Posted to Diigo 05/02/2010

1020. Mobil Learning « Tomorrow’s Professor Blog

• You can’t force students to pay attention if they don’t want to. And even if you forbid all electronic gadgets, students will still daydream, whisper, and pass notes.
• You can’t force students to pay attention if they don’t want to.
• If you permit mobile devices, establish rules of etiquette.
• Share research findings on task switching that show multitasking students learn significantly less and perform on tests more poorly than students who focus solely on classwork.

1018. Lecture Capture: A Guide for Effective Use « Tomorrow’s Professor Blog

• Survey results indicate that the majority of college students prefer courses that offer podcasts over those that do not. Students cite convenience, flexibility, and positive impact on learning as the main reasons to have recorded lectures (Nagel, 2008; Fernandez, Simo, & Sallan, 2009).
• Lecture capture
• archived lectures
• allows students to review material at their own pace and convenience (Coghlan et al., 2007)
• offers students more flexibility in note-taking
• makes time for active learning during class by having the lecture available for viewing before the class meetings (Lund, 2008)
• allows students to catch up with a missed lecture
• No noticeable impact on students’ class attendance
• In surveys, students report gaining a better understanding of class material in courses that used the technology

• Undergraduate students have reported in focus groups and surveys that podcasts helped them stay focused on the course, made learning more fun and informal, supported independent learning, and enabled deep engagement with course material (Edirisingha & Salmon, 2007; Duke University, 2005)

• Some students have reported that, because they had access to this learning tool outside of class, they took fewer notes during class and were able to pay closer attention to the lecture (Brotherton & Abowd, 2004)

• Students report that they appreciate the flexibility of accessing podcasts anywhere and anytime (Fernandez, Simo, & Sallan, 2009; Winterbottom, 2007), and they like resources that are presented in a video or audio format, since this allows for self-paced learning and multitasking

• students usually view podcasts shortly after a lecture has occurred and in the few days before an exam (Copley, 2007)

• When considering the use of lecture capture technology, faculty should also understand students’ technological competencies. It is important not to assume that all students possess the same technology skills and have had equal exposure and access to technology (e.g., computers and MP3 players)

• Given the potential differences in levels of access and technological skills, instructors may want to consider administering a short survey at the beginning of the term to determine students’ comfort with and access to technology required for using lecture capture (Zhu & Kaplan, 2011)

• Since students take fewer or summary style notes in courses using lecture capture (Brotherton & Abowd, 2004), they have more time to process course material on the spot, which may lead them to ask more questions and want more interactivity during lecture

• Make podcasts available as soon as possible after a lecture, since most students download podcasts within a few days of a given lecture
• When appropriate, make reference to podcasts during lectures or when responding to students’ questions
• Provide students with a clear explanation of instructional goals and technical requirements if podcasts are used for student projects or assignments.

The Second Digital Divide | A World Bank Blog on ICT use in Education

• “the digital divide in education goes beyond the issue of access to technology.  A second digital divide separates those with the competencies and skills to benefit from computer use from those without.”
• the digital divide is as much about access to reliable power as it is about access to ICT.
• ICT use holds very real promise for facilitating greater inclusion of such groups into existing educational practices and environments as well — but such inclusion is by no means automatic, despite what countless pictures of happy children with computers from all walks of life might imply.

Worst practice in ICT use in education | A World Bank Blog on ICT use in Education

• But do we really need to repeat the mistakes of others? If adopting ‘best practice’ is fraught with difficulties, and ‘good practice’ often noted but ignored, perhaps it is useful instead to look at ‘worst practice’.
• 1. Dump hardware in schools, hope for magic to happen
• 2. Design for OECD learning environments, implement elsewhere. Sometimes this works, but unfortunately many places roll out programs and products that have at their core sets of assumptions (reliable electricity and connectivity, well-trained teachers, sufficient available time-on-task, highly literate students, space to implement student-centric pedagogies, relevant content, a variety of cultural norms, etc.) that do not correspond with local realities.
• 3. Think about educational content only after you have rolled out your hardware. It is a fact that, in many places, only once computers are in place and a certain level of basic ICT literacy is imparted to teachers and students is the rather basic question asked: What are we going to do with all of this stuff?
• 4. Assume you can just import content from somewhere else. Much effort typically needs to be expended to map this content to explicit objectives and activities in the local curricula.
• 5. Don’t monitor, don’t evaluate. What is the impact of ICT use in education? If we don’t evaluate potential answers to this question, rigorously and credibly, all we are left with is well-intentioned guesswork and marketing dross.
• 6. Make a big bet on an unproven technology (especially one based on a  closed/proprietary standard) or single vendor, don’t plan for how to avoid ‘lock-in
• 7. Don’t think about (or acknowledge) total cost of ownership/operation issues or calculations. We know that “total cost of ownership or operation” (TCO) is often underestimated, sometimes grossly, when calculating costs of ICT in education initiatives in developing countries.
• 8. Assume away equity issues. Introduction of ICT in schools often exacerbates various entrenched inequities in education systems (urban-rural, rich-poor, boy-girl, linguistic and cultural divides, special needs students — the list is long)
• 9. Don’t train your teachers (nor your school headmasters, for that matter). Teacher training is critical to the success of such initiatives.
• Many of the lessons, or ‘worst’ practices that you describe can also be easily transferred over to the use of ICT in the health sector, so all nine points are applicable to us too.
• technology can empower people, but not if their most basic needs are not met (i.e., safe water, sanitation, security).