Comments on: Moving Beyond Access and Convenience to Learning

By: Bookmarks about Learning

Bookmarks about Learning — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 03:00:08 +0000

[...] – bookmarked by 1 members originally found by sumdeos on 2008-09-09 Moving Beyond Access and Convenience to Learning http://bwatwood.edublogs.org/2008/07/02/moving-beyond-access-and-convenience-to-learning/ – [...]

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By: Gabriela

Gabriela — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:20:12 +0000

Hi Britt!
At our faculty I took the decision to use web 2.0 tools in almost everything. So I started with wikispaces as a course management tool (and it works just fine), and now I am using currently social bookmarking, google apps, slideshare, flickr etc. As CMS I discovered that NING is great and now after we finished a course about microblogging on a mb platform I decided to include this tool , too (in october).
I ran a survey in the last two years to see if this is actually working and I found out that my students (not all of them – ) are really exciting about the new opportunities for LEARNING, social learning mainly in 2.0 time.
Thanks for sharing this post.

By: Learner Bytes » Blog Archive » what we need is a system bypass

Learner Bytes » Blog Archive » what we need is a system bypass — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:08:41 +0000

[...] Toolbox or Trap? Course Management Systems and Pedagogy and Britt Watwood’s blog post, Moving Beyond Access and Convenience to Learning. In these two pieces the questions are raised about the potential problems/issues/constraints [...]

By: Britt

Britt — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 02:14:59 +0000

@Cindy – great comment. I am a big believer in manual grades for work done outside Blackboard as well.

and @Colin – great point about setting up the training for a quick return on investment by faculty. And I think the same would be true for students. Giving students a voice and quick payoffs can lead to deeper searching and exploration as follow-ups.

By: Colin

Colin — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 01:51:47 +0000

Thanks for sharing your thoughts & brainstorm Britt. Your post strikes a chord with me and my thinking about how to develop appropriate professional development that goes beyond the ‘tools’. It is fun to do the show and tell about the tools available, but we need to be giving more… I think the challenge is to provide authentic examples of the use of the tools for both staff and students. We’ve just implemented a project where we have a powerlink in Blackboard that can set up a drupal/SMF or mediawiki for a class. I’m thinking about how to introduce this to staff so that they can ‘get it’ quickly. Training in the tool is important, but what and why is key. My initial thoughts on how to do this include; homework before session, purposeful activities, bring along your own content, group work and introduction/membership to a forum for continued support…

It also means we may need to take risks and be brave when setting up learning opportunities for students. Maybe be more creative with assessment as well? Like, involve the students in deciding what the assessment could be (if the systems and policy allow this).

By: Cindy Kissel-Ito

Cindy Kissel-Ito — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:03:05 +0000

I think the challenge is in combining the grading and communication tools of BB with the active learning component. For example, my classes use of Google docs really makes BB superfluous. I can write comments and grades on their docs and cut down my grading time by half. (In BB, I have to open the doc, grade, save and return e-mail.)
It is easier to enter the grades in the gradebook manually than to place google doc posts in the BB system.