Monday, 27 April 2015

Which Wiki to use is the question???

I’m not sure as I have never used or engaged with any of the ones it has been suggested to use. I wish I could build my own website then I could tailor it to my own requirements but as of yet this is beyond my ability so I will have to find something that is as close to what I want, which, is a site where my students can access but isn’t available to anyone. Students already have numerous outlets for online communication and require little encouragement to engage with them such as Facebook and the rest of the usual suspects. I admit I am resistant to using these. I’m less keen on a small number of companies whose ultimate interests are commercial, dominating the world of e learning. I think it should be the role of educators to be actively engaged in the development and design of such VLEs and not outsource that crucial element of them to ultimately profit driven business that are in the round ultimately interested in monetising our data.  Additionally I feel that within the context of education I feel we should be providing an online space that is relatively insulated from such commercial interest. I think should be a vehicle for education pure and simple and I don’t see why it can’t done in house, Our institutions are full of people with the skills to do it but at present it seems that many places are happy to just use what ever is made available to them with little desire to do it better. End of rant…   

What do I want my VLE to do?


I now know what a VLE is, my only experience of using one as a student has been Moodle and to be honest I really dislike it. As soon as I hear the words “it’s all on Moodle” my heart sinks and I usually resign myself to the fact that I won’t ever see that, or at least not in time to use it when I need it. This is probably mainly my own fault but I find its never-ending lists of lists exhausting to navigate and visually it gives me a headache. I end up with a download folder full of things that all appear to be called the same thing but vary slightly. I’m not sure if this has anything to do with my dyslexia or not but I really don’t find it easy on the eye. During my degree the lectures rarely used it so it wasn’t much help and on the PCET it’s the opposite and there’s so much stuff on there that as I’ve said it just gives me a headache and I accept defeat. I don’t think it is just me, on my previous degree the majority of student s all felt the same. I want my VLE to not be like that.

VLE anxiety

Right, so we have to create are own VLE’s! I have to be honest I’m not looking forward to this task as I’m not really sure what a VLE and how much use it is going to be. 

Friday, 19 December 2014

Introduction:

I had thought I had done one of these introductions already but as I can't find it i shall make another. This was my first encounter with reading a blog, let alone writing one and I have to admit I was very resistant to it. However, somehow I've ended up strangely enjoying it. I'm not convinced I have done it correctly after looking at some other peoples but here it is : )

Ted Talk





I found this this Ted Talk by Ken Robinson about creativity and how schools kill it. I think most creative people could have probably told you this already. I guess it's good to reinforce the message though. I thought it ended quite positively but didn't really say a lot. I shall make an effort to watch more of these and in particular one from this same series as this was only a short one that i believe was part of 3 or 4 day event..
The following 6 post are all about new types of ICT that i have been introduced to whilst on the PCET course. In each post I set out to reflect on how I feel about the software in hand and how I may utilise it personally in my own practice.


Explain Everything







Explain everything, from what I can see looks brilliant as a way of creating different types of presentations. If you are comfortable being creative, drawing etc then you could really do some great things with this. I think it's application as a tool for teaching is probably best suited for a younger audience. I can image be ing able to make great history  and science presentation with this not mention the rest. For my self and my particular cohalt I don't see it really working. I do however, similarly to Presi, as an artist see great potential in this as very accessible way to create installation/video/performace art.