Ed/Tech must-reads 300724

Things I was wrong about pt2: The Death of the VLE from Edtechie

Martin Weller has been floating around the ed tech traps for a good 25-30 years, so he has seen a few things. This light-hearted post discusses the rush of blood many of us had in the early 2010s when all the talk was of Web 2.0 (remember that?) and disruption was in the air. Martin (along with many others - though not me, just saying) forecast the imminent demise of the VLE/LMS for some solid reasons. He goes on to explain why they have persisted - the slow rate of institutional change being a biggie - and looks at what might be next.

Instructure to be Acquired by KKR for $4.8 Billion from PR Newswire

On the topic of the LMS - this was biggish news last week. Instructure (makers of Canvas) was bought out for around $7.3B Australian pesos by a massive investment firm which struggles to even refer to education on its website. All going as they would like, the sale will happen later in the year and the Instructure CEO noted that they are looking to take in $1B in revenue next year. What does this mean for the platform used by close to half of Australian unis? I can only assume that KKR will be expecting a return on investment, so I hope your contracts were drafted well.

Leadership in the Third Space: Reflecting on the Experiences and Common Leadership Traits of Professional and Academic Staff Leading in Third Space Environments from ASCILITE TELall blog

Meredith Hinze (UniMelb), Scarlett Whitechurch (La Trobe), Oriel Kelly (Uni Auckland) and Benedicte Rokvic (USyd) share their experiences in ASCILITE’s new Women in Professional Leadership Community Mentoring program. Recognising the way that learning and teaching increasingly sits across and between academic and professional domains in a ‘third space’, they explored leadership literature and propose a model of leadership with an emphasis on flipping perceived weaknesses, highlighting strengths and raising the credibility of their work. They discuss various aspects of their collaboration and key qualities which are needed in this rapidly changing area of activity.

2024 ePortfolio Forum from ePortfolios Australia - Sept 10-11 2024

With GenAI continuing to wreak havoc on conventional assessment, one answer seems to be to focus more on a longitudinal, programmatic approach. Maybe it isn’t completely immune but the ePortfolio, done right, offers a comprehensive record of a student’s development across an entire course and over their entire body of assessment work. The ePortfolio forum is Australia’s premier event in this space - this year held in sunny Toowoomba at USQ.

Submissions are still open from Third Space Symposium (3SS)

We are looking to do some interesting things with the inaugural 3SS - particularly with the 15 day asynchronous ‘Slowposium’ between 15-30 November. (The in-person event on Dec 1 will clearly also be great). The purpose of this event is to foster wide-ranging discussion of aspects of all areas of experience working in the tertiary education third space. So we don’t need (necessarily) shiny and new material to spark discussions - and it doesn’t have to be in the form of a regular standard paper either. Think of a topic that you care about, add something to inform a position (a paper, song, artwork, recording of a discussion or presentation, etc etc etc) and pop it in. Participation in the Slowposium is free and we are keen to attract as wide a community as we can.