Show and TEL

I spent some time at the University of Plymouth's Technology Enhanced Learning Showcase today, which featured the best of a number of in-house led initiatives in e-learning. The event was the third Plymouth has held and was well attended by many academic and support staff. I went to a couple of sessions on podcasting and digital identity, which were short demonstrations of what lessons have been learnt so far during research and teaching fellowship activities. The digital identity session for example, covered not only how we represent ourselves in virtual environments, but also discussed acceptable use of personal content, protection of personal data and issues of privacy. We also talked about 'netiquette' - acceptable behaviour in online environments, and how people use Facebook and other social networking tools appropriately and innapropriately, and the implications.

These were by no means the only sessions on offer. There were also rolling presentations throughout the day on personal response systems (voting), computer aided assessment, plagiarism detection, Open Educational Resources, iTunesU, online submission systems, digital repositories, e-portfolios, learning through mobile devices, learning and communicating at a distance, and our own in-house development we call UpMedia. There is so much going on down here in Plymouth, it's difficult to keep up with it all, but try we must.

For a complete overview of all the learning technology and technology enhanced learning initiatives here in Plymouth, visit the TEL website. It's full of information, and also houses all of the learning technologists' blogs. You can also visit the MyBrand site for more on digital identity

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Show and TEL by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Paper cuts

Paper is a wonderful thing. We have enjoyed it in its various forms for centuries, and its history can be traced back to the papyrus of ancient Egypt. When Johannes Gutenburg came along with his wonderful 13th century invention, society was gifted mass produced text based communication, and suddenly, everyone needed to learn to read. Printed text quickly became the first medium of mass-communication. Paper and printing have certainly contributed a great deal to the world of education and learning. Now, living in 2010, time has moved on, but I'm left wondering if some people's minds aren't still mouldering back in the last century. I enter my office space this morning, and I am greeted with a mountain of assignments, half a tree's worth of wood, pulped down to make paper that contains the printed thoughts of my students. They are all bound neatly, labelled, and sit there waiting my attention. I am now expected to plough through this pile of paper in my office (the assignments are too numerous and too heavy for me to trog home with me) and eventually come down on some judgement as to the individual worth of each assignment. I have to write on the assignments with a pencil or pen to try to give feedback to each student.

Last year, I delivered a module for some of my first year teacher students, in which not a single sheet of paper changed hands in any direction. It was the first time I had done it. There were no paper handouts. They were all in digital format. All the transactions were conducted online through wiki, e-mail and blogs, and there were no paper based submissions either. All the assignments for that module were submitted online using our in-house submission system SCHOLAR. It worked reasonably well for a pilot, although there were some problems with unfamiliarity on both sides. The advantages were clear to see. Students didn't need to travel into the university to submit their assignments (many live quite some distance away from the central campus). I was able to see at a glance who had sumitted and who hadn't. I could check very easily for plagiarised work, and ultimately, it benefitted the students because I could colour code my remarks and attach them to their work so they had clear and instant feedback on how well they had done and what they needed to do to improve their work for future submissions. Everyone was happy.

Unfortunately there are colleagues who don't like the system, or are reluctant to use it. I see fellow academics struggling about with boxes full of stapled tomes which they intend to give their students as handouts. Full forests of paper disappear into the classrooms and lecture halls, where they are doled out dutifully to hordes of students, who generally glance at them, leaf through them if they are curious, and then in most cases - they file them under 'B' for bin. Some are inventive and use the shredded handouts to line the cages of their pet hamsters. There's another part to the equation: Some external examiners insist even now, on paper assignments. Are they dinosaurs? That's what they are used to, and that's what they require. Perhaps when selecting future external examiners, a demonstrable lack of aversion to new technoology could be one of the selection criteria.

I say, save the forests and let's go digital. Resources are easier to transport, easier to store and retrieve, and they can be shared more readily. Hernias will be eliminated and repetitive strain injuries reduced. I know there are objections from those who find it difficult to read digital text, or who like the idea that they can have something in their hands to write on, highlight, and file away. But we live in 2010, and technology can do as much for us now as Gutenburg's Press did for people back in 1450. Please, please, let's try to drag our education systems screaming into the 21st Century. Paper has its place. But there is so much more we can do to make our own lives and the lives of our students better if we migrate over to digital media.

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Paper cuts by Steve Wheeler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Based on a work at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com.

Pushing at the boundaries

Tomorrow is the deadline for submission of assignments on one of my first year modules for trainee teachers specialising in ICT. So what? Well, this is the first module I have ever run in which there is absolutely no paper involved. I have in recent years gradually reduced the amount of handouts I have given out in lessons, so that almost all the courses I run are now delivered by a combination of lessons, discussions and digital spaces. I use wikis as a bulletin board and repository of key resources, and the discussion groups and collaborative spaces to conduct learning activities. Until recently, the university has always insisted on paper based assignments. But that is all changing. As from tomorrow, several modules will now be all online submission.

The advantages of this are clear. Students don't need to travel in to campus to submit their assignments. Using SCOLAR (our new in house developed online submission system), students will simply go online wherever they are, and send their assignment documents direct to a university server. They will receive a time and date stamped acknowledgement, and I will receive a notification that the assignments are ready for marking. They can update and revise their submission right up to the deadline if they wish. Wherever I am in the world, I then simply go online, mark the assignment, annotate and grade it, and my job is done. The students are subsequently notified that their grade and feedback are waiting for them, and they access these online in a similar fashion. We will see how well this works, and what benefits (and problems) it accrues as we pilot this system.

But in the meantime, an article from last month's Guardian Online Newspaper caught my eye. Entitled A Whole New World of Studying, the article showcases the work of one British academic, Russell Stannard, who videos the marking of his students' work. The Guardian says: '....he turns on his computer, records himself marking the work on-screen, then emails his students the video. When students open the video, they can hear Stannard's voice commentary as well as watch him going through the process of marking. The resulting feedback is more comprehensive than the more conventional notes scrawled in the margin, and Stannard, who works at the University of Westminster, now believes it has the potential to revolutionise distance learning.'

Stannard thinks video marking is perfect for distance learners, saying it brings them much closer to the teacher. 'They can listen, see and understand how the teacher is marking their piece, why specific comments have been made, and so on.' he says.

Whilst I am not as far down the road as Dr Stannard, I admire his vision and the edginess of his approach, and am considering using a similar approach next year, to push at the boundaries of my own practices.

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