That Wow factor!
February has arrived! The end of the month and how has 2013 been so far? Busy!
The online learning experiences are coming thick and fast at the moment! Almost too much as also trying to the day job! Finding the right routine and the enthusiasm to do the travelling is the essence and the key to succeeding in trying to leap those even minor buildings!
The Science Wow factor for the week from the net has been this from a maker site, the $5 projector . Really simple idea great for teaching optics far more impact than traditional practicals for majority of children. How great for awe and wonder in the phone culture!
A week of great changes for education announced in the UK with the Ebacc causing most controversy. In my opinion the sticking point with all this is the pre-occupation of using the word academic and non-academic to describe the educational outcomes of the different qualifications path. The general view point is academic good, vocational bad (borrowing from George Orwell). This may be due to the make up of the UK parliament being predominantly "middle class", although you probably cannot get more middle class in England than ex-army officers. We do need to break the cultural link between the traditional stereotypes of "academic" and "non-academic" students being related to socio-economic groupings. This has been more than a bit of millstone around the neck of the English education system ever since the first education act (and before) in 1870. Universal education as opposed to mass education is still the debating point. More recently who is paying for the education is also an issue.
Haverhill Online Learning Community (HOLC), OLC, Coursera Course and other projects have been a little slow this week owing to the daily commitments of a drive to Harlow. HOLC has drawn the interest of the local MP (Member of Parliament) who is also a minister in the Department of Work. Will have a chat with him next week one to one and see how it goes!
Have started the Cousera MOOC from Edinburgh University e-learning and digital cultures. Have some videos to watch this morning and a hangout later today. Will compare this to the edX course which ton be honest was extremely time consuming as it is a full undergraduate module as if you were attending lectures etc! Some good links to learning platforms which I will at some point share some if not all.
Full day of working own projects today including being trained online on the Blackboard LMS. School I am working at the moment having a conference day. All staff attending have been asked to have a twitter account up and running for collaborative interaction (how social this becomes when account "open" all the time and you can be expected to respond "out of hours" will be interesting to watch in the first few weeks) .
Next week move onto local history with HOLC. Have not proceeded as far as wanted to with the Telework Week but will revisit.
So Cat at least will be happy to have me around all day at least!
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