KMET 07-08 :: Blog

http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/11/benefits-of-a-vl

There has been an interesting exchange of ideas today, on one of the JISC email lists - re. the benefits of a VLE. I particularly agree with Dave Foord’s post ( Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:37:09 -0000 ) - that good use of the communication tools is what really makes it a learning opportunity - and not just a (rather expensive) document dump. VLE Archives - November 2008

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http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/11/social-conferenc

Alt C used Crowdvine to get some social networking going during the conference - it was Ok, though I have seen better Social networks (mind you, I’d far rather Crowdvine than Ning!) I’ve just seen the website for Handheld Learning - which seems to be a very useful site - as it’s got some social tools (fora etc) but also the presentations / photos/ videos all on the same site. Useful info too!

Via Stephen Downes.

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http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/11/the-auricle-%e2%

The Auricle › eBooks and the e-learning ‘filling station’ revisited Worth reading, but probably easier if printed out.

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http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/11/visualising-soci

Malinka Ivanova has a list of a number of tools to visualise links in social networking. I see she’s also got a cloud tag powered by Quintura - a search engine that’s interested me for some time.

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http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/11/edmodo/

I’ve recently started using Twitter more and more; I still find it a little difficult - though I suspect that learning to write in 140 characters is actually quite good for me … and I suppose I ought to lrn to txt wrt.

Several people have pointed out Edmodo recently, I’ve had a bit of a play, though not quite sure how to get friends in it. I think I’ll stick to Twitter for the time being, though I could see uses for Edmodo.

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http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/11/create-an-animat

Seems a useful tool … xtranormal. I’m sure I can think of a few ideas for it.

From Jane

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http://userweb.port.ac.uk/~duke-wie/blog/2008/11/twistory-turning

SArah Robbins points out Twistory - (note the correct URL - http://www.twistory.net ) It seems a rather useful tool.

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http://carolt.edublogs.org/2008/11/13/week-4-and-5/

Week 4  was working on the research design. It’s been slow going and I felt bogged down and wanting to start work on the course building before I run out of time.

In the middle of all that took a few days “out” by way of a diversion to do a bit more family history research. Anyway as sometime happens, when busy at work and study, a ”mental break”  renews one’s energy to get back to the task at hand.

So to week 5 and a bit of excitement the first tangiable object resulting from the project, the results of my training needs survey are in.

Here the beauty of using Moodle comes into its own. The survey was done on line and the built in reporting tool has already done all the analysis work for me and provides the results in graphical and numeric form.

 

Comparing this with the effort of the last piece of research I did on the pupils on paper I recall the hassle and inaccuracy, double checking, inputting all the data into excell and then figuring out the correct equations to get a meaningful result.

 

Granted it took me several hours to build the questionairre, but it was a fraction of the time I spent on other recent paper based surveys. The last time this survey was issued the results were looked at briefly but never analised at all statistically.

 

All I had to do this time was observe the number of participents entries rising until after a couple of e-mail reminders all but one of my study group complied. I deliberately did not look at the results until they were all in having learned from my previous research that the full picture often looks different from the interim result.

 

Here is an example showing the way the results are presented for a rating question.

  

I found that by scanning through the 16 questions I could quickly identify the gaps in knowledge, and those areas where a whole topic was not well understood. For a busy teacher with several hundred pupils this must be of great benefit.

Authored by carolt. Hosted by Edublogs.

Progress after four weeks

I am not quite sure if I am presently moving in the right direction. While I am discovering new information about learning objects on a daily basis, I feel somewhat confused about all the different research methods, strategies and designs. It seems to be a bit clouded at the moment and I cannot really decide which avenue to pursue – am I on the right track, am I behind, ahead?

Various resources suggest regular contact with the supervisor in the early stages of the project. This would help to direct the focus of the purpose of the research in the right directions. It would assist to formulate a tentative research questions to guide the design of the research. I t would confirm that the milestones have been achieved as suggested by Dawson and slides (Act 1.2) of Week 1. https://victory.port.ac.uk/webct/urw/lc5116011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct

            

I will keep close tabs on developments and see how it affects the final deliverables and outcomes.

  

This is a summary of Colin Robson - Chapters 1 to 4Robson Notes.docx