#altc2011 Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate review Part Two

Here is quick summary of the things I discovered or revisited in last half of the ALT-C Conference 


Karen Cator presented an interesting paper by video-cast to the assembly. Karen's focus in on mending a very fragmented school system - I'd argue a broken system - but others might argue a system with a strong independent and democratic tradition with a deep suspicion of anything led at national level.  They now have a national educational technology plan and they have just set up an organisation ( a bit like BECTA) to drive and support roll out of educational technology in schools across America.  Called the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies (Digital Promise) http://www.digitalpromise.org/  
They are starting off my looking at special software and systems to develop learning through games in first instance.


I spent some time in a couple of workshops re-familiarising my self with Glo-Maker which should be development tool of choice for most teachers in schools , colleges and HE . It is just so easy to use and creates sensible learning objects quickly. I still find lots of folk who don't know about it. 


Then an over view of new LSIS tool for evaluating organisations ICT capacity - a great tool ;  it is free and it is on-line . Particularly due to pretty live debate in Scotland around future of ICT in Schools I think at school level  this and tools like this are a great place for school leaders to start.  Though I am not sure that the Learning and Skills Improvement Service will be able to cope with all the developments that seem to be being pushed their way.


As a life long  Who fan - (just before I became a punk rocker)  - it was great to have dinner in the hall where "Live at Leeds" was recorded. 


As conference closed I enjoyed the style and old fashioned but hard nosed rhetoric in John Naughton's lecture . He sat and told us many things we knew but challenged us too . I think proof that the lecture is not dead.  Nice too to hear from one of those rare creatures a public intellectual.  I'm looking forward to seeing this and more on ALT Youtube Channel. 


The elephant in the room at this session and indeed many of sessions I attended is the impact that the new fee structures will have on higher education in England.  The Vice Chancellors have made the price 9,000 a year but no-one knows how it will really impact on recruitment and on institutional learner relationships.  This is a system in transition and one that is  afraid of the changes and times that lie ahead. 


It is also a system where learning technology now more than ever has the capacity to support learners on  the journeys that they want to make those  individualised learner journeys  . One wonders if the price will lead to greater product differentiation and those richer individualised learning opportunities but  the danger must be a crude race to the bottom with lots of institutional failures. The die is now cast.


And in all of this I hope not too many learner blues - the schools are currently packed with young folks who need a strong innovative and vibrant tertiary education system.

#altc2011 Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate review Part One

It has taken me longer than I thought to get to reflecting on #altc2011,   really as the winds of policy change have been blowing strongly in Scotland over last week or so.

Association of Learning Technology members should have a look at our Cabinet Secretary and Minister for Education Mike Russell - leading from the the front on giving the educational system a shake and trying to put the whole debate on educational technology in schools and beyond on a new and different footing - the debate is all focused on making the most of what we have in that colder and more challenging climate - which will be all the clearer at the end of this month when the Scottish budget settlement is finally revealed and in place.

It would be good too to get some input from the ALT Community in the work that is going on to shape the educational technology future of Scottish Education here - I am already seeing things where I know a lot of lessons have been already learned across FE and HE. Folks from global community should have a look at all  things tagged #EduScotICT.

It was a rare treat and a privilege to get away from my desk and get to a whole ALT-C conference and it did not disappoint I came back buzzing with ideas and just as significantly an armoury of practical solutions and for my day job some potential business opportunities. You can't really ask for a richer diet than this.

The big picture stuff which colleagues in Scotland should have a hard look at came from Uruguay , America and a timely reminder that "the future is here already it is just not evenly distributed". Though I came away from my first session being more and more convinced that the cycle of innovation adoption is getting shorter and shorter around the world.  Here is just a snapshot and some links for folks to have a look at

1. Day One  I managed to attend two of the pre-conference workshops 

• The Horizon Report on new and emerging technologies really worth a look - especially on the ever shortening adoption curves. If we are thinking in Scotland around tools we will have access to in 3 years time this is the  place to look  This work is really worth having a look at.  This work is commissioned by JISC for the UK but is based on similar studies from around the world.
• Also managed to spend some time looking at impact of learner analytics oops I should be calling it Activity Data . I am still a bit sceptical of this  approach  while I appreciate most organisations are now data rich and information poor . I worry that  monitoring  lots information on a business systems dashboard around an individual learners attendance , performance , time spent accessing VLE , books borrowed from library, even through GPRS how the move around campus  etc replaces human contact with the institution.  One staggering piece of research showed those borrowing most books at a particular institution were most likely to get a first class degree. If you are interested in this area of work you should check out this site.

2.  Day Two

• The highlight of conference for me was hearing Miguel Brechner and about the progress of the one lap-top per child programme and educational and social impacts of Plan Ceibal – a new approach to the use of technology in educationUruguay has deployed more than 450,000 computers to every pupil in state education from the 1st year of primary to the 3rd year of secondary school. 99% of these students now have Internet connectivity in their school. All wireless and we're talking schools some of which had no power before programme started. It is totally transformational.
  From Miguel - as all pupils have laptops and connectivity new challenges appear and the personalization of education becomes a real possibility.

• I then spent a session looking at the growth of virtual schools and colleges around the world and in the UK .  Currently I get approached once a month or so by a new virtual college or school looking at ways they can support education in Scotland and Scotland's learners. Worth having a look at VISCED they are uncovering some great practice from around the world and some in our own backyard that has so far been over looked.

Barriers to Adoption of Open Educational Resources

Just spent some useful time in a workshop with lots of colleagues looking at  some of the challenges around the adoption of Open Educational Practices.

Here is wee list we came up with

1. Generally legal issues around publishing in open way are not recognised by institutions or individuals
2. There are issues around current employment contracts - not clear to individuals or institutions around IP rights. Simple things like what happens when an academic leaves or moves to another institution.
3. Some practice that are ok in classroom under fair dealing or other institutional licences are not ok if works are published on openly - few institutions have specific copyright checker
4. Human factor too - institutions and individuals may not have an appetite for sharing - job fears, quality fears , and also concerns around or repurposing materials not invented in the institution.
5. Not enough knowledge about things like Creative Commons and other licence policies
6. Not enough information on best formats for publication of OER - things like EPub format not well understood
7. On using other peoples OER even under creative commons concern around attribution of derivative works
8. On specific things like images where meta data can be important you may want to share image but be concerned about licence of meta data
9. Good practice identified in Holland and Denmark where academics are mandated to publish to Open Educational Journals.

#altc2011 Thriving in a colder and more challenging climate

Last year I did quite a detailed post on the things I am looking for at the Association for Learning Technology Conference.

http://www.joewilsons.net/2010/09/assessment-futures-new-ventures-and-alt.html

From my original list from last year

• Exemplifying models of holistic assessment utilising range of different mediums.

• Exploring use of E-portfolios and their application across institutional boundaries - portfolio moving with learner.

• Describing and exemplifying Assessment strategies beyond the written word video or other evidence capture mechanisms including Virtual Worlds

• Demonstrating use of Wki and Blogs for assessment of collaborative and group work

• Piloting and creating models for test item sharing in (maths , sciences and computing ) how far can we share/ re-use  items between institutions /continents/ education systems  ?

• Further exploring potential of Games Based Assessment

These areas of work and some broader work around building and defining Digital Literacy across  the spectrum of life long learning.and how qualifications support this.  

I'd add looking at how open educational resources are being used to support learning and teaching.

I still think too that the use of Crowd Vine is exemplary and I wish systems like this could be used as some of the other conferences and events I get to attend.