Ed tech must reads: column #84

June 09, 2023

First published in Campus Morning Mail 6th June, 2023

One of the best things that the Internet gives us in terms of Technology Enhanced Learning is the ability to create interactive and engagement multimedia learning resources. As technology has developed, this has become increasingly accessible to educators with even the most basic digital skills. H5P is a powerful free open source tool and Amelia Di Paolo (UTS) walks us through some of its most useful features in this handy primer for the TELedvisors Network blog.

Progress on integrating Micro-Credentials into tertiary education in a meaningful way has been frustratingly slow over the last 15+ years, given the opportunities this modality offers to provide highly targeted qualifications supporting lifelong learning. Brown, McGreal and Peters provide a comprehensive summary of progress made in this space in Europe, North America and Australia and provide insights into the ways that a general lack of understanding of the model has hampered implementation at scale.

Stephen Downes was one of the key players when MOOCs hit the scene, so he is worth listening to when it comes to big picture discussions about under and over-hyped education technologies that are meant to change the world. This 96 min presentation to this year’s Canadian Network for Innovation in Education event ranges across the Technology Acceptance Model, AI (of course), Blockchain and Metaverse.

How to create livelier asynchronous discussions from Chronicle of Higher Education

Amidst all the discussions of fancy education technologies, the humble discussion forum is probably the one that appears in the most LMS units and yet is often also the one that we struggle to generate engagement with. This brief post from Beckie Supiano provides five simple suggestions for sparking interaction, including requiring students to weave in researched evidence and share their thought processes.

10 minutes chats – Generative AI from Monash Education Academy

These bite-sized discussions of core ideas in the Gen AI space hosted by Tim Fawns seem promising and I look forward to seeing the remainder in the series, releasing here weekly. In this episode he discusses how we need to reframe our thinking of GenAI with the Open University’s Mike Sharples.

And that it is for the penultimate edition of this column. CMM is closing up shop at the end of next week, so stay tuned until then for information about where you will next be able to tune into my Ed Tech must reads.