I have many of the same questions as Peter and Ezeala – criteria, etc. I am also keen to know if we should be seeing OA as an either or (closed VS open, publish or perish) or might one be strategic and choose a publication that is both OA and accredited. As a young researcher I am also keen to learn more about the publishing practices of more experienced researchers. Interviewing Maha really inspired me – her podcast can be accessed here.

I also have an IJEDICT paper from 2009 following the online e/merge conference in 2008. It was based on a chapter from my Masters thesis. To be honest I did not know what open access was at that stage. My PhD thesis is up on the open access thesis directory (OATD). I think this is great as it means that more people are able to access my work.Recently I have been receiving invites to publish in open access journals which I have never heard so I am curious to learn more about which ones are ‘legit’ and which aren’t, what their impact factors are and how I might judge their credibility. I am passionate about expanding the field of games research in the global south so I have recently been looking into open access game studies journals. I am currently also exploring which of these might also be on DHET-accredited. I notice that Game Studies is. I also found a blog post that mentions open access publications that focus on New Media. The challenge for me is deciding and being strategic about which ones to go for and why. If my purpose it to make an African footprint more visible in games research what are some of the things I could do – this is something I’ve been pondering.

I am interested in uses of MOOCs beyond taking/making. I have never completed a MOOC but signed up and participated in quite a few. Some are so poor they make me cringe (luckily not the majority). Others sound exciting at first – false advertising. Some I get what I need and get out. I learn a lot about the do’s and don’t of online learning by lurking in MOOCs, observing things that work well and things that don’t work so well.

Also since there’s lots of multimodal stuff here, this International conference may be of interest http://www.8icom.co.za/ Will be at UCT and with the exchange rate at the moment and timing, perfect time for a December holiday:)

Thanks a million for all these resources Janet:) I co-teach on a Postgraduate Diploma in Educational Technology. I did my PhD (Media Studies) on kids and games in after-school settings and MA on use of educational software in a school computer lab. I found your ICTs as medium, setting and phenomenon particularly helpful – wish I had come across it earlier in my research career. I will definitely share this with students and the links to the webinars and resources. The first seminar is particularly interesting for this group of students (example of inquiry models online).

Anyone else here teach on a research course or doing research? Or planning to do some online qualitative research? Please share.

Janet, I’m wondering if online qualitative research means something different to doing research with ICTs minus internet access…

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Agree with you Alice – there is a great need for more support RE innovative teaching and learning. Recognition for research is not enough. Perhaps this is changing slowly, as teaching awards and promotions require sections on innovative practices, etc.

I think the major challenge is foreign pedagogies. Social and collaborative learning is still novel in many educational contexts in Africa where didactic approaches is the norm.

The article mentions TESSA and a mobile education framework for teachers and I wondered where I could find more information on this and if there was anything like this in Africa for Higher Ed?

I don’t think near universal device ownership and internet access are enough to realise the potential of mobile learning. I suspect we also need to look at changing practices if we hope to transform mobile into learning devices.

The recording of workshop 1 is available at http://meeting.uct.ac.za/p68qfmaczoo/

Hi All:) I am attaching the chat transcript from the session and a copy of the presentation:)

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Live brief: Corporate HIV/Aids training

A large corporate client approaches your learning design team to design a learning experience intervention to educate staff on HIV/ Aids. 3000 employees spread across 2 cities and 5 sites need to be trained. The objective of the training is to train staff to be aware of health issues related to HIV/ Aids, to address the stigma and to change their mindset about the epidemic.

The target audience consists of knowledge workers, mostly graduates. They have limited exposure to eLearning. Previous eLearning exposure was for compulsory compliance training. Employees are based in different departments and represent a range of age groups, from early 20s to mid 50s. The time commitment should be no more than 1 hour.

In addition to the brief, what else do you need to know in order to discover the problem and properly define the brief?
What other information do you need?
What questions will you ask the client?
What wicked problems can you identify?
What wicked problems can you identify?
What sense can you make of this information?

I think a guide for educators on what to consider then using social media for teaching and learning activities will be very useful. I liked how you said it’s not just about using the technology how we need to focus on the instructional design. You mentioned using scenarios for example. I found a short article where your work is mentioned along with one of the tasks:

“students were told to imagine the scene on arrival at a school for their first job as a teacher at a poorly equipped educational technology laboratory. Their task was to draw up an inventory of equipment needed and to write about how other teachers could use one listed item.” Source: eLearning Africa post

This is a nice authentic task. I am interested in the fit between using social media and course design involving authentic learning.

Maybe because there are apps for these social media platforms for mobile phones that social media lends itself to authentic learning activities? For those interested, Jan Herrington talks about authentic tasks in this video http://authenticlearning.info/AuthenticLearning/Authentic_Task.html and I see she also has a book on authentic eLearning.

You mentioned the balance between easy to use and usefulness and that you are finding Edmodo has less distractions for students (unlike Facebook notifications). I have been involved with a course where Edmodo was use and it’s nice because you can use it on mobile and not have the distraction of friends, too many notifications, etc. But I find I have more of a community of practice on Facebook and Twitter if I think about my own personal learning networks and the spaces where valuable interactions take place for me.

I have used Twitter when I taught a second year media seminar on social media (students used social media as part of their learning about social media) and I assisted with ePortfolios in an e-Marketing course where students used WordPress blogs to complete small authentic learning tasks. I share papers and presentations on this work below:
http://emerge2012.net/proceedings/
and http://www.slideshare.net/nicolapallitt/eportfolio-integration-in-an-emarketing-course

I hope our fellow e/merge colleagues share how they are using social media for teaching and learning with students at their institutions.

I think there is a lot of skepticism around the usefulness of social media for teaching and learning, especially now at UCT after the #RhodesMustFall saga. More traditional academics are finally paying attention to the power of online networks. If it can be used for protests, it can be used for learning. Some of them may see it as something that needs to be restricted or controlled. Do you think educators need a healthy attitude to social media before trying to use it for teaching and learning with students?

Thanks for sharing Ruth – this is an interesting way of getting students to participate. I think this approach with distance learners could also work at universities using blended learning and thinking about tasks for formative purposes rather than for marks. Often we’re so stuck on the assessment we don’t give students opportunities to engage in collaborative processes and practices for knowledge exchange and creation.

@Thula happy to share:)
@Gerrit I’d be keen:)
@Gilly thanks for answering our questions so far:)
@Ruth I’m also wondering about e-tivities, assessment and the peer aspect Gilly mentions. In the e-Marketing course we used e-tivities to refer to small authentic learning tasks that students completed on their ePortfolios and although we encouraged students to comment on each other’s ‘e-tivities’, only a few of them did so. Possibly because this kind of participation wasn’t awarded any marks? So although we intended for the ‘e-tivities’ to involve peer participation, it emerged as being more individualist. I have been wondering whether we were using ‘e-tivities’ in it’s original sense (i.e. whether the outcome/intention differs) or another form. Were these just ordinary mini online tasks where students apply content knowledge to practical examples. When we label something an ‘e-tivity’ what are we intending/assuming?

Hi Thula:) This Video may be of interest to you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUxM2OOPMMw It’s also teacher education and reflective practice focused.

Hi All:)

I am Nicola Pallitt and I work as a lecturer at CILT (at UCT in Cape Town) helping lecturers incorporate ePortfolios in courses. My details: http://www.cilt.uct.ac.za/cilt/about/nicola-pallitt

Thula, I think we are on the same page RE our interest in reflective practice e-tivities. I have recently used the concept e-tivities with a lecturer in e-Marketing where students completed e-tivities as part of their ePortfolio. Course e-tivities: http://eportfoliouct.wordpress.com/ Student example: http://tammyelliot.wordpress.com/

For a long time I have been wondering about the origins of ‘e-tivities’ and who coined it? Gilly, Tony tells me it is you. Can you please share some details about where the concept ’emerged’ from for you and what it affords/involves/is made up of. Are there some underlying assumptions about what e-tivities do that ‘online activities’ don’t? Or is it just a cool word like ‘e-flection’ for online reflection? Is there something about doing these things online that make them different?

I also recently read this http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/e-portfolios-go-big-or-go-home which talks about low threshold assignments. Are e-tivities the same thing?

I am looking forward to gaining more insight about online learning design and the Carpe Diem process in this forum. Also, how does the 5 stages model compare to the 7Cs?

Through conversations with colleagues, I have realised I need to approach the ePortfolio integration in courses and as an individual exercise (such as for early career academics) with some kind of online learning design approach and I’m looking for something that can guide how I facilitate this process with lecturers.

Thank you Thula and Jolanda:) Group 2 (or anyone new that wants to be) I’ve create a doc for this week (Week 2: Create & Combine) in the Google folder https://docs.google.com/document/d/1M3rcmVXcvp-Asi8atf6vnbfmbryHq-0tXHagZNF80mU/edit?usp=sharing

Grainne was very helpful earlier answering questions I had on Facebook RE the second C ‘Create’ where I was confused about the differences between reusing, tweaking and repurposing. I came to the conclusion that “it’s like a spectrum where reusing you do nothing and use as is, tweak is minor changes and repurpose is extensive changes and then there’s create which is your own resource from scratch.” Grainne added that “Part of the aim is i) to collate all the resources you need in one place and ii) to establish how much time and effort you need to invest and whether or not you have the appropriate skills”.