elearndipity

Stephen Downes on how academics waste their time

Sun, 21 Nov 2010 18:59:00 -0500

Research on Mobile Learning
Graham Attwell, Pontydysgu, November 19, 2010.

One of the issues I have with academic research in education is that a great deal of time is spent arguing over definitions, drawing distinctions and creating terminology, and almost none explaining phenomena or identifying causes (it’s almost as though educational researchers today reject causation as equivalent to behaviourism). Case in point: this summary of research on mobile learning offered by Graham Attwell. We get, for example, “John Cook (UK) develops the idea of mobile phones as mediating tools within augmented contexts for development.” We have “Diana Laurillard (2007) has highlighted the mobility of digital technologies in providing ‘opportunities for new forms of learning because they change the nature of the physical relations between teachers, learners, and the objects of learning.‘“We have “Margrit Boeck (2010) says mobile devices are: making learners mobile.” We have “Nial Winters (2007) suggest[ing] we have to address three mobilities in mobile learning – learners, technology objects, and information.” And more, of that ilk. Nonsense! Not in the sense that it’s all wrong, but in the sense that it’s all meaningless. Call me a positivist if you must - but please, no more conceptual schemes, terminology, or definitions. (Hits Today: 40 Total: 481)

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21 Nov 2010

Why Gen Y is better at your job than you are

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 10:35:04 -0500

Why Gen Y is better at your job than you are

What generation are you part of, really? Take this test.

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 10:33:39 -0500

What generation are you part of, really? Take this test.

Bad memory for faces? Blame your reading skills

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 10:21:55 -0500

Bad memory for faces? Blame your reading skills:

According to Stanislas Dehaene at the INSERM-CEA Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit in Saclay, France, “The intriguing possibility that our face-perception abilities suffer in proportion to our reading skills will be explored in future research”.

17 November 2010: Mobile eLearning - mLearning for language...

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 06:37:51 -0500

17 November 2010: Mobile eLearning - mLearning for language enhancement

Associate Professor David Kennedy (Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China)

This session looked at learning activities that can be conducted via mobile devices (mobile phones, ipads etc) with a particular focus on second language learning courses, the role such devices can play in an overall course design and the challenges faced when implementing mobile learning projects.

Numerous studies argue that students and learn languages more effectively using mobile tools, but there is little empirical evidence in Hong Kong that such devices can be effective, in spite of the 184% mobile ownership, and over 9000 free wireless outlets for university students across the territory. This study approached the task using a multi-faceted approach. Initially a second year language course with learning outcomes that focused on the ability of students to present in English (their second or even third language) was examined, and changes to the curriculum were made to better support a greater range of learning outcomes, and more explicit evidence of actual competencies. Students were provided with the latest iPhones, and qualitative and quantitative data was generated.

The Web is dead - long live the Internet! “Two decades...

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 11:14:55 -0500

The Web is dead - long live the Internet!

“Two decades after its birth, the World Wide Web is in decline, as simpler, sleeker services — think apps — are less about the searching and more about the getting. Chris Anderson explains how this new paradigm reflects the inevitable course of capitalism. And Michael Wolff explains why the new breed of media titan is forsaking the Web for more promising (and profitable) pastures.”

10 Nov 2010

The Future (of Learning) will be Telepathic and Telekinetic - a...

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 06:32:27 -0500

The Future (of Learning) will be Telepathic and Telekinetic - a PowerPoint presentation by Inge De Waard

US Futurist says E-Books Will Replace University Textbooks Within Three Years

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 09:30:59 -0500

US Futurist says E-Books Will Replace University Textbooks Within Three Years:

“Electronic books are expected to replace traditional textbooks in universities in two to three years’ time, according to the New Media Consortium’s authoritative Horizon Report, a comprehensive annual study of developments in e-learning. At ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN 2010, Larry Johnson, CEO of the New Media Consortium, will discuss the very latest findings of the Horizon Report 2011, before the official release in January. The annual report is based on the views of hundreds of technology experts in education, museums, business and creative industries. Here, Larry Johnson takes a broader look at the technological trends in this field.”

8 Nov 2010

Learning in Dorm, Because Class Is on the Web

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 07:16:54 -0500

Learning in Dorm, Because Class Is on the Web:

“Online education is best known for serving older, nontraditional students who can not travel to colleges because of jobs and family. But the same technologies of “distance learning” are now finding their way onto brick-and-mortar campuses, especially public institutions hit hard by declining state funds. At the University of Florida, for example, resident students are earning 12 percent of their credit hours online this semester, a figure expected to grow to 25 percent in five years. “

8 Nov 2010

New Report on Student perspectives on technology – demand, perceptions and training

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 13:39:46 -0400

New Report on Student perspectives on technology – demand, perceptions and training

Best online collaboration tools 2010 (Robin Good)

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 09:32:48 -0400

Best online collaboration tools 2010 (Robin Good):

Good mindmap with links to sources.

EDEN and EURODL

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 05:47:18 -0400

EDEN and EURODL:

The Journal has the following sections: refereed where full papers in English meeting basic requirements are published, the brief one, containing non-refereed articles, project reports, work in progress, non-English contributions and the review section with inputs about recently read, relevant books in the field.

http://www.eurodl.org

26 Oct 2010

The stupidity of DRM

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:26:00 -0400

I shouldn’t need to explain why DRM is bad, stupid, and doomed to failure, so I’ll leave it to cryptography guru Bruce Schneier, who in 2001 pointed out that DRM is an attempt to repeal the laws of nature. When you get down to it, every DRM scheme relies on encrypting files, then giving them to someone else, along with the necessary decryption key for decrypting them, and trusting that the someone else is too stupid to reverse engineer the decryption algorithm and use the keys you helpfully provided.

The primary problem with DRM is not only that it doesn’t work, but that it irritates the hell out of law-abiding customers who only buy legal products (with DRM), but doesn’t inconvenience pirates in the slightest. It’s actually counterproductive. Customers learn to stay away from vendors of DRM’d products, once they’ve upgraded a device too far and discover that their old files are locked away from them and inaccessible (because the old software or keys won’t run on their new gadgets).

By Charlie Stross - Charlie’s Diary

25 Oct 2010

Compare Q1 + Q2 2010 ($179.7 M) vs. 2002 - 2009 Annual...

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:15:00 -0400

Compare Q1 + Q2 2010 ($179.7 M) vs. 2002 - 2009 Annual Trade Wholesale Sales of e-book readers

See http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/05/cmap-9-ebooks.html

Gartner’s 2010 Hype Cycle

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 06:15:21 -0400

Gartner’s 2010 Hype Cycle

Links to OER repositories (cloudworks)

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 10:38:47 -0400

Links to OER repositories (cloudworks):

Great annotated list of links to OER repositories on cloudworks

19 Oct 2010

Using Hotseat and Mixable at Purdue University - Jane...

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 05:46:14 -0400

Using Hotseat and Mixable at Purdue University - Jane Hart

Purdue have clearly (and cleverly) realised that it is no longer about forcing students to use standalone learning systems but to integrate learning into the systems that students actually use on a daily basis. I am sure we will be seeing a lot more of this - both in education and in the workplace.

19 Oct 2010

Slideshare: World’s best presentation contest 2010 19 Oct...

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 05:43:50 -0400

Slideshare: World’s best presentation contest 2010

19 Oct 2010

The E-learning Debate: This house believes that technology-based...

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 05:41:50 -0400

The E-learning Debate: This house believes that technology-based informal learning is more style than substance.

19 Oct 2010

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010 by Jane Hart 19 Oct 2010

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 05:35:09 -0400

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2010 by Jane Hart

19 Oct 2010