Development of technology in education over time

I came across this article about Stephen McFarlane's 12-year journey through undergraduate education. In this time, McFarlane has seen many changes in the use of technology in education in the USA. I found this article interesting for three reasons: the history of technology in tertiary education, McFarlane's persistence in studies through numerous challenges, and the opportunities and need for developing lifelong learning skills that this story demonstrates.

Allan Carrington's Padagogy Wheel

When considering the use of the educational technologies, it often becomes relevant to remind ourselves of the importance of putting the pedagogy first.  We often want to start by considering the kinds of educational outcomes we're looking for, and move from this to the technology that best suits this outcome.

Alan Carrington from Adelaide University has created a useful tool for thinking about educational outcomes in terms of Graduate Capabilities, verbs from Bloom's Taxonomy, and the SAMR model on a wheel, with iPad Apps in the relevant quadrants.  See the Padagogy Wheel below, and check out his Youtube video introducing this idea.

My PDF won't open on the LMS

A number of people have reported problems trying to get access to attachments such as PDFs through the La Trobe LMS when using their iPad.

There is a simple solution to this problem, but you have to make sure you are viewing the LMS using the right theme designed for mobile use!  Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and you will see a link which says:
Switch to the recommended theme for my device

Tap on this link and you will see the page reformatted for the iPad.

You will then see a little paperclip icon at the top righthand corner of PDF attachments.  Tap on the paperclip to view the PDF, and then tap again in the middle of the PDF to allow opening in another program.

We have created a short video tutorial to step through this process.  See this below: