Use of podcasting in Philosophy, University of Glasgow, Susan Stuart

Susan Stuart is a lecturer for philosophy in Glasgow.

This case study describes how she included new technology to enhance learning experience for her students and teaching experience for herself over the years.

Her greatest success is the recording of her lectures about Kant as podcasts (mp3 recording) and making them available for her students online.

The students value those podcasts very highly as a revision tool. Colleagues and other lecturers have adopted this method because of its success. Policy within the university has changed to support podcasting and e-learning. The perception of e-learning seemed to have been given a positive image. So the idea was implemented, used and appreciated widely which makes it an innovation.

My view:

The innovation of Susan Stuart is rather small. Just recording and uploading does not seem to be too exiting.

However, the additional resource was highly appreciated by the students. I guess that Susan Stuart is a brilliant lecturer. Philosophy needs the discourse about ideas. This cannot be provided by books or any online tests. Podcasting is the perfect way to document these discourses.

Susan Stuart made an innovation for her classes, which is a model for other similar settings.

The Virtual Farm, University of Edinburgh

The 'Virtual Farm' project aims to provide e-learning resources to optimise the use of the real-life educational farm resources (animals, agricultural practice and records).
The Virtual Farm is embedded in 'The Virtual Veterinary Practice' a bespoke VLE to support students doing a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery at the University of Edinburgh.

The program connects the resources on the real farm by employing a multitude of media and data systems. There are data collecting systems, video and webcam, blogs and wikis. Discussion forums connect with the farm workers and other students. The animal adoption provides a more emotional connection. All those information augment the courses in the university. Additionally, students have insight in the systems their future clients use. Through the newsletter and other input, they follow farm life over the year. Students learn how to handle IT and use statistics.

The project is widely appreciated and supported. The author of the report sees a significant increase in quality of education. Spin-off projects and plans for connection to direct physical/ professional practice are evidence for the success of the approach. Drawbacks seem manageable. A certain amount of time, motivation and money is needed to keep the Virtual Farm running. Some technical problems and privacy related concerns needed to be addressed.

My view:The Virtual Farm appears to be a creative and truly innovative approach. In this blended approach I see a great catering for the distance problem and the lack of having “the real” experience. But there is even more in it as it reveals more opportunities for learning and research in the veterinary medicine.

Online delivery of MSc Strategic Management in Africa, University of Derby

This case study describes the introduction of an MSc in strategic management by Derby University as an online course and a blended course in Botswana and Malawi

Process of creating content:

- Upload existing word documents

- Some face-to-face introductions

- Making journals accessible online

- Simplified introduction to Blackboard for pure online students.

Positive outcome:

non - regarding cost saving, positive pedagogic impact, student and staff satisfaction,

Problems

- assess to platform and e-mail, voice and audio communication

- Lack of IT literacy among students and academics

- Low achievement and retention rates
My view:

I cannot see any innovation in this case study. I see a lack of creativity, patients and will to use the new technology. Besides infrastructural and technical problems, there is no evidence that there were any thoughts about cultural aspects of learning and different learner socialization in southern Africa.

JISC case studies - my selection

Below you find the list of case studies I will be looking at.
I chose the case studies with cross cultural training needs in mind:
For the intercultural aspect I chose the case study from South Africa. I am interested to see how the pure online approach works in rural areas in contrast to the blended approach. The aspect of providing e-learning to cater for a lack of important face-to-face experiences made me chose The Virtual Farm. Expressing complex thoughts in language that might not be the first for all participants is a challenge. Podcasts might help here. It is often helpful in intercultural trainings to have two or more trainers with different professional or cultural background. This experience made me choose the case study about collaborating teaching.

1. Online delivery of MSc Strategic Management in Africa.
2. The Virtual Farm
3. Use of podcasting in Philosophy
4. Collaborative teaching and video-conferencing in Classics

Another go on "Concept of innovation"

What technological innovations spring to mind in the field of education?

Computer related: photocopier, scanner, videoconferencing, simulations, multiplayer options, second life, wikipedia, webinars, skipe, flash player, you tube, blogging, mp3, podcasts, apps, i-pod/-phone/pad, wee, open source, twitter, smart board, social networks

As I am not a teacher, I am not aware of innovations in class room teaching or in the education / pedagogic area.

Does an innovation have to be useful?

If an idea does not find its use in some or another context, it is not an innovation in my opinion. It just stays to be an idea or an invention.

Is it always disruptive?

An innovation is almost always to some extend disruptive, irritating, disturbing. That lies in its nature of being new or bringing change to a social system.

E.M. Rogers described the diffusion of innovations in a society through the categories of adopters are: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels (3) over time (4) among the members of a social system. http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/documents/diffusion/rogers.htm , accessed, Feb 2011

Does it lead to far-reaching changes in practice?

On one hand, I don’t think that every innovation necessarily leads to far-reaching changes. It might just make difficult procedures a bit easier or save time or money by doing so. Or it makes certain procedures more enjoyable or available to a wider user group.

This can be far reaching, because people have more time or money and change their general behavior. This might lead to changing structures over time.

On the other hand, yes, everything I consider to be a true innovation has some potential to initiate far-reaching changes by implementing small or large changes.

How does innovation come about?

Innovation can be a solution to a problem. It can be an improvement for a process, product or service. It can be the adaption of an invention. It can be an adoption of new technology.

Definition of innovation

Definition

Innovation comes from the Latin meaning "to renew or change,". Its somthing that is new to a referal system or it is an adapted change.

That’s how far I want to go with the definition of Innovation. There is lots to say but many perspectives. I just want to share the following quote from behind the scene in wikipedia:

Discussions concerning innovation often take on the characteristics of arguments during the middle ages about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Innovation )

Content tailor made for individual needs

(Article about Generation21 by J. McMurtry see USDLA Journal in What I read)

2002, Mc Murtry describes the presentation of a so called universal knowledge objects. These objects contain small pieces of information. They can be combined with other objects in various ways. Teachers have the option to combine learning content to the specific needs of groups and individuals. The technique also provides testing features. The test is the basis to create the relevant learning content, leaving out elements the learner already knows.

The innovative part here is the customization (buzz word in nowadays ICT) of learning content.

E-mailing and simulations

(Article by M.Rich and C.Holtham see BJET Link in What I read)

The article describes the implementation of e-mailing and simulations for MBA students in 1992. E-mailing enhanced group work and information sharing, whereas the simulations were designed to train for situations in real business.

The potential of ICT use in management education was rated high. However the new learning methods were implemented rather slow. Acceptance was less wide spread than expected.

Videoconferencing

(Article by M.Lück and G.M. Laurence klick Innovation in What I read)

In 2003 a life lecture with well known expert via videoconference was a new experience for teachers and students. This wouldn't have been possible without the use of a new technique, because time and budget restictions made it impossible to have the expert come to the classroom.

The innovation in terms of learning here was to employ a new technology to make a valuable resources available for students. The new technology itself was a part of the excitement. But the change in the day-to-day classroom routine was also appreciated.

Sound and picture transmission were to be improved. The students were intimidated by the situation of speaking to an expert, using microphones and being on the screen.

With skipe, youtube and other media, the audio-visual experience of lerners is changing rapidely. So videoconferencing today needs to work properly and the lectures need to be of good design and relevant content. The wow factor is gone.

Mathletics

I need to mention Mathletics ( that's the program my children use for leisure and learning math).

It is just great. The learning section is straight forward. Just answer questions. No big explanations (yes it is repetition of what the children do in school).

But how they motivate children is wonderful. There are various positive feedbacks and encouragements, which are short but clear.

The kids can earn points which count to gain certificates. They can earn credits for having a go, for improving on the same thing. Those credits can be turned into items to dress the avatar. There is a shopping area (maybe similar to second life??)

The kids love it and learn to spend their "money". There is also a life competition in speed calculating.

The innovation for me here lies in the combination of simple test questions with traditional earning points and the combination to earn credits. Its to systems to be rewarded. One is linear and one is relative to the ability and progress of the child. There is the traditional ranking and point and certificate collection (OK, but not exiting) and there is the credit spending shopping fun part. The shopping is very popular. And here again the children see the expensive backgrounds with moving parts and are motivated to go on.

The program was first used by schools, but it is so much fun, that now parents can subscribe privately. It is absolutely astonishing how this gets all children, may math be their favorite subject or not.

Speed

That last post took me ages...
Have to work on speed.

What is an innovation in e-learning?

These are the initial ideas about innovation in e-learning from my current experience:

My favorite e-learning tool during our stay in China was: Chinesepod. It provides little podcasts on various topics and on several levels to learn every day Mandarin. There are transcripts of the dialogs and exercises online.

It provides perfect input for direct use.

Second life seems to me interesting an area for some e-learning/e-teaching experience. But I have no experience with it.

Webinars are interesting as well.

What makes an innovation in e-learning for me:

Distance learning was as lonesome act of learning. You got a package of books to work with and a schedule. Sometimes the paper part was augmented with CD’s and video tapes (DVDs) and a tutor group or residential schools.

This kind of learning style is not appropriate for all people. It supports people who prefer to work on their own and prefer reading as their main learning style.

The challenge of distance learning is to provide for options of group interaction as well as interactive audio-visual input to support a larger variety of learning styles.

Another challenge of distant learning or learning in general is the adaptability of the theories presented. Distance learning coincides with teacher and students not being in one place. Asynchronous interaction is common. This prohibits real experiences in class.

These are the criteria for innovative e-learning for me today:

Concepts that include innovations in…

· ... supporting different learning styles:

Reading, audio, visual, interaction among students,

· …Transferability of concepts to real life for real experiences

· …Including new tools for e.g. social networking, wikis

· … Including new electronic media devices

·… recognizing and reflecting behavioral changes in using ICT

· …. Catering for diversity aspects (culture, gender, age, handicaps, language)

…. Ok, these are my first thoughts. Now I will check for more insight in the literature...

Innovation in e-learning

Yesterday I started the module "Innovation in e-learning" with the Open University.
Guess what - I already learnd a lot.

This is going to be my blog, where I will publish my ideas about my learning experiences.