Category: research

Investigative Teachers at Community West

Michael Chalk1 Commentresearch, Uncategorized

A wonderful project at Community West in St Albans, where Dinna Tayao has invited teachers to join a weekly session of exploration and sharing. I went out to visit Dinna and her team of investigating educators. They have been running a fantastic in-house exploration of all kinds of e-learning. Each week one teacher explores a new strategy, software or other resource, evaluates its usefulness in class with students, and then reports back to the other teachers. 2 hours a week. They’ve had visiting expert speakers as well. Brilliant work from Read More …

Jane Hart’s top100 technologies for teachers

Michael ChalkLeave a commentresearch, Uncategorized

Jane Hart has been researching teachers’ favourite technologies for teaching and learning for the past 5 years (UK). Here’s a slideshow of the world’s top 100 tools for learning (2011). What are your top 5 tools for learning? You have around 15 days to vote in the 2012 poll, via this link here. What do you think of the list? Please add your comment below. Top 100 Tools for Learning 2011 from Jane Hart

Book reviewed!! (Digital Literacies by Lankshear & Knobel)

Michael Chalk1 Commentadult literacy, research

Finally! i’ve ploughed my way through Lankshear & Knobel’s “Digital Literacies: concepts, policies and practices.” (2008) Yes i’ve been reading it all year, but the final onslaught took me 4 days of sitting inside, during my holiday from work.. when the springtime sun was shining outside. How do i always manage to forget that academic reading can be horribly difficult!! If you’re out of practice, you need to diligently take notes on every page.. or you may as well not have read it. Anyway, it’s done now, handed over to Read More …

facebook as multiple literacies

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy, research, technology

Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel’s (L&K) own chapter in their book “digital literacies” investigates the social networking site Facebook in the light of multiple literacies. Within that environment, literacies have a strong tendency to be “relational” rather than informational. Hence the “super-poke” is all about connecting with a friend or colleague rather than transmitting any particular information. Membership in “groups” signals identity, but may not involve any actual communication or participation within the group. Previous studies into social networking include: network theory, signaling theory, human geography theory, social contract theory, Read More …

digital literacies ..book arrives

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy, professional development, research

Very exciting news for me: a book landed on my doorstep. “Digital Literacies” edited by Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel. Lynne and Sarah from Valbec’s “Fine Print” very kindly asked me to review it. The introduction sets out their agenda: Colin and Michele were looking for writers who would expound upon the notion of digital literacies as social practice, because: there is a huge diversity of understandings of “digital literacy”, which has an impact on policy around digital literacy; socio-cultural perspectives on “literacy as practice” are strong and useful, in Read More …

Taxonomy of blogs, and civility online (radio national)

Michael Chalk1 Commentresearch, technology

Browsing the Radio national podcasts, i found this interview and panel discussion: “Author and media analyst Margaret Simons takes a stab at defining the different types of blogs that currently exist.” (The interview follows an article in Creative Economy, where you’ll find relevant other links.) 1) Pamphleteering – often political blogs are like this, with many authors. 2) Digest blog, which aggregates and comments on a range of other stuff, eg from other blogs or from mainstream media. 3) Advocacy, eg telstra – where the company gets their workers to Read More …

Can You Hear Us? New project launch ..

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, innovation, research

Thrills and spills !! What a lovely group of people we’ve got for the new PRACE research project into audio technologies: “Can You Hear Us?” We’re building on the successes of the 2007 “Can u hear me?” project, and last Thursday was the launch day. These sessions are always nerve-wracking and you never feel quite prepared enough, but we dived in and the water was warm! Plenty of ideas flowing around the table, and of course everyone is at different levels of knowledge and experience. First session was about creating Read More …

Hopes and fears for flexible ACE

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, e-learning, innovation, research

Looking back over 2007, it was an extraordinary year, but i rarely had the energy to write here at all. I’d intended to use this place for reflecting on my research readings. i ended up just writing the thesis instead. One of the best projects in years was “Access ACE“, an investigation into flexible learning in Adult Community Education (ACE). Josie Rose managed somehow to negotiate with all of the regional and central managers at ACFE (the Adult Community Further Education board), and win them over to see the potential Read More …

Web-based resources in the classroom?

Michael Chalk2 Commentsclassroom, research

I’ve been thinking about this: How do people use web-based resources in their classroom? I’m sure the answer is “plenty of different ways”, eg.: Blended Learning: group activities involving discussion around a theme or text, followed up by a link to a web site. Blended Learning: in a face-to-face class, use a digital projector to engage a whole group with web-based learning activities … Ask learners to search for resources and share links (either in a face-to-face group, or in an online course). Provide links in a self-access, or independent Read More …