Committing learning

So in session 3 of ED403, we were looking at e-learning trends in higher education, including things like BYOD, augmented and virtual reality, learning analytics and e-assessments.  These are important and fascinating developments, which will impact on not only formal education processes, but also human learning more broadly.  The sociologist and educator in me are in particular interested in the way these new innovations reproduce and challenge existing inequalities of access and outcome, and how we can reduce the former and enhance the latter.  This is what I would like to reflect on further in this post. A shared equity issue with all of these new innovations is that of access to equipment and data that is affordable, and speed of internet access.  This is obviously a major issue.  Universities and governments need to address this at the level of investing in the required infrastructure and equipment.  USP's programme of giving tablets to first-year students at USP is an impo

These past two weeks, I have been learning about new online tools and what OERs actually mean.  As with most new knowledge and information, it feels both exciting and overwhelming. In trying to reduce the latter and sustain the former, I have decided to think about all of this in relation to the course I am developing for delivery in online mode in Semester 2 this year, race & ethnicity (SO212). By trying to apply it specifically to something I am doing, I feel like I am laying down the boundaries in which to 'innovate' with my learning and teaching practices.  In this blog, I want to document the 'what' of my activities for this new course and reflect on the processes by which I got there. What will I be doing? Students will work in groups to produce a video using powtoon focused on '5 myths about...' a Pacific-based ethnic group, in which they will use research-based evidence to challenge these myths.  To support and motivate student use of powtoon fo

It is week 4 now of Semester 1 of 2018 at USP and I am behind on everything related to learning and teaching, including my own learning in ED403.  Why? A major contributing factor has been the failure of the technologies of the learning environments that I work and learn in.  Or perhaps more appropriately, it has been that the structural resources needed to make the technologies work have not been working (connection, servers, equipment).  I have been scrambling in my classes to communicate with my students since the two major ways of communicating with students in online courses are moodle and e-mail and both have been disrupted regularly.  What I have been impressed by is the persistence of students despite the challenges in contributing their discussions, submitting their assignments, and engaging with the course material.  They have been problem-solving to continue their work.  And perhaps this is an unintended benefit of technology enable learning and how it is changing the w