tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11705326187923118142024-03-06T01:44:15.033+00:00The Virtual Leader...virtually anything to do with learning and leadershipUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger219125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-62390563232150945832017-03-21T10:05:00.000+00:002017-03-22T15:05:50.464+00:00Success for All?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My blog posts have had a dry run of late: my excuse is that I have been heavily involved for the past 6 months in preparing for the re-validation of our course (in Health and Social Care) whilst my teaching has also been halved, so less to talk about.<br />
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I think too that I am going through something of a reshuffle in terms of where I stand on technology enhanced teaching and learning. For the first time in a while I haven't submitted any conference abstracts or even booked myself a place on anything remotely techy.<br />
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Don't think for a moment that I have reached a point where I believe I know everything (as if!) or that I am bored with the whole shebang. No - I think it is simply that my focus has necessarily been shifted to new challenges.<br />
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Another issue which I have to recognise is that when I arrived as Course Leader, hot from having delivered a distance learning programme at another institution, I was the Tech Queen in a world of paper addicted Luddites (and that was their description, not mine!).<br />
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In the past 7 years I have seen the course move to 100% e-submission of assignments; greatly improved use of the VLE; widespread use of Socrative, Poll Everywhere and Padlet to enhance lectures; lecture capture as standard; more colleagues opting for <a href="http://thevirtualleader.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/uogapt-classroom-design-technology-and.html">Scale Up</a> type delivery and several modules now requiring students to submit blog posts, build websites and create video documentaries.<br />
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Of course, this wasn't all my doing: we have a digital skills strategy in the University and a project aimed at developing interactive teaching methods, which, together with considerable capital investment in the infrastructure has made a huge impact on what it is now possible to do and I am no longer needed as the pathfinder, or even, too often, as a mentor.<br />
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Students too are different now: 7 years ago my intro to digital skills sessions took place in a computer lab where I had to start by teaching students how to switch on the PC. Now they arrive on the first day with their Lenovo Yogas and iPads having already formed social bonds through our <a href="http://prezi.com/3aapnuiwby50/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy">course Facebook group</a>.<br />
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So what are my new challenges? I think primarily it is about narrowing attainment gaps: between BTEC and A level students, BME and white students, disabled students and not, the mature and the young, men and women.<br />
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I don't know if this is even possible but I know there is a huge drive to attempt it and I am really interested in the debates. Widening participation in education is a Good Thing in and of itself, but making a success of University education does require skill, dedication, focus - and I am talking here about teaching staff. It takes effort and imagination to prepare students to succeed.<br />
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On our course we have tried a number of new approaches in the past year.<br />
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One such was the <a href="http://thevirtualleader.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/building-students-research-skills.html">Undergraduate Research Conference</a> aimed both at developing research skills in our own students and at raising awareness in prospective students currently studying BTEC courses.<br />
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Another, was a Welcome Week activity focused on Diversity and Equality. This was based on <a href="https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/bme_synthesis_final.pdf">research</a> suggesting, amongst other things, that opening up discussions about identity and values at an early stage helped to increase students' sense of belonging. To kick start the activity, we used an <a href="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-sports-psychology/social-care/social-work/diversity-and-difference-communication/content-section-0">Open Learn module</a> as pre-reading then simply got students engaged in conversations about what "identity" meant to them. The discussions were fascinating, uncomfortable, moving and hugely valued by the students.<br />
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Another recent event was based on the <a href="http://humanlibraryuk.org/">Human Library</a> idea, with students volunteering to be human books for others to explore different experiences.<br />
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Obviously, there isn't a silver bullet: increasing the number of BME staff, developing more of a global focus on the course, individual tutor support, more inclusive teaching practices and a review of assessment practices are all part of the recipe for success. I think you will agree we have our work cut out.<br />
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And will technology enhanced teaching and learning have a role in all of this?<br />
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On the one hand, it can be a great leveller in terms of inclusive teaching - especially simple things like posting lecture notes to the VLE, lecture capture (ok - that's not all that simple) and using Padlet and polling software in lectures. Working in Scale Up with lap tops available also can help bridge the digital divide as I can sit with students and demonstrate, hands on, how they can achieve certain tasks. But our "widening participation" students are often the least confident, the least well equipped with technology, the least proficient in English, and so trying to create a digital artefact outside of class, navigating their way around online platforms, is often the biggest challenge.<br />
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So this year I have given my final year students a number of options for the completion of their reflective digital stories that allow them to use simpler technology or familiar formats. Not the end of my love affair with technology, by any means, just a pause for reflection.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-46526468672282035442016-10-19T20:03:00.000+01:002016-10-24T18:04:18.841+01:00Blog wrangling.... a guide for beginnersOk so this isn't actually going to teach you anything about blogging (or cattle wrangling come to that).... rather it's an account of how I have been getting on with constructing a class blog.<br />
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In the past couple of years I have set my final year students a task of conveying their reflections on leadership values through the medium of <strike>interpretive dance</strike> the <a href="http://thevirtualleader.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/professional-values-videos.html">photostory</a>. This year I decided not to repeat that exercise (as this particular cohort had already done something similar in their first year) but instead asked them to write a blog post - working in small groups - about what leadership means to them.<br />
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I was inspired to do this by a colleague who had dome something similar with his class the previous year: however, in his case, he had asked his students to develop their ideas in a Word Document which he had then uploaded to a blog he'd created. (Sensible chap it turns out).<br />
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Naturally that wasn't complicated enough for me; no, I decided to create a multi author blog which the students could edit themselves. I figured that learning to blog was a useful 21st century skill in itself, so, heck - why not?<br />
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I tried to smooth the process along by creating a couple of screen cast videos to show them how to post, step by step, and this has worked well in the majority of cases, but a few are still struggling to create and publish their first post. However, that is understandable. What <b><i>is</i></b> surprising (as always) are the unforeseen "challenges" of a multi author blog composed of almost complete blog novices.<br />
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So - first problem: I send out invites to the blog to the students' Uni emails and they then set up a Blogger account using a different ID (particularly if they have created a multi-access account/password), so it's quite tricky (but not impossible with a little lateral thinking) to work out who is who.....<br />
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Then because they are working in groups I have to set up a spreadsheet that records who is working with whom. Again, not too difficult as they email me with the details, but a bit of extra work.<br />
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The real doozy is how they then seem to get lost somewhere between setting up a Blogger ID and accepting my invitation and end up creating a completely separate blog !?!?! I have managed to guide most of them back to the correct site - and one student decided she liked hers so much she is going to carry on using it as her reflective space for the remainder of the year - but I really didn't see that coming.<br />
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I have had some positive feedback from students: some have really enjoyed learning a new skill, especially, the older students in the group who worried they weren't cut out to handle this "internet technology thingy". There are also some really creative, fun, engaging and reflective posts being published, so the exercise is achieving its main aim. But I am left wondering what if anything I could do to make things run a little more smoothly next year - short of asking them to send me a word document which I upload.... <br />
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And maybe some of the learning that comes out of these missteps will actually prove valuable: one student told me that she had previously been asked to write blog posts for the charity she works for - but only in a Word Document and never actually posting and editing on line herself. She was really pleased that she had now had this experience of actually contributing to a "live" blog - and indeed of setting up her own (which, naturally, she did by accident!).<br />
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The next stage is to try and get the students to leave comments for one another (I admit, I am going to moderate these!) and I will give each group feedback in the form of comments too. Once everyone is happy with the finished product, I am going to ask their permission to publish the blog so that they can see their efforts out there in the public sphere. <br />
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*UPDATE* here's the link:<a href="https://leadingteams2016.blogspot.co.uk/"> https://leadingteams2016.blogspot.co.uk/</a><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-6760284837660400282016-10-06T13:42:00.000+01:002016-10-06T13:42:26.014+01:00Office Mix is Awesome<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Had a very frustrating day yesterday trying to edit and upload a short screencast video to show my students how to post to a blog. I used ScreenCastOMatic (works just fine!) but then really struggled to edit it in Movie Maker (admittedly an old version that really doesn't work well with Windows 10). Adding an audio track also proved impossible as the Windows 10-provided Voice Recorder kept crashing on me. So I tried downloading other recommended Windows movie maker apps but found them too irritating with in app purchases and ads etc.<br />
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Next I uploaded the video to old favourite WeVideo online platform: all went smoothly but couldn't for some reason manage to publish it with an audio track (it's never failed me before.... I'm beginning to dislike Windows 10......)<br />
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I ended up doing a second screencast of my screen cast (!!!!) this time with audio, editing the video also using ScreenCastOMatic and then finally publishing that to YouTube. I know I could have done a voiceover from the get-go but there were reasons why I couldn't that I won't bore you with.<br />
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Anyway, a relatively happy ending.<br />
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But then today I remembered someone mentioning <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjh49T_lsbPAhWXOsAKHSdSCscQFggcMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmix.office.com%2F&usg=AFQjCNEO_mPJfrA1R2v4hqfyA925OK9lmA&sig2=tvNpGXLRBX53g58aY2mllw">Office Mix</a>. So - I downloaded it, watched the introductory tutorial videos, created a screen recording within a slide, <b><i>with</i></b> audio, uploaded it to Office Mix online, copied the link into my learning room and "Voila!!" I think it took about 20 minutes.<br />
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Oh - and it's free!<br />
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So happy am I that I am going to recommend this to my students as the number one tool for creating their digital stories next term :)<br />
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In the meantime, the students are about to embark on creating a class blog about leadership values. I decided to move away from the <a href="http://thevirtualleader.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/professional-values-videos.html">simple photostory </a>we had done in the previous two years, partly because this cohort already did that in Year 1. And because I think writing for an audience is a useful skill which is a little more taxing at this level than a simple photo +caption artefact.<br />
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More on this in my next post :)<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-30691802909145738762016-09-30T13:24:00.000+01:002016-09-30T13:25:53.349+01:00Building Students' Research Skills - ReflectionsAn unintended consequence of the <a href="http://thevirtualleader.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/building-students-research-skills.html">Undergraduate Research Conference </a>we ran in April is that it is being held up as an example (within my University at least) of how we can prepare and support BTEC students in their transition to University AND of widening participation.<br />
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I say unintended because the original plan was simply to try and get our existing students engaged in research. Inviting local colleges to participate - especially those in disadvantaged areas - and focusing on current BTEC students ticked the boxes around widening participation for our Schools Colleges and Community Outreach team, but the focus on research skills also provided extra study skills support for those current undergraduates with a BTEC background.<br />
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I was invited (along with my colleague Sarah Barkley from SCCO) to talk about the event at a recent BTEC Symposium - here is the Prezi:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="400" id="iframe_container" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://prezi.com/embed/dv2fmtzfnfys/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&landing_data=bHVZZmNaNDBIWnNjdEVENDRhZDFNZGNIUE43MHdLNWpsdFJLb2ZHanI5aEhyRlNUSjZuRnhDS2QxTnZRQUtDMEZ3PT0&landing_sign=KhuMJ18G2czWcfAJorXuTwwFFfxEWw-6UJtSzmBXUGg" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="550"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-25249772383261147412016-09-03T14:28:00.003+01:002016-09-08T07:31:27.257+01:00#altc Tell it like it is!oh dear! I have been quiet recently....<br />
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well, the new academic year looms and even before I get to experience that particular joy, I have a session to deliver at ALTC in Warwick next week - on the theme of Digital Storytelling (of course).<br />
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You can get a preview of my presentation via the Prezi below. It includes a short video with highlights from this year's crop of stories. For more posts on my journey, click on the digital storytelling label below.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="400" id="iframe_container" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://prezi.com/embed/nihjpioqkvuc/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&landing_data=bHVZZmNaNDBIWnNjdEVENDRhZDFNZGNIUE43MHdLNWpsdFJLb2ZHanI0dDlBdXNwL05UUnRmVFA3K2l5Q2JFQm9BPT0&landing_sign=BZRiBY_jqyARKCQMxotk9DFQEVpihAR-AJ3uLAx1Px4" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="550"></iframe>
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<b><u>What's next?</u></b><br />
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I am going to be using the same assessment with my final year students this year - I think both they and I have found it to be a very creative and engaging task, and as a way of reflecting on learning it is proving to be very effective: far more so than the traditional assessments I have used in the past.<br />
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This year's batch are going to be especially interesting as this is the only cohort that will have completed a digital story in both years 1 and 3. I hesitated for a while about whether to ask them to repeat the assignment but I think doing so will allow both them and me to compare the two artefacts and measure the distance travelled....<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-49188699494204218052016-04-24T12:53:00.000+01:002016-12-16T10:44:56.119+00:00Building students' research skills<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPjCMqDzz43yM17pet_sx7i91nNlezpXVFYytTQj2Paewntr1BjCWdahiO1LeVkrxf_8LQb9_fXcuU5KQ9B1VR8jiBCanjYX8kMtZN4SgAgcWw4m8ZX7ovycErljr3ItjxRAXFnK5W2lXo/s1600/IMG_1570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPjCMqDzz43yM17pet_sx7i91nNlezpXVFYytTQj2Paewntr1BjCWdahiO1LeVkrxf_8LQb9_fXcuU5KQ9B1VR8jiBCanjYX8kMtZN4SgAgcWw4m8ZX7ovycErljr3ItjxRAXFnK5W2lXo/s200/IMG_1570.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi63cDc2r3HvdYCqXGb9UEQBUIBCYT0SRJn-l0IUAPiqfWQqP-7I1G1lkETAtBSO83ZvnGBxXTZIbumjxiUBPk1tMnTaR2J9ccmNUjQjewtA42RWC81PIZErA7gyGVXKG7IMbzrDFIlceqZ/s1600/IMG_1578.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi63cDc2r3HvdYCqXGb9UEQBUIBCYT0SRJn-l0IUAPiqfWQqP-7I1G1lkETAtBSO83ZvnGBxXTZIbumjxiUBPk1tMnTaR2J9ccmNUjQjewtA42RWC81PIZErA7gyGVXKG7IMbzrDFIlceqZ/s200/IMG_1578.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Winners of the best overall poster on Elder Abuse</td></tr>
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And so - it's finally been and gone. The past few weeks have been a bit of a nightmare but in the end I think we can say it was a success and definitely worth doing again.<br />
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So here's the low down - what we did and why, the outcomes, and the do's and dont's of organising an Undergraduate Research Conference.<br />
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<b>The problem: </b>students at Level 6 approaching their capstone dissertation show limited understanding of the basics of research methods, poor referencing skills and even worse skills in searching for appropriate literature.<br />
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The Level 4 introduction to referencing and literature searching and the Level 5 Research Methods are dismissed time and time again in students' module evaluations as boring and irrelevant. So for the past 4 years as a team we have been rethinking our approach. The problem seems to lie in students applying their skills so having an authentic assessment task at the end of the first year seemed like a possible way forward, and an undergraduate research conference that involved an audience of fellow students, teaching and support staff, local employers and colleges, seemed like a way of achieving this.<br />
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<b>The task:</b> students were required to produce a research poster related to a contemporary Health and Social Care issue. Students chose their own topics, worked in small groups, carrying out independent research and presented their final work as either a PowerPoint slide (templates are available in Powerpoint), as a Prezi or a Padlet wall. Independent research had to include a literature review (for the final poster) and could incorporate a small scale piece of primary research (typically a survey of fellow students or teaching staff).<br />
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As a formative task, in preparation for the final poster, students had to prepare a short presentation (5 minutes - 5/6 slides only) in which they pitched their research proposal. This was fairly structured with specific questions to be answered, including an early indication of the literature used so far. I was able to give feedback on referencing and quality of sources (see results) and used this as an opportunity to also discuss the appropriateness of proposed research methods, including ethical considerations.<br />
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<b>The teaching methods: </b>the module is supported by a team of teachers including our Subject Librarian (Emma Hayes) and Learning Support Coordinator (Sian Trafford), as well as a Post Graduate Researcher (Louise Griffiths). Emma and Sian took charge of literature searching and referencing, Louise supported the students to produce an academic research poster and I taught a basic introduction to research methodology. The module is taught in the Scale Up classroom which really lends itself to interactive, group based activities, so traditional lecturing was kept to a minimum. Emma really livened up a potentially rather dull area by employing <a href="http://www.socrative.com/" target="_blank">Socrative </a>for competitive team quizzes on referencing and <a href="https://padlet.com/" target="_blank">Padlet</a> was used regularly to capture groups' ideas. As the task was group based, Scale Up (with round tables for up to 9 students and laptops available) makes the ideal environment for students to get on with tasks in class, with tutor support on hand. Sessions are typically 40% teacher input (mini lectures, tutorial support and directed activities) and 60% independent project work.<br />
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<b>The results: </b>The great thing about having a formative task mid-way through the process is that it allowed us to see what was going well and what the students were not quite grasping. Looking at the group presentations, it was clear that the messages about using good quality resources was not going in and many references were to news media (the Daily Mail ranked high in the list of publications!) and digest websites such as Psychology Today. In a tragic case of mis-timing I gave students the feedback on the same day they were asked to complete their module evaluations, so you can imagine how that went.... Whilst the proposals were imaginative and dealt with relevant issues, the level of research skills was not particularly great. Here are the stats for this particular criterion:<br />
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Adjusting the remaining teaching sessions, we went over literature search techniques, evaluation of sources and referencing once again and insisted that a short literature review of at least 3 peer reviewed articles be included in the final poster.<br />
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This time, we saw a real improvement:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyAG4eOcIfBeltusuAWl6x-HeJB0DIQ58RQ-Lf3CcCutc-LJ_SWNgG0qi405bGgcfZ753l7x5zUPcFF0cFZ8rKj0DKrlW186-Bm6yyj6_3LJHpeW-63TKrgLKWyvr0ocBXWRqLkj7ZReRw/s1600/Screenshot+2016-04-24+10.42.29.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyAG4eOcIfBeltusuAWl6x-HeJB0DIQ58RQ-Lf3CcCutc-LJ_SWNgG0qi405bGgcfZ753l7x5zUPcFF0cFZ8rKj0DKrlW186-Bm6yyj6_3LJHpeW-63TKrgLKWyvr0ocBXWRqLkj7ZReRw/s640/Screenshot+2016-04-24+10.42.29.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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The week before the conference, I ran a drop in session in which students were given detailed feedback on their posters and the winning submissions for the conference were announced. This session saw a lot of smiling faces - even those who hadn't been selected were really pleased with their results, as in the majority if cases they had seen an improvement in their grades.<br />
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Poster themes were very varied including several on mental health - one looked at Bipolar Disorder in Children, another at Men and Depression; one contrasted postnatal depression in British White and British Pakistani women and 2 dealt with students and mental health. Men as Victims of Domestic Abuse, Elder Abuse, Workplace Bullying, Child Protection and Fostering were other topics studied. <br />
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For the conference, we simply selected the posters with the highest grades. The idea was to have visitors voting on their favourites and to award prizes for the three best - best poster by college students, best undergraduate and best overall.<br />
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<b>The conference:</b> We were fortunate in having the support of our excellent Schools Outreach and Marketing teams to help with the logistics. We also had a ready made venue (our normal Scale Up classroom was big enough for the modest numbers proposed providing sufficient display space for the posters, as well as suitable seating arrangements for the discussion groups and presentations).<br />
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The half day event included short talks on post graduate research and careers in health and social care (giving our students an idea of what they can aim for) and discussion groups on independent learning and research skills (this latter session hosted by a 2nd year student, Sarah Swanwick) to help first year students think about their progression on the course and to give Year 12 students from local colleges an idea of what study at University is all about.<br />
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These sessions all evaluated really well. Undergraduates tended to prefer the session on independent learning whilst the college students were most interested in the talk on careers. Other interesting feedback from the college students was that they came to the event not having considered this as a degree subject (even though they were all studying a Health and Social Care A level or BTEC award), tending rather to think in terms of a nursing or social work qualification, but they ended the day having far greater insight into available careers in the field and even considering applying for this course!<br />
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For the college students, the highlight of the event was meeting current undergraduates and teaching staff whilst our undergraduates enjoyed looking at one another's posters best of all. They were also interested to meet teaching staff they had not yet encountered (those who teach primarily on the 3rd year dissertation module came along to vote in the best poster competition) and at least one of our first year students has acquired a work placement with the local health and social care organisation that was represented on the day.<br />
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<b>The final verdict and some notes to self: </b>The hardest part of the whole conference was getting people there. Timing was tricky - we could not run the event any earlier because of the assignment deadlines (set for the last week of Term 2), but as it fell after Easter, it clashed with mock exams in colleges which reduced the participation from that quarter. Some of our third year students had originally asked if they could be involved running discussion groups in order to get feedback they needed for a project evaluation but pulled out at the last minute (one less than 8 hours before!) when they suddenly realised this was the week their final dissertation was due to be submitted.....<br />
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Most disappointing was that three groups who had had their posters selected for the final conference and competition did not send <i>any</i> representatives on the day. Interestingly these were also the only groups that had submitted Prezis, so with no one at their displays to press the buttons and talk visitors through their work, they were largely ignored and attracted only a handful of votes in each case.<br />
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I don't really know how to solve these problems. With a bigger venue and budget and more support from the rest of the course team, I think this could become a display of ALL posters (about 30 in total). With potentially 150 students involved, drop outs would be less of an issue. As for the college students - we had applications from 20 but only 8 made it on the day - starting recruitment earlier and providing more support to the colleges could help, but timing is probably still likely to be an issue.<br />
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For those who came, it was definitely worthwhile: staff were impressed at the quality of the work, our local authority visitors were really engaged talking to students and delighted to have been invited, those students who turned up gave us a big thumbs up in their satisfaction ratings (yes - much better than the module evaluation!!) and the poster competition and presentation of small prizes and certificates made for a great celebration of their efforts.<br />
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The next step is to try and bring this level of engagement into the second year module. I would like to have both years involved in the same event, perhaps as part of a summative assessment task. And eventually all 3 years. My hope is that this becomes part of our normal academic year, with conversations about research theory and practice between all students and staff seen as both a normal part of teaching and learning and also something to occasionally get excited about.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-14232826769000033182016-03-26T18:33:00.003+00:002016-04-07T20:06:47.064+01:00 Celebrating student research<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtGgZcNudRhrg4RMpms27Bk5U8BK_3KrFbsUWzeKv6SlfR4Z08mqdTLU6JkE2XtmSDVTmWKfkytJWdn-ljzWHXqmeMrOfqr0TvNpbiA2pWdoUz64RilmE2iFatXF2sMyHXK5cGPpOTh6C6/s1600/studying-951818_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtGgZcNudRhrg4RMpms27Bk5U8BK_3KrFbsUWzeKv6SlfR4Z08mqdTLU6JkE2XtmSDVTmWKfkytJWdn-ljzWHXqmeMrOfqr0TvNpbiA2pWdoUz64RilmE2iFatXF2sMyHXK5cGPpOTh6C6/s400/studying-951818_1280.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
There are number of problems in getting students to engage with research: it can be quite difficult for first year students in particular (but not first years exclusively!) to "get" the point of research; it can be a challenge for them to design their own research projects and it is even more challenging for them to read academic research articles. Nonetheless, I think it is a nettle worth grasping for all sorts of reasons - and as early as possible in the undergraduate life-cycle.<br />
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This year I have been engaged in a year long project trying out a new way (for me) of encouraging first year students to engage with research - one that is to culminate in a few weeks' time (18 April 2016) with an undergraduate research conference.<br />
<br />
The process began back in the first term with an <a href="http://thevirtualleader.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/opening-doors-on-peer-to-peer-learning.html" target="_blank">open door conversation</a> between first and second year students on the significance of research in their studies and the sharing of ideas about possible research themes. I then invited library and learning support staff and a couple of early career researchers to come in to my classes and teach basic skills. I also provided an introduction to research methodologies, methods and ethics, and devised various activities around constructing surveys and interview questions.<br />
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Since Christmas the students have been working in small groups to investigate a topic of their own choosing - firstly outlining this in a five minute presentation to the rest of the cohort, and secondly, designing a research poster which has to include a literature review and some primary research of their own (mainly based on surveys of their fellow students).<br />
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On the whole - judging from the results so far - the students seem to have enjoyed this activity and are certainly showing evidence of beginning to "get" research. Some of the primary research has been creative: one group surveyed a small group of social work lecturers to get a professional's eye-view of child protection; others sent out survey invitations via the course Facebook group. Similarly, the approach to poster design has allowed many to show their artistic and technical flair with a number using Prezi, and many incorporating really eye catching visuals.<br />
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The skills the students acquire during this process are multiple: information searching; evaluation of literature and research results; managing group work; presentation of information in graphical form; writing concisely; citation and referencing; finding, downloading, inserting and editing copyright free images; communicating ideas verbally and in public..... and probably lots more.<br />
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And yes - if you are thinking this all sounds like really hard work - it is. Students constantly complain to me that the whole business of working in groups is painful (and I empathise to some extent: it's damned painful for me sorting out squabbles and no-shows!); they extol the virtues of lecturers who simply give them handouts and essay questions to turn in at the year end; I get dispirited by the rubbish module evaluation results I get as a result ... and on top of all that I have a bloomin' conference to organise! I have to keep telling myself - and them - that it will all be worth it in the end: and now the posters are being submitted for marking - you know what? I almost believe it is!<br />
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So the conference will be a chance for the students to show off all their hard work: students from local school and colleges will make up the audience. There will be short, themed discussions; presentations from post graduate researchers and final year students; and I am hoping the course budget will stretch to tea and cake .....<br />
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I promise there will be a full report here on my blog, with photos and examples of students' work, just as soon as I have recovered! In the meantime - here's <a href="https://youtu.be/088gn6oMCog?t=1m26s" target="_blank">a short video</a> I created for the schools and colleges we have invited to participate, explaining how to create a research poster.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-42871148454584315422016-02-10T10:41:00.001+00:002016-12-16T10:39:55.432+00:00Engaging with Feedback<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">http://mindinbexley.org.uk/feedback/</td></tr>
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It's a common complaint of teaching staff that they spend hours carefully crafting feedback only to have students ignore it - especially first and second years. I know in my own team we have discussed this endlessly, raised it in course committees, berated students in class, introduced the topic into tutor groups....<br />
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This year I think I may have accidentally hit on something. Students in year 1 have just finished a group presentation which is worth 30% of their final grade and is the precursor to a more in depth piece of work that results in an academic research poster (and undergraduate mini-conference: more of that later!)<br />
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Feedback on their presentation was virtually instantaneous: I typed it up as they presented and published the feedback on the VLE a couple of hours later. Naturally they all immediately looked to see what grade they had received.<br />
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Then in this week's class I gave them an exercise to do on using Gibbs' reflective cycle. Principally, my intention was to get them to think about how they had performed as a team. I know the process of working in a group was very difficult for some individuals and I wanted to get some feedback from the majority on how it had gone. However, in their reflections they also took the opportunity to READ THE FEEDBACK I had given them and to use that to think about how they could improve their presentation and communication skills going forward.<br />
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A key factor in this is that I had given them another two weeks after their presentation to work on and formally submit their PowerPoint or Prezi, thereby potentially improving their grade. This has also stimulated them to read and understand the feedback they have been given. I think another factor not to be ignored is that they performed their presentations <i>in front of one another</i> and they were able to learn from this how other groups had approached the task. One of the problems with tutor/student dialogue is that it is most often private: other students rarely see how their peers perform and don't know how to judge themselves against any benchmark other than the grading criteria. As well as socially constructed learning at the level of knowledge and understanding, these types of group based public assessments can help to construct a shared understanding of practical approaches and skills.<br />
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I have done an activity along these lines with the final year students for the past couple of years: following on from their <a href="http://thevirtualleader.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/student-led-learning.html" target="_blank">student-led learning activities</a>, each group reflects on a) the group process b) the feedback from me c) the evaluations provided by their peers and d) their own evaluation of how the session went, and they then present this evaluation as an assessed submission.<br />
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The reflective exercise I did with the first years was not assessed but it certainly yielded some interesting comments: <br />
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On "what I would do differently next time", they said:<br />
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"do more research"<br />
"have note cards instead of reading from the screen"<br />
"less text and more images on the slides"<br />
"use our personal experience to give examples"<br />
"add citations"<br />
"speak slowly and loudly" <br />
"use academic journals instead of websites"<br />
"include statistics"<br />
"be more organised and don't start at the last minute"<br />
"arrange more team meetings"<br />
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Ah! music to my ears......now lets just hope they put it all into practice!<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-18417415197021026192016-01-09T11:49:00.003+00:002016-07-10T16:26:00.096+01:00#melsigntu My takeaways<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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Yesterday was my first ever MELSIG event and - apart from <a href="http://thevirtualleader.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/melsig-melsigntu-digital-narratives.html">presenting my own work on digital storytelling</a> - I got a great deal out of it, as always at these type of events, by chatting with lots of like minded souls and catching up with Twitter buddies.<br />
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My three takeaways are:<br />
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1) from <a href="http://twitter.com/cbthomson">Chris Thomson at JISC</a> - that though it is true that stories are a part of our everyday lives, not everyone knows how to write/construct one.... so....<br />
2) the <a href="http://img.docstoccdn.com/thumb/orig/6584122.png">Story Mountain </a>(see above) could be a brilliant framework to share with students (I missed this session but picked up the idea on the Twitter stream)<br />
and<br />
3) that I should be brave and revisit <a href="http://ds106.us/">DS106</a> as, after <a href="http://twitter.com/VivienRolfe">Viv Rolfe</a>'s fascinating talk, I found there much to get inspired by!<br />
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OK - one more: I really should go back to Storify and use it with my students on curation and research tasks, as <a href="http://twitter.com/suebecks">Sue Beckingham</a> advocated so eloquently.... <a href="https://storify.com/suebecks/making-and-telling-a-good-story-with-storify">making and telling a good story with storify </a><br />
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I was also asked a very interesting question about the previous academic experience of my students and whether it made any difference to their approach to the digital story format. The hypothesis - which I plan to test - is that those from a BTEC background were more comfortable with a non-traditional assessment than the A level students. I have the data - just need to get rummaging through it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-78722401060624034212016-01-04T12:44:00.000+00:002016-01-07T12:19:09.130+00:00#melsig #melsigntu Digital Narratives <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It seems only fair that I finally put together my own digital story! So here are my slides for the #melsigntu event, complete with voice over.</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qw3ykKkpzlA" width="560"></iframe><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And here are just the slides:
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="385" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/fZuC1cpZyI2yRJ" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="495"> </iframe> </span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 5px;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/jchall00/tell-me-a-story-52492726" target="_blank" title="Tell me a story">Tell me a story</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/jchall00" target="_blank">Jane Challinor</a></strong></span> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other useful links referred to in my video:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jenny Moon's Map of Learning:<a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/education/ctlr/documents/jenny-moon-workshop---reflection-in-higher-education-learning.docx">conference hand out</a> or </span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reflection-Learning-Professional-Development-Practice/dp/074943452X"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">to buy the book</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/page.cfm?id=23&cid=23">Digital Storytelling in Education website</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Euoyp_es5Ao">21C Skills video</a> (animation - in Spanish): </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Go Joven Project - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSNiRqGN0uU&feature=youtu.be">Health Education Digital Story</a> (in Spanish with English subtitles)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Digital storytelling <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU1SkaTsv78">from the students' perspective</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My previous blog posts outlining the process I went through with my students - and their examples/feedback: <a href="http://thevirtualleader.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/digital%20storytelling" target="_blank">Digistory posts</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And finally, an example of a digital story produced by one of my final year students (and a far better one than than my attempt!) :</span><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-31600421511847570712015-11-12T11:52:00.001+00:002015-11-12T14:42:54.057+00:00Opening the doors on peer to peer learning<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8y_xqBwSQtDin1xp-GcI7fO9sjDy7IAGsrncWyiFKSZ6PwxGBxenIUVeVdRYjg1ICBguBapsNlOr7RMKJQQznoEHQuY16C-Jekyck1qaFyjZS1OYcJhdR1xgprzXmucjs4RSmhAlSkatF/s1600/dorrhake-801685_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8y_xqBwSQtDin1xp-GcI7fO9sjDy7IAGsrncWyiFKSZ6PwxGBxenIUVeVdRYjg1ICBguBapsNlOr7RMKJQQznoEHQuY16C-Jekyck1qaFyjZS1OYcJhdR1xgprzXmucjs4RSmhAlSkatF/s400/dorrhake-801685_1920.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />
A couple of weeks ago my colleague and I ran our mash-up/open-door session for first and second years on "choosing your research topic"<br />
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I term it "open door" because we literally had partition doors opened between our respective classes that run at the same time on a Monday afternoon. My colleague takes the second years for a research skills module whilst I am next door teaching the first years a general introduction to studying in HE, which is presently focused on developing a group reseach project.<br />
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We planned the session as a "world cafe" event to give students from one year an opportunity to meet as many in the other as possible. Each table had a "host", a question to be discussed and flipchart paper and pens.<br />
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The questions were:<br />
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 12px; padding-left: 30px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="s1">A= </span>What are the big issues currently in the news concerning health and social care?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 12px; padding-left: 30px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">B = What issues in health and social care do you think are neglected? (could benefit from more research)</span></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 12px; padding-left: 30px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">C = What are the best resources to help you with your research?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 12px; padding-left: 30px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">D = What makes a group project/presentation really successful?</span></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 12px; padding-left: 30px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">E= How does work experience help with understanding subjects studied on the course (and vice versa)</span></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="font-size: 12px; padding-left: 30px;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">F = What are your career plans and how could your research help you achieve them? </span></span></div>
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The event went pretty much as planned and there was a fabulous level energy in the room - LOTS of chat and laughter and the table hosts fed back using a hand held mic, to general applause.<br />
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At the end of the session we used audience response "clickers" to get some instant feedback. In general, the reaction from the students was very positive - 66% of all responses indicated that meeting other students and learning from one another were much appreciated, just 10% felt it was NOT useful.<br />
<br />
When asked if they wanted a repeat session, the first years were 65% against and the second years 66% against. However, there were slight variations in the two iterations of the session.<br />
In group one (76 students), which was actually quite crowded (most students preferred the earlier start time and came along depsite what their timetable said...) the feeling was more pronounced - particularly amongst the 2nd years (76% said no). In the second session, a much smaller number overall (46 students), the second years were actually more positive and 60% voted <i>in favour</i> of a repeat session. This second group contained a number of mature second year students who reported that they had enjoyed taking on a mentoring role with the younger students.<br />
<br />
52% of all students said that overall the session had helped them to understand the importance of research on the course but only 20% felt they were any clearer about their actual choice of research topic. In a sense this is not that surprising as it is still very early in the term and such decisions have yet to be finalised. And for the first year students, this was the first time they had been asked to think about this question.<br />
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There were however some tangible outputs in the form of flipcharts full of research topic ideas, (which we also photographed and later posted on the VLE).<br />
<br />
Before embarking on this session I had crowdsourced <a href="http://thevirtualleader.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/vertical-teaching.html" target="_blank">a bit of advice</a>. One comment that really stood out from <a href="https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/peer_learning_workshop_presentation.pdf" target="_blank">Joan Mahoney at the HEA</a> was to really think about what you are trying to achieve.<br />
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With hindsight, I suspect we were trying to achieve too much, too soon; asking for some volunteer mentors to help the first years think about designing their research topics might work better, whilst this could also provide a more structured experience for the 2nd year mentors, especially with better advance briefing or training.<br />
<br />
Having now set the first year students off on developing their group research projects, I do feel that they have a better grasp of current issues and are ready to engage with them, so the "topics brainstorm" element of the open doors session was definitely helpful. The other thing I have noticed is a major increase of late in traffic on the course Facebook groups (first and second years) where students have lately been posting relevant articles, book recommendations and even guidance on how to select a research topic - including references back to the joint session we ran. Second year students have also suggested that they would welcome some joint teaching with Year 3 around research.<br />
<br />
So nothing conclusive from the experiment, but definitely food for thought for future research teaching across all three years.<br />
<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-26216463601203909822015-10-08T14:32:00.001+01:002015-10-08T17:45:04.007+01:00Reflecting on the digital story<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQvB75Wp4vrYtdIaIXy1kKimXpRkX537F3Yf327kNGNm_VHUhVECKQO0eEBa6IhuDl7wnSdA-F7dVO4uQYIhu9-BApJNuQ1HS7zr9q2-lOGWJlwVRi9K-COGPFf8mnezLUOsUM53q2QsEy/s1600/4968486334_b75dee1637_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQvB75Wp4vrYtdIaIXy1kKimXpRkX537F3Yf327kNGNm_VHUhVECKQO0eEBa6IhuDl7wnSdA-F7dVO4uQYIhu9-BApJNuQ1HS7zr9q2-lOGWJlwVRi9K-COGPFf8mnezLUOsUM53q2QsEy/s640/4968486334_b75dee1637_b.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">image: jane challinor</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Over the summer I have been working with colleagues at UIB on a paper outlining our adventures with digital storytelling. We reached a conclusion that whilst as a learning activity it had value in promoting collaboration and an awareness of open educational practices as well as developing digital skills, there are caveats about its use for developing reflective skills, particularly with students at the beginning of their university studies.<br />
<br />
What we found, in broad terms is that more mature students are better at reflecting (that is they reflect more deeply). This has led me to conclude that as an activity designed to promote reflectivity - and especially as a reflective assessment tool - it is perhaps best left until the final year.<br />
<br />
For me this was also borne out by the large number of first year students who failed to submit the digital story at the first (and even 2nd) attempt. This could just be a consequence of having a large number of student last year (ie we were just more likely to have students who had unrelated problems that prevented them from submitting) but in reality the module had the highest number of referred and non-submitting students across the course (around 10%) whereas in the past it has had the lowest incidence of non-submission and referral.<br />
<br />
Well - I may be jumping the gun in putting this all down to the mode of final assessment, and it is certainly the case that the final year students all submitted and all passed - most at a high level, but it has certainly given me pause for thought.<br />
<br />
Indeed I have already decided to change the mode of assessment for the first year module this year, reverting to a group research project which has worked well in the past. I will though run the same assessment for the final years.<br />
<br />
Ok - but what did the first year students think? I am going to be giving a guest session on the second year research module later in the year and I have decided to use the digital storytelling project as my theme. I have therefore asked the students themselves to provide me with feedback on their experience of the final assessment last academic year - and I will feedback to them the findings of that survey.<br />
<br />
So here's a sneak preview. I have had 52 responses so far out of a cohort of 126 (41%). Of these 90% are female (this reflects the makeup of the cohort) and 70% are aged 18-24.<br />
23% are over 35 years old.<br />
<br />
In creating their digital story, 70% used Prezi, 24% Powerpoint (12 students) and 6% another online tool - Knovio. As a result of their experience, 75% said they are likely to use the same or another online tool in future for presentations and collaborative tasks. Just 28% (14 students) said they would only use PowerPoint going forward (suggesting that 2 students have tried online platforms and decided to revert to PowerPoint).<br />
<br />
<b>What did they get out of the experience?</b><br />
78% thought it fun<br />
57% thought it was technically challenging<br />
85% said it had helped them to improve their reflective skills<br />
82% said it had helped them improve their digital skills<br />
80% thought it had given them confidence to create content on line<br />
86% thought it relevant to their studies<br />
but just 47% thought it relevant to their future career - and only 44% would mention this as a skill on their CV<br />
<br />
Comments from the students expand a little on these results:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><b>Positive and constructive feedback:</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">a. I feel like the digital story assignment was not quite challenging enough. It seemed to be more of an easy and fun task to complete . </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">b. On reflection I should of challenged myself more. Been more adventures</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">c. I really enjoyed this assignment and it boosted my self confidence. I was very proud at what I had achieved and how much I had progressed.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">d. I found the digital story difficult and daunting to begin with, but eventually enjoyed creating my story and proud that I did so.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">e. Digital story was something I had usually done in the medium of film. I'm really glad we had this assignment as it opened my eyes to more digital platforms. I also think this would be a fantastic tool to use with certain more tech minded service users</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">f. It was very enjoyable, relevant to my studies, and gave you chance to create a bit of fun into studies rather than essays, it gave you a breather from the heavy work. Before I came to your lesson I did not know about Prezi but I will certainly use it again,</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">g. Enjoyable task however, talking in the video was a little tasking, a lot of preparation is needed for someone who lacks in confidence</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">__________________________________________________________________________________________</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><b>Negative feedback:</b></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">h. I think that it was completely pointless and irrelevant to our course. I don't know why we needed to do it personally, and I think that it should be scraped for the new people starting the course.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;">i. I just thought the story telling was irrelevant to what we needed to do most people didn't want to do it I perfer the other tasks this one was just too much</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #e5f4f3; color: #333333; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span>
<br />
On the whole, the student response is a lot more positive than I had anticipated. Interestingly the two final, highly negative comments came from students in the 18-24 year old group. These were the only two completely negative responses, and even one of these (i) felt that her digital and reflective skills had improved as a result of the task. The more positive comments (c-f) came from the over 35's.<br />
<br />
I do now have some regret about abandoning the reflective digital story this year. However, the use of digital tools to present the outcomes of research will form a large part of the final group project that they are engaged in this year. Hopefully, this will preserve the "fun" and creative elements of the assessment task as well as continuing to develop confidence in creating online content.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-74185957944659017972015-09-27T16:33:00.000+01:002015-09-28T12:14:13.511+01:00Vertical Teaching<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/3d10_fm_de_vilafranca.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/3d10_fm_de_vilafranca.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
In response to suggestions from students, a colleague and I have volunteered to run an open class for first and second years together in Term 1.<br />
<br />
We are both engaged in teaching research skills - albeit at different levels - and in this session we will be encouraging students to share and develop ideas about possible research projects they are going to do this year. A hoped for by product is a sharing of experiences and developing bonds between the two year groups.<br />
<br />
We don't currently have a PAL, PASS or student mentoring system in place - we have tried this in the past with little success, but it is something I'd like to see resurrected - and this open class could be the beginning.<br />
<br />
However, being uncertain how to go about such a venture, and wondering if anyone had tried this before, I used the LDHEN email list to solicit ideas, links, advice. Here's what I got back.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><b>Sandra Abegglen (London Met): </b><br />
Abegglen, S., Burns, T. & Sinfield, S. (2015). Voices from the margins:
Narratives of learning development in a digital age. The Journal of Educational
Innovation, Partnership and Change, 1(1). Available online: <a href="https://journals.gre.ac.uk/index.php/studentchangeagents/article/view/148">https://journals.gre.ac.uk/index.php/studentchangeagents/article/view/148</a><br />
<br />
I am also running a blog that gives insight into the work we are doing: <a href="http://peermentoringinpractice.com/">http://peermentoringinpractice.com/</a></span><br />
<br />
<b>Sandra Sinfield (London Met): </b>we run<span style="font-family: inherit;"> a second year
module: Peer Mentoring in Practice (PMiP) which wraps around a core first year
module: Becoming an Educationalist.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Part of the
work of the second year module is to support the first years with their
developing sense of belonging - and also to facilitate their various first year
projects: blogging to learn; develop a digital me; study & academic skills
research project.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">We have the
modules running concurrently - and specifically the third hour of the PMiP
module requires the students to be with the first year students.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b>Ricardo Eversely (London Met): </b>I teach within the Visual Communication cluster on the BA
Graphic Design and Illustration courses. We currently employ this system within
our Design School teaching at <a href="http://www.thecass.com/">www.thecass.com</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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It's called the Studio System here at The Cass and works
within a framework that sees <b>2nd and 3rd year students sharing the same
workspace</b> for three out of their four modules throughout the year. <a href="http://www.ricardoeversley.com/the-studio-system/">MY STUDIOS TO DATE</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Liz Thomas (Edgehill):<span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="background-color: white;">There are a range of examples of across year collaboration in the
Compendium of Effective Practice in Directed Independent Learning (</span><a href="https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resource/compendium-effective-practice-directed-independent-learning" style="background-color: white;">https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resource/compendium-effective-practice-directed-independent-learning</a><span style="background-color: white;">)
which might give you some ideas.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">Joan Mahoney (HEA Academy): </span></span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here are some slides I used for a workshop last year. </span><a href="https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/peer_learning_workshop_presentation.pdf" style="font-family: inherit;">https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/peer_learning_workshop_presentation.pdf</a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There’s a few research references in these. </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The key thing, I think, (its almost impossible!) is finding time
to really plan and to think through each step. Be really clear what </span><u style="font-family: inherit;">it is </u><span style="font-family: inherit;">that
you are doing. E.g are you providing mentoring? are you providing peer-led
learning? (students need to be clear they are not teaching). There are a whole
pile of nuts and bolts that need to be considered (noted in the slides).
If everyone is clear what it is they are involved in, and are using the
same language, that helps</span></div>
<div style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<b>Nicholas Bowskill (Derby):</b> We've done this for various
applications including student induction & transition. The important point
for us was to make sessions benefit both Year1 and Year2 students. We ran a
student-generated transition session for 2nd year students so they could talk
and listen to each other. We then ran a student-generated induction session for
Year 1 students so they could do the same. We then had Year2 students respond
to the issues raised by Year1 students.<br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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The outcome was a chance to
reflect for Year2 students (on previous year and their second year at
university). It was a chance for Year 1 students to recognise they weren't
alone in having particular concerns. It also provided a 'shape' or structure
for the Year 2 students to mentor Year1 students in a socially-contingent
manner. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We've done it between academics
and students as two interacting cohorts as well. We thought it was valuable to
understand the journey from student to academic and vice versa. In that
instance, we had students collaborate about reflective practice (what does it
mean, how can we work together etc). Then we had academics collaborate as a
department on the same issues (what did reflective practice mean to them etc).
We then shared and discussed the thinking of both groups and it was very
illuminating for all concerned. We're extending that work at the moment (to
both sides of the 'partnership' concept).<o:p></o:p></div>
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It was a way of extending the
idea of Student As Partner/Producer to intergroup ways of thinking and working.
There's also a workshop in London coming up if you want to experience it
firsthand. We do bespoke workshops too. Details online at: <a href="http://bit.ly/sharedthinking">http://bit.ly/sharedthinking</a> <o:p></o:p></div>
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Thanks to everyone who shared their ideas - hope it's been of benefit to others too: I'll be blogging about the set up and outcomes as we go along.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-80280169651184372412015-09-07T13:04:00.001+01:002015-09-07T18:01:20.412+01:00#ueef15 - "Conta’m un conte... digital, per favor"/ "Tell Me a Story - make it digital!" On Wednesday 9th September I am going to present at the Summer School of the Unversity of the Balearic Isands (UIB) Ibiza - sadly, by Skype and not in person.<br />
<br />
The theme is "trending topics in ITC" and my session is about the digital storytelling project I have been working on with <a href="http://thevirtualleader.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/reflection-and-digital-storytelling.html" target="_blank">Gemmar Tur and Victoria Marin</a> from UIB over the past year.<br />
<br />
Here is the Prezi in Spanish:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="400" id="iframe_container" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://prezi.com/embed/okmp7mpmytw5/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0&landing_data=bHVZS2czc0xFR0J4VU13d3dKMkJWamNLcHZhQytnVW8&landing_sign=ati1FNuuNn7Gnljr5F3QsZwnDvjTA5Q7dPRBF3kXSIE" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="550"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
and the English version:<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="355" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/fZuC1cpZyI2yRJ" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="425"> </iframe> <br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 5px;">
<strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/jchall00/tell-me-a-story-52492726" target="_blank" title="Tell me a story">Tell me a story</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/jchall00" target="_blank">Jane Challinor</a></strong> </div>
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<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">So what is a digital story? For me, this
means a mixed media presentation, living on the web, which probably incorporates
music, images, written words and – possibly – the author’s voice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">When I Googled "cuentos digitales" on
Google.es, in preparation for this event, I mainly found stories for children,
but in the collaborative study, our use of digital storytelling<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>focused on reflection on learning by students in HE who are engaged in
professional education (teaching and health and social care professions).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Storytelling is a very ancient human
activity and one that has been used for millennia in the realm of education.
Stories contact deeper emotions and call for greater creativity than the usual
essay, report or portfolio and they are almost innately reflective – indeed, reflection
in a professional setting often starts with the recounting of a story. The
story form allows us to make sense of events and our own thoughts, but also
allows us to see things from a different perspective.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Why a DIGITAL story? </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Firstly, the platforms
available to us on which to create digital stories lend themselves to a multimedia
creation which engages the audience on many different levels: music and imagery
combine to affect us emotionally and aesthetically. Also, for students
preparing for employment these days, the development of 21<sup>st</sup> century
skills – including digital competence – is essential. Creating a digital story
therefore provides an authentic task (reflection on learning/reflection for
professional development) which at the same time develops digital skills. Furthermore,
the use of OER (as embedded resources and as a finished artefact) teaches important
lessons about collaboration, digital identity and copyright whilst providing a
platform on which to share our ideas, our stories, with the wider world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">What are the benefits of digital
storytelling?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Obviously – increasing digital confidence
and competence. But also - allowing creative expression, giving a voice to
those with little confidence in academic writing, giving students the
opportunity to practise speaking in public. And most students (over 80% in my end of
year survey) find it a fun assignment to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Are there any disadvantages?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">It can be a real challenge for anyone not
used to working on the web or using digital tools – students AND teachers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">For the teacher - it can take longer to plan
classes, putting appropriate scaffolding in place to guide the less confident
students. If you are going to grade the finished story, you need to think about
marking schemes or rubrics – for both the digital and the reflective elements.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">For the student – some guidance is needed on
keeping safe on a public platform and thinking about the crafting of your
digital identity<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">So – HOW do you make a digital story? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Fortunately there are lots of step by step
guides available. My favourite website is: <a href="http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/">http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(which also gives guidance on platforms and
tools you can use)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and this is the
original digital storytelling site <a href="http://storycenter.org/">http://storycenter.org/</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">What did the students think?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">It was:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Fun 82%<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Technically challenging 62%<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Improved my digital skills 90%<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Helped me to become more reflective 83%<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Relevant to my studies 85%<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Relevant to my future career 44%<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">As a result I am more likely to:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">reflect on my learning 90%<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">reflect on my professional practice 86%<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">use the same tool again 75%<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">try other online tools 75%<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">stick to PowerPoint 28%<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">be cautious about sharing personal information
on line 75%<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Helvetica; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">mention this as a skill on my CV 46%<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Interestingly, the students I surveyed (in their first year) generally didn't see this as an "employability skill", although this <i>was</i> an aspect mentioned by the final year students. (For more detail about themes explored in the stories - and more student feedback - see <a href="http://thevirtualleader.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/digital%20storytelling" target="_blank">previous blog posts</a>)<br />
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This is not really so surprising given the stage the students are at, but it does perhaps point to the fact that more work needs to be done to set the professional context for this activity in future.</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-77412432531034119722015-09-06T17:07:00.006+01:002015-09-07T12:04:12.479+01:00#altc Open Learning? It's a Peach<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the outline of my presentation for ALTC 2015 on Thursday 9 September</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="355" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/key/cGVTZbAvy5C1kF" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="425"> </iframe><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/jchall00/altc-2015-open-leaning-its-a-peach" target="_blank" title="#altc 2015 Open Leaning? It's a Peach!">#altc 2015 Open Leaning? It's a Peach!</a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/jchall00" target="_blank">Jane Challinor</a></strong> </span><br />
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This presentation gives a brief overview of an innovative learning
activity and assignment that I did with my class last year which involved the
use – and creation -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of Open Educational
resources.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">"Peach" refers to the site </span><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://photopeach.com/" target="_blank">Photopeach</a>. </span>This provides a simple, scaffolded approach to creating online content:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">students upload images, organise them, add captions, choose from selected music or link to YouTube then share the finished product on Facebook; they can easily share a group log-in so that they can collaborate virtually.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline;">A bit of background: I teach a
first year Health and Social Care module known as Research and Professional
Practice. The aim of my module is primarily to introduce students to academic
study</span><span style="color: black;"> –
including digital competence, referencing, and reflective practice & group
work.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline;">I have 120 students and we work in
two groups of 60<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in a new,
technology-enhanced classroom know as <a href="https://journals.gre.ac.uk/index.php/compass/article/view/168" target="_blank">SCALE UP</a>. </span>This
holds up to 100 students in the classroom at any time; <span style="vertical-align: baseline;">has round tables holding nine students,
Macs (3 students per mac), </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">Wifi</span><span style="vertical-align: baseline;">, -
all set up for an enquiry based learning approach.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Before
students arrived I</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline;"> conducted a p</span><span style="color: black;">re-course
“Digital skills” survey via Facebook to find out what they already knew,</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline;"> what skills they had and where they felt
less confident: what emerged form this was that:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">74% were </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">not
confident </span><span style="color: black;">with
online content creation </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">44% were </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">not
confident </span><span style="color: black;">about
referencing</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">52% were </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">not
confident </span><span style="color: black;">about
Harvard specifically</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">interestingly,</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="color: black;">65% said they were </span><span style="color: black; font-weight: bold;">confident
</span><span style="color: black;">about
copyright (BUT on further enquiry, it turned out they actually thought it was OK to
use music from You Tube, their own </span><span style="color: black;">Itunes</span><span style="color: black;"> accounts or that any Google images were
copyright free)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">So, why
use OERs and</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline;"> open technology? </span>the most compelling argument for me
is about collaboration: we certainly don’t have any thing on our VLE that
allows students to collaborate online, not even to create content – unless you
include a rather clunky e-portfolio plug in (and frankly I don’t!) But OERs mean collaboration beyond the
classroom and the cohort. Furthermore, OERs, social media, web 2.0 technology
are all beginning to be used in the Health and Social Care field to create communities of practice
amongst professionals – and indeed are
enabling service users to connect, to educate themselves and to take charge of
their own well being. So for me it makes sense to use open platforms with these
students from the outset.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">And yes
– Open platforms are more fun</span><span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline;"> than
essays! T</span>hey allow students to express
themselves in quite different ways and to be creative – which is particularly useful in reflective tasks.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The aim of my module is to introduce students to academic study – primarily: how to
search for information, referencing and writing skills; group work, reflective
practice.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So this first formative assignment
aimed to combine these elements:</span></span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Providing an experience of working collaboratively by </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">working in groups</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Getting them to reflect
on professional values – “the Health and Social Care professional I want to be”</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Using a
simple online site for content creation</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Learning how to find relevant images, add captions, choose music</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Learning how to reference
the media used and/or find CC/copyright free</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Showing them an alternative to </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Powerpoint!</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Did it work?</span><br /><span style="text-indent: 0in;">The proof of the pudding for me was that, 6 months later, in the final task of the module, </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">(a reflective digital story) </span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">90% still managed to use (and </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">correctly attribute) </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">CC/copyright free images </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">68% chose to use </span><span style="text-indent: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">an online site (i.e. not P</span><span style="text-indent: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">owerPoint!</span><span style="text-indent: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;">) - including Prezi, Knovio, WeVideo, MovieMaker - suggesting an increase in confidence with online content creation.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">In the final digital story, reflecting on their
learning from the </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">module, they also noted (amongst other things)</span></span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: -0.5in;">an improvement </span><span style="text-indent: -0.5in;">in digital skills </span><span style="text-indent: -0.5in;">(16%)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.5in;">improved skill in referencing (40%)</span></li>
<li><span style="text-align: center; text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">improved understanding of values
(18%) </span></span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the value of working in groups (46%)</span></span></li>
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<span style="text-indent: -0.5in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">AND.....</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: -0.5in;">students' feedback on the module was overwhelmingly positive (actually the highest module evaluation scores I have had
in four</span><span style="text-indent: -0.5in; vertical-align: baseline;"> years of teaching this subject</span><span style="text-indent: -0.5in; vertical-align: baseline;">). </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So how do I feel about that? Why, just peachy, of course! </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-70423907233066892122015-05-12T10:43:00.000+01:002015-05-12T11:00:42.812+01:00Teaching and learning with digital storytelling<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqm1_fVI0ZTuKrpqvgFDuWC0tARIDrR6BVpIsBeldKmZqMLdzpeuloq9ag6J5pSnz_YhAYZ-KAIO5FJcOjVbxwS7Sbl42pJXgs1Hf6nOhZqUqhNGNin83faBRNqxg81_De8e2GZhAEJsv2/s1600/116460988_d1f9120b5c_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqm1_fVI0ZTuKrpqvgFDuWC0tARIDrR6BVpIsBeldKmZqMLdzpeuloq9ag6J5pSnz_YhAYZ-KAIO5FJcOjVbxwS7Sbl42pJXgs1Hf6nOhZqUqhNGNin83faBRNqxg81_De8e2GZhAEJsv2/s320/116460988_d1f9120b5c_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">Image: Flicker <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/" target="_blank">wfryer </a> CC BY-SA 2.0</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The digital story format is something I have used this year for the first time and, because I liked the idea so much, (and because it fitted well with each) I have used it as a part of the summative assessment for both my first year "study skills" and the final year "Leading Teams" modules.<br />
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The fit with the first year module is particularly apt as this is all about developing digital skills: from finding and managing information to Harvard referencing, from learning to use the VLE and sending emails to creating online collaborative content with Google Drive, Padlet and Photopeach.<br />
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For the final year students this is very deliberately about encouraging a summative reflection of their whole three years of University study preparatory to presenting themselves to employers in the health and social care field. And its about honing their "21st century skills". It is also presented very much as an opportunity for them to reflect on their experience of team work and their potential as leaders.<br />
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Preparation for this summative assessment took virtually the same route in each module, despite the difference in levels. Probably the degree of scaffolding for the first year cohort was higher but essentially the process and the materials used were the same in each case.<br />
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Step 1 at the start of the academic year was a warm up digital exercise using Photopeach where students worked in small groups to develop a photostory about the values of health and social care.<br />
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Following this, the theme of being a reflective practitioner, which emerged as a key theme from this consideration of professional values and identity, was explored further in a workshop when students were presented with information about a number of relevant models (Kolb, Gibbs, Moon) and undertook an initial exercise reflecting on their own significant and transformative learning experiences.<br />
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Mid way through Term 2, we returned to the theme of the reflective practitioner. The final year students undertook some group reflection and self evaluation related to the student led learning activities they had just run. With the first year students, I went over the theoretical models of reflection once more and gave them a set of prompts to use in small group discussions as a stimulus for starting to develop their reflective accounts.<br />
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Both groups were introduced to the website <a href="http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/" target="_blank">http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/ </a>which has lovely examples of digital stories using a variety of media and platforms and provides a really straightforward "How to" guide. For the first year students, in response to questions and concerns, I produced some simple screencasts showing in more detail how to use Prezi as a platform. Then on second thoughts I made these available to the final year students too. Although in general the final year students were less inhibited about creating a reflective digital story, they still had some worries about the technical side of production.<br />
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Finally I ran two or three drop in technical workshops for anyone who was still struggling or needing reassurance. During the whole process I only encountered two students (out of around 200) who claimed the task was beyond them. One was a male first year student who was a self declared technophobe but who was seeking additional help from the library and learning resources staff; the other a final year student who initially panicked herself into believing the task was impossible but finally talked herself round to the realisation that she could at any rate produce a PowerPoint presentation - with audio - and went away from the drop in session with renewed determination!<br />
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There were of course many other students who encountered difficulties, made mistakes, failed to grasp the finer points of Prezi etc, but the informal workshops also provided opportunities for students to help one another, showcase their own first efforts and get feedback, as well as ask me questions. These small group sessions were among the most enjoyable of the academic year for me precisely because there was more opportunity here for peer to peer teaching. At the end of one of these classes an older student was talking to me about the difficulties he was still having in understanding Prezi. A younger student overhearing him interrupted, invited him to join her in the library for a quick tutorial and three days later he had submitted his first "draft"!<br />
<br />
The final step in the process was to go through Moon's Levels of Learning in detail - with exemplars - as these were closely aligned to the assessment criteria. For example, the lowest level, Noticing (description without reflection) might equate to a 3rd for the learning outcome related to quality of reflection, whilst the highest level -Transformative Learning - would be a High or Exceptional 1st.<br />
<br />
The exemplars - which were short samples of writing reflecting on working in a group - were important in really clearly illustrating what was meant by each level and seemed to help the students to grasp the concept more easily. On the down side, one or two students did quote these examples back at me in their stories!<br />
<br />
Comparing the reflective stories of first and final year students that are currently being submitted, some differences are emerging. Not surprisingly, the first year students are not reaching the higher level of reflections in most cases - they tend to be split between Level 2, Making Sense or Level 3 Making Meaning areas of Moon's map of learning. The final year students by comparison are split between the Level 3 (35/84) or Level 4 (Working with Meaning) areas (27/84) with only 14 in the Level 2 area or mainly descriptive.<br />
<br />
Technically the first years are also not as adept: few have provided soundtracks or voice-overs on their presentations and one or two are rather thin in terms of content too. Notably though, one first year student who is a mature "returner" to full time study has made her year long struggle with technology (and her eventual triumph) the main focus of her digital story - which she has done to a very high standard using PowerPoint, with voice over.<br />
<br />
Alison: <a href="http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/jchall00-2485453-jane-digital-portfolio/" target="_blank">A Year of Firsts</a><br />
<br />
In terms of themes, top of the final year students' list of topics is team work (72% of students referred to this but that was the theme of the module after all). After this comes future plans and recognition of transferability of skills from study to work (70% each) - with graduation a few weeks away that is not a big surprise either! Next in line is increased confidence (68%), improved communication skills, reference to academic subjects and developing study skills, time management, and the value of work experience (all mentioned by around 60% of students).<br />
<br />
For the first year students, the most popular themes are reference to academic subjects studied, moving away from home, fitting in and making friends and the support of other students. Next in order of frequency, around a half of first year students mention team work - noting this as a way of working that is very different from school or college and one which brings many challenges. Around a half of all the students also recognise how their confidence and independence have increased through overcoming personal and academic problems.<br />
<br />
Other things I have taken note of in particular are whether or not the students specifically mention the learning process (85% of final year students do), the development of self awareness (increased understanding about themselves) (74%) or the act of reflecting (57%) . These are elements which I saw as being more of a meta reflection (a reflection on reflection) and indicative of a higher order of learning. In the case of first year students only about half mention learning and self awareness specifically. Less than 15% discuss the process of reflection.<br />
<br />
I have also noticed a difference in the stories of mature students. In almost every case, these students seem to reflect more deeply and evidence higher levels of learning. Generally they have had a variety of challenges to overcome (returning to education after initial failure or career change), had more life experience (migrating from another country), have other demands on their time (such as family) and this manifests itself in richer content, higher levels of self awareness.<br />
<br />
Lucy: <a href="https://prezi.com/ncn8saeqw5_p/copy-of-me-myself-my-learning-my-family/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy" target="_blank">Me,myself, my learning,my family</a><br />
<br />
Donna: <a href="https://prezi.com/emn-sfuowiqd/change/" target="_blank">Change</a><br />
<br />
Tinashe: <a href="https://prezi.com/vbsgsx14mzns/copy-of-copy-of-mind-mapping-template/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy" target="_blank">Too Old for School</a><br />
<br />
What about the process from my perspective? In teaching "about" reflection, I have certainly found students to be more engaged possibly because they have a summative assignment in view that has reflection as its main focus.<br />
<br />
Teaching "about" reflection though does not create reflective practitioners. That can only happen through deliberate acts of reflection on experience that are designed to raise self awareness. The process of creating a reflective story is such an activity: it forces the student a) to think about the reflective process itself (perhaps using a specific model, such as Gibbs to add structure) b) to practise the skills - moving from describing to evaluating an experience, to analysing and formulating plans for future action and c) to perform the <i>art </i>of reflection. Through the use of various media - combining images with spoken words and music - the finished artefact is a creative representation of learning: reflection as performance. The digital element adds other dimensions and levels of complexity: the need to get to grips with new technologies, familiarisation with online platforms, the reality of putting an essentially private reflective activity "out there" in a public space.<br />
<br />
So my role changes to that of audience or witness to the performance and I am also the assessor. I find this a difficult balancing act. On the one hand I have to award a grade, on the other I am in a privileged role of witnessing what is often a very personal ** account - a performance that has something of the confessional about it. I am acutely aware of the student's vulnerability in what they share, at times I feel very emotional in response: touched by a moving story of overcoming huge challenges, amused by a witty remark, proud of their achievements. I have felt these emotional responses before when students have written reflective accounts as essays - but not as often, nor as deeply.<br />
<br />
The digital stories are for the most part fairly short - 5 to 10 minutes was the guideline - and are submitted as the final part of a portfolio of work which has already received formative feedback or grade in partial fulfilment of their summative assessment. As a capstone project for the module it is therefore not particularly time-consuming to assess, so all in all, marking these has been a genuine pleasure! The biggest drawback is when something goes wrong technically - files uploaded in a format I can't open, problems uploading large files to the VLE, url's copied incorrectly or online videos set to private. This has involved a few hurried emails to get everything sorted out which does add a little more work to the marking process and a teacher using this method of assessment does need to be fairly confident themselves in using a variety of digital tools - or have some very friendly IT or Learning Technology staff standing by! That said, some of the students have proved themselves very technically creative and I have learned some new tricks from them. That to me has been another of the aspects that has made this assessment so enjoyable.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">**(Students have been made fully aware of the private/public options for the sites used and have employed pseudonyms, restricted urls or even used non-published media - such as Powerpoint or MP4 files - in order to maintain their privacy. Prezi for example is public, unless a premium subscription is paid, YouTube has non-searchable or private url options whilst Knovio can also be set to private).</span><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-50398187991688752032015-05-05T11:08:00.000+01:002015-05-05T11:08:44.979+01:00Digital Storytelling as an assesment tool: the students' view<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji34g8ooOjG-UA6fwCIp9Ph2EhoAsMpSExUw8ONoAnGSP5ovfBXW6vVefixgR-ZyLYPBNBxPSdRfMTOYhDVOoQ42cJVhBryZz9n_Alu9futTcEup7rMpGdHj6RQ927KC7xz-vR_om0hoBC/s1600/mia..JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEji34g8ooOjG-UA6fwCIp9Ph2EhoAsMpSExUw8ONoAnGSP5ovfBXW6vVefixgR-ZyLYPBNBxPSdRfMTOYhDVOoQ42cJVhBryZz9n_Alu9futTcEup7rMpGdHj6RQ927KC7xz-vR_om0hoBC/s1600/mia..JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
The brief was to create "an account of your personal learning from the module,
commenting and reflecting on your role in the group tasks and including your
thoughts about your future career. This account will be produced as a “digital story”
– a mix of images, voice narration, written words and music".<br />
<br />
Later this was expanded and the following prompts were given:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What has been the most important/surprising/interesting/exciting thing you have learnt this year?<br />
What happened? Who else was involved?<br />
How did you feel about it at the time? How do you feel now?<br />
What were the positives and negatives about the experience?<br />
Can you relate this experience to any theory or research you know about (or could you research more into this type of thing?) (for example - you found yourself taking over as the leader of your group because no one else would: how does this relate to theory about emergent leadership? OR in your group you all had different ideas about what to do - how might this apply to multidisciplinary working in Health and Social Care?)<br />
Overall, what do you conclude from this learning - how has it changed you as a person, changed your ideas?<br />
Looking back, what do you now think about the values you selected in the first Photopeach exercise - would you still pick the same ones? What values or attitudes seem to be most important to you now?<br />
If you had to do this year again, what would you do differently?<br />
What tips would you give to another student about to start their final year?<br />
Based on this experience, how might you plan to approach similar situations in the workplace?<br />
What are your plans after graduating?</blockquote>
So what did the students make of digital storytelling as an approach to assessment?<br />
One or two students have commented to me - in personal communications and in their introductions to their final portfolios - about the process of completing this assignment:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I came into year three really worried and felt very overwhelmed, but learning how to reflect well has really allowed me to understand any flaws I have and how to improve on this for the future, especially when I go on to study my nursing MSc next September. I really have managed to grow and learn a lot about myself [when] previously I tried to avoid fears I had." (student A)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"the digital story was not a task I was particularly looking forward to as I have never done anything of the kind before, and do not enjoy recording myself! Having said this, it was probably one of my most enjoyable assignments and once I had started it and got into it I didn't actually feel as if I was doing work. The newly learnt skill of producing a digital video is not only one I can use when applying for jobs but also one I can use in my personal life, as I am an avid traveller and can now produce videos portraying my travels. " (student B)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Creating a digital story was not an easy ask for me at all... Looking back at this digital story and realising that I am now able to create more different ones make me very proud.....The digital story gave me an opportunity to express myself through images. "(student C)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I personally really enjoyed working on my digital story ... I think this is important to do so as it reminds the individual of changes they have gone through and [how]they have developed ... I have videoed myself which was very hard as I can be shy talking in front of my camera. However, I have now overcome the fears of using a camera to video myself which I think is amazing ... this skill would be beneficial for my future career, as I may have to talk in front of patients and other professionals or create a presentation." (Student D)</blockquote>
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<br /></div>
The following students have also given me permission to post their work here - I think it is possible from these examples to see the variety of responses - in terms of tools and platforms used, depth of reflection and themes - to the assignment brief. In my next post I'll talk more about the teaching and learning processes involved and the impact on me as the assessor. If you'd like to leave any comments here about the students' work, please do. I'm sure they'd enjoy the feedback :)<br />
<br />
Sarah (imovie): <br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_z43GT2wNCE/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_z43GT2wNCE?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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Gabrielle (movie maker):<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/qra5JJJlQ4Q/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qra5JJJlQ4Q?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
Emily (Screencast-o-matic):<br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1L36CHJOkF0/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1L36CHJOkF0?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
Anna (Knovio):<br />
<a href="http://view.knowledgevision.com/presentation/6cf6975f38f14a6bb5b7c4c06141ac12">http://view.knowledgevision.com/presentation/6cf6975f38f14a6bb5b7c4c06141ac12</a><br />
<br />
<br />
Amandip (PowerPoint): <a href="http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/jchall00-2478010-leading-teams-reflective-story/" target="_blank">http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/jchall00-2478010-leading-teams-reflective-story/ </a><br />
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Mia (Prezi):<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="400" id="iframe_container" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://prezi.com/embed/8wdg-a7xqbdt/?bgcolor=ffffff&lock_to_path=0&autoplay=0&autohide_ctrls=0#" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="550"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-57565651713117039052015-04-09T18:50:00.001+01:002015-04-09T18:51:47.543+01:00Digital Storytelling - creativity, reflection and 21st century skillsA <a href="http://seminar.net/75-frontpage/current-issue/152-poetic-reflection-through-digital-storytelling-a-methodology-to-foster-professional-health-worker-identity-in-students" target="_blank">great article</a> by Grete Jamissen and Goro Skou puts into words some of my instincts about digital storytelling and why reflection using creative media differs from that using a traditional essay form.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"A digital story is an example of a multimodal text where various semiotic resources and<br />
modalities (Kress, 2003, Løvland, 2007, Liestøl, Fagerjord & Hannemyr, 2009) create meaning and involve our senses in various ways, and we believe the combination<br />
strengthens students’ learning processes. Written text and images affect our visual<br />
sense; spoken language, music and sound affect the auditive sense; images and music<br />
affect our feelings, separately and in combination. We are “touched”, and in a digital<br />
storytelling context this engagement involves the producer, the peers taking part in the<br />
process and the audience of the finished product. Multimodal texts can be found in both new and old media, but digital media have brought opportunities to work with stories in new ways. New technologies make new semiotic resources available and influence our ability to express and interpret meaning through multimodal interaction (Løvland, 2007)."</blockquote>
<br />
They also discuss how the "art" of working in health and social care field is about a preconscious activity - what I would probably describe as empathy - which lies at the heart of reflective practice. The health and social care practitioner needs to develop skills in interpreting human behaviour - "reading" multilayered messages about needs, desires, fears etc - and can best be trained to do so by becoming attuned to their own. Certainly this is what provides the foundation for the training and supervision of counsellors and psychotherapists, for example.<br />
<br />
Counselling and psychotherapy training and supervision often make use of creative media - art, poetry, storytelling, drama - to arrive at transformative understandings of human behaviour which cannot always be portrayed simply through the written word. When I trained to be a humanistic counsellor, for example, role play ("empty chair" work) drama, story telling, painting and music played a major role in the workshops.<br />
<br />
Understanding others through an understanding of our own behaviour is one aspect of the learning available to us through storytelling, another is the act of reflection which itself leads to the creation of new possibilities for action. As Norman Jackson pointed out recently in the <a href="http://www.lifewidemagazine.co.uk/uploads/1/0/8/4/10842717/lifewide_magazine_13.pdf" target="_blank">Lifewide Magazine</a>, in reflecting we are often motivated to create artefacts to help us remember and make concrete our learning:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Reflection is inherently about creation since we create new
understanding through the thinking process that causes us to
pay attention to the detail of what we have learnt in one
situation, that might be applied in future in another situation.
The new insights we gain through reflective thinking gives us
the confidence to put ourselves into new unfamiliar situations
which in turn will demand our creativity. Furthermore,
reflective thinking may motivate us to make artefacts to
record or document our experiences and represent our
learning for example in diaries, scrapbooks and blogs, and this
perhaps is where social media plays an increasing role."</blockquote>
<br />
The digital element adds yet another dimension: the student isn't "performing" in the traditional sense in front of an audience especially if the digital artefact is locked down so that only a selected few can view it. The process is more akin to 1:1 supervision or a conversation with one's mentor. The development of a digital artefact requires skills that may be unfamiliar (most of us have painted, modelled clay, acted, sung - however inexpertly - at some point during our school days). Creating a Prezi, recording a soundtrack, editing a video is not something we all have practice in and added to the usual reticence about performing or sharing our creations with another is the sheer technical difficulty to be overcome in doing this in a medium with which we are not familiar.<br />
<br />
However as <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00405840802153916" target="_blank">Bernard Robin</a> (2009) points out:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"This creative
work provides students with a strong foundation
in what many educators (Brown, Bryan, and Brown, 2005; Jakes, 2006; Partnership for 21st
Century Skills, 2004) have begun calling 21st
Century Literacy, Digital Age Literacies, or 21st
Century Skills. Regardless of the specific term
being used, these skills are being described as
the combination of:
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Digital literacy—the ability to communicate
with an ever-expanding community to discuss
issues, gather information, and seek help;
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Global literacy—the capacity to read, interpret,
respond, and contextualize messages from a
global perspective
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Technology literacy—the ability to use computers
and other technology to improve learning,
productivity, and performance;
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Visual literacy—the ability to understand, produce,
and communicate through visual images;
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Information literacy—the ability to find, evaluate,
and synthesize information.
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Digital storytelling can be a potent learning
experience that encompasses much of what society
hopes that students will know and be able
to perform in the 21st century (Jakes and Brennan,
2005). "</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-33600478433818057622015-04-04T19:23:00.002+01:002015-04-04T19:57:18.741+01:00Digital storytelling - the process<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4CfxkodWs4QQVQS_DtgjOX2TTlzWcGMBuY43nuTEhJ9kGnVEG4gpXt8SiXAWs0vhWisF_F4ad2SnHFmQsCmhGFyPiPNIiBp9yxY0Xx30isVpGDaSv-KeFV_-I4pOD1X82QQHunvbI34Q/s1600/library-425730_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiz4CfxkodWs4QQVQS_DtgjOX2TTlzWcGMBuY43nuTEhJ9kGnVEG4gpXt8SiXAWs0vhWisF_F4ad2SnHFmQsCmhGFyPiPNIiBp9yxY0Xx30isVpGDaSv-KeFV_-I4pOD1X82QQHunvbI34Q/s1600/library-425730_1280.jpg" height="287" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">image: pixabay</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So the digital stories are now rolling in. Final year students on my course are all now engaged in producing their end-of-year reflections on learning.<br>
<br>
I began the year/semester with the Photopeach video essay on <a href="http://thevirtualleader.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/professional-values-videos.html" target="_blank">professional identity and values</a>. This had a dual purpose - introducing students to the concept of the digital reflection or story, using OER, and also familiarising them with a Web 2.0 content creation platform - a form of digital warm up.<br>
<br>
The step up from this to the digital story is not inconsiderable - there is a narration/voice over required in this final work and the level of reflection should be higher and the content more personal - but the basic processes are the same, including the use of creative commons licensed images and music and hosting on a social platform.<br>
<br>
To support my students in the development of their stories I have provided them with a range of resources, including a link to a really useful website - <a href="http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/">http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/</a> which gives an overview of how to produce a digital story from storyboard through to video editing software and lots of examples to inspire them. I also gave them a free choice as to which platform to use and showed them examples using Prezi and Knovio. Other options include Screencast-o-matic and Windows Movie Maker.<br>
<br>
I developed a rubric or set of assessment criteria based on Moon's stages of learning (see p6: <a href="http://www.sussex.ac.uk/education/ctlr/documents/jenny-moon-workshop---reflection-in-higher-education-learning.docx"> http://www.sussex.ac.uk/education/ctlr/documents/jenny-moon-workshop---reflection-in-higher-education-learning.docx</a> ) which I shared with the students to help them understand the level of reflection that is expected.<br>
<br>
I am hoping that the digital stories will yield a deeper or higher level of reflection because of the medium used. In previous years when asking the final year students to reflect on the group process and their learning from it, I have in the main received traditional, theory based essays written in the academic style. I was hoping that by asking for this to be spoken, rather than written, and to include images and music, there will be a greater emotional depth to the reflections.<br>
<br>
So far the themes emerging from the final year students reflections over the course of their University careers are much as would be expected (or hoped!). Most frequently mentioned themes are their future career plans, increasing confidence, development of communication skills, the stress of studying, worries about academic ability, developing emotional resiliance, self organisation and time management skills and overcoming all of the fears associated with starting University - moving away from home, fitting in and making friends. Developing independence, managing work/life balance and motivation are also mentioned by quite a few. Because our course places a major emphasis on it, it is not surprising that many refer to volunteering and work experience and remark upon the transferability of skills learned to future employment. Team work was actually the most frequently mentioned theme - but as my final year students are producing this assignment for a module on teamwork and leadership, this is hardly surprising.<br>
<br>
A less common theme, but mentioned by some students from the BME community, is the ethnic diversity within the cohort, and the tendency for those from the African diaspora to stick together. The stories of refugees' journeys - running from civil war to higher education in the UK - were particularly moving. Similarly, the mature students on the course frequently refer to the age of students and feeling "too old for school" as one put it. Some students talk about their struggles with chronic illness, learning disabilities, being bullied at school, and being the first of their families to enter higher education.<br>
<br>
I was struck by how this form of assignment gave a voice to some who generally are not very vocal in seminars. Indeed the less formal style of expression and the freedom to be creative seemed to allow some of these quieter students to really excel. The assessment criteria for this digital story is based mainly on depth of reflection and there were some surprisingly high levels from students who do not normally do well in the usual academic assignment. On the other hand, this creative format may have been less comfortable for those used to getting high grades in essays and reports: they seemed to stick to a more formulaic response that focused on academic skills and achievements rather than their personal development.<br>
<br>
I have assessed the levels of reflection to some extent on how much the students engage in meta- reflection - commenting on the process of learning itself, rather than simply what they have learned, on their growing self awareness and their commentary on how the process of reflection aids this. The artefacts seem fairly evenly spread between three levels: (2) making sense (able to notice and organise material to develop a reflective narrative) (3) making meaning (linking this narrative to other perspectives - including theory - and evidencing an emerging awareness of their own part in it) and (4) working with meaning (an emerging understanding of the learning process itself and increased self awareness). No-one has been stuck at the level of merely noticing (level 1) - i.e. a purely descriptive account, as most have been able to at least add some form of evaluation of their experiences. But neither have I seen much evidence of a convincing Level 5 - that of Transformative Learning. One student came close to this with some quite deep ruminating about the influence of friendships on the successful functioning of groups: I had a sense there of a radical shift in her thinking as she explored this.<br>
<br>
In terms of platforms used and level of technical skills, the majority used Prezi with a voice over added at each step. Next in popularity was good old PowerPoint - again with a clip of narration added to each slide, followed by Knovio, which is basically a PowerPoint presentation uploaded to the internet and then a voiceover recorded.<br>
<br>
Two or three students have created videos in a photostory format, one did an RSA-style speeded up drawing on a whiteboard and another used Screencast-o-matic, navigating through various documents whilst discussing them.<br>
<br>
The level of technical skill demonstrated in producing these digital stories has been variable but all have managed to produce something at least functional, attractive and audible whilst the very best are brilliantly creative, witty and original.<br>
<br>
Quite a few students in their evaluations of the past year actually cite this assignment as amongst their favourites - of course there is a sense in which they would say that, wouldn't they? but they haven't at the same time gone overboard in their praise of me or the module itself... they simply seem to have enjoyed this and the previous student led learning activity as "different" forms of assessment which tested and developed new skills that they also recognised as valuable in the field of employment.<br>
<br>
What about the impact on me as the marker? On a practical level, it is fairly quick and straightforward to watch a 5-10 minute video; trying to arrive at a level is less easy, even following the rubric I developed before hand, as it is hard to interpret what someone else has learned by listening to short accounts such as these, still harder to put any sort of "value" on that learning. Nevertheless it is no harder than trying to do the same with a 2000 word reflective essay and in many ways it is a good deal more engaging, as in listening to their stories I have felt as though I am in some way sharing their journeys. The use of images, music and voice to tell their story gives these reflective accounts much more emotional impact and in many cases they feel very intimate.<br>
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That may be why in most cases the students have not made their stories public but instead chosen PowerPoint or an unlisted url on YouTube. Where they have used Prezi or Knovio, most have disguised their identities and all have been anxious to be reassured that only I (and the external examiner) will get to see and hear their finished artefacts. There are though one or two that I would dearly love to use as "promo videos" to show prospective students and I am hoping that their authors can be persuaded to go public at some point. I am incredibly proud of what they have all achieved - on many levels - and would love to share their labours with you too, dear reader!<br>
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<br>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-19383129692235599172015-02-16T20:21:00.000+00:002015-02-16T20:39:13.356+00:00Student Led Learning Activities: the students' view<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj72o3XgumR4HKTymtBVG0SNItzjZIBwo4kYiTCrLlkPzAklBXM-4TacAp6MMl5CdHPg-GQiaFj8_MQ7wy2-0zV31OJ0MYPU3Y4NU0uo8w96RhYhFIng98tM7hAmJwVP_-houohIJy5fKi4/s1600/new+scup+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj72o3XgumR4HKTymtBVG0SNItzjZIBwo4kYiTCrLlkPzAklBXM-4TacAp6MMl5CdHPg-GQiaFj8_MQ7wy2-0zV31OJ0MYPU3Y4NU0uo8w96RhYhFIng98tM7hAmJwVP_-houohIJy5fKi4/s1600/new+scup+2.jpg" height="403" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scale Up classroom. Image: author's own</td></tr>
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I asked students to complete a brief questionnaire about their experience of the recent student led learning activities.<br />
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Having watched and made an initial assessment of all the performances, my main focus was on the levels of learning engaged in by students through this process - and whether they felt they had acquired any transferable skills. I also wanted to find out whether age, confidence with written/spoken English or the way the groups had come together affected their experiences. Finally, I was interested in the link between group dynamics and experiences of learning.<br />
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Out of 59 respondents, 55 were female, 48 were aged 20-25, 3 were aged 25-35 and seven gave their age as over 35 (1 student did not give their age). Nine students said that English was a second or additional language.<br />
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Gender did not seem to significantly affect responses which were far more likely to be influenced by group dynamics. Three out of the four men were in "difficult" groups (two in the same one) which they admitted (in additional comments) had coloured their views of their own learning. The fourth was part of a fairly high-functioning group of friends who had worked together previously but he stated that he would prefer to be assessed as an individual and not in a group task. He went on to say that, nonetheless "my outlook on group working has improved as a result of this activity", indicating further that he had developed team working skills and admitting "..it may be that this has an impact in the future".</div>
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Most students reported having worked together with at least some of the other members before (47). The majority of these groups had formed spontaneously out of existing friendships (reported by 37). Ten students said that their choice of group had been dictated by other groups being already full (an upper limit of 7 and a lower limit of 4 members had been imposed when groups formed). Three students reported that they had been "put in a group by the tutor" - which is an impression they had formed, even though I quite consciously avoided trying to influence group membership. It may be that they had forgotten how they came to be members of a group, or perhaps equated the lack of choice with the tutor having put the group together.<br />
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Six students said they had taken some time to choose a group where they felt they would be happiest - all but one of these went on to have a <b>very</b> positive experience, the remaining student reported it was positive. One cited "convenience" but had a positive outcome despite some initially difficult dynamics. Another did not give a reason for how she ended up in her group (she simply wrote "other"), but nonetheless reported an overall positive experience.<br />
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When asked about the group dynamics, most said they had been "really <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">positive, with everyone contributing equally" (30). For 17 students, the dynamics had been generally positive and nine said that they had been occasionally difficult. Of these six, four were in groups of friends and two had ended up in a group because others were full. One person said the dynamics had been <b>often</b> difficult and two people <b>very</b> difficult - each of whom also reported that they had joined a group of people they didn't know simply because the other groups were full. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">These results bear out my gut feeling that self-selecting groups tend to make for the most cooperative and positive of group dynamics, although clearly there are exceptions. Six students indicated that they had formed groups based on friendships but they had experienced occasional difficulties in the dynamics with some people not contributing. This in turn seems to have made the learning experience less positive, five saying they thought they would have learnt just as much on their own. In each case there were some group members they had not worked with previously, despite their being friends (or maybe friends of friends). The best experiences came when students had made a conscious decision about joining a specific group of people and the worst experiences when they felt they had been forced into a group because of lack of choice. These experiences could reflect a self fulfilling prophecy on the part of the student, with a sense of choice (or lack of one) influencing subsequent responses and reactions to group dynamics.</span><br />
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Group formation for learning in Higher Education can be a real mine field and generally it seems to be advocated that tutors do the choosing. To form cooperative learning groups, Johnson (1991) recommends deliberate mixing of abilities. Other writers (see Arkoudis et al 2010) advocate a little social engineering to ensure a mix of culture, linguistic ability and ethnicity. Still others warn that by allowing self selection, some group members may find themselves on the periphery, feeling excluded (Collins and Goyder, 2008) - or as happened here - forced into a group of "misfits" that couldn't join the group of their choice. Self selecting groups, it is warned, may tend to be homogeneous - all the stars in one and the lower ability students clinging together in another. This obviously has disadvantages - the low ability group may persist in their less than stellar performance and get poor grades whilst the higher ability group may not learn anything new about dynamics as they work within the same old comfort zone of their clever, like-minded friends. Nonetheless, I have persisted over the years in trusting the process and allowing students to form groups, being aware as Boud, Cohen and Sampson, (1999) note, that there are still difficulties in forcing together people from different cultures, age groups and backgrounds who are not used to collaborating.<br />
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(Interestingly, as an aside, none of the over 35s in my cohort worked together in the same group. One of these mature students told me that her confidence had increased enormously from working with younger people and they in return greatly valued her considerable experience of the health and social care sector which lent an edge of authenticity and relevance to their learning activity. However, in terms of ethnicity, most though not all groups were homogenous. Most of the EAL students, for example, came together in a single group).<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">97% of all students were positive about their learning from the process. 55% (n=33)</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> </span>felt that their knowledge of their chosen topic had improved "to some extent" whilst a further 42% (n=25) felt they had learnt "a great deal" about their chosen topic through the process of enquiry-based learning. Just one felt their understanding had not increased, although in all other respects this student had found the process very positive and reported that she had also found other groups' presentations interesting and informative. She further indicated that she had developed team working and communication skills.</div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">In 39 instances, students felt that the process of collaborating had been <b>very positive, greatly </b>increasing their learning and a further 17 said this had been a <i>positive</i> experience which had increased their learning <b>to some extent</b>. These figures include every one </span>of the over 35 and EAL students (who all went on to say, in addition, that the task had had a <b>positive</b> or <b>very positive </b>impact on their personal development). Two students responded that collaborative learning had been a distraction (and both had reported difficult dynamics in their groups) - and one person did not answer this question. </div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Thirteen students felt that the task had had a <b>very positive</b> impact on their personal development (resulting in greatly increased skills and confidence) and a further 38 described it as <b>positive</b>. Seven students thought the impact <b>neutral</b> although all but two of these went on to indicate transferable skills they felt they had acquired. Of the t</span>wo who said they had developed no skills, one felt that overall her understanding of the topic had increased to some extent, and she found the other groups' presentations informative and interesting. In terms of her own group, she had never worked with any of the other group members previously, found the dynamics occasionally difficult but admitted they were all friends and had chosen to work together. The second student's responses were negative on <b>every aspect </b>of the activity, (including finding others' presentation neither interesting nor informative) and she reported having ended up in a group that was not of her choosing because others were full.<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">One student said the experience had had a <b>negative</b> impact on her personal development and confidence. </span>On the other hand she indicated that she had developed problem solving and IT skills. This same student said elsewhere in her responses that she had had a <b>very</b> negative experience of group dynamics and had not chosen the people with whom she had worked.<br />
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When asked about transferable skills developed, the top answer was <b>Team Working</b> which 48 students agreed they had developed during the project. Next was <b>Communication</b> (36), followed by <b>IT skills </b>(20), <b>Problem Solving</b> (18) and <b>Leadership</b> (15). Eleven students indicated "all of these". Amongst the over 35s, five (out of seven) said their IT Skills had increased. Although the numbers here are too small to draw any definite conclusions, this also tallies with anecdotal evidence from the over 35s (in individual discussions with me) that they found the technical aspects of the task fairly challenging, but also enjoyed learning about new technology in rising to meet that challenge.<br />
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In the "other" comments, students added: confidence (1) speaking in front of an audience (1) working with people who are different from me (1) and patience (2) as additional skills acquired.<br />
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Out of the total of 59 students, 27 volunteered general closing comments in a free text box. Most of these (16) referred to the weighting of the assignment. Having initially voted by a majority to have this set at 20% of the module total, they now felt that this was too low and did not reflect the amount of hard work they had put into the development of the learning activities.<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Other comments (2) referred to poor group dynamics having made the experience negative and a third spoke of wanting to be assessed individually rather than as part of a group (the male student whose response has already been discussed above).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Eight students recorded very positive final reflections on the process:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">A: Though I encountered difficulty at the beginning, this task allowed me to see that barriers will arise but as professionals we must find ways to overcome this :)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">B: Should have been 50%! Other than that the task was great and good experience for students to run a class. Learnt a lot from other groups :)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">C: The group worked really well, but maybe if everyone had to speak in front of an audience the marking would be maybe a bit fair for these groups who all did contribute during the speaking</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">D: Enjoyed taking part - got out of the comfort zone and gained confidence</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">It was really enjoyable - think other modules ought to do a similar aspect <i>(mature student over 35)</i></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">E: It was interesting and had build students confidence of standing up and presenting their learning activities. <i>(EAL student)</i></span></blockquote>
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F: I think the task was agreat idea especially for a new learning technique, however it was A LOT of work for 20% of the module</blockquote>
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G: Overall enjoyed the presentation and what I learnt doing it.</blockquote>
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H: I really enjoyed this task and learning from peers, however for future maybe two groups should not have the same theme as peers will already have the knowledge</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">The 59 questionnaire responses represent 63% of the cohort (n=93), it is a considerably better return than is usual in the module evaluation process for example (10-20%) and better than the percentage who voted for the group work weighting (48 returns out of 93 students) in an on line survey in October. Overall I feel this gives a snapshot which fairly reflects comments that students have made to me in passing and confirms my own observations. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">In terms of assessed outcomes, the student led learning activities were graded between 58% and 81% on the formative assessment of the performance element, although groups have the opportunity to improve these grades by submitting revised and additional documentation. They also received informal peer feedback (through surveys which they themselves designed, administered and analysed) which they will now use in a final reflective exercise. All students (but one) responding to the questionnaire said that they had learnt from others' presentations, 44 <b>to some extent</b> and 14 saying these had added <b>greatly</b> to their understanding of the module's themes. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Compared with previous years when students were required to focus on a popular film and identify leadership characteristics in its protagonists, this year saw both a greater variety of themes (ranging from motivation, gender and emotional intelligence to job design and multi-agency working) as well as a greater application of theory to health and social care settings. Judging by the questionnaire responses, learning from one another played a significant part in the success of the module. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">In previous years, students produced web based artefacts and feedback from other groups was both sparse </span>and generalised, indicating little inter group learning. In those cases most groups focused on the same narrow set of theories and models so there was little incentive to look closely at each others' work. This year students attendence at each others' presentations was mandatory and there was minimal duplication of topics. As can be seen from the free text comment (H) above, one or two groups did choose similar themes: notably motivation and gender, although each group took a different approach to the topic. This appears to have added to the breadth of learning.<br />
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Already through informal conversations with the students I am aware that the process has been a challenging but generally positive one. My next step is to follow up the questionnaire with some individual interviews where respondents have indicated their willingness to participate in these. In addition, the final task for the module will be an individual reflection on the learning process (in the form of a digital story) which should hopefully yield even richer qualitative data.<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Refs: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Arkoudis,
S., Yu, X., Baik, C., Borland, H., Chang,S.,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Lang,I.,
Lang,J., Pearce, A., Watty,K. (2010) ‘Finding Common Ground: enhancing
interaction between domestic and international students.’ In <i>Report of project supported by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd, an
initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and
Workplace Relations. </i>Available at </span><a href="http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/research/projectsites/enhancing_interact.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/research/projectsites/enhancing_interact.html</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Boud,
D.; Cohen,R.;Sampson, J. (1999) ‘Peer Learning and Assessment.’ In <i>Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
Education</i>, Vol. 24, No. 4, </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">pp413-426 </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.203.1370&rep=rep1&type=pdf"><span style="font-size: x-small;">http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.203.1370&rep=rep1&type=pdf</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Collins,
N.; Goyder, J. (2008) ‘Speed Dating: a Process of Forming Undergraduate Student
Groups.’ In <i>ECulture</i> Vol.1 </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1075&context=eculture">http://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1075&context=eculture</a></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Johnson, David W. (1991) ‘Cooperative Learning: Increasing
College Faculty Instructional Productivity.’ In<i> ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report</i> <i>No. 4</i>. Available at: </span><a href="http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED343465.pdf"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED343465.pdf</span></a></span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-63719050244153860392015-01-29T17:19:00.000+00:002015-01-29T17:19:06.550+00:00learning-by-doing : some feedback<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyoOUoo43VanVoHRgF7WQsXxrpNqEQVyeORth1_BqHPKWWagxJqqb3_3o-2epMRwq4gF3J5egNcgJNPP_40jz6e92jGXt8MkSUiH9bmMXFtxaxXUz26vKbzE6ehmoL9DXF20qPdY_KU-Kt/s1600/Happy_Girl_Hopscotch_in_Strawberry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyoOUoo43VanVoHRgF7WQsXxrpNqEQVyeORth1_BqHPKWWagxJqqb3_3o-2epMRwq4gF3J5egNcgJNPP_40jz6e92jGXt8MkSUiH9bmMXFtxaxXUz26vKbzE6ehmoL9DXF20qPdY_KU-Kt/s1600/Happy_Girl_Hopscotch_in_Strawberry.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="mw-mmv-author" style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #555555; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 24.480001449585px; text-align: start;"><a class="external text" href="http://www.flickr.com/people/40645538@N00" rel="nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #0b0080;">D. Sharon Pruitt</a></span><span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #555555; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 24.480001449585px; text-align: start;"> - </span><span class="mw-mmv-source" style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #555555; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 24.480001449585px; text-align: start;"><a class="mw-redirect" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Flickr" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Flickr">Flickr</a>: <a class="external text" href="http://flickr.com/photos/40645538@N00/236299644" rel="nofollow" style="background: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;">Happy Girl Hopscotch in Strawberry Free </a></span></span><a class="mw-mmv-license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0" style="background: none rgb(245, 245, 245); color: #0b0080; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-align: right;" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">CC BY 2.0</span></a></td></tr>
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<br />I ran a small focus group discussion yesterday with my final year students to get their views about the student led learning activities.<br />
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They all agreed they had suffered from nerves before standing up to speak in front of the whole class (the first time many of them had presented to an audience of this size) but they were even more anxious about the interactive elements of the activities - what if their fellow students refused to participate?<br />
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For this particular group of students (none of whom had worked together on the task) issues of group cohesion were not highlighted, although I am aware (through other discussions) of three somewhat dysfunctional teams (out of 15).<br />
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In two cases the problems revolved around a single member who had never shown up to meetings and who contributed little and late. Other group members were angry that this "loafer" was able to get the same marks as the rest of them with minimal contribution. In situations like this a process of peer evaluation is sometimes used but this cohort voted against such a process at the outset, preferring to deal with things informally. I have mixed views about peer evaluation as I have seen groups where individuals are deliberately marginalised or excluded from a team and I dislike the competitiveness and devisiveness it can encourage. In the real world, teams don't get to vote on the performance related pay of their colleagues ("more's the pity" did I hear you say?) - difficulties have to be dealt with or tolerated in the interests of completing the task - and in some ways I think it is right that these student teams (on a module dedicated to teamwork and leadership) learn how to deal with differences.<br />
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The third "dysfunctional" group did just that. The group effectively split into two at one point and discussions became heated - one student left the session and another was in tears. When I inquired if I could help, the unofficial leader said they were planning a final group meeting to sort things out. The following week, they seemed to be back on track and this week they have just emailed me their session plan (the only group to have done so) which looks remarkably well organised and thought through.<br />
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I also asked my small focus group about the value of the feedback they had received. They were all immensely glad I had given them a provisional grade and regarded this as useful formative feedback indicating where they could improve. They also valued the feedback they had had from their peers, most of which was generally positive and in some cases very constructive. One or two students had complained to me in class about particularly rude, negative and unconstructive comments they had received, but that was a useful opportunity to talk about how best to receive - and use - feedback (in short - ignore what isn't useful to you!) In a fortnight I'll be facilitating a session about feedback and reflection, so I may just need to go over best practice in GIVING feedback too.<br />
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The $64,000 question is: did they think the activity gave them a good understanding of their chosen topics? All said they thought they had had to work harder and get a deeper understanding of their topics than was normally the case (in writing an essay for example) because they didn't want to be caught out by a question from other students that they couldn't answer.<br />
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They also said that they had found other students' sessions very interesting and informative and that they had learned a lot through those too.<br />
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OK- so this is just one informal discussion and other students may have different views - something I hope will emerge through their self evaluations and final reflections on the module - but I did find their views very encouraging.<br />
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For myself, I also really enjoyed week 3 of the sessions and again found much to admire in the creative learning activities students had devised for their peers - as well as noting the confidence displayed by some in the way they facilitated group discussions. One or two had decided on a formal presentation plus quiz (I am wondering here if this is a delivery model they have become familiar with during their studies?) but one had developed really interesting, health and social care based scenarios and asked groups to decide on an approach to the problem based on one of two specific managerial philosophies. I admit I picked up a couple of tips myself on how to facilitate learning around some quite dry subjects!<br />
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So, overall I do feel this has been a positive learning experience for us all and the students' enthusiasm is still palpable, which is quite something in these cold winter days. It's the final set of sessions next Monday and I will definitely feel some regret to be returning to the more "normal" teaching mode after that. Or maybe, things will never be quite "normal" again.....<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-43107700959357143272015-01-22T18:04:00.000+00:002015-01-29T16:02:01.943+00:00Student-led learning<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgj8MB-eaDkgvbBnWIaTrLXpaimN1Ayn8QDRrTcGkbUfJ4gOEkivimNpTPTAdtJobh9dvsbzl_xhEaGFY3_VmDKvGa_C3YXPuq8T6pFZJlKxT_SeCQ98D1B4r0-mjxcQMpsLu_qfsU_D4J/s1600/7853962938_ff5b0a4164_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgj8MB-eaDkgvbBnWIaTrLXpaimN1Ayn8QDRrTcGkbUfJ4gOEkivimNpTPTAdtJobh9dvsbzl_xhEaGFY3_VmDKvGa_C3YXPuq8T6pFZJlKxT_SeCQ98D1B4r0-mjxcQMpsLu_qfsU_D4J/s1600/7853962938_ff5b0a4164_z.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/venosdale/7853962938/in/photolist-cY2By7-cY2AsY-gbZnKz-5VSjrZ-dGyo2x-6C2Ata-cdjgxm-bTbARn-bcGqcH-acrjEi-jqt5B-bgh1dR-acuhbU-acuaU3-6NJ3Kh-acui7N-bcGpyt-dGDQT3-bcGpJc-jBb83N-hpSn77-efD2tV-bTbDXp-4XaZun-dGyoPF-dGynGz-2RtxGg-p3fyUd-bcaEva-3XNz89-5dsFUh-TVWAx-9gTaXK-bbGmep-bcGpS6-bTbDy2-bEgS3q-5ua7bz-gq4xz-8nXcvB-bEgS6Q-dwKsep-7HxNsv-cY2tbC-6sNbzb-6sNdcU-dAodiu-8EWtcC-e4tuW2-bcaHrt">Krissy Venosdale on Flickr</a> CC BY-NC-ND 2.0</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I decided this year to encourage my final year students to do something a little different for their team work assessment. Instead of me teaching the usual curriculum for the module I asked them to research whatever theories or practices (related to leadership and teamwork) interested them and then design a learning activity which would involve the whole class.<br />
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The teams were self selecting and they chose the topics - although I asked teams to negotiate these with me so that we didn't end up with 15 presentations about Tuckman....<br />
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I also emphasised that these were very much NOT mean to be presentations at all, but rather active learning experiences that would engage their audience. Some found it hard to break out of old patterns and largely read from notes in front of a Powerpoint, the interactive element of their session generally being a quiz or word search.<br />
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The more engaging sessions attempted a different approach: the first one for example divided students into three tables and gave each a relatively simple task to do (completing a jigsaw) but, unbeknown to the participants, facilitators were each using a different management style. Student reflections and feedback were encouraged to try to illustrate the differences and relate these to the theory.<br />
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Others incorporated videos of role plays that they had acted and filmed themselves to illustrate different motivational factors and a third asked the audience to role play different professional partners in a multi agency team, reviewing the communication failings in a (real) murder case.<br />
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Designing and running a teaching session has many benefits as an inquiry-based learning task. Students are having to learn on a number of levels - how to function as a collaborative team; how to divide up tasks; how to get to grips with technology; thinking about what constitutes an engaging and active learning session; how to control classroom behaviour and get the cooperation of your peers.....oh, and yes, the actual theoretical concepts they are trying to put across.<br />
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Some outcomes were unexpected: one or two students commented to me that the exercise had given them a greater insight into the challenges facing their lecturers - such as managing behavour, preparing resources and dealing with stage fright! Others have had to negotiate some very difficult team dynamics and manage differing levels of contribution. One group told me this had been a brilliant experience and they wished they'd done projects like this from the first year.<br />
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The next step is about evaluation. I asked each group to design an evaluation questionnaire and seek the feedback of their peers. Based on this - and my provisional assessment - they will now go on to produce a short self-evaluation of their sessions. I am rather wishing that I had held off giving them my feedback until they had done this next task, but hopefully the motivation for them to do a thorough job is that my grade is only provisional and may be improved if they provide more evidence in the form of references, notes and group reflections.<br />
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If I did this exercise again next year (and I am tempted to, as generally it has been very successful so far) I think I would place more emphasis on the peer and self evaluation.<br />
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What I chiefly hope from all of this is that the sessions do provide genine learning, not just for the teams who have carried out the research, but for those students in the audience. I confess I am a bit anxious about this aspect however.<br />
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I came across this interesting quote as I was researching into the idea of student-led teaching<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Becoming a teacher who helps students to search rather than follow is challenging and, in many ways, frightening” (Brooks & Brooks, 1999, p. 102) - cited <a href="https://www.smsu.edu/campuslife/learningcommunity/research%20papers/kimboumanpierrelc%20.pdf">here: (Kim Bouman, 2012)</a> </blockquote>
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I guess my biggest fear is that, in the end, the students' learning proves to have been fairly superficial and that the module (and by association, me as a teacher) has therefore "failed". Because the quality of the presentations has been variable and some of the "reinforcing" activities a little simplistic, I suspect that understanding of the actual concepts or theories is<b><i> not </i></b>particularly deep.<br />
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Previous iterations of this module have required students to develop a digital resource focusing on leadership - usually by analysing the characteristics of various leaders in history, or in popular culture. Again, I couldn't claim that learning about the theoretical concepts in those instances was particularly deep then either, as evidenced in their final reflective essays. Students though necessarily had to develop leadership and team working skills in order to successfully complete the project and they also learned a lot of useful technical skills in creating a web site or blog. This year's task has added the dimension of live presentation and facilitating learning in others - which I would say are also pretty useful skills!<br />
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For me it has been an interetsing learning experience too. I have had to let go of controlling the "content delivery" side of the module (I think this is where the "fear" creeps in) but a welcome spin off has been fewer actual "teaching" sessions. I have been able to spend more time in discussion with groups as a result - facilitating their understanding of some concepts, challenging them to also let go of didactic approaches and be more creative in the design of their learning experiences. I have also done quite a bit of counselling when relationships have threatened to break down, with some cajoling of anxious performers along the way.<br />
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At the end of the year students will be reflecting on the module through a digital storytelling exercise. It will be interesting to see and hear what they have made of the experience and in particular of having the curriculum taught by their peers - and I guess that is the point at which I will be able to gather any evidence about the depth and breadth of their learning.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-1404815049913219422015-01-13T15:41:00.001+00:002015-01-13T15:41:29.093+00:00Professional values and attitudes<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj97VUIgYXdEln5KqdJ1Dhn9BleMYMjifiyQQS0uHJd0FKD2sTCXWq6t-zIqAzjN5f4zKQ1-ecYtNaYjcr-lKcsPZ70wCZNOa3vY6Ximf-LTtxl3wERMjY-ALe4EAgK8SeDNq2nq4GwQcSc/s1600/VBR.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj97VUIgYXdEln5KqdJ1Dhn9BleMYMjifiyQQS0uHJd0FKD2sTCXWq6t-zIqAzjN5f4zKQ1-ecYtNaYjcr-lKcsPZ70wCZNOa3vY6Ximf-LTtxl3wERMjY-ALe4EAgK8SeDNq2nq4GwQcSc/s1600/VBR.JPG" height="320" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">http://hee.nhs.uk/wp-content/blogs.dir/321/files/2014/10/VBR-Framework.pdf</td></tr>
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<br />
I have now begun a bit of work comparing the first year and final year responses to the professional values exercise <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> (I have so far analysed 10 presentations in each year, representing the work of around 70 students. I am about 1/3 of the way through) </span>and there are some interesting differences emerging.<br />
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It appears for instance that the mentions of Social Justice are considerably more frequent in the final year students' work than in that of the first years' - 61 mentions in this category as opposed to 26. The other categories are noticeably more evenly balanced, although the "attitudes" section gets around 50% more mentions overall amongst the final year students.<br />
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For the final year students, the order in which categories feature is: social justice, attitudes of the care giver, skills of the care giver, outcomes for the service user, management and teamwork. <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The first years' focus, in order, is on skills then attitudes of the care giver, followed by the outcomes for the service user, social justice and finally management and teamwork.</span><br />
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The most frequently mentioned values out of all the categories in the first year are (in order of number of times referred to) Equality and Diversity, Respect, Supportiveness, Teamwork and Relationships. For the final year students these are: Equality and Diversity, Respect, Person Centredness, respecting the service user's individuality and Empowerment. Although Equality and Diversity are top in each year, this aspect is mentioned twice as many times by the final year students as it is by the first years.<br />
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In terms of the care giver's personal attitudes, the top five in each year are remarkably similar :<br />
Respectful, Compassionate, Enthusiastic and Committed and Approachable, are in the top five for each year. The final year students then have Genuineness and Honesty whilst the first years have Supportiveness.<br />
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There were however some interesting issues raised by the first year students which did not appear on the final year students' agenda at all. An awareness of isolation and loneliness, particularly amongst the elderly, and of the need for service users (again mainly the elderly) to be cared for within their own communities, stood out for me. The other main difference is that the first year students seem to emphasise the building of a trusting and supportive relationship where the care giver is enriching lives whilst final year students celebrate the individuality of the service user, aim to empower them and encourage independence whist identifying the care giver's most important qualities as empathy, committment and genuineness.<br />
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So how do these emerging attitudes and values compare with what health and social care organisations require of their staff? The link below explains the NHS' Values Based Recruitment programme:<br />
<a href="http://hee.nhs.uk/wp-content/blogs.dir/321/files/2014/10/VBR-Framework.pdf">http://hee.nhs.uk/wp-content/blogs.dir/321/files/2014/10/VBR-Framework.pdf</a> with its emphasis on compassion, respect and dignity and improving lives.<br />
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Here also is BASWs values and ethics code <a href="http://cdn.basw.co.uk/upload/basw_112315-7.pdf">http://cdn.basw.co.uk/upload/basw_112315-7.pdf</a> focusing on human rights and social justice.<br />
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There is a greater overlap between the BASW values and the final year students' whilst the NHS values are wholly embraced by both years. Those BASW values which appear very little in either groups' work are the more political goals of redistribution of resources and working in solidarity.<br />
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One way of looking at the students' values statements is to assume they reflect their growing knowledge and experience and in particular their developing understanding of professional practice and the evidence base for effective interventions.<br />
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They may, for example, represent the difference between an understandable naivety (in a good sense) on the part of the first year students who, lacking both work experience and knowledge base, enter the course with an as yet undefined urge to help, care for and support others. This was noticeable in <span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">an unembarrassed use of the words love and passion in some groups' work as well as the expression of a desire to serve others and to make a change in the world. </span><br />
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After three years of study, having had opportunities to work in the health and social care field, and with a more nuanced understanding of the needs of service users, values around empowerment, personal responsibility, advocacy and removing stigma are foregrounded by final year students.<br />
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Another interpretation is that the values expressed echo the social and psychological stage of the students themselves - from a more dependent, relationship-based perspective which perhaps reflects the first year student's need for belonging, to a more self-confident, independent and individual identity, which mirrors the final year undergraduate's readiness to "fly the nest" and embark on their career. Obvioulsy that is a bit of a generalisation especially as we have a number of mature students with existing health and social care careers behind them - but it's certainly worth considering.<br />
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Clearly there is more to be done - firstly to finish the analysis to see if the differences really are as marked as they currently appear and then perhaps to follow up on this through further dialogue with the students themselves and a review of their final reflective assessments.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-28298057416781189562014-11-25T17:00:00.004+00:002014-11-25T17:00:47.055+00:00Professional Identities - analysing the data<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinRhjNWK9W7taf3V1AED6Mv_d5BavktyO4ftFJydZevr3OPdRH9ZoUFc8oZdYBHWHzsdirFZCOyTP6BCf8oTYB7l6pGCY0nbJYWm8E5WuSwPSxUF5UV_dxIxrF79FjkqtsyrEJG_RdvHm0/s1600/hands-72570_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinRhjNWK9W7taf3V1AED6Mv_d5BavktyO4ftFJydZevr3OPdRH9ZoUFc8oZdYBHWHzsdirFZCOyTP6BCf8oTYB7l6pGCY0nbJYWm8E5WuSwPSxUF5UV_dxIxrF79FjkqtsyrEJG_RdvHm0/s1600/hands-72570_1280.jpg" height="267" width="400" /></a></div>
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The values held by future health and social care professionals are something about which we should all care deeply. We may one day be very grateful if we or our partners, parents, or children find ourselves in the hands of people who have a keen sense of social justice and a compassionate nature.<br />
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Values are certainly at the heart of current NHS quality improvement programmes - see this interesting project involving "values based interviewing": <a href="http://www.health.org.uk/areas-of-work/programmes/shared-purpose/related-projects/using-value-based-interviewing-to-deliver-high-quality-healthcare-and-improve-patient-experience/">The Health Foundation</a>.<br />
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When I started on the Photopeach project I had some preconceptions about the sort of values our health and social care students would portray in their videos.... even after assessing them, I tended to have the impression that the number of different categories of values was very few and had been often repeated. If pressed I would have said Respect, Dignity, Caring would come out on top as key values (as ones we had actually discussed in class). Respect did indeed come joint top (along with with tolerance) but second was valuing the uniqueness of the individual.<br />
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Half way through the analysis of the videos, I have been surprised at the diversity of values, skills, professional attitudes and knowledge that the students have selected.<br />
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There are over 70 individual values mentioned and I have grouped these into five main categories: Social Justice, Personal Qualities, Professional Skills, Teamwork and Management, and the Desired state of the Service User.<br />
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Under Social Justice, such issues as anti-discriminatory practice, promotion of human rights, liberation from oppression and promoting the service user's voice are prominent (this category actually comes top with 47 mentions) whilst the desired state of the service user (comfort, happiness, dignity, independence etc) gets 30 mentions. Leadership and Teamwork gets 22 mentions (fulfilling goals, multidisciplinary working, accountability, leadership, co-ordination etc) which given that the module is called Leading Teams is unsurprising (in fact I'd have been disappointed if these had not materialised).<br />
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The two biggest categories (most values mentioned) are Personal Qualities and Professional Skills.<br />
Qualities include attitudes such as altruism, compassion, responsibility and sensitivity, which I would have expected. Surprises included creativity, optimism, honesty and loyalty.<br />
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The inclusion of these values or qualities leads me to conclude that students had given this exercise quite a bit of thought and were not simply replicating what they could find on the NHS or SCIE websites that we looked at.<br />
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Professional Skills included safeguarding, problem-solving, being an advocate, ethical and reflective practice and managing relationships with service users. Confidentiality was actually the most mentioned attitude in this category.<br />
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I guess this demonstrates on one level that we have been doing something right as teachers for the past three years if our soon-to-be graduates are able to articulate these values and qualities so clearly. I think though it also highlights the type of student who comes on the course. I did the exact same exercise with first year students just a few weeks into their studies and the results are not a million miles away from these - a little less diverse perhaps but certainly demonstrating that students come on to the course already espousing beliefs in social justice and the importance of respect and dignity in the care of vulnerable people.<br />
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This in turn reflects the diversity of our student body - one third of our incoming students are over 21, 20% over 25. A number of these have already worked in the care sector. Around 10% of our students originate from outside Europe - some of these are refugees. Over half have not come to University straight from school but through a mixture of FE/access routes. We don't have the exact figures but I know anecdotally that a good number of our students are carers already - for children, parents and other family members - or themselves have a disability or chronic illness.<br />
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Concern for social justice and compassion appear to be well formed in our students even before they arrive. Developing knowledge of the subject area, engagement with the sociological and philosophical arguments presented on the course - and of course, work experience - do the rest. Its good to know we'll be safe in their hands.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1170532618792311814.post-17483368564863922662014-11-04T15:05:00.000+00:002015-01-10T12:04:44.380+00:00Aim higher?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizIC1MF8A2VOyYq3iQx9AZAk5P4wtvloEZ7xV5XCoI3flGhpbiwnN2dRjBINOFLbvAYv336WcumOAdy5PlYCpK-BrTLPdAN7_4D8KQ6A_Go07bOOBOIw2JxnnzcryrpbOyzuXMBKuvlxRL/s1600/hot-air-balloon-278993_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizIC1MF8A2VOyYq3iQx9AZAk5P4wtvloEZ7xV5XCoI3flGhpbiwnN2dRjBINOFLbvAYv336WcumOAdy5PlYCpK-BrTLPdAN7_4D8KQ6A_Go07bOOBOIw2JxnnzcryrpbOyzuXMBKuvlxRL/s1600/hot-air-balloon-278993_1280.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></div>
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So my final year group are currently planning their <a href="http://thevirtualleader.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/professional-values-videos.html">student led learning activities</a>. I am enjoying the process of negotiating with them about their topics - ensuring a good spread so that the curriculum is covered but allowing for personal preferences and interests to direct the process.<br />
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Yesterday I tried out a new approach to developing the assessment criteria for the presentations - by getting them to contribute to writing them. I have toyed with doing this for some time but been put off by the complexity - especially when working with a large group.<br />
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Here's what I did. In preparation I <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1peIYj9Vcr5DDs31GA0BoLexppkbaCLZbJWANjhzTxuM/edit#gid=1412671302">created a blank spreadsheet</a> listing the learning outcomes for the module and suggesting four key areas that might be relevant for this assignment: communication and IT skills; research; Academic Skills (such as referencing) and collaborative teamwork.<br />
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On the spreadsheet I gave them the core descriptors for each grade band (as prescribed by the University) to indicate the spread from Exceptional First to Fail.<br />
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Then, in small groups they worked to come up with descriptors for specified outcomes at specified levels: Communication Skills - First and Fail; Academic skills: 2:1 and 3rd etc<br />
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At the end of the exercise I collected in their descriptors and used these to construct the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw_lLnG5g40XSjZQa25wRGd1RWs/view?usp=sharing">finished assessment feedback sheet</a>.<br />
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In truth this wasn't radically different from grading matrices used elsewhere on the course (which is good because it demonstrates that they have engaged with those!). Most interesting was the discussions we had on differentiating between a 2:1 and a first: most tend to think that if they tick the boxes then they should get a first whereas the assessment model used in this University would say that a first is beyond what would normally be expected. This is a useful point to try and get across, especially for final year students who are hoping for those important higher degree classifications, and this is perhaps a good time to be reminding them of the standards for the level to which they aspire.<br />
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Peer evaluation is also built into the process and the next phase will be to work with the students on designing an evaluation questionnaire which they will distribute following their sessions.The final step is to use the assessment criteria to create a self-evaluation of their own work.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0