VirtualMV/Digital Learning Technologies/Overview/Digital Learning Technologies

Integrating digital technologies into education and training
'Just giving people devices has a really horrible track record. You really have to change the curriculum and the teacher. And it's never going to work on a device where you don't have a keyboard-type input. Students aren't there just to read things. They're actually supposed to be able to write and communicate. And so it's going to be more in the PC realm—it's going to be a low-cost PC that lets them be highly interactive.' - Bill Gates, 2012 ( A Conversation With Bill Gates About the Future of Higher Education (Young, 2012))

eLearning
Broadly speaking eLearning is learning that is augmented with a digital technology. So eLearning needs to be considered over a spectrum with on one end where a teacher uses PowerPoint to display a presentation, and at the other end a student may complete a learning activity in their workplace on a mobile device.

Some examples of eLearning

 * PowerPoint displaying content (this can be passive - where content is delivered, or used as the basis of face-to-face group discussion)
 * Reviewing a learning podcast (e.g. recording of a lecture) on a mobile device.
 * Participating in an online discussion forum

Resources

 * http://www.elg.ac.nz/ guide to designing, implementing and enhancing eLearning for the (New Zealand) tertiary sector

Digital Learning Technologies
DLT can be considered in three parts
 * 1) Technology
 * 2) Pedagogy
 * 3) Content

Technology

 * Hardware
 * Devices (PCs, e-Pads, mobile phones)
 * Peripherals (cameras, printers, projectors)
 * Software
 * Element construction (images, audio, video)
 * Authoring tools (Web (HTML), Flash)
 * Learning environments (Learning Management Systems (LMSs), assessment systems (Peerwise))

Pedagogy
And can be delivered on the continuum

Face to face -> Blended -> Online


 * Face to face:
 * PowerPoint


 * Blended:
 * Web page, wiki, blog


 * Online:
 * Adobe Connect


 * http://www.slideshare.net/sachac/a-teachers-guide-to-web-20-at-school
 * 21st century Pedagogy

Integrating technology into learning
Different ways technology can be integrated into learning are listed and described by Howland, Jonassen, and Marra (2012)
 * Inquiry (e.g. a web quest (Search engines), using a mobile to collect data)
 * Experimenting (e.g. simulations, virtual worlds)
 * Designing (e.g. graphics design, 3D modelling, CAD, Scratch/BYOB, Music)
 * Communicating (e.g. Discussion boards, instant messaging, online presentations (Slideshare, Google presentations), interactive whiteboards, Podcasting, vodcasting (videocasting (Adobe connect))
 * Community building and collaborating (e.g. wikis, Moodle, Google docs)
 * Writing (e.g. Concept mapping, blogging, collaborative writing (Google docs))
 * Modelling (e.g. Spreadsheets (Break even analysis), Databases
 * Visualising (e.g. Drawing/Paint programs, simulators (3D models), Graphical information systems (Google earth), Digital images (Still & video))
 * Assessing (e.g. electronic portfolios, online quizzes, google forms, Voting systems (clickers, in Adobe Connect), individualised tests (change abased on responses).

Learning in the cloud

 * Sugata Mitra (2013) Build a School in the Cloud (22 minutes). Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud.html

Content

 * Content can be:
 * Facilitator provided - as in a PowerPoint,
 * Links to external sources (This includes a text book with an associated web site)
 * constructed by a group or web based network (Social networking), where students pool knowledge (Refer to the work of Vygotsky).

Digital scholarship

 * Activity: Select one of the tutorials, complete and critique.
 * Open Educational Resources (OERs) for digital scholars http://www.digitalscholarship.ac.uk/
 * The site is a portal to a collection of Open Educational Resources (OERs) accessed from repositories and institutions around the world. All these resources have been provided free by their authors under Creative Commons or other licence for anyone who wishes to use them for educational purposes.The UK Open University Digital Scholarship team, and partners in Nottingham, Leicester, and Manchester, reviewed and selected every resource listed on this site in order to ensure that it is a genuinely open access and high quality item of self-study material appropriate for students in the UK and elsewhere who wish to prepare themselves to study on research degrees in UK universities.