By Tim O’Riordan
First published: 19/11/2012, JISC Digital Media.
About 40 people attended our online surgery yesterday to find out more about the use of popular online digital media tools in teaching and learning, how we can evaluate them to ensure they actually deliver the educational goods, and to discover how a popular online social networking platform is used at an FE College.
Our first speaker, independent educational advisor Theo Kuechel, provided an overview of the popular online tools currently available and how they fit within a learning ‘ecosystem’. His mind map (see link below) helped to untangle the often confusing web of platforms, content and affordances, and he provided some pertinent examples of the current use of platforms to support learning.
I spoke about a workflow I’m developing that encourages consideration of the technical, pedagogical and learning design issues involved in evaluating the potential of online tools. The process involves asking two main questions: “Will it work?” – on a technical level as well as in support of teaching and learning – and “How we can use the tools and their outputs within a learning context?”. The key technical considerations involve a pragmatic review (e.g. reviewing accessibility, reliability, legal issues etc.) plus a usability review. Consideration of teaching and learning issues involves reviewing the tool in question against Chickering and Gamson’s 7 principles for Effective Undergraduate Education. To aid reflection on learning design issues I presented a simplified version of the Dial-e Framework – a pedagogic framework devised to aid consideration of the use of digital content – and linked this with Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain. My simplified Dial-e uses 4 key learning designs (as opposed to 10 in the full version) – Stimulus, Investigation, Analysis and Creation.
After this rather theoretical approach, Adam Richards and Deri Roberts shared their experiences of using Facebook to support learning on their Music Technology modules at Bridgend College, Wales. They needed a tool that was embedded in their students’ experience, allowed for direct interaction with and between students, but which respected student and staff privacy and did not require institutional IT support. In this section (which was based on Adam and Deri’s presentation at Alt-C earlier this year) they described how using the ‘closed group’ function within Facebook facilitated a rich, interactive and responsive learning environment.
During the Q+A session a number of issues were raised regarding the changeability of some platforms and managing privacy online. While acknowledging the importance of understanding the terms and conditions entered into when signing up to a third party service (see the link to JISC Legal’s advice on Facebook below), the speakers pointed to the importance to personal and professional development of engaging with tools, and issues related to their use, in an educational setting. Third party online digital media tools are a vital part of our social and professional ‘ecology’ and their use in support of teaching and learning is a subject we shall return to in future.
Resources:
Theo Kuechels’ ‘Video Ecosystem for Learning’ mind map
Neilsen’s heuristic evaluation
Bridgend College’s ‘Memphis Trip’ Facebook group
Online surgery participant Teresa Mackinnon ( Language Centre, University of Warwick) shared her case study: http://www.scribd.com/doc/98582382/Teresa-MacKinnon-Breaking-Out-of-the-Walled-Garden
Tim's World of Web 