Browsing by Author "Mackintosh, Wayne"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    eLearning in Open Learning: Sacred Cow, Trojan Horse, Scapegoat or Easter Bunny?
    (2006-12-10) Daniel, John; West, Paul; Mackintosh, Wayne
    Thank you for inviting me to make a short contribution to this 16 th CCEM Stakeholders Conference and the theme of Learning Support, Materials and Technology. // I have prepared these remarks with my colleagues Paul West and Wayne Mackintosh, both South Africans. We shall use the time to reflect with you on the evolution of the technology of open and distance learning and the contribution of the latest technological wonder, eLearning. // It is helpful to put things in context so we start with a brief history of the parallel evolution of technology and open and distance learning (ODL). As a framework for examining eLearning we shall take four animals whose names have entered the language from various cultures as metaphors. Our title is eLearning in Open Learning: Sacred Cow; Trojan Horse, Scapegoat or Easter Bunny?
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    eLearning on the Far Side of the Digital Divide
    (2008-07-10) Daniel, John; Mackintosh, Wayne
    Your theme at this conference is Open and Distance Learning for Sustainable Development. This time we have taken the title eLearning on the Far Side of the Digital Divide.// Our plan is to explore briefly the notion of the digital divide and argue that we cannot wait for it to be bridged before bringing some of the benefits of information and communications technology to those on the far side who are not now connected to the global internet. We shall then explore what is meant by eLearning and suggest that it can make an important contribution to reducing educational deprivation.// With that as background we shall then look at the practicalities of eLearning on the far side of the digital divide and address four obstacles in particular: connectivity, equipment, software and the training of people. In all this we shall draw on the experience of COL.
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    Exploring the Role of ICTs in Addressing Educational Needs: Identifying the Myths and the Miracles
    (2006-08-23) Daniel, John; West, Paul; Mackintosh, Wayne
    Our title is Exploring the role of ICTs in addressing educational needs: identifying the myths and the miracles. Persistent myths have lessened the impact of ICTs on education. Fortunately they are balanced by miracles of theory and practice that are gradually gaining the upper hand. // We shall start by dismissing the pernicious myth that innovation in the application of ICTs is the preserve of industrialised countries by listing innovations from southern Africa that are global trendsetters. // We argue that developing countries have two advantages over industrialised countries in exploiting of the fundamental miracle of educational technology, which is its ability to provide higher quality learning to increasing numbers at lower costs. The power of this miracle increases with every new generation of technology. The current trends to social software and open educational resources will benefit more and more South Africans as connectivity steadily improves. In Africa you have the advantage of scale and the habit of leapfrogging into new technologies. // But things are not always what they seem. We warn you of a difficult, but important section later on in the talk when we shall explode the myth that all open content is truly open and show how to restore the miracle of a global intellectual commons that cannot suffer the tragedy of the commons.
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    Learning for Development: Selected speeches of Sir John Daniel and colleagues September 2006 - February 2007
    (2007) Daniel, John; West, Paul; Mackintosh, Wayne
    This collection is entitled Learning for Development because that is the focus of COL’s work. In abstract terms we follow Amartya Sen’s definition of development as freedom whilst our operational framework for development combines the Millennium Development Goals, the Dakar Goals of Education for All and the Commonwealth values of peace, equity, democracy and good governance. COL considers that learning, on a massive scale, is the primary route to the attainment of these goals and the adoption of these values. Unfortunately, traditional methods of teaching and learning cannot address either the scale or the scope of the challenge. Educational technologies must be harnessed to the task and COL’s role is to help governments and institutions do this. Contents: 1) Learning for livelihoods: The key to development / Learn@Work Week, Toronto, 18 September 2006 // 2) Achieving development goals: Innovation, learning, collaboration and foundations: Learning for development / Remarks at the opening ceremony of the Fourth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, 31 October 2006 // 3) Achieving development goals: Innovation, learning, collaboration and foundations: The road to London / Remarks at the closing ceremony of the Fourth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, Ocho Rios, Jamaica, 3 November 2006 // 4) eLearning in open learning: Sacred cow, Trojan horse, scapegoat, or Easter bunny? / 16th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers Stakeholders Conference, Capetown, South Africa, 11 December 2006 // 5) How can learning contribute to development? / Dennis Irvine Lecture, University of Guyana, Georgetown, Guyana, 27 February 2007 // 6) Reflections on a career in distance education / January 2007
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    OER-Enabled Online Micro-Courses for Teachers - Remixing for Resilience in the South Pacific
    (2022-09) Mays, Tony; Mackintosh, Wayne
    PCF10 Sub-theme: Building Resilience // Open, distance and flexible learning (ODFL) is a key strategy for building resilient education systems in the Pacific, given the difficulty of providing more traditional campus-based learning for widely distributed and culturally diverse learners. However, few of the teachers currently in-service have received training in or through ODFL. It is therefore necessary to make such training available in ways that both model and build such capacity in cost-effective and scalable ways. This paper explores the rationale for and design of an open learning ecosystem as exemplified in a micro-course called Digital Skills for OER Sharing (DS4OERS), which is the first of several courses that have been developed or are in development under the Pacific Partnership for Open, Distance and Flexible Learning led by the Commonwealth of Learning. The platform and course were designed to be as open and flexible as possible and use was made of digital badging both to encourage active learning and to allow for multiple exit and re-entry points. Moreover, the pedagogical approach and technologies deployed were designed for remix to build resilience for professional development solutions in the region. Feedback from participants in the first mediated iteration of the course offered to 1560 teachers will be shared as will core learnings which have influenced subsequent design and implementation. Published as OER using free and open source software digital learning environment, the course was remixed and deployed by the Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture in Samoa demonstrating the potential for scaling professional development using open online micro-courses. // Paper ID 5682
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    Report on the Assessment and Accreditation of Learners using OER
    (2013) Conrad, Dianne; Mackintosh, Wayne; McGreal, Rory; Murphy, Angela; Witthaus, Gabi
    This report shares the findings and lessons learned from an investigation into the economics of disaggregated models for assessing and accrediting informal learners, with particular attention to the OER University (OERu) consortium. It also relies on data from a small-scale survey conducted by two of the authors on perceptions, practices and policies relating to openness in assessment and accreditation in post-secondary institutions (Murphy & Witthaus, 2012). These investigations include the perceptions of stakeholders in post-secondary education towards the OERu concept, combined with a look at economic models for universities to consider in implementing OER assessment and accreditation policies.
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    UNESCO/Commonwealth of Learning Chairs in OER
    (2013-11) McGreal, Rory; Mackintosh, Wayne
    There are now two UNESCO/COL Chairs in OER, one in Canada at Athabasca University (Rory McGreal) and the other in New Zealand at Otago Polytechnic (Wayne Mackintosh). They are working with the UNESCO Chair in OER at the Dutch Open University (Fred Mulder) and the UNESCO Chair in OER at the University of Campinas (Tel Amiel) Brazil. // The co-operating Chairs have agreed on a global Plan of Action that can add value to the voluminous worldwide activity that is already there in the field of OER. We distinguish four main Lines of Action, each championed by one of the Chairs: 1. Global OER Graduate Network (Open University of the Netherlands); 2. OER Knowledge Cloud (Athabasca University); 3. The OER university (Otago Polytechnic); and 4. K12 initiatives (University of Campinas) to come. and two enabling Lines of Action: 5. Global OER Map of national and institutional OER initiatives 6. Global balance in the network of UNESCO Chairs in OER, connected in a UNESCO UNITWIN network. // Paper ID: 38