e-Learning Focus Group

Yesterday I took part in an e-learning focus group as part of a national project.

One of the issues that arose was the lack of personal web spaces for staff at NTU. I say personal but I really mean professional – more "here is my research" than "here is my dog". This has been a long running sore with many academics at NTU since it was implemented.

Anyway I pointed out that like many teaching and research staff I’ve simply “jumped ship” for certain things. There are clearly some very senior people who just don’t “get” technology. One of the things I said I used was a blog so it’s only fitting that I make this blog entry on the topic….

Trial Module Blog

I've just set up a blog for my third year module, which is called "The Internet, Computers & Society". I'm trying this out as an addition to materials on the VLP and I've given all the module students (about 40 this year - not bad for an optional module) the requisite permissions to post things on the blog. I've just set up a couple of exercises via email and given them a chance to register with Blogger (completely free) if they haven't already done so since they need to register to post contributions to the blog.

I suspect a bit like Gilly Salmon and her e-moderating exercises I'll have to do a few things to get them going. Anyway you can see the module blog here

http://phil-wane-ics.blogspot.com/index.html

Part of my rationale for trying this out is that I think this is a much more user friendly interface than the current VLP, the students can post comments, add images and embed video clips (something they cannot easily do on the VLP) and it should encourage those who haven't considered blogs to check them out.

I'll post updates in due course reflecting upon the success or otherwise of this move. On a related note (since I've had no feedback on this yet) I thought that an easy (convenient/efficient) way for me to contribute to the material that needs to go into my Personal Development Portfolio was to set up this blog. It’s a quick and easy way to keep short notes or observations (all dated by the blog system) and I can then add additional materials later. But it at least gives me a skeleton outline of just one part of my portfolio… What do fellow PGHE students think? Would it help you? Do you want me to show you how to set up a blog like this? It really is easy!