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Leading Learning and Technological Change – MDDE 610 Webinar

Dwayne Harapnuik — November 4, 2015 — Leave a comment

For a learning theorist and Professor there are few things more invigorating than working with a group of highly motivated learners. My long time colleague and friend Dr. Craig Montgomerie often asks me to join his online Athabasca University class MDDE 610: Survey of Current Educational Technology Applications to provide his students the opportunity engage with a professional like myself who has extensive experience in promoting the use of Educational Technology.

In the MDDE webinar for November 3, 2015 titled Leading learning and technological change we focused on the most difficult challenges in any organizational change — dealing with an organization’s culture and implementing strategies that require a cultural shift. Through examining a case study of the ACU Connected Mobile Learning Initiative we explored how addressing the following four key principles increase your chances of success significantly:

Start with Why
Identify and engage key influencers
Install an effective execution strategy
Enlist and empower self-differentiated leaders

We also analyzed how ignoring even one of these principles can contribute to failure and how these principles are currently being used in the BCIT School of Health Sciences Future of Learning initiative.

Webinar slide deck – MDDE 610 Nov 2015.pdf

The following resources were mentioned or briefly discussed in the webinar and can be used to gain a deeper understanding:

The Head Won’t Go Where the Heart Hasn’t Been
This post stresses that:
If you really want to bring about change in people then you need to appeal their hearts and not to their heads. The sharing of more information or engaging in more rational discourse on its own doesn’t appear to help people to make significant change but an appeal to values, attitudes, and feelings first can motivate people toward making changes.

People who like this stuff…like this stuff
Includes a short annotation and links the books Start with Why (Simon Sinek), Influencer, Four Disciplines of Execution (4DX) and Freidmen’s Failure of Nerve.

Connected The Movie by the ACU Connected Initiative
Link to the ACU Connected mobile movie that started and provided the fundamental Why or vision for Mobile Learning at ACU.

Additional resources on Change and Innovation:

In elearning, Learning, mLearning, Online Learning EdTech, Learning, organizational change, organizational culture, technology

Digital Learning Switchover Infographic

Dwayne Harapnuik — November 3, 2015 — Leave a comment

Source: elearninglaura.net

In Infographic digital, Learning, switch

Minimalist Definition of an Eportfolio

Dwayne Harapnuik — August 4, 2015 — 1 Comment

The minimalist definition of an eportfolio:

a learner’s digital evidence of meaningful connections

Can portfolios really be defined so simply and succinctly as a learner’s digital evidence of meaningful connections? I think they have to be considering the following:

Learning is the making of meaningful connections (see related posts meaningful connections).
Eportfolios are a learner’s digital evidence of learning.
Therefore eportfolios are a learner’s digital evidence of meaningful connections.

I have also been reviewing the literature on eportfolios ever since the term has been developed over 20 years ago and there is no shortage of definitions and debates on what constitutes an eportfolio. Furthermore, the literature is filled with obtuse (see post Our work doesnt’ have to be obtuse to be important ) academic writing that is all too often challenging to read and detracts for the usefulness of the eportfolio discussion and process. It is my hope to reduce or simplify the definition of an eportfolio and not add any unnecessary complexity.

However, if my minimalist definition doesn’t offer enough substance, then I suggest that you refer to a 2007 CETIS SIG mailing list discussion between Sutherland and Powell where they ratified the following definition before the mailing list audience:

An e-portfolio is a purposeful aggregation of digital items – ideas, evidence, reflections, feedback etc, which ‘presents’ a selected audience with evidence of a person’s learning and/or ability.

While this definition is somewhat expanded it really doesn’t say that much more or offer any more significance than the proposed minimalist definition. The more we add to the definition the more we start moving into a discussion of the why, or purpose, of portfolios and how we create them. I will be writing about the Why and the How of eportfolios in future posts.

For those who need to know more or see a more thorough handling of the definition of eportfolios please refer to the following links:

Dr. Helen Barrett, the most renowned proponent of portfolios/eportfolios offers the following definition and links to supporting essays on her Frequently-Asked Questions about Electronic Portfolios page. Barrett argues that there are two types of portfolios, the working and presentation portfolio, and that we need to combine both types to be most effective. While she is correct, she unfortunately overlooks the fact that modern tools like WordPress enable the learner to do both the working and presentation portfolio into one site.
http://electronicportfolios.com/faq.html

University of British Columbia (UBC) Eportfolios – What is it? UBC has been working with eportfolios for several years and their toolkit approach to using eportfolios provides a useful and pragmatic starting point.
http://elearning.ubc.ca/toolkit/eportfolios/

University of Waterloo – ePortfolios Explained. Another good starting point for learning about the eportfolio process.
https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/educational-technologies/all/eportfolios

JISC eportfolio – Perhaps on the most compressive sites on the eportfolio.
https://www.jisc.ac.uk/full-guide/e-portfolios

Alverno College has one of the longest traditions (since the 70’s) of using a portfolio as part of their assessment-as-learning process. They currently use the Diagnostic Digital Portfolio (DPP) which enables the learner to follow their learning progress throughout their student career at Alverno.
http://www.alverno.edu/ddp/

References:
Barrett, H. C. (2000). Electronic Portfolios–A chapter in Educational Technology; An Encyclopedia to be published by ABC-CLIO, 2001. Retrieved from http://electronicportfolios.com/portfolios/aahe2000.html

Barrett, H. (2000). Electronic Teaching Portfolios: Multimedia Skills+ Portfolio Development= Powerful Professional Development. Retrieved from http://electronicportfolios.com/portfolios/encyclopediaentry.htm

Sutherland, S. and Powell, A. (2007), CETIS SIG mailing list discussions. Retrieved from https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A1=ind0707&L=CETIS-PORTFOLIO#3

In Eportfolio, Meaningful Connections eportfolio, Learning, meaningful connections