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In a previous post I outlined some broad ideas of how to understand "lectures". At the crux of it was an initial stab at a "taxonomy/framework" for understanding characteristics of lectures. In this initial stab there were three main dimensions: participants, physical space, and time. Each had some additional sub-points....more...
The following is the first step in the People component of the Ps Framework from chapter 2 of my thesis. The first bit ("People") is the introduction to the thesis section and the following ("Students") is the first major section of that component. Hopefully, over the next week and in fairly quick progression the remaining sections of the People component will get posted....more...
I'm currently working on the People component of the Ps Framework as part of my thesis. One of the sections of the People component will be "People and cognition". It will seek to illustrate that people are not rational decision-makers, that we have all sorts of significant flaws in how we make decisions and that these flaws significant impact upon the implementation and practice of e-learning (the topic of the thesis)....more...
Some progress made this week, but it comes as a prelude to a week in which not much, if anything will be done. This week, after a couple of days at work, the family and I are off to visit Longreach, my sister and her family. We won't get back until after my normal "updates" day. So, I'll miss the updates for next week....more...
I told myself that I would get this section completed today before I went home and I have achieved that goal. Perhaps, however, I have engaged in a bit of "task corruption". A couple of days ago I was listening to a podcast about how the United States education system might be improved. One of the panelists suggested that one of the strategies employed by various school sectors to improve graduation was to make it easier to graduate. Just perhaps, in order to get this posted, I've relaxed my standards more than normal. Time will tell if it is too far....more...
A little while ago, I was sparked by Dilbert and my own prejudice against external consultants to contribute two posts (1 and 2) critical of the assumptions underlying the idea of and the contribution of such folk. In some thesis reading today, I came across this great quote the continues my basic assumption of the basic silliness of a reliance on external consultants....more...
The following is the penultimate section from the Processes section of chapter 2 of my thesis. It aims to talk about the types of processes used for learning and teaching (including e-learning). It seeks to use the lens of teleological and ateleological processes. This version has been finished quickly and could be made better. I'm trying hard to get "good enough" done and out so I can make progress. I guess supervisor feedback will tell the tale....more...
I've reached a phase in my thesis work that allows me, long after I should have, to return to Cavallo (2004). I had previously put in a place holder to remind me to go back to this paper. The full impact of the paper will likely become evident over the next few days, but this post focuses specifically on an issue I see arising locally....more...
Phillips (2005) includes the following quote...more...
I occasionally get comments (usually agreement) on the quote that I include in my email signature. The quote...more...
The following contains some initial thoughts about what might turn into a paper for ASCILITE'09. It's likely that I'll co-author this with Col Beer....more...
The following contains the next section from chapter 2 of my thesis and the section on Processes. It follows on from the section on institutional learning and teaching strategies and seeks to talk a bit about institutional strategies for e-learning....more...
I have a thing against large scale enterprise information systems (such as ERP systems like Peoplesoft or learning management systems - commercial or open source) and how they are generally implemented within organisations. This morning provides a wonderful example of why....more...
This is the first of the updates to be sent out on a Sunday. Part of a plan to move from doing this on Friday to Sunday. Mostly because there have been a couple of Friday's I've missed. Also, this might set the reflection up as the start to a week, rather then the end and consequently encourage greater emphasis on moving forward than looking back...who knows....more...
I've noticed over the last few weeks an increasing number of my colleagues, friends and relatives asking questions like "How long until you finish?"...more...
In a previous post I made public one of my half-baked ideas about connectivism. This was sparked by a similar public considerations by a colleague....more...
The following is the next section of the Process component of the Ps Framework section of my thesis. I have an inkling that my bias towards ateleological processes comes through a bit strong in this. May have to balance it up with some additions later on....more...
Within the next year AUQA are coming to pay a visit to my institution to "check our quality". I am a major cynic when it comes to quality assurance or the various other associated buzz words. An organisational unit I joined was big on the whole quality stuff, and while it was certified it was my view that most of what it was certified to do was completely and utterly wrong for the organisation. Not to mention that it was inefficient, badly designed and we had consultants reports to tell us that (not just our own views)....more...
A friend and colleague is engaged in some thinking about connectivism and its relationship with other learning theories. Thinking that is informed, sparked and perhaps somewhat unanswered by a post from George Siemens....more...
All the brilliant breakthroughs in modern medicine and in communication technologies have developed via this process. You only get this type of education in class. -- Professor Tor Hundloe...more...
This is the first draft of a section from my thesis. I'm currently working on the Process component of the Ps Framework. The section included below is the first of three sections that seeks to summarise/describe the types of processes used within universities....more...
After 12 weekly updates I missed one last week as the missus and I went on a holiday, ate some nice meals (e.g. this one), and purchased a new car. This time last week I was driving the new car out of Brisbane on the way home, hence no update....more...
As part of my new position/ I have an accountability that involves "facilitating the teaching/research nexus across the university". The notion of a teaching/research nexus is still a fairly opaque term for me (something I'll remedy in the future). While I can see the rationale behind the idea, I have my cynical doubts about whether it will end up being a term that has a meaningful impact or becomes as abused and misused as some other "terms" - e.g. generic attributes, lifelong learning etc....more...
The following post offers a description of ateleological processes and their weaknesses. It's a version 1 draft from the process components of the Ps Framework for chapter 2 of my thesis. A previous post gave a brief overview of teleological and ateleological processes and another described teleological processes and their weaknesses....more...
After a long pause due to holidays and work, here's the next installment of the process component of the Ps Framework for chapter 2 of my thesis. A previous post gave a brief overview of teleological and ateleological processes. The purpose of this post is to go into more detail about teleological processes. A subsequent post will do the same for ateleological....more...
There have been a few glimmers in this blog in my undeveloped, long stalled but slowly growing interest in the use of narrative, metaphor and myth to understand and engage in innovation around learning and teaching. Much, but not all, of this arises from the work of Dave Snowden and attending one of his workshops....more...
A local Sunday paper had an article last Sunday titled "Is this the future of our universities?" and with a sub-heading of "Attending lectures is 'old school'. This post is a first attempt to gather some thoughts about how the whole thinking about lectures in universities, including the notions around e-lectures in articles like this, are just so 'old school'. So much so that what passes for "digital lectures" is pretty limited....more...
I'm currently back from a holiday restarting work on my thesis and in particular on the process component of the Ps Framework. I'm currently working on the section that describes the two extremes, I'm using Introna's (1996) distinction between teleological design and ateleological design....more...