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Data Visualisation
This week in IDEL we communication on the course ventured out of the forums and onto Twitter. As we were investigating the concepts of big data, and its role within education, we were challenged to answer some questions around this on the social media platform using the hashtag #mscidel as the identifier. We then used…
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Big Data
As IDEL progressed we seem to have moved away from perhaps some of the more theoretical and human topics, towards a more technical focus. Week 9 was focused on digital badges and blockchaining, and week 10 looks at the concept of ‘big data’ and its implications for education. Like blockchaining, I’m aware of the concept…
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Blockchain and Digital Badges
Building on the paper by Halavais (2012), I’ve been reading around the subjects of blockchain and badges, as prompted by this week’s activities. It’s taken some wrestling to get my head around the concept of blockchain. Although I’m well aware of Bitcoin, the underpinning technology has been explained to me in the past and it’s…
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Reflections on badges
I think we’ve all got our own personal history with badges. Somewhere tucked up in the loft is a scouts sweater stitched with a heap of merit badges, and probably in the same box is a Blue Peter badge for a competition entry. Online, it’s difficult not to notice the Brexit situation creating a plethora…
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MOOC Reflections
As prompted by the IDEL course, I decided to tackle the MOOC titled ‘Religion and Conflict’ on the FutureLearn platform. MOOCs aren’t a particularly new experience for me, like most participants, I’ve started (and not completed) several. I initially contemplated starting a MOOC related to the current IDEL studies (e.g. there’s a course currently on…
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Minds on Fire!
The IDEL course so far has been excellent at instigating a critical view on things. Given this is the first module of a potential Masters, I think the team has crafted an experience that’s insightful and thought-provoking, whilst also creating a firm foundation for the rest of the course. Understandably then, several of the recommended readings…
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Open Education – the importance of a critical approach
As Bayne, Knox, Ross (2015) highlight in their paper, there has been a continuing trend towards ‘openness’ in many walks of life. My own experiences in this space have largely been in open technology, and the use of this within education/training. There’s certainly a lot of positivity about it: it’s seen as low-cost, tapping into…
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Using image to support an argument
In approaching the second structured blog activity, I initially struggled to get my head around how to ‘support’ an argument, rather than simply ‘illustrate’. Naturally, there’s a key difference here, and I considered how this happens in the real world. The one example I could think of is in the world of advertising. As much…
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The playground as a spatial metaphor for IDEL
The park was brought up in the video from Rosi Braidotti in Week 6. Braidotti discusses the relationship her institute (Utrecht University) has with the rest of the city, and the role the park plays in this as a public space. I thought about this further and discussed how the park bench could be considered,…