Ideas for discussion topics

Ideas for discussion topics

by Sylvia Currie -
Number of replies: 15
Some ideas for seminar discussion topics have come into the conversation.  I'm starting a new thread to encourage everyone to continue the trend of suggesting topic ideas...

So far:
  • Applying and evaluating Web 2.0 tools/ Moving beyond the VLE/CMS
  • Beyond preaching to the converted: Reaching educators who aren't part of the conversation.
  • Evaluation/Outcome Measures
  • Integrating technology into education: What does success look like?
  • The hurdle of time
  • Accessibility (part II seminar perhaps?)
Did I miss any?

And Heather, you can be sure I didn't miss your offer to volunteer to facilitate a seminar! wink

In reply to Sylvia Currie

Re: Ideas for discussion topics

by Inge Ignatia de Waard -
dear all

Working for the ITM (institute of tropical medicine, Antwerpen, Belgium), most of the students here are from low resource settings. I would like to have a seminar on low resource settings and what solutions people use to get the learning material across to remote areas.

greetings to you all
In reply to Inge Ignatia de Waard

Re: Ideas for discussion topics

by Lisa Valentine -
Excellent idea - I was in Africa earlier this year and astonished that in an area with no running water, no electricity they all had mobile phones (solar charging).  I'm sure there is scope there for development.
In reply to Lisa Valentine

Re: Ideas for discussion topics

by Inge Ignatia de Waard -
hi Lisa

Yes, it is amazing. At this moment we have a pilot project involving rural farmers in South Africa (really small farmers who just have a couple of cows). The only technology they have is a mobile phone. With that phone and a data sheet which they get to monitor their cows, the veterinary department can keep track of the health of their cows and make recommendations.
In reply to Inge Ignatia de Waard

Re: Ideas for discussion topics

by Heather Ross -
Ignatia,

That sounds like an amazing project. I would love to hear more.

I design distance learning courses for apprentices in the trades and for health care providers, both who are often in rural areas of Saskatchewan. They have more access to technology than your rural farmers, but not a lot of knowledge about how to use it.

I am very interested in knowing more about delivery via cell phones.
In reply to Heather Ross

Re: Ideas for discussion topics

by Inge Ignatia de Waard -
hi Heather

If you like to I can give you some idea of what we did. But maybe you are in the neighborhood of New Brunswick in the beginning of October? I am speaking at a conference on mobile learning in New Brunswick. If you are in the neigborhood or maybe even attending we could meet up down there? If you are interested, you might check out the first speaker John Traxler, he is a specialist on mobile learning.
Otherwise I will gladly send you a brief overview of the projects we are building at ITM. Not all of them are purely via cell phones, some are via local setup internet.
In reply to Inge Ignatia de Waard

Re: Ideas for discussion topics

by Heather Ross -
Sorry, I won't be in NB. But I would love to hear more about your work.
In reply to Heather Ross

Re: Ideas for discussion topics

by WL Wong -
I do apologise for slipping and in out of the conversation threads. I am interested in discussions around mobile learning . Was just recommended to http://mlearning.edublogs.org/.

Cheers,
WL
In reply to WL Wong

Re: Ideas for discussion topics

by Inge Ignatia de Waard -
hi Wai-Leng
here is a synopsis of some of the mobile projects I work on:

Health e-courses for low resource settings: for the moment these courses are HIV/AIDS related courses that are developed in two mobile formats: one that can be followed online by any 3G mobile device and one format that uses interactive multimedia (audio/video) to get the content across. The latter is less interactive (only assessments and the tests are making the interactivity) for the moment but we are working on getting it more active from the students point of view giving her or him more autonomy in actually making parts of the course.
These courses are also developed in an offline version. These versions can be distributed through a smart card for specific mobile devices.

Veterinary e-courses: one course is on ticks and that one has a lot of interactivity and has a big generic possibilities both for the students and the researchers or teachers. Because of the very interactive content it is being delivered to the students on a smart card as well. The communication goes through skype and via sms.

Veterinary research with rural farmers (project with partners in South Africa): in this project which works a resistance in cows for disease transmitting worms it is of the greatest importance that farmers get the correct amount of medicine to keep their live stock healthy and to prevent them from getting those same cows resistant for the medicines. To do this the farmers get a card which shows the different colors of the eye white of a cow (the color of the white of the eye is a very good indicator of the worm infection). Each color has its own set of data. The farmer gets a sms at a fixed time with the question to get the data across to the central data analysis center. He than looks at the eye color card and progressively types in the data for each cow and sends it to the analysis center. Based on that information combined with the weather and other climate and life stock specifics for every region each farmer gets information on what medicine must be delivered to which cow. This mobile project is vital to harness the resistance of that parasite.

At this moment my team is also looking at the possibility (or the possible advantage) of providing a local wifi network and connect that to mobiles with a wifi capacity. This could deminish the cost for hardware (or that is our hypothesis, still need to see whether or not that would be true).

If you have any experiences to share, please let me know.

cheers
In reply to Inge Ignatia de Waard

Re: Ideas for discussion topics

by E.A. Draffan -
I was lucky enough to work with a group from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and they are doing lots of work on the very issue you mentioned as they have hundreds of students from far away places - it may be worth getting in touch with their e-learning department. Best wishes E.A.
In reply to Sylvia Currie

Re: Ideas for discussion topics

by Sylvia Currie -
I had a nice conversation with Liz Wallace, Cindy Xin, and Paul Stacey yesterday about professional development opportunities and an idea for a SCoPE discussion topic emerged: Formal Education Opportunities (for people wanting to work or advance in the field of education). There are various lists and ways to find out about various diploma and degree programs, but it would be valuable to have a focussed discussion about our experiences. What makes a good graduate program? Where do we find programs to become a fill-in-the-blank?

Just adding to the list. And, of course, hoping for a volunteer to facilitate this topic! smile
In reply to Sylvia Currie

Re: Ideas for discussion topics: Books for our Reading Group

by Sylvia Currie -
We kicked off 2007 with a book discussion with George Siemens newly published "Knowing Knowledge". Many members commented that they liked the format of reading and discussing a book together. We've since had a tentative plan for a second book discussion but all the pieces still need to come together. Hopefully that will happen this fall!

Meanwhile, does anyone have suggestions for upcoming book discussions? Ideally we would like to follow the format of our first discussion and invite the author to facilitate. It would also be great to have the book available as a free download to encourage wider participation. Quite a few of us opted to purchase Knowing Knowledge (my copy has many dog ears!), and we also gave several away as prizes. 
In reply to Sylvia Currie

Re: Ideas for discussion topics: Books for our Reading Group

by Inge Ignatia de Waard -
Two book suggestions (I have read them recently and they were both inspiring):

Informal learning by Jay Cross (this really got my head spinning with inspiration)

Five minds for the future by Howard Gardner: certainly a dryer format, but it was an interesting read because it has a lot of ideas on the importance of the new mindsets of the future.
In reply to Sylvia Currie

Re: Ideas for discussion topics

by Derek Chirnside -
What about a free for all once a month for (say) three days. (Like the first three days of the month)
"What's on Top, Things we're Into, Things We notice, Questions I've Got"
In reply to Sylvia Currie

Re: Ideas for discussion topics

by Inge Ignatia de Waard -
After reading your list of suggestions:

- eLearning in low resource settings.

cheers