The Future Will Happen

Greetings from EdTechPosium at the Australian Catholic University's new teaching building in Canberra. Dr. Carol Russell from UWS is discussing "Online learning and the student perspective". Dr. Russell related her experience in the 1990s at the Open University UK (OUUK), with early online learning (later codified by Salmon).

More recently, UWS has a new campus at Paramatta with no lecture theaters and Dr. Russell commented staff will therefore need to change their teaching technique. My worry is that with some incentive and training staff will not change their teach techniques: the poor quality lectures in rooms not designed for them. 

Dr. Russell showed a photo of a paper based examination at UWS. I was a little surprised with this, not that they were using paper for an examination, but that UWS was still having examinations at all. I stopped using lectures and examinations in 2008. 

Dr. Russell asked how to assess skills in the new university environment. The way I have been doing it since 2009 is to get the student to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they will need for a job, ideally in the workplace actually doing the job. This approach is also used with ANU computing interns and TechLauncher group projects. With these the students have a real boss (or "client") and a real task. This not just a matter of the student spending time on work experience, they are assessed against curriculum requirements.

ps: It happens that I have three books from OUUK on the desk beside me:

1. Reconstructing Professionalism In University Teaching, Walker, 2001
2. On Becoming An Innovative University Teacher, Cowan, 2006
3. Making Sense of Academic Life: Academics, Universities, and Change, Taylor, 2000

I borrowed these from the new ACU Library. This is just below the large flat floor classroom where EdTechPosium is being held. This was invaluable during my time studying for a MEd, due to its excellent collection of works on education (ACU generously provides staff of other universities with borrowing rights). These books are about a revolution in higher education which has been happening for decades and is still in progress. Many of the issues are still current and have been discussed at EdTechPosium 2018.

One of the delegates, skeptical of futurism commented "The Future Will Happen".

K-10 Digital Technologies Curriculum Impact on Higher Education

Greetings from EdTechPosium at the Australian Catholic University's new teaching building in Canberra. Michael de Raadt and Russell Waldron are discussing "Australian Curriculum for Digital Technologies, NAPLAN and the impact on higher education in future years". One point Michael de Raadt made that this is not just about teaching computer programming and there are physical tasks used, especially for younger children. As an example, some of the audience took part in a bubble sort: exchanging places until they were sorted by name.
Russell Waldron pointed out that students have been through the Digital Technologies Curriculum from K-10 will already have some of the university graduate attributes before they start. However, students from other education systems may not.

Russell Waldron  also pointed out the Digital Technologies Curriculum students will have a different approach to assignments, including group work. These students will be familiar with using online document creation tools, including assigning attribution for group work. The students skills for working this way will likely exceed that of their university teachers.

Michael de Raadt discussed problems and benefits with Online NAPLAN. This requires less manual handling of forms, but more dependence on IT staff, with the potential for technical failures. One benefit is that the feedback happens faster. Russell Waldron pointed out that the online tests require keyboard skills and are adaptive. These students will expect the same at university. A subtle aspect of this is that the assessment changes from how the student did on a standard test, to how the student has progressed.

Evolving Online Graduate Education: From Synchronous to Asynchronous

Greetings from EdTechPosium at the Australian Catholic University's new teaching building in Canberra. The keynote speaker is Julian Cox, Associate Professor, Food Microbiology, University of New South Wales on  "Pedagogy, Peers, Professionalism, Platforms and Practice… and the Workshop Activity". He is describing evolving from online learning as an analogue of face to face lectures, with synchronous sessions, to something students can do in their own time (asynchronous).

I agree with most of what Professor Cox was saying, but suggest online students need some synchronization, just not in the form EdTech people normally think of it. Ideally a self disciplined students can be left to complete tasks, including assessment tasks, to when it suits them. However, as a student myself, I found that if there was no deadline, and no marks, I would put off a task forever.

One of my students has been working on a tool to break down the Synchronous/Asynchronous dichotomy. and hope to demonstrate this today at the conference.

Professor Cox  went on to detail the use of the Moodle Workshop Module to have students peer assess. This module is unused, perhaps because the name makes it sounds like something you would only use for a live face-to-face activities.

Professor Cox  then discussed how to guide students through preparing an e-portfolio (with Mahara). I fond it frustrating when I was told to "reflect" in an e-portfolio, as if this was an inherent skill. After six months hard work and guidance, I had a reasonable idea of what it was about. Then I had to tutor students who had been told to do this with no scaffolding.

EdTechPosium: My Schedule

EdTechPosium starts 9:30am Monday, 29 October at the Australian Catholic University's new teaching building in Canberra. I will be giving a quick demonstration of my ICT Sustainability course. The conference organizers are using Sched, which helps keep in touch with other delegates and plan which activities you will attend. Here is my schedule:

Monday, October 29

8:00am Registration

9:30am, Welcome to EdTechPosium 2018 – Design, develop, play! Patrick McArdle

9:40am,  Acknowledgment of country Grace Burton

9:45am,  Keynote 1: Pedagogy, Peers, Professionalism, Platforms and Practice… and the Workshop Activity Julian Cox

10:45am,  Morning tea

11:15am,  Modern learning experiences using H5P and Google UI Robbie Coombs

11:45am, Let's make an LTI activity - developing external tools Ricky Vuckovic

12:15pm,  Lunch

1:15pm, Museums, learning and digital experience Fiona Bowen • Robert Bunzli • Amanda Dennett

2:15pm, Building the academic community for educational leadership Judith Norris

2:30pm, Open source educators, digital technologies and rethinking teacher training Luke Mooney • Garreth John Wigg

2:45pm, Design for engagement, design for support, design for learning: the development of National Guidelines for improving student outcomes in online education Cathy Stone

3:45pm, Afternoon tea

4:15pm, Design and evaluation of robust online e-Exams with Moodle Mathew Hillier

4:45pm, Australian Curriculum for Digital Technologies, NAPLAN and the impact on higher education in future years Michael de Raadt • Russell Waldron

5:15pm, Drinks and Games

Tuesday, October 30

9:45am, ‘If you spend your life looking behind, you don’t see what’s up front’: How we own, shape, influence and participate in the possible futures for higher education Peter Bryant

11:15am, Is Silence Golden? - Reporting back on the use of audio-visual feedback by both staff and students in a first year foundation unit Stephanie Kizimchuk

11:45am, Exploration design on course sites: Building positive learner experience Janene Harman • Rebecca Ng

1:15pm, Online learning and the student perspective Carol Russell

2:15pm, Serious Play Stephen Dann