#ocTEL week 1: are connections all students want?
Week 1 of #ocTEL flew past in a whirl of competing deadlines and sleep deprivation, so I’m not getting any further than the ‘If you only do one thing this week…’ task, I’m afraid. I looked at Sugata...
View Article#ocTEL week 2: learners’ needs and digital literacy
So how do you find out if you’re ready to take an online course? Well in my case you dive into one unthinkingly (ocTEL), complain about how difficult and confusing you’re finding it and then gradually...
View Article#ocTEL week 3: the unsociable learner
I come from a long line of unsociable learners. The writer James Hogg, a distant relative, taught himself to read and write alone by candlelight in an Ettrick farm cottage. My own father is teaching...
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#ocTEL week 4: Camtasia
Week 4 of ocTEL was a bit like week 0 for me: I spent a lot of time feeling quite dislocated from the subject matter and reaching for something I could use. I have to say I didn’t find all this talk...
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#ocTEL week 5: how do you make technology disappear?
After a two-week hiatus while I built sandcastles on the beach in Spain, it was good to get straight into a meaty bit of theory when I started catching up on ocTEL: David Kolb’s learning styles model...
View Article#ocTEL week 6: design, assessment and emergency stops
When you learn to drive, your instructor makes sure you know how to parallel park, do a three-point turn and perform an emergency stop. In other words, he gives you exactly what you need to get through...
View Article#ocTEL week 7: your place or mine?
I’ve not been the best at interacting with other participants on this course (mainly due to time constraints). But by the looks of it I’m not alone. The small group for distance learning forum, to...
View Article#ocTEL week 8: learning for learning’s sake?
The Saylor Foundation is a non-profit organisation whose “mission” is “to make education freely available to all” regardless of a student’s location or finances. Sounds good, eh? The Saylor model is...
View Article#ocTEL week 9: it looks like we might have made it…
The sun is shining here and our daughters are bouncing on the trampoline outside. It’s week 9 of ocTEL, and although I have to confess to some MOOC weariness I’m determined to be one of the 4% who make...
View Article#ocTEL week 10: evaluating TEL
Designing in features of evaluation gives you a chance to see how your TEL resources are being used, and also provides evidence that might help people to buy into what you’re doing (or tell you if...
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#ocTEL retrospective and looking forward
Anyone who looked at this blog before April (ok, so that’s probably my mum and me) might be wondering why a copy-editor and proofreader has been posting about something called ocTEL for the last few...
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Starting my MSc: responsible drinking and a fox in space
Second Life: me, as a fox, drinking coffee, in space. Not as much fun as it sounds. This blog has been pretty quiet for the last few months. I’ve been busy studying ‘An Introduction to Digital...
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Online assessment: ‘will this be on the exam?’
One of the clearest memories from our trip to Japan many years ago was at the ticket office in a train station in Hiroshima. My sister-in-law, who was travelling with us, spoke some Japanese but she...
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Who is assessment for?
Assessment is a huge part of who universities are. It provides evidence that programmes are rigorous and relevant, and can play a decisive role in how students approach their learning. Despite what...
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Confessions of a first-time wiki contributor
‘Strewth mate’ This week I was contributing to a wiki for the first time. Here are some things you might like to know about wikis: – wiki comes from a Hawaiian word meaning ‘fast’ – there are over...
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A bit of inspiration for a Monday morning
Here’s a wonderful video put together by James Lamb to represent the manifesto for teaching online of the MSc in digital education at Edinburgh University: (Here’s a text link too: A manifesto for...
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Do you know your free riders from your social loafers?
Until this week I would probably have said that ‘free rider’ and ‘diligent isolate’ appeared in the lyrics to the Manic Street Preachers’ ‘Motorcycle Emptiness‘. And that social loafers was a brand of...
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Reclaiming the language of learning
Neil Selwyn’s ‘bullshit bingo’ card Being a student at a research conference like Networked Learning 2014 is a bit like being the bloke from work who the bride and groom invited to the wedding but they...
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Online assessment: it’s complicated
So that’s semester two of the MSc in digital education done. Online assessment was a challenging but enjoyable subject, with lots of lively debate and activities. Here are five things I think I’ve...
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Time to hit the (e-)books again
So the leaves are turning here in Scotland, there’s a nip in the air and the kids are watching Strictly Come Dancing. It must be time for the MSc in digital education to start again, woop! I’m about to...
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