MA: DTCE course unit given ‘Honorable Mention’ in international contest

Working groups in the DET course, each of which contains both online and on-campus students

The MA: DTCE core course unit,The Development of Educational Technology (DET), has received ‘Honorable Mention’ in the Blackboard Catalyst awards, under the category, ‘Communication Strategies’. This is an international contest and course tutor, Dr Drew Whitworth, will be travelling to New Orleans in July 2012 to receive the award at the annual BbWorld conference.

The award was given for the course unit’s innovative approach to bringing together online and on-campus students in the same ‘working groups’ (tutorial groups) – an unusual arrangement, as online and on-campus students are normally taught separately. The judges also commended the unit for its commitment to having students reflect on the nature of the learning environment, including having on-campus students take at least one class in a fully online environment and then write about the experience afterwards.

The MA: DTCE team is very happy to receive this award and we believe it is a recognition of the quality and creativity of the course. All students take DET in their first semester of study, thus it is the first unit taken by distance learning students, and is expressly set up to help these students become accustomed to the reflective and engaging methods used on the degree as a whole. We look forward to posting updates from the trip to New Orleans in July!

Mike Toyn on Prezicasts

Mike Toyn, MA DTCE student

As part of my dissertation study for my MA in Digital Technology, Communication and Education I have created a series of ‘Prezicasts’. These are online learning resources which combine video, speech, text and images. I have submitted a proposal to present a short seminar about the Prezicasts at our Research Institute for Professional Learning in Education (RIPLE) event.

During the seminar, I will explain how student views of podcasts informed the design and creation of the Prezicasts. I will then go on to offer a brief guide to the creation of these resources. Finally, I will provide a summary of how students who have used them value them. (This includes students who are studying face to face as well as distance learners)

 

An example Prezicast can be viewed here: http://prezi.com/w7rlpd1lvvsw/educ61712-media-il-information-obesity-the-macro-meso-and-micro-levels/

Developing a training toolkit to support teachers of modern foreign languages

Nola Marshall, Curriculum Manager Languages, Adult Community Learning Essex, has produced, as temporary project manager of a small team, a training toolkit to support teachers of modern foreign languages to develop blended/online language modules.   Funded by an LSIS (Learning & Skills Improvement Service) bid of £28,800, the project was as a direct result of completing the MA DTCE as a distance learner in 2011 and seeing how distance/online learning could be effective in supporting learners as a realistic alternative and flexible method of accessing learning in a field where traditional teaching is still very much the norm.

Nola says “Although funding cuts, which had led to fee increases and reduced enrolments, had been a driver, the two main aims for the project were to upskill our language teaching staff (many ‘techno-reluctant’!) in the use of teaching and learning technologies as well as provide a more flexible vehicle for learners who face barriers to learning eg family and work commitments, geographical distances, disability, and financial considerations.”

The training pack, made up of 11 tutorials in .pdf format on the use of widely available (mostly free) technologies for creating audio, visual, text and communication resources include Posterous, Flashmeeting, Audacity and Speakonia.  Thirteen language tutors attended, speaking French, German, Italian or Spanish, with partners from Norfolk, West Suffolk and Thurrock ACL, an intensive 3-day training course based on the toolkit.  The bid funding also financed access to external expertise in the form of language/ICT specialist, Joe Dale, who has worked for organisations such as the BBC, the OU and the British Council.

Nola adds “The first benefit was rather unexpected – the rigour of academic reading and writing gave me the motivation to persevere with the complex art of bid writing; bids as a source of funding are relatively new in ACL.   With bid funding, we were able to draw together a good mix of expertise within and outside Essex.  Most importantly the knowledge and experience gained on the MA in instructional design, rationale behind choice of technologies, pedagogical considerations, notion of learner autonomy and synchronous/asynchronous communication as well as a confidence to give something a go was essential to the completion of the pack.  Additionally, I was able to use the project work to make a comparison for my dissertation between traditional, face-2-face training and the experience of tutors learning online on a CPD programme.  The findings continue to inform our staff training programme today.”

Nola now sits on the newly created Curriculum Review Innovation and Funding (CRIF) group set up at Essex which includes the role of e-learning, as well as a new bid writing consortium covering Eastern Region UK.  Further bid success had led to a new project on developing self-help guidance including the use of specialist software for those, recently diagnosed with hearing loss, wishing to gain lip reading skills but unable to find a lip reading class.

Nola adds “Above all I gained the personal skills (patience, perseverance, refusal to give up…) to cope with any negative response to teaching and learning technologies, including my own, especially when it fails and feel that I have been able to dispel some of the myths about why adults are hesitant about using them.”

Although designed for language tutors, other curriculum areas are using it for other subjects such as construction, numeracy and science.  The toolkit is available on CD-Rom and can be made available to those who shared my experiences on the MA DTCE.

Rylands library movie available

On 13/2/12 the Media and Information Literacy students visited the historic Rylands library in Manchester, and the day was recorded in order to make a film that is now available at http://stream.manchester.ac.uk/Play.aspx?VideoId=10307 (hopefully this will be public soon but at the moment, only University of Manchester students and staff can view the film).

There is also a new Media & IL blog post which discusses the point of the film and also reflects on attendance at a recent IL conference.

MA: DTCE students’ graduation: December 2011

Fei Jiang and (behind her) Antigoni Kafkaridou, MA: DTCE graduates 2010-11

Congratulations to the 25 MA: DTCE students who graduated yesterday (14th December 2011)! 15 were on-campus and 10 from the distance learning version of the programme. They have all worked very hard and deserved their celebration yesterday.

Special congratulations to Mark Jasper and Deena El-Shamy who graduated with Distinction: the latter as a distance learning student.

Well done to all, from the MA: DTCE team!

 

MyWordBook app is a success

Neil Ballantyne, MA: DTCE graduate, and his MyWordBook app

Neil Ballantyne, who works for the British Council in Hong Kong, announced this month that his MyWordBook app, developed to help Chinese speakers review basic English vocabulary, is the #1 reference app on Hong Kong iTunes (see this page). Neil worked on the app for his MA: DTCE dissertation project in 2010, an example of how DTCE students can use projects in their school, university or workplace to gain course credits. As Neil explains:

“Basically I was looking for a project to do for my dissertation and the global English team I was working for doing online teacher training wanted to develop a vocabulary app. The person doing the mobile projects at the time didn’t have the capacity so when I was looking for project ideas, he offered me the opportunity to scope out the app. I was able to do the research and propose concepts and take it forward….  The fact that I was looking for an MA project at the same time helped convince the director of the learner products to let me take the whole project on.”

The British Council have now partnered up with Cambridge University Press to help develop MyWordBook 2: “The main concept and look and feel remains the same but includes a lot of the functionality I wanted to get into v1 – adaptive learning, more practice activity types and the ability to download packs of words dependent on ability level and interest. We will do a soft launch of this in September and test the in app purchasing side of the app with a global launch after a month if all works ok. This version will be available on Android and for Java enabled phones as well as iOS so will get much more reach.”

Study by distance learning

Applications are still being taken for a September 2011 start whether for on-campus study or by distance learning. For overseas (non-EU) students, it is becoming late to make an application as the process of securing a UK student visa will take some weeks (see the post below). However, home (EU) and distance learning students have until early September to apply for a place on the course. Please note that we will not consider new applications received after Friday 9th September 2011 (unless they are for a 2012 start). An application later than this invariably results in a late start which, from experience, disadvantages you for the whole of the first semester. The earlier you can apply, the more likely you are to be able to start the course on time.

The Blackboard 9 site for one of our course units, showing the Learning Resources page (click on the image to see a larger version if you are interested). We use a range of other environments in our distance learning, including videoconferencing, blogs, wikis, etc.

Several questions are often asked about the distance learning version of the degree. The two most common are:

Will my degree certificate indicate that I studied this course at a distance? No. We are aware that in some parts of the world, distance learning is treated as inferior to on-campus learning. We do not believe that this should be the case: all our students receive equal treatment and we have been involved with this kind of education for many years and know how to use a range of pedagogical techniques and technical tools to ensure equality between the two modes of study.  For that reason, all our graduates receive the same certification, that is, the MA: Digital Technologies, Communication and Education, regardless of whether they have studied on campus or online.

What software do I need to study online? We ask that you have regular access to a computer and that it has broadband internet access. If you only have dial-up, or irregular access to a computer, you will find it difficult to study with us online. Beyond that, however, the only software you really need is standard office tools – Word, Excel, a web browser, or similar tools on a Mac or Linux system. Videoconferencing systems, which we sometimes make use of (see pic above), and the VLEs or virtual learning environments like Blackboard and Moodle, all run through a normal web browser. We do ask, however, that you have a working microphone, headphones or speakers, and ideally, a webcam.

How long does it take? The recommended length of a distance learning course is three years.

If you have any further questions about studying on the MA: DTCE at a distance please do not hesitate to contact the Programme Director, Dr Andrew Whitworth, at andrew.whitworth@manchester.ac.uk.

MA DTCE students broadcast live from Dublin

Four students studying on the MA DTCE in the School of Education at the University of Manchester attended the 11th international Diverse conference in Dublin, Ireland last week. The conference brought together 110 academics, practitioners, and researchers from the fields of video and visual media for teaching learning to share their work.

The Manchester students’ contribution to the conference was however not limited to the content alone, as they joined 22 other students from Ireland and Norway to broadcast keynote speaker interviews, delegate vox-pops, and other materials live onto the web. The video and live broadcast production workshop was an international collaborative effort between Dublin City University (conference host) in Ireland, University College Lillehammer in Norway, and the MA DTCE programme at the University of Manchester. Students worked in teams to video interview esteemed academics such as Professor Michael Wesch and Professor Roy Pea of Stamford University, amongst others. They then operated cameras and audio and vision mixing equipment to create four live broadcasts on consecutive days.

MA DTCE students Meyi Scholar Okuo, Huiyu He, Kunle Arogundade, and Angela Henry on the broadcast set at the Diverse conference at DCU, Dublin.

This achievement is made even more remarkable as the students had not met each other until two days before the first live broadcast was scheduled for transmission. For lecturer and broadcast producer, Dr. Michael O’Donoghue, this was the third such live broadcast student workshop from the Diverse conference. “It’s the largest crew we’ve had for the live broadcasts, and by far the best all round experience. It’s great to see our students engaging in meaningful discussion with prominent academics, and using available video technologies and social media to put this out into the world – I’m very proud of them all”, he said. MA DTCE student Meyi Scholar Okuo added “Whilst the conference was demanding, the hands-on experience was truly inspiring and largely influenced my self-confidence”. Fellow student Angela Henry added “attending the conference gave me the opportunity to meet authors and people that you would make reference to in assignments – it fits in well with the MA DTCE in terms of using technology and communicating”. Though the Diverse conference is now over for 2011 the legacy of this activity continues. “I’m interviewing keynotes and filming at BERA at UCL in September and I hope to include a few of the broadcast crew members from Dublin on this and subsequent activities”, O’Donoghue commented.

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MA: DTCE annual day out in Hebden Bridge

Some pictures from this year’s MA: DTCE day out in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire…

Stepping stones over the Hebden Water

Millpond at Gibson Mill

On the road to Hardcastle Crags

Two MA: DTCE students have free places at conference

The organisers of the “Digitise, Deliver, Discover” event at the University of Manchester on June 6th 2011 have recognised the significance of the MA: DTCE and offered two free places at the conference to students on the course. Dalal Al-Abbasi (Saudi Arabia) and Yi-ching Yeh (Taiwan) applied for and were awarded the chance to attend this event which lies at the cutting-edge of digital thought and practice.