WTF? The reusability paradox. How can reusability be bad? When first presented with this concept last year, I must admit I really did struggle with it. As a techhie, every fibre of my being compels me to focus on reuse. Hence, the paradox. After some weeks of struggling with the reusability paradox, it did start... Continue Reading →
Moodle Activity Viewer – in the cloud?
So what is MAV? An introduction to MAV written in 2013 is available. Features have been added, but the core concept remains unchanged. In a nutshell, it allows you to visualise student click activity within your Moodle course site using a heat map, colouring links lighter or darker according to the number of times they... Continue Reading →
Being BAD at task management
I have co-authored a paper with a colleague, David Jones which was published at the ASCILITE2014 conference being held in Dunedin New Zealand. The paper was titled Breaking BAD to bridge the reality/rhetoric chasm. The reality/rhetoric chasm is best expressed through the following metaphor, in the words of Professor Mark Brown: E-learning's a bit like... Continue Reading →
The Moodle Activity Viewer (MAV) – Heatmaps of Student Activity
Introduction This blog post introduces an emerging implementation of learning analytics for lecturers that offers a novel approach to the visualisation of learning analytics within the Moodle LMS called the Moodle Activity Viewer (MAV). The motivation for its design was born from the frustration of using the standard analytics reporting functions available in Moodle 2.2... Continue Reading →
Concept Map for Emerging Technologies for Learning
As part of my studies of Emerging Technology for Learning, I am required to develop a concept map of the course, which is illustrated below. I was attempting to identify abstractions, themes, symmetry and an attractive arrangement for my concept map. I gave up in the end after a few different versions, as it just... Continue Reading →
Metacognition as a concept map
So I have been recently introduced to Concept Mapping using the CmapTools developed by IHMC. Thinking I should give this a go to see if it assists with understanding the big picture of complex concepts, I put it into action. I have developed a concept map for metacognition, a topic of discussion in a course... Continue Reading →
Philosophies of Technology – Technological determinism
This post forms part of a series, where I am attempting to identify my philosophies around teaching and technology, and reflect on the impact it has on my instructional design, as detailed in my initial post. This third part of the series is focused on the philosophy of technological determinism. Kanuka's (2008) summary for a... Continue Reading →
Philosophies of Technology – Social determinism
This post forms part of a series, where I am attempting to identify my philosophies around teaching and technology, and reflect on the impact it has on my instructional design, as detailed in my initial post. This second part of the series is focused on the philosophy of social determinism. I commented in my initial... Continue Reading →
Philosophies of Technology – Uses determinism
As part of my studies, I have been asked to identify my philosophies around teaching and technology, and reflect on the impact it has on my instructional design. We have been asked to read Kanuka (2008) as a source of information on various teaching and technology philosophies, and how they are often aligned. I have... Continue Reading →
The Eportfolio Tug-of-war
Foreword This blog post has seen me fall into old habits with my blogging. It has turned into a very large document and has taken considerable time to write. Not how I wish to blog. My apologies if its too much to digest. 🙂 Damien. Introduction I have tried to capture a broad, but shallow... Continue Reading →