Showing posts with label #BYOD4L. Show all posts
Showing posts with label #BYOD4L. Show all posts

Saturday, 16 January 2016

#BYOD4L Day 5 - Creating and being Creative




A creative evening creating

The final #BYOD4Lchat was led by Chrissi Nerantzi and Alex Spiers. Early in the day the daily blog post was posted and this included some 'homework'. The logos of a few apps can be seen in the image below. 

Whilst I love creativity I have never developed the skill of drawing or painting, however I do like to dabble in the abstract and have found that the apps now available can provide inspiration to do this. Don't get me wrong, my creations are truly very basic (see the one at the top of this post), but the process of making can stimulate my thinking and reflecting. Many never see the light of day! 

 In response to the the BYOD4L challenge I created and shred this visual. On the left I aimed to depict the connections I had made and opportunities to do so through following the tweets containing #BYOD4L and #BYOD4Lchat. Irrespective of whether participants followed each other, within Twitter it is possible to communicate and many short exchanges took place. Some of these led on to further dialogue and I observed quite a few that resulted in colloborations. Some of these were then curations of the conversations taking place within the chats, as well as shared resources created. 

 It was a thought provoking exercise as it highlighted that the linear approach to the 5Cs (connecting, communicating, curating, collaborating and creating) is one way of using the framework, however in reality if we reflect on the way we use social spaces it is more likely to be a zig zag and intertwined approach that we take.     

What was most enjoyable about the activity was Task 2 and that was to look at and comment on the creations of the BYOD4L community shared during the tweetchat. Kandy admitted she had not had time to do the homework and then using the Bamboo Paper app came up with this brilliant creation! It just goes to show what we can do when given the encouragement to do so. 

The activity was great fun. I'm now pondering on how I can use some of these ideas in my own teaching. There are so many free apps that can be used to sketch, draw, and even annotate photos and images. How the use of visuals can be used to express ideas, concepts or reflections is limitless, or at least as far as out imaginations will take us. 

 I love that we can now be both creative and co-create with others online. It extends the possibilities of working together to take seeds of ideas and turn them into innovative reality.

The ecosystem of the social age

 Julian Stodd has written a post called 'A Guide to the Social Age' which I highly recommend. His work goes hand in glove with an array of visuals that highlight his thoughts. This sketch resonates with me as Julian refers to storytelling and reminds us that this is an activity that can be co-created. There are many examples where we can build on the stories of others and add our own experiences and reflections. What makes this so different today is the ease and speed we can share stories with others, through social media. 

 Storytelling can be augmented with images, video and audio - all created from our own devices be this a tablet, laptop or even a smartphone. 
"The ‘Broadcast’ model of communication has been trumped by the co-creation of stories that are themselves co-owned." (Stodd 2016)
Julian Stodd 2016

BYOD4L Summary

 Chrissi created this wonderful summary of BYOD4L capturing some wonderful highlights of the week many created by the participants taking part.

 
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Thursday, 14 January 2016

#BYOD4L Day 3 Curating Digital Narratives



What is curating

 Curating might be associated with Museums and Galleries and the curation of artifacts. The Institute for Cultural Practices offers these definitions:

  • “Curating is the process by which a physical or virtual space is designed and formulated to include a collated, selected, interpreted and intended concept, which can be articulated through a variety of media”
  • “The organisation, discussion and presentation of information including objects, facts and opinions, in order to create value and meaning to be understood by the public”
  • “Curating is examining, researching and documenting a collection with the aim of making it accessible to the public. This is done through careful interpretation of the objects, space and text to curate an informative exhibition”

Digital curation is the curation of digital artifacts. In much a similar way, items can be gathered or curated and saved in a digital space. However to add further value, the digital curator can add information as a digital narrative to add context and detail. In a previous post I talk about making and telling a good story with the curation tool Storify. 

 Prof Simon Lancaster raises the distinction between sharing and hoarding



Curation tools

 At their simplest curation tools can provide the means to create collections. These can be themed by topic. In some spaces, collections can be tagged to provide a useful way to re-find things you have curated. Examples might include: 


I have to say that the majority of my curations are simply collections, albeit fairly well organised into themed topics. What stops me from adding extra value - for example adding a narrative - is the old chestnut 'time'. One of the values of curation tools is the ease and speed you can 'save' things and so often this is done in the moment where you don't have the time or head space to reflect on the item but want to save it to come back to. I'm pretty certain we are all guilty of collecting things we don't go back to for a long time, if ever! 

 There are a number of curation tools above I have yet to experiment with. I've found it useful thus far organising 'stuff' in different spaces and actually enjoy the variety. One thing I would say is not to overload your chosen space as a) it is overwhelming and b) you can never find anything. 

Some examples of curations 

 Elizabeth Charles has a Scoop.it page on Information and Digital Literacy in Education via the Digital Path. She curates links to articles and adds a short narrative to provide her insight. Her page has received in excess of 36.5 K views.  

Chris Jobling decided to curate the tweets and add his own comments using Storify

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Tuesday, 12 January 2016

#BYOD4L is back for the 4th time: Day 1 Making Connections




The open bite-size 5-day learning event is back and will take place over the next five days 11-15 January 2016. Each day participants will focus on a different topic. BYOD4L is short for 'Bring Your Own Device for Learning' and is an engaging CPD activity that will help you make better use of those mobile devices we all seem to have with us. Using the 5Cs Framework, the topics that form the focus over the five days are: connecting, communicating, curating, collaborating and creating. 

 This iteration of BYOD4L is being led by three wonderful members of the community: Neil Withnell (@neilwithnell), Sheila MacNeill (@sheilmcn) and Alex Spiers (@alexgspiers). I highly recommend you reach out and connect with all three and my dear colleague Chrissi Nerantzi (@chrissinerantzi). Chrissi and I came up with the idea of BYOD4L sat at a train station in 2013 and have continued to bounce (what initially might seem carazy) ideas off each other ever since! Being connected to all four of these people has without doubt helped me to develop my thinking and each are valued members of my personal learning network.  


Day 1 - Connecting

 Key to developing a rewarding social learning experience is the people you can co-learn with. By connecting with like minded educators you can develop your own bespoke personal learning network. This takes time but is worth the investment. Who you connect with is a personal choice, but as Prof Simon Lancaster tweeted, a good place to start initially is the people who are taking part in #BYOD4L.



 Kandy shared a great visual which really does sum up how Twitter can contribute to professional development and informal learning.  

The #BYOD4L will build as the week develops. Martin Hawksey's tagsexplorer provides a great visualisation of the emerging connections.


I've shared tips on getting started with Twitter and as Twitter forms one of the key spaces for making connections during #BYOD4L these might be helpful to new users of Twitter. My advice on making connections is to start by 'listening in' to Tweets during the evening #BYOD4Lchats (8-9pm GMT) and follow those people you find interesting. The next step would be to explore who they follow and see if there are other educators you feel would add value to your personal learning network. 

 Building networks to exchange information is not new. We benefit from connecting and whether this is for short periods, as communities or established tribes, together we can always learn and develop our thinking. In the words of Seth Godin:
"What tribes are, is a very simple concept that goes back 50 million years. It's about leading and connecting people and ideas. And it's something that people have wanted forever. " Seth Godin
If you are blogging about your experience during BYOD4L don't forget to add the Community Badge and let others know!



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Saturday, 31 January 2015

Jisc Digital Student


Investigating students' expectations of the digital environment


Following a call in November 2014, JISC identified almost 50 exemplars of effective practice in support of students’ digital experiences. The exemplars have been written up with the support of the staff (and in some cases students) involved. They are organised as 7 key challenges:
  1. Prepare and support students to study successfully with digital technologies
  2. Deliver a relevant digital curriculum
  3. Ensure an inclusive student experience, using technology to overcome disadvantage
  4. Provide a robust, flexible digital environment
  5. Develop coherent policies for ‘Bring Your Own’
  6. Engage students in dialogue about their digital experience and empower them to make changes
  7. Take a strategic, whole-institution approach to the digital student experience

The case studies for each of the challenges can be found here:

My colleague Chrissi Nerantzi and myself submitted a case study on our 'Cross-institutional open course: BYOD4L'. (short for Bring Your Own Device for Learning). This was accepted under the key challenge Develop coherent policies for ‘Bring Your Own’.

Challenge 5: coherent policies on ‘bring your own’In support of several aspects of the student digital experience we have identified that institutions need a coherent, whole-institution approach to ‘Bring your own’ (BYO): the use of personal devices, software, services, data and content in university settings. While it seems simple to advocate that staff and students use their own technologies wherever this works for them – and to make this as easy as possible – still there are several aspects to getting this right.

You can read the full case study here: 
We were delighted that JISC had also included the BYOD4L website as a key resource:


JISC key findings

Students who are using their own devices still feel that institutions should provide all the services and systems they need to complete their course work to a high standard. So they may have an ongoing expectation of – and attachment to – institutional computing facilities, particularly as sites for collaborative working, even while they use their own devices in the same places. They may want to find their own content but only if they have an ‘authorised’ bookmark stack as a place to start. They may share ideas online but prefer a ‘safe’ institutional space in which to practice expressing them in professionally or academically credible ways.
BYO introduces a tension for institutions between the benefits of gathering and managing learner data in closed digital systems and the desire to support students using systems that are under third party control. There are also tensions around ensuring the safety and ethical behaviour of students who are simultaneously in university space and in public/open digital space (via university networks). These tensions cannot be resolved in the long term by technical and legal constraints but by working with students to develop their awareness and repertoire of online behaviours.
(There are also of course legal and security issues which must be addressed in a BYO policy. They are not dealt with by this project which focuses on the student experience, but Jisc provides extensive guidance on these issues.)
BYO immediately creates a space for learning in which attention is divided between the face-to-face setting and the world online, as accessed through personal devices. This can be  distracting to students (and staff) unless the interface between the two is managed, for example by giving students specific tasks and cues. BYO does not mean that teaching staff must allow the use of digital devices at all times, though care must be given that students who rely on assistive technology are not disadvantaged by an instruction to ‘put devices away’.
BYO policies should, we feel, focus on academic practice. Consider what students need to be able to do with their devices and services in order to be successful in their studies. Then consider the preferences of different student groups, in particular some of the hidden needs that a BYO approach may exacerbate e.g. for students who lack experience of digital systems, or who have particular access needs or learning preferences. Finally construct a policy that puts personal technologies in the service of those requirements. Of course the needs and preferences of staff must also be taken into account, especially as students will take their cues from them.
BYO assumes that alongside personal devices students also bring their own services, data, apps/software, and their own skills in using them. Policies on BYO need to be considered from the standpoint of how students will develop their digital capabilities: their capacity to use a wide range of tools and applications, to adopt new ones and to recover from failures, rather than simply making sure they can use mandated systems.
‘Bring your own’ may be a threat to inclusivity and parity of experience. Consider how students without good digital access, experience or skills and be identified and supported.

Solutions

  1. Gather requirements, benchmark, assess institutional and personal needs including the needs of different student groups before formalising a BYO policy and guidance.
  2. When implementing BYO, start from the academic practices learners need, then look at the data/services they need to support them, and finally ensure they can use the devices/apps etc they prefer.
  3. Provide for the long tail: consider how those without basic access and skills will be supported e.g. with loan schemes, continued fixed provision, drop-in surgeries. Similarly, ensure BYO evolves to meet the changing demands of digital pioneers.
  4. Ensure students have ubiquitous access to networks and power.
  5. Enable students to access personal services via institutional networks and to network their own devices easily in campus locations
  6. Assume networks and systems will become more hybrid (local/cloud-based) but continue to brand institutional services so students know what they are getting and feel supported.
  7. Ensure that students are aware of relevant policies and have opportunities to understand their responsibilities, as well as what they can expect to be provided for them.
  8. Layer IT support. At the ‘core’, ensure all have functional access and any necessary induction. For use of non-institutional software and services, provide on-demand guidance, well signposted (e.g. Lynda.com). For more advanced users, support expert/interest groups. Drop-in workshops, buddies, IT champions to knit it all together.
  9. Make it safe for students to identify their needs at any point in their learning journey.
  10. Design/adapt learning and social spaces to support the use of personal devices and associated informal, collaborative, networked modes of learning.
  11. Invest in staff development and communicate the expectation that digital expertise will be embedded into academic practices and professional roles.



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Wednesday, 14 January 2015

There's more to C in CPD


CPD is an acronym for continuing professional (or personal) development. CIPD (which is the professional body for HR and people development), offer competence and competency frameworks which look at the skills requirements of a job, however whilst each employee may have met a skills set to get the job, these need to be reviewed. This can be done through ongoing or continuing personal and professional development, which could include the development of both both hard and soft skills. CIPD define CPD as a means of building confidence and credibility.
The benefits of CPD aren't felt just when you’re going for promotion; you can see your progression by tracking your learning. CIPD
For many CPD is a way of maintaining the knowledge and skills that relate to our professional life. The learning we need to undertake can be formal and structured or informal and self-directed.
Jobs.ac.uk say that CPD
refers to the process of tracking and documenting the skills, knowledge and experience that you gain both formally and informally as you work, beyond any initial training. It's a record of what you experience, learn and then apply.
CPD therefore is not just what we learn, but how we apply this to develop our approaches to work, learning or research. Every individual's needs are different and the confidence each has in the various aspects of their working lives is unique. Only you can decide what additional CPD would be of benefit to you.
The Power of Positivity offers the 3 Cs of Life (as represented in the graphic at the head of this post):
  • Choices
  • Chances
  • Changes
As a starting point for CPD we have the choice to take ownership of our own CPD. There are many opportunities or chances to engage in informal learning online, in addition to those offered formally by your place of work or study. Many are free and offer a wide choice of development areas that extend beyond your immediate development needs for undertaking the job you do. CPD can help you look at making changes to the way you approach daily tasks, the way you communicate or provide development of new skills opening opportunities to perhaps change your job or career.
Professor Norman Jackson looks at the ecology of development and the components of an individuals' learning ecologies. He suggests the components include our capability (everything I know and can do or I am capable of doing) and contexts (the spaces, places and situations we inhabit). Learning happens everywhere both within the workplace and throughout our daily lives. Jackson's book Learning for a Complex World: A Lifewide Concept of Learning, Education and Personal Development helps us to understand the value of lifewide learning integrating formal learning, informal learning, and life (which is often complex) beyond the campus. The concept of lifewide learning includes using social media in the social age of learning we now live in.

Douglas Thomas and John Seeley Brown have written a book titled 'A New Culture of Learning: Cultivating the Imagination for a World of Constant Change'. They argue that learning (and this can apply to CPD) is changing as we move from the industrialised model of formal education to new and innovative ways of social and informal education. Technology is a driver for this kind of learning and therefore our approach to CPD is constantly changing and evolving.
My colleague Chrissi Nerantzi and myself have developed a social and informal short 5 day open learning course called Bring Your Own Device for Learning which offers an inquiry based learning approach to discovering how we can use our smart devices for learning, teaching and research as a CPD activity. Within this we use our 5 Cs Framework which provides a focus for the daily activities. The 5 Cs focus on how we can make more of the mobile devices many of us carry in our pockets to connect and communicate with others; how we can collaborate and curate when learning, and the value of being creative in this process.
  • Connecting
  • Communicating
  • Curating
  • Collaborating
  • Curating
MindTools offer 'The 7 Cs of Communication' which through open discussion has been extended to the 9 Cs of Communication. Both professionally and socially communication is part of all aspects of our daily lives. As individuals we need to develop the skills of communicating with others and the nine examples below are aspects to consider. Communication now extends beyond face to face and takes place in a wide range of digital forums including email and social media. We should seek to ensure our communication is:
  • Clear
  • Concise
  • Concrete
  • Correct
  • Coherent
  • Complete
  • Courteous
  • and these are further additions (thank you David Eddy)
  • Credible
  • Contextualised
An essential part of our CPD is developing our digital literacy capabilities.
Digital literacy defines those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society. 
(Helen Beetham)
Beetham says that defining a particular set of capabilities as a 'literacy' means that:
  • they are a pre-requisite or foundation for other capabilities;
  • they are critical to an individual's life chances;
  • they are essential to the making and sharing of culturally significant meanings;
  • as a result, there is or should be a society-wide entitlement to these capabilities at some level.
To add to this critical thinking, cultural awareness and cultural capital are also essential aspects to consider. We should not take everything at face value and critique what we find throughout our learning journey. It is important to respect that others we work or learn with and from may have different cultures, values and attitudes.
Cultural capital (Bourdieu) is simply defined by About Education:
Cultural capital is the ideas and knowledge that people draw upon as they participate in social life. Everything from rules of etiquette to being able to speak and write effectively can be considered cultural capital.
Routledge offer that: "According to Bourdieu, cultural capital comes in three forms - embodied, objectified, and institutionalized. One’s accent or dialect is an example of embodied cultural capital, while a luxury car or record collection are examples of cultural capital in its objectified state. In its institutionalized form, cultural capital refers to credentials and qualifications such as degrees or titles that symbolize cultural competence and authority."
We can therefore increase our cultural capital for example by undertaking and recording CPD activity which may lead to formal qualifications.
Doug Belshaw wrote his PhD thesis on digital literacies and argues that
We need to always talk about literacies in their plurality and that there are broadly eight essential elements to digital literacies.
Belshaw has written a book on the essential elements of digital literacies. He states that the definitions of these need to be co-created to have power. The 8 essential elements are:
  • Cultural
  • Cognitive
  • Constructive
  • Communicative
  • Confident
  • Creative
  • Critical
  • Civic
From my own perspective I have used social media channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter to develop a personal and professional learning network. Through engaging in discussions and conversations I have found a wealth of CPD and informal learning activities. You can find me on Twitter as @suebecks.
I hope this post offers sources of further reading for you to explore. I'd welcome any additional examples of other Cs that expand our understanding of CPD in the comments below.
This was blog post also posted on LinkedIn profile
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Saturday, 10 January 2015

Introducing 'Bring Your Own Devices for Learning' an open CPD course #BYOD4L

Artwork by Ellie Livermore

 Introducing BYOD4L

I'm really looking forward to the third iteration of BYOD4L which is short for Bring Your Own Device for Learning



BYOD4L 3: 12-16 January 2015 

BYOD4L was created by Chrissi Nerantzi and myself in 2013 and ran for the first time in January 2014 and again in July 2014. This time we are collaborating with even more universities and have introduced the Mentor role (previous participants or facilitators). Volunteers from each university have joined our growing team and together we will help to support participants that take part in BYOD4L. I am absolutely delighted that this time we also have Whitney Kilgore on the team along with Robin Bartoletti who are facilitators of Texas Educator Chat #txeduchat in the US.

 
Getting involved
If you would like to get involved, then these are my key tips. Take a look at the conversations that are already taking place in Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Find your favoured spaces. Look at the information about the course that is on the website. Interact by asking questions, contributing to the discussions, share resources and enjoy the experience of learning.

Bookmark and follow: 

The BYOD4L site: https://byod4learning.wordpress.com/
  • Register for email updates to alert you about new blog posts
  • Take a look at the drop down menu under Topics and engage in a variety of learning activities. 
Follow @BYOD4L on Twitter
  • Also search for #BYOD4L and #BYOD4Lchat and save these searches
  • Use #BYOD4L in tweets about the course and #BYOD4Lchat during the evening tweetchat (8-9PM GMT) 
  • Follow other educators using these hashtags
  • Follow the list of BYOD4L facilitators and mentors

Tweetchats

 The tweetchats take place in the evening for one hour and provide a place to bring the BYOD4L community of learners together. A tweetchat is a discussion  that is stimulated with a number of questions posted by the facilitators (in this case using @BYOD4L). They start with an 'Introduction to BYOD4L' . 

Sunday the 11th of January, 8-9pm GMT, 2pm Central

 Then during the course the chats will take place at the same time Each day will focus on one of the following themes: connecting, communicating, curating, collaborating and creating. 

Monday to Friday 12-16 January, 8-9pm GMT, 2pm Central

To participate or listen in to the tweetchats, you will need to follow the hashtag #BYOD4Lchat. We hope you will join us. It is a great way to co-learn with others and an opportunity to share good practice and ideas of how you can use your own devices for learning. In the previous two iterations of BYOD4L I came away from every single chat having learned something new. 

 Do consider writing a blog to capture the things you learn and your reflections. If you would like to, you can submit these blog posts to earn Open Badges. The very process of reflecting is very useful and a record to look back on. 

 New to Tweetchats?





I have written a number of reflective posts about my experience as a facilitator and participant of BYOD4L and tagged these #BYOD4L. For me, being a part of what is now a growing community of learners that are sharing resources, ideas and engaging in conversations on how we can use our own devices for learning, has extended way beyond the duration of the two courses. The exchanges continue in online forums such as Twitter, Google+, Facebook and LinkedIn. I am looking forward to meeting new educators who I know will not only share new ideas but also new perspectives that will challenge the way I think and approach this topic. I hope you will consider joining us in this co-learning opportunity. 

I'd love to hear from you if you do. Also if you have any questions then please post them in the comments.

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