The thing about conferences is that you get out of them what you put in. ALT-C 2009 is in Manchester this year, and I will be attending. We have an proposal for an exciting workshop on semantic technologies in the last stages of submission (details further down this post). I don't attend every year but I do think that ALT-C is a really interesting conference which reflects the whole range of activities fostered by the learning technologies communities across the UK. I found the Fringe events last year particularly rewarding, never mind the rest of the programme.
It's useful in many different ways. The various permutations of 'this what I did in my teaching' presentations serve to remind us of the breadth and wealth of different educational activities which are undertaken in classrooms across the world. Respect too the fact that many delegates are in relatively junior roles, without any significant budget, and the only way they are going to get a place at a conference is if the are actually presenting either a paper or poster. The best way to understand a tradition, I think, is to engage in a debate which discusses that tradition. Newcomers need to be welcomed and helped understand the existing discourse.
Admittedly ALT-C is UK centric, but it does attract a growing list of international delegates many of whom go on to be regulars. Plus there is no shame in it UK focus, since it soon becomes clear that there is much happening here which is world leading. The combined impact of educational drivers and supportive funding from bodies including the JISC, the Funding Councils, and the HEA mean that much work at the leading edge is taking place right here in our backyard - UK HE plc. Never mind additional input from a host of different institutional innovation grants, and even the odd bit of funding from the likes of the ESRC and EPSRC.
Now sufficiently established to have generated its own fringe F-ALT, the event in Manchester this year it titled "In dreams begins responsibility" - choice, evidence, and change" and promises to be the usual interesting and eclectic mix. You will find me at the fringe, catchup up with old chums, and (hopefully) running this rather interesting workshop of semantic technolgies in education. If this revision is accepted you can expect us to be putting out a call for participation, we are looking for expert discussants, and workshop attendees who feel they want to join in this important new development, so if semantic technolgies for education is in your sights, read on....
Showing posts with label ALT-C. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ALT-C. Show all posts
Friday, 22 May 2009
ALT-09 Semantic Technologies for Education
This is a slightly expanded version of the abstract which was constrained by the word limits of ALT
ALT workshop proposal
Semantic Technologies in Education – exploring the practitioners’ perspective
Abstract
This workshop will collect and share insights into current understandings and future applications of semantic technologies in education.University education is embracing Web2.0 including social networks and the read/write-web. We are aware of predictions that the Semantic Web (Web 3.0) is imminent. Researchers are developing understandings of semantic technologies, and experimenters are utilising novel Semantic Web applications.
This workshop will :
Following a brief overview of our investigation of semantic technologies in education the workshop will consist of structured group discussions from selected perspectives (educational, technical and organisational).
We expect participants to come from a wide range of backgrounds with varying levels of prior knowledge and expertise, and will work carefully to make the activity as productive as possible for all participants irrespective of their different needs and expectations. The workshop structure will be fine-tuned to match the particular interests of participants, who will work in groups of eight using flip charts to produce a poster for a two-minute poster pitch. A second peer review group activity will comment on each poster. A plenary session will identify next steps
Each participant in the workshop will receive a copy of the SemTech report, plus detailed activity guidance notes which they can also take away and use in their own institution. Participants will use the workshop to:
Basic Structure – total 90 minutes
1. Welcome and Overview of method (workshop team)Individual introduction plus explanation helping participants understand the role of their contribution. 10 minutes
2. Introductions - Tables amongst themselves Tables will each have been labelled with clear flag to encourage workable set formation (see activity 5 below) 5 minutes
3. Scoping of the proposed activities and tasks (Su White)
familiarising participants with the proposed structure of the workshop). 5 minutes
4. Findings thus far/Context Hugh Davis, Sheila MacNeill, Thanassis Tiropanis. 10 minutes
5. Small group activities (table groups of ~eight participants)
Overall Question: What is our understanding of the actual and potential role of semantic technologies in education? 15 minutes
Note: Guest discussants will be allocated to help lead table discussions. These additional contributors, beyond the workshop team, are not yet formally identified they will be identified/invited through a call for participation
Groups will each be tasked with producing a flipchart poster summarising their discussion/finding. After the discussion there will be a two minute poster pitch from each group
These contributions will reflect the expertise and interests of the participants and are likely to range across the spectrum of educationally led to technically led. Groups will be encouraged/directed to form around like interest areas exact size and number of groups will depend on number of participants and the range of interests, but groups will be table sets of ~eight. Max nine groups. Groups can choose to select one of the following focus areas from three predominant perspectives of educational, technical or organisational:
• Exploratory: Identifying potential benefits accrued from the introduction of semantic technologies in their teaching/institution;
• Application oriented: Identifying additional technologies and applications for the survey;
• Technically Led: Discussing ways of augmenting or enhancing existing applications;
• Socio-Technical: Identifying and discussing use cases (e.g. semantic technologies for distance education; the international student; the work place learner;
• Organisation Challenges: Identifying and discussing barriers and drivers to greater use of semantic technologies in educational activities.
Groups produce flip-chart poster summarising
• Their perspective /discussion
• Any proposed next steps/action plan
6. Small Group Feedback via Poster Pitch
Two minutes per group - Groups to display FlipCharts on wall ready for peer review. 20 minutes
7. Comment/Feedback Round – Peer Review using post it notes for annotations (each group will be allocated another group’s poster to read/discuss and review). 10 minutes
8. Plenary feedback/discussion Next Steps and Action Plan (Su White) 15 minutes
Facilitating the workshop and ensuring success
An experienced educational developer who has run many events of this type on previous occasions is leading the session facilitation.
The workshop will be advertised to the wider learning and teaching community before the ALT-C2009 conference via a range of media including direct email, the ALT-C CrowdVine, Twitter, Blogs, the SemTech Blog and personal blogs of the workshop leaders. This advertising will also be used to identify any players who have emerged as active contributors since the publication of the SemTech report, or any players who are particularly keen to participate in this area.
It is proposed that the participants will work in small groups during the discussion phase using Flipcharts and pens to capture their contributions. During the annotation phase, they will use post-it notes to add comments and observations of the findings of the other groups. We will initially capture high quality photographic images of the flip charts (before and after annotation). It may be that this information is also reprocessed into alternative digital formats if that is considered to be particularly helpful/constructive.
Throughout the workshop a pair of colleagues will act as rapporteurs for the whole process, capturing the discussions and outputs for publication on the SemTech wiki (http://wiki.semtech.ecs.soton.ac.uk) and via an ALT-C09 blog posting.
Information will be captured as images of the outputs as well as notes of the discussions with extensive linking to referred information/resources.
ALT-C 2009: "In dreams begins responsibility" - choice, evidence, and change.
8-10 September 2009, Manchester, UK.
ALT workshop proposal
Semantic Technologies in Education – exploring the practitioners’ perspective
Abstract
This workshop will collect and share insights into current understandings and future applications of semantic technologies in education.University education is embracing Web2.0 including social networks and the read/write-web. We are aware of predictions that the Semantic Web (Web 3.0) is imminent. Researchers are developing understandings of semantic technologies, and experimenters are utilising novel Semantic Web applications.
This workshop will :
- augment the findings of a recent JISC survey on semantic technologies in education;
- calibrate the findings against the experience and understandings of members of the ALT community;
- use feedback to further develop the survey’s technology roadmap.
Following a brief overview of our investigation of semantic technologies in education the workshop will consist of structured group discussions from selected perspectives (educational, technical and organisational).
We expect participants to come from a wide range of backgrounds with varying levels of prior knowledge and expertise, and will work carefully to make the activity as productive as possible for all participants irrespective of their different needs and expectations. The workshop structure will be fine-tuned to match the particular interests of participants, who will work in groups of eight using flip charts to produce a poster for a two-minute poster pitch. A second peer review group activity will comment on each poster. A plenary session will identify next steps
Each participant in the workshop will receive a copy of the SemTech report, plus detailed activity guidance notes which they can also take away and use in their own institution. Participants will use the workshop to:
- establish a base level of awareness of current developments in semantic technologies and the way in which they can be used in education
- establish a basic understanding of current range and use of semantic technologies in education, as identified by the SemTech study
- identify and share knowledge of semantic technologies in UK education.
- comment on and add to findings in the JISC report on Semantic Technologies in Education
- identify colleagues at other institutions who share their interest in semantic technologies in education
- discuss, plan and agree future collaborations to further their interest in semantic technologies in education
Basic Structure – total 90 minutes
1. Welcome and Overview of method (workshop team)Individual introduction plus explanation helping participants understand the role of their contribution. 10 minutes
2. Introductions - Tables amongst themselves Tables will each have been labelled with clear flag to encourage workable set formation (see activity 5 below) 5 minutes
3. Scoping of the proposed activities and tasks (Su White)
familiarising participants with the proposed structure of the workshop). 5 minutes
4. Findings thus far/Context Hugh Davis, Sheila MacNeill, Thanassis Tiropanis. 10 minutes
5. Small group activities (table groups of ~eight participants)
Overall Question: What is our understanding of the actual and potential role of semantic technologies in education? 15 minutes
Note: Guest discussants will be allocated to help lead table discussions. These additional contributors, beyond the workshop team, are not yet formally identified they will be identified/invited through a call for participation
Groups will each be tasked with producing a flipchart poster summarising their discussion/finding. After the discussion there will be a two minute poster pitch from each group
These contributions will reflect the expertise and interests of the participants and are likely to range across the spectrum of educationally led to technically led. Groups will be encouraged/directed to form around like interest areas exact size and number of groups will depend on number of participants and the range of interests, but groups will be table sets of ~eight. Max nine groups. Groups can choose to select one of the following focus areas from three predominant perspectives of educational, technical or organisational:
• Exploratory: Identifying potential benefits accrued from the introduction of semantic technologies in their teaching/institution;
• Application oriented: Identifying additional technologies and applications for the survey;
• Technically Led: Discussing ways of augmenting or enhancing existing applications;
• Socio-Technical: Identifying and discussing use cases (e.g. semantic technologies for distance education; the international student; the work place learner;
• Organisation Challenges: Identifying and discussing barriers and drivers to greater use of semantic technologies in educational activities.
Groups produce flip-chart poster summarising
• Their perspective /discussion
• Any proposed next steps/action plan
6. Small Group Feedback via Poster Pitch
Two minutes per group - Groups to display FlipCharts on wall ready for peer review. 20 minutes
7. Comment/Feedback Round – Peer Review using post it notes for annotations (each group will be allocated another group’s poster to read/discuss and review). 10 minutes
8. Plenary feedback/discussion Next Steps and Action Plan (Su White) 15 minutes
Facilitating the workshop and ensuring success
An experienced educational developer who has run many events of this type on previous occasions is leading the session facilitation.
The workshop will be advertised to the wider learning and teaching community before the ALT-C2009 conference via a range of media including direct email, the ALT-C CrowdVine, Twitter, Blogs, the SemTech Blog and personal blogs of the workshop leaders. This advertising will also be used to identify any players who have emerged as active contributors since the publication of the SemTech report, or any players who are particularly keen to participate in this area.
It is proposed that the participants will work in small groups during the discussion phase using Flipcharts and pens to capture their contributions. During the annotation phase, they will use post-it notes to add comments and observations of the findings of the other groups. We will initially capture high quality photographic images of the flip charts (before and after annotation). It may be that this information is also reprocessed into alternative digital formats if that is considered to be particularly helpful/constructive.
Throughout the workshop a pair of colleagues will act as rapporteurs for the whole process, capturing the discussions and outputs for publication on the SemTech wiki (http://wiki.semtech.ecs.soton.ac.uk) and via an ALT-C09 blog posting.
Information will be captured as images of the outputs as well as notes of the discussions with extensive linking to referred information/resources.
ALT-C 2009: "In dreams begins responsibility" - choice, evidence, and change.
8-10 September 2009, Manchester, UK.
Friday, 12 September 2008
ALO ALO
Right
time to take a grip, modus operandi has to be the answer, not an easy option for someone who is naturally spontaneous. but... going to try running the blog as a work in progress, lets see how it goes
ALT - its a community thing...
Just Back from ALTC2008 in Leeds
wonderful place to take the pulse of technologies and change in UK higher education.
Flow of consciousness... contacts, back in the loop, people, regret of photos I did not have the presence of mind to take, guilt at photos not yet on Flickr, brilliant keynote from Roth, other inevitable curate's eggs, great community of practice, secret gossip, visible evidenc of power of JISC to transform UK HE's take on technology, testimony to creativity, gap between EdTech specialists and jobbing academics, wonderful insight in the community, disarming naiivity amongst some outsiders (heavy irony and subtext here folks), ALT as an institution, the Fringe F-ALT as another different one, zillions of other interconnecting nets, stunning creativity, the wisdom of crowds, gangs and six gangs, Flickr for remembrance, the one's who are not there, in fact or in Flickr, 700 on the register, more than 400 on CrowdVine.
Special Thanks... Josie and Scott for F-ALT and all the others who made it too, Twitter for helping my virtual meet some sort of reality, Paul Bailey and Laurie for reminding me about my old work, and kickstarting me into LTAGs (coming real soon folks), John, Terry, Mark, Patrick, Malcolm, MarkII;-) and Vania for signing up as seminar speakers, my Hood2.0 discussants, James Clay for Hood2.0, microbloggers and edubloggers at F-ALT, Jill for helping us at the conference dinner, Victoria, Seb and the ALT admin for getting us into the conference dinner... in the end :-) Cape Town lady for reading my work on disciplinary differences and being enthusiastic, Jon Maber for being so admirably clever and inventive ( a breville toaster to make boards indeed!!), FrankyInsultingTom for his cheerfullness, Maggie and Paul for helping us hatch plans, the canal and running for networking with my mind, the college students for their fab meal, especially our own waiter, Hugh for companionship and general schmoozing... and this will be so embarrasing for all those that that I have forgotten just now, but I have you somewhere in my head. Next year its over to Tom and Gilly and our technology dreams....hmmm
ALO
Encountered terminal technology overload at one stage, videoing discussions good idea, post processing to blog, still not happened. Thanks to Emma, Clare and Phil who were in my discussion group during James Clay's Hood2.0 workshop. Seesmic was my undoing, although I did manage photobooth. Multiple personalities in blogger were a micro challenge.
Next up
I have planned a GirlGeek|BarCamp|PlugFest|DigiSlam|Hopper for CompSci women which will be fabulous....
LTAGs (the TA stands for technology affordances) am working on a community wiki to gather and develop.
CSFIC/WWWrong - workshops in the pipeline for all us folks interested in organisational change
Grand Challenges and Technology Enhanced Learning, LSL in Southampton will be joining it, expect Hugh Davis to lead and add to the grand work done so far by the likes of Tom Boyle and Josie Taylor
Recent delights...
the HEA-ICS subject centre have decided to mainstream fund the TOPS competition (teaching over performing students/teaching overtly precocious students) an inter university programming competition designed to motivate and reward some of our programming students who are already fairly skilled when they start their undergraduate studies. We need to look after all of our students and find smart ways of achieving this.
Software List
plugins today
firefox tinyurl creator
FFX free Flickr export from iPhoto
I am disappointed with the quality of the photos on my iPhone compared to the Nokia N95, but I'm getting the hang of posting straight to twitter during my runs, next on the list is to add geotagging.
I guess as far as the gaps are concerned, I guess I will have to wait til I am on my travels to catch up. Currently first priority is to get things sorted before the start of term.
time to take a grip, modus operandi has to be the answer, not an easy option for someone who is naturally spontaneous. but... going to try running the blog as a work in progress, lets see how it goes
ALT - its a community thing...
Just Back from ALTC2008 in Leeds
wonderful place to take the pulse of technologies and change in UK higher education.
Flow of consciousness... contacts, back in the loop, people, regret of photos I did not have the presence of mind to take, guilt at photos not yet on Flickr, brilliant keynote from Roth, other inevitable curate's eggs, great community of practice, secret gossip, visible evidenc of power of JISC to transform UK HE's take on technology, testimony to creativity, gap between EdTech specialists and jobbing academics, wonderful insight in the community, disarming naiivity amongst some outsiders (heavy irony and subtext here folks), ALT as an institution, the Fringe F-ALT as another different one, zillions of other interconnecting nets, stunning creativity, the wisdom of crowds, gangs and six gangs, Flickr for remembrance, the one's who are not there, in fact or in Flickr, 700 on the register, more than 400 on CrowdVine.
Special Thanks... Josie and Scott for F-ALT and all the others who made it too, Twitter for helping my virtual meet some sort of reality, Paul Bailey and Laurie for reminding me about my old work, and kickstarting me into LTAGs (coming real soon folks), John, Terry, Mark, Patrick, Malcolm, MarkII;-) and Vania for signing up as seminar speakers, my Hood2.0 discussants, James Clay for Hood2.0, microbloggers and edubloggers at F-ALT, Jill for helping us at the conference dinner, Victoria, Seb and the ALT admin for getting us into the conference dinner... in the end :-) Cape Town lady for reading my work on disciplinary differences and being enthusiastic, Jon Maber for being so admirably clever and inventive ( a breville toaster to make boards indeed!!), FrankyInsultingTom for his cheerfullness, Maggie and Paul for helping us hatch plans, the canal and running for networking with my mind, the college students for their fab meal, especially our own waiter, Hugh for companionship and general schmoozing... and this will be so embarrasing for all those that that I have forgotten just now, but I have you somewhere in my head. Next year its over to Tom and Gilly and our technology dreams....hmmm
ALO
Encountered terminal technology overload at one stage, videoing discussions good idea, post processing to blog, still not happened. Thanks to Emma, Clare and Phil who were in my discussion group during James Clay's Hood2.0 workshop. Seesmic was my undoing, although I did manage photobooth. Multiple personalities in blogger were a micro challenge.
Next up
I have planned a GirlGeek|BarCamp|PlugFest|DigiSlam|Hopper for CompSci women which will be fabulous....
LTAGs (the TA stands for technology affordances) am working on a community wiki to gather and develop.
CSFIC/WWWrong - workshops in the pipeline for all us folks interested in organisational change
Grand Challenges and Technology Enhanced Learning, LSL in Southampton will be joining it, expect Hugh Davis to lead and add to the grand work done so far by the likes of Tom Boyle and Josie Taylor
Recent delights...
the HEA-ICS subject centre have decided to mainstream fund the TOPS competition (teaching over performing students/teaching overtly precocious students) an inter university programming competition designed to motivate and reward some of our programming students who are already fairly skilled when they start their undergraduate studies. We need to look after all of our students and find smart ways of achieving this.
Software List
plugins today
firefox tinyurl creator
FFX free Flickr export from iPhoto
I am disappointed with the quality of the photos on my iPhone compared to the Nokia N95, but I'm getting the hang of posting straight to twitter during my runs, next on the list is to add geotagging.
I guess as far as the gaps are concerned, I guess I will have to wait til I am on my travels to catch up. Currently first priority is to get things sorted before the start of term.
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