My digital footprint

I did the Google Yourself Challenge and when using my full name "Jenni Parker" I found over 12,000 results!  Of course, they are not all mine :) but many on the first page were. Then I Googled my online username "jennip98" and found over 1,400 results, most of which appear to be mine.

With so many results I am not going to list them all... but I have created a small image of my digital footprint.

Digital citizenship resources

Semester 1 has commenced and one of the activities our pre-service teacher education students need to complete in the living and learning with technology unit is to find 3 learning resources that can help students learn about safe, responsible and ethical use of the web for their teaching area (e.g. early childhood, primary, or secondary students).

Here are the example resources I found that would be suitable for secondary (or university) students:

Safe use of the web
This 2 minute YouTube video, Social, Smart, Secure. Tips for Staying Safe Online was created by IBM social media (2012) explains how social media has made it easier to share ideas and connect with others around the world. It also clearly describes some of the risks associated with working online such as: cyber  attacks, phishing and malware. Finally it explains some of the precautions we can take to stay safe online.

Responsible use of the web

When students create public web pages they need to think about using inclusive language to avoid offending potential readers. Welch (2012) explains that the "use of inclusive language is part of a suggested writing style that avoids wording which might be considered offensive or that promotes stereotypes" (p.). This short article provides tips on how to use gender-neutral terms to avoid sexist language.

Ethical use of the web

Ethical use of the web is critical concept that all students should understand before publishing material on the web. Students (and teachers) commonly think that they can use information, images, music etc. that they find on the web on their own websites. However, the Internet is not a copyright free zone and it is important for students to know what they can and can't use when using resources created by others. The Technology Toolbox for Educators website provides links to lots of information and resources about copyright, Creative Commons and other concepts related to ethical use of the web. On the OERs and Free-to-share page, I found a link to comprehensive resource about Open educational resources that is specifically targeted at secondary school and university students.

Open Educational Resources (OER) Guide for Students in Post-Secondary and HigherEducation
created by Commonwealth of Learning (2016) is published under a
Creative Commons Attribution License international

Using others images in your blog posts

Dear Students

I am very impressed with the quality of your reflections and the dialogues that are beginning to occur on your blog posts. I also love that you are starting to display your own personality and creativity in your posts by linking the concepts in the readings to your own lives and fields of interest and adding images and videos to support your words.

I realise blogging in public is a new experience for most of you and that sharing your thoughts in public has probably taken you out of your comfort zone. The reason for posting on the public web is to set the foundation for you to begin to make connections with the broader education and training communities. It takes time to build up a personal learning network in your field of work and although this unit will only give you a tiny foot in the door, it is a start :)

However, blogging in public means that we need to ensure we are using and attributing others work correctly. In academic writing, when we reproduce others words and ideas we use references to acknowledge that they are not our own words (quotes) or ideas (paraphrasing). On the web, we also need to attribute text, images, and other media we use that belongs to others.

2 Golden Rules

1. Don't use another person's picture (or other media) unless you have their permission
2. When you use another person's image (media) you need to acknowledge the original owner

If you use a standard Google search most the images you find will be copyright protected. 

For example:  Google Search: emotional intelligence + images

Result:   All of the images displayed (below) are from websites that are copyright protected. This means you do not have permission to reproduce any of them on your own website/blog.  If you are not sure if the image is copyright protected or not the simple answer is - "don't use it". Sadly many of the best images are protected. But there are many more that you can use.

Solution 1:  Search for Creative Commons (CC) licensed images. These licenses give you permission to use the image.  You will find information on the Technology Toolbox for Educators website about Copyright & CC, Citing on the web (Note: includes examples of different types of images & media, including videos), and Finding OERs (Note: Open educational resources [OERs] usually have a Creative Commons license or a Public Domain license that allows reuse).

Solution 2: Take your own photos and use them in your posts.  When you take a photo you are the copyright owner.

Keep on blogging and adding images!

Best wishes, Jenni

Great blog posts

Students in the Adult learning in education and work unit are currently progressing through the readings for Topic 1 and I am really enjoying reading their posts. Most students are providing examples of how knowledge and expertise can be seen and/or applied in their field of work or life. It's great to see students connecting theory to real-world situations outside of academia.

Quite a few students have completed the first 3 readings and the learning activity. The first 3 readings are:

1. Knowledge navigators and lifelong learners: producing graduates for the information society (Candy, 2000)
2. Understanding adult learners (Tennant & Pogson, chapter 2). In Understanding adult education and training (Foley, 2000).
3. The concept of intelligence and its role in lifelong learning (Sternberg, 1997)

For activity 1 students will reflect on the readings and write a blog post to share their understanding of the readings with their peers. They then read 2 other student posts and add a comment to each post. The intention of this activity is not only to assist students to learn about the concepts of knowledge and expertise but to encourage cognitive interaction and communication with their peers so that they can view the key concepts of the readings from multiple perspectives. Although we are only in the second week of the semester I can already see evidence of a community of inquiry starting to develop in this unit.

mkhmarketing (2013) Social media class, CC-BY

For activity 3 students are conducting a short online survey about knowledge and expertise and are promoting their posts through their professional networks such as Twitter, Linkedin etc. We are inviting the broader educational and training community to share their knowledge and experience with us. On the right is the student blog list. When you see headings like "Please comment" or "I need you" please take a few minutes to respond to the short survey students are conducting. It is only 4 questions and you don't need to respond to them all. Any input would be greatly appreciated :)

Blogging tips...writing on the web

Dear Students
I know that working online in the public domain is very foreign to most of you and that this may be the first time you have created your own blog. So I thought it might be helpful if I posted a few tips to help yo feel a little more comfortable writing in this strange new environment :)

Blogging tips for writing on the web...

1) Don't underline your headings or other text.
Why? Underlining on the web commonly indicates that the text is a hyperlink. If you underline words that are not hyperlinks this will confuse your reader.

2)  Do include hyperlinks :).
How? Link to anything that will help your reader learn more about what you are discussing.  For example if you mention the author of an article or a book, include a hyperlink to the article (if possible).

• Blogger-Create-a-hyperlink [Flickr, jennip98, 2016]
  Image + instructions in the description below.
• Edublogs: How to insert links in your post [Edublog support] 
• Wordpress: How to insert a hyperlink into a blog post [Amy Goodloe]

Flickr futureatlas.com (2010)
Citation needed  CC-BY-2.0

3) You still need to acknowledge others ideas and indicate if you "quoted" or paraphrased the original authors to avoid plagiarism (similar to referencing).
How? On the web we do this by inserting a hyperlink to the original work. This helps your readers to know the title, author etc. of the readings we are discussing and also acknowledges where you sourced your ideas. On the open web instead of linking to the readings that are provided by Murdoch library it is better to use a link that anyone can access on the open web - even if they cannot access the full article.

Following are a few examples: 

Example 1- Paraphrase (Summary of key concepts):
Concepts related to knowledge and the information age in which we live include: the information society, knowledge-based workplaces, knowledge workers, academics as knowledge workers, scholarship of application, scholarship of integration, scholarship of teaching, and the role of universities in developing knowledge workers (Candy, 2000). 

Example 2 - Quoted from Koffells blog:
"As stated in Candy’s article, graduates must have disciplined inquiry, be able to apply their knowledge to problem-solving, and must bear insights and explain their knowledge, thus also serving the community" (Koffell, post 3/8/16, para. 1).

Note: Quotation marks around the entire section indicate it is a "quote" and the in-text reference at the end acknowledges the author, when it was published, and the paragraph number. If the quote is taken from a book or article then the paragraph number would be the page number.  The in-text reference is a hyperlink to the original post. Therefore, on the web we do not need to include an end-text reference list.

Example 3 - Paraphrase: Note: The paragraph below is a direct copy of a paraphrase from a student post and is provided here to explain how this could be attributed (referenced) correctly on the web.

There is also a clear distinction between practical and academic intelligence. Academic intelligence is more abstract and revolves around theoretical tasks. Practical intelligence revolves around efficient and organised real-life everyday tasks and situations (Tennant & Pogson, 2000). 

The original writers' ideas were paraphrased well. It simply needed the attribution and hyperlink at the end to acknowledge where this idea came from.

In her blog post Citing others: A quick and graphic guide (06/2012), Kate Hart provides a good infographic that explains how to avoid plagiarism when writing on the web :) You can also find more information about copyright and acknowledging others work on the Technology Toolbox for Educators >> Copyright page.

I hope this information is helpful! Keep on blogging...

First week of the semester

The semester has started and most of the EDU645 students are working on the course orientation activities. A few have already finished the orientation activities and have started on the essential readings for Topic 1.

One of the activities is for students to set-up their own blog where they will reflect on the unit readings during the semester. Students were directed to the blog page on the Technology Toolbox for Educators website so that they could select their preferred blog technology and learn about blogging. You can find links to the student blogs in the blogroll on the right-hand side of this blog. I invite all educators to comment on the student blogs once they start posting, which should be next week :)

A couple have not accessed the LMS at all yet, but this is not unusual. This unit is delivered in an online mode only and this mode of study is quite unfamiliar to some students. The authentic delivery approach we are using for this unit is also unfamiliar for most students so it usually takes a little time for students to settle into the course.

The AoCoL is a guided learning approach that encourages life-long learning and assists students to develop their self-directed learning skills. If you are interested you can read more about the AoCoL model and design principles that underpin this course on my research website.

Orientation week

This week is orientation week for semester 2 and the semester commences on Monday 1 August 2016.

The week started on Sunday with Murdoch open day. The sun was shining, the displays looked great, there were activities for everyone, and lots of people attended! The School of Education display was informative and attracted many prospective future students and parents.

Marko & Tiffany	Susan Ledger	Prospective students

I talked to many people about our courses and why Murdoch is the place to come to study education. I also chatted with a few students that had volunteered their time to chat with potential future students about what it is like to study at Murdoch. While chatting to a Master of research student I noticed his first name and realised he might be studying my unit this semester. I asked him what his surname was and yes, we confirmed he will be one of the students studying this external adult learning unit this semester. It was great to meet one of my external students in person before the semester starts.

I hope I have the opportunity to meet other students if they happen to be on-campus during the semester. If you are, please email me and arrange to meet for a coffee/tea :) I am usually on-campus on Monday and Thursday and sometimes on a Friday.