#ocTEL2014: Activity 0.1 Big and Little Questions about Technology Enhanced Learning

I joined #ocTEL MOOC by Association for Learning Technology (ALT). However as always I am late! But this time not only because I was busy at work but also because I am doing another MOOC with Coursera that also run concurrently - actually two but due to the difficulty of accessing materials on my mobile I gave up one of them. Two weeks behind I am trying to catch up.

Week 0 we are asked to

reflect on your work experience and ambitions for developing your teaching

and

Can you identify the most important question about TEL that matters to you?

I am currently working as a Research Assistant, heavily involved in creating, facilitating, and researching MOOCs. I do a little bit of teaching now but I have experience as a lecturer as well as a Teaching Assistant in Higher Educational settings. Apart from my professional work I enjoy exploring how children learn and my subjects are my preschool twins.

I come from a developing country where access to technology is scares (not merely physical access but also skills, language etc). My PhD work was also on this topic and with that background I always question the accessibility of learning materials when technology is involved. Don't get me wrong that I am against the use of educational technology - far from it.

The big question in the sky by Kevin Dooley - https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2672/3983181467_0c36538d82_z_d.jpg

Reading Sue Buckingham's post I think she poses a very important question.

"Why when there is now so much evidence that our future graduates need to develop a range of digital skills and understand how to use these alongside social media to communicate and collaborate, do we not see all courses embedding opportunities for students to learn how to confidently and effectively develop digital literacies?"

Another question is how do we keep up to date with the technology changes and get our students to do the same. In order to support students to gain the skills and develop the kind of digital literacies required of them educators need to be educated.

But thinking about what question matters to me most I realised my big question still is 'access'. By access I mean motivational, material, skills and usage accesses as defined by van Dijk in his book 'Deepening Divide'. So my big question is actually an umbrella question covering a lot of ground.