Ed/Tech must-reads (Full)

ASCILITE 2023 Full papers

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been in Christchurch, NZ catching up with some of my people at the ASCILITE conference. As always, there was a plethora of interesting papers, pecha kuchas and workshops pertaining to technology enhanced learning and teaching. In the full papers, my interest was piqued by this selection. (I will get onto the concise papers another time.) It was particularly encouraging to see such great representation from and about third space practitioners.

How to build a learning designer: Co-designing a training program for/with/as novice learning designers from Abblitt, Davis, D’Rozario, Ho, Pariah and Rasouli.

This paper outlines a quite detailed professional development program being run at the Keypath OPM in support of new learning designers. It categorises key skills into learning and design, media and technology, project management and leadership and communication.

Unveiling the potential of Digital Twin technology for Higher Education from Addanki and Corrin

This one was more of a thought exercise in some ways, looking to take the emerging use of “digital twins” (a digital replica of a physical object or process) and apply it to learners and learning analytics. Ideas raised included how and why this might be used on individual students ethically, what the benefits and feasibility might be and where it could go.

Empathic communication training in healthcare using Virtual Patients from Byrne

I must admit, this spoke to me because I worked on something similar maybe 15 years ago but the progression of tech since then has certainly changed things somewhat. It provides healthcare students with patients to safely practice communication skills on before being let loose on real ones.

Enhancing higher education with Learning Analytics in the digital age from Clark and Tuffley

In spite of the fact that Learning Analytics has been on the radar for more than a decade and institutions have made massive investments in research centres, it feels as though the practical execution has been rather limited. This paper provides five rich case studies of differing LA use in Australian universities.

Collaborative Synchronous Coaching to support triadic collaboration and bridge the theory-practice divide in initial teacher education from Gander

This paper showcases work on providing education students with remote, real-time feedback in teaching placements, including the development of a workable and concise communication system.

Surveying LinkedIn profiles of learning designers: Qualifications, interpersonal skills, and career pathways to inform career development from Gilmore and Nguyen

Gilmore and Nguyen take a different approach to Abblitt et al. in understanding the PD needs of learning designers by scouring LinkedIn profiles and job ads to develop an alternate set of in demand skills and knowledge.

Identifying the components of foundational Artificial Intelligence (AI) literacy - Early results from a Delphi study from MacCallum, Parsons and Mohaghegh

I’ve long been interested in the iterative development of consensus wisdom that the Delphi process enables and this work-in-progress paper from MacCallum et al. about supporting GenAI literacy highlights some of its promise.

Factors impacting the ability of ‘EdAdvisors’ to support and enhance technology-enhanced learning and teaching in Australian Higher Education from Simpson

Yes, this was mine - it’s a slightly out of date work in progress update of my own doctoral research into what I’m calling EdAdvisors - third space practitioners such as learning designers, education technologists and academic developers (etc). (I say it’s slightly out of date because I have newer and more interesting findings since I submitted it, which I did present on the day).

Building a model for transmedia learning: Engaging work integrated learning students from Tombleson

Transmedia learning essentially covers the use of a variety of platforms, including the LMS and assorted social media tools, to provide greater opportunities for co-creation and collaboration. Tombleson sees the strengths of this as information learning, participatory culture, transmedia play and skills and connectedness.

Supporting hybrid engagement through digital learning design from White, Hung and Campanale

This is a valuable process focused study which lays out the steps that learning designers work through as they convert relatively static law school learning materials into more active and dynamic learning experiences.

Active and online: Three case studies of learner engagement from Wilson, Wardak, Vallis and Huber

This also provides these kinds of insights, describing the work undertaken to embed interactivity in self-paced modules in a business school in three separate case studies.