AJ Cann : Activity

Public or Public Facing? #jiscri

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 08:00:00 GMT

http://scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com/2009/03/public-or-public-facing-jiscri.

I've been chatting to Joss Winn on Twitter about his JISCRI bid, WriteToReply: Supporting Document Based Public Consultations on the Web. The conversation arose from my failure to grasp the purpose of the JISCRI BuddyPress site, (see Writing in Public Spaces).

It's hard to make an intellectual case against open access these days, but open access is concerned with the publication of what are essentially finished products. Open development of ideas is a much more challenging concept for most people (paralleled in the open science debate). While I think Joss' bid to develop WriteToReply is admirable in principle and worthy of JISC support (if JISC was a democracy, he'd have my vote ;-), I'm stumbling over the practicalities of developing competitive bids in public.

Last week someone commented on the culture of openness at UoL. We raised a wry smile and pointed out that the group of us who choose to engage with public channels such as blogs and Twitter are very much a minority, and the jury is still out as to whether this will be a beneficial career move :-)

The reality is that we carefully self-edit our public-facing personas. We constantly fight our Twitterette syndrome tendency to say exactly what we think of our students, our colleagues and our senior managers, because that's as undesirable as Tourette's itself. But when we're stumbling towards the formation of an idea or a bid, the problem is more complex, for we are in competition with others for the same inadequate resource pot. How do we establish priority of ideas and prevent intellectual plagiarism?

Joss thinks there should be two stages of bid marking, once by the community before submission and finally by referees after submission. Sounds dangerously close to democracy to me:

majority rule is often described as a characteristic feature of democracy, but without responsible government it is possible for the rights of a minority to be abused by the tyranny of the majority

Remember that in the Greek city states democracy was for the citizens - the slaves didn't vote. What if my owner decides my ideas are theirs? Who gets the money? Who does the work?

PedR Superstar?

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:01:00 GMT

http://scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com/2009/03/pedr-superstar.html

Following on from Tuesday's Pedagogic Research in the Biosciences event, yesterday I left a drive-by comment on Jo's blog about the connection (or rather, disconnect) between teaching and pedagogic research.

Clearly, you don't need to teach to do PedR, and I can think of a few PedR superstars who have never taught. But if you do teach, and you do PedR, what then? I don't feel we got to the bottom of this in the ethics discussion on Tuesday.

Those who can, teach. Those who can't, research?

The way forward

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 09:00:00 GMT

http://scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com/2009/03/way-forward.html

After the wonderful input from all the contributors to last week's posts about my final year virology course (Groupthink, Groupthink update), I spent the weekend pondering the comments and I now have a plan for next year.

The trick, of course, is to separate learning from assessment. The question was raised, why do you need to assess students? There are several answers to that, ranging from the simplest - I have to return a mark for continuous assessment to the School - through more complex - to provide feedback to students on their understanding - to heavyweight pedagogical navel-gazing (which I'll spare you for now).

I already have sets of online MCQs which the students on this module are allowed to use formatively, although only a minority do (and of course not the students who really need to). In future years, these will be used for periodic summative assessments, which will also provide feedback and a CA mark for the School.

The old discussion board (which was never used for any real discussion) will be replaced with a non-assessed course blog, which will have a supportive but mainly an educational role where I'll post questions and try to stimulate discussion. (It may be that circumstances force me to devote a small proportion of the continuous assessment marks to this activity. In that case, the problem lies in defining the rationale for the activity and concise and clear marking criteria.) I already know that only a minority of students will participate in this non-assessed activity. (I could even tell you who they are). So what about the rest of them? They are adults with a minimum of three years higher education under their belts. This is their final opportunity to grow up and take more ownership of their own learning. It's a jungle out there.

Groupthink

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:24:00 GMT

http://scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com/2009/03/groupthink.html

AJCann Sigh, Just had a really depressing final session with year 3 virology class.

AJCann They've been writing blog posts since January, complaining bitterly "too hard".

AJCann Do they read others posts? "No". Should I use a wiki instead? "No, it's not 'fair' ". Sigh. Give up?

psychemedia @AJCann writing blog posts is hard if it's not what you just do anyway; part of killer app of blogging for me is it's my searchable notebook

AJCann @psychemedia That's why I wanted them to read each others posts. They don't :-(

wmjohn @AJCann feeling and understanding your pain. :)

AJBell @AJCann are they complaining *because* its so different from the previous 2.5 years of coursework they've been put through?

psychemedia @AJCann another prob is: must they go online to just do the blogging? If you have to turn on PC just for that task, it'll always be a chore?

AJCann @psychemedia They're pretty hardwired to Bb so I don't think that's a huge problem.

ffolliet @AJCann group think. it (+you) r wasted on them. ur not going2change them sadly. that doesn't negate rest of ur good work

sleslie @AJCann following @psychemedia's idea, is there an activity you could assign that would cause them to refer back to own work, see the value?

AJCann @sleslie Such as ? Interested...

sleslie @AJCann not sure, don't know your full context, thinking out loud. But bloggers see value when they start to weave together own collection

AJ Cann @AJBell Yes, in part, also because it requires critical thinking.

AJBell @AJCann should not all coursework involve critical thinking?

AJCann @AJBell You've been there - did it?

AJCann @ffolliet OK, so how do I get from there to a strategy?

amcunningham @AJCann are you asking them to blog just for the sake of it... ie it is assessed? or can they gain something else from it?

AJCann @amcunningham It is assessed or they wouldn't do it. The idea is that they gain subject knowledge (and hopefully analytical skills).

amcunningham @AJCann let the assessment not be the blog but a document in which they can reference other students blogs. then blog is means not end?

AJCann @amcunningham Err, I could see that developing into a Mexican stand-off. Any examples of where that's been done successfully?

ffolliet @AJCann mine is purely a ministry of encouragement...

amcunningham @AJCann well, no! but that's how i use discussion boards and it works. funny to read 'you've made my reference list!' on the boards

AJCann @amcunningham I used to use discussion boards, but it degenerated into highly strategic gameplaying rather than thinking about virology.

AJBell @AJCann you marked it.

amcunningham @AJCann but did you assess participation or learning from them? i say students have to compare experience of family they are visiting with other families. they can do this through other students accounts in bb discussion forum or through patient forums. some don't do this at all in the past so lose credit for that part. but work is submitted in monday so hoping for higher hit rate this year.

AJCann @AJBell You did the discussion board or the wikipedia exercise?

AJCann So if it's all about alignment (eg of expectations), should I ask them "Tell me what you learned this week?" How would I mark the "answers"?

amcunningham @AJCann that's a good one. i decided that 500w reflection would only get formative feedback this year. other 3000 words will determine mark.

AJCann @amcunningham Very varied participation rates for formative across different disciplines. We're trapped on an assessment treadmill.

nogbad @AJCann I think you (we?) need to "align" those expectations upwards, i.e. yours stay still and we bring the others to meet them.

AJCann @nogbad Difficult transition - easy to go in the other direction!

An Unpost About Uncourses

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:00:00 GMT

http://scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com/2009/03/unpost-about-uncourses.html

This week, I've been thinking about uncourses, so in the accustomed manner when I want to reflect on something, here's the obligatory blog post. Unlike the traditional structure of beginning (grab their attention), middle (state the case), and end (request information or set up the discussion) narrative structure I normally use for posts, being an unpost, we're going for:

middle - middle - middle

A thought triggered by the RWW post SXSW Panel: Beyond Aggregation was - what's the difference between an uncourse and Google Reader/FriendFeed? I'd say the difference was that although serendipity is involved in both, an uncourse implies elements of preparation and syllabus definition which are lacking in pure aggregation (although aggregation probably scores higher on the serendipity scale.

So what is an uncourse, and is MicrobiologyBytes an uncourse? MB is an experiment in microchunking, but it is open-ended and driven by sependitipitous content, and ongoing - the curriculum not defined. In that respect it owes more to aggregation than design. Maybe it's not an uncourse in the way that I plan StatsBytes will be. Maybe it's Course2.0, in perpetual beta.

How will StatsBytes differ from MicrobiologyBytes? The curriculum has been defined at the outset, so now I need to join the dots. My hope is that the microchunked structure and intensely hyperlinked architecture that microchunking makes possible will reinforce the core concepts that I seem to need to revisit with every statistical test I introduce (EDA, choice of tests, hypothesis formation, etc). It's never been my intention that MicrobiologyBytes would work in that way.

Bimodal

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:00:00 GMT

http://scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com/2009/03/bimodal.html

An increasing tendency we seem to be seeing here in successive undergraduate cohorts is a bimodal mark distribution. Although I don't have any formal evidence, I have strong hunch that there is a correlation with disengagement in the lower part of the distribution. The question, as ever with correlations, is one of cause or effect. Are these disengaged learners beyond our reach, or have we done something to disenfranchise them? A new paper in ALT-J suggests we may have:

Virtual learning environments - help or hindrance for the 'disengaged' student? 2009 ALT-J 17: 49-62
The introduction of virtual learning environments (VLEs) has been regarded by some as a panacea for many of the problems in today's mass numbers modular higher education system. This paper demonstrates that VLEs can help or hinder student engagement and performance, and that they should be adapted to the different types of learner. A project is described that aimed to investigate whether the introduction of a VLE can assist 'disengaged' students, drawing on click count tracking data and student performance. The project took place in the context of two very large undergraduate modules (850 and 567 students) in a Business School of a new university in the UK. In an adaptation of a model of learner engagement in Web-enhanced environments, four distinct learner types have emerged: model, traditionalist, geek and disengaged. There was evidence that use of the VLE exacerbated, rather than moderated, the differences between these learner types.

Not conclusive evidence, but justification for my belief that we need to give learners more, not less, responsibility for and ownership of their own learning. And we're not going to do that by mandating one-size-fits-all institutional software, whether that be VLEs, ePortfolios or Microsloth Orifice.

Scaffolding reflection

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 09:00:00 GMT

http://scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com/2009/03/scaffolding-reflection.html

As our class of approximately 200 first year biological science students continue to develop their ePortfolios, I've been documenting the process here. If you've read the earlier posts you'll know that the rationale behind this experiment is to promote personal development by enhancing reflection rather than to produce a document of record which would be directly relevant to employers.

At our monthly meeting yesterday I talked about progress to date and reflected on the process of reflection, most of which was largely culled from previous discussions here. As we marked the most recent iteration using the ePortfolio assessment criteria we adopted, there seemed to be some encouraging signs that the process is working, at least in a proportion of cases. Some students at least have realized that an ePortfolio is not an elaborate multimedia CV, and are showing clear reflective tendencies.

One of the points raised at the meeting was the element of game-playing by some students to tick off the assessment criteria. Aristotle believed that we learn to become virtuous by first acting virtuously, and the act of continuing ePortfolio construction seems to be contributing towards becoming a reflective practitioner.

We also discussed the need for better scaffolding, and whether the chronological structure which is emerging in some of the ePortfolios we have seen recently suggests that a blog framework would be better than the more free-form wiki architecture in encouraging archiving and retrieval of reflective thoughts. I tend to think that it would be and will definitely be moving in this direction in future years.

Finally, there was discussion as to how much personal tutors should be involved in the ePortfolio processes. This is a two-edged sword in my opinion, and while I'm happy for personal tutors to see the output, I'm dubious as to what role they could play in the production. Show me the tutors who blog regularly and reflectively and I'll accept them as good role models.

ToDo List:

Consider assessment criteria for blogfolio format
Decide on architecture for blogfolios (WordPress.com? - emphasise static pages for navigation, tagging for archiving and retrieval, marking)
Create exemplar based on anonymized material from this year
Think how to reduce assessment load while still providing feedback (give feedback 3 times, end of first week/fortnight, mid-term, terminal feedback + mark?)

Time for change

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:00:00 GMT

http://scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com/2009/03/time-for-change.html

Like most UK higher education institutions, we are proud that we use criterion referenced marking in our assessments. We sneer at American universities which mark on the curve.

And all was well. Until the 1980s when GCSEs moved from norm-based to criterion-based. Followed by A levels. And then government policy became for 50% of the UK population to go through higher education. And league tables for schools and universities made a nonsense of the prospect of failing students.

So it pains me to say this, but criterion-referenced marking in the present system of UK higher education is broken. And unless something changes, the only way to fix the problem is to move to norm-referenced assessment. At the present time, we are producing large numbers of graduates who are not what we say they are.

Should I stay or should I go?

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:33:00 GMT

http://scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com/2009/02/should-i-stay-or-should-i-go.ht

When I started blogging, I was worried I might run out of things to write about. Now I'm worried I may run out of things not to write about.

I sometimes get emails from people offering to buy one of my blogs. I've always assumed that these were either from bankers looking to blow a few billion, or simply scams, so I hit the Report Spam button, but I suppose that some could be genuine in the sense that certain lowlifes might be looking to to buy traffic so that they could peddle dodgy pharmaceuticals. But on Monday I received an email from the Seed Media Group offering me a much more challenging proposition.

For those of you who don't know, the Seed Media Group publishes SEED Magazine, but also owns ScienceBlogs and is involved with researchblogging.org. In other words, Seed Media is second only to Nature Publishing Group in the science blogosphere. ScienceBlogs is a network of about 75 blogs written by a mixture of academics and science writers. Like NPG, ScienceBlogs is a commercial venture, and all the blogs in the network carry advertising, which is interesting since a number of the blogs are published under a Creative Commons licence and in signing up to the network a blogger agrees to give Seed Media non-exclusive, perpetual license to use their work. Squaring this circle is something I'm still trying to get my head around (Pass the politics, please: Science blogs peppered with commentary).

ScienceBlogs pays it's contributors a monthly rate that varies according to individual traffic levels. But don't get too excited, we're not talking huge amounts - not enough to buy an iPhone for example. My calculations show I could make more money by slapping a small Google Adsense advert onto the top left corner of MicrobiologyBytes, except that at present MicrobiologyBytes is on WordPress.com, which in return for free hosting does not allow blogs to carry ads (fair enough). I buy into the line that Seed Media does not exercise any significant editorial control over the content on the ScienceBlogs network, although there are some understandable legal restraints built into the contract.

Show me the money
As an author, I'm not going to make any significant money out of joining ScienceBlogs. The question of whether Seed Media would make any significant money out of my writing is more difficult to determine, but possibly not. So if it's not about the money, what is it that's kept me awake the past few nights? I've been surprised by the emotional investment I seem to have in the decision. Somehow, this point feels like a crossroads in my blogging anti-career. Maybe that's what happens once you've got your 10,000 hours in. MicrobiologyBytes traffic outweighs the hits on the old tat I pass off here by about ten to one.

And yet...

Over the last year this site has developed a real sense of community which has been invaluable to me. I'm a writer, I couldn't stop if I wanted to, but the interactions I have with the people who read this site goes beyond any financial payment. I know you're not my "friends" (this isn't Facebook), but I'd really miss you if you went away. Somehow MicrobiologyBytes doesn't feel like that. For all the people who read it, there's little sense of community there. That's not altogether surprising, since when I started MicrobiologyBytes the intention was just to explore the concept of microchunking reusable learning objects, something which the data says has been remarkably successful. (In contrast, when I started this site, I had no idea what the purpose of it was...) Wouldn't it be great if I could build a community around MicrobiologyBytes which feels a bit like the one I sense here? Would joining a blog network help me with that, or would my rugged individualism still get in the way? Is it time for me to grow up and get serious about blogging? I've been weighing the options since Monday and not made a lot of progress, so I've made a (bulleted) list:

Leave MicrobiologyBytes the way it is: No extra work but no new development - the "safe" option?

Move MicrobiologyBytes to its own domain: Overcomes the restrictions of WordPress.com hosting (no scripts, content restrictions), but also loses the advantages of WordPress.com hosting. The decision to blog on WordPress.com and on Blogger has proved to be valuable as both platforms have developed. I'll still be using WordPress, but on my own domain.
Move MicrobiologyBytes to the ScienceBlogs network: Would this build more of a community around MicrobiologyBytes? Is ScienceBlogs US-centric focus appropriate for what I'm trying to achieve?

Move MicrobiologyBytes to the Nature Network: Would NPG's kudos add something that ScienceBlogs doesn't? Is this still selling out to the man? I'd still be a sharecropper on Nature's farm.

Hedge my bets - split the content and run two microbiology blogs, one on a blog network and the other on WordPress.com or on MicrobiologyBytes.com: Considering how ridiculously overcommited I am, do I have time for this? Is splitting the traffic a sensible option?

What I really need is your input.

Lies, damned lies and frustration

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:00:00 GMT

http://scienceoftheinvisible.blogspot.com/2009/02/lies-damned-lies-and-frustratio

This term I will be mostly teaching statistics. To nearly 300 students split between first and second year. In two hours a week, which is where the problem lies.

How can I say this diplomatically? As a population (SPSS has rotted my brain), biologists are not the most numerate of scientists. And yet - most think that statistics is the one bit of maths that they can do. So they get very upset when they find that they can't. "Can do" translates into English as "can work out the mode but have never used any statistics software before". Real world fail.

The conversation goes like this:

Dr Cann, the significance value is greater than 0.05, so I accept the null hypothesis, right?

Good. What is the null hypothesis?

Tumbleweed.....

"The system" (gosh, does he mean schools?) has trained them to "do" statistics. But not to have any understanding of statistics. It has trained them to use a calculator, generate a number, write a report, without any clear rationale.

And then "we" come along and make things worse, by assuming that the piece of paper they have that says they have "done" statistics means they can "do" statistics. So we timetable statistics into our curriculum for two hours a week, but kill all hope by giving it the fatal "key skills" moniker.

And they emerge with a science degree and a piece of paper which says that they can "do" statistics. Sigh.