The use of Technology and development of a Community of Practice

1. The use of Technology and development of a Community of Practice Wendy Fisher COLMSCT Teaching Fellow and Staff Tutor in Technology

2. Two Strands • Strand A – The use of Technology • Use of Tablet PC Technology - eTMAs • Using Technology to work with Pedagogy • On-line, challenging assessment areas; mathematical formulae, scientific nomenclature, diagramming • Strand B – Developing a community of practice • Supporting distance lecturers with on-line forums and Web2.0 Technology

3. Strand A - The Use of Technology • To establish how lecturers use a PC and keyboard in marking • To evaluate the use of Tablet PC Technology in marking eTMAs

4. PC and Keyboard - eTMAs • Currently where do Lecturers provide feedback in eTMAs? • Embed comments • Macros • Tables • Track Changes • Additional comments page as Appendix • Use of ‘Comment’ in Word • Combination of above

5. PC and Keyboard - Examples

6. Tablet PC Technology - HP 4200

7. Tablet PC - Assessment

8. Tablet PC - eTMAs • Established that Tablet PC can be used to; • Annotate eTMAs including mathematical formula, scientific nomenclature, diagrams • Write anywhere on a student’s script; margins, between lines • Use pen input to record a lecturer’s feedback • Software to recognise handwriting and convert to typed text • Diagramming the potential for re-drafting

9. Tablet PC - Examples

10. Student Feedback - Project • Over 80% respondents to questionnaire found use of Tablet PC in assessment to be a good experience • ‘My tutor using the Tablet PC was able to put comments in that felt more personal being that they were handwritten right in with the questions’ • ‘Handwritten text gave it a more personal feel’ • ‘Personally, I did not like the way feedback was made, it looked messy and untidy’

11. Feedback at relevant point

12. Lay-out

13. Other outcomes – Interface “You know it’s a direct connection between the brain and the finger….immediate flow of the keyboard or the mouse or the tablet, it’s just an extension of my hand. And you know, my thoughts…..because you can edit…. if you want to change something when you’re saying something you can just go back and delete it. So it basically gives a direct link between my brain and the students, you know what I mean?”

14. Strand B – Developing a Community of Practice • Lecturers work at a distance • Geographically isolated • Develop on-line community of practice • Asynchronous on-line forum • Project development - Use of wiki to generate content through collaboration for dissemination – ‘Using Tablet PCs with the eTMA system’

15. On-Line Forum - Aims • Set up on-line First-Class Forum for asynchronous communication between members of the project • Set up at start of project in Winter 2005 • Share the manual – How to use a Tablet PC and WiFi Connections • Provide on-line staff development opportunity

16. On-Line Forums - Outcomes • Team supported each other with technical issues • Manual found very useful for finding out how to use Tablet PC • Getting connected with WiFi no comment • Team shared different approaches to providing feedback • Team members show that approaches to marking highly individual and personal • WiFi connectivity and mobility – take it or leave it

17. On-Line Forum - Examples

18. Initial Phase-Lecturers Comments • ‘I’m not always as imaginative as I could be and seeing what other people do gives me ideas as to how I can do something similar and whether I would want to do that, or sparks me off with, “Ooh now I like that, but what if I did this as well?” to take it a little bit further.’ • ‘I have been looking around all these conferences and the wiki to try and find any thoughts/comments on marking TMA02/06J but can't find any.’

19. What is a Wiki? • ‘A wiki is a web-site that allows visitors to add, remove, edit and change content, typically without the need for registration. It allows for the linking among any number of pages. This ease of operation makes a wiki an effective tool for mass collaborative authoring’ • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

20. Wiki - Aims • Provide and opportunity for lecturers to work together at a distance and collaboratively on a web document - wiki • To generate their own content and edit existing content • Use co-authoring opportunity to up load screen dumps directly to the wiki rather than as an attachment in an e-mail to the on-line forum • Provide a visual bank of creative ideas for marking eTMAs and build on this learning • A document for future dissemination to OU lecturers

21. Wiki - Outcomes • Initial content for wiki authored by Project Manger • Contribution to content from two other members of project team with ideas for annotating eTMAs • Screen dumps of annotated scripts have been up-loaded • Wiki found a useful resource for ideas by other members of project team • Some lecturers working collaboratively, others reluctant to edit existing content • Hints and Tips Section

22. Web 2.0 Wiki - Example

23. Web 2.0 Wiki – Annotated Script

24. Further Findings • Further findings on developing a community of practice using on-line forums and a wiki will be discussed at the conference

25. COLMSCT CETLThe Open UniversityWalton HallMilton KeynesMK7 6AA www.open.ac.uk w.a.fisher@open.ac.uk