Ed tech must reads: Column #24

First published in Campus Morning Mail 1st March 2022

A strategic reset: micro-credentials for higher education leaders from Smart Learning Environments

Not to brag but I was advocating for micro-credentials/digital badges more than a decade ago. Maybe brag isn’t the best word, given our lack of success at the time. It’s nice to see the dawning realisation in the sector of late that alternate modes of accreditation are actually worth considering. This paper from McGreal and Olcott offers an overview of the current state of play and some strategic guidance for using micro-credentials to broaden the scope of educational programs.

In support of faculty (academic) developers doing tech support: a thread from Brenna Clarke Gray

The work of “Third Space” staff in education supporting learning and teaching often goes unnoticed but among the various roles involved there is often a hierarchical division between the pedagogical and technological sides. This twitter thread (and resulting discussion) from @brennacgray explores why this is and how it can be counterproductive in the long run.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic motivation: Time for Expansion and Clarification from Motivation Science

When considering how to engage learners – and particularly with gamification – the core ideas of motivation are rarely far away. Extrinsic motivation in the form of points, badges, leader boards and prizes is often dismissed as being like a short-term sugar hit, initially exciting but not sustainable. Finding ways to draw on inner drivers is routinely seen as the gold standard. This fascinating paper from Locke and Schattke questions these ideas and suggests an additional category – achievement motivation.

MySpace and the Coding Legacy it Left Behind from Codeacademy

One of the greatest tensions in the Internet as a communication hub is between control and freedom. This is neatly summed up in this story of the rise and fall of MySpace, which the authors posit is largely about the happy accident that allowed users to customise their pages with HTML and CSS.

Semantle – a semantic word puzzle

Sure, guessing a random five letter word is great but have you tried guessing a random word based on its semantic relationship with 1000 other words? Semantle unashamedly jumps on the Wordle fad but applies an entirely different set of rules. You guess any word and it tells you how semantically close it is to the solution. Guess a word within the set of 1000 words deemed closest and it tells you how close you are. Recently “scholar” was 999/1000 to the solution of historian. This one-a-day game takes you on a bizarre but addictive word association journey.