Hello all! Blogging from George Abbot school today. We’ll be looking at the use of iPads in education and deployment via our mobile learning forum
Session is being run today by Simon Birch -- Solutions Inc Apple reseller. They do a fair bit of apple sales in the education sector. Simon is focused on teaching and learning.
Issac Asimov video on technology:
Overview of the App store and iTunes U -- the focus is on the large community and the possibility for using resources. There are 25 million iPads out there in the past 14 months.
A focus on creating, accessing and sharing. The iPad is useful in that you can capture photos and videos. The idea is you can then submit to your learning environment.
Battery power is running low, I may have to cut this blog short. A lot of the functionality is around the use of ePub files and the use of apple technology in learning. The iPad has much potential here, but methods of assessment and evaluation are still a bit thin. The challenge is to develop either a way of delivering learning materials effectively, and evaluating or assessing using these devices as well.
In terms of moderation of these devices, you can limit the devices, but tracking user behaviour is more difficult. The principle of using config profiles is how iPads are managed. The profile can also load up web apps or web clips. This can be a useful way of having dynamic apps on an iPad. What we mean by this is the ability to embed a web page in an iPad app, which gives us the ability to make ongoing pages.
There is also something called “mates rates” for educational discounts. We’ll have more information on this later on from the wiki.
Good morning all, I’ll be blogging from the Cambridge LSN-LRI technology for learning workshop today. I’ll be giving highlights from each session, and videoing a session or two for those who have expressed interest in particular sessions, especially ILP.
As a starting point, it is worth nothing that several other colleges in attendance are using ULCC’s ILP solution, which will be very useful to us.
Distance learning is the first topic of discussion, we are relating our plans and experiences. Some interesting points are
- formal assessment
- reducing the need for tutor intervention when using a blended approach
- 16-19 cohort. Given funding squeeze can we reduce time via blended learning? Turns out that this is not a good idea with this age group. Work better in practice with work-based and dedicated distance programmes.
- the number of courses that can be serviced with the content developed is quite small. It’s hard to generate the appropriate content. The idea is to work with other colleges on this.
- A lesson learned is that we all seem to be good at doing new things (video, learning deputes, etc) but we seem to be very bad at sharing.
- the delivery model does change in subtle ways when the interaction moves online in part. There are efficiencies that can be realised.
- do we have examples of services that have been used to reduce face to face contact?
- there is a difference between turning on the shiny toys and how you plan for it from a teaching standpoint. The senior exec at Cambridge college would be quite happy to have Moodle and Skype from the start, but there is a serious risk that teachers would not engage with it
Interesting point: are students in the loop with learning and eating development? They are the core consumers, do we make the products (smartboards, Moodle) accessible to them in such a way that students can take ownership and make demands about what they want from the technology?
Curriculum managers often drive the agenda by setting goals themselves for blended learning. A high level of technical expertise is not necessarily as needed as we think. Seeing examples of best practice is a good driver
Next session coming up is “tracking learner progress” -- of particular interest to Guildford since it is based on technology we are using to the same end.
note: You’ll want to turn the volume way up -- the iPad’s mic isn’t all it could be in a big room.
Next up -- eILP system.
This is LSNs ILP system.
- main principle: reuse as much info as possible.
- data protection issues about students not having access to their own information to ensure it is correct.
- also for wider college teams in different roles.
- developed for all colleges in Northern Ireland
- students seeing their own information led to a huge influx of feedback on address changes, incorrect info, and other details that helped bring things up to date.
- attendance stats are built up across all courses, not just the one. You can also display a week by week pattern -- ie. show a period of several weeks when attendance suffered
Funny enough, I never knew what people meant by “registers” -- they mean attendance records…. Suddenly it becomes clear!
- they use a dual log on where you can log in as tutor or student and upstate agreed actions. The student can update their response before a 1:1 evaluation. It’s a one time update only, to prevent tampering with agree actions.
- also offers learning journals aims and goals. This is covered in the videos, which I will add to thi presentation later, although be warned -- the presenter does not sound at all enthusiastic. I think he knows it’s 3:00 -- the day is wearing on.
- they use existing information in the system and report on non-activity as well as activity. There is a problem here though -- it would require access to Eclipse NG, which might be a bit controversial -- the amount of tools you want accessing your student information system is quite deliberately a very small number.
- teacher access to disciplinary records.
- they rely on the college data system, but also on their own ILP. If we change our MIS system we’d essentially have to redesign the system.
Last presentation for today -- MOLEnet
- A little background on this. : funding was cut but the project has carried on. It is available here
There is a large collection of material, and a personal library where you can store your materials.
MoleFE is an extension and improvement of the mole net project:
Media browser, easy to use and has built in quiz functionality. The functionality is between mobile learning and online assessment. Quite interesting. Sadly it is not quite working at the moment -- being worked on. The Activity Developer is an interesting way of developing content fir mobile devices using mobile devices.
A key problem -- it’s lacks the tracking capability of Moodle. While interesting, it seem not to be a fully ready product just yet -- and its not free. £3200 a year and the audio isn’t working and the demo has gone a bit astray. Its more of a legacy keep-alive project really. It does look nice and the intent of keeping the project alive is laudable, but at the current stage it lacks developers and polish -- the idea is to raise awareness of it. Anyone who takes it one would take it on as much as a development project as anything else.
Its been preserved but without govt funding it is moribund. The hope is to bring it to life again through collaborative development.
Hello all! Blogging from George Abbot school today. We’ll be looking at the use of iPads in education and deployment via our mobile learning forum
