Photo Credit: Marie Louise Kold
ICICTE 2016 BLOG
This blog is to share my experiences at the International
Conference on Information Communication Technologies in Education (ICICTE) in
Rhodes, Greece July 7-9, 2016. The
purpose of my trip was to
1.
do a research project
2.
write a scientific report
3.
present to international audiences on an
Educational Technologies (EdTech) topic
4.
discover EdTech trends being discussed at a
conference
5.
engage with fellow delegates to move topics
along
6.
apply lessons learned from my research project
7.
innovate with my students to impact their
digital literacies
8.
begin the process again or start a new research
topic.
To help achieve these goals, I am grateful to have received
funding from my employer: the British
Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) School of Computing in Academic Studies
(SoCAS).
Conducting Cutting-edge
Research
My research project was entitled, “Perceptions of Anonymous
Peer Review using Cloud-based Software”.
I undertook a research project to ask what students’ perceptions were of
doing and receiving peer review on the writing of their scientific report
activities for the Communication Course I had taught last semester. This project afforded me the opportunity to
set up a research study, get ethics approval, conduct a survey, do regular peer
review activities in class, but I also added in a twist. In order to perpetuate the reputation of
being an “early adopter”, I used cloud-based software for the students to
conduct their peer reviews anonymously.
I learned a lot about research design and discovered that the students
didn’t know of the value of doing peer review for others as much as they
expected being peer reviewed would
help them. Another finding was that
students agreed more that being plagiarized could be a factor in being part of
a peer review activity. A picture below
shows four students engaged in the peer review task using cloud-based software,
particularly Google Docs.
As a result of my findings, I will keep doing meaningful
front loading of the rationale for my teaching methodologies so that students
appreciate the reason and benefit for how their classroom activities will help
them increase their digital literacies.
One last observation was that by the end of the study students agreed
more that they were comfortable sharing their work online. This result made sense because I shared
conversations about what privacy entailed with my “millennials” for whom social
media is an essential part of their lives.
I was able to introduce the concept of what exactly privacy entails when
a student is online. Transferring these
discussions on privacy can relate to other parts of their professional academic
lives should they continue to research in their fields and where copyright is becoming
a trending topic in education. A copy of
my paper is available at http://tinyurl.com/peer-cloud-gandrich . I will
continue to do peer review activities with my students in the future.
Writing a Scientific Report
Since my Fish, Wildlife, and
Recreateion (FWR) students at BCIT learn to write scientific reports, I wanted
to become competent and knowledgeable in the process to build my credibility
and experience. I was mentored by a woman at the ICICTE conference, Linda
Miller, Adult Development Associates, Portland, ME; USA. I have become so grateful for Linda’s
mentorship and she has become a good friend now as we got to spend time
together during the confernce and attended each other’s presentations. Here is Linda pictured below:
Upon reading my scientific
report, Linda suggested I get more support on my results section, and I met
with a mathematician from our BCIT Math Department who guided me in the necessary statistics formulae I needed to
make sense of my results. I learned how
important it is to have a team with specific skill sets involved in a research
project. I am very grateful for
colleagues to step up and help others learn, not only the students, but also
each other. Having a mentor in the conference
domain really helped too, and ICICTE is special in that way because of its
size. Rich, one-on-one exchanges are
possible at ICICTE as we can run across each other frequently during the
three-day event, and by returning year after year. Each person’s specialty becomes easy to find
and synergize with.
Presenting at International Conferences
Getting experience as an international presenter is
different from lecturing at a post-secondary institute. In class, we work to become a competent and
knowledgeable lecturer, but preparing a research project that evolves from the
literature review done to build a background scenario is another
opportunity. Where we may not practice
our presentation before we lecture, practicing is certainly done before
presenting at a conference.
And I was lucky enough to consult a friend who is active in
Toastmasters who watched my presentation early on and make suggestions to remind
me about my audience. My friend
suggested I keep in mind the following questions: “What’s in it for them” “Why should they care”, and “What are the
takeaways from the presentation”. She had
another idea where I prepared an introduction and close by someone who invited
me onto the stage. That piece was
invaluable and really helped me focus on the audience and remind them of their
takeaways. I always record my
presentations and keep using them as a learning opportunity to note where
audiences laugh, or where I may have made some idiosyncratic gestures or
sounds.
Upon reviewing my presentation, I was pleased to see the
strengths of my presentation, and feel confident that I am giving my students
and my international colleagues a quality experience!
Discovering EdTech
Trends
A summary of some of similar new trends that were covered at
both EdTech conferences were as follows:
-
the use of analytics to gather data about
students use of technology
-
issues of copyright since many people are sharing materials online and accessing
information from others as well
-
gamification for millennials who have grown up
with access to games and prefer them as a learning style.
Analytics is something I have not made the time to use to inform
me of what’s happening with my students.
Instead I use reflective practice, but I can see how quickly I could get
information from our Learning Management System (LMS), and some of my colleague
are already accessing this data about their students’ activities in their
Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). Namely
at BCIT we are using Desire2Learn.
The issue of copyright was most applicable for me of the
three trends, and I learned more about these topics from the AACE conference I
attended in Vancouver in June. I have
made some specific references to presentations and links in my other conference
blog available http://icicte2016gandrich.blogspot.ca/2016/08/conference-blog.html.
An interesting observation about gamification, furthermore,
is that the research is being done primarily by “graduate students” in PhD
programs -- millennials for millennials.
This topic is not so relevant to
me, but I am aware that by teaching millennials, I need to find ways to engage
them, and last year, I was introduced to the Google App called Kahoot! (www.kahoot.it) which I use to review each of my
lectures and the students ask me each and every week to start lessons with “Kahoot!” I noticed at my tour of the Learning Spaces
at City University in London, that they are engaging their students by having
them going around using QR codes to do their Week 1 scavenger hunt activities
--so great to meet international colleagues who are innovating!
Engaging with Fellow
Delegates
One of the magical parts of ICICTE is the engagement of
delegates. Workshop time is built in to
get people talking and building knowledge.
On the last day of the conference every year, we hold a circle time
called the “Philosopher’s CafĂ©” where ideas are exchanged and conference themes
are highlighted.
Another special feature of the conference is
the presence of workshops. Last year, my
BCIT colleague, Lisa O’Neill and I hosted and workshops and this year, one of
the workshops I attended was facilitated by my writing mentor, Linda Morris and
her international colleague, Marcie Boucouvalas. The title of their workshop was ICT’S ROLE IN
REACHING THE UN’S 2030 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDG). Linda and Marcie introduced me to the United
Nations’ 17 Sustainable development goals (available at www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/),
specifically the 4th goal for education: to
ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning.
The discussions addressed the change of the instructor over the years from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side”, and Linda suggested the new function being “assessor, critiquer, and advancer. Linda mused that lifelong learners won’t have a teacher forever, so teachers need to give the skills for student learners of any age to access information. We agreed that although technology doesn’t change how people learn, ICT is needed for the dispersal of information.
The discussions addressed the change of the instructor over the years from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side”, and Linda suggested the new function being “assessor, critiquer, and advancer. Linda mused that lifelong learners won’t have a teacher forever, so teachers need to give the skills for student learners of any age to access information. We agreed that although technology doesn’t change how people learn, ICT is needed for the dispersal of information.
Another delegate I met at ICICTE 2015,
@DomPates, Educational Technologist at City University in London continued our
friendship throughout the year, and while he was unable to attend ICICTE2016
this year, on my journey back to Vancouver, I stopped in London and had a tour
of his learning centre. My blog on that
tour is available HERE. Links he has since sent me are as
follows: YouTube
video: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sAVtiuHCfCM&autoplay=1 … Centre
promo - the dept I'm part of http://www.city.ac.uk/lead .
Reflecting on Implications for Learning
Doing a research project on my own was a
daunting task with a steep learning curve.
I had mentoring supports along the way from like-minded conference delegates. We also had time to sit and brainstorm ideas
in EdTech that we all shared in common.
On the last day, we put together global partnership who will be using
cloud-based writing tools to create a research project and look for grants from
funding bodies such as “Erasmus+” (available at http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/calls/index_en.htm). The initial notes are available in a Google
Doc available at tinyurl.com/ICICTE-ICM. Applying skills that I am teaching in my courses
will show students of their relevance and use in industry as they are heading
off and looking for jobs in their fields.
The new 21st-century learning models embody teamwork,
critical thinking, and problem solving skills that I can demonstrate to my
students that I am working on as a lifelong learner myself.
ICICTE is like a family of caring researchers
who come back year after year and learn and grow and share. What a wonderful conference with caring
participants I have found!
Photo Credit: ICICTE
2016 Available at http://www.icicte.org/ICICTE16Gallery3.htm
Oh, and the Greek joie de vivre is never far away!