Digital Literacy of Academics in HE

Digital Literacy Presentation

For the module on Trends in eLearning I have prepared a short clip using Camtasia studio to discuss briefly digital literacy of Academics in Higher Education.

I prepared the presentation with the intention of publishing it in articulate, however the licence ran out so I went straight to Camtasia. I have to say Camtasia was so intuitive and I will definitely use it again. The recording of the audio tracks was very easy and when the file was prepared I uploaded it to YouTube. YouTube prompted me to add the correct file type (mp4) produced through Camtasia. I will encourage more people to use this (staff and students). The day of the presentations I was unable to attend the class in person but I was happy that my presentation would present my thoughts on digital literacy skills of Academics in higher education, hopefully in an entertaining way. I have uploaded my presentation to the discussion board so my peers can give me feedback.

 

Evaluating PeerWise

In order to evaluate my first use of PeerWise I have collaborated with Dr Barry Ryan, (School of Food Science and Environmental Health, DIT), Dr Aaron Mac Raighne, Dr Rob Howard, (School of Physics, DIT) and Dr Morag Casey, (School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow) to carry out a multidisciplinary, inter-institutional evaluation of its use in teaching first year students in Science subjects (Chemistry and Physics). One evaluation sheet has been designed by the evaluators to capture constructive feedback from the different student groups. I will be presenting our findings at the International Conference in Chemistry Education this summer.

Mobile Learning = mLearning

I see mobile learning or mLearning as a type of mind map of networks. There is the main communication platform e.g. VLE/ LMS between the tutor/ learner/ class group/ learning community. Within that network communication can be both static (course notes, tutorial sheets) or dynamic (discussion boards, online quizzes, wiki’s etc.). The technological interface is the actual mobile element which can be on an individuals smartphone, tablet or laptop. The main issues I see with mLearning are; accessibility, equity to access and access/ speed of wireless connection.

Gaming in Higher Education

Just when I thought I could safely say “I am not a gamer” I realise that when you take a closer look at the world of gamification and gaming in higher education that in fact I am and have been a practising gamer! The gaming I would have used in my practice over the past decade are simulations, animations, interactive crosswords to name a few. I feel they do have value to the students in learning chemistry as they can visualise what is happening at a molecular level and it assists in bridging the gap between the ‘micro and macro world‘. A lot of research has shown that enhancing the visualisation of the topic creates a deeper understanding of the topic.

Are VLE’s dead?

When asked if we think the VLE (virtual learning environment) is dead, in my opinion I do not think the VLE or LMS (learning management system) is dead. It has a large role in programme and module management and although this could be run through other platforms it is useful for both staff and students that they have one coherent communication vehicle that they can operate through. However, as we hinted at last week the usefulness of some of the current learning tools and lack of intuitive access to their use is a problem along with them being associated with non-traditional learning and teaching strategies are issues to be addressed. A lot of training and dissemination within our own institute has gone into the communication of the learning tools but I feel that in order to role out further use of the web 2.0 type interface of the LMS a type of mentoring/ shadowing system would have to be rolled out amongst schools who are willing to try something new! The idea of the mentoring staff to promote their digital literacy is promoted in the Horizon 2014 report.

First year poster presentations

Today in DIT we had the first year level 7 chemistry research poster presentations. It is probably the last year of the ‘hard copy’ version of the students’ work. Practically it is difficult to host & assess these sessions. The future of this work seems to be an on-line peer assessed format:On-line posters. Here’s a pic to mark the end of an era!

DIT Learning and Teaching Showcase 2014

Yet another Learning and Teaching Showcase that I have come
away inspired by innovative teaching methods and clever use of
learning technologies. I particularly liked the use of student
YouTube videos that Barry Ryan mentioned and I hope to try that
with my own second year students this semester. I am interested to
learn more from Micheal Seery on the flipped lectures and the
practicalities on how it was delivered and how it worked for him.
Also, the Lecturer from IT Blanchardstown (ITB) using Socrative as a mobile
student response system in the class has convinced me to try it
out. Again I am going to try it with a small lab group this
semester. It was also nice to include IT Tallaght and ITB
colleagues as it made me feel less institutionalised as a long-term
member of staff at DIT. There was a very relaxed feel to the event
and it was a nice opportunity to share ideas and learning and
teaching strategies along with honest feedback. Both Michael Seery
and I spoke briefly during the graduate attributes session on how
graduate attributes can be embedded into context/ problem based
learning modules and spoke of a Context/ Problem based resource
pack we were involved in developing for the RSC.

Learning to use plug-ins

I am trying to learn about using plug-ins to increase the web 2.0 activity on my e-portfolio.

I know that Hugh has used the tpg plug in so I am going to start with getting that!

If you see this blog post on my homepage that means I have been successful!

e-portfolio trouble shooting!

This session facilitated by C. McAvinia was very useful as I found out (thanks to Hugh) that I was writing blog posts in WordPress rather than webpages. It took him 5 mins to explain to me what I was doing and he also showed me how to create parent pages etc. This was an excellent example of peer to peer tutoring. It relieved a lot of my anxieties in relation to my e-portfolio and did not demand too much time from him. This was also a useful exercise as it showed the diversity in the group in terms of IT skills. I feel that my IT skills would be quite weak and I would lack confidence in my use of technology however I do feel that based on my educational experience and practice I will be able to contribute in other ways.

I enjoyed the use of Twitter in the classroom to retrieve feedback. I have a Twitter account but i do not tweet but it may be something I will get involved with in the future. I am very ‘time poor’ this year so I prioritise a lot in what I engage with and when.