Haythornthwaite, C. (1998) A social network study of the growth of community among distance learners Information Research, 4, 1 * Communication frequency is associated with the maintenance of more relations and the use of more media. * Patterns of media use are highly influenced by the media established by the instructor for class interaction * […]
This is an analytical approach I could consider using. It might be useful for Gill as well? Social network theory holds that behaviour is affected more by the kinds of ties and networks in which people are involved than by the norms and attributes that individuals possess. It examines patterns of ties to see what […]
I’m having trouble with learning theory. It looks good on paper, and then I think about what it means in practice and it often seems to unravel very quickly. For example: learning is ‘a community process of transformation of participation in sociocultural activities’ (Rogoff , Matusov and White 1996). Sounds good, doesn’t it? Learning as […]
One last comment on a case study – Gill, have a look at the Gloucestershire satvan. It looks whizzy, exciting and high-tech, and it lets you do your learning down the pub! Right – that’s enough about case studies. Gill, let me know if you want me to blog anything more quotable on any of […]
We have to study this case study, so I thought I’d better put in some notes on it. It’s a very first-world view of learning without boundaries as it requires a huge amount of technology, infrastructure and technical support. I think it’s the only one of the case studies to pick up on the use […]
The video clip begins with a scary amount of technology – looks like one of the editing suites at television centre. However, it homes in on, I suppose, software – on a way of accessing and sharing files that students can use on a tablet PC, the Interactive Logbook. They can do this at college […]
I haven’t seen this technology before. They’re mini-electronic voting gadgets. The lecturer asks a question – people vote on the answer, see the voting results on the interactive whiteboard and then get together in groups to argue their position. Then they can vote again. I’m dubious about the expense here. I’ve seen exactly the same […]
This is one of the video case studies. It’s easy to watch with broadband, and a pain without, so I’m doing it at the OU. The transcripts are very useful to download, partly because they include quotes and small images that could be used in a flier. I can’t see that a flier is going […]
This is what I distilled from the OED: Innovation is the alteration of what is established by the introduction of new elements or forms; something newly introduced; a novel practice, method, etc. I’d add that it’s a word with a positive flavour and that, to be classed as an innovation, something must endure or have […]
The third resource I have to study is a press release from VNU. ‘Why do award-giving bodies value innovation?’ is the question i the course materials. Well, remembering VNU as a company not concerned with quality or development but only interested in the money – I’d say they value innovation because it gives them an […]