25yearsedtech
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The never-ending story
When I used to talk and write about digital/open scholarship a lot back around 2012, my go-to example related to the work Katy Jordan had done around MOOC completion rates. It was a good example of unintended, positive consequences of operating in the open, the benefits of sharing and the relationship between traditional and digital practice. A new, more self-centred version would relate to 25 Years of Ed Tech. It started as a blog series, became an openly licensed book, then a community audiobook which begat a podcast series, and has since returned to an ongoing blog series of 30 years of Ed Tech. All of this relied on the…
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30 Years of Ed Tech – 2023: Twitter Diaspora
Since the 25 Years of Ed Tech book finished in 2018, I have been writing an annual addition at the end of the year. The reason I started the 25 Years series was to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of ALT. This year they are celebrating their 30th, so I’m writing this one early in honour of the ALT-C conference next week. Digital diaspora is a term that has been used variously to describe diaspora from physical communities using the internet to stay connected and to describe black participation online. This Washington Post article uses the phrase to highlight how black communities that used Twitter effectively for coordinating protests and raising…
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25+ Years of Ed Tech: 2022 – AI Generated Content
via GIPHY Despite the book 25 Years of Ed tech finishing with 2018, I’ve kept it going with one entry for each year since. The criteria for selection was the year I think they became significant, in that people talked about them a lot. And your annual reminder that inclusion does not denote approval (some people struggle with this). So, AI generated content eh? The year started with fun AI generated images and ended with ChatGPT promising the end for humanity as we know it. This can produce genuinely decent outputs, and so the phase of just dismissing it as inferior is not a valid approach. The obvious potential victim of decent AI…
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25+ Years of EdTech – 2021: MS Teams
via GIPHY Despite the book 25 Years of Ed tech finishing with 2018 (aww, remember 2018?), I’ve kept it going with one entry for each year since. The criteria for selection was the year I think they became significant, in that people talked about them a lot. And inclusion does not denote approval (hence the presence of blockchain in 2017). 2020 was predictably the online pivot. By choosing a more specific technology in MS Teams for 2021 I am continuing this theme, but the focus is now perhaps on longer term trends and what the choice of Teams denotes. Of course, Teams has been pretty significant in education for a…
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The joy of the Between the Chapters podcast
I blogged a while ago that Clint Lalonde organised an incredible community audiobook project, with different people reading a chapter of the 25 Years of Ed Tech book. Laura Pasquini got in touch over the summer suggesting hosting a podcast series that accompanied the audiobook. The podcast series, Between the Chapters, also focuses on one chapter, with different guests discussing a chapter, which is then released every week, with the audiobook chapter on Monday and the podcast on Thursday. As an author it has been fascinating to listen to the podcasts. Whether it’s Clint and Bonnie Stewart reminiscing about the early days of blogs, Jessie Stommel raging about the concept…
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25 Years of OU/Ed Tech – 2020: The Online Pivot
via GIPHY A “2 for the price or 1” post! As part of the ongoing 25 Years of Ed Tech project, I do one post that is based around the ed tech of that year that would have been included (the book stops in 2018 – oh and while you’re here, remember to check out the audiobook and podcast series of the book). I’ve also been doing my 25 Years of OU series reflecting on my career over 25 years at one institution. For this final post in the latter, and the 2020 entry for the former, there is a crossover of these two series, it’s like the time Magnum…
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Audiobook version of 25 Years
Earlier in the year, Clint Lalonde contacted me to say he was interested in doing an audiobook version of 25 Years of Ed Tech. He then proceeded to put together an amazing cast, with global friends and colleagues each reading a different chapter. And then Laura Pasquini suggested doing a podcast where people would discuss each of the chapters. This is now coming to fruition and Clint has set up a site, complete with snazzy trailer, and Laura has the podcast hosting sorted. The chapters are coming in and there is a release schedule starting Nov 2nd. This has been a strange mixture of exciting, humbling and embarrassing. I mean,…
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Online pivot – the Past
via GIPHY I thought I’d do a series of posts on thinking about the past, present and future of our current situation. I don’t want to go the full Downes, and say “what this pandemic is really about is me”, but in terms of thinking about the past, I thought I’d riff off my 25 Years of Ed Tech book. What the pandemic has revealed is the role of ed tech not as a funky, disruptive side hustle, but as boring, mainstream provision. In physical architecture terms it is less the cool, digital drop-in space with bean bags but more akin to the standard lecture halls and old refectory. It’s…
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The COVID-19 online pivot
The outbreak of COVID-19 has seen many universities closing campuses and shifting learning online. It’s unprecedented and suddenly puts ed tech front and centre in a way it hasn’t been before. For those of us who have been doing online learning or distance ed for a while it can seem a bit irritating to have been seen as second class for so long and then suddenly deemed worthy of interest. So I tweeted over the weekend: It’s interesting seeing all the unis that disparaged distance ed as not proper suddenly being converted to the benefits of online education — Martin Weller (@mweller) March 7, 2020 It was kinda snarky, but…
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25 Years of Ed Tech site
Ok, I know I’m going on about it, last post on the book, I promise (well, maybe not actually last one). I created a small site to accompany it: http://edtechie.net/25Years/ It gathers together the various bits, like images, playlist etc. Plus there is a fun timeline for you to explore. I may add bits to it as I go along. Any suggestions for fun things (I started doing a wiki, but ran out of time/will), plus if anyone else does anything I can add it there too.
