learning a new technology part 5- Reviewing Comic Life

For this activity I have learned how to use to software Comic Life which allows users to create comics using photographs.  I used this software to create a comic about how to use the Nintendo Wii for education.  I have found this to be a fairly easy and fun system to use and I can see a number of ways in which it could be used for education including;

• Improve creative writing skills and  photography skills by getting learners to write and produce their own comics ( Similar to the graphic novel produced by a secondary school in Yorkshire http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6029574 )
• Create photo casebook scenarios which can be used to initiate discussion in sensitive areas such as bullying, teenage pregnancy, depression, etc.
• Create fun guides for students on topics such as what’s available in the library, how to apply for EMA funding and what to do when they are ill.
• Get students to create comics which cover the points of traditionally boring topics such as health and safty.
• Use images and text to support Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) students and  English as a foreign language  (ESOL) students.
• Using comics for art students to learn about visual media (http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2007/dec/04/link.link9)

I would say the main features of the software include;

• A wide range of templates and styles for page layout, speech bubbles, image filters and page backgrounds.
• An easy to use customizable menu system.
• Easy do add photos from the photo menu pane, drag from explorer or capture via web cam.
• Options to export as images, movie file or HTML file which can be embedded into a website or VLE.
• Very easy and fun to use and exciting output.
• Being able to extend speech bubbles gives a reader a path to follow around a busy page.
• Although it isn’t free, it is relatively cheap and can be used on macs as well as PCs.
• Free trial version available for practitioners to evaluate.
• Educational bulk license deals available.

Potential issues include;

• It can be fiddly and difficult to select and manipulate specific items, eg moving a fram but not the picture or visa versa.
• There is no built in spell check.
• Sometimes the text does not appear instantly on screen when typing, which can lead to errors.
• I noticed bugs when printing content on certain printers.  Red blobs on certain parts of the page, only happened with one printer and one particular page but searching through the FAQ highlighted there were some printer specific issues.
• When not using the HTML or Movie output format, multiple page comics are produced as multiple image files (each page is a separate image).  A combined comic in a format such as pdf would have been useful and can be achieved by adding the images into an application such as publisher.
• Although speech bubbles, text boxes and text are useful items to add to the comic, additional props and additions such as basic shapes, and drawing tools would have made it even better.
• Although the filters were fun to use, they may often hide important details of the image.
• Learners taking and publishing photos of each other, particularly those under 18, may cause issues for legal and safety reasons

Having said this I have found this to be a really useful piece of software which could be used for a wide number of tasks within a college.

learning a new technology part 4

Okay, I have now cretaed my comic using comic life.  The comic is about how to set up and use a Nintendo Wii, which is a peice of equipment we loan out to learning providers.

I have uploaded the pages as seperate images which you should be able to click through via the thumbnails below.

learning a new technology part 3

I have been quite fortunate this week as I have been given the job at work of preparing a guide to using the Nintendo Wii for learning. This is fortunate as it gives me an opportunity to try out and review Comic Life. I always try and use a new tool in a real situation in order to highlight its pros and cons, which is difficult when trying to look at it out of context. So far I have put together a story board of how I want the finished comic to look, and our information officer has taken a series of photos which I will drop into comic life. Although the free trial was useful, this morning I bought the full version which has some additional templates. So far I am generally impressed with the system as it is fairly easy to use once you get the hang of clicking the components such as images, frames, speech bubbles, etc. I have had one or two problems moving the wrong part of the image by mistake, and i would have liked a few extra ‘props’ rather than just speech bubbles, thought bubbles and text.

learning a new technology part 2

OKay I have downloaded the trial version of comic life and created a quick  single page cartoon strip based on photos from our works christmas party (so i’d best not post it here).

It seems as though is easy to learn and could be useful for some of the learning providers I support, in fact I know some of them are useing it already.  There appear to be advanced features I could explore such as multipage comics and creating a movie file, however i have concerns that it might not meet the requirements of this activity as it is so user friendly?

I have emailed my tutor for advice.

learning a new technology part 1

For this activity we have to learn a new technology.  The exact details of what we have to demonstrate are listed below (taken from the course website)

The evidence of technology-related competency you produce needs to demonstrate the ability to:

• learn about using a new piece of software or a new technology
• appreciate some key features as they relate to your own educational practice or context
• identify potential issues for other users.

The suggested activity involves creating a podcast but as I already produce a monthly podcast this wouldn’t be an example of me learning something new.

I am trying to think of something new to learn and have come up with the following ideas from Jane’s elearning pick of the day and the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, top tools for learning.  Both fantastic website for coming up with ideas.

Articulate Rapid E-Learning Studio contains three powerful yet easy-to-use products – Presenter, Engage and Quizmaker, each of which can be purchased separately. These three tools are rapidly becoming the de facto standard tools for creating rapid, interactive learning content.  Relatively expensive but available as a 30 day free trial

Lectora is a powerful authoring tool.  It provides users with a comprehensive authoring environment for creating and delivering custom interactive multimedia content. Very expensive but free trial

Udutu Course authoring software that lets you build a course very quickly and easily online either on your own or collaboratively with others. You can easily import existing content, e.g. PowerPoint presentations.

Comic Life lets you create astounding comics, beautiful picture albums, how-tos… and more!  The easy-to-use interface integrates seamlessly with your photo collection. Drag in your pictures, captions, Lettering text (‘ka-blam!‘) and speech balloons and your work is done! Less than $30 for the full version.

I think I will choose Comic Life as it is cheap enough for me to continue to use after the free trial and it is something genuinely different, where as the other products seem to be variations of the same thing.

I have also asked my friends on twitter for the best new technology of 2009 as this may provide some new ideas.

Core activity 7.2: Professional learning

For this activity we looked at 2 different ways of looking at Continuing professional development (CPD) which can in some ways be summerised by the tables of Clegg and Dealtry shown above.  I have to admit I found both papers a bit of a struggle.  This is because I didn’t feel as though either of them really reflected my own experiences.  I could see how they would work for teaching practiononers, but not as much for my own role as an elearning advisor, but I will have a go.

As far as CPD relating to my job is considered in relation to Clegg I guess the majority of my learning falls into category C, Action following reflection does not happen because there is no immediate opportunity to put anything into practice.  This is my job is so diverse and allot of what I learn is for the purpose of advising the learners I support, so when I learn something new it is rarely appropriate or possible to put it into practice immediately.

Deltry’s  table made me think about CPD in terms of learning from conferences.  I attend several conferences and events and for me they generally fit into the Familiar, Familiar category A, however I recently attended an online conference which I found really useful.  This was a combination of B, a familiar task in an unfamiliar environment, and D an unfamiliar learning experience in an unfamiliar environment

Core activity 7.1: Professional values

For this activity I will be reviewing and  comparing the professional values  of  CMALT, The Institute for learning (IFL) (http://www.ifl.ac.uk/about-ifl/ifl-vision-and-strategy), The Institute for IT Training (IITT) (http://iitt.vbnlive.com/SITE/UPLOAD/DOCUMENT/IITT_MEMBER_CODE_OF_CONDUCT.pdf)anjd a number of other unrelated professional bodies including  the Royal College of Nursing (RCN)(http://www.rcn.org.uk/aboutus/jobs/about_the_rcn ).  The Values of CMALT revolve around learning technology although similar values are reflected in other organisations.  An example is the commitment to keep up to date with new technologies. This commitment is similar to the expectation of the IITT members to  ‘Seek continual improvements in their professional performance ‘ and the belief that the IFL has that members will ‘Continually develop their expertise, individually and within communities of practice’.   The value CMALT has  of “empathy with and willingness to learn from colleagues from different

backgrounds and specialism’s.” could be seen as a nod towards inclusivity which is implicit in the values of the RCN and the IFL.

The values of CMALT do not include specific details on the quality of work in the same way as the Royal Academy of Engineering who specify Accuracy and Rigour.  The quality of work is highlighted by the Institute for learning under the heading of professionalism “We believe our members strive for excellence in teaching and learning, and high levels of subject or vocational expertise” .  On the subject of professionalism the IITT code of conduct specifies that  members “Avoid any activity or conduct which may jeopardise the good reputation of their profession”.

My own professional values;

As an eLearning Professional, I am committed to;

-          Maintaining an up to date  working knowledge of new technologies and pedagogical principles

-          Supporting early adopters in pioneering  new developments,  and late developers in making the most out of elearning.

-          Being open to new ideas

-          Sharing ideas with others and providing opportunities for practitioners to learn from each other.

Supplementary activity 6.4: Reflecting on the group dimension of professional practice

Can collective work be fairly be presented for individual assessment as evidence of competence. For example, would less technically adept group members be justified in claiming that their own competence had been enhanced by working together on this with others who were more proficient? How could they evidence such a claim?

I think that collaborative elearning activities actually have significant advantages when it comes to identifying the input from individuals for group activities.

Virtually all tools used for collaborative elearning activities have some method of recording who made what contribution.  This includes emails, forum posts, the history or site activity of a collaborative website or wiki, etc.  In order to make a full assessment of an individuals actives it may be necerasary to  view all artefacts and communication involved in an activity.  For example an assessor may look at the history of a website and see that the majority of content was added by one individual,  It may take further investigation to realise that the rest of the group contributed more in research and writing content, which was collated and put onto the website by a single individual.

Is this kind of separation of tasks justified for a group task?  I think it depends on the task, the course and what the individuals are expected to contribute.  If the task outcome of the task was for everyone to get a working knowledge of the technical issues related to creating and editing a website, then the individual who did the technical work may be seen as the only one who has been successful.  If the objective is for all individuals to research and understand the content, then it could be argued that the individual who put their efforts into putting together the website, is the only one who has actually failed the task.

I think there are alot of major drawbacks in doing collaborative tasks through elearning as opposed to face to face.  These include the time the task requires and confusion and tension which can come from a lack of face to face communication.  Despite this I do think that identifying and assessing individual contribution is one area where elearning has the advantage.

The nursing profession

Throughout this course I have had difficulties getting to grips with what is a profession and weather it is important to be classed a profession or not.

Today I read an article about newly qualified nurses being having to get degree level qualifications.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/15/barbara-ellen-nurses-sarah-brown

The article suggests that those who oppose this do not see nurses as professionals “ let them take degrees? Have a real sense of professional pride and career momentum? Perish the thought!”

Although the term “the nursing profession” has been around for some time, maybe there is a feeling that it isn’t a real profession at all.  The article suggests that the air of professionalism that comes with requiring a degree will give nurses power to move away from their domestic drudgeries

Are teachers required to scrub their classrooms before a lesson? Do ministers push vacuum cleaners around after cabinet meetings? Why then are we institutionally opposed to the idea of nurses concentrating on nursing and not wasting their training by becoming jumped up “housewives of the ward”?

This article has given me more understanding about the importance of being in a qualified career, however it doesn’t really help me much with the definition of profession, as I thought nursing was always recognised as a profession.

Core Activity 5.4: The profession of learning technologist

Before I started my reading for this exercise I had always thought of a learning technologist as someone who is primarily involved in the design, management and support of elearning content, including VLEs and other online resources.  This is slightly different to the definition from the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) as “people who are actively involved in managing, researching, supporting or enabling learning with the use of learning technology.” (http://www.alt.ac.uk/learning_technology.html)  Although the paper by Lisewski and Joyce didn’t realy help me  clarify the definition that much, it did raise some interesting points about professionalism, such as when does a training model, such as the 5 stage plan discussed, which has the aim of ensureing a provisional level of competency, become so rigid that it lacks the ability to include professional flexability.  I was also interested in the quote ‘service provider rather than an expert’ (Oliver, 2002: 20) which suggests there is a hierarchy of jobs with service provider being lower down than a professional expert.

The paper by Oliver suggests that proffesions have evolved in HE when “a group of jobs was identifed that shared a number of common characteristics.”.  Oliver describes learning technologists as “New specialists,  including educational or technical developers,  researchers  and  managers,  who  are likely  to be young (in their 20s or 30s) and on fixed-term contracts, often supported by external funding. They have typically been in their current post less than  two years and at their current institution less than four. New specialists tend  to be multiskilled and peripatetic, but with learning technologies as the core of their professional identity.”  This, to me, raises questions about weather this group should be called a profession.  Have they been in their current position for less than 2 years because their profession is that new? Or are they useing it as a stepping stone into a different profession? Such as management or a more general elearning profession?