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My Sandinista
I'm generally a forward looking chap when it comes to music, and don't dwell too much in the past. But every couple of years I revisit a band that was important in my youth, not as a matter of policy, that's just what seems to happen. I've been doing this with The Clash recently, after reading Pat Gilbert's Passion is a Fashion. I always liked Sandinista – as an impressionable teenager it was a good exposure to different music styles and some of the awkward rebel politics of the Clash. It was panned when it came out, after the success of London Calling, largely because it was a triple album…
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Meta Edtech Journal – issue 3
The new, hot off the open access press, issue 3 of my Meta EdTech journal is out. It features five articles, including an interesting one from Australia comparing the use of games with traditional lectures. Perhaps surprisingly games don't come out that well, although there are some benefits. I think this just demonstrates that it is always a more complex issue than we first assume – surprise, learners are not all the same, and what works well for some may not work well for others. There's also a quick overview of learning analytics from Erik Duval (useful to stick under the nose of one's boss), a look at how Athabasca…
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Amnesimooc
You can probably dismiss this post as 'stop being defensive', but I'll log it now while it occurs to me. As I mentioned in a previous post, the sudden interest in MOOCs from mainstream universities and the media is exciting, and has a number of benefits, but is not without its pitfalls. In the rush to fuel the MOOC hype it seems to me that some commentators have confused the possibility of running large scale (always the large scale gets them excited) open courses with running large scale online courses. The two are not synonymous. I believe it is the open element of MOOCs that is really intriguing – for…
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Random debt relief
I my last post I pointed to some research which suggested that random selection of a proportion (not all) of politicians led to greater efficiency, and that a similar model might be useful in the allocation of research funds. I'm not an economist, so I expect to be mocked for the next proposal, but here goes anyway. A similar approach might be a more effective means out of the financial crisis than straightforward austerity. This is based on two assumptions: Individual debt relief is more effective at generating growth than bank bailouts – the reasoning here is that banks don't actually distribute the money very far. Individuals will spend more…
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The random REF
<Image from gringer http://www.flickr.com/photos/gringer/5096129532/> As a senior member of staff (I know, how did that happen?), part of my duties currently include reading papers for the UK research assessment exercise, the REF. I've moaned about how this reinforces traditional publication models previously. This is a more general moan. I think the REF has muddled objectives. It aims to make academics accountable to some extent, but primarily acts as a means of allocating research funds. It may have some secondary aims, or you could classify these as indirect consequences, such as reinforcing the position of the main publishers and maintaining the status of Russell Group universities. When you have multiple objectives the…
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Quick blogging survey
Alice Bell is conducting some research for us at IET, so this is asking you (yes YOU) to participate. Alice says "email answers to edubloggingstudy@gmail.com. Or you can cut and paste it to post it on your blog, if you want to share your answers with your readers (although please drop me a line with the link so I can make sure I have a copy)" Well, I'd best respond too:Blog URL:edtechie.net What do you blog about?Digital scholarship, Open education, educational technology, social media, impact of new technology. Are you paid to blog?No. What do you do professionally (other than blog)?I'm a Professor of Educational Technology at the Open University.…
