

They are starting a project called M3 which is looking at integrating Twitter, Moodle and SL. Further resources mentioned to look at when investigating SL within education:

• Edumove
• EdumoveUS Fashion Show by students, also project page
• SL educational uses wiki
• guidance on using SL with students
• Language learning activities in SL wiki

Will Second Life continue to be of use to educators, are other virtual worlds better/worse/no different ? I am going to be producing an internal paper on pedagogical value / benefits of SL for my team soon-ish. Maggi Savin-Baden at Coventry University has explored / is exploring this with problem based learning activities in SL and a JISC project

see also:

• http://www.coventry.ac.uk/researchnet/d/153/a/4002
• http://education.guardian.co.uk/link/story/0,,2221098,00.html
• http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue53/kirriemuir/

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