One of the Academic Innovation team at Sheffield Hallam (and expert in learning spaces - recently described as the "voice of reality" - scarily for her), Liz Aspden is experimenting with using twitter as a tool for data collection. Liz's note below explains, please email her if you want to find out more.
Liz writes:
Hi all
We're about to start a data generation exercise looking at students' use of learning spaces, which I thought might be of interest to people on this list. It forms part of a project looking at informal learning preferences, activities, and the spaces students use to support these, which is designed to help us inform future space planning at the institution.
For this phase of the project, we've recruited 15 students to send us regular (average 3 per day) updates via Twitter telling us a little bit about where they're learning - well, as much as they can fit into 140 characters! A few of us will be monitoring and facilitating the study - possibly asking additional questions, providing commentary along the way, or generally just lurking and being distracted from our day to day work. Of course, this being the first time we've tried collecting data via Twitter, it could all go horribly wrong - but if you'd like to watch, lurk, or participate anyway as it unfolds (or unravels...) you're more than welcome.
We're hoping that the study will begin around mid-April so if you are interested, or if you have any queries about what we're up to, please drop me a line and I'll send you further details nearer the time.
Best wishes
Liz
Liz Aspden
Senior Lecturer - Curriculum Innovation (Learning Environments)
Learning & Teaching Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield
S1 1WB
e.j.aspden@shu.ac.uk
Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label twitter. Show all posts
Friday, 4 April 2008
Friday, 21 March 2008
Sunday, 16 March 2008
Pedagogy first? Whatever....and yes! whenever
Following a recent 140 character chat, George Siemens seems to have finally tired of the platitude "pedagogy first" (although in fairness 140 characters do lend themselves to platitudes). Also (and again to be fair, he didn't have a problem with using platitudes at all but the content of this particular one) To see what he thought check out his blog post Pedagogy first? Whatever
I admit I felt a bit attacked by the post, as I am firmly in the "pedagogy first" camp and had declared such in one of my 140 characters, but mostly I welcomed the opportunity to have the discussion and debate. But where to engage in the debate - as a tweet (bound to be over simple - 1-4-0-issue), as a comment on his blog (right location but moderated, and reluctant to start with a negative when I more frequently agree with his posts than disagree - hmmm), on my own blog (why? well why not? and mostly cos this is where I need to think aloud). So my comment submitted to his blog is produced below too, would welcome comments of others on this.
An interesting post. I agree with much more of it than I disagree but I would still put forward a case to support the notion of "pedagogy first" or at the very least "pedagogy at all". Of course there is a lot more going on in any curriculum design/development decision than pedagogy alone...but hopefully it is in the mix and preferably at the begining of the mix. There are lots of other factors and context is as good a word for it as anything, it needs to be a holistic decision, and there are a number of instances where ease, efficiency, flexibility, convenience, skill levels are prevailing factors and that's fine but what a shame to miss an opportunity to discuss pedagogy in the planning. Seven or eight years ago there was lots of talk about "pedagogy by stealth" around learning technologies - by enthusing staff about technology it was an opportunity to discuss and explore their curriculum design, pedagogical models and, often most important of all, assessment strategies. With early adopters and technology enthusiasts (the ones for example likely to give teaching in SL a go) this is less of an issue, but for a lot of staff they look for the "pedagogy first" conversation to reassure them that this isn't about using students as guinea pigs, having their best interests at heart (and yes instructional designers use it exactly as you suggest - as some kind of entry fee - "please let me talk to you, I'm not just going to push technology at you like a travelling salesman"). Also in my experience, often the "pedagogy first" conversations are rarely about sticking with what we know or are comfortable with, technology opens doors to new pedagogical opportunities and some of the best conversations start with the staff member declaring "I can't use technology, it doesn't fit with my own pedagogical model"...
I absolutely agree that there are lot more factors than pedagogy when deciding what technology to use and they can be frustratingly chicken and egg decisions - for example if we want our students to use SL then we have to offer SL access on-campus (as a point of principle) and of course the technical people who need to be convinced that it is worth their while to do the work (and around we go). On the other hand, we have a small number staff who love a tool which is pedagogically interesting but can be confusing to students and expensive to administer. The decisions here are certainly not "pedagogy first". How about I propose a complementary consideration - it may not be pedagogy first in all decisions about what technology to use, but it ought to be pedagogy first when considering how technology is applied to a learning context but not about the pedagogical safezone about pedagogic opportunity. We need to think bigger and when there are opportunities for students to learn better we should not confine ourselves to learning differently.
[Then I spent some time contemplating the whole moderated comment approach to blog admin - and concluding that is not really my bag.]
I admit I felt a bit attacked by the post, as I am firmly in the "pedagogy first" camp and had declared such in one of my 140 characters, but mostly I welcomed the opportunity to have the discussion and debate. But where to engage in the debate - as a tweet (bound to be over simple - 1-4-0-issue), as a comment on his blog (right location but moderated, and reluctant to start with a negative when I more frequently agree with his posts than disagree - hmmm), on my own blog (why? well why not? and mostly cos this is where I need to think aloud). So my comment submitted to his blog is produced below too, would welcome comments of others on this.
An interesting post. I agree with much more of it than I disagree but I would still put forward a case to support the notion of "pedagogy first" or at the very least "pedagogy at all". Of course there is a lot more going on in any curriculum design/development decision than pedagogy alone...but hopefully it is in the mix and preferably at the begining of the mix. There are lots of other factors and context is as good a word for it as anything, it needs to be a holistic decision, and there are a number of instances where ease, efficiency, flexibility, convenience, skill levels are prevailing factors and that's fine but what a shame to miss an opportunity to discuss pedagogy in the planning. Seven or eight years ago there was lots of talk about "pedagogy by stealth" around learning technologies - by enthusing staff about technology it was an opportunity to discuss and explore their curriculum design, pedagogical models and, often most important of all, assessment strategies. With early adopters and technology enthusiasts (the ones for example likely to give teaching in SL a go) this is less of an issue, but for a lot of staff they look for the "pedagogy first" conversation to reassure them that this isn't about using students as guinea pigs, having their best interests at heart (and yes instructional designers use it exactly as you suggest - as some kind of entry fee - "please let me talk to you, I'm not just going to push technology at you like a travelling salesman"). Also in my experience, often the "pedagogy first" conversations are rarely about sticking with what we know or are comfortable with, technology opens doors to new pedagogical opportunities and some of the best conversations start with the staff member declaring "I can't use technology, it doesn't fit with my own pedagogical model"...
I absolutely agree that there are lot more factors than pedagogy when deciding what technology to use and they can be frustratingly chicken and egg decisions - for example if we want our students to use SL then we have to offer SL access on-campus (as a point of principle) and of course the technical people who need to be convinced that it is worth their while to do the work (and around we go). On the other hand, we have a small number staff who love a tool which is pedagogically interesting but can be confusing to students and expensive to administer. The decisions here are certainly not "pedagogy first". How about I propose a complementary consideration - it may not be pedagogy first in all decisions about what technology to use, but it ought to be pedagogy first when considering how technology is applied to a learning context but not about the pedagogical safezone about pedagogic opportunity. We need to think bigger and when there are opportunities for students to learn better we should not confine ourselves to learning differently.
[Then I spent some time contemplating the whole moderated comment approach to blog admin - and concluding that is not really my bag.]
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
My twitter experiment
Last year I dipped my toe into twitter (well OK, I signed up, posted a message and then didn't know what to do next) - fast forward six months and I attended ELI in San Antonio and twitter was everywhere. This time I play the role of lurker watching the conversations as they unfolded although I didn't get really into it until it was almost too late. I loved the way it created an added sense of community to the event (even for lurkers like me) and I definitely got an extra multi-dimensional experience of the event (although the twitter around the final keynote was an interesting departure into mob-culture that felt uncomfortable looking in).
My conclusion about twitter at that time - great accompaniment to a large event or community gathering, definitely enabling participants to get more out of the event than the straight non-twitter version, but not something you could do during normal life - that would just be a bit weird, wouldn't it!?
Fast forward again a couple of weeks and I have a week of self-managed time (some scheduled time to think/read/write) and I decide to give this twitter thing another try. I had a nagging doubt about my original assessment - perhaps if you make an effort to get involved you get something more out of it that I might anticipate. So, I passed my 100 tweets today (one of the benchmarks I set myself for concluding my "experiment" ....the other benchmark being just getting bored with it) and I think it is time to reflect on what I know now that I didn't know a couple of weeks ago.
Firstly, and most importantly, let me be clear - I'm totally hooked! I love it, I love the community and I definitely get something from it that was unanticipated - so the end of my experiment just means I move into doing it for real from now on.
So what did I learn?
Yes, you need to put some effort in, you need to make a conscious effort to try to post regularly - advice from a good friend and experienced twitterer @bryanalexander helped with this.
You need to actively build your network, you're invisible at first (although in some ways that feeling can linger - more later), so I used the twitter blocks and looked at who people I followed spoke to/shared with and tried to add them. Of course I added a few people I knew in real life (or had met sometimes only briefly/heard speak at conferences) - opportunities to sustain the connection over a longer period of time is such a bonus (I often feel that conferences, even the very best of them, are charaterised by a series of snatched conversations without the opportunity to discuss in depth)
The community is very generous in sharing resources - it can be hard to keep track of all the things shared but it has definitely given me access to (or reminded me to access) some really interesting thoughts of others. Particularly as many of my twitterii are in the US and so regularly accessing different resources from our usual haunts. I also enjoyed following other people's participation in events - I managed to piggy-back a few great sessions that there is no way I could have attend thanks to @cmduke.
Some people have way more interesting lives than me (and get to do way more interesting stuff at work), but then again one of the things I love about twitter is the mixture of styles, comments, approaches etc - I enjoy (obviously) the US elections discussion, I like the fact I know what the weather is like in Vermont both of these thanks to @bgblogging, what @jpostonday keeps in her basement and that @GardnerCampbell students are looking in to say "hi". Not to mention that I know what @ginsoak gets in the post before she even gets to work. There are such a diverse group and all bringing something interesting and extra to my life (but I don't want this to sound like an oscar speech so I'll stop now).
It can be a bit weird when you reply to someone you don't know and get silence a bit like the "who is she and why is she talking to me" party moment. Some people talk to each other (a lot and only to each other - more like IMing) and you feel very much like you're eavesdropping (v strange feeling). I felt obliged to add a photo in case people I followed knew me by sight - but that meant using that horrible photo as it is the only one I have :-( Will sort it out soon, I promise.
For work (which can often get a bit corporate, implementation driven and "managed", thus making a community of "like-minded" people even more important to me) it gives me rich, diverse observations and thoughts that are prompting in me more thoughts, some lateral thinking and even actions!! @intellagirl asked in her blog/podcast recently "how to reach past the converted" who are using these tools, well perhaps it is in the scatter-network - certainly I am convinced that my engagement with twitter (and therefore my continued interest in the discussion of experts) has influenced contributions I have made to the drafting and discussions around developing our institution's Corporate Plan (a five year business plan required by UK funding council of all HEIs) - this is not, in general, going to the read by the "converted" but the connections are being made!
My conclusion about twitter at that time - great accompaniment to a large event or community gathering, definitely enabling participants to get more out of the event than the straight non-twitter version, but not something you could do during normal life - that would just be a bit weird, wouldn't it!?
Fast forward again a couple of weeks and I have a week of self-managed time (some scheduled time to think/read/write) and I decide to give this twitter thing another try. I had a nagging doubt about my original assessment - perhaps if you make an effort to get involved you get something more out of it that I might anticipate. So, I passed my 100 tweets today (one of the benchmarks I set myself for concluding my "experiment" ....the other benchmark being just getting bored with it) and I think it is time to reflect on what I know now that I didn't know a couple of weeks ago.
Firstly, and most importantly, let me be clear - I'm totally hooked! I love it, I love the community and I definitely get something from it that was unanticipated - so the end of my experiment just means I move into doing it for real from now on.
So what did I learn?
Yes, you need to put some effort in, you need to make a conscious effort to try to post regularly - advice from a good friend and experienced twitterer @bryanalexander helped with this.
You need to actively build your network, you're invisible at first (although in some ways that feeling can linger - more later), so I used the twitter blocks and looked at who people I followed spoke to/shared with and tried to add them. Of course I added a few people I knew in real life (or had met sometimes only briefly/heard speak at conferences) - opportunities to sustain the connection over a longer period of time is such a bonus (I often feel that conferences, even the very best of them, are charaterised by a series of snatched conversations without the opportunity to discuss in depth)
The community is very generous in sharing resources - it can be hard to keep track of all the things shared but it has definitely given me access to (or reminded me to access) some really interesting thoughts of others. Particularly as many of my twitterii are in the US and so regularly accessing different resources from our usual haunts. I also enjoyed following other people's participation in events - I managed to piggy-back a few great sessions that there is no way I could have attend thanks to @cmduke.
Some people have way more interesting lives than me (and get to do way more interesting stuff at work), but then again one of the things I love about twitter is the mixture of styles, comments, approaches etc - I enjoy (obviously) the US elections discussion, I like the fact I know what the weather is like in Vermont both of these thanks to @bgblogging, what @jpostonday keeps in her basement and that @GardnerCampbell students are looking in to say "hi". Not to mention that I know what @ginsoak gets in the post before she even gets to work. There are such a diverse group and all bringing something interesting and extra to my life (but I don't want this to sound like an oscar speech so I'll stop now).
It can be a bit weird when you reply to someone you don't know and get silence a bit like the "who is she and why is she talking to me" party moment. Some people talk to each other (a lot and only to each other - more like IMing) and you feel very much like you're eavesdropping (v strange feeling). I felt obliged to add a photo in case people I followed knew me by sight - but that meant using that horrible photo as it is the only one I have :-( Will sort it out soon, I promise.
For work (which can often get a bit corporate, implementation driven and "managed", thus making a community of "like-minded" people even more important to me) it gives me rich, diverse observations and thoughts that are prompting in me more thoughts, some lateral thinking and even actions!! @intellagirl asked in her blog/podcast recently "how to reach past the converted" who are using these tools, well perhaps it is in the scatter-network - certainly I am convinced that my engagement with twitter (and therefore my continued interest in the discussion of experts) has influenced contributions I have made to the drafting and discussions around developing our institution's Corporate Plan (a five year business plan required by UK funding council of all HEIs) - this is not, in general, going to the read by the "converted" but the connections are being made!
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