I have been having fun with Ghostery– visiting all sorts of pages and finding out who is tracking what. Â Wikipedia doesn’t have even one tracker it seems… and there was this message (about funding, but interesting all the same): Google might have close to a million servers. Yahoo has something like 13,000 staff. We have […]
Continue reading Wikipedia Posted in: Week 12: Social Analytics Hi all, There is a huge potential for design practices with learning and social analytics. Â I found it interesting the connection between analytics and assessment for learning; as educators, we are constantly assessing our students for the purpose of improving learning. Â This is ongoing, can be formal or informal, and much of what we receive […]
Continue reading A2 Week 12 Posted in: Week 12: Social Analytics
I definitely agree that the danger lies in thinking of these analytics as an ‘answer’ rather than one tool in a box. One of the worrying things for me with some of the analytics tools is how easily they can fit into the ‘no child left behind’ mode of assessing student, teacher and school performance. We wanted to include the Klout example because it does demonstrate how analytics isn’t the appropriate tool for measuring all kinds of social and qualitative things.
I thought that this week’s focus forms such a stark contrast to project-based assessments from a couple weeks back. They’re apparently so contrasting that i’m tempted to ferret out the points of contact between them.
Allie,
Interesting post comparing the two. We accepted PBA with opened arms but now we are having concerns about learning analytics. I just think we need to be more open-minded when embracing new ventures while ensuring that personal and critical information is protected.
Everton
“How can we use learning analytics to foster more effective design practices?” Learning and social analytics are important in understanding how people interact with your online content. In my world, where I create content for people I may never meet, I can use surveys to ask people about what they liked or didn’t like, found useful or […]
Continue reading Activity #2 – Conole’s questions Posted in: Week 12: Social Analytics
I like how you point out how analytics can be an effective supplement for surveys. It reminds me of one of the old adages of anthropology – what people *say* they do (in your case, surveys), and what they *actually* do (say, as perceived through analytics) can often differ. Both are significant pieces of data, and the points of difference and overlap between them can be illuminating.
I reviewed the Horizon Report created by the New Media Consortium and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. The Horizon report’s specified audience is “higher education” but their predictions could be applied to a range of scenarios. (For example, game-based learning is used in corporate learning, and learning analytics is used in projects like School of One for […]
Continue reading What’s on the Horizon? Posted in: Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace
Hi ,
I find multimedia very useful in teaching concepts (computer, programming, math, science, etc).
When I was in college long long time ago, I had difficult time memorizing and understanding the OSI layers. Then our instructor decided to let us watch a movie … It was a 3D animation explaining how the OSI layer works. hahaha .. Then, I was able to get it.
Hi Stephen, I definitely see the value of multimedia for teaching as well. I guess that embedding videos directly into a text not only helps illustrate new concepts but also provides for a cohesive learner experience. My thinking in this question was around whether or not that’s really a *new* thing for ed tech, or just a slightly different format of what web and lots of online courses already did. However, writing a book and including multimedia resources would be different than creating a course… so perhaps I’ve answered my own question here 🙂
Hi Andrea…
About e-books – They haven’t really appealed to me personally primarily because I have an Iphone and the text is so small….but also because when I tried to download the software, in order to have access to e-books through the public library…I could not distinguish between which software was needed for some, and other software for others…
Right now…e-books are too complicated for me…
Kids: Well my kids are in primary school.and they only like interactive, visually appealing e-books. Anything that looks like a book – is a book to them. E-book or not, they don’t distinguish.
So…until the software becomes easier…until I have access to an Ipad and until the books are more visually interactive….I will look at alternatives.
I agree that everything changes at such a rapid rate that I could be wrong….How exciting that would be!
Verena:)
Hi Verena,
I found an interesting post on eBooks’ potential from British author Nick Hornby, written a few years ago (before iPads were on the market, hence his comment about Apple’s disinterest and why eBooks remain uncool) that are similar to your, and many other’s, concerns over this technology.
Kyle
Thanks for the link, Kyle. I found his assertion that “Book-lovers are always late adaptors, and generally suspicious of new technology” interesting.
Multimedia is definitely the way to go in the modern classroom at all levels. I do rate the ebook concept highly as it allows one to move around with virtual libraries and databases of information. Everything is going at a fast pace in the modern world and persons need information on the go. The patience doesn’t exist anymore to sit in a library for hours to acquire information from texts. The major drawback is that only a chosen few really have access to this technology. Developing and underdeveloped countries are always playing catch up to developed countries and may finally catch up with the ebook frenzy in the distant future.
Hi Everton, good point about being able to access virtual libraries and databases as part of the ebook experience. I can definitely see the value that provides.
I am an e-book converter..all it took was a surcharge on my luggage weight when I travelled with so many books on my vacations. All I take now is my wee little Sony ereader with my ebooks loaded and I am a happy beach-bum! I am finding our students are really taking to some of their e-text books too..one of our secondary departments is giving it a go and the students prefer their lighter book bags!
Your experience parallels mine very closely. My main impetus for getting an ereader was for taking on trips. There is nothing like lugging around three large and bulky books and finishing them all before you get home again. I also bought a Sony reader, the PRS-300. I love the size and that I can carry it in many (not all) of my pockets.
I believe that eBooks are outselling regular books in the publishing business. Like it or not, the ebook is transforming education right now. Even in its most generic manifestation, such as a direct copy of a textbook, the ebook offers advantages in areas such as storage, depreciation and mobility. Access to the devices required to use ebooks will be the limiting factor in their use.
I am relatively new to using e-books but am already a fan like from the ease of portability as many of you already cited.
One of my desires, like Verenanz’s children is for a more interactive experience. This is an area I would like to see developed.
Kerry-Ann
To the average educator, the pace at which new technologies appear may be overwhelming. The 2011 Horizons report has narrowed down the number of technologies judged most likely to impact teaching, learning, and creative inquiry in higher education over the next 4 years, from a list of 50 to a more manageable top 6. SUMMARY […]
Continue reading NMC 2011 Horizons Report: A critical analysis Posted in: Week 02: The Edtech Marketplace
Hi Karen,
I’d be interested to hear which of the technologies make the cut in your pro-d presentation, and if possible, bring these ideas to your North Van home for the teachers there. NMC’s Web version is amazing, isn’t it?!
Kyle
I too appreciate the breadth of the Horizon report (but like the Navigator even more now that I have explored the site) and we have used it in our department planning meetings when selecting what tools we would include in our blended learning projects. I will definitely look for the K-12 edition you are referring too. Thanks for pointing that out.
Karen Jones,
Interesting report. However, do you think the 6 selected technologies with be significant globally or just in a few locations? Even though it qualitatively done, I would really like to see some stats to get a better understanding of what actually took place and reasons for decision taken.
It is interesting that they focus on higher education versus K-12. Wondering if that is a more economically viable environment? or is that where many of the technological changes are seen?
Hi Deb, I was wondering the same thing. I posted a critique about ELI’s 7 Things you should know about… and I had the same sense….
Karen, About your ideas, I also read the NMC report and two things that kept my attention was that they specified who were behind this report and that its focus is global.
Angela
Learning analytics promises to harness the power of advances in data mining, interpretation, and modeling to improve understandings of teaching and learning, and to tailor education to individual students more effectively. Still in its early stages, learning analytics responds to calls for accountability on campuses across the country, and leverages the vast amount of data […]
Continue reading Learning Analytics Posted in: Emerging Markets Poll
I imagine Learning analytic as a computer “psychologist”. It examines the behavior, pattern, students’ performance, etc … It should also take into consideration the learner’s background (culture, country of origin, age, etc) … It then provides suggestions on which materials would be suitable for the learner for a particular topic. Learning Analytic should provide information to the instructor on the effectiveness of their materials, what’s missing, etc …
I think this fits in with Sal Khan’s backend for the Khan Academy where you can see which questions students answer right/wrong, how long it takes them to answer them, etc. to allow you to focus in on the problem. On the one hand this sounds very helpful. I think though that this data may be of more use to question the design used to teach a course and re-tool that design to fix the problem spots. In that sense, it can be as simple as an instructor facing the “black holes” in his/her course instead of glossing over them and focusing on the fun parts of teaching.
The story of the “School of One” (http://www.schoolofone.org) looks at the best this has to offer – a way of offering personalized learning solutions based on how students interact with the system – and offers huge possibilities for e-learning systems.
I’ve been doing business analytics for years now so I would really be interested in exploring more about learning analytics. I think it has a lot of potential. The key is well thought out design and investigating the right questions. I completely understand what the report is saying about disparate data sources. Data quality would be key and the privacy issues complex.
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Julie S 11:24 am on November 23, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
The Ghostery was a really good activity but I must say it’s freaking me out a bit. I think I’ve now gotten up to about 12 trackers on a single site. Yikes. I knew about the trackers before this exercise but I had no idea that there would be this many or that the News sites seem to be the worst. So far, the Vancouver Sun has been the single worst in terms of number of trackers.
I was so happy to see this post about Wikipedia and sure enough I went there and there are no trackers. Sweet! I will be surprised if they can keep the model up much longer. I’m not sure how long the donation model will continue to work.
kstooshnov 3:03 pm on November 23, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi Julie,
I am still a bit in the dark with what Ghostery will be doing about the websites I’ve been visiting (since I have been floating between four different computers this week to get assignment 3 done, I’m not expecting to find out anytime soon). I suspect that it is indicating that Wikipedia is on its way out, if it still #5 on the hit list, but not a single tracker. It would be a shame to see Wikipedia have to break its own rule about ads to bump their brand up the hit list. One excellent account of how Wikipedia beat Encyclopedia Britannica (and their fledgeling website) appears in Don Tapscott and Anthony D. WIlliams’ Wikinomics. A must read for digital venturists!
Kyle
Julie S 5:26 pm on November 23, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thanks Kyle – I have that book 🙂 Read it a while back but I think I might read it again after this term is done. I remember it being a really good read.