Things I learned this week

(Thanks to Doug Belshaw for this idea, he publishes weekly blog posts on what he has learned)
Be prepared ……well in advance
Always test software and hardware at least a day ahead of a workshop! I started organising the clicker information workshop for librarians on the morning of the Library Annual Information Seminar. My laptop has a newly installed version of Office 2007 and when I used Turningpoint clicker software with it was unbelievably slow. The previous version of PPT was fine, but now when I use the Turningpoint tool with it, it grinds to a halt. Anyway it is an issue noted by Turningpoint (http://www.turning-talk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=174&start=10 ) Iwill uninstall , reinstall, and try again, fingers crossed.
Marking and Feedback
This week I marked some portfolios for a range of programmes here at the LTTC. I am learning more and more that writing and channelling constructive feedback to students is challenging. Thinking and reflecting past first impressions is very important and taking a whole view of student work is vital. However this might be in direct opposition to modularisation which promotes each module as a discrete learning entity.
ALT-C 2010
This week I listened to some ALT-C activities remotely (via twitter and blog posts). There seemed to be hullabaloo about Donald Clarke’s Keynote, regarding the Lecture, although more people were criticising his use of language rather than the content of his argument.
I enjoyed reading “The student is mobile”, an analysis of student use of mobile phones as part of their learning. Results show that students are not carrying their laptops around with them, instead they use mobiles as storage device and students were using their phones to take advantage of dead time, such as travelling to work. This is just-in-time information for us at the LTTC, as we are developing workshops on mobile learning.