Best of EduTECH Sydney, Higher Ed Leaders Congress, Day 2

EduTECH Sydney starts this morning. I am on 2:20pm today speaking about e-portfolios in the Higher Ed Leaders Congress. Apart from that, here is my best of:

 

Dr Michael Cowling, Central Queensland University

 

9:10 Distant learning through AR: How AR has helped paramedic students 'VISUALISE' skills

• Learn how AR can be used to provide distant learning
• Discover how to provide more opportunity for distance students through AR and mixed-media visualisations



Anatoli Kovalev,
University Of NSW 

• Build your student's confidence level through digital engagement

9:30 UNSW Hero Program case study: Student-driven innovation for universities

• Discover the first program in Australia that gets students and their professional work experience to design their own learning experience and environment
• How universities can work with students to design and develop internal innovation projects at your university
• Lessons learned from project, and how you can successfully achieve great collaboration with students, operational and educational staff

Mei Yee Chan,
Singapore Polytechnic

 

9:50 Critical success factors of the implementation of a National eLearning Platform

• See how Singapore’s National eLearning Platform has supported the teaching and learning of 96,000 students and 3,500 staff within a 6 month project time frame
• Learn how to effectively collaborative through inter-institutional teams to work towards a common goal
• Discover how to provide students and industry with appropriate skillsets through the National eLearning Platform

Prof. Mike Keppell,
Taylor's University, 

 Malaysia

10:10 Blending learning pedagogy, technology and space in a connected world: Implications for institutions, teachers and students

• Discover how learning and teaching has changed in a blended world and blended teaching has changed in a connected world
• Learn how to use technology to support effective assessment and enhance student learning
• Discover how teachers and students can thrive in a connected world
• See how project-based learning can create active life-long learning

Shirley Alexander, University of Technology
Sydney 

10:30 Coffee

 

11:30 How to prepare work-ready graduates

• Learn how to integrate technology in the classroom to deliver enhanced teaching and learning experiences
• See how strong collaborative partnerships can aid educational institutions to prepare for digital disruption
• Discover how virtual and physical education infrastructure can drive innovation in Australian education

Pauline Farrell,
Former Director, 

Swinburne University

11:50 Education's response to prepare students for the future of work

• Discover how AI will change the workforce and how we can prepare our students
• Learn how online learning innovation can be used to respond to changes in workforce
• See where in the education cycle you can be proactive in driving student engagement with digital learning

Dr Rod Dilnutt,
University of Melbourne 

 

 

12:10 Digital inclusion, moving from chalk & talk to eEducation

• Discover a vision for an educational future: Transforming education through technology
• Learn how to use online and mobile technologies to improve skills
• Create a framework for assessing and considering readiness of universities to provide access to students

 

12:30 Lunch

Jo Mithen,

Monash College

 

14:00 Industry partnerships to create better opportunities for students

• Insights into Monash Talent: learning how to solve skills challenges facing industries
• Using technology to find the right graduates to the industry
• Discover how to match services to make sure right candidate aligned to right role

Tom Worthington,
Australian National University 

14:20 Using an ePortfolio to capture students’ skill sets to align to workplace

• Discover innovative education techniques to teach students how to better communicate with employers and people
• Learn how to build your students confidence and capture their skills set to become more job ready
• Discover how to provide formal postgraduate education to students in their workplaces via mobile devices

15:20 Afternoon tea

 

 

Minister for Education at EduTech 2018

Greetings from EduTech 2018 in Sydney where Senator Simon Birmingham, Minister for Education and Training just closed day1.

Senator Birmingham started by asserting that education is "... the cornerstone of economic growth and prosperity in this country ...". The minister suggested that while technology will change work, it is not to be feared.

At the Future of Work Senate inquiry on Monday I was asked for my estimate of what proportion of jobs will be eliminated by technology in the next few years. The previous speaker had suggested more like 10% than 40%. I suggested more like 40%, but no one really knows. What we do know is that while the economy may benefit overall from efficiency, hundreds of thousands of individuals will suffer in the process. We need government programs to help retrain these people and provide support.

The minister point out Australia does not just export minerals and produce, it exports high technology products. Unfortunately Australia, I suggest, does not recognize or support its innovators. Moodle is a product used by universities an schools around the world, developed in Perth WA by Martin Dougiamas. If you ask a technology educator anywhere in the world they probably know Moodle. Unfortunately Moodle HQ does not get the recognition and support they deserve from the Australian Government and are now looking to expand in Spain.

The government’s education reform agenda will not see Australia succeed if it fails to recognize and reward our local talent. The current situation with technology reminds me of computer networking in the early 1990s. Government officials were telling each other that their IT policies were on track. At the same time academics were telling those of us working in IT that the Internet and the World Wide Web, were about to revolutionize the industry. That is now happening with education: most of what the Minister talked about was support for obsolete forms of education.

If the Minister really wants to "... ensure every Australian student is supported to be ready for the future ...", he needs to start putting in place policy and procedures for the future of education, not the past. What we need is to train and support school teachers in new ways of teaching, and re-train university academics.

Government policy assumes that students learn mostly in classrooms, but that is changing. Students will learn online, wherever they happen to be. Classrooms will still needed for specialized skills and as a place to learn to work together, but only some of the time.

The way we achieved a change to the Internet and Web in government was with an informal group of politicians, public servants, academics and industry people. Those of us in the public service were able to get advice on what worked from world leaders in the field (some of whom worked at ANU). With systems implemented we could then write the policy for our ministers to endorse (and let them take credit for it as their initiative). While sometimes jokingly called the "Internet Cabal", this was not done in secret, with conference presentations on what to do. Something similar is needed for education.

Best of EduTECH Sydney, Higher Ed Leaders Congress, Day 1

EduTECH Sydney starts this morning. I am on 2:20pm tomorrow in the Higher Ed Leaders Congress. So today I can just attend as a delegate. Here is my best of:

BREAKOUT SESSIONS - SEMINARS

11:20 How Digital Transformation is enabling higher education institutions to put resources back in the classrooms

Nadia Hossain,
Business Development
Manager, Laserfiche
International
Limited, Hong Kong

As education funding decreases, concerns over the effect of the cuts grow, student numbers increase and resources become scarcer, universities are having to find new and more innovative ways to stay competitive. Find out how education institutions around the world are adapting their processes and infrastructures by using Digital Transformation and content service solutions to be more cost effective and put resources back where they are needed.

 13:10 Lunch

14:50 Remaining digitally literate in higher education

Rob Wilkins, Leader,
Information Management
Systems, NSW
Department of Education

The use of technology has transformed every discipline and career, from engineers to doctors to politicians. Yet the traditional academic experience does not prepare many students for the challenges they'll face in these professions today. Higher Education demands that faculty remain relevant and this session will explore the skills and capability required for meaningful Digital Literacy.

Dr Grainne Oates,
Senior Lecturer
in Accounting,
Swinburne University

15:10 Improving student engagement by 12% through award winning innovative educational technology

• Learn how to engage students through gamification and increase average grade by 7%
• Discover how to get students to enjoy the experience of learning and decrease failure rates through mobile first technology
• Learn how to identify at risk students early and engage them in active learning

Warren Kennard,
General Manager,
Ducere Global
Business School

15:30 Innovative commercial models for higher ed – toward financial sustainability

• Overview of global trends in higher education commercial models in profit/not-for-profit institutions
• Challenge existing financial sustainability paradigms in higher education
• Outline of current working commercial models and provision of live examples

15:50 Afternoon tea

Dr Yong Zhao,
Professorial Fellow,
Mitchell Institute for
Health and Education Policy;
University of Kansas

16:30 PLENARY: Outsource weakness, develop strength to reach for greatness

• Focus on developing children's strengths instead of fixing their deficiencies
• Teaching children to identify and solve problems worth-solving and create value for others through product-oriented learning
• Make education personalisable for children, not personalized for them

Dr Pak Tee Ng,
Associate Dean,
Leadership Learning,
National Institute of
Education Singapore

17:00 PLENARY: Learning from Singapore: the power of paradoxes

• Examine an education system that embraces timely change and timeless constraints, centralisation and decentralisation, teaching less and learning more
• Understand the key success factors of Singapore’s education system
• Learn the eye-opening difference between acing an examination vs appreciation of subject

Senator Simon Birmingham,
Minister for Education

17:40 MINISTERIAL ADDRESS: Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham

18:00 Networking drinks

Using an ePortfolio to capture students' skill sets to align to workplace

At EduTECH, 8 June in Sydney, I be speaking on "Using an ePortfolio to capture students' skill sets to align to workplace". I would welcome corrections and comments on my draft presentation:

"Tom teaches university computing students how to undertake real projects for real clients. This has included an artifact mapping tool for the Plain of Jars in Laos and test software for the radars on Australian warships. These real-world projects require real-world assessment techniques, including e-portfolios. In this presentation he discusses:

• Innovative education techniques to teach students how to better communicate with employers and people 

• How to build students confidence and capture their skills set to become more job ready 

• How to provide formal postgraduate education to students in their workplaces via mobile devices"

ePortfolios to capture students work-ready skills

I will be speaking on "Using an ePortfolio to capture students’ skill sets to align to workplace" at the Higher Education Leaders Congress, as part of Edutech 2018, in Sydney, 2pm, 8 June in Sydney:

• "Discover innovative education techniques to teach students how to better communicate with employers and people
• Learn how to build your students confidence and capture their skills set to become more job ready
• Discover how to provide formal postgraduate education to students in their workplaces via mobile devices"

Teaching students to communicate with employers

There is one simple way to teach students to communicate with employers: get them to practice communicating with employers and assess them on this. Students can practice with written and face-to-face presentations. One overlooked aspect is remote communications. Recently one of my teams said their client would be overseas, so the could not have meetings only email. I pointed out that it was possible to have a "meeting", by email, providing the discussion was suitably structured and documented. The documentation is not just a copy of all the emails, but an agenda beforehand and a set of minutes with what was discussed and what was decided after.

Build your students confidence

Confidence comes from practicing a skill, under more difficult and realistic circumstances. With one team of students I had only just met I warned them they had to be ready to pitch at any time. A few minutes later a venture capitalist came up and said "tell me about your project". The team got through this encounter and that built their confidence.

Capture their skills set to become more job ready

The student has decide what would be of interest to a prospective employer. The more relevant and real-world the better.

Formal postgraduate education in the workplace

Once academics get used to the idea that they don't have to give "lectures", delivering university education on-line becomes relatively simple. Postgraduate education to students who have jobs is even easier. Graduate students have more maturity and are focused on achieving results at university. Courses can be redesigned to first identify what knowledge and skills the student has to demonstrate, then provide ways they can do that through practical exercises, ideally involving they day job. Lastly the student can be provided with course notes, videos\, quizzes and the rest of the educational paraphernalia, to support the leaning.

via mobile devices

Educational applications, including e-portfolio tools and learning management systems, now support mobile devices. The course designer doesn't have to use any special software, they just have to remember to divide the content into reasonably small chunks for the mobile user. Keep in mind the student will not be sitting in a silent room for an hour or more, they will be on a noisy bus with a few minutes to spare.

More Thoughts

The idea of a portfolio, being a collection of samples of work by an artist is not a new one. An e-portfolio is just an electronic version of this: being a collection of digital artifacts from the student to show an examiner and prospective employers.

There are specialized applications to help with producing a portfolio, such as Mahara. These are especially useful where a student uses the portfolio as part of showing evidence of skills and knowledge as part of a formal program. The software to help ensure that the student has met all requirements. This may be also useful where an employer has very detailed job requirements.

However, what is of interest to a university examiner is unlikely to be of much interest to an employer. What an employer wants to know is if the applicant can do the job. This is best demonstrated by evidence of the applicant having already done the job, or something similar.

As an example, in the ANU Techlauncher program I tutor teams of students who have to produce something (usually software) for a client. The client may be a start-up, a government agency or a company. The last assessment task for the program is an application for a job, which details how what the student did for the project is relevant to that job.