Hello, it's week 9,

This week's topic is got two prongs to it - criticality in education technology and algorithms. In many ways, the readings about algorithms are an example of how to be critical about education technology. For me, I see being critical as being about not making assumptions or taking anything for granted. Everything is up for question: education, technology, the way you are being taught, the tools - everything. To be questioning sometimes requires being a bit brave - sticking your neck out and asking awkward questions, particularly when others present a taken-for-granted fact, with no dispute or provision of evidence. This can be in the media talking about online learning being 'inferior' to face-to-face, or less work for educators. Or it can be well-meaning colleagues perpetuating myths like digital natives when they say younger learners have some innate ability to work with technology (they don't), or that new or different tools are always better than the ones we have. The readings in the week 9 topic explore the ideas of some scholars who are critical in their engagement with education technology. 

Algorithms are the recipes that technologies use to operate - it's a big word for what is basically a list of instructions which machines blindly follow. Of course those instructions have been created by humans, and as a result embed all of our blind spots, biases and tendencies to make errors. With the increasing complexity of technologies, it gets harder to see through to these instructions and the implications of the choices made by coders. It's not that we need to know how to code - although you will get an opportunity to learn in a PgDip module next year - it's about taking a step back and questioning whether the functionality which some tools and platforms offer bring with them implicit ideas about what learning and teaching should be like. So criticality is key here. There are no right or wrong answers or opinions, but there are uninformed and unsubstantiated opinions and this is one of the things will we be keeping an eye on in your future work. To make a claim, to take a position, you have to demonstrate that you understand the broad picture, that things are not always clear-cut, but that drawing on other people's work, particularly peer-reviewed research such as journal articles, you argue in favour or against something. In some ways, we have to follow a formula, a series of instructions or algorithm when engaging with and communicating academic ideas. Whether it is speaking, writing or other forms of communication, we need evidence to show that we're not just making it up. 

If critical thinking is a core skill we want you to develop in your studies with us, there is also another skill - that isreflection. As a work-based programme, we ask you to constantly reflect on what you are doing, how you experiement, what happens when you try thing and you've learned and how this will impact on your future work. It's a cycle and, like academic communication, there is a knack to reflection too. I know some of you will have encountered reflective practice and writing in your own work or previous studies. If not, don't be put off by the term reflection which sounds a bit intimate or vague. We look for reflection in the final report for this module and in most of the summative assessments in other BOE modules, but we'll be giving you guidance and for this week's workshop we'll take a look at some simple models in diagram form to help you structure your thoughts. Part 1 of your summative report - the Map of Learning - in particular needs to have a reflective element. Do come along to the webinar if you can so you can make a head start on that. 

There's just two weeks left before you need to put in a one page plan for part three of the final report - your action plan. Do watch back last week's webinar for an overview of what we are looking for in that plan. Remember it's forma