TechDems 2022: A Year in Review
It seems like only yesterday I was writing ‘TechDems 2021: A Year in Review” and now we’re in reflection mode again. Perhaps that old adage is correct – time does fly when you’re having fun.
This year, we have been building community, innovating, collaborating, developing, and reaching out.
This PREZI shared as a virtual poster at the ASCILITE Conference in December is a quick way to explore TechDem activities over 2022.
Lindsay, J., Crouch, V., & Cutcliffe, K. (2022). Disrupting the traditional academic development model: Technology Demonstrators. ASCILITE Publications, e22167. https://doi.org/10.14742/apubs.2022.167
Building Community: Community of Practice
Now at the end of its second year, our community of practice continues to grow – with over 100 members and seven meetings this year. Together we focus on our four pillars: Tools, Pedagogies, Evaluation, and Research.
This year there has been strong interest in both tools and pedagogies, with a wide array of each explored by the TechDems community. I’ve noted with interest that established online pedagogies, such of Community of Inquiry, are discussed less by our members, and pedagogies routinely used face-to-face are being explored for their online capacity – pedagogies such as Social Constructivism, 8 Ways, and even Distributed Cognition.
Next year, we hope to bring you more opportunities related to evaluation and research. Stay tuned.
If there’s anything you’d like the CoP to cover, please comment below. Sign up for the CoP here.
Innovating: Pilots and Early Adopters
Our Engageli Pilot continues to gather positive energy. This synchronous and asynchronous teaching platform has stayed on our radar because of its capacity to make learning active.
Create@UniSQ WordPress Student Portfolios has also shown sustained growth, with portfolios being used primarily for reflection or employability.
This year, for the first time, we ran an early adopters program related to a virtual learning platform: iSee. The EAP confirmed that we have both interest in, and the capacity to create, innovative virtual and immersive learning experiences. As a result of the EAP, we’ll be starting a new SIG and piloting a new virtual learning platform in 2023 – stay turned for updates.
Vygo was piloted by Ben Ingram with the English Conversation Club. Vygo is a student support and mentoring platform that strives to make seeking and accessing assistance easy for all.
Collaborating: Special Interest Groups
- The Microsoft for Teaching SIG explores Microsoft tools for learning and teaching including: Teams, OneNote, Forms, Sway, and Whiteboard. Find out more or sign up here.
- The Online Collaborative Learning SIG explores the affordances of online collaborative learning in various learning and teaching contexts. Find out more or sign up here.
- The Student Engagement SIG addresses the big and small questions related to how and why students engage in online learning. We explore tools to enhance engagement as well as those that measure it. Find out more or sign up here.
- The Student Portfolio SIG explores the affordances and contextual relevance of Portfolios (also called ePortfolios, digital portfolios, online portfolios) in learning and teaching for student success. Find out more or sign up here.
What’s New
In 2023 we launch two new SIGs:
Pathways to Innovation SIG
Virtual Immersive Environments SIG
Developing: Digital Learning Initiatives and Champions
Digital Learning Initiatives allow UniSQ staff to work with a LTQP to address a specific online learning need. This year:
- KC Chan used MSTeams to support employability and group work.
- Helen Russel used Padlet to support student engagement in forums.
- Callly Jetta used Padlet, Mentimeter, and Adobe Express in order to transition First Nations pedagogies online.
- Sue Tuitopou used iSee, Padlet, Canva, and Adobe Express in order to engage First Nations pathways students in online learning.
- Douglas Eacersal is using Padlet and will use H5P and Engageli in order to increase active learning, using a constructivist approach, within his post-grad student cohort.
- The Indigenous Student Support Officers will be using H5P, Miro, Padlet, and Adobe Express to ‘activate’ the learning within Ask Aunty.
Our group of Champions is growing, and here to support you:
Reaching Out: Conversations, ThinkPieces, Balancing the Shift
This year we have been engaging in rich discussions of practice through:
- ThinkPieces: Short videos that share ideas, research, experiences, practices, skills, innovation….and more!
- The Balancing the Shift podcast presents an exciting exploration into what it means to be part of the shift in how educational technology is shaping our lives inside and outside of educational settings.
- And then there’s our Conversations.
We look forward to seeing you in 2023.
Moving into 2023…… see our Special Edition News, December 2022 that shares some of the plans we have.
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