Tag: forcomment
-
Big Data
As IDEL progressed we seem to have moved away from perhaps some of the more theoretical and human topics, towards a more technical focus. Week 9 was focused on digital badges and blockchaining, and week 10 looks at the concept of ‘big data’ and its implications for education. Like blockchaining, I’m aware of the concept…
-
Bayne, S., Gallagher, M. S., & Lamb, J. (2014) Reflections
Being back ‘at’ university over the last seven weeks, after so long outside of more formal education has been a challenging, but invigorating experience. This week we’ve been building on previous themes around online environments, community and spaces to think about our experiences as distance education students, and what it means for us to be…
-
Metaphorical concepts
So it seems that how we think, act and speak is influenced by the metaphorical choices we use to conceptualise ideas. Another eye-opener in week 6, this time from Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (1980). As someone who resorts to metaphors quite often in language (in my on-going battle to articulate myself with clarity), it…
-
Cousin, G. (2005) musings
Week 6 of IDEL and I think we’re moving into more familiar territory. Although digital environments is a very broad term, and Minecraft is still very much an unknown, we’ve begun to start using terms such as VLE, which is a bit closer to home. Cousin, G. (2005) has been a really interesting read, and…
-
A critical analysis of Hamilton, E., and Friesen, N. (2013)
One of the key aspects Hamilton and Friesen (2013) argue is that studies into the potential of technologies, and the pedagogical value of these, are limited by the approach often used in the conduct of the research. This echoes studies by McDougall & Jones, 2006 and Roblyer, 2005, that research into this area has “struggled…
-
The automated teaching assistant aka ‘teacherbot’
The developing potential in it was clear to see in Sian Bayne’s paper (Bayne S. (2015) Teacherbot: interventions in automated teaching. Teaching in Higher Education. 20(4):455-467) on the ‘teacherbot’ developed by a team at the University of Edinburgh, and used in an earlier MOOC. The twitterbot examples we’d found as a collective were by their very nature…
-
Feeling swamped – MOOC perspectives
We’ve been posed some very interesting scenarios this week on the topic of ‘constructing community’, and it’s been fascinating to read the different takes from fellow students on these on the forums. I was particularly intrigued by some of the points raised about the sense of feeling ‘swamped’ in a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course)…
-
A step into the unknown
Well some 13 years after graduating from an undergraduate degree in Economics, here I am back in the realm of formal education! Yet the motivations for doing so could hardly be more different. It’s a real maelstrom of feelings, particularly in the last week when it’s moved from being just an exciting project in the…