Hello everyone - it has been a while since I have been on - lots going on as usual. Some news - I am presenting a poster at the ALT-C in Nottingham in September which is great - it is a fantastic conference and I attended last year, so I am really pleased my poster has been accepted.
I am also presenting a paper at IVERG conference at University of Teeside which is on virtualisation of the workplace - but much of what I will talk about is linked to the PUPPS project. I watched an intersting debate - entitled, "the vle is dead" which has given me some things to think about; http://celtrecord.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/the-vle-is-dead-debate-at-alt-c-2009/
I have been interviewing participants on the project and some of the content that has emerged from the interviews has been very interesting. It has also given me an opportunity to adopt some of the Interpretative Phenomological Analysis which worked well, providing students had blogs and artefacts to use to recall memories. I have one more participant to interview and then I will be writing up the report.
I attend a TEL event on 26th May to disseminate information about the project - it was really interesting as there was some cross over with the findings of the ALPs project which focuses on digital storytelling.
I received a phone call today confirming that the project is going to be used as an exemplar case study for the STEEL project - so this is another form of dissemination which is great.
I have submitted a HEA bid requesting a grant to fund a project to develop an avatar of a 21st century accounting and finance graduate - I dont think I will be successful but it would be great if I could get some more funds to develop my ideas.
Last but not least - it looks like I will be starting my PhD (finally) at Leeds University in September - I am going to look at the use of mobile technologies to evidence workplace learning and use ACCA affiliates collecting evidence for their Personal Evidence Records as my research population. This may involve developing an e-portfolio system modelled on ALPs e-portfolio system which is to be underpinned by the competency matrix developed by ACCA- I am VERY excited about this project and really hope that I will be able to make the contacts - so I will be meeting with the ALPS team again (!) and ACCA programme director (John Taylor) to get the ball rolling.
In terms of this project - the showcase event is penciled in for 25th June 2010. I am inviting the Placements office, employability office , PUPPS participants (though not all will attend), Business centurions and graduate trainees. Ben Cotton (http://socialwebthing.com/) is a confirmed panelist for the event - I have invited Charlotte Britton (http://www.charlottebritton.co.uk/) and Martin Edmonson (http://www.graduatesyorkshire.co.uk/about/people) to also be panelists and guest speakers.
I really hope participants are going to attend because it will be important to the credibility of the project moving forward that they do - already had some interest in the event so it will be hopefully well attended.
Ok -I am STILL marking - so thats it from me for now!
Monday, 24 May 2010
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Update on the project
Hello - its been a while hasnt it - I am insanely busy at the moment with assessments, marking, dissertation meetings etc
The project is bubbling away in the background and things are advancing nicely.
I have x3 meetings with students booked for interviews in May (I keep badgering them, so hopefully this will get sorted soon) and I have submitted a bid to HEA to fund a project with similiar methodology of IPA as I am using for PUPPS and my proposed PhD, so this will enable me to fine tune my approach and attempt to make this methodology work for me, in terms of establishing what I am trying to research.
Talking of PhDs I have now formally applied to Leeds University (eek), so watch this space!
Student content populated to the Gateway is very interesting and students have been very reflective in their discussions of their learning experiences on the project. It is interesting to note that students like to use technologies with which they are familiar and this is something I will explore more when I interview. Some students have not engaged with the process and I will be interested to see to what extent there is a flurry of activity towards the end of the project when their webfolios should be disseminated and showcased.
I am starting to see more multi-media outputs being populated and I dont know whether this is because students are now starting to put their webfolios together - we shall see
I have been putting my webfolio together for my TF interview on Friday (eek!) and it has been really good being involved in the project as both a participator and researcher.
One thing I need to do with urgency is follow up Becky Baldaro-Booth's offer of finding someone to judge the webfolio competition - I would like a comibation of graduate (thinking Ben Cotton - who expressed that his webfolio helped him enormously with his employability) and someone from industry.
Well watch this space!
The project is bubbling away in the background and things are advancing nicely.
I have x3 meetings with students booked for interviews in May (I keep badgering them, so hopefully this will get sorted soon) and I have submitted a bid to HEA to fund a project with similiar methodology of IPA as I am using for PUPPS and my proposed PhD, so this will enable me to fine tune my approach and attempt to make this methodology work for me, in terms of establishing what I am trying to research.
Talking of PhDs I have now formally applied to Leeds University (eek), so watch this space!
Student content populated to the Gateway is very interesting and students have been very reflective in their discussions of their learning experiences on the project. It is interesting to note that students like to use technologies with which they are familiar and this is something I will explore more when I interview. Some students have not engaged with the process and I will be interested to see to what extent there is a flurry of activity towards the end of the project when their webfolios should be disseminated and showcased.
I am starting to see more multi-media outputs being populated and I dont know whether this is because students are now starting to put their webfolios together - we shall see
I have been putting my webfolio together for my TF interview on Friday (eek!) and it has been really good being involved in the project as both a participator and researcher.
One thing I need to do with urgency is follow up Becky Baldaro-Booth's offer of finding someone to judge the webfolio competition - I would like a comibation of graduate (thinking Ben Cotton - who expressed that his webfolio helped him enormously with his employability) and someone from industry.
Well watch this space!
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
PUPPS Update
OK - so following the activity day a few weeks ago - more assets have been populated and published to the Gateway which is good. I will review the text poll next week, which I have not had time to do because I am very busy at the moment with assessments, revision sessions and marking.
I sent an email to PUPPS participants last week, wanting to pencil in dates and times for inteviews and only two respondents have come back to me! So I will be chasing students via Facebook next week.
I am still waiting for M and M'sind map to be published to the Gateway. M has still not published anything to the Gatway but I have since discovered extenuating circumstances contributing to this ; he still wants to be involved, so I aim to be as flexible as possible.
Review of the mindmaps will be triangulated with the text poll and analysed to determine a few themes. Early discussions with participants indicate that PebblePad is great and the PDA is very useful, but can be problematic.
It is clear that in general participants use the technology with which they are most familar and this seems to be more important to them. Participants will create assets on these technologies and upload them to PebblePad on their laptop or PC. I will be exploring this in the interviews.
I have been creating my owned-portfolio which is nearly finished and I have to say that I found PebblePad to be intuitive. I have used multi-media outputs to create my portfolio and have to say that my husband was quite impressed with it, so I figure that it must be OK.
In terms of the project - The lovely BBB is going to investigate using a former student; Ben Cotton and a lady from industry to judge the webfolios. I am also going to invite Business Centurions and employers from the employer network to come along and showcase the webfolios to them and employers of the PUPPS participants - this is due to happen in May/June - so as usual I have to get my skates on!
I sent an email to PUPPS participants last week, wanting to pencil in dates and times for inteviews and only two respondents have come back to me! So I will be chasing students via Facebook next week.
I am still waiting for M and M'sind map to be published to the Gateway. M has still not published anything to the Gatway but I have since discovered extenuating circumstances contributing to this ; he still wants to be involved, so I aim to be as flexible as possible.
Review of the mindmaps will be triangulated with the text poll and analysed to determine a few themes. Early discussions with participants indicate that PebblePad is great and the PDA is very useful, but can be problematic.
It is clear that in general participants use the technology with which they are most familar and this seems to be more important to them. Participants will create assets on these technologies and upload them to PebblePad on their laptop or PC. I will be exploring this in the interviews.
I have been creating my owned-portfolio which is nearly finished and I have to say that I found PebblePad to be intuitive. I have used multi-media outputs to create my portfolio and have to say that my husband was quite impressed with it, so I figure that it must be OK.
In terms of the project - The lovely BBB is going to investigate using a former student; Ben Cotton and a lady from industry to judge the webfolios. I am also going to invite Business Centurions and employers from the employer network to come along and showcase the webfolios to them and employers of the PUPPS participants - this is due to happen in May/June - so as usual I have to get my skates on!
Friday, 12 March 2010
PUPPS Activity Evening 9th March 2010
The evening went really, really well. We started off with a text poll in which students described their feelings about the project and whether they felt that they had experienced any value from participating. It is clear that all students agreed that PebblePad is great and has been a really useful tool for creating reflections etc - mixed views about the use of the PDA ranging from brilliant to frustrating.. It is clear that when the technology works it is an invaluable mediating tool, but it causes a lot of problems when not.
The students posted and published some mind maps from the session which are very interested and will be showcased in my webfolio of the project. Webfolio training went well and from the assets populated in PebblePad it is clear that there are going to be some really good webfolios.I intend to showcase the webfolios at the launch for the work based mobile module event, where I hope there will be some business centurions and local businesses who have expressed an interest in being involved in the module, so things are going well..I am still waiting to hear from Dr Jill Taylor about the PDAS but fingers crossed and wood touched that this is going to happen.
On a personal note, I have been invited to interview for a teaching fellow position so I am really made up - I have to prepare a 10 minute demonstration of my approach to supporting student learning so I am going to use my own webfolio, so I am starting that now! Will be good to experience what students will be experiencing!Which is what the project is all about biographical, lifelong learning!
The students posted and published some mind maps from the session which are very interested and will be showcased in my webfolio of the project. Webfolio training went well and from the assets populated in PebblePad it is clear that there are going to be some really good webfolios.I intend to showcase the webfolios at the launch for the work based mobile module event, where I hope there will be some business centurions and local businesses who have expressed an interest in being involved in the module, so things are going well..I am still waiting to hear from Dr Jill Taylor about the PDAS but fingers crossed and wood touched that this is going to happen.
On a personal note, I have been invited to interview for a teaching fellow position so I am really made up - I have to prepare a 10 minute demonstration of my approach to supporting student learning so I am going to use my own webfolio, so I am starting that now! Will be good to experience what students will be experiencing!Which is what the project is all about biographical, lifelong learning!
Sunday, 14 February 2010
PUPPS Project, FCCA and PGCHE update
So, I have been on the gateway and have been looking at content that has been populated which is very interesting - the content ranges in depth and breadth from participant to participant and I am sure that this is going to be reflected in the webfolios that are created.
My next challenge is to find a business contact who will be willing to judge the webfolio competition in June/July. I am going to use this showcasing event as a means to show the Level 2 students who choose the work based mobile learning module what e-portfolios created in PebblePad can look like.
The next event for the PUPPS participants will be on 9th March when I return from teaching in Hong Kong. For this reason, I have quite a lot to organise and make sure is in place on my return to ensure that there are few problems in the lead up to it as I come back on the evening of 4th March.
One of the remaining PUPPS participants is not engaged - there have been no blogs, no assets populated etc which is very surprising as he seemed very enthusiastic at the start of the project - it will be important to identify what these issues are as these will feed into framing the work based mobile learning project that I am piloting in September 2010.
The activity evening on 9th March will involve students creating assets using their PDAs and uploading them into a repository (the Gateway) for me to tag and use as research evidence. I aim to use their assets to recall memories of their progression in the project and to establish their views, change in skills etc in reflective practice and biographical learning. I aim to make it interactive and interesting and am looking into how to create a text poll to gather some data.
Lots to do as usual - I also need to crack on with my teacher fellowship application! Talking of fellowships... I was confirmed as a Fellow of ACCA this week which is a huge personal achievement for me and something that I am very proud of!I believe that recording evidence of learning is hugely important and is a requirement of fellowship of ACCA, as part of my CPD obligations, so pertinent given my objectives for this project.
Still dont know when I will hear about my PGCHE but can use my evidence for my teacher fellowship application and CMALT....so evidence of learning is good and useful!
Over and out.
My next challenge is to find a business contact who will be willing to judge the webfolio competition in June/July. I am going to use this showcasing event as a means to show the Level 2 students who choose the work based mobile learning module what e-portfolios created in PebblePad can look like.
The next event for the PUPPS participants will be on 9th March when I return from teaching in Hong Kong. For this reason, I have quite a lot to organise and make sure is in place on my return to ensure that there are few problems in the lead up to it as I come back on the evening of 4th March.
One of the remaining PUPPS participants is not engaged - there have been no blogs, no assets populated etc which is very surprising as he seemed very enthusiastic at the start of the project - it will be important to identify what these issues are as these will feed into framing the work based mobile learning project that I am piloting in September 2010.
The activity evening on 9th March will involve students creating assets using their PDAs and uploading them into a repository (the Gateway) for me to tag and use as research evidence. I aim to use their assets to recall memories of their progression in the project and to establish their views, change in skills etc in reflective practice and biographical learning. I aim to make it interactive and interesting and am looking into how to create a text poll to gather some data.
Lots to do as usual - I also need to crack on with my teacher fellowship application! Talking of fellowships... I was confirmed as a Fellow of ACCA this week which is a huge personal achievement for me and something that I am very proud of!I believe that recording evidence of learning is hugely important and is a requirement of fellowship of ACCA, as part of my CPD obligations, so pertinent given my objectives for this project.
Still dont know when I will hear about my PGCHE but can use my evidence for my teacher fellowship application and CMALT....so evidence of learning is good and useful!
Over and out.
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
The story so far
So I have submitted a paper to ALT-J on the use of mobile technologies for lifelong and life-wide learning and also a proposal for a poster to 2010 ALT conference relating to the PUPPS project - so watch this space
Last week I contacted all participants about the project and it seems that generally things are going well - Students have been populating content onto the Gateway which looks very interesting - there is a breadth of artefacts which are deeply reflective and interesting and I really believe that the scaffolding of PebblePad has contributed to this level of reflection..
However, I intended to use Interpretative Phenomological Analysis (IPA) to recall students experiences during the project using their portfolios as triggers for memories etc It will be interesting to determine whether the use of the PDA added any value and whether this was restricted to administrative/diary support only.
A discussion with one of the participants indicated that this wasnt the case as she said she always carried it around with her so that she could reflect on incidents straight away as she did not want to forget by the time she got home.
I am surprised that there are not more audio files and photos (there are some) and that students have used traditional artefacts of reflection - written reflections, with some written in word and uploaded into PebblePad.
The next stage is our activity day in March for webfolio training and informal interviews to discuss the project. I am also going to ask some of the participants to speak with Level 2 students who will be piloting my new work based mobile learning module.
I need to get busy with my e-portfolio as I am going to apply for a teacher fellowship - however, I really wanted to use my PGCHE portfolio to try and showcase some activities I have undertaken but that is not going to happen as I cannot receive any feedback..
I am also conscious that I need to submit my CMALT portfolio - this will have to go on the back burner for a little while as I need to crack on with Semester 2 assessments (I am module leader for 4 modules this Semester and on my own for 3 - so have lots of assessments to write and am off to HK in just over a week to teach) - busy as per but I love it!!!
Last week I contacted all participants about the project and it seems that generally things are going well - Students have been populating content onto the Gateway which looks very interesting - there is a breadth of artefacts which are deeply reflective and interesting and I really believe that the scaffolding of PebblePad has contributed to this level of reflection..
However, I intended to use Interpretative Phenomological Analysis (IPA) to recall students experiences during the project using their portfolios as triggers for memories etc It will be interesting to determine whether the use of the PDA added any value and whether this was restricted to administrative/diary support only.
A discussion with one of the participants indicated that this wasnt the case as she said she always carried it around with her so that she could reflect on incidents straight away as she did not want to forget by the time she got home.
I am surprised that there are not more audio files and photos (there are some) and that students have used traditional artefacts of reflection - written reflections, with some written in word and uploaded into PebblePad.
The next stage is our activity day in March for webfolio training and informal interviews to discuss the project. I am also going to ask some of the participants to speak with Level 2 students who will be piloting my new work based mobile learning module.
I need to get busy with my e-portfolio as I am going to apply for a teacher fellowship - however, I really wanted to use my PGCHE portfolio to try and showcase some activities I have undertaken but that is not going to happen as I cannot receive any feedback..
I am also conscious that I need to submit my CMALT portfolio - this will have to go on the back burner for a little while as I need to crack on with Semester 2 assessments (I am module leader for 4 modules this Semester and on my own for 3 - so have lots of assessments to write and am off to HK in just over a week to teach) - busy as per but I love it!!!
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Contacting students
Tried to contact students via their PDAs yesterday - interestingly only x2 were switched on during office hours - will be following this up to see whether they are actually being used regularly
Have spoken with x3 of the participants who are starting to see real value in what they have been creating - PebblePad has been a really useful system of use, interestingly the units have been used more of a communication and diary device rather than to create artefacts of learning (in the main) - I anticipated more use of photos, video, audio - some participants have tried to video presentations which is good.
Operational issues with the PDA seem few and far between which is good to see.
I am going to host a webfolio training day in March with participants as I think it is time for participants to start organising artefacts.
The next thing to do is to organise the showcase event with a local employer to judge the webfolio competition.
Really pleased with some of the content populated on PebblePad - frustratingly some blogs have still not been created - let alone updated. However, a core set of about 4 students who are really engaged and doing everything that is asked of them.
Have spoken with x3 of the participants who are starting to see real value in what they have been creating - PebblePad has been a really useful system of use, interestingly the units have been used more of a communication and diary device rather than to create artefacts of learning (in the main) - I anticipated more use of photos, video, audio - some participants have tried to video presentations which is good.
Operational issues with the PDA seem few and far between which is good to see.
I am going to host a webfolio training day in March with participants as I think it is time for participants to start organising artefacts.
The next thing to do is to organise the showcase event with a local employer to judge the webfolio competition.
Really pleased with some of the content populated on PebblePad - frustratingly some blogs have still not been created - let alone updated. However, a core set of about 4 students who are really engaged and doing everything that is asked of them.
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