George's posterous http://rworld2.posterous.com a new companion for my other web presences posterous.com Sat, 18 Feb 2012 06:03:00 -0800 Open is as open does - what do you want in an #fslt #oer #mooc http://rworld2.posterous.com/open-is-as-open-does-what-do-you-want-in-an-f http://rworld2.posterous.com/open-is-as-open-does-what-do-you-want-in-an-f

As planning gets underway to run a mooc based in the first instance on OCSLD's First steps into learning and teaching (#fslt) in higher education I have been struck by a couple of questions. First is when does a mooc start? Second is how open should the mooc planning process be? The questions are related. We have been committed to openness from the start (with a caveat). As soon as it was written the bid was posted to a public blog. The caveat is that unlike Joss Winn, we didn't write the bid in public. Five years ago I and others in the Emerge project tried to get the community to shape one big bid to the JISC. So, openness is still imperfect. But, now, there will be an event running the last 2 weeks of May and first 3 weeks of June. This event will be an intro to learning and teaching in higher education (note to Steve Wheeler referenced here not a mooc about moocs). But for some of us: Jenny, Marion and me, the thing has started. In a separate and unrelated - may the zeitgeist be with you - development I have been following, at a distance, the development of #mededmooc, a mooc for health care professionals [see here and here and here]. There it appears that it is all in a wide open planning phase. Everything is up for discussion and negotiation. I like this, but with some more caveats. The openness has to be bounded. It is not about everything. There are themes for the mooc we are planning: learning and teaching in HE, OER, the HEA UK PSF; there is a base curriculum. But, within these parameters, I would like to widen the discussion as much as possible. Call it a needs analysis. What do you want to see in a short 50 hour/5 week open online course about learning and teaching in higher edication?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:40:02 -0800 Not sure why posterous, or the phone, sends 2 pics http://rworld2.posterous.com/not-sure-why-posterous-or-the-phone-sends-2-p http://rworld2.posterous.com/not-sure-why-posterous-or-the-phone-sends-2-p

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:21:14 -0800 Big ribollito on the go #winterwarmer http://rworld2.posterous.com/big-ribollito-on-the-go-winterwarmer http://rworld2.posterous.com/big-ribollito-on-the-go-winterwarmer

-612336197 -6123361970
See the full gallery on Posterous

I love cavolo nero

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:31:00 -0800 Test video http://rworld2.posterous.com/test-video http://rworld2.posterous.com/test-video

20120202_181222.mp4 Watch on Posterous

 

 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:25:50 -0800 Getting up and going with the very exciting "iPad" HEA funded peer mentoring project http://rworld2.posterous.com/getting-up-and-going-with-the-very-exciting-i http://rworld2.posterous.com/getting-up-and-going-with-the-very-exciting-i Our little HEA Teaching Development Grant Project group met today for
the first working meeting after the grant was awarded. The project is
called "Internationalisation and Promoting Assessment Diversity
(IPAD)". Mary Deane is the PI and project manager. I am CoI and tech
adviser. We are going to get 12 iPads and recruit 6 "home" students
and 6 "overseas" students to be peer mentors in academic writing.
There are a lot of variables and a small cohort but we will be
investigating the use of technology-enhanced peer-led support for
international students in British universities. Home and international
students will be trained to mentor each other via iPads, and the
rationale is that by supporting each other’s production of assignments
using this popular technology, all students will engage more fully
with the scholarly conventions they need to employ in British academia
(Trowler and Trowler 2010:2; Borg and Deane 2011). In particular,
participants will be trained to give and receive feedback on written
assessments via iPads (Deane 2010; Temos 2011; Borg and Deane 2011).
Tablet computers have been relatively neglected in UK HE for
peer-to-peer support for international students, although they are
widely used by diverse students groups in North American universities,
and increasingly in British schools. iPads revolutionise the models
of online interaction that have been developed through the Internet,
and using the iPad’s multimedia collaborative features, participants
in this project will gain experience of both sides in a diverse range
of assessment types.

Well, that is what we said. For now we have some tasks to get done:
Mary is going to recruit the participants, write the ethics proposal
and kick off the Lit review; I am going to do the workplan, develop
the technical inception workshop; Caroline is going to purchase the
kit.

Oh, and we will be using the OCSLD blog for on-going reporting.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:03:43 -0800 My tips on university and college use of Twitter by courses and programmes http://rworld2.posterous.com/my-tips-on-university-and-college-use-of-twit http://rworld2.posterous.com/my-tips-on-university-and-college-use-of-twit Lots of people follow lots of Twitter accounts.
You need to be a "want to know" as well as a "need to know". Twitter is not the preferred need-to-know channel.
That means being interesting, fun, provocative as well as informative. You need to invite people to put your account on one of their "lists" that they actually read.
You should also use a simple hashtag with your tweets so that people can follow the hashtag without actually following the account.
Twitter and your blog should be seen as an integrated package with Twitter pointing people to more full information on the blog. But, don't only tweet about your blog.
You should also use good old e-mail.
Make sure the blog has an easy and obvious RSS link so that people can read it in Google Reader or Flipboard.
You should also have a Facebook page. There is debate about duplicate posting to Twitter and Facebook, but if it is a post to a page wall people will only see it in their newsfeed if they have opted in. I think it is worth it.
Make sure the blog is mobile friendly so that it can be read on iPhones and Android phones so that when people click through from twitter on the phone they can actually read it, too.
There are bound to be more useful tips , but that's my starters

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Fri, 09 Dec 2011 02:02:51 -0800 Student as consumer? Hold on, where is the evidence, and for what http://rworld2.posterous.com/student-as-consumer-hold-on-where-is-the-evid http://rworld2.posterous.com/student-as-consumer-hold-on-where-is-the-evid Debbie McVitty, Senior Research & Policy Officer (Higher Education)
for the National Union of Students argues (here
http://www.wonkhe.com/2011/12/06/why-students-as-customers-is-bad-for-policym...,
" ... the idea of the student-consumer, .... substitutes economic
power ... for self-determination, or the power to negotiate the act of
learning." And goes on, "It is therefore highly concerning to see the
debate about whether students are consumers flattened into a casual
comment like ‘students consider themselves more and more as consumers’
used as an a priori assumption on which a policy argument subsequently
rests."

Her point is that there is no research to support the assertion about
student consumerism, or what it means, or for whom. Like "Digital
Natives", student-as-consumer is an idea in the zeitgeist which needs
to be put to the same scrutiny as the idea of the digital native was.
Maybe it will stand up, but more likely it won't.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Sat, 08 Oct 2011 15:18:11 -0700 Family friendly work-life balance may mean working odd hours http://rworld2.posterous.com/family-friendly-work-life-balance-may-mean-wo http://rworld2.posterous.com/family-friendly-work-life-balance-may-mean-wo I often wonder about what a family-friendly work-life balance is. I perceive it through certain practices and policies as well as through tacit and explicit assertions and exhortations. Does it mean never sending a work-related e-mail outside the Monday-Friday, nine to five envelope? I have colleagues who adhere strictly to this practice. Others who don't. 

Now, I work in an educational institution. I have a family and kids. Nursery and soon school will be setting the social clock and calendar. And, I make other choices: commuting to work by bicycle (environmental transport policy) and doing something approaching my fair share of nursery runs, cooking and other domestic duties (equality and diversity policy). This means the time available to me Monday to Friday is more like 10:00 to 4:00 with a 40 minute cycle ride either side. I do need a lunch break to refuel. So at most, Monday to Friday, nine to five I can put in about five hours of work a day. This could leave me something like 10 hours a week short of my contracted hours.

I enjoy a working environment, line management and colleagues who are not clock watchers. I do not work all my waking hours. But, I do work in the early mornings, evenings and weekends as well as on the weekdays. However I do also sometimes feel that there is pressure to conform more closely to social norms: that it is somehow wrong or inappropriate to do work that is time-stamped outside the nine to five. Should I go online now and look at the developing conversation on the VLE? What kind of signal do I send if I post a message at 11:00 p.m. on a Saturday night? Will people think I have just rolled in from the pub? Actually, my partner went out. I was with the two boys. One of them woke up at about 10:00, crying. It took 20 minutes to settle him. So should I log on now?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:52:01 -0700 Hello boo-world http://rworld2.posterous.com/hello-boo-world http://rworld2.posterous.com/hello-boo-world
Media_httpaudioboofmb_gdwfc

Hello boo-world (mp3)

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:21:29 -0700 Teaching across two sites using "Classroom" audiographics - trials and tribulations #pcthe http://rworld2.posterous.com/teaching-across-two-sites-using-classroom-aud http://rworld2.posterous.com/teaching-across-two-sites-using-classroom-aud Audiographic tools can enable teaching and the support of learning across two or more sites but our university's classroom computing infrastructure cannot support audiographic tools: local hardware is not up to the job.

I conducted a trial this week to test these propositions.

Context
Our University has four main campuses. We are structurally divided into four faculties. However, the departments of the faculties are not located together on the same campuses. Faculties are distributed. Inter-campus transport is not great. You need to allow an hour between the end of an event on one campus and the beginning of an event on another. We teach a number of combined honours programmes and some modules are common to several programmes. Students may have seminars on different campuses. Students may be resident on different campuses. Lecturers may teach on different campuses. PhD teaching assistants may work predominantly on one campus and have occasional teaching duties on another. To further complicate matters the main campus is a building site and pressure on teaching accommodation is severe.

For all these reasons, and more, it makes sense to consider whether groups might be distributed between two (or more?) campuses, where a lecturer in a "home" room speaks with people in that room and simultaneously to those in another "satellite" room.

A scenario in which this seems to make sense is when a lecture is followed by seminar groups, especially if there might be a rationale for holding these break-out seminar groups on different campuses.

The trial
Participants on the New Lecturers Course and Postgraduate certificate in teaching in higher education (PCTHE) are based on all four main campuses and there are also participants from affiliated colleges and other universities.

The New lecturers course is not only supposed to teach the basics of surviving in the classroom, but to push the boundaries of teaching practice.

This week we tried distributed teaching with our "Microteaching" workshop. This workshop is aimed primarily at very new lecturers. Participants gather for a plenary at 0930 in which we discuss teaching observation and peer feedback. And, then at 1000 we disperse to smaller rooms in groups of about 5 participants, each facilitated by a tutor.

We offered participants the opportunity to have their break-out sessions on the campus of their choice while we hosted the plenary on the main campus. In the event, about 17 people gathered in the plenary home room and four people chose to have their session in the satellite room on another campus.

Findings
So how did we do it? What were the challenges? Did it work?

The plenary session was a success in that the lecturer was able to speak to both the "home" and the "satellite" room. Participants in the "satellite" room could see the lecturer and contributed to the discussion, asking and answering questions. Participants in the home room could see colleagues in the satellite room.

The "home" room would have been better served if there had been a microphone to pick up questions from the floor as well as the lecturer at the podium.

But, there were many challenges, almost all associated with the equipment in the two teaching rooms, and the solutions were decidedly Heath Robinson.

In advance of the session I installed a "classroom" into the Course VLE site. This was completely unproblematic. The link between Wimba Classroom and Blackboard (WebCT legacy) CE8 worked perfectly.

I then went in to the assigned home room on Monday afternoon to test things out for the distributed teaching session which was to take place on Wednesday.

The plenary home room was one of our newest teaching rooms with a podium full of computing and AV equipment. However web cams are not part of the setup and podium computers are not routinely provided with microphones. We would have to use external USB cameras and microphones. I have a Logitech composite camera and microphone, which works with "most machines".

I started the podium computer (a reasonably recent machine running our standard Windows XP set-up) and logged in, thereby establishing there was a local network connection. I plugged in the composite camera/microphone. The machine recognised it (which was an initially pleasant surprise). Then I clicked to load a browser. The application loader failed. No browser would load. I tried Firefox, Chrome and IE. Nada. I did a hard reset and waited while the machine rebuilt its registries. Same thing: the app-loader application wouldn't run. I noticed a sign on the door telling students that, earlier in the day, a last minute room change had been arranged. I guessed it was because no one could get this machine started. I wandered down the corridor, found an administrator who said that someone had mentioned that the machine wasn't behaving properly and that IT was coming. We called IT again and to be fair someone was there in about 10 minutes. They went through what I had done, determined that the machine wasn't working, called Operations, took my mobile number, said they would look into it and went away. I had a coffee.

In about 20 minutes they rang back and said they had resolved the app-loader problem. I went back to the room, fired up the machine, loaded Firefox and plugged in the camera/microphone. Now the machine refused to recognise this device and told me I didn't have the necessary privileges to install hardware. I gave up. got out my MacBook Pro, and plugged in the peripherals, including the room audio-out mini-jack.

I loaded the VLE, started the data projector and ran the Classroom set-up wizard: Java check, certificate check, whiteboard check; no audio. I unplugged the jack. The laptop speakers were fine. The Wimba classroom was working perfectly, video and all. I made sure the volume controls were all turned up. Still no room audio. I turned on the podium PC again. Found a random MP3 and played it with the default audio device on the machine. No sound. (You need to do this in order that people don't just say, oh, it's the Mac.) So all the computers were working but the room speakers were not. The podium is locked down. You can't get at the cables and see if something has jiggled loose. So I put another call into IT services.

This was about 4:50 on Monday afternoon. I said I needed to use audio in the room on Wednesday at 0900. I was given a service "ticket" number, assured that they would sort the room audio and if they couldn't would bring a set of external speakers.

At 0900 on Wednesday I got to the room, plugged in the Mac and started everything up. But, no audio on the room speakers and no external speakers. I called IT services quoting my "ticket" number. I was told it "... hadn't gotten to the top yet". I said I need audio in 10 minutes. I think I sounded grumpy. In about 5 minutes a colleague came running in with an external speaker. At 0930 we were "live" on the web at the advertised start time for the session.

So what about the "satellite" room? We had asked for a "standard teaching room" with the "usual podium setup". The room assigned had no kit. We were assured that a laptop and projector would be "delivered" and that the room did have the network. My colleague, who was facilitating in that room arrived. There was no laptop and no projector. He got out his MacBook Pro and plugged it into the ethernet port. There was no network at that point. Fortunately he was in range of wifi. The MacBook Pro worked fine. The VLE and classroom worked fine. He called our administrator who chased up the projector, which arrived at about 0935. As there were only five people in the room the on-board speakers were just about adequate.

Recommendations
All (most?) teaching rooms should be equipped with web cams and microphones. Obviously there would need to be a phased upgrade plan. There should be some (most?) teaching rooms, which also have cameras to capture the wider room and cameras to follow a lecturer who prefers to wander rather than stay at the podium. Room mics are needed to pick up questions from the floor.

Without such an upgrade the value of our investment in the Collaborate suite will not be fully realised.

An additional benefit of such an upgrade would be to enable (rudimentary) lecture capture for later re-play.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Sun, 18 Sep 2011 21:14:29 -0700 Authenticity in learning and assessment: to the learner, to the field, and to the practice http://rworld2.posterous.com/authenticity-in-learning-and-assessment-to-th http://rworld2.posterous.com/authenticity-in-learning-and-assessment-to-th I have been looking for the source of a taxonomy of 3 kinds of "authenticity" in learning and assessment..
  1. authenticity with respect to learners current and prior knowledge, skill and understanding: authentic to the person now
  2. authenticity with respect to the epistemology of the field: authentic to the accepted canons and methodological protocols of the discipline, laws, theorems, etc
  3. authenticity with respect to the practice of professionals in the discipline/field: authentic to the messy reality of practice, which at times confounds authenticity 2.

My ideas are informed by a number of strands. Fullick (2004) refers to three aspects of authenticity: creativity, activity, language. Tatsuki (2006), following Taylor (1994) speaks of language, task and situation. Both these three-part typologies are similar to mine and I wonder if I have unconsciously paraphrased or adapted Fullick?

In these cases:

  • "language" aligns with my concept of authenticity 1): to where the learners are now: don't buffalo them with jargon too early, etc
  • task and activity correspond (I think) with my authenticity 2): to the canons of the discipline
  • Fullick's "creativity" corresponds, I think, with my authenticity 3) and may correspond with Tatsuki's "situation"
Kreber et al (2007) did a thorough lit review of authenticity, but do not reproduce this three-part structure. They cite another 3-part approach to authenticity in teaching where:
The three pedagogical principles ... are (a) learners are validated as "knowers," (b) learning is situated within their experience, and (c) learning itself is conceptualized as mutually constructing knowledge. (Taylor 1991)
 
This, for me, all addresses authenticity 1.

Taylor (1991) has a three-part conceptualisation:

(i) creation and construction as well as discovery, (ii) originality, and frequently (iii) opposition to the rules of society and even potentially to what we recognize as morality.

This all seems to align with my authenticity 3.

Any light anyone can shed?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Tue, 23 Aug 2011 05:56:16 -0700 Back to the simple e-portfolio http://rworld2.posterous.com/back-to-the-simple-e-portfolio http://rworld2.posterous.com/back-to-the-simple-e-portfolio Further to my comment in an e-portfolio CoP discussion on Cloudworks
(http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/5020 7 April 2011), a colleague
raised a question about whether presentation tools can be an aid to
reflection. This, led her to wonder about the distinction between
reflection and presentation when developing e-portfolio practices. Is
there that much of a distinction between reflection and presention?
Maybe there is something like a reflective presentation: i.e. you
present to yourself. For this, nothing fancy is needed. Word will do
fine: keeping a diary. However, as Gordon Joyes suggested in a
subsequent comment, the PLE approach does require a fair level of
digital literacy.

If I was starting off as a student I think the 2 things I would want
to be told about are 1) bookmarking tools (Delicious, Bibsonomy...);
and 2) reference managers (EndNote, Zotero...). Although, Alan Cann
has written about the challenges of using such tools in undergraduate
teaching (e.g. http://scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com/2010/03/begin-beyond.html).
For the more visually inclined a photo sharing site would also be
important (Flickr, Picasa...); maybe video (Vimeo, YouTube...).

On top of that all you need is a word processor to pull selected bits
together. Master the WP and move on to a blog or wiki (WordPress,
PBWorks...). Blackboard? Less said the better, though some people do
like that it is a walled garden.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Mon, 22 Aug 2011 14:05:00 -0700 OECD asserts the purpose of higher education is to serve labour market demands http://rworld2.posterous.com/oecd-asserts-the-purpose-of-higher-education http://rworld2.posterous.com/oecd-asserts-the-purpose-of-higher-education
Higher education institutions are expected to provide education and training relevant to labour market demands, conduct research activities that will build a knowledge-based economy, as well as contribute to social cohesion, regional development and global well-being. They must also strive constantly to fulfil their multiple missions, improve the quality of the education provided, increase their efficiency and demonstrate their contribution to society.
via oecd.org

This in a nutshell defines UK HE policy. Ars gratia artis? I don't think so. But, wasn't that always a bourgeois luxury? Can we understand "social cohesion, regional development and global well being" through a myriad of local perspectives? Is this only a neoliberal, free-trade, carpetbagging vision? To whom in society must universities "demonstrate their contribution"?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Thu, 16 Jun 2011 04:05:21 -0700 Social networks starting to bubble on my horizon again http://rworld2.posterous.com/social-networks-starting-to-bubble-on-my-hori http://rworld2.posterous.com/social-networks-starting-to-bubble-on-my-hori Just to apologise if I do not do too much connecting through Mandeley (http://www.mendeley.com/). I am wedded to Zotero (http://www.zotero.org/) for citation management and Bibsonomy (http://www.bibsonomy.org/) for folksonomic tagging and bookmarking. academia.edu (http://www.academia.edu/) is starting to bubble a bit with social networking activity. And, of course Twitter. I wonder if Tweetdeck can read the Mendeley newsfeed?

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Thu, 26 May 2011 02:30:08 -0700 Seeking the source for a three-part typology of authenticity in teaching and learning. Help if you can. Thanks http://rworld2.posterous.com/seeking-the-source-for-a-three-part-typology http://rworld2.posterous.com/seeking-the-source-for-a-three-part-typology I am seeking the source of a particular three-part typology of "authenticity".
  1. with respect to learners current and prior knowledge, skill and understanding: authentic to the person now
  2. with respect to the epistemology of the discipline/field: authentic to the accepted canons and methodological protocols of the discipline, laws, theorems, etc
  3. with respect to the practice of professionals in the discipline/field: authentic to the messy reality of practice, which at times confounds authenticity
These ideas are informed by a number of strands. Fullick (2004) refers to three aspects of authenticity: creativity, activity, language. Tatsuki (2006), following Taylor (1994) speaks of language, task and situation. Both these three-part typologies are quite similar to mine and I wonder if I have unconsciously paraphrased or adapted Fullick?

In these cases:

  • "language" aligns with my concept of authenticity 1): to where the learners are now: don't buffalo them with jargon too early, etc
  • "task" (Tatsuki) and "activity" (Fullick) correspond (I think) with my authenticity 2): to the canons of the discipline
  • Fullick's "creativity" corresponds, I think, with my authenticity 3) and may correspond with Tatsuki's "situation"
Kreber et al (2007) did a thorough lit review of authenticity, but do not reproduce this three-part structure. They cite another 3-part approach to authenticity in teaching where:
The three pedagogical principles ... are (a) learners are validated as "knowers," (b) learning is situated within their experience, and (c) learning itself is conceptualized as mutually constructing knowledge. (Taylor 1991)
 
This, for me, all addresses authenticity 1.

Taylor (1991, cited in Kreber et al 2007) has another three-part conceptualisation:

(i) creation and construction as well as discovery, (ii) originality, and frequently (iii) opposition to the rules of society and even potentially to what we recognize as morality.

This all seems to align with my authenticity 3.

Can anyone shed light on this for me?

Thank you

References

Fullick, Patrick Leslie. 2004. Knowledge Building among School
Students Working in a Networked Computer Supported Learning
Environment. University of Southampton, Faculty of Law, Arts and
Social Sciences, School of Education.

Kreber, Carolin, Monika Klampfleitner, Velda McCune, Sian Bayne, and
Miesbeth Knottenbelt. 2007. “What do you mean by ‘authentic’? A
comparative review of the literature on conceptions of authenticity in
teaching.” Adult Education Quarterly 58 (1) (November): 22-43.
doi:Article. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=27329878&site=ehost-live.

Tatsuki, Donna. 2006. What is authenticity? In Authentic
communication: Proceedings, 1-15. Shizuoka, Japan: Tokai University
College of Marine Science.
http://jalt.org/pansig/2006/HTML/Tatsuki.htm.

Taylor, C. 1991. The ethics of authenticity Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Taylor, D. 1994. Inauthentic authenticity or authentic inauthenticity? TESL-EJ, 1 (2) A-1

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Tue, 10 May 2011 23:08:00 -0700 Draft preprint for discussion. "What do you do with your community IT centre?" First article from PhD http://rworld2.posterous.com/draft-preprint-for-discussion-what-do-you-do http://rworld2.posterous.com/draft-preprint-for-discussion-what-do-you-do

Grabdraft

Just an image. The Pdf didn't embed. Will check. Here is the URL.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Fri, 06 May 2011 04:19:19 -0700 Evaluation: a reflection in the moment #pcthe http://rworld2.posterous.com/evaluation-a-reflection-in-the-moment-pcthe http://rworld2.posterous.com/evaluation-a-reflection-in-the-moment-pcthe It is the season of evaluations in universities and other institutions of the post-compulsory and lifelong learning sector.

Our evaluation strategy has necessarily been informed in the literature of evaluation (Hounsell 2009) and Brookfield's (1995) "spectacles":

  • Biography
  • Learners
  • Colleagues
  • The literature, theory
Dyke observes we need to do more of this. Evaluation informed by interdisciplinary social science in the critical theoretical tradition. Evaluation has to address:
  • Directions
  • Schedules
  • Impacts

Directions
  • Opportunistic
By all means have a plan, but every moment is an opportunity for reflection. Reflect in practice on the things that can be managed or which are placed in our way to be dealt with: teaching space, time, curriculum. It is best to do so mindfully.

Every programme event or intervention is an opportunity for evaluation.

  • Purposive
Evaluation is, itself, directed towards aims, These may or may not be aligned with the aims of whatever the subject of the evaluation is. Evaluators have perspectives. They should reflect on these and be committed to openness and transparency about them. Openness, itself needs to be bounded, but the boundaries want to be quite permeable (1000 mile question). Boundaries may be necessary for creative turbulence layers. Bringing together diverse peoples to learn from one-another. How does the enterprise address equality and diversity issues? Progress, development and hierarchy may be necessary to create movement. Communities may embrace, among others: discipline, profession, locale, domestic, global. Professional practitioners in graduate occupations and/or disciplines must be current with tools and practices, methods and methodologies, grounded in knowledge, history, language, epistemology.
  • Objective oriented
Structure is provided by course intended learning outcomes or objectives. The lectures, workshops, activities and assessment strive for alignment as well as dynamic instability and points of harmony.

Schedules

  • semi-systematic and structured
Alongside an opportunistic outlook, having tools to hand helps. Start with course aims and outcomes. Use a questionnaire several times over; even if not perfect, comparisons are where the discoveries are made.
  • continuous
Ongoing, no end: hasta la lucha continua. But, there may be many review points, annual planning cycles: major and minor, etc
  • epicyclic
Course cycles, professional cycles, conference cycles, university bureaucratic cycles all run to different periods. Activity is mixed and multi-modal. Evaluation needs to be multi-purposed and reusable.

Impacts

  • emergent
Because of all the above, impacts are going to be emergent as well as planned. An evaluator would expect to see new structures emerge and to see mechanisms in place to encourage this: enquiry-based learning, action learning, learner-led curricula, user-centred design.
  • progressive
Shares in the myth of modernism and the enlightenment, that there is progress and that this is modelled and trained through a ranked education system with levels of attainment, informed by human development psychology. Facilitates learner progression as defined in the plan.
  • developmental
Do differently and better, not necessarily more. Fail. Fail again, better.



George

Dr George Roberts
Senior Lecturer, Educational Development
Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development
https://profiles.google.com/georgebroberts/about
http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsld/consultants/ocsld/george_roberts.html
groberts@brookes.ac.uk

Director
JISC Institutional Innovation SSBR Project
http://inin.jisc-ssbr.net/

Mobile +44 (0)7711 698465

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Thu, 21 Apr 2011 14:51:50 -0700 @jamesclay learn something new every day http://rworld2.posterous.com/jamesclay-learn-something-new-every-day http://rworld2.posterous.com/jamesclay-learn-something-new-every-day

File

via Osfoora for iPhone

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Thu, 14 Apr 2011 11:11:09 -0700 My question put to the #BPAGM today. Climate change discounted 100% in the risk register http://rworld2.posterous.com/my-question-put-to-the-bpagm-today-climate-ch http://rworld2.posterous.com/my-question-put-to-the-bpagm-today-climate-ch [slightly edited] I welcome, Mr Dudley (Bob Dudley, CEO of BP), your acknowledgement that, in the Athabasca Basin, steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) of bitumen from tar sands will produce "slightly" higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than conventional oil production. We might quibble over the "slightly", but you acknowledge that it WILL be more. So why is it when you address climate risk and it's mitigation on p. 73 of your Annual Report, you only speak of a technical response to the impact that climate might have on your production facilities? And, you assert that your experience in harsh environments makes you capable of continuing operations in a world of increasingly disrupted climate. How can you win back your shareholders' trust with such a narrowly focused techno-centric, operational response to climate risk, which will affect your markets and your consumers? You expect us to trust a company that deals with climate change risk by saying that you are good at drilling in hurricanes and deep water? In the only area  in which risk really matters: the market, you have, in your Annual Report, effectively discounted climate change 100%. Do you "get it"? As a shareholder, I question your 3 strategic priorities of 1) risk management, 2) trust, and 3) long term value, therefore I ask that the shareholders reject the Annual Report.


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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts Sun, 03 Apr 2011 23:00:00 -0700 via Automatic Earth: Devastating Demand Destruction < @paulkingsnorth Dk Mtn back story? http://rworld2.posterous.com/via-automatic-earth-devastating-demand-destru http://rworld2.posterous.com/via-automatic-earth-devastating-demand-destru
In the frigid language of economics, systemic death (population collapse) is the ultimate form of demand destruction.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to predict whether a supply collapse will outrun demand destruction during this crucial time frame, or how the two will interact with each other.

via theautomaticearth.blogspot.com

The grim reality. Business as usual is not an option but business as usual is all we can do.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/35491/jcpie.jpg http://posterous.com/users/PV3fG9RVjH George Roberts George George Roberts