Slides from my presentation at the ANU CAP innovation showcase about using game elements in teaching
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Maybe you should get them playing on their phones in class then.
I ran a small session this morning with some of our teachers from Accounting and Law about Kahoot – a great free online quiz game.
Learners simply visit http://kahoot.it on their smart phone/tablet/laptop/computer and enter the PIN associated with your quiz game. (Which you are showing through the projector)
They then choose a nickname to use.
Questions appear as your can see in the image above. There is a timer on the side and once everyone has answered (or the timer runs out) the answer is revealed
Points are giving for getting the answer right and also for the speed of answering. At the end there is a final leaderboard and you can download a spreadsheet of results.
This can be a fun and quick way of seeing which areas of content your students have understood and which they might need more support with.
Setting up a Kahoot quiz is also very straight-forward – everyone in the session had a playable quiz game up and running within ten minutes from scratch.
Just go to http://getkahoot.com to set up a free account and get started.
(Yes, looking back, this reads like an ad but I have nothing to do with Kahoot, I just think it’s cool)
On the weekend I wrapped up studying Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, a free 4 week/module online course offered through Open2Study
Open2Study is the MOOC* offering of Open Universities Australia, a more conventional provider of free online education and training.
Structurally, Open2Study courses use a fairly standard framework – four modules composed of ten short videos (4-10 mins) of a presenter talking to camera. After each video is a single multi-choice question and after the final video is a ten multi-choice question assessment quiz covering the content from the module. Discussion forums are also provided but not supported/moderated by the person delivering the course as far as I can see and links to additional reading/resources are also made available.
In terms of rich educational design, there’s something left to be desired in this model but at the same time, it’s a free resource drawing on the skills and knowledge of some talented people and it does provide a decent introduction to the topic.
Negotiation and Conflict Resolution was developed and presented by Dr Andrew Ley of the Macquarie University Graduate School of Management. The first two modules focus on negotiation, the third touches on conflict resolution (with a slightly heavy leaning toward understanding the origins of conflict at the expense of practical solutions in conflict resolution) and the final module focuses on communication skills.
Dr Ley is an engaging and clearly knowledgeable presenter and the videos make decent (and sparing) use of basic text and the occasional image to illustrate key points. The videos are delivered via YouTube and make effective use of the Interactive Transcript functionality. This enables learners to quickly scan the content of the video and click the text to skip to particular sections of the video.
This is an effective way of dealing with the difficulties in scanning the information presented in videos.
The discussion forums were scantly used – Dr Ley did suggest that learners discuss particular questions in the forums at several points in the later videos but it was left to the learners to start these posts and subsequently this tended not to happen. A more effective strategy for using the forums would’ve seen either Dr Ley or an Open2Study moderator facilitating discussion here by raising an initial question and providing responses to interesting student comments (while not dominating the thread). Wrapping up the discussion with a summary of the thread and/or further issues to consider would also be good practice.
A PDF with references for further reading is provided for each module, however it seems like an oversight not to provide these as URLs where possible.
Overall I’m glad to have the opportunity to access this level of training for free and at my leisure and if you are interested in gaining a richer understanding of some of the key principles and strategies of Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, it is well worth signing up for this course. The next intake starts on 15/09/14 at https://www.open2study.com/courses/negotiation-and-conflict-resolution
From an educational design perspective, it’s adequate but there is room for improvement – but hey, it’s free, university level education.
Next up I’ll be checking out the Open2Study User Experience for the Web course, so here’s hoping some of those lessons flow through to this blog.
*I say MOOC because this has come to be the default usage of the term but my personal feeling is that true MOOCs should have a far richer learning model than content/quiz/content/quiz
So I had an interview for an eLearning Developer job the other day and I feel like I fizzed it.
I’m not entirely sure why – I’m utterly qualified for the position (it’s pretty much an exact match for the work that I’ve been doing for the last 11 years – just in a university rather than a TAFE setting) and I put together a pretty killer application. I also did a pretty solid job on working up a response to the scenario they gave me in advance of the interview.
It’s essentially a job that is made for me – I’d even be taking a not insubstantial pay-cut but I’m keen for some new challenges and opportunities and I’m happy to wear that.
The interview itself though – I don’t know, I was rambly, I was nervous, I’m not sure that I really answered the questions. I was very mindful of interview tips and techniques that I’ve read about – be engaged, don’t talk about pay and conditions, do your research, don’t raise negatives about your old employer – and yet…
The end of the interview felt a lot like every bad date I’ve ever been on – nothing to be said or done beyond “well it was nice meeting you”
After a few days of moping and eating too much sugar and fat, I’ve realised that I need to frame the interview experience completely differently.
I walked into that room as a supplicant, hoping that the interviewers in their infinite wisdom and kindness might bestow a job upon me.
What I should’ve done is treat it like I’m running a workshop in what a great team member I could be. When I’m in teacher mode, I’m a different person. (I’m sure we all are)
There’s no room for doubt, there’s just me, the material and the learners. And if someone out there is better equipped to run a workshop about me, I’ve yet to meet them. (I don’t think I’d want to either)
So this is a plan from here on in – it’s not an interview, it’s not a request – it’s a lesson about me as their prospective employee.
Howard Rheingold and a number of other Internetizens are curating a great list of resources that should help you sort the information wheat from the chaff online.
The (current) full list is available as a Google Doc.
It does have a slightly American flavour but as a living document there is always the option to suggest your own, local additions.
It includes links to Whois services, Google Image Search, various Factcheck websites, Snopes, the WayBack machine and many more.
Certainly a great place to start if you’re reading something online that doesn’t quite ring true.
http://bit.ly/1iQSjDY
Now this is a MOOC that I approve of – study seven courses (9 lessons each) at Hogwarts online.
via Delicious (via IFTTT)
http://bit.ly/1hpTeOW
I don’t mind this – and it’s been released into the public domain without even requiring attribution by designer Craig Rozynski
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Here are a couple of guides that I have put together to help teachers and students use the Badge tool in Moodle (built on OpenBadges)
It is a slightly convoluted process that hopefully will be simplified in coming upgrades otherwise I question whether anyone other than the most tech-savvy users will really embrace Badges, which is a shame as I think they have the potential to be a useful tool for engagement.
These guides – which you are free to modify and use for non-commercial (or educational) purposes with acknowledgement – were initially designed for our Moodle system here at CIT – eLearn. Clearly some screenshots and layouts may vary.
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OpenBadges.me
Handy free tool that lets users easily create simple images suitable for Open Badges
Visit the site
Some interesting ideas in this post – we often overlook teachers that are tech-averse.
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