Learning technologies in the blogosphere – Editors’ picks.
In what we hope will be the first of a series, I’m looking at some blog posts that caught the eye of the #altc blog editorial team recently. The three posts we have chosen highlight the range of formats and topics that learning technology bloggers embrace.
The big picture
The Digital Exclusion project that Dr Ellen Helsper wrote about in her post for the LSE Media Policy Project blog also received coverage in the Guardian media datablog.
The UK Digital Exclusion Heatmap, launched in collaboration with Go On UK highlights parts of the UK where people are excluded from full participation in the digital. Dr Helsper uses her blog post to dig a bit deeper and highlight three urgent issues that need action:
- Gaps in skills and use data
- Measurement and indicator design flaws
- Contextuality and flexibility
If you are interested in digital inequalities, accessibility and policy (and shouldn’t we all be?) you will want to read Measuring Inequalities in a Digital Britain
Follow Ellen Helsper (@EllenHel) on Twitter
Knowledge sharing in the ALT community
Closer to home, Flea Palmer (Plymouth University) used the responses she received to a question on the ALT-Members Jiscmail list about Tools for Digital Notetaking for a post on the FoBIT (Faculty of Business IT) blog.
Flea’s post covers devices, accessories and apps to give a really useful overview of the tools currently available for digital notetaking. When we put our heads together, we ALT members can come up with a pretty impressive range of suggestions!
If you are a member of ALT but haven’t yet signed up for the ALT-Members Jiscmail list it’s a great way to start getting involved.
Follow Flea Palmer (@FleaPalmer) on Twitter
Technology in use
You will have noticed that the #altc blog has started to include posts which review apps and discuss their use. For example, we have recently heard about Slack and Padlet.
David Read (University of Sheffield) wrote a fascinating blog post recently entitled: Tools for Learning Technologists: The Swivl. His post looks at ‘What is it?’ alongside ‘What can it be used for?’ and ‘Any issues with it?’ to provide a clear overview for anyone thinking of trying it for themselves as well as a basic introduction for those of us who have never heard of a Swivl.
Follow David Read (@dreadnought001) on Twitter
This collection was compiled by Anne Hole, Editor-in-Chief of the #altc Blog. If you have ideas for future posts please contact blog@alt.ac.uk
If you enjoyed reading this article we invite you to join the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) as an individual member, and to encourage your own organisation to join ALT as an organisational or sponsoring member