Virtual Learning

ICT delusions: Plus Ça Change?

john.cuthell@virtuallearning.org.uk — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 11:24:07 +0000

The regular overhaul of the United Kingdom education system brings to the surface many of the tensions of society itself. The conflation of international school rankings, economic decline and the prospect of dominance by what used to be described as the emerging economies has spurred Government in 2012 to declare the need for schools to teach Computing, rather than the previously-prescribed lowly ICT. The assumption seems to be that the teaching workforce is full of eager Computing specialists who are all too ready to ditch the low-level Office skills they were required to teach and adapt to new examination syllabuses.

Learning in Liminality

john.cuthell@virtuallearning.org.uk — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:11:36 +0000

Mise-en-scène

A MirandaMod. A group of people come together in a room. They are joined by others: not present other than as words writing themselves on a screen; as a low-resolution images and voices echoing across continents; as symbols on a growing map of concepts and ideas. Some will have made their mark earlier, leaving traces from which others will build, After the group has left, gone away from wherever to wherever, the words, images, voices, symbols and ideas will remain, to be re-purposed by the passing strangers who will bind themselves into this community of liminal space, wandering scholars through a virtual digital world.

What is happening? How is it happening? Who is it happening to? To whom will it happen? Who – where – are the agents; the actors; the participants? Where are the boundaries? In a state of flux, where can permanence be found? The answer could be everywhere, and nowhere.

Learning in Liminality

Learning in Liminal Spaces

john.cuthell@virtuallearning.org.uk — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 15:39:06 +0000

The informal dynamic knowledge creation in collaborative contexts occurs as participants move from textual debate in a conventional mailing list to video conferencing, micro blogging contributions and collaborative concept maps. This collaborative technology can be seen as creating a liminal space – a passage, in which a person moves from one state of being to another. Participants in this liminal space are transformed by acquiring new knowledge, a new status and a new identity in the community. This change is of critical importance if learning is to be successful. Whilst remote and informal learning is largely is what has been understood about mobile learning, the concept can now be extended to include these informal spaces in which learning takes place – the liminal spaces that those who push the boundaries of digital possibilities now inhabit intellectually (Cuthell, Preston, Kuechel and Cych, 2009).
This paper aims to extend understanding of liminal spaces and their contribution to the learning process. Evidence from participants from the United Kingdom, Europe, West Africa, the United States and Australasia is used to estimate the value of such informal learning for professionals. The qualitative and quantitative research tools that record both the numbers involved in the different activities, levels of participation and the extent of the professional knowledge created are identified. The processes can be described as Bricolage (Levi Strauss, 1962), in which people build new knowledge from what is at hand. Some consideration will be given to the long-term impact of building professional knowledge in a range of media that are not subject to conventional peer review. Finally the advantages and disadvantages of informal learning against formal learning will be summarised.

ICT CPD Landscape review: a Concept Map

john.cuthell@virtuallearning.org.uk — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 16:36:17 +0000

One outcome of the project, derived on the basis of an experimental methodology, a remotely authored digital domain map, loosely represents the prevailing ICT CPD Landscape. This mapping method was used to ascertain the value of mapping to conceptualise complex domains such as ICT CPD. The map was intended to capture and aggregate perceptions of the landscape held by representatives of the following groups: researchers and providers of, experts and teachers in and leaders receiving ICT CPD. As such the map is invariably subjective.

ICT CPD Landscape Review

john.cuthell@virtuallearning.org.uk — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 12:12:51 +0000

This ICT CPD Landscape study reports on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes available to teachers in England in 2010. Data collection took place in the Autumn of 2009. Although the project findings are based on some desk-based research, the findings are mainly derived from primary data collection through traditional interviews, questionnaires and focus groups.

A Periodic Table of Visualisation Methods

john.cuthell@virtuallearning.org.uk — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 14:45:41 +0000

This resource identifies six types of date visualisation:
data;
information;
concept;
strategy;
metaphor;
compound.

Explore the resource.

IWB: the early years

john.cuthell@virtuallearning.org.uk — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 16:33:21 +0000

As interactive whiteboards were beginning to find their way into classrooms users were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the technology and the ways in which it was used.

You can read the findings in

Interactive Whiteboards: new tools, new pedagogies, new learning? Reflections from teachers

Classrooms, teachers and mobile phones

john.cuthell@virtuallearning.org.uk — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:24:28 +0000

The growth of an urban legend

In classrooms and schools around the world one of the areas of contention has been student use of their own technology. Mobile phones are seen as a particularly disruptive technology – so much so that we can see that similar problems create similar solutions. The more one sees, however, the more one wonders about the boundaries of reality. Are these real, or instances of wishful thinking?

Classroom control?

Online forums as resources for teacher professional development

john.cuthell@virtuallearning.org.uk — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:00:30 +0000

How can e-learning be integrated into a range of settings for both teachers and pupils? Here we have a number of small-scale studies covering a range of projects: those based in classrooms; home-school environments; after-school activities; school-based continuous professional development (CPD); subject-based CPD in national contexts and post-graduate accreditation. The work of primary and secondary school pupils and adult learners is considered.

MirandaNet & Teacher CPD

Ms. Chips and the Cyborgs

john.cuthell@virtuallearning.org.uk — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:42:04 +0000

In the book ‘Goodbye, Mr. Chips’ by James Hilton, a shy British teacher (Mr. Chipping – hence ‘Chips’) devotes his life to teaching after the death of his beautiful American wife. The film (1939) of the book features Robert Donat as Mr. Chips, who looks back on his long career and the people in it. And there you have it: the quintessential image of the devoted teacher, interacting with pupils and students, enabling them to excel and achieve their goals. The reality, of course, is often slightly different. Teachers are caught between the Scylla of an increasingly prescriptive curriculum and the Charybdis of public accountability; schools are expected to pick up the shortfall of parenting and social responsibility, abandoned as parents rush out to work increasingly long hours to service mortgage and consumer debt.

Taking charge, Ms. Chips?