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Month: January 2017

Lifestream summary: week 2

Lifestream summary: week 2

This week took me to the BETT Show where I was demonstrating Office 365 technologies for teachers.

Each year when I go to BETT I am struck by the disjunct between what I see at the show and what I see when I visit schools. The sheen, the shine and the promise of technologies which is on show in the vast arena of ExCeL is, in my experience, rarely successfully transferred into schools.  I read Bayne on the train on the way to London and was struck by how much the message of ‘TEL’ was reiterated throughout the show – not only by exhibitors, but also by the teachers I spoke with. They talked of technology as being a ‘tool’ which could facilitate ‘more effective’ learning and teaching. This perception is a key reason why technology adoption fails: questions about how technology and practice are complexly intertwined and how technologies necessarily change, affect, and radically alter processes and behaviours are infrequently considered. Bayne’s assertion that we need to focus on networks, ecologies and sociomaterial contexts is pertinent.

In terms of managing my Lifestream this week, there is much material from the show which I still need to edit and curate; that’s an enjoyable problem to have as the process of finding new ways to collate and present information fascinating. I have made some progress with IFTTT and have ‘cooked’ a number of new recipes. I’ve also started to comment on others’ blogs: it’s brilliant to see the range of approaches, technologies, thoughts and ideas which are on display in our blogs.

Comment on Week 2 Summary by hwalker

Comment on Week 2 Summary by hwalker

Having spent the week at BETT, where many vendors are trying to sell technologies into schools, your last paragraph struck a chord. Bayne’s observation of the complex interrelationship between the human and the digital is also key to thinking about the use of technology in education; the ‘complex entanglements’ of the human and the technical must be considered. At BETT, I frequently heard TEL perspectives and assumptions reiterated.

(And yes: thank you for the help with getting the IFTTT streams established!)

from Comments for Renée’s EDC blog http://ift.tt/2jjO7rf
via IFTTT

Comment on Enhanced – discourse and other pretty bots by hwalker

Comment on Enhanced – discourse and other pretty bots by hwalker

A brilliant video Chenee and a really interesting area to consider: how we can use technologies to enhance the image of ourselves which we present. One much-discussed element of this is, I guess, how our social media self is a product – often a much improved and ‘enhanced’ version of our RL self.

I’m so pleased that you unpicked and questioned many of the meaningless slogans which surrounded us at BETT: TEL presumptions defined much of what was offered and the discourse around it.

from Comments for Chenée’s Education & Digital Culture blog http://ift.tt/2kIEP46
via IFTTT