Oxfam 100km - Melbourne

Just completed the gruelling 100km Oxfam event over the weekend. We walked for 38 hours including a five-hour sleep break.

Jenni Munday, Emma Kearney, Mike Keppell, Koren Mitchell beginning the Oxfam 100km  Event

The first day took us through the highest part of the course after the 1000 steps.

Day 1 - Oxfam Course showing elevation gain

The second day after a five-hour rest/sleep proved to be a punishing day on our feet and the last two sections included some difficult hills.

Day 2 - Oxfam Course

Playful!

The finish line shows the weary finishers. Now the recovery begins!

Finished!

Digital Futures CRN - Research Leadership Development Program

The Research Leadership Development Program is a core aspect of the Digital Futures CRN. It is intended to act as a catalyst to build research capacity and capability. This includes a focus on skills and competencies, outcomes, impact and influence. The program is also intended to immerse the participants in a rich program focussed on developing their research leadership skills. Establishing networks, working in multidisciplinary teams and strategic planning are core aspects that will be discussed. 

Key aspects of developing a research culture are ambition, optimism and forward-looking research to solve research problems in our communities. This program will be a significant vehicle for enhancing this research culture at the University of Southern Queensland. Our partners are an important aspect of this journey and we welcome the opportunity to develop our research capability in collaboration with the University of South Australia (UniSA) and The Australian National University (ANU).

Finally

Just had to post this great news. Finally the teaching-research nexus is being recognised.

Upgrade for teaching research
by: Andrew Trounson
From: The Australian
November 07, 2012 12:00AM

THE morphing of the defunct Australian Learning and Teaching Council into a federal government office may prove a blessing in disguise for the status of teaching research.

The new Office for Learning and Teaching, which succeeded the ALTC after budget cuts shut it down last year, has done what the ALTC never did and formally applied for its grants and fellowships to be accorded category-one status. That would put them on the same scale as Australian Research Council grants, boosting the status of OLT grants both as markers for promotion and as sources of research infrastructure block grant money.

James Cook University deputy vice-chancellor (academic) Sally Kift said the move was long overdue. Professor Kift said there had always been a perception that the ALTC was wary of lobbying for category-one status because, if successful, it might have been folded into the ARC. She said just as OLT grants had to demonstrate impact on teaching and learning, so should ARC grants. "If the teaching-research nexus exists, then I would have thought ARC grants should demonstrate how research grants feed back into teaching programs, but there is no requirement about that," Professor Kift said.

Deakin University vice-chancellor Jane den Hollander, a member of the OLT advisory committee, said the field had matured into a highly competitive and globally recognised discipline that now deserved category-one status. "We are no longer a cottage industry. Teaching is serious area of research in its own right," Professor den Hollander said. "It isn't a second-class area, it is part of the core business of higher education."

Australian National University deputy vice-chancellor (academic) Marnie Hughes-Warrington believed category-one status for OLT grants was "a question of when, not if", noting that grants were highly competitive, with success rates of about 20 per cent, comparable to the ARC. She described it as the most significant development in learning and teaching research in a decade. Professor Kift said long-held biases in universities still existed. "People are actively dissuaded from engaging in pedagogical research because it has been considered to be of a lower status," she said. "For too long there has been this tired divide between the status of research funding and learning and teaching funding."

Three Main Challenges in Using Technologies in Higher Education

It's been a while since my last blog post so I am in catch-up mode as it's been a particularly busy couple of months. I try to blog major events and occurrences but today I wanted to reflect on some of the challenges we face in higher education in relation to using technologies for learning and teaching. I believe the three main challenges centre on digital literacies, affordances and support.

I think we would all agree that literacy is no longer the ability to read and write but now the ability to understand information however presented. In the digital age, we have a wider range of modes and spaces to express our ideas (e.g. facebook, twitter, blogs, etc) and each space has its own language. In relation to higher education, both staff and students have a wide range of skills and languages that influence any learning and teaching transaction. We can't assume students have all the skills to interact in a digital age, and the digital literacy knowledge of the teacher is important throughout the semester to enhance the learning experience. New literacies allow us to teach more effectively in a digital age and enable us to interact effectively in a digital age by accessing knowledge and connecting with others. We need to view our learning of literacies as a life-long journey due to the changing nature of the landscape.

A second challenge for teachers is knowing how to match the affordances of technologies  with teaching and learning. Affordances are the 'action possibilities' of the space or technology and a knowledge of the affordances of different technologies will assist our teaching. Being conversant with the affordances of technologies enables us to think about learning outcomes and assessment and use the technologies appropriately to create learning opportunities for our students. It is also important  to realise that our beliefs about teaching and learning and technologies affect how we use them.

A third challenge is managing time/space and workloads in the academic environment in relation to developing digital literacies and exploring the affordances of technologies that enable rich opportunities. The challenge for all academics is to make it part of their own learning and practice which means that a personalised professional development programme needs to occur. This means being aware of what support is available at the university, knowing what infrastructure is in place, getting involved in projects, professional organisations and experimenting with technology in learning and teaching.

Mindmap of three challenges in using technologies in higher education

Invited Presentations on Learning Spaces at Massey University

After completing the beautiful two-hour drive from Wellington to Palmerston North I completed two invited presentations at Massey University on the 16th and 17th April. Before completing the first presentation I had a tour of the campus which identified some of the learning spaces the University was considering to redesign. The presentation involved around 35 attendees and the response was positive in relation to the topic on 'Distributed places and spaces in Higher Education'. Both presentations were hosted by Professor Mark Brown from the National Centre for Teaching and Learning and the Distance Education and Learning Futures Alliance. You can view the slides from the presentation below. 

2012 april massey_ls_v3

View more presentations from Mike Keppell

On Tuesday morning we took the short flight to Auckland to visit the Albany campus for a repeat of the presentation to 12 attendees. The campus has some leading-edge spaces and the feel of the campus was very different to the Palmerston North campus. These learning pods are an example of the spaces at the Albany campus. 

Student study pods, Albany, Massey University 

Professor Mike Keppell, Albany Campus, Massey University

Whilst at the campus, Mark Brown was interviewed by a Chinese TV network about distance education. His article in the Dominion Post created interest in the topic.

Professor Mark Brown being interviewed by a Chinese TV Network

On a lighter note I managed to pick-up the 'gift of the century' for my wife who is a rugby fanatic. I couldn't go past this rugby chess set that now has pride of place on our coffee table. Of course the two teams had to be Australia and New Zealand!

The perfect gift for a fanatical rugby supporter

DEANZ 2012 - Wellington

As a first time attendee at the Distance Education Association of New Zealand (DEANZ) bi-annual conference I was impressed by the level of dialogue and enjoyed gaining an insight into the New Zealand Context. 

Mark Brown's article in The Dominion Post on April 11 was often referenced throughout the conference in both the first keynote by Paul Basich and in the closing comments of the conference. He mentioned that "distance education is becoming the new normal" which exemplifies how "the digital revolution is transforming the halls of learning". You can read the full article below by clicking on the image below and viewing it  full-sized.

I presented a workshop and a paper at the conference. The ninety minute workshop involved about 20 attendees and included CEOs, academics and PhD students. The title of the workshop was: Operationalising good practice in technology-enhanced learning and teaching. There was strong engagement from the group and I combined both discussion and presentation culminating in the sharing of the Good Practice Report on Technology-enhanced Learning and Teaching.

Deanz 12 workshop_gpr

View more presentations from Mike Keppell

I also presented on the National Networking Initiative. This was a short presentation at the end of the conference and a number of attendees from the workshop also attended this session.

Deanz 12 paper_nni

View more presentations from Mike Keppell

Wellington is an amazing city and I rate it as one of those must see places. The waterfront walk, cafes, artwork and Backbenchers Pub were the highlight. I also stayed at the trendy Museum Hotel which added the icing to the cake. 

Backbencher Pub - Wellington

Questions to Consider in Learning Space Design

Principle	Questions
Comfort: a space which creates a physical and mental sense of ease and well-being.	·      How comfortable do you feel in this learning space? ·      Do aspects of the learning space distract you from learning? ·      What area in the learning space do you spend most of your time and why? ·      Is there an area where you don’t feel comfortable in the learning space?
Aesthetics: pleasure which includes the recognition of symmetry, harmony, simplicity and fitness for purpose.	·      What features of the learning space do you appreciate? ·       Is the space fit for purpose in relation to learning?
Flow: the state of mind felt by the learner when totally involved in the learning experience.	·      Do you feel you can engage with your work in the learning space? ·      Are their areas in the learning space where you can focus on your individual work?
Equity: consideration of the needs of cultural and physical differences.	·      Do you think the learning space is inclusive of all people? ·      What features of the space promote an inclusive approach?
Blending: a mixture of technological and face-to-face pedagogical resources.	·      Do you utilize your own mobile device in the learning space? ·      How easy is it for you to connect to the network? ·      How often do you rely on the technology within the space?
Affordances: the “action possibilities” the learning environment provides the users, including such things as kitchens, natural light, Wi-Fi, private spaces, writing surfaces, sofas, and so on.	·      What does this learning space allow you to do that you cannot complete in another space? ·      Do you learn from other users about how to use the space? ·      Are there parts of the learning space that you avoid because you don’t know how to use them?
Repurposing: the potential for multiple usage of a space.	·       Do you move tables and chairs to create your own learning area? ·       What parts of the learning space do you reconfigure to suit your learning style? ·       Are there areas in the learning space that you constantly reuse for this reason?