image from http://enhancingteaching.com/
Yesterday I started a Technology Enhanced Learning module – it’s a 10 credit Learning Innovation Network module that is being facilitated in LIT. I signed up for it back in September but for various reasons it has only started today. The module is scheduled to run for 15 weeks with 4 face to face sessions and most of the work being completed asynchronously.
After the initial introductions we were asked to examine our attitudes to learning technology and place ourselves along a continuum from ‘Enthusiastic’ to ‘Sceptic’. We then had to give our reasoning for where we placed ourselves. We had 3 clusters – enthusiastic, somewhere in the middle and sceptic. What was interesting in the discussion that followed, was that really there wasn’t much difference between those who placed ourselves in the enthusiastic cluster right down to those who were in the sceptic cluster. We all had concerns about the depth of learning, and various other issues around technology use, but we did all sign up for the module so it sounds like there are lots of interesting discussions to be had over the next couple of months 
From my perspective I’m really looking forward to looking at technologies with a different eye over the course of the module and beyond. One small example that really opened my eyes today was when Liam Boyle, our facilitator, got us to use Padlet to share some of the technologies we have used in our teaching and learning. This application is basically a post-it note wall. It is such a simple technology and one that I had seen at the ICT in Education conference in the past few years. What surprised me today was that I could now see a use for it in my own class – I’m thinking of using it as a quick conversation starter around where Maths is of use in the various computing disciplines. It’s amazing how looking at things slightly differently can open up so many new possibilities This is what I’m hoping to get from this module over the next few months.
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