Masters in Learning with Technology

About

The purpose of this blog is to support the induction of the Masters in Learning with Technology delivered by the Institute for Educational Cybernetics at the University of Bolton.  The blog’s purpose is to help student researchers (our name for participants on the course) navigate the application & enrolment processes as well as introduce participants to each other and start to think about how we can use technology to support the programme.

10 Comments

10 responses so far ↓

  • Stefano Ghazzali // September 24, 2008 at 8:34 am

    Hello and Welcome to all on the course , my name is Stefano Ghazzali and I am a Learning Technologist at Manchester Business School, am looking forward to being part of the programme and looking forward to meeting other student researchers. I am sure that we will be using this blog and maybe our own blogs , maybe we should also set up a facebook group !! What do people think ???

    Regards
    Stefano :)

  • Stephen Powell // September 24, 2008 at 8:47 am

    Hi Stefano, I have created a Yahoo Pipe for the purpose of aggregating our blogs – you can pick up the feed, or read recent posts in the side bar of this blog. If you add your RSS as a comment I will add it to the aggregator.

  • Stefano Ghazzali // September 24, 2008 at 9:03 am

    Hi Stephen ,

    Nice one already got it bookmarked , have included my professional blog RSS below but be aware its not been posted too for over a year been a bit slack , sort of ties in with my comments on the you tube video , just not had the time to update but was thinking of using it for this course as its a good time to get started again

    Link Below
    feed://mbswlearningtechnologies.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

    Thanks
    Stefano :)

  • Mark Power // September 24, 2008 at 5:27 pm

    Hello all

    I’m Mark Power and I’m a Learning Technologist/Learning Technology Advisor/Researcher/Not Quite Sure(!) at the University of Bolton.

    I’ve worked for CETIS for something like 5/6 years, primarily supporting a number of the JISC eLearning Programmes. However, I also belong to the research department, the Institute for Educational Cybernetics (at Bolton). Having never really seen myself as a researcher – having no experience in research methodologies and suchlike – though has made me keen to learn more about those kinds of processes through this course.

    Also, I feel like I’ve been operating on auto-pilot for quite some time now and this course will give me a focal point and a driver to actually stop (kind of) and look at the world in which I work from a different perspective ;)

    Stefano – a Facebook Group might work. As you know I maintain an existence on there already. However, the other day I deleted all my ‘friends’ that are work colleagues as I was acutely aware that my use of it – even more so, my friends’ and family’s – was becoming more and more personal. One of the Big Questions around Social Networks in Learning right there doncha think! ;)

    Of course that doesn’t rule it out – what it does is raise a few considerations though.

    Cheers
    Mark

  • Stefano Ghazzali // September 24, 2008 at 5:50 pm

    Hi Mark,

    Long time no see buddy, Yeah I know what you mean with Facebook , but thats what I see as one of its advantages, the communication that I do through there is beneficial to my development, I like the fact that I can have work and personal contacts on there and I do agree that it poses many questions around Learning in Social Networks but it just forms one part of my PLE. Also we could set up our own social network for the course using something like Ning.com.

    I also like the fact that the course will teach me something about research methodologies and a like as I also have never really considered myself as a researcher but a Implementer !!!!
    Regards
    Stefano :)
    p.s Facebook me on how you managed to delete all your friends!!!

  • Stephen Powell // September 24, 2008 at 6:17 pm

    OK Stefano you are added…

  • Shirley Pickford // September 27, 2008 at 11:32 am

    My RSS is http://shirley.blogdrive.com/index.xml

    I’m in Facebook – there are some tools that might be useful for a course area, though I haven’t seen a group that really flies. I find it useful for personal and very informal contacts.

    What about Eduspaces? I really liked that, and it is running smoothly again. It would be faster than Facebook, has interesting community tools and would be good to explore as a tool for universities.

    I’m using a Google Site as a personal wiki. I can bring in my Google docs, calendar, upload files, create pages, edit easily. The application has possibilities as a group wiki, I think, though I’m no expert as I’ve only started using it recently and have not yet found anyone to play with :-)

  • Mark // September 27, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    Ah…I just touched on this in my reply to Shirley on the calendar page –>

    I’ve not used Eduspaces lately. There’s also Ning isn’t there. I, personally, like the idea of the iGoogle type homepage, although one thing that a ning/eduspaces setup would give us is a discussion board type utility.

    That’s the thing with this social software malrkey isn’t it….there’s so much to chose from you spend more time trying to decide WHAT to use than you do actually using it! :}

  • Stefano Ghazzali // September 27, 2008 at 4:04 pm

    EduSpaces could be good and Wiki’s could be good we use them a lot at work and they work really well

    Stefano :)

  • Colin Shaw // September 27, 2008 at 6:24 pm

    Hi All

    My name is Colin and I am currently employed as an Assistant Head of School in an FE college and as part of my job role, I am required to use VLEs and develop online teaching and learning materials. I am also have to teach in a secondary school for 7 hours per week :(

    I have personal experience of online learning and completed the BA [Hons] Learning, Technology and Research course with Anglia Ruskin University. Since completing this degree, I have co-authored two textbooks for Heinemann as well as some e-learning materials.

    I look forward to working with you all over the next couple of years.

    Col :)

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