“Now, what I want is, Facts….Facts alone are wanted in life” (Mr Gradgrind) A recent Australian study by Henderson, Selwyn and Aston (2015) found that students use digital technologies to support the logistical aspects of their learning : time-saving; finding out about and fulfilling course requirements; mobile and remote access; researching information; getting organised. Where students […]
With the new academic year looming, you will want to make sure that your Blackboard course is in a fit state for students to use. I know there is a widely held view that Blackboard is not fit for purpose, and it’s a view that I am sympathetic to, but that’s a discussion we can […]
I recently attended the Blackboard teaching and Learning Conference in Liverpool. This is Blackboard’s main showcase event for Europe. There were no big surprises in the Blackboard ‘Road Map’ at this event, most of the information about improvements to Blackboard Learn and Mobile had been made at previous events. However there were to changes that […]
Last week I ran a workshop on Using Screencasts to Enhance Teaching and Learning. Here’s a summary of what we covered. What is screencasting? A screencast is a digital video recording that captures actions taking place on a computer desktop. Screencasts, which often contain voice-over narration, are useful for demonstrating how to use specific operating […]
I recently ran a day long workshop for the School of Education with Matt Mobbs . It was aimed at using learning technologies to enhance their MA TESOL Distance Learning course. We thought we’d practice what we preach, by using technology to enhance our teaching. So we started the day with a brainstorming session on […]
This Year’s Theme: Students as Partners I recently attended the 15th annual Durham Blackboard Users’ Conference. This is organised and held at Durham University in the first week of January every year. The theme for this year’s conference was ‘Students as Partners’. As usual there was a range of different workshops and presentations […]
I recently attended the annual Blackboard Education on Tour conference in London. The event provides an opportunity to listen to Blackboard’s senior staff outlining the latest developments and plans for Blackboard. There are two strands to the event – Product discussion and Personal Development. I attended the Personal Development strand, which turned out to be […]
I have had an increase in enquiries from staff in the college recently about using collaborative tools for learning. The fact that people are beginning to see the benefits of these collaborative spaces is a welcome development. With that in mind, this is a timely research paper from Miriam Sullivan and Nancy Longnecker from the […]
Recent research by Liz Bennett (2014) looks at the drivers that motivate educators to use technology in their teaching. She took a framework (Beetham and Sharpe 2011) used to model students’ digital literacies and applied it to lecturers’ digital literacy practices. The intention was to examine the motivations for lecturers in adopting Technology Enhanced Learning. Bennett […]
photo credit: HikingArtist.com via photopin cc In a previous blog, reporting on the Blackboard Teaching and Learning Conference, I mentioned ‘student centred’ approaches to teaching and learning with technology. Another presentation at the conference highlighted research from Malcolm Murray and his colleagues at Durham University (Murray et al 2014) in which the student was at […]
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