Fostering Collaboration is the focus of this year’s Dublin Region Higher Education Alliance (DRHEA) elearning summer school. The DRHEA consists of the four universities and four institutes of technology in the Dublin region, which have a total of almost 11,000 staff and about 75,000 students. An elearning newtork of excellence is being established, starting with a preliminary audit on elearning among its members. The audit focuses on the use of VLEs and among other things urges the expansion from course management to greater use of learning activities and the upgrading of skills to support this.
The role of educational technologists in the transforming of education was discussed in a lively presentation by Larry McNutt. He illustrated the growing role of collaboration and the declining importance of content by comparing the rise of Wikipedia with the decline of Microsoft’s Encarta encyclopedia. While noting that the Irish Learning Alliance is an umbrella group for Irish eLearning companies, he advised learning technologists to ‘reclaim the field’. Technology needs to be ‘put in its place’ with learning technologists and academics using technology to help broaden access to education.
Librarians from DIT and DCU introduced the role of Web 2.0 in higher education. This was followed by hands-on workshops in collaborative technologies, including my own on blogs and wikis. I found that there were 2 bloggers among a class of 15 – including Michael Seery. By the end of the class all participants had written blog posts and contributed to a group wiki. We used Campus Pack from Learning Objects which are available for both Blackboard & Moodle so that access can be restricted to class members.
Photos courtesy of DIT
June 22nd, 2010
Earlier this year I attended a workshop on Wimba’s Collaboration Suite, a synchronous online classroom system. Wimba Classroom includes audio, video, application sharing and content display. Students can communicate with each other and the lecturer using voice and chat (IM). I have some doubts about the value of such virtual classrooms in a campus-based university such as UCD.
Perhaps I will be convinced by the forthcoming Wimba online seminar (on asynchronous communication!) Developing The E-flective Practitioner: Using Blogs to enhance Reflective Practice at Postgraduate level – presented by: Paul Lowe, Course Director, MA Photojournalism and Documentary Photography, London College of Communication on September 24th.
Asynchronous technologies such as blogs and discussion boards allow time for reflection before posting and may encourage shyer students and less fluent English speakers to contribute. This does not seem to me to be the case for synchronous virtual classrooms, which can be valuable in fostering collaboration and communication in distance learning but less so in a campus-based university… why not just meet in a seminar room?
This free seminar is part of the Wimba Distinguished Lecture Series aimed at education professionals.
August 28th, 2008
UCD presentations in the Practitioner strand at EdTech 2008 included:
Blogging as a Facilitator in the Learning Process: Student Reflections on Their Information Seeking During Assessment by Crystal Fulton of the UCD School of Library and Information Studies. About 100 second-year students used blogs to record and reflect on their information searching strategies. This helped to deepen their understanding of their own information seeking processes and thus increase their information literacy. Abstract. Slides.
Scholarcast – Podcasting Irish Studies to the World by Niall Watts of Media Services, UCD IT Services. Scholarcast aims to be the audio equivalent of a research journal. It is inspired by RTE’s Thomas Davis series where specialists in the field of Irish Studies broadcast public lectures. Series 1 of Scholarcast consists of eight audio podcasts accompanied by transcripts, which can be used for referencing purposes. It was developed by UCD School of English, Drama and Film and Media Services. Abstract.(PDF) Slides(zip).
Real & Relevant – learning is changing: reflections on the experience of task-based assessment within a masters’ programme by Anne McMorrough and Ana Maria Perez Martinez.
The presenters are both primary school teachers and postgraduate students in the UCD School of Education and LifeLong Learning. They described ICT projects in their schools – one involving e-Twinning with a school in Newcastle, UK and the other Spanish language skills. In both cases the children learned to work collaboratively using ICT tools. Abstract. Slides.
Developing Communities of Practice: Experiences and Challenges co-presented by a team of National Digital Learning Repository (NDLR) Community of Practice (CoP) co-ordinators, including Diane Cashman of the Centre for Teaching and Learning in the UCD School of Education and Lifelong Learning. Other team members were Muireann O’Keefe from DCU and Lisa O’Regan of NUI Maynooth. The presentation discusses the development of CoPs including motivation, structure, collaborative environment, and sustained promotion. Abstract(PDF).
August 19th, 2008
Nearly 100 second stage students studying in the UCD School of Library and Information Studies (SILS) created their own ‘Blogger’ blog to record their observations on their information seeking experiences. None of the students had created a blog before. The blogs were used in module, called “Finding Information in Everyday Contexts” (IS20010), in which students explore ways of finding and evaluating information relevant to their lives in and beyond college and increase their level information literacy. Dr Crystal Fulton, SILS, who teaches the module, considers the use of blogs a success, noting that “the blogs added an important reflective element to the students’ Information Hunt assessment.” She plans to incorporate the blogs in assessment for this module again next autumn. In the meantime, Dr. Fulton’s postgraduate students will be using blogs in Qualitative Research Methods (IS40060) in the new year.
December 13th, 2007
