Hazel Owen's Blog – March 2016 Archive (10)

If you are interested in using eLearning to enhance your students' learning experiences - especially if you are teaching in the social sciences - then this resource is for you.

The Prezi…

Would your school-aged children like to know how to code...or take their existing skills to the next level...or code their own robot? The Scratchpad holiday programme may offer exactly what they are looking for. They will be able to work at their own pace, on projects that interest them, to achieve their own goals.

You can…

There is a skills shortage in surveying in New Zealand. But how can this be? There is a demand, and people who are interested. There are only about 2000 professional surveyors who are part of the institution of surveyors. So, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic  set out to find a solution.

In 2012 they started by delivering the diploma in surveying in a…

Beverly Taylor works at Wintec in Hamilton, and she is one of the first to tell you that group assignments offer a range of challenges.

One of the strategies she uses, however, is to ask students to create a contract between the group. This includes understanding the task requirements, taking responsibility for learning, communication,…

As a self-professed skeptic of learning analytics (I'm still not totally convinced they are great for the learner...even if they might be a great tool for education institutions), I was reassured to hear Gardner Campbell (director of professional development and innovative initiatives at Virginia Tech) speak so well.

Campbell speaks of the possibility that learning analytics might…

I came across this particular post by Once Written (Al Kline), when it popped up in Zemanta as a suggested complementary post. It caught my eye as I had seen  Dale Stephen (author of…

I came across this infographic about SMADD (social media attention deficit disorder), via Patricia Martin's most enjoyable post (thanks, Patricia :-p).

Patricia shares that she has the "attention span of a toy poodle. But I’m doing everything I can to fight back. I’ve even returned to practices I learned in Catholic grade school, like preparing lovely handwritten notes with…

While this JISC guide is from 2014 (shared by John Owen), it still addresses some important factors in curriculum design, especially the need to meet a diverse range of learners with a variety of aspirations. This…

Ever find yourself with a to-do list with things that just don’t get done? Sometimes these are tasks or activities that are in someway off-putting to you, so how can you motivate yourself to do them?

Louise Barnes-Johnston suggests an approach that enables people she is coaching to acknowledge (and celebrate) the…