If you only read one thing on the interweb this week, then make it this: Men Explain Technology to Me: On Gender, Ed-Tech,and the Refusal to Be Silent by Audrey Watters. Thank you Audrey for a great piece and for introducing me to the term “mansplaining”. I can’t say anymore as my prose is, as they say around here, “mince” compared to Audrey’s so just read it.
My blog has been buzzing with comments (including my first audio comment) on my post about Helen Beetham’s Becoming Post Digital keynote last week. Getting comments (not spam or hate comments see Audrey’s post about that) and seeing an extended conversation unfold is so satisfying for me. It really sustains my motivation for blogging. So thank you to everyone who commented and please feel free to add your thoughts.
I didn’t get round to posting about the OU Innovating Pedagogy report last week and in fact its only been this week that I’ve been able to have a look at it. Brian Kelly was quick off the mark with his summary which provides a useful overview. I was particularly pleased to see event-based learning listed in the report. Our online event GCU Games On fits nicely into this category and provides an alternative for institutions, who don’t have links with organisations such as the BBC.
I also spotted yesterday Jisc have just released a new publication “Learning Analytics, the current state of play in UK higher and further education“. I haven’t had time to read it properly yet but it’s always good to get an overview of what’s happening here in the UK. Looks like it’s still very early days as the report says
“Most interviewees are reluctant to claim any significant outcomes from their learning analytics activities to date – again perhaps demonstrating that it is still early days for the technologies and processes”
That gives me hope that we are not too far off the mark here at GCU. Our analytics adventures have been on the back boiler for a bit but I’m hoping to get them back on track again soon.
Finally, it’s awards time again. David Hopkins has been nominated for the Edublogs awards – he’s getting my vote as his blog is just really useful for anyone involved in implementing ed tech. David has also nominated a fab list of UK folks for the awards. I feel very privileged to have been included. So if you have a minute or two, dear reader, then please vote and get some UK ed tech people winning.
And because every blog should have a picture, here are some clouds from my flight to London yesterday for my first ALT Trustees meeting.
howsheilaseesIT 