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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.…
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Give me an M!
<Image http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigblue/317855467/ by bigbluemeanie> The second of MOOC musing posts: On Twitter recently Alan Levine bemoaned that there was too much emphasis on the M in MOOCs, and I think it's the M that worries Jonathan Rees. Kate Bowles has a well reasoned post on some MOOC concerns also. I wonder if there is some truth in this – it is the manager’s dream of the infinite lecture hall that characterised early e-learning until people found out e-learning wasn’t very cheap in the end. But for a MOOC, learners aren’t paying so they can’t complain about the infinite lecture hall approach, but they will be monetised somehow (whether through accreditation, data,…
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MOOCs Inc
<Image http://www.flickr.com/photos/barenboime/2355747124/ by Barenboime> I thought I’d write a couple of posts around MOOCs, and in particular, the sudden awakening of senior management, media and companies to them. I don’t think this post is really saying much more than ‘hmm, interesting isn’t it?’. Having been involved on the periphery of MOOCs for a while, and knowing a lot of the real pioneers on first name terms (George, David, Stephen, Dave, Jim, Alec – see, I do know their first names), it’s been interesting to see the sudden adoption of MOOCs by others, most notably those in the US. What we have been witnessing is the mainstreaming of the original MOOC concept.…
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Blogging was the best decision
I have an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. I was asked to write a piece about the role of blogging in academic life. In many ways this is a tad quaint, blogging is hardly the new kid on the block (indeed it is now ripe for the X is dead meme). But maybe that's the point, it's been around long enough that we can assess its impact in real terms, and not just as the new shiny thing. My approach was to take blogging as a representative for new forms of scholarship, and how it had impacted upon my practice. There is nothing in it that will be…
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Losing the glue of scholarship
<Image http://www.flickr.com/photos/kapungo/422491278/> This thought has been bubbling away with me for a while, so I'll try and express it here, but it may be patchy (yes, yes, no change there). The financial crisis and rising tuition fees (particularly in the UK, and Europe will probably follow given the state of their economies) has placed a number of pressures on higher education. One of the outcomes is that greater accountability and transparency is demanded. That's only to expected and is reasonable – if students are paying high fees which pay academics salaries then we need to demonstrate that those academics are engaged in meaningful work. And as employers struggle with less money,…
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Education & the language of change
Occasionally a blog post comes along in your field which you feel is seminal, a must-read. Think Scott's just share or Jim's glass bees post. Last week it was George's turn, and his post on the commercial pressures and interests around education is thought provoking and honest as he wrestles with the issues. If you haven't read it already, then please do so. One element I wanted to expand upon was the language of change that is employed by many both within higher ed, and in companies with an interest in it. The common phrase now is to declare that education is broken. I commented on George's post that this…
