Tag: DiAL-e

DiAL-e and SOLE at Distance Education Conference Madison-Wisconsin 2011

The  27th Annual Distance Learning and Teaching Conference at Madison-Wisconsin this August was a diverse and varied programme attended by some 900 distance educators from all sectors, from K-12 to professional education. My contribution was a half-day  DiAL-e Workshop with Kevin Burden (University of Hull) attended by some 24 people. The workshop went relatively well but also gave us an insight into a variety of cultural differences in such settings. I was able to learn from this and the 45 Minute Information Session on the SOLE model the following day definitely had a better ‘buzz’.In addition I contributed to a new format this year, a 5+10 Videoshare session where participants had (supposedly!) produced a 5 minute video and then made themselves available to discuss it for 10 minutes.

All the sessions went well but the SOLE model and toolkit seemed to grab some serious interest and I will hope to have the opportunity to go back to the States and work with colleagues on learning design projects in the future.

DiAL-e Workshop in US #dtl2011

24 colleagues from Distance Providers across the US, including from sectors with which we were less familiar such as Military Instructional Education, joined us for a DiAL-e workshop  in Madison-Wisconsin. A half-day workshop on the first day of the 27th Annual Distance Education Conference in Madison-Wisconsin ( #dtl2011 ) provided us with an excellent opportunity to explain and explore the work progressed since 2006. In retrospect, we might well have spent more time on the underlying theoretical frameworks and contextual issues which underpin the DiAL-e, but we were excited to discuss video in a broader digital context with a focus on distance education.

We took the opportunity to discuss how digital video might be optimised in distance education contexts using Web 2.0 technologies. We discussed and demonstrated the opportunities for using video as the basis for asynchronous discussion using VoiceThread, (about which we have already written elsewhere), for using subtitling not only to translate but annotate and punctuate video using Universal Subtitles, and the opportunities for using embedded segments of existing YouTube clips with ChopTube.   We ended with an insight into the role of emerging Semantic Video engines and the HTML5 format. The focus was very much on how teaching and learning can benefit from these emerging technologies.

DiAL-e Workshop is PM07! #dialeUS

Great to see details of the DiAL-e Workshop is PM-7 at the The 27th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning is sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Our session is: DiAL-e Framework: Optimizing media for engagement at a distance and is a half-day workshop on

Wednesday, August 3; 1:00-4:00

advertised as

“Despite the abundance of digital media and communication tools now available to educators, it remains a challenge to use media effectively to promote learner engagement and higher order thinking skills. Join this lively, interactive and hands-on workshop to learn the Digital Artifacts for Learner Engagement (DiAL-e) framework for distance learning design and how to adapt it to your particular discipline and institutional setting. Through exemplars and problem-solving scenarios, you will explore how digital artifacts from a range of worldwide video archives can be used to develop higher levels of engagement, critical thinking and student independence. This workshop will also demonstrate how Web 2.0 tools support effective interactions around digital artifacts. Finally, you will develop your own ideas and exemplars for immediate application. Laptops will be helpful but are not required for participation.”

We are very excited about running this worksop, which we’ll endeavour to capture here at dial-e.net too.

Any questions lease feel free to ask via the comments.

Tweet tweet #dialeUS

DiAL-e Presented at ALDinHE 2011

Simon in front of the DiAL-e poster at ALDinHE 2011

It was a pleasure to join some 120 colleagues at ALDinHE 2011 at Queen’s University Belfast. From a range of different HEIs, and a diverse set of professional roles, participants came to share insights and good practice in a range of learning development-related activities.  The conference theme ‘Engaging Students – Engaging Learning’  was so closely related to the work the we have done on using digital artefacts (notably video) to support higher order thinking skills in students a submission was a must.

I presented to colleagues Wednesday 20th April. I had a 90 minute workshop entitled ‘Engaging Learners with Digital Resources’. I opted to use a single webpage on this site to support the workshop, with links to the relevant resources and exemplars, static images and the YouTube channel. So a PowerPoint free zone! After providing a bit of background on the thinking behind the framework I demonstrated a simple example of how what is NOT said or shown in a resource might be the catalyst for the ‘what else’ question that can, as Phil Race said in his keynote, be the most powerful learning question.

Participants then had the chance to consider how two other examples might support non-subject-related thinking amongst academic staff. The focus is on what the student is to DO with the clip, not what the clip is ‘about’.

There was some useful discussion and significant interest in the poster on display (available to download ). It was also, on a personal level, a great chance to meet up with former colleagues from the Open University and the University of Hull.

SOLE Model and DiAl-e Framework Presented at ALDinHE 2011

Simon and Russell
Simon Atkinson and Russel Gurbutt (University of Leeds) discussing e-learning adoption strategies

ALDinHE 2011 was a relatively small professional conference with some 120 colleagues from across a diverse range of UK Higher Education institutions. The theme was “Engaging Students – Engaging Learning” although, with some noticeable exceptions, much of the conference was concerned primarily with the challenges we face as educational (or academic) developers.

There was a lot of discussion about ‘teaching’ to engage students but too little emphasis for me on the designing in the learning the engagement we say we expect. Still, it was a useful and interesting opportunity to get reacquainted with some former colleagues from the Open University and from the University of Hull.

I had two posters at the conference, a solo effort with the SOLE model (see and download the poster) and a joint effort with Kevin Burden from the University of Hull featuring the DiAL-e framework work we have been doing since 2006.  The workshop ran using a single webpage on the wordpress site so you are welcome to access the workshop resources. The post-conference requests for “your PowerPoint” leave me frustrated!

The Digital Artefacts for Learner Engagement (DiAL-e) in 5 minutes!

A brief 5 minute (exactly!) Prezi presentation, based on the ALDinHE poster has been added to the ‘What is the DiAL-e’ page and as the opener to the YouTube channel.

Can you spare 5 minutes?

SOLE Model shared at ALDinHE Workshop 2011

Simon Atkinson will present the DiAL-e Framework to colleagues at the ALDinHE conference in Belfast on Wednesday 20th April. The 90 minute workshop (session 6.3 1400-1530) is entitled  Engaging Learners with Digital Resources.

Participants will have an overview of the framework before getting the chance to use it in earnest and consider how it might support their colleagues in more effective use of digital content.

The workshop will be run using this website and resources at the Workshop Webpage and we’ll be tweeting at #dialeALD as we plan and review the workshop. We hope some of you will join Simon.

YouTube Channel for DiAL-e: Digital Artefacts for Learner Engagement

A new YouTube channel has been produced in order to bring together a disperate range of video exemplars, explanatory videos and training & development material from the different DiAL-e projects in one place. We hope to develop this channel in the near future with your help, to make it a useful place to critique the framework and its applications, as well as a site to upload examples of good practice in using video resources.

Please visit the YouTube channel today and subscribe!

Screenshot of DiaL-e YouTube channel
DiAl-e YouTube Channel

We invite you all to join the site as a subscriber (we promise NOT to bombard you with emails) so that you can comment on the videos, provide insights for colleagues on what has worked best for you, and develop a community that is focused on using video resources in our teaching, particularly in higher education, as a focus for learner engagement rather than as ‘content’.

SOLE Model dissemination 2011 Conferences

The next version of the SOLE model, with embedded Intended Learning Outcomes and further pedagogical guidance, along with a populated example, will be ready for the 2011 conference season!

Version 2.0 will be released on Saturday 16 April just before the 8th ALDinHE Conference: Queen’s University Belfast “Engaging Students – Engaging Learning” 18-20 April 2011

I will be presenting a workshop on the DiAL-e Framework and posters for both the SOLE model and DiAL-e.

The SOLE Model poster will also be featured at the UK Higher Education Academy (HEA) Annual Conference, “Changing Practice, Changing Times” at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham,  5-6 July 2011

Perhaps most exciting is the invitation to present the SOLE model at the 27th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on August 3-5 2011. Again I have been issued a workshop invitation, along with Kevin Burden, to present the DiAL-e Framework and alongside that work there will be an ‘Interactive Video Presentation‘ of the SOLE Model.

DiAl-e at Media and Learning Conference, Brussels Nov 2010

I am currently in a symposium session at the Media and Learning conference in Brussels, sharing our ideas about how we might engage students and staff in Higher Education with media rich resources. We have explored the issue in some depth with a particular focus on identifying what students want from their University courses, and whether they really know what they want (want .v. needs). The panel have skirted around what we mean by the term ‘engagement’ but perhaps not as directly as we are trying to achieve with the DiAL-e framework. Its purpose is to focus on what students are engaged in doing during a learning session, rather than what the teacher/lecturer wants to deliver or even achieve.

There is a strong tendency, particularly amongst some of the non-UK speakers, to orientate themselves towards a predominantly transmission model of teaching in Higher Education whilst the DiAL-e framework is predicated far more around a learner perspective.

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