Monday 18 April 2022

Digital Learning, Teaching and Assessment for HE and FE Practitioners

Building off the strengths of my acclaimed book 'Learning Technology: A Handbook for FE Teachers and Assessors' (2018).  I am grateful to have been allowed to update and evolve, and again project manage my new book 'Digital Learning, Teaching and Assessment for HE and FE Practitioners', published on 18 April 2022.  Serving both as a second edition and new title targeted at a wider market.  This publication fully supports learners in developing knowledge and skills to achieve their Diploma in Teaching (Further Education and Skills) qualification or apprenticeship.  You can learn more about the first edition's rationale in it's own launch blog post, including reviews and collected feedback.  Following a similar format I introduce and launch the new version as follows: book launch; get a copy; the book; authorship; feedback/feedforward; come together; in the media; book additions and typos.

πŸŽ₯ Book launch

Preview the book below (1 min 14 secs).


πŸ“– Get a copy

You should be able to get a copy from any physical or online book seller/retailer.  To make bulk orders at discounted rates visit Critical Publishing Ltd.

πŸ“– The book

As like the previous book filled a gap in the market, the publication is now an essential text providing a summary of key knowledge, and evidence-based frameworks, that acts as a map for navigating digital and online learning, teaching and assessment.  The book is a timely new repackaged version of 'Learning Technology' fully updated and contains expanded material throughout whilst maintaining the original structure.  It continues to be an accessible, practical-based, yet theory-based but non-critical text.  Providing readers with sufficient coverage of information to navigate the digital learning, teaching and assessment landscape.  Including a variety of frameworks and activities to inform reader's decisions, design and evaluation, with practical guidance and potential digital solutions.  However, it is recommended to read this alongside other teacher education texts.  It recognises the need for all those involved in education to fully embrace digital skills and capabilities, and the importance of designing appropriate online synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities.


To reinforce the message of the book, James Michael Maltby captured the essence of it perfectly in his opening review for The Society for Education and Training's Issue 35 Spring 2019 inTuition magazine.

"The main strength of this handbook is the way it effectively synthesises the most up-to-date pedagogy, digital tools and teaching practices into an easily digestible format.  In a fast-moving field like learning technology these areas can be difficult to balance.

Further education colleges are currently facing many technical hurdles to the effective implementation of technology across the curriculum.  At the same time, practitioners are expected to have an ever-growing range of digital skills.  The author returns to these two themes often in this accessible guide that aims to break down barriers to digital teaching."


Following the positive response to the first version, it was clear that this material was highly relevant to Higher Education (HE) as it was for Further Education (FE).  Making this publication [possibly] the first of its kind bridging both sectors together.  As often the same principles apply but in different contexts.   And I had much more material to include, so a new title and readership were established.  I put digital at the forefront in the title to make it more instant, accessible and searchable to the intended readership.  As technology on it's own in the title can be interpreted as purely about the tools and systems, when in fact the book is an educational guide.

The pandemic clearly highlighted practitioners digital confidence and competence.  Therefore, this book is very much relevant and needed.  Additionally current practitioners have ongoing personal confidence and competence barriers with integrating digital and online into their role.  As per response to the first edition and my own strong belief, I feel that this book will help practitioners build a positive relationship with digital technology in order to support them in making effective, purposeful and meaningful Technology Enhanced Learning, Teaching and Assessment (TELTA).  

Fact; from my 12 years experience of being a learning technologist, practitioners still need basic introduction and support in the pedagogical application of digital tools and systems - including me.  As we know, not everyone starts at the highest digital literacy and skills levels.  For example, when first approaching the use of Virtual Reality (VR).  There's a lot to consider before implementing, such as pedagogical planning and designing, identifying suitable digital technologies and considering reader's and their student's digital confidence and competence and so much more!  Hence the readership towards new and early-career practitioners and learning technologists.

The intended audience is clear; new and early-career practitioners and learning technologists, and those undertaking teacher education or anyone who is pursuing to work in education.  And I don't mean just new to using a piece of digital technology for the first time - we've all experienced that to some degree, but the purposeful design, application and evaluation of a variety of digital technology types and handling content for educational purposes.  The text expresses my passion for my background in initial teacher training.  As this is where I started my love for teaching and the whole process it involves.  Moreover, it’s a crucial period where digital technologies can best be introduced and evaluated by tomorrow's teachers – hence my role in learning technology.  The book is also a resource to myself to remind me and refresh on aspects.  Writing it made a good Continuing Professional Development opportunity to consolidate my knowledge and practice, and conduct new research.

The whole book benefited from general updating, improved referencing, correcting errors and minor additions and omissions, in line of the new readership.  Significant additions are detailed below:

  • New sections:
    • Chapter 1: building taxonomy for technology enhanced learning and teaching; expanded digital capabilities section – process, frameworks and ways to maintain your skills and awareness of emerging digital practices; stacking as muscle memory for building digital capabilities; enhancing and transforming your Technology Enhanced Learning, Teaching and Assessment (TELTA) practices through the SAMR model.
    • Chapter 2: Defining purposeful application of digital technology; significantly modified the ‘Learning design for blended learning’ section; understanding learning types; revised synchronous and asynchronous, creating eLearning objects and educational videos sections.
    • Chapter 3: Managing your digital well-being; your digital reputations; preparation for synchronous online teaching environments; including designing online activities; building online communities of practice.
    • Chapter 4: ePortfolio- based pedagogical approaches.
    • Chapter 6: Communities and groups; introducing digital leadership.
  • Mini case studies, pre and post pandemic, which are intended to give readers a flavour of different decisions, approaches and perspectives taken by both academic practitioners and learning technologist- type roles - very rare to have both together.  Some are pitched at different levels from simple to more complex, illustrating techniques and tools that readers might already be familiar with.  These are ideal for those looking to start small and not undertake something too ambitious, but they could help readers achieve the results they are looking to get, as well as helping them to stay comfortable within their own confidence and competence levels.  As remember, not everyone has adequate levels of digital literacies and ICT skills!
    • Chapter 1: Approaches practitioners and learning technologist-type roles took to develop their own and others’ digital literacies, skills and capabilities.
    • Chapter 2: Approaches of how they adapted and transitioned their teaching/programme to online.
    • Chapter 3: How practitioners planned and managed their online synchronous teaching, engagement, facilitation and checking that learning took place.
  • New illustrations and line graphics created by my fiancΓ© Gary Purdy.

Some mini case studies are organic and honest in discussing that they are still very much developing in digital and online.  I invited academic and learning technologist mini case studies from a variety of roles in both sectors, and what is published is who valued and committed to the project.  Which is a testament to some of those relationships and communities I have access to.  Many of which are from DigiLearn Sector Community, of which the responsive nature of community helped me to achieve the mini case studies.  I set a theme and steer on a topic relevant to the chapter I had assigned them to, and individuals responded with what they wanted to talk about.

Below are reviews I received:



  • Dr Howard Scott, Senior Lecturer in Post Compulsory Education, University of Wolverhampton - Teacher Education in Lifelong Learning (TELL) Newsletter Autumn 2022; "Daniel Scott has a new edition of his handy book Digital Learning, teaching and assessment (For HE and FE practitioners) available through Critical Publishing.  This is an extremely comprehensive handbook.  What I like is it has a useful way of framing the perception of technologies and reminds us that technology is always a tool used for a purpose.  The text draws together contemporary reference points and retains a focus on practitioner use (‘TELTA’) that is inherently helpful for teaching and simple to use in its layout.  For teacher educators, this is a guide that has helpful practical and reflective tasks at intersection points to train the perceptions of the content on individual contexts."

Amazon feedback

Jan Royal-Fearn:


Below are comments that the education community and potential readers made about my book, in no particular order.  Some from first announcement post via Twitter and LinkedIn, second LinkedIn post and the book launch video post.


✍️ Authorship

EDIT: I have since married, however my published author name remains Daniel Scott.

This book is written towards new and developing teacher educators looking to integrate and teach through digital technology, and create online resources and activities.  Positioned from the angle of a teacher educator; essential knowledge and skills to form a solid foundation.  I am not writing from an eLearning designer role angle.  My background is firmly rooted in teacher education and learning support.  I stand in support for the teacher role in integrating digital.  By this background I mean enabling practitioners do this on a day-to-day level, without having to learn the specialism of being an actual learning technologist or learning/eLearning designer.  But equip educators (and learning technologists) with the appropriate introductory level of knowledge and skills, signposting to further literature and practice if there is appetite to learn further.  As with the first edition, it is a design decision to not have it written academically (except for aspects that need explicitly crediting), as a simplified publication of this kind needs to be accessible.  As an author I can write about things that I enjoy writing about and in a style that reflects my supportive nature and credibility.  The book is not about my critical perspectives or opinions and that wasn't my original intention.  It is presented as an educational guide which was the intention of the first version and to act as an immediate 'go to' for less experienced practitioners and learning technologists.  It is an ideal starter book that acts a springboard to other grounding critical and theoretical literature.  A good get-me-up-to-speed with all things TELTA.

In the United Kingdom education is developed incrementally from the previous levels.  Take the Education and Training qualification suite for example, levels 3-5.  It's structured in a very careful way where you build upon on each qualification.  Then at Level 5 you go into educational theory in further depth and breadth.  I see this book as introducing material at those levels, but signposting to wider literature for readers to delve into further as required.  Theoretical and critical publications are in abundance, but not of this kind.  This book is not about oversimplifying complex TELTA.  But simplifying it so that people can understand it better in order to engage and apply it at an introductory level.   If readers require further in-depth practical use of learning technologies, perhaps this can be covered in future editions of this book - let me know via my contact details in the feedback section below.

The whole purpose of me writing such a publication, was to make this complex topic a more accessible and practical introduction.  And I'm good at making the complex into something accessible and practical.  I am often described by my colleagues as proactive, responsive, helpful, resourceful and making them feel comfortable and at ease with approaching the application of digital technology - this book is a clear representation of my supportive nature, which are further highlighted in the "Praise for 'learning Technology'" section.  Therefore, I am firm in my unique approach of being accessible, simplistic (more on this in the 'Simply me?' section) and pragmatic language is key to positive digital technology adoption.  Which is reinforced by a comment made by a previous colleague; "I see you as absorbing the theory, the art of the possible and the developments and advancement in learning technology.  Your challenge and opportunity, is turning that into clear recommendations and pragmatic steps because you are taking a group of people through change.  Which is never easy!!! (headbang)."  Because I know from experience that if you bulldoze everything in front of people, you can potentially lose and confuse people.  The text is simplified in it's style so that people can pick it up for quick guidance or reference as and when they need it.  As like comic books are used as source material for movies, I've drawn on my own experience and a range of literature to convey the material in an ease-to-use book.

The book is not to enforce my vision on how digital technology should be.  More so to give something back what I have acquired, curated and learned throughout the years in my learning technologist roles.  I wanted to create and offer something helpful, which I have privileged to do twice.  Plus it is another opportunity to improve and develop my authorship.  It also offers me new avenues to put out new thinking and practices I have been developing in my full-time work.  I develop and share my work and thinking via my blog, which I then use or repurpose in work like this book - democratising my learning, thinking, work and findings.  A bit like a patchwork quilt stitching things together to form a cohesive output for different audiences.  I draw on my own unique pragmatic and reflective approach coupled with my years of expertise and workplace experience.  I include my personal workplace practices and 'go to' frameworks and theories.  Therefore making it practical guidance.  Through my writing and authorship I help people to reflect, develop ideas and apply them into their practices.  I deliberately avoid stating best digital and online practice, but steering readers towards principles, frameworks and models.  Readers will find that they are encouraged to make your own informed judgements, meaning/decision-making and taking responsibility of how they can relate and apply the material for their own context.  Readers will hopefully be competent in their subjects and specialisms and have an awareness of suitable pedagogies to deliver them.  There's not one way of digital and online practice that suits all pedagogies.  It is up to readers to analyse and adapt.  Additionally, institutions define, establish and encourage their own in-house approaches.  If readers agree or disagree with the material, I'll accept that it has either inspired practice, evaluation or further enquiry of some kind.  Therefore it has worked to some extent and is doing its purpose - and I am satisfied with that as an author.

Due to the ever evolving learning technology landscape and baseline digital literacies and skills, there's always something to learn, apply and evaluate.  Therefore  I have much more to learn myself, such as VR, innovation development, digital leadership, digital curriculum design and management etc.  I can then talk about these in future editions, which I'm looking forward to updating and evolving again.

πŸ’¬ Feedback/feedforward

I'm curious to see who's hands my book ends up in, so if you get a copy, do share a picture using the hashtag #DLTAbook on Twitter and include my handle @_Daniel_Scott.  You can contact me through LinkedIn or with my email address in the book.  Also, feel free to ask any questions via my Goodreads Author web page.  If you like what you read and would like to use, collaborate and/or develop my expertise, or have any requests for further publications in relation to the content of this book, please contact me.

I hope the text helps and inspires in some sort of way.  If it did I'd like to hear more about how it has so.  If you have a copy of the book, please do provide a few comments on Amazon or the publisher's main web page or anywhere else you got it from.  This will help others to see how useful it has been to them.

If there are any topics you would like to see covered in possible future editions, please contact me with the details above or enclosed in the book.  Likewise, if you have or know of any resources or publications that may be useful to include, let me know.

Additionally, if you spot any typos or other errors, I'd be grateful if you can inform me of them.

🀝 Come together

You may want to share and connect with others using the hashtag #DLTAbook on social media.  So create a wider community and get involved in sharing what you are discovering, learning and practising with TELTA!  We can all help and support each other through our experience.

πŸ’¬ In the media

The following are pieces that mention or promote the book:


➕ Book additions

Listed below are any useful resources since publication day that are relevant to the designated chapters.  So be sure to visit here often for any useful additions.

Chapter 1


Chapter 2


Chapter 3


Chapter 4


Chapter 5

  • [Placeholder]

Chapter 6


Typos

Below are typos identified after the publishing of this book.  If you spot any more please do advise me to ensure that they are updated when reprints are made.

  • Page 21 - "modeling".  Should be modelling.
  • Page 47 - I had missed this typo made by the typesetter.  They have repeated the first two bullets.  The constructivism line should be "Constructivism through students building on existing knowledge and constructing new knowledge and meaning through experience."
  • Page 134 - duplicate line at the start of the Display, Engage, Participation model section.
  • Page 30 references to Puetendura for the SAMR model, but the accurate spelling is Puentedura.
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