ALT-C presentations on Tuesday
I was certainly nodding at Tim Rudd’s exhortation to us to think about learning spaces for the future without being “held back” by starting from where we are now. We must not be bound by cultures and habits from existing methods of teaching and assessment – let’s be innovative!
That people are hidebound was demonstrated in the last session I went to. Gill Kirkup of the OU had surveyed students on whether they wanted to use blogs, for learning or otherwise. Not surprisingly they said no – well they probably had no clear idea of how blogs might be used to support their learning. Not until they have experienced an innovative and effective course design involving relevant use of blogs will they appreciate their usefulness. In the mobile learning symposium, John Traxler discussed how difficult it was to ask people what they want – because they give the answer they think you want, they are affected by culture and assumptions and taking things for granted…
John Traxler also reminded us to think differently about the future, talking about the serendipity that gave us Teflon, post-its and SMS.
I was interested to see from Marion Miller that the JISC RSC Summer Conference in Yorkshire and Humberside had a very successful social network set up on Ning. It was interesting that competitions were held with prizes for content – a good push to get people started with contributing – if you can afford it!