Our presentations
Our presentations went well. We kept to time, unlike some; we all turned up, unlike some, and we had a reasonable size of audience, despite the fact that the audiences were definitely flagging by this time. I have photographic evidence, as well as photographic evidence of lots of other things, but that will all have to wait till I get back to my other computer. For me the most interesting moment of the session was after John Woodthorpe’s presentation on fOUndit. FOUndit is a collaborative resource repository in which students upload links and account for why they think they should be included. Others can agree that they should be included, and can vote for them, so that gradually a repository of course resource is built up. One of the audience questioned its purpose, saying that nowadays if he wants to find anything he just googles it, and finds that easier than having to wade through a repository of things that may or may not be relevant. As a direct response to that issue, I might agree. I think Google’s usefulness has increased with the ever increasing amount of resources available on the internet. I think there is still a place for repositories, especially gatewayed ones – ones where there has been some sort of assessment and ranking of the resources added. But in another way I think that is the wrong issue to concentrate on. The value of fOUndit is at least as much in the process as in the content. For students uploading resources, they will get practice in justifying their choices, evaluating resources and collaborating with other people in making decisions. I suspect that fOUndit will find its true value when use of it is built into courses, particularly level 1 courses, as exercises, whether assessed or not, in evaluation and in collaborative work.