I LOVE Psychologies magazine, and there’s an increasing number of articles about technology and it’s affects on our lifestyle (yes, I have plans to write something… when is a question!). Read here an extract:

Technology has always changed us. Television brought us 24-hour news and celebrity culture, and paved the way for the instant-access digital age. The clock ended our reliance on nature’s rhythms and regimented our living for ever. Even the printed page transformed our culture of oral narrative. Carr notes that the philospher Socrates feared the development of writing would make people forgetful. There were losses, and gains, but we adapted. So, do we really need to worry?

Read the full article.

Check the full infographic, demonstrating the digital divide in the States.

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/866529

Students used to ‘quick feedback’, are becoming more and more demanding.

Students currently going through the higher education system are part of a “net generation” who expect instant feedback because of their heavy reliance on mobile phones, social media and video games, a conference has heard.

Arlene J. Nicholas, an assistant professor in the department of business studies and economics at Salve Regina University in New England, spoke at the Society for Research into Higher Education conference, held in Wales last week, giving findings from her research on learning methods among 100 students at a small private university.

She told delegates that the current generation of US students – defined as those born between 1981 and 2000 – were the most diverse, with a third defined as non-white or Latino. But they are also the most demanding, Dr Nicholas claimed. “This multimedia generation seems to expect multiple methods to learn,” she said.

She added that the net generation could be easily upset by negative feedback but nevertheless wanted more feedback than any other generation.

Read full story, and read more about FASTECH, a project at the University of Winchester considering how technology can enhance feedback.

A really interesting video (using the beautiful RSA Animate style), which takes Sir Ken Robinson, arguing that the education system is no longer suitable for the modern day:
The video was suggested by Clare Killen at the #jiscel11 conference.

Interesting video raised:

For the next 24 hours, I’m ensconced at High Leigh Christian Conference Centre, with 11 others who are interested in digital mission. The event is quite informal, but with time slots allocated to each of the delegates to provide content to promote conversation… so here’s my planned contribution:

Unusually for such an event, we won’t be live tweeting, etc. the event, so it’ll be interesting to see what notes I take .. it’s been a while since I’ve been in a Twitter free zone!

I have just participated in this very useful webinar on the use of mobile technology in the classroom with @adamrsc, and am even more keen to interview American Studies at the University of Winchester as they have been experimenting with encouraging the use of mobile devices in the classroom, and the feedback is generally positive. Below are my live notes from the session:

Mobile phones have no place in a learning space because all students do is misuse them to update their social media spaces?

• Yes, lots do this, but this is more to do with how we engage students with their mobile devices.
• 100% Senior Management found that they were useful oso it was how they use the devices.

Mobile phones disrupt classroom behaviour?

• Isolated knowledge/skills with students – rather than addressing corporate change, and the need to address student behaviours.  Cultural change – if don’t address all those areas, nothing moves forward.
• You manage how students use pen and paper in the classroom, and in the same way it can be a disruptive device (as mobile phones)

Mobile phones have not been shown to have any benefit for learning?

• Graph demonstrates that there are significant effects on learning – National colleges – Fig 17/18 with/without mobile devices.
• All research demonstrates that it can enhance learning if used well.

Equal access: are you advantaging the many or disadvantaging the  few?

• Provide materials via mobile devices that enhance  the other materials (rather than only via mobile devices), in the same way that you would change your teaching style to meet different learning needs.

Who pays for the PAYG devices?

• Use own devices/learning devices. Offer wireless network for student use.

Can this improvement be attributed to mobile devices?

• Run with control groups, but not ‘overly scientific’ – but the weight of evidence rather than scientific rigour, that is useful.

Staff Development: Takes too long to learn how to use the technology effectively?

• Can take time from scratch, and may not be time-efficient for institutions from scratch, but the best CPD would be to purchase one yourself, and it becomes an everyday device as pen and paper.

Manage safeguarding, where a student is showing the latest violent movie, etc.?

• Ties in with safeguarding policies, same as windows/stairs, etc…
• Need clear induction policies in which the ways these tools are used is outlined.

It costs a lot of money to invest in new trends – what makes mobile devices different?

• More to do with the behavior of people, and how they use it.
• If we’re talking about using resources effectively, the mobile phone is one of the most resource-efficient devices you can use – most more powerful than PCs … which brings in overhead fees for IT maintenance – if we had strategies for students using own devices in classrooms effectively – then the cost issue disappears.

Financial advantages, but what about security implications, if tied into an institutional network?

• No security issues by using Google docs, etc. Revision notes in e.g. StudyStacks.
• Can use if wifi networks are kept security free and separate from other networks.

How can we train staff to use these devices when they’re still not using VLES/PowerPoint well?

• These are not the people who are going to use these devices well initially, have to take responsibility with own devices – preferably provided by institution – if use as part of daily life – as become familiar, can start to see how can use in the classroom.

Students often do not want their tutors using their social media/texts? How get past that barrier?

• Lots of (anecdotal) evidence of this, but there is increasing evidence that there is positive engagement via this if using a ‘professional Facebook site’.  Good idea from one student tends to get picked up by other students.

A good space to get educational apps?

• No generic site that lists good educational resources … Twitter does it fairly well in an ad hoc way. Android Marketplace – search.

Who drives the choice of devices?

• Has to be driven by the students, can’t specify a particular device, so would need as an institution a platform independent approach.

Is there a danger that courses will be distorted to provide content that suits the mobile phone?

• This tends to be to the tutors advantage. Benefits came from courses that were outside based courses, so courses changed in a positive way.

How teachers be supported to learn about different types of mobile devices?

• Workshops within the organization (could be nice to introduce new staff within a Faculty), or attend JISC webinars, etc. Helps provide case studies.

http://www.media.mit.edu/

I’ve had quite an interest in MIT since I heard that they put all their lectures, etc. online (on YouTube, etc. under Creative Commons licences), something that is resisted by many an academic… and have found that it has increased interest in their courses. Here, Times Higher Education looks at their Media Lab…

Joichi Ito does not have the kind of background that would normally catch the eye of an appointment committee searching for someone to head a prestigious university research lab. To start with, he is not an academic – he is an internet entrepreneur, a venture capitalist and a former disc jockey. And, if that were not enough against him, he dropped out of university. Twice.

But not every lab is like the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which turned 25 last year, is world famous for its “renegade” research environment and creative and wacky projects that combine design with cutting-edge technology. It is responsible for, among other things, the electronic ink technology that e-readers use to simulate printed paper; for Guitar Hero, the hit video game in which players simulate playing the guitar in rock songs; for Lego Mindstorms robotics building kits and for the XO-1 laptop, a budget computer designed to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world as part of the One Laptop per Child project.

Nicholas Negroponte set up the Media Lab to explore human-machine interaction and the life-enhancing possibilities of new technology. He led it from its start until he stepped down as director in 2000. Ito, who took over in September, is the third person to head the lab since the departure of its founder; he took the reins from Frank Moss, professor of the practice of media arts and sciences at MIT.

“I was surprised as well,” Ito says of his appointment. The 45-year-old, who recently served as chief executive of the open licensing technology non-profit organisation Creative Commons, was an early investor in more than 40 technology start-ups, including Twitter and Flickr. But he admits that, until now, his experience of universities “hadn’t been great”.

Ito says he dropped out of university – once from studying computer science at Tufts University in Massachusetts and once from studying physics at the University of Chicago – because the learning environment did not suit him. This was not because he lacked respect for formal education but, as he sees it, because his brain was wired to learn by pursuing passion and interest rather than by attempting to absorb the contents of lectures and books. For this reason the Media Lab is a good fit, because it is a “whole class of people who are kind of like me”. The appointment committee wanted someone whose sole project was going to be the lab, Ito thinks.

Read full article.

A fascinating video (which makes sense even if you don’t speak French) – how fast technology changes:

Another video, for the American market:

A lunchtime event ‘Space in the City’, held at URC Winchester (12.30, for “27 minutes”):