ESRC - Imagie timing the university of the future seminar

Today - I attended a CHEER seminar called "Who can Inhabit the New ACademic Identities of a Digital Age. It was very interesting and raised some key themes about the research project. It is clear that there is much debate about the motivations and drivers pushing the use of technology and the governments agenda and role of corporations. Despite these interplays- I think that my role is not to get caught up in the complexities of rhetoric of policy, but to take a microlevel approach and think about whether it adds value in terms of my practice and what I believe its use can enable me to do as a practioner.

There was some very interesting discussion about space and time compression, simultaneity of place, the transformative impact that technologies can have on spatial relations, visualisation of knowledge etc

The work of Professor Huw Morris outlining the vested interest of theorists of technology use in education such as Prensky, really opened my eyes to the clouding of pedagogical impact and value that technologies have in people's eyes because of the capitalist rewards associated with buyin. However, I firmly believe that the capabilities of technology can enhance learning and help students learn how they learn. They are without doubt in my mind effective mediating tools, when selected properly - issues of equity, access, participation etc are important in the wider context but in terms of informing my practice and this project - I will continue to evaluate things in relation to my context and the impact that the use of these technologies have on students on this project - this will be used to inform the design and delivery of the work based mobile learning module I have written

I was supposed to call students yesterday but absolutely snowed under - will make time tomorrow to call and see how everyone is doing.

I havent created any personal assets recently, so this is something to do - need to do a reflection on the work based mobile learning module.


I have submitted a short paper for our ALT journal - so will have to see how that goes, waiting to hear about my PGCHE files (we wouldnt get away with not providing feedack within 3 weeks let me tell you!) and submitted the revised version of my book chapter (dont think it will be accepted based on the revisions that I had to make, but a very worthwhile process to have gone through nonetheless)

OK -well off to bed and up early to wade through the mountain of marking!

Progress so far

Back from the festive period this week and some of the participants have responded to the emails that I circulated just before Christmas to ensure that everyone is OK...

Participants have promised to publish some of their assets onto the Gateway this week - I am going to contact participants via Skype which is installed on the PDAs.

Good news - the HEA synthesis bid was successful - this is a TEL project for employability and will consist of structured case studies to inform evidence based good practice across the sector. I think I will be quite involved given the work that I have been doing in relation to SCEPTrE and my proposal for my DProf..I will be submitting PUPPS as a case study for the HEA project.

Speaking of which, despite acceptance in principle from Leeds University of a PhD place, I have decided that I would like to do a DProf at Middlesex Uni- the main reason is that this doctorate is based on a work based issue/project but to Doctorate standard - the work based project will be based on the work based mobile learning module that I am developing over the next 9 months with a pilot start date of September 2010 - an immediate problem is that of funding - I need to purchase 40 or so PDAs and have yet to decide on the best mobile device to use given the pedagogic ALT goals associated with the module..

I received some advice from the qualitative analysis group on ELESIG (another network that I have joined!) on IPA - Intepretitative Phenomological Analysis which is a research method that I have been adopting in a piecemeal way in relation to PUPPS without being aware of the method. Consequently, I will be adopting a framework for my DProf research based on IPA and can use lessons learned from the methodology of PUPPS for this project. I will be using the e-portfolios as artefacts of stimulus to evoke memories of their experiences during their workplacement as part of the interview plus method...

Anyway, PUPPS has provided some sound evidence that PebblePad PDA is a really good e-portfolio system that can capture evidence of learning experiences in formal and informal learning settings, so I will definitely be using this for the pilot despite the current institutional e-portfolio system being campus pack fusion..

So - I will contact students at the end of the week - we have some training for webfolio construction next month and webfolios will be showcased at an employer event in June/July which will coincide with the launch event for employers in relation to the work based mobile learning module.