My technical knowledge and ability in educational technology is evidenced in both my attainment of relevant higher education qualifications and in design and implementation of a variety of projects – these are summarised in this section.
Primary degree: Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronic), Auckland University.
Educational Technology qualifications
Graduate Diploma of Higher Education
- Diploma
- Interactive Loudspeaker Design Site
- Virtual Studio (QTVR)
Master of Computing (in educational technology)
- Best student award
- Thesis (Cochrane, 2004a)
- Interactive learning objects (e.g. Virtual Mixer)
- Peer reviewed publications based upon thesis
- (Cochrane, 2004b;2005;2007)
PhD (Mobile Learning)
- Website summary
- Thesis (Cochrane, 2011)
- Selected peer reviewed publications based upon thesis
- (Cochrane, 2014; 2013a;2013b;2012a;2012b)
Selected Educational Technology Projects
Below are a selection of recent educational technology team projects that I have led the design and implementation of.
The Mobile Augmented Reality Mobile Workshop (MARMW), was a week-long workshop for lecturer professional development exploring geolocation of mobile video and the application to various learning contexts.
Participant feedback:
The #marmw2013 workshop has been a great exercise in exploring new ideas and discovering different approaches to filmmaking, sound recording and the relevance location can have on this content. It has given me the opportunity to try out new ways of working and to test some of my knowledge of mobile geo-spatial and augmented reality. Most of all, the workshop has put me in contact with some extremely switched on people who have opened up a huge body of ideas to pursue with my students and hopefully through further collaborative projects in the coming year.
The Mobile Collaboration (Global), was a collaborative project between six tertiary institutions designed to facilitate an authentic mobile film making team experience for over 200 students from New Zealand, France, UK, and Colombia.
Participant feedback:
A massive thank you from The Forced Perspective Project team!! 300 views of our site! Thanks again to everyone who submitted a video and there’s still time if you want to try your own FP vid. Just remember to tweet us and hash tag #moco360 and #TFPP
The AKO Aotearoa National Project Fund 2014-2015: Learners and Mobile Devices, was a national project involving six tertiary institutions across New Zealand exploring the potential and impact of mobile learning on student learning in a variety of curriculum contexts.
Participant feedback:
We created a small video of the Faculty of Education and Social Work CoPs symposium at ISATT today, using a fun music video app Video Star. Very easy to use on the fly… It was great to present on Cochrane’s Six Critical Success Factors and then to have Cochrane stand up as discussant. Thanks so much Thom.
The Mobile Social Media Learning Technologies cMOOC is an on-going framework for networking lecturer communities of practice across a variety of curriculum contexts exploring the potential and impact of mobile learning and social media. Reflective practice is modelled via the development of participant social media research networks, and accredited via CMALT eportfolios.
Participant feedback:
Given the often low completion rates for online learning courses, actually completing the cMOOC was, in itself, an accomplishment. Three things made ‘sticking with it’ possible. Firstly, having the support of CfLAT, through the provision of mobile devices to undertake the cMOOC, but also in the support provided by CfLAT’s Thom Cochrane whose approach allowed us to explore, try out and learn for (and about) ourselves, rather than simply being ‘instructed’ on how things worked.
Secondly, having a colleagial ‘buddy’ to maintain the digital connection through the weeks and in between our visits from Thom was central. In my case this was Professor Kate Diesfeld. Kate and I had been colleagues for ten years but the time together exploring digital tools brought a new richness to our relationship. Kate was very new to technology, bringing a positive spin to everything we attempted. Kate coined the term ‘Digital warriors’ to describe our community of practice (COP) and our commitment to try anything and everything – by just taking one step at a time. The significance of small achievements in our own personal learning was always celebrated within the COP, with success seen in terms of learner advancement along their own unique learner continuum. To recognise individual learning is something that I have come to value and will take into my own teaching environment.
The Ascilite Mobile Learning Special Interest Group explores the intersection of mobile learning, new pedagogies, SOTEL, DBR/EDR, and authentic learning.
Participant feedback:
The project is one that I would really like to be involved with. Thanks for the opportunity to be part of the project.
This is a great initiative and I’m very happy to be involved.
Reflections
My combination of education and skills is a blend of creative arts, technology, and education studies, providing me with a unique blend of skills to design and implement theoretically informed educational technology projects. The goal of these projects is always focused upon the graduate outcomes that we want to achieve – creating a framework for authentic learning experiences (ontological pedagogies: (Danvers, 2003)). Almost all of the educational technology projects that I have been involved with have been the result of a creative team of like-minded talented people. My role is often to lead, nurture and provide a vision for these teams to develop creative ideas. I find this is the mode in which I work the best – and is probably a result of many years of playing in Rock music bands, recording and touring the country when I was younger and had more hair. Effectively a community of practice is a group of creative people that come together to explore a shared passion and goal, developing innovative solutions due to the unique creative energy born out to their complimentary skills – much like a rock band! The members of the COP drive the agenda and process collaboratively. In reflecting upon how this impacts my approach to educational technology projects I like Garnet’s (2014) critique of the unique creative energy of the Beatles as group of musicians as an example and metaphor of heutagogy (learner-determined).
References
Cochrane, Thomas. (2013a). Mlearning as a catalyst for pedagogical change. In Z. Berge & L. Muilenburg (Eds.), Handbook of mobile learning (Vol. (Awarded the “2014 Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Division of Distance Learning (DDL) Distance Education Book Award”), pp. 247-258). New York: Routledge.
Cochrane, Thomas. (2013b). A summary and critique of mlearning research and practice. In Z. Berge & L. Muilenburg (Eds.), Handbook of mobile learning (Vol. (Awarded the “2014 Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Division of Distance Learning (DDL) Distance Education Book Award”), pp. 24-34). New York: Routledge.
Cochrane, Thomas. (2012a). Secrets of mlearning failures: Confronting reality. Research in Learning Technology, 20(ALT-C 2012 Conference Proceedings – A confrontation with reality), 123-134. doi: 10.3402/rlt.v20i0.19186
Cochrane, Thomas. (2012b). An mlearning journey: Mobile web 2.0 critical success factors. International Journal of Handheld Computing Research (IJHCR), 3(2), 44-57. doi: 10.4018/jhcr.2012040103
Cochrane, Thomas. (2011). Mobilizing learning: Transforming pedagogy with mobile web 2.0. (PHD PhdDoctorate), Monash University, Melbourne. Retrieved from http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/483381 (ABN 12 377 614 012)
Cochrane, Thomas. (2007b). Developing interactive multimedia learning objects using quicktime. Computers in Human Behavior, 23(6), 2596-2640. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2006.08.007
Cochrane, Thomas. (2005). Interactive quicktime: Developing and evaluating multimedia learning objects to enhance both face to face and distance e-learning environments. Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and Learning Objects, 1(1), 33-54.
Cochrane, Thomas. (2004). Interactive quicktime: Developing and evaluating multimedia learning objects to enhance both face to face and distance e-learning environments. In R. Atkinson, C. McBeath, D. Jonas-Dwyer & R. Phillips (Eds.), Beyond the comfort zone: 21st ascilite conference (pp. 201-211). Perth.
Cochrane, Thomas. (2004a). Interactive quicktime: Developing and evaluating multimedia learning objects. . (Master of Computing Action Research), Unitec, Auckland. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10652/1606
Danvers, John. (2003). Towards a radical pedagogy: Provisional notes on learning and teaching in art & design. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 22(1), 47-57. doi: 10.1111/1468-5949.00338
Garnett, Fred. (2014, 31st August). All you need is heutagogy. The Heutagogic Archives Retrieved 19th November, 2016, from https://heutagogicarchive.wordpress.com/2014/08/31/all-you-need-is-heutagogy/
Exploring Educational Technology 