Tag: Martin Weller

Replied to https://blog.edtechie.net/digital-scholarship/things-i-was-wrong-about-pt3-the-democratisation-of-social-media/ (blog.edtechie.net)

I was over-optimistic about the benefits of social media and insufficiently pessimistic about the downsides. However, if it was right for a little while, and now is wrong, the question remains, can it become a bit more right again? If so, how and where? Anyway for a little while there, we made some excellent cat memes.

Things I was Wrong About Pt3 – The democratisation of social media – The Ed Techie by Martin Weller

As I line up with all the other people to say how I too was wrong about the ‘democratisation of social media’, I am left reflecting upon my own experiences. I am particularly intrigued looking back upon Ian Guest’s research into Twitter and professional development.

I am assuming (as I am no longer a ‘resident‘) that Twitter is different to how it was when Ian was doing his research. However, I would also assume that it was different again in say 2010 when Clint was doing his research. We often talk about Twitter or social media as something stable, but surely it is something that is forever changing. That is one of the take-aways I took from Ian’s choice to use actor network theory as his framing.

For me, one of the changes that I noticed was a move from sharing to something else. It leaves so many questions. I wonder where people moved? Did they stop learning or just stop sharing, instead to become lurkers, keeping their ideas in their own gated communities? I feel that it is far too easy to say we were ‘wrong’ or ‘right’, I wonder if the more useful point of reflection is what ideas we might have been ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ about and how things have changed and what sort of ‘right’ is required moving forward. Is the ‘right’ needed a online parks? Here I am reminded of something from Angus Hervey about ‘letting go lightly’ to aide in moving forward:

Don’t say “I’m right, and you’re obviously wrong.”

Say “at this point, given all the evidence I’ve considered and having made a genuine effort to try and see if from the other side (point to some examples), the balance of the argument seems to rest on this side for these reasons, so for now that’s what I am going with. If new evidence, or a better argument comes along I am totally willing to change my mind about this, and I’ll also be pleased because it will mean I’ve gained a deeper understanding about the world.”

The Beauty of Being Wrong by Angus Hervey

Continue reading “💬 Things I was Wrong About Pt3 – The democratisation of social media”

Bookmarked https://blog.edtechie.net/open-access/the-darkish-side-of-open-licences/ (blog.edtechie.net)

This presents a quandary for open scholars – do you continue to advocate for open access for everyone, and at the same time accept that you are feeding the machine? Do you accept AI as inevitable and hope your content in some way adds to its quality (I mean, I’m not sure what my random metaphors on here will do to the learning models). Or do you seek to control content with more specific licences that might prohibit being harvested by AI but allow human access?

The darkish side of open licences by Martin Weller

Martin Weller reflects the fine line between open licensed content and the fear that it is being fed (or mostly likely, has been fed) into the AI machine. I like Weller’s point that, “There is no “CC-BY for uses I like” licence.”

Replied to What is the purpose of educational technology? (blog.edtechie.net)

I don’t mean that title as a rhetorical, smartass, question, but rather a more fundamental one. It’s probably not one we ask ourselves very often, we tend to be caught up in the application of a particular technology, or trying to solve a specific problem. But at the more abstract level, what do you think educational technology is for? When we adopt it, what is the purpose we are intending it to fulfil? I expect the answer will vary depending on technology or context, and not be limited to one function overall. But of you had to answer the question “what is the main purpose of educational technology?” at a cocktail party, what would you answer (apart from asking yourself how did you get invited to a party where this is the conversation).

Here are some potential responses I think:

  • Improve learning performance
  • Making learning more accessible/flexible
  • Financial benefits
  • Student experience and choice
  • Improved pedagogy
  • Reflection on practice
  • Administration and monitoring

Source: What is the purpose of educational technology? by Martin Weller

Martin, this has me thinking about a post I wrote too many years ago about my ‘vision for eLearning‘:

Is Transformative: More than just redefined, learning is purposeful and involves wider implications.

Is More Doable: Makes things like critical thinking and collaboration more possible.

Enables Student Voice: Technology provides a voice for students to take ownership over their work and ideas.

Involves Modelling Digital Citizenship: More than a sole lesson, eLearning should be about foster competencies throughout the curriculum.

Source: Vision for eLearning by Aaron Davis

The thing that struck me then was that vision is a collective enterprise and so often is contested, no matter how much work is done. For example, this week, I got caught talking with a colleague who argued that there are three facets to the technology project that we are a part of: finance, student/community and pedagogy. The problem that we face is that there is nobody who is properly invested in all the areas, therefore any decisions made are always made based on the priorities of the group in question. When I started too many years ago now, my focus was all about the students, as outlined in my vision, and although this is still the case and will always be something of a north star, my day-to-day focus these days is on administration and finance. Sadly, I have come to learn the reality that when it comes to technology at scale (financial benefit, you might say), the focus becomes the quality of data you are working with and improving the steps to producing such data more efficient. Many prefer to call this ‘magic‘, but to me it is the foundation that allows the house to be built. Invisible to most, until a massive crack appears in the wall and you need to go digging.

I was also left thinking about Ewan McIntosh’s post about the various purposes alongside Ewan McIntosh’s discussion of a school’s ‘value proposition‘. He posited that beyond two values, teams get lost:

A value proposition, even if you are a state school, is a vital value to hone down, not just so that kids aren’t ripped out of your school but so that everyone, including the leaders, can be held to account when kinks in the system appear. If you state that excellence in education is your value proposition, then you’d better get that nailed, all the time, every time, or perceptions will change and take a long time to bring back.

And defining a value proposition is easy – you can really only choose one top value you pursue, and a close-place second one. Beyond two core value propositions, your team will be lost and not know what they are chasing

Source: Working out a school’s competitive position even when it’s not competing #28daysofwriting by Ewan McIntosh

All in all, your post has me intrigued to think about what has changed and what remains the same regarding education technology.

Liked Why “Uber for education” metaphors are flawed (and just rubbish) by an author (blog.edtechie.net)

The basic idea of an Uber for education metaphor is that universities will be made redundant (again, it would seem) because individual learners will go direct to a marketplace of private educators. As well as the deep problems such a model relies upon as highlighted above, people rarely consider why a sector isn’t like Uber.

Liked 25 Years of OU/Ed Tech – 2020: The Online Pivot by an author (blog.edtechie.net)

I know people like to say Ed Tech won’t save you, and that is a good antidote to the ed tech saviour hype, but in 2020 educational technologists really did save education (by which I don’t mean silicon valley profiteers, but the small teams within unis, colleges, schools, etc). People who were often buffeted around an institution, not treated with appropriate respect and under-resourced were suddenly called upon to keep the whole thing going. That’s a hell of a spotlight shift.

Bookmarked Digital mudlarking by mweller (blog.edtechie.net)

If you are an ed tech practitioner then, the sense is less of a excavation, and more one of hurried gathering. Ed tech practitioners operate like mudlarks, gathering artefacts that have been exposed by the last technology tide (see below reservations on this). These artefacts can be seen as nuggets of good practice, research or concepts that have application across different technology. Things like how to support learners at a distance, how to effectively encourage online dialogue, ethics of application, etc.

Martin Weller wonders about another edtech metaphor, this time of digital mudlarking.
Replied to 2019 blog review – The Ed Techie (blog.edtechie.net)

The thing I’ve been struggling with is that a lot of the bloggers I admire have effectively become very good ed tech journalists, writing very well researched, thoughtful essays. These are excellent, but working in academia, blogging performs a different function for me – I write research papers and books which is the place for the carefully argued work. My blog felt like an antidote to that in a way – a place to put out half baked ideas and quick posts that are knocked off in-between other things.

Thank you Martin for sharing your open therapy session. It has been an interesting year in regards to the evolution of blogging and the changes in regards to the posts coming through my feeds.
Liked Confessions of an audiobook addict – The Ed Techie (blog.edtechie.net)

The prevalence of wifi, smart phones and unobtrusive earphones, combined with abundance of audio content in audiobooks and podcasts, makes me feel that we are entering a similar combined oral/literacy phase socially and moving away from a largely literate dominated one. Given the number of other tasks that only require partial attention (from playing Candy Crush to having your dad talk to you), the opportunity for orality to become prominent is present. And I for one, welcome our new audio-overlords.

Bookmarked 25 Years of EdTech: 2019 – Micro-credentials – The Ed Techie (blog.edtechie.net)

In short, micro-credentials represent the latest chapter in the attempt to make the shape of higher education more amorphous and flexible. In this, I am in favour of them, because if you want education to be inclusive and diverse then it needs to come in various formats to meet those needs. Whether micro-credentials are the means to realise that, or another attempt to bend higher ed to mythical needs of employers which turn out to be ill-defined and unwanted, remains to be seen.

Martin Weller continues his history of edtech series discussing the trend towards micro-credentials in higher education. One of the points that really stood out is the idea of credentials as validation of online learning:

Micro-credentials were the culmination of several ed tech developments, but there is also a sense in that they are driven by these very developments in order to validate themselves.

Bookmarked Learning the rules of predicting the future – The Ed Techie by Martin Weller (blog.edtechie.net)

In short, the future will have much resonance with the present, but it will be one where the relationship between people and increasingly powerful technology is one that is constantly examined and negotiated. I would not expect any grand revolution in the higher education space, the much quoted concept of disruption is almost entirely absent and inappropriate in this space. So don’t expect the type of future often predicted by educational technology entrepreneurs, with all existing universities made redundant by a new technology centric model. Instead we see a continual model of innovation, testing, adaption and revisiting within the constraints of an existing, and robust system.

Martin Weller responds to a request to predict the future of higher ed by identifying four rules:

  1. Very little changes, while simultaneously everything changes.
  2. Change is rarely about the technology.
  3. Appreciate the historical amnesia in much of educational technology.
  4. Technology is not ethically or politically neutral.

Alongside the work of Gary Stager and Audrey Watters, this is a useful provocation to think about the past, present and future of education and technology.

Bookmarked Twenty Years of Edtech (er.educause.edu)

What has changed, what remains the same, and what general patterns can be discerned from the past twenty years in the fast-changing field of edtech?

Martin Weller looks back at twenty years of EdTech, highlighting the various moments that have stood out across the journey. This brings together many of the pieces that he has written for his 25 years of EdTech series that he has written to celebrate 25 years of ALT. As he points out in his introduction, we are not very good at looking back. This post then offers an opportunity to stop and do so in a structured manner. Another interesting take on history is Ben Francis’ post on the Firefox OS.
Liked 25 Years of EdTech – 2003: Blogs by mweller (blog.edtechie.net)

If I had a desert island EdTech, it would be blogging, and that is not just in a nostalgic sense. No other educational technology has continued to develop, as the proliferation of WordPress sites attests, and also remain so full of potential. I’ve waxed lyrical about academic blogging many times before, but for almost every ed tech that comes along, I find myself thinking that a blog version would be better: e-portfolios, VLEs, MOOCs, OERs, social networks.