donderdag 30 december 2010

Robert and Susan

The great "Robert and Susan" video from the "Teaching for Quality Learning at University"-book by Professor John Biggs is now available in different formats and in several languages:
http://www.daimi.au.dk/~brabrand/short-film/contents.html

Professor John Biggs has great views on Higher Education and is also known for his knowledge on applying "Active Learning"-techniques with (mixed) groups of International Students.

From the website:
IN 62 WORDS...
"Teaching Teaching & Understanding Understanding" is a 19-minute award-winning short-film about teaching at university and higher-level educational institutions. It is based on the "Constructive Alignment" theory developed by Prof. John Biggs. The film delivers a foundation for understanding what a teacher needs to do in order to make sure all types of students actually learn what the teacher intends.

dinsdag 28 december 2010

Peter Sloterdijk: Learning is looking forward to oneself

Learning is looking forward to oneself ("Lernen ist Vorfreude auf sich selbsts", McK Wissen 14,Seiten 110.111, http://www.wissen.brandeins.de/uploads/tx_templavoila/mck14_15.pdf )

Translation by Wim Glas, Learning Technologist at UNESCO-IHE Delft, The Netherlands.

Foreword with the translation
I used 'trauma situation' as translation for 'Ernstfall' amongst others in the title of the article, although the official translation is 'Case of emergency' .

Peter Sloterdijk is one of the most important thinkers worldwide. He was mentioned by The Guardian in The 2005 top 100 intellectuals ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2005/sep/30/highereducation.uk3 ). His last book »Du mußt dein Leben ändern. Über Anthropotechnik « ( http://www.metropolism.com/magazine/2010-no1/you-must-change-your-life/ ) contains a chapter on Education called "Maligne Wiederholungen II: Die Erosion der Schule " page 679-685. The article below is a good introduction to that chapter.


Learning is looking forward to oneself
The philosopher Peter Sloterdijk on education for the trauma situation and the de-professionalization of school.


McK Wissen: In recent years, a new education debate was held in this country. What is brewing?
Peter Sloterdijk: Therein lies a potential of irritation for the whole society. You can compare it with painful physical sensation of the individual. Debates and scandals make a thematic nervous system through which society perceives itself.

In the German educational system something is quite wrong for a long time. Why can the public debate take place now?
Because we usually try to push away education issues. They are among the most unpleasant topics. Compared with them, the hospital is absolutely essential pleasant and amusing, like the mass media clearly show. We have endless series of hospital-physician and chief films. These men in green, around the intersect bodies, have become heroes. Intuitively, one would like to say that cannot be, something as unpleasant as an operating room cannot be seen at night in the living room. But no, the people like it. The really unpleasant is the school.

Especially the tests in school are associated with bad memories? Why?
School exams are so unpleasant for many people because they have similarity to birth. In schools people are not detained nine months, but even further brooded for at least nine years.
Then, in this closed situation, they have to fight with examinations. Thus, for modern people, school is something they want to have behind them forever. Only rarely it raises a friendly look back.

That is the trauma situation of birth. But many students feel uncomfortable already in school and not only afterwards.
Maybe. For most children today, school is the initiation into a position where they feel that they do not matter as a person. It is a vaccination program, whereby you are hurt until you have gone through all of the vaccinations - and then you get your narcissistic high school diploma. The message is: Whatever you may think of yourself, you're not important. One does not like to be remembered to such kind of examinations.

This was not always as sharply true as now.
School romance in the movie "The Feuerzangenbowle" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnXCZK3JQ88 ) can resonate memoirs of not-yet- trauma situations. Today the school has become a serious case of its own art.

Why is it called then: "Not for school, for the life we learn"?
This sentence from the beginning was a protective claim. The original school in ancient times has allowed the students to learn for school, because for the life you did not have to learn according to the Greco-Roman view. Life is his own teacher, it is self-explanatory. School meant, on the other hand, leisure, and leisure was seen as the quintessence of life.

Leisurely learning has nothing to do anymore today. Why?
The enslavement of the school by the modern nation-state introduced the trauma situation principle in school learning: one prepared in school for professional activities. The German concept of education as it was formed in 1800 by the Prussian Neo-humanism still tried to bring into balance the classic and the modern concept: you learned for the school and for life. Already the company was waiting at the doors, but the school held its own status high as a life form in its own right. "The Feuerzangenbowle " is the symbol of that compromise. Meanwhile, however, immigration of the trauma situation case progressed much further in the classroom. We will not see any new feuerzangenbowle anymore.

At the time of Feuerzangenbowle the students felt like a cog wheel in a big machine. The "Do what you want" counter-movement also has not continued. Today we have students who do not know what they want.
This undoubtedly has to do with the fact that, nowadays, the teachers do not know what they are raising children for. The disorientation of modern society of its own goals takes place in the irritation system called school more than anywhere else - except perhaps in the field of fine arts. School and the art are thematic nervous systems of the society in which the confusion over the question of how to go further is articulated very clearly. On average teachers can be no different than the society they come from.

How might the situation of teachers improve?
Teachers are people who often believe that it is always better to explain something than to do something. This leads to schools as psychosocial habitat with an atypical density of hesitant, privatization liking, under-motivated people. One can only react to this with the de-professionalization of school. One has to intensify student's social skills and free them from the factual side.
It turns out more clearly that one does not reach the core of learning with the traditional school methods. All the people who have become something at school, are not really made something by the school, but despite the school, because the school did not bother them there. School has, if it went well, offered protection under which the intense learning processes could flourish, which are always of auto didactical (self-taught) nature. Therefore, under the guise of teaching, the Self-taught can, at times, unfold. But I believe this constellation has moved out from its optimum. One would have to create new optimal situations for the auto-didactic (self-taught). The school does probably not belong to these optima.

How could the school again become such a place?
We need a school that emphasizes the attachment of young people and that does not colonize students with regard to the trauma situation case. We must close the doors for companies, industry, fashion and other nuisances and rebuild a habitat, in which people connect with their own intelligence into a libidinal relationship. What one clearly sees with the infant is usually lost with the school child. The rescue of the cognitive libido should be the core project of school. I personally experience this with my daughter. She goes into the second class of the Montessori-branch of an ordinary primary school. There, the learning libido is assumed to be the real capital.

What do the parents say?
"Do you not give the children a false picture of life?" - "Could not you bring some more structure?" - "Could you not be a bit more stringent?" In these kinds of comments you can see how "Realists" try to enforce their climate monopoly. In doing so, the children lose their curiosity, enthusiasm, this invaluable medium of looking forward to themselves, in the learning process. This looking forward the own state-to-come is what matters. A teaching method that respects this, works quite differently and with greater success than a school that has educators with the attitude: later, you will wonder, and I am the one that will show you.

What could be done about this attitude?
I think it's time, that the work that Nietzsche has done for the priest is going to be done for the teachers as well. The teacher is an under-criticized instance, who is entitled to undergo a liberating and destructive criticism. At the same time, people usually make the false accusations to teachers.

For example, the accusation of laziness.
The one using that accusation is itself lazy.

It may be true for a lot who have actually put themselves to rest, often as a result of excessive demand. But the teaching profession is already a structurally over-exposure case.
So you have to help teachers with an adequate criticism. The analysis of job-related injuries and experience of failure is as necessary as the analysis of resentment against the occupation. That would be clarification of the most valuable Art. One must connect with teachers to renew the school from its strong position , to its regenerative, enthusiastic source-of-energy-point. This enlightenment must appear strong, and state: Here we offer chances, here is our knowledge, our art of living - to all this we invite you. The gesture of invitation is perhaps the most important thing. Through this, the schools become, so to speak, Inns of knowledge and attractions for the intelligence.

Would that be the end of compulsory education?
We have to break with the most harmful of all the old European concepts: with the metaphor of the simple transferability of knowledge. This concept of infusing knowledge is theoretically wrong, it is morally wrong ... ... ...

... not plausible according to cognitive psychology, ..... yet the school is built around this idea, to this truly cursed and harmful thoughts of transfer of knowledge. But this is exactly how the learning does not take place. We must recognize that we are dealing with people who often are finished in their own particular way. Up to this point complete and with no real shortcomings.
The next state can only come from internal activities of that what is already finished. Here, a teacher can, really, only disturb, unless he/she becomes something like a host, a coach or - in the good sense - a seducer, who is already where the child takes the next step. In such guest houses a pact with the principle of -looking forward to- could be closed. With this dynamic libido, which illuminates one's own flourishing, pedagogy should make an alliance again.

Is there no risk that the children learn anything?
What people learn is, first of all not so important, more significant is the fact that they enter into a climate in which they are made aware that their learning abilities, as such, are their best chances of a lifetime.
This climate-building work, in my opinion, is indispensable for the moral regeneration of our society.

We are currently far away from that.
We create situations for young people today, in which they have everything at hand and fancy nothing. We lose more than ten years in primary education process, the better students will need another ten years after the first education track for a second track to find themselves again.
If all goes well, we end up with an original 30-year-old who, after school and regeneration can start his/her own CV as atmospherically-creative person.

Are other nations better?
The problem is exacerbated in Germany. The catastrophe of National Socialism, with these enormous perversions of collective enthusiasm has resulted for us in an abstinence from community-energies. In the French culture, in the Anglo-Saxon, and in the U.S. the school system is under another climate. There, the relationship between the institution and the animating public spirit is much more pronounced. We have a highly bureaucratized school atmosphere, always associated with resignation and dogmatic skepticism. In our high-school, some time ago, we had to deal with the problem that some students, due to a restructuring in various fields of study, had to suffer from certain restrictions and disabilities.

You are talking now of the National Academy of Design in Karlsruhe, of which you are the Rector?
Right. What happened? 120 students are applying for two additional semesters of their studies, because they feel themselves to be victims of the move to the new house, which provides them with one of the greatest high-school building in Europe, not even mentioning the best possible teaching body and fabulously low teacher-pupil proportions. The attraction to describe one's own life in the light of disadvantaging, is now so strong that already young people have developed this exemplary retired, resigned behavior in connection with aggressive, moral demanding as natural behavior. One should, on the contrary, try to bring them to the idea of the entrepreneurial life, so that they do not, at the age of twelve, act like social insurance holders.

Could the current educational debate change that?
Yes. We need this debate because companies have no center and no ego; they only have public openness as a medium for self-alert and self irritation. We also have to -understood from a well understood entrepreneurial idea- - a life entrepreneurial idea-- reanimate the public services. Then we will perhaps see a new generation of teachers develop. I think the impetus for that must come from artists and from the free media. Philosophy and Art set the tone, they reset the general atmospheres.

Perhaps we should start with the architecture of schools. With the classrooms, in which we all sit in rows.
The 19th Century has built schools, museums and barracks. These are three types of glasshouses for social synthesis that make use of State techniques for shaping people. You have to free the school from this tradition. It is to be hoped that, in the years to come, the idea of a new school will be politicized to such an extent that a new phase of experimentation can begin.
If we only would have had the good fortune to get a real, productive educational scandal in a short time.

... could happen, Pisa stays finally ...
... then one could after the reaction phase, in which one has to denounce the obligation and the tendency to complain, enter into a productive discussion and try to design a school that is at the height of our knowledge. Concerning the accumulation of discomfort, the time is ripe. But concerning the positive forces, we will have to recollect what is left, only to regroup and to see if there is enough for an offensive.

How to start? With the teachers? Should they get life, the trauma situation -with practitioners- into the schools?
That would be a first step. I think it would not be too difficult to show that interesting people are more fascinating than any-average entertainment. We do not know the interesting people of our own society. This means that our society does not know itself and does not know that they do not know. When this enthusiasm for interesting people prevails, it will also bring new learning processes into the schools.
At the end of which one picks strong people with interesting activities in the classroom. That would be a far-ranging movement for de-professionalization of teaching.

Parents will be afraid their children do not learn anymore.
Panics from the suspicion that, at the qualifications concessions will be made, can be addressed if one makes clear that nothing is so forming (enriching) as the opportunity to see successful people from nearby. This is, incidentally, also true for the art schools and the master class principle. There, students can see successful artists make art in their craft and can monitor their success curve. This is instructive in all circumstances, regardless of whether the student responds by connecting positive or with rejection. Both are equally informative, provided you have a genuine chance to watch a creative person in action.

So also learn by Decline?
If students have a chance to form productive skepticism towards a position of success, it is never lost time. Even those who turn away have copied a lot. Perhaps we live in an age in which people learn more by rejection than by imitation. The cowardly teachers are the bad teachers. The good teacher is the one that opens him/her self for rejection.

Here we reach Sloterdijk's term "De-idiotisizing": showing your own stupidity, because how else would you get rid of it?
How else would you get rid of them, if not in dealing with potential imitators that are so clever to refuse at the last minute, the imitations?


Peter Sloterdijk is rector of the National Academy of Design in Karlsruhe, where he also holds a professorship in philosophy. He also teaches at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.




"Beat the drum, and fear not ..." This quotation from Heinrich Heine, Peter Sloterdijk, 1983, published in front of his "Critique of Cynical Reason". The two-volume book is the most sold philosophical work in the history of Germany.
We children of the Enlightenment and capitalism, according to his critic, have discussed and debunked everything and ourselves- and now we do the wrong thing with the right consciousness. 20 years later he wrote: "The philosophers have been circling the world in various ways, what is comes down to now is, to land on it."

donderdag 16 december 2010

A model of Professional Competence model
In this Blog I would like to introduce to you the ‘Professional Competence model’ from Graham Cheetham and Geoff Chivens. It was introduced in 1996 and discussed and tested with many professionals and educational specialists.

Personally I am convinced that it not only offers an excellent thinking model that really helps in designing educational programmes, but that it also helps teachers to see that more is needed than 'knowledge/cognitive' competences only. In addition the "Occupational Competence Mix"-diagram could very well function as a graphical representation of the 'Dublin descriptors' which are the basis of accreditation of current MSc and BSc programmes.

A good introduction to the model can be found in the book chapter "Professional competence: harmonizing reflective practitioner and competence-based approaches" by Graham Cheetham and Geoff Chivers
http://www-new1.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/york/documents/resources/heca/heca_cp18.pdf

Cheetham and Chivers also published a book "Professions Competence and Informal Learning"
http://books.google.nl/books?id=xwyqLR-mG4cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=cheetham+chivers&source=bl&ots=XCIPkwFYbh&sig=o5s77iUHOQF_ZhhsIBMStAOjC_0&hl=nl&ei=XgEKTZP-EoWy4Ab1wbC-AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBcQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

A VISIO diagram that can be used to make a the Occupational Competence mix – diagram of a particular type of professional can be downloaded from
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13601288/Occupational_Competence_Mix.vsd


A model of professional competenceGraham Cheetham - Department for Education and Employment, Sheffield, UK
Geoff Chivers - University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

The text below is mostly cited from two articles of Cheetham and Chivers:
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ571406&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ571406
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=836887&show=abstract

To show that this model could very well function as a graphical representation (especially the Occupational Competence mix – diagram shown at the end of this article ) of the 'Dublin descriptors' I added the categories from the ‘Dublin Descriptors’ (the basis of accreditation of current MSc and BSc programmes) to the appropriate components of the model.

The authors described a provisional model of professional competence which attempted to harmonise the “reflective practitioner” paradigm (developed by Schön and now espoused by many professional education programmes) with competence-based approaches. The latter included both the “functional outcomes” approach and the “personal competence” approach.
The model describes a model of professional competence which attempts to bring together a number of apparently disparate views of competence, including the “outcomes” approach, a key feature of UK National Vocational Qualifications, and the “reflective practitioner” approach, suggested by Schön and now well recognized within professional education programmes.





Core Components

At the core of the model are four key components of professional competence. These are:

• knowledge/cognitive competence;
• personal or behavioural competence;
• functional competence;
• values/ethical competence.


1-Knowledge / Cognitive Compertencies…the possession of appropriate work-related knowledge and the ability to put this to effective use.

The linkage of cognitive competence with knowledge emphasizes the importance of the latter part of the definition, i.e. the ability to apply knowledge in a variety of ways. The knowledge/cognitive competence component is seen as consisting of four constituents. These are:

• tacit/practical (this is knowledge linked to, and embedded within, specific functional or personal competencies – i.e. what Schon refers to as “knowing-in-action”);
• technical/theoretical (this relates to the underlying knowledge base of the professions, including principles, theories, etc. but also includes their application, transfer, synthesis, extrapolation, etc.);
• procedural (this consists of the how, what, when, etc. of the more routine tasks within professional activity);
• contextual (this is general background knowledge which is specific to an organization, industry, sector, etc.).

Dublin descriptors appicable here:
1 - Knowledge and understanding: “Have demonstrated knowledge and understanding that is founded upon and extends and/or enhances that typically associated with Bachelor’s level, and that provides a basis or opportunity for originality in developing and/or applying ideas, often within a research context.”
2 - Applying knowledge and understanding: “Can apply their knowledge and understanding and problem solving abilities in new or unfamiliar environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to their field of study; have the ability to integrate knowledge and handle complexity.”


2-Personal Competencies…the ability to adopt appropriate, observable behaviours in work-related situations.

In contrast to functional approaches, personal (or behavioural) competence models concentrate on the personal characteristics and behavioural; skills that an individual is required to bring to a job. These might include attributes such as self-confidence, stamina (the capability of sustaining prolonged stressful effort (like endurance)) , attention to detail, output orientation and thinking on one’s feet, control of emotions, interpersonal listening, task centeredness, presentation, collegiality. The personal competence component has two constituents:
• social/vocational (these are behaviours which relate to the performance of the main body of professional tasks – self-confidence, task-centredness, stamina, etc.);
• intraprofessional (these are behaviours which relate mainly to interaction with other professionals – collegiality, adherence to professional norms, etc.).

Dublin descriptors appicable here:
2 - Applying knowledge and understanding: “Can apply their knowledge and understanding and problem solving abilities in new or unfamiliar environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to their field of study; have the ability to integrate knowledge and handle complexity.”


3 - Making judgements: “Can formulate judgements with incomplete or limited information, that rather include reflection on social and ethical responsibilities linked to the application of their knowledge and judgements.”

4 – Communication: “Can communicate their conclusions, and the knowledge and rationale underpinning these, to specialist and non-specialist audiences clearly and unambiguously.”


3-Functional Competencies
…the ability to perform a range of work-based tasks effectively to produce specific outcomes.

This includes, and indeed requires, the possession of discrete skills but the emphasis is on putting these to use to achieve specific outcomes.

Functional Competence approaches may be seen as neo-Taylorist, i.e. having their roots within the taylorist ‘Scientific Management’ tradition. Amongst other things, this asserts that all occupations are susceptible to systematic analysis and can be better understood by breaking down job functions into a series of constituent elements. Functional competence approaches focus on tasks or functions that need to be performed within the job role, rather than the personal attributes of the individual who occupies the job.

The functional competence component has been broken down into four groups of constituent competencies. These are:
• occupation-specific (this consists of the numerous tasks which relate to a particular profession). Modelling ? , Stereo photography practicum, Laboratory work etc.;
• organizational/process (this contains tasks of a generic nature (e.g. planning, delegating, evaluating, etc.). Planning, Project planning? Delegating, evaluating, Report writing?;
• cerebral (these are skills which involve primarily mental activity – literacy, numeracy, etc.). Cerebral = Describes an angle of thinking that utilizes the intellect rather than intuition or instinct.) Computer skills, Evaluating;
• psychomotor (these are skills of a more physical nature – manual dexterity, keyboard, etc.).

Dublin descriptors appicable here:
2 - Applying knowledge and understanding: “Can apply their knowledge and understanding and problem solving abilities in new or unfamiliar environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to their field of study; have the ability to integrate knowledge and handle complexity.”

4 – Communication: “Can communicate their conclusions, and the knowledge and rationale underpinning these, to specialist and non-specialist audiences clearly and unambiguously.”


4-Values / ethical Competencies
…the possession of appropriate personal and professional values and the ability to make sound judgments based upon these in work-related situations.

The linkage of ethical competence with values emphasizes the point that values, like knowledge, are of little use unless they are effectively applied. Thus, ethical competence refers to the effective and appropriate application of values in professional settings.

The different types of values used by professionals are grouped under two constituent headings:
• personal (e.g. adherence to personal moral/ religious codes, etc.);
• professional (e.g. adherence to professional codes, client-centredness, environmental sensitivity, etc.) .

Dublin descriptors appicable here:

3 - Making judgements: “Can formulate judgements with incomplete or limited information, that rather include reflection on social and ethical responsibilities linked to the application of their knowledge and judgements.”


Meta-Competencies
Overarching the four core components are a number of “meta-competencies”. These include communication, self-development, creativity, analysis and problem solving (see below). The list is not necessarily exhaustive. As discussed earlier, meta-competencies either assist in developing other competencies (e.g. self-development) or are capable of enhancing or mediating competence in any or all of the component categories (e.g. creativity). The same meta-competencies seem likely to be applicable to all or most professions since, by their nature, they are fundamental and transferable between different situations and tasks.

1-Self-Development
(‘Dublin descriptors’) – 4 – Learning skills: “Have the learning skills to allow them to continue to study in manner that may be largely self-directed or autonomous.”
2-Communication

(‘Dublin descriptors’) – 4 – Communication: “Can communicate their conclusions, and the knowledge and rationale underpinning these, to specialist and non-specialist audiences clearly and unambiguously.”

3-Analysis
(‘Dublin descriptors’) – 2 - Applying knowledge and understanding: “Can apply their knowledge and understanding and problem solving abilities in new or unfamiliar environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to their field of study; have the ability to integrate knowledge and handle complexity.”

4-Problem Solving
(‘Dublin descriptors’) – 2 - Applying knowledge and understanding: “Can apply their knowledge and understanding and problem solving abilities in new or unfamiliar environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to their field of study; have the ability to integrate knowledge and handle complexity.”

5-Creativity
(‘Dublin descriptors’) – 2 - Applying knowledge and understanding: “Can apply their knowledge and understanding and problem solving abilities in new or unfamiliar environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to their field of study; have the ability to integrate knowledge and handle complexity.”



Occupational Competence mix – diagram
The relative importance of each of the core components to different occupations is indicated by the size of the segments. The model also incorporates meta competencies (in the outer circle).


Below you will find an editable Occupational Competence mix – diagram where the relative importance of each of the core components can be adjusted for the profession in question.





A VISIO diagram that can be used to make a the Occupational Competence mix – diagram of a particular type of professional can be downloaded from http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13601288/Occupational_Competence_Mix.vsd

Appendix 1. Description of bachelor’s and master’s levels (‘Dublin descriptors’)


vrijdag 10 december 2010

Twitter when visiting conferences

Twitter is a great tool to use when attending a Conference/Event. This will stimulate, motivate and inspire your (fellow-)Students ("Motivation is contagious!" Seeing that someone is motivated leads to more commitment and better performance, even on other tasks. Cite from Jeroen Bottema)

You ask your -Colleagues,Students and Family to follow you on http://twitter.com and send them your twitter account and -if you know that allready- a Hash tag .

(a Hash-tag is a short word starting with '#' that people insert in their messages when twitting on a specific subject. This is often the conferencename fe. #oeb10 for "Online Educa Berlin 2010" ).


You 'tweet' your

-interesting impressions,
-statements
-links to presentations
-Hash tags


Colleagues, (fellow-)Students and Friends (and fellow conference guests) will now get 'live' information from your exiting impressions.

It is a good idea to also publish your impressions more extensive on a Blog (like this).

Click here for: The Ultimate Twitter Guidebook for Teachers

ps. Twitter does NOT specificly need an internet enabled phone. You can Twit perfectly well from a 'normal'PC/laptop.

Example of tweets on Online Educa 2010:

Extension of submission deadline for Mobile Learning Conference to Jan 7th 2011 #Bremen http://bit.ly/mlcb2011 #mlcb #cfp #oeb10

RT @andyjb: http://andysblackhole.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-was-plan-b-for-online-educa.html moral dont look behind when presenting #oeb10

Working with my notes from #oeb10 Still impressed by Arian Sannier ,The third Way. But dancing with the Danish lady was also a pleasure!

http://andysblackhole.blogspot.com/2010/12/i-was-plan-b-for-online-educa.html moral dont look behind when presenting #oeb10

@heikephilp On our blog: Bridging the Ocean: Miami/Berlin #OEB10 #OEB2010 http://goo.gl/1UHtK mentioned yours :)
~~

donderdag 9 december 2010

Online EDUCA 2010 Impressions

Last week I and Ger Tielemans were at the "Online Educa" in Berlin. SURF organized this trip for us and 50 other IT and teaching staff from Higher Education in the Netherlands. Below are my impressions. Ger will send his impressions later.

ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN is a large international platform for exchanging ideas and experiences on ICT-supported education and training. 2197 learning and training professionals from 108 countries convened at the Hotel InterContinental in Berlin from December 1st – 3rd.

In 85 parallel sessions, delegates discussed the latest trends and developments in ICT-supported learning in the corporate, academic and public service sectors. 530 speakers from 45 countries contributed to the comprehensive agenda.

Other locations with impressions and findings from Online Educa:
http://blog.hansdezwart.info/2010/12/05/so-what-did-i-learn-at-online-educa-2010/
http://wiki.surffoundation.nl/display/oeb2010/Home http://www.havanaweb.nl/rubriek/de_weekgast
http://berlijn2010.cviweblog.nl/
http://nielsmaes.wordpress.com/2010/12/05/oeb10-technologische-ontwikkelingen-veranderen-de-wereld-maar-het-onderwijs-is-in-kern-hetzelfde-gebleven/#more-10
http://ictohub.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/terugblik-op-online-educa-berlin-2010/

Wednesday 1 dec 2010 - Pre-conference on Moodle2.0
At UNESCO-IHE we have Moodle version 1.9 Upgrade to Moodle 2.0 is planned for 2012 .

- the presenter showed an animation of Sir Ken Robinson on: "Changing Education Paradigms" which is really great FUN, both in content and in format. You can watch it on Youtube on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U There is also a Book called 'the element' by Ken Robinson

-GOOD IDEA: Place a Group photo of students in Moodle classroom to make themselves at home

-The presenter claims that Mahara can be the step from LMS (Learning Management System) to PLE (Personal Learning Environment). Mahara is an Open Source E-Portfolio platform. In principle Mahara is a separate product, but it links very well to Moodle. With Moodle 2.0 single sign-on is taken care of.

Some statements:
-An e-portfolio is a tool for reflection.
-Moodle/Mahara is Yin/Yan
-Teacher and students learn together
-Students learn to be responsible for their own learning
-Diferent forms of assessment are needed
-What an e-portfolio does is: Focus on positive achievements, not on mistakes..
-with uploading texts on Mahara, yo can let students acknowledge that they are the intelectual owner of the material they upload.


Moodle 2.0
------------
Most important new functionality is about: Files and repositories

-Filepicker is the new Moodle-tool to link to files etc. It is in fact similar to the Mrcute block that we have in Moodle 1.9. You now link to files that you first upload in your personal Moodle repository or in any other repository (Youtube and Flickr included). For most files you can select whether only a reference to the repository location is made or whether the file has to be copied to the local Moodle installation. If all links to a file are gone, moodle deletes the physical file. Students can have access to repositories as well, but NOT to some only. It is all or nothing.



Thursday 2 december 2010 - Opening Plenary
A University Degree with an Expiration Date ?
In todays keynote by Adrian Sannier (Pearson eCollege)the term "A Degree with expiration date" was dropped. In my view that would really express the concept of lifelong learning ;-).

See (ao) http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EASTASIAPACIFICEXT/MALAYSIAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:21620323~menuPK:324494~pagePK:2865066~piPK:2865079~theSitePK:324488,00.html

SESSION: E-learning for Environmental Sustainability (SFS04)
UNEP ( http://www.unep.org/mentor/africa ) is trying to set up large scale E-learning in Africa for environmental sustainability .

Several representatives from several African countries shown us how things are developing from governance to organization to implementation.

During the session the term E-waste is explained to be one of the major problems in Africa. E-waste initiative is about electronic waste dumped by western world. Kenya has e-waste regulation (is leading in this)

Common sense Vienna ( www.common-sense.at/i-call ) is supporting and helping (sponsoring?) in this E-Learning initiative. They give a presentation about their interactive-storytelling-by-GSM product they developed for awareness training in Africa.


SESSION: Assessment
The presenter tell about a HR E-learning study where Peer assessment is used for assessment of the final dissertations . The teacher just one of the assessors among students. She tells us that to make this a success you must start the design of your course with the assessment.


Friday December 3 - Academic Plenary
Darwikinism: One of the speakers today introduced this funny new word to the audience:

"Darwikinism"

Survival of the fittest content

Deletionism + exclusionism / inclusionism = darwikinism


See: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Darwikinism

SESSION: Informal Ethics (ETH46)
Drunk students where always there, but now photos appear on fe. face book. This will make applying for job difficult and will worry patients that lookup their doctor on the internet..
To educate students about these ethical issues we could let them look up photos of themselves on facebook or google. The shock of the amount and diversity will make them aware of possible implications putting embarrassing photos on the internet.

One person in the audience explains that in Africa they feel our ethical issues and behavior on internet is invading their culture. They talk about war . Many Africans feel swamped by another culture

When using humor on the internet it is better to be pretty inclusive


SESSION: Online assessment (PED61)
Natasa Brouwer UVA
Natasa shows us the measured results of assessment results of students that were offered formative assessment along the "Homogeneous catalysis" course. The formative assessment was not scored and was only offered to the students to help them study. The results were (lightly) indicating that formative assessment helped the students to improve the formal summative assessment at the end of the course.

( In the evening Ger and me had dinner with Natasa and Lilia (Lilia Ekimova assisted in the research) where Natasa told me about this interesting video: "Confessions of a Converted Lecturer: Eric Mazur" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwslBPj8GgI )


Sofia Torrão FEUP Portugal
In this presentation told us about her experiences with using a VLE (in this case Moodle) for having electronic assessments.

Preconditions set:

-Restrict access to ip numbers used in the room

-Restrict access to other apps such as browsers etc. This can be done by pre-installing the PC's with a (bare bone) Linux (Ubuntu) and Firefox only installed.

-Use strict time-window

Experiences:

Even with all these precautions in place, students managed to sabotage. They used fe. their moodle profile (where you can change your employer data etc.) to transfer answers etc. to each other. Or they used mobile phones.

One of the other 'technics' was one 'good' student logging in for 3 others and doing their tests for them.

"geo contextual time security"


SESSION: Students Feedback for Learning (PED78)
Ellen Kuipers HAN
Ellen demonstrated an interesting tool that allows teachers to upload a short piece of lecture on a YouTube-like manner. Students are then invited to comment on the piece of lecture and can add pieces of movie where they explain the issue in their own (better) words. The tool will also be used for language learning where students can help other participant's pronunciation by commenting on a movie of the student telling fe. about a family picture.

Computer tool is called 'talent' and is implemented by Wortell company in the cloud. It is built in/using 'Microsoft assure' ?

Timescale under the movie so that comments can be given by saying 'at second 67 you pronounce this wrong etc....


From the Vendor show

PANOPTO lecture capture software

Panopto had a very small booth next to the Africa virtual University. They showed software for Lecture capture that might be interesting for low profile solutions. The software can record:

-1 or more Webcam streams
-Powerpoint
-Smartboard

During the recording no editing can be done. The concept here is that students while viewing can switch from presenter to Powerpoint and/or Smartboard. This sounded very new and simple to me.

vrijdag 3 december 2010

Darwikinism

One of the speakers today introduced this funny new word to the audience:

"Darwikinism"

Survival of the fittest content

Deletionism + exclusionism / inclusionism = darwikinism



See: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Darwikinism

donderdag 2 december 2010