Reflections

PLENK2010 - hmmmm

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 18:35:14 +0100

So I attended the first PLENK2010 online session today and, like many of such sessions it was predictably a little chaotic. Equally as predictable though was the flow of conversation and ideas.

It was good to se so many people engaging in the chat room and expressing concern, interest and excitement.

Like many Massively Online Open Courses PLENK seems to be challenging the idea that things have to be taught in favour for things being learnt, and more importantly, things being learnt by individuals in ways that suit their needs.

So it will be interesting to see if PLENK2010 addresses the needs of the majority of the learners on the course, including those who are running it.

Several people wondered if they could do something like that in their schools. Well I guess they could but within the constraints of the school system today. Totally changing the model of schooling would be hard to do in one big step but if you combined some of the ideas that I hope we will explore in PLENK2010 with some of the insights from “Inside the Black Box” from King’s College then perhaps some brave educators could make a start - anyone up for it??

Saving money - schools ability to react

Wed, 8 Sep 2010 22:48:09 +0100

When I was presented with a source for buying a batch of very cheap iPads my first reaction was to iffer them to schools. After all the iPad is potentially a very useful educational tool. Many of the people I contacted were keen and said the would get back to me but sadly too late. One educational establishment came back to me with an order for 40 but by then they had all gone - only a week after being told about them. I wonder if schools will ever be able to make speedy enough decisions to achieve savings through this route? Or maybe they just did not want the iPads???

iPaducation?

Tue, 6 Apr 2010 16:22:36 +0100

Like many “geekish” people out there I was half sceptical/half excited by the prospect of the iPad. No multi-tasking, no USB, no this, no that - there seemed to be many different things to dislike. However, to counterbalance such misgivings it is, after all, an Apple product, child of the “great” Steve Jobs.

Even before the spate of reviews coming out from excited reviewers over the last few days I had been contemplating the usefulness of the iPad to the educational environment.

Many years ago I wrote about a device that could be used by schools which would be unencumbered by the need for a mouse, a “windows” access metaphor and the problems of software and hardware incompatibility. I hoped that such a device would allow the use of touch to access the content, tools, technologies and resources so that students of all ages and aptitudes could make effective use of the platform.

Most people have a finger that they can use, and even if they don’t like using a finger for some things (such as digital art) there are now “pens” available for use with the iPhone/iPad which allow you to use a slightly different way of manipulating tools.

For me, the simplicity of the user interface is all important in an educational context. Providing a platform that is itself simple to use allows software developers to buid their own user interface options that build upon the simplicity of the Apple UI. So the hope is that, as developers spend more time with the physical iPad they will hone their UI to make more use of its physical features as well as the software features of the iPhone/PadOS.

Combine the above with the real life ability to provide 10 hours of battery life the iPad, and hopefully some similar tablets provided by other vendors, will surely be a game-changer for education. Enabling students to access their learning resources quickly and easily through a tool which is relatively inexpensive and which also enables effective communication, collaboration and content production must surely be the way forward???

Now all we need is the online tools that really support the device!

Developing a Content Management System

Wed, 3 Jun 2009 23:23:01 +0100

One of the things that is really interesting when developing a content management system is trying to put yourself in the place of the end user, who may or may not be very technical.

Even if they are technical they may not have enough time to really get to grips with all that the CMS has to offer.

So the tools that we develop need to be made easy to use and have the flexibility to allow a highly technical user to carry out more technical operations.

An interesting challenge - let’s see if we can achieve the right outcome.

Reflections

PLENK2010 - hmmmm

Saving money - schools ability to react

iPaducation?

More Content Management System

Developing a Content Management System