Never stop learning – Where you can learn something new in 2018

Posted on January 2, 2018 by Sue Beckingham

Never stop learning

Over the years I have engaged in a variety of learning opportunities which have included attending evening classes at local schools and then as a mature student at university.  However attending classes in person is not always convenient for those with family commitments. When we think about alternatives to face to face learning it is fair to say that many of us may think first of all about the Open University. Established in 1969 it has provided many with the opportunity to learn at a distance and now online. Other universities also offer distance learning opportunities, alongside the traditional face to face offerings. Many began as correspondence courses where students were not physically present and posted text books and workbooks to complete and return. In the main these tend to be considered as formal learning, leading to qualifications on successful completion of coursework or exams.

In recent years the development of affordable technology has given many access to online information and a thirst to learn in different ways. The use of social media has opened up opportunities for social learning, where individuals can interact and learn with and from others irrespective of location and time zones. This could be for formal credit or simply for pleasure.

Technology supports both synchronous and asynchronous learning, which opens up flexibility and choice of when to learn. Audio podcasts allow learners to listen to recordings wherever they choose to, and many do this as they commute to or from work. Webinar technologies have enabled group verbal conversations to take place online, along with chat functions where users can type short messages to each other. Videos can provide helpful ways to learn visually and at your own pace with the ability to rewind and replay.  Indeed through YouTube videos I learned how to mend my washing machine! learningAs a result, there are now a multitude of online learning opportunities available, many of which are free. Choose from informal or formal, short or extended courses, and learn with others or independently. Develop or learn new skills, take up a new hobby or engage in a full online course.

Below are a just a selection of some of the online courses now available.

 

Develop new skills and hobbies

Chesscademy  – Learn how to play chess for free.

Craftsy – Includes baking, knitting, quilting and photography.

Drawspace – Learn the basics if drawing.

Pianu  – An interactive way to learn piano online.

Yousician – Your personal guitar tutor for the digital age.

 

Learn a new language

Babbel  – Discover a new language experience.

British Sign Language – Learn BSL at your own pace.

Busuu  – The free language learning community.

Duolingo  – Learn a language for free.

Lingvist  – Learn a language in 200 hours.

Memrise  – Use flashcards to learn vocabulary.

Plain English – An opportunity to learn in plain English for crystal clear communication.

 

Expand your knowledge

Guides.co  –  Search the largest collection of online guides.

Highbrow  – Get bite-sized daily courses to your inbox.

lynda.com  – Learn technology, creative and business skills.

Khan Academy  – Access an extensive library of interactive content.

Learnist  –  Learn from expertly curated web, print and video content.

Squareknot  – Browse step-by-step guides.

TED-Ed  – Find carefully curated educational videos

United for Wildlife – Learn about the key issues in conservation.

 

Take an online course

Alison – A wide range of free courses.

edX  - Take online courses from the world’s best universities.

Coursera  - Take the world’s best courses, online, for free.

Curious  – Grow your skills with online video lessons.

CreativeLive  –  Take free creative classes from the world’s top experts.

FutureLearn – Courses from universities and specialist organisations.

OpenLearn – Offers a wide range of free courses.

Skillshare  – Online classes and projects that unlock your creativity.

Udemy  – Learn real world skills online.

 

Learn how to code

BaseRails  –  Master Ruby on Rails and other web technologies.

Codecademy  –  Learn to code interactively, for free.

Code.org  –  Start learning today with easy tutorials.

CodeCombat – Learn computer science while playing a real game.

Code School  – Learn to code by doing.

Dash  – Learn to make awesome websites.

DataCamp  – Learn R, Python and access data science courses.

DataMonkey  – Develop your analytical skills in a simple, yet fun way.

DataQuest  – Learn data science in your browser.

Free Code Camp  –  Learn to code and help nonprofits.

One Month  –  Learn to code and build web applications in one month.

Platzi  –  Live streaming classes on design, marketing and code.

Thinkful  – Advance your career with a 1-on-1 personal mentor.

Treehouse  –  Learn HTML, CSS, iPhone apps and more.

Udacity  –  Master in demand skills and earn a Nanodegree recognised by industry leaders.

 

What would you add to this list?

 

All images used are from Pixabay and have a free to use CCO Creative Commons licence

Posted in Social Learning | 1 Comment

How to save a hashtag search on Twitter

Posted on September 14, 2017 by Sue Beckingham
Conversations

Public domain image via Pixabay

Busy conversations

If you are a user of Twitter you can’t have escaped noticing the use of hashtags. People use these keywords preceded by # to add emphasis to what they are saying, but also use them to filter collections of tweets sharing the same conversations. Typically this includes organised chats and interactions at planned events and conferences.

To capture all of the tweets sharing the same hashtag can be done easily by searching for the hashtag in the Twitter search box. What you may not know is that you can save this and other searches to come back to.

Saving searches

To save a Twitter search via web

  1. Enter your search into the search box.
  2. At the top of your results page, click the more icon  and then click Save this search. Next time you click the search box, a pop-up menu will display your Saved searches.

To save a Twitter search from Twitter for Android

  1. Tap on the Explore tab 
  2. Enter your search into the search box.
  3. At the top of your results page, tap the overflow icon  and then tap Save. Next time you tap the search box, a pop-up menu will display your Saved searches.
Note: You may have up to 25 saved searches per account.

To remove a saved search via web and Twitter for Android

  1. Click or tap anywhere in the search box at the top of the page.
  2. Find the saved search you’d like to remove listed below Saved searches (web) or Saved (Android), then click or tap on the X next to the search to remove.

To embed a search via web

  1. Enter your search into the search box.
  2. At the top of your search results, click the more icon  and then select Embed this search.
  3. Follow the instructions to create a search widget that you can add to your website. Find more information in the developer documentation here.
Posted in Communication tools, Twitter | Leave a comment

Need to get more organised? Meet Google Keep: save your thoughts, wherever you are and with who you want to

Posted on August 29, 2017 by Sue Beckingham

 

Google Keep has been on my mental list for some time but I hadn’t got around to using it until now. Why did I wait so long?!

Keep can be downloaded as an iOS or Android app for use on your phone or tablet, accessed as a Chrome extension or via your browser.

I’ve been exploring Keep on my phone as this will be my go to device to add notes on the go. From the app you can:

  • hand write notes using your finger (includes an eraser and highlighter)
  • add audio notes
  • take photos
  • pin your important notes to the top
  • give your notes coloured lables
  • add collaborators to share notes with (from your contact list or via email)
  • set date/time or place (location) reminders
  • archive or bin completed tasks/notes

From your desktop there are some useful keyboard shortcuts:

Keep keyboard shortcuts

Keep keyboard shortcuts

Capture what’s on your mind
Add notes, lists, photos, and audio to Keep. Quickly capture what’s on your mind and share those thoughts with friends and family. Speak a voice memo on the go and have it automatically transcribed. Grab a photo of a poster, receipt or document and easily organize or find it later in search.

When and where you need it
Need to remember to pick up some groceries? Set a location-based reminder to pull up your grocery list right when you get to the store. Need to finish a to-do? Set a time-based reminder to make sure you never miss a thing.

Share your thoughts with family and friends
Next time you go to the store, share your shopping list on Keep and watch as items get checked off in real time. No need for text messages back and forth. Get things done together, faster.

Find what you need, fast
Quickly filter and search for notes by color and other attributes like lists with images, audio notes with reminders or just see shared notes. Find what you’re looking for even faster, and let Keep do the remembering for you.

Always within reach
Keep works on your phone, tablet and computer. Everything you add to Keep syncs across your devices so your important stuff is always with you. (Syncing across your devices requires internet connection.)

For further tips and support visit the Google Keep Help Centre.

Posted in Curation tools | Leave a comment

Creating an effective university communication plan

Posted on August 23, 2017 by Sue Beckingham

Loudspeaker

An effective communication plan is essential no matter how small or large the request, be this to create a new department Twitter account, a course promotion poster, a video of student work, a new blog to share teaching and research excellence/student achievements and learning gain, or a website to promote research. Whilst most universities will have a dedicated corporate communications/PR department, the role of communication extends much further.

Time spent planning is
time well spent

Considering this from a higher education perspective, a communication plan may involve internal or external audiences. These could include the following:

Internal

  • Academics
  • Staff
  • Students (undergraduate, postgraduate and PhD)
  • Boards of Governors
  • Student Union

External

  • Alumni
  • Parents
  • Prospective students
  • Prospective academics
  • Prospective staff
  • Professional Bodies
  • Donors and prospective donors
  • Funding agencies (public and private)
  • Other partners or stakeholders
  • Higher education thought leaders
  • Competitors in higher education
  • News media
  • Visitors and the general public

With the increasing use of open social media platforms, for example blogs and Twitter, it is wise to remind ourselves that no matter who the intended audience is, the information shared trough these channels can be found and read by anybody.

Before we start to communicate to any audience it is therefore important to develop a clear plan. David Caveney from Comms2Point0 says that this process will help to clearly outline a concise and compelling need for the communication activity or campaign. He goes on to say that all sections of a communications plan should reference supporting evidence, formal, informal, quantitative and qualitative.

Comms2Point0 have generously shared this free download of a step by step guide to ‘the who, the how, the when and the why of planning an effective and efficient communication campaign’.

Comms planning guide

The ten step plan below is a summary of this poster and presents valuable pointers and useful questions to help you through each of the 10 stages.

Why do we need a plan?

Steps 1-3 of the comms planning process should help you clearly outline a concise and compelling need for the activity or campaign. These look at the importance of setting the context, outlining the aim and overall goal, and creating a set of smart objectives.

1. Context: Set the scene. Include references and links to relevant corporate/business plan priorities. Detail the issue driving the need for dedicated communications activity.
Include headline evidence/data/stats which demonstrate need or issue.
2. Aim: Outline the desired overall goal – the results the planned activity needs to deliver.
Are you imparting knowledge? building an image? shaping attitudes? stimulating a want or desire? or encouraging an action?
3. Objectives: Create a set of SMART (specific, measurable, agreed upon, realistic and time-based) comms objectives – they should clearly set out outcomes and impacts (not the comms inputs).
What internal data supports or informs the objectives? Is it market trends? national/sector reports? good practice examples? or published data?

How

4. Strategy: Scope out the campaign in a single common sense campaign. Use the KISS approach – keep it short and simple. This should function as a useful shorthand tool for explaining the campaign to others.
Revisit and finalise this section once the rest of the plan is completed.
5. Audiences: Who are you trying to reach and what do you want them to do? Think of both your primary target audiences and the people who influence them (secondary audiences).
Prioritise groups – acknowledging available time/resources.

What?

6. Message/content: Be clear – jargon-free, no technical language, be relevant. Be concise – can you deliver these messages in just a few seconds? Be consistent – messages must be repeated if they are to sink in. Create an engaging content plan, tell stories and create material that is memorable and shareworthy.
Remember you calls to action. What do you want people to do?

Where?

7. Channels: Be specific, research your audiences, understand what they’re interested in, ‘where’ you can find them and which platforms they’re engaging with. Understand who or what their influences are.
Start with audience groups and build your channel mix around it, not the other way round. A good mix will successfully blend one to one, one to few, and many to many.

When?

8. Timeline: Set a realistic timeline split into ‘preparation’, ‘implementation’ and ‘review’. Set milestones and factor in a little flexibility.
Breaking complex campaigns into phases will maximise resources and maintain focus on achievable impacts.

With what?

9. Resources: These include people/time/budget. Assign tasks, estimate all likely spend (including a 15% contingency). Be realistic and honest about the likely returns you can achieve with the resources you have.
Don’t start with a set campaign budget and portion out spend. Cost out your plan and build your budget from the bottom up.

How did we do?

10. Evaluation: Evaluate based on communication objectives. Record quantitative and qualitative impacts. Share results. Write case studies. Celebrate success and learn from mistakes. Demonstrating return on investment (ROI) is key.
Prepare simple headline reports for upward communication/share ROI results. Gather quotes, take photos, record video, capture state and share results.

By failing to prepare,
you are preparing to fail

A communication plan is never set in stone. It needs to be reviewed for each initiative, even if the context appears to be the same. The final evaluation stage of any campaign can help highlight any potential issues or areas for improvement. Things you may want to consider:

  • Are you using the right platform/medium?
  • Are you providing the information your audience(s) want?
  • Are you using the right tone in your comms?
  • Are you giving your audience(s) a voice?
  • Are you listening to your audience(s) – what feedback are they giving?

Communication is an integral part of marketing. Successful marketing focuses on the full marketing mix, known as ‘The 7Ps of Marketing’:

  • Product or service – what we are providing?
  • Price – what we are asking for in return?
  • Place – where the product or service is delivered
  • Promotion – how we communicate what we do
  • Physical evidence – helping our customers to see what they are buying
  • Process – effectiveness of our systems and processes
  • People – those of us who come into contact with our customers and stakeholders and what we offer

Whilst these are important considerations, a communication strategy should go beyond marketing what your university offers. An essential part of a communication strategy is storytelling. With the wide range of communication channels including social media at our fingertips we can not only engage our audience(s) but invite them to contribute to a dialogue. If we want our audience to be part of the community then we need to find ways to include them in the conversations – communication as a dialogue rather than simply a monologue or broadcast.

 

References

Caveney, D. (2017) Your essential new comms planning guide. Comms2Point0.
McCarthy, E. J. (1964). Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. Richard D. Irwin: Homewood, IL.

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Student Guest Blogpost: SMASH (Social Media for Academic Studies at Hallam)

Posted on June 19, 2017 by Sue Beckingham

SMASH logo

SMASH (Social Media for Academic Studies at Hallam) is a team of four IT with Business Studies students from Sheffield Hallam University looking to incorporate social media for the purposes of aiding higher education learning.

Corran Wood
Jess Paddon
Ola Mazur
Sher Khan

Originally the team attended the SocMedHE16 conference at Sheffield Hallam University (having individually applied for one of 10 free student places). It was an interesting and exciting conference showcasing how lecturers and students alike were using social media to aid and develop their teaching/learning throughout higher education.

After attending this event and with the guidance of Sue Beckingham the team formed a group to look further at social media for learning. The team met weekly and set out to achieve the following objectives in relation to social media use at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU):

  1. Helping staff to identify and use social media tools for communication and collaboration within and beyond the classroom (Learning Activities).
  2. Helping students and staff to identify and use relevant social media tools to curate and organise information relating to learning (Organising Learning).
  3. Helping students to prepare digital portfolios to openly share outcomes and projects to develop a professional online presence (Showcasing Learning).

1. Learning Activities

First and foremost, learning activities. From the conference and also teaching in SHU it was clear that social media was being used in a variety of different ways to communicate with students in and out of lectures. Three key tools lecturer used for learning activities were: YouTube, WhatsApp and Socrative.

YouTube

Every student is different and each prefers to learn in their own way, i.e. visual learners, auditory and kinaesthetic etc. One such test can be taken here to assess the preference of learning style. Bearing this in mind it’s useful for lecturers to adapt their teaching styles in ways that would allow them meet all three types. Here’s where YouTube comes in handy. One lecturer used video scribe to create revision based videos which they then published on YouTube. This came handy for students looking to revise the material but in particular for visual learners.

WhatsApp

Often Lecturers and students communicate either verbally or via email. But one technique a Lecturer used was to communicate with their students through the ever popular tool WhatsApp. In particular this was useful to create groups for classes/modules and then allow the students to communicate with the lecturer via the groups set up. Although certain lecturers may feel that this may be too personal possibly, it did however allow for rapid communication between students and lecturers.

Socrative

Often lectures are a one sided push of information. However one technique used by a lecturer to make their class more interactive and to involve the students to participate was to use the Socrative application. This allowed for students to take part in polls related to class materials and vote during the lecture in which case the lecturer could provide feedback on the results to aid students learning.

 

2. Organising Learning

Social media tools can assist in the collaboration of learning, as both students and staff have multiple modules to organise and complete work and collect information on.

Google Docs

When completing group-based projects in modules, it is often the case that students face issues to do with arranging suitable times to meet and to complete these activities. The three main applications, Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Sheets aim to solve this issue. By using these applications, tasks can be collaboratively fulfilled in real-time sessions, with further information about who has completed what work within the assignment, to aid peer feedback, and this can be used effectively by lecturers to record weekly task marks, and keep tabs on who has completed what in their students’ groups assignments.

Pinterest

Pinterest, a more image oriented social media, can be used with the creation of ‘boards’ to define each module and learning topic being discussed, wherein a different board is used for different topics. Staff to student sharing of boards can be utilised with this site, to exchange useful links and sources and can be used to collect important information in one specified location which is crucial for revision. This is especially useful for more visual learners with the use of image based content.

Storify

Significant posts can be taken from different social media sites, in order to create stories to organise learning into appropriate sections for effective learning. These posts can be found by hashtags to curate all this information shared with these tags into a story board. Narratives can be added with these story boards to aid learning underneath the playlist of storyboard videos.

 

3. Showcasing Learning

Why spend long amounts of time completing work and research projects if you aren’t able to share them with other academics and professionals? Social media platforms are key for enabling users to share their work amongst others’ in order to expand their own knowledge and their peers work.

LinkedIn

A professional networking site to build connections to other people working within similar industries and with similar interests to you. University projects can be uploaded including other people who have contributed and who you have collaborated with and your clients. Qualifications can be showcased, as well as academic achievements. This is a popular way to discover potential candidates for a position by HR departments within companies.

WordPress

Specified plugins and themes can be used to create web pages based on chosen topics. Blogs style articles can be written within these for reflection and showcasing learning. Links to other social media channels can be used to showcase other aspects of learning.

Slideshare

Slideshow presentations can be uploaded from past conferences and learning conventions to enhance others’ learning, and curate resources for learning. Slideshare can be used by academics for lecture material and students for assignment research.

Twitter

Users can post and interact with tweets from other users, including high-profile users. Twitter may be used to promote projects completed and showcase work and achievements completed, as well as acknowledge and share other users’ work and features include ‘pinning’ specific and current projects/events to the top of your Twitter profile.

Below is an infographic summarising how social media can be used for learning.

 

Guest Bloggers

 

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Creating and using YouTube playlists for learning and teaching

Posted on June 3, 2017 by Sue Beckingham

YouTube playlists

A playlist is a collection of videos that anyone can put together and choose to share with others. For example you could curate a playlist of your favourite music videos to play back to back. Increasingly people are using their mobile devices to access and watch short videos on the go, providing an abundance of micro learning opportunities. Whilst videos can be embedded within PowerPoint presentations it can also be helpful to include a link to specific playlists from your class VLE, blog or website to help users locate the collections more easily. Curated playlists could also help you organise videos by topic, to refer to at a later date.

A playlist in YouTube is easy to put together (see the instructions further down) by selecting existing videos already uploaded to YouTube. However you may also want to consider creating your own videos and then making themed playlists.  Below are some suggestions on how playlists can be used with your students, for your own professional development and also for sharing your research.

 

Playlist suggestions

For your students

  • During induction week ask students to record ‘about me’ videos and share as a class playlist – ask students to share their favourite food, music and hobby.
  • Motivating music to use as students enter and/or during class when undertaking hands on tasks.
  • A playlist of short video clips used in a lecture.
  • A collection of ‘how to guides’ created as video screencasts.
  • Using the ‘flipped approach’ ask your students to watch video clips in their own time and and provide a number of questions. The answers can be then discussed in class.
  • Record a collection of group online discussions using Google Hangouts on Air
  • Create short revision tutorials.
  • Compile themed collections of TED talks or Khan Academy STEM tutorials.

For your own CPD

You can also seek inspiration for your own professional development from playlists created  by others:

Disseminating Research

Another option is creating your own videos to share your research. A good example of this is Research Shorts which are short research video summaries by George Veletsianos and the Digital Learning and Social Media Research Group. These videos examine issues relevant to educational technology, digital learning, networked scholarship, and student/faculty experiences with technology and education.

Make & find your playlists

  1. Start with a video you want in the playlist.
  2. Under the video, click Add to Add to playlist .
  3. Click Create new playlist.
  4. Enter a playlist name.
  5. Use the drop down box to select your playlist’s privacy setting. If it’s private, people cant’ find it when they search YouTube.
  6. Click Create.

You can find your new playlist from the Library in the Guide on the left side of the screen.

Delete a playlist

  1. Select a playlist from the Library in the Guide.
  2. Click the menu icon .
  3. Click Delete playlist.
  4. If you’re sure you want to delete the playlist, click Yes, delete it.
  5. Note that your old playlist may live on in viewers’ watch histories.
Posted in Visual Communication | Tagged | 3 Comments

Celebrating learning gain and teaching excellence through social media and digital narratives

Posted on May 19, 2017 by Sue Beckingham

Sharing teaching excellence and learning gain

 

I facilitated a workshop at the  SEDA Spring Teaching Learning and Assessment Conference in Manchester on celebrating learning gain and teaching excellence through social media and digital narratives. The theme for the event was The quest for teaching excellence and learning gain: issues, resolutions and possibilities. One of the key issues was not only defining what is meant by the terms teaching excellence and learning gain, but grappling with how the impact could be evidenced and measured.

The context for the theme of my workshop and the conference is the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). In short the Government is introducing the TEF and aims to recognise and reward excellent learning and teaching.

The workshop I gave intended to get participants thinking about how we can use digital narratives and social media to capture and celebrate:

  • good teaching – through sharing openly what has worked well and why
  • student learning achievements – along the learning journey

 

The Teaching Excellence Framework

The beginning of the presentation (see below the embedded Slideshare presentation) provides definitions of what teaching excellence and learning gain are and also some information about some of the other components. HEFCE provide the following definitions:

“Learning gain can be defined and understood in a number of ways. But broadly it is an attempt to measure the improvement in knowledge, skills, work-readiness and personal development made by students during their time spent in higher education.”

“Teaching excellence is defined broadly to include teaching quality, the learning environment, and student outcomes and learning gain.”

HEFCE  – The Higher Education Funding Council for England

The three components of teaching excellence are:

Teaching Quality
Includes different forms of structured learning that can involve teachers and academic or specialist support staff. This includes seminars, tutorials, project supervision, laboratory sessions, studio time, placements, supervised on-line learning, workshops, fieldwork and site visits. The emphasis is on teaching that provides an appropriate level of contact, stimulation and challenge, and which encourages student engagement and effort. The effectiveness of course design, and assessment and feedback, in developing students’ knowledge, skills and understanding are also considered. The extent to which a provider recognises, encourages and rewards excellent teaching is also included within this aspect.

Learning Environment
Includes the effectiveness of resources such as libraries, laboratories and design studios, work experience, opportunities for peer-to-peer interaction and extra-curricular activities in supporting students’ learning and the development of independent study and research skills. The emphasis is on a personalised academic experience which maximises retention, progression and attainment. The extent to which beneficial linkages are made for students between teaching and learning, and scholarship, research or professional practice (one or more of these) is also considered.

Student Outcomes and Learning Gain
Focused on the achievement of positive outcomes:
• acquisition of attributes such as lifelong learning skills and others that allow a graduate to make a strong contribution to society, economy and the environment.
• progression to further study, acquisition of knowledge, skills and attributes necessary to compete for a graduate level job that requires the high level of skills arising from higher education.

 

Open learning through storytelling

In 2010 David Wiley spoke at TEDxNY about openness and said “If there is no sharing, there is no education.” Building a culture of sharing can help teachers develop a worldwide learning community for themselves and their students. Learners who share what they have gained through learning, can inspire others and also provide rich content for their personal development portfolios.

storytelling

Whilst there is a growing community of educators and students sharing good practice and achievements, it is rarely labelled as ‘teaching excellence’ or learning gain’. I provide some examples of how learning and teaching is shared by students and academic peers by using social media and digital technology within the SlideShare below. What is evident, is that the way this is done by both teachers and learners, is very often a series of bite sized stories. This could be a few minute video or screencast, a short blog post, a Tweetchat, a SlideShare presentation embedded in a LinkedIn profile, or a Twitter or Facebook update. Social media channels are useful spaces to share these digital narratives easily and to a wide and relevant audience.

Using ‘garden’ as an analogy for learning, the presentation considers how this might be portrayed and shared visually to tell a story.

The formal garden

formal gardenTo tend a formal garden takes a team of gardeners, huge amounts of time and money. When sharing information, there is a tendency to wait until there’s a team in place who can devote time to produce a scripted video or written piece, which often then has to wait for edits and changes before it can be published publicly. Granted the outcomes are polished and professional but taking this approach can only capture a tiny segment of what is going on. What is being missed?

The production garden

production gardenEach year universities all over the world celebrate the graduation of students, capturing the long ceremonies on video as the students cross the stage. However it doesn’t capture the personal stories of the individual students and what they have achieved during their learning journey. 

Diversity of gardens

diversity of gardensUniversities are full of a rich diversity of students and teachers who all bring something different to the learning and teaching experience. Different courses will have a variety of teaching approaches but there is much to be learned from other disciplines, and this can lead to cross-disciplinary approaches.

The cooperative garden

cooperative gardenWe need to look, listen more deeply, and learn not to make judgements too quickly. The common dandelion is often seen as a garden pest and yet this feeds the bees who pollinate the fruit trees and flowers. Taking time to learn about different and innovative approaches can be enlightening, even if they do at first seem wild!

Growth and transformation

growth and transformationSharing the stories of learning journeys can help others see how an individual can grow and transform. In the initial stages growth is often not evident, and yet looking back it is possible to see the huge steps made and the hurdles that have been overcome. Reflective practice can provide learning opportunities when shared openly.

Celebrating

We need to move on from only celebrating and sharing the ‘polished’ versions of teaching excellence and learning gain. Encouraging both teachers and students to share their teaching and learning stories as digital narratives, and sharing these through social media can provide so many others an opportunity to learn from their achievements. Furthermore liking and commenting upon the stories of students and teachers not only acknowledges they have been read but can lead to mutually valuable cooperative and social learning. This in itself has the potential to result in shared learning gain for all.

 

Further reading

David Wiley TEDxNYED 2010 https://youtu.be/Rb0syrgsH6M

Higher Education Funding Council for England http://www.hefce.ac.uk/lt/tef/

Teaching Excellence Framework: year two specification (2016:8) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teaching-excellence-framework-year-2-specification

Posted in Social Learning | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Digital Stories – Creating Moments on Twitter

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Sue Beckingham

Moment

Twitter Moments enable users to curate a succinct digital story. This can be done from the web or mobile devices. Bring together Tweets, photos and videos. You can also upload your own image as a cover for your story.

Choose from Tweets you’ve liked, Tweets by account, search for Tweets or add a Tweet link. You can take your time curating your Moment story and save it as a draft. Then choose to publish when you are ready.

You also have the option to publish a Moment privately. Select ‘share moment privately’ and then simply copy and paste the Moment’s URL. Only those you share the URL with can see the Moment. It won’t be visible on your profile page.

In the event you want to remove a published Moment there are options to ‘unpublish moment’ and ‘delete moment’. There is also an edit button so you can edit a Moment in draft or published form.

 

How Moments could be used for Learning

  • Bring together Tweets from a specific conversation
  • Curate Tweets relating to a specific topic in the news
  • Research and gather Tweets for a project
  • Gather Tweets to highlight Fake News for later critical discussion
  • During a lecture or a conference like the Tweets you wish to later gather
  • At the end of a class ask students to Tweet a reflective post with a designated class hashtag – the Tutor can then gather and share
  • As above but ask students to answer a question.

 

How to create a Moment via web

There are three ways to begin creating your own Moment. You can access Moments through the Moments tab, your profile page, or through a Tweet detail. To get started all you need is a title, description, Tweets, and a selected cover image.

Twitter Moment

 

From the Moments tab:

  1. From the Moments tab, click the Create new Moment button.
  2. Click the Title your Moment field to give your Moment a name.
  3. Click the Add a description field to type in a description for your Moment.
  4. Choose Tweets to add to your Moment:
    1. From the Add Tweets to your Moment section at the bottom of the page, quickly access content to select Tweets from Tweets I’ve liked, Tweets by account, Tweet link, and Tweet search prompts.
    2. To add a Tweet to your Moment, click on the checkmark icon 
  5. Click Set cover to choose a cover image from one of your selected Tweets, or to upload an image from your computer. Drag your selected image to set a Mobile preview, click the Next button, then click the Save button.
    Note: To change your selected image, hover over the cover image and click on Change cover media. After you’ve set your cover media, the source will be credited below the image.
  6. Once you have Tweets in your collection, click on the up  or down arrow buttons  to the right of a Tweet to move it up or down.
  7. Click on the delete button  to remove a Tweet from your Moment.
  8. Click on the crop button  next to any of your selected Tweets to make an image selection for mobile viewing.
  9. Click the Finish later button at the top of the page to save a draft.
  10. When you are ready to make your Moment live, click on the Publish button at the top of the page.


From a Tweet:

  1. Click the more button 
  2. Select New Moment to add the Tweet to a new Moment.
    Note: Any completed Moments or drafts you have in progress will also be listed in the drop-down to choose from.
  3. Follow the directions above to complete your Moment.


From the Moments tab on your profile page:

  1. Click on the Moments tab, then click the Create new Moment button to get started.
  2. Follow the directions above to complete your Moment.

Note: Access all of your Moments (draft or published) by selecting Moments from your profile icon drop down menu.

More options while creating a Moment via web

From the More menu at the top of the page:

  1. Click on ••• More while in draft mode.
    1. Select Choose mobile theme color if you’d like to apply one.
    2. Select Mark that Moment contains sensitive material if appropriate.
    3. Select Share Moment privately to copy and paste your Moment’s URL to share privately with others.
      Note: The Moment will only be visible to people who have the URL, it will not be visible on your profile page, or published on Twitter.
    4. Select Unpublish Moment to unpublish a Moment you have previously published.
    5. Select Delete Moment to permanently remove the Moment from your profile and Twitter.
      Note: You will see a confirmation pop-up message to confirm the deletion.


After you’ve saved your Moment as a draft:

  • You can click on the Edit button under the Moment description to continue editing your Moment.
  • Click the Tweet button under the Moment description to share your Moment with your followers.
    Note: The Tweet compose box will pop up giving you an opportunity to edit or add to the auto-populated Moment title and link in the compose box.
  • Click on the more button  under the Moment description to send your Moment via Direct Message, and to view the copy and embed links to your Moment.
    Note: As you scroll through your saved or published Moment you will see a menu pop-up on the left hand side to conveniently Edit, Tweet, or Message your Moment.

For further instructions go to: https://support.twitter.com/articles/20174961

Image: Pixabay – Public Domain licence

Posted in Twitter | Tagged | Leave a comment

Tweetdeck: some useful keyboard shortcuts

Posted on February 24, 2017 by Sue Beckingham

Tweetdeck shortcuts

With caps on hit ?: to bring up Tweetdeck shortcuts

What is Tweetdeck?

Tweetdeck was originally created by Iain Dodsworth (a Sheffield Hallam University alumnus) as a way to filter messages from people he wanted to hear from most, but at the same time stay connected to others he might want to read occasionally. He sold the third party app to Twitter in 2011 for a reputed £25m.

Tweetdeck is a valuable dashboard that allows you to view multiple timelines in one easy to use interface.  The selected Tweets appear in columns. This might include:

  • Tweets from a specific user
  • Tweets from a list of users
  • Tweets containing a specific hashtag
  • Tweets containing a specific keyword, date, location

 

Tweetdeck shortcuts

Below are a useful set of keyboard shortcuts.

The following shortcuts work from anywhere within TweetDeck:

  • A: add a column
  • S: search
  • N: new Tweet
  • ESC: close pop-up/cancel search
  • ?: show full keyboard shortcut list
search shortcut

Hit S to bring up the search box

These help you navigate through Tweets:

  • 1-9: navigate through columns 1 through 9
  • 0: jump to last column on the right
  • Left arrow key: move selection left
  • Right arrow key: move selection right
  • Up arrow key: move selection up
  • Down arrow key: move selection down

When you have selected a Tweet you can perform these shortcuts:

  • Return/Enter: opens selected Tweet
  • Backspace/ Delete: takes you back to the main column
  • R: directly reply to Tweet from a column
  • T: directly retweet a Tweet from a column
  • F: like the Tweet
  • D: Direct Message the Tweet author
  • P: show user profile for Tweet author

To get started with Tweetdeck go to tweetdeck.twitter.com and read the Getting Started with Tweetdeck notes.

Posted in Twitter | Leave a comment

Hypothes.is – a digital annotation tool for collaborative and active reading

Posted on February 4, 2017 by Sue Beckingham

annotate

To define annotation it is when you add notes, comments or opinions about a piece of writing,  or a drawing, photo, or diagram. Often these are critical explanations to add extra insight about something. These explanations can be necessary to understanding writings in which the language might be difficult to make sense of without clarification.

The term reminds of my time at school whilst taking English Literature and trying to make sense of Shakespeare in particular. The study guides which provided annotated notes were invaluable!

Hypothos.is is an online tool that enables users to digitally annotate the open web and save these notes. This can be an individual or social learning activity where users can annotate in either public or private groups.

 

To get started, you will need to register an account. Then see the resources at the bottom of this post. These explain how to use Hypothis.is in more detail, including how to create the Chrome extension you need to use this tool.

Essentially Hypothis.is provides the user with a text box in which you can add notes. The tool bar allows users to bold or italicise text and to add “pull quotes”. These can also be hyperlinked to the source. The notes made can be structured in numbered or bullet points. To supplement the text images can be added.

Another feature is being able to add tags. This enables you to add keywords to highlight thematic elements. As a shared class or group collection of annotations you can add an agreed ‘hashtag’.

Below you can see an example of the text box to be used for capturing the annotations. On the left is the paper open on my screen – Engagement or Distraction: The use of Social Media for Learning in Higher Education. On the right is the annotation space which pops up when you click on the Hypothes.is chrome extension at the top of your screen.

using hypothisis

If you click on the share icon you can easily share a link with others to collaborate on the annotations.  The options allow you to simply grab the link or share via Twitter, Facebook, Google+ or email. There is also a drop down menu next to Public where you can choose to share with a specific group (which you can easily create).

Share options

Uses in the classroom

Hypothesis can used in an education context to collaboratively annotate course readings and other internet resources.  Below is a list created by Hypothes.is providing ten suggestions on how the tools could be used in the classroom:

  1. Teacher Annotations
    Pre-populate a text with questions fro students to reply to in annotations or notes elucidating important points as they read.
  2. Annotation as Gloss
    Have students look up difficult words or unknown words or unknown allusions in a text and share their research as annotations.
  3. Annotations as Question
    Have students highlight, tag and annotate words or passages that are confusing to them in their readings.
  4. Annotation as Close Reading
    Have students identify formal textual elements and broader social and historical contexts at work in specific passages.
  5. Annotation as Rhetorical Analysis
    Have students mark and explain the use of rhetorical strategies in online articles or essays.
  6. Annotation as Opinion
    Have students share their personal opinions on a controversial topic as discussed by an article.
  7. Annotation as Multimedia Writing
    Have students annotate with images or integrate images and video into other types of annotations.
  8. Annotations as Independent Study
    Have students explore the Internet on thier own with some limited direction (find an article from a respectable source on a topic important to you personally), exercising literacy skills (define difficult words, identify persuasive strategies etc.)
  9. Annotation as Annotated Bibliography
    Have students research a topic and tag and annotate relevant texts across the Internet.
  10. Annotations as Creative Act
    Have students respond creatively to their reading with their own poetry, prose or visual art as annotations.

You can read the full article here.

Help Guides

Quick support guide: https://hypothes.is/quick-start-guide/

Hypothesis for educators: https://hypothes.is/education/

Posted in Social Learning | 1 Comment