Mentoring with the GROW model

Mentoring is a support function which can be found in many environments, for example in a workplace, at a school or university, and in sports clubs and teams. It is however very important to distinguish between coaching and mentoring. According to the Management Mentors website (www.management-mentors.com) coaching is about specific functions whereas mentoring is a more personal relationship focussing on development as a whole. Another important distinction is that a mentor should not be someone's direct supervisor whereas a coach could well be. This is important as a mentor should be able to listen and give advice impartially and the mentee will also be more relaxed and open when not dealing with their direct supervisor. A mentor could therefore be a manager from a different department, someone outwith the direct chain of command. In actual fact, being mentored by an equal, in the form of peer mentoring, seems to have become a very popular trend. It was within this framework that I acted as a mentor for Nicky during her module Customised Study for Blended and Online Education.

Although I had no previous experience of mentoring I have had training in coaching in the past so I was therefore familiar with the basic concept. Kay and Hind's "A practical guide to mentoring" (2009) also provided a very clear overview of the subject which helped a great deal.   As Nicky and I would never meet face-to-face during the trimester we had to carry out online or e-mentoring - mentoring which is conducted totally in a virtual environment. For our purposes we chose to experiement with a few virtual meeting products but ultimately decided that Skype was the simplest and most effective way to meet. Or initial plan was to meet online once a week on a Sunday evening and talk or chat for about 30 minutes. If more time was required and our schedules allowed the meetings could be extended. Sometimes the real mentoring was finished within the 30 minutes and the remaining time was filled with smalltalk or other non-mentoring related course activities.

In order to ensure some structure in the mentoring sessions, and at Keith's suggestion, I decided to mentor using Sir John Whitmore's GROW model. In this model GROW stands for Goal, Reality, Options and Will (or Wrap-up). This technique can be used either within one individual mentoring session or across several sessions. The first point, Goal, involves defining the objectives or topics the mentee wants to discuss. In the second stage, Reality, the present situation should be discussed. In the third stage, Options, the mentor and mentee should explore possible choices or options to address this situation and in the fourth stage, Will, the mentor and mentee should agree on the next steps to be taken. This is a very clear and straightforward model which is easy to follow. In reality however, my mentoring sessions sometimes were more unstructured and took more the form of a casual conversation over a virtual cup of tea. This however did not always seem to be a problem for Nicky and also added a missing social element to this trimester. I will leave it up to Nicky to confirm if the sessions did help but I certainly learnt from them and I hope they helped her too.

Sources:

Kay, D. & Hind, R. (2009). A Practical guide to mentoring: How to help others achieve their goals. (4th edition). Oxford: How To Books.

http://www.management-mentors.com/resources/corporate-mentoring-programs-faqs/ [accessed 28.04.2012]

http://www.msue.msu.edu/objects/content_revision/download.cfm/item_id.378012/workspace_id.298457/GROW_Model_?_Four-Step_Questioning_Approach_.pdf/ [accessed 28.04.2012]

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/study/cll/othercourses/wmcett/resources/practitionerarea/mentoring/planning/grow/ [accessed 28.04.2012]
 

Feedback on the mobile learning webinar

As part of my mobile learning webinar on 20th March I asked all eight participants to complete a short feedback survey at the end. Getting student feedback is important at all times and my face-to-face students also complete a feedback form for each module at the end of the semester. As this was my first ever webinar I was especially keen to hear if I had got the balance right between pace, amount of content and level of detail. This survey also had the benefit of being entirely anonymous so hopefully everyone felt comfortable being completely honest with their opinions.

 I decided to use google doc's form function to produce my feedback questionnaire, which you can see here. There were several reasons for choosing to use google rather than one of the specialist survey websites like surveymonkey or surveygizmo: as I already have a google account there was no need to create a new one and I have already used a google docs form to survey students and was impressed by the ease of use and management of the results. For this questionnaire the form consisted of a mixture of twelve multiple choice, Likert scale, and free-text questions followed by a final option to add any other comments.

The initial responses to the questionnaire were rather slow with only three people completing it on the day of the webinar. Four more people completed it one week later, possibly reminded of it by their attendance at the next student webinar, and an eighth participant completed it the following day.

The aim of my first question was to find out whether I had advertised the webinar properly and included in the presentation that the advertising suggested would be covered. Students were asked to say Yes, No or Partly to the statement "The webinar met my expectations based on how it was advertised". Happily all eight respondents said "Yes" it had met their expectations.

Question 2 was the first of the Likert scale questions. These questions were all to be answered on a five-point scale with 1 meaning "Strongly agree" and 5 meaning "Strongly disagree". The second question was "The trainer clearly stated the webinar objectives", 6 of the students strongly agreed with this and 2 strongly disagreed. Perhaps the two who disagreed missed the objectives when they were mentioned at the start of the webinar.

Question 3 was an attempt at quality control regarding the content of the webinar, "The webinar covered all the stated items". 4 participants strongly agreed with this, 2 students agreed and 2 strongly disagreed. This result suggests that the relationship between the stated content and the actual points in the webinar could have been made more clearly.

Question 4 asked  whether "Examples were used to illustrate concepts." 2 participants strongly agreed, 4 agreed, 1 neither agreed or disagreed and 1 strongly disagreed. These responses suggest that more attention to illustrations could have been made.

In question 5 I wanted to assess the interaction between the webinar participants with the statement "The trainer encouraged and successfully managed discussions."  5 participants strongly agreed, 1 agreed, 1 disagreed and 1 strongly disagreed. I would say this is a satisfactory result but that perhaps more opportunities for discussion could be offered in the future.

Question 6 stated "The trainer was knowledgeable about the subject matter". This is of course a totally subjective point and heavily reliant on how well the host presented the webinar but happily 6 participants strongly agreed with this statement and only 2 disagreed or strongly disagreed. The two negative votes are nevertheless disappointing as I have spent a long time researching the subject.

 Question 7 looked at the responses give to participants by the host "The trainer adequately responded to
 questions asked". 5 participants strongly agreed, 1 agreed, 1 disagreed and 1 strongly disagreed. The majority seem to be happy with this aspect and as there were no questions asked at the end of the webinar I am a little unsure of the basis for the negative answers.

The eighth question looked at whether the participants actually felt like they had learnt anything by attending the webinar "The webinar improved my knowledge of mobile learning."  3 participants strongly agreed, 3 more agreed, 1 disagreed and 1 strongly disagreed. This question could also provide an indication of whether the right level had been reached in the webinar. As the presentation was advertised as an introduction to the area anyone who had previous knowledege would have answered this point negatively. It would however still be preferable if everyone said they had learnt something regardless of prior knowledge. Perhaps in the future this kind of question should be linked to one about previous knowledge.

Question 9 was the final Likert scale question and asked whether "The presenter was clear and understandable". This question could be interpreted both to include physically being able to hear the speaker but also whether the vocabulary chosen was at an appropriate level. 5 participants strongly agreed with this, 1 agreed, 1 disagreed and 1 strongly disagreed. Hopefully the negative votes are due to the technical problems of my microphone (background noise) rather than my poor choice of vocabulary or grammar.

In question 10 I wanted to find out if the pace and amount of information were ok with the question, "Was the right amount of information covered in the alloted time?". All 8 participants responded that "Yes, the amount was just right for the time given.". Knowing how much to include is always difficult so I am glad I seem to have got that right.

Questions 11 and 12 were open questions looking for further feedback from the partipants. These allowed the participants to say what they wanted entirely in their own words. Question 11 asked "What was the most helpful information you learnt during the webinar?". Students mentioned items like the definitions that were explained, the benefits of mobile learning, and the discussion of the frameworks. It was also commented that being able to share experiences with the other participants was very interesting.

Question 12 asked for constructive criticism and suggestions to improve the webinar, "How could this webinar have been improved?". The audio quality problem was mentioned here along with a desire for more practical examples of mobile learning in use. One participant commented that some of the content was "over their head" so perhaps I didn't quite match the needs of someone with no prior knowledge at all times.

The final question was a free-text opportunity for the participants to make any other comments. Aside from complimentary messages it was again commented that it was really nice to meet other students on the course. It seems like the social aspects of such webinars should not be underestimated.

 As the feedback from the students was generally positive I am quite pleased with these results. Bearing all of their comments in mind, for the future I will attempt to:

1) Include more opportunities for group discussion.
2) Include more examples of successful mobile learning projects.
3) Ensure that the objectives for the webinar are clear.
4) Ensure the audio quality is acceptable.

All in all, despite being quite nerve-wracking the webinar was a very enjoyable and educational experience for me. The participants seem to have enjoyed the format and were especially pleased to have the chance to meet and interact with fellow students. I would definitely not hesitate to use this form of teaching again given the right circumstances. To my mind a webinar is very similar to a traditional lecture (sage on the stage) and therefore does not directly offer all of the possibilites online learning has but in combination with other tools, such as discussions and blogs, it could form part of an excellent online or blended learning programme.

Reflecting on the mobile learning webinar

My first ever webinar seemed like it was taking forever to arrive and then when it did come it was over in a flash. During my preparation I found myself revisiting a lot of material I had looked at in previous BOE modules as well as discovering lots of new information too. Now that the dust has settled it is time to reflect on the experience and what I have learnt from it.

At 7pm UK time on Tuesday the 20th of March I presented my webinar "Mobile learning: An introduction to theory and practice" via Napier's Elluminate web-conference platform. For anyone who missed the webinar it is possible to see the recording here. In order to make sure my memory isn't playing tricks on me and, more importantly, to experience the webinar as the students did, I have also played it back again to analyse it myself.

Firstly there were some interesting technical issues. I found talking to a group of students you cannot see and not being able to hear yourself either a very strange, eerie experience. I was also concerned by a constant background noise in my headset which was also present in the recording. This may be caused by the fan in my PC or perhaps another technical fault. If I was to be presenting webinars more often this is something I would definitely want to address.

Elluminate proved to be very straightforward to use and the eight students present were a mangeable amount. As I didn't know all of the students present I decided to begin with a short round of introductions to break the ice. This also revealed the first problem that not everyone present had a headset so some of the introductions took place purely as chat. And after the first person introduced themself via chat all the remaining participants did too, even the ones who seemed to have a headset. This is something that could be controlled a bit better next time.

Through my previous brief experience with Elluminate I learnt that it does not support the transitions that I typically use in my Powerpoint presentations. This time I was prepared for this and put additional information on separate slides to achieve the same effect. It was actually only in preparing for the webinar in a short session with Keith that I realised that Elluminate simply converts each Powerpoint slide into a graphics file which it then displays in the chosen order. This knowledge means that a different approach to presentation design has to be taken for webinars in comparison with traditional presentations.

During my webinar I also used Elluminate's question feature to get some input from the participants and encourage discussion. This feature was easy to use and I was able to switch between yes or no answers and multiple-choice (A, B or C) options. Unfortunately after one such question I was unable to remove the results box from the screen and was only able to do so by switching to the next slide. There is hopefully a proper way to hide the results which I can learn for use in the future.

At the end of the webinar I had left time for questions and a discussion but there was very little response from the audience. I hope this was due to them being satisfied rather than bored by the content. In my next post I will look at the results of the participants questionnaire which I asked everyone to complete. This will hopefully reveal how they really felt.

Neil

The birth of mobile learning

A little research into the history of mobile learning reveals you that many researchers think that Alan Kay's "DynaBook" marks the dawn of mobile learning.



In a 1972 article in the Proceedings of the ACM Annual Conference entitled "A personal compiuter for children of all ages" (read an extract here), Kay described a device which could be carried anywhere, was no larger than a notebook, was connected to a global wireless network and cost less than $500.

However, if we agree with O'Malley et al.'s (2003) definition of mobile learning as

"Any sort of learning that happens when the learner is not at a fixed, predetermined location"

then the original mobile learning device is something else entirely. Rather than being the Dynabook the original mobile learning device must surely be the book! Gutenberg's development of moveable type meant that books could be printed much more quickly and cheaply than ever before. The availability of cheap books played a role in the Renaisance and the Enlightenment an as making knowledge available anytime and anywhere is one of the central tenets of mobile learning, I could therefore be argued that the introduction of moveable type means that mobile learning is an even older discipline than e-learning.

As always, youtube have a couple of amusing clips which illustrate the importance of this new technology:

Medieval Helpdesk

Did you know the BOOK?

Hope you enjoy the clips!

Neil

DIY mobile learning

Mobile learning has been on the "next big thing" lists of websites and journal articles for several years but for many people it still seems to be a complicated and expensive tool to implement. The American Society for Training and Development published an article by Naomi Norman in the December 2011 edition of T + D magazine with the promising title "Mobile learning made easy", read the article here.

The article reports on the results of research into mobile learning conducted for the NHS, an organization which has a huge need for flexible training due to the enormous amount of staff it has, many of whom work offsite or unsocial shifts. Amongst the key benefits of mobile learning identified are:

convenience
relevance
enhanced content retention
empowered learners
encouraged reflection

The study also notes that not everyone will want to use mobile learning so all courses prepared for Epic for the NHS are also available as e-learning. The physical limitations of mobile learning are also addressed in the report. For example, due to a very small or complete lack of physical keyboard writing long texts is not advisable and as learners will not sit using a mobile device for as long as they would sit at e-learning it is necessary to break the learning down into smaller chunks which can be completed more quickly.

The problem of compatibility is also addressed. Luckily the NHS, like many organizations, provides many staff with mobile devices so a certain amount of consistency is guaranteed. However, many people will prefer to use their own devices which may not be compatible with the official m-learning solution.

Exactly this problem and an answer to it are beautifully demonstrated by Dr Alisa Cooper in one of my favourite youtube videos on mobile learning (watch here). Alisa created an online class using a combination of a mobile-enabled Wordpress blog, embedded google docs, classmarker quizzes and youtube videos. This clearly demonstrates that with a little thought mobile learning doesn't have to be complicated or expensive to implement. I will certainly be looking at some of these ideas in designing my next mobile learning elements and I hope they will inspire some of you as well.

Neil

Sources

Mobile learning made easy, http://www.epic.co.uk/assets/files/ASTD_Mobile_Learning_Made_Easy.pdf [accessed 19.3.2012]

Mobile learning course overview, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yasp9W70vw [accessed 19.3.29012]

Instructional design models

The e-learning I have produced up till now has all been made without any planned framework so in order to make my webinar and podcast as successful as possible I decided to take a look at the major instructional design models to see what I could learn from them. My first discovery was that there are seemingly hundreds of different models, some of them applying to learning in general, others specifically relating to online learning. Chaudry & Rahman (2010) published a very interesting critical analysis of such models in the Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education which thankfully also helps me to reduce the number of models I should consider.

The ADDIE model seems to be the one which is presently most used in preparing online education materials. The five parts of ADDIE are:

A - Analysis
D - Design
D - Development
I - Implementation
E - Evaluation



The analysis stage is a needs analysis in which it should be found out, just what do our participants need to learn, what do they already know and what are the objectives for this piece of training. In the case of my APBOT webinar this question is irrelevant, one could however say the need is to be informed about the theory and practice of mobile learning.

In the design stage decisions have to be made about the format the training will be provided in, what content will be used, and a protoype has to be created.

The development stage is concerned with implemented the requirements listed in the design stage. In the case of e-learning this is also the stage where courses or software should be tested and debugged/corrected. This is the stage my webinar is at, at the moment.

The next stage is the implementation stage which is when everything is set up to deliver the training. Once I have completed my presentation this will be the stage where I upload it to Elluminate and ensure everything is working correctly before I begin the webinar.

Finally, in the evaluation phase presents the opportunity for the creator to evaluate the training themselves as well as giving the participants to provide their own feedback. At the moment I am working on an evaluation form to give everyone at the end of my webinar. This will be produced using the forms function of google docs.

Another very interesting model I discovered is the OAR model which is special in that it was specifically designed for distance learning in higher education.



In this case the name is an abbreviation for objectives, activities and resources. This model is appealing as it seems very simple and straightforward. However, unlike the ADDIE model it does not include any specific area for gaining feedback and evaluating the training.

I found these and the other models I looked at to be fascinated and I am sure there is no one ideal model which fits all circumstances. For my webinar, podcast and future e-learning projects I will therefore take a look at several more models and use the components which seem to meet my needs best. There is here, as always, a lot more reading to be done!

Neil

Sources:

Chaudry, M.A. & Rahman, F.U. (2010) A critical review of instructional design process of distance learning system, Turkish online journal of distance education, Vol. 11, Number. 3.
https://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde39/articles/article_11.htm [accessed 12.3.2012]

Instructional design models and theories, http://www.instructionaldesigncentral.com/htm/IDC_instructionaldesignmodels.htm [accessed 12.03.2012]

ADDIE instructional design model, http://www.intulogy.com/addie/ [accessed 12.03.2012]

OAR model, http://www.enotes.com/topic/OAR_model [accessed 12.03.2012]

Coming soon: APBOT Guest Expert Sessions

The date for my webinar on mobile learning has now been set along with the one from Marty. Here are all the details, courtesy of module leader, Keith Smyth:

Upcoming Guest Expert Sessions for Trimester 2 2011/12

Please find below details for upcoming Guest Expert sessions for this Trimester.

We recommend joining the sessions at 5-10 mins before they start, so you can be assisted in getting set-up to participate. Please also use a headset wherever possible.

All the upcoming sessions will be hosted in the Elluminate room joined via this link:

https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=28769&password=M.0EB687CE613C7FBE75E81FC14230CD

---

Session 1: Marty Caine

Date and time: Wednesday 14th March 2012, 7.00pm-8.00pm (GMT)

Session title: An introduction to peer mentoring to support online and distance learning students

Description: This upcoming guest speaker session tackles the subject of peer mentoring. Our journey to discovery more about this topic begins with an overview of peer mentoring, where we will consider questions such as 'What is peer mentoring?'. We will look at the role of the mentor by answering questions such as 'What is a peer mentor' and 'Is an online peer mentor different?'.

Are you intrigued to know more? The short videos clips below will provide you with an insight into these themes:

Peer mentoring http://youtu.be/5bFWKS_rWuQ

Peer mentorship http://youtu.be/G4GGZpF9Udw

Peer mentoring: Giving Time http://youtu.be/Aa-cUDyHCoE

The session will also look further into how peer mentoring can be used as a tool to support online and distance learning students, exploring the benefits not only to the students but the education establishments who implement them. Once the decision has been taken to incorporate an online peer mentoring scheme, we need to consider its implementation, including the requirements and the challenges it brings, which will complete the topics to be discussed during this first guest speaker session.

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Session 2: Neil Davie

Date and time: Tuesday 20th March 2012, 7.00pm-8.00pm (GMT)

Session title: Mobile learning: An introduction to theory and practice

Description: Mobile learning has been a buzzword amongst e-learning practitioners for the last few years. In this webinar we will explore the definitions and theoretical basis for mobile learning and look at student attitudes towards mobile learning: Are students interested in mobile learning, are they perhaps already using it, and how can we best support them? The final part of the webinar will focus on simple, cost-effective ways to introduce mobile learning to your institution. This webinar is for anyone who is interested in mobile learning but not sure how to begin and for those who have already taken their first steps.

Neil

Mentoring Issues

Nicky and I had a mentoring session today so I thought it would be good to list the points we discussed so we don't forget anything and also to have an example of the kind of issues that can be raised in an e-mentoring situation.

The first issue Nicky had today was how to identify which books are worth investing it. I think this is a perfectly justifiable question for any students today what with tuition fees rising and purse-strings being drawn tighter across the country. Academic books can sometimes be very expensive indeed and for a distance learning student getting hold of the books from the university library may not be easy or even possible. Some books are of course available in digital form and sites like Amazon sometimes have previews of a few pages but this is not always a good basis to make a buying decision on. Luckily for Nicky I have already completed a paper on her chosen topic (mobile learning) so I was able to give her my own personal recommendations based on the books I read here in the past. Not everyone is so lucky though so I think this could be a situation where more thought could be given to the availability of good literature. It is definitely a point where distance learners are at a disadvanatage compared to on-campus learners.

The second point we discussed was how to organise and control all of the sources that you find in the course of your research. Here we discovered we are the exact opposite - Nicky likes to read documents printed out and take notes digitally, I prefer to read the documents digitally and take my notes using pen and paper. Either way, it seems like we both have our difficulties with retaining order but perhaps tools like zotero might be the answer. I have never used it but zotero, which is a free Firefox plugin, promises to take all of the hassle out of remembering sources, attributing quotes, writing references correctly etc. If it works that well in practice it could definitely be helpful during the rest of my degree so I have downloaded it to give it a try.

The final problem we discussed today was a technical issue regarding the use of google docs to host questionnaires. This is something I used myself last year and I found it very easy to use. The system for creating questions is powerful but it is still easy to use. As recipients respond to your questionnaire their responses are automatically added to a spreadsheet and once you have some responses google docs can automatically generate a statistical summary and lovely graphics of the results. I am actually using google docs again this trimester to repeat my learning and technology survey from last year. I am sure that more professional studies might frown on the use of google docs due to privacy and data security fears but for a small scale project it seems like google docs works great. I look forward to seeing the results of Nicky's research.

Hopefully our mentoring session managed to address all of these issues today, we will just have to wait and see!

Neil

Webinar to-do list

Yesterday I had a skype meeeting with my tutor Keith with the result that the date is now set for my webinar on mobile learning. Although I knew the webinar would be coming sometime soon it seems that you don't really get a sense of urgency until a clear deadline has been set (psychologists have surely already researched this). Now that the date has been set, March 20th, it is all hands on deck to get everything ready.

So, to (hopefully) keep me on track, here is my current to-do list for the webinar:

1. Introductory (enhanced) podcast to be ready a week before webinar
2. Powerpoint presentation
3. Learn to use Elluminate as a moderator
   
4. Create Elluminate polls/quizzes
5. Socrative questions
6. Updated student survey to check results from last year (to be ready by 8th March)
   
7. google doc questions for participants?
8. twitter hashtag?

I'm not sure if I will really go through with number 6 and 7 but that is my plan at the moment. And in the meantime I will also be working on the other side of my project, providing mentoring to Nicky. It looks like it is going to be a busy few weeks!

Neil

Theoretical Models for (Peer) e-Mentoring

Last week we had an excellent Virtual Office Hours (VOH) session with myself, Marty and Julia in which we really got to grips with some of the theories which could be applied to the use of peer mentoring in a blended or online course. Marty has already posted on the subject in his blog:

http://limey76.blogspot.com/

but I think the issue is so important that, at the risk of repeating something Marty has already said, I would like to also share my thoughts here.

Before I begin that there is also some important background information I have gathered from Ormond Simpson's "Supporting Students in Online, Open and Distance Learning" (2002).
Simpson begins by dividing student support into two distinct areas - academic suport and non-academic support. Whilst academic support involved tasks like defining and explaining, non-academic support is concerned with advising and acting. As the peer support I am providing for Nicky is being done in a non-teaching role I therefore think it falls into the non-academic category. Simpson later lists the characteristics of non-academic support as empathy, stress management, listening, warmth and openness. This is hopefully exactly what Nicky has been receiving from me as a mentor so far.

Another interesting practical point that Simpson raises are the results of a study into which sources of support are most important for students. 32%, the largest amount, said that family and friends where the most important source of support followed by tutors in second place with 29%. The third most important source was other students with 21% and lastly support given by the institution was voted most important by only 17%. This result makes it clear that the majority of students find family and friends or fellow students to be the most important source of support. If this support is being provided informally then it should be encouraged by the institution, perhaps by facilitating ways for students to meet or pairing off mentors and mentees.

In our VOH session we talked about how Garrison et al's Community of Inquiry model can be applied to mentoring. Garrison breaks the Community of Inquiry down into three components which all need to be fulfilled in order to create a success learning environment: cognitive presence, social presence and teaching presence. At first glance, it seems that mentoring can be order to the social presence area of the framework. Social presence is the ability of learners to be seen as real people whilst studying in a virtual environment. Having contact with another student in a mentor-mentee role will obviously allow this. In addition I think there is also an argument to include mentoring in the cognitive presence sector of this model. Cognitive presence is about being able to establish meaning and I think mentors can provide support in this role helping others to make sense of the information they receive. Although for this module we are purely concerned with peer mentoring, successful online teachers should also be providing a mentoring function to their students. In that case it would therefore be possible to also assign mentoring to the teaching presence sector and thereby place mentoring directly in the middle of the Community of Inquiry model - in other words, right at the centre of the educational experience.

In addition, we also briefly discussed the cybergogy model and in my research I also found that Palloff and Pratt have some interesting points to make regarding mentoring. To stop this post getting any longer I shall return to these in the near future.

Neil

Garrison et al (2000) Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education. In The internet and higher education 2, (2-3): 87 - 105

Simpson, O., (2002) Supporting students in online, open and distance learning (2e), London: Kogan Page

http://communitiesofinquiry.com/welcome [Accessed 4.3.2012]

Social Media Learning in Action

Social learning and social media learning are two areas we have discussed in the past on the BOE programme. A very interesting article by Jane Hart at the elearningcouncil website explains the difference between the two:

http://www.elearningcouncil.com/content/social-media-learning-more-social-learning-jane-hart

Social learning is the older expression and literally just means any learning that takes place within a social i.e. group environment. Social media learning is a newer term with focuses on the use of social media (Web 2.0) in learning.

Although I have thought about social media learning before, this week I experienced a classic case of social media learning in action. Marty, a fellow BOE student, found an excellent article on mobile learning in the Social Learning Blog:

http://www.dashe.com/blog/mobile-learning/mobile-learning-more-than-just-mobile-learning

Being the socially-aware learner that he is, Marty shared his find with his twitter followers from his twitter account which is linked to his linkedin account. I then got an email from linkedin giving me the week's news which included this tweeted link. I now I am posting about this again in a blog which means the circle is complete - from blog post to micro blog post to social networking site back to a blog post again!

As I am preparing an webinar on mobile learning I found this post especially interesting. The first point the article makes is the difficulty in coming to a clear definition of mobile learning. Definitions seem to go into one of two camps emphasising either the technology (a mobile device) or the mobility of the learner. Luckily John Traxler is quoted who provides an extended definition which also addresses padagogical issues in mobile learning, including for example spontaneity, informality and bite-sized content.

A nice example of successful m-learning taken from Elliot Massie's 2008 report is also given. Merrill Lynch launched an inititative called GoLearn using BlackBerry devices to reach over 2,000 learners. The results of the user feedback at the end of the trial are clear - 100% said they would complete more training delivered in that format and 75% praised the benefits of the mobile course with regards to convenience and time management.

Unfortunately for myself and probably most other European lecturers in higher education, we don't have a grop of users with only one type and device and we certainly don''t have the budget that Merrill Lynch invested in this project. On the other hand, the results are very impressive and I hope that any m-learning we introduce will be equally well-received.

Neil

Hosting the Perfect Webinar (Part 1: Technology)

As part of the Applied Practice in Blended and Online Education module I will be presenting an expert session on mobile learning. This will be hosting within Napier's Blackboard Collaborate environment which I have used in the past as a student but never as the host of an event. Unfortunately my own university does not have any kind of webinar platform at the moment so I decided I better take a look at the available options if I am to host further webinars in my own teaching.

We have a very small budget for this kind of thing so I decided to begin by experimenting with free services. As part of my mentoring with fellow geekucator Nicky I decided to give google + hangouts a try. google + hangouts is a free platform for hosting online meetings with up to 10 participants. Unfortunately for whatever reason I could only see a white screen beside the chat window and Nicky could not hear or see me. We therefore had to check out some of the alternatives.

A search for free webinar services brings back a huge amount of results. Some services are financed by advertising, others offer limited free services with additional features available at a price (freemium), and others have very tight restrictions on the number of participants - in one case it was a site offering the chance to host a webinar with only one participant!

After technical problems with another couple of sites we finally had success with liveminutes which offers free webinars for up to 20 participants. I had to create an account on the site which took about a minute and then we were up a running. The site produces a link which you can send to participants or you can email invitations directly. The tool seems to include all the standard webinar features such as a whiteboard, audio and video chat, and uploading of files. What didn't immediately seem to be obvious were interactive features likes polls or questions. I will have to investigate the site a bit further to find out if these features are available. This is something I definitely want to use in my expert session because without any audience participation I think a 60 minute webinar could feel very long indeed - for both the participants AND the presenter. The techniques and content I decide to use will be the subject of my next blog.

I do want to mention a couple of features of liveminutes that I did especially like - as I have little experience of webinar software I don't know if other programmes offer these too. I received an automatic email message from liveminutes reminding me to close my meeting because I hadn't done it properly. On closing the meeting there was also an option to have all of the notes produced during the meeting saved automatically into a pdf file. This is an excellent (and low effort) way to make sure everyone has all of the details from a meeting and doesn't have to take notes themselves. It is perhaps not quite the full recording facility that I know some webinar platforms offer but at this price ($0) I can live with that.

Finally, I should mention an excellent website that I visited again whilst trying to find free webinar tools. Richard Byrne's award winning blog, freetech4teachers.com, has links to a lot of free software as well as articles and reviews. It should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in this area.

Now I am going to get busy deciding how to avoid "death by Powerpoint" - the answers will (hopefully) be revealed in my next post.

Neil

How to Create Podcasts for Education

Now that I have shelved the podcasting idea for my current BOE module the first of the books I ordered on the subject has arrived. "How to create podcasts for education" by Gilly Salmon et all is a thin, pamphlet-style book published by Open University Press/Society for Research in Higher Education in 2008. This seems to be a very practical, hands-on guide to podcasts which, at only 29 pages, should be a very quick read and jumpstart into the subject.

Despite now not using podcasts for my studies I do still intend to use them in the coming semester with my students of Technical English. This book will hopefully cover the technical side of things and when my next order arrives soon I will learn more about the pedagogical aspects of podcasting. My plan so far is to produce at least one podcast for each chapter of the book we work through. A large part of each unit is a reading comprehension so I hope that if the text is also made available as an audio file it may help students who are more auditive learners. It certainly also shouldn't hurt their pronunciation skills when they hear a native speaker reading it for them.

Here's hoping the students actually make use of this possibility.

Neil

Focus found, lost and found again!

A week is a long time in politics and a day is a long time in Applied Practice in Blended and Online Teaching. Having had a set-back with my original focus idea this week, I was pleased to decide on a mobile learning expert session and podcasting as the focus for this module. I had already ordered two books of podcasting from Amazon and then in the virtual office hours that same day my discussion with Keith took a different turn and we decided that I should take mentoring as my second focus rather than podcasting. The logic behind this was to keep everything focussing around one area. At first glance mentoring may not seem to have anything in particular to do with mobile learning but in this case I will be mentoring fellow-student Nicky who is currently working through the Customised Study module with her focus on, guess what... mobile learning! My focus for this module is now therefore presenting an expert session on mobile learning whilst simultaneously mentoring a student investigating the same area. It seems like a great opportunity to kill two birds with one stone and refresh and deepen my knowledge of mentoring.

In a previous job I did a training course on coaching which I thought might be similar to mentoring. In actual fact a quick search of the internet tells me that experts consider coaching and mentoring to be two different things so before I go any further I think a definition is in order. Becky Wai-Packard of Mount Holyoak College shares a definition of mentoring as:

"a relationship between a less experienced individual, called a mentee or protégé, and a more experienced individual known as a mentor... that fosters the mentee’s professional, academic, or personal development (Donaldson, Ensher, & Grant-Vallone, 2000)"

In order to perform successful mentoring some structure is required. Nicky and I have had a first meeting in which we discussed this structure and agreed that we would write a mentoring contract in which both of us clearly state what we expect from the mentoring relationship and what we commit ourselves to contribute. Our first commitment is an agreement to meet online at least once a week with meetings taking place every Friday. Our first meeting this week used Skype but in future we want to use google hangouts which offers the ability to share documents and desktops which might make the mentoring process even more rewarding. As a theoretical basis for the mentoring Keith suggested the GROW model which I am now going to use. GROW is an acronym for Goal - Current Reality - Options - Will (MindTools, undated) which describes the four main steps the mentoring process should go through. As I continue my research and active mentoring it may be that other tools also become relevant and I will explore as many of them as time allows.

For the moment I now need to get my Learning Agreement submitted, work on the mentoring agreement for Nicky and start working on my expert session. I can already tell that the next few weeks are going to be busy but also very interesting.

http://ehrweb.aaas.org/sciMentoring/Mentor_Definitions_Packard.pdf [accessed 18.2.2012]

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_89.htm [accessed 18.2.2012]

Finding a focus

Today is the submission day for our APBOT learning agreements and unfortunately I have had a small problem finding a focus. I read recently that online moderators were needed for the annual conference of IATEFL (the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language) so sent an email to the organizers offering my services. The role involved moderating discussions and presentations and generally keeping people not physically at the conference involved and up-to-date. Sadly my initial email application must have got lost because I got no reply. I sent a second mail only to be informed that they now had enough people but that I was first reserve. This message came through just a couple of days ago so it has not given me much time to think of an alternative. Waiting to see if I do actually get called up at the last minute is not really compatible with using this experience for my module.

There may however now be a light at the end of the tunnel. As luck would have it my classmate Nicky from the University of Westminster is involved in a new JISC project on m-learning which I may be able to make a contribution to as a guest speaker. M-learning was the subject of my previous project in the module Customised Study for Blended and Online Education so I have some ideas about what is going on in that area as well as data about my own students' attitudes and opinions on m-learning. This all still has to be claried with both Westminster and my tutor at Napier but if it all works out I will be using that as the "Practical Student Support Activity" part of my project. Supporting my own students is not really possible at the moment because they now have their semester break and won't be back until the beginning of April.

The other part of this module is an optional "Developmental Element". As I am always very keen to play around with new software this could be a good chance to play around with some programs I have recently found; Snap!, Snap! Empower and GLOmaker2. I might even produce a series of podcasts for my main course next semester, Professional English: Engineering. Luckily my tutor is aware of the above problems but it would still be nice to submit a rough outline today to at least have something to discuss.

Let's wait and see how the rest of the day goes and whether I am actually able to find a focus.

Neil

The tablet has landed!

Finally, almost three months after starting to blog about Tablet Teaching, I have now invested in my own tablet computer. I did actually have a tablet once before, an Archos 7 Home Tablet, but it didn't impress so I returned it to Amazon after about a week. Now I am the proud owner of an HTC Flyer which so far is making an excellent impression. The HTC Flyer doesn't seem to be the best known tablet but for me there were several reasons for making this choice. Firstly, an iPad is too expensive and for my taste a little bit too big as well. The HTC has a 7" screen which I find a nice size and it also has a stylus which you can use for all kinds of programs. If everything works out well I will also use my Flyer to replace my Kindle and thanks to the HDMI ouput will also be exploring using the tablet to give presentations. As I try out more and more m-learning software and discover new ways to use this tablet in class I will keep you all posted.

The second big news today is that I will now be using this blog as my virtual diary for the module "Applied Practice in Blended and Online Education" - part of my MSc course in Blended and Online Education which I am taking at Edinburgh Napier University. Each week I will post an official APBOT entry which will ultimately go towards making a patchwork text at the end of the trimester. As far as possible I will of course also post less serious entries as time allows.

That's all for now!

Neil

easy ebooks with treesaver.js

Somehow this one passed me by because treesaver has been around for a while now. Treesaver.js is a javascript framework for creating magazine-style webpages http://treesaverjs.com/.

The coding reminds me of some of the frameworks I played around with for creating html5 webapps for Android and iPhone and it seems pretty straightforward. My first experiments have resulted in pages where the images are not displayed at all - a placeholder is shown in a different location from intended. I also found that everything was displayed very nicely on my Orange Monte Carlo but looked much more basic on my iPod Touch.

I think this could be an interesting way to distribute texts for my classes though so I am going to explore it a little further. I may have to restrict myself to additional texts as we want our students to pay money for the proper textbook but if it does indeed help save trees then that can only be a good thing!

Neil