Virtual Farming Is Bearing Fruits

Virtual Farming Is Bearing Fruits: "How to optimally market honey, to cultivate a field or to avoid soil erosion is what small-holding farmers can learn - among many other topics - from innovative three-dimensional learning visualisations, which are now available in Zimbabwe. At eLearning Africa 2009, Justin Mupinda, Country Programme Coordinator at World Links Zimbabwe, explained how the so-called 'interactive 3d learning objects' (i3dlos) tools make use of the power of virtual reality (VR) and a person's visual strengths to 'grow' the human mind. The initiators are the Naledi3D Factory, a South African company situated near Pretoria, which is a UNESCO partner, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, Eskom and regional initiatives such as World Links Zimbabwe."

Glogster- Online Poster Making and Sharing

I've been looking for an online poster making site for students on the Psychology Research methods module to use next semester. As part of the course they are required to create posters in groups and do a presentation. This has always been done on manila paper with students trying to get as creative as possible with pieces of scrap paper. A few weeks ago I came across a site know as Glogster and I thought nothing of it until George mentioned that he would like his students to make posters online and I remembered the site.

I looked into it a little deeper yesterday and I was pleased to find that they have an area that is specifically for educational purposes and it protects students from inappropriate content and up to 200 students can be registered per account. It allows users to upload various forms of media such as photos, videos, text and audio and to create a unique online, interactive poster.

I am quite excited about this and have emailed George with details and he seems to like the idea. The next step is obviously to research it a little more and make sure that we can go ahead and use the service. We wouldn't want students doing so much work and losing it. I also need to create a few posters and work on some guidelines for students. For more information on Glogster please follow this link: http://www.glogster.com/edu

Planning for the Research Methods Module

I met with George Georgiou yesterday to plan for his research methods module for next semester.

The module runs over the Autumn semester. The main challenge is that the class size is quite large and George, who is the the module convener would like to make the class much more fun and lively for the students as well as ensure they learn the most from the different lecture sessions and get them engaged as much as possible.

George is keen to use the Audience Response Systems. These were used by Barbara Kingsley who ran the module last year to run a revision session. They proved extremely useful and popular and students gained a lot from it. Information on Barbara's use of the ARS systems can be found in the classroom technologies wiki site (this is a member only area at present.) George is planning to use them twice next semester. At the middle, to run a revision class and at the end of term for another revision session.

I also discussed the possibility of using the flip cameras with students. I really like the idea of student/user generated content. I suggested that since students would be working in groups throughout the term that we could get them to summarise each lecture and share this with other students online via StudyZone. Each week a different group would be responsible for generating content. The videos would then be shared via the discussion tool allowing other students to share their comments and feedback as well. Students will receive a bonus grade towards their final mark for their videos. A few things that I need to look into before this is rolled out:

• Can we get students to upload to google videos and then create a link to the videos in StudyZone (look at data protection issues)
• Create some guidelines for students
• Book flip cameras ( is one enough?)

I'm quite excited about this and I really hope that students engage with it. Hopefully the development of these videos will allow students to develop their

• Group working skills
• Presentation skills
• Learn to revise and reflect on what they have learnt
• Share their thoughts and ideas with others

Mahara 09 Conference

I’ve been debating as to whether I should put the content of this posting here. This blogspot was created specifically for the Classroom Technologies Project but I think for now, I will keep all the eLearning posts in one place and if it becomes too much move my postings around.

What is an eportfolio? Click on the link for some more information.

Mahara? Well Mahara is an open source eportfolio tool that integrates with Moodle which is the new VLE we are looking at implementing. Once we have moved to Moodle it will be bye bye to the WebCT portfolio tool which I must admit is not the best of eportfolio tool out there.

The Mahara 09 conference was an opportunity to meet professionals from both FE and HE institutions and see how they have been implementing eportfolios and also find out more about Mahara and eporfolios in general. The session started with a presentation from Lisa Gray. She highlighted the various reasons for using them, employability, PDP requirement, assessment etc. One statement she made that got me thinking was when she said that it had the potential to transform the process of learning. I am hoping that some comments from those reading this blog will open up a discussion on this. The process of reflection is very useful to me though doing it is another story. I learn best when I reflect and get the opportunity to gather my thoughts. I think a structured/guided approach to reflecting would help any learner immensely. Activities that keep the learner engaged and interested and are meaningful would be a start and in fact the learner might not even know they are reflecting. Being able to keep evidence of my professional development in 1 place i think is so useful and no my USB stick would not suffice.....

Another statement made by Lisa during her presentation which got me thinking was when she was highlighting the various definitions of what an eportfolio is. The jury is definitely still out on this “The problem is that portfolio is a learning approach and not a technology." This is a statement taken from a publication by Trent Batson and the full document can be found here . We have so many different eportfolio systems out there, all to an extent providing the same tools. Have we been paying too much attention to the tool rather than the process? Getting all excited about the different eportfolio tools out there but not giving any guidance on how to effectively build, develop and transform the learning process? The whole process of what to present, how to reflect, how to engage and do something meaningful with the portfolio is what matters. Yes?????

Case studies on how eportfolios have been used can be found via the Jisc Info kit http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/case-studies/e-portfolios

Other than Lisa’s session I attended a couple of other workshops that were quite useful. I wont go into all the details they raised a few questions

Things to think about when implementing an eportfolio?

• Well make sure that you embed it into the curriculum to make it meaningful and purposeful. Don’t just tell students here is your eportfolio and I want this and this in it by the end of term.
• Think about what benefits there will be for the whole group.
• Provide some structure. The whole process of reflection is very hard.
• How about creating an eportfolio yourself ( I’m going to start on mine :-))

A presentation was done on Mahara and inter-operatability. Leap2A was a used to refer to a standard being developed that would allow users of different eportfolio systems to zip their files and move them to a different platform if need be. More information on this can be found here

A few things about Mahara that I need to look further into:

• creating templates (Can any user create a template and how is this shared?)
• Different user levels
• Portability and interoperability
• Enrolment on Mahara and Moodle - single sign on?
• What about a different name for the eportfolio rather than eportfolio. Call it something that makes it personal to the student???
  

The Classroom Technologies Project- Introductory meeting

Yippee... the meeting seems to have gone well!!!! As always, I was a nervous wreck but I think attendees found the session quite useful. (feedback would be much appreciated)

We started off at 12:30pm with lunch which was quite important in getting us all started.

Phil Cheeseman then kicked off the main business of the day with an introduction to what the project was about and this was followed by a presentation about the CAMEL Approach and why we chose to use this methodology to research and develop the toolkit that we aim to make available to all staff.

Tessa Willy then facilitated a discussion that allowed staff to get to know one another and find out about technologies staff have used and also allow staff to put forward ideas on what technologies they would like to use. Staff shared a range of ideas which were very useful from using social bookmarking tools, Audience Response systems, to creating online diaries and social spaces.

The session then moved onto a discussion about barriers that are experienced by many users when tying to use various technologies. Things like hardware problems, too much technology out there, not knowing when to apply what, fear of things going wrong were identified as some of the major things that put staff off using some technologies.

All in all I think it was a very informative session and a good start to the project as a whole.

If you missed out on attending this session you can watch the video clips on the Project Documents page of the wiki as we captured most of the proceedings on the cool flip cameras we have in the Green Room.

Organising next weeks meeting (18/06/09)

I need to work on getting next weeks session all planned out. So heres a list of what needs doing:

• Send out reminder to staff
• Email agenda of meeting
• Upload all documents to this site
• Create presentation for next week
• Email additional staff with information and invite
• Order lunch

I'm really hoping that everything goes well so let me start by looking at the documents I will be using.

Chatting to Nitin Parmer from the Univeristy of Bath about the Audience Response Systems

Nitin Parmer a Learning Technologist form the University of Bath was kind enough to host me and take some time out to discuss the use of Audience response system at his institution.It’s always nice to catch up with colleagues from other institutions and find out what’s happening on their end and this meet up proved quite useful.

We discussed various issues related to the use of these systems. I was keen to find out how he had convinced staff to use the systems and also how to gain value in using the systems- pedagogical value. The systems need to be used in a way that gets students to think and engage more in what is being taught. We’ve had the systems here at Roehampton for a little longer than they’ve had them at Bath and though they have been used by various staff members here, I’ve always felt that we could get staff using them in a more meaningful way. Roehampton University recently hosted its Annual teaching and Learning Conference and the eLearning team did a session on Assessment and Feedback - an aspect that a lot of institutions are struggling with. One tool we show cased was the ARS. Nitin also mentioned that Assessment and feedback was an aspect they were trying to address with the use of the ARS. ARS provide for instant feedback which makes it an ideal tool for both Assessment and Feedback

The approach adopted at Bath hasn’t been very different from ours. Nitin has adopted a top down approach; briefing the Director of Studies at his institution then getting a few lecturers to use the systems giving them the full support they need. He then gets the staff to do a brief write up of their experiences. This is something I haven’t done here and will try and do. Nitin provides staff with a template and asks them to complete it; he then places this on the relevant website and has been able to refer other staff he wants to use the systems to have a look and see what their colleagues have been up to.

One key idea I will take from Nitin is the creation of a blog that will keep staff posted on what’s going on. I’ve started one for the Classroom Technologies project and will start one just aimed at the use of the ARS.

In summary, some of the stuff that’s been done that is different from what we are doing

Created a weekly blog that keeps all staff posted on what’s going on
Nitin spends an equivalent of 1 day a week on the ARS project
The units are held and distributed by the Audio visual team
Software is rolled out on every student facing computer and is also available to download via their Internet pages. Nitin mentioned he is doing a write about how students are using the software- I hadn’t thought of getting students to use it so I’m looking forward to reading the report
SIG that is looking at the systems- They will be holding a workshop/conference sometime later in the year and I hope to attend.

On another note, the University of Bath is a lovely Campus. The sports centre/village is amazing. The facilities are world class from tracks to swimming pools and I hear on some occasions the England Rugby team train there. You would have no reason to be unfit if you worked there.

Thanks Nitin for a very useful conversation.

Looking at the Mahara e-portfolio system.

The use of eportfolios is an area that has grown immensely in the last few years. Here at Roehampton a few members of staff have adopted it into their modules. Ali Messer and Bridget Middlemas are key users of eportfolio systems and if you would like more information on how they have been using them don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.

I’ve spent the better part of my day looking at the Mahara eportfolio system. For those of you who might not be aware, we are looking to move to using Moodle as our VLE here at Roehampton University and Mahara is an eportfolio system that integrates with Moodle. I’ve been involved in using the WebCT eportfolio system and a lot of the feedback has been that it’s a difficult system to use and WebCT doesn’t seem to be keen on developing their systems any further or atleast I’m not aware that they are.

Using Mahara hasn’t been as intuitive as I thought it would be. As with most things I’ve just thrown myself into the deep end without reading the instructions but I definitely will need to read up documentation related to using this eportfolio tool.

First impressions: Well, compared to the StudyZone eportfolio tool the interface is much, much, much more friendly to the eye and it seems to have a much more user friendly appeal. On logging in, you are presented with 8 icons representing the various things you can include in your eportfolio:

• About me
• My goals
• My CV
• My contacts
• Upload file
• My blogs
• My views
• Create view
  

I will try and summarise what each does in my next posting.

What are the Audience Response systems?

So whats all the hype about Audience Response Systems and what are they?

Well, for those of you who have watched Who wants to be a Millionaire they are similar to the little keypads the Audience members use to vote.

Roehampton University purchased a few of these a couple of years ago and though some schools have been using them they haven't really been used to their full potential and the eLearning team are keen to get staff across the university to using them to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom. The Classroom Technologies project (a TQEF supported project) is one initiative we are using to help make staff more aware of this technology and look and document best practice ideas.

We currently have a total of 160 keypads and 4 receivers (meaning we can run 4 simultaneous sessions). These can be booked through the eLearning services team.

If you would like more information on using the systems you can get in touch with the eLearning team. You can also view a an introductory presentation.

Getting the invite out

I've finally stated working on the Classroom Technologies project. I'm way past the intended project start date but hopefully now it will gather momentum. My invite is amended from the resources section of the CAMEL Project documentation.

A copy of the proposal drafted by Phil Cheeseman should give you some insight into the objectives, scope and time lines associated with the project.

I hope to update this blog as often as possible to keep you all updated on whats going on and how its working.

Marcia and Eileen have been my first confirmed respondees (is that a word) Yippee....