Ed/Tech must-reads 210524

TELedvisors webinar – A day in the life - Thursday 30th May 12 noon (AEST) from ASCILITE TELedvisors Network

“TELedvisor” (Technology Enhanced Learning Educator Advisor) is the slightly clunky term that we Frankensteined together in late 2016 for our community of third space tertiary education practitioners. We include learning designers, educational technologists and academic developers - and people in similar roles.

Too many people are still unclear about what these roles involve exactly, so this webinar will provide some ‘day in the life’ stories from the aforementioned learning designers, educational technologists and academic developers working in Australian tertiary education. If you’re in the field - see what your colleagues do. If you aren’t - see what you could be doing!

(My first pass at the cover image inspired by this event - I try to use the email subheading wherever possible - naturally generated this set of I’m sure perfectly nice tech boys)

Assessing design quality in online courses at a public university from Antony Kiech (D.Ed thesis)

There are a few programs floating about, such as Quality Matters and ASCILITE’s TELAS scheme dedicated to evaluating online courses - and I’m still eagerly waiting for Times Higher Ed’s own online course rankings to drop - but this (understandable detailed) thesis from the University of Memphis applies Merrill’s First Principles of Instruction to the task. Kiech analyses 30 units and finds that these principles are largely not employed. But there is some good detail about what he looked at and what the current state of a reasonable sample of online courses looks like.

What are employers expecting from instructional design and learning technology professionals across sectors? from Contemporary Educational Technology

The use of “instructional” probably gives away that this is focused on the US education sector (covering K-12, HE and corporate) but I’m sure that many of the expectations transcend national borders. They found that many employers are looking for Masters level quals, and a combination of IDLT theory and prac experience, alongside the usual workplace skills (communication and collaboration)

A model for nurturing a networked academic community: #ASCILITEMLSIG mobile learning special interest group from International Journal for Academic Development

While I’m shamelessly plugging the activities of my own ASCILITE SIG, it would seem churlish not to mention this enlightening paper from our friends in the Mobile Learning Special Interest Group. They focus on the practical application of technologies for learning including mobile devices, AR/VR/XR, drones, wearables and more. These kinds of communities provide vital opportunities for practitioners to connect and and contribute to meaningful ongoing scholarship and this offers a useful model to do so.

Towards Responsible Development of Generative AI for Education: An Evaluation-Driven Approach from Google

Amidst the deluge of recent releases in the GenAI space, this paper from Google seems like something that deserves our attention. Not because it is necessarily right but because it is important to be across what BIG BIG tech thinks about the future of education. I will confess, when I saw this 86 page monster, my eyes glazed over a little as I do not currently have the brain space to give it its due. So I will defer to Stephen Downes, who feels that it reflects “a dated and psychology-heavy understanding of 'learning science' that seems limited to work on intelligent tutoring systems - but you can view their 'Pedagogy rubrics' in section 4.3.1.”