CLIPP Board

Aggregate, Filter and Connect

A CLIPP Seminar by
Prof Phillip D. Long, Ph.D.
Tuesday 11th May 1300-1400 SW309 followed by questions and discussion

The pace of change in higher education, especially when confronting the surge of digital tools, feels overwhelming. Many retreat from taking steps toward embracing any digital tools for fear of making bad choices, wasting limited time, and detracting from the transmission of content from teacher to student amidst the turmoil.  The growth of digital networks, social networks and ways to create, manipulate and share knowledge has paralysed many academics. How does one even start to thoughtfully identify, evaluate and choose among the deluge of learning tools? How and in what ways does one integrate technologies into learning spaces? We’ll discuss ways to save time, increase efficiency, and improve the quality of decision-making in assembling your personal digital learning environment. We’ll consider the implications of technologies for learning in built vs. virtual spaces.  The goal is to ‘aggregate, filter and connect’ people and ideas through smart decisions and carefully constructed social networks to augment learning.

Phillip Long is Professor of Innovation and Educational Technology Inaugural Director of CEIT at the University of Queensland which is dedicated to research on learning environments that have the potential to innovate teaching, learning and creativity. Prof. Long’s current research interests focus on designing built pedagogies, physical & virtual to support active learning and collaboration. He retains a role as Visiting Researcher in the Centre for Educational Computing Initiatives at MIT where he was also the Senior Strategist for Academic Technologies. Long’s professional activities include: the New Media Consortium Board (2006-09 & past chair), NMC Project Horizon (2005 to present) and chair of the Horizon Australia/New Zealand Edition (2008-9).

To reserve a place please e-mail Lyn Cottrell

Aston Students Appreciative Inquiry Research Event

Yesterday student researchers at Aston, from all Schools and at all levels of study, presented results from their Appreciative Inquiry research into Assessment and Feedback and Inclusive Learning and Teaching within the institution.  This project was supported by the Students’ Guild and CLIPP. Appreciative Inquiry is an approach to gaining effective engagement of staff with important issues.  It achieves this through focusing systematically on what the staff are doing well in relation to the issue under consideration.  It is a powerful tool to effect change and often used in business – to make improvements from consideration of existing good practice.

The recruited student researchers attended a workshop about Appreciative Inquiry and its use in Higher Education by Dr Anne Wheeler.  Students worked together to formulate key topics of discussion for the focus groups and interviews with students in their schools of study.

Rehana Yasin Vice President (Education & Welfare) has had a key role in this student led project, we asked her for her views regarding this initiative.

Why is the Students’ Guild using appreciative inquiry?

When campaigning to be elected as Vice President of Education and Welfare I was aware that Assessment and Feedback was an issue at Aston and had been so for a number of years, my predecessors had raised this issue via different forums available within the University, however this did not seem to have a great impact.  When I came into the position I wanted to look at different ways of getting more information about assessment and feedback and after attending the first curriculum and learner development working group it became apparent that Dr Anne Wheeler had a similar interest and introduced the idea of using Appreciative Inquiry.  We felt that two key areas to focus on should be assessment and feedback and inclusivity especially because of the diversity here at Aston and wanted to hear about students positive experiences.

What appealed to me was that Appreciative Inquiry looked at the issue in a more positive way and moved away from a problem focused approach.  Instead of focusing on what wasn’t working and what the causes of the problems are, we are focusing on what is working so we can build on our strengths across all disciplines within Aston.   It was felt that appreciative inquiry was constructive and that staff would be more receptive especially because the data was collected by students themselves and that this would help induce a culture change within the institution.

What does the Students’ Guild hope to achieve from using appreciative inquiry?

The main purpose of this project was to share and publicise examples of good practice at Aston so that others can aspire to be like those schools who are leading the way in terms of effective feedback and inclusive practice.  The data gathered so far is only the first steps in Appreciative Inquiry.  The students have only completed the discovery phase where we appreciate and value good practices.  The rest is up to the staff and we hope that they will help continue with the inquiry through the dream phase; taking part in envisioning ‘what might be’ in their own schools and the design phase where staff collaborate in co -constructing ideas to strengthen their own practice .

The event and presentations were well received by Aston teaching staff and video capture of the event and presentations will be online shortly and further data analysis and the results will be made available online. If you would like to know more about appreciative inquiry or would like Dr Anne Wheeler to run a workshop in your school of study then please get in touch.

Academic Pharmacy Group Conference 4th March 2010

Dr Peter Seville from LHS  has been working on a CLIPP funded project involving Turnitin, titled ‘What are the pedagogic Benefits of Turnitin’.

On the  4th March 2010, Peter attended the ‘Academic Pharmacy Group Conference‘ run by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.
The conference is a meeting of pharmacy academics from all pharmacy schools in the UK – somewhere in the region of only 25 schools. The professional body (RPSGB) is currently in the process of splitting its functions to form two separate bodies: the General Pharmaceutical Council (the regulator) and the Professional Leadership Body (CPD, professional support, etc). At the same time, new education standards are being implemented – the MPharm degree is an accredited programme, and students must meet the exacting standards set out by the regulator. A Student Code of Conduct, mirrored on the Code of Ethics for Pharmacists, was introduced across all schools in October (also attached). In this, plagiarism is explicitly addressed (under section 6) – indeed, it is the only “You must not” statement in the entire document.

Plagiarism was considered at the conference in a number of sessions including “Introduction to the New Education Standards” and “Experiences of Student Fitness to Practise“.

Peter will be giving a presentation about his CLIPP project at the Best Practice day here at Aston, taking place on the of 8th June 2010. A timetable for the Best Practice day will be available shortly.

Recent projects completed by Media and Learning Technologies

We have been kept very busy here at MLT over the past few weeks and we have recently delivered several impressive projects that serve to show the breadth and variety of what can do.

We recorded a dialogue between Professor Julia King, Vice Chancellor, and Professor Mike West, Executive Dean of the Aston Business School, about Aston First, the university-wide culture-change initiative which is aimed at every member of university staff. The Aston First video introduction has already been viewed hundreds of times and is an effective method of communicating a fundamental message.

We were asked to make 3 videos about Aston Business School’s strong links with businesses and some of the excellent MBA projects that have derived from these partnerships. We worked closely with Julia Waddell, MBA Corporate Relations Manager, to film with employers and students at Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, Molson Coors and Flybe. Those videos can be found here.

Professor Mike West wanted to make a direct address to the student cohort to advise them on the value of completing the 2010 National Student Survey. This was a scripted piece-to-camera that Professor West delivered in one take, which was simple and cost-effective and quick to produce.

MLT has also made two CLIPP-funded videos about the University Library’s self-serve points (which allow students to take out and return books), and the Follow Me Printing system that crosses the whole university campus. These videos can be found on the Library Matters pages on the Blackboard VLE. Lydia Matheson,  Information Specialist for Business, Languages & Social Sciences says, “The videos are excellent: just what we wanted. I think the subtitling works particularly well and will be useful for our big screens. Thank you for all your work on this. The videos are going to be extremely useful on an on-going basis.”

Links to media production tutorials

Here are some links to tutorials and advice that have recently been published online for media creators of any capability or experience. It covers video, still images and audio media – where you might find them, how you might employ them and what results you may end up with. Plenty more food for thought…

Finding Video, Audio and Images Online – A JISC publication that shows “tools and strategies for finding digital resources, and highlights some of the general sources you can use to find images, video and audio to use in teaching, learning and research”.

Finding Subject-Specific Digital Media Resources – A JISC publication of “advice and pointers on where to look for particular tyoes of still images, moving images and sound files, divided into art and architecture; news and current events; history; maps; and science, technology and medicine.

60 Best websites for awesome Photoshop tutorials

20 Best and free online photo editing websites

Images for Education – Another JISC Collection, bringing together 56000 still images and 500 hours of video from a number of providers, including ITN, Royal Geographical Society, Associated Press, Getty Images and GovEd.