"Creating and Sharing Knowledge: Using podcasting, blogs and Wikipedia "

In a redesigned Professional Skills module, BScIT students experimented with new ways to create and share knowledge. Students demonstrated their writing skills by blogging, writing or editing Wikipedia articles and writing tip sheets for fellow students. These writing assignments, examples of creative and authentic assessment, created a dynamic space in which to develop writing skills as well as to give and receive feedback. Feedback from students indicated that they enjoyed these opportunities to write for an authentic audience, were motivated to produce work of a high standard, and understood that work shared online forms part of their digital identity. The lecturer, like the students, also adopted new ways of creating and sharing knowledge. Rather than creating lengthy PowerPoint presentations to deliver via lectures, and sharing these as student notes, an experiment in podcasting was undertaken. The long presentation for each week's class was replaced by 3 items: a short, image-rich presentation, designed to prompt reflection and discussion during class; a concise textual summary of the key points; and an audio podcast summarising both the lecture and class discussion. These short audio podcasts (approximately 5 minutes in length) were recorded very simply, using an iPhone. From both student and lecturer perspectives there were benefits to this approach. Student feedback was positive: students could listen to summaries of classes they had missed or listen again for summaries of key points. The lecturer found that this approach, which put a clear value on discussion and student input, enhanced both learning and the class atmosphere. Additional flexibility in teaching, learning and assessment is planned for next year. Working with students, a range of options will be identified for module assignments and weekly class summaries. The objective of the lecturer is to move beyond solely text creation in assignments (e.g. more audio and video) and to find ways to incorporate student voice into the weekly class summaries. The objectives of the students... will be discovered in September 2011!