At the risk of coming across as naive… I’m still pondering about ‘objectivity’ in the research element of the project.
Can we actually be truly objective about our project and research? We were involved in the bid writing and thin.clusion was our idea – so are we the best people to actually implement and research it? Surely we already have some kind of bias toward positive outcomes?
Perhaps I’m missing the point a little? I feel objective enough about the project – I can anticipate the potential barriers (is this also being biased? – having pre-conceived ideas of ‘barriers’)
Do I just step back a little from the project and allow it to take its own course, with little or no involvement – except for carrying out the research elements? Will that give me a more objective viewpoint?
Pondering the meaning of life, for sure.
Flickr: Uploaded by ben pollard on 18 Mar 08, 5.36PM GMT.
Good to see Martyn & Danny today, when they came down to Birkenhead for a working lunch… (quite decent food – we were having an Asian theme today)
We mulled over the finer points of our WiFi cloud installations (due to begin the week of November 30th), our choice of vendor for server hardware, and the VM Ware & provisioning, etc. We’ve also decided to leave the testing of mobile devices to Danny, who will then bring his recommendations back to the group for final purchase decisions.
I talked the group through what I had learned from the MoLeNET Research days and the implications of changing our research questions (as agreed at the MoLeNET research training days). We are now going to alter the emphasis away from ‘devices’ and more towards research into the potential large-scale replication of this project.
RQ1.Can learner-owned mobile technology and thin client applications be used effectively to promote learning experiences and achievement?
RQ2.Can the thin.clusion project model provide a platform to support accelerated institutional change?
So, we are off and running with our purchases
Now I’ve got to organise the learner participation and consent forms.
Hold the front page – our thin.clusion project has made the locals! Both Wirral publications are running the story online and in the paper. Indeed the Wirral News have us on the front page (knocking the maggots in bins story of I guess (Wirral resident joke!)). Happy that we have some press coverage as we want as many people to know about the project. We think it is going to be an immense success, so the bigger the profile the better. Read the articles for yourself.
I’ve just attended 2 days of intense MoLeNET Action Research ‘training’ in Manchester. Both days were really informative and very worthwhile. I guess that most peoples’ view of research is that of collating immense sets of dull data – not at all! I think this MoLeNET project will be very exciting and productive – I really hope that the research and project reports will reflect this.
Our training mainly focused on the LSN definition of Action Research, their preferred methods of researching, and how and when they would like our reports presented to them. Our training was facilitated by Carol Savill-Smith and Rebecca Douch, with Lesley Dee outlining the fundamental principles of Action Research.
It was a good opportunity to look at and re-design our research questions, etc.
I also feel that it was a great opportunity to meet other researchers and learn a little about their projects.
Here’s a flavor of the areas we touched upon during the 2 days:
What is research?
What is is action research?
Action research in practice
The role of the Lead Practitioner Researcher
Ethical principles and learner consent
LSN’s research activities
The action research cycle
action planning format – a basis for negotiation
review the research questions submitted in the tender documentation.
classification of the advantages and disadvantages of different research methods
I’ve now got a stack of ‘homework’ to keep me busy, this side of Christmas – before our technogy deployment in January!! Consent Forms, Interviews, questionnaires to design…
Well I can and I have spent the last 2 weeks knee deep in quotes for the infrastructure elements of the project so we can be in the position to place orders when the funds arrive.
The wireless solution is looking pretty much wrapped up and we are at the stage of ‘Value Engineering’ (I love that term). The main technical sticking point with the solution was the guest access. We felt that we wanted a slick, coffee shop offering for our students, but we still wanted them to authenticate against the internal proxy server so we had the same level of reporting available to us as with our fixed workstations. This is not the easiest thing in the world to arrange, but we seem to have arrived at a workable compromise. Our guests devices will have their proxy settings delivered via a WPAD file. This means that the browsers on the devices will have to be set to ‘Automatically detect settings’, but it is much better than our current solution of manually changing internet settings. We are down to the stage of choosing between a solution based on Ruckus or Aruba.
The virtual infrastructure again has thrown up some issues. The expansion of the infrastructure at KGV is pretty straightforward, but with VMWare launching VMView bundles, it is not clear what is currently the best option for setting up a new infrastructure from scratch at Birkenhead. There is a meeting today at Birkenhead where the virtues of VMView are being extolled.
As far as the mobile devices are concerned then, after extensive research, Danny has drawn up a really exciting list of devices that we now need to go out and procure and I will be sending the list out to a number of suppliers once I have co-ordinated our list with Birkenhead’s.
Anyway, it’s all looking like the colleges’ infrastructures will be transformed before Christmas as planned!
I found this link via Andy Black (thanks Andy) who posted it up on Facebook earlier today.
It looks like a great utility device for any institution working with multiples of iPhones and/or iPods – not only can you charge them all from one unit (without multiple power cables or USB leads) – you can sync with ONE PC on iTunes… How cool is that!?
I’m adding a link to my personal blog because I have been working on a new course that I’ll be delivering after Christmas which has some elements that might be relevant to our thin.clusion project.
The technical evaluation of mobile devices is currently well underway over at KGV – meanwhile, I’ve been looking at how devices are marketed to us; what kind of services they offer & life-style they are selling.
I think a fundamental thing we have to remember, is that our concept of what makes a good mobile device will differ radically to that of a 16-19 year old learner. Ultimately, all we need is a device or devices that is Java enabled and can offer thin clients to the learner in a practical way – if it doesn’t function relatively easily, they will be unlikely to use it.
Just introducing myself to anybody who is interested in this blog. I will be the lead reviewer for KGV and am looking forward to getting my hands on all the latest mobile gadgets. As soon as molenet cough up the cash I shall be going shopping and then letting you all know my opinion of each of the devices. Hopefully I will get a couple of days with each device to give it a proper road test and then mark them according to ease of use and practicality. Typically I shall name the pros and the cons of each device and then give it a score out of 10. The highest score at the end of the review period wins! As with any review, much depends on my personal preferences and I have no doubt there will be many people who will disagree with my findings. This is a situation were no-one is wrong or right, it’s just down to personal preferences and what is familiar.
Had a good chat with our MoLeNET Mentor (David Sugden), about our support requirements etc. – we’re going to mail him some ideas we’re working on, along with any concerns or areas we are uncertain about. It is great to be working with David on this project as he has a wealth of experience both as a teacher/lecturer and as a MoLeNET Mentor.
We are becoming increasingly aware of time-creep now – Christmas is rapidly approaching and we’re still at the final stages of procurement… I think the project is still running smoothly within our expected time-frame but I guess the perceived hold-up has been negotiating the financial contracts and exchanging the funds. Nothing drastic but the paper-work (when it concerns large sums of cash) seems to take a lot longer to process than you’d imagine!
As luck would have it, the students that BSFC are using for the project have been assigned to me for Key Skills lessons starting next week! That means we will be able to ’steal’ some lesson time to allow the class to complete some initial questionnaires regarding their current ‘digital maturity’. This will help us measure how far they have come with reference to their mobile device skills set.
colhawksworth
MalBlack
dannykgv
Martyn Coleman